First batch of the Old Settler’s recordings: Railroad Earth, Greensky Bluegrass, The Blue Hit, The Bluegrass Outfit, Country Willie, Hendrikz McLeod, Sam Baker, Carrie Elkin & Raina Rose

Folks,

Instead of waiting to release these all at once, I’ll just put these out there in small batches. Old Settler’s was a blast, as usual. I have to thank the festival for being gracious enough to use their vans to transport bands and equipment to and from our portable studio. They really went out of their way to accommodate us, and in general just couldn’t have been nicer people if they tried. The people that make this festival happen are some of the most helpful and welcoming people I’ve come across.

During the day we brought musicians over from the main stages to our little recording outpost.  Late at night we packed up our gear and went to Camp Goodtimes to record until the wee hours. For a guy (me) who enjoys recording acoustic music, what more could I really ask for? That’s what I lived and breathed for four long days and nights. There was not a lot of sleep, but there were many good times.

The Bluegrass Outfit:

The Bluegrass Outfit is a bluegrass supergroup based in and around Austin, Texas. For this recording there were at least 12 musicians all pickin’ their hearts out. The little stage at Camp Goodtimes was so full that some people had to stand offstage and play their instruments. Featuring members of the Two High String Band, Green Mountain Grass, Milk Drive, Wood & Wire and The Blue Hit, this band’s talent speaks for itself. http://archive.org/details/TheBluegrassOutfit-liveFromCampGoodtimes2012

 

Railroad Earth:

Railroad Earth came over to see us and play a few songs while they were killing time before they headlined the main stage. We were dealing with some insane wind, but managed to fiddle our way out of the worst of it. This link will take you to 4 tracks. The first three are the three songs they played for us, and the fourth is one long track that includes all songs and the short between-song interviews we did with them. These guys are really a fantastic band, check ‘em out: http://archive.org/details/RailroadEarth-liveForKaosRadioFromOldSettlersFest2012

 

Greensky Bluegrass:

Greensky Bluegrass had a hard time finding us, but we’re glad they did! One of them (Dave) is the spitting image of our good friend Dirty Charley, and their mandolin player Paul gave a special shout out to the Austin Facial Hair Club. We should have invited them to play the Goodtimes stage, but didn’t know they would have the time until it was too late. Their guitar player Dave ran into my cohort El Demento in the campground and insisted they swap shirts, because he just had to have a Team Goodtimes shirt. So both of them took their shirts off in the middle of everyone and swapped. How long has it been since you’ve swapped shirts with someone right on the spot? That’s good stuff. Anyhow, these guys are super nice and are also most excellent pickers. As it turns out, next month at DelFest they’re playing a late night gig with Railroad Earth that will stretch out into the wee hours. Man, I wish I could see that. Here’s their set, done in the same format as Railroad Earth. 3 songs, then the 4th is the complete set with interviews. http://archive.org/details/GreenskyBluegrass-liveFromOldSettlersFest2012

 

Country Willie:

Country Willie is a perennial favorite, and a legend around these parts. This is the set he did for us at our little campsite studio. We’ll be posting another (yet-to-be-edited, as of this posting) set that he did Thursday night on the Goodtimes stage with a full backing band. For this set, however, it’s just Willie on guitar, vocals and harmonica backed by his friend Thomas Oliver on drums. Enjoy! http://archive.org/details/CountryWillie-liveAtOldSettlersFest2012

 

Sam Baker, Carrie Elkin, Raina Rose & Andrew Pressman:

We did a quick in-the-round recording of Sam Baker, Carrie Elkin and Raina Rose with Drew Pressman playing standup bass. We first met Sam when Jim White brought him along to a session he recorded with us for the South By Southwest music festival. Drew and Raina’s new son Emmett was just hanging out with his mama while they played for us. Did I mention that this is a family-friendly festival? My wife and I brought our 4-month-old son with us and I think he had just as much fun as we did. Here’s the quick set we got from these four great musicians: http://archive.org/details/SamBakerWRainaRoseCarrieElkin-liveFromOldSettlersFest2012

 

The Blue Hit:

The Blue Hit finally played the main stage of the festival this year, but we recorded them out in the campground. They took the stage around 1:30am and played to a packed house. Everyone was super quiet, just sucking up all they could get out of this band. You can even hear the crowd do a meow-along, which is something I’ve never heard outside of a Blue Hit show. They are a great band and have just released two new records. Check ‘em out! http://archive.org/details/TheBlueHit-liveFromCampGoodtimes2012

 

Hendrikz McLeod:

Hendrikz McLeod did one of the very few electric sets in the campground this year. They are a very unique band from San Marcos, Texas. Their guitar player, Mike McLeod, is currently working with Ryan McGillicuddy on Ryan’s long-awaited album, due out later this summer. We’ll have a couple McGillicuddy sets coming soon, so stay tuned for that. Until then though, here is Hendrikz McLeod to get your booty shakin’: http://archive.org/details/HendrikzMcleod-liveFromCampGoodtimes2012

Wrapping up Old Settler’s Festival…. get ready for some amazing live music!

