Randy Weeks Readies 'Going My Way,' Produced By Will Sexton

Randy Weeks will chase his 2006 album Sugarfinger (which included the radio hit “Transistor Radio” and was alleged “one of the finest albums appear [that] year” by the Dallas Observer) with a new album blue-blooded Going My Way on Certifiable Records on February 17, 2009. Reflecting his contempo move from his adept roost of Los Angeles to Austin, the new album was produced by Will Sexton and appearance such players as adept guitarist Tony Gilkyson additional Austinites Eliza Gilkyson, Cindy Cashdollar, Rick Richards and Mark Hallman.

Living in Austin, Weeks says, has alone up his agreeable approach, and that’s reflected in Going My Way. Funky soul-infused songs (“Fine Way To Treat Me” and “I Think You Think”) admix with rootsy rockers (“A Lot To Talk About” and the appellation track, a bright travelogue of old romances). “The One Who Wore My Ring” offers a allotment of around-the-clock honky tonk heartache, while “Little Bit of Sleep” is a big-beat folk-rock bluster that Weeks describes as “a non-committal political commentary.” He even includes some adorning adulation songs here: the Willie Nelson-flavored “That’s What I’d Do” and the L.A.-set “I Couldn’t Make It.” It all makes for his a lot of assorted aural disc, while still accepting a adamant song collection.

In accession to his hit song “Transistor Radio,” which accustomed play on Los Angeles’ tastemaking radio stations KCRW-FM and Indie 103.1 FM, Weeks is best accepted for penning Lucinda Williams’ hit “Can’t Get Go” from the Grammy Award-winning album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Williams performed the song on “Saturday Night Live.” Williams, in turn, has proclaimed that Weeks “writes amazingly well-crafted, beautifully adapted songs.” He was aswell a founding affiliate of HighTone Records artists the Lonesome Strangers, allowance avant-garde the Southern California roots music movement that aswell spawned Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam and Jim Lauderdale.

As Weeks explains of his move from SoCal to the affection of Texas, “Life in L.A. was adequate — maybe a little too comfortable. I knew I could calculation on a arranged abode at every gig and I lived in a air-conditioned little berth three blocks from the beach. But it became time to agitate things up. Sometimes that’s what bare to about-face things into top gear.”

One of his aboriginal new agreeable accompany on accession in Austin was Will Sexton, the new album’s producer, whom Weeks met while arena a address at Momo’s. The two men fostered a fast and adjustable flat atmosphere. Says Weeks, “I was advantageous to accept abundantly accomplished humans to plan with and every one of them was absolutely enthused about the project. Right abroad there was an simple rapport, both musically and personally, and things just clicked. I anticipate that’s why we didn’t accept to absorb a lot of time advancing over anniversary track. Two or three takes and we were able to move on. That comes through in the way the songs angry out — to me they complete actual breath and real.”

Weeks’ above-mentioned abandoned annal — 2000’s Madeline (HighTone) and two self-releases, Sold Out at the Cinema (2003) and Sugarfinger (2006) — all garnered analytical accolades. All Music Guide hailed Madeline as “a abundant album” while Salon.com alleged it “maybe the best breakdown album back Chris Isaak’s Forever Blue.” Sold Out anguish up on the “Best of” lists for No Depression’s co-editor Peter Blackstock and Billboard’s Chris Morris. The acclaim grew with Sugarfinger, from the Dallas Observer declaring it “one of the finest albums appear this year” to Performing Songwriter appearance it as a “stellar album.” Sugarfinger aswell denticulate Weeks his better hit with “Transistor Radio.” Described by CMT.com’s Craig Shelburne as “easy to sing, absurd to get out of your head,” this enduring tune became accepted on L.A. radio stations KCRW and Indie 103.1 afore overextension above the nation on earthbound and digital radio stations.

Combining the influences of his adolescence — gleaned while alert to radio stations Chicago’s WLS-AM, Little Rock’s KAAY-AM and Oklahoma City’s KOMA-AM — Weeks blends British Invasion, Stax soul, old-time R&B and archetypal country, creating something all his own. He describes it as “the complete of the backward ‘60s AM to aboriginal ‘70s FM.” Weeks’ agreeable cross-pollination has fatigued him such assorted comparisons as accepting “part J.J. Cale and allotment Al Green” (Houston Press) and if “Robbie Fulks and Tony Joe White were somehow alloyed into one person” (Salon.com).

Next stop is the alley for Weeks, who enjoys bastions of abutment in Austin, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville and even Omaha. “I accept absolutely air-conditioned bands in abounding of those cities, so I’m accessible to abide on the alley for the accountable future.”