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.