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It's podcasting time again!! This time poet and musician Matt Urmy sat down with us for a very pleasant afternoon. We had so much fun, in fact, that we talked for 3 hours. To save your sanity, I've distilled the conversation and the music down to just under and hour. For you listening pleasure, you can get the 'cast at ITunes, or simply download it here (right click and 'save file as'). Matt is wonderful, but if you want the true experience of what it was like in the HCT living room that day, I suggest you listen to it after only 5 or so hours of sleep, when you are hungover and have started drinking at lunch time. I won't admit whether those were the exact conditions of the day, but recreating those conditions might actually make us sound less obnoxious (or at least you'll understand us better). Matt is one of those people you want to spend a starry, warm night on the porch with. Bottle of whiskey, guitar, fireflies and endless delightful conversation. He's pretty, he's smart, he sings with a soul-nicking raspiness. I've never had conversation with that I didn't leave inspired. Songs in the podcast are all Urmy's originals and include: New Year's Morning The Old Photograph Cry Freedom Poor Man's Blues The Lament of Martine Cup of Grace Renaissance Rodeo Plus a lot of talk about stories and poetry and music and other good stuff. You can find Matt on MySpace, his website and YouTube. His new album should be available shortly ('round about July, don't worry, we'll keep you apprised).

First podcast of the New Year! Are you as excited as we are? You should be! This time around we have the boys from The Fox Hunt from West Virginia. Well, we don't have them right this moment, but we had them for awhile when they came through town to play a show with our friends The Magpies. Alas, much to our dismay, we had to release them back into the wild. But before we did, we got a podcast chock-full of fantastic old-timey music out of them. The Fox Hunt is made up of John Miller, Ben Townsend and Matts Klein and Metz. They have one album out, available on CD Baby with a few more slated for release throughout the year, so stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy the music in the podcast and try and forgive our less than sparkling conversational skills. Apparently, too much alcohol and too little sleep makes us less than brilliant. And check the boys out at: http://www.myspace.com/lefoxhunt

Once again it's podcasting time! This go 'round Tommy Womack came a spend part of his afternoon talking to us and singing for us. He's been in bands you might have heard of, Government Cheese and the bis-quits. He plays amazing solo shows, recently bring spoken word into his sets to amazing effect. He's written a couple books, The Cheese Chronicles and The Lavender Boys and Elsie (which isn't yet available, so after you listen to this call your favorite publisher and beg them to make this book available to you, though you can read parts of it here, on Tommy's site: http://www.tommywomack.com). His new album, There I Said It! is available now and full of songs he might describe as being full of middle-aged anxiety, politics and not a little joy. They are surprisingly universally applicable, given the subject matter. We sat down with him on one of the first lovely crisp days of fall, talked about growing up, touring, his books and songs and his life. During the set he played: Alpha Male & the Canine Mystery Blood Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks) A Nice Day I Couldn't Care Less Cockroach After the Bomb I Miss Ronald Reagan This is definitely a 'cast not to be missed.

I know you hear an awful lot around these parts about Lucero and Cory Branan, but I swear, they don't pay us for this. Hell, they'd have to be an awful lot more famous before they could even afford our bar tab. No, we talk endlessly about them because they are made of one hundred percent natural homegrown awesomeness. What's more awesome that going to see their shows? Having them come to HCT HQ to record a podcast. That's right, my babies, Ben Nichols of Lucero and Cory Branan, together, not only for one of their Brew City Tours, but right here in our living room mocking each other, us and everything else in the world. What we have here in the end is a podcast that goes from soft and subdued to a little raucous. You'll want to tune in for the songs and the stories. You'll enjoy the second listening to suss out the funny bits happening in the background. Besides the banter, we have: Meantime Blues - Cory Branan Into Your Eyes - Ben Nichols Easy (Cory Branan) - Ben Nichols It Gets the Worst at Night (Lucero) - Cory Branan Amnesia - Cory Branan Across the River - Ben Nichols Little Heartbreaker - Cory Branan When You You Decided to Leave - Ben Nichols I know we're uo to number 9 on the podcast now, and yet I'm still figuring this thing out. We did well here, though you might want to keep your finger by the volume button for when it gets a bit louder after the initial songs. It wasn't a technical problem, we all just got a bit rowdier.

