{"id":16127,"date":"2021-03-13T05:03:28","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T11:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/garyhayescountry.com\/?p=16127"},"modified":"2023-09-03T20:07:56","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T20:07:56","slug":"pony-bradshaw-adds-to-the-southern-storybook-on-his-new-album-calico-jim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyhayescountry.com\/?p=16127","title":{"rendered":"Pony Bradshaw Adds To The Southern Storybook On His New Album Calico Jim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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There are so many albums that I stumble upon, many that get sent to me, and many I find on purpose…this one was a little of ALL THREE. I had heard OF Pony Bradshaw before on the road, however I had never heard his music. I stumbled upon an email that got sent to me about this album, and it dropped my jaw!<\/div>\n
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This album was a breath of fresh air for 2021 so far, and so far it is one of my top 5 choices to debut in 2021. The songs are quite lengthy, and you need a little extra time to soak up all of the stories woven into the songs here.<\/div>\n
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Right off the bat after the opening song, the poignant “Dope Mountain” takes a rolling, blunt look at many parts of rural America. I mean, you can see the picture in your head so vividly, as he weaves his dark tales of addiction into your heart. As a recovering addict, I have a very empathetic love for those people formerly trapped in the clutches of dope addictions..and have ( and are currently ) recovering.<\/div>\n
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This is actually a nice concept album with some pretty ingenious characters, and it touches on the stereotypes of the misplaced southern common man, or white trash or whatever YOU call them.<\/div>\n
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It touches on Dope Mountain many times, as it also shares of the adventures of the Calico Jim. However all in all the entire album just spoke to me as a man that lives in the woods, and I also live in my own little world. This album deals with the complex struggle of existing in modern times….which I myself struggle with…<\/div>\n
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Pony Bradshaw Adds To The Southern Storybook On His New Album Calico Jim<\/div>\n
Out today on vinyl, CD, and digital<\/div>\n
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 \u201cIt was paramount that we practiced restraint, to not abandon tradition in the name of originality,\u201d says singer and songwriter Pony Bradshaw<\/a> of the recording process on his new album, Calico Jim.  \u201c\u2018Less glamour, more nutrients\u2019 was something I reminded myself of every morning over coffee before heading to the studio.\u201d That thought process aided in Bradshaw\u2019s commitment to not overshadowing the stories he\u2019d set out to tell; stories about the relationship between man and nature and about a region and community connecting with its history and its pasts which come to life through Bradshaw\u2019s powerful, earnest voice. Part Southern gothic, part North Georgia storybook tales, Calico Jim appeals to fans of impeccable, character-based storytelling and minimally and thoughtfully produced Americana music.<\/div>\n
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American Songwriter<\/a> premiered the album\u2019s first single and title track, \u201cCalico Jim,\u201d calling it \u201craw and real while also being irresistibly toe-tapping,\u201d and Rolling Stone<\/a> sang the praises of album track \u201cDope Mountain\u201d. In No Depression<\/a>\u2019s<\/a> review of Calico Jim, they said, “Bradshaw\u2019s songs flow into one another like a cinematic collection of short stories, images so rich that you can reach out and taste them. He not only sketches his characters with an astute eye, but he also describes his world with an unflinching clarity. Bradshaw\u2019s talent is unmistakable, his songs more than memorable.” The Bluegrass Situation<\/a> also premiered \u201cFoxfire,\u201d Cowboys & Indians<\/a> got down to the nitty-gritty behind \u201cSawtoothed Jericho,\u201d and in their New Artist of the Week column, Holler<\/a> wrote, \u201cBradshaw’s infatuation with capturing the stories and narratives that can slowly seep from within a very present moment crafts a natural, spontaneous hue across Calico Jim.” In a recent Mic Check interview, Atlanta Journal-Constitutio<\/a>n<\/a> applauded how these singles “spotlight not only Bradshaw’s warm voice, but lyrical authenticity.” Now, fans can listen to all of the above on Calico Jim right now at this link<\/a> and order physical copies, including a limited red vinyl, right here<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhen I decided to bring Calico Jim to life, I had a strong notion of where I wanted to record it and who I wanted to involve in its making. I wanted friends to play on it, certainly, and I wanted their friends to play or work on it, too,\u201d remembers Bradshaw. He and his friends\u2014Cody Ray on guitars and lap steel, Aaron Boehler on bass, Paddy Ryan on drums and percussion, Philippe Bronchtein on pedal steel and Hammond organ, Casey Collis on fiddle and banjo, and Jason Weinheimer & Zachariah Reeves at the mixing board helm\u2014met up at Fellowship Hall Sound recording studio in Little Rock, Arkansas, and let each song lead them to its final destination and incarnation. Recording to tape, Bradshaw and the band left their egos at the door and dove into the work that drives his everyday life. \u201cThere\u2019s a certain hard-earned knowledge, a fastening of spirits, gained from toiling with friends,\u201d says Bradshaw. \u201cIn the trenches, glasses clinking, wore slap out, but wholly content.\u201d<\/div>\n
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The brotherhood developed over that week in Little Rock is easily heard on Calico Jim. During the sessions, the band shared a big, old gothic house near the Arkansas River, just a few miles from the studio. \u201cEvery evening before falling asleep sapped from the laboring, I turned on the Andy Griffith Show, a program that settles the soul and readies it for a good night\u2019s rest.\u201d Bradshaw and the band returned to the studio each new day, well-rested and ready to get their hands dirty recording songs like \u201cDope Mountain\u201d and \u201cSawtoothed Jericho.\u201d The former opens with the line \u201cWe took to stealing copper wire \/ Stashed in a laurel slick down by the old mine\u201d and chronicles life in a post-mining town with sharp, tin-type detail, and the latter has a nuevo-bluegrass feel full of Bradshaw\u2019s signature imagery and commanding vocals; both drenched in an inescapable feeling of authenticity. A dusty truth that Bradshaw has no problem sharing with the world.<\/div>\n
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\u201cMy ultimate aim was for this to be a true record of an experience, a capturing of sound and sweat and intention. A human artifact,\u201d recalls Bradshaw. \u201cTo bring it into the physical world was essential. I wanted it to live and breathe, to die, to get lost, and then found. I hope that\u2019s what\u2019s heard when it\u2019s spinning in your living room or playing through your car speakers on your way to work. I hope you can hold it in your hands and feel the life we put into it, and I hope you feel it wasn\u2019t in vain or a waste of your time.\u201d<\/div>\n
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More About Pony Bradshaw: James Bradshaw lives in North Georgia with his family, where he writes songs, tends the yard, and raises children. After a long stint of being unsettled, he arrived home in the southern Appalachian mountains to do his life\u2019s work. A natural-born dissenter, he focuses on housekeeping with his wife and believes work is a form of prayer.<\/div>\n
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\u201cGood work uses no thing without respect, both for what it is in itself and for its origin. It uses neither tool or material that it does not respect and that it does not love. It honors nature as a great mystery and power, as an indispensable teacher, and as the inescapable judge of all work of human hands. It does not disassociate life and work, or pleasure and work, or love and work, or usefulness and beauty. To work without pleasure or affection, to make a product that is not both useful and beautiful, is to dishonor God, nature, the thing that is made, and whomever it is made for.\u201d \u2013 Wendell Berry<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are so many albums that I stumble upon, many that get sent to me, and many I find on purpose…this one was a little of ALL THREE. I had heard OF Pony Bradshaw before on the road, however I had never heard his music. I stumbled upon an email that got sent to me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t