WE WALK THE LINE: JOHNNY CASH TRIBUTE

This week, Sony Legacy released We Walk The Line: A Celebration Of The Music Of Johnny Cash. It's a live album of a concert recorded earlier this year in Austin, Texas.  An impressive group of singers joined an amazing house band to pay tribute to the songs that Johnny sang.  He didn't always write the songs he sang, but when the man took a tune on, it belonged to him.

My favorite performance on the album is Lucinda Williams doing Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails classic "Hurt," which Johnny covered on American IV: The Man Comes Around. But there are a lot of great performances here.  Jamey Johnson is kind of the perfect guy to sing Johnny songs: he does "Sunday Morning Coming Down" with Kris Kristofferson, which is great.   Buddy Miller's "Hey Porter" is great, as is the Carolina Chocolate Drops' "Jackson," Shooter Jennings' "Cocaine Blues" and Willie Nelson's "I Still Miss Someone."

The most moving part of the night might have been the cover of The Highwaymen's "Highwayman."  The Highwaymen were, of course, Cash, Willie, Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings.  So, this version featured Willie and Kristofferson, along with Jamey Johnson singing Johnny's part, and Shooter singing his dad's part.  I got chills listening.  Also, the arrangement is way cooler than the original from the album.

I have to give it up to the house band: Buddy Miller on guitar, Blue Note Records president Don Was on bass, Greg Leisz on slide guitar, Kenny Aronoff on drums and Ian McLagan on keyboards.  Mr. McLagan actually told me all about the show in a recent interview. He told me there'd probably be some kind of tour supporting it, with the house band and different singers in each city.  I hope that that's still on.  Hell, I don't care if they get any famous singers: just put Buddy Miller on the mic, that's good enough for me!

TIE FOR #11 - "THE LOST NOTEBOOKS OF HANK WILLIAMS"

I usually don't include compilation albums on my year-end best-ofs, but I'll make an exception for The Lost Notebooks Of Hank Williams. The album started out as a Bob Dylan project: he was given some "lost" notebooks with lyrics that Hank Williams never put to music.  Bob ended up doing one song, "The Love That Faded," which is excellent.

So, it went from being a Bob album to a tribute of sorts... with a number of big name artists creating new songs out of Williams lyrics.  The lineup features Alan Jackson, Norah Jones, Jack White, Lucinda Williams, Vince Gill with Rodney Crowell, Patty Loveless, Levon Helm, Holly Williams (with her father, Hank Williams Jr. on backing vocals), Jakob Dylan, Sheryl Crow and Merle Haggard.

I imagine that these days, people are more likely to download individual tracks rather than buy compilations.  In this case, it's worth it to pick up the whole thing.  First of all, the entire album is great.  Rock fans may not be hip to, say, Alan Jackson, but his song "You've Been Lonesome Too" is excellent. On the flipside, mainstream country fans may not be too interested in (Nashville resident) Jack White.  But his song "You Know That I Know" is also amazing. Hank's granddaughter Holly has a great voice... and hearing Hank Jr.'s backing vocals almost made me forget about his insane comments on Fox News about The President.

Besides all of that, the CD includes extensive liner notes about Hank, and gives the history of the notebooks that provided the source material for the record.

Hank Williams is surely one of the greatest songwriters of all time, in any genre. This album gives us some of his lost lyrics, which is a gift.  And if the inclusion of any of these artists turns their fanbases on to Hank's music, that's an even greater one.  So big props to producer Mary Martin: I'm sure this was a really long project, but I'm glad it's out.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: SOME GREAT OUTLAW COUNTRY ARTISTS

Tomorrow morning on The Morning Jolt With Larry Flick on SiriusXM OutQ, I'll discuss some great artists who you can hear on the SiriusXM channel Outlaw Country. Full disclosure: I work at SiriusXM.  But I'll also point out that I was a SIRIUS subscriber before I worked there. Little Steven Van Zandt's Underground Garage was the main reason, but Outlaw Country was the next reason. By the way, Little Steven produces Outlaw Country as well as Underground Garage.

