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Thirty years ago Chicago-born RJ Comer abruptly withdrew from music school and gave up on his dream to be a musician. Dark years of violence, addiction, poverty, fractured relationships, and suicide attempts followed, culminating in a come-to-Jesus weekend in a Mississippi jail. RJ straightened himself out (mostly), worked his way through college, earned a full scholarship to law school, and became an attorney.

He thought he was done with music, but music wasn’t done with him. Eight years ago, while a partner in a Los Angeles law firm, a band RJ started for kicks got signed.

RJ stormed back into music, fusing his love of roots and blues in two band LPs, two solo EP’s, and several songs for film. Now a full-time musician living in the Tennessee woods, RJ’s toured from Canada to Florida and throughout the U.S., earning official showcases at SXSW, Canadian Music Week, and various songwriter’s festivals—steadily garnering critical acclaim and building a fanbase.

One Last Kiss is RJ’s first solo LP—a collection of songs from a man who transcended hardships few people escape. RJ’s songs are both conversational and poetic, deftly straddling traditional and contemporary Americana and Blues. With a baritone voice that can be powerful, ragged, or soothing, RJ shows the emotional and experiential range of a man who once only knew how to fight or flee, but slowly learned to live and prosper, and eventually learned to love.

This superb album opens with a kind of love song ‘UNDER A LOVER’S MOON’ written by RJ’s wife Deborah as I think he kinds of struggles a little with romantic happy upbeat songs.So Deborah,who runs the business side of their partnership,decided to theme it on their shift from urban life to their dream of living in the Tennessee woods.This track certainly has that upbeat boogie which gets your feet tapping.Great start.

‘IF I COULD BE WATER’ is track 2 and it brings the pace right down. This track reveals the painful falsehood and steep emotional price of being a strong silent type.It is a rootsy and cinematic song with RJ’s voice as smooth as bourbon but as gritty as sand.
Track 3 ‘DESERT MAMA’ is inspired by RJ’s friend,an old time vagabond banjo player and photographer,who decided to live a kind of nomadic lifestyle in the desert commune of East Jesus in California.His friend could contemplate the meaning of existence through art.It is a bluesy kind of song that makes the desert come alive.

‘CAIN’S BLOOD’ is track 4, a cover of a song written by Michael Johnson and Jack Sundrud, and recorded by American country music group 4 Runner.
A fan suggested that RJ cover this song,which was a Christian/Country crossover hit. RJ tracked down the video of the song and to make it his own,RJ slowed it right down and made the guitar chords dirtier.

‘BAD DAY IN PARADISE’ is track 5 and like the previous track I feel it would not be amiss in the hit TV series ‘True Blood’ or ‘Sons Of Anarchy’. It has that element of darkness surrounding it. It came to RJ one morning on an idyllic drive to work along a palm lined Beverley Hills street as storm clouds gathered above.

Track 6 is ‘LET’S RUN’ is a beautifully written country ballad which transmits the same story as the opening track ‘Under A Lover’s Moon’. It tells us of a story of people who want to radically change their lives.

Initially this song was written to a request for songs to be written to accompany a classic telecoms advert involving meerkats!!
This song will certainly resonate with a lot of people wishing to get away from the dull groundhog days of modern life.

Track 7 ‘ALL OVER AGAIN’ and continues in the same theme.It tells us about wanting to spend those few extra minutes curled up in bed with your loved one before setting off to your mundane job with your mundane anal boss. Yet you keep smiling and you kep plodding along because you work for your family.
Dedicated to the workers.

The song is one of my favourites.

‘LEAVE YOUR LIGHT ON’ is track 8 is a lone wolf love song.Driven by two acoustic guitars with stunning chords and all built around a melody that is both pleading and triumphant.
The story tells us of a longing for a loved one whilst travelling alone doing your work,be it a musician,salesman or any job that gets you travelling alone.
Leave Your Light On so I can find my way to you tonight.

Track 9 is ‘HOUSE GROWN COLD’ is a heartbreak love song for a lost love.
A mix of country,blues and Cajun, RJ found it very difficult to write as his love was still prevalent in his life and had been for 23 years,so what did he do? He took a walk near his house on a snowy morning and looked back on his house and imagined what life would be like without his wife Deborah.

‘STILL DOIN TIME’ is track 10.
It is a song written by John Moffatt and Michael P. Heeney, and recorded by American country music artist George Jones which reached #1 in the US charts in 1981.
RJ fell in love with this song whilst in high school. RJ’s version really emphasises the deep regret and suffering in the song by slowing the tempo down to a snails pace. RJ has certainly made this version his own.Love it.

