After four albums and more than 10 years of touring with psychobilly outfit, Tiger Army, frontman and songwriter, Nick 13 has released his first solo album. And he says it's time to really explore the country genre.
Nick 13 told CMT.com that he's taken his inspiration from Western ballads and what has emerged is a self-titled project that harkens back to hs favorite era of country music -- the '40s, '50s and '60s -- and benefits from some of the most highly regarded musicians Nashville and SoCal have to offer. Famed steel guitarists Lloyd Green and Greg Leisz contribute their talents (Leisz also co-produces the record) while Sara Watkins, formerly of Nickel Creek, provides the fiddle tracks.
Nick 13 told CMT.com that he simply wanted to make a record of the music that was exciting him at the time, but he doesn't mind the idea of exposing his Tiger Army fans to country, either.
You can check out the full interviewhere, on why a punk rocker would be interested in country music, how he found more than he bargained for in Nashville and why he wants to remind Californians of their heritage.
You can also grab the album now...either on MP3, CD or limited edition Vinyl.
There's still time to catch Rockabilly legend, Wanda Jackson as she continues her tour around the country, now playing with Imelda May and Justin Townes Earle.
Wanda is credited as being the first woman to ever record a rock and roll song—”Let’s Have a Party” in 1958—when was convinced by her friend Elvis Presley to cross over from country to rock and rockabilly music. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she is now known around the globe as “The Queen of Rock” and “The First Lady of Rockabilly.”
Jackson opened for the young British singer/songwriter Adele for nine sold-out performances in May and June. She says of these shows, “I was thrilled to learn that my music has been an influence on such a talent as Adele. I am looking forward to the concert tour with her. We’re gonna have a party!”
Wanda will be playing tracks from her latest album, The Party Aint Over which was recorded by fan and new-found friend Jack White at his Nashville studio and recorded with a late-night honky-tonk feel by members of My Morning Jacket, the Raconteurs, and Dead Weather, among others.
The White-curated lineup of tunes, says Jackson, showcases "all the various types of music that I've done through the years-some country, some gospel, some rockabilly, some rock n' roll. It's got all of that, and we threw in a Bob Dylan song 'Thunder On the Mountain,' just to be safe."
The album has received tremendous critical praise, with NPR saying “White coaxes a performance from Jackson that fits her as well today as it did in 1958,” and the New York Times concurring that Jackson “still sounds fantastic, and her gnarled, feisty vocals are a good fit with Mr. White’s scrappy production.”
Wanda is playing with Imelda May on the following dates:
Sad news today that British singer Amy Winehouse has been found dead at the age of 27.
It seems she lost her battle with addictions since becoming a star in 2007 with Black to Black, winner of five Grammys.
The soul diva follows in the tragic footsteps of similarly troubled artists from Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin to Kurt Cobain.
Reuters reported that Winehouse was found dead at her home in Camden, north London, England. Police were called to the address Saturday.
"Inquiries continue into the circumstances of the death at this early stage. It is being treated as unexplained," a police representative said.
Last month, at Winehouse's performance in Serbia, she was jeered by the crowd, struggled to perform her songs and keep her balance as her band gamely played on. On some tunes, the audience did most of the singing.
The performance, which was posted on YouTube, prompted her management to cancel all her scheduled performances and give the performer as long as it took to recover.
The Guardian writes:
Winehouse's music spoke to people so persuasively that her second album, Back to Black, became Britain's bestselling record of 2007 and reached number two in the US, making her one of only a few British female soloists to achieve that level of transatlantic recognition. Its success spurred sales of her initially overlooked first album, Frank (2003), so titled because of the diary-style lyrics that produced songs such as Stronger Than Me, which railed against a "gay ladyboy" ex-boyfriend. The two sold a total of more than 10m copies worldwide.
Born to a Jewish family in north Finchley, north London, Winehouse grew up listening to the jazz albums of her taxi-driver father, Mitch. He and her pharmacist mother, Janis, later divorced.
