Get a free download of "The Sharpest Crown" from Joe Pug's new album, Messenger
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit's self-titled album rated among 2009's best
Congrats to Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit for making many "Best of 2009" lists including these:
Blurt "#6 album of the year"
Magnet Magazine "Top Americana album"
Salt Lake Tribute "Top 10"
Boston Globe "Top 10"
New England Patriot Ledger "Top 10"
Slant Magazine "Best of 2009"
Twangville "Best of 2009"
Justin Townes Earle's "Top 10 of 2009"
Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News "Top 5 of 2009"
No Depression community "Best of 2009"
The Bird List "Best of 2009"
Americana Music Association Honors and Awards Album of the Year nominee
Lightning Rod Records signs Joe Pug - MESSENGER out 2/16
Joe Pug will release Messenger on February 16,2010 on Lightning Rod Records. Messenger is the long awaited follow-up to his highly acclaimed self-released EP Nation of Heat.
After playing over 200 shows, including runs with Steve Earle, M.Ward and Josh Ritter, Pug took to the studio to record his sophomore release. While Nation of Heat may have earned him the title of talent to watch, Messenger solidifies his spot among the finest songwriters of his generation. Pug’s soulful voice and lyrical vignettes guide listeners through the album’s ten tracks, none of which retreat to the comfortable and familiar haven where typical singer-songwriters rest.
With Messenger, Pug explores new territory, sneaking pedal steel guitar into “The Sharpest Crown” and backing “The Door is Always Open” with a powerhouse rhythm section. The album’s subtle beauty is showcased through the supporting cast Pug uses to expand his sound. However, he does not let his solo charm escape the album. Songs like “Bury Me Far (From My Uniform)” and “Unsophisticated Heart” make it obvious that Pug is still master of the-guy-and-the-guitar song.
Lightning Rod Records is a Nashville-based independent record label that is also home to James McMurtry and Jason Isbell. In North America, the label is distributed by Thirty Tigers/RED.
Two tracks will be available for preview at www.joepugmusic.com
Track listing for Messenger:
1. Messenger
2. How Good You Are
3. Not So Sure
4. The Sharpest Crown
5. The Door Was Always Open
6. The First Time I Saw You
7. Unsophisticated Heart
8. Disguised as Someone Else
9. Bury Me Far (From My Uniform)
10. Speak Plainly, Diana
In preparation for his February 2010 release, Pug will hit the road supporting Justin Townes Earle, kicking off in San Diego on February 9th. Full list of dates listed below.
12/02/09 Roma CircoloDegliArtisti Rome, Italy
12/03/09 StradeBlu Festival at TeatroMasini Faenza, Italy
12/06/09 Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Glasgow, Scotland
12/07/09 Perth Concert Hall Perth, Scotland
12/08/09 Aberdeen Music Hall Aberdeen, Scotland
12/10/09 Iverness Ironworks Iverness, Scotland
1/23/10 The Park Theater Winnipeg, MB
2/05/10 Colorado Mountain College Breckenridge, CO
2/09/10 The Loft San Diego, CA
2/11/10 The Echo Los Angeles, CA
2/12/10 The Crepe Place Santa Cruz, CA
2/13/10 Great American Music Hall San Francisco, CA
2/14/10 The Doug Fir Portland, OR
2/15/10 The Tractor Tavern Seattle, WA
2/16/10 The Biltmore Vancouver, BC
2/18/10 The State Room Salt Lake City, UT
2/19/10 The Bluebird Denver, CO**
2/20/10 The Sheridan Opera House Telluride, CO
2/23/10 The Mill Iowa City, IA
2/25/10 The Turf Club St. Paul, MN
2/26/10 High Noon Saloon Madison, WI
2/27/10 Lincoln Hall Chicago, IL**
2/28/10 The Magic Stick Detroit, MI
3/02/10 The Mohawk Buffalo, NY
**Denotes shows that will be co-bills with Justin Townes Earle
Lefsetz names "We Can't Make It Here" the Song of the Decade
Music industry pundit, Bob Lefsetz, named James McMurtry's "We Can't Make it Here" the Song of the Decade. Download a free MP3 of the song at the link below.
New Video From Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
James McMurtry 'Live in Europe' CD/DVD with Ian McLagan and Jon Dee Graham readied for Oct. 13
James McMurtry's recent studio albums, 2005's Childish Things and 2008's Just Us Kids, earned him formidable accolades. The Village Voice called him "a poet of the people." Stephen King, writing in Entertainment Weekly, pronounced him "the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation." Yet a lot of current McMurtry converts were introduced through the 2004 release Live in Aught-Three. Live albums aren't typically greeted with rave reviews, but McMurtry's rockin' treatments of songs like "Choctaw Bingo" and "Out Here in the Middle" in concert made an uncanny translation to record. The Austin Chronicle proclaimed, "This is no-frills, freak-flag rock. Turn it up!" PopMatters called it "a snapshot of where McMurtry is now, [marking him] as a legitimate inheritor of the Texas songwriting tradition."
