New Music Video From Ray Wylie Hubbard - "Look What The Cat Drug In"

New Music Video From Ray Wylie Hubbard - "Cassette Mix Tape"

New Music Video From Ray Wylie Hubbard - "Whiskey River"

New Music Video From Ray Wylie Hubbard & Willie Nelson - "Stone Blind Horses"

New Music Video From Ray Wylie Hubbard - "Naturally Wild"

Jackin' Around Podcast- Episode 6 - Jack Ingram Interviews Ray Wylie Hubbard (Part 2 of 2)

Jack Ingram has released ten studio albums, six live projects, and charted 12 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Charts, including a #1 hit, during his career. He recently won an ACM for Best Country Song in 2018 as co-writer of Miranda Lambert's "Tin Man," which was also nominated for a Grammy and a CMA award. He also has hosted my Golf & Guitars Music Festival over the years, helping raise nearly a million and a half dollars to help veterans, disadvantaged youth and those with disabilities in Northern California. For that, I'll be forever grateful. This is is his new Jackin' Around Podcast.

On this podcast, Jack interviews the legendary country-rocker Ray Wylie Hubbard. In the 1970s, Hubbard wrote “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother,” first made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker’s 1973 recording.  In 1976, he signed with Warner Bros. Records.  The result was “a botched sound” that Hubbard disapproved of vehemently, but the album was released despite his attempts to block it.

Throughout the 80’s and ’90s, Hubbard recorded albums for various other labels but struggled with the sales of his mix of country, folk, and blues.  Eventually, a steady following began to re-discover Hubbard’s music, and he has been recording steadily since.  His guitar technique uses a strumming by the left (fretting) hand that is very old but not frequently seen in double time without changing the right-hand beat.

Since 2000, Hubbard has released ten records, including ‘Snake Farm’ in 2006.  Most recently, in 2020, Hubbard signed his first major-label release since 1978 on Big Machine Records.  ‘Co-Starring’ is a set of collaborations featuring Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Don Was, and Black Crowe’s frontman Chris Robinson.

This is the second of a two-part podcast. 

Jackin' Around Podcast- Episode 6 - Jack Ingram Interviews Ray Wylie Hubbard (Part 1 of 2)

Jack Ingram has released ten studio albums, six live projects, and charted 12 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Charts, including a #1 hit, during his career. He recently won an ACM for Best Country Song in 2018 as co-writer of Miranda Lambert's "Tin Man," which was also nominated for a Grammy and a CMA award. He also has hosted my Golf & Guitars Music Festival over the years, helping raise nearly a million and a half dollars to help veterans, disadvantaged youth and those with disabilities in Northern California. For that, I'll be forever grateful. This is is his new Jackin' Around Podcast.

On this podcast, Jack interviews the legendary country-rocker Ray Wylie Hubbard. In the 1970s, Hubbard wrote “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother,” first made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker’s 1973 recording.  In 1976, he signed with Warner Bros. Records.  The result was “a botched sound” that Hubbard disapproved of vehemently, but the album was released despite his attempts to block it.

Throughout the 80’s and ’90s, Hubbard recorded albums for various other labels but struggled with the sales of his mix of country, folk, and blues.  Eventually, a steady following began to re-discover Hubbard’s music, and he has been recording steadily since.  His guitar technique uses a strumming by the left (fretting) hand that is very old but not frequently seen in double time without changing the right-hand beat.

Since 2000, Hubbard has released ten records, including ‘Snake Farm’ in 2006.  Most recently, in 2020, Hubbard signed his first major-label release since 1978 on Big Machine Records.  ‘Co-Starring’ is a set of collaborations featuring Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Don Was, and Black Crowe’s frontman Chris Robinson.

New Music Video From Ray Wylie Hubbard - "Rock Gods" (Live on Austin City Limits)

New Walt Wilkins Tribute Album In The Works

Eight 30 Records is working at putting the finishing touches on a new project honoring one of country music's greatest living songwriters: If It Weren't for You: A Tribute to Walt Wilkins.  

