Being a grassroots touring band means long slogs on the highways of America. With that comes limited eating options—usually an endless cycle of fast food outposts at interstate junctions. Despite a rigorous road schedule, Philadelphia-based edgy acoustic outfit Hoots and Hellmouth have decided they can do better.

For the past five years the unorthodox string trio has been delivering their foot-stomping folk-soul revivals to crowds across the country. Along the way, they’ve never been shy about their stance on the need for agrarian reform and a return to local, community-based food exchange. In line with their ideals, the band resists the convenience of Waffle House and vigilantly patronizes local farms, co-ops, and restaurants at each tour stop. The group also hosts a blog on their website called “Notes from an Urban Homestead” that discusses how to cultivate crops among the city gridlock.

“Our corporate culture has turned food into just a product, as opposed to an exchange between humans and the earth,” says lead singer Sean Hoots. “As a touring band we realize the juxtaposition of us preaching community and localism while we’re in a van driving across the country. We try to connect with each community that we visit, so we can put our hearts into action. Playing music for a living doesn’t have to be at odds with our values.”

Lyrically, the group avoids being overtly heavy-handed. On the band’s latest album, The Holy Open Secret, there are distinct jabs at our current infrastructure in songs like “Roots of the Industry,” but the message largely stays redemptive and optimistic in offerings like “You and All of Us” and “Known for Possession.”

“We don’t want to be a political issue band on a soapbox,” says Hoots. “We’re musicians first, but we realize the absolute necessity of community and sustainability. We want to make it more of a discussion about solutions and live the example.”

Moving forward, the band is also taking a progressive approach to recording. With the seismic shift of the digital age leaving CD sales in shambles, Hoots and Hellmouth have decided to record slowly and let fans watch the progress. The band regularly posts new songs in the “Window in the Woodshed” section of their website with video and explanation of the process.

This fall the band will take a break from clubs and bars and reprise last year’s Harvest Tour, which found them playing on farms during harvest season from late September to early October. Last year’s run stopped at the Sunnyside Farms and Orchard in Washington, Va., where the band shared food with small-town locals and then picked tunes all night in the barn. Dates are still being set for this fall’s jaunt, but Hoots says Southern stops are likely.

“We’ll play shows and have a potluck with locals,” he says. “It’s a way to celebrate community and encourage others to do the same.”

FOOD FIGHT: Listen to Hoots and Hellmouth turn plowshares into swords HERE.

WORLD BEAT DOWN
Panorama Jazz Band  Come Out Swinging
The Panorama Jazz Band plays music from all around the globe, and every note and nuance is designed to make you shake your ass. Panorama features the classic New Orleans jazz ensemble instrumentation—a front line of clarinet, trombone, and saxophone with a rhythm section comprised of tuba drum set and banjo—and their new release Come Out Swinging features everything from American swing to klezmer to Bulgarian mazurkas. Think the Asylum Street Spankers without the irony but with a well-worn passport.
panoramajazzband.com

ELEVATOR FUNK
Dumpstaphunk  Listen Hear
You are probably aware of New Orleans’ place in the funk tradition (see The Meters, Allen Toussaint), but the gnarliest stuff coming out of this town these days is from Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk. Their CD Listen Hear is full-impact funk. And they are road dogs, so you can go get hit in the head in person. Like Sly Stone and Fishbone had a baby and lit it on fire.
dumpstaphunk.com

FRANCOPHONIC
Wazozo  Newton Circus
Belgian-born Helen Gillet’s Wazozo plays French chansons and musettes that are, simply put, charming. Gillet sings in French while accompanying herself on cello with help from Daron Douglas on violin, Luke Brectelsbauer on harp, and Gregory Hood on guitar. On their debut, Newton Circus, much of the material is taken from such artists as Edith Piaf and Georges Brassens, but the beauty and wit are entirely original.
myspace.com/wazozo

SLUDGE RAWK
Narcissy  Narcissy
Narcissy is the greatest band in the known universe and I’ll tell you why: 1. They have the coolest band name; 2. Front man Jay Holland will play the guitar in his pants; 3. They have songs with such titles as “Stairway To Hell” and “I Hate The South” (full disclosure: Holland is from Pensacola, Florida). In short, super sludgy rawk.
narcissy.com

CLASSICAL GRIT
The Naked Orchestra  From Pandemonium To A View Of Eidolons
There are 23 musicians and one conductor on the new Naked Orchestra CD and each one is indispensable. The brainchild of guitarist-composer Jonathan Freilich, the group was formed a decade ago “to see what it would sound like.” For kicks, Freilich writes operas. Most of New Orleans’ greatest creative musicians are heard here interpreting Mr. Freilich’s compositions, along with offerings by the ensemble’s conductor Dr. Jimbo Walsh and Richard Theodore a.k.a. Harry Lenz. How to describe? Mingus at a barn burning. Almost crime-jazzy. Not for the faint of heart. The recording was made just a few days before Hurricane Katrina and was only mixed and released recently. From a seemingly simpler time, but you wouldn’t know it. Don’t be afraid. It’s fun to drive to.
jonathanfreilich.com

Alex McMurray is a New Orleans guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His latest CD is How To Be A Cannonball.