The penultimate track is ‘YOU’D DRINK LIKE I DO TOO’ is written in homage to his own drinking daze and stories he has accumulated in the bars of New Orleans. RJ puts his wry and witty riffs to this song. A favourite amongst fans in his solo shows.You can envisage many a night in the bars and saloons around the world with this song ending the night on the jukebox.

The final track on this terrific album ‘ONE LAST KISS’
‘I honestly don’t remember most of my first kisses but I remember every last kiss’ is what RJ tells the audience when he introduces this song.
It is quite a dark but poetic bluesy track that explores the ultimate last kiss,the kiss of death.

He tells of Edgar Allen Poe,who never recovered from the death of his young bride,he tells of his own heartbreak memory of his mother kissing his fathers body before they closed the casket and of course the most famous last kiss by Judas.

This album really delivers some dark moments but also some beautiful bright love moments too.

Overall the album delivers some superb music that would not be amiss in ‘TRUE BLOOD’ or ‘SONS OF ANARCHY’

Each listen amplifies my liking,and each listen gives me a different definition of country,blues and cajun sounds. RJ’s voice is like a damn good bourbon,smooth yet gritty with that unmistakable kick.

RRM RATING 7.5/10

RRM STAND OUT TRACKS: ‘UNDER A LOVER’S MOON’ ‘BAD DAY IN PARADISE’ ‘LET’S RUN’ ‘ONE LAST KISS’

Read Review at Robs Raw Music >

RJ Comer
ONE LAST KISS
Growling Moon Music

Soundtrack For A Hot August Night in a Tennessee Backwater.

It’s fascinating what music can do for a person; be they a listener like you or I but actual musicians themselves; as it seems that the ‘power of music’ has been a golden thread in RJ Comer’s life be it his time as a violent addict or later after cleaning himself up and discovering God; as an attorney……music got him through some dark times.
Now, many years later he’s a full time singer-songwriter living in the Tennessee woods making music and occasionally touring the United States , North, South, East and West to popular acclaim it has to be said.

The rather snappy Under a Lover’s Moon opens proceedings with some neat fiddle and guitar interjections complimenting RJ’s rich and expressive baritone voice. The song itself is one of the few love songs I’ve heard recently which is written and about a genuine couple of mature years who actually seem to like each other; which gives it an extra star at RMHQ.
Obviously not everything is as upbeat as that opener; but that’s not to say that the songs from the darker edges of life; House Grown Cold and Still Doin’ Time spring to mind don’t have a brittle beauty to them too; as they do.

After playing in bar bands for many years, it’s obvious RJ Comer can turn his hand to most genres of popular music; but he generally sticks to the Country-Blues format I normally associate with Townes, Guy and Rodney; but he’s got a lot more strings to his bow than that as Desert Mama and If I Could Be Water prove; with something of an early Neil Diamond ‘feel’ to them at times.
Like all the great singer-songwriter’s Comer digs deep into the darkest corners of his memories for his songs and comes out the other end with such raw delights as Bad Day in Paradise and You’d Drink Like I Do which are both perfect for the wee small hours of the morning when you feel that the whole world is against you……and it might be; but RJ Comer let’s you know you aren’t alone.

The record closes with the title track ONE LAST KISS; a sad old tale with a truly mournful fiddle accompaniment about the singer’s father but could easily be interpreted by any of us to describe many relationships that have haunted us too.

Hmmmm; where to go for a Favourite Song’? There have been a few contenders; not least the first and last tracks and more than once I’ve played Let’s Run on repeat several times, but I’m going out on a limb with the nigh on Gothic Cain’s Blood, which not only describes Comer’s life that straddled good and evil in equal quantities; but again this is the mark of a great songwriter; could describe most of us and not least myself over the years, which is quite some achievement.
I love music in many formats which is why I do what I do with this website; and every now and again a really rare talent comes along like RJ Comer; and if he’s not too old to grasp the nettle…….he could and should be a Major Star in the Americana world if there is any justice.
Or he may just enjoy his anonymity living with his wife in that Tennessee backwater; and who can blame him?

Released 15th June 2018
https://www.rjcomer.com/

Read Review at Rocking Magpie >

From the get-go of the subtle country hook underlying “Under a Lover’s Moon,” it’s clear that RJ Comer has a gifted voice and sense of melody that makes you want to hum along.

There’s a sense of instant familiarity you feel listening to One Last Kiss, Comer’s debut solo album (Growling Moon Records). While entirely contemporary, it sometimes feels like an old friend dropped in to say hello from a top forty chart played on an old FM radio station in another era.

