There’s quite a collection of Americana big dogs at work on this track: Former Uncle Tupelo co-leader and current Son Volt frontman Ja Farrar, My Morning Jacket main man Yim Yames (or, as most of us still know him, Jim James), Centro-matic leader Will Jonson, and Gob Iron guy Anders Parker, as well as the ghost of Woody Guthrie. I’m going to have to add so many tags to this post!

Here’s the story: Woody Guthrie’s daughter Nora invited all these musicians to pick through Guthrie’s notebooks of unrecorded songs, the same way Billy Bragg and Wilco did on the Mermaid Avenue albums. The four of them banded together to form a unit called FarrarJohnsonParkerYames, and the resulting album, entitled New Multitudes, arrives next month. After the jump, stream the album track “Old LA.”

Read More...

My Own Love Song is basically Duets 2: The Squinty Eyed Female Crazy Heart and its soundtrack has 16 previously unheard Dylan tunes recorded during the Together Through Life sessions. Renée covers one of them, “Life Is Hard,” along with Slow Train Coming‘s “Precious Angel” in the film. Videogum already has a preview of Renée singing “This Land Is Your Land” and making super serious acting faces. I’ll stick with Empire Records‘ “Sugar High” scene, thanks.

Offering post-Mermaid Avenue Guthrie action, Jeff Tweedy & Co. cover “The Jolly Banker,” a song that’s clearly as relevant as ever. Download it for free if you’re “unemployed / underemployed or otherwise broke” (and can promise to make it up to Wilco later) or nab it for a small fee at wilcoworld.net. 100% of the proceeds go directly to the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, cheapskate. Click on “credits” while you’re there: Feist contributed additional “Garden Weasel” percussion.