New West

Hiatt själv placerar "The Eclipse Sessions" vid sidan om två av sina bästa album - 1987 år "Bring the Family" (med Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe och Jim Keltner) och "Crossing Muddy Waters" från 2000. "The three albums are very connected in my mind", säger Hiatt. "They all have a vibe to them that was unexpected. I didn't know where I was going when I started out on any of them. And each one wound up being a pleasant surprise."

McPherson J.D.: Socks 2018 [CD]

John Hiatt i samarbete med producenten och mästermusikern Jerry Douglas i klassiska RCA Studio B i Nashville.

Steve Earle & The Dukes album "Terraplane" är en stark uppföljare till 2013 års album "The Low Highway". Earle backas av sitt trogna band The Dukes (Kelly Looney, Will Rigby, Chris Masterson och Eleanor Whitmore) och plattan producerades av R.S. Field (Buddy Guy, John Mayall). "Terraplane" släpps som enkel CD, deluxe CD/DVD, digitalt och som 180g vinyl. Deluxe- versionen innehåller 24-bit high-res audio plus en lång intervju med Earle gjord av journalisten Mark Jacobson. Dessutom bjuds vi på tre liveinspelade akustiska låtar och en "behind-the-scenes" film om inspelningen av plattan. <br/><br/>"Terraplane" har lånat titeln från en bilmodell från 30-talet som inspirerade Robert Johnson till att skriva "Terraplane Blues". Plattan är Earles 16:e studioalbum sedan utgivningen av den klassiska debuten "Guitar Town" 1986. <br/><br/>Som titeln antyder handklar det denna gången om en kraftiskt bluesinfluerad platta. Earle, som växte upp utanför San Antonio innan han flyttade till Houston, säger om Texas blues: "There was Fort Worth where the model was Freddy King, and there was the Houston scene which was dominated by Lightnin' Hopkins. Two very different styles". Earle såg båda dessa giganter live och lyssnade även flitigt till Johnny Winter, Jimmy och Stevie Ray Vaughn och Billy Gibbons. Samtliga dessa har gjort sina avtryck hos Earle, vilket tydligt kan höras på "Terraplane".<br/><br/>I sina "liner notes" till "Terraplane" skriver Steve Earle: ".the blues are anything but superficial. In fact, they run so deep and dark and close to the bone that folks walk around everyday with the blues as though it were perfectly natural for a human being to go on living with a broken heart. For my part, I've only ever believed two things about the blues: one, that they are very democratic, the commonest of human experience, perhaps the only thing that we all truly share and two, that one day, when it was time, I would make this record".<br/><br/>Trots allt prat om blues ska man inte förledas att tro att detta är ännu en platta med standardblues. Nej, det är ännu en uppvisning av den mästerlige låtskrivaren Steve Earle.

Earle Steve & the Dukes: Times Like These [Vinyl 7"]

Som titeln antyder är nya plattan en hyllning till läromästaren och vännen Jerry Jeff Walker, som dog hösten 2020, 78 år gammal. <br/><br/>Med "Jerry Jeff" kompletterar Steve Earle den serie hyllningsplattor som inleddes med 2009 års "Townes" (Townes van Zandt), fortsatte med 2029 års "Guy" (Guy Clark) och som nu avslutas med "Jerry Jeff".<br/><br/>2021 gav Steve Earle dessutom ut "J.T.", en fin men smärtsam hyllningen till sonen Justin Townes Earle, som dog 2020, endast 38 år.<br/><br/>"The records were recorded and released in the order in which they left this world. But make no mistake - it was Jerry Jeff Walker who came first," says Earle.<br/> <br/>Earle was 14 when he first heard Walker. His high school drama teacher gave him a copy of "Mr. Bojangles," Walker's classic ballad about an unforgettable character he met in a New Orleans jail. After Earle moved to Nashville in the 1970s, he had the opportunity to get to know Walker, who enlisted him as his designated driver.<br/>"There's a tendency to think of Jerry Jeff around a relationship to one song," Earle says, referring to "Mr. Bojangles," which was covered by everyone from Bob Dylan to Sammy Davis Jr. "He was also such a great interpreter of other people's songs. But my main purpose in recording this album was to remind people that he wrote a lot of fucking great songs."

McMurtry James: The horses and the hounds 2021 [Digipack / CD]