Randy Goodrum releases "Red Eye"
RANDY GOODRUM RELEASES “RED EYE”
SINGLE ON JUNE 1 FOLLOWED BY EPONYMOUS ALBUM ON JUNE 19
Hall Of Fame Songwriter Releases First Original Solo Recording In Decades
“These were the right songs at what feels like the right time.”
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter-musician Randy Goodrum will release a brand-new, dozen-song solo album, Red Eye, on June 19, 2020 on the artist’s Clark St. Records. “I tried to make as honest a record as I could, and when all is said and done, Red Eye is exactly what I wanted it to be,” he says. “I wanted it to be one hundred percent me.”
The first single from the album, also titled “Red Eye,” was inspired by the story of how Goodrum came to co-write most of the music comprising former Journey frontman Steve Perry’s 1984 platinum-selling solo debut Street Talk, which included the Top 5 single “Oh Sherrie.” Goodrum had received a phone call at home in Connecticut one night from Perry, with whom he was not quite familiar at the time. While his daughter quickly set him straight, pointing to a face on the Journey poster hanging in her bedroom, Goodrum listened as the singer invited him to come to California and work on some songs.
“He asked me, ‘When can you be in L.A.?’” Goodrum recalls. “I said, ‘Tomorrow,’ and he said, ‘OK, see you at 11.’” It was already afternoon when Goodrum received the call. He hustled to get to the nearest airport, then hopped on an all-night flight—a red-eye. Now, years later, recalling the experience, he began building a new song around the incident, transposing the origin point to Maui, the destination to the Bay Area, and the story to that of a love affair on the rocks. Along with co-writer and co-producer Larry Williams, who also contributes arrangements, horns, and keyboards to the album, Goodrum concocted a scenario in which the narrator is escaping the Hawaiian paradise to start over again. “I imagined this guy who had just hit the end of his rope with his relationship,” he says. “He was thinking, ‘I just have to get outta here.’”
With that track as the anchor, Goodrum, aided by Williams and an all-star group of collaborators, set out to craft a collection of songs that fall into a category that he calls “Intelligent Pop/Jazz,” music that is equal parts sophisticated and accessible.
To achieve that goal, Goodrum drew on his nearly five decades of experience as composer, musician and performer. Originally from Arkansas, he has always cherished his individuality, never even considering casting his lot full-time with just one genre or style. Over the years Goodrum has found success composing for artists embedded in the worlds of rock (Perry, Toto, Chicago), country (Anne Murray, Dottie West & Kenny Rogers), R&B (DeBarge), jazz (George Benson), pop (England Dan and John Ford Coley, Michael Johnson) and others. Since his arrival on the music scene, Goodrum’s songs have collected Grammys, and he has received Academy of Country Music awards, ASCAP Songwriter of the Year honors, and been inducted into the prestigious Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Now, for Red Eye, Goodrum and Williams insisted on creating what he calls “real music by real people,” among them such ace musicians as guitarists Michael Landau and Ramon Stagnaro, bassists Marcus Miller and Brian Bromberg, drummers Vinnie Colaiuta and Gavin Harrison, plus a trio of horn players. “I love listening to this album,” says its creator. It’s impossible to imagine anyone who wouldn’t.
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Red Eye is released on Clark St. Records
and will be available everywhere music is streamed & sold
Single: 06.01.20
Album: 06.19.20