A bluesy pop rock offering with a live feel and a hip sound

11 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Roots Rock, BLUES: Texas Style



Details:
Born in 1952 in southern Ohio, David Rankin has played music since 1961 when he began taking piano lessons. Early influences included folk musicians like the Kingston trio and the inspiring California surf rock of Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys. The whole world changed with the stunning emergence of the Beatles, the overwhelming impact of the British invasion and the high speed arrival of that incredible decade known as âthe 60âsâ.David dropped the piano for a shot time, swept along in the vast wave of guitar strumming frenzy, then enthusiastically embraced the rich sound of the organ, returning to the joys of hammering the keyboard.

New influences appeared consistently. Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Wilson Pickett, David began playing in bands in 1964 appearing at teen dances, parties and roller skating rinks at a time when rock ân roll was truly electrifying, shimmering with excitement.

Davidâs first major concert performance came in 1969 on stage with Johnny Mathis as a backup vocalist. In 1970 David escaped the public school system, spent a brief time at the University of Cincinnati, then slipped away to a remote log cabin located in the hills of Ross County, Ohio where the real journey of being a singer, songwriter and musician began. Focusing again on the piano, David started writing his early clumsy original songs that too closely resembled Jackson Brown. As the 70âs gathered steam David emerged from his cabin to play gigs with an eclectic selection of artist. There was a night on stage with Johnny Paycheck, a jam or two with blues guitarist Ray Fuller, An opening date with Firefall, many shows with Jerry Mills and County Jail in Helena Montana. By the mid-70âs David was traveling the country and working with top 40âs bar bands based in Washington D. C. .

From 1976 to 1980 David devoted himself to working in original music bands and was a member of the popular Ohio group Native Sun. In 1978 David signed with Urge Records in Cincinnati, Ohio and finally got his chance to record and promote his own songs. Alas, the artist and label experienced creative differences, a superb album began to gather dust and David moved to Atlanta, Georgia to refresh and begin anew. What followed was a decade of bars, studios, highways, stages, truck stops, songwriting, tours â¦.the road and all things music. Living in and working out of Atlanta, Cleveland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Denver and Nashville, performing with Backstreet Romance, Southbound, Booker Street, a re-united Native Sun, Joe Gizzard, opening concerts for Bob Seger, John Conlee, McGuffy Lane. In Ohio and Nashville David recorded with Jim McKell, noted producer of the Judds and Kenny Rogers.

In 1989, at age 37, David made the choice of leaving the road and turned his attention squarely on writing and producing songs. Through a long, reclusive time hundreds of songs were written, over 300 were recorded and a solid, substantial body of work was created. Since 1988 David has collaborated with the extremely talented lyricist Alice Spriggs in writing a comprehensive collection of riveting songs.

As a recording artist, David currently has two cdâs available on Thunder Records; âHear It Isâ and âThreads In The Fabricâ both display the seasoned rootsy rock songwriting of the Rankin-Spriggs team.