ABOUT RAR: For those of
you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher
of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites.
Use this link to visit the
RAR music page, which features original music
compositions and other.
ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance"-AVAILABLE
NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM
AMAZON.COM.Use
this link.
CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects
the building of America in a trilogy of novels
collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores
the development of the American West through the
lens of public policy, land planning, municipal
development, and governance as it played out in one
of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of
the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious
and cultural traditions that imbued the American
Midwest with a special character that continues to
have a profound effect on American politics to this
day. Book One creates an understanding about
America's cultural foundations that is further
explored in books two and three that further trace
the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one
isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as
an icon in the development of a certain brand of
American character. That's the serious stuff viewed
from high altitude. The story itself gets down and
dirty with the supernatural, which inATWOOD
- A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the
outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the
monumental to the sublime.The
book features the epic poem"The
Toiler"as
well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard
Padilla.
Elmore Leonard
Meets Larry McMurtry
Western Crime
Novel
I am offering another
novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service.
Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its
sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado,
1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm
equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of
individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and
distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.
It is a ripping good yarn, filled
with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to
pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950,
when the story is set. Richard Padilla
has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of
a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The
whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on
Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little
of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns.
Use this link.
EXPLORE THE KINDLE
BOOK LIBRARY
If you have not explored the books
available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing
division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You
will find classic literature there, as well as tons
of privately published books of every kind. A lot of
it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published
books are awful, but some are truly classics. You
can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works
for two bucks.
Amazon is the largest,
but far from the only digital publisher. You can
find similar treasure troves atNOOK
Press(the
Barnes & Noble site),Lulu,
and others.
In November 2013,
Tennessee-born singer Mandy Barnett
released an album's worth of Don
Gibson songs, with the support of Rounder Records
and the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store chain, who featured
her recording for distribution through their stores.
“Don, his wife Bobbi, and I became good friends a few
years before he passed away,” said Barnett, at the time of
the record release. “He asked me to consider recording an
album of his songs, and of course I said yes. He wrote some
of the most-loved songs in country music -- who wouldn’t
want to record a Don Gibson song?" In the track below,
she sings the classic "Blue, Blue Day", with harmony tracks
provided by Allison Krauss.
It is perfect, an old school gem that is a striking tribute
to Don Gibson, and makes you wish music was this good again.
Mandy Barnett was brought up to be a singer, encouraged
through talent competitions and stage shows from the time
she was school-aged. As a teenager, she starred in a Patsy
Cline stage show and she is in total command of that
precise, controlled emotion that characterized that golden
period in female country music. Absolutely beautiful.
Recorded in Nashville, I Can't Stop Loving You: The Songs of
Don Gibson features legendary musicians and Country Music
Hall of Fame members Harold Bradley, Hargus "Pig" Robbins,
and Charlie McCoy, who also played on some of Don Gibson’s
original recordings of these songs. -RAR
Great
American Taxi
Produced by Todd Snider,
recorded in East Nashville, TN, third studio album is “electrified folk music for our times”
The lead track, “Poor House,”
came to them in a peculiar way while the band was playing in
Oklahoma City. They received a call from their songwriting
friend Benny Galloway, who had no idea that GAT was in
Oklahoma. By coincidence, he called to say he was driving
through Woody Guthrie’s hometown of Okemah, OK, knowing that
the Taxi boys were big Guthrie fans. Galloway showed up
about an hour before the show and ran “Poor House” by them
as a potential song they could play together that night.
Galloway obliged the band’s desire to include the track and
dropped off a demo version weeks later while all were back
home in Colorado.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Produced by East
Nashville’s critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Todd
Snider, Great American Taxi’s
third album, Paradise Lost (released October 11, 2011)
continues to occupy a top-ten Americana Airplay chart
position. The new release is described as “a mixture of
country, blues and rock blurred together,” notes
keyboardist/singer and album executive producer Chad Staehly.
“Taxi moves along the tradition of playing what is really
electrified country folk music of the common man.”
“It’s hard to imagine someone not liking
Great American Taxi. In their bone structure and general
jiggle, GAT is a modern equivalent to Little Feat, Los Lobos
and the Grateful Dead — i.e. bonhomie-rich, barroom-ready
rockers with a healthy facility with twangy stuff, all
anchored to quality songwriting, playing and presentation.