The Drive-By Truckers, as most No Expiration readers know, is one of my favorite bands.  I can honestly say I wouldn't be a fan without Outlaw Country.  Tomorrow I'll talk about their latest album, Go-Go Boots. Steve Earle isn't just one of the channel's biggest artists, he also hosts an excellent weekly show, Hardcore Troubadour Radio, hear it Saturday nights at 9 pm (full schedule of rebroadcasts here). I really dig Steve's new album, I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive. Lucinda Williams is another of the biggest artists on the channel, and she's just released a great album, Blessed. Buddy Miller is not as well known, but he's played with both of them, along with Robert Plant, Patty Griffin, Solomon Burke and John Fogerty. I also like his own music, and his latest album, Majestic Silver Strings, is his most ambitious yet.

I'll also preview upcoming albums by Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss & Union Station, and play a few tracks from Hayes Carll's new one, KMAG YOYO.  Carll is a great semi-up-and-coming artist, and another one I'd never have heard of without Outlaw Country.  So check out this video, I recently got to film them at SiriusXM doing the title track from the new album. (P.S. don't have a SiriusXM subscription? Go here to get a free online trial).

LUCINDA WILLIAMS - "BLESSED"

A good friend of mine, who is a big Lucinda Williams fan, was worried about her new album, Blessed. "She writes so well about broken relationships," my friend said.  Now that's she's (hopefully) happily married, will she be as good as she was?

I pointed out that "Passionate Kisses" is one of her classic songs, and it seems to deal with being in a relationship that has lasted a while.  Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, her greatest album (and the one against all of her others will always be measured, at least in my mind) has a lot more than just breakup/heartbreak songs. I'm always optimistic anyway.

But it was like Lucinda heard my friend, because the opening track/first single, "Buttercup," is a kiss off to an ex-. But Lu is in a different place right now, and it takes courage to try and write about being happy. I think that's where she got the album title, Blessed. I love the artwork int he album - there's a series of people, who look like they are of varying economic circumstances, holding a sign that says "blessed." (You can see video testimonials by regular people who talk about what it means to be "blessed" at Lucinda's YouTube page.)

Like most of Lucinda's recent albums, there's definitely some weepers, but also some flat out rockers.  I totally dig "Seeing Black" (fair enough, another breakup song... by the way, both this song and "Buttercup" feature Elvis Costello on electric guitar). The soul of the album lies with the title track, where Lucinda sees the beauty in everyday life. I don't think she could have written this one 15 years ago. It comes right after "Soldier's Song," which compares a soldier's day with that of his wife and child back home.

Another great song is "Kiss Like Your Kiss," which Lu originally recorded with Elvis Costello for True Blood. Here, it is a solo version.

Don Was produced this album, and I think he did a great job. He's done some cool Outlaw Country type albums over the years, working with Willie Nelson and Elizabeth Cook, and he really stays out of the way here and lets Lu make another really solid album. Well done!

Interesting to see that for the second album in a row, Matthew Sweet sings backing vocals.  Lu, bring him out on the road!

As I mentioned, all of Lucinda's albums (at least to me) will be compared to Car Wheels. I don't think that Blessed is as good as that album, but it is really good and I'd be psyched to hear most of these songs in concert.

P.S. I'll also mention that the "deluxe" version of this album is worth getting: it features a second disc with Lucinda doing solo acoustic versions of all the songs, recorded live at her kitchen table!

RAY DAVIES DOING A DUETS ALBUM

NJ.com reports that Ray Davies' next album will be a bunch of new versions of Kinks songs done as duets.  He has a version of "Better Things" with Bruce Springsteen in the can, and also a version of "Celluloid Heroes" with Jon Bon Jovi. He's talking about recording other duets with Lucinda Williams and Metallica. It's just weird that it is coming on the heels of an album of choral versions of Kinks songs. 

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: THE GRAMMY NOMS (or, MAXWELL IS ABOUT TO GET A SALES BUMP!)

