Big Machine Reportedly Up for Sale; Initial MerleFest Lineup Announced; New Album Releases
- The Marshall Tucker Band, Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, The Gibson Brothers, North Mississippi Allstars, Del McCoury, Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis, and Hot Rize are among the acts slated to play MerleFest 2015.
- Robert Deaton, executive producer of the CMA Awards, promises that tomorrow’s show will include a “surprise guest in one of our performances from one of the biggest legends of country music of all time.” Any guesses?
- Alan Jackson and Craig Wiseman took home ASCAP Heritage Awards last night. Jackson was the “most-performed country music songwriter-artist of ASCAP’s first 100 years” and Wiseman the most-performed country songwriter.
- Scott Borchetta is reportedly looking to sell Big Machine for $200+ million.
- Gretchen Peters’ Blackbirds will be released on February 10. Jerry Douglas, Jason Isbell, and Suzy Bogguss are among the guests who’ll appear on the record. You can check out the tracklisting here; “When All You Got Is a Hammer” is a good one. (via my ears)
- Blackberry Smoke has signed with Rounder Records. The Southern rock band’s next album, Holding All the Roses, also comes out February 10.
- Bob Dylan is going to release a new album called Shadows of the Night in 2015.
- John Morthland of WonderingSound.com wrote a fine feature on Billy Joe Shaver.
- Listen to James McMurtry’s new song, “How’m I Gonna Find You Now” from forthcoming album Complicated Game.
- Taylor Swift removed all of her albums from Spotify. Spotify ain’t happy.
- Beats Music and Southwest have teamed up to offer free in-flight music streaming. Wonder if there’ll be any Patsy Cline or Buddy Holly in the library of playlists that will be available to passengers.
- Vince Gill will receive the BMI Icon Award this evening.
- More bluegrass drama: Craig Ferguson of Planet Bluegrass resigned from his position as Vice Chair of the IBMA Board of Directors and pulled his organization’s IBMA membership.
- Adam Hood’s new album, Welcome to the Big World, is streaming at Rolling Stone Country.
- Philly ABC affiliate WPVI aired a piece on C.F. Martin & Co., which is based in Nazareth, Penn. Watch here. Then take a road trip and tour the Martin museum and factory; it’s pretty neat. (Warning: you will want to buy all the guitars.)
- John A. Brown, who murdered Stringbean and Estelle Akeman in 1973, was released from prison yesterday. He had been granted parole last month.
- Chuck Reece of BitterSoutherner.com profiled Atlanta-based label Dust-to-Digital.
- Folk-pop singer-songwriter Ali Sperry released a music video for her song “Coast.”
- You might want to add Ron Cohen and Rachel Clare Donaldson’s Roots of the Revival: American and British Folk Music in the 1950s to your reading list.
- Chris Young will perform “Lonely Eyes” on Letterman November 14. (via press release)
- This week’s album releases:
Adam Hood – Welcome to the Big World
Amber Hayes – Running Out of Memories
Bob Dylan and The Band – The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11
David Shelby – Oh Yeah
Doobie Brothers – Southbound
Eric Bibb – Blues People
Glen Campbell – The Early Years
John Denver – All of My Memories
Kingston Trio – The Last Month of the Year
Maddie and Tae – Maddie & Tae
Mountain Faith – Blue
Neal McCoy – Pride: A Tribute to Charley Pride (Deluxe Edition)
Over the Rhine – Blood Oranges in the Snow
Ronnie Fauss – Built to Break
Ronnie Milsap – The RCA Albums Collection
Statler Brothers – The Complete Mercury Christmas Recordings
- There are also a few books:
Bruce Springsteen – Outlaw Pete
Peter Guralnick – Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom (ebook)
Peter Guralnick – Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke (enhanced ebook)
Richard Carlin – Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary (paperback)
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