On March 1st, Steve Poltz will return with a new album Shine On to be released via Red House/Compass Records Group and it’s Poltz’s first album for a label in two decades. The album was produced by Will Kimbrough (Shemekia Copeland, Radney Foster and Jimmy Buffett). The album also features co-writes with Anthony Da Costa and Molly Tuttle, winner of the Americana Music Award for Best Instrumentalist this year. Glide is premiering the album’s first single “Ballin’ on a Wednesday” (below) a scratchy barn burner with a Drive-By Truckers and Steve Earle edginess making for a Nashville old-timey rock workout.
“I was in Nashville having lunch with a friend. It was a Wednesday,” says Poltz about the track. “The lady rang up my sandwich and said “that’ll be 7 dollars and 67 cents.” I handed her a crisp hundred dollar bill and she looked at it and said “ooooh ballin on a Wednesday!” I said “did you just say ‘ballin on a Wednesday?’” She said “uh huh”. She had a beautiful gold tooth. It was awesome. Right at that moment I started writing that song. My pal Anthony Da Costa called me up and said “whatcha doin?” I said “writing a song called Ballin on a Wednesday.” He said “oh man, I want in on this. I’ll be right over.”
Throughout over three decades in music, Steve Poltz did it all and more—often shared by way of his rockin’ countrified folk slices of sardonic Americana (hatched in Halifax). Of course, he co-wrote Jewel’s multiplatinum Hot 100-topping megahit “You Were Meant For Me,” but he also went on a whale watch with her and a few federales that turned into a drug bust. The two still share the story at every festival they play together. He made his bones as the frontman for underground legends The Rugburns, who burned rubber crisscrossing the continent on marathon tours and still pop up once in a while for the rare and quickly sold out reunion gig.
In 20 years since his full-length solo debut, One Left Shoe, he blessed the world’s ears with twelve solo records, spanning the acclaimed 2010 Dreamhouse and most recently Folk Singer in 2015. NPR summed it up best, “Critics and fans alike now regard Poltz as a talented and prolific songwriter.” By 2016, he survived a stroke, endured anything the music industry could throw at him, and still performed like “280 days a year.”
However, he still never lived in Nashville, which represents a turning point in the story and the genesis of his 2018 Compass Records debut, Shine On…
“My girlfriend Sharon sold the condo we were living in, and I was ready to live in a van, which seemed like a good idea for one night—then I decided I wanted a kitchen and a closet,” he admits. “Sharon wanted to move to Nashville, because she thought it would be good for me. It caused a huge fight. I’d been in San Diego since 1980, and that’s where I cut my musical teeth. I thought I’d never leave. In fact, at the height of our fight, I said, ‘I’m not leaving San Diego. I am San Diego!’ This makes me laugh now. As soon as I got to Nashville, I immediately knew I wanted to make a record in ‘Music City’.”
So, the man who once protested “I am San Diego” made Shine On in his new home of Nashville with one of its elder statesman behind the board, Will Kimbrough [Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell]. Holing up in the studio at Kimbrough’s house, nothing would be off limits. Together, they unlocked the kind of creative chemistry you only hear about in band bios—but for real.
“I respect Will so much, and I’d always wanted to work with him,” says Steve. “Like two mad scientists, we just took our time and had fun. We didn’t overthink things. Everything felt organic. We ate soul food and drank lots of really good coffee. We tried out weird sounds, and the songs always started with voice and guitar—no click track, just how I’d play them. I road tested many of them, and they were ripe for the picking when recording time came around.”
Steve Poltz’ Shine On is now available for preorder
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SOUNDS GOOD