Samantha Crain will belt it out at Union Hall this Wednesday.

Okay, guys. This is important. If you don’t know Samantha Crain, you need to do the following: take that all-important, weekly Wednesday Trivia/Bingo/Knitting Circle/Bro Hang/Downton Abby Marathon night and throw it out the window. Chuck it. Real hard, like. Then, get yourself to Union Hall. Crain, who’s toured with the likes of the lovable Frontier Ruckus, will play this time with Minnesota-native Ben Weaver, who’s a great artist in his own rite. Check out a video of Crain’s ‘Santa Fe’ below:

 
Now that we got that out of the way, a couple other shows to note. Less folky in their present musical state than in that of a few years ago, duo Kaiser Cartel returns to play Rockwood Music Hall this Thursday before opening a handful of U.S. shows for The Jayhawks. If you haven’t seen this couple live (and no, they’re not a couple-couple … but don’t we all wish they were? Just me?), they’re definitely worth a listen.

Another Brooklyn band, Hospitality, will be hosting an album release party at Williamsburg’s Glasslands this week. If the cold’s drying out your soul and you want music that will make you feel warm and cozy inside, lend this band an ear.

Monday, January 30
Rev. Vince Anderson and His Love Choir – 11 p.m. at Union Pool
Steve Earle, Allison Moorer and The Mastersons – 8 p.m. at City Winery

Tuesday, January 31
Dry the River, The Loom – 9:30 p.m. at Mercury Lounge
Michael Daves – 10 p.m. at Rockwood Music Hall
Smith Westerns – 8 p.m. at Webster Hall

Wednesday, February 1
Samantha Crain with Ben Weaver – 9 p.m. at Union Hall

Thursday, February 2
Kaiser Cartel – 7 p.m. at Rockwood Music Hall
Thurston Moore – 8:30 p.m. at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room (American Songbook Series)

Friday, February 3
Hospitality – Album Release Party with Glass Ghost and Dustin Wong, 8:30 p.m. at Glasslands
The Delorean Sisters – 9 p.m. at Bar 4

Saturday, February 4
Jenny Owen Youngs – 8 p.m. at The Rock Shop

Lucinda Black Bear Will Rock Softly at Union Pool

Some cool shows happening this week in and around the city, including a mix of the traditional and progressive. The twangy DeLorean Sisters are banjo-ing it up at Union Hall on Saturday, and local indie folk-rockers Lucinda Black Bear take the stage at Union Pool Wednesday. Strongly suggest checking out at least one of these bands. Cass McCombs plays yet another show for Bowery Presents, this time at the Ballroom. In case you’re unfamiliar, check out the Paul Simon-esque ‘County Line’ off of his last record.

Plus, don’t forget that January is almost over, and so is your chance to see residencies by Steve Earle and Allison Moorer, Spirit Family Reunion and Jus Post Bellum. Plan wisely, friends!

Monday, January 23
Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, Mike Doughty – 8 p.m. at City Winery

Tuesday, January 24
Michael Daves – 10 p.m. at Rockwood Music Hall

Wednesday, January 25
Cass McCombs – 9 p.m. at Bowery Ballroom
Lucinda Black Bear, Dare Dukes and the Blackstock Collection, Brother Reverend – 9 p.m. at Union Pool
Spirit Family Reunion – 10 p.m. at The Living Room

Thursday, January 26
Bucky Hayes and the Radio, Great Elk, Brian Bonz – 7:30 p.m. at Littlefield
Jus Post Bellum – 7 p.m. at Arlene’s Grocery

Friday, January 27
Aimee Mann, John Roderick (of The Long Winters) – 8 p.m. Music Hall of Williamsburg
Great Lakes – 8 p.m. at Union Hall

Saturday, January 28
The Delorean Sisters, Menage A Twang, Doll Parts – 9 p.m. at Union Hall

Sunday, January 29
Starting at 7 p.m. at Rockwood Music Hall:
Andrew Gregory
Dusty Brown
Spirit Family Reunion, Russell Lacy, Annie Lynch, Oh Odessa

The Howls

Over the last few months, Sara Watkins has given a few virtual high fives to San Diego Americana band The Howls on Twitter. This Friday, Watkins will give the band much more as she plays with them at their CD release party at The Casbah.