The Taxi is the whole dang package,” Dennis Cook recently
wrote in Jambase.
Great American Taxi is Vince Herman
(vocals, guitar, mandolin), Chad Staehly (keys, vocals), Jim
Lewin (guitar), Chris Sheldon (drums) and Brian Adams
(bass). On Paradise Lost, the band enlisted master folk
musicians Tim O’Brien, Barry Sless and Elizabeth Cook to
tackle songs about working class, blue-collar issues while
maintaining Taxi’s signature upbeat, country-, bluegrass-,
rock-infused, Americana-without-borders feel.
“I believe in the power of music and songs
that can generate the energy to do something,” explains
Herman. “Politics should be in music; everything’s politics,
especially music. Songwriting can draw attention to
appropriate issues of our times.” The band holds no bars in
confronting current issues like mountaintop removal, nuclear
energy, poor economic conditions, or a soldier returning
home from war.
“Taxi’s latest release has shed the
jamming and gone for the throat with focused song writing
and tight musical arrangements,” adds Staehly. “The album
combines ‘folky’ elements with straight ahead bluegrass that
was propelled by Tim O’Brien playing fiddle, banjo and
mandolin on several numbers mixed with equal parts rock ’n’
roll — think early-’70s country-rock Rolling Stones.”
The band crafted a batch of 12 songs that
follow a script of sorts, focusing on America in the new
millennium. The theme started to develop in 2010 when they
spent time in Nashville. Later that year, while on tour with
Snider in Denver, lightning struck: Snider and the band
decided to work together to create Taxi’s third album, which
was to explore what “paradise lost” means to all of us,
individually and collectively. Paradise Lost takes on issues
such as loss of childhood, loss of innocence, lost loved
ones — even the loss of the record industry.
The release wraps up a trilogy, the band
realized while working on Paradise. Their three albums
loosely sketch out three periods in American history. People
came to this country to carve out their Streets of Gold (GAT’s
first release in 2007), got caught up in a bunch of Reckless
Habits (2010) and have ended up with a sense of Paradise
Lost.
When work began on Paradise Lost, Snider
wanted the lyrics first before anything else. All five
band-members contributed. Snider helped them edit and
whittle down the catalog of songs to about fifteen tunes
before they shored up the music and headed for East
Nashville in April of 2011. There they arrived at Eric
McConnell’s house (where Snider cut his acclaimed release
East Nashville Skyline and where Jack White produced Loretta
Lynn’s Grammy-award winning release Van Lear Rose).
Staehly recalls, “The house definitely has
a certain vibe to it, maybe it’s all the old analog gear or
McConnell’s approach, but this new album from Taxi hearkens
to the sounds of both of those albums. It’s a bit raw with
all kinds of warmth and vibe to it that helps bring home
these workingman songs. Paradise Lost has an everyman’s
aesthetic to it that evokes a reminder of how things ought
to be for those in search of the elusive American Dream.”-
Cary Baker
__________________
AFTER 10 YEARS OF PERFECTING HER STAGECRAFT
MARY
GAUTHIER RELEASES LIVE AT BLUE ROCK
Due out February 7 on In The Black, album captures dynamic concert
recorded in Wimberley, Texas.
By Cary Baker
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In conversation and in public,
Mary Gauthier comes off
as a practical, no-nonsense woman. Stoic, even. Which
wouldn’t seem unusual, except for the fact that her songs
carry so much emotional punch, they can leave you
staggering. She has a way of burrowing into that hole so
many of us carry inside our souls, and emerging with
universal truths that show we aren’t so alone after all.
Gauthier knows where our exposed nerve endings lie because she’s
probed her own so deeply, finally learning to unlock the fear and
loneliness that controlled her escape-seeking trajectory for so long
before songwriting — and the sobriety that drew it forth at age 35 —
gave her a steadier flight path.
But even though her six albums have received countless accolades
(2005’s Mercy Now earned her the Americana Music Association’s
New/Emerging Artist of the Year title, and 2011’s The Foundling was
named the No. 3 Record of the Year by the L.A. Times), Gauthier felt she
needed to rack up her pilot hours, so to speak, before she could hit
another major milestone: recording a live album. When she was ready, she
captured Live at Blue Rock (In the Black Records) at a concert at the
Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio in Wimberley, Texas, outside of
Austin. It’s set for release on February 7, 2013.
