The Countrypolitans

Elisabeth Ames & the Countrypolitans’ streamlined country rock sound is traditionally rooted, but insightful lyrics, addictive pop melodies and seamless musicianship keep the sound fresh and contemporary. The Oregonian newspaper called them “a band to be reckoned with” and  raved that the 12 songs on their debut disc “are all keepers, a rare enough feat for a first album.” Since then the band has gone on to record and produce a total of three full length albums in Oregon and California. Lead singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist Elisabeth Ames, lead guitarist Ken Coleman and pedal steel guitar player Peter Burak currently make up the nucleus of the group, which is booked solid for the next year and are frequently joined by Rich Cuellar or Marty Henninger on drums. Their disc, Tired of Drowning, has been added to Americana playlists around the world and their song “LA Turnaround” off their second full-length release reached No. 9 on the Americana charts in Europe. 

Elisabeth started singing and writing songs in San Francisco, where she earned a living as a staff news writer for The Associated Press. Arriving in Portland, she began writing songs and performing with local musicians around town. She and Coleman (Freddy Trujillo band) formed The Countrypolitans as a vehicle for their shared love of roots music. As lead singer and the band’s primary songwriter, Ames pays homage to country greats such as Merle Haggard and Patsy Cline while creating a contemporary sound all her own. The Countrypolitans have opened for Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard (and many other national acts) and were hired by the Cash family to sing for Johnny & June at their son’s wedding in Oregon. They were also the house band at the famed Pappy & Harriets near Joshua Tree, Calif., during their time in Southern California. There, she played with legendary guitar player Chris Lawrence (Mike Ness country band) and pedal steel great Gary Brandin (the Blue Hawaiians) for more than eight years. Back in Portland, guitar great Hershel Yatovitz from Chris Isaak's band sometimes sits in with the Countrypolitans.

THEIR SOUND

Elisabeth Ames & the Countrypolitans’ sound is a blend of classic country sounds / 1960s“countrypolitan” and rock'n'roll with flavors of pop and ‘70s country rock. On their debut album, Texas honky tonker Dale Watson sings a duet with Elisabeth Ames called Basic Information and Rounder recording artist Rosie Flores sings backup on many of the tracks.Lloyd Maines produced Elisabeth and her then Los Angeles-based band’s most recent album “Anytime” at Mad Dog studios in Burbank, Calif., which received glowing reviews from the Orange County Register and other national media: “Anytime deserves wider recognition from both country cognoscenti and mainstream fans. In addition to sharpening her songwriting (she pens most everything the group records), Ames has found her voice – pitched between Patty Loveless and early k.d. lang – as well as a fitting neoclassic honky-tonk style, thanks in large part to the pedal-steel playing and production work of Lloyd Maines.” – Orange County Register.

ELISABETH AMES' STORY

It was always evident, crystal clear in fact – Elisabeth Ames would express her creative soul through the power of the written word. Born in Mt. Holly New Jersey, a community rich in American history, her hometown is situated just outside of Camden where Jimmie Rodgers recorded “T for Texas” at the Victor studios. She grew up in Rochester, New York, where her father had taken a job as editor of the local newspaper. Dinner table conversation was laid out much like the front pages of the paper and at a young age, Elisabeth learned to appreciate the skill and artistry in writing.

As the youngest of three, Elisabeth considers herself lucky to have older sisters whose record collections were filled with gems – Joni Mitchell, The Allman Brothers, Stevie Wonder, and Fleetwood Mac to name a few. Not at all influenced by the upstate and suburban Rochester atmosphere around her, Ames seemed to naturally gravitate toward the southern country rock sound: Linda Rondstadt, Pure Prairie League and as she recalls “anything with pedal steel.”

By the time she arrived at the University of Missouri, her musical exploration had wandered toward blues and jazz. Her appreciation for the building blocks of American music was bolstered by acts that played The Blue Note in her college town: Stephane Grappelli, John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Pinetop Perkins and JJ Cale. “Then one day, when I was visiting my sister Sara in Boston, she put on Emmylou Harris’ ‘Pieces of the Sky,’ Ames recalls. “She totally blew me away. I bought all of her records and started reading as much as I could about her life.”