While this isn’t the first release from the band, Rocky Ground is the band’s first full album and sounds pretty amazing (Ryan Adams-ish). Here’s “The Weight,” my favorite song from the new album. Read more about the band here and here.

Ahhh Telluride - Photo by Benko Photographics

FestiVAL! There are still a lot of cold days in between now and June 21^st when the Telluride Bluegrass Festival kicks off, but the good folks at Planet Bluegrass announced a good chunk of the lineup a while ago. It’s looking good with the usual suspects like Alison Krauss, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Punch Brothers and more ensuring that tickets will sell quickly (and the best camping tickets are long gone).

However, there are a few fresh young faces that are worth checking out…

Run Boy Run

Run Boy Run (Tucson, AZ) – This band of six, which was assembled at The University of Arizona a few years back, won last year’s Telluride band contest to earn their spot on the main stage this year. The band falls in the old time Americana mountain tunes category (even if they are from Arizona) and will be a favorite of traditional bluegrass folks. They released a self-titled five track album/EP back in September that sounds really polished. Here’s a great clip of a performance from Flagstaff last fall: Run Boy Run at the Pines Blugrass Festival Flagstaff.

Della Mae

Della Mae (Boston) – Every now and then I fall in love while trying to write about a band. The latest victim: Celia Woodsmith of Boston’s Della Mae, a legit, polished traditional bluegrass band of six ladies who assures everyone that being a lady band “is not what it’s about.” I believe them. Della Mae features 2-time National Fiddle Champion Kimber Ludiker, flat pick guitar player Courtney Hartman, mandolinist Jenni Lynn Gardner, bassist Amanda Kowalski, and powerhouse vocalist Celia Woodsmith. The band, which was formed in Boston in 2009, released their first album, I Built This Heart (Bandcamp), in October. The album features a ton of amazing tracks with great solos. I can’t wait to see these girls live. Check out a few videos here: “Blessed Hands” (below), “Jaime Dear” & “Polk Country”

Saturday: brown bird Takes the Stage at Le Poisson Rouge

It may be so cold outside in NYC of late that your skin is slowly beginning to resemble that of an extinct, ghostly reptile … but if this week’s list of shows doesn’t pull you limb-by-limb out from under your down comforter, I don’t know what will.

First up, I was introduced to He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister a few years back when they opened for the band formerly known as The Rosewood Thieves at a warehouse party in Los Angeles. This guy and gal and their staple tap-dance-sideshow blew me away. This Thursday, they’re bringing their fun, folky whimsy to Mercury Lounge. You really should not miss it — sleet be damned. Check out the video below:

And of course, there’s brown bird, playing this go ’round with Brooklyn-based O’Death at Le Poisson Rouge. I can’t get enough of this duo, and LPR will be an awesome venue to see them do their thang.

Last, you may not yet have heard The Whiskey Collection, but I strongly suggest familiarizing yourself with this band. I saw this group of deft 20-somethings play Rockwood Music Hall a month back, and from their amazing fiddler to the content of their songs, I was more than impressed. Get in on a good thing early, friends.

There’s a ton more, including The Deep Dark Woods, Howard Fishman, and Justin Keller’s Land of Leland, so check out my full round-up below. And, let me know if there’s any I missed!

Tuesday, January 17
Portugal. The Man – 7 p.m. at Bowery Ballroom (Presented by Pandora – limited entry. FREE Show!)

Sharon Van Etten — 2 p.m. at The Greene Space (WNYC’s Soundcheck)

Wednesday, January 18
The Deep Dark Woods — 8 p.m. at Irving Plaza

Madi Diaz, Lucy Schwartz — 6:30 p.m. at Mercury Lounge

Jonatha Brooke, Dar Williams (Celebrates Woody Guthrie at 100 – American Songbook Series) – 8:30 p.m. at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room

Land of Leland, Sarah Gregory — 8 p.m. at Union Hall

Spirit Family Reunion — 10 p.m. at Living Room

Peter Bradley Adams — 10 p.m. at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 1

Thursday, January 19
Jeff Mangum — 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Academy of Music

Califone, Howard Fishman (NY Guitar Festival – Silent Films / Live Guitars) — 7:30 p.m. Merkin Concert Hall

He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister; Henry Wolfe — 9:30 p.m. at Mercury Lounge