Now, on October 13, 2009, Lightning Rod Records will release Live in Europe, a document of McMurtry's first European tour, on which he was joined by keyboardist Ian McLagan and fellow Texas songwriting legend Jon Dee Graham. The set will be available as a CD with a bonus DVD, or as a deluxe vinyl LP package with a CD and DVD insert.
In early 2009, James McMurtry and his trio traveled overseas to play their first European tour. The guys played for enthusiastic crowds in Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland and Belgium. Joining the band on keyboards for the tour was the legendary Ian McLagan (who also played on McMurtry's latest studio album, Just Us Kids).
The best recordings from the Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Geislingen, Germany concerts were combined to create Live in Europe. The album includes a bonus DVD featuring performances from the Amsterdam show. This marks the first time fans will be able to purchase video footage of McMurtry live in concert. The deluxe vinyl version includes inserted copies of the CD and DVD. Fellow Austin-based songwriter Jon Dee Graham opened the shows and joins the band on a version of his tune "Laredo" on the bonus DVD.
The son of acclaimed author Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment), James grew up on a steady diet of Johnny Cash and Roy Acuff records. His first album, released in 1989, was produced by John Mellencamp and marked the beginning of a series of acclaimed projects for Columbia and Sugar Hill. In 2004, McMurtry released the universally lauded Live in Aught-Three on Compadre Records. 2005's Childish Things garnered some of the highest critical praise of McMurtry's career and spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Americana Music Radio Chart in 2005 and 2006. In September 2006, Childish Things and "We Can't Make It Here" won the Americana Music Awards for album and song of the year, respectively. McMurtry received more Americana Music Award nominations for 2008's Just Us Kids. The album marked his highest Billboard 200 chart position in more than 19 years.
The Washington Post noted McMurtry's live prowess: "Much attention is paid to James McMurtry's lyrics, and rightfully so: He creates a novel's worth of emotion and experience in four minutes of blisteringly stark couplets. What gets overlooked, however, is that he's an accomplished rock guitar player. At a sold-out Birchmere, the Austin-based artist was joined by drummer Daren Hess and bassist Ronnie Johnson in a set that demonstrated the raw power of wince-inducing imagery propelled by electric guitar. It was serious stuff, imparted by a singularly serious band."
McMurtry will tour the U.S. and Europe this fall in support of the live album.
Track List:
Bayou Tortue
Just Us Kids
Hurricane Party
You'd a' Thought (Leonard Cohen Must Die)
Fräulein O.
Ruby and Carlos
Freeway View
Restless
Bonus DVD:
Choctaw Bingo
You'd a' Thought (Leonard Cohen Must Die)
Freeway View
We Can't Make It Here
Laredo (with Jon Dee Graham)
Too Long In The Wasteland
Jason Isbell on Daytrotter
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit's Daytrotter session has been posted. Go to the link below and download live performances of "The Blue," "Seven-Mile Island," "The Last Song I Will Write," and "Streetlights."
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit Receives Album of the Year Nom
Congrats to Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit whose self-titled album was nominated for Album of The Year at the 2009 Americana Music Association's Honors and Awards to be held September 17 at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium.
Isbell Picks Top Ten Muscle Shoals Tracks
Jason Isbell wrote a feature about his hometown for The Guardian (Britain's third largest newspaper) where he chooses his top ten Muscle Shoals recordings.
Check it the full story below.
Uncut raves about Jason Isbell's album
Uncut, one of the UK's premiere entertainment magazines, raved about Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit. Their FOUR STAR review declared it a "terrific album" that "redeems (Isbell's) promise in spectacular fashion."
Jason Isbell on the cover of the new Blurt Magazine
Jason Isbell and a few other artists including Beirut and Bob Mould will be featured on the cover of the first print issue of Blurt Magazine. The issue includes 10 out of 10 star review of the album.
Jason Isbell's album debuts on three Billboard charts!
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit's self-titled album debuted on THREE charts in Billboard Magazine. Numbers below:
#132 on Top 200 chart
#17 Independent chart
#3 Heatseeker chart
New album from Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit available now!
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit's new self-titled album is available now on CD, LP w/ CD insert, and digital download.
"Isbell is an invigorating songwriter and one of the better lyricists of his generation." - Pitchfork Media
"Four stars." - SPIN Magazine
"...not to be missed." - Rolling Stone
"Four stars." - All Music Guide
"One hell of a record." - The Tripwire
"Four stars." - Creative Loafing
"It should be illegal for someone as young as Isbell to deftly pack so much world-weariness into a song." - Birmingham News
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit receive FOUR STAR review in Spin
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, 'Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit'
(Lightning Rod)
Ex-trucker wades through doomed romance, booze.
