New releases: Feb. 21, 2006

Oh man. One of the subjects of the latest Hickory Wind podcast just sounded a pang of guilt in me. You'd think, given my day job as a journalist, I'd be more observant. You'd think, given my cool job as a hickorywind.org wonk, I'd notice these things. But when I saw the new Robinella CD on a shelf at a Tokyo Tower Records LAST MONTH, my only thought was "Oooooh, I gotta order that from the States quick!" -- a logical thought given that disc I was holding in my hand was value-priced at 2800 yen, or about 26 American bucks, and I could save about $12 by ordering it from home and waiting a week or so. Nothing else flashed through my head. Nothing like, oh, I don't know: "Wait a second, this doesn't come out in the States 'til next month! I could have it a whole month early!" Nope, nothing like that at all.

If I could go back in time a month and slap myself silly, I would. As it is, I'll have to punish myself by knowing I could have had this CD (which from listening to it at Tower sounds very promising) a month ago. And I'll also have to live with knowing how fun it would have been if I could have taunted Larry about hearing the new Robinella a month before he did. Dang it.

New CDs coming out Tuesday, Feb. 21:
Robinella -- Solace for the Lonely (Dualtone)
Janis Ian -- Folk is the New Black (Cooking Vinyl)
Clem Snide -- Bitter Honey (Spin Art)
Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver -- He Lives in Me (Crossroads)
The Chieftains -- Essential Chieftains [2 discs] (RCA)
Merle Haggard -- Live from Austin, TX (New West)
Waylon Jennings -- Live from Austin, TX (New West)

And if you're wanting to delve more into bluegrass, or perhaps get your friends and loved ones hooked, Pinecastle Records offers "Essential Bluegrass: Bluegrass Legends." The songs aren't terribly familiar, but the artists are: You've got your Alison Krauss, Del McCoury, Vassar Clements, John Hartford, Andrea Zonn, Mike Bub, Earl Scruggs -- a nice mix of today's bluegrass-makers and some of the founding fathers. It's by no means a complete primer, but I'm willing to bet it's a tasty sample.