Wilkins' work has been likened to the greatest and most timeless of the Texas/American troubadours: Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, and Kevin Welch among others. It's a John Steinbeck comparison that means the most to him, however. "It was in a review of 'Fire, Honey & Angels,' in Country Standard Time. That's a remark to keep close." Wilkins says. "I have written poetry since I was in grade school, and songs for over twenty years now. It means an awful lot to be mentioned in the same sentence as someone with as much gravity as Steinbeck.. I do try to take my given work in the world seriously, and try not to shy away from the heavy subjects in life: commitment, faith, death."

The project is being helmed by the same crew that released The Messenger: A Tribute to Ray Wylie Hubbard this past year. While a list of artists hasn't been confirmed for this project, that project for Hubbard included the likes of The Band of Heathens, Ray Benson, Bobby Bare, Radney Foster, Slaid Cleaves, Rodney Crowell and more. 

A fundraising effort is going on to finish off the project that you can read more about HERE. 

Jenni Finlay is helming the project there at Eight 30 and says this about the fundraising efforts, "The amounts vary from project to project, but here are the rough amounts for the Walt tribute. The studio and engineer cost about $8000. We are paying all of the performers and artists – which isn’t typical but is RIGHT – and that’s another $10,000. Mixing and mastering will probably be in the $6,000 range. Travel for players and producers from Austin and Nashville and points between probably will be $5,000 and up. Then you have to press CDs, which is anywhere from $2,000-$5,000. After all that, there is back-end money to be spent on art design, packaging, promotion and publicity. Ring up at least another $15,000. Your support will mean everything to us – not to mention Walt! – and seriously will help the cause. Thank you so much in advance!"

The album is hoping to be released in the first half of 2021. 

New Music Video From The Band of Heathens and Ray Wylie Hubbard - "Papa Was A Rolling Stone"

New Music Video From Ray Wylie Hubbard - "Drink Till I See Double"

That Nashville Sound Saturday Newsbytes - Unheard Johnny Cash, New Moonpies, New Videos and Dani Rucker

With our nation at odds with itself on many topics including politics, race relations, COVID-19 response and who knows what else, here's hoping that music can continue to be a respite from the rest of the noise and be a place that brings you comfort and bliss on this Saturday morning.

~ Many Texas singer-songwriters have been doing a digital guitar pull dedication show across Facebook every Monday night that has quite possibly been the musical highlight of this music fan since the quarantine began. The group has paid tribute to some legendary musicians such as John Prine,  Joe Diffie, Willie Nelson, George Strait, Dolly Parton, Tom T. Hall and Don Williams. Monday night, June 1st, catch the tribute to Guy Clark starting at 6pm CDT. As for the featured songwriters, the list is star studded with some of your favorites such as Jamie Lin Wilson, Walt Wilkins, Heather and Max Stalling, Drew Kennedy, Courtney Patton, Cody Canada, Jason Eady, Josh Abbott, Mike Harmeier and Wade Bowen… the list goes on. You can watch it on their Facebook page HERE.

~ Darius Rucker now might have the second-best vocals in his house. The Opry member and Hootie frontman made the best of stay at home orders and family time and decided to play around with garage band and put his producer hat on. With his daughter Dani Rucker back home from college, she joined on lead vocals on a new track called "I Don't Love You Like That." 

~ New music videos from the last couple of days: 

      Charlie Crockett - "Welcome To Hard Times"

      Marc Broussard - "Fire on the Bayou"

      Cam - "Redwood Tree"

      Ray Wylie Hubbard and The Cadillac Three - "Fast Left Hand"

      John Berry - "The Graduation Song"

      Courtney Marie Andrews - "It Must Be Someone Else's Fault"

      Jordan Davis - "Church in a Chevy"

      

~ Vlogger Grady Smith broke down the many sub-genres of country music for the "beginner."  

