December 2017
The COASTAL STAR
RALSTON
If You Go
Continued from page 11 Rodeo bandmate Jeff Snow (on “Yer My Blues”) and IV engineer Michael Seaman (on “Pickup Truck” and “Cows”). Ralston’s unique fusing of influences like The Beatles’ John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison and the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson are there, as always, but his use of synthesizers occasionally hints at a more modern update like Tears for Fears. And the more raucous, distorted tracks with Snow and Seaman on drums show glimpses of the early side of David Bowie’s career. “I was actually listening to a lot of Bowie at the time I finished this record,” Ralston said. “I started working on it before Shadows of the Summertime was even done. I did a lot more work on it while I lived and did IT work in Abingdon, Virginia, from 2012 to 2014, and knew I would finish it, but that there was no need to rush. Then I got it to Michael [Seaman] to master.” Seaman has worked with Ralston throughout his solo recording career, whether in Tennessee in conjunction with Grammy Award-winning engineer Charles Dye or at Seaman’s Listen Up Studios, both in New Orleans and its recent Broward County location of Lighthouse Point. With a wealth of stellar equipment, plus his own expert ears and impressive multi-instrumental skills, Seaman added finishing interludes between the songs that put a bow on IV.
See John Ralston's Shadows Band, Grey & Orange, and Sweet Bronco at 8 p.m. Dec. 7 at Voltaire, 526 Clematis St., West Palm Beach (408-5603).
“I don’t know much about the mastering process, but I knew I wanted the songs to run together rather than have the traditional three-second pause in between,” Ralston said. “Michael really got that vision, and made it come to life in the mastering. He was a huge part of the creative process on this record.” “John had recorded almost everything on the four-track, with minimal overdubs,” said Seaman. “When he gave it to me to master, my first thought was, ‘Whoa, this is more like a score than an album.’ The songs didn’t go through the usual structure as much as they floated, so I thought they should float together.” It was Ralston’s Beatlesque themes, and Seaman’s engineering, on the independently released Needle Bed that helped attract Vagrant Records. The label reissued the album with different cover art in 2006, and put the young singer/ songwriter on the touring jet set to the Fireside Bowl in Chicago; Madison Square Garden and CBGB’s in New York City, and beyond. “I was touring and recording all the time between 2006
and 2009,” he says, “and supplementing my income by working construction while I was back in Lake Worth, which I did even more of when I stopped touring in 2010. I took a band on three separate tours through the United States and into Canada, and one to the U.K., through England, Wales and Scotland.” Those tours encompassed Ralston’s second LP for Vagrant, Sorry Vampire (2007), and the 2008 EP White Spiders, which arrived in Europe just before his first concert there. Yet what would’ve been a euphoric moment was instead bittersweet. The EP was his last release for Vagrant, since Ralston — now also a father — knew he’d essentially been dropped after Sorry Vampire, and that the tour would likely be his last through Europe. “I knew by then that I didn’t want to tour anymore,” he said. “I had a three-album contract with Vagrant, but they didn’t pick up my option for the third full-length release. It was a huge letdown, because music had been my life to that point. I didn’t have a résumé or any other job prospects, but I’d put out records that I still feel good about, had gotten great reviews, and that people seemed to love.”
ArtsPaper/Music AT13 Occasional Ralston offerings have dotted the indie landscape over the past 10 years to prove that point. When We are Cats was his self-released four-song EP from 2007, and he even teamed with a small Tampabased label, 24 Hour Service Station, on two 2010 releases. A tribute to New Order, Ceremony, featured his countrytinged ballad interpretation of that band’s “All Day Long,” and the holiday single “Jesus Christ/A Marigny XMAS” sported red and green vinyl editions. Shadows of the Summertime preceded another two-song single, Golden Greats Vol. 6, released in 2015. “I’m a collaborative guy, so the hardest part about the split with Vagrant was accepting that I now wasn’t part of something anymore,” said Ralston. “It took me a long time to wrap my head around getting dropped because I hadn’t sold enough records. “And that meant having to figure out a new way of doing things, which I’ve done now. I’m in a place where I couldn’t be if I still had to worry about the commercial sales side. And it’s a better place.”
Which, after a long hiatus, has led to IV. The disc has a Beatles’ White Album quality, in that it also features elements that can seem disparate if listened to individually, yet more in context if listened to in sequence. Without being bound by contractual obligation, L-Dub’s finest already has a new album called Meditations/Turn Eternal in the can. The small-town Ralston is just waiting to decide upon a worthy 2018 release date. Alas, it appears that next album will be released from afar, as Ralston, diValentin and their children are moving to Winston-Salem, N.C., in midDecember following a special album release and farewell show at Voltaire in downtown West Palm Beach on Dec. 7. Yet Ralston didn’t completely close the door to returning. “I’m going to miss everyone down here,” he wrote in an email. “Such a great arts community in spite of our surroundings. It really is amazing. I know full well that I’m not going to be able to replace what we have down here. But it feels like it’s time for an adventure.”
On view through Apr. 8, 2018
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BOCAMUSEUM.ORG Alex Katz, Sharon, 2014, Oil on board, 12 x 12 inches. Collection of Lance Uggla. © Alex Katz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.