The iconic British songstress kicks the collective ass of posh jazz club Yoshi's on March 3.

By Jud Cost

Raising her hands over her head like a triumphant prize fighter, Marianne Faithfull strides confidently onstage, then coughs into the mic. "Sorry," she says in a well-heeled British accent. "I've got a bit of a cold coming on. Just a little one," she reassures the devotees who have filled Yoshi's, the posh jazz club next to the railroad tracks that run through Oakland's Jack London Square. It's the perfect introduction to the legendary singer who somehow combines an air of nervous vulnerability with an attitude that lets you know she could probably kick your ass from here to the Bay Bridge just down the road.

"I loved Jack London," she says, referring to the namesake of the once upscale, now decidedly lifeless shopping center just across the tracks. "When I was a young girl, I wrote an essay on White Fang." It's opening night of a two-night stand, and a rare chance to catch this rags-to-riches, then rags-to-riches again chanteuse in a fairly intimate setting not much bigger than your living room-if you have a very large living room.

No amps onstage. It's evident tonight will bask in Faithfull's quieter side. "We won't be able to play the rockers," she says, nodding towards Doug Pettibone, the nimble acoustic guitarist seated next to her. "Saying that, could you please turn up the guitar in my monitor," she laughs, ended by a bit of a wheeze. Faithfull's fragile condition has her bundled up in a black sweater with what looks like white ostrich feathers protruding rakishly from the sleeves. She dedicates "Falling From Grace" to old pal Allen Ginsberg. "I really miss Allen," she says of the beat poet who helped her through some tough times. "I felt if Allen can do it, so can I," she says. "But I will not be doing 'Howl' tonight." Then she offers up the first line of the epic poem, anyway, once dragged through the U.S. legal system as obscene: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked..."

Faithfull now collaborates with the best minds of a much younger generation, including Colin Meloy of Portland's Decemberists, whose song "The Crane Wife," a highlight of her 2009 album, Easy Come, Easy Go (Decca) sounded even better tonight, stripped to the bone. "Crazy Love," a collaboration with Nick Cave, is simultaneously melancholy and hopeful. "I have to make you listen to my new songs," she smirks. "Then you get rewarded for your attention." The carrot she tosses the faithful is her diary of a mad housewife, "The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan," from her 1979 comeback LP, Broken English: "At the age of thirty-seven she realized she'd never/Ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair/So she let the phone keep ringing and she sat there softly singing/Little nursery rhymes she'd memorized in her daddy's easy chair." 

Equally as heartfelt was "Miss Otis Regrets,"  a Cole Porter chestnut she once warbled as a teenager in coffee bars in her Thames Valley hometown of Reading, about 40 miles west of London. "My god, I thought I was so grown-up at seventeen," she says of the days when she was about to receive "an education" only hinted at by the Carrie Mulligan character in the recent film of the same name.

Her long day's journey into night, which saw Faithfull fall all the way from pop royalty as consort to Mick Jagger to heroin addiction, anorexia and homelessness in the streets of London, was prophesied with deadly accuracy by "Sister Morphine," an eviscerating song she co-wrote in 1969 with Jagger and Keith Richards. "Come on, Sister Morphine, you better make up my bed/'Cause you know and I know in the morning I'll be dead/And you can sit around, and you can watch all the clean white sheets stained red." Faithfull now adds an eyes-wide-open postscript to her lost decade: "I wouldn't change a thing. It's been a long, strange journey, but we're all still here."

When she sings "As Tears Go By," her 1964 debut American hit (and the first song ever penned by Jagger and Richards), Faithfull is old enough now to give the tune a whole new depth of meaning. But nothing could have topped the set-closer to this exquisite evening, "Sing Me Back Home," a Merle Haggard death-row prison tune she learned from Richards and his former compadre, onetime Byrd and Flying Burrito Brother, Gram Parsons. Like her generational peer Van Morrison, and few others, Faithfull is living proof of the old adage: Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. In her case, life's crucible has turned Marianne Faithfull into the singer she was always meant to be.

Digital-only release will be recorded on tour that starts next week, then will arrive on May 18 for those who sign up in advance.

By Blurt Staff

Bad Religion is set to celebrate its 30^th anniversary this year and has announced plans to record a live album, 30 Years Live, during their upcoming spring 2010 House of Blues tour and offer it as a free "thank you" to loyal fans for a limited time only on May 18. 