For fans of:
Whiskeytown, The Everybodyfields, Barton Carroll

This Just In:
The Fake That Sunk a Thousand Ships, a collection of 10 new tunes that were mostly penned during Quinn’s recent, self-described “difficult year,” was released by Ramseur Records in May.  Throughout the new record, Quinn sings of the most universal emotion—sadness—with his trademark voice, one that is equal parts whisper, wail, and moan, and, on any other artist, would most certainly sound contrived. But, because Quinn delves into the pain most often hidden deep within the murkiest creases of the human soul, his voice works perfectly.

In His Own Words:
“When I am writing, if it doesn’t move me or affect me on a personal level when I get down to the meat of the situation, I usually abandon it. It’s like going down the wrong way in a maze. A lot of the time, it is an exorcising of demons. There’s a total catharsis that goes on there. And I can be really rolled by it and not know exactly where it came from.”

Outside Looking In:
“There are few songwriters that write with such honesty as Sam Quinn, and there are even fewer who perform with such emotion,” says Justin Fedor of The New Familiars.  “With a wonderful cast of players backing him up, Sam Quinn & The Japan Ten is quickly becoming my new favorite band.”

Native Virginian and first-time director Scott Cooper was the catalyst behind the film Crazy Heart, adapted from the book by Thomas Cobb. Cooper, raised in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, wrote, produced, and directed the tale of Bad Blake, a washed up country singer whose life is a spiral of bad gigs and booze. Shot in just 24 days, the film took home two Academy Awards: Best Actor, for Jeff Bridges’ portrayal of Bad Blake; and Best Song for Ryan Bingham’s “The Weary Kind,” the film’s theme song. BRO talked with Cooper just before the Oscars.

Scott Cooper (left) directed Jeff Bridges to an Academy Award-winning performance in Crazy Heart.

Why did Thomas Cobb’s book inspire you to make it into a film?
I’ve long wanted to tell Merle Haggard’s life story. When I turned to this unknown book, I discovered this amalgam of characters—Waylon, Haggard, Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver, Townes Van Zandt. I felt I could take pieces of those five lives and use them in conjunction with what Cobb laid out in his gloriously rich novel to create a character that was personal to me and interesting to viewers. His book was rich in source material and it was clear that he understood this world completely. He found the soul of who Bad Blake was and I was able to use that to tell the story of my radio heroes.

The book is experiencing a rebirth, too.
Because of the movie, it’s back in print and people are turning to it. I don’t think he sold many copies, as it is a pretty obscure novel, but it’s a beautiful book. Cobb understood what it took to be a real singer-songwriter, that you had to live these experiences in order to write poetically.

First day, first shoot—what’s going through your head as you call for action?
Next to getting married and having my two girls, it was probably the most important moment in my life. Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous, as I was overly prepared for the first day of shooting, but any time you call “Action!” and Jeff Bridges or Robert Duvall is in front of the camera, nerves creep in. But I was confident I could tell this story. I grew up in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, so I understood these people and this world. And once I saw Jeff, my nerves went away, because there was Bad Blake.

Was there a moment during the shoot when you realized you were on to something special?
Immediately. I knew as an actor, watching what Jeff was doing, that it was revelatory. It was some of the best work I have ever seen from an actor.

Could any other actor have become Bad Blake like Jeff did?
He was the guy, the perfect confluence of an actor and a role. That happens every so often—Duvall in The Apostle, Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, Marlon Brando in The Godfather, and Jeff in this film.

Jeff Bridges has been acting for over 30 years. What would it mean to you if the role of Bad Blake won him his first Academy Award?
It could be the most gratifying thing I ever do, given that he’s an actor that has done over sixty films and should have won four or five Oscars by now. To see an actor of his caliber married to a role that I wrote, directed, and produced, that could very well be the pinnacle of any director’s career, and especially mine, being a first-timer.

Does T-Bone Burnett have a supernatural sense about making soundtracks?
He’s a musicologist. He knows a lot about jazz, classical, blues, bluegrass, and country music. I knew very much what I wanted, but T-Bone pushed us in different directions, making us stretch. He’s a conjurer, always pulling great talent from a lot of people. And T-Bone is a musical genius. He understands music in a way few people I have met understand music.

“The Weary Kind,” the theme song by Ryan Bingham, is amazingly important to the film.
It’s a gorgeous song and the narrative of the film. It’s about a man who’s gone through the experiences Bad Blake has and is about his rebirth. The themes of loss, regret, hope, and redemption—all of which course through the movie—course through the song. T-Bone and Ryan were able to create a cinematic masterpiece.

