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Little Dog is an independent music label dedicated to cultivating and recording the best in roots music, country, rock, honky tonk, and blues. Little Dog is the home to such acclaimed artists as Moot Davis, Cisco, The Blazers, and Scott Joss, among many others.

Little Dog Records was established in 1993 by Grammy Award-winning producer/guitarist Pete Anderson, the man behind recordings by such renowned artists as Dwight Yoakam, Roy Orbison, k.d.lang, Flaco Jimenez, Buck Owens, Lucinda Williams, Jim Lauderdale, Rosie Flores, Michelle Shocked, the Meat Puppets, the Backsliders, the Lonesome Strangers and Thelonious Monster.

I’ve been a member for quite some time now, and I know first hand about the many specials, free download offers, and exclusive material that Little Dog offers to their fans.

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After 16 years of unforgettable music and memories, The Backyard — Austin’s acclaimed live oak amphitheater — will be closing its doors forever later this year.

And here is your chance to celebrate the final season of The Backyard with Willie Nelson and Friends!

The event date is October 26th, 2008, and the show will begin early and last until the music stops. The first 400 ticket buyers will receive an Early Bird ticket price and a portion of all ticket proceeds will be donated to charity.

About The Backyard

The Backyard is located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country in a natural, open-air setting enveloped in the shade of 400 year old live oaks. Multitiered decks, fish ponds and plaza areas illuminate the magic of the amphitheater’s atmosphere.

This one-of-a-kind amphitheater hosts music as varied and eclectic as the people of Austin. Willie Nelson, David Bowie, Natalie Merchant, the Gypsy Kings, Lyle Lovett, The Neville Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Widespread Panic and Norah Jones have all graced the tree surrounded stage.

But time and new developments in the surrounding area seem to be taking the magic away from this great amphitheater. From Tim O’Connor, President/CEO of Direct Events (owner of The Backyard)

“I built the Backyard to produce events in an atmosphere that signifies Austin. When the venue opened we were in the middle of the Hill Country and it was a true experience. The Shops at The Galleria development that now surrounds the Backyard has taken away from some of the venue’s magic over the last few years.”

So what’s coming next? Again, from Tim O’Connor:

This may be the final season for the Backyard, but Direct Events is not closing the door on this live music staple. Direct Events has proposed a plan to the City of Bee Cave, and is working to secure their approval to develop a new Backyard in a new location that will not compromise the atmosphere of the venue.

If you are a Club Luck Member (Willie Nelson’s fanclub), you can access a limited number of exclusive pre-sale tickets for Willie Nelson and Friends’ show at the final season of The Backyard — starting today, July 19th at 10am CST. Tickets are available while supplies last. Login to the fanclub to access the tickets at: http://clubluck.willienelson.com.

If you aren’t a club luck member, you can join Club Luck and get instant access to these tickets by going to http://clubluck.willienelson.com. Visit Willie Nelson’s website for Willie’s tour schedule and more upcoming pre-sales.

Here is a photo of Willie Nelson performing live at The Backyard:

Hayes Carll, the American singer and songwriter will be performing a handful of free in-stores while on the road this summer.

These free in-store performances are in preparation for a full road tour later in the year.

Tampa, Greenville, Louisville and Houston are the lucky cities for these free, short sets.

So mark your calendars… and bring your family, buddies, special friends and catch a great preview to the full show scheduled later in the evening.

If you’re lucky to be living in one of these cities, here are the dates and the stores where Hayes Carll will be performing:

Saturday, July 19 at 5PM: Vinyl Fever, 4110 Henderson Blvd. Tampa, FL 33629. www.vinylfevertampa.com

Tuesday, July 22 at 4PM: Horizon Records, 2 West Stone Ave. Greenville, SC 29609. blog.horizonrecords.net

Thursday, July 24 at 6PM: ear X-tacy, 1534 Bardstown Rd., Louisville, KY 40205. www.earx-tacy.com

Friday, August 8 at 5PM: Cactus Music, 2110 Portsmouth, Houston, TX 77098. www.cactusmusictx.com.

I recently wrote about a new album, Two Men With The Blues by American country music legend Willie Nelson and Pulitzer Prize winning jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.

This album is a recording from the historic live collaboration between these two American icons on the twin-nights of January 12 and 13, 2007, at The Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Here is a great behind-the-scenes look at the new release, Two Men With The Blues, from Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis.

On the twin-nights of January 12 and 13, 2007, a historic event took place at the Jazz at Lincoln Center: American country music legend Willie Nelson and Pulitzer Prize winning jazz trumpeter Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis — two of the most significant figures in modern-day country and jazz music — shared their mutual love for jazz standards and the blues with the world.

The event was simply billed as “Willie Nelson Sings the Blues,” but even from watching the video (hey, I live in Accra in Ghana!), I’m quite certain it was far more than that.

