The Song That The Morning Sings

Grace Potter Recording In Memphis

A Wayback Interview with Jerry Joseph (2000)

The Wayback Machine at archive.org is a sometimes brilliant, sometimes scary thing. It archives most webpages so that you can go back and see what a page looked like and retrieve it's content from just about any time in its history. That means that a lot of the old pages of Honest Tune's website are there, which is sometimes embarrassing. But there are also great advantages. I found myself perusing those archives and ran across an old interview I did with Jerry Joseph, soon after his album Everything Was Beautiful was released, in 2001.

I remember sitting at the bar with him after his show at George Street Grocery in Jackson. This is it:

Jerry Joseph Interview

New Articles Hither And Yon

I've got a few new articles published in a few places that were published in the last few days.

I did a profile of the hip-hop group Nappy Roots for the Jackson-Free Press. While I'm admittedly not very well-versed (heh-heh) in hip-hop, I had fun learning more about these guys, and I like 'em. You may or may not remember their hit "Aw, Naw," where their record company made them dress up in overalls and straw hats because they're from Kentucky and they wanted to play up the "country" angle. Nappy Roots went along with it, but they've got their own label now and a new album coming out. You can read that story here:

Who Are The Nappy Roots?

Also, the new Local Voice is out today. My "Speed of Sound" column this issue addresses the recent spate of geezer shows (Smothers Brothers, Joan Baez) at the Ford Center, and then suggests that readers go out to see 60-year old George Porter Jr funkify their life. He's in town with his trio Porter, Batiste & Stoltz, aka PBS. There's also mention of the Hill Country Review, the new group from the Luther-less NMAS & Company. The paper is not available online, but you can download a pdf of the it here:

The Local Voice #51


Over at Honest Tune, our new April issue is up. I did an interview with Donna Jean Godcheaux-McKay, formerly of The Grateful Dead and currently with Donna Jean & The Tricksters. Her new band, made up mostly of folks from The Zen Tricksters, made a swing through our area last week, but had to cancel their Memphis show. Still, we had fun talking about synchronicity, pyramids and singing in the Grateful Dead while 8 months pregnant. That article is here:

The Music Never Stopped: The Musical Journey of Donna Jean Godcheaux-McKay


In the same issue, I reviewed new records by The Black Keys and Hymns. I like 'em both.

Read them here:

Black Keys: Attack & Release

Hymns: Travel In Herds



Of course I suggest you check out all of the other fine content in this month's Honest Tune, including a great story on the Rev. Jeff Mosier, an interview with Jerry Joseph about his new band Denmark Veseys, and a report from the Langerado Festival.

It's all available at HonestTune.com

Here's Neil Young:

Welcome Back, REM

The hype has been suffocating. Everybody from Rolling Stone to friggin' Sunday Morning on CBS has been yelling at me about the new REM album, Accelerate. They're saying it's a return to form, that they've made a bold move in cementing their legacy, that they've finally got their feet back under them after the departure of drummer Bill Berrry.

Well, they're right. In this case, you can believe the hype. I picked up Accelerate at my local vintage clothing Store/CD Shop/Coffee Shop/Boarding House/Yoga Studio Purple Haze, and damned if it didn't take me back in time, or rather along a different timeline.

Accelerate is all the things people are saying it is, sure. But it mostly sounds like REM in some kind of alternate timeline version of 1988, one in which they didn't sign to Warner Brothers Records and make Green and didn't become "Shiny Happy People." It's the record that they should've and could've made after Document. It's loud and fast and angry. Peter Buck's guitars blaze, Stipe mumbles, Mills nails the high harmony. This is the band I loved back then, and if you did too, get this record, turn it up to eleven, tight-roll your jeans and go back to a different 1988.

Here's some YouTubage from it: