Each week, the 75+ chart reporting Americana Music Association radio stations submit their playlist for the previous week. This chart, which is available on the AmericanaRadio.org website, is a compass if you will of Americana. For the past 3 weeks, Buddy & Julie Miller, have held onto the #1 slot with their new release “Written In Chalk”. In addition, there were a number of new adds this week which can be a measure to highly anticipated new releases coming out.
Top 10 of 3/30/2009
1.) Buddy & Julie Miller – Written in Chalk
2.) Willie Nelson & Asleep At the Wheel – Willie and the Wheel
3.) J.J. Cale – Roll On
4.) Justin Townes Earle – Midnight at the Movies
5.) The Gourds – HayMaker!
6.) Gurf Morlix – Last Exit To Happyland
7.) Ruthie Foster – The Truth According To Ruthie Foster
8.) Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
9.) Raul Malo – Lucky One
10.) Jason Isbell and the 400LB Unit – Self Titled
Top New Album Adds For This Week
1.) Slaid Cleaves – Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away
2.) The Greencards – Fascination
3.) The Flatlanders – Hills And Valleys
3.) Doug Sahm Tribute – Keep Your Soul: A Tribute To Doug Sahm
5.) Sarah Watkins – Sara Watkins
Last week, the US government, announced its plan to bail out struggling record labels as a part of the stimulus plan. The initial payout amount is set at $350 billion dollars which will be spread across all of the remaining record labels (Warner Music, EMI, Sony Music and Universal). Proponents of the plan applaud government actions to restore a bureaucratic sense to music. We here at AmericanaRoots.com, interviewed John Townes at the consumer watchdog group “Wax Is Back” regarding this monumental plan to buy back all of the toxic assets in the music industry. John says “This plan is critically important in the preservation of our musical landscape. It is important that we rid radio of the 95% of garbage they play and push in music which is deemed good by the government”. As our research staff dives into this stimulus plan, we have found some amazing examples of how our music history will be completely rewritten with the removal of back catalogs from bands like: Milli Vanili, The Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block and pretty much all music that comes from the 80’s. As we look to the future, some questions have been raised about how this government help will change the direction of music. We here at AmericanaRoots.com are dedicated to monitoring this change moving forward.
Forgive my rant but… I received an e-mail yesterday announcing the release of Shooter Jennings’ new Greatest Hit album entitled “
This show was upbeat and a lot of fun to be a part of. He played a few Mavericks songs along with some tunes off his new album “Lucky One” which is just my style. The whole vibe had a pulp fiction feel to it with all the ladies dancing which was pretty cool.
