Tour Starts this week; First Solo Full-Length Album Since 2006's ‘Nuclear Daydream' to be Released in 2010.

By Blurt Staff

"Jo is one of those rare writer-performers where you get the sense, whatever your belief, that something greater is being channeled through his music and voice...Like Patti Smith, Grant Lee Phillips, Thom Yorke, he trances, and the voice, the meaning, becomes bigger than him, bigger than a few pop chords or words strung together. It touches something very deep and universal." - Michael Stipe (for the LA Times)

Armed with an acoustic guitar, little electronic boxes and some magic, songsmith and visual artist Joseph Arthur is set to premiere inspired one-man looping orchestrations of his back catalog - everything from ‘Big City Secrets' to ‘Temporary People' and beyond - for his upcoming U.S. solo tour this winter.

Following the release of 2008's acclaimed ‘Temporary People' by the Lonely Astronauts and his four-EP solo collection, Joseph seized 2009 with an ongoing exhibition of his paintings at Toronto's 360 Gallery, television placements of new music in "House," "Lie to Me," "Hung" and "Friday Night Lights", the release of a coloring book comprised of his artwork, ‘Color Me Courageous,' two sold-out European tours (Arthur bootlegs himself and has made every show available for purchase), writing for his poetry blog, a continuing residency at NYC's City Winery, bicycling and painting - all the while crafting his first solo follow-up to ‘Nuclear Daydream' in his Brooklyn studio.   



Tour Dates:

Dec 30 - Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda's
Jan 1 - New York, NY  City Winery
Jan 12, 13 - Vancouver, BC Railway Club
Jan 15,16 - Seattle, WA Triple Door
Jan 17 - Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
Jan 19,20  - San Francisco, CA Rickshaw Shop
Jan 22,23 - Los Angeles, CA Troubadour
Jan 29 - New York, NY City Winery
 Feb 5,6 - Austin, TX  Cactus Cafe

A few surprises and a few expected entries.

By Blurt Staff

The Americana Music Association recently announced its year end Top 100 Albums of the Year - as expected, Buddy & Julie Miller and Steve Earle topped the chart, but among the surprises lurking in the Top 10 listings were Slaid Cleaves, the Tejas Brothers and Earle's kid Justin Townes Earle.

It's been a good year for Americana, and things will get even better next year, in a sense, when the Grammys formally recognize Americana as a bonafide musical genre rather than trying to shoehorn some of those types of artists into other categories.

The Top 100 albums are based on those records reported during the period of November 17, 2008 through November 16, 2009. (Note that a number of them also made the BLURT Top 50 for 2009.) The Top Ten most played albums, as charted on the Americana Airplay Chart are:

1. Buddy & Julie Miller

2. Steve Earle

3. Slaid Cleaves

4. Flatlanders

5. Willie Nelson and Asleep At The Wheel

6. Gourds

7. Tejas Brothers

8. Levon Helm

9. Justin Townes Earle

10. J.J.Cale

To view the full 2009 Top 100 Albums visit the www.americanaradio.org and click the Top 100 Albums link or click HERE.

Longtime Avett Brothers-related collectibles finally see a wide release.

By Blurt Staff

Ramseur Records will re-release all of Seth Avett's solo albums - originally released under the moniker Timothy Seth Avett as Darling - this week in both physical format and digitally via iTunes. Considered rarities by Avett Brothers fans (only a few hundred copies were pressed up), the timing is apt, considering that 2009 marked a watershed year for the Avetts, whose Rick Rubin-produced I and Love and You has been turning up on many a year-end best-of list (including BLURT's).

Avett released a statement explaining the genesis of the recording projects:

"In the year 2001, at twenty-one years of age, I recorded an album entitled To Make the World Quiet. The inspiration for the piece was urgent and impatient.  There was no managerial or label involvement. There was no funding. Without any consideration towards who (if anyone) would hear the result of this outing, I happily executed each aspect of the process, including all writing, performance of each instrument, engineering and modest production.  The following year, I again, by the same process was obliged to record an album.  Killing the Headlamps was the realization of this second venture as ‘Darling'.  Both albums were made on a 4-track cassette recorder. I initially mixed them both on a low-fidelity home stereo in my kitchen (to yet another cassette).  I spent a perhaps unhealthy amount of time with a ruler, an X-acto knife, and a real-time dual-deck cd duplicator, hand-assembling these two albums (along with the first couple thousand units of the first official Avett Brothers recording Country Was).  

