Eliot Bronson "Rough Ride" (song for Baltimore)
  • "Rough Ride" performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "River Runs Dry" performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "River Runs Dry" (Acoustic Demo) performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "New Pain" performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "Just Came Back To Tell You I'm Leaving" performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "Comin' For Ya North Georgia Blues" performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "Time Ain't Nothin'" performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "Nothing Like Me" performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "You Wouldn't Want Me If You Had Me" performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "Never Been A Friend Of Mine" performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "Sleep On It" performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "Baltimore" performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "Rough Ride" (demo version) performed by Eliot Bronson
  • "Rough Ride" performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Folk
    MP3 (03:56) [9.95 MB]
  • "River Runs Dry" performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Americana
    MP3 (03:33) [8.13 MB]
  • "River Runs Dry" (Acoustic Demo) performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Americana
    MP3 (03:32) [8.16 MB]
  • "New Pain" performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Americana
    MP3 (03:48) [8.7 MB]
  • "Just Came Back To Tell You I'm Leaving" performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Americana
    MP3 (03:46) [8.63 MB]
  • "Comin' For Ya North Georgia Blues" performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Americana
    MP3 (03:33) [8.14 MB]
  • "Time Ain't Nothin'" performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Americana
    MP3 (04:11) [9.57 MB]
  • "Nothing Like Me" performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Americana
    MP3 (04:28) [10.23 MB]
  • "You Wouldn't Want Me If You Had Me" performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Americana
    MP3 (04:35) [10.5 MB]
  • "Never Been A Friend Of Mine" performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Americana
    MP3 (03:14) [7.4 MB]
  • "Sleep On It" performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Americana
    MP3 (04:19) [9.87 MB]
  • "Baltimore" performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Americana
    MP3 (03:24) [7.77 MB]
  • "Rough Ride" (demo version) performed by Eliot Bronson
    Genre: Folk
Biography
ABOUT "ROUGH RIDE"
I was born in Baltimore. I grew up in a working class South Baltimore neighborhood, in the same house my mother grew up in. We went to the church my grandfather built and that my Dad lived in as a kid. That city shaped me in a fundamental way. Baltimore is a tough town, but a town with a lot of heart. I read about Freddie in the paper. I put the paper down and just started writing. It was a visceral reaction. I think I wrote it in twenty minutes. - Eliot Bronson 2015

Net proceeds from the sale of "Rough Ride" will be donated to Public Justice Center-Baltimore (http://www.publicjustice.org) and the Fund to Rebuild Baltimore (http://www.bcf.org/RebuildingBaltimore).

"ROUGH RIDE" LYRICS
8am in the morning three policemen on their bikes
Lookin for anything they didn’t think seemed right
Freddie wasn’t carrying nothin but a pocket knife
But they dragged him to the van, threw him inside

Said, “Give him a
Rough Ride
Give him a
Rough Ride
Give him a
Rough Ride tonight.”

Everybody knows there’s no hope on this side of town
The rich get richer and the poor, they just get drowned
They ain’t gonna listen unless it’s burnin to the ground
If you think the people gonna take this sitting down

Now, you’re in for a
Rough Ride
In for a
Rough Ride
In for a
Rough Ride tonight

You’re in for a
Rough Ride
In for a
Rough Ride
In for a
Rough Ride tonight

Face down in the back shackled by his hands and feet
When they stopped the wagon Freddie begged them “will you help me please?”
Officer Porter pulled Freddie up to his seat
When they stopped again Freddie wasn’t breathin

It ain’t getting better, there’s no ladder to climb up
People on the top trying to chop off the bottom rungs
And they’re using the police to keep the lid tight on
Ain’t nobody gonna be sailing off into the sun, none

We’re in for a
Rough Ride
In for a
Rough Ride
We’re in for a
Rough Ride tonight

We’re in for a
Rough Ride
A Rough Ride
We’re in for a
Rough Ride tonight


ABOUT ELIOT BRONSON
Award-winning singer/songwriter Eliot Bronson’s latest self-titled album was tracked entirely analog in Nashville by acclaimed producer Dave Cobb (Sturgill Simpson, Rival Sons, Jason Isbell, Nikki Lane). It’s a vibey, ten-song album with an uncluttered production aesthetic that highlights Bronson’s songwriting and his achingly beautiful vocals.

