This fact may be hard to believe, but throughout their long and storied career the Preservation Hall Jazz Band have never released a studio album consisting entirely of their own original compositions. The legendary New Orleans act will change all that come July 9, with the release of That’s It! via Sony Legacy. The 11-track record, which was recorded at the band’s home-base at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter, was co-produced by Pres Hall’s own Ben Jaffe and My Morning Jacket front man Jim James, who has been championing the band over the last handful of years.

In advance of the record’s release, Preservation Hall has released this behind-the-scenes look at the making of the album. Let’s check it out…

• List Time: 15 Oddest Walk-On Songs of 2013 MLB season
• Southern-rock act Lynyrd Skynyrd has written the new theme song for Pawn Stars
• Cover Alert: Band of Horses tackles Songs: Ohia
• Alex Gibney to direct a four-hour documentary about Frank Sinatra for HBO
• Download This: Undress All The World – The Fuel/Friends Springtime 2013 Mix
• Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo released an album entirely in Japanese

Finally, it appears that we may finally have an answer to ongoing “are they” or “aren’t they” story surrounding the relationship between former Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant and rootsy songstress Patty Griffin, who have been romantically linked since 2011. The pair, who appear together on Griffin’s new studio album American Kid, had been previously thought to have eloped last summer, despite conflicting reports to the contrary. Earlier this week in an interview with Billboard Griffin set the record straight, telling the industry rag “We’re not legally married, no,” while also going on to speak about their musical connection, “We get a lot of energy from each other’s singing. We both have similar places that we come from as singers-a lot of emotion, and sometimes the emotion overrides technique. He inspires me. He goes far and deep.”

One of the more intriguing bits on last month’s Bonnaroo 2013 lineup announcement dealt with this year’s SuperJams. First off, there will be at least two SuperJams on “the farm” in June. Actor/musician Ed Helms of The Office will host a tent called “Bluegrass Situation.” As part of his duties, Helms will also curate a bluegrass SuperJam with “special guests.” Also, Jim James will front what was originally billed as a “Soul SuperJam” that will feature the My Morning Jacket singer/guitarist performing with John Oates of Hall & Oates, drummer Zigaboo Modeliste of The Meters and Preservation Hall Jazz Band. There’s been a slight change in verbiage to the James’ led SuperJam which we found interesting and thought you might as well.

If you look at the Bonnaroo.com page with the 2013 lineup on it, you’ll notice the name of the SuperJam has changed. What was originally the “Soul SuperJam” is now “Rock N’ Soul Dance Party SuperJam.” Does that mean one or more of the famous rockers on the ‘roo bill will join Jim James, Zigaboo and Pres Hall? Can we expect a few dance and rock classics blended in among soul songs?

Here’s what we know: according to Modeliste’s website this SuperJam is set to take place on Saturday of Bonnaroo Weekend. Also, when The Tennessean posted about the Jim James SuperJam here’s what they had to say…

READ ON

Tonight was a big night for The Black Keys at The Grammys as not only has El Camino won Best Rock Album and Lonely Boy won Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song trophies, but The Keys’ Dan Auerbach took home the coveted Producer of the Year award. The Black Keys also teamed up with Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to perform Lonely Boy on the live broadcast.

If you missed it, we’ve got you covered…

Our friends at Consequence of Sound have full coverage of the 2013 Grammys.

It’s a great time to be a music fan if you’re a resident of the Bay Area, as 2012 has seen the opening of a couple of high profile new clubs – Terrapin Crossroads and the Sweetwater Music Hall. Now you can add a third to that list, as New Orleans’ legendary Preservation Hall will open an outpost on the West Coast that they have dubbed “Preservation Hall West at The Chapel.” Located at 777 Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District, the new venue will house two restaurants that will serve up New Orleans and Southern cuisine, and will open on October 4, appropriately with a four-night run from the venue’s namesake band – the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The seminal Big Easy act will be joined by a slew of impressive special guests: Robert Earl Keen (10/4), Steve Earle and Alison Moorer (10/5), Elvis Costello, Bill Kirchen, Jim Lauderdale, and Buddy Miller (10/6) and Justin Townes Earle and Amanda Shaw (10/7). Tickets for those shows, as well as ones from Woods (10/17) and Here We Go Magic (10/27) are currently on sale now via TicketFly.

