As hard as it is to believe, Willie Nelson will turn 80 on April 30th. The legendary country artist never slows down and continues to tour and release new music on a regular basis. Earlier this week Nelson released Let’s Face The Music And Dance on Sony Legacy – a collection of American standards and country classics, Irving Berlin and Carl Perkins, Django Reinhart as well as Willie-penned originals. As such Willie Nelson has been Legacy Recordings Artist of the Month for April.

There’s a campaign to round up birthday messages for Willie that will be given to him on the 30th for his 80th birthday. Mike McCready of Pearl Jam and Neil Young have shared their messages, you can share yours at the Willie Birthday website.

As part of our Everybody Wins When We Plug Something And In Return They Offer Us Free Shit To Give Away program, we’ve got a Willie Nelson Prize Pack to give away. The pack includes a copy of Willie’s new album, a “Willie For President” t-shirt and a copy of Willie’s book Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die. Simply leave a comment below telling us your favorite Willie Nelson song. We’ll pick one entry at random at 3PM ET on April 30th. You can enter a second time by leaving a similar comment on the Hidden Track Facebook Page and a third time by following @hidden_track and tweeting your request at us. You must include both @hidden_track and #htwilliebday in your tweet.

Here’s the fine print…

• To enter, leave a comment below telling us your favorite Willie Nelson song
• Enter a second time by leaving a similar comment on the Hidden Track Facebook Page
• You can enter a third time by following @hidden_track and tweeting the name of your favorite Willie Nelson song at us. You must include both @hidden_track AND #htwilliebday in your tweet
• Your comment(s) must be left by 3PM EDT on April 30th
• Anybody entering more than once a piece on Facebook, Twitter and at the bottom of this post will be disqualified, tarred and feathered
• The winner will receive a Willie Nelson prize pack
• HT staff members are not eligible to win

Last April Mumford and Sons, Old Crow Medicine Show and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes teamed up for a tour of the south in which they traveled from venue to venue via train. The first Railroad Revival Tour saw plenty of interaction between the three Americana acts and was captured in the outstanding documentary Big Easy Express by filmmaker Emmett Malloy. A second, more extended, installment of the Railroad Revival Tour has just been announced featuring Willie Nelson and Family, Band of Horses, Jamey Johnson and John Reilly & Friends.

The tour kicks off on Oct. 20 in Duluth, Geor. at the Southeastern Railway Museum and runs through an Oct. 28th performance at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland. Along the way, the train and tour will stop in Memphis, Oklahoma City, Old Town Spring (Texas), Tempe and San Pedro (Calif.).

“Railroad Revival Tour is an experience that transcends typical music tours or festivals and glorifies the historical romance between music and trains under the setting of the great American landscape,” reads a statement announcing the tour’s second year. It also notes that along with individual performances, the RRT promises “spontaneous and unique collaborations onstage as well as on the train between stops.”

Early-bird tickets go on sale this Friday at 10AM CDT.

Here’s the full list of Railroad Revival Tour 2012 dates…

10/20 Duluth, GA – Southeastern Railway Museum
10/21 TBA
10/22 Memphis, TN – Memphis Central Train Station
10/23 Oklahoma City, OK – Downtown Airpark
10/24 Old Town Spring, TX
10/25 Tempe, AZ – Downtown
10/27 San Pedro, CA – Ports O’ Call
10/28 Oakland, CA – Middle Harbor Shoreline Park

[via Rolling Stone]

The long-running annual benefit concert Farm Aid will come to Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Penn. on Sept. 22. This year’s event will feature board members Dave Matthews (performing with Tim Reynolds), Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson. In addition, Jack Johnson, ALO, Pegi Young & the Survivors and Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real will round out the lineup.

The first Farm Aid took place in 1985 and over the years the foundation has raised over $40 million to benefit family farmers across the country. Tickets for Farm Aid 2012 will go on sale Friday, July 13, at 10 AM EDT and will be available at www.livenation.com, www.ticketmaster.com, Ticketmaster outlets, GIANT Center Box Office, or by phone at 800-745-3000.

After covering Coldplay’s The Scientist for a Chipotle commercial last year, Willie Nelson kept his randomness streak alive with his latest album Heroes, which came out yesterday. The album not only includes another take on The Scientist, but also guest appearances from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson, Sheryl Crow and Merle Haggard. But most random of all is the deep cut selection for a Pearl Jam cover, Just Breathe off of Backspacer, which I  would wager doesn’t even crack the top 50 most well known Pearl Jam songs. Here’s a look at Willie and his sons Lukas and Micah playing the song live for his Sirius station, Willie’s Roadhouse.