Your roots are in the Appalachian Mountains, the cradle of the music in Crazy Heart. What did you listen to growing up?
My father took me to bluegrass festivals and I cut my teeth listening to Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs, and The Seldom Scene. Then I dug into my dad’s LP collection and heard Townes, Shaver, Haggard, and Cash. I’m still listening to those guys, but I also love jazz and bands like Radiohead, Wilco, and Ron Sexsmith, a great Canadian songwriter.

What’s next?
I find myself in a position I have never found myself—entertaining a dizzying number of offers. I am looking strongly at material and a core group of actors I want to work with, but I haven’t zeroed in on anything yet.

Jeff Wood
Drowning Creek Studios • Athens, Ga.
Jeff Wood’s musical tastes know no boundaries. He grew up in the 70s in Athens, Ga., loving the Allman Brothers Band but also surrounded by his hometown’s rise of R.E.M. and the B-52s and Atlanta’s new wave punk explosion. After art school, he did corporate design work for Disney, NASCAR, and Harley Davidson, but all along his passion was bootlegging rock t-shirts and posters. In 2000 he scaled back the lucrative gigs and outfitted an old slaughterhouse on family land just north of Athens with a screen printing press. He did a few posters for Widespread Panic and soon his work was sought by the rest of the jam band scene. He has since become one of the most popular rock poster artists working today with high-profile prints for hundreds of bands including Phish, Gov’t Mule, and Michael Franti. A chance encounter with Allman’s road manager Kirk West also turned into an extensive series for his favorite band. In the last few years he’s scaled his output back to just a few bands so he can focus on painting, and he just helped open Anchor Gallery, Athens’ first rock and visionary art gallery.

“My role in the rock art world is to document moments in time for people,” says Wood. “It’s a sacred trust to document memories.”

Wes Freed
Richmond, Va.
If you own a Drive-By Truckers album, you know the redneck folk art of Wes Freed. For nearly 10 years, the work of the Virginia-based Freed has been the exclusive visual companion to the Truckers’ erudite observations on rural Southern life. Freed originally developed his style out of his own newspaper comic series, Willard’s Garage, which depicted fictional characters based on local folks he observed in the rural small towns of the Shenandoah Valley where he grew up. Freed met the Truckers when he was playing in rock bands around Richmond, where he now lives and once hosted a series of popular alt-country shows called the Capital City Barn Dance.

“Growing up I spent a lot of time sitting on the bed of my grandpa’s old pickup truck, listening to him tell me stories about the area,” says Freed. “The comic and the early roots of my art came from those stories.”

Now Freed stays busy depicting the seedy characters and sordid tales from Dixie’s underbelly that are vividly illustrated in the Truckers’ music. In addition to doing the band’s CD covers, posters, and other merchandise, Freed does a brisk business with original painting commissions and tattoo designs.

Justin Helton
Status Serigraph Knoxville, Tenn.
An increasingly popular young upstart in the gig poster world, Helton is a music industry graphic designer by day. In the past few years his poster work—released under the studio name Status Serigraph—has been commissioned by a diverse range of artists including Phish, Ween, and Shakira. He has also been doing an ongoing series for the Avett Brothers. Helton’s accessible style incorporates computer-based graphic design and hand-drawn details, as well as photographic and typographic elements.

“I like to listen to the band and decide how to design for them,” Helton says. “I try to get a sense of what kind of feeling their music puts forth and let creativity take over from there.”

Hatch Show Print
Nashville, Tenn.
In downtown Nashville, Hatch Show Prints has been cranking out letterpress flyers since 1879. Using the same vintage equipment that they used in the early days, the company creates slices of Southern Americana in modern music with their distinct block lettering and simple silhouette images. Hatch—now owned by Country Music Hall of Fame—still handles most of the prints for Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium, as well as a variety of other venues across the country.

For years, major cycling events such as the Tour de France have evoked the image of the lone rider struggling up sheer alpine pitches, straining their physical limits. Cycling greats such as Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Lance Armstrong, while very complete all-around riders, became legends in the sport in large part from their climbing exploits. The mountains add an almost mythic quality to races as the riders are seen overcoming obstacles that extend beyond the actual asphalt, rock and dirt upon which they climb. Even average cyclists feel the allure of attempting difficult climbs and achieve tremendous satisfaction from a successful summit. It sounds pretty simple. Find a mountain with a paved road to the top and then pedal up it. However, hill climbing is not easy, as certain climbs involve ascents of thousands of vertical feet. Elite riders can race to the top but success for most involves just getting there.

