Playlist week of 24th January 2015

2015-01-24

24th January 2015 – BBC Playlist

Brand new music from The Shires and Jim Ed Brown, classics from Johnny Cash and Doug Kershaw, and a 4 track  tribute to one of the finest female songwriters of the classic era, Dixie Hall who died last week.

Dixie Hall, 80, affectionately known as Miss Dixie, and wife of songwriter Tom T. Hall, passed away in her home Friday after enduring a long illness. Dixie was born Iris Violet May Lawrence in her native Sutton Coldfield, England. Songwriters Dixie and Tom T. covered the country, bluegrass, folk and roots realm with their storytelling songs. The two of them put out song after song of great lyrics and music.

Dixie Hall - Click to ENLARGE

Miss Dixie was loved by artists and fans and she loved them as well. Dixie Hall was so much more than just a songwriter. She lived what she preached. She would put artists together to create collections of wonderful music like the Daughters of Bluegrass collection. Being that she was born in England and came to America in 1961. Appalachia and its music were not in her native roots. 

She had a strong appreciation for the music as a child and those roots were valuable once she set foot on the soil of those songs. Once she became a part of the music, the culture, the people and life of that region, her songwriting about these things really took off.

Hall met country-music avatars The Carter Family through Bill Clifton, who had been friends with A.P. Carter, and moved in with Mother Maybelle Carter (Photo) at Maybelle’s house in Madison, Tenn. “We’d write songs together and play canasta,” Hall told writer Skip Matheny in 2009. Johnny Cash cut two of the songs Hall and Carter wrote during this period. Hall also learned autoharp from Mother Maybelle, and in her spare time started a company that published the songs of bluegrass giants Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.

She met Tom T. Hall in 1964 after the two songwriters shared credits on a Mercury Records single by country singer Dave Dudley. The two married in 1968, but it wasn’t until Tom T. Hall decided to retire from the music business in 1990 that Dixie Hall began collaborating with her husband.

Dixie wrote hundreds of bluegrass songs that artists across the bluegrass spectrum recorded earning her and her husband ten Songwriter of the year awards from SPBGMA, the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America. She and Tom T. were awarded the 2004 IBMA Distinguished Achieve Award. - See more at: cybergrass & nashvillescene

Terri Clark - Just Add Water | Album: Some Songs CD - Amazon.com 

Doug Kershaw - Hey You There | Album: (Jan 24, 1936) BIRTHDAY

Dianna Concoran - Blame Carolina | Album: Love & Therapy  

Donna Ulisse & Pam Tillis - Daughters of Bluegrass - Pickin' Like A Girl (Box set) - CD Somewhere In Kentucky (Marking the death of Dixie Hall celebrating her life, a project she wrote and produced with husband Tom T Hall - PHOTO)

Johnny Cash - A Letter From Home | Album: Sings The Ballads Of The True West (written by Mother Maybelle Carter and Miss Dixie [Hall]) MP3

Becky Hobbs - Another Man in Black | Album: Songs From the Road of Life CD (Jan 24, 1950) BIRTHDAY

Steve Azar - The Sky is Falling (Patti Jo’s Prayer) (feat. Sophie Young) NEW Single 
Little Lapin - Over The Draft | Album: Remember The Highs (out 9th Feb 2015) NEW Single

Tracy Lawrence - Don’t Talk To Me That Way | Album: Alibis MP3  (Jan 27, 1968) BIRTHDAY

Oh Susanna - Millions Of Rivers | Album: Soon The Birds (2011) CD 

James Robert Webb - Daddy Made A Million NEW Single 

Lydia Miller - She Made The Devil Cry | Album: Lydia Miller (2002) CD

The Shires - Friday Night | Album: Brave (Out March 2015) CD NEW Single

Jim Ed Brown - You Again | Album: In Style Again NEW CD - Smart Choice Music -  Amazon.com with Cheryl White (Jan 27, 1955) BIRTHDAY

Tanya Tucker - I Won’t Take Less Than Your Love| Album: Greatest Hits CD  

Callie Twisselman - Breathe  NEW Single 

Cahalen Morrison & Eli West – Loretta | Album: Our Lady of the Tall Trees (Sept 2012) MP3

Tammy Cochran - 30 Something and Single | Album: 30 Something and Single (2009) MP3 (Jan 30, 1972) BIRTHDAY

Stacy York Isaacs - Kentucky In The Rain | Album: Daughters of Bluegrass - Pickin' Like A Girl

Tom T Hall - Our Little World | Album: A Gift From Tom T. Hall (2011) CD - MP3

JD McPherson - Let The Good Times Roll | Album: Let The Good Times Roll NEW (out 9 Feb. 2015)  CD - MP3 

David Llewellyn & Ida Kristin - Only God Knows | Album: Songs Around the Kitchen Table (2014) NEW MP3 - UK iTunes - CD Baby - Amazon.com  

Norma Jean - Jackson Ain’t A Very Big Town (Single) (Jan 30, 1938) BIRTHDAY

Tim McGraw - Meanwhile Back At Mamas | Album: Sundown Heaven Town CD - MP3 - UK iTunes - Amazon.com

Special Consensus - Nothin’ But The Wheel | Album: Our Little Town (1998) MP3

Everly Brothers - Watching It Go (Single) MP3

New on The Show

Dianna Concoran

“Blame Carolina” – “I think this one’s a great song...heard her voice and I thought WOW!” - Marie Crichton BBC Radio Shropshire

Home Town: Parkes

Global Records: Germany / Silent Gate Music USA / WJO Australia

Current Location: Australia / USA / Germany

Drawing on inspiration from love, life and her family, two time Golden Guitar Winner Dianna Corcoran is one of Australian country music’s most distinguished vocal and songwriting talents. Dianna released her first album – LITTLE BIT CRAZY – in 2003 and won the Australian

Country Music Golden Guitar for New Talent of the Year the following year. After numerous writing and recording stints in the US, Dianna’s debut was followed by her brilliant second release – THEN THERE’S ME. This album earned Dianna her second Golden Guitar – the prestigious title of Female Artist of the Year at the 2008 Australian Country Music awards.

