I SHALL NOT BE RELEASED (YET): So you wondered why we wrote this big ol’ story about the BOTTLE ROCKETS new record in our last issue and then you ain’t seen hide nor hair of the thing in the stores, didja? Well, release dates sometimes happen that way. Originally scheduled for a spring release, 24 Hours A Day was pushed back first to July, then to August; however, our sources at Atlantic tell us that the album is now absolutely, positively scheduled to be in stores on Aug. 5.
… No such luck for LUCINDA WILLIAMS fans. Her long-awaited new album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road continues to be stuck in the mud, having been hung up by re-recordings and various record-biz delays for nearly two full years now. A tentative Aug. 26 release date on American Recordings recently was pushed back to at least November or December, likely beyond the first of the year. …
Also shuffled from a summer release to early 1998 is Hey Nashvegas!, the second Justice Records album by rockin’ Texas honky-tonker.
MISSISSIPPI MAGAZINE: The current issue of the OXFORD AMERICAN(#16, no date listed) is an impressive collection of music journalism covering the magazine’s home region. Billed as “The Southern Music Issue,” it features articles on such artists as Jimmy Martin, Al Green, Carl Perkins, Lucinda Williams, Charlie Rich, Blue Mountain, Willie Mitchell and dozens more. The magazine also comes with a CD featuring many of the artists profiled within.
RIG ROCK RULES: The Diesel Only/Upstart records compilation Rig Rock Deluxe: A Musical Salute To The American Truck Driver was named Americana Album of the Year for 1996 at the Association for Independent Music (formerly known as the National Association of Independent Record Distributors) awards ceremony in New Orleans in May. The album, reviewed in ND #5 (Sept.-Oct. ’96), features tracks by Buck Owens, Son Volt, Bottle Rockets, Kelly Willis, Red Simpson & Junior Brown, Kay Adams & BR5-49, Billy Joe Shaver and several others.
DOUBLE JEOPARDY: Some of you may have noticed we ran writer Kevin Oliver’s review of the HICK’RY HAWKINS & SIDEMEAT disc Anarky, Tennessee! in both ND #8 (March-April ’97) and ND #9 (May-June ’97). We’d like to say “Yeah, well, we meant to do that!”, but we didn’t. Oooops….
FIXIN’ THE FIXINS: OK, we admit it, we have no idea who wrote “TULSA COUNTRY.” In ND #8 (March-April ’97), we trusted the liner notes of the Bubbahey Mudtruck compilation (on which the tune was rendered by the Backsliders) that said it was written by Joe Tex, which was wrong. Then we ran a correction per Backsliders singer Chip Robinson, who told us it was written by Roger McGuinn, and that was wrong too. Given the “three strikes, you’re out” rule, we hesitate to offer up another alternative (though if you know the answer, we’d love to hear it). …
WHAT’S IN A NAME: You may have noticed our cover subheading last issue read “How would you define alt-country?” — chosen because we’d grown a bit weary of hearing that question from most everyone who had interviewed us in recent months. As such, we were pleasantly amused by the lead paragraph of freelance writer (and occasional No Depression contributor) Jason Cohen’s story on the Old 97’s in the June issue of Texas Monthly magazine, which read as follows: ” ‘Um, oh, gosh, it’s just … I don’t know.’ That’s how Rhett Miller, the enthusiastic, gentle-voiced 26-year-old who fronts Dallas’ Old 97’s, defines ‘alternative country.’ ” Aye, Rhett, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
