It saddens us to report that Merle Haggard, one of our beloved “real country” artists, has passed away today on his 79th birthday. While some have opined that Haggard’s death was due to last weekend’s ACM Awards broadcast, he actually passed due to complications from pneumonia. Haggard kicked off our “Real Country” series in 2010, and in homage we can do no better than to re-post his classic, heartfelt cover of Blaze Foley’s song If I Could Only Fly (lyrics at bottom) below.

Merle Haggard has flown away to that sweet by-and-by.  RIP Merle.  There’ll never be another like you.

“I almost felt you touching me just now
I wish I knew which way to turn and go
I feel so good, and then I feel so bad
I wonder what I ought to do

If I could only fly, if I could only fly
I’d bid this place goodbye to come and be with you
But I can hardly stand and I got no where to run
Another sinking sun and one more lonely night

The wind keeps blowing, somewhere, everyday
Tell me things get better, somewhere, up the way
Just dismal thinking on a dismal day
And sad songs for us to bare

If I could only fly
If we could only fly
If we could only fly
There’d be no more lonely nights

You know, sometimes, I write happy songs
Then some little thing goes wrong
I wish they all could make you smile

Coming home soon and I wanna stay
Maybe we can, somehow, get away
I wish you could come with me when I go again

If I could only fly, if I could only fly
I’d bid this place goodbye to come and be with you
But I can hardly stand and I got no where to run
Another sinking sun and one more lonely night”

Album designer, Jonathan Barnbrook, has created a new lyric video for David Bowie’s song I Can’t Give Everything Away from the ★ (Blackstar) album. Check it out below (full lyrics at bottom).

“Saying no but meaning yes, this is all I ever meant.”  RIP David Bowie.

About the work, Barnbrook said the following with the release:

“This is really a very simple little video that I wanted to be ultimately positive. We start off in black and white world of ★, but in the final chorus we move to brilliant color, I saw it as a celebration of David, to say that despite the adversity we face, the difficult things that happen such as David’s passing, that human beings are naturally positive, they look forward and can take the good from the past and use it as something to help with the present. We are a naturally optimistic species and we celebrate the good that we are given.”

I Can’t Give Everything:

“I know something is very wrong
The post returns for prodigal songs
With blackout harks with flowered muse
With skull designs upon my shoes

I can’t give everything
I can’t give everything
Away
I can’t give everything
Away

Seeing more and feeling less
Saying no but meaning yes
This is all I ever meant
That’s the message that I sent

I can’t give everything
I can’t give everything
Away
I can’t give everything
Away

I can’t give everything
I can’t give everything
Away
I can’t give everything
Away

I know something is very wrong
The post returns for prodigal songs
The blackout harks with flowered muse
With skull designs upon my shoes

I can’t give everything
I can’t give everything
Away
I can’t give everything
Away

I can’t give everything
I can’t give everything
Away
I can’t give everything
Away”

Kendrick Lamar regaled at the March Madness Music Festival in Houston yesterday. At that Festival, Lamar performed Untitled 07 live for the first time. The track is from his recently-revealed album untitled unmastered. Check it out below. And levitate, levitate, levitate beyond your worldly possessions.

The outpouring for the late, great David Bowie continues unabated. And rightfully so. This Friday (April 1st) a host of great artists (Pixies, The Roots, Polyphonic Spree, Blondie, Anna Calvi, and Esperanza Spalding, among others) will perform at Radio City Music Hall as part of a Bowie tribute concert, which you can stream live (via that link) by making a donation to one of Bowie’s favored charities in NYC (where he lived until his passing).

In a rare public performance, REM’s Michael Stipe, will also perform at the charity-concert.  To help draw attention to the concert, last night Stipe appeared (brazenly be-bearded) on Fallon’s Tonight Show. Watch below as Stipe delivers a stirring, elegiac cover of Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World, accompanied only by go-for-baroque piano. Bravo!

A new super-group consisting of Neko Case, k.d. lang, and Laura Veirs (three very talented artists in their own right, with Veirs the unjustly unsung one) has announced the release of a new collaborative album entitled case/lang/veirs on ANTI- Records in June. Today the group has released the second scintillating sample from the album entitled Best Kept Secret (in Silver Lake) in all its joyful glory. Best Kept Secret is Veirs’ ode to guitar-player Tim Young and follows on the heals of the very impressive, Case-featuring first single, Atomic Number.  You can listen to both below.

The group evidently came together via this catalytic email sent by lang to Case and Veirs: “I think we should make a record together.” Veirs and Case responded “yes!” immediately, and the rest is history. Speaking of history, it then took two and one-half years to finalize the album with the prodigious production help of Tucker Martine.  The album will be released in June, and the ensemble will head out on tour in support in June and July (see dates at bottom).

