I don’t know if this idea was stolen from Wilco and Billy Bragg in their Mermaid Avenue movie about the lost notebook of Woody Guthrie, but this promises to be more entertaining. Hank Williams, dying at 29, left a series of songs that he never recorded. A bunch of famous artists recorded them, including Jack White, which you can hear over at Rolling Stone.
It is disappointing to only hear about great musicians because they just passed, as with Eugene McDaniels, who passed away this past Saturday. From a post at the great blog Soul Sides, I discovered a couple great songs worth your attention, but only before I came to read where he wrote my favorite jazz song, Compared To What:
Head over to NPR to hear Newport Folk Festival performances from Justin Townes Earle, Secret Sisters, Tegan and Sara, Chris Thile, Gillian Welch, The Devil Makes Three, Delta Spirit, Wanda Jackson, Pokey La Farge and many more.
Whenever the blog Rollo & Grady posts a letter from Bob Lefsetz, I try to read the whole thing. Â His latest article raves about a new music service/website called Turntable.fm. It is somewhat like a mix of those old AOL chat rooms and Pandora, where users enter a room (or create one) and then whoever takes turns adding songs to the playlist. Â Watch the video below or just go straight there.
Jack White continues to be the coolness over at Third Man Records.  The other day I linked to the Black Milk songs that Jack guests on, Seasick Steve did a single, Chris Thile just did a single, The Strange Boys are putting out a live record, and  Pokey LaFarge is a good listen.  In the  latest record club release, the Vault, Wanda Jackson is putting out a live record, and there are songs from Andre Williams and Jack’s old collaboration, 2 Star Tabernacle.
Coolest/strangest/most-appropriate-for-this-blog is that Stephen Colbert is releasing a single via Third Man Records. Â See all the videos of Stephen at playing the new song live and Jack White on the Colbert Report at The Modern Age. Â Thanks to K$ for the heads up.