In 2008, when I was recording the Charlie Haden Family & Friends album with my family in Nashville, my dad gave all us kids a copy of a book called The Ozarks' Greatest Hits: A Photo History Of Music In The Ozarks by Wayne Glenn.
I'm reading books constantly, plus I subscribe to 20+ magazines and comic books so you can imagine how long my reading queue is, but I finally finished all 537 pages of it last week. When I first started reading it, I kept online bookmarks of all the music the book mentioned, both well-known and obscure, but after a little while I realized if I kept doing that it would take me forever to finish the book. Luckily, the author supplied a list of 50 of what he considered the most important artists to emerge from the Ozarks regions of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma between ca. 1800s to the 1980s: "50 of the Ozarks' Greatest Hits".
I found 28 of these artists on Spotify and made a playlist containing them which can be found here: http://open.spotify.com/user/123142301/playlist/4IxSmftWBsL0ELWNsBcNkP.
My dad was born in Shenandoah, Iowa in 1937 and moved along with his family to the Ozarks (Springfield, MO), when he was a kid. The Haden Family was an important country/western/gospel group in the Ozarks in the 1930s to the 1950s and they figure prominently in the book. My favorite picture is of Chet Atkins horsing around on guitar with my grandfather Carl.
A link to the book is here: http://www.amazon.com/Ozarks-Greatest-Hits-Photo-History/dp/0976966093. PBS did an amazing piece about it here: http://video.optv.org/video/1392424315/.
For those of you who don't have Spotify here's a list of the artists and songs:
I'd Like To Be - Hugh Ashley
Best Of Friends from The Fox & The Hound - Buddy Baker
You're The Greatest - Dallas Bartley
There's A Star Spangled Banner Waving - Elton Britt
Abraham Lincoln - Albert Brumley w/ Anita Kerr Singers
Green Onions - Booker T. & The MGs
Dooley - The Dillards
Tennessee Stud - Jimmie Driftwood
Peace In The Valley - Red Foley
Keep On The Sunny Side/Roll Us Over The Tide - Haden Family
Organ Grinder's Swing - Joe Haymes
The Weight - The Band
How The Other Half Lives - Jan Howard
Gone - Ferlin Husky
Just A Closer Walk With Thee - The Jordanaires
Green Door - Jim Lowe
Spaceship Orion - Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Cool Water - Sons Of The Pioneers
Gold Digger's Song - Dick Powell
Why Don't You Haul Off And Love Me - Wayne Raney
Frog Legs Rag - James Scott
Bop A Lena - Ronnie Self
Wishful Thinking - Wynn Stewart
A Satisfied Mind - Porter Wagoner
Skeleton Rag - Percy Wenrich
Speedin' West - Speedy West
Take My Breath Away (from Top Gun) - Tom Whitlock
Sparkling Brown Eyes - Wilburn Brothers
Showing posts with label bluegrass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bluegrass. Show all posts
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Eight Songs I've Sung
I recently posted, onto 8tracks.com, a group of eight songs I have sung on, for your possible listening enjoyment, including songs from Spain, Charlie Haden Family & Friends, Esbjörn Svenssön Trio, Soulsavers, Blue Man Group, and Handsome Boy Modeling School.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Charlie Haden Family & Friends At Walt Disney Hall - The Report
Thanks to everyone for coming to the Charlie Haden Family & Friends show at Walt Disney Hall! It was a lot of fun, and the music was amazing. I loved singing Donovan's "Catch The Wind", its one of my dad's favorite songs and we'd been trying to find an opportunity to play it for some time. All of the musicians sounded so great! Special thanks to Jerry Douglas for his amazing dobro solos on "Spiritual", can't get much more inspired than that!
If you thought the music on stage was good, you should have heard it in the halls backstage before the show. One of my favorite things about playing with this group is hearing the guys (Dan Tyminski, Bryan Sutton, Mark Fain, Jim Mills, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, and Jerry Douglas) jamming impromptu before we hit the stage.
Its always fun to watch my brother-in-law Jack Black ham it up on stage. My sisters, Petra, Rachel, and Tanya, sang in perfect harmony. My dad's wife Ruth Cameron sounded incredible, and my dad, as bandleader and bluegrass diplomat, held down the fort with his full bass notes and entertained and enlightened the audience as always with stories of his bluegrass past and words of inspiration and encouragement.
