There’s another new artist management agency in the bluegrass world. Jamie Dean and Joey Jones of Cumberland River have launched a new venture, Rock House Entertainment, to provide booking, publicity, media assistance, and management services for bluegrass bands.
Cumberland River made their mark in the past two years by leveraging media exposure via the FX television series Justified, with their own music video releases and touring schedule. Now Jamie and Joey are offering what they have learned in the trenches to other artists looking to expand their own visibility in the professional bluegrass market.
Starting out, Rock House will be working with a number of acts from around their home base in Harlan, KY. Signed to the agency at this point are Laurel River Line, The Velvet Blue, Raisin’ Cain, and of course, Cumberland River.
More details on Rock House Entertainment and their artists can be found online.
Today (1/8/13) marks the season premiere of Justified, one of the few television dramas I follow week to week. I discovered the show two years ago quite by chance, when an episode began after something else I had on. In the opening scene, the bass player in a bluegrass band consisting of prisoners (inside the wire) made a break for it under the cover of their performance. I had to watch the rest of that!
Since then, I have become a fan of what strikes me as an especially well-written cops and robbers show. It’s a throwback to the classic gunslinging western genre, but set in modern, rural eastern Kentucky. The show stars Timothy Oliphant as US Marshall Raylan Givens, based on a character in Elmore Leonard’s story, Fire In The Hole. Give it a tumble if it sounds like your style.
To help promote the new season, and the fact that roots and bluegrass music play a recurring role in the soundtrack, Madison Gate Records, a Sony imprint, has released a CD of music from seasons past. Justified – Music From The Original Television Series contains 13 tracks, including the song Justified, written and recorded for the show by eastern Kentucky’s own Cumberland River, and the show’s theme Long Hard Times To Come by GangstaGrass.
It’s available from iTunes and other popular download sites.
Here’s the Cumberland River video for their contribution to the album.
Cumberland River’s Jamie Dean will be on WNYC’s Soundcheck program Thursday afternoon, along with Greg Still, Music Supervisor for TNT’s popular Justified series.
The pair will visit with host John Schaefer to talk about the show, and of course the contributions Cumberland River has made to the soundtrack. Soundcheck airs from 2:00-3:00 p.m. (EST) on WNYC (93.9 FM in New York), WDET (101.9 FM in Detroit), and on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. You can also tune in live online.
The band is doing well with the music video for their song, Justified, which was featured briefly in the soundtrack for the TV show’s opening episode this season.
This evening (1/17) marks the season debut of Justified on the FX television network. The show has been discussed several times at Bluegrass Today as its theme and soundtrack have incorporated bluegrass music since the program first launched in 2010.
Prominent in the first season was the music of GangstaGrass, which blended banjo, fiddle and res0-guitar with a hip hop beat. The show still uses the GangstaGrass as the main theme, but since the second season in 2011, they have also featured original bluegrass music from Cumberland River, who hail from Harlan, KY where the show is set.
One of their songs will be included in tonight’s episode, Antietam’s Hill, from their current Rural Rhythm album, The Life We Live. The song was written by band members Dustin Middleton, Jamie Dean and Jamie Stewart, along with Dean’s brother Mickey. It tells a Civil War story, well-suited to the hardscrabble characters that Justified depicts.
They sent a man to do the devil’s work
But the job is never done
I’ve got a mark for ever soul I’ve stolen with my gun
From the beginning man has had his hand on the trigger of a gun
It’s either be a slave or it’s in my grave and I’m not the only one
And the cannons roar what an awful sound
Another flag goes up another man falls down
I’m southern raise I believe all men are free
So I’ll fight this fight till death comes for me
I’ve fought so long in Lincoln’s war for the peace God keep’s from me
I’ve wished so long to get back home to see my family
17 more miles to go till we reach that battlefield
Where men will die and loose there lives upon Antietam’s Hill
And the cannons roar what an awful sound
Another flag goes up another man falls down
I’m southern raised, I believe all men are free
So I’ll fight this fight till death comes for me
And the cannons roar what an awful sound
Another flag goes up another man falls down
I’m southern raised, I believe all men are free
So I’ll fight this fight till death comes for me
So I’ll fight this fight till death comes for me
In addition to Middleton on mandolin, Stewart on resonator guitar, and Dean on banjo, Cumberland River includes Joey Jones on bass and Brad Gulley on guitar.
Look for Justified tonight on FX at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT).
