On Thursday October 31st,
WagonWheel Presents… welcomes back the one and only
Rod Picott to Sheffield when he joins us at
Shakespeares. In the UK promoting brand new record Hang Your Hopes On A Crooked Nail, Rod will be backed by
The Gun Shy Dogs, aka
Wild Ponies/Doug & Telisha Williams who will also open the show. Advance tickets priced at £9 are available from
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/225944 or entry on the night will be £11. Doors open 8pm.
***ROD PICOTT & THE GUN SHY DOGS***Rod Picott is the songs he sings. Since before Woody Guthrie songwriters have soaked their public image in the sepia tones of the working life but Picott bears the real life scars of living that life. Rod Picott’s songs are inhabited by sheetrock hangers, drinkers, circus hands, boxers and working girls and he sings about his characters with intimacy. Listening to a Rod Picott album you can smell the gasoline on a mechanics hands and the perfume of lovers in dark corners.
The son of a welder and former Marine, Picott grew up in the small mill town of South Berwick, Maine. His father’s record collection spanned Ray Charles to John Philip Sousa and James Brown. His older brother introduced him to the punk poetry of Lou Reed and Patti Smith. The tall, wiry framed Picott worked construction jobs from his high school graduation until the release of his first cd, Tiger Tom Dixon’s Blues in 2001. In the Folk and Americana world Ray Wylie Hubbard, Slaid Cleaves, Fred Eaglesmith have been declared some the best writers working and they have all recorded songs written or co-written by Rod Picott. Picott’s “Broke Down” released on Rounder Records by co-writer and artist Slaid Cleaves became the most played song on Americana radio and was awarded the song of the year award at the Austin Music Awards. In 2010 “Broke Down” found new life in the soundtrack to the Brian Koppelman written and directed film Solitary Man starring Michael Douglas. In that same year Picott’s song “Circus Girl” was featured in the PBS documentary Circus.
Rod Picott has released five solo cds and one cd with sometimes duo partner Amanda Shires– all to excellent reviews and extensive touring. Picott has been featured in No Depression magazine, on BBC2, Radio London, Sirius/XM Radio and in Maverick magazine (U.K.) Picott has produced a CD for Rounder Records, toured as opening act for Alison Krauss and Union Station and played the prestigious Shrewsbury Folk and Maverick festivals in England and the Take Root & Blue Highways Festivals in Holland. The very definition of a modern troubadour Picott tours the U.S. in a Jeep Cherokee with a current odometer reading of 276,300 miles. Picott also tours annually in Europe and the U.K. to the tune of 130 plus shows yearly. Picott is lauded for his narrative and melodic songwriting, passionate delivery and darkly humorous onstage storytelling. Rod Picott’s 2011 release Welding Burns spent 10 straight weeks on the AMA chart and reached #1 on The FAR Chart. Picott was voted #1 Songwriter of the year #1 Male artist of the year and Welding Burns was voted the #5 CD release of 2011 by the FAR Chart reporters.
“
Rod Picott’s songs glow with both self awareness and humility. The truth of who we are is slippery, hard to contain, and most people have very little interest in it. Nonetheless, it is the work of an artist to find that truth and show it to us in ways that will see it. Welding Burns, Rod’s new collection of songs, is a fine example of an artist doing just that. The songs on this record reflect the realities of the time we live in, and they contain hard truths. The songs are both beautiful and disturbing, and are the work of an artist who deserves to be heard. I hope he sells a million copies.” –
Mary Gauthier“
This is quite simply another blue collar classic from Maine’s finest songwriter” –
Arthur Wood/Maverick Magazine“
Highly impressive” –
Q Magazine“
An album for our times.” –
IrishTimes“
Picott may have created the perfect singer songwriter album- 5 stars“-
Maverick Magazine“
Beautiful and heartbreaking songs-one of the best on the Americana and folk scene“-
Slaid Cleaveshttp://www.rodpicott.com***WILD PONIES (DOUG & TELISHA WILLIAMS)***Wild Ponies – The dead right, honest songwriting of Doug and Telisha blended with a kick-ass band. The last few years have been all about change and evolution for Doug and Telisha. They left their home in Virginia, spent a year as homeless troubadours, and finally settled in East Nashville just over a year ago. Since then, they’ve become a central part of their new Community. They co-host the weekly songwriting group called the East Nashville Song Salon, they host a weekly radio show on East Nashville Radio called Whiskey Wednesdays, and if you’re wandering around on the east side of the Cumberland you can expect to see, hear or hang with them at The Family Wash and other local spots. That is, if they’re not on the road – they still manage to average over 100 dates a year, bringing a burning energy to every show they play. They mean it. They live it. Then they get on stage and rip the shit out of it. Under the production mastery of Ray Kennedy (Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams) they’ve just finished a new record, Things That Used To Shine, due out summer of 2013.
Doug and Telisha write songs about a place where old time religion, superstition, run down bars, gravel parking lots and boarded up factories all mingle together. How could they not? They’re both originally from a small town in the shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains that’s suffered with 20.2% unemployment. When you hear them sing songs about a couple of hard luck kids who made some bad decisions and wound up in jail, you’ve got to remember that Doug & Telisha are still good friends with those kids’ family. The songs for their last record, Ghost of the Knoxville Girl, weren’t written by people who like to imagine what it’s like “out there,” instead they came from stories told across kitchen tables or between friends after a couple of pitchers at a roadside bar.
There is something mystical about the connection of their hauntingly dark songs and their quick wit and fearless delivery that make every show original and personal.
http://www.wildponies.net/Facebook Event page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/438410909600726Last.fm Event page:
http://www.last.fm/event/3698542