"Until New Years Eve 2010, the only physical copies of these records laid in the hands of maybe a few hundred people that I sold them to personally.  I have been honored by the continued interest in these early works as expressed by those who have inquired about them at Avett performances.  It is this kind inquiry that has inspired me again; this time to make them readily available through a proper duplication and ordering process." 

Starting on December the 30th in Knoxville, TN, the first two ‘Darling' records (in addition to The Mourning, The Silver, The Bell), will be available at each Avett Brothers performance through January the 3rd.  From then on, all three albums can be obtained from the website (www.timothysethavettasdarling.com) by download or through a mail-order process for the actual physical copies.  They will be available on iTunes as well, starting December 29th.

In addition, a set of  5 videos have been created by Crackerfarm to coincide not only with the newfound availability of these recordings, but with the New Year as well. Each video is a one-camera/one-angle performance of a song from one of the 3 ‘Darling' records.  These visual pieces are defined by their simplicity, as there has been no editing or audio overdubbing of any kind.

Starting today, December 28^th two of these videos have been posted to Avett's site - and for the next three weeks, a new video will be posted on Monday morning at ten o'clock (EST) on the Darling website [http://www.timothysethavettasdarling.com/videos].

One possible way to spend that Christmas money...

By Fred Mills

How many out there got some cash for Christmas? Haven't squandered it yet on hookers, blow and other toxic assets yet? U2 has an offer you may or may not want to refuse, but if you did in fact score 50 bucks, that'll get you an annual subscription to the band's fan club at U2.com.

Those things are usually total ripoffs, of course, particularly those elusive promises of premium seats (that wind up to be expensive and not-so-premium) and sundry website "exclusives" such as videos, photos, band diaries, etc. (that eventually turn up for free elsewhere). However, this time around the band is going to serve up a remix album titled Artificial Horizon, comprising remixes (duh) from the No Line on the Horizon album. Admittedly, that was a pretty tepid affair, as we pointed out some time ago. But maybe this will help up the ante somewhat, even if you'll basically be paying $50 for a single CD in hopes that it tops that dollar amount on eBay sometime in the future.

Here's the info as posted at the U2.com site - go there for details on how to sign up.

It's almost 15 years since the remix CD 'Melon' was released exclusively to subscribers of the band's magazine Propaganda. Now comes 'Artificial Horizon' , an all-new limited edition album of U2 remixes only for U2.com subscribers. From Trent Reznor's remix of 'Vertigo' to Jacknife Lee's take on 'Fast Cars' and David Holmes's remix of 'Beautiful Day', this specially produced 13-track CD features stretches from the Grand Jury Mix of 'If God Will Send His Angels in 1997 to the Fish Out Of Water mix of Get On Your Boots. Conceived and produced for U2.com subscribers. 'Artificial Horizon' will be mailed to qualifying subscribers from late January 2010.

Donate now - it's easy, straight through PayPal - if you want to help defray the family's medical expenses.

By Fred Mills

In the wake of the sad news of Vic Chesnutt's death on Christmas (details here), his close friend Kristin Hersh has established a website where fans and friends can donate funds via PayPal to Chesnutt's family. Presumably some relatively high medical bills accrued in the wake of Chesnutt's suicide attempt (by overdose) and subsequent coma and hospitalization.

Friday Hersh Twittered the following note: "JesseCASH has set up a donation page for all of you asking to help Vic's family -  thank you for all your love & support." At the page, in addition to the donation link, is Hersh's tribute to Chesnutt, which reads, in part:

What this man was capable of was superhuman. Vic was brilliant, hilarious and necessary; his songs messages from the ether, uncensored. He developed a guitar style that allowed him to play bass, rhythm and lead in the same song - this with the movement of only two fingers. His fluid timing was inimitable, his poetry untainted by influences. He was my best friend.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to listen to his music again, but I know how vital it is that others hear it. When I got the phone call I'd been dreading for the last fifteen years, I lost my balance. My whole being shifted to the left; I couldn't stand up without careening into the wall and I was freezing cold. I don't think I like this planet without Vic; I swore I would never live here without him. But what he left here is the sound of a life that pushed against its constraints, as all lives should. It's the sound of someone on fire. It makes this planet better.

Almost as much fun as that National Lampoon magazine cover involving the dog!

By Blurt Staff

While you ponder the true meaning of Christmas - the above image was posted to the web by the good folks at Craftastrophe.net, who meditate upon whether it's a statement on the commerciality of the season or simply an attempt to shock and offend - we'd like to wish everyone a merry one.

