Rod Picott & Jenny Reynolds
The thrum of insects on a hot August night. A saw blade biting kiln-dried hemlock. The lonesome highway whine of long-haul trucks. A crude swallow of cheap whiskey that tears at your throat. Tears of loss and the easy laughter of old friends. This is the sound of Rod Picott’s world.
Over twenty-three years, twelve albums, three published books and a few thousand shows Rod Picott has worked; powered by the fuel of the blue-collar world he was born into. The son of a hard drinking welder and a homemaker, Picott’s youth set him on a road of self-reliance and fierce independence that at fifty-eight years still runs through his blood. Raised in the small town of South Berwick Maine, Rod Picott was a restless and rebellious youth and after high school, a construction worker by trade until moving to Nashville TN. in 1994. He turned down the one record deal he was offered at the start of his career and did not look in the rearview mirror; choosing instead to cut his own path and lay a bet on his own hard work.
“My parents had that worry over my future that all parents have. Their dream for me was to be an electrician at the shipyard but by fifteen years old I’d already seen Chrissie Hynde in leather pants so I sort of had other things on my mind – and they weren’t in South Berwick Maine.” – R.P.
Through luck and white knuckled determination Picott has been fortunate to open a tour for Alison Krauss and Union Station, play the Shrewsbury Folk festival, appear several times on the BBC2 Bob Harris sessions, play the Maverick Festival and receive the “Song of the Year” award for his co-write (w/Slaid Cleaves) “Broke Down” at the Austin Music Awards.
Rod Picott’s latest album, Starlight Tour, was produced by musician and filmmaker Neilson Hubbard (John Prine, Lucinda Williams)Starlight Tourfeatures some of Picott’s sharpest writing to date. The album ponders the songwriter’s own difficult past and peers into an uncertain future. The album has a feel of noir cinema. There is a darkness and uncertainty roiling through the collection of songs but there is also hope and grace shadowing alongside.
Picott has had songs placed in television and film projects including The FX series Justified and the Michael Douglas film Solitary Man. His song "Circus Girl" was featured in the PBS documentary Circus.
Picott types with two fingers as he failed typing class – though excelled in English and Literature. Rod Picott has toured as the opening act for Alison Krauss & Union Station and won the song of the year award at The Austin Music Awards for his song “Broke Down” co-written with Slaid Cleaves. Picott’s double cd titled Wood, Steal Dust & Dreams features the twenty-three songs co-written with Slaid Cleaves over the last thirty years.
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Jenny Reynolds lives her life following her mission statement of “Work hard, be nice, keep moving.” She is currently at work on a new record with Mark Hallman and André Moran at Cedar Creek Studio.
Her latest record “Any Kind of Angel” was also produced by Mark Hallman and André Moran at Congress House Studio, and was released on June 19, 2020. The recording features Jaimee Harris, BettySoo, Warren Hood, Oliver Steck, and Scrappy Jud Newcomb. It is her fourth release.
A native New Englander, Reynolds has worked with Boston-based artists Duke Levine, Kevin Barry and Catie Curtis. She has played the Old Settlers Music Festival, the Kerrville Folk Festival, The Philadelphia Folk Festival, Club Passim, the Cactus Cafe, and the Bluebird Cafe, and has worked with Grammy Nominee Ruthie Foster, and Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ian McLagan. She was an Official Showcase Artist at SXSW 2008 and 2018, and was named “Best New Local Act” in the Austin Chronicle’s 2005 Critics Poll.
Her music has been on major network television and independent film, including ABC’s “All My Children.” She is also the producer of Austin's “Williams Nite: A Tribute to the Music of Hank and Lucinda Williams,” a “kinda annual” show that will happen for the tenth time in 2021. Proceeds benefit the SIMS Foundation.
