TOMORROW ON THE MORNING JOLT: GILLIAN, FLORENCE, IMELDA

Tomorrow on SiriusXM OutQ's The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick I'm bringing in some of my favorite albums of 2011, but the theme is that all of these records feature lead vocals by women.


Gillian Welch's The Harrow and The Harvest is definitely one of my favorites of the year. I'm not the only one who feels that way: Mojo magazine gave it a five out of five star rating. Whenever I listen to it, I find it odd that it's just her name on the cover: it seems that her and her partner David Rawlings are equally vital to the music.

Florence + The Machine's Ceremonials is an "epic" album.  That word gets overused these days, but everything -- the songs, the performances, the arrangements -- it's a work of art.

Imelda May's Mayhem came out in Europe last year, but in the U.S. this year. She is really talented: a great singer, very charismatic, great sense of style, and she writes great songs.   You may have heard her singing on Jeff Beck's recent albums Emotion & Commotion and Rock & Roll Party. In fact, if *I* wanted to have a rock and roll party, I'd never be able to afford Jeff Beck, but one day if I'm pretty successful, I might call on Imelda May and her great band to rock my party!

Other records I hope we'll get to: Shelby Lynne's Revelation Road, Allison Moorer's Crows (which actually came out last year), Joss Stone's LP4 and The Tedeschi Trucks Band's Revelator. (That band features married couple Derek Trucks of The Allman Brothers Band and singer-songwriter Susan Tedeschi.) And maybe I'll give another shout out to The Make Out, who have one of my favorite songs of 2011, "I Don't Want Anyone Who Wants Me."

GILLIAN WELCH - THE HARROW AND THE HARVEST

Gillian Welch recently released her first album in eight years, The Harrow & The Harvest. Or, I should say their last album. Even though Gillian's name is on the cover, it's Gillian and long-time partner and collaborator David Rawlings pictured on the cover, and they are the only two musicians on the album. This is Gillian's first album in eight years, although the two of them released an album under the name The David Rawlings Machine two years ago. All this background just makes the point that these two make an incredible team.

Even if you're not familiar with their music, when you hear them sing and play together, they sound so seamless, it's almost as if they have one voice.  No one else sounds quite like them.

The new album reminds me of their early stuff like Revival and Time (The Revelator). Very old-timey, very ominous.  Dark.  I remember when I first heard Gillian/David's music, I didn't know who wrote their songs, and I kind of thought they were doing old "traditional" songs. Nope, they write their songs, it's just that they sound that timeless.  That's how it is on this album also.

I like this album a lot, and I'm not the only one.  One of my favorite music writers, Syvie Simmons of Mojo Magazine gave the album a 5 stars "instant classic" review.  It's not an album that will get a lot of hype, but it's definitely rewarding (and hopefully will land in lots of critics "top albums" lists at the end of the year).

O BROTHER, TEN YEARS ON

I just picked up a copy of the deluxe reissue of the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack.  It's well worth the money, especially if you didn't get it the first time.

It's the rare soundtrack that stands apart from the film, even though the film is an absolute classic.  I'd liken it to Saturday Night Fever in that it really introduced a genre of music to the general public.  SNF introduced disco, and O Brother kind of re-introduced bluegrass and mountain music to America and the world.  Both movies were huge (I barely remember SNF, but O Brother is one of my favorite films ever, I enjoy it more every time I see it) but still the soundtracks stand as their own creations.

I'd also argue that O Brother introduced some great talent to larger audiences, namely Gillian Welch.  Alison Krauss was doing quite well before the film, but I think a lot of people discovered her through the album. And without a doubt, Ralph Stanley really benefitted from the exposure he got from his haunting version of "O Death." And as producer T-Bone Burnett says in the liner notes, people who didn't have houses were now able to afford houses.  That's an amazing thing.  Another great story in the liner notes is about James Carter, who leads a group of convicts in a field recording of "Po' Lazarus," from 1959, which is used at the beginning of the film. After the soundtrack went to #1, he was tracked down: out of jail for decades, he didn't remember recording that song, but now he gets performance royalty checks from one of the best selling soundtracks of all time. "So a movie about these prisoners on a prison work farm down South recording a song and having it become a hit song unbeknownst to them, started off with a song recorded by a prisoner on a prison work farm which became a bit hit unbeknownst to him."

This is all the context of the film and the soundtrack.  But how is the expanded reissue?  Well, it adds some songs from the film that didn't make the original version, as well as a couple of songs that weren't used in the film. Many are different versions of songs from the film: "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" (by Colin Linden, in addition to Chris Thomas King's from the original soundtrack), "I'll Fly Away" (by The Kossoy Sisters with Erik Darling, complimenting the Krauss/Welch version), and another haunting field recording, Ed Lewis and other prisoners singing "Tom Devil," recorded by Alan Lomax the same day he recorded "Po' Lazarus."

I'm not sure the album necessarily needed an expanded edition, but I found the other versions of the songs a welcome addition to an album that I've listened to many times.

