Showing posts with label Dallas Moore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dallas Moore. Show all posts

Nov 17, 2017

Song Premiere: Craig Gerdes "Redneck Sonsabitches"

Photo by Al Steinz
Here's a brand new song from honky-tonker Craig Gerdes. It's a rowdy, plain-spoken tale about struggling against the country machine on Music Row. A very outlaw point of view that fits in perfectly with other anti-Nashville anthems like Shooter Jennings' "Outlaw You" and Dale Watson's "Nashville Rash."  RIYL: Dale Watson, Dallas Moore, Billy Joe Shaver.

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Gerdes' forthcoming record, Smokin', Drinkin' & Gamblin' (out February 16) features pedal steel and production work from Jim Vest (Johnny Paycheck, Willie Nelson, David Allan Coe), as well as steel from Robby Turner (Waylon Jennings, Chris Stapleton). Gerdes has also recently collaborated with Jeff Tweel (Merle Haggard, Kenny Rogers), and has shared bills with country legend Billy Joe Shaver.

Smokin' Drinkin' & Gamblin' is full of outlaw-country rug cutters and ballads about strong heads and weak hearts. Fueled by nostalgia, Gerdes' songwriting talent turns old habits into dependable crutches, nursing the phantom pain of distant love. The nine-track album is full old-school four-to-the-floor honky tonk that calls to mind country legends like George Strait, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson.

New single “Red Neck Sonsabitches” is a chicken pickin’, honky-tonkin’ country song detailing Gerdes’ experience as a working musician in Nashville before deciding to buck the system and go his own way, back into the rural landscape of central Illinois. Bright, twangy production and a brash, anti-Nashville attitude give this song a timeless outlaw country feel that recalls the genre legends of the 1970s.

More information about Craig below the song player!




CRAIG GERDES - SMOKIN' DRINKIN' & GAMBLIN'

Craig Gerdes is a singer whose voice is steadied by the legion of angels he believes watch over him. He tells stories at a Southern pace, with a soft voice and slow drawl. His new album Smokin', Drinkin', and Gamblin' is full of outlaw country rug cutters, and ballads about strong heads and weak hearts. Fueled by nostalgia, his songwriting talent turns old habits into dependable crutches, and nurses the phantom pain of missing lovers. 

Though he hails from rural Illinois, his sound is four-to-the-floor, old-school honky tonk, reminiscent of greats like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard. As great songwriters often do, he spent time as a writer in Nashville, where he had some success, and learned that his songs were too country for the cosmopolitan elite. 

"Redneck Sonsabitches" eloquently details the story of his Nashville experience, one that put him in front of great outlaw songwriter Billie Joe Shaver. Shaver laughed with him about the difficult road honest songwriters sometimes face on Music Row, and asked him if he'd ever been to Texas. Another man of faith, Shaver ensured Gerdes they'd meet again, and three years later Gerdes opened a show for him outside La Grange. The song he penned about it is a swaggerin' chicken-pickin' electric two stepper. The band careens through a tempo change where he namechecks Shaver, who told him "Son, I know just how you feel," before he remembers what record companies remarked about his work—"You long haired redneck sonsabitches are not wanted here in Nashville, Tennessee."

Gerdes began playing country music at the age of 10 in the band of his father, who, as a child, would crowd around the radio with his family waiting for the wind to blow in just the right direction so they could pick up the faint signal from the Grand Ole Opry. The songs his father loved—by country icons like George Jones, Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash—provided the foundation for Craig's work. By age 12, he was already a capable songwriter and musician. And by 16, he'd wandered from the narrow path. "In the same summer," he recalls, "I totaled my car, broke my best friend's neck, dropped out of high school, got arrested and got married."

A few years later, after a chance meeting with a Nashville band, Gerdes wound up living on Music Row. For a time, he literally slept on the floor of a studio where greats like George Jones and Jerry Reed had recorded, a place that's now a one bedroom apartment. "I was hoping to soak up some of that mojo," he jokes about harder times. While Gerdes was able to gain traction with a publishing company and even do some co-writing, his traditional songs just didn't fit in. After years of the seven-hour commute back and forth from his family in unincorporated Pattonsburg, Illinois. (pop. 348), every weekend, he decided to go his own way, leaving Nashville behind and returning full-time to rural life. During this point in his life, while Gerdes was on a hiatus from songwriting to concentrate on raising his kids, his 16-year-old cousin was killed in a car wreck. He was compelled to write again by an angel he believes is her. 

