I’ve always listened to and sung country music. My dad was a huge country music fan and so of course I was too. My mom loved Patti Smith and Rock n Roll. I listened to top 40 as a kid, and turned to Oldies Radio in middle school.
My first few years playing in bands, I was in the punk scene and felt that’s where I belonged. When interviewed, I always said my main influences were Patti Smith, Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton. People were confused. I was never confused- it makes perfect sense to me!
Blaine Cartwright, frontman for Nashville Pussy and guitar slinger for Nine Pound Hammer and #1 songwriter was the one who told me I had to sing country…
One night in the 90s we were happily weaving away from Grumpy’s NE after bar close and I started to sing Hank Williams. NP freaked out and never let it go….
Me, my bestie Kerith and my now husband had a rockabilly trio so we gave NP our cassettes for the tour van. They wore them out! Some of those songs were recorded in Lexington, KY for the first album “Aloha from Kentucky”. The 20 or so songs sat unfinished for about 15 years until Covid came along. My record label Rum Bar Recordss outta Boston - who put out my rock band The Short Fuses and Beebe Gallini - asked if we had any unreleased stuff. Travis remembered MGP was still waiting to be finished. Since it was lockdown, Brian Pulito, who recorded and engineered it, had the time to comb through every track, every take and put “Aloha” together – Genius!
We had always wanted to work with the artist Rockin’ Jellybean and again because of Covid, he had time to create the amazing cover art for “Aloha From Kentucky”.
MGP & my solo album came about due to covid lockdown! It was the best seller on Rum Bar and got so much love that we decided to do another! We converged in Lexington again summer 2022 at Brian’s new studio “Horse City Hit Club” and in one week created “Class Out The Ass”. Nashville Pussy and Nine Pound Hammer are busy hard workin bands so it was a specials moment when we could all come together again. The players all fell n together and we cranked out 14 songs in that week.
@honkytonkhell from Richmond, VA painted the velvet painting for the ‘Class” cover. MPG had no Nudie suit, no Manuel so she mad her own “my eyes are up here” signature jacket for the cover.
