Music News: Loretta Lynn announces hand picked artist listing for forthcoming tribute album

The Queen of Country herself, Loretta Lynn, has just announced a hand-picked list of artists for forthcoming tribute album Coal Miner's Daugher: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn, out the 9th of November in the US.

As you'd expect the list features a crash course in big-name contemporary country music singers rubbing shoulders with a few veteran greats. However a couple of surprising bands also crop up in the mix.

Paramore will be turning in a version of 'You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man). I'll be upfront, I initially wanted to write this little comment piece to rip on the fact that these extra names felt record label-shoehorned in. Paramore are pixie-stix filled with ground glass: a sweet jagged sugar rush to be sure, but they'll leave you with one hell of a headache if you aren't careful. Could they manage a Loretta Lynn song, particularly one as well known as 'You Ain't Woman Enough...' and not butcher it in some fashion? Well...

That's not too bad. I feel more confident about it than I did a google search earlier, but it all depends if they stick with that stye. I can see with painful ease the ability for them to take that audience reaction and turn it into a hardcore teeny-bopper fist pumping anthem. We'll just have to wait and see.

The other major surprise is the presence of Kid Rock squeezing out a version of 'I Know How.' Unlike Paramore, a google search only turns up references to the fact that he'll be on the tribute album, so I have nothing to assuage me this time. However his highest charting track is Picture, a country ballad he recorded with Sheryl Crow, so we'll use that.

The track is a little bland, but once again nothing offensive is going on. It should of course be noted that this was something of a sea change for Kid Rock, and to an extent even for Sheryl Crow. So I'm torn. I don't really like 'Picture.' I don't really like Kid Rock. However I am dying to hear him quietly croon 'I love him like he wants me to and I know how,' which might almost make it all worth it. I suppose it could be worse. He could just sample 'I Know How' then spit half rhymes about groping pills or whatever 'All Summer Long' was about.

The White Stripes are the final odd ones out on the list, but their presence is both easily justifiable and easily explained. Jack White has been adulating Loretta Lynn since he was four years old, dedicating White Blood Cells to her and finally producing her grammy award winning comeback album Van Lear Rose. Their contribution to the tribute album, 'Rated X,' has been a staple of their live set for years sung by either Meg or Jack:

Honestly, even without that evidence I wouldn't have been that worried about the Stripes. They've consistently proven they can handle country and blues, and I feel convinced their presence will feel natural with the other more traditionally country artists.

So I turn it out to you, the Internet. What do you think of the artist list? Anyone you would've rather seen on there? *cough*Mary Gauthier*cough* Are my fears unfounded? The world must know!

-Dashiell 'The Coal Miner's Canary' Asher

Have You Heard This?- Sonny Terry's Washboard Band Review

This entry marks the first of a recurring series of articles which will aim to shed light on lesser known music albums and bands. The inaugural entry looks at the album Sonny Terry's Washboard Band.

Sixty five years ago the non-profit record label Smithsonian Folkways Recordings put eight tracks of Sonny Terry to vinyl accompanied by a washboard band. The album, only twenty-six minutes long with a humble orange and white album sleeve, currently sits in the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and for good reason: it's a dizzyingly raw and breathtakingly brilliant snapshot of both a blues artist at the height of his talent and of the washboard band, a slowly fading genre of music.

Sonny Terry, born Saunders Terrell, was a blind blues harmonica player famed for his energetic performance style punctuated by successive rapid fire harp licks and blues yelps. Already well known in his home state of North Carolina, Terry was discovered by wider (read white) audiences in the early fifties, accompanying many major folk singers of the day such as Woody Guthrie. It was during this period of folk revival that Sonny Terry's Washboard Band was recorded.

For those who aren't up on their old-time washboard bands (and I mean REALLY where have you been?), the basic setup works like so:

A percussion section is created from a variety of found objects such as sticks, frying pans, washtubs and, of course, washboards. Through a mix of scraping, tapping, tinkling and slamming a propulsive junkyard rhythm is born. The sound is powerfully infectious, clattering and shimmying its way along like a freight train of mamboing skeletons.

In fact, this image isn't far from the truth. Alongside the found items, washboard bands are known for using an instrument called 'bones' which are either wooden sticks or literal pieces of bone which would be, (according to the Folkways circa-1955 liner notes) 'held between the fingers and clacked… [to] provide a sharp percussion note.'

This shaking rhythm is underscored by the ghostly bumps'n'thumps of a washtub bass. Here a single bass string has been strung from a broom handle onto the bottom of an overturned washtub to create the distinctive hollow note sound. Meanwhile melody riffs are carried by sinuous and raw blues harp sometimes blown by Sonny Terry himself, other times by his nephew (also named Sonny Terry).

But the stars of this show are Terry's incredible vocals. Equal parts train whistle and fox yelp; his voice blasts out over every track like a shotgun. It's the glue that holds the ragged structure together, crafting hollering melodies that fill every inch of the sound. This extends to his affect on the lyrics, each track given a wink and a grin by Terry's delivery. Blues though it may be, he makes depression sound fun. From a smattering of double entendres (Custard Pie Blues, Digging My Potatoes) to the wild ways of boozing women (Wine-Headed Woman) every track pulls you into a toe tapping embrace and that just won't let go.