Kentucky’s Cumberland River has profited handsomely from their close association with Justified, the FX network’s popular television crime drama. The show is a modern-day western, set in notorious Harlan County, the band’s hometown, and they had the opportunity to perform for the producers when the second season was being shot on location.
That led to their music being featured in several episodes of the program, giving this young bluegrass band a visibility that many established acts would envy.
Next Tuesday (1/17) marks the premier of the show’s third season, and Cumberland River has just released a music video for their original song, Justified, in honor of the ocassion. The video includes a cameo appearance by U.S. Marshall Croley Forester, whose true-life story served as the basis for the series.
This past weekend, the guys from Cumberland River trekked to Harlan, Kentucky to shoot not one, but two music videos in the sweltering heat.
Anthony Ladd of Kneelindesign served as director and videographer, with Penni McDaniel of Hope River Entertainment as assistant director and production coordinator.
On Saturday, they shot a video for Justified, a track from their Rock Island Express album in 2010, which was featured in the music bed for the popular FX television program by the same name. The track will also be included as a bonus on their upcoming The Life We Live CD, set to hit July 26 on Rural Rhythm.
The video ties the song even more closely with TV’s Justified, casting the real US Marshall on who’s life the show is based. Penni explained a bit about the shoot…
“We shot it on an old iron bridge over the Cumberland River in Harlan that use to be a train track. The Sheriff assured me it was still safe!
Then we also shot in downtown Harlan which was interesting since we had the song blaring all afternoon and it caused a lot of attention by everyone wanting to know why the street was blocked off and music was playing.
The Marshall was played by real life U.S. Marshall Croley Forester (and friend of the band), who is from Harlan, moved to Miami and then moved back.
Sound familar? That is what Timothy Olyphant’s character Raylon Givens did on the TV show.”
Then on Sunday, the band shot a video for Cold & Withered Heart, the just-released single from The Life We Live. The song was written by Cumberland River banjo player Jamie Dean, who also sings lead.
“We shot that one at Jamie’s Mother’s house in Harlan. This video is more of a story, so Joey and Robin Burke (band member Joey Jones’ cousin) played the lead characters. It is a funny video – can’t wait for everyone to see it!”
Penni says that everyone was pleased with the footage they captured, though she is contemplating a “no more video shoots in the dead of summer” policy going forward.
We’ve posted a few times about the FX original program Justified, and the bluegrass-tinged music they use during the show’s soundtrack.
It started with Rench, a hip hop artist who (as Ganstagrass) incorporates bluegrass elements in his music beds. He landed a track on the show, and wrote/produced the show’s theme song.
Now, Kentucky bluegrass boys Cumberland River will see five songs from their 2010 album, Rock Island Express, featured in this week’s edition of Justified. The show airs tonight (4/6) on the FX network at 10:00 p.m. (EDT).
The band came to the attention of the show’s producers last summer while this current season was being filmed on location in Harlan County, KY. After angling an opportunity to perform for members of the production company, they quickly wrote a song called Justified that paid tribute to the hard scrabble, coal mining folks pictured in the program.
The song ended up being used earlier this year as the opening theme, and is now available for purchase online.
Cumberland River is currently finishing up a new CD, with Steve Gulley producing, that is set for release later this year on Rural Rhythm. Gulley says that the guys are cut from the same cloth as the gritty characters on Justified.
“They are real mountain men with a story to tell and a unique, special way of telling it. If you’re looking for pure, honest music full of unabashed emotion, look no further. You’ve found it! Cumberland River is raw emotion personified.”
Check out the show tonight for a chance to hear Cumberland River on TV.
And if that isn’t enough of a bluegrass vibe for the show, consider this: one of the main characters, Boyd Clement, is played by Walton Goggins, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Barry Bales, bass player with Alison Krauss & Union Station.
Cumberland River Band will be celebrating a major milestone next month, when their music is featured on the FX television series Justified. The show is something of a modern day Western, set in rural Kentucky, and starring Timothy Olyphant as a gunslinging US Marshall.
Throughout the show’s first season, it has had a music bed from Ganstagrass that morphs bluegrass with a hip hop beat, as does the show’s theme song.
When the show’s staff were in Harlan last summer preparing to shoot the upcoming season, the band was invited to perform for the writers and producers. Thinking fast, they put together a new song, Justified, and laid it out there with only 24 hours notice. Their performance won them a standing ovation, and has led to the inclusion of several songs on the show from their debut album, Rock Island Express, released in September 2010.
