Country trio Lady Antebellum has shared details of their new album Ocean and debuted a video for the title track. The 13-song album, out Nov. 15, was produced by Dann Huff. “There’s this theme of returning to the core of who we are – as writers, vocalists and people – that came out in each of these songs,” Dave Haywood explained, in a release. “Our time in the studio with Dann had an excitement that felt like we were making our first album all over again.”
During his lifetime, Mickey Newbury was always regarded more as a songwriter than as a singer or recording artist. Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Linda Ronstadt, Charlie Rich, Tammy Wynette, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, and Joan Baez all recorded his songs. That said, Saint Cecilia Knows (the Newbury estate's label) and Drag City are seeking to change that impression with An American Trilogy. It's a deluxe, limited-edition, four-disc box set collects the albums Looks Like Rain (1969), 'Frisco Mabel Joy (1971), Heaven Help the Child (1973), and a disc of rarities; it contains a poster lyric sheet/map and a 100-page booklet, with Newbury quotes, interviews, and more.
Once upon a time, Waylon Jennings was one of the hardest partying men in country music (no small statement), but by the time he appeared on PBS's long-running music series Austin City Limits in 1984, Jennings asked that his taping take place at 11 a.m., which would have been closer to his bedtime during his years as country's number one outlaw. A newly cocaine-fee Waylon plays "I Can Get off on You" early in this set, which contains his complete set from that KLRU-TV taping, and the man sounds tough and committed throughout a fast-paced show, during which he runs through 14 songs in less than 40 minutes and displays his trademark ability to sound energetic and laid-back at the same time.
Merle Haggard had been one of country music's biggest stars and most uncompromising talents for more than a dozen years when he rolled into the KLRU-TV studios in Austin, TX for a taping of PBS's long-running music series Austin City Limits in early 1978. (It's said that Haggard had never heard of the show at the time, but was persuaded to take the gig by friend and superfan Darrell K Royal, coach of the University of Texas football team). At this point, Haggard was soon to leave Capitol Records and the most successful period of his career was ending, but you get very little sense of that on Live from Austin TX, which features his ACL performance complete and unedited.
Perhaps there’s a measure of defiance in the title of Merle Haggard’s 2010 album I Am What I Am, but it’s also a statement of plain fact: almost 50 years into a recording career, there’s no changing the fact that Hag is who is he is, and he’s comfortable in his own skin, broken-in but not worn-out, never pushing too hard but never coasting, either. Sometimes Haggard’s easy touch is too light, slipping into sleepiness, but the striking thing about I Am What I Am is its casual mastery, the subtle shading in his vocal phrasing can make his songwriting appear effortless.
Veteran country singer Kathy Mattea returns with her third album on Narada, and it's easily her most consistent since she joined the label. Self-produced, Mattea once more layers in all her favorite touches like Bill Cooley's bouzouki and Randy Leago playing both accordion and sitar on the title cut, which opens the set. This track underscores a running theme in Mattea's work: transformation and change.
The Avett Brothers long ago figured out how to fill the corners of cavernous arenas with earnest energy using primarily acoustic instruments. Seth Avett gave advance warning via social media that this album would represent a socially conscious turn for him, his brother Scott, and their longtime bandmates. They push the folk and pop-punk threads in their music to galvanizing extremes on this Rick Rubin-produced record, while treating national concerns with the warmheartedness that they usually reserve for inner and interpersonal yearnings. The performances are often buoyant (“Locked Up,” “High Steppin’”) and the writing openly emotional, but several songs (including “Tell the Truth,” “New Woman’s World,” and “We Americans”) give priority to expressions of penitence. “I am a son of Uncle Sam, and I struggle to understand the good and evil,” Seth sings, his delivery crisp and purposeful, “but I’m doing the best I can, in a place built on stolen land with stolen people.” During dense folk ballads like “Long Story Short” and “C Sections and Railway Trestles,” the stories convey a sense of caretaking responsibility for younger generations, the Avetts striving to make all of these gestures feel ennobling.
![VA - A Very Special Acoustic Christmas (2003) [Re-Up]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/83/91/00419183_medium.jpg)
In the dense annual blizzard of holiday albums, A VERY SPECIAL ACOUSTIC CHRISTMAS shines like a gleaming treetop star from a warm, inviting living room, thanks to its organic, no-frills approach and its remarkable lineup of performers. Dan Tyminski (of O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? fame) offers up a charming version of "Frosty the Snowman," while Willie Nelson lends his legendary voice and guitar playing to a fine take on "Please Come Home for Christmas." Alison Krauss contributes her surprisingly poppy "Only You Can Bring Me Cheer (Gentleman's Lady)," Marty Stuart confides that "Even Santa Claus Gets the Blues," and Pat Green saunters through a relaxed "Winter Wonderland." Bringing the Yuletide album to an appropriate close is Norah Jones, in a beautiful solo rendition of Horace Silver's "Peace".