Beginning today, fans are invited to sign up at www.badreligion.com for a free digital download of 30 Years Live that will be available for a limited time only. Meanwhile, check tour dates below - you just might find yourself attending a gig and becoming part of a live recording.

Bad Religion also plans to enter the studio to record their 15^th studio album which is expected for release this fall.  In a recent interview, prolific singer/professor/author Greg Graffin disclosed new information about Bad Religion's recording plans and the upcoming tour as well as his forthcoming book "Anarchy Evolution" which is due out this fall via HarperStudio. 

Tour Dates:

Mar 17 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
Mar 18 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
Mar 19 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
Mar 20 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
Mar 21 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
Mar 24 - Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues
Mar 25 - Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues
Mar 26 - Las Vegas, CA - House of Blues
Mar 27 - Las Vegas, CA - House of Blues
Mar 31 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
Apr 1 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
Apr 2 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
Apr 3 - Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues

Album due May 18, Meanwhile, North American tour kicks off next week, too.

By Blurt Staff

As previously announced, Band of Horses third album is to be titled Infinite Arms - it's due May 18th through Brown Records/Fat Possum Records/Columbia Records - and today they revealed the sleeve art. It features the photography of the band's long time collaborator Christopher Wilson.
 

A tour kicks off next week in Colorado. Full itinerary below, including their two-night stand in Austin at SXSW.

Produced by Band of Horses with additional production from Phil Ek, mixed by Dave Sardy,  and recorded over a 16-month period, the songs on Infinite Arms project the essence of the different locales across America that became the setting for the recording and songwriting process behind the album.  The rich musical heritage of Muscle Shoals, AL, the sublime beauty of Asheville's Blue Ridge Mountains, the glamorous Hollywood Hills and the vast Mojave desert all influenced the sounds on Infinite Arms and helped yield the group's most focused and dynamic recordings to date. The serene woods of Northern Minnesota and the band's native Carolinas inspired the songwriting, lending the compositions an air of comfort and familiarity.

 
Band of Horses are Ben Bridwell, Creighton Barrett, Ryan Monroe, Tyler Ramsey and Bill Reynolds. Infinite Arms marks the recording debut of longtime touring members Ramsey and Reynolds, while Barrett and Monroe graced the last album, Cease to Begin. Through touring together in support of Cease to Begin and during breaks in the Infinite Arms recording process, the band have become a cohesive force with all members making invaluable contributions to the unmistakable sound that founder Bridwell has crafted since the band's inception. As Bridwell himself concedes, "In many ways, this is the first Band of Horses record."

 
Tour Dates:

 
March 15th - Boulder, CO - Fox Theater
March 16th - Denver, CO - Ogden Theater
March 18th - Austin, TX - Stubbs BBQ (SXSW)
March 19th - Austin, TX Central Presbyterian Church (SXSW)
April 8th - Paris, France - La Fleche D'or
April 9th - Brussels, Belgium - Orangerie
April 10th - Rotterdam, Netherlands- Motel Mozaique, Schouwburg
April 12th - London, UK - Koko
April 14th - Koln, Germany - Kulturkirche
April 16th - Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
April 17th - Gothenburg, Sweden - Tradgarn
April 18th - Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
April 23rd - Raleigh, NC - Walnut Creek Amphitheater (with Widespread Panic)
April 24th -  Raleigh, NC - Walnut Creek Amphitheater (with Widespread Panic)
April 27th - Gainesville, FL - Rion Ballroom
April 28th - Miami, FL - Fillmore
April 29th - Orlando, FL - House of Blues
May 1st - New Orleans, LA  - Jazzfest
May 2nd - Memphis, TN - Beale St. Music Festival
May 27th - Davis, CA - UC Davis Freeborn Hall
May 30th - Bend, OR - Les Schwab Amphitheater (with She & Him)
May 31st - George, WA - Sasquatch Festival
June 5th - Bangor, IE - Ward Park (with Snow Patrol)
June 9th - London, UK - Roundhouse
June 12th - Glasgow, Scotland - Bellahouston Park (with Snow Patrol)
June 19th - Toronto, ONT - Olympic Island Concert (with Pavement and Broken Social Scene)
September 25th - Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theater
 

New album, due May 18, was mostly cut down at Muscle Shoals.

By Blurt Staff

The Black Keys release their sixth full-length album, Brothers, May 18 on Nonesuch Records. It's the followup to 2008 album, Attack & Release, which received praise from pretty much every media outlook you can name. The band will support Brothers with a tour that includes a sold out performance at Central Park's SummerStage in New York City on July 27 (additional dates will be announced soon).