“People have been asking for a live CD for a long time and I just
knew that I wasn’t ready yet,” admits Gauthier. “It took 10 years of
trench work. Of bein’ out there, banging my head against all the things
an artist has to bang against. Indifference. Poor attendance. Situations
that are over your head. Every night, curve ball, curve ball, curve
ball. But stagecraft cannot be taught. You have to be onstage to learn
it. So after ten years of doin’ it, I got good at it.”
Louisiana native-turned-Nashville resident Gauthier (it’s French;
pronounced Go-SHAY), whose songs have earned praise from Bob Dylan and
Tom Waits, and been recorded by Jimmy Buffett, Blake Shelton, Boy George
and many others, is not bragging, just explaining, in that practical way
of hers. It’s the same way she discusses experiences that led to some of
the extraordinary songs she performs on the album. Renowned songs, such
as “I Drink,” “Drag Queens in Limousines” and “Karla Faye” — which
addresses the famous fate of that convicted killer, but starts out with
lines that undoubtedly reference their author as well: A little girl
lost, her world full of pain. He said it feels good, she gave him her
vein.
Then
there’s “Blood on Blood,” from her last release, 2010’s The Foundling,
which plumbs the particular hell of children given up to closed
adoption. With a cinematographer’s eye and a lyrical economy that
suggests far more than her 15 years of songwriting experience, she
chronicles an always-present sense of rejection and rootlessness, the
nagging “whys” and “what ifs,” the endless search of every face for a
possible resemblance. I don't know who I am I don't know who I'm not/I
don't know my name I can't find my place, she sings, her voice rising
from a whisper to a wail. She’s not just offering a vein here, she’s
cutting several wide open. Like all of her songs, “Blood on Blood” takes
on even more power when performed live.
“As a songwriter, I’m always trying to go to the deepest possible
place inside of me. Past the navel-gazing, past the self-conscious, to
get to that ‘we,’” Gauthier explains. “’Cause deep inside of all of us
is the universal. And that is an artist’s job, to transcend the self.
I’m in there, but then hopefully, it goes past that and it hits
something far, far bigger and more important than me. That’s what I’m
aimin’ for every time I write.”
She’s proud that The Foundling opened the floodgates for thousands of
fellow orphans who had never heard anyone articulate their pain with so
much insight. Gauthier reports therapists are now using the album to
better understand the adoptee experience. It’s also resulted in several
reunions between children and their birth parents — though Gauthier’s
birth mother declined that option after Gauthier made contact five years
ago. And she understands that decision, even if she’ll never have the
full closure she sought.
Sometimes, life just goes that way — particularly for the outsiders
with whom Gauthier has always identified most. They populate Live at
Blue Rock, which also contains covers of three songs by fellow
poet/philosopher (and recent “Tin Can Caravan” tour leader) Fred
Eaglesmith, another master at illuminating the sympathetic sides of
characters society is not used to regarding kindly, if at all.
“I find the stories I want to tell are the stories of characters who
may or may not make it,” says Gauthier. Though she’s no longer dangling
on that precipice, she adds, “I believe in redemption. I needed
redemption; I continue to need redemption.”
Luckily, she sometimes finds it onstage, in front of an audience. And
just as audiences change from night to night, so do her accompanists.
When Live at Blue Rock was recorded, she had fiddle and percussion
adornment. But she’s experimenting with different configurations all the
time, which means the songs also take on new identities nightly.
“They’re living things,” Gauthier says of her work. “You record ’em
one way, but that’s just the way you played it that day. Some words
change, the tempo changes. It has to go with the flow of the room and
the flow of the night.”
Gauthier, a teen runaway who attended college in Louisiana and
operated a Cajun restaurant in Boston before getting sober, long ago
learned how to go with the flow. And to be patient. Because it takes
time to get good enough to wing it.
_________________________
Covering Little Feat with...
