Lights That Flash in the Evening: Jason Isbell @ 930 Club (1-14-2010)

My piece on Jason Isbell's set at the 930 Club on Friday went live today at the paper today. Check it out here.

Additional photos from the set can be found here.

Justin Townes Earle (with Jason Isbell!!) Plays "Harlem River Blues" on Letterman

Justin Townes Earle brought his country ode to NYC to Late Night with David Letterman last night. The track, "Harlem River Blues," is a wonderful example of why JTE has been characterized as "Nashville North," because it sounds like barreling down a country back road, as well as barreling down NYC's 2nd Avenue.

And look closely at the guitar player in the swanky fedora behind JTE...if you think that's the super cool Jason Isbell, you would be correct. (Isbell is playing the 930 Club on 1/14 with Justin Jones FYI...)

JTE is touring Europe this winter but will do a one-off show at the YMCA Boulton Center in Bay Shore, NY this Saturday (1/8). Ticket are still available here.

Who Dat? We Dat! A Big Fine Giveaway of CDs from Artists on the Preservation Hall Benefit Record

Day 2-Voodoo Experience Festival, New Orleans, LA (10-31-09)-2511, originally uploaded by BetweenLoveandLike.

The Preservation: An Album Benefitting Preservation Hall and the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program record came out in February and it was chock full of incredible contemporary musicians doing classic New Orleans songs with the great Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Tom Waits proclaimed "Tootie Ma" to be a big fine thing on it, but what's bigger, as well as finer?? Why free records of course! As a way to say thanks to some of the artists involved, as well as showcase their individual work, our friends at 'Stache Media gave us a package of the latest CDs from seven of those artists to give away. The artists/releases in the package are...

Cory Chisel and The Wandering Sons-Death Won’t Send a Letter
The Del Mccoury Band-Family Circle
Julie and Buddy Miller-Written in Chalk
Steve Earle–Townes
Andrew Bird–Noble Beast
My Morning Jacket–Evil Urges
Jason Isbell–Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit

To be eligible, post a comment below telling us the one thing you like the most about New Orleans, and we'll choose a winner at random. Contest ends Thursday, 4/15 at midnight, EST. (Sorry European friends, US mailing addresses only).

Give a Listen:
Nobody Knows You-Jason Isbell/Buy Preservation: A Benefit Album
'Taint Nobody's Business-Steve Earle/Buy Preservation: A Benefit Album

Preservation Hall Benefit Album Released Today

Day 2-Voodoo Experience Festival, New Orleans, LA (10-31-09)-2511, originally uploaded by BetweenLoveandLike.

New Orleans has been having one ginormous party with Mardi Gras this past week, made even crazier I hear with the Saints winning the Superbowl. Fat Tuesday is always the pinnacle of this throwdown.

I was slated to ride a float this past Saturday with the Krewe of Tucks but due to scheduling conflicts, I had to bow out (but next year baby, let me tell you what! I'll be there with bells on), so, admittedly, I was feeling a tad blue. But thankfully, those blues are no more since I discovered the release of Preservation: An album benefitting Preservation Hall and the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program" which came out today (which is absolutely appropriate as today is Fat Tuesday).

Over the last year, more than 20 American vocalists traveled to Preservation Hall in New Orleans to collaborate with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on classic New Orleans repertoire. With artists like Tom Waits, Jason Isbell, Steve Earle, and Corey Chisel this is an incredible collection of songs that will have you struggling to stay in your chair (unless your boss is ok with your dancing at work that is). Tom Waits' boozy-swing rendition of "Tootie Ma is a Big Fine Thing" is so good it's rumored to be the song for all the big Fat Tuesday parties this year (be sure to listen for Waits' scatting in the beginning!). And Jason Isbell paired with heavy piano so owns the cover of "Nobody Knows You," you'd think he lived and wrote the song itself.

"Our community is deeply rooted in a tradition of using music to rejoice, heal and overcome adversity. We play music at our funerals to uplift our spirits during our deepest and darkest emotional moments," says producer Ben Jaffe, PHJB Creative Director and son of Preservation Hall founders Allan and Sandra Jaffe. "My goal on this project was to create new works steeped in the New Orleans Tradition with artists from diverse musical genres and backgrounds who all share a mutual admiration and deep appreciation for our cultural heritage."

Indeed. New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz but what's fascinating is how that sound, that spirit, that inspiration carried forth and found its way elsewhere, into all sorts of musical styles beyond the borders of jazz and Louisiana. "Preservation Benefit" is a wonderful snapshot of the sound and feel of New Orleans music and New Orleans itself. And it serves as another reminder of the amazing and unique things that New Orleans gives back to the world, things that you'll find no place else.