The album arrives on the heels of three other projects the band released in the past year: Dan Auerbach's solo effort, Keep It Hid, the debut LP from Patrick Carney's band Drummer, and Blakroc, a collaboration between The Black Keys and renowned MCs including RZA, Mos Def, Q-Tip, and Raekwon.

Carney says Brothers is the album they've always wanted to make and taps into their creative force as a duo. "Dan and I grew up a lot as individuals and musicians prior to making this album. Our relationship was tested in many ways but at the end of the day, we're brothers, and I think these songs reflect that."

Carney and Auerbach recorded the bulk of the album at the legendary Alabama studio Muscle Shoals with additional sessions at Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound System in Akron, OH and The Bunker in Brooklyn, NY.

Of the album, Auerbach says, "We like spooky sounds...like Alice Coltrane, where a dark groove is laid down. That's the headspace we tried to get into for this record."

The album includes the Danger Mouse-produced song "Tighten Up" and a cover of the Jerry Butler classic "Never Gonna Give You Up." The remaining songs on Brothers are written, performed and produced by The Black Keys. With the exception of a handful of tracks, co- production duties were handled by Mark Neill. The record was mixed by Tchad Blake.  

Carney explains the sound the band wanted for this record: "We are big fans of Tchad Blake. The way he approaches mixing is the same way we approach making music. Respecting the past while being in the present. The mixes he did for us on Blakroc impressed us so much we knew he had to mix Brothers."

Tracklisting:

1. "Everlasting Light"
2. "Next Girl"
3. "Tighten Up"
4. "Howlin' For You"

5. "She's Long Gone"
6. "Black Mud"
7. "The Only One"
8. "Too Afraid To Love You"
9. "Ten Cent Pistol"
10. "Sinister Kid"

11. "The Go Getter"

12. "I'm Not The One"

13. "Unknown Brother"

14. "Never Gonna Give You Up"

15. "These Days"

Commits suicide; gifted singer songwriter had battled depression for years.

By Fred Mills

News began getting out last night that Sparklehorse frontman Mark Linkous is dead. He committed suicide yesterday, March 6, although no other details have been disclosed as of this writing. He was reportedly in his forties, although no exact date of birth appears on his Wikipedia page. At the time of his death he was finishing up a new album for Anti- Records, and just this week it had been announced that the Danger Mouse-Sparklehorse collaboration Dark Night of the Soul would finally see release following the resolution of a dispute with EMI.

A statement from Linkous' family published by RollingStone.com read: "It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and family member, Mark Linkous, took his own life today. We are thankful for his time with us and will hold him forever in our hearts. May his journey be peaceful, happy and free. There's a heaven and there's a star for you."

Linkous had struggled with depression for years. There was that notorious incident in 1996 when Sparklehorse was on tour in England when he took an overdose (possibly accidental) of valium and antidepressants and he reportedly "died" for two minutes; he was unconscious for 14 hours, cutting off circulation to his legs (leading to multiple subsequent surgeries) and also suffering a heart attack.

According to BLURT contributor John Schacht, who interviewed Linkous last year, "I liked his [sense of] humor - nice guy, very damaged though. When I hung up the phone the last time, he was walking into a therapist's in Asheville, and [I sensed] I'd never speak to him again. You could feel the weight of his depression."

Just the same, Linkous' career yielded a number of impressive peaks over the years. He got his start in the ‘80s with Virginia-based band Dancing Hoods, then gained national acclaim in 1995 with the Sparklehorse debut Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. Several other albums followed, notably 2001's It's A Wonderful Life (featuring guests Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Vic Chesnutt and others. The last Sparklehorse album appeared in 2006, Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain.

Along the way Linkous also became a producer, working with the Cardigans' Nina Persson, Daniel Johnston and others. (He helmed a Johnston tribute album, 2004's Discovered Covered, which included a collaboration between Linkous and the Flaming Lips.) In more recent years he'd settled in Hayesville, NC, several miles southwest of Asheville, and was spotted around town in Asheville on numerous occasions, sometimes checking out other bands in the local clubs. He will be greatly missed.

By way of tribute, BLURT will republish John Schacht's interview with Mark Linkous tomorrow.

Famed archival label gets bootlegged so plans to release a bootleg of the bootleg.

