By Don Jacobson

It’s always a shock to lose part of your foundation because it makes your whole house tremble, and that’s what happened to the structure of contemporary roots music on Feb. 22 when Kirk Rundstrom died of cancer at a tragically young 38 years of age.
The man who in recent years achieved his greatest success as part of the Kansas-based “hillbilly hardcore” punk/metal/bluegrass band Split Lip Rayfield was a cornerstone upon which the alt country edifice was built. In the mid-1990s when alt country was just emerging – with Chicago as one of its crucial hotbeds – Rundstrom was a regular on the city’s bar stages, then playing mostly with his former band Scroat Belly and as a solo act. I can fairly say that he, along with Wilco, Son Volt, the Old 97s and a very few others, were the folks who most firmly convinced me then that “country” music wasn’t necessarily an evil thing, and that, done in the kind of truly alternative way they personified, actually represented the purest modern-day representation of the spirit of 1960s rock ‘n’ roll.

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Posted on February 27, 2007

By The Beachwood KISS Affairs Desk

From: Carol Kaye <carol@kayosproductions.com>
Date: February 23, 2007 10:12:29 AM CST
To: press@kayosproductions.com
Subject: Ace Responds to Rumors of His Demise
For Immediate Release
Contact: Carol Kaye
Kayos Productions Inc.
(212) 366-9970
ACE RESPONDS TO RUMORS OF HIS DEMISE
New York, NY (February 23, 2007) – “Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated” – Ace Frehley
Contrary to published reports, Ace Frehley, formerly of KISS, is alive and well and working on his highly anticipated solo album.</carol@kayosproductions.com>

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Posted on February 23, 2007

By Don Jacobson

On a seemingly literate rock music website in the U.K., there’s a poll question that asks with a straight face, “Is Bob Dylan a God?” Sweetening the bait was that five lucky poll respondents would win the ultimate prize: a free LP copy of the newest – and apparently bestest – Dylan release, Modern Times. I’m guessing the U.K. vote in favor of elevating our once-and-future favorite Minnesota son to godhood is running about 999,999-to-1, with the lone holdout claiming mere godhood isn’t good enough for Bob: “Nope. He’s, like, God’s god, man.”
Dylan made a new record and so it is written he must win the first Grammy for a best “Americana” album because all the worshipping is seriously getting out of control. In evidence I offer that the track “Someday Baby” was nominated for best rock song and best rock vocal as well, for God’s sake! Apparently, Modern Times is not only the best Americana out there, it’s also the best rock ‘n’ roll . . . I guess I hadn’t realized that. Beck, you watch yer ass!

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Posted on February 12, 2007

By Matt Cook and John Dorr

Every Monday from 12-2 Matt Cook and John Dorr host Trucker Caps and Cowboy Hats on WIIT-FM Radio 88.9, from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Each week they concoct some sort of theme to hang the show on and this is what they’ve been listening to this week in light of their hand-picked motif.
With the recent news of the minimum wage hike, it seemed a good time to examine the nexus between economics and country music. So let’s look at some famous and not-so-famous country artists who opine on being poor, rich, on the dole and longing for the day that they might could have made $7.25 an hour.
First, it is important to know that having money isn’t really all that it is cracked up to be. So, if you’re like me, be glad that you’re poor.
1. Porter Wagoner, “Satisfied Mind.” Porter always comes off a jackass most ways but word is that he drinks more than his share and is an OK guy once the clown suit comes off. This was a No. 1 hit for Wagoner in 1955 and stayed at that spot for more than a month.
2. Bobby Hebb, “Satisfied Mind.” Hebb is known best for his smash hit “Sunny,” but his country cred is A-number-1. He grew up in Nashville and joined Roy Acuff’s Smokey Mountain Boys and played the Grand Ol’ Opry with Acuff in the early ’50s. This romp is a country soul classic and an instant hit and should be included in any party mix.
3. Jeanne Pruett, “Satin Sheets.” Known first as a songwriter with some success (penning Marty Robbins’ Top-10 hit “Love Me”), this tune was Pruett’s first hit going No. 1 in 1973, which led in turn to her joining the Grand Ol’ Opry. Not just a songwriter, she also wrote a cookbook in 1986 called Feedin’ Friends which you might have seen hawked on TNN. I’ve always just loved this three-chord ballad largely because of its simplicity. In the Encyclopedia of Country Music under the Pruett entry, it says that her manager sent out several hundred copies of the single to radio programmers with a piece of pink satin stapled to the dust jacket. Why aren’t unsigned bands doing stuff like that now?

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Posted on February 12, 2007

By Don Jacobson

The early ’70s was the era when rock ‘n’ roll became old enough to have “comebacks.” Elvis established the precedent in 1968 with his famous NBC television special, which set up the good news-bad news paradigm of pretty much all of the rock ‘n’ roll comebacks that have followed. The part of special where he sat in the round, reminisced with his old bandmates and played acoustic versions of his early hits was great and timeless. But that was more than offset by a ton of schmaltzy production numbers that presaged his “Fat Elvis” Vegas years.
By 1972, the inevitably tragic arc of the rock ‘n’ roll comeback wasn’t yet fully understood, but after Sonny and Cher followed Elvis on that sad journey, no doubts remained.

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Posted on February 1, 2007