Mindy Smith

One of our featured CDs for August.

Mindy Smith/Stupid Love on Vanguard Records on sale now for just $12.99

Listen to it HERE

Village Records Special Invitation

Village Records Special Invitation

Sneak preview to our social network site
We hope this email finds everyone well and enjoying the start of summer. We want to take this opportunity to invite all of you on our SPECIAL ALERTS list to our latest Village Records related project. We will be launching our very own "SOCIAL" site around the first of July. It is the latest, and perhaps the last word, as far as customers interacting with our site and some of our friends. For those not familiar with the concept it is simply a clearing house for sharing and exchanging information, reviews, videos, photos, blogs and discussions about music of all kinds. It's all free and fun. Once you become a member you can create your own groups and discussions that others around the world can join in on. All content is hosted by us and all we ask is that you not post links to other sites that sell music. It's open to anyone who wants a place to just talk music and leave all of the other social networking to other sites.

MUSICIANS NOTE..you are welcome and encouraged to create your profile page in much the same way as your myspace page, upload photos, music files, etc. You can try out demos on the Village Records community if you like. Write us for details about selling through Village Records.

We are making this offer to you ahead of the official launch so that you can be up and running before we go completely public with it. Hope to see you there soon!http://community.villagerecords.com/

SIGN UP, CREATE A PROFILE, JOIN THE FUN

STEVE EARLE'S TRIBUTE TO TOWNES

STEVE EARLE TO RELEASE TOWNES MAY 12th VIA NEW WEST RECORDS; 15-SONG SET COMPRISED OF SONGS WRITTEN BY THE LEGENDARY SINGER-SONGWRITER, TOWNES VAN ZANDT

FEATURES GUEST APPEARANCES BY TOM MORELLO, ALLISON MOORER AND, APPEARING ON A STEVE EARLE RECORD FOR THE FIRST TIME, JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE

"Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that." - Steve Earle (1995)

March 9, 2009 - Los Angeles, CA -- Steve Earle is set to release Townes, his highly anticipated follow up to the Grammy Award winning album Washington Square Serenade, on May 12th via New West Records. The 15-song set is comprised of songs written by Earle's friend and mentor, the late singer-songwriter, Townes Van Zandt. Townes will also be available as a deluxe two-CD set, as well as double Limited Edition 180 gram vinyl.

The album was produced by Earle at his home in Greenwich Village, at Sound Emporium and Room and Board in Nashville, TN and The Nest in Hollywood, CA. The track "Lungs," was produced and mixed by the Dust Brothers' John King and features Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine/The Nightwatchman/Street Sweeper on electric guitar. Earle's wife, the acclaimed singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, is featured on backing vocals on "Loretta" and "To Live Is To Fly." Three songs cut in Nashville, "White Freightliner Blues," "Delta Momma Blues," and "Don't Take It To o Bad" feature a bluegrass band consisting of Dennis Crouch, Tim O'Brien, Darrel Scott and Shad Cobb.

Earle met Townes Van Zandt in 1972 at one of Earle's performances at The Old Quarter in Houston, TX. Van Zandt was in the audience and playfully heckled Earle throughout the perfor mance to play the song "Wabash Cannonball." Earle admitted that he didn't know how to play the tune and Van Zandt replied incredibly, "You call yourself a folksinger and yo u don't know 'Wabash Cannonball?'" Earle then silenced him by playing the Van Zandt song "Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold," not an easy feat due to its quickly-paced mouthful of lyrics squeezed into just over two minutes of song. Their bond was immediately formed. On Townes, Earle and his son, singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle (named after Van Zandt) trade verses on the tune, a song the two of them have been playing together since Justin was a teenager.

The songs selected for Townes were the ones that meant the most to Earle and the ones he personally connected to (not including selections featured on previous Earle albums). Some of the selections chosen were songs that Earle has played his entire career ("Pancho and Lefty," "Lungs," "White Freightliner Blues") and others he had to learn specifically for record ing. He learned the song "(Quicksilver Daydreams of) Maria" directly from Van Zandt, and taught himself "Marie" and "Rake" specifically for the album's recording. Once a song he played during his live show, Earle relearned "Colorado Girl" in the original Open D tuning that Van Zandt played it in. Earle recorded the New York sessions solo and then added the other instruments later on in order to preserve the spirit of Van Zandt's original solo performances to the best of his recollection.