It was great to see my friend Ravi Coltrane backstage.
Meeting of the violinists: Lindsay Stella & Petra Haden
Spain keyboardist/guitarist Randy Kirk & Spain
guitarist Daniel Brummel made an appearance.
My dad Charlie & I backstage after the show.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Photos From Charlie Haden Family & Friends At The Grand Ole Opry
On Feburary 28, 2009 Charlie Haden Family & Friends played at the legendary Grand Ole Opry. What an honor!
From left, Mark Fain, my brother-in-law Jack Black, my father Charlie Haden, my sisters Tanya, Rachel, and Petra rehearsing backstage.
Sam Bush, my father's wife Ruth Cameron, and Charlie backstage.
Charlie, Mark Fain, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush on stage at Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman.
Rachel and esteemed Opry announcer, radio DJ, and country music historian Eddie Stubbs.
Me and Ricky Skaggs backstage.
Thank you to everyone at the Opry who made this show possible, and especially to the audience, you were the best!
From left, Mark Fain, my brother-in-law Jack Black, my father Charlie Haden, my sisters Tanya, Rachel, and Petra rehearsing backstage.
Sam Bush, my father's wife Ruth Cameron, and Charlie backstage.
Charlie, Mark Fain, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush on stage at Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman.
Rachel and esteemed Opry announcer, radio DJ, and country music historian Eddie Stubbs.
Me and Ricky Skaggs backstage.
Thank you to everyone at the Opry who made this show possible, and especially to the audience, you were the best!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Monday, December 22, 2008
Upcoming Charlie Haden Family & Friends Radio Appearances
This morning (pacific standard time), Monday, December 22, my father Charlie Haden will be visiting KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show to talk about Charlie Haden Family & Friends - Rambling Boy.
Charlie, joined by his brother, Carl Jr., will also be speaking today about the cd on Springfield, MO's KWTO.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, December 23, a previously taped live performance of Charlie Haden Family & Friends and interview with Charlie will be broadcast on the NPR radio show World Cafe. During this performance Charlie Haden Family & Friends played songs from the "Rambling Boy" cd, including the song "Spiritual", with vocals by yours truly.
In addition, the Charlie Haden Family & Friends segment on NPR's Fresh Air program will be rebroadcast on Thursday, December 25. Check local listings.
Charlie, joined by his brother, Carl Jr., will also be speaking today about the cd on Springfield, MO's KWTO.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, December 23, a previously taped live performance of Charlie Haden Family & Friends and interview with Charlie will be broadcast on the NPR radio show World Cafe. During this performance Charlie Haden Family & Friends played songs from the "Rambling Boy" cd, including the song "Spiritual", with vocals by yours truly.
In addition, the Charlie Haden Family & Friends segment on NPR's Fresh Air program will be rebroadcast on Thursday, December 25. Check local listings.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Bringing it all back home
Charlie Haden returns to his country roots—and takes his family with him.
By Jay Ruttenberg
Time Out New York
Aug. 20 - 26, 2008
In January, an unlikely swarm gathered in a Nashville studio to record songs steeped in rural American music. The session was spearheaded by jazz-bass titan Charlie Haden and singer Ruth Cameron, Haden’s wife of two decades. Featured artists included the bassist’s grown children—Josh, singer in the band Spain, and harmonizing triplets Petra, Rachel and Tanya—plus Tanya’s husband, Jack Black, a movie star with an oddly commanding voice. Invited guests included luminaries of bluegrass (Dan Tyminski), jazz (Pat Metheny), country (Vince Gill) and the worlds between (Elvis Costello).
The resulting album, Charlie Haden Family & Friends’ Rambling Boy—due next month on Decca, but showcased live at Lincoln Center this week—underlines the musical breadth of its ringleader. “The hinge of the record is my dad’s past and all the different styles he’s been involved with,” Josh Haden says. “It’s like an overview of his entire life, starting from when he was one year old.”
The younger Haden isn’t exaggerating. Long before he helped Ornette Coleman redefine jazz’s boundaries, the bassist sang with his parents and siblings on a daily radio program in Missouri. Haden, now 71, joined the family act back in an old America that was unimpeded by such dreary niceties as child-labor laws. “I remember my mom rocking me to sleep,” recalls Haden, speaking from L.A. before heading to his son-in-law’s Tropic Thunder premiere. “I wasn’t even two. She was humming, and I started humming the harmony. She said, ‘You’re ready for the radio show, babe.’ They started taking me to the station every morning. My mom would pick me up in her arms and hold me to the microphone so I could sing.”
