It’s A Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s the New Jack White Record

Proof positive that there is no off switch in the genius Jack White/ Third Man Records marketing division. Yes indeed, Jack White chose April 1st to release a limited-edition old school flexi disc single by helium balloon from his Third Man Records label headquarters in Nashville.

The track is “Freedom at 21” from White's forthcoming debut solo album, “Blunderbuss,” due April 21st. White and colleagues at Third Man filled 1,000 blue ballons attached the discs and postcards and released them into the sky.

The stunt was described as “an experiment exploring nontraditional forms of record distribution and a way to get records in the hands of people who don't visit record shops.”

White’s reps noted that the balloons were made of biodegradable latex and were attached to the singles with natural twine, to ease potential environmental concerns.

People who find the discs after the balloons burst or return to Earth are encouraged to report where and when they were found and to submit photos, so that White and the Third Man staff can document their travels by way of the postcards  attached to the discs.

And you thought some of the ThirdMan releases were pricey on Ebay… The typical recovery rate on similar balloon launches, according to Third Man, is around 10%, indicating that perhaps as few as 100 copies of the record will reach human hands.

An evolving map on Third Man’s website showed two reported discoveries so far in Flintville, Tenn., about 100 miles southeast of Nashville, and another in Huntsville, Ala., about 110 miles to the south. Here's some video from the launch:

“My Own Colors On My Own Canvas”

It was around this time last year that White Stripes fans the world over were mourning the demise of the beloved dichromatic duo.  Sure we could depend on their always prolific front man-  After all what project did Jack White not have a hand in? The Raconteurs, Dead Weather, Rome, Wanda Jackson and even his own Third Man Records…  The inevitable has finally happened though as Jack White III has announced his debut solo LP. Titled Blunderbuss, it's due out April 24th via Third Man/Columbia/XL.

The album was produced by White and recorded at the Third Man studio in Nashville.  A statement on the Third Man website reads:

“(Blunderbuss is) an album I couldn’t have released until now. I’ve put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name. These songs were written from scratch, had nothing to do with anyone or anything else but my own expression, my own colors on my own canvas."

The first single is called "Love Interruption" and it's due out on seven-inch vinyl on February 7, backed with the song "Machine Gun Silhouette." The single will go up for sale digitally tonight at midnight EST.
Go here though to  hear it streaming.  A slightly quieter affair, but I like it.

Of course this video has nothing to do with Jack White but I enjoyed this on Portlandia recently.

The Party Ain’t Over for Wanda Jackson

Third Man Records and Nonesuch Records have announced the release of the new album from the undisputed Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson. The Party Ain’t Over, produced by Jack White, will be out January 25, 2011.

With a remarkable career that began in 1955, Jackson was credited with being the first woman to ever record a rock and roll song—“Let’s Have a Party” in 1958. The fiery singer is a bona fide legend and the pairing with White is an inspired one.  You may remember a few tears back when Jack White hitched his wagon to another legend to produce Loretta Lynn’s very fine Van Lear Rose thusly revitalizing her career.  Anticipation is high that the same will happen with this effort.  White and Jackson teamed up last year to record a 45rpm single for White’s Third Man Records. The vinyl and iTunes release, a cover of Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” b/w “Shakin All Over” was a huge success and the pair set to record a full-length album.

The Party Ain’t Over was recorded in Nashville at White’s studio, where he brought together a fabulous band, including himself, Jack Lawrence (The Dead Weather/Raconteurs), Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket), Patrick Keeler (Raconteurs), Ashley Monroe, Jackson Smith, and his wife Karen Elson, to name a few, and hand picked the songs—11 tracks dating in origin from the early 1900s to 2007. The result: a retro modern collection of music that showcases Miss Jackson, now in her seventh decade and sounding as powerful as ever.

Wanda Jackson was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Americana Music Awards in Nashville last night, (September 9th). The award, in the category of Performance, was presented to her by Jack White.