The singer’s commanding vocals gives extra resonance to his material. In “If I Could Be Water,” built around Brian Sutherland’s cello and Daniel Foulks harrowing fiddle, Comer’s voice is so deep it feels like he’s reaching down into the well he’s singing about. You can’t help but think of its uncanny resemblance to the great Neil Diamond. When Comer sings about the rewards of work and life in “All Over Again,” the effervescent arrangement is even twinged with a touch of Diamond’s melodic splendor.

One More Kiss was produced by Shawn Byrne. Comer and his band cover a lot of ground within the roots amalgam. The intrigue of “House Grown Cold” is accentuated by the brooding guitar licks of Randy Khors. “Bad Day In Paradise” has a nice harp overlay and “Desert Mama” is a light, swinging shuffle. The traditional bluesy “You’d Drink Like I Do” has a sense of humor as Comer laments about working at a cemetery and dropping dead bodies into the ground, only to have them talk back to him.

But the best songs on One Last Kiss happen when Comer is at his most personal. In his personal plea to a lover in “Leave Your Light On” he has perhaps his best line: “I’ve been out so long my eyes can’t be trusted.” In the devastating closing title track, Comer’s dark family saga is summed up in one line: “You’re dead before you know you’re hurt.”

The album marks Comer’s solo debut after previously releasing two band albums and EPs. It also marks a triumphant life turn for the singer who endured a series of events that brought on poverty and several attempted suicides. He served time in jail where he turned his life around and went on to work his way through law school to become a lawyer.

In this context, the autobiographical “Let’s Run” takes on greater meaning. I suspect there’s more to his life story than revealed in “Still Doin’ Time” and the album’s title track. As some of the songs hint, we hope that he will continue to unveil more of what lies below the surface.

Read Article at Americana Highway >

Where would blues and country music be if the world were full of clean living monogamous men who had no demons to fight? RJ Comer would not be the best person to ask. His chequered past has followed the ritual rite of passage involving violence, addiction and suicide attempts.

Needless to say, loving relationships have not always proceeded smoothly either. Perhaps he has a point when he sings “If you had my kind of trouble” You’d Drink Like I Do Too.

For many years, Comer gave up on music altogether to get straight. He qualified as an attorney and worked as a partner in an LA law firm. That explains that it’s only now that he’s gotten round to recording his first solo album.

He recruited some Nashville musicians for his backing band and set out to make a record that would entertain and inspire. However, the cover image of a car wrapped around a tree gives fair warning that he doesn’t skip lightly over the dark years that led up it.

The title track is not simply a romantic memory but conjures up Judas’ betrayal. The video for this is preceded by a quotation from Edgar Allan Poe: “I became insane, with long periods of horrible sanity”.

A battle with faith and identity is evident from other biblically themed tunes – Cain’s Blood and Bad Day In Paradise.

Nevertheless, his solid, crooner’s instinct remains intact and the music is ultimately a celebration of love and survival. He now describes himself as “a guy who loves my wife of 22 years, drives a truck and lives in the forest”.

Turning his back on city ways seems to have been a key factor in this change of fortunes. On Under A Lover’s Moon he sings of the relief of moving “from high rise buildings to high rise trees”.

Still, the bruised baritone voice and wealth of authentic detail leave the listener in no doubt that his journey to this more stable existence has followed a rough road. This may be a familiar tale but it is one well told .

It is a testament to the fact that Comer has travelled down plenty of lost highways without crashing.

Read Article at Whisperin and Hollerin >

2-hour program featuring an interview with country artist RJ Comer. He talks about his hometown of Chicago, moving to California as a teen and they taking a fascinating life journey to settle in rural Dickson County, near Nashville. RJ plays three songs live and we hear selections from his new album, One Last Kiss, along with some of his favorite songs by other artists.

Listen at MixCloud.com >

Thirty years ago when RJ Comer dropped out of music school he thought that was the end of his dream – but music wasn’t done with him just yet. Years of violence, poverty, fractured relationships and suicide attempts followed. After a come-to-Jesus experience in a Mississippi jail, he straightened his life out, worked his way through law school to become a lawyer. Along the way, Comer kept coming back to music, playing with a band on the side – one that was eventually signed. He took the opening and stormed back into music. Comer is now releasing his debut solo album (and sixth release overall), One Last Kiss, on June 15.

