Chris Bullinger - True Rendition (2022)

Like any album, True Rendition is about whatever you hear in her. And like the protagonist in the first song, “Moment of Happy,” she’s just “passing through on her way to wherever she’s going.” I was playing “Moment of Happy” on my guitar one night, hanging out with Harrison Luna, who subsequently would co-produce True Rendition, and he said, “man, that’s a cool song.” I replied something to the effect of, “I got a hundred of ‘em.” And that’s how True Rendition begins. Harry looped in Josh Halper to co-produce and play guitar. The three of us spent several fall and winter evenings hanging out around a fire pit in a backyard, drinking, smoking, and playing guitar. We called these sessions firehangs, and that’s where the songs began to take on the sound we eventually recorded in studio at the The Bomb Shelter in Nashville, Tennessee.

As we moved from firehangs to The Bomb Shelter, we brought together some crazy musical talent, as one can do in Nashville. Josh Halper, on guitar, recently toured with Lily Hiatt. Cameron Carrus on bass. Micah Hulscher, who’s been touring with Margo Price, on keys. Richard Bailey from the SteelDrivers swung by to lay down some banjo tracks and share some wine. Spencer Collum on pedal steel, Mike Daly on dobro, Eli Bishop on fiddle and mandolin, Josh Minyard on auxiliary percussion, and Bea Troxel on backup vocals. Drew Carroll captured the music on tape; indeed, on the last song, True Rendition, the boys in the band continue to jam until the tape literally runs out. And that’s how we ended up with a genuine sound, a True Rendition.