By Blurt Staff

From the mid ‘80s through the early ‘90s, the Street Beat label brought the world what would someday become the legendary Ultimate Breaks and Beats 25-volume collection.  Featuring tracks that were known for their breaks from 3 distinct decades, UBB highlighted some of the best R&B and soul groups of the time and paved the way for many modern DJs and hip-hop artists. 

More recently, over the course of the past 7 years, more than 70 releases have appeared on the acclaimed archival label Numero Group. Along the way, a dedicated fan created a 40 minute mega-mix and pressed up a white label breaks record.  This bootleg LP release found its way to the dance floor and into the hands of some of the most discerning tastemakers in the DJ community.  Word got back to Numero and instead of issuing the obvious cease and desist letter, Numero decided to bootleg their own bootleg.  On June 8th, the Numero Group will deliver a proper LP and CD release of the bootleg as an homage to the breaks and beats collections of yore.

June 8 brings Eccentric Breaks & Beats - truth in titling - on Numero imprint Numbero.

The creator of this collection is none other than the apocryphal label and production team, Shoes, who have previously re-worked Moodyman, Al Green, Miles Davis, and dozens more.  Featuring over 50 tracks from some of the best artists associated with the Numero Group, the mix set also has some eyebrow-raising artwork (see above) that will tweak the memories of headz and crate diggers alike.

1,000,001 Jimi Hendrix fans can't be wrong... new/unreleased collection guaranteed to pry open your wallets long enough to make you salivate for the back catalog deluxe editions, too! And you don't even have to be drinkin' bootleg Hendrix Electric Vodka to dig it!

By Hal Bienstock

Despite releasing just three studio albums while he was alive, Jimi Hendrix has one of the biggest catalogs in rock history, with dozens of live performances, outtakes and remasters appearing and disappearing from print. Often thrown together haphazardly, those albums didn't serve the Hendrix legacy well.

Now, his label and his family are hoping to change that by reissuing deluxe editions of his three original albums - Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland -and the album he was working on at the time of his death (First Rays of the New Rising Sun). But the biggest news for Hendrix fans is a fifth CD, Valleys of Neptune, that includes never before released studio recordings. Most of the material on Neptune was recorded in 1969, as the original Jimi Hendrix Experience was breaking up (some of the later tracks on this album feature Billy Cox on bass, replacing Noel Redding) and Hendrix was beginning to add more funk and R&B to his blues-based sound, something that would come to full flower soon in his Band of Gypsys.

While the band may have been in the process of splitting apart, it's in fine form here, blazing through previously unreleased songs like the title track and "Ships Passing Through the Night," as well as versions of well-known songs like "Fire" and "Hear My Train A-Comin'" that serve as studio counterparts to the expansive renditions of these songs that Hendrix had worked up for the stage.

This is Hendrix in his prime - on fire technically and creatively. Anyone wondering why he's still considered the greatest guitarist of all time need look no further for proof. These aren't scraps dug up by people trying to make a buck off a legend. Many of these tracks are full-fledged songs that Hendrix simply hadn't decided what to do with. The others are rehearsals for a major concert at Royal Albert Hall that was meant to be a theatrical film.

As with most Legacy reissues, Neptune sounds great and comes with extensive photos and liner notes that give the stories behind the songs and the sessions that produced them. (All of the other Hendrix reissues also come with DVDs with newly-created documentaries that offer fans additional insight into the making of the album and include interviews with Experience band members. Neptune doesn't.)  

If there's one flaw with Valleys of Neptune it's that it doesn't hang together as an album as well as the rest of Hendrix's studio catalog. More than anything else that has to do with the inclusion of alternate versions of songs you've heard before. (It's hard to imagine Hendrix would have released another studio version of "Fire" - no matter how good - three years after releasing the first one). But that doesn't make it any less enjoyable or important, either as a document of a transitional period in Hendrix's short career or simply as some of the best music ever made. 

If Neptune is a must-have, the other reissues are more problematic. If you bought the last round of reissues, the DVD, remastering and liner notes probably aren't enough reason to open your wallet again. But if you're still holding on to earlier versions of the CDs - especially the horrible sounding ones from the ‘80s - or haven't yet replaced your old vinyl, you'll be very happy with these new editions.

Valleys of Neptune is released next Tuesday, March 9.

An impressionistic look at the new Jurado album, due May 25 from Secretly Canadian.