The Party Ain’t Over Tracklist

1. Shakin All Over
2. Rip It Up
3. Busted
4. Rum and Coca-Cola
5. Thunder on the Mountain
6. You Know I’m No Good
7. Like a Baby
8. Nervous Breakdown
9. Dust on the Bible
10. Teach Me Tonight
11. Blue Yodle #6

Jack White Set to Produce Wanda Jackson’s New Album

The “hardest working man” in show business, Jack White is collaborating with “hard headed woman” and “Queen of Rockabilly” Wanda Jackson.

The Oklahoman reports that Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famer Jackson is set to record a new album with White at the producer’s helm. They will first record a single for digital release before completing an album.

You may recall that in 2004 White successfully collaborated with country music legend Loretta Lynn on her excellent album Van Lear Rose. The recording that may just have been the catalyst for this artistic pairing.

“They had a super album, but he didn’t have her do anything different, you know,” Jackson said of White’s work with Loretta Lynn. “She just did her little Loretta Lynn songs. But he told me he’s gonna stretch me some, so we’ll see. We’ll talk later.”

Queen Wanda already has experience working with a variety of artists outside her country and rockabilly realm; in 2003, for her album Heart Trouble, she was joined by the likes of Elvis Costello, Lee Rocker and the Cramps.

A true legend, Jackson is about to draw a lot of new fans to her fold. Much like he did with Loretta Lynn; The 34-year-old White has the ability to introduce an entirely new audience of music fans to Jackson who might have not had the pleasure to hear such a talented and influential artist.

The 72-year-old Jackson, who was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, started out singing rockabilly in the 1950s on the advice of her mentor and one-time boyfriend, Elvis Presley.

Have a look if you are unfamiliar with Wanda Jackson. You will understand immediately just why this particular pairing is so inspired.

Jack White Pens Poem About Detroit

Singer-guitarist Jack White has penned a thoughtful poem expressing his strong feelings for Detroit to clear up any misconceptions about how the White Stripes frontman feels about his hometown.

White said he was frustrated by a sense that his thoughts about the Motor City were misrepresented since he moved to Nashville two years ago. So, White wrote a poem titled "Courageous Dream's Concern" that was published Sunday by the Detroit Free Press. He says it asserts his "feelings about the city itself, and how strong I believe it to be."

"The ... poem is the Detroit from my mind," he said. "The Detroit that is in my heart. The home that encapsulates and envelops those who are truly blessed with the experience of living within its boundaries."

White told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview that he had to leave Detroit because he "couldn't take the negativity anymore." In other media accounts, he was quoted as lamenting what had become of Detroit's music community.

He addressed those comments in his statements to the newspaper, saying:

"Those expressions of mine have never been a representation of my feelings about Detroit the city, a town that I have strong feelings about ... nor were they expressions about its citizens."

Having spent a great deal of time living in the shadow of Motown, White’s words are stunning and elicit a very real sense of the city itself. I have a funny feeling Detroit holds a special place in a lot of hearts out there.

'Courageous Dream's Concern,' by Jack White

I have driven slow,
three miles an hour or so,
through Highland Park, Heidelberg, and the
Cass Corridor.
I've hopped on the Michigan,
and transferred to the Woodward,
and heard the good word blaring from an
a.m. radio.
I love the worn-through tracks of trolley
trains breaking through their
concrete vaults,
As I ride the Fort Street or the Baker,
just making my way home.


I sneak through an iron gate, and fish
rock bass out of the strait,
watching the mail boat with
its tugboat gait,
hauling words I'll never know.
The water letter carrier,
bringing prose to lonely sailors,
treading the big lakes with their trailers,
floats in blue green chopping waters,
above long-lost sunken failures,
awaiting exhumation iron whalers,
holding gold we'll never know.


I've slid on Belle Isle,
and rowed inside of it for miles.
Seeing white deer running alongside
While I glide, in a canoe.
I've walked down Caniff holding a glass
Atlas root beer bottle in my hands
And I've entered closets of coney islands
early in the morning too.
I've taken malt from Stroh's and Sanders,
felt the black powder of abandoned
embers,
And smelled the sawdust from wood cut
to rehabilitate the fallen edifice.
I've walked to the rhythm of mariachis,
down junctions and back alleys,
Breathing fresh-baked fumes of culture
nurtured of the Latin and the
Middle East.
I've fallen down on public ice,
and skated in my own delight,
and slid again on metal crutches
into trafficked avenues.