I’m going on OutQ again tomorrow on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick to discuss tonight’s Grammy nominations. Last year, I really liked the way the Grammys panned out, with Robert Plant & Alison Krauss winning five for their classic album Raising Sand. I loved that album, and felt it deserved all the recognition it got. It was a victory for art. Sorry Lil Wayne. I don’t feel as enthused this year: Beyonce leads with ten nominations and Taylor Swift has eight. I enjoy songs by both ladies, but I’m not passionate about either. I was, however, glad to see Maxwell with six for his BLACKsummer’snight album. Some people didn’t even know he was back! His album came out in July and debuted at #1, but that doesn’t mean what it used to, and anyway, it didn’t seem to make an impact on the culture at all, and it disappeared pretty quickly. So, I’m glad that this will help him out. The Black Eyed Peas and Kanye West both got six also: I enjoy both artists, but I don’t like either of their new albums. Lady Gaga got five. I don’t object to her, but I’m not passionate about her music either. In fact, I don’t feel very opinionated about any of the “big four” categories. I was hoping that Willie Nelson would get more nods than he did: he got just three. I thought he would do better than that, given that he released two very different and very good albums, Willie & The Wheel and American Classic. My favorite album of the year, Bob Dylan’s Together Through Life, got two nods.

I don’t have huge opinions about the Pop field, and I probably won’t vote in Dance. I usually skip Traditional Pop, but I may vote there this year, since Willie has a nomination there.

Rock has some good stuff: Best Solo Rock performance pits Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Prince and John Fogerty against each other. (I will vote for Dylan). Other rock nods went to Green Day, AC/DC, Alice In Chains, Metallica, Pearl Jam (glad to see “The Fixer” get props), U2 and overrated band of the year Kings Of Leon. The thing is, I have to admit I was ultimately not blown away by Bruce, U2 and Green Day’s albums. They were all solid, but not as good as their prior albums. I will probably skip the alternative field, which features David Byrne & Brian Eno (zzzzz…), Death Cab For Cutie, Depeche Mode, Phoenix (who I can’t stand) and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

R&B will require me to buy a lot of new music, there’s a lot of not-well-known-by-the-mainstream artists in the field, including Melanie Fiona, Lalah Hathaway, Ledisi, Jazmine Sullivan, Anthony Hamilton, Musiq Soulchild, Robert Randolph, as well as Beyonce and Maxwell.

Rap is pretty good this year. It surprises me to hear myself say that, because I’m not a huge fan of contemporary hip-hop. But I really actually like Jay-Z’s songs, “Death of Autotune” and “Run This Town” (with Kanye West and Rihanna). I also really like nominated songs by The Beastie Boys with Nas, Kid Cudi with Kanye and Common, T.I. with Justin Timberlake, and Mos Def. And Lonely Island featuring T-Pain. I was really glad to see Q-Tip’s super-underrated The Renaissance getting a nod as well.

I don’t have a huge opinion on this year’s country artists, but I was glad to see nods go to Miranda Lambert, Jamey Johnson and Patty Griffin (!).

My favorite category overall is Best Americana Album. Three of my favorite albums of the year are nominated: Dylan’s Together Through Life, Willie’s Willie & The Wheel and Levon Helm’s Electric Dirt, along with Wilco’s Wilco (The Album) and Lucinda Williams’ Little Honey. I’ll vote for Dylan.

While I’m not a huge fan of Bruce’s Working On A Dream album, “The Wrestler” was probably my favorite song of last year, and I’m glad it is up for Best Song from a Movie. But that will probably go to A.R. Rahman’s “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire.

I guess there are some things I'll be "rooting" for: Pearl Jam's "The Fixer," Bruce's "The Wrestler," Q-Tip and Willie, but there's no way I'll be as into it as I was last year. I do hope Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye peform "Run This Town." It would be great to see Rihanna have a triumphant return to the Grammys after last year's horrible mess.

LU'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

Lucinda Williams is going on a tour to celebrate her 30th anniversary (!) as a recording artist. She's going to be doing three night stands in "select" cities where she focuses on a different album each night. I saw her doing this a while back, and, well... it was a disaster. But I'm sure she'll be better this time. She's also giving fans who buy tickets a $7 credit on clothing and a $5 credit for CDs bought at the shows. Good move, Lu!

