Due July 8, Moneyland is a concept project, using songs to make a statement about the state of rural America, which they see as in need of special attention. The CD was initially produced to be a campaign item for the now suspended presidential campaign of former NC Senator John Edwards, which will be released to the general public instead.

Most of the tracks are previously released recordings from Mac Wiseman, Merle Haggard, Patty Loveless, Dan Tyminski, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Tim O’Brien, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. The Del McCoury Band is also featured on a number of newly recorded tracks, including a remake of The Beatles’ When I’m 64.

The cover is a play on the classic Grant Wood painting, American Gothic, but with a figure dressed in red, white and blue stealing away in the background with a bag of money.

McCoury Music has pressed 1,000 collectors edition CDs with a alternate cover featuring Del himself as the farmer being fleeced by the crooked politician. Each of these will be signed and numbered, with a portion of the proceeds going to an unspecified organization to aid the homeless.

To order the collectors CD – and hear audio samples from the album – visit McCoury Music online.

The forthcoming release, on June 24, of Moneyland, (MCM 0005), from McCoury Music adds much to the catalogue of songs that speak of economic depravity. The multi-artist collection offers a hard-hitting look at the economic hardships and perceived injustices experienced by both rural and urban working people and their families.

On a personal level, Del McCoury has direct experience of life in rural America – having been born in North Carolina and spending good part of his life in York County, Pennsylvania – so it will not come as any surprise that he should lend his name to this project and express his solidarity with those who are suffering in current economic circumstances.

Among the personnel heard on this 16-track collection are the Del McCoury Band, Mac Wiseman, Merle Haggard, Patty Loveless, Dan Tyminski, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Tim O’Brien, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

Some of the recordings were ‘bought in’ from previously available sources, others were done specifically for this set.

Book-ending Moneyland are a Franklin D Roosevelt Fireside chat, parts 1 and 2, and in the one instance a 1931 recording of Breadline Blues 1932 [from Bernard 'Slim' Smith] and at the end Breadline Blues 2008, a contemporary arrangement of the 1932 song with additional verses.

Moneyland is an unashamedly political message to the powers that be. I’ll not be surprised if it prompts debate; it may help to inform opinions, just like a book or other piece of literature.

The McCoury Music web site has personal messages about the project from Del McCoury, Stan Strickland of McCoury Music, and CD producers Strickland, Ronnie McCoury, and Rob McCoury. Del expresses the project’s goal explicitly in one of these messages:

“I’m in a position where I can make good choices. And aside from just doing what I do musically, I can help others do the same themselves, and get a message out that people need to hear and think about – and, especially in an election year, take action on. This isn’t about party politics, it’s about doing what’s best for our country and everyone in it, not just a lucky few.”

[Editor's note] If you are curious which end of the political spectrum this project occupies, our friend Craig Havighurst makes it plain at String Theory Media:

“Let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised if Moneyland is on Obama’s iPod by this summer’s Democratic convention.”

Audio samples from several tracks can be heard online. File under Americana.

On Saturday, February 9, Earl Scruggs was the recipient of a 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award at a separate Grammy ceremony in Los Angeles. Here is how he was described…

Earl Scruggs revolutionized and popularized the banjo and developed what is now known worldwide as the “Scruggs Style Picking.” His style of picking is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. For more than 20 years, Scruggs performed with vocalist and guitarist Lester Flatt forming the most famous band in bluegrass history. But Scruggs parted with Flatt and in 1969 formed Earl Scruggs Revue with his three sons. In 2003, Scruggs received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in that same year he and Flatt were ranked No. 24 on “CMT’s 40 Greatest Men of Country Music.”

Using The Grammies as the hook, The Daily News in Newburyport, MA ran a feature over the weekend on Rounder Records. The piece by correspondent Jessica Benson looks at the humble beginnings of the company which is now among the more successful independent music labels in the United States.

“We were simply people who were music fans,” said Leighton Levy, who was an undergrad at Clark University in Worcester at the time. “There’s really no way we could have anticipated how the company was going to grow.”

It started in 1970, when Irwin was hitchhiking home to Cambridge after enjoying a fiddler’s convention down south. He was picked up by a guy who, with no formal training, had started his own record company.

Read the full article, which traces Rounder from their start to the present, online.

And one more comment regarding Merle Haggard having been refused consideration in the Best Bluegrass Album category in the Grammy voting…

This year’s winner, Jim Lauderdale, like Haggard is a country artist who made a decision to release a bluegrass project in 2007, both of which included the word “bluegrass” in its title.

This is not in any way to suggest that Jim’s award is undeserved. Bluegrass Diaries was produced and recorded by Randy Kohrs – a noted bluegrass artist, writer and producer – and aggressively promoted to bluegrass radio and media. Jim was also an active participant in last year’s IBMA convention in Nashville, and was personally involved in asking the bluegrass world to embrace his latest effort.

In the end, bluegrass purists may find fault with either Lauderdale or Haggard being considered for such an award – and we have heard from them – but does it seem odd that one is fair game while the other was labeled as “country?” My own guess is that the decision was based more on Merle Haggard’s long association as a country artist than on the actual recording itself.

According to a story in today’s edition of Nashville’s Tennessean, The Hag is still smarting over the decision. Never one to keep it close to the vest, he shared his thoughts with The Tennessean’s Peter Cooper.

