alphabet project…F you got the money honey i’ve got the time
Going through the library and sharing things I like, and things you might. If you missed the earlier posts, find them on my page by clicking on my name. (To answer the questions as to why I’m not providing links, clips, videos or pictures…it takes too long and I figure if you want to know more, you’ll find it.)
Fur Dixon and Steve Werner are an LA-based duo who slide effortlessly between California cowboy and folksinging troubadour styles. Fur (Jennifer) was a member of the Screamin’ Sirens with Rosie Flores, the Hollywood Hillbillies, the Dixons and she played bass with the Cramps for a year back in 1986. Steve Werner was in the Mentones and played with Glen Glenn, Johnny Legend, Tony “Wildman” Conn, Ray Campi, Sonny Burgess, Jimmy Angel, Tommy Sands and Jewel Akins. They have a couple of albums out on CD Baby (the downloads on Amazon are much cheaper though) that also feature Paul Marshall from I See Hawks In LA on bass. The Pearl and the Swine from 2006 is more bluegrass, while 2009’s Traveler sounds more folk/Americana to my ears. You’ll dig this if you’re into that old time traditional country music genre with great picking, harmonies and yodeling. Lots of videos on their website.
The 2007 debut release from Irish singer songwriter Fionn Regan on Lost Highway was a pretty good way to begin a career. Plain and simple…good songs, nice voice and lots of fingerstyle guitar. I was hoping to hear more from him but when I last checked in, it looks like the label must have dropped him. I found his follow up that was released in the UK in February and it seems he’s really changed his game plan and has become more of a pop rock guy. I don’t know what you can do with a record like that anymore, which I guess is the reason why it’s not out in the US. But that first one…still shines.
I’m a sucker for both Canadian and Australian Americana and Melbourne based Jordie Lane hooked up with Canadian singer Tracy McNeil a couple of years ago and became Fireside Bellows. Their only album is No Time To Die and its the duets that’ll get you. There’s some tasty pedal steel, a little fiddle and a touch of banjo. Could be wrong but I don’t think they’re still around together…Jordie had a solo 2009 release.
Freakwater. I just plain miss them.
The tagline for Virginia’s Furnace Mountain is “Ethno-Appalachian Roots Music”. Their mountain music is filled jigs, reels, clogging and just plain fun. Two men and two women. Friends is the most recent release and I consider it an “aural” history with its roots in Scottish, Irish and English song structures. Probably why they’ll spend a good deal of the summer touring throughout the UK.