So that’s the deal.  These fourteen tracks are not necessarily a comprehensive representation of anything, really, other than they are signposts along a long road of musical exploration by this band, in its many forms.  Mostly for me, probably, as the principle songwriter of the band. (There was another songwriterearly on, Eric Gelfond, represented on some decent earlier tracks, not all of which made it onto Rivolver, unfortunately.)

The continuum of the band certainly makes sense to me, even through the line-up changes, because, to me anyway, the Rivergods have always sounded like the Rivergods, even if a drone fuzz guitar became a weeping viola became a soaring pedal steel and then a sprightly mandolin.  The music was always about the songs first… arranged simply but tastefully (hopefully); but even (or especially) in performance, the desire was that the songs and lyrics would be moving and interesting; communications from the heart that could be felt as well as heard.  If you tapped your foot and sang along, all the better.

And that may be precisely why a lot of these songs never saw the light of day!  That simple synergy is not easy to nail down on tape (or hard drive).  Some of these got too big and weighted for their own good… and for others the end didn’t justify all of the effort, a hard pill to swallow when you’re willing something into existence from nothing, usually at a rate of $50 an hour… more>