ANOTHER COOL LUCINDA COVER

Last year, Lucinda Williams recorded a bunch of cool covers: she did AC/DC's "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock and Roll)" on her album Little Honey. And she did Bob Dylan's "Masters Of War," Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" and the Thievery Corporation/Flaming Lips collab "Marching The Hate Machines Into The Sun" all for her Lu In '08 EP. But somehow I missed her cover of Willie Nelson's "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys," which I just found on iTunes. It was for a record called The Imus Ranch Record. Good cover. Thanks Imus? I wonder if it is Outlaw Country host Fred Imus.

RECORD STORE DAY '09

Record Store Day is coming again! It's a cool day to celebrate record stores -- so many of us have gotten so much enjoyment from hanging out in record stores (particularly indie ones) and it's good to support them. This site has a list of artists who are doing indie store exclusive releases in honor of the holiday. It doesn't say what the releases will have, only what artists are doing exclusives. Bruce Springsteen is doing a 7" single (nice touch after the Walmart best-of debacle), Bob Dylan is doing a 7", Tom Waits and Lucinda Williams are doing a split 7" and Elvis Costello and Jenny Lewis are also doing a split 7".

TOMORROW ON OUTQ

I'm glad to be returning to the OutQ airwaves tomorrow. Since I usually go on the air on Thursdays, and the last two Thursdays were New Year's Day and Christmas Day, it's been three weeks.

I don't have a theme, per se, but here's what I will be talking about:

• The late great Ron Asheton of The Stooges who died earlier this week.
• How cool a subscription to (RED)wire is. I just got my third issue, which inlcuded a new Joseph Arthur song, and a live mashup between Elvis Costello & The Imposters and The Police of "Watching The Detectives" and "Walking On The Moon," which was recorded for Elvis' new TV show.
• Some great releases that I didn't get to talk about on the air last year (and some I still need to write about): The Drive-By Truckers' Brighter Than Creation's Dark, Bob Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs, Lucinda Williams' Little Honey and the Lu In '08 EP, Mavis Staples' Live: Hope At The Hideout, the deluxe reissue of Steve Earle's classic Copperhead Road and Neil Young's Sugar Mountain: Live At Canterbury House 1968.
• And stuff to look forward to in 2009: new albums by U2 and Bruce Springsteen, and possible reunions by The Kinks, The Faces, blur (who I don't care about but I'm sure a lot of people do) and one of my favorite bands ever, Faith No More (more on that as I find out about it).

LUCINDA WILLIAMS: NEW ALBUM AND EP

After seeing Lucinda Williams in concert last year, I decided to take some time off form her, although she is one of my favorite artists. Then, over the summer, I saw her open for John Mellencamp. She was pretty good. 

But no matter how I feel about her performances lately, I would always buy a Lucinda album the minute it comes out. I'm glad that she has an album coming out - Little Honey - and the songs that I've heard were pretty good. On the same day, she's releasing Lu In 08, a four song digital EP of protest songs: Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth," Bob Dylan's "Mater Of War," and a Thievery Corporation song that featured Wayne Coyne from Flaming Lips, "Marching The Hate Machines Into The Sun," and an original, "Bone Of Contention." Definitely something to look forward to! 

MINUTES TO MEMORIES - JOHN MELLENCAMP AND LUCINDA WILLIAMS AT JONES BEACH

I've often written about being a big
fan of John Mellencamp. I was really excited to see his concert last week at Jones Beach. I remember years ago, I think it was when Big Daddy came out in 1989, that he said he was going to stop touring. He said that it was "devastating as an artist" to have to go out and sing "Hurts So Good" every single night.

Of course, a few years later, he got over it. I've seen him a number of times since his return to touring, and he really cranks out the hits. I'm not someone who will hate on that kind of thing. And with John, it's not a "retro" thing: he has more hits from his recent albums than you think: I'd say that "Walk Tall" from his best of is one of his best songs ever, if not his best. But there's also "This Is Our Country," "To Washington," "Teardrops Will Fall," "Your Life Is Now," "Peaceful World," "I'm Not Running Anymore" just to name a few.