History of Climbing (by bike)

No one may know when the first significant hill was climbed on a bicycle but the first documentation of major ascents occurred in stage races which originated in Europe, the oldest being the Tour de France. It is interesting to note that the first two Tours (first held in 1903) did not include any mountain passes. Bikes were heavy, single speed (and brake) behemoths while many roads were unpaved. Some felt that the riders of the day could not complete big climbs and that adding them to the race route would ruin the Tour. It was not until 1905 that significant climbs were added, the very first being the Ballon d’Alsace in the Vosges Mountains. In 1910 the first major, high altitude passes were added (four major climbs in the Pyrenees Mountains including the now famous Tourmalet) which resulted in a great deal of criticism directed at race organizers that the routes were too difficult. As is often the case human potential was underestimated as many riders of that era conquered the climbs in dramatic fashion. In contrast, 1910 was also the year that the broom wagon was introduced to sweep riders up who could not finish the stage. In 1911 the first major climb in the Alps was added (Col de Galibier) with spectacular results. Instead of being a detriment, the uphill duels captured the public imagination and added to the popularity of the event. The race route every year thereafter has contained many significant climbs. Other major tours that followed also began to include hills along their routes. In 1933 the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia (Italy’s national tour) began recognizing the best climbers in the field (Spain’s Vicente Trueba was the first winner in the Tour along with Alfredo Binda in the Giro). Most of the major stage races now recognize this accomplishment as the cyclists earn points based upon their finish in a climb and its difficulty. The cyclist with the most accumulated points is awarded the Polka Dot Jersey as the winner of the king of the mountains competition.

The performances of great early climbers such as Alfredo Binda, Fausto Coppi and Charley Gaul continued to increase the popularity of the major tours. These events made climbs such as the Tourmalet and L’Alpe d’Huez in France and Stelvio in Italy as well known to cycling fans as the Daytona Speedway or Yankee Stadium are to U.S. racing and baseball fans respectively. The mountains allowed bike races to become truly great as the event rose beyond the personal concerns of the cyclists to reflect life as a whole. Today hill climbing is more popular than ever and within multi-stage races those with hilltop finishes are usually the most anticipated and best attended stages of the race. Racing fans know that hills offer the best opportunity to view the drama within the peloton as it struggles through the most difficult and important element in any race. Climbing adds the mythic quality of overcoming obstacles that continues to be associated with the major cycling tours and which has produced many memorable moments. Ascending difficult hills is about struggle and perseverance and it is these aspects that have made conquering the mountains the heart and soul of cycling.

Blue Ridge Climbing

The Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains in the Southeast United States are among the most beautiful in the World. Throw in the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee and you have a large proportion of the landscape in this region that is tilted upward. Its beauty well known, to a cyclist the topography is even more interesting as any location with multiple mountains is bound to have multiple ascents of interest. Road bike cycling and hill climbing in particular are enjoying a surge in popularity in the U.S. but despite the growing popularity there is little published information on the location of area road bike hill climbs and very little accurate data on the length, elevation gain and other statistics of these climbs. Many roads are hilly but it is individual climbs that are of true interest to many cyclists. From short and steep hills to long, mountain ridge grinds the Southeast has climbs to engage and challenge any cyclist. However, many who ride are after the biggest challenges. To that end, below are descriptions, locations and statistics for what may be the five most difficult road bike climbs in the Southeast United States. All of these climbs are category 1 (cat 1) climbs, which is the 2nd most difficult hill climb classification.

Take a look at Trent Wagler’s tour schedule and you can see that the talented Virginia-based singer-songwriter is going to be spending a lot of time in the van. In this energy-conscious age, that translates to a lot of carbon emissions. Inspired to lessen his footprint, Wagler and band mate in the Steel Wheels Jay Lapp recently spent six days biking 285 miles through Virginia, playing concerts along the way. The trip took them through Harrisonburg, Staunton, Roanoke, Lexington, Lynchburg, and Wintergreen, and was filled with long climbs, well-deserved downhills, and a bit of trail magic.

Trent Wagler and Jay Lapp biked backroads to concerts all across Virginia.

What was the inspiration behind the trip?
We wanted to get serious about having a greener touring model. We started looking at a biodiesel vehicle, but put that on the back burner due to lack of funds. I soon found out other bands were touring on bicycles and decided that there was no reason why we couldn’t do the same thing. We talked about doing it as a full band, but we have an upright bassist.

Are you a regular rider?
Oh yeah, and even more so now. Over the years, I have done a couple other bike tours. I would never call myself a serious cyclist, but I have always biked for pragmatic purposes. And that’s exactly what this was. We were touring, and that’s our work, so this was how we could make our commute to work a little greener. And we were also hoping that it would inspire folks who were coming to our shows to think a bit more about how they are getting around and the energy they are using.