Big Shoes
"Big
Shoes", referring to the
Nashville-based band that covers the "Little Feat" catalog,
is reconvened and active these days, and for those who enjoy
that funky southern-fried back beat they would be a pleasure
to catch. The band is comprised of top players in the
industry (some briefly profiled below), who love this dixie
chicken and nail it with delightful crackle. As a side
project, the name "Big Shoes" - which is sort of like the
opposite of "little feet", were that the name of that other
band - is probably not the best indicator of this band's
actual quality and value. (These aren't really marketing
guys.) They may not have originated the music they perform,
but as musicians they are in a league with Lowell George and
Bill Payne, the Little Feat founders who met through mutual
associations with Frank Zappa. They were sophisticated
dudes, which wasn't always apparent from their lyrical
content and general vibe, but was way noticeable in
their music. (Along those lines, I always found it odd that
Little Feat, which is closely associated with the decidedly
blue collar ethos of "Southern Rock", was actually a Los
Angeles band that achieved its greatest heights after
becoming more attuned to funky New Orleans blues.) My point
is, don't be fooled by the cornball moniker, "Big Shoes" is
high-end stuff, with clever compositions performed by
players up to the task of making them sizzle.
Andy
Peake is an old friend of RARWRITER.com, dating
back to the 1970s when he and the publisher of this mess met
in Boulder, Colorado. Andy was among the top tier players in
Boulder at that time (He played on several of my recording
projects in that period), before moving on to a successful
career in Nashville as a studio and touring pro. Andy, who
attended college on a music scholarship, is known for his
studious approach to his instrument, which he plays like a
true sensitive; certainly among the most nuanced and
versatile drummers I have ever known. He is a great
listener, which as most musicians will tell you is the key.
One has to take in all of the parts being played and
collaboratively expand the landscape of sound by
contributing another "right" part at exactly the right time,
and playing it with the right feel. These are the
skills that separate mere musicians from great
musicians, and the guys in "Big Shoes" are established
masters at this neat physical/emotional/intellectual trick,
which makes them special, rather like musical alchemists.
Andy Peake has worked with Nicolette Larsen,
Tanya Tucker, Don Williams, Delbert McClinton, Lee Roy
Parnell, Kathy Mattea, and Amy Grant. He has also shown his
musical-theatrical side through two stints in the stage
production of “Always Patsy Cline”, performing in the band
and the acting troupe. His work with Amy Grant has been as a
member of the Nashville Chamber Orchestra.
Will
McFarlane is singer/slide guitarist in "Big
Shoes" and he has recently recorded with Alicia Keys and
Joss Stone, but he cut his musical teeth playing with
Bonnie Raitt. That is
former Bonnie Raitt-bassist Freebo
with McFarlane in the photograph left. McFarlane's musical
history is long and extraordinary and RARWRITER.com would
encourage you to
visit his Website for additional information. He is one
of those industry stalwarts not that broadly known outside
of music industry inner circles, and yet he is a major
contributor to the soundtrack of our lives, and has been for
years.
Mark
T. Jordan, shown left with Journey drummer Craig
Krampt, is another industry insider who has played with
seemingly everyone, including: Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt,
Jackson Browne, Boz Scaggs, Dave Mason, Taj Mahal, Olivia
Newton-John, Lyle Lovett, Edgar Winter, Delbert McClinton,
Rita Coolidge, Nicolette Larson, Steve Cropper, Lee Roy
Parnell, Wynononna Judd, Hank Thompson, Patti Page, Maria
Muldaur, Carly Simon, 10cc, Buddy Guy, T. Graham Brown, and
David Lee Murphy.
Jordan was a child prodigy on piano, and
besides being a go--to studio musician and touring pro, he
has had a long and successful career as a songwriter and
producer. Among the hit tracks bearing his keyboard
signatures are Morrison's "Tupelo Honey", Muldaur's
"Midnight at the Oasis", Mason's "Feelin' Alright", and
Larson's "Lotta Love". He won a Grammy in 2002 for his work
on Delbert McClinton's Nothing Personal LP.
- RAR
_________________________
Flat River
Band
Brothers in arms, joined at the nut and
the saddle...just for the sake of musical euphemism... How
else could you get this tight?
Brothers
Chad, Dennijo and Andy Sitze grew up playing
together in a family musical act, and it shows. They have
the kind of cohesive musical expression that can only be
achieved among family and close childhood friends. Check out
the video above and the naturalness of their precision
performance. They are probably just a songwriting
acquaintance away from breaking out following a long
apprenticeship in Missouri and Tennessee playhouses such as
Dollywood and Silver Dollar City, and countless fairs and
festivals throughout the South and the Midwest.
- RAR
_____________________
Steve Conn Releases Video
from Beautiful Dream
Buddy Miller
What more need be said. Some guys
feel the things they sing and Buddy
Miller feels deeply.