By David Peisner
4 STARS
Southern rock is a minefield of rebel flags, drinking songs, and dudes
yelling "Free Bird!" With Drive-By Truckers, singer-guitarist Jason
Isbell learned to embrace some of those clichés; on his gritty,
vibrant second solo album, he begins to transcend them. "However Long"
personalizes working-class disaffection into a defiant anthem; stormy
rocker "Soldiers Get Strange" is almost certainly the best tune ever
written about post-traumatic stress disorder; and multiple tales of
warm, lonely barrooms and the warm, lonely relationships they breed
uncover new truths while traversing well-trod emotional terrain.
Stream Jason Isbell's new album on Rhapsody
Beginning February 11, you can stream Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit's new album in its entirety on Rhapsody's website. Check out the link below.
Free download of Jason Isbell's "Seven-Mile Island"
Click on the link below to download a free mp3 of "Seven-Mile Island" from Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit's new self-titled album. The album will be available on CD and double-vinyl with CD insert on February 17.
Pre-order autographed Jason Isbell albums from Waterloo Records
Autographed copies of Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit's self-titled new album are available exclusively at Waterloo Records' website. Click on the link below to order the album on CD or special edition double-vinyl with CD insert.
JUST US KIDS makes it on a wide variety of "Best of 2008" lists
James McMurtry's latest album showed up on a wide array of Best of 2008 lists. USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Blurt Online, and the Philadelphia Inquirer are some of the publications that laud Just Us Kids as one of the year's foremost releases. Here is a partial list of the reviews:
USA Today - Ken Barnes' #2 album of the year
Washington Post - #2 album of the year
Knoxville News Sentinel - #1 album of the year
Entertainment Weekly - Stephen King's #3 album of the year
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - #4 album of the year
Baltimore City Paper - Geoffrey Himes' #1 album of the year
Austin American Statesman - #2 album of the year
Atlanta Journal-Constitution - #4 album of the year
Austin Chronicle
Blurt Online - #11 album of the year
Lexington Herald Leader
Popmatters - #5 Americana Album of the year
Daily Mirror (London)
Philadelphia Inquirer
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit to release new album in 2009
Muscle Shoals, AL - Lightning Rod Records will release Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit's eponymous album on February 17, 2009. Isbell is a former member of the Drive-By Truckers and this is his second solo release (his first release with his band The 400 Unit). The 400 Unit is Derry deBorja (keyboards), Jimbo Hart (bass) and Browan Lollar (guitar). Matt Pence (Centro-matic/South San Gabriel) lends his talents as co-producer, drummer and engineer.
The album was co-produced by Isbell and The 400 Unit with Matt Pence. "I want it to be known that it's a band record," says Isbell. "I want it to be known that it's something we all did together. Even though I wrote the songs, it was a very inclusive project." Isbell has posted the new track, "Seven-Mile Island," on the band's MySpace site.
The album was recorded at the renowned FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL. Isbell, who Details Magazine calls "one of America's best young songwriters," is following in the tradition of American songwriters who have recorded in North Alabama. Much like Arthur Alexander, Eddie Hinton and Spooner Oldham, Isbell mixes a soulful vocal style with songs that are passionate and unrepentant in their sense of place and direct in their stubborn Southerness.
Isbell and The 400 Unit have played over 200 dates since the release of Sirens Of The Ditch (including All Points West, Voodoo Music Experience and WXPN Freedom Fest) and will announce the first round of their 2009 dates soon.
This is the second release for Nashville-based Lightning Rod Records whose US distribution and marketing is handled by Thirty Tigers/RED.
TRACKLIST
1. Seven-Mile Island
2. Sunstroke
3. Good
4. Cigarettes and Wine
5. However Long
6. Coda
7. The Blue
8. No Choice in the Matter
9. Soldiers Get Strange
10. Streetlights
11. The Last Song I Will Write
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit's MySpace site.
James McMurtry offers live version of "We Can't Make It Here" for free
Just before the 2004 Presidential Election, James McMurtry gave away a free download of his state of the union anthem, "We Can't Make It Here." The song struck a chord with the public and went on to win Song of the Year at the Americana Music Honors and Awards. Author Stephen King described it as the "best American protest song since 'Masters of War'" in his Entertainment Weekly column. On the brink of the 2008 election, McMurtry is giving away a previously unreleased live version of "We Can't Make It Here" from his 2008 concert at Southpaw in Brooklyn, NY.