When was your first “What-have-I-gotten-myself-into” moment?
On day two we had given ourselves two days to get to Roanoke from Staunton. We set out hoping to cover 60 miles, so we would have an easy ride into town the next day, but we had this horrible headwind hitting us from the south. By the end of the day, we had only done about 45 miles. We were just being beaten down by the wind and these long, subtle hills were killing us. The wind was an invisible monster. Our morale was way down, because we still had a bunch of days left and we hadn’t climbed any real mountains yet. That was the real low point.

Definitely sounds like a rough day.
It was, but on the flip side, we had one of our best moments of the trip that day. It was around 6:30 and we were getting near Natural Bridge, doing all of about four miles an hour up this long hill. I was riding up front, and I looked back and saw this pick-up truck, also doing about four miles an hour, riding right next to Jay. All I could wonder was what kind of earful Jay was getting from the guy in this truck. It turns out he told us we had a place to stay for the night. The guy was an arborist who lived in Natural Bridge and had seen us getting on the road in Lexington. He told himself he would offer us a place to stay if he saw us riding down Route 11, so we ended up at his house, enjoying a great meal and good company.

What was the toughest stretch of road?
We had some tough road on both of the last two days. We did a lot of seemingly endless climbing between Lynchburg and Wintergreen on our next to last day. But what was great about that day was the last mile and a half or so. There was this amazing downhill and we coasted right into the driveway of Devil’s Backbone Brewery, where we were playing that night. We hit 43 miles per hour on the way down. That’s pretty fast when you are pulling a bunch of instruments and gear.

What did you take away from this experience?
Whenever I do a bike tour, it slows me down and makes me appreciate the areas I am traveling through. Playing music, I travel a lot, and when I am driving I am often focusing on the pavement. I don’t see the beauty around me. I also really appreciated being at the shows at the end of the day. We felt every uphill and earned every downhill. There’s also this sense of vulnerability when you are on a trip like this, whether it means watching out for cars or opening yourself up to meeting new people. As I find myself getting older, I find it easier to close myself off in my own little world. An adventure like this inspires me to find those unexpected nuggets of excitement and connection with people around me.

Barnes and Matthews became friends when Keen was opening amphitheatres for the Dave Matthews Band. Soon Barnes was sitting in with DMB on a nightly basis, and he made an appearance on the group’s latest album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.

When it came time for Barnes to record his new solo album, Pizza Box, Matthews gave him the keys to his Haunted Hollow Studios—a rural escape on the outskirts of Charlottesville, Va. He also hooked him up with producer John Aliaga, whose resume includes work with DMB, John Mayer, and Jason Mraz. Matthews also released the disc on his own ATO Records and sang backup on four songs.

“Being an underground artist, many fans of my music are musicians,” Barnes says when asked about his fortunate friendship with Matthews. “I’ve been lucky that some of them are in huge bands. It feels good when people you look up to think you’re doing something special.”

Barnes wrote the 11 songs on Pizza Box over a three-year period. On the album he largely downplays his instrumental prowess; instead he uses his banjo as a storyteller’s tool in the heartfelt vein of the late John Hartford. With a lingering drawl, Barnes sings quirky and concise yet very visual vignettes that surface life’s mundane mysteries and random shady characters.

“The music is smart and soulful, and the lyrics are profound,” says Matthews. “It is heaven and earth. It is Americana, from the back porch to the pulpit, shattered dreams on angels’ wings.”

With the help of Aliaga, Barnes was able to deliver what he calls “fractured pop songs.” The album mixes earthy folk-rock twang with plenty of polished studio touches.

“I’ve never worked with someone so versed in pop,” Barnes says of Aliaga. “It helped the record become more about visions and ideas, as opposed to hot licks. Typically I’ve always worked with producers who are into country or bluegrass.”

During Barnes’ solo live shows he augments his banjo with a laptop to create an original sound he’s dubbed “Folktronics.” He developed the style with another high-profile friend, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. During a visit to Jones’ house in London, Barnes got an idea to run his banjo through a tone generator to manipulate its sound. It’s resulted in a dynamic one-man-band act that mixes Barnes’ tight picking with an unlimited range of digital sonic flourishes.

“The aesthetic of a banjo and a laptop together blows my mind,” he says. “I can take the banjo out of its original context and make orchestral sounds or anything else that seems cool. I can morph things depending on the vibe of the audience. More creativity comes out of me that way—I’m able to take a left turn during the show whenever I want. I can freak out with no restrictions.”

ESSENTIAL BARNES ALBUMS
In addition to his seven solo albums, Danny Barnes has been featured on over 50 albums with former bands and high-profile friends. Here’s a look at some of his best.

Bad Livers: Hogs on the Highway
In Bad Livers, Barnes was mixing old-time and punk long before the current widespread movement. Hogs on the Highway is the band’s 1997 debut record for the venerable acoustic label Sugar Hill Records.

