PERRY ROADwww.PerryRoad.net
Where is Perry Road? Good question - Kentucky for one.
Perry Road is a county road in Haldeman Kentucky - Little Perry Road to be more precise. Annabelle was born and raised on Little Perry Rd.
Perry Road is also the namesake of a band. The way I tell it, Perry Road - the band - never met
an audience that didn't like them. Problem was, it never met enough audiences.
"Perry Road, a group of decidedly good-time, but fiercely talented Spartanburg musicians who play a predominantly acoustic, rootsified combination of covers and original tunes." Baker Maultsby June 12, 1999 in Creative Loafing
However, all THAT said, Little Perry Road was also a dead-end gravel road that wound past about ten homes...and then stopped. Interestingly, a fate very similar to that of the band's.
It All started in Leesburg Florida.
In 1986 we met Syl Smith through his wife Sarah who worked at the same newspaper that Annabelle and I (that would be me, Matt) were employed by in Leesburg, Florida. Syl played and sang, Matt mumbled and clutched, and Annabelle sang her ass off. We called it folk-a-billy. Perry Road Ver.1.0 if you will.
Syl was from Northern VA. An intense and talented songwriter, Syl could literally worry the bark off a tree. He had an easy enough smile and I would to this day still call him a lost friend. Not in the sense that he isn't a friend anymore, more like fractured by time, distance and small disagreements. Nothing that couldn't be fixed but, still unlikely to reoccur.
There were some high points for this trio formation; The Hard Rock Cafe'‚ Earth Day Concert in 1991 at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL, as well as a few shows at The Ancient Mariner in Orlando. Enough to keep one hopeful and we somehow managed to snag the attention of one "Captain Midnight."
Now Captain Midnight, or Roger Schutt as his parents knew him, was THE late night DJ for WSM in Nashville TN in the late '60s and early '70s and then later at WKDA. A knife throwing champ and a genuine firebrand, The Captain once locked himself in a radio station control room to protest the station management's decision to shorten playlists - IN 1981! (My how things have changed!) He got fired of course. Captain was a pal and partying buddy with Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller, Billy Joe Shaver, Kinky Friedman and a bunch of other such roughnecks during the height of country music's "Outlaw" period.
Somehow the three of us - Annabelle, Syl and myself - ended up pool side at the home of an acquaintance of ours in FL that was an old friend of Captain Midnight. As the evening progressed guitars were pulled out and tunes were sung, beers were drunk and wonder of wonders, something bit Roger's ear. A song I'd written a year or so before called "Willie."
1989 demo recording of "Willie" (Matt Ranck)
Captain had recently begun working on plans to develop a publishing company with his wife Betsy or, Scout as we were introduced, and he felt like he could pitch the song to his old pal Waylon Jennings. It was a good plan too as Scout was employed by BMI in Artist Relations and with Captain's other radio and industry contacts it seemed like a natural thing.
EUREKA! I had interest in anything that would get us off the mark, so I gave him an option on the song for the next year.
Time passed...and passed...and passed by. We stayed in touch through some phone calls to Nashville but I don't know if he ever had a chance to pitch it to Waylon or not. Not long after our pool side party Scout got hit by cancer (sadly, she would not survive) and Captain had much more important things to deal with. Captain Midnight passed away at the age of 73 in 2005.
By the end of 1991 I'd quit the trio during a heated tantrum. No small feat considering Annabelle
- my wife - had not quit. Annabelle and I had moved to Spartanburg, SC leaving Syl to his own
designs at the beginning of 1992.
What followed was a dry spell for Perry Road that would last until New Years Eve 1994.
Early in December of that year we came home from a trip to find a message on our answering machine from a banjo player by the name of Donnie Durham. "Ah...hey my name's Donnie Durham and my neighbor says you two do some singing and whatever and I was wondering if you two wanted to get together and play some music?" Well...hell yeah Donnie! New Years Eve we got together with Donnie and his family and started running tunes.
Perry Road was maybe coming out of mothballs...and we now had a banjo player!
Donnie had moved to South Carolina from Richmond, VA and as it turns out he and I had, unknown to each other, been traveling in the same circles from VA Tech to Richmond to SC. Donnie is not only good on the banjo but, he's a fine dobro player as well. What followed were several months of woodshedding and just generally trying to find songs that worked for the three of us.
The next addition to the band was Kevin Eastes and it's 1995. "Eastes east and west is west."
I still don't know what he meant by that phrase. Kevin played upright bass and Pall Malls -
equally well. Kevin was...well what can I say...a big ole' friendly bear that disguised himself as a
roadhousing, drunken, whoring sumbitch of a rockin' roll bass player. He taught me the math for
making a smooth transition to the next modulation. (I will some day use the circle of fifths.)
On December 10, 1996 Annabelle, Donnie, Kevin Eastes, and I filed into the video studios of WRET TV on the campus of the University of South Carolina, Spartanburg. We taped two songs for the SCETV Christmas special, "The Sounds of Christmas" (one original that I wrote for this show, one traditional, and both produced by William Richardson for SCETV).
Despite a couple of Spinal Tap-like set props in the form of tiny Christmas trees (remember the Stonehenge structures?), all went very well. No artificial dwarfed Christmas trees were harmed in the taping of this video. The Program aired on Christmas Eve 1996 AND 1997.
Also in 1996 dobro man "Slide Show" Bob Hinch became the 5th man. Bob's also a solid horn player and around this time it wasn't unusual for him to travel with a trombone. Bob really can play just about any instrument. To this day, DAM still hangs with Slide Show and his lovely wife Donna quite frequently. Indian Bob is my other brother. He wobbles but he don't fall down...much.