With her “down to earth, country girl” approach to performance, two multi-award winning albums under her belt and over 400 awards throughout her career, Dianna released her fresh, upbeat, third album KEEP BREATHING to rave reviews . “Keep Breathing” was produced by two time Grammy Award winner Rebecca Lynn Howard & Elisha Hoffman.

Dianna returned in 2013 with LOVE & THERAPY, an album displaying the diverse talents of this unique artist.

Love & Therapy is available at physical retailers throughout Australia and New Zealand, or you can purchase on iTunes.au In 2014 Dianna’s hit "Therapy" was No.1 for five successive weeks on the national Country Tracks Top 30 singles chart.

Watch the >> Official single  Listen to the album at diannacorcoran.com

Although known in her homeland as a multi award winning vocalist and writer within the country music industry, Corcoran lives a life as a producer outside of the public domain producing projects both in the Pop and Country genre in America and Europe.

In Jan 2015 usually at this time of year she attends the Tamworth Country Music Festival in the summer heat of the beautiful Australian country. This year however, she is writing and producing pop music at the Schedler Music summit and snowy retreat in Austria!

CONNECT with Dianna Concoran:

Little Lapin

Current Location: Bristol, UK

Influences: Regina Spektor, Feist, Goldfrapp, Altered Images, The Cranberries,Sia, Florence & The Machine, Ladyhawke, Laura Marling, Bjork, PJ Harvey, The Cure, Pixies, The Killers, Kings of Leon

Blurb: Little Lapin is a prolific songbird originally from Cosey Caravan, Devon and is now based in Bristol (UK).

Her voice leaves a lasting impression with audiences. Her lyrics are carefully crafted and her music resonates emotion and honesty. She has been making her mark on audiences all over the world, from New Zealand where she was based for five years, to New York where she recently performed the last leg of her acoustic tour.

‘Waiting Room’, taken from Little Lapin’s 2013 debut eponymous 6 track EP (CD Baby), was featured on BBC Radio 6 Music’s Introducing Mixtape Show with Tom Robinson, and her sound was described by Tom’s team of music bloggers at Fresh on the Net as a “A Pretenders for the 21st Century”. Her highly anticipated follow-up album promised to deliver more of her infectious indie pop gems. Celebrated New Zealand producer, and ex member of Goldenhorse, Ben King guests on all of Little Lapin’s forthcoming tracks including ‘Remember The Highs’ (perhaps in the vien of Mrs Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa).

CONNECT with Little Lapin:

David Llewellyn & Ida Kristin

“Only God Knows” -  A lovely duo ...a beautiful blend of music ...a great partnership, the music they create is beautiful, really devine this” - Marie Crichton BBC Radio Shropshire

Genre: Acoustic/Folk/Singer-songwriter

Home Town: Nashville, TN USA / Stockholm, Sweden

Record Label: Dabhand Records/Norna Music

Welsh and Swedish duo

In 2008, on the rugged coastline of Sweden, two acclaimed solo artists discovered a creative connection. Put together at a songwriting retreat, a musical journey in its most literal sense was inspired and turned into a finely honed songwriting and performing duo. They instantly found a chemistry, which set them off to record an album together at David's home in Nashville TN.

In 2014 Llewellyn & Ida Kristin issued their debut, SONGS AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE (Norna Music/Dabhand Records) described as an exquisite toe-to-toe recording, that breathes intimacy and tenderness. - See more at: davidandida.com

Successful in their own rights as solo artists, Brazil born Swedish Ida Kristin has written and recorded two critically acclaimed solo albums. The debut on V2 records, included the title track and movie soundtrack >> "Stumble" and featured the duet "Love is how we stay alive" with Ryan Adams.

David Llewellyn's self-titled debut CD was released in the US (2004) and quickly gained top 10 radio plays on the FolkDJ charts and has proved a fast seller at gigs and house concerts around this country and back home with tours in Wales, Ireland and the UK. He was the Grand Prize Winner of the prestigious 2008 International John Lennon Songwriting Contest and the 2007 Kerrville Folk Festival "New Folk" Competition.

"Songs Around The Kitchen Table" is essentially a live album recorded & produced in Blueprint studios Nashville TN, May 2011 and during 2012. They borrowed a couple of extra mics, set it all up in the livingroom toe-to-toe, and the songs just kinda chose themselves. It’s an acoustic recording that captures the spur-of-the-moment freshness of a live performance.

 “Coffee Shop Song” was the first song they wrote together, during their very first meeting at a songwriting retreat on Gotland, Sweden. It was followed up by the love ballad “This Morning Blues”, a transatlantic co-write. “Only God Knows” was written together on one of those hot May Tennessee evenings after a full day of recording as Ida caught her very first firefly. It was a magical time to write and put these down, hope you feel it too".

Watch the video >> Just Surrender

As a gift for the holiday season, on Dec 1, 2014 they promoted (via Trespass Music - See One Sheet ) and digitally released their cover of "In The Bleak Midwinter" available on Amazon UK, CD Baby and UK iTunes. The wonderful blend of voices and interwoven guitars makes this a unique rendition of the classic Christmas carol.

David & Ida's voices and sparse arrangement make a unique and beautiful rendition of this classic Christmas carol. "I think it's just perfect, and is worth listening to at any time of the year, bleak midwinter or not" - Frank Hennessy BBC Radio Wales

CONNECT with David Llewellyn & Ida Kristin: