Americana Spirit

Posted by amyclark on 08/18/2008
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10/16/2007 Stephen L. Betts How’s this for an Americana music fan’s dream cruise: Six days in the Caribbean the first week in February, visiting Cozumel, Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios, Jamaica, plus a stellar (and seemingly endless!) lineup of performers that includes (and we’re just scratching the surface here) Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin, John Hiatt, Buddy Miller, and Brandi Carlile! It’s all part of the upcoming Cayamo Music Cruise: A Journey Through Song, from Feb. 4-10, 2008, aboard the Carnival Victory. For details, visit www.cayamo.com. But you’d better hurry, we hear this once-in-a-lifetime musical voyage is filling up fast! And check out the Americana Music Association's website for a chance to win passage aboard the cruise. ******* And speaking of the AMA, it's just a couple of weeks until the Americana conference in Nashville.  CountryHound will be there taking it all in, and we’ll bring you all the highlights (once we recover from what will surely be a whirlwind of great music and fun!) ******** In Americana chart news, the top two spots remain the property of Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett, respectively. Steve’s Washington Square Serenade holds down the No. 1 position, as Lyle and His Large Band’s It’s Not Big, It’s Large remains at No. 2. Moving into the No. 3 spot is the spectacular new disc by John Fogerty, called Revival. Up from No. 5 to No. 4, switching places with Kane Welch Kaplin, is Raising Sand, the magical collaboration of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. By the way, Rhapsody’s online music service is currently offering an exclusive preview  of Raising Sand, which isn’t officially released until Oct. 23. If you’re not a Rhapsody subscriber, you’ll have to register (for free) to listen to the album, but, trust me on this one, folks, it is worth the little effort to get an early listen to what is one of the most unforgettable musical events of 2007! Check it out and then let me know what you think about it. Give the album a listen, then shoot an e-mail to stevebetts@countryhound.com In other new music news this week: Vaulting onto the chart at No. 15 is Dwight Yoakam’s wonderful tribute to Buck Owens, Dwight Sings Buck. Other new discs this week include Ryan Bingham’s Mescalito; Goin’ Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino; Merle Haggard’s The Bluegrass Sessions; and Joni Mitchell’s Shine, which, like Paul McCartney’s recent album is being released through a deal with Starbucks. Check out this week’s complete Americana airplay chart In the “In Case You Haven’t Heard This” category, if you haven’t checked out these recent releases, you ought to do so NOW!: Pieta Brown’s Remember the Sun; Jim Lauderdale’s The Bluegrass Diaries; Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Magic; and Salvation in Lights by Mike Farris. And although I haven’t heard it yet, I’ve been a big fan of the multi-talented John Lilly for a long time, and am looking forward to his self-released new disc called Haunted Honky Tonk, which is already getting airplay on a few Americana outlets.