Many of Gerdes' songs embody the life of the traveler. While listening to the radio on a trip, he heard the story of a man found cut up in a box and was inspired to write the murder ballad "Dead In A Box In Kentucky." There's a Spanish guitar solo during the bridge that dances into a climactic finish that concludes with a Hitchcockian fratricidal twist. Gerdes' voice is at its strongest on "Almost To Alabama," where he's joined by dobro, imagining the end of the road, and distant lovers. The title track, "Smokin' Drinkin' Gamblin'" is another song only a road-weary rambler could write. It's the apex of country music, where the rhythm section leads in a thudding backbeat, and steel guitar has room to wander all over the beat, while Gerdes moans about "ramblin' my young life away."

Gerdes sings a mean cheatin' song as well. His ribald song "Learned From The Best" and his cover of Johnny Paycheck’s  "Slide Off Of Your Satin Sheets" bookend the album, the latter a fitting choice—on the surface, Paycheck’s lyrics are about an illicit affair, but under the covers it's about class distinction; the sleek countrypolitan image the music industry creates, and the actual people they use to make the music they desire. 

While Gerdes' songs about smokin', drinkin' and gamblin' aren't necessarily gospel fare he is for certain "spreading the gospel of country music." His experiences and his angels guard him from writing songs "with no heart or soul." Rarely has classic barroom country been so crossover capable. Give it a listen and you, too, will believe.

Jan 8, 2015

Jeremy Harris' Top 15 Albums of 2014


15. Foxy Shazam - GONZO
I don't know what happened but this album really grew on me. With every listen I was more 
and more into the crazy pop/rock sounds one of Cincinnati's most original sounding bands. 
The biggest bonus is that the album is free at foxyshazam.com


14. Those Crosstown Rivals - Hell and Back
This is one of the purest rock albums to be released this year. Very high energy from start to finish 
and features some guest vocals by Fifth on the Floor's Justin Wells.

13. Dallas Moore with Mama Madgelee Moore - Old Time Family Jam
While popular radio may have proclaimed their own "summertime albums", this was mine. The perfect music for sitting on the front porch eating peanuts and drinking cheap beer. (At least that's how I spent my summer) Dallas unleashes his talents by showing his vocal range and playing every instrument throughout the Appalachian folk songs on the album while being accompanied by his mother's dulcimer and her angelic voice.

12. Roger Alan Wade - Bad News Knockin'
I could sit and listen to Roger Alan Wade tell stories all day long but hearing him sing them is so much better. 
With this release he once again shows his serious side and offers a superb performance.

11. Joseph Huber - The Hanging Road
Joseph Huber brings one of the most complete and well mixed albums of 2014. With a little more exposure 
this could've been a huge album this year and deserves any and all praise it received
from those lucky enough to get a listen.

10. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
Speaking of a huge album; Sturgill went all out on this one and received critical acclaim from so many people that I'm just wasting space by trying to pile on at this point. A must own for all underground music fans.

9. Jason Eady - Daylight and Dark
If Jason Eady isn't one of the best songwriters currently around then I don't know who is. An emotional train ride from start to finish.


8. Texas Hippie Coalition - Ride On
Just as THC states in their lyrics, "Rock ain't dead, it's just in rehab" and these red dirt rockers are doing their damnedest to bring it back to the masses by busting out their most solid release to date.

7. Jimbo Mathus - Dark Night of the Soul
This may be one of the harder to describe albums on my list. A little rock, a little country and a bunch of badass. Great all the way through and features two wonderful tracks written by the late Robert Earl Reed.

6. Bob Wayne - Back to the Camper
A giant step forward for Bob as he seems to be coming into his own while still embracing what fans have come to love and expect. Throw in some great duets and there is something for everyone within these tracks.

5. Phillip Fox Band - Heartland
Finally a full length Phillip Fox Band album. Building upon the sound first established in their debut EP 
"Motor City Blood" the boys swing hard and hit one out while maintaining their self proclaimed 
"country fried rock n roll" sound.

4. Red Eye Gravy - Dust Bowl Hangover
Have you ever wondered what it may sound like if Hank 3 didn't go overly weird at times on his last few releases? Me neither, but if I had thought about it I think this is as close of a guess as I could come up with.

3. Whiskey Myers - Early Morning Shakes
A smoothed up southern rock sound is maybe not the best way to describe the sound of Whiskey Myers but I think it gets the point across. The real question is, why hasn't Whiskey Myers blown up like Blackberry Smoke yet?

 
2. Robert Ellis - The Lights From the Chemical Plant
The ups, the downs, great lyrics and a song questioning religion. Sturgill? Nope, but nice guess. Solid from start to finish and I'll be listening to this one for years to come.

1. Matt Woods - With Love From Brushy Mountain
I once saw a list where Matt Woods wasn't even number one on a list of the most talented singers named Matt Woods. I'm sure this will make him feel better not only from that but also from all the sad songs that put his latest release at the top of my list.... or is it the bottom. Guess it depends on which way you count.

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by Jeremy Harris

*unedited, because Trailer is lazy

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