Aaaaaaaand we’re back! We just spent four days at this amazing festival recording as early as 1pm, and often as late as 4 or 5am. We have a lot of editing to do to cut these into sessions, cut the sessions into tracks, well… you get the idea. Here is a run down of what we will be bringing you just as soon as we get all the editing done:

Our normal format for main-stage acts is to have them play 3 or 4 songs for us, and in between the songs we do quick interviews. For campground sessions we record Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at Camp Goodtimes. Often there will be main-stage acts out at Camp Goodtimes too. When we are out there at Goodtimes we just record full sets with no interviews. We mic the stage and the crowd stays nice and quiet, so these sessions turn out great.

Railroad Earth: 3 songs with interview

James McMurtry: James wanted to just do an interview, so we talked politics for about 8 minutes. No live session for this one.

The Blue Hit: Full acoustic set, about half an hour, no interview.

New Country Rehab: 4 songs with interview

Greensky Bluegrass: 4 songs with interview

Milk Drive: Full acoustic set, a little longer than half an hour, no interview.

Country Willie: 2 full acoustic sets. 1 with a whole band, and 1 with just a drummer backing him.

Ryan McGillicuddy: 2 full acoustic sets. 1 louder, one softer.

Danny Malone: Full acoustic set.

Hendrickz McLeod: Full set, over half an hour.

The Bluegrass Outfit: Full acoustic set, anywhere from 8 to 12 musicians all jamming onstage at once. Intense and lovely.

Goodfield: Full set. Not sure how long.

Squinto!: Full acoustic set

Wood & Wire: Full acoustic set

Sam Baker, Carrie Elkin & Raina Rose: Sam, Carrie & Raina all stopped by at the same time, each did a song, then Carrie closed it out with an extra song.

Pine Leaf Boys: They got tied up at the festival and didn’t have time to come by. Sorry, folks!

 

We’ll get this music out to you as quickly as possible. We just wanted to touch base and let you know what’s coming, and what’s coming is a whole heck of a lot of great acoustic music!

It’s always a blast to go camping at Old Settler’s, do a bunch of recording, swim in Onion Creek, and come back with armloads of great music for y’all. It’ll always be free, and you can download it or just stream it, whatever works for you! Please tell your friends about our little blog. It’s a labor of love, we aren’t in it for the money, we just want to share this wonderful music with everyone… The best thing you can do for us is tell your friends, get the word out, and keep listening to acoustic music!

Old Settler’s Festival 25th anniversary…. next weekend!

Well folks, it’s that time of year again. We’ll be out at the Old Settler’s Music Festival bringing you plenty of great acoustic jams from some of your favorite artists.

What we do is take our mobile recording studio out to the festival, do some intimate recording sessions with some of the big acts out there, and give it all to you… for free, because we (like you) love acoustic music. So yeah, you can see these guys with thousands of your closest friends. Then when you get home you can download our sessions with them and hear something a little more homey, more personal, more conversational.

Here’s the list of folks we are working with this year. We will, of course, end up hooking up with other musicians unexpectedly out there, but these are the folks we have solid plans to record with:

Railroad Earth, James McMurtry, Sam Baker, The Blue Hit, The Pine Leaf Boys, New Country Rehab, Greensky Bluegrass, Carrie Elkin, Milk Drive, Raina Rose, Country Willie, Ryan McGillicuddy, Hendrikz McLeod, Danny Malone, The Bluegrass Outfit, Goodfield, Squinto!, Wood & Wire.

We are going to be busy!

It’s always fun out there in the beautiful Texas Hill Country, sharing these days with thousands of like-minded folks. Swimming in Onion Creek is always a highlight, as is music ’til dawn in the campground.

Come find us out at the festival. We’ll have our huge ol’ KAOS Radio banner and will be soaking up the sweet, sweet jams.

