THIS WEEK ON OUTQ: FISTFUL OF MERCY, RAY LAMONTAGNE, ISOBEL & MARK AND MORE

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET (-ish), I discuss music on The Morning Jolt With Larry Flick on SIRIUS XM's OutQ channel. I should also mention Larry's co-host, comedian Keith Price. Going on the show is always a fun time.  This week I have some great new music to talk about - there isn't a theme as such, but all of these records show a certain restraint and subtlety.

First off is Fistful of Mercy, a new "supergroup" featuring Ben Harper, Joseph Arthur and Dhani Harrison (son of The Quiet Beatle). I wrote about them last week - I hadn't heard of them at all (and I'm usually up on Ben Harper's doings) and then all of the sudden a video arrived in my email box! Well, you know that I'm a huge Ben Harper fan. I don't know much about Joseph Arthur, but I love his song "In The Sun" (which Michael Stipe covered a few years ago). I haven't heard Dhani's music with his band thenewno2, but I will check it out. Anyway, I have the band's title track to play.

I'm getting really into Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs' God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise, which I wrote about last night. I have all of Ray's prior albums, and generally I like a couple of songs from each, but not the whole album. This one, I love the whole thing. It's really quiet (opener "Repo Man" is uncharacteristically funky) but I really dig it. It is actually inspiring me to go back and listen to his other albums and see if they've grown on me. He has lots of songs that I love: "Trouble," "Shelter," "Hold You In My Arms," "You Are The Best Thing," "Meg White" (yes he wrote a song about Meg White!) and "Three More Days." But I'm going back and revisiting his entire albums.

I've been a fan of John Mellencamp pretty much as long as I've been a fan of rock and roll. And as No Expiration readers know, I'm loyal to artists who have been around for a long time. I'll admit it, I haven't liked many of John's albums over the past decade or so (with the exception of 2003's Trouble No More, and I think his song 2004 song "Walk Tall" is maybe his finest moment). His new album, No Better Than This, like his last one (2008's Life, Death, Love and Freedom) was produced by T-Bone Burnett. They recorded it with a ribbon mic onto a reel-to-reel recorder at Sun Studios, a baptist church in Savannah, Georgia, and in the hotel room where Robert Johnson recorded some of his sides. You would figure that those places are a bit haunted, and so is this album (as Burnett points out in the liner notes). There aren't any arena anthems here, so it's too bad that he probably won't be able to play too many of these songs in concert: it's a really good album. I'm still getting used to it, but I like it a lot.

There are high expectations for Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses' Junky Star. With two albums behind him, Ryan seemed to come out of nowhere to win an Oscar for his song "The Hurting Kind" from last year's film Crazy Heart. Like that song (and like Mellencamp's new album), Junky Star was produced by T-Bone Burnett (him again!). He seems to not be taking advantage of his higher profile - he's just doin' what he does. Which I guess is the smartest response to his situation. It's hard to imagine how this album will get too popular, but he doesn't seem to be too worried about it. He sounds a bit like a (less political) Steve Earle - the people who are going to like him are going to like him, but he isn't trying to sell himself to people who aren't interested. The Oscar makes it a bit easier to find the people who are going to like him though.

Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell released their third album, Hawk. They are as good of a team as Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and they've actually been compared to Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra, which is probably a better comparassion (rougher, countrier guy and poppier gal). Lanegan got his start as the singer of Screaming Trees, was briefly in Queens Of The Stone Age, collaborated with Greg Dulli in The Gutter Twins, collaborated with a dance music group called Soulsavers and has done a bunch of great solo albums as well. Campbell is formerly of a indie-pop group (often described as "twee") called Belle & Sebastian. So, it is sort of an unlikely combo, but it really works (much like Plant/Krauss). They sing well together - you get the impression that they are listening to each other. On this album, Campbell seems to be the boss: she's the producer and she wrote almost all of the songs herself (Lanegan didn't write any). But it's not about who wrote what or who produced, the final results are really great. Like with the LaMontange album, this is making me want to revisit their past collaborations. And also Mark's past solo stuff (and maybe even look into Isobel's solo stuff, I know I don't like B&S too much).