When speaking about Townes, Earle stated, "This may be one of the best records I've ever made. That hurts a singer-songwriter's feelings. Then again, it's some consolation that I cherry picked through the career of one of the best songwriters that ever lived.

"Townes Van Zandt's debut album, For The Sake Of The Song, was released in 1968. His last, No Deeper Blue appeared in 1995. His life and songs are the subject of the critically acclaimed 2006 documentary film, Be Here To Love Me. Van Zandt died in 1997 at the age of 52.

While being a protégé of Van Zandt, Earle is a master storyteller in his own right, with his songs being recorded by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt, The Pretenders, Joan Baez and countless others. 1986 saw the release of his debut record, Guitar Town, which shot to number one on the country charts and immediately established the term "New Country." What followed was an extremely exciting array of twelve releases including the biting hard rock of Copperhead Road (1988), the minimalist beauty of Train A Comin' (1995), the politically charged masterpiece Jerusalem (2002) and the Grammy Award Winning albums The Revolution Starts...Now (2004) and Washington Square Serenade (2007). Earle also produced the Grammy nominated album, Day After Tomorrow, by the legendary Joan Baez in 2008.

Townes Track Listing:

1. Pancho and Lefty

2. White Freightliner Blues

3. Colorado Girl

4. Where I Lead Me

5. Lungs

6. No Place To Fall

7. Loretta

8. Brand New Companion

9. Rake

10. Delta Momma Blues

11. Marie

12. Don't Take It Too Bad

13. Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold

14. (Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria

15. To Live Is To Fly

The bonus disc that comes with the deluxe version has solo acoustic versions of eleven of these tracks.

Steve Earle will be touring in support of Townes with tour dates announced shortly.

Nick Lowe On Austin City Limits

Saturday, January 31st marks the world premiere of Nick Lowe’s stunning performance on renowned television program Austin City Limits. This year marks 35 years on the air for ACL, making it television’s longest running music program. Nick’s unique performance features the iconic British songwriter in stark solo form, performing hits and cult classics from his timeless catalog.

The solo acoustic set is also a rarity for Austin City Limits, one that led the Austin American Statesman to proclaim the performance, “stunning,” call Nick, “Sinatra as a folk singer,“ and implore the show to, “…give him the whole hour!”

Recorded: October 9, 2008
When I Write the Book
All Men Are Liars
I Trained Her to Love Me
I Read a Lot
Rome Wasn't Built in a Day
Peace, Love and Understanding
Beast in Me

To check out a clip of Nick from the episode click HERE

Check your local listings for show times or click HERE

Purchase some of Nick's great recordings HERE

Buddy Holly And The Tour From Hell

Fifty years ago Buddy Holly was in the middle of what would be his final tour. Everyone knows how the story ended. Here is an article that delves into the weeks before and the grueling conditions that led to the decision to charter a plane to get to the next date. Bob Dylan makes a brief appearance.

Read the article HERE.
For a graphic showing the tour routing go HERE.

Making Of One To The Heart, One To The Head

Here is your chance to be a fly on the wall as Gretchen Peters and Tom Russell and the gang work on their new CD. It looks like a good time.

The disc is officially set for February release but it is in stock and shipping now. So you can get a sneak preview of our February mailer and order it now exclusively at Village Records. This will not be available in stores.

Looking Down The Road

There are a couple of great tribute albums coming in March. We are not ready to take orders for these just yet but we couldn't wait to share the news.

Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm, produced by Bill Bentley, Stephen Brower, David Katznelson and Shawn Sahm, celebrates the life of a true American music visionary.

