BONUS TRACKS: The War and Treaty Builds a Roots Music Dream Team for ‘Celebrity Family Feud’

On Celebrity Family Feud, guests get to form their own family, and contestants The War and Treaty showed up to the Steve Harvey-hosted game show with plenty of brainpower (not to mention musical might) on their side. Playing alongside The War and Treaty’s Michael and Tanya Trotter on a taping of the show this week were Dom Flemons, Rissi Palmer, Breland, and Valerie June. Their opponents were 1970s hitmakers Earth, Wind & Fire. An airdate for the episode has not yet been announced, but you can get some backstage sneak peeks via Instagram posts from The War and Treaty, Flemons, Palmer, and June.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The War And Treaty (@thewarandtreaty)

Back before everything went digital, it was fairly easy to misplace or forget about a reel of recorded music left in a studio. People moved, studios closed, labels consolidated, and stuff tended to get stashed in a basement or attic, untouched for decades and fallen completely off the radar. A team called Master Tape Rescue is working to recover these treasures often hiding in plain sight before they end up in a dumpster. Read about their efforts, and some recent good finds, in this profile from The New York Times. And look forward to future box sets and previously unheard releases stemming from their work.

Speaking of fortuitous finds, a long-lost manuscript by Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter telling the story of the band’s early days will be published this fall. Found by Hunter’s widow after his death in 2019, the draft dates from the early 1960s, soon after Hunter met Jerry Garcia in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead — The Lost Manuscript of Robert Hunter will be published on Oct. 8. Read more about the book in this coverage from Rolling Stone and Consequence.

WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO

Here’s a sampling of the songs, albums, bands, and sounds No Depression staffers have been into this week:

Rainbow Girls – “I Can’t Believe We Were Ever Strangers” (Josh Ritter cover)
Madi Diaz feat. Lennon Stella – “One Less Question”
Dré Anders feat. The Gibson Brothers — “You Can Close Your Eyes” (James Taylor cover)
The Onlies – “Matty Grove”
Curtis McMurtry – “Last in Line,” from his new album, The Pollen & The Rot, coming in May
Jade Bird – Burn the Hard Drive [EP]
Paul Cauthen – “Hot Damn”

Sierra Hull – “All I Ever Need Is You,” from We Still Can’t Say Good Bye: A Musicians’ Tribute to Chet Atkins, coming April 19
Anna Moss – “Amnesty”
Mikaela Davis and Circles Around the Sun – After Sunrise [EP]
Khruangbin – A La Sala
The Felice Brothers – “Crime Scene Queen,” from their new album, Valley of Abandoned Songs, coming in June
49 Winchester – “Yearnin’ for You,” from their new album, Leavin’ This Holler, coming in August