Rachel Brooke

 

I don’t know too darned much about Rachel Brooke, but I know that I do very much like her latest album Down In The Barnyard. Before that she made an album with Lonesome Wyatt (of Those Poor Bastards) that was about as Gothic Country as it gets. She’s on tour at the moment. Her supporting band, Viva Le Vox, served as her backing band while she was in the studio with us. Rachel is very talented, and very much worth checking out.

This was their first time playing together as a group, as they’d only hooked up with each other an hour or so before. Thus, you are about to hear the very first beginning of what will surely be a fruitful tour.

Here’s the session Rachel came and recorded with us:  http://archive.org/details/RachelBrooke-liveOnKaos2012

Here’s a great video of her and Lonesome Wyatt playing “Someday I’ll Fall”

Roger Alan Wade

Roger has been a long time supporter of the radio station I have a folk show on, and stops by every time he is in town to say hello and play some songs for us. We got to hear some of the new songs that will be on his upcoming record The Last Request of Elijah Rose, and were very happy to have the opportunity to hear them ahead of the album’s release.

Some of his records are serious, and others are absolutely not (the upcoming record is the former). I’m particularly a fan of his more serious work, because I feel that’s where he really shines as a songwriter. Some of his songs are just about as good as it gets. Listen to song 4 from our most recent session (linked below) to hear what I’m talking about. Roger has written songs for Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, George Jones and Hank Williams, Jr. One of these days I need to ask him exactly which songs, so I can go give ‘em a listen.

Anyhow, give a listen to his album Deguello Motel. The new album will be the follow up to Deguello, so it’ll get you ready for when The Last Request of Elijah Rose drops. Until then you can catch Roger’s Sirius XM show that he co-hosts with his cousin Johnny Knoxville. It’s called the Big Ass Happy Family Jubilee, and it’s on their Outlaw Country channel. Roger is a born entertainer, and it will make you laugh. I’m still smiling about the chants of “shrooms and moonshine” from the end of track 5 on this session. He said he wrote it with his friend Ryan Dunn shortly before he died in a car crash. That actually makes quite a bit of sense if you think about it.

 

Here’s the free download/stream for ya: http://archive.org/details/RogerAlanWade-liveOnKaosRadio2012

 

Here’s a pointless video to an excellent song: 

Jim White

Jim White stopped by the studio one night not too long ago. He brought his guitar, his girlfriend Megan, his songwriter buddy Sam Baker, and his manager Paul. He also brought a couple of other folks I didn’t get to meet because I was at the mixing dials with my headphones on for most of the time.

We talked about him working with various projects, the state of the music industry these days, and how his life is going. Jim’s a very warm, welcoming soul and is very easy to get along with. His buddy Sam played a song, and it’s included in this session (track 4). For the most part, though, Jim just played us some songs and his girlfriend Megan sang backup vocals. 

If you’re not familiar with Jim’s work, check out his Wikipedia page as a sort of primer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_White_(musician)    Also check out his wonderful movie ‘Searching For the Wrong Eyed Jesus’. It’s worth your time, to be sure.

Here’s a link to the session. You can download or stream it for free, as always. http://archive.org/details/JimWhite-liveOnKaosRadio2012

 

Here’s a really neat video of Jim’s Tiny Desk concert with NPR: 

And here is a cool song Jim plays called If Jesus Drove A Motorhome. Pretty awesome animated video too:

Ralph White

 

Ralph White is not of this earth.

Ralph is an arborist, a philosopher, and a folk musician. His eyes tell that he has seen this world, sang with its people, slept in the dirt, and walked down many a road to get to where he is going.

He has absorbed the whole of folk music, sat in quiet contemplation, chewed on it awhile, come to understand it all, and decided to give it back to us in a way nobody else ever has. Or ever will. Ralph is something else entirely.

The most memorable time I saw Ralph play was just him sitting on a stool, on a small dock, with a river behind him. It was night time and there were big, beautiful birds circling around us. Hearing him play his song River Daughter (track 2 in the included session) in this setting is something I never will forget. Though sometimes you’ll hear him play songs other people wrote, he has never once ‘covered’ a song. He makes all songs live their own lives through his finger bones and vocal chords.

Ralph stopped by the studio to play us a few songs a couple of weeks ago during the South By Southwest music festival. He and his very close cohort Amy Annelle (they play together in a wonderful band called Precious Blood) had, earlier that day, been busking outside of the Convention Center here in town. Someone with authority had the great idea to tell them that they needed to mosey on down the road. I guess the City of Austin doesn’t like Texas Music Hall of Famers playing their music for free, in front of thousands of people who have come to this city for the sole purpose of listening to music during the biggest industry festival of the year. I never will understand City officials in our supposed Live Music Capitol of the World.

