Rayvon Pettis
Nashville, Tennessee, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2012 | SELF
Music
Press
HOMETOWN: Ft. Payne, Alabama
CURRENT LOCATION: Nashville, Tennessee
AMBITIONS: Eat the moon!
TURN-OFFS: Ambitions.
TURN-ONS: I’ve been speed reading the Wild Cards book series. Each one is such a grab-bag of ugliness, brave ideas, bad writing and occasional beauty with a decidedly 90s vibe. I dig ’em.
DREAM GIG: I’d love to play the Five Spot, it’s one of my favorite places. So many of my favorite East Nashville heroes play there.
FAVORITE LYRIC: Mark Heard put “Like the wind-burst of birdwings taking flight in a hard rain” in his song “The Tip Of My Tongue,” and I can’t think of a better one.
SONG I WISH I WROTE: “Don’t Forget Me” by Harry Nilsson
5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: Jhonen Vasquez, Stan Lee, Jason Isbell, Bo Diddley, Charles Dickens
MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: Years ago I saw St. Vincent and Radiohead live in one night, and it was pretty amazing. I had actually never heard Radiohead before, and hearing “I May be Wrong” live with a gajillion people was really cool.
I WROTE THIS SONG BECAUSE…
Well the Low-Man was already the villain of the story, and the middle of the album holds looser to the rest of the narrative anyway, so I had some space. I was really self-possessed there for awhile cause I had just come home from my 2nd tour in Afghanistan. My left hand had half stopped working, so I was stuck in an Army med unit waiting for surgery. My album had all but been abandoned in my absence, and then I heard Robin Williams had died. I don’t know…it just gave me a great chance to cement a weak spot on the record, and at the same time, feel sorry for someone who wasn’t myself. - American Songwriter
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
With the release of his full-length album Insureda, Rayvon Pettis brings a new feel to a classic genre. Lush with roots folk instrumentation, soulful vocals, a variety of strings, and addicting progressions, the album reaches from Americana to classic folk rock from song to song. Although there is diversity between songs, there is a glue that holds the record together well and tells a story all in all. Most importantly, the album never seems to lose touch with the emotional platform great songs are built from.
The first single is an upbeat, southern alt Americana song with an added edge. Laced with attitude, and an almost anthemic feel, the song picks up and comes alive as it plays on.
"Baby Blue is the nickname of the unnamed narrator's girl he's thinking about at the start of the album while barreling across the western desert in a red firebird running on no sleep and he's getting his head filled with a bunch of dream and realizing he needs to let the Baby Blue woman go and he's happy knowing she's waking up in her life and will be happy without him and the love they had at least for a little while. Insureda is the name of the Aztec goddess who kind of looks out over the whole record/story." explains the songwriter of his single.
Although the single speaks volumes for the album itself, to get a full understanding of the record, it should be heard in its entirety. Covering a lot of ground, the record is loaded with 12 string guitars, violins, mandolin, and plenty more in the way of real deal southern folk. Insureda is somewhat of a concept album and its easy to hear it was a fun experience to create.
"Well there's a buttload of different instruments and styles being thrown around. We used three different kind of bass's alone. And like I said before dense intelligible wordplay is rarely a huge investment in music these days and this record does a bunch of it," says Rayvon of the album.
Rayvon Pettis began writing music back in 2011 when he met John Mosman. The two recorded material and played shows as Liddy Rose. After the band broke up, Rayvon decided to pull together other musicians to help him record the Rayvon Pettis EP, which later received some radio attention in Birmingham. Once the songs were getting airplay, Rayvon realized it was time to put together a full album under his own name as a solo artist. It was then that Insureda was born.
The Insureda album is now available on most digital outlets for download and Rayvon is always writing new material.
Band Members
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