Is the spiritual side of Christmas being held hostage by the commercial side? We don't know; we just like getting gifts. But we do attend Christmas Eve services, just to hedge our bets.

Anyway, thanks for all the support, encouragement, brickbats and free music over the past 12 months, folks. See you in 2010!

Much loved Athens singer-songwriter passes away following an overdose of muscle relaxants; had been in a coma since early yesterday.

By Fred Mills

 Vic Chesnutt, 45, passed away this afternoon, following a suicide attempt Wednesday evening that left him in a coma. Initially, friends and family were notified and word gradually got out via his friend and  fellow musician Kristin Hersh, who Twittered the news (see below), which rapidly spread across the internet. Chesnutt's family confirmed that he was indeed in a coma, as did his record label, Constellation (see below). Late last night a close friend of Chesnutt's, Maureen McLaughlin, posting to an Athens, Georgia, music-related message board, added this update:

"Here is an update on Vic: he took 100 pulls of an anti-spasm medication. The pills were in his system at least 9.5 hours before Tina found him unresponsive. He stopped breathing for a period of time, which may have caused brain damage. if he lives through the night, further testing will be done in the morning. S...end your prayers and good wishes to Vic, [wife] Tina, and his family: Lis, Lorenda & Pete and their children Ethan and Emma."

This morning news outlets began reporting that Chesnutt did not make it through the evening, but with no confirmation coming from the family or label, several of them, including Billboard, deleted the information from their websites. Starting a couple of hours ago, however, confirmation finally came and it was reported at both the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly.

Wrote EW: Vic Chesnutt died today at age 45, the head of his label tells  [us]... Some reports have said Chesnutt attempted suicide before the coma, but the cause of death has not been announced. A statement on Constellation Records' official site reads in full: ‘Surrounded by family and friends, Vic Chesnutt died in Athens Georgia this afternoon, Friday 25 December at 14:59. In the few short years that we knew him personally, Vic transformed our sense of what true character, grace and determination are all about. Our grief is inexpressible and Vic's absence unfathomable. We will make more information available according to the wishes of Vic's family and friends.'"

Added the NYT:  "[Chesnutt] died on Friday in a hospital in Athens, Ga., a spokesman for his family said. He was 45 and lived in Athens. He had been in a coma after taking an overdose of muscle relaxants earlier this week, said the family spokesman, Jem Cohen."

Chesnutt's musical career has been long and not without incident, including struggles with substance abuse and previous suicide attempts. However, his musicality and resilience left him loved and respected across the board by the musical community, from R.E.M. and Michael Stipe, who produced his early albums; to the Cowboy Junkies, who enlisted his help a couple of years ago when they remade their classic album The Trinity Sessions; to Elf Power, who collaborated with him on the 2008 album Dark Developments. There was also a 1996 tribute album, Sweet Relief II, featuring R.E.M. Madonna, Smashing Pumpkins, Indigo Girls and others.

2009 saw the release of two album, At the Cut and Skitter on Take-Off, and just this month he was profiled on NPR by Terry Gross of "Fresh Air." The fact that he seemed on the verge of an accelerated career arc makes his death all the more tragic, and a waste. His acerbic wit and dark humor, not to mention his haunting yet to-the-point tunesmithery, will be greatly missed. Anyone who ever saw him in concert, scrunched up in his wheelchair and playing his guitar like his life depended on it - and perhaps, in one sense, it did - while alternately crooning and bawling into the microphone, will tell you this much: he was a real as they came, a genuine product of the pre-alternative era when "alternative" actually meant an alternative to everything else out there.

***

Below is our initial reporting from Thursday:

Word has just been getting out that Vic Chesnutt is in a coma - according to the New York Times, the 45-year old singer-songwriter's family "has confirmed" the news but "did not say what caused the coma."

As of this writing, the NYT blog posting is the only hard news source, but that posting indicates that ex-Throwing Muses frontwoman Kristin Hersh, Chesnutt's friend, began spreading the news yesterday via Twitter. Three tweets in particular, posted, respectively, 7 hours ago, 4 hours ago and 3 hours ago, make it sound like a suicide attempt was involved, although we can only hope it's some kind of cruel hoax:

no calls in the night-well, only to talk about how much we love vic-and no news is good news...if we lose him i'll have lost my equilibrium

yeah, i can tell you what i know, but no one knows much: another suicide attempt, looks bad, coma--if he survives, there may be brain damage

this time, it's real scary: *this* time, he left a note, *this* time, he asked them to call me

BLURT's prayers will be with Hersh, Chesnutt and Chesnutt's family and friends.