If you don’t reside out in the Bay Area, then maybe you’ll be able to hit one of these recently announced tours…

• Deer Tick: October Tour (10/13 – 10/27)
  
• Nas & Lauryn Hill: Life Is Good/Black Rage Tour (10/29 – 11/19)
• Aerosmith: The Global Warming Tour (11/8 – 12/13)
• Death From Above 1979: Late Fall Canada Tour (10/27 – 11/11)
• K’naan: Late Fall U.S. Tour (10/21 – 11/18)
• Jimmy Herring / Victor Wooten Band: Co-Headlining Tour (11/1 – 11/18)
• The Killers: Early Winter Tour (11/29 – 12/29)

My Morning Jacket front man Jim James sure had a busy day on Saturday. James and his band were headlining that day’s action at the Forecastle Festival in their hometown of Louisville and in addition to MMJ’s massive set in the evening, they also played an impromptu acoustic set earlier in the day. As if that wasn’t enough, James joined friends the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for five songs aboard the Belle of Louisville steamboat during a late-night afterparty.

[Photo via Funk It Blog]

Our pal Randy Bayers recorded Jim James’s complete sit-in which you can download from his Funk It Blog. Here’s a sample of Highly Suspicious…

 As we mentioned yesterday, you can also download a webcast rip of MMJ’s epic Forecastle set.

While there wasn’t an official webcast from the first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, that will change for the second weekend as YouTube will stream performances live from The Fairgrounds this Friday through Sunday. While we wait for a schedule to come out, we do expect the My Morning Jacket and Preservation Hall Jazz Band sets to be broadcast on the free webcast, according to this video of the two acts performing Highly Suspicious together titled “Watch My Morning Jacket and Preservation Hall Jazz Band Live on Jazz Fest Webcast May 4 – 6″…

Watch My Morning Jacket and Preservation Hall Jazz Band Live on Jazz Fest Webcast

And here’s a full trailer for this weekend’s webcast…

New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Webcast – Trailer

It would be safe to say that maybe other than The Beatles, no other artist has been covered as much, and by as many different and diverse artists as Bob Dylan. On January 24, the songs of Mr. Zimmerman will once again be interpreted for a new 80 song compilation, that will help celebrate and support the 50th anniversary of human rights organization Amnesty International. The four-disc set, entitled Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, will feature 75 newly recorded tracks from arguably one of the most eclectic collection of artists, which ranges from old folkies (Peter Seeger, Joan Baez) to classic rockers (Pete Townshend, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne) to indie-rockers (My Morning Jacket, Fistful Of Mercy) to pop acts (Ke$ha, Miley Cyrus), the full track list can be viewed here.

• List Time: Top 10 Robert Johnson covers
• Comedy folk-duo the Flight Of The Conchords will star in their own movie
• Cover Alert: Florence And The Machine tackle Drake
• Check out the story behind why Van Halen hate brown M&M’s so much
• Download This: Warren Zevon, Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 7/27/78
• Elvis Costello thinks his new album is overpriced, and that you shouldn’t buy it

Finally, as we mentioned earlier this week,  The Chieftains will be celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2012, and will mark the milestone with a special concert an Carnegie Hall on St. Patrick’s Day. Well, the Irish folk rock act isn’t the only iconic band that will be celebrating half of century of making music, as the New Orleans institution the Preservation Hall Jazz Band will also be headlining a show of their own on January 7, with an impressive roster of special guests at the legendary venue. Among the confirmed guests set to join Pres Hall for this special night will be My Morning Jacket, Del McCoury Band, Allen Toussaint, Trombone Shorty, Mos Def and the Blind Boys Of Alabama, with additional guests expected to join in on the festivities. Tickets go on-sale on December 2 and will be available via Carnegie Hall’s website, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57th street and 7th avenue. Check out this short trailer for the concert…

When The Del McCoury Band teamed up with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to record the album American Legacies, the merging of the two bands represented more then just a simple musical collaboration. The union brought together two groups who serve as the ambassadors of their respective genres, stewards of American music heritage. Over the years, beyond being of the foremost musicians in their fields, both The Del McCoury Band and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band under the direction of Ben Jaffe have taken on roles tasked with spreading the legacies of bluegrass and New Orleans Jazz music.

