‘I’m Just A Rider On This Rodeo . . .’

 by whiteray 

Every music hunter knows the deal: You’re flipping through a bin of CDs or LPs, looking for nothing in particular, nearly hypnotized by the click-click of the CDs or the floof-floof of the record jackets, and then you stop. And go back one or two or three spots. And you pull out a CD or LP and scan the jacket. 

You have no idea why that particular album grabbed your attention. As you examine it, you sometimes see something on the jacket, or maybe something in the credits clicks: a name, a place, maybe a song title. You look at the price, and if it’s reasonable for something you don’t seem to know about, you set it aside and it goes home with you. 

And when it’s in the player or on the turntable, maybe it works for you. Sometimes, it’s good stuff. Most of the time, I’d guess, it’s just okay music. And every once in a while, it’s something that you really needed, even if you didn’t know what it was. The universe is funny like that. 

On a regular day in the spring of 2000, I was in the budget room of a Half Price Books in St. Paul, having wandered across the Mississippi from my digs in South Minneapolis. I looked first at the books, but I don’t remember if I bought any. Then I turned to the cart of budget CDs. One of them called to me, so I looked it over and couldn’t figure out why. 

The album, Glory Road, was from 1992, by a group called Maggie’s Farm. Okay, a Dylan reference. The lead vocalists were two women: Allison MacLeod and Claudia Russell. No recognition there, nor with the rest of the band: Steve Bankuti on drums and percussion, Jason Keene on bass, Brian Kerns on keyboards, and Roy Scoutz on guitar. 

I scanned further and found a couple of names I recognized: David Lindley on Hawaiian guitar and lap steel and Rosemary Butler on background vocals. I headed for the cash register. 

At home, I dropped the CD into the player and sat back to listen. I don’t even remember what the second track on the album sounded like. I’m sure it’s popped up on the RealPlayer from time to time, as have, no doubt, others from the CD. The first track, the title track, was all I needed. 

Since 1992, Claudia Russell has played with and/or written for other folks and has released a few solo albums, the most recent in 2013. Allison MacLeod’s credits at AllMusic are more slender, with nothing since 2003. I’ll probably look for some of Russell’s work. 

I’ve recently ripped the entire CD as a full album, but I’ve played it only once and even then, I just let it run in the background as I did other stuff, so I’m a ways from deciding if I like all of it. That’ll take some time to decide. If so, fine. If not, okay. All I really need, just like back in 2000, is the title track, “Glory Road.”