 UPDATE: No Depression is reporting that Vic took an overdose of muscle relaxants, but there's no indication yea or nay whether it was intentional yet, so the suicide angle remains speculation.

UPDATE: Constellation Records (Vic's label) issues brief statement this afternoon (via Access Atlanta): "Vic is in the middle of a serious medical condition. He is in a coma, but we have no statement about the specifics of the situation. His family and friends are with him. His doctors are continuing to assess his condition."

No, nothing to do with the IRS - this time, it's a mission of compassion.

By Blurt Staff

A letter from Willie Nelson...

Dear Friends:

My family and I are joining the Barbi Twins and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) in their efforts to save the last of America's wild horses. This is an important bipartisan cause and I am asking all Americans to join with us before it is too late.

I'm a little prejudiced when it comes to horses. I have always loved them. I currently have about 68; 25-30 were rescued directly from slaughter. I got involved 8 years ago, when AWI first made me aware that American horses are being slaughtered and shipped overseas for human consumption. It's a shame horses - or any animal - be treated this way when horses are the foundation of America. Horses were a way to travel to get to where we are today, and it is our job to protect them.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency in charge of protecting wild horses, has been rounding them up at an alarming rate, supposedly for their own good. Sadly, there are more wild horses in holding pens than in the wild. Something is wrong with that, so we must act now before the BLM has managed these magnificent animals into extinction. I believe that we should leave the horses to run naturally on their land. Wild horses evolved in North America before spreading throughout the world so it is important that we protect them from the BLM. The polls show that over 70% of American's agree. The people have spoken.

Folks, please join my family and friends at the Animal Welfare Institute by visiting, http://www.awionline.org/wildhorses, before December 28 2009 to see how you can help with this important American cause.

Willie Nelson

Blurt Senior Editor Randy Harward discusses what just might be the year's most significant reissues. No, seriously.

By Randy Harward

On Neil Young's Official Release Series: Discs 1-4 (Reprise; www.becausesoundmatters.com): The first time I heard Neil Young was on my stereo while lying on the top bunk in my room. Sunlight beat down on the east-facing window, heating the curtains until the must smelled up the whole room. That copy of After the Gold Rush was clean, being a recent purchase by my friend, who lent it to me. I thought he was nuts to have purchased an LP when cassettes were the wave of the future. I also thought the artwork-patchy jeans, acoustic guitars-screamed "country and western" artist and, when I played the record and it didn't sound like Kiss or Prince & the Revolution, decided it sounded country enough to be country, whether it was or not.

I didn't listen to Neil Young-willingly-for years. If he came on the radio, I made fun, whining along to "Old Man" and "Rockin' in the Free World," even as those songs started to make sense to my (woefully slowly) maturing mind. Eventually, I grew to appreciate the work of Crosby, Stills and Nash, but only figured out Young's connection to them when I ordered 4-Way Street from Columbia House. On the strength of "Ohio" and "Southern Man," I penciled the corresponding numbers to the then-new Young album Sleeps With Angels into the boxes on the CH form.

When it came, I found myself only really connecting with "Piece of Crap" and, once more, emulating Young's voice, which had taken on a crotchetiness that made "Piece" sound like my grandpa bitching and moaning. Ha! He said ‘crap.'

I know. What a douchebag. Did I really get anything from listening to "Ohio" and "Southern Man?" Looking back, I was connecting only to the sound of the songs and not what they said. I hadn't learned, hadn't grown up enough, to appreciate the hypocrisy of a Bible-thumper's racism or the significance of a protest gone horribly wrong. I was happy in my bubble where the events of the world affected someone I didn't know-and where my Kiss Alive! poster, a symbol of all that was well and truly cool and relevant, towered above my headboard.

Makes me kinda sick, actually. I know pretty much everyone starts stupid and ignorant, but man... I took a long time to pull my head out.

When I finally did, it was because another friend, much farther down the road, found the CD copies of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and Tonight's the Night he thought he'd lost and, somewhere along the line, had replaced. In that time, I'd learned about the discord between Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd over "Southern Man" and how "Sweet Home Alabama" was their response to the song, which forever altered how I heard both songs. The line "four dead in Ohio" now evoked a heaviness, a combination of dread and remorse, in my viscera, and sent a chill down my spine. 

