Jesse's blog

Our Artist of the Week is Amanda Shires! We'll play three tracks from her newest vinyl, Down Fell The Doves (2013). Amanda is a singer-songwriter who grew up in Lubbock and Mineral Wells, Texas. She's a violinist and also plays the ukulele. Amanda first picked up the violin when she was 10 and got her start in music as a 15 year old playing fiddle for the Texas Playboys. Down Fell The Doves is her fourth solo album and displays her steady growth as a singer and songwriter. She has also collaborated on albums and toured with her husband, Jason Isbell, as well as Justin Townes Earle, Todd Snider, Hayes Carll, and Rod Picott. Among her influences she claims Leonard Cohen for his poetic songwriting. She even wrote a tribute song for him on Down Fell The Doves and discussed the song and his influence on her during a short interview with All Things Considered  (http://www.npr.org/2013/08/04/207951179/violinist-amanda-shires-picks-up-the-pieces).

The Dead Wax Artist of the Week is Mississippi John Hurt (1892-1966). We're going back to his final album, Today!, from 1966. We'll play three tracks from a vintage Vanguard pressing, including Spike Driver's Blues. John Smith Hurt grew up in Avalon, Mississippi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_John_Hurt). He was a share cropper and a farmer for most of his life, although he had a short, three record recording career in 1928. While these albums had little commercial success, they drew the attention of producer Tom Hoskins in 1966. Tom tracked John Hurt down using the lyrics in the song Avalon Blues, which references Avalon, Mississippi. Tom found John there and convinced him to move to Washington D.C. and record a few albums for the Library of Congress. These recordings were then produced by Vanguard and set John Hurt up with coffee house and small concert gigs, including a well received performance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZLwd6ymZv8; John Hurt starts at 2:20 on the video).

Parker Millsap is the Dead Wax Epsiode 1 Artist of the Week (Wednesday, October 8, 2014). We'll play 3 tracks from his new, debut record "Parker Millsap". This 21 year old Oklahoman plays a stripped-down blend of gospel, blues, and old-time rock and roll. He was featured last month with his three piece band on NPR Music and gave a nice question and answer session (http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2014/09/11/347466848/an-emerging-voice-of-americana-and-oklahoma). In the interview, Parker says that his vocal idols are "Tom Waits, Howlin' Wolf, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and Freddie Mercury". These influences are all apparent. He was in San Francisco last weekend to perform at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, if you were lucky enough to see him. An Emerging Artist of the Year nominee at the Americana Music Awards festival last month in Nashville, Parker Millsap will definitely be in the rotation of future episodes of Dead Wax.