I think Jones Beach was the opening show of the tour, and this was a different show from what I've seen lately. He opened with a re-arranged version of "Pink Houses," usually his closer. That's crazy, Prince doesn't open with "Purple Rain," you know? He re-arranged a bunch of other songs too, and played lots of stuff from his new album, Life, Death, Love and Freedom - an odd move, as the album didn't come out until yesterday (although they were selling it at the show). I'm still digesting the album, but two songs stood out: "My Sweet Love" (which I've heard on the radio) and "If I Die Sudden" (which he played at Farm Aid last year). I think I really like this album. Not including 2003's classic Trouble No More (one of my favorites, it's so underrated) which is all covers, it's my favorite since at least 1996's Mr. Happy Go Lucky (which features one of my favorite Mellencamp songs, "Life Is Hard") and maybe longer than that.

But my favorite part of the show was John's solo acoustic version of one of my favorite songs, "Minutes To Memories." It was a great moment. I'm not suggesting that he do a solo acoustic tour, but I'd love to see a longer solo segment during the show. And I'll be bold enough to request solo versions of "Life Is Hard" and "Between A Laugh And A Tear."

Lucinda opened, and I was a bit nervous about that, given the fact that I "broke up" with her after the last time I saw her perform. Thanks to Long Island's insane traffic, we missed the first half of her set, including the classic "Drunken Angel." She was much better than last time, but she still doesn't seem as authoritative as she was about a decade ago, I don't know why. She closed with a kind of funny version of AC/DC's "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock And Roll)."

LUCINDA WILLIAMS: MY "SIDE OF THE ROAD"

I love Lucinda Williams' song "Side Of The Road," where she sings about a brief hiatus from someone she was in a relationship with. I actually took a hiatus of sorts from Lucinda, who is one of my favorite artists of all time, after the last time I saw her in concert.

But I am hoping to see her when she opens for John Mellencamp later this summer. I've been listening to her a lot lately, especially Car Wheels On A Gravel Road and her 1988 self-titled album. I'm glad I took a break, and her amazing songwriting hasn't lost any of its effect on me. She is still one of the all time greats.

JOHN MELLENCAMP'S NEW ALBUM

I'm excited to hear John Mellencamp's new album, Life, Death, Love and Freedom, which is coming out in July. It was produced by T-Bone Burnett, who - with all due respect to Danger Mouse - is the producer of the moment in my opinion. Other than John's album, T-Bone also produced Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand, will probably do Plant's next one, and is also working on new albums by The Who and B.B. King. And he has a solo album due out this week I think. 

Anyway, back to John: I thought his 2003 album of covers of mostly old blues and country songs, Trouble No More, was an absolute classic. And his unlikely collaboration with Babyface, "Walk Tall," from his 2004 best-of, is one of the greatest songs he's ever written. He's had a few other great ones in the past decade, like "Peaceful World" and "Your Life Is Now." But it's been a long time since he's put out a truly great album of originals. Maybe this will be that album. 

I'm hoping to catch him on his tour: Lucinda Williams - John covered her song "Layayette" on  Trouble No More - is opening, and I think I'm ready to listen to her again. We needed some time apart. As for John, the last two times I saw him were at Farm Aid concerts, and he and his band were incredible both times. 

“IS THIS PLACE BUILT ON AN INDIAN BURIAL GROND OR SOMETHING?”

(This picture wasn't taken at the show that I saw, I got it from Lucinda's web site).

Not every show can be great. But I was hoping that this one would be. Lucinda Williams was doing a five night stand in New York: each night, she would play one of her classic albums in its entirety. I had tickets for the night she was featuring my favorite of her albums, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. I was online the second tickets went on sale, and got 6th row center (for about $65 each, a fair deal I reasoned).

I’ve seen Lucinda several times, both headlining and opening for The Allman Brothers Band, Neil Young & Crazy Horse and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. When she opened, she was often playing to crowds that included at least 50% classic rock radio people, and I always felt that she won many of them over. Her headlining gigs have always been very warm affairs: not flawless, but her fans love her so much, it's OK. And although she gets a lot of attention in the media, there’s a sense of being in on something that the general public doesn’t know about (or isn’t tasteful enough to appreciate). It’s the same deal with Steve Earle.

I remember one Lucinda gig really vividly: it was at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey – one of the best venues I’ve ever been to. Apparently, Lucinda felt the same way, and said so. She actually claimed it was the best concert she ever played (Elvis Costello, sitting in the front row, joined her for “Drunken Angel”).

