'Heartworn Highways': Twenty Previously Unreleased Recordings from the Birth of Americana

Press release
Source: conqueroo / Cary Baker

HackTone Records and Shout! Factory announce the CD release of Heartworn Highways, the whiskey-warm companion album to the cult documentary of the same name. Recorded in 1975-76 in Nashville and Austin, Heartworn Highways captures the birth of an alt-country movement light-years from the spit-polished Music Row. Armed with little more than a camera and microphone (and maybe a case of Jack), the filmmakers captured lightning in a bottle, spotlighting a particular band of brothers - Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, John Hiatt, Guy Clark and perennial outsider David Allan Coe - at the dawn of their careers. They also captured inspired performances from relative unknowns Gamble Rogers and Larry Jon Wilson that will instantly convert listeners into adoring fans. What they walked away with is a document of the fierce, raw talent burning at the core of some of the greatest singer-songwriters of our time. The CD, produced with the direct involvement of the movie's original producer, Graham Leader (In the Bedroom, etc.) and editor, Phillip Schopper, features 20 audio performances recorded for the film, as well as key dialogue excerpts. After more than six months of painstaking audio restoration from the raw Nagra tapes, each song has been restored to its unedited length, speed corrected, and remastered to stunning audiophile quality. This historic collection will be in stores on March 14th for the suggested retail price of $18.98.

Naturally, the first-ever recordings by Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, and John Hiatt - not to mention previously unreleased acoustic performances by David Allan Coe, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark - demand a unique treatment. Rather than doing a literal soundtrack, HackTone started from scratch, compiling an album from all of the recordings made during filming in order to create a stand-alone listening experience that captured the essence of the film. They eliminated songs featured in the film that were irrelevant to the new wave of artists it was conceived to document; they also included several tracks from artists that were omitted from the original film. All of which says nothing of the meticulous audio restoration, done by GRAMMY®-award nominee Alan Silverman and Heartworn Highways editor Phillip Schopper, which restored all of the recordings to their original length and captured all the richness and warmth inherent in their original performances. It's this exacting attention to detail that makes the Heartworn Highways CD a deeply intimate listening experience as well as a historical document of incredible value.

Heartworn Highways includes the previously unreleased versions of "Waitin' Around To Die" and "Pancho and Lefty" by Townes van Zandt, "Desperados Waiting for a Train" and "LA Freeway" by Guy Clark, the unreleased song "One for the One" by John Hiatt and the first recording ever of "Mercenary Song" by Steve Earle. And a spontaneous, whiskey-soaked version of "Silent Night" sung by Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell and Steve Young during Christmas Eve at Guy's house is unexpectedly beautiful.

About HackTone Records:

HackTone Records was started in 2005 by Michael Nieves and David Gorman, who view themselves as "musical revisionaries," tracking down artists and albums that were misunderstood or mistreated in their time and re-marketing them as new releases for a new audience. Gorman is a Grammy® award winning art director who was Rhino Records' "Creative Czar" and then VP of Creative at WEA before launching HackMart, a music marketing and creative firm whose clients include Joss Stone, Apple iTunes and Tower Records. Nieves worked at MCA Music Publishing and then was head of music licensing and publishing for Rhino Records before founding Sugaroo!, a music licensing company that represents artists, labels and publishers for visual media placements. He also manages recording artists including Victoria Williams, Mark Olson (former Jayhawks leader) and The Last Town Chorus. HackTone is marketed and distributed exclusively by Shout! Factory.

About Shout! Factory:
Shout! Factory is a broad-based audio and home video entertainment company whose cofounders - Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos - share a passion for pop culture of the 20th century and beyond. Video and DVD projects include television programming spanning 75 years, live music concerts, animation and sports collections and special interest documentaries. Audio products from Shout! Factory consist of GRAMMY®-nominated box sets, anthologies and "best of" collections, as well as new music, soundtrack releases, deluxe album reissues and quirky compilations. Shout! Factory's catalog features vintage and legendary performances from some of the greatest - and most eccentric - artists of our time. Shout! Factory products are distributed by Sony BMG Music Entertainment Inc. www.shoutfactory.com.

VARIOUS ARTISTS -- HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS
Catalog Number: DK 37457
Price: $18.98 SRP
Release Date: March 14, 2006

1. "LA Freeway" (Guy Clark)
2. "Ohoopee River Bottomland" (Larry Jon Wilson)
3. "That Old Time Feeling" (Guy Clark)
4. "Waitin' 'Round To Die" (Townes Van Zandt)
5. "I Still Sing The Old Song" (David Allan Coe)
6. "Desperadoes Waiting For A Train" (Guy Clark)
7. "Bluebird Wine" (Rodney Crowell)
8. "Alabama Highway" (Steve Young)
9. "Pancho and Lefty" (Townes Van Zandt)
10. "Texas Cookin'" (Guy Clark)
11. "Gamble's Story" (Gamble Rogers)
12. "The Black Label Blues" (Gamble Rogers)
13. "River" (David Allan Coe)
14. "One For The One" (John Hiatt)
15. "Darlin' Commit Me" (Steve Earle)
16. "Ballad Of Lavern And Captain Flint" (Guy Clark)
17. "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" (Steve Young)
18. "Mercenary Song" (Steve Earle)
19. "Elijah's Church" (Steve Earle)
20. "Silent Night" (Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Susannah Clark, Steve Earle, Richard Dobson)