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Gill Landry

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Gill Landry
Playing resonator guitar with Old Crow Medicine Show at 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., August 2, 2012
Playing resonator guitar withOld Crow Medicine Showat9:30 Clubin Washington, D.C., August 2, 2012
Background information
Birth nameGilbert John Landry
Also known asFrank Lemon
Born(1975-12-10)December 10, 1975(age 48)
Lake Charles, Louisiana,United States
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)Guitar,banjo,steel guitar,resonator guitar
Years active1998–present
LabelsLoose,ATO
Websitegilllandrymusic.com

Gilbert John Landry(born December 10, 1975), also known by the stage name ofFrank Lemon,is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist born inLake Charles, Louisiana.He is a former member ofOld Crow Medicine Showand a founding member of the Kitchen Syncopators.[1]In March 2015 he released his third album,[2]the self-titledGill Landry,and in October 2017 cameLove Rides a Dark Horsereleased byATO Records[3]andLoose Music.[4]

Biography

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Early days

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Gill Landry got his first guitar when he was 5.[5]After spending many yearsbuskingthe streets ofNew Orleans,theNorthwest,and Europe, he started The Kitchen Syncopators with his friend Woody Pines in 1998. As he tells the story:

The Kitchen Syncopators came out of aVaudevilleshow that Me, Felix Hatfield, Woody Pines, and Huck Notari were doing called The Songsters. It was aBread and Puppet—inspired cardboard theater which featured a lot of early American music we were picking up off of our friend Baby Gramps.[5]

Those songs would come in handy later when they'd moved to thePacific Northwest.Landry recounts:

We'd been starving in shacks inEugene, Oregon,when me and Woody went to theOregon Country Fairone day to try busking. I think we made $300 bucks that day, which to us was a fortune at the time.[5]

The Kitchen Syncopators recorded seven self-released CDs:

  • The Kitchen Syncopators
  • Jug Band and Rag Time
  • Tijuana Zebra
  • Pepper In My Shoe(2003)
  • Yazoo City Strugglers(2004)
  • Underwood(2005)
  • Live From Sedona(2006)

Old Crow Medicine Show

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Gill began to fill in for Critter Fuqua, lending vocals, banjo and steel guitar forOld Crow Medicine Show,joining them on tour in Europe in 2005 and appearing at the Cambridge Folk Festival.[6]As Landry tells it:

Our mutual friend, Sam Parton, suggested I giveKetcha call. So, I did, and he...asked me how myclawhammeranddobroplaying was, and I said it was rusty but good. I didn't even own a banjo at the time and hadn't heard of clawhammer before. I was a guitar player. "

Recovering quickly, he "went to a place called The Folkstore inSeattle,and bought a Goodtime banjo. "He got a five-minute lesson from the store owner, then" practiced it for two weeks before I went to meet the boys. I played it on the Opry and at Doc Watson days. I must have just been god awful (sic). "Something must have worked, because" they kept calling me back.[5]

When Old Crow co-founder Chris "Critter" Fuqua officially "went on hiatus" from the group in 2007[7]to pursue "recovery from a longtime alcohol addiction",[8]the group looked to Landry as a replacement. "[5]He toured and recorded with the band until 2015, appearing onTennessee Pusher(2008),Carry Me Back(2012), andRemedy(2014), for which they won a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album.[9]

Regarding his third solo album, released March 2015, he says: "This album, though holding to a few similar influences as Old Crow, is very much a departure as it is more of a personal journey, musically and lyrically."[2]Landry left Old Crow Medicine Show following the release of this record.[10]

Solo albums

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In 2007, Landry released a solo album titledThe Ballad of Lawless SoirezonNettwerk Records.[11]"Coal Black Heaven" from this album was hailed by one reviewer as "something of ahobohaikuto the national collapse anddepressionlooming over every hollowed-out and rusted-through US river town. "[12]

In October 2011, he self-released his second solo album titledPiety & Desire— featuring theFelice Brothers,Brandi Carlile,Jolie Holland,Ketch Secor,and Samantha Parton (of theBe Good Tanyas) — where he "creates a whole film and stereo hi-fi noir milieu" by realizing "a dozen rootsy, ambient and mostly catchy hardscrabble southwestern tinged originals."[13]

"Recorded in a south Nashville apartment and produced by Landry himself, the album pitches its tent in the four-way intersection between Dylan-inspired folk-rock, atmospheric Americana, dusty cowboy songs and street busker ballads."[2]

Rolling Stone

His third, self-titled album was released by ATO Records on March 3, 2015.[14]Leaving the "relative security of the popular roots band Old Crow Medicine Show" and suffering a "tough breakup with a one-time fiancée," forced a reevaluation of Landry's life helping to generate the "introspective, generally dark songs that pour out of him' on this album. Landry says of his" map out of the darkness ":[15]

The characters in the songs – some living, some dead – are all pulled from my life. Some are very specific, and others relate to the wide range of both good and bad hearts I've had the pleasure of meeting over the years. I tried to write from a perspective in which there was no blame. These songs are searchers looking for some semblance of truth in a shifting and messy landscape.[2]

Love Rides a Dark Horse(2017)

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Love Rides a Dark Horsewas released by ATO Records[16]&Loose[17]in October 2017. Landry says of the impetus for the album:[3]

I’d like to believe love always wins coming down the stretch – it just might not be the way you envisioned it. In my experience love often isn't what I expected and wouldn't be half as good as it was. That basically is what I wrote this album about.

