April 14th, 2010
Looking for a new East Bay location.
McGrath’s in Alameda, the leading supporter of live Bay Area roots music, is losing its lease in May 2011 and ending ten years at it’s current location. Owner Peter Barnato plans to relocate his labor of love elsewhere in the East Bay. This could work out for the better since the current location is in a residential neighborhood and the club has always had to walk a tight line with live music… The Bay Area has lost an oxymoron as the Sacred Profanities are taking advantage of their recent reorganization and changing their name to Calafia. Sure it’s going from clever to bland but bland trumps clever when it comes to obtaining bookings. ‘Tis a pity there are so few who could, or would, get the joke… The B Stars‘ “Behind the Barn with The B Stars,” is their first fill length CD and the release party is yet to be scheduled but find them April 15th at the Hotel Utah. This will be a steel-lovin’ night with headliners Petunia and the Vipers out of Canada featuring members of the late Ray Condo’s band, and the Hotst Totsy Hillbilly Jazzbos which is closer to 1920’s popular song than to jazz… Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: calafia, mcgraths, sacramento, sacred profanities, san jose
Posted in Quick takes | 1 Comment »
April 7th, 2010
If Internet censorship is good enough for China it’s good enough for the USA as recent rulings on copyright law have demonstrated to peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing sites like Limewire and BitTorrent portals like IsoHunt.
At issue is the concept of secondary liability for enabling copyright infringement. Sites like IsoHunt do not store files, copyrighted or otherwise, but they do provide connectivity between strangers who share copyrighted movies, music, software applications as well as non-copyrighted information.
The Mot
ion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which is the guardian of copyrights for the movie industry, and IsoHunt are at the center of the fray. The party of the first part has sued the party of the second part for being enablers of a world-wide file sharing party among parties of the third part. The MPAA won but exactly what they won isn’t very clear because our court system needs to split hairs into tinier parts. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: bit torrent, censorship, copyright, internet, mpaa, riaa
Posted in Trends | 1 Comment »
March 19th, 2010
In Songs from the Stoop, the debut CD from The Brothers Comatose, the band has captured much of the joie de vivre of their live shows on a studio recording. This is a band that doesn’t fit into a handy category like bluegrass, country or rockabilly but it is definitely Americana. Footstompabilly perhaps?
It’s a contradiction to be sure, but even the downer songs like musing about hard times in “Church Street Blues” or their cover of the Rolling Stones’ Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: borthers comatose, CD Review
Posted in CD Review | No Comments »
March 1st, 2010
Hicks with Sticks finally caught up with the Whisky Richards and Lady A and her Heel Draggers.
We first heard the Richards — who spell it “whisky” or “whiskey” depending on their mood — back in their 2008 start-up days when it was a challenge just to get through some songs. We waited as they tried different material and players until they found more traction in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: charlie roman, lady a, richards, sick wolf, whiskey, whisky
Posted in Bands | No Comments »
February 20th, 2010
Freight Train Boogie is the name of the radio show and website of Americana fan Bill Frater who with Doug Jayne has released Freight Train Boogie 2, a compilation of 19 “best of” songs.
This CD had to have been assembled by DJs. It rolls like a big train over tracks that vary in tempo and style yet hang together as a compilation because it’s programmed like a radio show rather than just a bunch of tracks.
Dave Alvin, formerly of The Blasters; local bluegrass gal Laurie Lewis; former Marin songstress (now in Nashville) Audrey Auld; Texas songwriter Wayne “The Train” Hancock; and former Wayback now on his own Stevie Coyle are among the contributors. FTB2 is noteworthy for bringing us talent that we might have missed like Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: CD Review, freight train boogie
Posted in CD Review | No Comments »