After that, Ames says, “Country music spread like a virus in my brain. A friend said I had to hear Patsy Cline. I got her greatest hits and loved her big voice and ballsy delivery and started singing along. A pivotal moment came when I was in Los Angeles during my senior year of college. My boyfriend at the time took me to a Merle Haggard concert – it was Merle’s 50th birthday concert in Anaheim. I had never heard a voice like his - so smooth, sweet and sad - or heard anyone pierce through the hearts of everyone in the audience the way he did. I saw women crying. After that I bought every Merle Haggard record I could get my hands on, sang along and memorized the words and saw him in concert every chance I could.”

After graduation – and armed with a degree in journalism – Ames took a job as a news reporter and music writer for The Associated Press in San Francisco. Of all the wonderful music she experienced each day her personal preference was still country, much of it “new traditional” country. “I started listening to Roseanne Cash and decided that maybe I could learn to sing. I loved the way Roseanne sang straight from the heart without being too sweet, and how she wrote her own songs about complex emotions. She wouldn’t have necessarily called it country music, but I liked to think of it that way, to think of it as what country music could be if it hadn’t gone down so many bad roads.”

In the mid 90’s Ames moved to the Pacific Northwest and married her husband, Erik, an Oregon native she had met in the Bay area. She went to work as a general assignment reporter – and later a features writer – for The Oregonian in Portland. Though satisfying – her job at the paper fulfilled only part of her creative mind. “I started playing guitar and writing songs and decided to try and find a lead guitar player who could help me out. I had fantasies of playing in a coffee house somewhere or maybe trying an open mike. I put an ad in the paper looking for a guitar player. A guitar player answered the ad, as did a bass player named Roger Conley. We hired a drummer who kept forgetting to come to practice. Just as we were about to start gigging, our fist guitar player moved to Dallas, Texas, so we hired another guitar player, Geoff Clarkson, and another drummer, Marty Henninger. Then we found a pedal steel player, Peter Burak, and those guys became the first Countrypolitans.”

Energized by the ease with which a band came together, Elisabeth and the boys started straight away on a demo recording. It was 1998 and the world of country music was focused on the somewhat plain sound of acts like Trisha Yearwood and LeAnn Rimes. The Countrypoliltans knew their freshly recorded song ‘Redneck Riot’ would have to be put forward as their first single.

“We had made a little demo with the earlier members (who pretty much only played gigs in my living room) and had sent it out, along with a little bottle of whiskey, to all the clubs in town. Out of nowhere, everyone started booking us. Big clubs. Small clubs. Indoor venues. Outdoor venues.“

‘Redneck Riot’ took on a local life of its own – and served to pique the interest of the music staff over at Jackass Records. They came to a show, met Elisabeth and the band and instantly agreed to include the song on their forthcoming alt.country compilation CD “Full Tank”. It was a heady time for the band.

“One small problem though: I had absolutely no stage experience and was terrified. We practiced our butts off and just went for it and for some reason people loved us. It was insane. Looking back and hearing tapes of those shows I’m not sure why we were so popular locally right off the bat. We got a lot better later on. “

The next natural step was for Elisabeth to write, rehearse and record a fully-formed debut CD. Many recording artists experience a rush of creativity as they approach their initial recording and Elisabeth’s experience was no different. She found abundant inspiration for the material and the entire process seemed effortless. In 1999 The Countrypolitans released the debut CD “Tired of Drowning” on their own label imprint, Ultrapolitan Records and with European label Me And My Records under CRS/Rounder Europe.

Elisabeth recalls: “We made our first full length CD. We opened for Merle Haggard, my hero, played a private party for the Cash family, with Johnny and June looking on, got picked up by a label in Europe and went over there for three tours, shared a bill with Willie Nelson two nights in Amsterdam and played the Blue Highways Festival where we connected for the first time with producer Lloyd Maines.”

After five years, and ironically just as the band was falling apart, Elisabeth struck a deal with independent label Sideburn Records (RYKO) and set about to record the second CD.

"Face of My Hometown" was produced by Gregg Williams (Dandy Warhols' `13 Tales from Urban Bohemia' and drummer for Sheryl Crow's 'Globe Sessions') and featured The Countrypolitans now signature alt-country sound.

