The Album
Since the release of my last album "Back To The Soul" in 2015, I have been writing and gathering together some songs that are of a different sound. I am known mostly for my Soul song style, and my hits like "Talk It Over", "Bring It All Back", "How Bout Us", my songs in the Oscar-winning films "Thelma and Louise" and "Fried Green Tomatoes". But what folks may not know is that I also really love Country. And Bluegrass too. I always wanted to make a record of my more country-style songs, and that's what this one will be.
Growing up as a kid in Connecticut, but with most of my relatives living in South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida, I got to spend much of my childhood and teen years listening to the southern music. I loved that accent of my cousins and aunts and uncles, but Lord I loved that music! And that meant the Country stars of the late 1950's and early 1960's, as well as Bluegrass and Rockabilly too. My experience playing piano in a black church choir, cemented my love of Gospel, which of course has Southern roots.
My dad was a classical radio show host and, being at a radio station, he would get sent promotional 45's by record promoters. He couldn't play them on his classical radio shows, but he knew his sons would love to hear them, so he would bring them home. My younger brother Dave and I would turn up the collars of our shirts while we listened to them, pretending to be Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Conway Twitty, Jim Reeves, Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, Bill Monroe, Buddy Holly. I went on to listen on my own to people like Gene Vincent, The Stanley Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis and Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. Years later, in my early 20's, I was even in a Texas Swing band for awhile!
The Story
Sometimes it's hard to put a label on the style of music I do. When people ask me "how would you describe your music", I like to say "it's music with a passion". Some use the phrase “high lonesome” to describe Bluegrass music; I like to say "Mountain Soul". But no matter what you call it, these songs of mine with a more Country flavor need to be recorded. And to get that sound that I hear, I have assembled an exciting group of stellar musicians, each one a master of their instruments.
Meet The Musicians
Pete Kennedy will be playing acoustic electric and guitars, Rickenbacker 12-string, mandolin and banjo. Besides being (with his wife Maura) half of the acclaimed duo The Kennedys, Pete's resume reads like a Who's Who of the Roots-Americana scene. The list of artists that he has toured and recorded with includes: Nanci Griffith, Emmylou Harris, Roger McGuinn, Kelly Willis, Keith Whitley, Peter Yarrow, Dr. John, Danny Gatton, Hazel Dickens, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Rush, Arlo Guthrie, Alison Krauss, Doc Watson, Steve Earle, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Iris Dement, Sleepy LaBeef, The Indigo Girls, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Odetta. As if that weren’t enough, he has also performed in orchestras under the baton of Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Gunter Schuller and Marvin Hamlisch. In fact Pete has written a wonderful book entitled “Tone, Twang & Taste”: A Guitar Memoir (Highpoint Life, 2018) in which describes, with great humour and skill, his life as a musician.
On bass (acoustic upright and electric) is Tony Garnier. Joining Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour Band in 1989, he is Bob Dylan's longest running sideman and perhaps best known as Dylan's musical director. Descended from an illustrious Louisiana Creole musical family, Tony is the grandson of trumpet player and bandleader D'Jalma "Papa" Thomas Garnier, who led The Camelia Brass Band and taught a young Louis Armstrong. His brothers are well-known fiddler, composer and guitarist D'Jalma Garnier and drummer-singer Stephen"Stevo"Théard. He has played slapjack bass with rockabilly artists Brian Stetzer and Robert Gordon. He has also performed and recorded with Ray Benson's band Asleep At The Wheel, Tom Waits, Loudon Wainwright III, Paul Simon, Marc Ribot, Eric Andersen, David Johansen (Buster Poindexter), Michelle Branch and John Lurie's Lounge Lizards. His film credits include work with Jim Jarmusch and Bob Dylan's 2003 "Masked and Anonymous".
I first met dobro/steel guitar/lap steel artist Cindy Cashdollar in 1991 at a recording session we were both doing for my friend bluegrass singer-songwriter Caroline Doctorow. Caroline had asked me to do some singing and piano playing on a song of hers called “The Cheat With The Ace Of Hearts”, from her album “Hiding Out In Plain Sight” (Elba 1992). When I heard Cindy’s dobro playing, I suggested that we “trade fours” on the ending chords, and that dobro-piano duet turned into something I always remembered. So it’s a real pleasure to reconnect with Cindy after all these years. Growing up in Woodstock, New York, Cindy began playing with some legendary artists in the worlds of bluegrass, blues and country-rock such as John Herald, Paul Butterfield and Levon Helm and Rick Danko of The Band. Her career has brought her five Grammy awards, for her work with Asleep At The Wheel, and several prestigious awards: inductions into the Texas Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame (2011) and The Texas Music Hall Of Fame (2012). In 2016 she was nominated as Instrumentalist Of The Year by The Americana Music Association. Other artists Cindy has toured or recorded with include Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard ,Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Daniel Lanois, Ryan Adams, Leon Redbone, Albert Lee and Rod Stewart.
