“Introducing the world to the first proletariat, hillbilly, folk art honest persons concept album that transcendscommodity!” artist and fiddler T.W. Rushing wrote me one morning while digging through this album, junking forlyrics to illuminate the cover and insert with his hands and pen, xeroxed and cut in the styles of Roy Finster andNorman Pettingill, “just don’t forget to spray paint the staples before you put it together.”Marshall Terry captured the songs with pedals he made, a 70s Neve console he rebuilt and a tape machine hesaved from certain death. No computers. Mixed down with his ears and fingers. I bartered most of theengineering, mixing and mastering fees by playing bass at his “Shaman Shack” a former reefer truck turnedNBC remote feed truck, recast as a studio parked in a warehouse on Austin’s East Side.The full band tracks were cut June of ‘17 in the midst of a central TX heat wave. We couldn't all fit in the truckso we ran a snake out to the back corner of the stagnant warehouse lit with a few flood lamps, but no talkbackmic to the truck. We’d holler after takes, reviewing before we rewound over the track or kept it. We only had 6”of tape left over at the end. It’s all here on this record, ghosts and all.Jody Suarez led me, Dan and Matt through 5 new songs over two evenings. I plugged my J45 into a tall ampMarshall had made through one of his White Rabbit Deluxe pedals and it just sounded right. Playing with theseguys has always felt right.Lyza Blair and Charley Crockett were my neighbors on the east side and I had just recorded on Charley’s great“Lil’ G.L.’s Honky Tonk Jubilee” record, he’s The Hard Luck Kid in my mind and in his voice. Lyza so deftlycaptured me in uneasy contempt at the current political and humanitarian crises in front of the hope just beyondthe truck’s doors.I dogsat for Noel and Brennen when we were in and out of town with our old band, traded a week for the twosongs we recorded here live in the truck. Summer was passing through on tour, her voice lent with thepassionate yearning of my friends Wes and Hattie, who inspired “County Fair”. Dylan is a guitar legend in themaking and a friend who was new to Austin from Fort Worth, we were eating at a lunch counter when I askedhim to play on this record, I had the catfish, he had a po’ boy. Go find these great artists, they’re the lifebloodof new American roots music, art and photography and I’m happy to call them friends.I would eventually move to Fort Worth in the fall of ‘17, I was off the road and ready for a change. The firstmonth there I was spending 3 days a week back in Austin mixing this record with Marshall. Nothing couldcome close to a more pure and honest time. The least I can do is thank these artists, my close friends andespecially Anita for supporting me through this whole process. Some of the characters on this record are real,some are inspired, most are you and me. We are where we find ourselves. I hope you find yourselfsomewhere in “Radioville”.-Simon Flory
