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Gaylon's Homepage
www.gaylonmathews.com

Gretchen Wilson
www.gretchenwilson.com

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 15 October 2006 at 08:47 PM.]

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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 16 October 2006 at 06:48 PM.]

• The original group was a five piece with a singer named Vanessa Olivarez, who is now with an Atlanta country band called "South 70" (I'm playing with them).
  
• None of the other original members (Kristian Bush, Kristin Hall, Simone Simonton, and Brett Hartley) had any previous country music experience whatsoever. I still find that highly entertaining and informative.
  
• Vanessa was replaced with Jennifer Nettles, who had an extensive rock background with "Soul Miner's Daughter" and "the Jennifer Nettles Band". Nope, no country...
  
• I played on their first self-produced album, "Premium Quality Tunes", which has most of the songs from their first major label relase, and at least one song from their new CD. (It's going for a hundred bucks on ebay).
  
• They formed a touring band, adding myself and bassist Clay Cook, best known as John Mayer's original songwriting partner. After a string of solid dates, we did one showcase at 12th and Porter in Nashville with 6 or 7 labels furiously bidding. Garth Fundis had already signed on as producer, after hearing the PQT CD. They eventually signed with MCA.
  
• They cut their first album as a trio, recutting the original tunes with Nashville sidemen, while simultaneously and nastilly cutting the original drummer and guitarist out of the deal. MCA had been very excited about promoting the band as a unit, and it was quite sad and surprising to see two of them get cut right out of their dream.
  
• The steel player on the label cuts is Dan Dugmore, who did his usual outstanding job. Folks who were on the sessions have told me about Fundis trying to get less twang out of Jennifer. Fascinating, as there's so little twang in her previous recordings.
  
• Around the same time they made me bandleader, and then let Clay go...after a few more arena shows, they went out as a trio with Vince Gill and Martina McBride, and I never heard another peep. Eventually I called their manager, who told me there "wasn't enough label tour support to afford a steel player". Clay went back to fronting his own projects, and filling in with the Marshall Tucker band. He is an amazing writer and performer.
  
• The discarded original members settled a high-dollar lawsuit to regain deserved songwriting royalties and moved on to other projects.
  
• Kristin (the gal on rhythm guitar) left the band in an apparent dispute over songwriting percentage. (Cue irony) She was a major contributor to the first record, and frankly quite a handful.
  
• Last I heard, the remaining sidemen/ road crew from the "Atlanta days" got canned for asking for a salary increase when their road dates were tripled this year.

Indeed, things are rarely what they seem.

I've spent many years around people who live and breathe country music, and would crawl through broken glass for an inside shot in Nashville, and it's amazing to watch a group of "indie rockers" decide to "go country", and ... pull it off.

It was great music for a steel player, and I think it's a shame they're not using one.
But I suppose they know what they're doing.

that is great stuff. So Clay Cook originally worked with John Mayer? Was he ever credited with any of the music? John is one of my all time favorites so I would be curious to know.

As far as the rubbish about "questionable lyrics". Come on guys. You really think they would put a song on conservetive country radio stations if they really thought the line "you'll remember what your knees are for" was talking about something sexually explicit? The whole context of that verse was about praying and keeping your faith when you are down. Your knees are for praying.

As far as Down in Mississippi, it is refering to going to the casinos for a night out with her girlfriends to get away from there husbands/boyfriends whatever.
It has the A word in it but other than that I'm not sure what would be considered offensive?

Still doesn't mean it is right.

[This message was edited by Steve Howard on 17 October 2006 at 12:15 PM.]

You dance with the one that bought you that $12M house and your Jag.

I thought they fell off the face of the earth. Good he is still playing. They had a good group of musicians and I liked the sound of their first album, but I don't think any of them could write their own stuff very well and they got ate up by the Nashville pop-machine not being able to produce any real winning songs for those guys.

I don't know...maybe the less "country" the act is or sounds...the better their chances are at getting signed out of Nashville?

And now for the KZLA tangent...

:/

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E9 lessons
Mullen D-12/Carter SD-10/Webb amp/Profex II+Lexicon MPX-110 OR Line 6 Pod XT

I've heard it pronounced, hay-jake-us.