Brandon Rhyder turned down five music scholarships because he couldnt envision a career as a band director. It wasnt until after he graduated college with a degree in industrial technology that he picked up a guitar and realized he was destined to perform and even to direct bands. Just not the kind involving woodwinds and marching.
A back-roads boy from Carthage in Northeast Texas, Rhyder says his roots are painted in country tones. Not Texas country, not Nashville country, not old or new country. Just country. The kind of place where songs still say something, where emotions are meant to be bared, where a man onstage alone with his guitar can captivate a crowd, one smile or teardrop at a time.
Rhyders third album, Conviction, on his own Dogwood Hill label, is filled with the sort of music that a loving husband and expectant father in his early 30s is likely to make: equal parts realism and hope, experience and dreams. Yeah, hes still married to his high-school sweetheart, Kelli, and theyre still in love. But yeah, hes been knocked around the block a little bit by the music biz and life in general and maybe thats not such a bad thing.
I was as green as I could be. I didnt know anything, Rhyder admits of those early days after he moved from Tyler to Austin in 1999 to pursue his music career. I had no idea how much work was involved. But I can say in the same breath, this has never been work to me. Its never been like having a job. Ive loved it, every bit of it.
Rhyder put together his first band in 2000 and recorded his first album, Because She Loves Me, in 2001. Behind the Pine Curtain followed in 2003. In 2004, Rhyder went solo and began performing acoustic shows in various Texas venues.
I think Ive grown more in the last year simply from not having a band and having to step onstage with just my guitar and vocals, and doing a show with other songwriters, especially established songwriters that have invited me into their world, Rhyder says, mentioning in particular Austin-based artist Walt Wilkins, and Nashvillian Darrell Scott. I had to put it all on the line. It taught me to write better. And perform better. I think when youre naked that way, youd better be able to do something to hold a crowd, or its gonna go downhill quick.
Convictions 15 tracks leave no doubt that Rhyders skilled at what he does. On the opening vocal track, Freeze Frame Time, he puts himself in a fathers shoes, to eloquent effect; in Man of Conviction, he sings of someone whose life hasnt gone all that well. A Storm Blew In is a tale about losing love; Go Back In Fool is about rescuing it.
I try to write simply, Rhyder says. You know where I stand. But I try to say it a little bit differently than maybe youve heard it before.
Spoken like a true songwriter, one whos been influenced equally by John Denver (whose presence can almost be felt in track 13, Losing the War), Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty and the Highwaymen. Hes also a big Keith Gattis fan; Conviction contains Rhyders cover of Gattis California.
This is the album that I always wanted to make, he says of Conviction, which Wilkins produced, and which features Scott on the track, Merry Go Round. Other contributors to the disc, recorded in Nashville, are Doug Kahan on bass; Mike Daly on steel guitar and dobro; Mickey Grimm on drums; Rick Plant on lead guitar; Bruce Wallace on electric guitar; Tim Lorsch on fiddle, loboy and mandolin; and Jessica Murray, Marsha Ramirez, Britt Savage and Susan Gibson on backing vocals. Hes putting together a new band to tour behind the album featuring Keith Davis on Background vocals and lead guitar, James Hertless on Background vocals and bass guitar, and Mike Henretty on Drums.
Rhyders quick to point out that the title has nothing to do with the down-and-out Man of Conviction.
I named it Conviction simply because of my belief in this record, he says. The songs are great and the production amazing. I love to listen to this record and to hear it on the radio, and I will put it in front of anybody in the business and say, Check this out!
Conviction, Rhyder adds, the belief that my time is now.
by Lynne Margolis
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