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Voice of the Rural Appalachians |
Words & Music
Over the years my love of storytelling has naturally led me in diverse directions. As a young man growing up on the farm I loved Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Louis Bromfield's classic Malabar Farm. At the same time, as I came of age in 1968, I was taken with the poet-painters of that era-- Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Neil Young, Paul Simon and so many others-- who fostered in me an awareness of lyrical content. Thus, I began to appreciate music as a kind of literature in its own right. As far as musical influences go, my perennial favorites from that era include Bob Dylan's Another Side (1966) John Stewart's California Bloodlines (1969) The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968) Country Joe McDonald's Thinking of Woody Guthrie (1969) and Jackson Browne's For Everyman (1968)
No wonder, given the state of pop culture in the 1960s and 70s, that my first published works would be of a musical nature. Having access to a Sony 4-track on the farm, I had ample opportunity to experiment and hone my skills as a composer/musician. I was 17-years-old when I recorded my first original song, Northbound Train, a story inspired by the pain I felt when my girlfriend left to attend college in Pennsylvania. The college was located just across the Mason-Dixon Line, but as far as I was concerned it may as well have been the moon. Even today, when I listen to that tape and the wonder of those days, it makes me cry. And I understand why I have pursued the path I have chosen for myself.(ATTENTION-- This page is not fully functional. Please be patient as we are trying to upload all this music)
My first release, a vinyl LP entitled Next Good Warm Day (1978) included several great players, including John David Call of Pure Prairie League on steel guitar and Jon Corneal of the Byrds on percussion. The songs represent a variety of colorful stories inspired by my own experiences growing up in West Virginia. Unfortunately, the album is out of print at the moment; but with the help of Black Larch Press I look forward to the day when the album can be re-mastered and released on compact disc. In the meantime, have a listen:This photo was taken in 1976, at the height of my "outlaw" phase.
In the studio (Appalachian Sound) in Ohio.
R-L Gary Platt (engineer) Jon Phelps (producer)
and yours truly at age 26.
I was living and working in the Richmond, Virginia area in the mid-1990s when I felt inspired to write many of the tunes on Chamomile & Color TV. Unhappy with city life and longing for the mountains, I dreamed up the very place. Stringtown Road, an actual place near the farm in West Virginia, seemed the perfect moniker for project, since the whole homesick idea was to get back to the mountains, to my roots. As I said, Stringtown Road the "group" was homemade too, not a cohesive unit of country boys fresh off the back porch, but a bunch of studio players I happened to be living with at the time. Great chemistry though. Check it out:
Lady Cordelia Photo taken at Flat Five Studio in 1996
My second release on Encrypted Records, Are We There Yet is another one those existential road trips. Some of the players are the same, but on this record I included Rob Campbell on "country" electric guitar and Ernie Powers on dobro. The combination gives the music a haunting, ethereal quality reminiscent of Jerry Garcia's steel guitar work on David Crosby's album If I Could Only Remember My Name. The CD also has a different feel because, instead of cutting the basic tracks with bass and drums, I decided that the basic track should be acoustic guitar only.
Todd Cooper (drums), David Porter (bass) and me.
We're sitting in my 1989 Subaru.
In 1998 I met Katrina Landon at Flat Five Studios and was asked to produce her debut CD River Voice. In addition to producing, I also play (acoustic guitar) and sing harmony on most of the tracks. The song It All Comes Together was written by me for Katrina. Asked to describe Katrina's music for radio, I was forced to coin the term Celtic Pop, if only because Wes Chappell plays penny whistle on a couple of the songs. The fact that her mother was from Southampton may also have had something to do with it. In actuality though, Katrina's lyrics are inspirational as well as deeply personal. As you might expect of someone with a PhD, who studied voice at Peabody Conservatory (and who grew up with Bruce Hornsby) Katrina is both introspective and outgoing, a thinker as well as a performer. Her CD River Voice won her international acclaim when it was released in 1998 and I toured with her extensively throughout the United States, appearing live on radio in many cities and in local clubs.
Gary Winkler and Katrina Landon in 1998
All songs written by Gary Winkler @Boomerangst Publishing (BMI) Songs written by Katrina Landon @Loba/Boomerangst Publishing (BMI) California Days written by Randy Walker, @1988 R. Walker (BMI)