_______________________
I'm
Kinda With
Stupid...
Dyann Woody
Doesn't Understand Why JD Myers Is Not Signed to a Major Label
Dyann Woody, the Nashville-based
songstress who runs a musical ministry with her husband
singer-songwriter Michael Woody, has been wondering aloud
why Elvis Presley-sound-alike JD Myers
does not have a major
record deal. In truth, I wonder the same thing, as
apparently does another Elvis-inspired singer-songwriter,
country superstar Waylon
Jennings. Jennings and Michael Woody both contributed tracks
to Myers' new album. A long sampler from that LP is provided
below, which is worth listening to for numerous reasons, not
the least of which is that it is a sampling of its genre performed
at very high levels, and in that it is exhilarating. Myers is great in terms of delivery on
talent, though his Achilles Heal is no doubt that he sounds
too much like an impersonator (not only Elvis, but Waylon,
too, on one track) and not enough like the authentic talent that one
suspects he really is. "It's all got to sound the same...if
you're not rolling with the flow you've got a hard way to
go..." he sings on one track. It could be that being a
working musician dealing with the narrow realities of the
commercial markets have crafted him in ways both good but,
ultimately, nullifying as a solo recording artists. This LP
is filled with dissatisfactions and lacerating insights into
the truth about being a musical whore, which coming from
Myers', sounding a lot like Elvis - and don't get me wrong,
he is a spectacular Elvis - has some weight of
poignancy. The LP is pretty smart, so one suspects this
aspect of the work was no accident. Nothing about this
excellent work sounds accidental.
All that said, I laugh aloud at
the opening of this sampler, which is profane (cotton the
ears, kids) and the most authentic bit of vocalizing on the
LP. Our guy JD sounds just like
a guy who makes his living in the unsettling world of honky tonk,
and sometimes it is just all too much.
- RAR
RAR
REVIEW - JD Myers' Rough Mixes:
Mindy Smith
Considering Deeply with Splendid
Emotion
Mindy Smith shot to the attention of the world in 2003
when she covered the Dolly Parton classic "Jolene" with a cameo from the
song's writer and iconic warbler. It was a perfect match due to the
overtone's in Mindy's voice, which align beautifully with Parton's
vibrating intonations, like a phase shifter set to where the blend is
smooth. The song came off with a sort of mystical clarity, a kind of
torch passing of the musical spirit, and Mindy Smith was awarded Best
Emerging Artist by the Americana Music Association. One liked the
graciousness perceived to be at work with the older woman, and the
respect that we perceived to be shown by Mindy Smith, who nailed her
part. But what do you do for a follow up? The torch that was passed was
of the spiritual variety and did not include a complimentary package of
radio hits for future use. For the adopted daughter of a Pastor and his
wife, this probably felt about right for Smith, who carries a sort of
world weary aspect about her that is both revealing and fetching. She
seems smart and burdened by sensitivity, all of which was on display in
the video provided below. Mindy Smith toured the west coast earlier this
year, reminding those on the left side of the continent that this Long
Islander turned Nashvillian is still around. In a world full of people
whose influence on the world around seems properly minimal, one tends to
wish that Mindy Smith would catch another rising star just so she stays
around. She seems like a real deal that could contribute for a long
while to come, like a forbearer of a coming age, where people consider
things deeply and sing of their feelings with splendid emotion.-
RAR
SETH
WALKER BRINGS HIS BLUES-INFUSED AMERICANA TO NEW CD
Time Can Change, due out June 19, embraces a
stripped-down approach.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In the three years since his
last album, Seth Walker
moved to Nashville from Austin, wrote songs with friends new
and old, and played many, many shows. And just like most
people, he thought about life, about love, and about the
changes you experience if you move away (both geographically
and philosophically) from those people and places you know
so well to try your hand at something new. His latest
recording, Time Can Change (out June 19, 2012 on Roe
Records, distributed by RED Distribution), is a culmination
of these experiences — the sound of an artist moving beyond
his comfort zone and challenging himself to walk new
creative ground.
“The album is a snapshot of movement in my musical
journey of sorts,” states Walker. “A culmination of the
continuing search for a way to write, sing and record in a
new way.”
Change isn’t the order of the day when you grow up slow.
