About FEET OF CLAY and Compton Maddux

Story

The executive producer of this album saw Compton Maddux at a small club downtown in New York City and over the course of the next three years this collection was honed and finished.. Over 2000 hours of studio time went into making Feet of Clay The material was culled from Maddux’s extensive 100 plus song catalog. Work on the next album has already begun. On this album we welded delta and Appalachian musical traditions to create a kind of southern, swamp tapestry; Credence Clearwater meets Twin Peaks. Swamp with a surreal, gothic twist......The next album DIRT SIMPLE heads deeper into the accoustic realm drawing on Delta and Appalachian tradition.

Cast

Players on this album are a who’s who of accomplished musicians and producers in their own right. Steve Gaboury/(Suzanne Vega, Blue Nile),Jeff Golub/ (Rod Stuart ), 1998 GRAMMY Winner John Leventhal/ (Mark Cohen, Shawn Colvin, Rossane Cash, Rodney Crowell), Ji

Similar Artists

John Campbell,John Mellencamp,Credence,John Hyatt

Influences

Ry Cooder, Hammond/ Fogerty,Bonnie Raitt,

Bio

Compton Maddux/ singer-songwriter (ASCAP)
97 1st Ave.
Nyack, NY 10960
(914) 715-1310
e-mail : Barn707@aol.com.

Influences:

“Mama was a singer/ I’m a singer too
Daddy saw her sing one night/
And it cut his heart right through.”


Compton Maddux-- his real name/ was born in New York City. His mother gave him two last names so he would become a distinguished writer like Tennessee Williams or Flannery O’Connor. After an idyllic youth eating apples, stealing corn and setting fires he was sent away to school where he was steeped like a tea bag in the classics-- Homer, Shakespeare and Bob Dylan.

In college he consorted with poets Ed Dorn, Tony Hecht and Steven Spender. He became a singer-songwriter because it was so hard being quiet and well-heeled at poetry readings. It was there he sang lead in the band GASOLINE. Magic Carpet Ride and Five to One. After college he moved to Cambridge (not England) and penned articles on the nuclear power industry for the Real Paper and the Boston Phoenix. He went to see Muddy Waters at Pauls’ Mall. Often. It was during this time he hooked up and toured with the OUTERSPACE BAND. When the band broke up he traveled copiously with the international performance organization Project Troubador playing in Central and South America, Africa and Asia.

Living in NYC in the early 80's he played numerous venues most notably the Lone Star.
All the time he continued to tour and play in the OSpace Band but began to venture into solo performances.In 1990 a dutch producer saw him saw him play at Sun Mountain Cafe which led to the making and release of his 1st album FEET OF CLAY. He spent a year in the studio and emerged with "really good time". Album fetured guest spots by John Leventhal, Richie Havens,Lucy Kaplansky, Jeff Golub and Jim Lauderdale. Compton penned all the tunes, sang and played accoustic and slide guitars. Late nineties saw him play 110 nights/ 1 night a week for two years at the BMW Bar in Manhattan. "There is nothing like a continuous live gig to hone yr writing and performance. This gig allowed me to get smaller and less dependent on production. My next record came directly out of that experience. I didn't want o build tracks/ I wanted to capture a performance."

So his new album DIRT SIMPLE is an accoustic based blues-Appalachian weld along the lines of Allison Krause and Steve Earle. The material is peppered with humor and irony."I like to put sex and
religion in close proximity and paint the America that I would like to exist..." Players on this album include Allison Cornell (Shania Twain) on fiddle and Bill Ruyle on hammer dulcimer. It was recorded live on a rainy
night.."This album is like magic to me.....it's like I dreamed it and it came true. I can't think of a place I would rather live musically. I think i got real lucky with the people, the music and the moment."