CASH FOR CASH: On September 14-15, the New York auction house Sotheby’s will conduct a sale of items belonging to JOHNNY CASH and JUNE CARTER CASH. Over 650 pieces of Cash and Carter’s possessions, including guitars, lyric notebooks, gold albums and clothing, are up for auction. The collection has been valued at around $1.5 million….
Meanwhile, a historic Gibson L-5 acoustic guitar belonging to MAYBELLE CARTER has been placed on sale with a $575,000 asking price. Nashville’s Gruhn Guitars will broker the deal for a Carter heir….
In other Carter family news, Dualtone will be releasing a disc from JOE & JANETTE CARTER (A.P & Sara Carter’s children) on August 24. That same day, the label unveils the tribute album The Unbroken Circle: The Musical Heritage Of The Carter Family, with contributions from George Jones, John Prine, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson as well as Rosanne Cash, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.
ESCOVEDO TRIBUTE: Por Vida, the two-disc tribute to ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO in the wake of his battle with complications from Hepatitis C, is scheduled for a July 27 release on Or Music. At press time, a final track listing had yet to be confirmed, but participating artists reportedly will include John Cale, Caitlin Cary, Calexico, Peter Case, Billy Corgan, the Cowboy Junkies, the Dragons, Javier Escovedo, Pete Escovedo & Sheila E., the Flatlanders, Rosie Flores, Howe Gelb & Giant Sand, Jon Dee Graham, Ian Hunter, the Jayhawks, Lenny Kaye, Jon Langford & Sally Timms, Los Lonely Boys, Ian McLagan, the Minus 5, Charlie Musselwhite & Charlie Sexton, Bob Neuwirth, the Section String Quartet, Son Volt, Chris Stamey, Nicholas Tremulis, Tres Chicas, M. Ward & Vic Chesnutt, Jennifer Warnes, Whiskeytown, and Lucinda Williams.
COMING SOON: Billy And The Kid is an all-too appropriate title for the next BILLY JOE SHAVER album. Due in August on Compadre, the disc finds Shaver singing on some of his late son Eddy’s unreleased songs….
Wayward Angel, the third album from Australia’s KASEY CHAMBERS, was released May 31 in her home country and should reach U.S. shores later this summer on Warner Bros….
Favorite Colours, the latest from Canadian band the SADIES, arrives August 10 on Yep Roc, with a guest appearance by Robyn Hitchcock….
August 17 brings R&B/gospel great MAVIS STAPLES back to the record racks with Have A Little Faith on Alligator Records….
Also due August 10, on New West, is The Great Battle, the latest from Texas songwriter JON DEE GRAHAM….
Tambourine, the second Lost Highway album for North Carolina singer-songwriter TIFT MERRITT, is due out August 24….
Coming September 7 on Yep Roc is Empire Builders, the latest from former Scorchers frontman JASON RINGENBERG….
The release date for the new SILOS album When The Telephone Rings is September 14, on Dualtone….
The NASHVILLE BLUEGRASS BAND will release American Beauty, their first disc in six years, this fall on Sugar Hill….
The first live CD/DVD from the MAVERICKS, recorded in June at Stubbs’ Barbecue in Austin, is due in September from Sanctuary….
The latest from RICHARD BUCKNER, titled Dents & Shells, is set for October 12 on Merge.
ON THE DOTTED LINE: Singer-songwriter IRIS DEMENT has signed with New West Records. August will see the release of her first album in eight years, Lifeline, featuring mostly traditional gospel songs plus one DeMent original….
The Telarc debut of guit-steel virtuoso JUNIOR BROWN, Down Home Chrome, is set for August 24….
Dualtone is the new home for CHARLIE ROBISON. The label will release his latest disc, Good Times, on September 21….
DEANA CARTER has inked a deal with Vanguard Records. Her next record won’t come out until next year as she focuses first on another project: motherhood. She is expecting her first child in September….
Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ frontman KEVN KINNEY has turned to Compadre Records to handle his next solo effort, Sun Tangled Angel Revival….
Boston roots-rockers JAKE BRENNAN & THE CONFIDENCE MEN have hooked up with Yep Roc, which will release his their album Love & Bombs on September 14….
Oh Boy has brought aboard SHAWN CAMP for the bluegrass-flavored Live At The Station Inn on August 31; a studio album is in the works….
The first record of all-new material from the NEVILLE BROTHERS in six years will be released through Back Porch/Narada in September.
SOUTHERN STUDIO SESSIONS: Diana Krall’s husband ELVIS COSTELLO has taken his band, the Imposters, to Oxford, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee, to record an album for Lost Highway. In August, Rhino offers up newly expanded versions of his albums Almost Blue, Kojak Variety and Goodbye Cruel World. The reissued Almost Blue contains outtakes, live material (including his 1979 show at Los Angeles’ Palomino Club), and his duet with George Jones on “Stranger In The House”. The Kojak Variety bonus material includes renditions of “Dark End Of The Street”, “You’re Pouring Water On A Drowning Man” and “Sleepless Nights”….
Pixies frontman FRANK BLACK spent some time in a Nashville studio with a cast that included Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham and Buddy Miller. There’s no timetable yet for an album, as Black has been busy with the Pixies reunion….
TOM WAITS recently ventured to an old Mississippi schoolhouse to record his next album for Anti. Waits’ wife Kathleen Brennan, guitarist Marc Ribot and bassist Larry Taylor all lent their assistance.
TOGETHER AGAIN: On the heels of their recent reunion tours, CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN has recorded their first album of all new material in over fourteen years. New Roman Time should be out later this year on SpinArt….
A new AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB album, their first since splitting in the mid-’90s, is due in October on Merge….
Tim and Neil Finn have hooked up for Everyone Is Here, the first FINN BROTHERS disc in nearly a decade; it’s due on Nettwerk in August….
KIERAN KANE and KEVIN WELCH, who collaborated on a live disc in 2000 (and co-founded Dead Reckoning Records in the mid-’90s), have teamed up with Fats Kaplin for You Can’t Save Everybody, due in July on Dead Reckoning….
WILLIE NELSON and his sister BOBBIE NELSON have recorded some new gospel material that Sugar Hill has combined with selections from their 1996 out-of-print album How Great Thou Art. The resulting disc, Farther Along, is set for an August release.
BITS AND PIECES: The third edition of the AUSTIN CITY LIMITS FESTIVAL will take place September 17-19 at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas. Later this summer, a disc commemorating last year’s ACL Festival is slated for release on New West Records, containing selections from R.E.M., the Drive-By Truckers, Ben Harper and others. New West also is working on a deal to release CDs and DVDs of past episodes of the Austin City Limits television show, which begins broadcasting its 30th season this fall….
ANI DIFRANCO has enlisted Joe Henry to co-produce her next disc with her in Los Angeles….
JON LANGFORD has started up a web-only label, Buried Treasure, to keep up with his many projects. Already available is a 1985 Three Johns live set and an Uncle Dave & the Waco Brothers collaboration; future projects include a Langford/Richard Buckner disc and a solo effort by the Mekons’ Tom Greenhalgh.
ALL THE FIXIN’S: A photo caption on page 44 of ND #51 misidentified Uncle Tupelo leaders Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy; that was Jay on the left and Jeff on the right, as reader David S. Owen kindly pointed out. Sorry, those old Uncle Tupelo guys all look alike to us….
A review of Fiddlin’ John Carson’s 136th Birthday Celebration in ND #51 credited the song “Louie Bluie” to Howard Cunningham; it was written by Howard Armstrong.
