Rod Picott – Starlight Tour
Rod Picott is a born writer. The Maine-via-Nashville singer pens songs that spring from rough living and hard drinking, as well as the bruised-knuckle jobs that have occupied most of his non-artist life, but he also writes books and short stories that allow him to further flesh out those types of characters. It’s these two worlds that Picott finds himself between now – the dream of writing and playing his songs, and the delayed gratification of writing books and hoping they find their own audience. Now, Picott has recorded what could be his last full album. Out late last year in Europe and finding its official release here in the US this week (February 2), it’s the work of a man in his late 50s who finds himself making the type of decisions not encountered in songs we hear in the radio – between telling stories and creating art, working back-breaking day jobs, and taking care of a father in decline. It’s deciding what you’re going to do in those last years of your life when you can truly make a difference.
Picott begins Starlight Tour with a glance at his dad and a look in the mirror. “The Next Man in Line,” burbling under with excellent electric guitar work from Juan Solorzano, has the singer seeing more in common than he ever has with the Old Man – “Now your knuckles are hard and your limbs are slow/In the rearview mirror is the devil you know.” By the end of the song, he’s assumed his own place on the mortal coil – “How does it feel to be the last in line?” His reflection of his father continues on the subtly menacing “Digging Ditches.” Picott spits out lines on lives sunk in the blue collar grind – “Work ‘til you bleed, that’s how you know you’re done/You gotta punish what you’re not where I come from.” Picott puts his earned scars to work here, while also relying on his artistic soul to help him see a life beyond his own inherited world.
Picott’s songwriting approach often benefits from bouncing ideas off other writers until the words coalesce into something that can become a proper song. That’s the case with “Puncher’s Chance,” a more upbeat (and maybe a little bit optimistic?) tune that evolved from a back-and-forth with screenwriter/showrunner Brian Koppelman (Billions), where your average palooka, represented by an actual boxer, finds advantage in experience and, well, taking more than enough hits – “I’ve been caught with life’s hard left, it rattled my cage/But strength is the last thing you lose with age.” Other times, it’s a story from a friend, a scrap of a remembered tune, and a gift from the songwriting gods that all lead to something like the beautifully sad “Pelican Bay,” in which a fresh-from-VietNam vet finds love in life’s scraps – “I met Mary in a diner on the ghost of my last pay” – with PIcott following that story along its quiet joyful timeline to its naturally sad end.
All of Picott’s lived experience inhabits album wrapper “It’s Time to Let Go of Your Dreams.” The largely acoustic tune feels like a lullaby as Picott bids goodbye to three-quarters of a life-full of hopes, more dashed than delivered upon – “It’s a bitter taste, and it all goes to waste/When you’re running out of tomorrows.” Solorzano’s mournful trumpet line brings home the sense of loss in what the 59-year-old Picott calls, “quite literally the saddest song I’ve ever written,” but this 52-year-old might respectfully disagree. The last line in the song – on what may well be his last album – says “It’s time to find a new dream.” There’s value in knowing that it’s time to set aside your deepest dreams, and maybe even a little bit of optimism in realizing that you still have time – just enough time – to accomplish a new one. I’m looking forward to those books, Rod, and whatever might come after that.
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Homecoming Queen” – the mid-tempo, pedal steel-inflected, written over a period of ten years with Amy Speace, brings back a flood of summer memories. Suitably, for a Rod Picott song, not entirely happy, but all full of real life.
Starlight Tour was produced by Neilson Hubbard, engineered by Dylan Alldredge and mastered by Alex McCullough. All songs written by Rod Picott, with co-writes going to Amy Speace, Nick Nace and Brian Koppelman. Musicians on the album include Picott (acoustic guitar, vocals), Juan Solorzano (electric, acoustic and pedal steel guitars, piano, glockenspiel, trumpet), Lex Price (bass, mandolin), and Neilson Hubbard (drums, percussion).
Go here to order Starlight Tour (out February 2): http://rodpicott.com/physical-cds/starlight-tour
Check out Rod Picott’s books here: http://rodpicott.com/books
Go here for a list of tour dates here: http://rodpicott.com/tourdates
Enjoy our previous coverage here: Interview: Rod Picott on Telling the Truth, Shaming the Devil, Family, and Writing