DAY 14: Music: Rittner
In 1995 I moved to Austin, TX in search of more of a music career than I had in Baton Rouge, LA at the time. Austin was very cool, very competitive, and very expensive. 6 months after moving there, I moved back to BTR, thinking it would be easier to be a medium sized fish from a small pond than a small fish in a huge pond.
Around 1996 I began playing acoustic with a friend Tommy Hessburg. I had a bunch of songs and we started playing them around town. Somewhere along the way, we picked up Ray Fryoux on the drums and Courtland Smith on the bass. It was pretty solid. We played the usual haunts around town, and began thinking about recording.
In December of 1997, the house I was living in caught fire and the only room that survived was the band practice room with all of our equipment. The house was @ 867 Rittner in the Garden District. We now had a band name.
Around 1997 the lineup had changed and it was just Court, Joey Breland on drums and I. This would be the lineup until we quit playing, and we had some pretty solid stuff. Music I am still proud of. Both of those guys were whip ass musicians and we also had Wendell Tilley, one of the smartest guys and best musical minds around, help produce and play on the album.
It never got huge accolades, we never got signed, and in 2000 we were no longer playing, but below you will find links to both the album, "Persona non grata" and a 5 song EP we recorded in 1999. I have one song that was recorded two ways, one without a solo, and one with a "Hey Wendell, play some ridiculous 80's metal solo on it" version. I hope you enjoy it.
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[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/18156096" params="color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /]
BONUS-I just found this link to a "liner notes" deal I did on the album. CLICK ME FOR THE SCOOP