Both songs bode incredibly well for the album and tour.  You can pre-order the album HERE.

Tour Dates:

06/22 San Diego, CA @ Humphrey’s +
06/23 Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre +
06/25 Saratoga, CA @ The Mountain Winery +
06/26 Laytonville, CA @ Kate Wolf Music Festival
06/28 Victoria, BC @ TD Victoria International Jazz Fest
06/30 Seattle, WA @ Woodland Park Amphitheatre +
07/02 Portland, OR @ Oregon Zoo Amphitheatre +
07/05 Bend, OR @ Athletic Club of Bend +
07/07 Reno, NV @ Robert Z. Hawkins Amphitheater
07/10 Denver, CO @ Denver Botanic Gardens
07/22 Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival
07/24 Camden, NJ @ XPoNential Music Festival
07/26 Brooklyn, NY @ Prospect Park +
07/27 Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre +
07/29 Atlanta, GA @ Atlanta Botanical Garden +
08/02 San Antonio, TX @ Tobin Center for the Performing Arts +
08/03 Austin, TX @ Bass Performance Hall +
08/09 Bayfield, WI @ Big Top Chataqua +
08/14 Winnipeg, MB @ Interstellar Rodeo

+ with the talented Andy Shauf

Honesty: we were not and never will be grateful for The Grateful Dead. While we enjoyed some of the songs written by Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter and Bob Weir, our souls were simply not stirred by the band’s recordings or performances. And the drug-addled, psychedelic/hippie, “Deadhead” culture surrounding the band left/leaves us completely cold (“dead”, if you will). Throughout the band’s tenure, we were grateful for the great musical alternatives available (the anti-Dead punk rockers kept things a bit more real for us). Just sayin’.

Nonetheless, some of our favorite artists (The National, Wilco, War On Drugs, Phosphorescent, Jenny Lewis, Stephen Malkmus, Lucinda Williams, Courtney Barnett–see tracklist at bottom) have been gathered together to perform Dead covers for an immense new Day of the Dead tribute album (released on 20th May via 4AD), which has been curated by The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner, with all profits going to the Red Hot Organization. Today five songs from the three-disc set have been released: The National performing Morning Dew, Phosphorescent and Jenny Lewis covering Sugaree, The War On Drugs doing Touch Of Grey, Courtney Barnett’s rendering of New Speedway Boogie, and Bruce Hornsby/DeYarmond Edison swimming into Black Muddy River. Check ’em out below and go pre-order the album HERE.

Day Of The Dead tracklist:

“Thunder” (Vol.1)

01 The War on Drugs – “Touch of Grey”
02 Phosphorescent, Jenny Lewis & Friends – “Sugaree”
03 Jim James & Friends – “Candyman”
04 Moses Sumney, Jenny Lewis & Friends – “Cassidy”
05 Bruce Hornsby and DeYarmond Edison – “Black Muddy River”
06 Ed Droste, Binki Shapiro & Friends – “Loser”
07 The National – “Peggy-O”
08 Kurt Vile and the Violators (featuring J Mascis) – “Box of Rain”
09 Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy & Friends – “Rubin and Cherise”
10 Perfume Genius, Sharon Van Etten & Friends – “To Lay Me Down”
11 Courtney Barnett – “New Speedway Boogie”
12 Mumford & Sons – “Friend of the Devil”
13 Lucius – “Uncle John’s Band”
14 The Lone Bellow & Friends – “Me and My Uncle”
15 Lee Ranaldo, Lisa Hannigan & Friends – “Mountains of the Moon”
16 Anohni and yMusic – “Black Peter”
17 Bryce Dessner – “Garcia Counterpoint”
18 Daniel Rossen, Christopher Bear and The National (featuring Josh Kaufman, Conrad Doucette, So Percussion and Brooklyn Youth Chorus) – “Terrapin Station (Suite)”
19 Angel Olsen – “Attics of My Life”
20 Wilco with Bob Weir – “”St Stephen (live)”

“Lightning” (Vol. 2)