Hola, mis amigos!! Long time no talk. We've moved! We've been to some shows we should be telling you about. We've got so much new music to pimp to you that we're practically drowning in it! We will over come our current sullenness (from lack of beer on hot Tennessee day, chigger bites and too much other work) and bring you all that. But first there's a podcast. We sat down here in the new HCT HQ with Moriah Harris and talked about Nashville, Old Time music, bluegrass, women in music and our usual nonsense. She plays some of her own songs for us with her guitar and some toe-tapping fiddle tunes. Tracks in the 'cast include: 1. Before We Come Undone 2. Ghost Town 3. California Wildflower (fiddle tune) 4. Bluebell Waltz (fiddle tune) 5. Whiskey Before Breakfast (fiddle tune) 6. Five Cent Piece (fiddle tune) 7. The Devil's Game 8. Hell I'm telling you we like playing around in the boy's club as much as anyone, but it was awesome to get a girl in here, so expect a few more of those on the future. In the meantime, stay tuned we've got things to tell you, so keep listening and reading.

We sat down on a cold, rainy afternoon with Wes Charlton to talk about his new album, absinthe, music and canoeing. He sang us a few songs, we made him a few drinks. All in all a regular day's work here at HCT HQ. This is the first podcast we've had real technical difficulties. Sadly I couldn't be bothered to check to make sure we had batteries that worked and neither of us was smart enough to remember the AC power was an option so we got cut off a couple times. But we managed to save all Wes' gorgeous songs and funny stories and that's what's really important here, eh? Who care if the editing makes us all sound slightly insane. We'd sound slightly insane anyway, right? Tracks here, among the conversation, include: 1. To Be Found 2. Pop Song 99 3. Red Eyes, Blues Lights 4. Change Will Come 5. Southern Comfort 6. Avenues (Whiskeytown) 7. I Ain't Ever Satisfied (Steve Earle) Wes' debut album, American Bittersweet, is available on iTunes, CDBaby, Miles of Music and he has some other song on his website. His forthcoming, World on Fire, will be in all those places as well, so keep your eyes open for it. And while you're poking around check out his MySpace page.

Songs and conversation with Tom House (he's also on MySpace). A very social podcast in which we talk about politics, Southern Literature, the Nashville music scene in the 70s, poetry, books and record labels. There's a lack of ice tinkling in the background here, but we make up for it by popping open beer cans. Tom plays sort of traditional bluegrassy folk. He has an incredible old-timey sound and some very thoughtful well written lyrics. I think we could have spent several more hours just hanging out and talking to him. Tracks in this 'cast include (all Tom's original songs, unless otherwise noted): The Last Desperate Man Who Counts the Money Sylvanie I Don't Want to Lose You Here and Gone Ft. Worth Blues (Steve Earle cover) Georgia Queen No Gala Hungover and Haunted You can buy Tom's music several places online including Amazon.com or you can spend less and get them straight from him for $10 per CD, $2 shipping and handling for the first one, $1 for each additional: Tom House PO Box 120661 Nashville TN 37212 You can also check out his book of poetry, The World According to Whiskey.

Cory Branan (www.corybranan.com) Recorded by Search for the Last of the Hard-core Troubadours, Cricket Rodgers and Mimi Stafford (www.hardcore-troubadours.com), in Nashville, TN August 2006. Tracks include: Tom Ames' Prayer (Steve Earle cover) Rosemary Brown KISS Song Jericho Creeps Like Me (Lyle Lovett cover) Attack of the 50ft Hangover A Bad Man Would Do You Good Some rights reserved, pleased do not reproduce for commercial purposes. All songs copyright Cory Branan, except track 1, "Tom Ames' Prayer" (Steve Earle) and track 5, "Creeps Like Me" (Lyle Lovett).