Here’s a taste of the song, which they cut for the show:
I had not caught this program until recent rerun marathons on FX promoting season 2, but it is an addictive show. It is recommended for mature audiences only, so don’t share it with the kiddies, but it is smartly-produced and very well written and acted.
I stumbled upon it while surfing late at night, and discovered that the plot line to this particular episode centered around a bluegrass musician who had just broken out of jail. How could I resist that?
The fourth episode in Season 2 (which begins on February 9) will include music from Cumberland River Band. Congrats guys for snagging a cut on Justified!
The Gangstagrass track Long Hard Times To Come serves as the theme song to the FX series Justified. The track has been nominated for an Emmy in the category Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music. Emmy winners will be announced on August 29, 2010, so we won’t know until then if the unique blend of hip-hop and bluegrass will take home the prize. Similar to other awards programs, there are five finalists in each category.
Rench and Tone-Z, the principle musical forces behind, were not expecting such recognition.
“I am excited that Justified is getting recognized with an Emmy nomination for having a great theme song. The show took a leap and used Gangstagrass, and it is great to see them rewarded for taking a chance on something creative and unusual. T.O.N.E-z and I are still in shock that we are Emmy nominated.” – Oscar “Rench” Owens
Long Hard Times To Come was produced for use in TV show, but Rench and Tone-Z also teamed up to produce a full length CD of bluegrass/hip-hop music. The CD is titled Gangstagrass: Lighting On The Strings, Thunder On The Mic. If you’re interested, check it out, but be warned, this isn’t your grandmother’s bluegrass!
Brance has posted a couple of times about Gangstagrass, the brainchild of New York artist Rench. His concept involves mixing the acoustic sound of bluegrass instruments and rhythms with hip hop beats and rhymes. It may not please purists in either genre, but anyone open to clever musical cross-pollination – and especially those who follow both styles – should be interested in what he is doing.
The caliber of Rench’s efforts brought him to the attention of the producers of the FX television series Justified, and he now provides the theme music for the program.
Gangstagrass has a new CD out this month, Lightning On The Strings, Thunder On The Mic, which features Rench on vocals, beats and guitar, Matt Check on vocals and banjo, Todd Livingston on reso guitar, Jason Cade on fiddle, Roy Shimmyo on bass, Jen Larson on vocals and PREPMODE on turntable. It also features rapper T.O.N.E-Z, who appears in the pieces used on Justified (Long Hard Times To Come and On The Run).
Rench shared a few words with us last week about the new CD, and agreed to let us post several complete tracks here on Bluegrass Today. We also discussed how he hooked up with the folks from FX. I started by asking whether he was seeing a large impact from the TV exposure.
“Definitely. Every week there is a new rush of people finding Gangstagrass online after seeing the theme song on the show. It is fantastic.
Initially, the people producing promos (commercials) for the show found Gangstagrass, and wanted to use some for the promos. They chose On The Run from the original Gangstagrass album. That had an unlicensed sample (from an old Lonnie Johnson recording) so we had to record some new vocals and guitar to replace it.
The producers of the show saw the promos and decided that was the sound they wanted for the theme music, so we recorded Long Hard Times To Come with all original musicians for that.”
One track from Lightning On The Strings, Thunder On The Mic that is getting a lot of attention already is In My Aching Heart Shadows Linger, which features bluegrass singer Jen Larson, who performs with New Jersey based Straight Drive. It’s probably the grassiest track on the CD, and the contrast between Jen’s and T.O.N.E-Z’s voices really is intriguing.
I asked Rench if he was getting thumbs up from both the bluegrass and hip hop camps.
“Yes, positive reactions from both sides, and there is a ton of excitement about Jen Larson’s singing on the track. The hip-hop heads all think it is butter on the street. I was excited to get Jen on the album. She is one of my favorite bluegrass singers.”
In My Aching Heart Shadows Linger: [http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegrasscast/shadows_linger.mp3]
Here are two more tracks from the new CD. First up is an instrumental called Click Ol’ Gun, a reworking of Cluck Ol’ Hen.
Big Branch is another that Rench is proud for us to feature…
“This track features Tomasia rapping about the Upper Big Branch mine and life in mining towns, which I think takes the whole integration of hip-hop and country elements to another level.”
Big Branch: [http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegrasscast/big_branch.mp3]
Rench says that he is currently working on turning Gangstagrass into a live act, which will include rapping and live bluegrass (fiddle, banjo, dobro, bass) playing to pre-recorded beats.
You can find further details and hear more audio on the Gangstagrass web site. If you are offended by salty language, be forewarned.