01 Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – “If I Had the World to Give”
02 Phosphorescent & Friends – “Standing on the Moon”
003 Charles Bradley and Menahan Street Band – “Cumberland Blues”
04 The Tallest Man on Earth & Friends – “Ship of Fools”
05 Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy & Friends – “Bird Song”
06 The National – “Morning Dew”
07 Marijuana Deathsquads – “Truckin’”
08 Cass McCombs, Joe Russo & Friends – “Dark Star”
09 Nightfall of Diamonds – “Nightfall of Diamonds”
10 Tim Hecker – “Transitive Refraction Axis for John Oswald”
11 Lucinda Williams & Friends – “Going Down The Road Feelin’ Bad”
12 Tunde Adebimpe, Lee Ranaldo & Friends – “Playing in the Band”
13 Local Natives – “Stella Blue”
14 Tal National – “Eyes of the World”
15 Bela Fleck – “Help on the Way”
16 Orchestra Baobab – “Franklin’s Tower”
17 Luluc with Xylouris White – “Till the Morning Comes”
18 The Walkmen – “Ripple”
19 Richard Reed Parry with Caroline Shaw and Little Scream (featuring Garth Hudson) – “Brokedown Palace”

“Sunshine” (Vol. 3)

01 Real Estate – “Here Comes Sunshine”
02 Unknown Mortal Orchestra – “Shakedown Street”
03 Hiss Golden Messenger – “Brown-Eyed Women”
04 This Is the Kit – “Jack-A-Roe”
05 Daniel Rossen and Christopher Bear – “High Time”
06 The Lone Bellow & Friends – “Dire Wolf”
07 Winston Marshall, Kodiak Blue and Shura – “Althea”
08 Orchestra Baobab – “Clementine Jam”
09 Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – “China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider”
10 Bill Callahan – “Easy Wind”
11 Ira Kaplan & Friends – “Wharf Rat”
12 The Rileys – “Estimated Prophet”
13 Man Forever, So Percussion and Oneida – “Drums -> Space”
14 Fucked Up – “Cream Puff War”
15 The Flaming Lips – “Dark Star”
16 s t a r g a z e – “What’s Become of the Baby”
17 Vijay Iyer – “King Solomon’s Marbles”
18 Mina Tindle & Friends – “Rosemary”
19 Sam Amidon – “And We Bid You Goodnight”
20 The National with Bob Weir – “I Know You Rider (live)”

The sport of Track and Field is now in full swing, and we’ve got a couple of songs to add to our intermittent Track and Field Mixtape series (songs that are at least remotely-related to the sport).

First up is Chairlift’s frenetic Romeo off their new album Moth (“Romeo-put on your running shoes, I’m ready to go…the only way to catch me is to cheat” [Ed.–Hello Jamaica and Russia!!]), followed by Julien Baker’s Sprained Ankle (“Sprinter, learning to wait, marathon runner, my ankles are sprained”). The latter song serves to tie fella-Tennessee-ans Baker and terrific Torres closer together among the Sprinters.  Let the games begin.

Exciting times lie ahead for one of our long-time fave bands, Bon Iver. Leader Justin Vernon recently announced that Bon Iver is back working on new songs for a new album. In addition, they recently completed an Asian tour and head to Australia in May, before performing this summer at Vernon’s now-annual Eaux Claires Music Festival. Bon Iver was/is backed on this tour by all three sisters of British group The Staves (Vernon produced their fantastic 2015 album If I Was). Today The Staves revealed a video of themselves, Vernon and Bon Iver warming up by warbling Flume before a show in a Hong Kong stairwell. Check out the harmonies and hi-jinx in the video below. Oh how these sisters can sing (not to mention Vernon’s fantastic falsetto). Long live Bon Iver!

Easily our favorite album of 2015 was EL VY’s Return to the Moon on 4AD. It’s the gift that just keeps giving. And following on a long list of superb videos for the album, the band has just released two videos for three more songs, the medley of Sad Case/Happiness, Missouri and It’s a Game. Watch them both below. The Sad Case/Happiness, Missouri video is a lyric video that was filmed by Michael Brown and Ben Krall, while Matt Berninger’s brother Tom Berninger directed (as he has done repeatedly and well on many other EL VY videos) It’s a Game, which features Tom’s art.

If you don’t know Return to the Moon and its superb song collection, you should pick it up now.

Lefort-fave Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) and talented Jesca Hoop will soon release a new co-written album entitled Love Letter For Fire, (coming on April 15th via Sub Pop/Black Cricket Recording Co.). Beam is on a duets roll, having last released the covers-album Sing Into My Mouth last year with Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell.

Today the duo released its first official video for their charming new song Valley Clouds. The video captures a karaoke duo (imagine that) performing the song, while Beam and Hoop work the surrounding bar. We love the song, which seems an up-tempo companion piece to Iron & Wine’s Upward Over the Mountain.  While musically jaunty, the song’s lyrics are laden (“Into the wind it’ll baptize our skin till the music is tender”).

Afterwards check out the previously-released single Every Songbird Says.

Beam and Hoop will head out on tour in May to Cali and beyond.  Check out the dates and get tickets at the links above.