Tag: country music

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Music Music Blog

Full Schedule for Ameripolitan Music Awards Released

Dale Watson and Celine Lee at a previous Ameripolitan Music Awards ceremony (Photo courtesy Ameripolitan Music Awards)

The term “countrypolitan” was coined in the 1950s to describe the more urbane side of the Nashville Sound, “most often characterized by its use of lushly arranged string overdubs and group or choral backing vocals,” according to the Rate Your Music website, and any fan of Patsy Cline knows exactly what that means. But don’t let that skew your perception of a similar, related portmanteau, “Ameripolitan.”

That was coined by Dale Watson, founder of the Ameripolitan Music Awards, to capture a wide range of “original music with a prominent roots influence,” including honky tonk, Western swing, rockabilly, and outlaw country. As Watson told the Memphis Flyer in our 2019 cover story, “if people call it retro, I say, ‘No, these are new songs. Just because you build a house with a hammer — an old tool — doesn’t make it an old house.’ I’m just using an old tool, you know?”

Next month, a multitude of contemporary artists using such time-tested tools will once again convene under the Ameripolitan umbrella for much more than an awards ceremony. In the days and nights leading up to the awards show proper on February 19th at the Guesthouse at Graceland, dozens of artists will be bringing their sounds to both that venue and the venerable Hernando’s Hide-a-way.

The full schedule has now been released, and it includes both familiar and new faces, including Johnny Rodriguez, Sierra Ferrell, Rosie Flores, Kinky Friedman, Brennen Leigh, Summer Dean, Jeremy Pinnell, and The Waymores.

Awards will be given for Honky Tonk male/female and group, Western Swing male/female and group, Outlaw male/female and group, Rockabilly male/female and group, Best Venue, Festival, Radio DJ and Musician. And Ameripolitan is recognizing three individuals with Momentous Achievement Awards as well: Johnny Rodriguez will receive the Master Award, Nick Curran will be named Keeper of the Key, and The Adams Brothers will be recognized as Founders of the Sound.

Aside from the many musical performances, there will also be a Steel Guitar Pull hosted by Lynn Owsley at Hernando’s, a Vintage Western Ameripolitan Fashion Show, “Tequila and Teardrops” with Big Sandy, the Texas Takeover Showcase, the popular “Chicken $#+! Bingo” with Dale Watson, and of course the Ameripolitan Music Awards Show itself.

One notable event for history and film buffs will be a screening of Mike Markwardt’s documentary, The History of Western Swing, on Saturday at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. at Hernando’s Hide-a-way. There will also be a sneak peek of Mule Kick Productions’ documentary on the World Famous Palomino Club, Palomania, on Sunday at the Theater Stage before the awards ceremony.

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Music Music Blog

Charlie Daniels Talks 40 Years of “Devil”

You know the story. The Devil went down to Georgia, looking for a soul to steal. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for that ace fiddle player, Johnny. As a cultural touchstone, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which just celebrated 40 years of fiddle-playing in the American collective unconscious, has attained incredible heights; I knew the song before it even occurred to me to wonder who wrote or recorded it. That musician, of course, is Charlie Daniels, and he and his band will perform at BankPlus Amphitheater at Snowden Grove, Friday, June 28th. In advance of the concert, I spoke with Daniels over the phone about his session work with Bob Dylan, diversifying his writing, and the staying power of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Charlie Daniels

Memphis Flyer: A radio DJ friend of mine told me you got your start as a session musician. Is that true?

Charlie Daniels: Yeah, when I first came to Nashville, I used to do quite a few sessions. I never really fit the style of a what a Nashville player would be. I came off the road after 13 straight years of playing bang-slam rock in clubs, but there were certain sessions I sat in on — Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Marty Robbins. But the day-to-day thing, I was not really a “session player.” So sometimes that part of my career gets a bit overblown, I think because of the magnitude of some of the things I did play on. I did three Bob Dylan albums. That was part of my career, definitely.

Which Dylan albums did you play on?

[I played on] Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait, and New Morning.

That’s a great spread. Nashville Skyline is one of my favorite records.

You know what? I was only supposed to play on one session. I was fairly new to town, and Bob Johnston was the guy who brought me down there, who was producing the record. I said, “I would love to play on one of Bob Dylan’s sessions.” A lot of people think [Nashville Skyline] was the first album that Bob did in town. It was at least the third one he’d done here, and they’d put together the nucleus of a studio band for him. They always used ’em when he came to town. This time, the guitar player they had used was already booked on what would be the very first session. So Bob Johnston said come on down and play the first session, and the other guy will come on after you.


So I went down and played the session, and I was packing my guitars up and getting ready to leave. Bob Dylan asked Bob Johnston, “Where’s he going?” Bob Johnston said he’s leaving, we’ve got another guitar player coming in. … And Bob Dylan said nine words that would change my life: “I don’t want another guitar player. I want him.” That was the beginning of something very wonderful for me, because Bob was always kind enough to put the names of the musicians who played on his records on the back of the album. … It cut a lot of corners for me.

You put out a couple of books recently?

I didn’t know I could write, to be honest. But a friend of mine who worked with us at the time said, “You write story songs. Why don’t you write stories?” I was on the road one time, and I went in the motel room and took some paper and I sat down and started writing. I have a song called “Uneasy Rider,” and I wrote the story of it. And I found out, well, this is fun. So I started doing that.

