Redheaded Friend by Robert Burke Warren
The soundtrack to Robert Burke Warren's one-man show / coming-of-age song cycle Redheaded Friend, this album is a mix of rock, new wave, spoken word, and punky singer-songwriter fare, songs that tell the story of a crucial friendship.
Produced by Rosendale based Grammy winner Dean Jones, Redheaded Friend contains songs as well as spoken word from the show. The material details RBW’s largely unsupervised youth in post-Civil Rights Act, pre-AIDS Atlanta. Fatherless, he finds courage in an emboldening friendship with a strange red haired boy named Todd. Todd shows how music can help RBW find the courage to escape a violent, dysfunctional life, with latchkey kids, southern belles, thrift store cross dressers, and steadfast nerd love as deliverance.
Tracklist
| 1. | If Not For You (Todd's Song) | 2:25 |
| 2. | Latchkey Refugees | 4:06 |
| 3. | Barefoot on the Pavement | 1:00 |
| 4. | Redheaded Friend | 3:21 |
| 5. | Frequencies | 0:34 |
| 6. | Let Me Take You to the Ghosts | 3:34 |
| 7. | Rich Kid Racist | 3:17 |
| 8. | Something Fancy | 1:06 |
| 9. | At the Rocky Horror Picture Show | 3:51 |
| 10. | Painting a Vast Blue Sky | 1:59 |
| 11. | Threshold | 1:06 |
| 12. | Defy Gravity | 2:36 |
| 13. | If Not For You (Reprise) | 2:02 |
Credits
produced by Dean Jones
recorded at No Parking Studios, Tillson, NY, Autumn 2019
mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music
design by Mark Lerner at Rag & Bone Shop
cover photo: Susanna Hernandez-Gray
live photo: Clare Butler
other Todd photos: Butler Family
For Todd Butler (1964-2004), and for Clare and Kat
Robert Burke Warren: acoustic guitar, Fender bass, piano, vocals
Dean Jones: electric guitar, Wurlitzer, Moog, drums, percussion, harmony vocals
Lukas Lerner: drums on 1, 2, 7, 9
Spero: harmony vocals on 1 and 9
License
All rights reserved.
RBW's music appears on albums by Rosanne Cash, RuPaul, and rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson. He's written for Salon, AARP, Woodstock Times, Vulture, Paste, & the Bitter Southerner. His debut novel, Perfectly Broken, was published in 2016. In the mid 90s, he portrayed Buddy Holly in the West End musical Buddy: the Buddy Holly Story. Prior to that he traveled the world as a rock & roll bass player.