Ribcast: The Shinyribs Podcast

This is true we’re coming up south from Tejas

Ain’t nothing finer than RIBS, in Carolina

Start a week from today

April 23–new orleans Jazz fest

April 25– the Ouachita River Fest in West Monroe, Louisiana

April 26 – Radio room in Greenville, South Carolina

April 27, a private event in South South Carolina

April 28–the POUR house in Charleston, South Carolina

April 30– the barrel house in Chattanooga, Tennessee

May 1 – the neighborhood theater in Charlotte, North Carolina

And May 2 in Duluth, Georgia near Atl...

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THis has become an all time favorite for the band to play. It has the gospel gravy and the country lazy thang. Plus it is autobiographical! Everytime I sing it I am taken back to my childhood on that green and blue shag carpet dancing to records and singing along, the dreams of ya boy done come true, y'all. Hallelujah these are the days! One of these days  Words & Music- Kevin Russell One of these days, one of these days I want a magnavox console record player  One of these days, One of these days I wanna record player lo...

Top got stomp I originally wrote with the intention that it would explain what kind of music I play. I think I got it pretty accurate especially at the time I wrote it. Which I can’t remember when I wrote it to be honest. That could’ve been a good song, of course, but I just kept it around. It’s become a staple of my live shows with Shinyribs. It might be the ultimate all-purpose Shinyribs live song. This is right before Kellee left for her theater tour. But she will be back mid March and we look f...

In my first Substack live stream I began by talking about Michael Jackson’s album thriller, and the song that actually starts it, though I didn’t know it at the time I have sent looked it up and seeing that wanna be starting something begins the thriller album. Which I think adds credence to my theory that “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” was left over from Off The Wall. It just feels and sounds that way. It’s so different than everything else on the Thriller album. The Thriller album that was maybe the biggest selling album of all time when it w...

My first who Husker Du cassettes were bought by my mother for my 17th birthday from my friend Dan Nugent at Sooto records In Shreveport, La.

But this was the Sooto records that was on Mansfield Road. It wasn’t the one everybody thinks of on Kings Highway. There was a short period of time when owner, Steve Timmons opened a store in Southern Hills. And that’s the store I wandered into looking for a psychedelic band called Rain Parade. Dan didn’t have a copy, but he gave me his personal copy and said he would...

U r my moonshine my only moonshine You make me mournful when skies are gay But for my loathing you shall not owe me Please don’t give my moonshine away. The other morning as you were waking You said you’d had an awful dream That I was sober as a judge and you took away my tambourine U r my moonshine my only moonshine You make me mournful when skies are gay But for my loathing you shall not owe me Please don’t give my moonshine away. Just the other day dear I heard you mention non- c...

Edward VIII abdicated the British throne in December 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée, a union opposed by the government, the Church of England, and the public due to her status as a twice-divorced woman. Facing immense pressure, he chose love over the crown, famously announcing his decision in a radio address and paving the way for his brother, Albert, to become King George VI. The abdication, formalized by Parliament, made him the only British monarch to voluntarily resign the throne.

Key events and reasons for abdication:

* The relationship:

Edward VIII’s d...

Well there is actually another version of this I posted on here in Aug of 2024. But, this version feels for authentic to me. Sometimes songs get stuck in boxes under the bed too. Imagine my surprise when I found this song again, preserved on a performance video no less. Written on the tiple it has that slightly janky, out-of-tuneness that I associate with old field recordings and early country music. The lyric is pretty spot on too for the secular gospel threading of the needle. I do love it when I can lay a song right in the middle...

It just ain’t Christmas until the Donn’s Depot family decorates the bar with festive luminosity. This is one of my all time favorite Christmas songs I learned via The Staple Singers. I’ve done it for years every Christmas time. To capture it in such a beautiful way, Jeremy Sexton, the official music video director for Shinyribs brought it to life in a simple, timeless way that I’ll always enjoy. A jumbo Crimbo yaya to all of you. Thanks for being here with me on this journey. I can’t imagine better fans than you all

Jay Stiles played with us for a while after the departure of Winfield Cheek. I count Jay among my favorite Canadians. Up there with Vancouver Val, BTO, and Neil Young. This is an unrecorded Christmas song I’ve always thought might make Kringle Tingle 2. The name Meredith I got from a local promoter in central texas who I had some correspondence with around Christmas time. The song has nothing to do with her. But the Merry Christmas, Meredith alliteration led to this whole song. Jay dropped by I think to deliver some maple syrup and I recruited him to re...

One of my favorite memories is recording this Christmas classic with my dad and Mason and Mama Ribs in the green room of The Kessler Theater in Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood in what must’ve been 2021. I will revisit it every year from now on. And will always be grateful to Mason for helping me get through it. Because it’s not an easy song, at least for me, it’s not. I mean Joe had it down, but I was doing my best to play some of these chords while also working the audio and video. It was long aft...