Shortly after Bob joined the band Bari Smith came on board with his pedal steel. Bari, along with slipping a mean steel, also tightened up the band's live sound. A live audio engineer by trade and longtime sound man with The Marshall Tucker Band (he's got at least one co-write on one of their tunes and I'm sure added steel to a number of recordings after Toy Caldwell's untimely death), Bari hipped us to the equipment and techniques that would even out our live sound. It should also be noted that Bari can fix anything - cars, electronics, plumbing, carpentry - and was the band's main source of moonshine.
The last (but not least) addition to the band would be Don McGraw who replaced Kevin Eastes
on bass. I can't say enough about Don and eulogizing about him for a dead band is inappropriate. Don is the "D" in DAM and we see him every Wednesday night to this day at the BackShop to
eat dinner, drink beer, create music and generally plot the overthrow of the American Music Industry.
Along with being one of the finest bassists on this planet, he's a cool keyboard player, mean on the baritone sax and is a crack
engineer.
That about covers it for the personnel involved in Perry Road.
The band recorded one CD that was released in 2000, 'On To Something Else (here)' and is available from
RunningTimeMusic.com. It features Larry Hoskinson (formerly Seconds Flat) on some stunt guitar, Arnie Diaz on trumpet and Greg Hills on brushes. There were also 2 cassettes; 'One Nighters' in 1991 and '8 X 10' in 1997 (both out-of-print).
"Dinosaur Bones" MP3 (2000 Matt Ranck) from 'On To Something Else (here)' featuring Arnie Diaz on Trumpet.
In August of 2003 Perry Road gave it's last performance at the Rogers Park Amphitheater in Tryon, NC. If you never saw the band live I'm sorry to hear it because it ain't too likely to ever happen again -
support your local minstrels OK?
June of 2000 All Music Guide 3 out of 5 stars
(review of 'On To Something Else (here)')
One of the finest "undiscovered" bands to come out of upstate South Carolina in quite some time is Perry Road, a country-rock group lead by the husband and wife team of Matt and Annabelle Ranck, an extremely talented couple with influences as diverse as Gram Parsons, Janis Joplin, and John Prine. Matt plays guitar and mandolin and sings, and Annabelle sings, plays harmonica and percussion, including a faux "electric" scrub board. The band is rounded out by Donnie Durham on banjo and Dobro; Bob Hinch on Dobro, guitar, and trombone; Bari Smith on the pedal steel; and Don McCraw on bass.
Of the songs on the disc, most of them were written by Matt, and they are all quite good. Of course, Bob Hinch wrote or co-wrote both of the others, keeping it all in the family. The music is reminiscent of the best of the Flying Burrito Brothers, with an undeniable Gram Parsons inspiration, especially on "Company Man." "All I Can Handle" has the John Prine vibe going on, and it is right on par with Prine's writing. Bari Smith's pedal steel work is great, very reminiscent of Toy Caldwell of the Marshall Tucker Band and Bob Hinch's trombone is a brilliant addition to the quirky "Dinosaur Bones." One of the catchiest cuts on the record is the country-fried "How Do You Expect," an all too honest look at the life of a woman who has to put up with a musician husband. Closing the disc is "Donna's Song," a beautiful acoustic guitar solo instrumental, and a fitting closer to a very satisfying set of tunes from a band that deserves to be heard. Perry Road has a lot to offer. - Michael Smith
On March 26, 2000 Jeff Powell (Program Director, WGWG 88.3fm), Noel T. Manning III (Public Relations, WGWG) and Perry Road piled into Running Time's BackShop Studio and recorded a live interview for WGWG's award winning program, "Webb Sessions."
Across roughly 2.5 hours we discussed a wide variety of topics (many of which I now wish we'd left alone!). We also cut five songs live - no small task with three large element mics, six musicians and no engineer on board!
The interview was first broadcast on May 19th and 20th, 2000 and has been re-broadcast frequently since then.
"Light My Fire" MP3 (Doors Music) from the live broadcast for WGWG.
July 1998 Creative Loafing Music Menu
by Peter Cooper (now with the Nashville Tennessean and bass with Todd Snider)
Skewed Acoustic
One of the Upstate's most intriguing party bands is the unruly six-piece Perry Road. Front-woman Miss Annabelle is accompanied by stacked harmonies from the rest of the group, and instruments including dobro, banjo, mandolin, pedal steel and washboard add to the melody and mayhem.
This is a band that can slide quickly if not seamlessly from bluegrass standards to hyper-speed versions of Alanis Morrisette songs. And if Perry Road members are smiling especially wide these days it's because they are sporting a new addition: Spartanburg bass hero Don McGraw, who played for years with Matthew Knights, N.C. Rail and others, now makes his musical home on Perry Road. The band plays at Maggie Mae's in Spartanburg on Friday, July 10 1998.
On March 17, 1990 Perry Road graced the front of the Eustis/Lake Region News (Eustis FL).
A promotion for "Sunday in the Park" commemorating the restoration and re-opening of the Alice McLellan Band Shell in Eustis. At that time Perry Road included original members Annabelle Ranck, Syl Smith and myself.
Ok it's not the New York Times. Dig the "Baby Pagent Winner" above the fold - kinda' puts things in perspective don't it?
Perry Road shared bookings with, or opened for, The WayBacks, regional greats Michael Reno Harrell and David Childers, RCA recording artist Sara Evans, Columbia artists Goose Creek Symphony (you may remember them from the '70's or from founding member Charlie Gearheart's song "Mercedes Benz" that Janis Joplin turned into a huge, rock classic), and The Amazing Rhythm Aces.