Rod Picott – McGonigel’s Mucky Duck – Houston, TX July 23, 2015
Concert Reviews
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Written by Eddie Ferranti
ImageIt is amazing sometimes how the music world can mirror real life.  In the case of one Rod Picott , whom I got to catch at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck recently, it was just that. My journey to Houston became possible after I worked 9 years in the rough steel mills of Youngstown, Ohio paying my way thru college and then uprooting to Texas where I’ve been ever since. RP worked hard in the welding business in his home state of Maine and then found sheetrocking his profession for 18 years in Nashville.

At age thirty-five he decided to be a singer-songwriter and has not looked back since.  Unless you’ve done it, pulling up stakes and moving is a tough nut to crack. Picott’s tales of bloody knuckles, elbow grease and lots of heartbreak detail his struggles both in love and life. Do you think today’s millenials even know what elbow grease is?

Lyrics like ” No one remembers your name just for working hard” or “Nobody gets a bonus with bloody knuckles and scars” rang true big time.

Thru all his hard time tales the dude has a killer sense of humor that is not prevalent in his tunes at all.  His stories about pal Fred Eaglesmith falling out of a moving car and his first band with Slaid Cleaves (Magic Rats) were epic.  Rod even said early on here’s my only happy song, “Angels and Acrobats”, coming of his latest album Fortune.

ImageHis stage presence expresses an honest and earthy desire to get in your head and shake things up, making you strive to be the best you can be against all odds. The songs are short and sweet, but very much to the point.  Picott pulls a lot of his songs from family experiences and a killer one was “Uncle John”.  This was a heartfelt tale of a boxer who was a tad “out there in the woods” where he belonged.

Stellar tunes were “Spare Change”, “Girl From Arkansas”,  “Broke Down” , “Sheetrock” (of course!), “65 Falcon” and “Trailer Park” with stand out lyric of “Mobile home ain’t goin’
nowhere”.  “Up All Night” encore was neato, too about bouts with young girls back in the day.

For all the hardships this gent has endured he looks good and his pipes sound like a smooth cross between Tom Petty and Kris Kristofferson if you will. If you’re looking for an entertainer who can catch you up on unemployment, criminals and messed up lives, Rod Picott is your guy. He left this reviewer casting himself back in time and glad  to have done what I had to enjoy my present situation in life.  His words came from experience-like mine- and they carried much weight.

God Bless him and all who work hard to follow their dreams…………Peace and LIVE music rules!