Friday, January 20
Portugal. The Man — 6 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl

Jeff Mangum — 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Academy of Music

Califone — 8 p.m. at Littlefield

Portlandia, The Tour — 8 p.m. at Music Hall of Williamsburg

Saturday, January 21
O’Death, Brown Bird — 6:30 p.m. at Le Poisson Rouge

Portlandia, The Tour — 8 p.m. at Bowery Ballroom

Jeff Mangum — 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Academy of Music

The Whiskey Collection — 11 p.m. at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 1

Dr. King at A. Philip Randolph's March on Washington where Joan Baez performed "We Shall Overcome"

The evening before he died, Dr. King’s final sermon in 1968 in Memphis was titled “We Shall Overcome.”

Composer Reverend Charles Albert Tindley

Zilphia Horton on the picket line

We all know that popular anthem to the civil rights movement, but there’s a pretty interesting backstory that spans gospel, folk, black and white. Like most old folk songs, the song’s origins are in an old hymn called “I’ll Overcome Someday.” Originally written in 1901 by Reverend Charles Albert Tindley, a Methodist Episcopal minister in Philadelphia who wrote a number of other songs for the era including “Stand By Me,” the song appeared here and there over the years, but it was adapted for the civil rights movement at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee.

It was in 1947 at Highlander, a union organizer training school, that Zilphia Horton, the wife of the school’s leader, sang the song for kids and then again famously at a meeting attended by Pete Seeger, who later helped make the song popular with Guy Carawan, Frank Hamilton and Ramblin Jack Elliot.

[Horton] had a beautiful alto voice, an unpretentious rare voice, but not the show’off kind.…She brought out the talents of her audience and their enthusiastic participation. Her approach resembled more that of a Black singer and the Black church. – Pete Seeger

In ’63, Joan Baez sang the song in the historic march on Washington where Dr. King delivered his I Have  A Dream speech. Two years later, he first referenced the phrase in a sermon delivered before an interfaith congregation at Temple Israel in Hollywood.

We shall overcome. We shall overcome. Deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome. And I believe it because somehow the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. We shall overcome because Carlyle is right; “no lie can live forever”. We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right; “truth crushed to earth will rise again”. We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right:.

Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne.
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the then unknown
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above his own.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to speed up the day. And in the words of prophecy, every valley shall be exalted. And every mountain and hill shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain and the crooked places straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This will be a great day. This will be a marvelous hour. And at that moment—figuratively speaking in biblical words—the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy. – Dr. Martin Luther King

Here’s a great video from Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday Concert (Clearwater Concert) at Madison Square Garden in 2009 featuring Pete Seeger, Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez, Toshi Reagon, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, Billy Bragg, Keller Williams, Ani DiFranco, Ruby Dee, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and New York City Labor Choir.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves

Hope your calendar isn’t packed this week, because there are a fair number of NYC area shows at which your presence is recommended. While several of the ones listed are part of this month’s weekly residencies, a couple – like The Little Willies, playing Wednesday at The Bell House – are one-timers that don’t come along often, so get ‘em while the gettin’s good. And although pricey, there are still a few tickets left for the Chris Thile/Michael Daves show at Lincoln Center, so act fast.

For video of The Little Willies and to hear NPR’s just-posted First Listen, see the previous blog post.

Tuesday, January 10
Michael Daves, 10 p.m. at Rockwood Music Hall

Wednesday, January 11
The Little Willies, 7:30 p.m. at The Bell House
Spirit Family Reunion, 10 p.m. at Living Room

Thursday, January 12
A Benefit for Jonathan Toubin, 6:30 p.m. at Music Hall of Williamsburg (With Chain & The Gang, Five Dollar Priest, Eleanor Friedberger, Nicole Atkins, Dorit Chrysler, Shilpa Ray, An American Dream, and Two Tears)
Jus Post Bellum, 7 p.m. at Arlene’s Grocery (with special guest Maggie Carson of Spirit Family Reunion on banjo!)
Chris Thile and Michael Daves, 9:30 p.m. at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room

Friday, January 13
Poundcake (With Special Guests Puss ‘n’ Boots), 6:30 p.m. at City Winery

Saturday, January 14
The Beatles Complete on Ukelele, 3 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl

Monday, January 16
Steve Earle, Allison Moorer and Charlie Mars, 8 p.m. at City Winery

The Little Willies

This week NPR gave us a first listen of an album I’m pretty excited about. Next Tuesday, The Little Willies will release For The Good Times an album of amazing Americana tunes made popular by classic country gods like Cash, Parton, Williams, Nelson, and Lynn.

