Soulfully inspired rockin' country blues
Well, folks, I sure am grateful to the folks at Soundclick for choosing "Monday Afternoon Rain" as the song of the day. I've been a songwriter all my life, but I wrote that song the day after Hurricane Katrina basically blew away my home in Pass Christian, Mississippi, and I tried to make sense of it all. And from tragedy comes wisdom, so I recorded a whole album where I sorted out my life and emotions in song. "Monday Afternoon Rain" is a song that I hope touches you as well. And if you like that one, check out some of my others. My music influences range from Bob Seger to Hank Jr. to Elton John, so the album in corporates many styles while still keeping a country-blues feeling.
There's a music video for the song, and it's currently in competition in CMT's Music City Madness Contest, so I hope you'll head over there and vote. It takes two seconds and you can vote as many times as you like. It helps us remind folks that down on the Mississippi Coast, the recovery continues....
Thanks again to Soundclick.com, and all the folks who enjoy this music.
http://madness.cmt.com
Story behind the song
SCOTT NIOLET'S "CLEARING THE DEBRIS" PUTS PASS CHRISTIAN MUSICIAN IN
THE SPOTLIGHT
When Pass Christian, Mississippi native Scott Niolet walked outside
that fateful Monday, he saw his life in ruins. Hurricane Katrina had
decimated his home, his family's business, and the lives of everyone
around him. Ironically, it served as a creative ephipany for the
musician. He'd played guitar and written songs his whole life, but
never really took the big plunge of recording an album. He hadn't had
anything to say....until now.
This storm served as a wake-up call in his life. He cleaned up his
act, married his longtime girlfriend, and prepared songs for an album
by recording demos on a Radio Shack tape recorder in his FEMA
trailer. And he had the perfect title for the album -- "Clearing The
Debris."
He then contacted Stephen Pitalo, an old friend from his LSU days,
who was now producing independent projects in New York.
"I heard the songs and I knew he was onto something," said Pitalo, a
producer who had guided music sessions for Broadway commercials prior
to taking on the project. "In some songs, I could hear his soul
coming to terms with the severity of his surroundings, and I could
also hear that fun-loving Scott I remembered from school. I also knew
he was dead serious about making this album happen. It's the story of
his life."
"The album has my life and soul poured into it," Niolet reveals.
"From lost love to wild nights, these songs are a soundtrack to my
life, and I think folks can identify with the passion, joy and
heartbreak."
Pitalo enlisted piano rocker Jason Yudoff as music arranger for the
project, and pulled in musicians from varying genres to fill out the
country-rock-blues sound Niolet wanted. Steve Rossiter at Axis Sound
Studios heard the tracks and helped put together a top-notch session
band. Bassist John Turner and drummer Jonathan Ellinghaus took a
break from touring with the legendary Leslie Gore to record with
Niolet. Dave Fisher and Doug Shank of the Diesel Street Kings, a New
York roots rock band, lent their guitar and dobro talents.
But of course, Niolet couldn't just stop there. He needed a music video.
"The song 'Monday Afternoon Rain' holds such a place with myself and
my family because the Monday I'm singing about was the Monday after
the storm," Niolet explains. "I saw what a devastating mess the storm
had made of everyone's lives, and I understood that whether it's
literally or metaphorically, you have to take the mess in your life
and create the life you want.
Niolet once again enlisted Pitalo, a music video director as well, to
fly down to Pass Christian and film a music video for the song. Bob
Perrin, an Emmy-award winning cinematographer, helped Pitalo capture
the bleak scenes in Niolet's hometown. We see him walking through the
destruction, guitar in hand, surveying the damage as he examines his
own inner conflicts."
"It was a hard song to finish, and it's still a difficult song to
hear," Niolet admits. "We needed the visuals to make the picture
complete."
In a strange twist of fate, members of Phi Mu national women's
sorority have been popularizing Niolet's song "One Hand, One Heart,
One Destiny," among its members. Added to thousands of Phi Mu
members' MySpace pages, the love song speaks of Niolet's love for his
wife, a Phi Mu alumnae.
Niolet plans a few more videos in the future -- probably something a
bit more fun.
"It's always a surprise to me what we can pull off," Niolet said.
"People really respond to the songs in this album, and that always a
satisfying occurrence for a songwriter."
Lyrics
Monday Afternoon Rain
© 2006, Scott Niolet
Broken down and brokenhearted
Thinkin' back to when it all started to fall
Overachievin' and overheated
Not knowin' or seein' I needed to change at all
Runnin' scared and runnin' on empty
Just wishin' life would give me a sign
Changin' gears and changin' seasons
I don't need anymore reasons this time
Walkin' through a Monday afternoon rain
Tryin' to find the comfort in the pain
The thunder mockin' a life lived in vain
And walkin' through a Monday afternoon rain
Grievin' lost treasures and guilty pleasures
Last-ditch efforts, drastic measures and hell to pay
Chasin' my tail and chasin' tomorrow
Hidin' from yesterday's sorrow by drownin' in today
Fearin' the destiny of past repercussions
Gonna derail this train of destruction
And cryin' again and again and again
The fall from grace sure left me sore
All I lost and all I lived for
All I took, and I still needed more
Walkin' through a Monday afternoon rain
Tryin' hard not to fail again
The rain will cleanse me if I let it in
Walkin' through a Monday afternoon rain
Yeah, I'm walkin' through a Monday afternoon rain
Tryin' so hard not to fail again
The rain will cleanse me if I let it in
Just walkin' through a Monday afternoon rain
Just walkin' through a Monday afternoon rain