Amy caught the performing bug so early that by the age of eight she was attending stage school. She spent time at three, including the Sylvia Young theatre school, central London, from which she was expelled for "not applying herself", and the Brit school in Croydon, south London. Rebellious instincts surfaced in her mid-teens: by 16, she had acquired her first tattoo and was smoking cannabis. "My parents pretty much realised that I would do whatever I wanted, and that was it, really," she said later.
It's a fantastic guide for anyone wanting step by step tips and techniques on how to achieve the retro/pinup/rocakabilly look with with LOTS of pcitures to illustrate each step.
Retro Makeup: Techniques for applying the Vintage Look is a history and application guide for vintage cosmetic styles. It is a companion book to Vintage Hairstyling: Retro Styles with Step-by-Step Techniques. It starts with a brief history on the acceptance of makeup at the beginning of the 20th century and continues to explain in detail the styles, colors and techniques for applying makeup to look like the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Included in each decade are step-by-step directions on full makeup styles inspired by famous women such as Josephine Baker in the 1920s, Jean Harlow in the 1930s, Rita Hayworth in the 1940s, Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s, and Twiggy in the 1960s. The book also includes factual information about what defined the makeup looks of the decades based on popular culture of the time.
About the Author
Hair and makeup artist Lauren Rennells works in the photography and film industry. She freelances providing unique designs for advertisements, films, television and private clients. Her passion for beauty of the past led her to write Retro Makeup: Techniques for Applying the Vintage Look and Vintage Hairstyling: Retro Styles with Step-by-Step Techniques.
The Gangsters' Ball is back. For the fourth year in a row you can catch it in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne in September.
Each year more than 3,000 people turn out for a fully themed night of fashion, style, humour and classic entertainment of the '30s and '40s. It features some of the biggest names in Cabaret, Sideshow Vaudeville, Magic/Illusion and Big Band Swing.
This year’s headline acts include renowned MC and Comedic Vaudeville performer Asher Treleaven, stunning Burlesque artist Gypsy Wood, acclaimed Acrobatics troupe This Side Up and Australia’s leading female Magic and Illusion artist, Cath Jamison
Dates for the Gangsters' Ball 2011:
Saturday 3rd September 2011:
The Gangsters' Ball SYDNEY - Metro Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Saturday 10th September 2011:The Gangsters' Ball BRISBANE - The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley, QLD
Saturday 17th September 2011:
The Gangsters' Ball MELBOURNE - Forum Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
It runs from April 5 to April 8 2012 and you won't want to miss it.
It's all about getting on your best 50s garb - sorting out your hair, checking out the burlesque shows and bathing suit contests, pool parties, fashion shows, round the clock rock 'n' roll bands, add in plenty to drink and more than 700 rods and you have a weekend that rocks!
Here's just some of the highlights:
Car Show
The Viva Las Vegas Car Show is the best car show of its type anywhere. Cars are strictly pre-63 that have to be in a style from that era. Please check out the photos on the Car Show page. The VLV Weekender and VLV14 Car show attracted over 700 cars with about 20,000 attending to view the car show. If you wish to put your car in the car show, you can register it after you buy tickets for VLV.
Burlesque Competition
This has become one of the major events on the Burlesque calendar. Between October and December, hopeful contestants submit their photos and information onto the Viva Las Vegas website. Once all possible contestants have submitted, a panel of anonymous judges from the burlesque scene will choose four lucky contestants to compete at VLV then the judges will choose ten from the remaining contestants who will be featured on the website during the month of January and the public will decide on the next top four whom will join the “Judges Choices” live at the “Miss Viva Las Vegas” Burlesque Competition VLV finals. The eight competitors will then battle it out on Saturday evening to win the final VLV Burlesque Competition. Prizes include Cash, Gift Vouchers, Merchandise, Photoshoots, and publicity.
Tiki Pool Party
The Tiki Pool Party has become one of the major events at VLV, and will take place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It is a great opportunity for girls (and guys!) to show off their vintage swimwear.
