Howard Fishman

Brooklyn’s Howard Fishman, a New York favorite for his lively shows that mesh New Orleans soul, New York jazz and Americana folk, hasn’t released an album since a project two years ago where he interpreted Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes. But 2010 will be dramatically different.

In the next few weeks, he’ll put out BETTER GET RIGHT, the first of a trilogy of albums that will release in 2010. Recorded simultaneously in 2009, the three recordings feature Howard fronting an overlapping ensemble of musicians exploring life in three distinct musical locales. BETTER GET RIGHT is inspired by New Orleans, where he began his music career. Howard says that the other two, NO FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS and `THE WORLD WILL BE DIFFERENT occupy entirely different musical and geographic landcapes: Romania and Brooklyn, NY, respectively.

Mark your calendar for a CD Release party on April 28^th at New York’s Joe’s Pub. See full lineup of tour dates here.  You can pre-order BETTER GET RIGHT on Howard’s Web site. For the eager, he has already posted a sampler of the album for download on bandcamp. Sounds great so far…especially “Since You’ve Been Gone,” which is much better than Kelly Clarkson’s song of the same title.

Howard keeps good company, playing with regular band members like Mazz Swift (violin), Ian Riggs (bass), Jordan Perlson (drums) and Roland Barber (trombone). He’s one of my all time favorites to see live…which is why I asked him play at my wedding (and he was cool enough to say yes).

See below for a few clips including “Down By The Riverside,” live from Joe’s Pub, and “Bessie Smith,” a Basement Tapes performance at Housing Works.

The Avett Brothers

Doc Watson by http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthecurve/

Get ready campers. Merelfest 2010 is only a couple months away. Doc Watson will be joined by The Avett Bros, WPA (Sean & Sarah Watkins of Nickel Creek, Glen Phillips, etc), Steve Martin (yes, he’s funny and he plays the banjo), Taj Mahal and more. See the full lineup here.

A few of my favorite Doc tunes from the last 2 years…

A Spanish tavern in the 1800s, Preservation Hall opened in New Orleans in 1961, as a humble jazz spot with no running water or air conditioning and a few benches for patrons.  Today Preservation Hall is not only a historic place to hear great music, but it also runs a music outreach program for kids in the city.

On Mardi Gras Day last week, Preservation Hall released a benefit album creatively titled, An Album to Benefit Preservation Hall & The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program. It holds an amazing salad bar of a lineup backing up the Preservation Hall Band, including Louis Armstrong (back from the dead thanks to a gifted sound engineer), Del McCoury, Buddy Miller, Pete Seegar, Steve Earle, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tom Waits, Cory Chisel and even a few folks you wouldn’t expect like My Morning Jacket, Ani Difranco and Andrew Bird, all playing soulful New Orleans classics.

Check out the video below for a sample. EVERY song on the album will make you smile. “Corinne Died on The Battlefield” with Tom Waits will make you dance. Jason Isbell singing “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” will give you chills. Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger singing “We Shall Overcome” will make you tear up.

 Be sure to buy the Deluxe Verision. It’s only $11.99 on Amazon MP3 ($2.00 cheaper than iTunes).

P.S. Please God, give us a benefit tour.

An Album to Benefit Preservation Hall & The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program on Amazon

NPR: New Louis Armstrong, By Way Of Preservation Hall

Fans of Nick Drake (and maybe even Johnny Cash), listen up. This spring, Rounder Records will introduce Denver songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff. Producer Brian Deck, who has worked with Califone, Iron & Wine and Modest Mouse, helped Rateliff and band put together their debut album, In Memory Of Loss, set for release on April 27^th. Rateliff has that kind of ominous voice that I eat up, but I’m not alone. Spin praised his “massive, alluring” voice. Billboard dubbed the unsigned singer-songwriter a ‘must hear.’

A few tracks are on the band’s MySpace page. Also, check out this live performance at the historic Casbah club in San Diego.

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Wheel on MySpace

Though Johnny Cash died seven years ago, American VI: Ain’t No Grave, his final album produced by Rick Rubin, was released this week and is only $3.99 on Amazon today. Rubin recorded the album shortly after June’s death and only four months before Johnny died. The story of life, death and redemption is a theme that lives in every song on the album and throughout the album as a whole.

Grave is a powerful picture of a man that is totally broken, but holding fast to the hope of his faith. Unlike previous albums in the series with multiple contemporary renditions, this one only has one (Sheryl Crow’s “Redemption Day”). Grave is heavier on classics like Kris Kristopherson’s “Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound” and the old country song, “Satisfied Mind.” This gospel album closes with an appropriate song of release and paradise called “Aloha Oe.”

