Ryan Bingham on Jay Leno This Week

The uber rising star, Ryan Bingham, will be on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this Friday night (April 11th).  Over the past few months, there has been a lot of talk about Ryan around the country.  As you may remember, Don Henry Ford jr. introduced us to Ryan Bingham last year with his piece on Ryan’s album Mescalito.  This album has turned into one of my favorites of 2007 and after catching Ryan live at Antone’s during South By Southwest I can say I’m a big fan!  If you don’t take Don and my opinion here are a few other folks that dig Bingham:

TAKE NOTE:
“A true pure source”
--Marc Ford (formerly of the Black Crowes)

“Ryan Bingham is great. If there’s ever been any doubt about great songwriters continuing to come from his part of the world, everyone can stop worrying now. He’s taking little bits of the old and making them his own with real stories that will make you cry, make you want to dance and sing along too. Ryan has his own voice, rare for someone of his years, and the heart and soul to back it up and make it a powerful thing.”
--Patty Griffin

“Chasin’ the Truth will set you Free. When it’s found, that’s when Hell hits the fan. Ryan Bingham’s sounds like he’s been hittin’ a hard road for the better part of his young life. His stories plant an Uppercut to the Gut and give a hint that Truth is on the run.”
--Joe Ely

“Ryan Bingham is the best songwriter and singer of songs to come along in a long time. He comes right out of the dirt truth of our deep human story and makes flat out from-the-heart music. I think Ryan is probably the closest legitimate heir to the hard traveling deep knowing likes of Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams alive right now. He wears a hat, but don’t let that throw you. What’s under the hat is more than most of those other hat guys have all put together. Ryan’s a whole other creature. He’s a true one.”
--Terry Allen

SXSW Day 2 - Thursday

After logging 12 hours the previous day listening to bands, I took it a little slower on Thursday.  I was able to talk my wonderful wife into joining me for the official SXSW Americana Music Association showcase at Antone’s.  We arrived at the legendary club around 7PM to catch Amy LaVere’s set.  This was my first time to catch Amy’s live show. She came out in a long flowery dress holding a bit upright bass while drinking a Guiness throughout most of the performance. She put on a great live set and was clearly excited to be part of the show.  After her set, Mike Farris took the stage.  I had heard a lot of praise for Mike but knew none of his music so I was excited to see what this was all about. He brought on stage what seemed to be a dozen other people complete with a three piece horn section, back up singers and more.  Mike Farris was part of a popular band known as the Screaming Cheetah Willies back some years ago.  Anyway, I kid you not when I say a star was born that night at Antone’s.  Mike put on a show of a lifetime which had me in awe for the hour long set.  This guy is amazing and I’ll be picking up his album this week.  After Mike, we were treated with an acoustic performance from the legendary, Joe Ely and Joel Guzman.  This was a great set which included bringing on Ryan Bingham for one of his songs as well as a tribute to Townes Van Zandt from the two.  I was thrilled to see Ryan Bingham as this is a guy that Don Henry Ford alerted me to earlier this year. His album Mescalto is an amazing piece of work from this singer/songwriter from New Mexico.  Having someone like Joe Ely bring you onstage never hurts either After Joe Ely’s set, we were treated to the always fantastic Buddy Miller. Buddy always amazes me with his seamlingly effortless guitar playing. This guy is so smooth and has such a wonderful voice.  He has a new CD coming out in the next few months so we were treated with a few songs off that.  The interesting piece of this set was the fact that he had two drummers on stage wailing away to back up Buddy.  As Buddy joked, he booked two just in case one didn’t show up We left the show prior to James McMurtry and Marcia Ball coming on stage.  I hated to miss my favorite McMurtry but by this time we were starving and needed some grub.  The AMA did a great job of lining up this year’s show.  I’d have to say Mike Farris stole the show but everyone was terrific.

SXSW Day 1

What a day.. I lost track of the count of bands I caught today but that’s why I love South By Southwest.  Today was the first official day of the 4 day long music festival although I have yet to officially register for the conference.  There’s a ton of side shows which keeps me bouncing from club to club throughout the week.  My day started off at Opal Devine’s on 6th street with an artist named Jason Eady. Jason did a great solo/acoustic which was part of a handful of great acts showcased by Pigeon’s Publicity.  I also caught a few songs from Jay Boy Adams and a great set from Walt Wilkins and Sam Baker.  Most of my day was spent over at Mother Egan’s Irish Pub for the massive Conqueroo‘s showcase. Cary Baker sure did bring out the big guns for this 9 hour long set of musicians.  Each artist played for around 25 minutes and the day was packed.  I was able to catch James McMurtry, Tom Freund, Shawn Mullins, Jon Dee Graham, Chip Robinson, Blue Mountain, Patty Hurst Shifter and The Drams.  I also checked out Palo Duro Record’s show over at Waterloo Ice House. They always do a bang up job of bringing out some terrific artists. They did a very cool round robin show with Trent Summar, Tommy Alverson, Dallas Wayne & Buzz Cason.  I logged a lot of time today with my good friend, Tom Osborne, over at Twangville.com and even got introduced to his co-writer Mayer of at Twangville.  All in all this was a fantastic day full of great music.  I logged around 12 hours of straight music today catching bands that rarely make it down to San Antonio.  This is what South By Southwest is all about! More to come tomorrow…

Tom Freund

member of The Silos stepping in with Tom

Shawn Mullins

Trent Summar, Tommy Alverson, Dallas Wayne, Buzz Cason

Patty Hurst Shifter

The Drams

Announcing Iphone Support

With the rollout of our completely revamped community, we are happy to announce that AmericanaRoots.com is fully accessible via your iPhone. This means you can take Americana Roots with you where ever you may roam!  This new iPhone enabled site is accessible by visiting www.AmericanaRoots.com/iphone and features all of the latest reviews, features and blogs available on our full site.  If you have an iphone, make sure you check it out and let us know what you think!

Here’s a screenshot of what a review will look like:

The Americana Showcase During SXSW

AmericanaRoots.com & Galleywinter.com proudly present:
The Americana Showcase during SXSW
Waterloo Ice House (6th & Lamar)
Friday, March 14th * 6PM - 1AM
Free Show / No Wristbands Required

AmericanaRoots.com, the #1 resource for Americana music reviews, news, podcasts and online radio is proud to present our 3rd Annual showcase during SXSW. This year we have partnered up with Galleywinter.com to bring our biggest show ever with seven bands on the bill.  Come join us for this free night of music (no wristbands required) and help show your support of Americana Music during this great week of music in Austin, Texas.

6PM Les Poissons Rouges
7PM Modern Day Drifters
8PM Drew Kennedy
9PM Wrinkle Neck Mules
10PM The Whipsaws (2nd top selling album on Milesofmusic.com)
11PM Mando Saenz (new album Bucket is #8 on the AMA radio chart)
12AM The Band of Heathens (voted Best New Band at the 2007 Austin Music Awards)

From The Ground Up

Notice anything different around here? Our surge in traffic (doubled from this time last year) and the constant performance problems with our old website have spurred on a need for change. The old system just couldn’t handle the load.  Over the past month, we have been working on re-building AR from the ground up on a professional content system.  This was a ton of work but in the end will be well worth the pain.  This new system gives us a speedy and streamlined way to get you the latest music reviews, news, podcasts and features relating to Americana.  We’re excited about this change and hope you’ll agree. One important aspect of our community that we’ll focus on is feedback.  We need your feedback to continually improve the site.  I look forward to hearing from all of you as we strive to be the #1 source of Americana Music.

Thanks,
Gregg