VLV Annual Swimsuit Contest
Attention all vintage fashion fanatics!!!! Shine up your vintage beach-side best and get ready for the mother of all swimsuit competitions. VSbM is sponsoring the VLV 14 pool party Vintage Swimsuit Competition, hosted by Vegas’ Pocket Pinup: Lisa Luxe. Guys and dolls alike are encouraged to enter: the only requirement is that your suit MUST BE VINTAGE, no modern/repro suits will be allowed in the competition. Contestants will be… judged on their suit alone, not by how well you can dance or how you answer silly pageant questions. . .
Ever wanted to be a classic 40s bombshell babe or vintage vixen? Ever wanted to enter the realm of 50s kitsch and cheesecake? With Helen McLean’s pin up packages, you get over 3 hours of dress up fun, transforming you into a pin up of yesteryear! Including hair styling, make-up, a glass of bubbly, various costumes and the all important pin up photography. Also catering for custom calendars and hen’s day packages.
Back in 1996 a six-hour six-part documentary taking a look at one of America's quintessential music genres - country - went to air.
"America's Music: the Roots of Country" delved headlong into what is a rich subject matter, telling its story through live footage and interviews with the stars themselves.
To a new generation of music fans, it offered an eye-opening introduction to some of the great figures from country's past, such as Jimmie Rodger, Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Loretta Jones and so many more who paved the way for today's big stars.
Writer Robert K. Oerman told the Chicago Sun-Times that the the idea from the beginning was to take the viewer back and forth and in and out of history. He teamed up for this series with producer Tom Neff, a filmaker known for his documentaries of visual artists including Red Grooms and Beatrice Wood.
"One reason country lends itself to this kind of treatment is that, unlike other styles of music, all its historical elements are still living, breathing styles today," Oermann said.
"People still play bluegrass, people still sing folk songs, play rockabilly, Cajun, Western swing - these are not dead things."
Each of the six hours has a theme - including Rockabilly.
"The Roots of Country" was not only made with entertaining viewers in mind, but with the hope of sending a message about the importance of maintaining a living connection to country's past.
The Reverend Horton Heat kicked off psychobilly in the United States. The Dallas based trio formed in 1985 and built a strong cult following during the ’90s thanks to their constant touring.
While the world of psychobilly is known for its showmanship and twisted sense of humor, Reverend Horton Heat managed to update the psychobilly sound, rocking it as hard as any punk band. Most of their lyrics were a celebration of sex, drugs, booze and cars. And true to their name, their concerts often featured mock sermons in the rural revivalist preacher style.
Their music though is really a mixture of country, punk, big band, swing and rockabilly, all played loud and with a huge amount of energy. Over their 20-odd year music career they’ve achieved notable success within not just the genre, but across mainstream America with many of their songs being featured in video games and commercials.
The current members are founding member, Jim “Reverend Horton” Heath on guitar, Jimbo Wallace on the double bass and Paul Simmons on drums.
Reverend Horton Heat – the man – was born James C. Heath in Corpus Christi, TX. In his early days he played in local rock cover bands around the area. He eventually moved to Dallas and married a former band mate from Sweetbriar and together they had a child. They gave up the rock and roll life and decided to get “real jobs”. However Heath was still using the PA system from Sweetbriar to earn some extra money, doing the sound for a number of local bands. It wasn’t long though that one of the bands talked him into getting up and playing. Heath decided then and there to form his own band and came up with Reverend Horton Heat as an ode to Johnny Horton and using the shortened version of his last name, Heath.
It didn’t take long before Heath started revamping his sound and moved into rock and punk venues. By the fall of 1990 a bidding war ensued between Hollywood’s XXX Records and Seattle’s Sub Pop Records. His good friend at the time, Charlie Ray managed to secure a two record deal with an option for three more, with Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman from Sub Pop.