This is a classic that you’ll want to tell your kids you bought the first day it came out…and it’s $3.99. Buy it.

American VI: Ain’t No Grave on Amazon

Black Prairie, a new collaboration out of Portland, Oregon made up of three members of the indie-rock band The Decemberists and two other Portland-based folk stars, will release a bluegrass album on Sugar Hill Records in April. The new band’s debut, Feast of the Hunter’s Moon, is produced by Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie) and features Decemberists guitarist Chris Funk, bassist Nate Query and Jenny Conlee on accordion.  

There are a couple of songs already on the band’s MySpace page. “Red Rocking Chair” has a slow, ominous mountain sound, while “Back Alley” sounds like straight-up traditional bluegrass. Both tracks left me longing for the other 11 songs on this 13 track album that Sugar Hill says will embody “the rich sonic landscape of the Portland music scene while integrating the diverse backgrounds of its members.”  

Check out the first two tracks below and stay tuned for more.

Black Prairie on MySpace

Black Prairie on Sugar Hill Records Web site

Even though Alison hasn’t released much new music lately, she’s been making the rounds in the news.  Here’s the skinny on her for the last few weeks:

• After winning her 27^th Grammy for “The Wexford Carol,” a song she recorded on Yo Yo Ma’s Christmas album, she now has more Grammys than any other woman (take that Aretha!) and is tied with Quincy Jones for having more Grammys than any men or transgender beings.
• Announced last week, Alison and Union Station will be at Telluride.
• On Feb 27^th, she and Union Station will perform at Compassion International’s Hope for Haiti Live in Nashvegas with other locals like Big Kenny, Jars of Clay, Mat Kearney, Brandon Heath, and my friends Matt Wertz and Dave Barnes.

Alison Krauss & Union Station hasn’t released an album (as a band) since 2004, but the band has been recording since last July. I can’t find a release date anywhere, but fingers crossed that we get it this year.

Alison Krauss Web site

Compassion Internation’s Hope for Haiti Live!

photo by Dominque Attaway

DC is hardly a hotbed for emerging Americana artists, but Lissy Rosemont, an Atlanta girl that went to grad school at Georgetown and got carried away jamming with a few folks, now calls it home. As frontwoman of Junior League Band with another self-titled project on the side and far from using her degree, Lissy grew up playing with her dad’s bluegrass band in Georgia and is now building a DC following. She recently opened for Rosanne Cash at The Birchmere.  

In a feature on JLB in 2008, The Washington Post called the band’s third album, Mitchell Williams Fo Govena, “down-home folk” and “back porch,” which seems about right.  Check out a new video story on Lissy from ABC News below and a raw little jam to the old Gospel tune, “Canaan’s Land (Where The Soul of Man Never Dies)” with Jim Avett, the Gospel singing father of The Avett Brothers.

Mitchell Williams Fo Govena on iTunes

Lissy Rosemont on ABC News

The favorite fun fact on Porland folk band Blind Pilot is that its front man, Israel Nebeker, and drummer, Ryan Dobrowski, have used two different bike tours to spread their music down the Pacific coast (hear their bike stories at the link below, including an unfortunate premature ending to one tour where their bikes were stolen, from an NPR interview early last year). BUT a somewhat recent fun fact is that the band released a delicious five-song live EP on iTunes a few weeks ago including a jaw-dropping cover of Gillian Welch’s “Look at Miss Ohio.”

As you’ll see from the EP, these guys have an amazing live presence and are known for playing intimate venues that sell out quickly. For example, you’re already out of luck for getting tickets to their show at the Mercury Lounge on March 31^st. Sorry to tease.

Here’s a different live cover of the Welch’s Miss Ohio to whet your appetite.

Blind Pilot – iTunes Session EP – Only $4.95

Blind Pilot on NPR’s Morning Edition (complete with bike tour anecdotes)

Photo by Amber Meairs

In his senior year at UNC Chapel Hill, Maryland-native Joe Pug dropped out of school and moved to Chicago to focus more on his music. He played around town, then toured the country like a champ for a few years, giving away his music all along the way. Now, two amazing free EPs later, he’s about to embark on a national tour with Justin Townes Earle and begin selling his 9-song new album Messenger (releases Feb 16). 

As I mentioned earlier this week, I was tipped on Joe from JTE himself. This guy’s on to something. Pug’s In The Meantime EP (get it for free on his Web site below) is truly stunning. Both his writing and sound will not be overlooked by even the biggest music snobs. Get it now!

In The Meantime EP – FREE on Joe Pug’s Web site