CMT Blog: Archive

The Americana Music Festival and Conference is in Nashville this week, which means there are interesting showcases scattered throughout the city and many new musical delicacies to discover. On Thursday afternoon (Sept. 17), I went to a BMI event to hear one of my favorite artists, Justin Townes Earle. (Other people must like him, too, considering that he received the new and emerging artist honor at the Americana Music Association Honors and Awards show later that night.) Earle gave a moving performance in spite of the slightly awkward, corporate event nature of the gig and even inspired the tiny crowd to plead for an encore, which is quite rare in such a setting. He played his own accompaniment on guitar, stomping around the stage and contorting his body to songs like "Ain't Glad That I'm Leavin'" and then tenderly singing "John Henry" and "Midnight at the Movies." You should see the ladies' eyes light up when he sings "Mama's Eyes." I absolutely love watching this guy perform. But there were two other acts that I thought I should introduce you to.

The first is an artist from the U.K. named Pete Molinari. He's in town recording an album, although I'm not sure if it's going to be his first U.S. release or not. (He talks fast, and the accent threw me off.) At any rate, Molinari has the style portion of the equation handled, taking the stage in purple pants, a matching hat and plenty of gold jewelry. Musically, his style is not nearly as flashy, though. My favorite song was "Don't Like the Man I Am," whose message was, "I'm sorry, but I can't love you since I don't even like myself." Sounds like downer, but it's actually played with quite a bit of fervor.

Next is a group of three sisters from Stockholm, Sweden, called Baskery. If unbashful girls playing loud, punk-rock country are not your thing, steer clear. The youngest sister sings lead vocals and plays acoustic guitar and the middle one plays upright bass and sings background. The oldest ... well, let me see if I can get this straight. She plays lead electric guitjo (a banjo that has a guitar neck attached), harmonica, provides background vocals and plays a modified bass and snare drum set-up -- all at once. They're really talented musicians, too. Oh, yeah, and they're hot. Flashbulbs went off wildly as soon as they tore into "One Horse Down." Check 'em out if you think you can hang.