Danny Barnes: Dirt on the Angel
This essential 2003 solo effort features help from jazz guitar great Bill Frisell, former Rolling Stones’ keyboardist Chuck Levell, and fiddle master Darol Anger.

Bill Frisell: The Willies
Barnes helped Frisell explore his rootsy side as a key player on this 2002 effort for Nonesuch Records.

Danny Barnes: Barnyard Electronics
This 2007 disc is a great taste of Barnes’ inventive “Folktronics” concoction of digitally enhanced banjo.

Danny Barnes: Pizza Box
Barnes’ new BFF Dave Matthews guests on this superb new eclectic Americana effort recorded in Charlottesville.

For fans of:
Todd Snider, Tommy Womack, Malcolm Holcombe

This Just In:
Lynn’s second solo release, Who Said The World’s Fair?, highlights the wit and wisdom of this budding young songwriter. Produced by Grammy Award winner and Nashville studio ace Phil Harris, the record includes guest appearances by Tim O’Brien, Julie Lee, Mike Bub, and Tyler Grant, and gracefully blends Lynn’s old country, mountain blues, and bluegrass influences.

Outside Looking in:
“Each song on Who Said The World’s Fair? rests in its own timeless state of suspended animation. Stuck in time, or out of time, or from some other time, I guess you could call it Americana, but to me it’s just distinctly American music. Nathan really found his voice on this project and crafted his most mature record to date.”
Phil Harris, Producer, on Nathan Blake Lynn

In His Own Words:
“My blood runs Kentucky blue. Or maybe it’s Ohio River brown. I don’t know. But I have never loved any place as much as I love Western Kentucky. My family has been there for over a hundred years. I grew up on the street where my grandmother was born. I’ve always believed you can do anything from your hometown—you can go anywhere, travel the world, but you always get to come back home.”
Nathan Blake Lynn, on home

Since the venue has a special place in the hearts of so many musicians, benefit shows to save the venue have been swift and steady. Zac Brown—who cut his teeth with many wild nights at the theatre on his way to becoming one of rebel country’s new stars with a hit single (“Chicken Fried”)—played a huge show at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre in the fall with help from Little Big Town, Oliver Wood, and Shawn Mullins. More shows will be organized throughout the year to help offset the $3 million needed to complete the venue.

Theatre owner Wilmot Greene has vowed to restore the theatre with the same art deco style that provided the rustic character musicians and fans loved about the venue. After the City of Athens approved plans to rebuild, The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation stepped in to collect tax-deductible donations for the hefty project. With high-profile help on his side, Greene has slated this New Year’s Eve as a tentative date for re-opening. Fortunately it appears one of the South’s greatest music rooms will be reborn and live on for years to come. As Daniel Hutchens—front man for the Athens’ band Bloodkin—said, without the Georgia Theatre “the Classic City will suddenly seem a lot less classic.”

The Black Crowes
Before the Frost
The Black Crowes have finally made a great album again. It was recorded live in front of an intimate audience at Levon Helm’s barn, and the crowd definitely gave the band just the right energy. In addition to the expected amount of crunchy Dixie boogie, the Robinson brothers also expand their roots rock pallete, delivering a pedal-steel driven roadhouse ballad (“Appaloosa”), some pulsing disco stoner groove (“I Ain’t Hiding”), and even an introspective, acoustic CSNY throwback (“What is Time”). And new lead guitarist Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars) is probably the Crowes’ best personnel move ever.

Hill Country Revue
Make a Move
Luther Dickinson’s band mates in the Allstars—brother Cody Dickinson and bassist Chris Chew—have formed a new crew. Hill Country Revue picks up the youth-charged revival of the Mississippi Delta blues. Their debut Make a Move is the rowdy confluence of the juke joint and the rock club—a fist-pumping good time with gritty gut bucket guitar licks and smoky vocal howls. As Cody aptly describes it, “We play the blues of the Mississippi hill country as though it’s been dosed with Viagra.”

Bryan Sutton
Almost Live
A pickin’ party with Bryan Sutton is an all-star affair: you have to be the best to play, and you’d better bring your A-game. Joining Sutton on Almost Live are bluegrass heavyweights with whom he has long shared the stage, friends like Tim O’Brien, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, and Chris Thile, and their collective pickin’ is tight. Each note on this record rings with clarity and precision, the byproduct of Sutton being—and playing with—the very best in the bluegrass game.

Daddy
For a Second Time
This collaboration between Nashville songwriting sages Tommy Womack and Will Kimbrough represents all that is good about Music City. Womack and Kimbrough, with their incendiary wit, jolting humor, and stark honesty, are the dusty brick and concrete too often overshadowed by the glitzy high rises of the pop-addled Nashville music barons. Womack is at his rambling best on “I Went to Heaven In a Dream Last Night,” and Kimbrough’s “Redemption is The Mother’s Only Son” is pure eloquence.

The Black Lillies
Whiskey Angel
The debut record from The Black Lillies marks the return of Cruz Contreras to the Southeastern music scene. Contreras, founder of Robinella & The CC String Band, has teamed up with guitarist/vocalist Leah Gardner, pedal steel player Tom Pryor, drummer Jamie Cook, and bassist Jeff Woods, to spin bluesy, Appalachia-tinged country yarns. Though together for just a year, The Black Lillies are quickly garnering a solid fan base with their cross-genre approach to Americana music.

Patterson Hood
Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)
The ominous opening chords of the title track—a tale of gun shots and salvation found at the altar of oneself—are classic Patterson Hood: foreboding and introspective. Yet he easily switches from the brooding tenor of “Heavy and Hanging” or the disenchantment of “She’s A Little Randy” and “Screwtopia” to the whimsy of “Granddaddy.” Hood shows that his life, like ours, is a tangle of delight and disappointment, clarity and confusion. A labor of love some 15 years in the making, Murdering Oscar was certainly worth the wait.

Sons of Bill
One Town Away
Fast-rising country-tinged rockers Sons of Bill recorded One Town Away with noted producer Jim Scott, who has previously worked with Tom Petty, Wilco, and Whiskeytown. Charlottesville’s next big thing  will almost assuredly attract even more new fans. The big-belt-buckle Nashville crowd will dig the band’s hook laden songwriting; the most discerning roots rock fan will latch on to the gritty honesty of the record’s 12 tracks; and coeds will be driven lusty-eyed during sing-along favorites like “Broken Bottles” or guaranteed crowd pleaser “Going Home.”  BRO

How does the new record showcase where you are as a band?
There is a lot of classic Drivin N Cryin here. We switch genres, going from heavy metal to folk tunes. Vocally, there are happy endings, along with some editorial, because our songs usually have a quasi-political feel. There aren’t a lot of songs about chicks and beers, you know? We just went into this one determined not to sound like any other band. We kept repeating, “Be us! Be us! Be us!” We put some songs together in our practice space and it was just like the old days. It was great.

As you tour behind the record, what can fans look forward to?
Our shows are never the same. They are stream of consciousness. They don’t start the same, end the same, or go in the same order. Sometimes they start off rock, sometimes they start off acoustic. The thing about playing with Tim, Mac, and Dave, is that we can play any song we ever recorded. We don’t just rehearse 30 songs for our tours. We can pull from over 150 songs, so our shows can turn on a dime. We can wing it and it’s really comfortable. It’s almost like we read each other’s minds.

How does your solo work influence what you do with Drivin N Cryin?
It hits me on many levels. It humbles me. I can play with Drivin N Cryin in some cities and play for 2,000 people. But if I go back solo, there might be 80 people there. It keeps my chops up. I can try out songs in different keys or extended versions of songs. It’s also great for songwriting—it forces me to practice. And a gig by yourself tests you. You find out what you can handle. I do a lot of acoustic shows and sometimes they are in really cool little singer-songwriter places, while other times they are in fish restaurants and people are talking the whole time.

If you could build the next Great American Bubble Factory, where would it be?
Well, Ohio, of course. That’s a swing state, right?

You can catch Drivin N Cryin during a two night run at The Pour House in Raleigh, NC (October 9th-10th) and at The 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia (October 16th).

Sons of Bill doesn’t redefine the world of alt-country with One Town Away, but the band is guaranteed to lure in new fans because of the record’s accessibility; there is simply too much good stuff on One Town Away for potential fans to ignore. The big belt buckle Nashville crowd will dig the band’s hook laden songwriting, the most discerning roots rock fan will latch on to the gritty honesty of the record’s twelve tracks, and – let’s just be honest here – coeds will be driven lusty eyed during sing-along favorites like “Broken Bottles” or guaranteed crowd pleaser “Going Home.”

Big things await the Bill Wilson’s boys. Upcoming tour dates include shows in New York City, New Orleans, and the Austin City Limits festival.  One Town Away establishes Sons of Bill as a band on the brink of grand success.

Sollee’s music is an eclectic blend of rootsy singer-songwriter folk with the classical undertones of his instrument and the R&B flavor of his unexpected Motown croon. In addition to releasing his own solo CD, Learning to Bend, he has collaborated with Bela Fleck in Abigail Washburn’s Sparrow Quartet and recently toured with the Vienna Teng Trio.

BRO: What initially motivated the bike trip to Bonnaroo?
BS: I’ve gotten into bad habits being in different bands of flying across the country to play one gig and then driving through the night to get to the next gig. It became an inhuman pace. It was good to just get on a bike and slow down. I had to play smaller venues, because you can’t travel as far to the next big city on a bike. It was a real change for me.