In an archival recording appended to Rambling Boy, the future Liberation Music Orchestra leader can be heard as a toddler, introduced on the show as “the little two-year-old yodelin’ cowboy.” (Frankly, Haden’s work on The Shape of Jazz to Come is more impressive.) The budding musician worked on the radio until he was 15, coming of age surrounded by tall-tale heroes of American country. “My dad knew Jimmie Rodgers, the Carters and [Hank] Williams,” Haden says. “All the people in Nashville used to guest-star on the show. Mother Maybelle would come sing at our house.”
When Haden’s yodelin’ voice fell victim to polio, he shifted his focus to bass, which he decided was “the most beautiful instrument of all, because it made everything sound better when it was playing.” (Also: He harbored a childhood crush on the Carter Sisters’ bassist.) He heard Charlie Parker, grew smitten with jazz, moved to L.A. and became famous. But Haden never forsook his roots. “Most jazz musicians are born in big cities,” he notes. “I’m glad I was born in the Ozarks and exposed to country music. It left a deep impression in my soul. It’s in everything I do.”
While Haden never put his own children on the radio, he still fostered an intensely musical household. Josh Haden grew up to be a singer-songwriter—his work has been covered by Johnny Cash—and the triplets have played with a veritable who’s who of contemporary rock. Rambling Boy presents a lovely family portrait, with support from some of Nashville’s most accomplished hands. Though steeped in tradition, the recording sounds modern and, with its jazz undertone, somewhat eccentric. “Charlie drew from his country roots here,” says bluegrass artist Ricky Skaggs, who appears on the record. “But on the song ‘20/20 Vision,’ Bruce Hornsby suggested that he play his jazz licks. It really showed Charlie’s ability to walk from country to jazz.”
To Haden, mingling those genres is a given: They are, after all, “the indigenous forms of American music.” Appropriately, the Haden Family’s debut performance, on Sunday 24, marks the 25th anniversary of Lincoln Center’s Roots of American Music series. Flanked on the bill by Patti Smith and the Knitters, the Hadens and their Nashville brethren have given Lincoln Center curators Spike Barkin and Bill Bragin what Bragin deems “the perfect anchor. There’s something about family harmonies and communication that really connects this to traditional music.”
Yet for Cameron, Haden’s manager as well as his wife, the album proved something of a break from tradition. “Through years of recording, it’s always ‘Charlie this, Charlie that,’ ” she says. “Then all of a sudden, the girls were singing and we heard from the council room, ‘Daa-aad! Daa-aad!’ In three-part harmony, of course.”
Charlie Haden Family & Friends play Damrosch Park Sun 24.
By Jay Ruttenberg
Time Out New York
Aug. 20 - 26, 2008
In January, an unlikely swarm gathered in a Nashville studio to record songs steeped in rural American music. The session was spearheaded by jazz-bass titan Charlie Haden and singer Ruth Cameron, Haden’s wife of two decades. Featured artists included the bassist’s grown children—Josh, singer in the band Spain, and harmonizing triplets Petra, Rachel and Tanya—plus Tanya’s husband, Jack Black, a movie star with an oddly commanding voice. Invited guests included luminaries of bluegrass (Dan Tyminski), jazz (Pat Metheny), country (Vince Gill) and the worlds between (Elvis Costello).
The resulting album, Charlie Haden Family & Friends’ Rambling Boy—due next month on Decca, but showcased live at Lincoln Center this week—underlines the musical breadth of its ringleader. “The hinge of the record is my dad’s past and all the different styles he’s been involved with,” Josh Haden says. “It’s like an overview of his entire life, starting from when he was one year old.”
The younger Haden isn’t exaggerating. Long before he helped Ornette Coleman redefine jazz’s boundaries, the bassist sang with his parents and siblings on a daily radio program in Missouri. Haden, now 71, joined the family act back in an old America that was unimpeded by such dreary niceties as child-labor laws. “I remember my mom rocking me to sleep,” recalls Haden, speaking from L.A. before heading to his son-in-law’s Tropic Thunder premiere. “I wasn’t even two. She was humming, and I started humming the harmony. She said, ‘You’re ready for the radio show, babe.’ They started taking me to the station every morning. My mom would pick me up in her arms and hold me to the microphone so I could sing.”