All proceeds go to benefit the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program. Listening options include standard cd, deluxe cd, and vinyl. The deluxe cd includes six additional tracks.

-Purchase Record
-Give a Listen: Tootie Ma is a Big Fine Thing-PHJB and Tom Waits from Preservation: An album benefitting Preservation Hall and the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program
-Additional tracks streaming here

Preservation Track List
1. Shake It And Break It (with Andrew Bird)
2. Between The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea (with Paolo Nutini)
3. Tootie Ma Is A Big Fine Thing (with Tom Waits)
4. Louisiana Fairytale (with Yim Yames)
5. After You ve Gone (with Del McCoury)
6. Freight Train (with Ani DiFranco)
7. Blue Skies (with Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger)
8. Nobody Knows You (with Jason Isbell)
9. Old Rugged Cross (with Brandi Carlile)
10. Trouble In Mind (with Richie Havens)
11. Basin Street Blues (with Merle Haggard)
12. There Is A Light (with The Blind Boys of Alabama and Clint Maedgen)
13. Winin Boy (with Dr. John)
14. Rocking Chair (with Louis Armstrong)
15. Baby Won t You Please Come Home (with Amy LaVere)
16. Taint Nobody's Business (with Steve Earle)
17. Some Cold Rainy Day (with Cory Chisel)
18. I Ain't Got Nobody (with Buddy Miller)
19. La Vie En Rose (with Angelique Kidjo & Terence Blanchard)

Extra deluxe cd tracks
20. C est Si Bon (with Anita Briem)
21. Pencil Full of Lead (with Paolo Nutini)
22. St. James Infirmary (with Yim Yames)
23. Corinne Died On The Battlefield (with Tom Waits)
24. Careless Love (with Del McCoury)
25. Sailin Up Sailin Down (with Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger
26. We Shall Overcome (with Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger)

The "Best of the Decade" List Turns Difficult Thanks to Jason Isbell

(Photo by Jonathan Purvis)

As the end of the year/decade draws near, I've been pondering which items I want to include on my "Best of 2009" and "Best of the 2000s" lists. The Drive By Truckers will be on the decade list I'm sure, the question is which record to choose? I discovered them via a birthday present of A Blessing and A Curse a few years back but the true clincher was seeing lead singer Patterson Hood's passionate cover of Jim Carroll's "People Who Died" at the first Virgin Fest.

Normally, the choices (IMHO) for these best-of lists should be based on "How many times did I listen to it on repeat?," "Do I still get the same goosebumpily feel now that I got the first time I heard it?," and "Am I still listening to it now?" And while A Blessing ranks high up there with this criteria, it can't be chosen hands down, and why? Because Jason Isbell's "Goddamn Lonely Love" isn't on it (it was on a previous record Dirty South).

Song after song, I keep noticing that it is Isbell's songs I am most drawn to in the Truckers catalog (Mike Cooley runs a close second), but "Goddamn Lonely Love" just floors me. With a combination of Isbell's descriptive and uniquely-stated lyrics paired with his choirboy-clear voice, this one, like most of his songs, are incredibly passionate. Like that friend you turn to when something happens because he/she can always relate and just gets "it," Isbell's songs act like an incredibly strong emotional salve.

I got green and I got blues
and everyday there's a little less difference between the two.
So I belly-up and disappear.
Well I ain't really drowning 'cause I see the beach from here.

I could take a Greyhound home but when I got there it'd be gone
along with everything a home is made up of.
So I'll take two of what you're having and I'll take all of what you got
to kill this goddamn lonely, goddamn lonely love.

Sister, listen to what your daddy says.
Don't be ashamed of things that hide behind your dress.
Belly-up and arch your back.
Well I ain't really falling asleep; I'm fading to black.

You could come to me by plane, but that wouldn't be the same
as that old motel room in Texarkana was.
So I'll take two of what you're having and I'll take all of what you got
to kill this goddamn lonely, goddamn lonely love.

Stop me if you've heard this one before:
A man walks into a bar and leaves before his ashes hit the floor.
Stop me if I ever get that far.
The sun's a desperate star that burns like every single one before.

And I could find another dream,
one that keeps me warm and clean
but I ain't dreamin' anymore, I'm waking up.
So I'll take two of what you're having and I'll take everything you got
to kill this goddamn lonely, goddamn lonely love.

Give a Listen: Goddamn Lonely Love (live @ 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA, 1-20-06)-Drive By Truckers