By Blurt Staff

Saint Bartlett opens up with a grandiosity yet unheard on a Damien Jurado album. It strips away the many layers of paint from the house down the street where we know Jurado has occupied for the last decade. The new coat is exhilarating. It makes the whole neighborhood shine. It's a modest grandiosity; still homegrown. The mellotron swells, heavenly handclaps ring in stereo and big drums create a sky for the songs to fly in. And the words. Words spring forth from within the volcano of Jurado, full of hope. There's so much hope, in fact, that album opener "Cloudy Shoes" turns into a call-and-response with himself, as though it were a dialogue between two halves of himself.ado and Swift as the performers.

"I wish that I could float up from the ground / I will never know what that's like"

Heavy stuff. Richard Swift's Spector-esque production is spot-on. He ferries Jurado across the river, where the metamorphosis occurs. He then ferries him back, and it is through Swift's lens that we see Jurado not as a folk singer, but as a mystic - somewhere between Van Morrison, Scott Walker and Wayne Coyne. Saint Bartlett was made entirely at Swift's National Freedom studio in Oregon, in just under a week with only Jurado and Swift as the performers.

Check out an MP3 - speaking of Phil Spector - for new track "Arkansas"

From Cream to Tony Williams to West Bruce & Laing to Bruce Trower to Cream (slight return) AND all those collaborations and solo excursions... whew. Whole lotta low end goin' on, for the virtuoso bassist and iconic classic rocker.

By Lee Zimmerman

For an artist as proficient and as accomplished as the brilliant Jack Bruce, there's been a surprisingly scant number of volumes written about his extraordinary 50 year career. That makes the new biography Jack Bruce: Composing Himself (Jawbone Press) something of a revelation, being that it's the only tome in recent memory to trace Bruce's evolution from his beginnings as a 12-year old composing prodigy to his early involvement in Britain's sprawling music scene of the early sixties and on through his contentious stint with Cream and the experimental efforts he spawned well beyond. A weighty effort, its 300 plus pages go into exacting detail as it spans a life immersed in personal and professional challenges, in which practically every triumph exacted some toll.

Author Harry Shapiro elicits an extraordinary candid commentary from Bruce himself as well as from a stellar, if shifting, cast of collaborators - Eric Clapton, Carla Bley, Mick Taylor, Gary Moore and John McLaughlin among them. Clapton himself writes a special introduction in which he declares, "If I had to reluctantly commit to naming his most defining quality as an artist, it would be that he intuitively knows how to step into, and gather from, all of the genres that he has focused on." Therein lies an obvious hint that it wasn't a caustic relationship between Cream's two competing front men that caused the band's demise. Manfred Mann guitarist Tom McGuiness offers a somewhat backhanded tribute to his former colleague as he reflects on Bruce's reluctant stint with the Manfreds, allegedly done simply for the money. "(He) was quite impossible to play with at time," McGuiness admits. "We often literally couldn't follow him."  

So too, Bruce's efforts have often proved confounding not only for his fellow musicians, but for his audiences as well. Rarely does he find middle ground; an unfortunate pairing as West, Bruce and Laing seemed to many to be a lame attempt to reignite the power trio combo pioneered with Cream, while his more avant-garde excursions with Bley, McLaughlin and Billy Cobham also thwarted those hoping to hear him reprise the Cream catalogue. Shapiro notes one particularly intriguing performance he witnessed. "In front of hundreds of German rock fans, many on the edge of their seats waiting for ‘White Room' or ‘Sunshine of Your Love,' Jack walked out with a chair and a cello and for the first three minutes of the concert regaled the audience with a spirited dose of Bach's preludes."

Of course, as is the case with many musicians of Bruce's generation, the music he made is a backdrop to a much more dramatic tale, one shaped by drugs, health impediments, bad business deals and interpersonal squabbles. Bruce's legendary tempestuous personality is partly to blame, but the book doesn't spare the other principals, which isn't surprising considering its somewhat prickly cast of characters. In fact, if there's one criticism that could be cast on the book itself, it's the fact that Shapiro is so fastidious in his detailing of Bruce's evolving relationships. It's no easy task keeping track of the trajectory, especially given Bruce's prodigious output.  How prodigious? The extensive discography and performance history offered in the appendix offers all the evidence needed.

Nevertheless, obsessive fans will find this fascinating reading.   In Composing Himself, Jack Bruce successfully bares himself as well.

[Photo Credit: Jill Furmanovsky]

With a new album en route in a little over a week, the Truckers also have a revealing film about them that the word's getting out on, too.