In an archival recording appended to Rambling Boy, the future Liberation Music Orchestra leader can be heard as a toddler, introduced on the show as “the little two-year-old yodelin’ cowboy.” (Frankly, Haden’s work on The Shape of Jazz to Come is more impressive.) The budding musician worked on the radio until he was 15, coming of age surrounded by tall-tale heroes of American country. “My dad knew Jimmie Rodgers, the Carters and [Hank] Williams,” Haden says. “All the people in Nashville used to guest-star on the show. Mother Maybelle would come sing at our house.”
When Haden’s yodelin’ voice fell victim to polio, he shifted his focus to bass, which he decided was “the most beautiful instrument of all, because it made everything sound better when it was playing.” (Also: He harbored a childhood crush on the Carter Sisters’ bassist.) He heard Charlie Parker, grew smitten with jazz, moved to L.A. and became famous. But Haden never forsook his roots. “Most jazz musicians are born in big cities,” he notes. “I’m glad I was born in the Ozarks and exposed to country music. It left a deep impression in my soul. It’s in everything I do.”
While Haden never put his own children on the radio, he still fostered an intensely musical household. Josh Haden grew up to be a singer-songwriter—his work has been covered by Johnny Cash—and the triplets have played with a veritable who’s who of contemporary rock. Rambling Boy presents a lovely family portrait, with support from some of Nashville’s most accomplished hands. Though steeped in tradition, the recording sounds modern and, with its jazz undertone, somewhat eccentric. “Charlie drew from his country roots here,” says bluegrass artist Ricky Skaggs, who appears on the record. “But on the song ‘20/20 Vision,’ Bruce Hornsby suggested that he play his jazz licks. It really showed Charlie’s ability to walk from country to jazz.”
To Haden, mingling those genres is a given: They are, after all, “the indigenous forms of American music.” Appropriately, the Haden Family’s debut performance, on Sunday 24, marks the 25th anniversary of Lincoln Center’s Roots of American Music series. Flanked on the bill by Patti Smith and the Knitters, the Hadens and their Nashville brethren have given Lincoln Center curators Spike Barkin and Bill Bragin what Bragin deems “the perfect anchor. There’s something about family harmonies and communication that really connects this to traditional music.”
Yet for Cameron, Haden’s manager as well as his wife, the album proved something of a break from tradition. “Through years of recording, it’s always ‘Charlie this, Charlie that,’ ” she says. “Then all of a sudden, the girls were singing and we heard from the council room, ‘Daa-aad! Daa-aad!’ In three-part harmony, of course.”
Charlie Haden Family & Friends play Damrosch Park Sun 24.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Charlie Haden Family And Friends At Lincoln Center Aug. 24 2008
Charlie Haden Family & Friends will be playing their debut performance this Sunday, Aug. 24 2008 at Lincoln Center in NYC as part of the 25th annual Roots Of American Music Festival.
This show is in anticipation of the debut Charlie Haden Family & Friends album recorded in Nashville to be released September 23 on Decca Records. The songs include a mix of classic country and bluegrass with gospel, folk, and jazz. In addition to Charlie and his wife Ruth, kids Josh, Rachel, Petra, and Tanya, artists appearing on the album include Pat Metheny, Elvis Costello, Rosanne Cash, Bruce Hornsby, Bela Fleck, Jack Black, Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Dan Tyminski, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, and others.
I'll be there singing my song "Spiritual". My dad Charlie will be playing bass and his wife Ruth will be singing, my sisters Rachel, Petra, and Tanya will be singing great harmonies, and the core group of Dan Tyminski, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, and Bryan Sutton will be playing as well. I'm not sure, but I think there'll be surprise guests also. I wonder who they'll be? Hmmm....
I'll be blogging from NYC the entire time, check here for updates.
I understand more gigs in the States and Europe are being planned, if you're not in the New York area stay tuned!
Charlie Haden Family & Friends
New York City
Lincoln Center Out Of Doors/Roots Of American Music Festival
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Sunday, August 24 - 7pm
Free
P.S. the festival headliner is Patti Smith! Whoa!! Also, the Knitters will be playing too!