I’ve known fiddle player Gary Oleyar since 2012, when we did some concerts together that I billed as my “Blues to Bluegrass” show. I invited my good friend Caroline Doctorow, with whom Gary was performing, to open the show with her bluegrass band The Steamrollers. Then I’d come on, with my harmony singer Polly Messer, and at the end we’d all come onstage for a rousing medley. I’ve been a fan of his fiddle playing ever since. Growing up in the piney woods of New Jersey, Gary moved to Nashville in 1989, where he met Dave Roe, who was playing with Johnny Cash. Dave introduced Gary to other musicians and the phone started ringing. Gary’s career as an in-demand musician took off, and he went on to record and perform with Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Vassar Clements, Marty Stuart, Pam Tillis, Patricia Yearwood, Highway 101, Billy Burnette and Mick Fleetwood’s band Zoo. 1995 he began playing with Kenny Loggins, and has worked with both Loggins and Jim Messina on many tours and records. In addition, Gary has a rockabilly trio called Max & The Mutations, which he leads as the lead singer-guitarist.
Tyger MacNeal is a drummer with a rock-solid groove in any genre, which is not suprising, as he is the great nephew of American singer Cab Calloway. I first met Tyger in 2009 when he was playing at a club with German jazz Hammond B3 organ player Barbara Dennerlein. His technique just amazed me. So naturally I called him and asked him to play drums with my band Grayson Hugh & The Moon Hawks. It turned out that, not only were we just living just a couple miles from each other, we shared a connection through our extended family! In addition to touring with Jose Feliciano for 25 years (from 1991 -2016) he worked toured with the Scottish soul group The Average White Band from 1989 through 1994. Tyger's other credits include performing with blues legend Johnny Winter, The Four Tops, Little Anthony, The Mills Brothers, The 5th Dimension, Freddy Fender, Rosemary Clooney and tenor sax artist Boots Randolph.
Singer Polly Messer began her career as a singer with the well-known Western swing band Eight To The Bar in 1977, while she was a sophomore art student at Southern Connecticut State University. In 1980, while performing up and down the east coast with them she and I met. She happened to be dating my good friend, the late Ron Scalise, whom she later married. Ron had just recorded and produced my self-titled, independently released album and was beginning work on Eight to the Bar’s live album “The Joint Is Jumpin” (Jitterbop! 1980). After leaving Eight to the Bar in 1982, Polly began singing backup vocals with my band Grayson Hugh and The Wildtones. She performed with me throughout the mid eighties, until I moved to New York in 1986. During the nineties, Polly also sang with the New York-based rockabilly band Eugene Chrysler. A single mom since 1994, she also returned to her art studies, earning a triple major at Western Connecticut State University. We struck up our friendship again in 2006, as I was just beginning work on “An American Record”. As the recording proceeded in 2007, I asked Polly to co-produce the record with me. (I also asked her to marry me, which she did, in 2008!) Following the release of "An American Record", we began performing stripped down acoustic versions of my songs in major concert halls in the States (Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, Chicago, Massachusetts and Connecticut) as well as overseas, including a six city tour of Poland in 2012 . She creates such beautiful harmony in my music and in my life. I will be forever grateful that she saved her love for me.
What I Need & What You Get
In order to make this album, I am looking to raise $40,000. These funds will go to the following costs: musicians' fees (including rehearsal and traveling costs), recording studio (including mixing and mastering), the manufacturing of the CDs (including, as with all my records, a 12 page booklet packed with all the lyrics, liner notes, credits and photographs). In addition I need to get 500 more copies of my 2010 CD "An American Record". They're all sold out, and my fans have been asking for more! I am also planning on doing three videos to help promote this record. In this day and age of independent record companies like my own, a video goes a very long way in helping the artist get the music out there. I realized this after my last campaign ("Back To The Soul") and promised myself I would budget funds for video on the next one. And, as I nearly became a filmmaker, and actually went to film school, I have an extremely economical way to do this. I don't take any fees as the director and co-editor, but I do have a great videographer who I do need to pay.
I have some really great rewards to offer you for your contributions. They include unique, original design tee shirts, signed pre-release CDs, downloads of ALL my music, private lessons via Skype, even your own private house concert, along with a DVD of the whole show. Another perk I'm really excited about is me recording a song of your choice, arranged and produced just for you. It can be one of mine, or a song by any other artist - you pick! I'll send you a hard copy CD and email you an mp3 file of it too.
The Impact
We all know that music can be a healing force. I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel to read a letter or email message from someone telling me how my music has helped them through a rough patch in their life. From an illness, the loss of a loved one, or a difficult financial crisis, people have told me that the message of hope and love in my songs has been a source of comfort. That is the best compliment I could ever get. And when my music just plain makes you feel good - that’s what it’s all about.
If I can continue to bring some beauty back into this world, and some light into peoples' hearts, then my role here on this planet will be fulfilled. I do it with constant gratitude.
The Challenge
Being signed to a major record label had the advantage of large budgets, and my releases of "Blind To Reason" and "Road To Freedom" on RCA and MCA definitely benefited from that. Being an independent artist, with much more control over what I do and how I do it, it is naturally always a challenge to raise money. But I have found that, when given the chance to be involved in a very real and personal way, my fans (that means YOU!) have enjoyed being a part of my last two records. The fact that my last campaign for "Back To The Soul" was tremendously successful makes me very hopeful that this one will be as well. With your help, "Save Your Love For Me" will be made!
Other Ways You Can Help
I know not everyone is able to contribute financially. But just getting the word out there among your friends and through your social media will also be greatly appreciated. Please check out the Indiegogo share tools to do this.
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR THEIR HELP!!