List of confirmed artists at press time (with more to be announced)
Delbert McClinton / Texas Me
Levon Helm / She's About a Mover
Los Lobos / And It Didn't Even Bring Me Down
Jimmie Vaughan / Why, Why, Why
Alejandro Escovedo / Too Little Too Late
Greg Dulli / You Was For Real
Dave Alvin / Dynamite Woman
The Gourds / Nuevo Laredo
Terry Allen (with Joe Ely) / I'm Not That Kat Anymore
Freda & the Firedogs / Be Real
Shawn Sahm (with Augie Meyers) / Mendocino
Joe 'King' Carrasco & Texas Tornados / Adios Mexico
Charlie Sexton / Magic Illusion

Then, also for March, we have:
Americana heavyweights unite to pay tribute to friend and musical compadre Chris Gaffney with A Man of Somebody's Dreams: A Tribute to the Songs of Chris Gaffney.

Tracklisting:
1 JOE ELY "LIFT YOUR LEG "
2 BOZ SCAGGS "MIDNIGHT DREAM"
3 LOS LOBOS "MAN OF SOMEBODY'S DREAMS"
4 DAVE ALVIN "ARTESIA"
5 PETER CASE "SIX NIGHTS A WEEK"
6 TOM RUSSELL "IF DADDY DON'T SING DADDY BOY"
7 CALEXICO "FRANK'S TAVERN
8 JAMES McMURTRY "FIGHT (TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT)"
9 THE TEXAS TORNADOS "THE GARDENS"
10 JIM LAUDERDALE w/ OLLABELLE "GLASSHOUSE"
11 THE IGUANAS "GET OFF MY BACK LUCY"
12 ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO "1968"
13 ROBBIE FULKS "KING OF THE BLUES"
14 JOHN DOE "QUIET DESPERATION"
15 DAVE GONZALES "TIRED OF BEING ME"
16 BIG SANDY Y LOS STRAITJACKETS "SILENT PARTNER"
17 DAN PENN "I'M SO PROUD"
18 CHRIS GAFFNEY "GUITARS OF MY DEAD FRIENDS"

DELANEY BRAMLETT: Where The Soul Never Dies

1939-2008

It seems that no matter what we get for Christmas, or what friends and family we haven’t seen for ages drop by for the holidays the year always seems to end with a sad passing. Unfortunately this year is no exception. Just a few days after Christmas came the news that Delaney Bramlett had passed.

He may not have been the household name that most of the people he worked with were, but he was more often than not the glue that held the session together. Whether he was sharing the stage with Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, wife Bonnie or any number of others he brought something to the party that made the event special. I urge you to poke around on the Internet and see what you can find out about him and his life. I think you’ll be more than a little surprised at what you discover. I’d also be willing to bet that just about everyone who’s serious about their music has something in their collection that he was involved with.

It was hard to come up with a single clip from all of the great footage available featuring him. Instead of seeing how many iconic guests I could find him on stage with I decided to use this one that shows him doing what he probably did best. Sharing the stage with his then wife Bonnie covering Dr. John’s “When The Battle Is Over.” There is perhaps no better example of what people are talking about when they mention “blue eyed Southern soul” than a performance like this one.

Playing For Change

From the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", comes the first of many "songs around the world" being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe. This and other songs such as "One Love" will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD early next year.

Sign up at www.playingforchange.com for updates and exclusive content.

Join the Movement to help build schools, connect students, and inspire communities in need through music.

A Deep And Dark December...

Laying Out My Winter Clothes

The grip of Winter brings to mind countless images that take us to different times in our lives. Whether it be a special Christmas, a snowstorm that freed us from school for consecutive days or maybe that unique song that plays in our head as the flakes pile up.

For me nothing sets the mood better than some well chosen Simon & Garfunkel tunes. They mine melancholy as well, if not better, than just about anyone. Everyone has their favorite. The one that “cuts me ’til I cried out” every time though is “The Boxer.” Having once been in New York during Christmas season I’ve come to understand the song in ways I never could have as a thirteen year old buying the single.

The single peaked at #7 in the Spring of 1969 oddly enough. However, some songs take a while to establish their spot in history. In the ensuing years the song has almost become mythic. It’s saga of a restless soul became a metaphoric tale for an all too familiar way of life and a tough as nails city. Depending on their mood on any given night they even throw us an extra verse. Today’s visual aid includes it.

What Will The New Year Bring?

We are not taking orders on any of these yet but we thought you might enjoy seeing some things that are coming down the road in 2009.