During those days Reverend Horton Heat managed to amass a significant underground following and ended up signing a major label deal with Interscope in 1994. With extra money thanks to extra big label bucks, Heath started ratcheting up his hell-raising lifestyle that he often sang about along with the temporary worsening of a drinking problem.
Horton Heat came back in 1996 with It’s Martini Time, an album that featured several nods to the swing and lounge revival scenes emerging at that time. That lead to the title track becoming a minor hit and the album became their first to make it into the Top 200. It was at this time that Heath also made his small-screen acting debut thanks to his on-stage preacher act, earning him a guest spot on the dramaHomicide: Life on the Street. The following year he appeared on the Drew Carey Show.
The band’s final major label album, Space Heater was released in 1998. After being dropped from Interscrope, Sub Pop released a 24-song best of compilation, Holy Roller, in 1999 featuring the band’s entire output until that point.
Heath continued to tour and recorded a number of albums for smaller labels, eventually signing his last big deal with Yep Roc in 2003.
These days Jim Heath says he’s had something of an epiphany. He’s taken his music back to what he calls some of his funnier, country-tinged crowd pleasers – “a trip back to a time before slick, over-produced country became the norm – a time when outlaws wrote songs about being without a pot to piss in-or at least about psycho exboyfriends and deadbeat girlfriends that spend your paycheck faster than you can say Lone Star.”
Heath says his latest album Laughin’ and Cryin’ is a record full of country-heavy tunes about bad habits, well meaning but clueless husbands, ever expanding beer-guts and, well, Texas.
“I really wanted to capture the feelings of recordings of the late ’50s, early ’60s,” Heath said of the songs on the new record.
Heath, who personally loves good old, mid-20th century country music, cautions that the record was not born out of a desire to introduce his audience to a new set of influences-it’s just meant to have a little fun. Besides, he warns, his next record may just be a set of “avant-garde versions of Swahili folk songs done on homemade instruments.”
Rockabilly is music that came out of the south of the US, mixed with elements of rock, blues, country, hillbilly booggie and bluegrass.
It emerged in the early '50’s…waned in the '60’s …and was revived in the late '70’s and early '80’s. Its popularity has managed to endure to the present.
Some of the great rockabilly artists included Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Wanda Jackson and Roy Orbison.
While Rockabilly may not have lasted all that long as a mainstream rock subcategory, its influence is still felt today. Several bands such as the Stray Cats have continued to perform in the Rockabilly tradition, while other artists have borrowed from the genre to create their own flavour.
The Rockabilly Revival
Over the past 50 years there's been a legion of bands dedicated to replicating the style and sound of classic '50s rock 'n'roll. While there have always been bands playing Rockabilly, the revival really hit its stride in the post-punk era, when a number of new bands picked up the sounds. Not only did they play the music, but they celebrated and embraced the pop culture that surrounds Rockabilly. The first revival culminated in the success of the Stray Cats in the early '80s. Following their success, a number of Rockabilly bands appeared in the underground scene during the late '80s. The Rockabilly Revival continued to thrive into the '90s with the most notable band to emerge being the Reverend Horton Heat.
Please feel free to tell us what you love about Rockabilly - the old stuff, the new stuff, the rockabilly clothes, the hair, the cars, the rockabilly lifestyle - where you shop - what you wear - who you listen to - if you know of an event coming up - a band we should catch - anything at all.
The '50s are seen as a time of innocence - and of innocence corrupted. It was a period of intense conservatism and the rise of suburbia on the one hand and rock and roll and a new rebellious spirit among the young, on the other.
For Rockabillies it’s an era that’s worth preserving - even if it was way before they were even born.
This site is dedicated to full skirts, big quiffs, red lipstick, peroxide hair, vintage cars, rock’n'roll and tattoos.
Check out these Rockabilly Rebels in 2004. They still burn the place down and are hotter than ever. “Rumble in Brixton" is the Stray Cats’ first ‘official’ live album. This is a fine retrospective on their career as well as one of the finest live presentations you’ll ever see.