Del McCoury has not only spread bluegrass to the younger generation (quite literally) through teaching and playing with his own sons, but he has participated in countless collaborations throughout the festival circuit and embraced the various derivations of traditional bluegrass such as newgrass and the jambands. Similarly, Ben Jaffe and Preservation Hall have reached new audiences by incorporating New Orleans Jazz into collaborations with My Morning Jacket, Ani Difranco and Tom Waits, among others.

In what was undeniably one of the greatest honors I’ve ever had as a writer, I sat down with both Del McCoury and Ben Jaffe at the Ameritania Hotel just around the corner from the Ed Sullivan Theater right before the bands took the stage to tape their performance for the David Letterman show later that night. In speaking with Del and Ben, it takes all of about five seconds to see why everybody wants to play music with them. They radiate charisma and come across instantly as truly genuine people who are happy to be doing what they do. What follows is an intimate conversation that touches on the cross-fertilization of the two genres of music, the surprising similarities between New Orleans Jazz and bluegrass, the importance of family, and honoring one’s heritage.

Hidden Track: I was going to ask this to both you, but before Ben gets here, Del, when you were first starting out in music and learning your chops what led you to your style, to bluegrass, and to your instrument?

Del McCoury: I learned to play the guitar when I was about nine. My brother taught me to play. When I was about 11, he bought a record of Earl Scruggs and when I heard him play that three finger style banjo, it turned a light on. I thought, “That is what I want to do!” I learned it, and I played it until I went to work for Bill Monroe.

He needed a guitar player and a lead singer, which I thought, “I don’t know if I can do this?” I had played with him here in New York City, my first time in this town. Later, I went down to Nashville, because he offered me a job, and when I got there he still didn’t have a lead singer and guitar player. All along I think he …

Two legends of distinctively American styles of music hooked up for the first time a few years back, when the Del McCoury Band was invited down to New Orleans to record a couple of tracks with Preservation Hall Jazz Band for their all-star benefit album, which was released in February 2010. With the success of that collaboration, the bands took things a step further and headed into the studio to see if they could find a place where New Orleans-style jazz fused with the high and lonesome sounds of bluegrass.

While on paper these two genres may seem worlds apart, the unique combination worked and worked quite well, as earlier this month the Del McCoury Band and Preservation Hall Jazz Band released their debut album American Legacies via Del’s McCoury Music label. The 12-track record, which features a mix of covers and originals, is steeped in old-timey sounds that blend ragtime, dixieland, gospel as well as a healthy dose of string band picking.

Let’s check out this promo video that features Del and Ronnie McCoury as well as Ben Jaffe talking about the making of the record…

The Del McCoury Band and Preservation Hall Jazz Band will play a select number of dates together including appearances at DelFest and Bonnaroo X.

After leaving Humble Pie in 1971 for a solo career, Peter Frampton found only marginal success on his own until the release of his 1976 seminal double-live album Frampton Comes Alive. The iconic record, which was recorded primarily at two stops during the Frampton’s 1975 summer and fall tours, peaked at number one on the Billboard charts in ’76 staying there for ten weeks and helped make the singer-guitarist a household name.

This summer, the classic album will turn 35 and as a way of celebrating this milestone anniversary Frampton has announced that he will revisit his signature record by playing it in its entirety, along with additional selections from his catalog, during his upcoming world tour. The tour will kick off on June 15 at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ.

If you’re not into the full album thing, then maybe you’ll be interested in hitting one of these recently announced tours…

• Arctic Monkeys cross the pond for a three week NA jaunt
• Liam Gallagher’s new band Beady Eyes to play select cities
• Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band to hit arenas this spring
• Swedish indie-pop singer Lykke Li to head cross-country
• Brother and sister tandem the Fiery Furnaces line up a short tour
• Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez Lopez puts together a solo run

Finally, this summer two legends of quintessential American music will be teaming up for a string of dates together as bluegrass masters the Del McCoury Band will join forces with New Orleans institution the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The unique pairing, who will release the collaborative effort American Legacies on April 12, will play 14 dates together in the coming months, which includes high profile appearances at DelFest and Bonnaroo X. For a taste of what’s to come, the duo is also currently offering up a free download of the track One More For I Die.

