The ND Roundup: Nikki Lane, Father John Misty, and ‘We Shall Overcome’ Dispute

Welcome to the ND Roundup! This is where we’ll be sharing weekly news from around the roots music world. Are you prepared to talk politics at the dinner table this Thanksgiving? Me neither! Let’s look at the headlines instead.

Nikki Lane rolls over junkyard cars like a country outlaw in her newest video, “Highway Queen.”  [Rolling Stone Country]  

Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood curated this excellent playlist for our good friends at BGS. The mixtape shuffles through southern rock and alt-country, rumbling past R.E.M.’s Athens, GA to Centro-matic’s Denton blues. [The Bluegrass Situation]  

President Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom to New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen today, saying “I am the President, he is The Boss.” Indeed, sir. However, he’s not a boss that fires people for pleasure. [Consequence of Sound]  

Father John Misty’s new song “Holy Hell” is a melancholy piano ballad. It’s also the perfect soundtrack for staring blankly out a second-floor window into a dark, snow-filled night. [Pitchfork]  

You know what sucks? Getting hacked. You know what’s hackable? Headphones. Aw crap. [Wired]  

How Willie Nelson’s love affair with marijuana made him a country music revolutionary. [Uproxx] 

Earlier this fall, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He, of course, won’t be attending the ceremony. For some, Dylan’s music is the opposite of poetic, focused mostly on plodding word vomit that hinges on the absurd. But most people know that Dylan has always worn his influences on his sleeves. Here are five poets that actually inspired the folk bard. [The Independent]

Is 2016 the year pop went country? Probably. [NPR] 

“We Shall Overcome” is the subject of a copyright dispute. A nonprofit group wants the song, which was adapted from an old black spiritual, to become part of public domain. The song’s publisher does not. They’ve gone to court to decide its fate. [The New York Times]