Seth’s childhood in rural North Carolina was spent largely
on a two-family commune, with music as the backdrop to an
unrushed way of life lived outside the city limits. Both his
parents were classically trained musicians: his mom a
talented violinist, his father an accomplished string
player. Music was an integral part of each day: the
soundtrack could run from Willie Nelson to J.S. Bach and
everything between. Seth was exposed to, and subsequently
absorbed, a sonically rich expression of life with all its
inherent joy and pain. Although he started sawing on a cello
by the age of three, it was the guitar that would ultimately
be his true love. A musically inclined uncle introduced Seth
to the blues, and in those raw, honest songs was the
inspiration to begin trusting his own voice and his desire
to express himself.
Upon moving to Austin, Texas in his early 20s, Walker
recorded his first album in 1997. By the time he released
his eponymous fifth LP in 2008, he had developed into an
accomplished guitarist and an even better singer, distilling
the soul of Ray Charles, the Southern boy roots charm of
Delbert McClinton, and an uptown blues turn of phrase (à la
Percy Mayfield) into his own distinct voice.
Seth also began to write with other musicians, an
endeavor that led to a fruitful collaboration with Gary
Nicholson, a prolific songwriter and record producer based
in Nashville. The two co-wrote most of the songs on Leap of
Faith, with Gary also onboard as producer. Released in 2009,
Leap of Faith was Seth’s most accomplished album to date,
successfully weaving together a diverse blend of influences
and styles. As Geoffrey Himes wrote for Nashville Scene, it
was “one of the year’s more interesting Americana albums,
because its notion of roots music drew not just from the
country-folk tradition but from blues and R&B as well.” Leap
of Faith was in the Top 10 of the Americana charts for nine
weeks and received praise from No Depression and Blues
Revue, among others.
Self-produced and unequivocally personal, Time Can Change
is a distinct departure from its more polished predecessor.
While fans will recognize the familiar rich tenor and bluesy
guitar work, the new album trades the studio sophistication
of Leap of Faith for a grittier sound and more intimate
approach to songwriting.
“I never know what will be on the other side of a song or
a session, but I sure do like what I have found in the
corners of this album: a stripped down, intimate version of
what I am as an artist at this point in my life,” says
Walker.
Largely financed by Seth’s generous fans through a
Kickstarter fundraising campaign, the album represents a
rebirth of sorts, foregoing complex production techniques in
order to more clearly focus on the song and performance at
hand. The bluesy “Love Is Through With Me” sets the tone,
featuring Steve Mackey’s supple bass playing and Derrek
Phillips’ spare percussion. Along with Seth’s acoustic
guitar groove, this configuration is at the core of the
album’s warm, loose vibe. “Wait a Minute” captures the
optimism and possibility of new love — a breezy, engaging
song with Kevin McKendree’s tasteful organ work and playful
background vocals courtesy of the McCrary Sisters. With all
the makings of a classic soul ballad, “In the Meantime” is a
plea for a temporary stay to the inevitable heartache of
incompatible love. And with Nicholson back in the co-writer
chair, the rollicking, light-hearted “More Days Like This,”
with its catchy refrain, is an instant crowd pleaser.
“This is the purest, most honest recording I have ever
done as a singer. I just sang and played,” maintains Seth.
“Time can definitely change, and this album is a case in
point for me.”
In addition to extensive national touring, Walker
performed at last year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival
and provided tour support for Raul Malo and the Wood
Brothers. With a bluesman’s respect for roots and tradition,
coupled with an appreciation for — and successful melding of
— contemporary songwriting, Seth is one of a handful of
artists who incorporate a wide range of styles with warmth
and grace. Perhaps Country Standard Time said it best: “If
you subscribe to the Big Tent theory of Americana, then Seth
Walker — with his blend of blues, gospel, pop, R&B, rock,
and a dash country — just might be your poster boy.”-
Cary Baker
____________
USA Today: Michael Roach and Randy
Barker
RARWRITER.com was
contacted recently by a reporter from USA Today who seemed to be
on a personal mission to find out whatever became of two great
but largely unknown guitar players:
Michael Roach and Randy
Barker.
The writer, a
University of Colorado graduate who had been around in the
1970-80s to hear these guys, recalled them all these years later
as being truly special, and he wondered what became of them. I
think Gretchen Peters, a
true Boulder success story who emerged in that same period, had
suggested that we at RARWRITER might know about Roach.