With a seemingly rotating door on music festivals over the last handful of years it’s assuring to know that you can continually count on the Newport Folk Festival to be there year in and year out, offering up a high quality and diverse lineup in one of the most serene settings imaginable. Returning once again to the historic Fort Adams State Park, the fest delivered an amazing swath of artists from folk to funk and everything in between.

Much like how there are those musicians that are referred to as a “singer-songwriter’s singer-songwriter,” well now after having attended Newport Folk the label of a “music fan’s music fest” might be the best way to describe it. With three stages and 30-plus acts to choose from, it seemed relatively easy to plant yourself in front of one stage for the day – like many did – and take in all the action. For the ambitious music lovers though, the close proximity of the Fort, Harbor and Quad stages made it a breeze to catch an impressive amount of music over the two-day span.

Saturday kicked off with one of the fest’s biggest success stories – The Low Anthem – who just three years prior were picking up trash as on-site volunteers and now found themselves with a main stage slot. The Providence-based band showcased their gorgeous folk music, which features an odd menagerie of instruments – crotales, harmonium and clarinet – along with the obvious guitar, bass and drums. Taking in just a handful of songs, which was highlighted by a sublime take on Apothecary, and their interpretation of Rev. Gary Davis’ Sally Where’d You Get The Liquor From?, I had to pulled myself away from really the one lone conflict of the weekend to see a full set from A.A. Bondy.

READ ON for more of Jeff’s recap of Newport Folk…

We must be approaching festival season because the next gigs for three of the five bands in this week’s piece are at festivals. We’ve got a healthy dose of Grateful Dead this week with segments from both Burlington’s Dead Sessions and Zen Tricksters. We’ve also got a tune from RAQ’s return as well as Jim James lending some lead vocals to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and a new My Morning Jacket tune that does not feature James on lead vocals.

[Thanks to AHappyHourHero for this week's photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you.

Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: Dead Sessions – The Music Never Stopped > Sugaree > The Music Never Stopped
Date & Venue: 2010-04-30 Higher Ground – South Burlington, VT
Taper & Show Download: Shiva Ho

HT Contributor Wade Wilby let me know that this was a good segment to include this week as friends of HT Adam King and Christina Durfee both contribute some top notch vocals. Nice Bobby impressions Kinger. Looks like this ensemble doesn’t have any future gigs on the books as of now.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

READ ON for tracks from My Morning Jacket and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at Merriweather Post Pavilion, RAQ and the Zen Tricksters…

A few weeks back, we brought you news about Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s latest release – Preservation: An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall & The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program – that features an all-star cast of musicians who traveled to the historic French Quarter venue to record with the band. Check out this featurette  on the album, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Heatseeker chart and #2 on their Jazz chart…

Preservation Hall Jazz Band – The Making Of Preservation…

As part of the Guggenheim Museum’s 50th anniversary, Animal Collective have collaborated with artist Danny Perez on a site-specific performance piece that will transform the museum’s rotunda into a “kinetic, psychedelic environment”. The piece, dubbed Transverse Temporal Gyrus, will feature original recorded music composed specifically for the work along with video projections, costumes and props, rendering the band members and performers into intense, visual abstractions where guests will be invited to freely explore the space in order to fully immerse themselves in the environment. Tickets are currently on sale now.

• List Time: 50 Unsung Classic Albums Of The ’00s
• Check out Wayne Coyne’s futuristic looking abode
• Cover Alert: Stephin Merritt tackles Peter Gabriel
• GnR rocked a surprise gig at the former spot of CBGB’s
• Next version of Rock Band may be dedicated to Jimi Hendrix
• EMI is putting the legendary Abbey Road Studios up for sale

Finally, earlier this week the Preservation Hall Jazz Band released their latest album, Preservation: An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall & The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program, which features an all-star cast of musicians joining the legendary New Orleans act. Among those who musicians that traveled down to the French Quarter to record tracks with the band are Tom Waits, Jim James, Dr. John, Steve Earle, Andrew Bird and Ani DiFranco.  The entire album is currently streaming – give it a listen here.