Offering insights of a man who transcended hardships few people escape, the songs on One Last Kiss straddle the line between traditional and contemporary Americana and blues. Combining his baritone vocal with a ragged edge, One Last Kiss shows the emotional and experiential range of a man who once only knew how to fight or flee — who slowly learned to live and prosper, and eventually learned to love. Ahead of the release, Comer kindly took the time to answer his Essential 8 where he spoke about One Last Kiss, his songwriting process, Denny’s, and more.

When/where do you do your best writing?
I muse best late at night, alone, on a street (or alley) in some big city or on my back porch in the Tennessee woods. It’s kind of a lone wolf thing for me—running through the tangle of stories, phrases, and images in my mind, sniffing them out, nose to the ground until something close to poetry falls into place that inspires me.

Do you write about personal experience, the experience of others, observations, made-up stories, something else or a combination?
Mostly I write from my own experiences or the experiences of people I have known personally. That personal connection feels the most intimate and authentic to me. There are exceptions, though, like my heartbreak song “House Grown Cold.” I’ve been happily married to the same amazing woman for 22 years. So, for that song, I had to imagine what it would feel like if she didn’t love me anymore. I’ll tell ya, that bit of musing scared me a whole lot more than any of the bad stuff that has really happened to me.

Why did you choose to anchor the album with the songs you did?
There are really two anchors in this album, think of them as fore and aft. They are Love and Loss. Songs like Under a Lover’s Moon, Let’s Run, Leave Your Light On, and All Over Again are about my marriage and the adventure my wife and I have been on together for 22 years—the anchor of Love, and it is an anchor rising. Songs like House Grown Cold, Bad Day in Paradise, If I Could Be Water, and One Last Kiss come from the side of me that remembers not always being a good guy, that sometimes still feels undeserving of love or redemption—the anchor of Loss, and it’s sinking. That’s the yin and yang of this record and the yin and yang of me.
What’s your favorite/”go-to” food on the road?
That’s easy, Denny’s, particularly the Super Bird. Now, when I’m driving 500 miles in a day to get from one gig to another, I don’t stop for anything but truck stop food. But after a gig, all alone and once again anonymous in the night, whether it’s the Florida Keys or Rolla, Missouri, I’m gonna slide into a booth at Denny’s and eat me some Super Bird. No, I am not sponsored by Denny’s, but in case they’re reading this…

How do you kill the long hours in the van?
I tour solo, driving myself in my pick-up truck. It’s a little easier to kill time when you’re the one driving. But I pass the time chain smoking cigars and listening to news on satellite radio—sometimes talking back to the radio when I think I have something worthwhile to add… yeah, I’m that guy who talks back to the radio like I’m part of the conversation. And, of course, listening to music. I prefer blues-based rootsy rock & roll when I’m driving.

What’s your favorite venue and why?
My favorite venue is the one I’m playing. Really. I may get frustrated playing a gig where I compete with pool tables, a veritable panoply of TV screens, and the maddening din of the inattentive drowning out my heartfelt confessional ballad. If I let myself, I’ll imagine those better venues I’ve played or become envious of artists that no longer have to play pub gigs to get by. But my higher self remembers that I am living my dream in that moment, in that venue. I get to make music for a living; I’m not working a day job anymore. So my favorite venue is the one I’m playing. And I think the audience deserves that from an artist.

What’s your dream venue and why?
Because I most often play solo acoustic, my dream venue is a listening room with a bar where people can get a drink, and the audience gives the artist their attention. In that setting, I can really let the audience in, be emotionally available to them, and they can let me in. Places like the Palms Playhouse in Winters, California or the newly re-opened Blue Note in Tampa, where we can all be together going through the emotional arc of the show.

Is drinking at gigs a positive or a negative?
Ha! Well it’s definitely a positive if the audience has a few drinks—especially because I usually do two or three drinking songs in a set. It’s definitely a negative for me to drink at gigs… which might explain why I have two or three drinking songs in a set. Practically, however, it really is about the venue, not the availability of alcohol. I’ve played my share of roadhouses and dive bars, and I adjust my set to that crowd. Ideally, the audience drinks responsibly and pays attention – with just enough alcohol to loosen up and be open to going on the musical and emotional journey I offer.

Read Interview at The Daily Country >

BY RON WRAY
APRIL 24, 2018

R. J. Comer “One Last Kiss” This guy has a great raw country voice and persona. His songs have some dirt and grit on them. His tune, “If I Could Be Water,” is a raw beauty. He carries the record with a lot of power and variety.

Read Article at No Depression >

Thirty years ago Chicago-born RJ Comer abruptly withdrew from music school and gave up on his dream to be a musician. Dark years of violence, addiction, poverty, fractured relationships, and suicide attempts followed, culminating in a come-to-Jesus weekend in a Mississippi jail. RJ straightened himself out (mostly), worked his way through college, earned a full scholarship to law school, and became an attorney.