Gretchen would know
that Randy Barker has for
many years been a jeweler in Nashville, which I believe may have
been a family business that he has successfully continued. I was
always under the impression that Randy hailed from eastern
Colorado, so perhaps that business was relocated to Nashville
when Randy relocated with Michael Woody,
of Michael Woody and the Too High Band.
This
would have been the outfit that the USA Today guy would have
heard, and it was truly impressive, a thoroughbred unit all the
way. Michael Woody ("He's Back and
I'm Blue", others for The Desert Rose Band, Steve Earle, Barbara
Mandrell) was on his way to becoming a hit Nashville songwriter.
Drummer Cactus Moser, whose
engagement to Country singing star Wynonna
Judd (the two are shown to the
right) was announced around Christmas (2011), was on his way to fame with
Highway 101. And Randy Barker
was truly one of the most stunningly perfect live players anyone
could ever have hoped to have heard anywhere. The guy was like a
machine with feel.
Michael Roach is a far more
mysterious story, and RARWRITER.com as well, apparently, as
USA Today would be curious to know what became of him. My
own personal vague recollections are that he was universally
admired - in fact, inspired a level of awe out of fellow players
who were not prone to such behavior - and that he was just a
little bit scary. He was known to have mental disorders that may
have contributed to his musical brilliance, his unique power
based around moving through progressions in ways that others
would not think to play, and doing it would natural flare.
Sometimes, as is
the case with Randy Barker, people who are gifted in one area
are also gifted in others and they simply keep evolving,
branching out into other things and becoming familiar to
different communities. We lose track of them, not because
they've died but because they've continued to live. It is
always interesting to learn what changes people have gone
through over time, so if readers happen to have information on
Michael Roach, in particular, please drop us a line (Rick@RARWRITER.com).
- RAR
Welcoming Cactus Back
Sometimes life kicks
like a f***in' mule
RARWRITER.com nicked this
photograph of drummer Cactus Moser,
critically injured in an August 18th motorcycle accident, from a
Facebook posting of singer, musical entrepreneur, and Pastor
Dyann Woody (of
The Woodys, with husband
Michael Woody, long ago of the
Too High Band). Two days later, on
August 20th, doctors amputated Moser's left leg above the knee. Earlier
this year, Cactus married country star Wynona Judd (pictured with
Cactus), for whom he has played drums (The Big Noise band) for some
time, and this photograph shows his send-off on release day from the
South Dakota hospital he was in.
Michael and Dyann Woody are among the enormously long
list of people who have been connected in some way with 55-year old
Cactus Moser and his long musical career. Michael and Cactus were
together over 30 years ago in Michael Woody and the Too High Band, which
developed in Boulder, Colorado. This site has many readers from
Colorado, and many of those old enough to be around in the 1970s and
early '80s know Cactus. He was a big, strapping blond-haired explosion
of energy that seemed even then to be destined for big things. He was a
large personality back then, and probably still is. Testimony to this
may be found in Moser being cited for running into that car that
scrapped his left leg and mangled his left hand. He received citations
for crossing the center line of U.S. Highway 16/365 and not having a
license to operate a motorcycle.
Cactus left Colorado for Nashville a little bit at a
time, touring with Jerry Jeff Walker, and then joining RCA solo
recording artist Paulette Carlson in the L.A.-based modern country band
Highway 101. They recorded for
Warner Bros. Records Nashville, beginning in 1987, and over the next
three years charted ten consecutive Top Ten hits on the Hot Country
Songs charts, four of which went to Number One. Carlson hasn't been with
the band since 1990, but Highway 101 has performed with another lead
vocalist as recently as 2011. As drummer for The Big Noise, Moser was on
tour with Wynona when the accident occurred around Deadwood, South
Dakota. Wynona was on her own Harley Davidson.
RARWRITER.com wishes to send best wishes to Cactus and
hopes for a speedy recovery.
092912
Gretchen Peters with New LP
Nashville singer-songwriter Gretchen Peters announces a
staggered U.K./U.S.A. release of her new LP Hello Cruel World.
"Hello Cruel World will be released in the UK & Europe on
January 30, 2012. In the US the release will be on January 31,
2012. This is because the music charts are compiled differently
in different regions," says Gretchen. "There will be a pre-sale
at my website beginning November 14th, and we have some great
extras in store for those of you who take advantage of the
pre-release."
