Music

Country Fried Rock: RayLand Baxter Interview

13 Aug 2015

RayLand Baxter hails from royal Russian lineage or Nashville songwriter royalty -- or not.

RayLand Baxter

Imaginary Man

Label: ATO
Release Date: 2015-08-21
Amazon
iTunes

RayLand Baxter shaved his mustache and put the chicken down for his latest release, Imaginary Man. As he has grown as a songwriter and performer since his debut album, Feathers & Fishhooks, he has also honed his team and his flexibility in lineups, ranging from solo to trio with two fiddles, to a full nine-piece band... and a Grateful Dead cover band full of friends. With an engaging tale about why he capitalizes the "L" in the middle of his first name, and how the royal Russian family connects to the Grateful Dead, Baxter tells tales and writes songs that keep you listening.

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RayLand Baxter

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Country Fried Rock: RayLand Baxter Interview

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Imaginary Man

James Gunn crafts a deeply flawed film, but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which digs deep into daddy issues, is still entertaining, visually gorgeous, and likable.

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Ostinato Records presents an array of revolutionary musicians on the impassioned funaná compilation, Pour Me a Grog.

Vocalist Martha High spent three decades with James Brown, and she tells PopMatters about her resurrected solo career as well as her path through the music industry.

A new Soul Jazz Records compilation presents Apala songs, created to reject colonialism and celebrate recent independence in late 1960s Nigeria.

Matthew Gutmann's Are Men Animals is and interesting but flawed, rushed look at masculinity that suffers from digressions and an unwillingness to be as political as it could have been.

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Vocalist Martha High spent three decades with James Brown, and she tells PopMatters about her resurrected solo career as well as her path through the music industry.