David Gray has quietly released a new album, Foundling. That's appropriate, because it is a pretty quiet album, even by his standards. I've read interviews with him where he's pretty much say he has no expectation that this album will be a commercial success. I think a smart music supervisor for a TV show can use some of these songs effectively. But Gray is probably right. I have a lot of respect for him, so I'm giving the album a chance, but it hasn't stuck with me. But, like Ray LaMontange, most of his records just have a few songs that I really like (I love "The Other Side," "The One I Love," "The World To Me" and "Draw The Line" to name a couple)... but maybe I need to revisit them also. That's one of the great things about music, it can hit you in different ways at different times.

CONGRATS (AGAIN) TO RYAN BINGHAM

Congrats to Ryan Bingham for winning an Oscar for "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart. Above is a performance that he did at the SIRIUS|XM studios for Outlaw Country.

ANOTHER OSCARS UPDATE: THE CEREMONY WILL BE LONGER AND LESS MUSICAL

I'm glad that the great Ryan Bingham has been nominated for an Oscar for his song "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart. It's a bummer that you won't see him performing that song at the Academy Awards though.  I wrote about this a while back, but today it was confirmed: according to New York magazine, the Oscars won't feature any musical performances. Instead, you'll hear the recordings of the songs while you watch highlights montages from the films they are from. Lame.

THIS MORNING ON OUTQ: OSCAR MUSIC

As per my last post, this morning on OutQ, I'll be talking about songs that have been nominated for Oscars this year, by Ryan Bingham, Randy Newman and others. I'm also bringing some songs from films that were not nominated, including songs by Paul McCartney, U2, Mary J. Blige and Jack White.

RYAN BINGHAM: OSCAR NOMINEE

After winning a Golden Globe for "The Weary Kind" from the film Crazy Heart, today Ryan Bingham received an Oscar nomination for the song. He's up against two Randy Newman songs, both from The Princess and The Frog, "Almost There" and "Down In New Orleans." Also nominated: a song called "Loin de Paname" from a film I never heard of called Paris 36 and from the film Nine, "Take It All." Also up for an Oscar is Jeff Bridges, who played "Bad Blake" in Crazy Heart, he already won the Golden Globe for that role. I know he has had like four Oscar noms, but has never won. Maybe this will be his year.

Anyway, dig the above video: it is Ryan Bingham doing a solo acoustic version of "The Weary Kind" on SIRIUS XM's Outlaw Country.

CONGRATULATIONS TO RYAN BINGHAM AND JEFF BRIDGES

Well, I'm glad that Ryan Bingham won a Golden Globe tonight for Best Original Song. His song "The Weary Kind" (you can buy it on iTunes) from Crazy Heart... it kind of tied the whole film together (to paraphrase Jeff Bridges' "Dude" character). This will help his career out,  and I love when award shows are able to give much-needed exposure to deserving artists, rather than awarding the same superstars over and over. And speaking of "The Dude," congrats to Jeff Bridges for winning a Golden Globe for Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture - Drama for his portayal of "Bad Blake" in the same film.

Hopefully this will lead to an Oscar nomination and win for Ryan Bingham. The Globes, as much as they are a hack award show, are often a good way to predict the Oscars. Although it isn't always the case: last year, Bruce Springsteen rightfully won the Globe for his title track to The Wrestler, but then didn't even get a nomination for the Oscars. Oddly enough, that gives the Globes a bit more cred in my mind. Oscars, you blew it last year, don't do it again! Anyway, check out my last post to see a great video of Ryan performing "The Weary Kind" on Mojo Nixon's show on SIRIUS|XM Outlaw Country.

