Chris Sand (formerly Sandman The Rappin’ Cowboy) has traversed the blue highways and gravel backroads of the USA for over two decades, performing his unique blend of folk, punk, hip hop, and cowboy music in basements, living rooms, barns, performance halls, and dive bars along the way. Dubbed by Punk Planet in 2003 as “our Troubadour for the 21st Century,” Sand continues his ride in American Road Trip, his 13th official release.
From songs about the road (“Road Trip Freestyle,” “Trucker Song,” “Bull,” “Yodelin’ Night Before Christmas Hitchhike Blues”), to energetic punk ("Chair of the Month"), to feel-good hip hop (“Down at Habashi”), to pop ballad ("Prisoner Of Love"), to a cappella verse (“Road Kill"), to political comedy (“Ronald McDon- ald”), to existential reflection (“Mr. Kent”), American Road Trip is pure Sand—a true American original.
On what is arguably the choicest radio cut,“Bull,” Sand channels Johnny Cash. The song roasts a former truck-driving employer with a galloping country rap: “He don’t like unions and he don’t like feds / If you slack on your job, Old Boy sees red / He’s bull, he’s a bull / He’s got horns in the sides of his skull…”
The album's penultimate track is Sand's recitation of Bruce Kiskaddon's masterful 1924 poem, “When They’ve Finished Shipping Cattle In The Fall.” Over a moody electronic breakbeat that evokes cracked badlands and sunsets glinting off interstate asphalt, Sand is at his best--sincere and true in voice and tone, his loneliness upfront and undisguised.
On American Road Trip, two decades of touring — as rapper, jester, social activist, truck driver, country singer, documentary subject*, and lonesome lover—crystallize into a lyrical scrapbook of life lived in the flow of creativity under the great shadow of American discontent. Across frozen ground and disappearing daylight, Sand’s humor, hope, and grit abide.
As No Depression’s Grant Alden wrote in 1998 “...[Sand’s] songs arise from the same dusty world Woody Guthrie wrote about without being mired in the dust of Guthrie's tradition." Fresh and free-spirited, American Road Trip is one heckuva ride.
*Roll Out Cowboy, award-winning documentary by filmmaker Elizabeth Lawrence, 2010: www.rolloutcowboy.com
credits
released April 27, 2016
SONG CREDITS
1. Road Kill
(words - chris sand)
Spellbound like a hell-hound.
2. Down at Habashi (feat. Karel Hastings)
(words - chris sand & karel hastings. produced by karel hastings)
Ahmad's hookin' us up, that's what's happenin'.
3. A Cowboy's Prayer
(written by badger clark / produced by timezone lafontaine)
O Lord, I've never lived where churches grow.
4. Farmor (Father's Mother)
(words & guitar - chris sand)
She's a child of Mother Nature.
5. Trucker Song
(words & guitar - chris sand. drums - dave martens. standup bass - john sporman. horn - corwin fox.)
Gotta get home to my baby.
6. Ronald McDonald 2.0
(words - chris sand. piano, bass, rhodes, shaker & programming - corwin fox. drums - jim willard-stepan. background beeps - michelle clips & rhea lons)
Samples: Ronald Reagan cracking a joke (Aug. 11, 1984) + Paul Reubens' laugh from Pee Wee's Playhouse.
He was an excellent clown.
7. Chair of the Month
(words & guitar - chris sand. bird sounds collected by nima samimi in new orleans.)
I am the king. I'm the king of the punks.
8. Bull
(words & guitar - chris sand. drums, bass, electric guitar, banjo, autoharp - corwin fox)
He's got horns on the sides of his skull.
9. Road Trip (freestyle w/ Timezone LaFontaine & Lamberfast Weston)
(produced by timezone lafontaine)
Every prison is a prism.
10. Yodelin' Night Before Christmas Hitchhike Blues
(words & guitar - chris sand)
The moon & stars & passin' cars . . .
11. Prisoner of Love
(words & guitar - chris sand. background harmonies & percussion - corwin fox)
Don't turn your good horse out.
12. When They've Finished Shipping Cattle in the Fall
(written by bruce kiskaddon. produced by timezone lafontaine)
Yet nobody seems to have a lot to say.
13. Mr. Kent
(words & guitar - chris sand)
What is faith?
Songs 1, 4, 7, 10 & 11 produced by Nima Samimi on his laptop (Studio in a Bowl Productions) in varied locales across the U.S.A., including Birmingham, AL; New Orleans, LA; Dallas, TX; & Dunn Center, ND.
Song 2 produced by Karel Hastings in Indiana, PA.
Songs 3, 9 & 12 produced by Timezone LaFontaine in Olympia, WA.
Songs 5 & 13 produced by Travis Yost in Missoula, MT.
Songs 6 & 8 (and part of 11) produced by Corwin Fox at Hidden Well in Cumberland, BC.
AMERICAN ROAD TRIP was mixed and mastered by Corwin Fox at Hidden Well.
Cover photo by Allison V. Smith
Album Art & Graphic Design by Bess Bird
I dedicate this record to Sacagawea, Chief Joseph, Chief Sitting Bull, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, the transcendentalist philosophers, Thelma & Louise, all refugees, immigrants, drifters, tramps, escapees, saddle bums, stowaways, innocents on the lam, fence-cutters, genderbent bindlestiffs, desert nomads, Zapatistas, boat people, runaway sorceresses, & river crossers! The world is yours!
In memory of Dr. Maya Angelou, John Trudell, Cooper Burchenal, Sandra Bland & Tamir Rice.
Extra special thanks to Nima Samimi for putting the magic stone in this soup.
Cover photo of Chris Sand by Allison V. Smith.
Album Art & Graphic Design by Bess Bird.
Punk Planet wrote, "Chris Sand is our troubadour for the 21st century." Also known as Sandman the Rappin' Cowboy, Sand's
music is heavily influenced by cowboy poetry, old-school rap, & d.i.y./punk. Sand has performed with a variety artists such as Michael Franti and Kimya Dawson to name a few. He stars in the 2010 award-winning feature-length documentary Roll Out, Cowboy (www.rolloutcowboy.com). ...more
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