~ Be sure to check out the phenomenal new album from Mike and the Moonpies. The full-length album is called 'Touch of You - The Lost Songs of Gary Stewart.' The most interesting piece of news about this project is that these are unreleased tracks (circa: 70s and 80s) from country music icon Gary Stewart. The band has been working closely with Stewart's daughter, Shannon, and his longtime friend/confidante Tommy Schwartz to get these songs recorded and out in to the world.  The band had initially intended to release this album later this year. Due to circumstances with COVID-19//tour dates on hold, they decided to finish recording it and release it early on Stewart's birthday, May 28. The album was produced by Adam Odor and recorded remotely from each band member's home studios and at yellow DOG Studios in Wimberley, TX. One highlight to note is "Smooth Shot of Whiskey" featuring Mark Wystrach from Midland. Other guests include harmony vocal help from Jamie Lin Wilson (“Heart A Home”), Courtney Patton (“Heart A Home,” “Dance With Barbara”) and Zac Wilkerson (“The Gold Barstool”). 

~ Despite the struggles independent musicians have been facing recently, twenty-five Texas artists have banded together to help raise money and awareness for a population of people with even greater struggles than their own. The group of singer-songwriters, along with notable band and orchestral musicians, have joined forces as the Fort Worth Musicians Choir, to support the area’s struggling refugee community, with the release of their grand version of the Willie Nelson classic “Living in the Promiseland,” written by David Lynn Jones and originally released by Nelson in 1986. All proceeds from the song and video, as well as an upcoming benefit concert scheduled for June 21st in Fort Worth, benefit the Refugee Services of Texas, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to finding homes and jobs for, educating, and acclimating the area's refugee population. You can listen to the track HERE. 

~ Johnny Cash’s often overlooked and underappreciated chapter of his body of work will be showcased with a suite of releases via Mercury/UMe including a comprehensive new box set, The Complete Mercury Recordings 1986-1991, and a new greatest hits album, Easy Rider: The Best Of The Mercury Recordings, a newly assembled collection that compiles 24 highlights selected from Cash’s Mercury catalog. The CD version of The Complete Mercury Recordings 1986-1991 is augmented with several rare or previously unreleased tracks and an additional 20-track disc of spare early mixes aptly titled Classic Cash: Hall Of Fame Series (Early Mixes), mastered from tapes newly discovered in the Mercury vaults.  

New Music Video From Ray Wylie Hubbard and Ashley McBryde - "Outlaw Blood"

That Nashville Sound Saturday Newsbytes - New Music Videos & New Albums From Ray Wylie Hubbard & Crystal Shawanda

Things around the world seem to be trending in the right direction. With rare exception, hospitals are far less busy than they thought they might be and the estimates that experts are throwing around for COVID-19 fatalities drops by the day.  Hopefully, we can continue this trend and get our music venues open sooner than later so our favorite artists can do what they do.

~ Fresh off a new record deal with Big Machine Records, Texas legend Ray Wylie Hubbard announced that his July 10 release will be a star-studded affair called "Co-Starring."  The renegade poet as a roadhouse saint brought together an eclectic mix of guests for Co-Starring, his first ever high-profile label release. Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, Ronnie Dunn, Don Was, Larkin Poe, Pam Tillis and The Cadillac Three were just a few who clamored to jam, sing and generally be in the studio with the wizened icon.
Included are bluegrass/folk legend Peter Rowan on the tender “Hummingbird,” emerging Nashville renegade Ashley McBryde on the tough girl homage “Outlaw Blood,” SiriusXM femme fatales Paula Nelson and Elizabeth Cook on the randy “Drink ‘Til I See Double” or the trippy rocker Aaron Lee Tasjan on the elegiac “Rock Gods."

~ Jamie Lin Wilson covered John Prine this week.  As usual, she's divine on "You Got Gold."

~ Tim McGraw released a video shot last year with him covering "All The Gold in California" with LOCASH.

~ Jack Ingram went to Facebook with a new track appropriate for the times called "Times Like These."

~ Jason Eady (with an assist from his bride Courtney Patton) played an hour and a half of songs that influenced his own songwriting from his living room.

~ First Nation artist Crystal Shawanda has released a new blues album called Church House Blues.  Shawanda is an Indigenous musician, who grew up on the Wikwemikong reserve on an island in Ontario, Canada. Her parents taught her to sing and play guitar and encouraged her to play country songs, but she grew up in a home filled with the music her oldest brother loved most: the blues.