The old man’s extraordinary strength continues to baffle me. At a time when most people are thinking of retirement, Willie Nelson has never been busier. His profile has been high in recent weeks with his various career retrospective releases and sold out tour and this album can rightly stake it’s place alongside anything else he has done.

Luckily, the tapes were rolling and the results of this unique collaboration now constitute the new Blue Note Records’ album Two Men With The Blues for the rest of the world who couldn’t cram into The Allen Room to watch Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis live.

Featuring great playing from one of the hottest bands around, these 10 classic tracks on this new album, “Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis” — are given new life by the extraordinary dual talents of Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis. From the old man, Willie Nelson, himself:

“These songs, heard this way with this group– that’s never been done before. Whatever I’m doing, if you put Wynton and these guys around it, that brings it up to a different level.”

Here are the ten songs on the new album, Two Men With The Blues:

1. Bright Lights, Big City
2. Night Life
3. Caldonia
4. Stardust
5. Basin Street Blues
6. Georgia on My Mind
7. Rainy Day Blues
8. My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It
9. Ain’t Nobody’s Business
10. That’s All

You can buy digital downloads of the complete album or individual tracks from Amazon (in MP3 format) and the Apple iTunes store. And if you want plain ole’ CD, you can buy that also from Amazon or from Borders — the latter which also gets you two additional Borders-exclusive tracks: “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”.

After years of being on hiatus, Ten Shekel Shirt, the musical group formed by Canadian recording artist Lamont Hiebert, is getting ready to launch their new album titled JUBILEE.

Ten Shekel Shirt’s new album JUBILEE will be released August 19, 2008 through Rounder Records. The first radio single Spark is set to go out this month to multiple radio formats.

The group will be having their CD release concert on August 19th at Crash Mansion in NYC, and everyone is welcome.

In a recent newsletter announcement, Lamont Hiebert from Ten Shekel Shirt wrote:

The album is in many ways an expression of my experiences over the past 5 years. Because of my work as a co-founder of Love146 (formerly Justice for Children Int’l.) a number of the songs deal with the restoration of survivors of abuse, exploitation and slavery. Other tunes reflect my romantic or poetic side such as En Garde and Wartime Lullaby (2 songs that my publisher EMI chose first to push to TV/Film.) The upbeat radio single Spark and the confrontational tune It’s Slavery are the most energetic of the bunch and reveal my need to rock.

Country Music Television (CMT) writer Craig Shelburne recently did a short but sweet interview with the bluegrass composer, vocalist, and instrumentalist Dan Tyminski about his music career and his new album.

Dan Tyminski is a long-time member of the Alison Krauss and Union Station band, but recently stepped out and formed a new band, The Dan Tyminski Band.

The new band recently released a new album titled Wheels, and they’re currently on a tour performing and promoting this new album. You can find the band’s tour schedules from this page on their official website.

Here’s a snipped from the CMT interview:

Craig Shelburne (CMT): Do you ever secretly rock out to your electric guitar?

Dan Tyminski: You know, I don’t have an electric guitar. I really don’t have any electric anything. I grew up with the bluegrass blinders on. For me, my childhood was mandolin and banjo. I grew up a banjo player, really. That was my passion. I only really started playing guitar when I joined Alison and Union Station. That’s when I got my first guitar. So I was and still am a little intimidated by being in the guitar role because except for maybe the last eight or 10 years, it hasn’t been a comfort zone for me.

Head over to CMT to read the entire interview with Dan Tyminski.

Dan Tyminski, the bluegrass composer, vocalist, instrumentalist and long-time member of the Alison Krauss and Union Station band has gone solo with a new self-named band which recently released a new album entitled Wheels.

Dan Tyminski is probably best known for his updated version of the song “Man of Constant Sorrow,” (video below) which was featured in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? and won the 2001 CMA award for best single as well as a Grammy Award for best Country Collaboration with Vocals.

From his official website:

With Union Station on hiatus for most of 2008, Tyminski has formed a new incarnation of the Dan Tyminski Band, with whom he is currently recording a new album and preparing a national tour of festivals, arts centers, and listening rooms. This new edition includes longtime Union Station associate Barry Bales (bass), former Union Station and Mountain Heart member Adam Steffey (mandolin), sideman extraordinaire Ron Stewart (banjo, fiddle), and newcomer Justin Moses (fiddle, dobro).

The much anticipated new album Wheels was issued by Rounder Records on June 17, 2008. With Tyminski at the helm of the amazing Dan Tyminski Band, and guest appearances by Ron Block, Cheryl and Sharon White, and Vince Gill, it’s an album that I feel was well worth the wait!

Below is a video of Dan Tyminski performing “I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow” at the Crossroads Festival in 2007. And here’s the link to the CMT interview.