Rayland Baxter proudly announces the release of his first EP

The endearing Rayland Baxter, more commonly identified by his friends and fans as the ‘Steve Zissou’ of folk, will be releasing his very first EP this Saturday at The Basement. Called ‘The Miscalculation of Song’, his EP will feature seven old country and folk inspired tracks, and is something he has been working on for the past year.

“Its basically a sample of what I have in my catalogue of songs I have written,” Baxter said. “They are an expression of me. Its what I enjoy, or don’t, they’re my opinions, they’re songs about God, or maybe even just getting out of town for a while. Basically, my life is cultivated in these songs.” He wrote four of the six tracks, that will be on the EP, a year ago while he was in Israel visiting family and friends.

“I stayed up all night and wrote those four songs, ” Baxter said. “I just had one of those whims and basically had them finished in the matter of one full day.”

Rayland has been writing music for about three years now, and has been playing guitar for about five or six. He likes to read and has delved in to all different kinds of books ranging from ‘The Great Gatsby’ to a book he mentioned called, ‘The Invisible Man’ which was a novel that he described as a weird take on the prejudices of the 1940’s.

“If you want to be a good writer, it makes sense to read other great authors’ works,” Baxter said. “Its important to note their styles, as well as how they arrange words to create their complete thoughts.”

He said his music and writing has continued to grow, as well as his experiences playing at venues. He did a radio show on December 27th for Lightening 100.1 at 3rd and Linsley, but playing live he said, for the most part, was all new to him.

“I’ve sort of been ramping on the freeway,” Baxter added. “Hopefully the freeway gets bigger and bigger. I hope this will last for a long time.”

Baxter mentioned that he is content with his music as it stands now, but admitted that he would like to see even further development in the future.

“My music speaks to me just a little bit,” he said. “I still feel that I haven’t hatched completely in to my best writing yet.” After his EP release, he plans to continue his journey and wants to further his experience with playing shows and tweaking his music.

-The Nashville Listener-

I quit writing for Sidelines Newspaper, Middle Tennessee State University's paper, and took up a job being the local correspondent with the Nashville Listener. Most of these articles can now be found here: www.nashvillelistener.com, instead of the Sidelines website. 

The Nashville Listener is a new company, with concentration on local musicians, started by my friend and editor Jamie Sutton. My friend Carl Gatti, affiliated with Happy Salmon Productions in Nashville, recommended me to him, so he read some of my stuff from the campus paper and offered me a position as a writer. Just a bit of personal updating. I was very excited to be offered this position. So far, I've learned so much, and we keep growing as a company every day. The people I've met along the way have taught me so much and have enabled me to have very lasting relationships! Anyways...

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Beat Repeat enjoys the journey of growth as djs

Clint Chapman and Tim Dugger joined forces early last year, to form one of the fastest growing dub experimental groups from the Nashville and Murfreesboro area. They call themselves Beat Repeat, and even though they haven’t been established for long, their quick success is evident to all those fans and newcomers who check them out. They started by playing mostly house shows, and even their first one offered something that people couldn’t forget.

“I remember the first time we played was at my house on April 10th of last year,” Tim said. “If you remember, that was the day all those tornados hit Murfreesboro. That was definitely a crazy and memorable show.”

July began, and their momentum picked up. Clint mentioned they played house shows for a minimum of once a week; most of the time it was more.

“We just created a buzz at those house shows, and before we knew it, we were playing at venues,” Clint said. “We’ve been doing that for about three months or so, but Thick as Thieves Productions really gave us the first shot at playing out. They really put a lot of faith in us, and for that we are thankful.

They both agreed that the influential people they have met along the way have offered a tremendous amount of experience that they contributed to their quick growth. They mentioned their friends from Jammenstein, as well as BigKid Productions. They’ve also done about three shows with Happy Salmon, their upcoming show at Club 527, in Murfreesboro, on February 19th, being their fourth.

Even though their heart is in playing house shows, they added that they loved playing at venues and being on the road because it offers such a different experience. For them, seeing packed shows from their position on stage gives them great joy because they simply love having a good time, causing the good time, and watching people dance.

“We’re just glad people like it,” Tim said. “People give us crazy compliments. One guy, in specific, approached us after a show and said he was going to quit his job so he could follow us everywhere we went.”

Even though the two have shown incredible progress, the don’t plan on letting up. Just to add a different twist to their presentation, they’ve decided to come up with a collaborative project involving cartoons, movies and even their own clothing line. They both agreed that they would like to see more art available at their shows. Its expected to take a few months to complete.

As far as their music goes, they’ve released a few mixes already that can be found on their myspace and on facebook. Their Meditation Mix was highly successful, as was their Mind Bomb mix, which was recently released. They also added that they want to be more involved with the production side of things as well; setting up their shows and the like. If you want a chance to see them play live, they will be at the ATO fraternity house in Murfreesboro playing a show tonight, at Blue Rooster the next day, and at Mercy Lounge on the 11th with Excision.

They are rather busy, because shortly after they will also be in Memphis with Zoogma on the 13th, and playing the Big Gigantic after party in Murfreesboro at the Boro, then again on the 19th with Karius Vega and Amtrak at Club 527. To see a full listing of their shows in detail, visit their myspace page. They also mentioned that playing at Bonnaroo is a very high possibility, but isn’t confirmed.

“We just have big dreams and high hopes,” Clint said.