I HOPE RYAN BINGHAM WINS A GOLDEN GLOBE TONIGHT

Yes, two of my favorite artists ever are up for the "Best Original Song - Motiton Picture" Golden Globe tonight, U2 and Paul McCartney. I've heard U2's song "Winter" from Brothers, it was cool. I really liked Paul's "I Want To Come Home" from Everybody's Fine. But I would really love to see Ryan Bingham's "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart win. I haven't seen the other two films, and "The Weary Kind" is pretty central to Crazy Heart. Also, Ryan is a great artist (you can hear him on SIRIUS XM Outlaw Country) who would get a big career boost from the award.

I won't be watching the Globes - 24 debuts tonight! Also, the Globes are kind of bogus.  As opposed to the Oscars, which are voted on by over 6000 people (making it difficult to "campaign"), the Globes have 82 voters, and their only criteria for maintaining voting status is to have two articles a year published.  It could be in the smallest publication. Plus, with that few voters, lots of movie stars are able to effectively campaign. There are often events where a movie star will pose for photos with all of the voters. These are probably the types of people who feel "completed" by the presence of celebs, and I'm sure that's an effective method of getting people to vote for you.  Read more about it here.

Anyway, this past week, Ryan Bingham came to perform on Mojo Nixon 's show on Outlaw Country, here's his performance of "The Weary Kind." Stunning.

The 82 voting members of this organization (the Academy has 6000) have had their credentials challenged year after year. Very few members are full-time journalists. The skinny is that they’re in it for the parties and the movie stars and, of course, the annual network TV show which nets them a tasty $6 million.

CRAZY HEART, RYAN BINGHAM AND A THANK YOU TO OUTLAW COUNTRY

Crazy Heart was a really good movie that I recommend. It stars Jeff Bridges (aka "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski, one of my favorite films ever) as a Kristofferson/Jennings type country singer who is down on his luck, and the world has kind of passed him by, while his former protegee (a Paisley/Urban type played by Colin Farrell) has become a huge star. Well, that's not all it is about, but it is a great movie, so go see it.

But the music in the film is also notable. T-Bone Burnett was music supervisor (as he was for Lebowski and O Brother Where Are Thou, of course he has also produced recent great albums for Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, B.B. King, Elvis Costello and others).

One song that takes a kind of central role in the film is "The Weary Kind" by Ryan Bingham. Here is an interview where he explains how he got invovled with T-Bone Burnette and the film (he and his band have a small role backing Bridges' character at -- of all things -- a bowling alley).

I was kind of familiar with Bingham - thanks to the fact that I listen to SIRIUS XM's Outlaw Country. I have some songs frmo his 2007 album Mescolito, which I recommend. It was cool of T-Bone and the film's director, Scott Cooper, to involve him and expose him to a larger audience.  The song is up for a Golden Globe, and if I were a voter, I would probably vote for it over songs by U2 and Paul McCartney. But if you like "Americana" or "hardcore troubadour"-type country music, check out Ryan Bingham.

PAUL MCCARTNEY AND U2 GET GOLDEN GLOBE NODS

Earlier this week, the semi-bogus but semi-legit movie awards, The Golden Globes, announced the nominees for this year's ceremony (although on the music tip, The Globes rightly awarded Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler" with a trophy last year, while The Oscars didn't even nominate him).

This year's Golden Globe nominees include a U2 song that I hadn't even heard of: "Winter," from the film Brothers.  Also on the ballot is Paul McCartney's "I Want To Come Home" from Everybody's Fine. And finally, a song written by O Brother music supervisor (and awesome producer) T-Bone Burnett and singer-songwriter Ryan Bingham, "The Weary Kind," from Crazy Heart. That song is performed in the film by the star, Jeff Bridges (aka "The Dude") who apparently plays a Kristofferson/Jennings type character. So far, I've heard U2's song which is nice but didn't knock me out, and Paul's song which I really do like. I haven't heard the Crazy Heart song, but I am definitely going to see that movie, and I can't wait.

In honor of U2 and Sir Paul being nominated, here's a video of them together from Live8, performing "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."