Artists:Earl Musick

Fort Worth, Texas — "The place where American roots music rules," as one international broadcasting agency boasts, is not necessarily America. Texas-based songwriter Earl Musick is finding persuasive evidence of receptive audiences for his new CD, Privateer (Reload Records), in such distant locales as the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and Australia.

For Musick, a prolific tunesmith whose catalogue of original works numbers in the hundreds, this broadening awareness represents a plateau to compare with such breakthroughs as singer Dan Roberts' use of Musick's collaborative ballad "Angelina Dance" on the CD Viva la Cowboy; and the selection of two of Musick's tunes for the soundtrack of the acclaimed independent film EvenHand (2002).

Barely two months into its release from Reload Record Co., and with a strategic advertising campaign in such publications as the alt-country journal No Depression, Privateer has begun generating new levels of popular recognition for Musick. The singer-songwriter and bandleader has recently completed high-profile showcase engagements at North Texas' Wildflower and Cottonwood festivals and is in rehearsals for an appearance in August at Rainbow, Texas' Raz on the Braz Music Fest.

Meanwhile on all those other sides of the planet, such selections from Privateer as "Texas Moon," a heavy-weather song; the romantic laments "San Antone" and "Santa Cruz"; and the jazz-laced "Bright and Shiny Blues" have gone into steady rotation since late May via Radio Parkstad, Radio LOK, Radio Bogdike and Music Café 't Veendammertje in the Netherlands; Jolly Roger Radio in Ireland; and the globe-spanning U.S./U.K. frequencies of Twang Town U.S.A. and Real Roots Café. read more...