The story goes that after Bronson completed writing this cycle of songs, he sent Dave Cobb an unsolicited email with a sample track attached. Bronson was inspired to reach out to Cobb because he was intrigued by the spacious vocal production on the Jason Isbell record which Cobb had produced. Bronson felt Cobb could help him realize the atmospheric and timeless qualities he wanted for his songs. Cobb was impressed with Bronson’s music and replied back. “I was stunned when I got a response. It was really validating for me because I sort of had him on a pedestal,” Bronson says candidly.

“It was quite a pleasure working with Eliot,” says Cobb. “He’s a brilliant lyricist and poet. We did the record live all together and the album feels timeless.”

Eliot Bronson was recorded in one week at Cobb’s home studio and Cowboy Jack Clement Studios in Nashville. “It all felt really natural and effortless,” Bronson recalls. “Dave would be in the room playing right along with us during tracking.” The album was mixed the following week.

The record is something of a homecoming for Bronson, who was raised in a Pentecostal home by a family for which music was prayer and life was expressed and enjoyed in song. At an early age, Bronson discovered his parents’ folk collection of 1960s artists. These two became formative musical influences shaping Bronson’s purposeful, pensive, and poetic songwriting. Though his own music adventures took him away from these roots, he returns home to these music guideposts with Eliot Bronson.

“I spent a long time trying to get away from where I came from,” Bronson says, “but it never really felt right. This is the music I’ve always had in me. This record is me.”

Eliot Bronson is anchored by Bronson’s honeyed weary voice; blend of wry wit with emotional sincerity; expansive palette of Americana; and the album’s crisp vintage production. “River Runs Dry” boasts high-lonesome vocal harmonies, tenderly mournful lap steel, and it conjures up a cathartic sadness. “I like songs to preserve little moments without telling a specific story, so you feel something but you don’t always know exactly why,” Bronson reveals.
The rollicking “Comin’ For Ya North Georgia Blues” combines almost William Boroughs-esque cutup images with unbridled and euphoric shitkicking musicality. “I was really having fun with words and ideas on that one, trying to paint picture of a relationship” he explains.

Bronson’s engaging cleverness comes to the front on the “You Wouldn’t Want Me If You Had Me.” “I didn’t think I was being funny on that one,” he says with a good-natured laugh. “I was being truthful, but I guess it works on a humorous level too. My friend said that title is the ‘dating musician’s credo.’”

Previously Eliot Bronson issued two critically acclaimed solo albums and, prior to his solo career, was a member of folk favs The Brilliant Inventions. The Atlanta Music Guide says: “Eliot Bronson is the type of songwriter who could squeeze out something meaningful about taking out the trash. He writes heartfelt songs with dark humor and backs them with his resonant voice and swampy instruments.” Georgia Music Magazine notes: “He can pull at your heartstrings like nobody’s business.” Coming up, in his native town of Baltimore, Maryland The Baltimore Sun called him a “a folk singing wunderkind.” He has won such esteemed songwriting awards as first place at Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at MerleFest and Eddie Owen Presents “Songwriter Shootout,” and he’s been a finalist at Kerrville Folk Festival, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriting Contest, and New Song Contest Lincoln Center NYC.
4
  • Members:
    Eliot Bronson
  • Sounds Like:
    Jason Isbell, Father John Misty, Paul Simon, The Milk Carton Kids, Chris Issak, Ryan Adams, Shovels & Rope
  • Influences:
    Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Hank Snow, The Jayhawks, Jesse Winchester, The Louvin Brothers, Lucinda Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Wanda Jackson
  • AirPlay Direct Member Since:
    08/06/14
  • Profile Last Updated:
    08/14/23 14:38:59

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