It sounds like you’ve got a few tricks up your sleeve. Does it keep it interesting and fun for you to change it up that way?

I was born in 1936, and it was way, way before television, so it was radio for me. And at that time, there weren’t many radio stations, so they had to follow the mandate of the FCC and they had to do something for everybody. They had to serve the whole community, which meant playing a lot of different kinds of music. So I got everything. It was such a variety. I went through the big band era, the Frank Sinatra-type era with the crooners. I was exposed to so many kinds of music when I was a kid, I developed a wide taste in music and I developed a wide taste in a lot of things. So I like spreading out a little. … I might write anything. I just finished a novel, my first one.

I bet that keeps you from getting bored.

Well, yeah. … You see people who never ever push the envelope or do anything outside of convention, and there’s so much life out there.

The Charlie Daniels Band

You have an incredibly long career. Do you think you’re able to stay relevant by shaking things up the way you do?

Well, I think so. Of course, I sound like I’m some sort of rebel, and I’m really not. It just happens naturally. I mean, I do stick to my guns. I have lines I’m not willing to cross and things I’m not willing to do. It’s cost me a time or two, as far as money is concerned. It ain’t cost me as far as how I feel about what I do. … I have never cut a hit record with any people other than my band. I’ve had record company people. I tried it one time. I let them talk me into it, and I had a studio band. They players were great, but this is a lifetime to me and it’s only one session to them, one song. I want guys with me who the music means more to than just one paycheck.

If you get people who have been playing together a long time, you get almost a telepathy, a short-hand communication.

I’ve got people who’ve been with me for 40 years. My personal roadie has a hearing impairment, and he’s a very good lip-reader. I can look at him and move my lips, and he knows what I’m talking about. Those are things you develop over the years. It’s not something that happens overnight.

While we’re talking about things that have been around for a while, you had some big anniversaries in May. What is it, 40 years for “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”?

To be honest with you, I have something maturing at one point or another all the time. I never thought too much about “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” and all of a sudden, it was like 40 [years]. Especially for my generation, the age of 40 is supposed to be the line of demarcation for something. It’s where we go from being a young person into middle age. The age of 18, when you’re a kid means a lot. Of course, we all know what 21 is, and the next one is usually around 40. It just hit me a little more than all the previous ones had. But what hits you so much is the viability of the song today.

It’s truly amazing to have a tune like that that stays. And of course we do it every show.

The Charlie Daniels Band performs with Travis Tritt, The Cadillac Three at BankPlus Amphitheatre at Snowden Grove, Friday, June 28th, 7:30 p.m.


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Film Features Film/TV

I Saw The Light

The Hank Williams biopic I Saw the Light looks and feels like a movie that was scrapped halfway through shooting but cobbled together anyway, awkwardly, with many key and climactic moments left out. To patch all the disparate bits together, director Marc Abraham inserts aged, black-and-white footage of Bradley Whitford as the enormous and all-knowing head of music publisher Fred Rose, who appears on screen anytime somebody needs to explain what the hell’s going on or why anybody might care.

Instead of creating a sense of authenticity, indiscriminate use of documentary-style interviews makes the whole enterprise seem that much more insincere. One wonders if Whitford will eventually lead the cast in a rousing chorus of the “Time Warp.”

Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams in I Saw the Light

The Hank Williams story is one part Amadeus and two parts Sid and Nancy. Here was a young, uncontrollable brat with a touch of genius whose genre-defying songs threatened a carefully maintained hierarchy in country and pop that ruffled more feathers from Nashville to New York than all the troubled hillbilly’s missed tour dates combined. There’s the obsessive, endlessly destructive marriage to his wife Audrey (Elizabeth Olsen), who was determined to become a celebrity in her own right. All of that potential drama is left on the table in favor of softer, more sympathetic characterizations, and a complete rejection of the idea that, in order for the light to matter, things need to get pretty damn dark.

I Saw the Light chooses to turn Hank Williams’ life story into an old fashioned disease-of-the-week movie, with loving shots of Cherry Jones as Hank’s ma giving Scarlet Witch some stinky side-eye.

The saddest part of all this is that Tom Hiddleston’s acting chops are considerable. Loki may be a little stiff when he’s singing and swinging, but he’s an impressive shape-shifter and a fair vocal mimic.

For all of its landscape shots, I Saw the Light has no sense of place, and even less sense of purpose. Alabama could be Shreveport, could be Nashville, it’s all the same. But what’s most fascinating about the way I Saw the Light fails, is the way it decisively treats Williams’ music — from process to performance — as a tertiary concern. Musicians like Ray Price (Von Lewis) and Faron Young (Fred Parker Jr.) are introduced to the story line but never explained, and, aside from a handful of Hiddleston performances, no attention is paid to the changing sounds of postwar country music, the people who listened to it, or the people who profited from it. The guy had some hits, but what about all of the terrible back pain he suffered? And the drinking problem! Those ill-defined mommy/wifey issues? Without the music, no amount of talking head inserts can explain why we should care.

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Music Music Features

Dickinson To Be Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

CREDIT: popculturepress.com

Tonight at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Jim Dickinson will be honored with a lifetime achievement award by the American Music Association for his work as a music producer.

“It actually means a lot to me to get any recognition outside of Memphis,” he told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger

Dickinson has had a long career as both a musician and producer. He recorded on the Sun label and played piano on the Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses. As a producer, he’s worked with Ry Cooder, The Replacements, and others.

To read the rest of the story, go here.