Justin Townes Earle finishes /Midnight at the Movies/
Justin finished up his follow-up to /The Good Life/ for us and it has all of us in the compound walking around all bug-eyed. How a guy that did such an amazing job on his first record could take an even GREATER leap forward is pretty exciting. The album is called /Midnight at the Movies/ and it will hit the street in March 09 on CD and LP. Justin continues to tour his ass off, both domestically and internationally. Between US shows, he hits Australia soon and revisits the UK in January. Here's the video for "The Good Life" http://www.vimeo.com/1485978

Ha Ha Tonka Hitting Studio for 2nd Bloodshot album
Ha Ha Tonka are starting work on their 2nd Bloodshot album very shortly in St. Louis at Sawhorse Studios. Jason McIntire is at the helm; his most recent success was producing the St. Louis buzz band, Ludo. Ha Ha Tonka's incredible animated video for Caney Mountain is here: http://www.vimeo.com/1429884

Scotland Yard Gospel Choir Recording Now
Scotland Yard Gospel Choir are in the studio currently working on their new album, titled "And The Horse You Rode in On". Expect the follow up to their critically acclaimed self titled album in stores in mid-2009. Elia wrote the majority of the album in Wales, and calls it "An angry, comically heart wrenching record, alternately venting spleen and touching on the poignancy of betrayal and loss."

Bottle Rockets Record with Eric "Roscoe" Ambel
The Bottle Rockets celebrated their 15^th anniversary by recording a spanking new album with producer Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, producer of their renowned album, /The Brooklyn Side/. The new album will be released in spring 2009.

Scott Biram zeros in on completion of new album
The one band destruction machine, Scott Biram, is closing in on the completion of his next album. Highlights include a cover of "I Feel So Good" by Muddy Waters with The Black Diamond Heavies guesting. John Meyers from the Heavies also contributed some keyboards on one of Scott's tunes, titled "Why You Give Me Such a Hard Time?" Album art is slated to be by Mark Todd, known for his work for Scratch Acid and Jesus Lizard.

Bobby Bare Jr & Sr Producing Tribute to Shel Silverstein
Bobby and his dad are executive-producing a tribute to Shel Silverstein that will be released on Sugar Hill/Vanguard in mid 2009. The two of them have the following bands slated to contribute (and quite a few are already recorded):
Emmylou Harris
Black Keys
George Jones & Ray Price
Allison Krauss
Band of Horses
Dr. Dog
Andrew Bird
Kris Kristofferson (backed by members of the Silver Jews)
My Morning Jacket

And last but certainly not least, available March 3, 2009
Buddy & Julie Miller's Written In Chalk
Album Features Robert Plant, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin and more
Track List:
1 Ellis County/(Julie Miller)
2 Gasoline and Matches/(Julie and Buddy Miller)
3 Don't Say Goodbye/(Julie Miller)
4 What You Gonna Do, Leroy/(Mel Tillis)
5 A Long, Long Time/(Julie Miller)
6 One Part, Two Part/(Dee Ervin)
7 Chalk/(Julie Miller)
8 Everytime We Say Goodbye/(Julie Miller)
9 Hush, Sorrow/(Julie Miller)
10 Smooth/(Julie Miller)
11 June /(Julie Miller)
12 The Selfishness In Man/(Leon Payne)

December Mailer : First Look

Your Early Christmas Present

Due to just about anything you can name (they don't call it stuffing for nothing) we're a bit behind finishing the December mailer. Most, but not all, of the titles have been input at the website, however they lack reviews and information. Due to the limited nature of some titles, and the fact that it's December and restocking will get more difficult with each passing day we're offering blog subscribers first shot at these titles.

That's not to say that we won't be able to get these again, it's just that it will take longer this time of year on some titles and we know some of these will make great presents. Things usually slow down in December, but for some reason there are lots of essential titles and some hard to find ones that we've been trying for months to offer finally showing up at our tree.

This link will take you to the work in progress mailer. Non blog subscribers will not get this opportunity. (Membership still has its privilege's even in these tough times) You will still eventually get a complete email version just like always, but when you see some of the titles you'll not want to be left out while we wait for additional stock.

Thanks for another wonderful year, and keep checking the site for more great titles.