Horning’s Hideout in beautifully forested North Plains, Oregon kept its tradition this year, hosting the 16th Annual Northwest String Summit on July 13th through the 16th. The long-time festival boasts an eclectic gathering with several event stages, a wide variety of string-instrument bands and features camping, vendor booths, a children’s village, yoga and mindfulness sessions and more.

It’s hard to use the term super-group without a couple of obvious stigmas surfacing. It usually constitutes musicians who were sensationalized with other bands coming together to benefit off of the novelty of their collaboration with other already successful players. Often the results are under-inspired, a lucrative opportunity to make a quick buck off of an established name. Not every band assembled of already established players constitutes super group.

Hard Working Americans, featuring Todd Snider, Dave Schools, Neal Casal, Duane Trucks, Chad Staehly and Jesse Aycock, has announced the release of The First Waltz on October 28. The First Waltz is both a live album and live concert rockumentary film, which will be sold together in a special two-disc package via Melvin Records/Thirty Tigers. Take a look at this trailer of The First Waltz (Click HERE).

Picking yourself up and dusting yourself off when you fall or continuing to keep getting it when times get hard, is the gist of this album from Todd Snider’s newly formed band the Hard Working Americans. Whether it is the accomplished musicians in the Hard Working Americans or the lyrics, you can find a pinch of many great bands within this group. A little Neil Young. Check. A little Black Crowes. Check. A little Arlo Guthrie. Check. A little Widespread Panic. Check.

Great American Taxi and Vince Herman have decided it is in the best interest of the band and everyone involved to part ways starting in 2014.  Vince recently moved to Oregon to settle down and spend more time on his farm, and his other band, Leftover Salmon, have become very active again absorbing much of Herman's time.  Great American Taxi has wanted to play more and follow up on the success of their last two albums, which landed them in the top 10

How often is it that you are lucky enough to witness a brand new group of already legendary powerhouse musicians premier before a live audience? Maybe some are more fortunate than I, but last Friday at the Boulder Theatre was a first for me. Boulder audiences were fortunate enough to catch the premier performance of a brand new folk rock/Americana “super-group” Hardworking Americans.

Here we have—singer-songwriter Todd Snider (usually a solo fellow) and bassist Dave Schools (Widespread Panic) leading the charge, Neal Casal (guitarist for Ryan Adams, Chris Robinson); Chad Staehly (of Great American Taxi) on keys, and King Lincoln drummer Duane Trucks (nephew of Butch Trucks, who worked the set for the Allman Brothers, if you want a reach of a tie-in)—the Hard Working Americans. It’s a solid crew.

Hard Working Americans, the new ensemble featuring veteran musicians Todd Snider, Dave Schools (Widespread Panic), Neal Casal (Chris Robinson Brotherhood), Chad Staehly (Great American Taxi) and Duane Trucks (Col. Bruce Hampton), has announced dates for their first-ever tour to hit select cities. Hard Working Americans’ self-titled debut album will be released on January 21 via Melvin Records/Thirty Tigers.

What do you get when you take a batch of incredible songs, five veteran players who have never played together, with an arsenal of five musical minds working in unison to reinvent them? You get Hard Working Americans. Hard Working Americans is the self-titled debut from this new musicians’ collective, scheduled for a January 21 release on Melvin Records/Thirty Tigers. Genres meld seamlessly with the birth of this group, featuring artists from the Americana, singer/songwriter, experimental, jam and rock communities.

Ashleigh Flynn’s song "See That Light" is an anti-bullying tune, in which the storyteller is a young kid in love with her or his best friend until they realize that’s not allowed. Todd Snider plays the preacher with a talking blues part in which he appeals to folks to smarten up, to get along...