This show is in anticipation of the debut Charlie Haden Family & Friends album recorded in Nashville to be released September 23 on Decca Records. The songs include a mix of classic country and bluegrass with gospel, folk, and jazz. In addition to Charlie and his wife Ruth, kids Josh, Rachel, Petra, and Tanya, artists appearing on the album include Pat Metheny, Elvis Costello, Rosanne Cash, Bruce Hornsby, Bela Fleck, Jack Black, Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Dan Tyminski, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, and others.
I'll be there singing my song "Spiritual". My dad Charlie will be playing bass and his wife Ruth will be singing, my sisters Rachel, Petra, and Tanya will be singing great harmonies, and the core group of Dan Tyminski, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, and Bryan Sutton will be playing as well. I'm not sure, but I think there'll be surprise guests also. I wonder who they'll be? Hmmm....
I'll be blogging from NYC the entire time, check here for updates.
I understand more gigs in the States and Europe are being planned, if you're not in the New York area stay tuned!
Charlie Haden Family & Friends
New York City
Lincoln Center Out Of Doors/Roots Of American Music Festival
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Sunday, August 24 - 7pm
Free
P.S. the festival headliner is Patti Smith! Whoa!! Also, the Knitters will be playing too!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Jazz Bassist Charlie Haden to Perform Bluegrass
Jazz Bassist Charlie Haden to Perform Bluegrass
Date: July 30, 2008
Written By: Melissa Daniels
Famed jazz bassist Charlie Haden will be switching gears and performing bluegrass as part of Lincoln Center’s 25th Annual Roots of American Music Festival on Sunday, August 24.
To showcase the bluegrass-Americana song style from Haden’s upcoming album, the band slated to take the stage with Haden includes Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton and Dan Tyminski.
Featured on the album, as well as in the festival performance, is Haden’s wife Ruth Cameron and their four children—son Josh and triplet daughters Petra, Rachel and Tanya—all of whom have had followed in their father’s footsteps with careers as professional musicians.
The festival performance will mark the live debut of Charlie Haden Family and Friends, according to a press release. Other acts at the festival include the Music Makers Blues Revue, The Knitters and Patti Smith and her band.
Haden’s upcoming release, presently titled Rambling Boy, brings the bassist back to his 1930s roots of traditional Americana songs, when he performed as a small child with the original Haden Family band.
To be released on Sept. 23 by Decca Records, the album is packed with guest musicians matching Haden’s own talent—artists include Pat Metheny, Vince Gill, Bruce Hornsby, Ricky Skaggs, Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Jerry Douglas and Sam Bush.
The performance will take place at the Damrosch Park Bandshell on Amsterdam Ave and West 62nd Street in New York City. The free show begins at 4 p.m., with the Haden family taking the stage at 7 p.m.
More information on the Roots of American Music festival can be found at the Lincoln Center Web site
Date: July 30, 2008
Written By: Melissa Daniels
Famed jazz bassist Charlie Haden will be switching gears and performing bluegrass as part of Lincoln Center’s 25th Annual Roots of American Music Festival on Sunday, August 24.
To showcase the bluegrass-Americana song style from Haden’s upcoming album, the band slated to take the stage with Haden includes Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton and Dan Tyminski.
Featured on the album, as well as in the festival performance, is Haden’s wife Ruth Cameron and their four children—son Josh and triplet daughters Petra, Rachel and Tanya—all of whom have had followed in their father’s footsteps with careers as professional musicians.
The festival performance will mark the live debut of Charlie Haden Family and Friends, according to a press release. Other acts at the festival include the Music Makers Blues Revue, The Knitters and Patti Smith and her band.
Haden’s upcoming release, presently titled Rambling Boy, brings the bassist back to his 1930s roots of traditional Americana songs, when he performed as a small child with the original Haden Family band.
To be released on Sept. 23 by Decca Records, the album is packed with guest musicians matching Haden’s own talent—artists include Pat Metheny, Vince Gill, Bruce Hornsby, Ricky Skaggs, Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Jerry Douglas and Sam Bush.
The performance will take place at the Damrosch Park Bandshell on Amsterdam Ave and West 62nd Street in New York City. The free show begins at 4 p.m., with the Haden family taking the stage at 7 p.m.
More information on the Roots of American Music festival can be found at the Lincoln Center Web site
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