Last week we headed out to see Stephen Simmons play at the Basement here in Nashville. It was great night despite the freezing cold and driving rain. [We live in Nashville, it was chilly and the rain was hard, but hardly driving. It wasn't a No'easter.--Mimi] He played an excellent set backed up by a bunch of amazing Nashville musicians (Eric Fritsch on keys/guitar, Dave Coleman on guitar, Duane "Chop" Blevins on bass, Tim Blankenship on drums, and Jodi Haynes on background vocals). Stephen's stage presence was unbelievable and not just because we were wooed by his little sardonic smile (the last line in my show notes is "his smile is criminal" and, kids, I hadn't even had that much to drink). If you get a chance, if he's ever anywhere near you, head out and see that show, my friend, you won't be disappointed. The show was great but not enough, but luckily for us, Stephen is practically our neighbor, so he swung by the HCT HQ to record a podcast for us (right click and 'save as' to download). [I like Casa de Troubadours del Hardcore, mainly because bad, made-up Spanish cracks me up.--Mimi] Here we've got talking about trains and mainstream radio, beers opening, cowboy boots walking on wood floors, good conversation and songs off both Steven's current albums, his forthcoming album and even previously unrecorded songs. Tracks include: All the Time I've Got The Devil's Work is Never Done Shine (previously unrecorded) County Lines We'll See Lay on the Tracks Johnny 99 (Bruce Springsteen cover) Empty Belly Blues #32 Asheville Girl Stephen has two albums out, Last Call and Drink Ring Jesus. [How awesome is that name? Sounds John Prine-y.--Mimi] I recommend buying both as they will bring much happiness to your fall music listening. We look forward to his forthcoming album this spring as much as we look forward to the end of the coming winter.

The ACs came over to record with us (are they called that because they're so damn cool? I forgot to ask). The ACs are Beau Stapleton on guitar, tenor guitar and mandola, David Long on mandolin and mandola and Matt Combs on fiddle, banjo and guitar. So in this podcast (right click and 'save as' to download) I get everything I suspected about bluegrass and the community surrounding it pronounced true and Mimi learns about fiddle styles from around the US. Mostly we laugh a lot and maybe leave you wondering what the heck is going on. But even when we degenerate into bad jokes and giggling, the music is spectacular and worth a listen. As always, still on a learning curve here, so hopefully you can follow what's going on (five people in a room is hard to capture on tape). While I'm thinking of it, if you're interested in roots and traditional music and some of the stuff we talk about in this 'cast, you might check out The Devil's Box and The Old Time Herald. In addition to beer drinking, too much laughing, and everything we learned about music from these boys, you can find the following tracks in this recording: Little Car Graveyard by John Hartford Summer Leaves by David Long Drunken Presbyterian by John Hartford My Automobile by George Clinton If I Die Tomorrow by Mary Alice Lamb Passing Away by EC and Orna Ball Sailing on Dry Land by Ben Hartlage Keep an eye on these guys. I mean really, keep an eye, 'cause I can't find my wallet since they left. Just kidding. We expect to be hearing a lot more from them, both individually and as a group.

We're continuing a two 'cast trend of pretty boys from Memphis with Chris Milam!! He came by and played for us and as we do, we're sharing it with you. His G-string broke in the third song, but that didn't stop him. Along with our usual blather, this 'cast includes the following tracks (all Chris Milam originals, unless otherwise noted (most are g-string free): . Someday (Steve Earle cover) Mimi and Cricket are my Favorite Girls (a.k.a Don't Give Up on Me Now) Whenever It Rains She Changes with the Breeze Maria, Maria Chelsea Hotel (Leonard Cohen cover) Waiting for a Call (Cory Branan cover) Talkin' Divinity Blues Memphis Queen A Song I Used to Know You can pick up Chris's album, Leaving Tennessee at CD Baby or on iTunes.