Category Archives: Country

Country, folk, Free Music

Free Christmas music 2: Andrew Ripp – Light of mine

Andrew Ripp is a singer-songwriter from Palatine, Illinois.

Ripp released his debut album, Fifty Miles to Chicago, in January 2008. Musicians Pete Maloney (Dishwalla, Tonic), keyboard player Will Hollis (Eagles), and steel guitar player Eric Heywood (Ray LaMontagne) were brought in to accompany Ripp’s vocals and guitar.

Ripp co-wrote and co-produced Fifty Miles to Chicago with songwriter, Randy Coleman and brought on Dan Lavery, former bass player of the rock band Tonic, as producer. Funded by Andrew himself, the majority of the album was recorded in Lavery’s back-house studio in Los Angeles

Here’s a cute photo from his official website:

In early 2008, Andrew was invited to attend the annual “Fool’s Banquet” songwriters gathering in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This event was hosted by the Hanson brothers. Also in attendance that year were Pat McGee, Keaton Simons, Jesse Laz-Hirsch, Kai Kennedy, Stephen Kellogg, Chris Sligh, and Jason Mraz.

Operating independently of a label, Ripp tours regularly and has shared the stage with Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Fiction Family (Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek) and Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers, among others. In the spring of 2009, Ripp and his band toured Europe and the Middle East to play for the U.S. troops stationed abroad in a tour sponsored by Armed Forces Entertainment.

Andrew’s highly acclaimed second album, She Remains the Same was released in September 2010. The album was produced by Dave Barnes, with whom Andrew toured in the fall of 2010.

On November 22, 2011, Ripp released the Christmas EP Light of Mine.

Andrew Ripp – Light of Mine (EP)

Great voice!

– Hallgeir

(source: Wikipedia and Andrew Ripp’s official web site)

Country, Music Calendar

Today: Carter Stanley passed away in 1966 – 46 years ago

In The Pines:

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Carter Glen Stanley
Born August 27, 1925
Big Spraddle Creek, Virginia,U.S.A.
Died December 1, 1966 (aged 41)
Bristol, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Genres Bluegrass, Old-time
Occupations Guitarist, singer, songwriter
Instruments Guitar
Years active 1946–1966
Labels Rich-R-Tone, Columbia, Mercury,Starday, King
Associated acts The Stanley Brothers, Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe

Carter Glen Stanley (August 27, 1925 – December 1, 1966) was a bluegrass music lead singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitar player. He formed the Stanley Brothers band together with his brother Ralph. The Stanley Brothers are generally acknowledged as the first band after Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys to play in the bluegrass genre. According to some historians, their recording of “Molly and Tenbrooks” (aka “The Racehorse Song”) marked the beginning of bluegrass as a genre.

Weeping Willow:

Album of the day:

Complete Columbia Recordings (1996)

 

Other December 01:

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Blues, Country, Gospel, Soul, Stax

Top 5 Duane Allman (aka Skydog) collaborations

 1. Aretha Franklin and Duane Allman – The Weight

Aretha Franklin hooked up with Duane Allman and recorded this version at Muscle Shoals. It is Loose and  funky as hell, and full of those incredible Aretha vocals I love, it sounds like good southern gospel. Duane Allman plays bottle guitar throughout like that guitar god that he is. Listen to it, heavenly is the best description!

2. Derek and the Dominoes/Eric Clapton with Duane Allman – Layla (studio outake)

Slowhand and Skydog together, what a match!

derek

When asked about playing with Clapton, Allman said I played the Gibson parts and Eric played the fender parts. This studio outtake from the reissue in 2009 is even better than the iconic original.

3. Boz Scaggs with Duane Allman – Loan me a Dime

Boz Scagg’s self-titled album from 1969, Boz Scaggs (Atlantic SD-33-8239)  which features Duane Allman on five tracks, including the amazing slow blues jam ”Loan Me A Dime.” On the video below, you can hear Allman exchanging riffs with Larry Knechtel’s organ. Here it is, a twelve minute blues lament:

This song portrays the best of both Duane and Boz.It is a shame we don’t have anyone making music like this anymore.Good music is never out of style. Duane’s work is incredible!

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Country, folk, Music Calendar

Today: Gene Clark was born 17 November in 1944

Harold Eugene “Gene” Clark (November 17, 1944 – May 24, 1991) was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrds. He did write some of The Byrds’ best songs, among them: “Feel A Whole Lot Better”, “Here Without You” and “Set You Free This Time”.

Backstage Pass  1979 with Chris Hillmann and Roger McGuinn, taken from the album, McGuinn, Clark & Hillman:

Gene Clark will always be remembered for his two years as a vocalist with the Byrds between 1964 and 1966 (+ a brief period in 1967 and one in 1973). A fine legacy to be sure, but he did so much more and it’s a shame  that Clark’s work outside The Byrds is not more known ; he was a superb songwriter, one of the founding fathers of country-rock, and recorded a number of fine albums (with an impressive array of collaborators) whose quality far outstripped their modest sales figures. So enough about the Byrds, that’s another story.

Here’s the song Gypsy Rider from the album, So Rebellious a Lover (1986) with Carla Olson:

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Country, Gospel, Great albums

Today: Satan is Real by The Louvin Brothers was released in 1959

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The Louvin Brothers – Satan is Real

What is it about this album?
Why is it so important in the americana /country/gospel music canon?

Satan Is Real is a gospel album by American country music duo The Louvin Brothers.

Released November 16, 1959
Recorded August 8–10, 1958
Genre Country, Gospel
Length 31:54
Label Capitol
Producer Ken Nelson, John Johnson (Reissue)

The gospel/country duo Charlie and Ira Louvin was born and grew up in the Sand Mountain region of Alabama, they lived on a cotton farm south of the Appalachian Mountains, that’s where they developed their distinct harmony style in the deep Sacred Harp tradition of the Baptist church.

Ira Louvin died in a car wreck in 1965. Charlie Louvin died last year at 83 just a few months after publishing his story about The Louvin brothers.

In The recently published book, Satan is Real, the ballad of the Louvin Brothers, Charlie talks about their singing style.This is not a straight quote, but it goes something  like this:

…people who saw the Louvin Brothers perform were mystified by the experience. Ira was a full head taller than me, he played the mandolin like Bill Monroe and sang in an impossibly high, tense, quivering tenor. I(Charlie) strummed a guitar, grinned like a vaudevillian and handled the bottom register. But every so often, in the middle of a song, some hidden signal flashed and we switched places — with Ira swooping down from the heights, and me angling upward — and even the most careful listeners would lose track of which man was carrying the lead. This was more than close-harmony singing; each instance was an act of transubstantiation.

I could not find any live footage from Satan is real, but this clip of them singing, I don’t belive you’ve met my baby is a fine showcase for their intricate singing style:

“It baffled a lot of people,” Charlie Louvin explains in his fantastic memoir. “We could change in the middle of a word. Part of the reason we could do that was that we’d learned to have a good ear for other people’s voices when we sang Sacred Harp. But the other part is that we were brothers.”

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