Gretchen has been blogging about each track on the LP: "I've
been writing a little bit about each of the songs on Hello Cruel
World since August. There'll be a new blog post approximately
every two weeks, leading up to the release of the album in
January 2012. If you haven't checked in lately, entries for the
songs 'Saint Francis', 'Five Minutes', 'Idlewild', 'Natural
Disaster' and 'Dark Angel' can be viewed at
my website."
Minton
Sparks' Fellowship of Southern Writers Award
The Fellowship of Southern
Writers has announced that
Minton Sparks (pictured right in a photo by
Anthony Scarlati) will receive their first ever Spoken Word
Award this April during the 2011 Conference on Southern
Literature in Chattanooga, TN.
“The new award is given to an
artist for a body of original work recognized for unique and
powerful performance aspects as well as for intrinsic
literary quality,” says novelist Dorothy Allison, a member
of the Fellowship and sponsor of the award. “The award
recognizes great storytelling and writing as performed by
the writer/poet/storyteller. It was also created to honor
spoken word artists and to counter the often dismissive
approach to performance art.”
Founded in 1987 by 26 renowned
Southern writers, The Fellowship of Southern Writers
recognizes and encourages literature in the South with
awards and prizes.
NOTE TO READERS:
The Nashville Links from 2006-2009 are
archived, so if you are not finding the profiles you have seen on this page
previously, you might either explore the following links or, probably better,
use this link to go to the Links at RARWRITER Artist
Index.
Mandy Barnett
MARY
GAUTHIER RELEASES LIVE AT BLUE ROCK 
Then
there’s “Blood on Blood,” from her last release, 2010’s The Foundling,
which plumbs the particular hell of children given up to closed
adoption. With a cinematographer’s eye and a lyrical economy that
suggests far more than her 15 years of songwriting experience, she
chronicles an always-present sense of rejection and rootlessness, the
nagging “whys” and “what ifs,” the endless search of every face for a
possible resemblance. I don't know who I am I don't know who I'm not/I
don't know my name I can't find my place, she sings, her voice rising
from a whisper to a wail. She’s not just offering a vein here, she’s
cutting several wide open. Like all of her songs, “Blood on Blood” takes
on even more power when performed live.
Andy
Peake is an old friend of RARWRITER.com, dating
back to the 1970s when he and the publisher of this mess met
in Boulder, Colorado. Andy was among the top tier players in
Boulder at that time (He played on several of my recording
projects in that period), before moving on to a successful
career in Nashville as a studio and touring pro. Andy, who
attended college on a music scholarship, is known for his
studious approach to his instrument, which he plays like a
true sensitive; certainly among the most nuanced and
versatile drummers I have ever known. He is a great
listener, which as most musicians will tell you is the key.
One has to take in all of the parts being played and
collaboratively expand the landscape of sound by
contributing another "right" part at exactly the right time,
and playing it with the right feel. These are the
skills that separate mere musicians from great
musicians, and the guys in "Big Shoes" are established
masters at this neat physical/emotional/intellectual trick,
which makes them special, rather like musical alchemists.
Mark
T. Jordan, shown left with Journey drummer Craig
Krampt, is another industry insider who has played with
seemingly everyone, including: Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt,
Jackson Browne, Boz Scaggs, Dave Mason, Taj Mahal, Olivia
Newton-John, Lyle Lovett, Edgar Winter, Delbert McClinton,
Rita Coolidge, Nicolette Larson, Steve Cropper, Lee Roy
Parnell, Wynononna Judd, Hank Thompson, Patti Page, Maria
Muldaur, Carly Simon, 10cc, Buddy Guy, T. Graham Brown, and
David Lee Murphy. 
This
would have been the outfit that the USA Today guy would have
heard, and it was truly impressive, a thoroughbred unit all the
way. Michael Woody ("He's Back and
I'm Blue", others for The Desert Rose Band, Steve Earle, Barbara
Mandrell) was on his way to becoming a hit Nashville songwriter.
Drummer Cactus Moser, whose
engagement to Country singing star Wynonna
Judd (the two are shown to the
right) was announced around Christmas (2011), was on his way to fame with
Highway 101. And Randy Barker
was truly one of the most stunningly perfect live players anyone
could ever have hoped to have heard anywhere. The guy was like a
machine with feel.
