The Little Willies "Jolene" (Norah Jones)

Love, love, love that so many talented artists are alive and well in this roots music world we call Americana. You know that Norah Jones has a soft place in her heart for it, as was first evidenced with the emergence of her stellar band The Little Willies in 2006 with their self-titled CD. Luminaries all, Lee Alexander (bass), Jim Campilongo (guitar), Norah Jones (piano, vocals), Richard Julian (guitar, vocals) and Dan Rieser (drums) have put out a brand new CD as of Tuesday called For The Good Times. On it, they honor songwriting titans, among them, Dolly Parton with their cover of the song “Jolene.” There are so many wonderful versions of this song, that I wish I could aggregate them back to back on the radio. It still gives me chills after all these years. Honorable mentions are versions from Mindy Smith, The Stone Coyotes, and Rhonda Vincent.

So many times when the big machine is behind a release, we wind up with commercials at the front of the video. You are welcome to seek these videos out. Here's the song, audio only.

And here is a short film about the making of the new album.

-Jessie Scott

This Is Indian Land: A Songwriter's Journey

Today we welcome a contribution from Josh Crutchmer, whose day gig is for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. You might recall that a year ago, he wrote a piece for Music Fog about the last Cross Canadian Ragweed show. For this entry, Josh has interviewed the songwriters on the new Cody Canada & The Departed album, This Is Indian Land. Josh puts comments from the songwriter next to Cody Canada’s comments about each song.

An editor's note, Cody & Seth's version of one of the songs from the album, is included on our first ever compilation album of our own unique recordings, Who's First? Music Fog Sessions Vol. 1. Here is the video of that, filmed back in January at MusicFest in Steamboat Springs

-Jessie Scott

This is Indian Land: A Songwriter’s Journey

The people behind the music weigh in on Cody Canada and The Departed’s first album

By Josh Crutchmer

Cody Canada and The Departed have been together as a band since December 2010. The five-piece features four members from Oklahoma, and one from Texas, and their first album is a tribute to a cross section of the state’s music. This is Indian Land centers around the Red Dirt scene which sprung up around Stillwater, Okla., in the 1970s and has been a constant since.

The 16 songs (15 on the CD, a bonus track on iTunes) branch out from Red Dirt like spokes on a wheel, touching on the Tulsa Sound, country, rock and folk. It often reflects “The Farm,” a patch of land near Stillwater where Red Dirt artists used to live, write and play music around campfires and oak trees.

What follows is a journey through the album’s songwriting. Half is from the perspective of Cody Canada, Departed guitar player and vocalist and former front man for Cross Canadian Ragweed. He’s joined in the band by Jeremy Plato (bass and vocals), Seth James (guitar and vocals), Steve Littleton (keys) and David Bowen (drums). Of the five, only James — who is from Texas — does not hail, musically, from the state.

The rest comes from the songwriters, artists, family members or Oklahoma music experts the album was written to honor.

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