The album includes contributions fromRoss Holmeson fiddle (Mumford & Sons,Bruce Hornsby), Skylar Wilson on keyboard (Andrew Combs,Rayland Baxter), and Logan Matheny on drums (Roman Candle,The Rosebuds).American Songwriternotes "Landry’s looming yet subtle baritone — somewhere betweenLeonard Cohen,Kris KristoffersonandDave Alvin— unspool (sic) stories of broken hearts. "[15]

Festivals and tours

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Landry shared stage atAmericana Music Festivalin September 2015 with acts such asLoretta Lynn,Steve Earle,Pokey Lafarge,andGillian Welch.He opened forWarren HaynesandThe Wood Brotherson tour in Fall of 2015.

After touring Sweden in 2016, Landry performed at Twisterella (2016) and both theLatitude Festival[18]inSuffolk, EnglandandLongitude Festivalin Ireland in 2017.[19]

In 2017 and 2019 he performed concerts with singerDianna Agronat theCafé Carlylein New York.[20][21]

Film/Video

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Landry contributed music for theRun Away Dog(2017) soundtrack. He appeared inAustin to Boston(2014), which chronicled four bands riding in five Volkswagen buses across three thousand miles, and featured:Ben Howard,The Staves,Nathaniel Rateliff,andBear's Den.Landry appeared inBig Easy Express(2012) with his former band, Old Crow Medicine Show. He also appeared at the end ofBe Good Tanyasvideo "The Littlest Birds".

References

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  1. ^Hahne, Jeff (May 9, 2007)."Dark inspiration".Creative LoafingCharlotte.RetrievedApril 4,2011.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^abcdLeahey, Andrew (January 13, 2015)."Listen to the New Single From Old Crow Medicine Show's Gill Landry 'Just Like You' paves the way for self-titled, genre-jumping solo album".Rolling Stone.Archivedfrom the original on August 11, 2015.RetrievedAugust 25,2015.
  3. ^ab"Interview: Gill Landry on New Solo Album, Freedom After Old Crow Medicine Show".The Boot.November 3, 2017.Archivedfrom the original on December 12, 2017.RetrievedDecember 11,2017.
  4. ^Aird, Author Jonathan (December 11, 2017)."Gill Landry" Love rides a dark horse "(Loose Music, 2017)".Archivedfrom the original on April 4, 2018.RetrievedApril 7,2020.{{cite web}}:|first=has generic name (help)
  5. ^abcdeChris, Mateer (December 13, 2011)."Gill Landry Reflects On His Work With The Kitchen Syncopators & Old Crow Medicine Show, While Delivering His Own" Piety & Desire "".Uprooted Music Revue.Archivedfrom the original on April 20, 2012.RetrievedSeptember 5,2012.
  6. ^"Gill Landry".The Post and Courier.October 11, 2007.RetrievedApril 4,2011.
  7. ^Comaratta, Len (July 26, 2012)."Interview: Critter Fuqua (of Old Crow Medicine Show)".Consequence of Sound.Archivedfrom the original on September 30, 2012.RetrievedSeptember 25,2012.
  8. ^Dickens, Tad (August 14, 2012)."Old Crow Medicine Show's new chapter [podcast with new member Chance McCoy]".The Roanoke Times.Archived fromthe originalon February 1, 2013.RetrievedSeptember 5,2012.
  9. ^"Grammy Awards 2015: The Complete Winners List".Rolling Stone.February 8, 2015.Archivedfrom the original on February 9, 2015.RetrievedApril 5,2020.
  10. ^Scott, Craig (July 23, 2015)."Interview: Gill Landry. I'm Putting My Own Boots On And Taking A Walk".Rock Shot. Archived fromthe originalon September 15, 2015.RetrievedAugust 25,2015.
  11. ^Danielsen, Aarik."Gill Landry: The Ballad of Lawless Soirez".PopMatters.Archivedfrom the original on June 4, 2011.RetrievedApril 4,2011.
  12. ^Ritter, Mitch (March 19, 2011)."Mitch's Monthly Mix: Aguas de Marḉo (Waters of March)".Driftwood Magazine.Archivedfrom the original on June 12, 2015.RetrievedSeptember 7,2012.
  13. ^Ritter, Mitch (October 18, 2011)."Feature Review: Gill Landry, Piety & Desire".Driftwood Magazine.Archivedfrom the original on October 24, 2013.RetrievedSeptember 7,2012.
  14. ^"Gill Landry Pre-Order".Atorecords.shop.musictoday.com. March 3, 2015.Archivedfrom the original on February 6, 2015.RetrievedApril 30,2015.
  15. ^abHorowitz, Hal (October 5, 2017)."Gill Landry: Love Rides a Dark Horse « American Songwriter".American Songwriter.Archivedfrom the original on March 10, 2018.RetrievedMarch 9,2018.
  16. ^"Gill Landry announces new album" Love Rides A Dark Horse "– ATO RECORDS".atorecords.com.August 15, 2017.Archivedfrom the original on December 12, 2017.RetrievedDecember 11,2017.
  17. ^"Loose | Gill Landry's New Album 'Love Rides A Dark Horse' Is Out Today".Archived fromthe originalon September 27, 2020.RetrievedApril 7,2020.
  18. ^"2017 Line Up".Latitude Festival.April 2, 2014.Archivedfrom the original on July 20, 2017.RetrievedJuly 21,2017.
  19. ^"Line up".Longitude Festival 2017.February 1, 2013.Archivedfrom the original on July 25, 2017.RetrievedJuly 21,2017.
  20. ^Frisby, Troy."BWW Review: Dianna Agron Nails the Songs But Loses the Thread at Cafe Carlyle".BroadwayWorld.com.Archivedfrom the original on September 24, 2020.RetrievedSeptember 23,2020.
  21. ^"Music Review: Dianna Agron breaks loose at Cafe Carlyle with Gill Landry".Theater Pizzazz.September 20, 2017.RetrievedOctober 30,2020.
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