The band, which first got together in 2003 at The Living Room on the Lower East Side, includes popular singer songwriter Norah Jones on piano and vocals accompanied by four friends: Lee Alexander on bass, Jim Campilongo on guitar and Richard Julian on guitar and vocals.

The album is loaded with splendid renditions of songs you know, opening with Ralph Stanley’s “I Will Worship You” and closing with Parton’s “Jolene.” These guys are legit and I hope this isn’t the last album we see from them.

You can catch The Little WIllies on WNYC’s Soundcheck on Monday, Letterman on Tuesday and live at Brooklyn’s The Bell House on Wednesday night.

Robert Johnson

On March 6, an amazing group of musicians will head to Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater to pay tribute to legendary Mississippi Delta blues guitarist Robert Johnson. In May of last year, Johnson would have turned 100. But this year The Roots, Shemika Copeland, Bettye LaVette, Taj Mahal, Keb Mo, Sam Moore, Todd Rundgren and many more are confirmed for the all-star tribute and benefit for The Blues Foundation in Memphis.

Johnson, who influenced the music of Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers and more, is famously known for a folklore story about selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads. However, the few who were close to Johnson say that it’s not true.

Hear Johnson’s story on a great NPR segment from last year here. And you can buy tickets for the show here.

It’s cold out there, so I thought it would be fun to warm things up a bit with some whiskey and fine tunes.

On February 17^th, Banjo and I will be hosting our first hootenanny. The grass clippings winter warm up at Bar 4 in Brooklyn has a lineup that should, without a doubt, be assembled in a much larger venue. However, these friends of grass clippings have agreed to give us a unique, intimate show on a stage where you typically would see a singer songwriter perform. And intimacy is nice in the winter. Mark your calendars and get there early. Please wear plaid. It’s free, but you should donate. Here’s what we’ve got:

Spirit Family Reunion

10PM – Spirit Family Reunion – Recently seen on Paste Magazine’s Best of What’s Next list, Spirit Family Reunion was the first band ever blogged about on grass clippings. This group of young Brooklynites was a mere Ditmas Park farmer’s market band a few years ago, but has toured aggressively (despite horrid van breakdowns) all around this side (and a little on the other) of the Mississippi and recently opened for top acts like David Wax Museum and the Alabama Shakes. The band currently has a January residency at the Living Room on Wednesdays in the other borough. Catch em at a small venue while you can. (Video: “100 Greenback Dollar Bills”)

Jus Post Bellum

9PM – Jus Post Bellum – The minimalist folk songs of Geoffrey Wilson backed by the harmonies of Hannah Jensen on vocals, Zach Dunham on percussion, and Daniel Bieber on upright bass, are mostly inspired by the American Civil War (but also by less historical things). Wilson’s songs are poetic and create vivid pictures of another era in the heads of listeners. The band, which was featured in a showcase for the CMJ music festival last year, just recorded its first full length album and will likely be among those talked about at SXSW this spring. You can catch them in January in their residency at Arlene’s Grocery on Thursdays. (Video: “Hearts Full of Sorrow”)

The Parlor Soldiers

8PM – The Parlor Soldiers – Every now and then, a band that emails me turns out to be something that I really like. The Parlor Soldiers, who come from my home commonwealth of Virginian in the city of Fredericksburg, is a duo made up of Alex Culbreth and Karen Jonas and just released When The Dust Settles (Bandcamp). This album of great tunes caught my ear, so I asked them to come up and play.  Turns out they had another show booked at home, but were excited enough about this to reschedule that and make a trip to Brooklyn just to see you. (Video: “When The Dust Settles”)

AND THAT’S NOT ALL. Before 8PM is Bar 4 happy hour and it’s dirt cheap awesomeness. We’ll also be showing some of our photos from the 2011 Newport Folk Festival, which were shot by Richard Kluver and drove more traffic to this here blog than we’ve ever seen. Thanks to Vi Luong for the winter warm up poster.