OK, I gotta give credit to an old friend Jeff Boxschmidt who sang it at an annual Xmas recording party hosted by the long time Sound Engineer for the Gourds a guy named Jim Archuleta, also known as Rche. He used to have these parties at his house with all of his buddies and us and we would just have a big party and he’d make beans and or chili or something like that. We’d spend all night drinking partying and recording Christmas songs. As I remember, there are some real gems on some of those CDs, whic...

First draft demo for One Of These Days song off of Leaving Time

I don’t like laying in bed so long listening to your morning slog I’m getting up and go outside take a walk on the beach in the fog If you don’t mind, I’m walking the beach alone. It reminds me so much of home your tone last night wasn’t clear in spite of all your agreeability to sleep on it then you left me here In a low-lying dense advisory If you don’t mind, I’ll say all that I have to say once the fog has burned from Matagorda Bay

This song hospital again is my new favorite song. This often happens where I write a song and then just keep thinking about it and keep playing it and it just becomes the favorite. That's kind of how I choose songs that I want to record, is I just like the song, I like things about a chord progression, lyrics, hook, the vibe or the feel, lotta different elements can come together to give me that feeling about a song. This one I recorded with the band in Muscle Shoals. You may remember when we stopped in there on...

Theory Of Entanglement vs Disenchantment A particle with zero spin can decay into two particles with opposite spin A thing that wants to be is at a disadvantage To a thing that’s already been Cables in a bag snarl Laces move in different directions As if unseen hands unbridled In between from end to end A carcass decomposed Beneath the leaves Below the limbs Begins again We follow it Until the end The way it was explained is You can’t land on the moon without killing a dream Let it unwind Then reel it in Give it some...

Welcome all you wascalwee wibs fans you’ve been brought here through a portal from an egregiously evil social media empire. You’ve reached a safe place. Where only things pertaining to RIBS, have any meaning and for that you’ll be handsomely rewarded. That’s a promise from me, Mr. RIBS,. Seriously thanks for coming here. Thanks for being here. I hope you enjoy it and engage with me and the many things I share. I’m always available. Holler at anytime let’s be friends. RUGGED ROSES Tell me with yer eyes In silence let them ring The precious...

Just a quick update and let y’all know how the tour goes and share some other fun things with you like recording a new song in Muscle Shoals.

I actually recorded this couple days ago before I really got sick. Full head cold did a couple of shows with a cold and then lost my voice this morning so I had to cancel the Charleston show. Total bummer. But you know I gotta do what I gotta do. My priority of course is The festival is this weekend in Raleigh and of course Albino Skunk. As I...

See my post earlier this week for the whole story

https://open.substack.com/pub/shinyribs/p/i-left-my-backpack-in-san-marcos?r=1on8q9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

This is a little song I wrote quite a while ago, maybe pre-Covid. I can’t remember, but I’ve always loved it. It’s been around in my demo pile for a while. It’s another one in addition to Sundown On Mars that my good friend and Artist-In-Residence at Shinyribs Ashton Guy has always loved. So she is really happy to know that I have finally recorded this for an official release at some point. I don’t know when I’ll release this. I am working on a record right now, we are very close to completing i...

Sitting here having the morning coffee, listening to the Crow yell at the other birds finally, I hear a cardinal tripping the distance. Our backyard normally teaming with songbirds I hear nothing but the war of wheels on pavement and a single crow being a total shit head to the other birds.. Is the coolest morning of the summer so I’m sitting outside, which I have it done in the morning since June probably. Though it’s been a mild summer I haven’t really been here through much of it, off and on here and there.

I ha...

Written by Wim Venema

From The Lazy Sunday Dream album Midsland

Where have you been she screams in his face

Holding her breath and then holding her pace

Honey I know that look in your eye

You better make up some damn good lies

Honey I had to work till late

Hey don't make me laugh it's a quarter past eight

Baby you haven't been sleeping home tonight

You better make sure your alibi´s right

The story of how I became a waver and how that led to me being moderately disappointed by a total stranger in Challis, ID

Y’all might remember 2020 a novel virus had been unleashed on the world, shutting down civilization as we know it. We were all locked away in our homes twiddling our thumbs watching live streams and lots of Netflix. well almost everyone I knew was focused on Tiger King. Remember that? Ha ha well, while my friends were watching Tiger King. I was in my studio creating things that would bring me joy. One of my favorite things at the time was to share my recorded output with my good old friend Mike Stewart, former Gourds producer, manager, Shinyribs bassist, pe...