Three motors moved us forward,
Leaving smaller engines to wither,
the aluminum, and torpedo,
Monuments to unclaimed dreaming.
Foundry's piston tempest captured,
Forward pushing workers raptured,
Frescoed families strife fractured,
Encased by factory's glass ceiling.


Detroit, you hold what one's been seeking,
Holding off the coward-armies weakling,
Always rising from the ashes
not returning to the earth.


I so love your heart that burns
That in your people's body yearns
To perpetuate,
and permeate,
the lonely dream that does encapsulate,
Your spirit, that God insulates,
With courageous dream's concern.

REVIEW- The White Stripes at the John Labatt Centre London 07/07/2007

There was a time, not long ago that rock n’ roll was an enervating, hypersexual and even dangerous thing. Mick and Keith ruled the walk with a bad-ass attitude and a six string Gibson SG. To borrow from Oscar Wilde they were mad, bad and dangerous to know. It was outlaw stuff, the kind of thing your parents warned you about. Rather unfortunately, things were about to change. And change they did. Rock n’ roll would become a safe, if not somewhat bland
commodity. Pity too that the devil was no longer in the details, (at least not on stage). Last night though, a pair of untouchably cool musicians visited London for the first time and reminded us all of that true essence of rock n’ roll. (Second time if you count the secret gig at the Arva Flour Mill that afternoon.) The White Stripes came to town and literally blew us all away.

I love this band, as I have for more than a few years now. A small club date in Toronto in 2002 pretty much sealed that for me. Then, like last night Jack White was dressed in red, motor mouthed, and on fire with his 1964 JB Hutto Montgomery Airline guitar. With his coy grin and mop of black curls White was there to capture more than a few souls. He makes rock music look effortless, and to hear his razor sharp voice tackle a song like Icky Thump early on left me awe struck. I knew this would be a special evening when the belt he was wearing was launched into the audience. At last someone had remembered to put the devil back on the guest list!

Jack White is only one half of this dynamic crimson duo though. Meg, Jack’s “older sister” behind the peppermint/button drums was just as captivating. Keeping perfect time and matching Jack note for note with only the subtlest of cues Meg provided a solid percussive foundation . Not once was the crowd happier than when she came up front and sang In the Cold, Cold Night. Demure and oh so sexy, Meg had us in the palm of her hand at the first note.

Detractors will say the White’s strip mining of old blues formulas is what pigeon-holes them. This, at least in my opinion is what sets them apart. Their formula is their own, the resultant chemistry, pure magic. They play happily, recklessly and unaffected. White, simply put, can sing better than pretty much everyone else out there today. Who wasn’t touched last night when White, exposed under just a single dancehall disco ball dazzled with his acoustic take on We’re Going to Be Friends?

At the end of the show, joking about their red and white colours being, nationally, ours, (the maple leaves on the Fender amplifiers were a great touch). - Jack paraded around a huge Province of Ontario flag. At that moment the White Stripes were ours to claim, they certainly captured our hearts for the evening. You can't get much more rock n' roll than that.

Opener, Alabama upstart Dan Sartain got the ball rolling with his distinctive blend of rockabilly numbers.

White Stripes set list. Thank you Jonathon Kade for your much better power of recall.

Dead Leaves And the Dirty Ground
Icky Thump
Medley: Cannon/I'm Slowly Turning Into You
Medley: Astro/Jack the Ripper
Death Letter
Hotel Yorba
The Union Forever
We're Going To Be Friends (introduced as "What's your problem? Why can't we be friends?")
Medley: The Big Three Killed My Baby/Little Cream Soda (interpolating lyrics from Big Three)/Astro reprise/I Think I Smell a Rat
You Don't Know What Love Is
Hardest Button to Button
Second set:Blue Orchid
Medley: I'm Finding it Harder to be a Gentleman/Party of Special Things to Do
Apple Blossom (+ announcement that someone in the audience had something to ask someone else - probably a marriage proposal)
Seven Nation Army
I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself
In The Cold, Cold Night
A Martyr For My Love For You
Catch Hell Blues
Boll Weevil