Anyhow, here’s the set Ralph played for us. I’m rather fond of it, and hope you are too. If you’d like more information on his music, please visit his website at http://ralphewhite.com/

Free download or streaming, whatever you prefer: http://archive.org/details/RalphWhite-liveOnKaosRadio2012

Here’s a video of Ralph pickin’ on his banjo during our recent session:

Joe Sundell

I first heard Joe Sundell’s music when he was playing a small secret show in the woods. My friends and I hopped a creek bed and walked along some narrow animal trails. We followed the occasional tealight someone had placed in the dirt to let us know we were indeed still headed to the correct destination, and came to a small clearing where the audience and musicians were all circled ’round. Joe started his set and the audience got dead quiet. They, and I, were all ears. I was a fan from that night on.

Joe is an Arkansas native with a very easygoing way about him. It’s easy to imagine him sipping some iced tea and picking a banjo on a front porch in some rural part of Dixieland. He’s a soft spoken guy when he’s not in front of a microphone, but put a mic in front of him and he lights right up.

When we recorded this session we all hung out on the back porch, watched the sun go down, drank a little bourbon and had fun in the Texas heat. The shade from the big old Pecan trees sure didn’t hurt, either. Joe played some songs from his most recent album “Ramblin’ Mind”, a few new songs he had written while on tour, and some old traditional numbers too.

Here’s the link to the live session we did. As always, you can stream or download it for free. Please pass this music along, as it’s meant to be shared!

http://www.archive.org/details/JoeSundell-liveOnKaosRadio

Murry Hammond

 

 

Murry Hammond recently stopped by the studio to record a session with us. We talked a lot about old punk rock music and DIY shows, about the Central Texas punk and hardcore scene, and about his family. Murry loves his kids, and like the proud father he is, he loves to talk about them. We swapped stories and talked for awhile. Murry had just played a big gig in town and we wanted him to be able to have a little fun instead of just getting right down to business. He’s a very warm and welcoming Southern gentleman, and a pleasure to shoot the breeze with.

I’ll admit that I’ve been living under a rock because I have never really listened to Murry’s band, the Old 97s. I’ve had plenty of friends who were big fans and talked about them over the years, I just never got around to exploring them. It took me years to finally get around to Tom Waits and we all know how that turned out, so it’s nothing against the boys. My buddy El Demento, who set up this recording session, told me to check out Murry’s music. I looked him up on Grooveshark and found his solo album. I listened to it several times the day of the session we did with him, and was very impressed. There is a clarity and stillness in his songs which reminds me of spending Summers in Wimberley, TX growing up. They take me back to when life was simpler, and more cut-and-dry. I’m not really sure how to express my feelings other than that.

Please check out Murry’s solo album called “I Don’t Know Where I’m Going But I’m On My Way”. If you’re the type of person who reads this blog, I can confidently promise you that you WILL very much love this album.

Here’s a link to our recording session. You can stream or download everything for free. Thank you for listening!

http://www.archive.org/details/MurryHammond-liveOnKaosRadio2011

Reverend Glasseye

Reverend Glasseye stopped by the studio a couple of weeks ago to wow us with the newest songs he’s been working on.  It was just him with his guitar, and two cellists backing him up. Sounds like it’s going to be some sad music, yes? Well, mostly. It was a beautiful and sometimes melancholy rollercoaster ride of emotion.

Glasseye has been working with a local theater company scoring their production of Woyzeck. He played some songs from that, and some songs so new he has never recorded them before. The whole evening was bittersweet, because while it was a meeting between friends it was also a parting of friends. Well, at least for a time. The Rev is moving to India for awhile, hopefully not more than a year but then again, who knows where the world and life will take him? When he did this recording he only had about a week and a half before he hopped on a plane to leave all of his friends and live a new life among strangers in a land of beautiful poverty.

The music he has given us is wonderful and strange, just like the Rev himself.  I hope you enjoy what he gave us in the studio that night. I know I do.

Here’s a link to the Archive.org page where you can stream or download all of these songs for free. True to what I promised with the last post, these are all cut up into tracks (thanks Nick Dement!) so they are mp3-player-friendly.

http://www.archive.org/details/ReverendGlasseye-liveOnKaosRadio2011

Here’s a video shot during the session. A happysad song called Holocaust.