Finally I got my own copy of After the Gold Rush-it was less than two years ago, and at least six years since I got Nowhere. Although I listened to them both plenty of times, start to finish, in car, in my office, alone and with company, life-and the flood of promotional CDs I've received since taking this job, pushed them to the outskirts of my collection, where staples languish while new artists file in and out, demanding various level of attention. Some of them leave strong, defined imprints on me and others mere footprints in the soft soil of my consciousness.

It's winter now, days before Christmas. The last time I listened to a Neil Young album was August, on a road trip through southern Utah while my wife and daughters slept. I don't think they heard a note, but I did. It was Harvest, and it was one of those magical uninterrupted listens that happen less frequently now as life hurtles past me. It was interesting to note how the red rock canyons of St. George gave way to the sagebrush-the normal, dry variety and the fire-blackened shadows of that-of central Utah as "Old Man" played. I didn't mimic Young. Instead, I pondered what the song means to me now as the grown son of an overgrown infant, and what it could mean to my daughters when they reach the age of reason.

This box set, the fancy 180-gram deluxe limited-to-3,000 copies audiophile's-wet-dream whose components I've considered for the better part of the last ten days? I don't know what the format has to do with anything. To me, it's just presentation. The quality of sound is superior to my compact discs and MP3s, but that's not what I get out of the music. Holding these records in my hand now, letting them play in my office as snow falls outside and I sweat road conditions and deadlines and Christmas, I don't know what the big deal is about the heavy wax and audio quality.  

I do know this: Every time I listen to Neil Young, I get at least one part of that summer day back... and then some. My youth and the accompanying sense of wonder and future have eroded, such that they're beyond my grasp, and I'm still ashamed for that boy who couldn't get a handle on Neil Young's music when it was handed to him on a slick black platter. But I'm happy for the not-quite old man who gets to hold the album cover again and hear the music and know just what Shakey means, why it's important, and how it pertains to my life now and my days to come.

As this would be a "review," it occurs I should tell you why it's good and why you should pay attention or money-assuming, of course, that Neil Young still hasn't creeped into your collection. I would cough up some adjectives, but since I'm pretty happy with the way I came to Shakey, I can only recommend that, when you decide you're ready for his songs, you listen well.

***

Neil Young's Official Release Series: Discs 1-4 features his first four albums on 180-gram vinyl with gatefold covers and a nice, sturdy box to keep ‘em lookin' real good. Incidentally, those four albums are Neil Young (1969, reissued with the original art/cover), Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969), After The Gold Rush (1970) and Harvest (1972). It retails for $149.98 and came out December 1. There's a gold-disc CD edition, too. That'll set you back $84.98. www.becausesoundmatters.com

Dedicated to keeping alive the format of choice for anyone serious about listening to music - initial releases include Cocteau Twins, Cult, Bauhaus and Dead Can Dance.

By Blurt Staff

The Vinyl 180 label produces new vinyl editions of classic ‘80s post-punk albums, remastered from original analogue tapes and pressed onto 180g heavyweight vinyl  to capture the warmth and depth of sound that currently  only vinyl can offer... just as they were meant to be heard. All releases are packaged in deluxe gatefold sleeves on heavyweight cardboard stock.  The titles are distributed domestically through ADA.

In 2009 Vinyl 180 has been working with 4AD and Beggars Banquet labels, producing new super high quality versions of albums from Cocteau Twins, The Cult and Dead Can Dance.

Upcoming exclusive releases for Vinyl 180 feature titles from Bauhaus and Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard.

First of all there's a new addition to the Bauhaus catalogue, This Is For When, a live document of the band's concert at Hammersmith Palais - 9th November 1981. This is a brand new release and is available initially as a limited edition of 2000 copies pressed onto two 180g VINYL LPs and housed in two heavyweight card sleeves wrapped in a printed transparent PVC wallet. Remastered and remixed from the original analogue tapes, this unique pressing features the whole live show, capturing the band at their incendiary best.

After that, in December, the label is releasing for the very first time on vinyl, Lisa Gerrard's debut solo album, The Mirror Pool. This is presented as a double disc set with new gatefold artwork designed by Chris Bigg who, along with Vaughan Oliver was the creative genius behind 4AD's striking visual identity.  Originally released in August 1995, this new LIMITED EDITION of 5000 copies has been remastered from the original tapes. The Mirror Pool sees Gerrard accompanied by the Victoria Philharmonic Orchestra. It is an album that defies categorisation, causing one impressed but perplexed reviewer to describe it as "ambient, orchestral, folk and new age all at the same time."

Looking beyond, there will be more from Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and The Fall.