“We intended this to be accepted by people who like bluegrass music, and I want to know how I missed that,” said Haggard, 70, whose album was judged by a screening committee ‚Äî made up of anonymous industry professionals ‚Äî as not containing at least 75 percent bluegrass material. “We went to No. 1 on the Billboard bluegrass chart, everybody that plays on it has bluegrass history, and we used bluegrass instruments.”

“It’s be neat if somebody came forth, stepped up and said, ‘I oppose this and this is the reason why. That seems like the decent thing to do. I want to know how I missed it, in someone’s opinion.”

The Grammy Awards will be presented on Sunday (2/10) in Los Angeles, CA.

Read the full piece on The Tennessean site.

The Hag spoke with Melissa Block about his life at 70 years old and his new music, and clips from several songs on the new CD are featured.

From the interview…

One of the new tracks, “Learning to Live with Myself,” was written in his bathtub ‚Äî or at least, according to Haggard, “There was water everywhere.”

“At my age, I’ve learned how to live with my spouse and I’ve learned how to live with my beautiful children,” Haggard says. “I learned how to be friends with everybody and do everything. The only thing I hadn’t learned how to do was to learn to live with myself. I think that’s probably the hardest thing we all have to do. We can lie to everybody else, but you can’t lie to yourself.”

The piece runs nearly ten minutes and you can hear the entire thing on the NPR site – where they also feature a web extra, with Haggard speaking of his fondness for Jimmie Rodgers.

Billboard reported today that despite the CD being #1 on their Bluegrass chart the past four weeks, the new Haggard album would be considered in the Best Country Album category instead.

Chris Harris of McCoury Music, who released The Bluegrass Sessions, expressed some frustration with NARAS over this decision.

“When I contacted NARAS, they would not identify the committee, their qualifications, or why they don’t classify this album as bluegrass. Their stance just doesn’t make sense. With that said, of course, we’re grateful that members can at least vote for The Bluegrass Sessions in other country categories, including Country Album of the Year,” Harris said. “But by every reasonable definition, this is a bluegrass album, and we–Merle, Ronnie [Reno], Del [McCoury] and everyone involved in the project–think that Academy voters ought to be able to consider it for Best Bluegrass Album.”

In the interview, the Sun-Times’ Dave Hoekstra talks with the Hag about his interest in bluegrass, and how he came to record this new project as an acoustic, bluegrass-flavored album. He also reveals this interesting tidbit:

The Bluegrass Sessions was recorded in two days last November in the front room of Ricky Skaggs’ studio outside Nashville. Haggard said he is thinking of a bluegrass tour — if the CD does well.

Read the full article on the Sun-Times web site.

The video shows Hag recording Holding Things Together with Aubrey Haynie, Marty Stuart, Carl Jackson, Rob Ickes, Charlie Cushman and (presumably) Ben Isaacs.

Find the video on the McCoury Music site.

The tracks were recorded during the fall of 2006, including supporting performances from Rob Ickes on dobro, Charlie Cushman on banjo, Aubrey Haynie on fiddle, Ben Isaacs on bass and Marty Stuart on mandolin. A highlight is sure to be Hag’s duet with Alison Krauss on Mama’s Hungry Eyes, which was a #1 hit for Haggard some years ago.

You can hear a sample of this, and all 12 tracks, on the McCoury Music web site. The CD is set to be officially released on October 2.

New from Billboard is a project title (The Bluegrass Sessions), a projected release date (October 2, 2007) and word of a duet with Merle and Alison Krauss on a new Haggard song.

Most encouraging is the following quote from the article:

“I really enjoyed doing it,” says the 70-year-old Haggard, “and I hope this is just Volume One.”

You can read the brief piece at Billboard.com.

Chris Harris with Rainmaker Management (Del’s media relations) shared this bit of info.

“What I’ve heard so far sounds great. Ronnie Reno produced (obviously he has the bluegrass pedigree and he was a member of Mr. Haggard’s band for about 12 years so he was a great fit) and they brought in some great pickers (Marty Stuart, Carl Jackson, Rob Ickes, Charlie Cushman, Aubrey Haynie and Ben Isaac).”

More details are expected to be announced later this week.

That CBA news posting elicited a response from Elida Ickes on the CBA message board that her son, Rob, was playing dobro on the Haggard bluegrass sessions.

Rob said initially they all sat in a circle and just jammed on a few tunes that Merle was interested in doing. (Other players are: Aubrie Haynie, Marty Stuart, Ben Isaacs, and Charlie Cushman) Hope I spelled everyone’s name correctly and remembered everyone that was there. Then Merle said he liked this and suggested that they record just sitting in a circle jamming!!! That is what they did so it will be mostly live taping!! Rob said the first song they did was “I Wonder Where You Are Tonight.”

Another song Rob really liked is a new one that Merle wrote called, “Pray.” Rob said the whole time he could not believe he was sitting in the circle “jamming” with Merle Haggard. Again, it was the highlight of Rob’s life. He goes into the studio again today to finish up. They did 8 songs yesterday and hope to do 4 or 5 more today.

You can read the news posting on CBA’s site, and the follow-up bulletin board discussion there as well. We will try to contact some of the players and find out more about this project, which I am certainly eager to hear.

Thanks to Megan Lynch who first alerted us to this story, and Rick Cornish and Craig Wilson with CBA for their help finding the original post in their archives.