He thought he was done with music, but music wasn’t done with him. Eight years ago, while a partner in a Los Angeles law firm, a band RJ started for kicks got signed.

RJ stormed back into music, fusing his love of roots and blues in two band LPs, two solo EP’s, and several songs for film. Now a full-time musician living in the Tennessee woods, RJ’s toured from Canada to Florida and throughout the U.S., earning official showcases at SXSW, Canadian Music Week, and various songwriter’s festivals—steadily garnering critical acclaim and building a fanbase.

One Last Kiss is RJ’s first solo LP—a collection of songs from a man who transcended hardships few people escape. RJ’s songs are both conversational and poetic, deftly straddling traditional and contemporary Americana and Blues. With a baritone voice that can be powerful, ragged, or soothing, RJ shows the emotional and experiential range of a man who once only knew how to fight or flee, but slowly learned to live and prosper, and eventually learned to love.

Some Nashville notables contributed to One Last Kiss, creating a primarily acoustic sound that is classic but never stock, and is always distinctly RJ. Grammy-winner Randy Kohrs—renowned for his work with talents as diverse as Jim Lauderdale, Dolly Parton and Dierks Bentley—shows the full range of his abilities on One Last Kiss, from the insane resonator solo on the hallucinogenic “Desert Mama” to his swaggering riffs on “Bad Day in Paradise.” Fiddler Daniel Foulks from the Parker Millsap band adds his signature freight train fiddle to joyful tracks like “Under a Lover’s Moon” and quietly mourns with RJ on the bluesy ballad “One Last Kiss.” Foulks also leads the fiddle & cello duo fluidly accompanying RJ’s longing and regret on “If I Could be Water”—achieving a sound that is at once profoundly intimate and yet also cinematic.

One Last Kiss was produced by Shawn Byrne in his Nashville studio. One of Nashville’s most sought out multi-instrumentalists and a SESAC Writer’s Award winner, Shawn is also gaining a reputation as a producer—having trained under the guidance of Grammy winning producer Nathan Chapman.

Byrne’s challenge was to create a musically coherent sound for an album that includes joyful love songs to a song about the kiss of death and for a singer that belts, growls, and whispers. Around an acoustic backbone of percussion, fiddles, guitars, and harmonica, Byrne fleshed out the sound for each song by selectively incorporating cello, keyboards, mandolin, electric guitar, or accordion. The result is a sound that preserves the timeless qualities of acoustic Americana & Blues, invokes the open space of rural life, but is updated for the increasingly urban 21st Century audience.

“Every day people may find a lot to relate to in this record and will hopefully be entertained and inspired.” RJ says. “I’m a guy who loves my wife of 22 years, drives a truck, and lives in the forest. But I once abandoned my dreams and was on my way to being a young corpse or an old inmate. Instead I made a success of my life and was given a second chance to make music. All that is in this record.”

Read Review at Maverick >

BY: GERRY MCNALLY

‘One Last Kiss’ is the first full long-player from Chicago native RJ Comer. This record follows on from a run of successful EP releases over the last few years.

‘Under A Lover’s Moon’ opens the record with a radio-friendly, alt-country, blues, boogie-based love song. This is followed early on by ‘Let’s Run’, which is again set in the same soundscape.

Where the record gets really interesting is when RJ Comer’s ability to mine the dark side of humanity comes to the fore.

‘If I Could Be Water’ and ‘Bad Day In Paradise’ both give the listener the impression of a lost soul searching to be cleansed of past misdeed or crime and the longing to move on.

‘Cain’s Blood’ highlights the soul-searching of a tortured individual who has to battle with their inner demons to find balance in their life, while ‘House Grown Cold’ broodingly depicts the break up of a relationship.

‘One Last Kiss’ is a complex and multi-layered record put together by an individual who has lived more in one lifetime than most. Violence, addiction, poverty, broken relationships and brushes with salvation are all evident within this semi-autobiographical work.

Produced by Nashville-based Shawn Byrne the record has a raw and earthy feel to it and with RJ Comer’s witty and often gritty vocals it gives the listener an all too eerie live in the room sound.

The effects of personal betrayal by family and friends is explored in the mournful title track ‘One Last Kiss’ which is, without doubt, the standout song of this collection.

The record has a fascinating mix of light and dark subject material contained within, but it is RJ Comer’s darkest material that shines brightest.

‘One Last Kiss’ is released on Friday 15th June on Growling Moon records.

Read Review at Folk and Tumble >