By Fred Mills / Photos By Kevin Ruppenthal

March 16 is just around the corner, which means the new Drive-By Truckers album, The Big To-Do, is also just around the corner. We've been listening to it pretty much nonstop and trust us, the motherfucker smokes; watch for a review as well as an in-depth interview with the band to coincide with the release, which will be the band's first for the ATO label.

As we mentioned not long ago the band is also cooking up a very special DBTs goodie for Record Store Day, April 17 (read our report and comments from bandmembers Mike "Stroker Ace" Cooley and Patterson Hood here).

In the meantime, the Barr Weissman-directed DBTs documentary The Secret to a Happy Ending recently had its unveiling at a pair of screenings in Silver Spring, Maryland. The film is still looking for distribution, so here's hoping that the buzz generated in the DBTs community will find its way to the proper individuals so everyone can get a look at it this year.

Our correspondent and blogger pal Kevin Ruppenthal was on hand at one of those screenings in Silver Spring and he posted a lengthy review of the film at his most excellent blog "Playmixt = Playlist + Mix Tape," additionally posting subsequent comments about the Q&A session that took place after the screening with the director and bandmembers Hood, Cooley and Brad Morgan. Ruppenthal's been kind enough to let us publish some extracts, below, along with his photos, but make sure you follow those links to read his full account.

***

Text by Kevin Ruppenthal:

On the origins of the film:

In Barr Weissman's 2010 documentary, The Secret to a Happy Ending, there's great balance between live performance and revealing interview. The subject this time is not a blockbuster band that's topping the charts or selling out arenas and stadiums on their mammoth concert tour. The band is called Drive-by Truckers, and they've most likely played a blistering live show within a reasonable driving distance of wherever you are right now. This film about them is without a doubt a new addition to the pantheon of great rock and roll films. Six years in the making, the film documents a band that has slogged its way out of Alabama in the late 1990s out to clubs across the globe, finally breaking into the Billboard Top 40 Album charts in the late 2000s. What's great about the way the film is organized, though, is it's not just a travelogue or chronicle. It's divided into sections that let you get to know the people on stage, where they've come from both in terms of upbringing and family, as well as the stories behind a great catalog of songs. Drive-by Truckers tunes tend to be story songs.

On the film's content:

Rooted in the story songs of the DBT catalog are a whole lot of real-life people and adventures. You get to meet Patterson's great-uncle, George A., for whom they wrote the song The Sands of Iwo Jima: "I never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jima," as the song goes, when George talks about his actual experiences there. A lot of Patterson's family is in the film including briefly his mother, the subject of the song 18 Wheels of Love. There are stories about Gregory Dean Smalley, for whom the song The Living Bubba was written - a guitarist dying of AIDS, pushing himself to keep going: "I can't die now, ‘cause I got another show to do." Mike Cooley's tune Uncle Frank and Jason Isbell's song TVA are discussed with the background of a brief history of the Tennessee Valley Authority bringing electricity to some of the poorest parts of the south. These may seem unusual subjects for rock songs that have the power of Neil Young and Crazy Horse going at full tilt, but they make for great narrative songs.... It's not all rock and roll, though. There's the usual discussion about the tedium of the road, which - while a staple of rockumentaries - has got to be fair game for a band like this doing hundreds of dates a year. They're not doing it in airplanes or under giant stage sets or in glamorous accommodations either. The film shows how hard this band works doing so during the kick-ass, stomping live footage shot at various venues across the U.S. These guys and gal bust their asses getting it done, and there's some sense of what it's like to be an album-oriented band in the post-FM radio and post-CD age.

On the post-screening Q&A:

After the screening there was Q&A with director Barr Weissman, band members Brad Morgan, Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood, and some of the other folks who appear in the film. Some of the highlights:

-Barr indicated he was introduced to the band by a friend who'd told him to "RUN, DO NOT WALK" to go listen to this band now around the time Southern Rock Opera came out.

-While qualifying a comment, an audience member started their question by saying, "I didn't like your music the first time I heard it..." which made Patterson quip, "Nobody ever likes us the first time they hear us!"

-Another audience member commented that the band makes "album rock like I remember." Patterson said he still likes to go to record stores. Cooley talked about needing to find a way to get people to listen to an entire album, in this era of 1 or 2-track attention spans.

-In a discussion about album cover artwork, Patterson said he thought that London Calling was the greatest album cover ever and that you knew that whatever was inside was gonna be great.