AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON is my fifth solo LP (after Tinted Windows, Where Would I Be Without You, When the Sun Goes Down, and Radicalized). Like the others, I self-produced it and the rhythm tracks were all cut live.

A key theme to ATHYRIO is the struggle against becoming invisible. You gotta pitch a fit to have your life’s work & experience acknowledged. You have to fight the impulse to tell every gatekeeper, “just listen to it, m*therf*cker.”

Why listen to this LP?

It’s like the original Rocky – give it a chance, it’ll go the distance. The music is supremely organic. The songs are written by a dude who’s been doing it for 35 years.

(And don’t you ever get tired of musicians who are young and beautiful?)

Sonically, ATHYRIO is hydrid of Roots, Reggae, and white R&B music. I’m becoming something like a poor man’s Paul Simon. My lyrics are personal & particular, my grooves are getting more exotic (reggae, world-beat, tex-mex). And the splendid rhythm section – Jeremy Johnson, Blair Krivanek, Nick Salisbury, and Greg Schutte – play the changes like rolling out of bed.

Before my solo records, I led the roots-rock group, The Copperheads, for twelve years. My goal then was to mix Country and R&B (I’m still soing this, basically). We produced three LPs, Country & Blues Revue, Cold Mississippi, and This Train Is Gainin’.

The Copperheads played shows with Junior Brown, Chris Scruggs, Rosie Flores, The Iguanas, Randy Weeks, Charlie Robison, Shooter Jennings, Ty Herndon, Jack Ingram, and the Oak Ridge Boys.

I’ve also played sideman to a bunch of swell artists, Frederick Thomas & Natural Selection,Them That Dare, Emmaline Muchmore, In2ition, Jeremy Johnson, Bill Geezy, Jon Rodine, Molly Maher, Paul Bergen, Dan Gaarder, Becky Kapell, and Erik Koskinen.