The premise of the song I Gotta Get Drunk by Willie Nelson has always cracked me up. The narrator laments the fact that he has to get drunk – knowing full well he is going to act like a jackass and spend a lot of money, but has to do it anyway for the amusement of others. Our protagonist also dismisses the advice of doctors telling him to cool it on his drinking citing that are more old drunks than there are old doctors. Hard to argue with that logic.

The Contestants:

Artist: Gas Huffer
Live Show: Twisted Willie: A Tribute To Willie Nelson
The Skinny: First up is this odd arrangement by Gas Huffer from a compilation of Willie Nelson covers that includes contributions from such artists as Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

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READ ON

Back in early May, HT faves the Felice Brothers released their latest studio album, Celebration Florida, the group’s first LP for Fat Possum Records. The ramshackle folk-rockers aren’t wasting any time in getting fans even more new music, as they are offering up their new EP – Poughkeepsie Princess – which they recorded at home, for free via their website. For the price of your email address, the band will share a new track each week over the course of five weeks, which began last Wednesday, that you can download for free until you’ve collected the entire thing. The first two songs, Among The Missing and Loser Take All, are both currently available.

• List Time: 10 Awesomely Weird Guitar Solos
• The Who’s Quadrophenia box set looks pretty impressive
• Cover Alert: Ryan Adams tackles Iron Maiden
• David Bowie’s Space Oddity has been turned into a children’s book
• Download This: Bob Dylan, BBC Sessions – 1965
• Flaming Lips are working on recording a 6 hour long song

Finally, Willie Nelson is no stranger to the art of the cover, having tackled tunes from the likes of Townes Van Zandt to Procol Harum to the Grateful Dead throughout his storied career. The latest song to be interpreted by the country music legend is Coldplay’s Scientist, which Nelson recorded as the soundtrack of the short film entitled, Back to the Start, both of which were commissioned by the Mexican food chain Chipotle to promote sustainable farming. The song, which you can hear in the video below, is currently available on iTunes for $.99, with proceeds benefiting The Chipotle Cultivate Foundation. Take a look…

Farm Aid board members John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews and Willie Nelson will bring the organization’s annual benefit concert to Kansas City’s new LIVESTRONG Sporting Park on August 13. Mellencamp, Young, Matthews and Nelson are each set to perform at the one-day concert with additional acts to be announced in the coming weeks.

A pre-sale for Farm Aid Members starts tomorrow, May 12, at 11AM CDT through the event’s website. Tickets for the general public go on sale May 20 at 10AM CDT through Ticketmaster. Over the years the Farm Aid organization has raised more than $39 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture.

There have been a number of legendary singer/songwriters that have covered Neil Young’s Heart of Gold over the years such as Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, but it’s pretty safe to say we’ll never see Bob Dylan taking a pass at it. In a 1985 interview with Spin Magazine Dylan explained his annoyance with Heart of Gold…

The only time it bothered me that someone sounded like me was when I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, in about ’72 and the big song at the time was “Heart of Gold.” I used to hate it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to “Heart of Gold.” I think it was up at number one for a long time, and I’d say, “Shit, that’s me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me.”

Honestly, I don’t hear it all that much. Does Bob Dylan have a trademark on acoustic guitar and harmonica or something? Anyways, we have a diverse set of covers this week, some from the world of soul music while others are more straight ahead. Have a listen and don’t forget to vote for your favorite.

The Contestants:

While not officially released on an album, The Bad Plus have a fantastic arrangement of Heart of Gold that they play live. Audio Source: 7-26-2009

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READ ON for more covers of Heart of Gold…

With plans for their long in the works covers record with Rick Rubin scrapped, CSN members David Crosby and Graham Nash have found themselves with some new spare time on their hands. The two members of the legendary folk-rock group, who have not only parted way with Rubin, but also with Columbia Records, have decided to seize the opportunity to form their own record label and have also schedule some live dates together.

The duo, whose label’s first release will be a reissue of their must-own, out-of-print live album Another Stoney Evening, have announced a short eight-date theater run, that kicks off on March 25 at Long Beach Terrace Theater in Long Beach, CA, with additional shows to be scheduled.

If you can’t make it to any the duo’s tour dates, then maybe you’ll be able to hit one of these recently announced tours…

• ’80s Nostalgia Alert: Huey Lewis & The News hit the road
• The Dodos bring their brand of psych-folk to a town near you
• Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses line up a lengthy run
• The Cave Singers head out in support of their new release
• Garage-blues duo The Kills return with a 24-date world tour
• Gypsy-punk act DeVotchKa put together a month long trek

Finally, this summer will see the return of Willie Nelson’s Country Throwdown tour to amphitheaters around the country. The traveling country music festival, which will host acts on three stages, will be headlined by Nelson and country-rocker Jamey Johnson with Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real handling second stage duties. The fest will also feature the Bluebird Cafe tent featuring intimate “in-the-round” performances by six singer/songwriters, who will be revealed in the coming weeks.

