New Music 2016 - Part 43 - Flatt Lonesome - Runaway Train

Good things, like troubles and London buses, come in threes. 
Here is the last in a trio of acts from America that are little known in the UK. The current excitement stateside is that they have fairly recently recorded and released a bluegrass version of the main theme to 'Game of Thrones'.
That's interesting, I suppose, but this is not really about that at all. It is about Flatt Lonesome, the band, and their latest album on which the aforementioned track is not included. It is however quite splendid in its own right and, as bluegrass is in part derived from Celtic tradition, here it is:

Looking and listening beyond that introduction, Flatt Lonesome is an acoustic six-piece composed of extended family and it is based in Tennessee.

Flatt Lonesome - Runaway Train (Mountain Home Music Company, 2 October 2015).

I have been listening to a great deal of modern bluegrass in the last year or so and a sizeable proportion of that is not of US origin. This however is and, while US reviews suggest it is very well received - it is their third LP - it appears to be little known over here.
There are no long songs on this - the twelve tracks run for a total of just 37 minutes. The final, and title track, does however illustrate my assertion that American roots and folk artists have a predilection for writing railroad-related songs, if only used as a metaphor and, despite some claims to that effect, it is not a cover of the Soul Asylum track of the same name!
This is the play list:

Flatt Lonesome - Runaway Train

• You'll Pay
• Still Feeling Blue
• You're the One
• In the Heat of the Fire
• Don't Come Running
• In the Morning
• Road to Nottingham
• New Lease on Life
• Casting All Your Care on Him
• Mixed Up Mess of a Heart
• Letting Go
• Runaway Train

What I did not expect yesterday, UK-time, was this announcement in which Flatt Lonesome features prominently. The nominations for the IBMA 2016 Awards.

IBMA is the International Bluegrass Music Association, just in case you were wondering.

The full list of categories, and the nominations within each of them, is here.

Democracy, debate, voting, and also music awards...

The disagreement over televised debates between political leaders is fascinating, up to a point, and mostly for the divisions and therefore the possible motives, on behalf of both politicians and broadcasters, that it has bought to public attention and a wider audience. I'm not going to enter the debate on UK politics here but this very public fiasco has focussed my attention on a long-standing case of double-standards that applies on all sides of the argument.
The distinctions between democracy, enfranchisement and transparency tend to be forgotten here: Without the last, the first is a poor guide to those that enjoy the latter and quite useless to those that don't. The broadcasters, including the BBC, are not entirely on the moral high-ground either.

We jump to music in the sense that this applies to the BBC Radio2 Folk Awards:
Emma Hartley has been on the case for a long time now and, despite her knowledge and persistence, it is like digging a tunnel with a candle and a toothpick. This link is not the start nor the end of the matter to date, but a good point to start on the stalling and frustrations that it has and likely will continue to provide:

http://theglamourcave.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/a-bbc-briefing-for-john-whittingdale-mp.html

This is neither open Government nor an example of the much-vaunted transparency promised by the BBC after a spate of revelations in recent years.

That is not to say that the short lists are flawed, nor the selection panels - any such venture needs some group of people that create a long list - for that is not so. That which is suspect is the undeclared voting members and, possibly, their commercial interests. There are actually many very splendid artists on the list of BBC Radio2 Folk Award nominations and this is that for 2015:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/Rdcvm12ST6lY2vctrhK8k5/folk-awards-2015-the-nominees

Another matter is that in the BBC Radio2 Folk Awards only one category is determined by a public vote, hence the issue with enfranchisement. You cannot vote for something or someone when you have a no vote at all.

On the other hand, just announced, are the Spiral Earth Award nominations 2015: http://www.spiralearth.co.uk/spirals-2015/.  I don't know how these lists were chosen either and you will find that some of the same artists feature here, which is as it should likely be. There is one major difference and that is between now and noon BST (UTC+1) on Wednesday, 14 April you can vote on all eleven categories, each comprising a short list of four acts or artists.

I know that I might attract some flak here but so be it. As a matter of transparency I have posted all links fully and visibly, so that you can see what they are before you choose whether or not explore them. 
You should explore the music regardless.

Added 7 March 2015:
Timely as it is, here is a post regarding the approach that Glastonbury Festival takes in selecting the act or artist for its 'Emerging Talent' competition:
http://breakingmorewaves.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/glastonbury-emerging-talent-competition.html
Included within the above article is a link to the 120 artists that comprise the long-list. That is still a long list, in any sense of the phrase, but consider the fact that this represents less than 2% of the total entries. 

The Eutectic Point...

The MTV and Mercury Music awards are now both shortlisted, so it is that time of year again. I imagine that many in the major labels are wringing their hands although it is likely that they will score some successes in 2009 even if the personal cost might have been high for music industry executives in terms of bonuses.

Hiya!

'real world' --- aka 'the rest of us' --- because we've known exactly that for ages and were not paid a penny for our wisdom.

I'm happy living with my thought that that the industry is, finally, undergoing some kind of corporate cognitive therapy, resulting in a very slow transformation in terms of both self-awareness and of the changing situation. The issue is that depite (maybe even because of) the riches the-gravy-train that recorded-music history granted them for almost fifty years the magic has finally worn so thin as to have as-wide-an-appeal as a dried-out-tea-bag, awaiting its second-coming, in a student house.
It took, however, the better part of a decade for the industry to wake-up to, let alone make attempts at full engagement with, the new reality. My experience is that students learn such things much faster and probably because they simply have to.

The four major labels are certainly not out of the woods yet but at least they are trying. The real issue is that the decades of sycophantic hegemony are over; it is now a long-established industry under attack from more directions than merely those posed by the rise of illegal downloading alone. That is, however, a phenomenon that both they and the High Street music stores handled catastrophically: a case of corporate self-denial, in the face of a blindingly-obvious rapid change in circumstances, if ever there were one.
Many of the new threats are, and have every reason to remain, valid as they are quite legal and that too is largely a massive failure on the part of the existing players in the market. It is hard to say for sure but, had things been done differently and I'm not talking Draconian measures here, I can't help but think that the 'big-four' might not be in the situation in which they now find themselves.

Good luck independent labels - you are amongst the forces of the future!