The two people I was traveling with were worried, because I really hadn’t ridden great distances before this tour. I was pulling 60 pounds on basically a glorified beach cruiser, an Xtracycle utility bike. I wanted to unite music, sport, and global aid by supporting Oxfam. It was a great triangle to coordinate. I plan to do this again with close regional touring.

How did this issue of mountaintop removal mining become important to you?
BS: When I first heard about mountaintop removal mining, I was immediately struck by how intuitively wrong it is. It made me look at where my resources come from and realize that I had to do something about it. My grandfather was a coal miner, so I have connections to the industry. It sustained my family for many years, but now it’s hurting so many people’s existence in Appalachia. Many in the region have survived off of coal for years, but that doesn’t mean we have to continue to survive off it. For some it’s hard to let go.

You recently made a CD to raise awareness about mountaintop removal.
BS: The music isn’t necessarily about mountaintop removal or coal mining. It’s much more about the overall culture of consumption. It was produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket. Daniel Martin Moore and I wrote the songs together. Daniel is an old-time crooner type and I’m an R&B folkie. Jim, of course, is an out-there rocker. If you can imagine those three things coming together, that’s exactly what it sounds like. There are some unusual, surreal sounds, but also a lot of it is very folkie. We tried to really interpret our Appalachian influences through the prism of our urban upbringing. We’re going to tour across the country in October.

What else have you been getting into musically?
BS: Earlier this year I finished a tour with the Sparrow Quartet. Now, I’m actually working with some DJs up in Detroit. On my next album I hope to have a lot more R&B and hip-hop influence on it. I’m into different things influencing each other without ever meaning to. Growing up in Kentucky, my grandfather was an Appalachian fiddler, and my dad was an R&B guitarist, while I was learning classical music on the cello. I want to bring all of these inclusions together in a genuine way.

For fans of: The Band, Prine, Guthrie, Dylan, The Avett Brothers

This Just In
The Corduroy Road has been on the road all summer following the June release of their full length debut, Love is a War. With Athens-based producer John Keane (Widespread Panic, REM, Uncle Tupelo) at the helm, the album offers fine testament to the strength Solise and Carman exude as a songwriting duo.

Outside Looking In
“When I first saw The Corduroy Road, I was blown away by their energetic stage presence and by the sheer quality of the songwriting. It’s rare that you have two great songwriters in a band who can write songs that so seamlessly form a cohesive sound. For me, it’s all about the melodies and lyrics, and these songs resonate with rich life experiences.”
—John Keane, Producer, on The Corduroy Road

On Stage
Catch The Corduroy Road live in Asheville, N.C., at Westville Pub on August 6; in Winston-Salem, N.C., at The Garage on August 8; and in Wilmington, N.C., at Hell’s Kitchen on August 13.

In Their Own Words
“Athens is a great town, especially when you are just starting out as a band, even though it’s tough to separate yourself from the crowd here. There are so many bands and so many places to play. It’s difficult. At the same time, because of that, you can get gigs. We got to play a lot around town. They might not have always been glamorous gigs. We did a lot of Monday nights at two in the morning with nobody there. But we were on stage. And it’s a town known for music. People understand what the Athens music scene is. Having what Athens represents as a town and a music scene behind us, and the credibility that brings, has definitely helped.”
—Dylan Solise, on the importance of calling Athens home

The Purple Fiddle
Thomas is a tiny town on the Blackwater River near West Virginia’s Monongahela recreation mecca, filled with epic mountain biking trails and enough backcountry to get lost for days. A town fixture is this quaint country store with homemade ice cream and a delicious deli that also likes to host a bold schedule of touring acts on the weekends. See homegrown bands like the New Familiars and Stephanie’s Id before they inevitably move into bigger venues.
purplefiddle.com.

Birchmere
This music hall in Alexandria, Va., is legend in Americana circles with two distinct rooms—a seated listening side and a dance-friendly bandstand—for soaking in tunes by Asleep at the Wheel (August 26) or Nanci Griffith (October 8-9).
birchmere.com.

Summit City Lounge
Progressive arts appreciators in coal country came together to open this new small town hangout in Whitesburg, Ky., just over the southwestern Virginia line. The relaxed space with great coffee has stepped up and booked an impressive roster of acts including former Drive-By Trucker Jason Isbell and the Hackensaw Boys.
summitcitylounge.com.

The Down Home
Accomplished musician, actor, and all-around arts Renaissance man Ed Snodderly owns this intimate listening room In Johnson City, Tenn. The warm cabin-style feel attracts some of the best players in roots music from established bards Darrell Scott and Tim O’Brien to younger upstarts like Scott Miller.
downhome.com.

The Crimson Moon
High in the mountains of North Georgia the eclectic town of Dahlonega holds this house built in the 1850s that has been transformed into a funky art gallery and café. National singer-songwriters and local bluegrass jams fill the Moon’s seven-night-a-week music calendar.
thecrimsonmoon.com.