She was signed as country artist to RCA Records in 2007 producing a Top 20 hit on country radio, sold over 50,000 copies in the US, went Top 20 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart, but left Crystal feeling like a fish out of water. While on the road promoting the album, visiting
radio stations she wrote “The Whole World’s Got the Blues,” inspired by the music she loved to overhear in her youth. She told RCA Nashville she wanted to make blues albums, formed her own label and began making the blues music that to Crystal, is her true calling.

Now signed to True North Records, Church House Blues is Crystal’s fourth blues album. Crystal has performed for the Obamas in the 2013 Inauguration and she has served as a board of director for Nike 7 for the past 11 years.

~ New music videos over the last couple days:

      Ray Scott - "Wander"
      Kip Moore - "Southpaw"
      Abby Anderson - "I'll Still Love You"
      Darrell Scott - "Lost Highway"
      Jamie Lin Wilson - "Death and Life"
      Lucas and Willie Nelson & Family - "Just Outside of Austin"
      Ray Wylie Hubbard - "Bad Trick"

Sold Out Tribute-Benefit Show At Historic Gruene Hall To Hal Ketchum A Celebrated Texas All-Star Success

A sold-out tribute-benefit show Sunday in New Braunfels celebrated Hal Ketchum and acted as a fundraiser to his medical needs to help him fight Alzheimer’s.  The celebration at Gruene Hall was titled “Raised by Wolves: Bound for Glory — A Texas Tribute to Hal Ketchum.”

Those that appeared in the show included Walt Wilkins, Jamie Lin Wilson, Wade Bowen, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Slaid Cleaves, Jesse Dayton, Lee Roy Parnell, Randy Rogers, Bruce Robison, Kelly Wills, Kevin Fowler and more.

A GoFundMe has been started on behalf of the singer-songwriter to help with mounting medical costs and living expenses. “Hal dedicated his life to writing, singing, and performing for his fans worldwide,” reads the post on the crowd-funding site. “He’s played hundreds of benefits, supporting causes and those in need. Any help that you can give Hal and his family is graciously appreciated, whether it’s a dollar or ten, it doesn’t matter. All donations go to the Hal Ketchum Medical Fund.”

And while most of the country may have missed the incredible dedication to their friend down in Texas this past weekend, you can watch the concert in its entirety below. 

New Ray Wylie Hubbard Tribute Album Features Outstanding Collection Of Americana Artists

Artists: A Who's Who Of Americana Artists

Album: The Messenger: A Tribute to Ray Wylie Hubbard

Label: Eight 30 Records

Release date: August 2019

The Messenger: A Tribute to Ray Wylie Hubbard, a new collection from Eight 30 Records, features performances by a who’s who of Americana music including Rodney Crowell(“In Times of Cold”), Bobby Bare (“Snake Farm”), Charlie Musselwhite (“Resurrection”), Tom Russell(“Dust of the Chase”), James McMurtry (“The Messenger”), Terri Hendrix (“Without Love”), Jonathan Tyler (“Wanna Rock N Roll”) and others. “We're so proud of this record,” says Jenni Finlay, who co-produced the set with label co-owner Brian T. Atkinson. “We are so excited to celebrate one of our very favorite songwriters and humans alive today.” Additionally, James McMurtry and his band served as the “house band” on several key tracks on the album, which was released digitally on August 16 and is scheduled for a physical release later this fall.

The album serves as a companion to Atkinson’s new book The Messenger: The Songwriting Legacy of Ray Wylie Hubbard, published by Texas A&M University Press. “You know, I've never thought about my songwriting legacy,” Hubbard admits. “I guess I’ve written some pretty cool songs that nobody else seems to be writing. As guess as far as legacy, I hope it’s that I wrote some cool, badass songs. Some sold and some didn’t. Most didn’t.” The Messenger features forewords by Jerry Jeff Walker and Hayes Carll and marks Atkinson's third book for TAMU Press, following I'll Be Here in the Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt (2012) and Kent Finlay, Dreamer: The Musical Legacy Behind Cheatham Street Warehouse (2016), co-written with Jenni Finlay.