The Countrypolitans were in the recording studio in Portland mixing “Face of My Hometown” when 9/11 happened. Scheduled plans moved forward and Sideburn Records released the CD to critical acclaim in early 2002. Four months later, Elisabeth and her husband packed up their Oregon home and moved to Southern California.

Settled into a new town, Ames quickly found herself working as a freelance journalist with enough time leftover to continue to write songs and build her personal repertoire.

“I think I just wanted a long vacation. I decided to “give up music” and to just be a songwriter and try to sell my songs. My retirement was short lived. Jeff Hall, a friend who works for Miles of Music in Los Angeles, told me about a guitar player who lived next door to him. He said his name was Chris Lawrence and he played with an artist named Cisco and they had put out a CD called ‘Wishing You Well from the Pink Motel.’ The CD was amazing. Jeff approached Chris out by the dumpster behind their homes one night and told him about us.”

A few weeks later Elisabeth’s longtime collaborator Roger Conley flew down to Los Angeles to meet the new guitar player. Elisabeth and Roger spent an evening rehearsing in Chris’ house and agreed to spend the next night playing three sets with him at a venue called “Beantown” in Sierra Madre. Chris soon introduced them to his friend, Dale Daniel, a drummer and Pedal steel player Gary Brandin. Just as effortlessly as the first time, the Southern California incarnation of the band was formed.

“I have been lucky enough to spend the last four years playing with a wonderful “new” lineup down in California: Chris Lawrence on Telecaster, Dale Daniel on drums, Gary Brandin on the pedal steel and Roger Conley and Rob King on bass. Then Roger fell in love and married a country singer in Portland and had to stop flying down to play with us, so Rob stepped in.”

Just prior to Roger’s marriage, Elisabeth Ames and the Countrypolitans had the good fortune to record their third CD “Anytime” with producer Lloyd Maines at Mad Dog Studios in Burbank, California. Lloyd Maines is a driving force in Texas Music and father of Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines. In addition to production, Lloyd contributes acoustic and slide guitar to the title track. His jaw-dropping pedal steel riffs are only half the reason he is one of the most sought after men in music. As a producer his approach is thoughtful, honest and passionate. Elisabeth and the Countrypolitans were hugely appreciative of his in-studio energy and attentiveness.

“Lloyd had seen us play back in 2000 at the Blue Highways Festival in Utrecht, Holland, and expressed an interest in working with us. We could never get our schedules together until this CD. He took our songs and our sound and just made it all come together in just a few days in the studio. The CD took a long time to mix and release because I found out I was pregnant right at the start of the recording and took a long break from music when my daughter Ava was born.”

Ames wrote all of the songs on ‘Anytime’ except one, which is a big departure from her earlier discs, which were mostly co-written by Ames and Conley.

“I don’t think I will ever write these kinds of songs again. Today, everything has changed thanks to my daughter. Maybe I’ll write a happy album next time. But sad, beautiful country songs have always been my favorite kinds of songs. I love to hear the stuff from the heart, the pain, the joy, whatever it is as long as it’s real. I’ve tried to be real with my songwriting and my singing rather than calculating what I think someone else would like. That’s how most of the stuff on the radio today sounds to me, like someone said, ‘Let’s write a song for teen-age girls because they’re the ones buying records.’ Or ‘Let’s write a song for middle class moms. What would they like?’ There’s nothing personal about those songs.”

“These are just songs I made up at home in the months before I became a mother. In a way they mark the end of a long adolescence.”

As expected, the words and music on “Anytime” find their roots in country, rock and pop with the ever-present understory of Elisabeth's haunting mezzo soprano. Co-Produced by Lloyd Maines (Dixie Chicks, Richard Buckner, Jerry Jeff Walker) the CD features performances by Chris Lawrence (Mike Ness Band, Cisco) on telecaster, Gary Brandin (Blue Hawaiians, Kevin Banford) on pedal steel, Dale Daniel (The Hacienda Brothers) on drums and Roger Conley on bass.

Defying standard categorization, Elisabeth Ames and the Countrypolitans consistently demonstrate their easy command of a variety of American musical styles: country, rock and pop. Tight songwriting, addictive melodies and unconventional arrangements are the hallmarks of Elisabeth's sound. Themes of love, loss and rebirth tell the story.