Stream Gerdes' "Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets" HERE August 14, 2017 (Press Release) - Outlaw Country revivalist Craig Gerdes has just announced his forthcoming LP Smokin' Drinkin' & Gamblin. The news comes on the heels of a premiere at The Boot for his new cover of Johnny Paycheck's "Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets." The article also includes an exclusive interview with Jim Vest, Paycheck's original pedal-steel player who plays on Gerdes' version of the song. Smokin Drinkin' & Gamblin' is slated for a Jan. 26 release. Singer/songwriter Craig Gerdes “rolled into Nashville, on four bald tires, in his beat up, old four-door Plymouth. "With a stack of songs he’d written, and some old school country pickin, he was gonna be a country music star,” says the opening line of his autobiographical song “Redneck Sons a Bitches.” The song tells the summarized tale of his discontented journey from Nashville rejection to recording his debut album Smokin’ Drinkin’ & Gamblin’ on the Indiana-based Sol Records label. Gerdes took to the stage at a very young age, following in the footsteps of his father and fronting his dad’s band, working his way through high school, performing in the honky tonks of Central Illinois. Marrying his high-school sweetheart, Janel, they began raising a family together very young. Gerdes worked hard to take care of his family and continued to play, never letting go of the dream of being successful in the music business. As his kids had grown, around 2006 Gerdes made his fateful journey to Music City and began showcasing and working his way up and down Music Row. He landed a writer position at VMG Nashville, working for the legendary Jim Vest, and began the process of demoing songs hoping to get the cut that would establish his career. Gerdes did have several cuts of his songs over the years and commuted to and from his home in Illinois back to Nashville. But the entire time his true passion was to be an artist himself, not just a Nashville writer. In 2012 Gerdes began the process of working up a couple of tunes for commercial release and pitched it around town with the help of Vest... 3 singles were recorded but the response on music row was that Gerdes’ old-school classic-country stylings had no place in modern-day Nashville.
"Redneck Sons a Bitches" continues, “As I roamed from place to place, getting those doors slammed in my face, I was looking for that elusive record deal ... Where the hell did I go wrong writing all those old school country songs? Billy Jo Shaver said son I know just how you feel.” It's a sentiment that was seconded by Shaver at a show they played together when he heard Gerdes’ story. As the song concludes, Gerdes finds his moment of clarity and determining inspiration when an unnamed Nashville label executive tells him, “You long-haired redneck sonsabitches aren’t wanted here in Nashville, TN ... that kind of country don’t play in Nashville, TN,” which seems ironic now, given the legions of Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson and Cody Jinks fans these days. Gerdes was determined and released the songs on his own. He began touring regionally, upward of 250 shows a year, performing in clubs and at festivals from Illinois to Texas, Florida, Alabama, Ohio, Louisiana and all points in between, both with his band and solo as part of the Last Honky Tonk Music Series, including sets at Florabama, Luckenbach and the Frank Brown Songwriter festival. His travels led him to meet Brian DeBruler (CEO of Sol Records, home of outlaw-country artist Dallas Moore, Pure Grain and others), who produced the record in Indiana along with Jim Vest, Gerdes’ original Nashville mentor, who also plays pedal steel on the album along with another Nashville legend, Robby Turner. Larry Franklin also graces the record on fiddle. Smokin’ Drinkin’ & Gamblin is collection of 7 original songs written by Gerdes, plus a hand hewn cover of the 1977 classic “Slide Off Of Your Satin Sheets” featuring Jim Vest on pedal steel (who played on the original cut with Johnny Paycheck 40 years ago), and a powerful rendition of Dallas Moore’s “You Saved me From Me,” a song about an angel that has a personal significance to Gerdes that you can hear in his rendition. Gerdes' uniquely identifiable voice is genuine and honest, his stories pull you into each song, painting pictures in your mind. “Each and every song has significant meaning to me, whether it was written by me or someone else," he says. "Whether I was writing about my own life experiences or someone else's, real life is in this record—drinkin’, cheatin’, lovin’, leavin’, killin’, pride, rejection, hearts full of love, and broken hearts with no love.” This record sets the stage for Gerdes and an ever-broadening national fanbase in the U.S. and overseas. Despite the music industry's slow and reluctant embrace of what some call “genuine” or “real” country music, the audience continues to grow feverishly where truly and uniquely gifted songwriters of vision find a resonance with a broad audience that has a passionately renewed interest in, and appreciation of, the art of music and the song. One needs to look no further than the sales figures of Chris Stapleton’s recent releases, which had little mainstream radio support. This is a renaissance period in country music, and artists like Craig Gerdes, Dallas Moore, Cody Jinks and others are releasing their own records, their own songs, the way they hear them, independently or on indie labels like Sol Records (which has been producing and distributing independent artists since 1991). These artists continue blazing a trail all their own—it is truly the Rise of the Independents!
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