Click on the link below to access the free MP3:
http://www.lightningrodrecords.com/cantmakeithere.php
McMurtry ringtones available now!
To get your ringtone, pick the code of your favorite James McMurtry song and text it to "66555".
"Cheney's Toy" - CHENEY
"Just Us Kids" - JUSTUS
"Hurricane Party" - PARTY
"Bayou Tortous" - TURTLE
(Click here for ringtone specs. Sony Music Box)
Winner announced for James McMurtry Video Contest
Congratulations to Michael Myles for winning the James McMurtry Video Contest. Fans were encouraged to use the free "Cheney's Toy" mp3 to create their own videos and post them online. Mr. Myles received an 8 gig iPod Nano for his winning video (which can be seen on YouTube).
Some praise for JUST US KIDS
“There's a good chance that McMurtry's Just Us Kids will be the best album of 2008.” —WASHINGTON POST
"his new album, "Just Us Kids" (Lightning Rod), which could justifiably be described as the best collection of literary songs in several years." - LOS ANGELES TIMES
"A definite contender when those Best Of The Year polls get underway." - MOJO
“The new James McMurtry album Just Us Kids isn’t good, it’s terrific. Simply outstanding. My early candidate for album of the year..." - ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
James McMurtry featured in Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times ran a feature on James McMurtry in their Sunday edition. Click on the link below to check it out.
James McMurtry sweeps nominations for Americana Honors & Awards
James McMurtry was nominated in three categories for the 2008 Americana Honors and Awards: “Best Artist,” “Best Album” and “Best Song.” The album is his current CD, Just Us Kids, on Lightning Rod Records, and the song is the controversial “Cheney’s Toy.” McMurtry is tied for most nominations. The awards show will be held on September 18 at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium.
McMurtry featured in The Washington Post
The Washington Post's piece on James McMurtry features interviews with Stephen King, Larry McMurtry, Robert Earl Keen, and Jon Dee Graham. Click here to read.
McMurtry discusses record stores on NPR's All Things Considered
To celebrate Record Store Day, NPR's All Things Considered invited James McMurtry to talk about his experiences in record stores. You can listen to James' account here.
JUST US KIDS debuts on FOUR Billboard Charts!
James McMurtry's new album, JUST US KIDS, debuts in Billboard Magazine on the following charts:
Heatseekers Chart #2
Tastemaker Chart #6
Indie Label Chart #18
Top 200 album sales chart #136
New James McMurtry t-shirts available now!
Go to the Lightning Rod Records store to check out the new James McMurtry t-shirts. All shirts are 100% cotton and made in America.
McMurtry blogs on Huffington Post
James McMurtry gives his thoughts on "Obama Euphoria" at the web's most prominent progressive site, The Huffington Post. Check it out by clicking the link below.
Patterson Hood from DBT praises Just Us Kids
"Just Us Kids picks up right where Childish Things left off, finding him rightfully angry at the world around him. On first listen I already hear several instant classics. The entire second half is stunning. Love his writing and love his delivery. McMurtry might be the best topical writer performing right now and this finds him at his finest." - Patterson Hood / Drive-By Truckers
James McMurtry Offers Free mp3 Of New Political Song And Announces Make-Your-Own-Video Contest
Singer/songwriter James McMurtry is once again making a political statement through his music. On his new song "Cheney's Toy", McMurtry picks up where he left off with his controversial anthem "We Can't Make it Here." "Cheney's Toy" reminds us that the war in Iraq is still going on - with veiled references to Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and the stark image of a soldier who returned from the conflict, blind and brain damaged.
In order to make sure people get the message, McMurtry is giving away the song for free. Fans will be able to download the mp3 from McMurtry's MySpace page and Lightning Rod Records' website.
McMurtry and Lightning Rod Records are encouraging fans to use the free mp3 to create their own videos and post them online. McMurtry will choose the best videos and post them on his official MySpace page and website. If needed, fans can create videos using slideshow applications at RockYou.com. Creators of each of the top five video creators will receive t-shirts and autographed copies of McMurtry's new album, Just Us Kids (in stores April 15, 2008). McMurtry's choice for the best overall video will also receive an 8GB Apple iPod nano with video capabilities. Fans can send links to their videos to .
James McMurtry's MySpace site.
More information.
Lightning Rod Records To Release New James McMurtry Album On Tax Day 2008
Lightning Rod Records will release singer/songwriter James McMurtry's new CD, titled Just Us Kids, on April 15, 2008. McMurtry's ninth album, which features 12 new songs, is a follow-up to 2005's critically acclaimed and award-winning project, Childish Things. McMurtry makes a strong political statement on Just Us Kids. Joining McMurtry are the C.C. Adcock, Jon Dee Graham, Ian McLagan and Timbuk3's pat mAcdonald.