Grammy nominations and year-end lists have a similar function for me: They get me out to the record store - that would be Amoeba - to pick up things I missed. One such case is "Ernest V. Stoneman The Unsung Father of Country Music, 1925-1934" from 5 String Productions. Hank Sapoznik is nominated for an album notes Grammy.
Stoneman was from Virginia and became the first rural singer/songwriter of the 20th century to record. The subject matter in the songs is typical for the era: Sentimental love songs, early gospel hymns, fiddle breakdowns, and disaster songs. Once the Depression hit, Stoneman settled in the Washington, D.C. with his wife and nine children. In the 1960s, they were re-discovered and became a popular bluegrass band.
One of his daughters, Roni Stoneman, became a star "Hee-Haw" and will make a rare performance Monday in L.A. at the Echoplex.

Post by Matt Kivel

Alright, we get it. Country is cool. Late nights barnstorming, plowing through bottles of Jack Daniels, lamenting broken love affairs, firing a 12-gauge -- it's all well and good, but where is the new angle? Where is the next level of artistic depth that once seemed inevitable when bands like Uncle Tupelo and The Jayhawks roamed the midwest? David Vandervelde is cut from that same cloth of talented country songsmiths as Tweedy, Louris and Farrar, but he really doesn't stray from the tried and true formula of honky-tonk rave-ups and weep into your Pabst ballads that seems to define nearly every band under the alt-country tag. 

His trio proved to be a nice change of pace for the Echo stage, whose audience was ready for a reprieve after an altercation with the police and a brutal series of hardcore acts. Bass, drums and guitar, simply played with Vandervelde's axe floating high above the mix. They dutifully channelled the hard-rocking power of Southern rock overlords Lynard Skynard and were met with a modest reception from the weary crowd of punks and hardcore addicts. 

There is no doubt that David Vandervelde is good at what he does -- especially the ultra morose ballads, which are quite reminiscent of Secretly Canadian labelmate Jason Molina's work. His high wail cuts clear and warbly, much like Neil Young's more somber vocal inflections ("Old Man" and "Mellow My Mind"). But he's just not adding anything new or exciting to the tested songwriting formulas.

Photo by Nick Befort

Documentarians David Leaf and Morgan Neville will chronicle the history of country music in a series executive produced by Shout! Factory and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
The individual segments will be thematically divided. On the slate are “The Roots of Country and Bluegrass,” “The Honky Tonk Tradition,” “Outlaw Country,” “The Nashville Sound,” “The Politics of Country,” “Country Songs and Songwriters,” “California Country” and “No Depression,” a look at the alternative country music movement. (I am guessing Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs will be included; that's why their picture is in this item).
“Each self-contained original film will examine a crucial aspect of the heritage and the history of country in a way that presents this American music in a contextual framework that shows how what was once called ‘hillbilly music’ remains a dominant form of expression in American popular music,” Neville and Leaf said in a joint statement.
Modern country stars will be participating in the films, providing their personal connections to the past. Pics will feature archival performances and contemporary ones as well.
Leaf and Neville will be working with a team of filmmakers not yet determined. In structure, the project sounds similar to one undertaken by Martin Scorsese that yielded five films on the blues and its history. Those films aired on PBS in 2003 and were released on DVD by Sony.

Pop Matters has decided that Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" is the greatest country song of all time. Naturally, the pop music  website celebrates icons (Cash, Willie, Patsy and Waylon account for a lot of entries) rather than songs - how else could you count "Hurt" as a country song? Nothing from the last three decades makes it into the upper reaches of the list. Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" makes a curious landing at No. 11 - perhaps that's some sort of hipster irony - but the real question is why they honor  Cash's version of "Orange Blossom Special." Flatt & Scruggs, kids. Go with the real deal.