Burning someone at the stake is no longer a literal act of punishment. In modern times, it is a metaphor of harsh, perhaps cruel, online harassment. Americana powerhouse Sarah Peacock assembles her song “Burn the Witch,” paired with a crackling, soul-burning new video, premiering today on American Songwriter, through a historical context and a remarkable lineup of musicians. READ MORE…
LACON — As a precocious young boy growing up in Marshall County, Craig Gerdes could close his eyes and picture the scene set by Kris Kristofferson’s country classic, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.” It resembled much of the life he observed around him.
Once he began to write his own country songs, starting at the age of 10 or 11 and continuing on to the present day, he kept the imagery of that song in mind — observed, recognizable moments that were unafraid to recognize the struggles of life.
“That’s what makes country music to me,” Gerdes said. “It’s just about real life. It’s not necessarily happy or joyful times. There can be a lot of hard times.
“Not tailgates and bonfires and stuff like that. The struggle is what makes it country.”
Gerdes has called Pattonsburg home for most of his life, an unincorporated and distinctly rural portion of Marshall County a handful of miles east of Washburn. After spending a couple of years in Nashville sleeping on floors and shopping songs that he wrote, Gerdes returned to Pattonsburg a little disaffected but still inspired. The result is a new album out in February, titled “Smokin’ Drinkin’ & Gamblin’,” and a concert at Whiskerz Pub in Lacon on Dec. 23 alongside fellow outlaw country musician Dallas Moore.
The album’s stark title doesn’t explain exactly what Gerdes had in mind while writing it. Instead of evoking the hard-living man at the poker table, it’s actually about the music business from his point of view — the smoke and mirrors of the industry, the alcohol accompanying every function and his idea that there’s no bigger gamble than a music career.
The songs on “Smokin’ Drinkin’ & Gamblin’” often express a road-weariness about “ramblin’ life away” in Gerdes’ honky-tonk fashion. The details are almost surely derived from his time trekking to Nashville and then back to his wife and kids in Pattonsburg from 2011 to 2015. The seven-hour commute afforded Gerdes plenty of time to gin up characters and details for his songs, but it ultimately wore him down. By 2015, he had given up any pretense of a country career and settled back home permanently.
“I felt like I needed to go,” Gerdes said. “I needed to get out of there.”
But it wasn’t long until music drew him back in as he realized that the world was a lot bigger than just Nashville and that he should take his music to the people.
“I needed to take my music all over the country,” Gerdes said.
That’s been Gerdes’ itinerary ever since, hitting barrooms, small clubs and any other venue that will take him. He’ll drive himself to a place like Omaha on a Friday afternoon to play a few gigs that weekend, whether it’s for a hundred people or just three or four. What matters to Gerdes anymore isn’t the amount of people during the show but the ones that approach him afterward, who feel as if one of his songs perfectly described their life. Many have responded in a digital format to his song “That Little Girl,” about his daughter, which has almost 200,000 views on Facebook.
“It makes me feel like I’m making people’s lives better, if it’s just for four minutes,” Gerdes said. “To me, that is successful.”
A return to Nashville for his album release party on Feb. 14 is in the works, but Gerdes is more focused on the upcoming show Saturday in Lacon. He digs the Whiskerz venue and is excited to have his friend and collaborator Moore around his neck of the woods. He’ll show him around some places, including where much of his songwriting has taken place in his life.
“A lot of the songs that I wrote over a period of time was on that front porch in good ol’ Marshall County,” Gerdes said.
Baby Robot Media is a music publicity and media service agency with employees in Los Angeles, Memphis, Atlanta & New York and represent musicians from all over the world. We specialize in promotional ( PR ) campaigns for albums, singles and videos, tour press, radio, music video production, music marketing, social media campaigns, Spotify campaigns and creating promotional content. Our mission is to help great unknown bands reach a wider audience and to help already successful artists manage their brand identity and continue to thrive. Our music publicists have over 50 years of combined experience in the music industry. We are known as one of the best in the business.
’Tis the season for bundling up by the fire with some hot cocoa to listen to your favorite holiday tunes. In that festive spirit, C&I is excited to present a new addition to that playlist.
Up-and-coming country artist Craig Gerdes’ new single, “Christmas Eve at Our House,” is a fun two-steppin’ tune with a relatable hometown story about family Christmases. From the song’s steel guitar twang to Gerdes’ deep voice, the track is equipped with everything country fans love about the genre, and we’re delivering it exclusively just in time for the holidays.
“My label [Sol Records] recently called me and asked how quickly I could write a Christmas song. I slept on it, woke up the next morning, and wrote the song start to finish. It’s a humorous take on Christmas Eve. Growing up, my family gatherings always involved drinkin’, smokin’, and guitar pickin’. Looking back, it would probably make for great reality TV nowadays,” says Gerdes, who comes from rural Illinois and maintains his favorite Christmas song is Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas.”
Fueled by an autobiographical tale of a holiday family gathering, his own take on a Christmas tune features some killer sleigh-bell sounds.
“During the recording session, we realized that since we were making a Christmas song we had to have some sleigh bells on it,” Gerdes says. “But sleigh bells aren’t always easy to find [on the] spur of the moment! Our producer, Brian DeBruler, did some searching and ended up finding a 100-plus-year-old sleigh bell that once belonged to his great-grandparents. There’s some history in those bells.”
The track gives a tantalizing taste of Gerdes’ forthcoming album, Smokin’, Drinkin’ & Gamblin’, due out February 16, which promises more “outlaw-country rug cutters and ballads about strong heads and weak hearts.”
For a toe-tappin’ kickoff to the holidays, have a listen to “Christmas Eve at Our House.”
Baby Robot Media is a music publicity and media service agency with employees in Los Angeles, Memphis, Atlanta & New York and represent musicians from all over the world. We specialize in promotional ( PR ) campaigns for albums, singles and videos, tour press, radio, music video production, music marketing, social media campaigns, Spotify campaigns and creating promotional content. Our mission is to help great unknown bands reach a wider audience and to help already successful artists manage their brand identity and continue to thrive. Our music publicists have over 50 years of combined experience in the music industry. We are known as one of the best in the business.
Glide is proud to premiere “Somewhere Between Bridges” off Mr. Honky Tonk, a twangy anthem that remains right in the pocket and sinfully soulful. While names like Sturgill and Stapleton have been getting their Americana due, Moore delivers an authentic charisma that makes his brand ideal to be a critics’ favorite.
“Somewhere Between Bridges” is the only tune on the new album that I didn’t write,” recalls Moore. “It was penned by my friends Taylor Craven and Bo Roberts. Taylor and I were swapping songs in a round together at the Road To 3rd Street Music Festival in Morgan City, Louisiana. Our set was just before BMI icon Dean Dillon was to perform and we were all pulling out our best songs trying to top one another. When Taylor played “Bridges” I remembered hearing Bo play it earlier in the year at the Florabama. I fell in love with the song and bumped one of my own to get it cut on this album. It’s a simple, classic country song that I think just about everyone can relate to. When we got into the studio with Dean Miller producing, it came together really fast and we nailed it on the first take!”
Baby Robot Media is a music publicity and media service agency with employees in Los Angeles, Memphis, Atlanta & New York and represent musicians from all over the world. We specialize in promotional ( PR ) campaigns for albums, singles and videos, tour press, radio, music video production, music marketing, social media campaigns, Spotify campaigns and creating promotional content. Our mission is to help great unknown bands reach a wider audience and to help already successful artists manage their brand identity and continue to thrive. Our music publicists have over 50 years of combined experience in the music industry. We are known as one of the best in the business.
Whether it’s across the flatlands of his hometown of Stillwater, OK or through the hustle and bustle of Austin, TX, Johnny Dango has been a hard-working modern troubadour anywhere the world has taken him. Having played alongside the likes of Stoney LaRue and beside such artists as Billy Joe Shaver and Jerry Jeff Walker, Dango has put in his dues with the best of them as a country bluesman before pursuing a solo venture along the lines of psychedelic folk rock. READ MORE…
Baby Robot Media is a music publicity and media service agency with employees in Los Angeles, Memphis, Atlanta & New York and represent musicians from all over the world. We specialize in promotional ( PR ) campaigns for albums, singles and videos, tour press, radio, music video production, music marketing, social media campaigns, Spotify campaigns and creating promotional content. Our mission is to help great unknown bands reach a wider audience and to help already successful artists manage their brand identity and continue to thrive. Our music publicists have over 50 years of combined experience in the music industry. We are known as one of the best in the business.
The country singer has spent decades involved in the music business of country music. First, he spent years as the guitarist for fellow country crooner John Prine, often referred to as one of the best singer-songwriters in the country cabinet. With that work, he helped in the production of Grammy Award-winning and nominated albums, as well as chart-topping hits. READ MORE…
Baby Robot Media is a music publicity and media service agency with employees in Los Angeles, Memphis, Atlanta & New York and represent musicians from all over the world. We specialize in promotional ( PR ) campaigns for albums, singles and videos, tour press, radio, music video production, music marketing, social media campaigns, Spotify campaigns and creating promotional content. Our mission is to help great unknown bands reach a wider audience and to help already successful artists manage their brand identity and continue to thrive. Our music publicists have over 50 years of combined experience in the music industry. We are known as one of the best in the business.