Still waiting.

The release date of Little Brother’s third proper album, Get Back, is now set for Tuesday, Oct. 23. The Durham duo of Phonte Coleman and Rapper Big Pooh (producer 9th Wonder exited the group after its second LP, The Minstrel Show) announced several months ago that the record would be released Tuesday, Sept. 25 on ABB Records, but Coleman said today Little Brother and management reached the decision recently to hold the record a month. Little Brother hits the road Oct. 17, though no home state shows are scheduled yet. Grab an album sampler the group posted today right here, and check out a few hundred LB fans in Get Back T-shirts here.

When I spoke with Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family and Greil Marcus for this week’s story, both could not contain their enthusiasm when it came to the history, importance, and mystery of the ballad, especially the murder ballad.

At tonight’s event, the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC Chapel Hill hosts Rennie and her husband Brett playing some of their own American ballads, a few of which may fall into that category of murder tales, Marcus will talk about them for about an hour, and then folks can discuss them in a Q&A.

Take note: The Handsome Family has been to our area before, but this is the first time Marcus has done a public talk here in ten years at Duke for a conference on, music criticism (Mucho thanks to David for the assist). His fondness for the Sparks’ work led to this event. He told me a story about a show the Handsome family played once that endeared them to him more. They played a concert celebrating Harry Smith, the renowned bohemian archivist who compiled the Anthology of American Folk Music, that informed the Handsomes’ music probably more than anything, and Marcus noticed that among the star-studded lineup of performers in attendance, they were just about the only people under 40 or 50. Someone in the performance hall quipped, “Soo, you’re gonna kill a lot of people tonight.” Marcus said, “Then Rennie, in her sweet voice, said, ‘Well, that’s what I do best.”

For all the stories these ballads tell, the bigger story is about our country, and more broadly us as people. Marcus pointed to Dylan as noticing this early on, too. He’d been rereading Dylan’s Chronicles, where Dylan said, “Every folk song has a thousand faces and you have to know everyone to be able to play them…” Marcus said, “I think that’s what we’re talking about here.”
To dig much deeper in this fertile ground, come to the Pleasants Room at Wilson Library on UNC’s campus. The opening reception starts at 5 p.m., Marcus will speak at 5:45, The Handsome Family plays at 6:45, followed by a Q&A session with Marcus. The event is free, but the venue can hold less than 200 people, so arrive on time.

Blue cover, a festival in Chapel Hill…

Last year’s three-day Hatchetfest at Kings was sort of dream material, with appearances by Oakley Hall, Birds of Avalon, The Greatest Hits, Dan Bryk, Can Joann and Transportation. This year, though, the plans have been hemmed in a bit: So far, the Sept. 14 ‘Fest hits only Hell (I’m not being flip about Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street! The Chapel Hill bar, of course.), and the bands announced are The Monologue Bombs (Scott Phillips of Goner), Jews and Catholics and Cantwell, Gomez & Jordan. Hell, if you want to play, The Raleigh Hatchet Music Editor Amanda Becom says she’s taking applications at amanda.becom[at]gmail[dot]com.

Red Collar peaked at No. 5 on elbo.ws, the big music blog aggregator, yesterday. They’re down to No. 11 at the moment, but not bad at all, either way. Look for a full-length early next year, the follow-up to their Hands Up! EP on 307 Knox.

Just wow.

Durham Mayor Bill Bell has declared Sept. 7 Bombadil Day in the city in honor of the band’s homecoming show at Broad Street Cafe. There are some very confused Tolkien fans out there right now.

Whereas, Bombadil – a music group from Durham, NC have been playing their own unique form of music with shades of folk, rock-n-roll, ragtime, classical and indie-rock and

Whereas, this form of music is what the band Bombadil considers to be true in artistic spirit and

Whereas, the band released their groundbreaking self-titled EP in 2006 which conveyed their unique musical style and has been tried and tested all across the United States of America and

Whereas, Bombadil is honored to represent the city of Durham, NC while they continue to provoke thought and change perceptions of music through touring and album releases:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, William V. “Bill” Bell, Mayor of the City of Durham, NC, do hereby extend an honorary “welcome home” to Bombadil – appearing at Broad Street Café in their first show in the triangle area since early July – congratulations to their rise in the music industry; and hereby urge all citizens to take special note of this observance.

Al Green said last night:

—”I feel at home here in Raleigh, N.C. Raleigh-Durham!” He referenced UNC and the Tar Heels, but—as far as I could hear—never Chapel Hill.

—”Y’all give him a hand. He’s eating the GUITAR!” A gracious frontman who recognized the precision of his 14-member band early and often, Green required special love for guitarist and music director Jimmy Epps, who—you guessed it—played with his mouth.
—”All right now, sit back down so I can do it again.” He was our puppeteer.

More in Wednesday’s paper.

We raved about Weedeater in this week’s paper, but it looks like their Local 506 show tonight has been canceled due to the arrest of at least one member in Wilmington. The venue and the openers—Caltrop and Curtains of Night—are still working out the details of continuing with tonight’s show, and we’ll let you know what we here. Meanwhile, if you’re still looking for the heavy stuff, there’s Dennisfest at Bull City Headquarter and Dead to Society at Broad Street Cafe, both in Durham.