This photo of Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson is ripe for your caption…

[via BuzzFeed]

Give it your best shot by leaving a caption as a comment below. We’ll pick our favorite caption tomorrow and send the winner a two-pack of Widespread Panic CDs that includes Huntsville ’96 and Driving Songs Vol. V.

Though Daniel Lanois is known more for his work as a producer (U2′s The Joshua Tree, Peter Gabriel’s So, Bob Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind to name a few), he has a few albums of his own, and The Maker is arguably his most well-known composition.

The Contestants:

Dave Matthews Band: Dave Matthews has been playing The Maker as far back as 1991. Its frequency has fluctuated throughout the years, it’s even disappeared for periods of over three years, but it keeps coming back in the rotation at both DMB shows and Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds duo shows. Source: Live In Chicago 12.19.98 at The United Center

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Video from the Chicago ’98 Webcast:

Also of note to the Hidden Track readers is that on 10-15-1994 at the Oak Mountain Amphitheater, there was a full-band sit-in where all the members of DMB joined Phish for their encore and after a Drum Duel and a brief Free-form jam, The Maker was performed. Listen to it below. Thanks to hoydog for all he does with the Phish Downloads Spreadsheet.

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READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

After a spending three years inhabiting venues across the mighty Northeast, Farm Aid will once again return to its roots with a show in the Midwest at the Gateway City of St. Louis. The long running socio-political benefit concert will make its debut appearance in the Show Me state on October 4 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Maryland Heights, MO.

As has become the custom, Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews with band will perform, with Wilco, Jason Mraz and Phospheresant also confirmed to play.

If you can’t make it to St. Louis, for what is sure to be a fantastic day of music for a great cause, than maybe you’ll be able to hit one of these recently announced tours…

• Guster to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Lost & Gone Forever
• Former Beach Boy Brian Wilson hits the road again
  
• Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach puts together another solo trek
• Singer-songwriter Mason Jennings lines up a short West Coast run
• Monolith Festival returns to Red Rocks with diverse line up
• Blues legend B.B. King keeps busy late into the fall

Finally, influential live music site Daytrotter have announced a unique series of shows to take place in barns and attics in Iowa and Wisconsin. Dubbed the Daytrotter Barnstormer six of the sites alumni – including Local Natives, Catfish Haven and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – will head out on a five day tour with fans encouraged to caravan along to each of the stops.

What could be more American than seeing two of the most iconic American musicians playing minor baseball stadiums this summer? Well, how about you throw in a third to make for a formidable triple play. Dating back to 2004, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson have teamed up to tour intimate stadiums across the country. This year, the duo welcome John Mellencamp for shows at 22 ballparks across the country. The family-friendly shows will start at 5:30 PM and ticket holders may bring a child under 14 in for free.

If this great triple bill isn’t hitting a ballpark near you, than maybe you’ll be able to hit one of these recently announced tours…

• Ratdog will be joined by moe. and Jackie Greene this summer
• AA Bondy will spend the month of June on the road
• Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley lines up dates into December
• Les Claypool has a mix of festivals and club appearances
  
• Snoop, Slightly Stoopid & Stephen Marley are Blazed & Confused
• Punk rockers Green Day reveal the dates for the NA tour

Finally, indie-rockers Spoon will hold court at Stubb’s BBQ in Austin, TX for three nights of shows for what is being billed as SPOONX3. The mini-festival will feature a different triple bill each night anchored by a set from Britt Daniels & Co. Joining Spoon over the course of the run will be …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead, Black Joe Lews & The Honey Bears, Low, Dale Watson, Atlas Sound and The Strange Boys. The band is currently offering up special three-day passes prior to individual shows going on-sale.

Tomorrow, I’m headed down to Austin, TX for four days to attend SXSW – the music industry orgy of booze, BBQ, Tex-Mex and list of bands that rivals the thickness of the phone book of Rhode Island. Since this is my first time headed to the fest and looking at the list of official and unofficial parties is giving me a headache, I’ll leave it up to the other guys out there to tell you who to see.

Aside from a brief layover in Dallas, this will be my first visit to the Lone Star state. As a way of getting in the right frame of mind for my visit, I’ve decided to turn to the Red Head Stranger himself – and Austin-resident – Willie Nelson for some sage advice. After abandoning Nashville’s buttoned up country music scene for Austin’s more laid back hippie vibe, Nelson became the face of the Outlaw Country movement of the early ’70s. Let’s check out this version of what may be my theme for the trip – Bloody Mary Morning…

Nelson’s seemingly never ending tour rolls on through June and includes a stop at the Summer Camp festival and several dates opening for DMB.

More Bloody Mary Mornings:

• Yonder Mountain String Band
• Dixie Chicks & Willie Nelson

Paul Simon & Willie Nelson – Graceland