Love trouble Alpha that’s how we write it on the set list and these three are often group together as a triplet a trio, a three song assault. Often coming early in the set these three usually set the tone for a more electric guitar driven rock ‘n’ roll set. I have found when I include this three song block in the set. I do tend to play the electric guitar more. It just sets the tone. You know these songs firstly as, “If Love Is Earned “ what I think of as an early 70s Elvis song. I like to th...

So this video is, I don’t know how old it is. It says it’s two years ago, but this was during 2020. I know because this was part of the Sequestered Songwriter’s Facebook live stream that I joined about halfway through the Covid shut down. It was run by Jason Eady and Courtney Patton. They organized all of their friends doing a theme night each week. It was Paul Simon night for this one. What was also great about the sequestered songwriters themes, they gave us all something to learn, something to focus on, something to plan for...

Some of you may have witnessed this mash up that I keep in my back pocket for solo shows usually. The first time I remember doing this was at a memorial for friend, Wally Williams whose wife, Judy had passed. Also incidentally, it’s the first time I remember meeting Alice spencer. I remember I was sort of the centerpiece of the music for the memorial, but I was in bad voice. I had a cold or allergies or something so my voice was rather limited as to what I could sing. I didn’t think I could pull off...

I’m not sure when I wrote this song. But it has always been a fave. I am so glad to finally get it on a record and properly recognized in my repertoires. As I have said before, this song was inspired by a specific guitar, a Kalamazoo arch top from the 1940s I’m guessing much like this one here.

A young man, Mark Allen who was working for me in the receiving dept at a local bookstore where I was a manager before becoming semi-famous told me about his grandfather’s guitar. The more h...

We shot this over at Sams Town Point with Jeremy Sexton. This was the first song released off of Leaving Time. I feel like this song encompasses much of what makes the album such a comfortable, cozy room of a record. Maybe my most honest and simple to date. Much of my recorded output has a certain amount of found objectivity to it. From Kev Russell’s Junker to Leaving Time it could be said I never knew where I was going but I wound up finding myself exactly where I needed to go. I have always followed my mu...

Leaving Louisiana blues is the song about having to leave someplace you love because the people you love want you to. Louisiana can be anywhere. The singer of the song is everyone that’s ever felt betrayed, unseen, ghosted, unwanted. In every leaving, there is the seed of returning, always. In every goodbye there is a bittersweet notion that you will come back one day, just like the ocean, the winds of change, the forgotten, the only begotten. Sometimes you gotta get up get out, get right with your doubts and sing about the way you want to be tr...

Now streaming on all platforms the second single off of the ground breaking album Leaving Time due out 4/25/25

Go like it, save it, dance to it, share it, talk to it and tell it you love it then send it to ya mama ya daddy ya brother sister greasy granny

go run tell everyone you know about this new song called shitty music by Shinyribs. There’s never been a song that’s so succinctly encompasses humanities search for meaning in a sea of banality blindness and cloying superficiality Kevin Russell also known as M...

Leaving Louisiana Blues

There’ll come a time when you’ll understand that your enablers were actually your discouragers. They needed you to stay on their level so, to convince themselves they weren’t expected to try to improve. Success is never an option for them, only righteous indignation for being passed over and over again, nobody’s friend.

There are many boundaries to consider when betrayal

A country blues about navigating betrayal and self-preservation, finding a way around the burned bridges, looking for a place to fall apart and grieve for what’s been los...

Playing the wonderful cactus Café tonight lotta great memories

For God So Loved The World

(But only some of them)

Well, he’s got you believing in things you would’ve never said

he’s been leaving questions for so long inside your head

that you forgotten most everything you learned in Sunday school,

he’s overthrown your God, and changed all the rules

He told you what to believe who to target and to blame

for your petty grievances n’ your selfishness are all the same.

What have you lost? What part of yo...

Engine, engine number nineComing down the railroad lineHow much farther back did she get offOld brown suitcase that she carriedI've looked for it everywhereIt just ain't here among the restAnd I'm a little upset, yes tell me

Engine, engine number nineComing down the railroad lineI know she got on in BaltimoreA hundred and ten miles ain't much distanceBut it sure do make a differenceI don't think she loves me anymore

And I warned her of the dangersDon't speak to strangersIf by chance she find new romanceWarmer lips to kiss herArms to hold her tighterStirring new...

Thought the shows are sold out we are working on some solutions for those true fans that did not get tickets. I will keep you all informed when that ticket link is live

I’ve had this one circled on my calendar for a while. I love going to Wimberley and playing on this community radio station. Always fun to hang in that little town for a while. Like a lot of Hill Country towns they are in danger of being overrun by newbies and tourists. They like the tourists. But, they are not so keen on new people moving to town. Mostly because they have a beautiful way of life there that they all treasure and value. They do not want others coming in and disrupting what they have grown up wi...