We are very honored to be DJing at the Joe Innes and the Cavalcades‘ Record Release Show tonight, Saturday, April 28th at The Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell, London alongside Live & Unamplified. The show is 100% free with Laura Boyle and Adam Killip supporting. Come and celebrate with us!

Time Out London recently asked me to do a post highlighting my Top 5 Secret Brick Lane Spots. For those of you are unfamiliar with London, Brick Lane is an area in East London that is commonly referred to as 1) bageltown/hipstertown 2) banglatown/currytown 3) my homebase/neighborhood. Click here to check out the piece I wrote for them and thanks to Ashleigh and the Time Out team for reaching out to me!

Old Crow Medicine Show recently announced that the great Critter Fuqua (farthest to the left), one of the founding members of the group and writer of Old Crow classics like “Take ‘em Away” and “James River Blues”, is returning to the band after a few years break. The announcement, however, also included the news that Willie Watson will make his exit from the band (2nd from the left). The official statement reads:  “Old Crow Medicine Show have decided to part ways with Willie Watson. They wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

Old Crow Medicine Show- Wagon Wheel

It’s a very bittersweet day for Old Crow fans, but we wish Willie the best of luck and can’t wait to see what he does next. As for Old Crow Medicine Show, the band has recorded a new record that is set to be released this year via ATO Records. We’ll give you the details as we get them. Now for old times sake, here’s Critter, Willie and the band with “Wagon Wheel”.

Please take a moment to watch this video and then sign this petition (sponsored by Google, so you know it’s legit). Thanks.
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The Coachella 2012 lineup has been announced, and despite some relatively heavy hitters on Saturday, the festival is surprisingly light on folk and country-tinged acts. Coachella usually boasts at least a handful of When You Awake-approved bands thrown onto each day, but this year, two days are looking rather sparse. Regardless of our disappointment due to a lack of rootsy-love, here are our picks for the festival, which for the first time, will be head over the course of two weekends on April 13-15 and April 20-22:

Friday: The Black Keys and Dawes
Saturday: The Shins, St. Vincent, The Head and the Heart, Laura Marling and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Sunday: Beirut, First Aid Kit and Lissie

In other news, Coachella’s country cousin, Stagecoach, has officially sold out. Lineup for that is after the jump.
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As we bid farewell to 2011, we say hello to year-end best of lists. We’ve asked our contributors to list their top 5 favorite albums released in 2011, as well as their top 5 albums that they “discovered”, “rediscovered” or “came to fully appreciate” this year. What were your favorite releases of the year? Did we miss anything good? Let us know in the comments after the jump.
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A while back over on our Facebook page, we asked that if we came up with a list of tunes, aptly titled “Songs Jody Wants Country Covers Of”, would you musicians out there be willing to pull out the ol’ recording equipment and make some covers for us. The answer I received was a resounding ‘yes’ (Nicolette Rose, Pearl Charles and David Phillips…I’m looking at you). I then went off for a few weeks and have been put together a list of songs that I really, really want covered. Check out the full song list and directions for doing the covers after the jump.
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Johnny Cash- Thanksgiving Prayer

 I would like to take a minute to say thanks to everyone who supported When You Awake over the years. We are coming up on FOUR YEARS as a blog, and without the support of my wonderful assistant editor, Bryan Thomas, all of the contributors, the bloggers who gave their help and advice when I was just starting out, and of course you, the readers, I never could have kept it up this long. From the bottom of my whiskey-drinking, country music-blogging, cowboy boot-wearing heart, thank you.

Our friends over at For Folk’s Sake have put together a brilliant charity Christmas record. I know what you are thinking. Christmas music? REALLY? But I swear, it’s actually very, very good. With tracks by Caitlin Rose, Darren Hayman (from Hefner) and Paper Aeroplanes, how could it not be? So head on over to the For Folk’s Sake Bandcamp page where you can listen to the entire record (for free) and then pre-order a physical copy (with instant digital download) for just £8. Proceeds go to the Integrated Cancer Research. Donate now!

The fine folks at the UK-based label Loose Music are currently giving away a free music sampler featuring tunes by the likes of The Felice Brothers, Dawes, Hurray For The Riff Raff, The Handsome Family and more. Head over to their website for the full tracklisting and to download the sampler. For a little taste of what you can expect, here’s Hurray For The Riff Raff with the beautiful tune “Too Much Of A Good Thing” from their self-titled debut, released earlier this year.
MP3: Hurray For The Riff Raff- Too Much Of A Good Thing