Town Hall was way different. The first set was all Car Wheels – but they played it kind of tentatively. I thought they would really “own” the performance, and that it would have a been a great celebration of the album that exposed her to a wider audience. It really didn’t happen. The best parts were when Steve Earle joined her on stage – he co-produced some of the album, and played acoustic guitar on some tracks. So he played on a bunch of songs, and his presence seemed to raise her game. But she kept motioning to her sound guy, and she just didn’t look happy. It was an unremarkable set.

After the intermission, she returned… and played one song. Then she and her band left the stage so some kid Fionn Regan could perform a song. It was OK. Then they returned, but soon, Lucinda left and was replaced by Jesse Malin. I don’t get his appeal: Joey Ramone loved him, Bruce Springsteen is a fan, Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day signed him to his label. I just don’t think he is so extraordinary. But I digress: Jesse comes on stage, and talks about being turned on to Steve Earle because Steve opened for The Replacements, and that he got into Lucinda through a duet she did with Steve. He then did a really rocking tune – the band seemed to enjoy letting loose. Then he did a solo acoustic thing which sounded a bit goofy.

Later in the show, Lucinda left the stage again, this time for Steve Earle to do one solo acoustic song. Someone calls out “Ellis Unit One” – a not-super well known song from the Dead Man Walking soundtrack. So, he played it, and it was incredibly moving. What was striking was that, he commanded the stage so fully, and that he played a song that he probably hadn’t rehearsed. Whereas Lucinda was reading from a lyric book all night and really never commanded the stage at all. At one point, during “Words,” she yelled at the soundguy for the mix being inappropriate for an “intimate” song. Later, after screwing up one of her best new songs, “Unsuffer Me,” she asked if the venue was built on an Indian burial ground. Town Hall is actually one of the best sounding venues in New York City.

I won’t go on: I will always love Lucinda’s songwriting, she truly is one of the greats. I don’t like writing negative stuff, when there’s so much negativity out there (especially on music blogs). I’ll probably go see her again in the future, but I think I need a break from her for now.

A WORTHY TRIBUTE

Some people really hate on tribute albums: not me. A worst... well, they can be pretty bad, but it's not like they're hurting anyone. At the very least, they probably turn on new fans to older artists. And, if you're lucky, there will be a couple of great cover tracks that put a new spin on a great song. In the pre-iTunes era, I was a real sucker for buying tributes, soundtracks, and other various compilations: it seemed like they all had one song I had to have: these days, iTunes makes it so much easier.

This Fats Domino tribute album is obviously well-timed and well-deserved. According to amazon, the album "will help raise desperately needed funds specifically earmarked for instruments to be donated to New Orleans public school children. Monies raised from the sales of Goin Home will also go toward the rebuilding of Fats Domino's home and to create a community center in the Crescent City s still ravaged Lower 9th Ward. Proceeds of Goin Home will fund additional community related programs." I'm not planning on making this blog too political (check out Product Shop NYC for a good mix), but this addresses two tragdies: the bigger one being the fact that New Orleans is still ravaged by the effects of Katrina. The other being: Fats Domino is one of the architects of rock and roll and pop music. It wouldn't take most contemporary stars over two years to rebuild thier homes, but obviously Fats isn't in their tax bracket. What an injustice. With artists like Fats Domino, I've always felt that you just can't overstate their importance to music. Of course, "importance" helps you to appreciate music, but not necessarily to enjoy it. Fats Domino's music is beautiful, everyone should hear it. I was actually turned on to it by a 1994 tribute - it was the soundtrack to Fast Track To Nowhere, which featured Iggy Pop, Sheryl Crow, The Smithereens, The Meat Puppets and Los Lobos. That turned me on to some of his stuff other than "Blueberry Hill" and "Ain't That A Shame."

Anyway, I'm looking forward to buying the album, which will feature Neil Young (doing "Walking To New Orleans," which he recorded for a New Orleans fund raiser post-Katrina), Robert Plant, Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams, Ben Harper, Toots & The Maytals, Willie Nelson and Los Lobos, among others.