Tenn.Riviere, who splits his time between his Montana farm and a home outside of Nashville, has delivered an album that fits right at home with today’s blues/rock anthems as well as Americana’s rootsy vibes.
Kevin McKendree assembled an all-star cast of musicians, who play true to the blues/roots sounds of the new album to back Riviere (acoustic guitars, vocals): Kevin McKendree - electric guitars, keyboards, vocals; Kenneth Blevins - drums; David Santos – bass; and the McCrary Sisters (Ann, Regina and Freda) - backing vocals. All songs were written by Randy Lee Riviere and Kevin McKendree (except “Needles,” written by Riviere).
“Blues Sky is more blues than anything I’ve ever done,” Riviere says, whose previous albums were more in Americana and country music grooves. “Wow, so much fun! Kevin is just a genius. The most genius of geniuses I’ve ever known.
“Blues Sky is certainly another line that I’m crossing,” Riviere states about the new disc’s direction. “Maybe the broadest line, but I feel good about it. There’s a lot here, but with a blues foundation, as the title suggests! I wrote these songs initially, and Kevin came in with a bridge here, an arrangement tweak there … and musical flavors that really made the tunes special in my view. The core music and lyrics are me, along with acoustic guitar. But Kevin is the guy who made these tunes come alive instrumentally, along with David Santos, Kenneth Blevins and the McCrary Sisters. “
Randy Riviere first met multi-instrumentalist/producer/songwriter Kevin McKendree at his Rock House Studio back in 2008 when he was working with producer/musician Marty Grebb on Riviere’s Wilderness album in Thousand Oaks, California, “and Marty decided that I needed to go ‘Americana.’ So on we went out to Franklin at Kevin’s studio to surround ourselves with that vibe. Here, we got with Dave Roe, Mickey Raphael, James Pennebaker and Kevin - and he did just that. It was great and I was hooked. I told Kevin then that I wanted to record there … it took over 12 years but that’s exactly what we did! We recorded my Wyoming album there in 2021 and it was a great experience. So we got a place down there out away a bit from that Nashville madness to dig in and focus on music.
“This album is really a collection of different approaches to ideas, concerns, this country, my life … things I’m sure most everyone is grappling with in one way or another. America has this sickness going on right now. I try to look at issues affecting the human condition and look at different sides of things going on. I go on rants from time to time about what’s happening to our landscape … see ‘Needles. ‘You’re living out here where you don’t belong’ … No need to read between the lines on this one. It’s just flies in the face of our developer friends: ‘Our American dream is red, white, blue and green’. I think Edward Abbey would like it. I resurrected this tune from days gone by just because I wanted to. Those problems are still big problems and they will always make me angry. If I had my druthers with this album - hell any album I do - it would make you smile, piss you off, make you think, be happy with me, get angry with me, agree and disagree with me … maybe shed a tear from time to time. What do you want from the music you listen to?
“You run along with this album and pick up lots of flavors, then there’s this tune, ‘Cold Cold River.’ What? Exactly. A Gospel tune! That’s right. I ain’t lyin’. Where did this come from? Maybe from my Baptist upbringing and my fire-breathing old testament Sunday school teaching momma. Maybe I’m getting older and thinking this song will get me through those pearly gates? A wonderful thing about ‘Cold Cold’ is the other worldly presence of the McCrary Sisters … they helped create this ambiance that’s out past the outer markers from anything I’ve ever done. Kevin made a great call bringing them in. I couldn’t possibly thank them enough. I’ll be writing more Gospel tunes just to try to bring them back!
“There’s no discounting Kevin’s impact on this record. I had no idea he could play all the instruments he does. I had no idea he was such a great guitar player. All the magic keyboard work he does. What he did with the clavinet on ‘What You Know About Pain’ blew my mind. I used to argue with just about everyone who tried to #$% with my music. But I don’t with Kevin (mostly!). I just trust him so much. Kevin is after the truth. What else is there really? “
About Randy Lee Riviere
Randy Lee Riviere is a moving target. Once you think you know who he is as a recording artist, you hear something seemingly out of the character you’ve envisioned in your mind. Your initial description may have been ‘folk rock’ in the Neil Young tribe. Then you may say, no, he’s a country - outlaw/country artist … see Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash … then it may be southern rock … Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, Blackfoot. Or maybe the Beatles, the Kinks, The Moody Blues. Marty Robbins? Ian Tyson … sure! ZZ Top? Absolutely. And on it goes.
As you listen to the last 20 or so years of his work … through his years as “ Mad Buffalo,” spanning four albums: A Good Bad Road, Fool Stand, Wilderness and Red and Blue, then onto his solo Randy Lee Riviere work and his 2021 album, Wyoming, you’ll hear all thes musical gyrations.
When you ask Randy about his diverse catalogue he just laughs … “It’s all just music to me” he says. “My musical upbringing involved all those artists you mention, plus many more. I’m a country boy … my mom loved country music, so that was around in those early years. Then when I started playing music in earnest in the early ‘70s, I evolved into rock that got harder and harder and I took on lead guitar roles. It was all about being ‘fast’ in that period, so that’s what I did. When I discovered Neil Young, that’s when my songwriting journey began, and I transitioned into the acoustic guitar in a big way.”
“But as the drugs got rougher and rougher in those days, I had to get out of Dodge and it was on to the wonders of the U.S. Army. Then truck driving coast to coast and working on drill rigs for the feds. Two marriages, college, work, work, work for decades. But all with my guitars in my hands and dozens of note pads spread around wherever I was at any point in time. Then in the late ‘90s, I started my own business. My time was now my time and I threw down and starting doing albums. Out all this stuff came, and, by the grace of God, it’s still coming.”
“We’re really happy with Blues Sky,” Riviere summarizes. “Each song is really an ecosystem within itself … and we hope you like it!”
Website: www.randyleeriviere.com
More information: Mark Pucci - Mark Pucci Media | www.markpuccimedia.com
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