The album is equal parts intimate and raucous. On the one hand you feel like you're sitting in on a band jam, while at the same time a good-god-allmighty party whirls on around you. It's these contradictions that lie at the heart of the recording that make it so compelling. Sonny Terry and his band manage to craft songs that are catchy but powerful, shimmying but downbeat, ragged but tight, all held together by the goodtime grin ever present in Terry's voice. There is a whole lot of electricity to be found in what's almost the ultimate expression of an unplugged sound.

Need a final bit of convincing? If nothing else, this album will have you playing air-washboard. Need I say more?

Hear the album now on Spotify: Sonny Terry – Sonny Terry's Washboard Band

iPhone Review- Emergency Dangerous: Fire Fighter

Old game? Sure. But this is an old blog. So hush.

Emergency Dangerous: Fire Fighter is one of those titles I tend to mention to people when they ask me about games on the iPhone, only to get a blank stare in return.

I understand. It doesn't have the pick up and play appeal of Doodle Jump, the instant recognizability of Bejeweled, or the appealing cutesy-insanity of Angry Birds. In fact the nearest reference point I could think of for it is the Exit series of games by Taito. There, as a 'professional escapologist' named Mr. ESC, you made your 2D way through boldly coloured cutaway buildings during various emergencies (fire, flood, earthquake) in order to rescue survivors from certain death as a timer counted down in the corner. The game was quirky, challenging and funny, even if Mr. ESC controlled like a drunk washcloth.

ED has a similar premise. You control an expanding team of fire fighters tasked with rescuing people from large burning buildings while a timer counts down. As the game goes on the buildings and flames get bigger, and you're expected to rescue more and more of the distressed occupants.

To accomplish this dangerous (or should I say EMERGENCY DANGEROUS) task you'll steadily order your fire fighters to take one of four actions: bust down doors, put out fires, apply first aid to survivors, and of course rescuing them from the building itself. The catch is each member of your team of fire fighters can only carry out one given action at a time. Strategizing becomes essential as the clock ticks away: should you put out that raging fire on the third floor or rescue the slowly dwindling survivor locked away on the second?

Actions are given out through a simple tap interface. Tap a fire fighter to bring up their selection of abilities, tap again on the one you'd like them to use, then tap on the section of the building you'd like them to perform the action. Once complete, the fire fighter will return to the bottom of the screen waiting for your next direction. Though it can be hard to retain a cool head under fire (wahey), choices must be made carefully. If you ask the fire fighters to perform a task that they can't complete (such as rescuing a survivor from a still locked room) they will spend valuable time making their way to the spot, give you a confused look, then walk back to the bottom.

Fortunately you are not without aid in your struggle. As you complete missions you earn points to be spent at an Item Shop where you are able to upgrade your various abilities and stats, as well as adding up to two additional members to your motley squad.

Looking around the level is equally simple, but almost unforgivably never explained by the game itself. Scrolling up or down on the screen will move your view to the various floors of the building. A small red arrow indicator appears in the corner to warn you when there are floors out of your sight with survivors on it. However, you'd never know it if you leapt straight into the game. In no tutorial or help menu does ED mention this aspect of the gameplay. It's a small point of presentation, but is a surprising omission nonetheless considering how key it is to the game past the first few stages.

ED's graphical style is a 2D sugar rush of eye popping comic book drama. From the flaming title screen with letters that make their presence known by screaming at you in garish colours to the angular buildings jutting out of the ground, the design is silly and fun. There isn't a mammoth amount of design variation over the course of the game, but in some ways this is a good thing. This is a game focused on snap decision making, and by keeping the look familiar throughout the levels the experience is kept streamlined and at your fingertips. It serves the gameplay first and acts as visual flash second.

The music, while entertainingly epic and exciting, has slightly less excuse for its repetition. Fun though it is to have thundering drums, choppy electric guitar and synth choral voices soundtrack your first missions, it starts to feel far less dramatic when you've heard the same three loops sampled to death an umpteen amount of times.

In terms of replay value the game offers a small set of unlockable trophies and the main globe trotting campaign comes in three flavours of difficulty, the highest of which must be unlocked. Admittedly, this doesn't seem like a particularly big lifespan. However I would also point out that ED was very clearly designed with the short bursts of play characteristic of gaming on the iPhone in mind, so arguably that helps balance things out a bit.

Overall, Emergency Dangerous is fun, addictive, and surprisingly fast paced for a game requiring you to take things strictly one step at a time. It's easily worth the £1.20 ($1.99), and there's even a trial version for those of you left unconvinced by my gushing.

So go! Buy! And feel safe in the knowledge that you too will now get blank stares when you mention the game to your friends. Enjoy.

-Dashiell 'Not Quite An Emergency' Asher

Images courtesy of Mad Orc Team, 2009