I caught Rod Picott at last year’s Americana Music Conference in Nashville. My friend Sylvia Rusche made sure we caught some of Rod’s show amidst all the other performances that week.
I’m glad she insisted. His songs are all gems and he is a very soulful singer. And as Sylvia joked that evening – “He’s pretty easy on the eyes too.”
Another great songwriter, Slaid Cleaves said Rod writes “…Beautiful and heartbreaking songs- (he’s) one of the best on the Americana and folk scene” Cleaves paid him the ultimate compliment by recording one of his songs, as did Ray Wylie Hubbard and Fred Eagelsmith and many others.
He’s been in St. Pete before, appearing in a show Sylvia produced at the Studio at 620. Next Wednesday night, (11-12) he’ll be in concert in the intimate Side Door Cabaret. Click here for details and tickets.
Check him out on line and read this review from Australia’s Bristol Post on a recent Rod show “Down Under,.” The reviewer gave the show four star and said Rod was “one of the best songwriters you are likely to come across.”
From The Bristol Post:
Rod Picott
In the second half o this gig Rob Picott sang: ‘Someday I’ll go where no one knows my name.’ It won’t be Bristol however.
Picott is hardly a household name of course, probably not even in his own home town, but the Nashville-based singer-songwriter has visited the city every year for more than a decade and built up a very loyal fan base here.
And not only did this audience know his name but from the way most of them seemed to be quietly mouthing the words, they also seemed to know the lyrics to every one of his songs.
Picott tends to write fairly downbeat songs set in claustrophobic small towns with a cast list made up of workers with dead-end blue-collar jobs and people down on their luck who dream of escaping the tedium or harshness of their lives.
There were songs about broken homes, broken relationships, unemployment, criminals, wrecked cars and wrecked lives.
The ever-modest Picott happens to be one of the best songwriters you are likely to come across. He writes songs more like short stories set to music, treating his characters and their struggles with real empathy. And he lightens the load by maintaining a lively banter with the audience between each song. He also writes incredibly beautiful and catchy melodies that stay in your head for hours.
OK so for some mysterious reason not everyone knows his name, but as long as Rod Picott keeps on coming back to Bristol each year to play excellent gigs in intimate venues like this one then we are not complaining.
Here’s a link to the full story:
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Review/story-23128837-detail/story.html
Leave a Reply