Music: Zac Brown Rockin’ A Southern Brand Riff-Raff Tee
It’s no secret we’re fans of good music. But what is news is finding out good music is also a fan of ours. Last week Good Morning America was covering the recording of "We Are The World: The Remake" and up popped a photo of Zac Brown of The Zac Brown Band sportin’ our Southern Brand “Riff-Raff” shirt! Rock on, brotha!
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Music: Sons Of Bill
"If you like gettin' your teeth knocked in, and your ass kicked, and your heart torn out of your chest and mashed flat...then Sons Of Bill is your new favorite band." - Jim Scott
Bill Wilson's three eldest sons grew up listening to him fingerpick old country tunes around the house. They learned to sing harmony at family holidays and inherited old guitars with their hand-me-down jeans. The past two decades sent James, Sam and Abe in disparate musical directions: teenage heavy metal fests, old-time barn dances, college bars and New York City jazz clubs. But in 2005 the brothers all returned – one from a cattle ranch in Nevada, one from an apartment in Brooklyn, one from Grad school in Maryland – and for the first time in their lives they began to make music together. With the addition of long-time friends Seth Green and Brian Caputo, Bill's sons became Sons of Bill. With a live show known to evolve from acoustic ballads into sweaty stage-dives, Sons of Bill has gained a loyal fan base from Florida to NYC, sharing the stage with acts ranging from Robert Randolph to Robert Earl Keen. After selling their self-released debut album “A Far Cry from Freedom” by the thousands, SOB flew to California in late 2008 to record a much anticipated follow up. Tracked live in just 10 days with legendary producer Jim Scott (Wilco, Tom Petty, Whiskeytown) “One Town Away” is as honest and straightforward as records get. 12 songs about the struggles and hopes of human life, played by five guys from central Virginia, raised on traditional country music with an unabashed love for Rock n’ Roll.
Check 'em out here. See 'em live.
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Livin': Round Up Rodeo Weekend
All you Cowgirls & Cowboys head on down to Round Up in Davie, FL this weekend for the Pro Rodeo parties sponsored by Patron & Southern Brand. Friday and Saturday night. There will be a mechanical bull ridin' contest with cash a prizes. And we'll be there handin' out some of our vintage tees and cowhide koozies. So come on down, they got both kinds of music...country and western.
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Music: Naked Willie
Willie's new album, NAKED WILLIE ‘strips down’ his early stuff on RCA.
It's a 17-track collection of songs written and recorded by Nelson in Nashville, between 1966 to 1970. Naked Willie lays bare Willie’s original vision of those songs for the first time, with Willie’s vocals at the core, and bare bones ‘A-team’ guitars, piano, bass and drums mixed as they were originally heard in the studio.
The dozen or so original studio LPs that Willie recorded at that time were typical of the ‘Nashville Sound’: great songs – but more often than not, sweetened with lushly orchestrated arrangements and backing vocalists that could – and many times did – conflict with the actual mood or message or meaning of the composition itself. Willie and his longtime sidekick, harmonica player Mickey Raphael wondered what those RCA sides would sound like, if they could retrieve the original multi-track tapes and get back to their unmasked essence.
“At the time these original recordings were made,” writes former Rolling Stone editor Chet Flippo, now of CMT and a lifelong chronicler of country music, “Willie didn’t know that this kind of stripped-down personal sound was possible – on a released country record. Or that it was feasible. Nor did any other artist in Nashville, circa 1960-1970 or thereabouts.”
In many cases, the comparison of original tracks to the NAKED WILLIE versions is revelatory. As Flippo writes, “One of Nelson’s most important songs, ‘The Party’s Over,’ in its first incarnation is cloaked by heavy strings and a chorus. The song’s inherent sense of tragedy is masked. On ‘Following Me Around,’ Willie’s vocal on the original is literally chased around by a perky and persistent trumpet. Try listening through the huge background chorus and unwieldy arrangement that attempts to reduce ‘Laying My Burdens Down’ to a wacky musical comedy romp.”
By the end of the ’60s and beginning of the ’70s, artists of Willie’s caliber and temperament were beginning to stream into Nashville – coinciding with rock and folk’s “singer-songwriter” explosion at Top 40. Many of them held kinship to country music and were flooding into Nashville to record there. The studios had backed themselves into a corner, however, and were hard-pressed to change the system, which is still going strong today, albeit with some adjustments.
“Recording on Music Row meant assembly line recording,” Flippo notes. “Three three-hour sessions a day, maybe four, and out the door.” Nevertheless, Willie was in great company: “the A-Team all the way,” says Flippo: “Stellar pickers such as Grady Martin and Chip Young and Jerry Reed on guitar, Roy Huskey Jr. or Norbert Putnam on bass, Buddy Harman or Jerry Carrigan drumming, David Briggs or Pig Robbins on piano, Jimmy Day or Buddy Emmons on steel guitar.” NAKED WILLIE also serves as a tribute to their talents and versatility. Check it out.
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Music: BAD MAGICK: THE BEST OF SHOOTER JENNINGS & THE .357′S
The above clip is from Shooter’s collaboration with Jamey Johnson on CMT Crossroads which premieres tonight (3/23) at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.
Tomorrow's the day! Universal Records South releases Bad Magick: The Best of Shooter Jennings and the .357’s, an all encompassing listening experience of 13 fan favorites from Shooter Jennings’ last four albums, plus two tracks never before released on CD.
We were lucky enough to get an advance copy here at Southern Brand and it's smokin'. We've damn near worn it out. Thank ya kindly Jen!
Bad Magick is an album for all Shooter fans, whether this is their first album or whether they’ve been with him from his beginnings. Ten of the album’s tracks were written or co-written by the singer. The collection offers a little bit of everything and represents what his music is all about.
Born the son of a country outlaw, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, Shooter gravitated towards the rock n’ roll music scene at an early age, but after his father’s death realized the legendary Jennings had never heard him sing a country song apart from one home recording session at a young age. Shooter moved to Music City three years later with his band, the .357’s. Together, in just a few short years, they released four country albums with a signature rock flare that drew an immediate fan base of all ages.
Combining a blend of country, blues and rock ‘n’ roll, Shooter Jennings has developed his own unique style of music, not shadowing in his famous father’s footsteps.
“I sound like myself,” explains Shooter. “I guess that comes from finally doing what I want, even though I’m embracing my heritage, too. That’s important in country music.”
Shooter and his band will be hitting the road in late spring for an extensive tour across the U.S.
Here's a track listing:
01. 4th Of July (w/George Jones singing "He Stopped Loving Her Today")
02. Gone To Carolina
03. Southern Comfort
04. The Wolf
05. Manifesto No. 1
06. Walk Of Life
07. It Ain’t Easy
08. This Ol Wheel (Featuring Doug “The Ragin’ Cajun” Kershaw)
09. Busted In Baylor County
10. Slow Train (Featuring The Oak Ridge Boys)
11. Bad Magick
12. Steady At The Wheel
13. Daddy’s Farm (LIVE)
Previously unreleased on CD
14. Lonesome Blues (LIVE) From AOL Music Sessions
15. Living Proof (LIVE)
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