“Ray Wylie Hubbard has been overlooked in the conversation about great Texas songwriters for far too long,” Atkinson says. “He shouldn't be passed by. As several dozen songwriters within these pages proclaim, Hubbard has created a catalog over the past four decades deserving mention among the catalogs of monumental tunesmiths such as Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Lightnin' Hopkins, Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury, Billy Joe Shaver and Townes Van Zandt.” All the songwriters on the tribute — including Texans Slaid Cleaves, Scott H. Biram, The Band of Heathens, Ray Benson, Walt Wilkins, Radney Foster, Shinyribs, Chris Fullerton and others — effortlessly back the claim.

Finlay and Atkinson plan to follow The Messenger by celebrating another Texas treasure with If It Weren’t for You: A Tribute to Walt Wilkins (Eight 30 Records, fall 2021). Iconic Guy Clark sideman Verlon Thompson started recording sessions recently by cutting the title track.

The Messenger: A Tribute to Ray Wylie Hubbard track list: 

James McMurtry • The Messenger
The Band of Heathens • Drunken Poets Dream
Ray Benson • Easy Money Down in Texas
Charlie Musselwhite • Resurrection
Bobby Bare • Snake Farm
Radney Foster • Screw You, We're from Texas
Tom Russell • Dust of the Chase
Tim Easton • Conversation with the Devil
Scott Biram • Chickens
Slaid Cleaves • The Sun Also Rises
Walt Wilkins • Wishbones
Shinyribs • Whoop and Hollar
Rod Picott • Portales
Jon Dee Graham • Mother Blues
Terri Hendrix • Without Love
Chris Fullerton (feat. Slaid Cleaves) • Stone Blind Horses
Jonathan Tyler • Wanna Rock and Roll
Rodney Crowell • In Times of Cold

Live at the Grand Ole Opry - Ray Wylie Hubbard and Pam Tillis - "The Messenger"

New Music Video From Eric Church - "Desperate Man" (feat. Ray Wylie Hubbard)

Hear It Here: Eric Church's New Single, "Desperate Man"

“Desperate Man,” Church’s first single off the forthcoming new album, was made available everywhere this week. Co-written by Church with Oklahoma-Texas music icon Ray Wylie Hubbard, “Desperate Man” sees Church again collaborating with producer Jay Joyce. ­­­

It's great to see the ongoing relationship between Church and Hubbard. Church name-checked Hubbard on his 2015 song "Mr. Misunderstood," and Hubbard recruited Church to provide backing vocals on the title track to his latest album, "Tell the Devil I'm Getting There as Fast as I Can." Hubbard is a Texas music legend and it's great to see Church putting a little mainstream spotlight on the native Oklahoman's considerable songwriting talents.

Hear It Here: The Texas Red Dirt Choir's "Faith In The Water"

For the writers and singers of “Faith in the Water” this new song is more than a song, it’s a statement. A statement of resolve that’s as big as the State from which it hails. Written by singer-songwriters Roger Creager and Kyle Hutton, the song paints a picture of the despair, hope, and determination on the faces of their friends and neighbors in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and accomplishes a feat possibly unmatched in Texas Music history.... Twenty-five of the Texas's most accomplished artists have joined their hearts and voices to form The Texas Red Dirt Choir in a quest to raise money for those affected by the $190 billion dollar storm.

 

“Faith in the Water” reflects more than just the generosity of the front-men and women that sing on the project. The song, recorded in famed Bismeaux Studios (Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel), features an incredible list of artists that make up the Texas Red Dirt Choir:

Josh Abbott, Bri Bagwell, Ray Benson, Jason Boland, Wade Bowen, Roger Creager, Deryl Dodd, Kevin Fowler, Susan Gibson, Pat Green, Josh Grider, Kristi Grider, Matt Hillyer, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Kyle Hutton, Jack Ingram, Cody Johnson, Micky and Gary Braun of Micky & The Motorcars, Mike Harmeier of Mike & The Moonpies, Cory Morrow, Kyle Park, Dave Perez, Willy and Cody Braun of Reckless Kelly, Heather Stalling, Max Stalling, Larry Joe Taylor, Koe Wetzel, and Jamie Lin Wilson. Also featuring - Curtis Lee, Sheree Smith, Demetrius D-Soul Davis, Ange Kogutz

 Download, stream, donate, SHARE:  www.faithinthewater.org