ANDY FROM "THE OFFICE" HOSTS A BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL!

It's true: this weekend at the very hip L.A. club Largo, actor/musican Ed Helms (Andy from The Office, and Dr. Stu from The Hangover) hosted "The L.A. Bluegrass Situation," a five day bluegrass "festival." It featured Sara and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek, Jackson Browne, Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings and other comedian/musicians Steve Martin and John C. Reilly.  I welcome any reviews that anyone has: post them as comments, or I can post them seperately or even link to your blog. It sounds like a great festival, and I'd love to hear how it was.

PATTERSON HOOD, GILLIAN WELCH AND ELVIS PRESLEY

I've been trumpeting the greatness of The Drive-By Truckers on No Expiration a lot lately, I've become a big fan of the band thanks to the fact that I am a listener to Outlaw Country. Last week, in honor of the 75th anniversary of Elvis Presley's birth, he did a post on his myspace blog about Elvis, and also wrote about Gillian Welch's classic song "Elvis Presley Blues," which he rates, as, bar none, the best song ever about Elvis Presley.

I used to really not care much about Elvis Presley - I'm still not a big fan, and don't like much of his post-Sun Records era. It's true that he may have been the original rock star, but he was also the original sell-out. I was probably influenced by Public Enemy's song "Fight The Power" where they say "Elvis was a hero to most/But he never meant shit to me/Racist, simple and plain/Motherfuck him and John Wayne!" I'm not sure he was racist, either. But anyway, I realized that however ambivalent I was about him, the guy changed the world. He influenced everything that came after, which is pretty much all rock and roll music. His bad movies, fat outfits, embarrassing Vegas era, lame albums, etc. would never change his influence. He influenced The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Clash, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, and so many other great artists. Nothing can change the impact he had on those artists, and thousands (or millions) more.

And by the way, check out Gillian Welch.  I remember hearing her Hell Among The Yearlings album when it came out, it seemed so "out of time," not in a gimmicky way at all. And she was scary, she sounded truly haunted. Writing this (and having watched O Brother, Where Art Thou? for the millionth time this weekend - she's on the soundtrack and makes a cameo) reminds me, I have to listen to her music more often! Her partner David Rawlings just released a new album, but that's for another post.

BEST OF THE '00S: WILLIE NELSON

Most people might not think of Willie Nelson as one of the top artists of the '00s. But the problem with "most people" is that they don't pay enough attention to things that aren't being shoved down their throat. Willie has put out some incredible music this decade, including what may be my favorite Willie album ever, 2004's It Will Always Be.

Talk about being vital: by my count, he's put out thirteen albums of new material this decade. Not all of them were great: the reggae album (2005's Countryman), the children's album (2001's Rainbow Connection) the collabo-heavy album (2002's The Great Divide) and the blues album (2000's Milk Cow Blues) aren't really classics. But they are all ambitious and all have their moments. Two of his other albums got slammed but also had some cool moments: the Ryan Adams produced Songbird (from 2006) and the Kenny Chesney produced Moment Of Forever (from 2008).

But lets get to the good stuff: other than It Will Always Be, there was You Don't Know Me: The Songs Of Cindy Walker from 2006, 2003's Run That By Me One More Time with his old boss Ray Price, Last Of The Breed, a 2007 double album collaboration with Ray Price and Merle Haggard, and this year's collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel, Willie and The Wheel.

Then there's the one off stuff: his hit single with Toby Keith, "Beer For My Horses," "You Are My Flower" from the 2004 Carter Family tribute album, his daring cover of Bob Dylan's "He Was A Friend Of Mine" for the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack, the equally daring (but funnier) follow-up single, "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond Of Each Other." There was the collaboration with Gillian Welch, "I'm Not Afraid To Die," the much funnier iTunes single "Superman." He did a cool cover of Fats Domino's "I Hear You Knockin'" for the Goin' Home tribute album. And another Dylan cover, an amazing verion of "Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)" backed by Calexico for the I'm Not There soundtrack (which made me think he should do a full album with Calexico). And, oh yeah, he covered Waylon Jennings' "Good Old Boys" for the Dukes Of Hazzard soundtrack. He also appeared in the movie. Who else worked with Gillian Welch and Jessica Simpson this decade? Oh yeah, he co-starred in the movie as well, and he also was in Toby Keith's Beer For My Horses flick too.

He still runs Farm Aid, and is a political activist for everything from the legalization of pot to the banning of slaughtering wild horses for meat. Also, he is the proprieter of Carl's Corner Truck Stop in Texas, and also of the great SIRIUSXM Channel Willie's Place.

We should all be so vital in our 70s! Here's to another great decade, Willie.

More Best Of The '00s: Bob Dylan

THE NO DEPRESSION FEST

It was a bummer to see the magazine No Depression fold, although it lives on as a website. They're also going to put on thier first No Depression Festival with a cool lineup including Gillian Welch, Iron & Wine, Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers and Justin Townes Earle, among others. Learn more here.