Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 7

Posted on by wolffkurt

Another year, another Bluegrass Fest in San Francisco, this weekend (Oct-5-7) in Golden Gate Park. Old favorites are returning, including Nick Lowe (when did he get so damn popular all the sudden? It’s not like he’s moving a ton of records), T-Bone Burnett (one of the fest highlights last year), Del McCoury, Gillian Welch, Mekons, Knitters, on and on. PLUS some new blood, including Jeff Tweedy (solo on Friday afternoon), Charlie Louvin, Neko Case, and, believe it or not, John Mellencamp. There’s a reason they renamed the fest Hardly Strictly Bluegrass–which I have no beef with, as it opens the field to a wider range of roots/country/soul/grass type artists.

Here’s a few highlights from last year’s extravaganza:

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2006

You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling

Posted on by wolffkurt

The music of Lee Hazlewood (free download via that link, btw) was steeped in ’60s stylized pop–he wrote great material on his own, but he also did some incredible covers, including this Righteous Brothers hit. It was a highlight on the classic Nancy & Lee album. The video below, though (man, so many great Lee videos have surfaced since his death last weekend), features Swedish pop singer Siw Malmkvist.

Goodbye Lee

Posted on by wolffkurt


It wasn’t a surprise to hear that Lee Hazlewood passed away this past Saturday (Aug 4, 2007), but damn it’s still sad. At least he knew it was coming and could prepare — settling back down with family, recording one final album, and living long enough to soak up the newfound attention and acclaim. Lee was the ultimate existential cowboy, pondering big questions, facing darkness, but never afraid at the same time to get a little kooky. He was a bit of a crank when I met him briefly in ’95; but from the sound of things he mellowed quite a bit in recent years and welcomed the attention. Good for him, good for us.

Johnny Paycheck

Posted on by wolffkurt

Johnny Paycheck has a huge catalog so it’s inevitable that some great songs would get overlooked. “21 Miles to Lake Charles Prison” was one of the first Paycheck songs I heard way back when (thanks to an old thrift-store copy of his greatest hits LP), and it’s stuck with me ever since. When a guy sings about his mother walking him to the train that’s going to take him to prison, well, you know it’s real-deal country.

Check out the song via this link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?fmvysgduhpf