TOMORROW ON OUTQ: JOHNNY CASH, DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, SHOOTER JENNINGS AND IKE REILLY

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. We talk about - surprise! - music.

This week, I'm bringing some really cool records, the first three are records you can hear on our Outlaw Country channel - but probably very few other places. First off, Johnny Cash's final album, American VI: Ain't No Grave. I've talked about this album on The Catholic Channel, it really hit me hard. I think that Rick Rubin, who of course produced the entire American Recordings series of Johnny Cash's albums, may have saved the best for last. 


My favorite rock album of the year thus far is The Big To-Do, by The Drive-By Truckers. Over the past few years, they've become one of my favorite bands, and they are a band I definitely would not have gotten into without Outlaw Country. But the new album is really great: they are kind of like Springsteen meets Skynyrd with Petty and Westerberg thrown in there.  The single, "This Fucking Job," is classic. 

Shooter Jennings is not just a big artist on Outlaw Country, he's also a host. But his new album, Black Ribbons, goes way outside of his usual turf.  It's a concept album featuring guest narration by Stephen King as a DJ, and it sounds like a cross between NIN, Floyd and Alice In Chains. Dude has king size stones to even attempt this.  


Finally, a singer-songwriter who I have followed on and off over the years, Ike Reilly.  Years ago when I was at VH1, my boss made me interview him, which was odd, as the channel wasn't supporting him, and no one knew who he was.  I was grateful for it, though, and now I'm happy to tell people about his new album, Hard Luck Stories (which features a duet with Shooter). 

I plan on writing more about Ike in the future. 

NEW MUSIC: THE BREEDERS, JAMIE LIDELL, ERIC AVERY, ASHES DIVIDE AND MORE

As usual, I've been picking up a bunch of singles at the iTunes store. Here's my take on some new stuff I've been listening to:

The Breeders: I loved Pod, Safari and Last Splash. I didn't like the last one, Title TK, it took like a decade, and felt like it was a record to say "remember us?" I thought Kim Deal would be re-energized by the love she got on The Pixies' reunion tour. It's not well known, but The Pixies recorded two new songs during the reunion: one was for a Warren Zevon tribute album, the other, "Bam Thwok," was written by Kim for the Shreck soundtrack. They didn't use it, but the band released it (on iTunes) and it was a lot of fun. Anyway, though, I'm sorry to say that based on "We're Gonna Rise" and "Bang On," I'm not really feeling the new Breeders record.

Jamie Lidell is a guy with a modern take on classic R&B. Which is music industry speak for "the press and industry will love him, until they realize that he won't sell records, and then they'll move on." He had a great song called "Multiply" that I really loved, and I also like his new one, "Little Bit Of Feel Good."

Ashes Divide is a new project by Billy Howerdell, the guitar tech guy to many an alternative rock band, who went on to found the great project A Perfect Circle with Maynard James Keenan of Tool. Lots of it is Perfet Circle-ish, which is natural, but it's hard not to think of Maynard when you hear the songs. That's the way I feel.

I've written about how I have been looking forward to hearing Eric Avery's solo debut, Help Wanted. I have two songs - "All Remote And No Control" and "Belly Of An Insect." His vocals are kind of like Ian Curtis from Joy Division. It's pretty cool, but like his first post-Jane's Addiction project Deconstruction (which featured Dave Navarro) I don't know that these are songs that I'll go back to very often.

Ike Reilly is a great singer/songwriter who I discovered only due to a former boss of mine - he had me do a feature on him for VH1 News, surprisingly. I'm glad I discovered him, and hearing his new songs "Hip-Hop Thighs #16" (which sounds like it starts out with a voicemail message from Joe Strummer) and "Fish Plant Rebellion" remind me that I need to check out more of Ike's music.

Was (Not Was) reunited a few years ago, and just released their new album, Boo! Even when I don't love their music, I just find them interesting. You've got two really wacky musicians with two straight up R&B singers, and when it works, it's really fun. "It's A Miracle" should be a hit (but probably won't be) and "Mr. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" has a very interesting back story: Don Was, David Was and Bob Dylan wrote it together in the late '80s, hoping to get it on a Paula Abdul album. Ms. Abdul turned it down, and it languished in song purgatory until now.

Annie Lennox's performance of Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers To Cross" from American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" show was pretty powerful. I don't hate on Idol the way other people do - I'm not going to try to defend it either, but Annie could sing nearly anything, and she does a great job on this timeless classic.