By Shamira McCray, The Morning News
FLORENCE, S.C. – James Scott Bullard and the Late Night Sweethearts will host a party next weekend for the release of their double album “Oh My Land.”
The album release party will be held at 7 p.m. on Aug. 29 at Southern Hops Brewing Company.
“Oh My Land” is Bullard’s sixth record, and his first with Florence record label Big Mavis Music. The album features Big Mavis artists Stephanie Fagan and Taylor Nealey, along with the musicians in Bullard’s band, The Late Night Sweethearts.
“The album is a double album. There’s two halves to this record,” Bullard said. “It’s an EP, which initially, it’s eight songs; four of my songs and four of Gram Parsons’ songs.”Known as the father of country-rock, Parsons was a member of the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Byrds. Bullard said Parsons is an inspiration to him and anyone who plays country music.
Bullard and his band cover four of Parsons’ songs on the album. “The four of his songs that were chosen, were chosen carefully,” Bullard said. Several artists do covers to Parsons’ music, Bullard said, but he felt it was something he needed to do because he was a fan. “I wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel while I was doing this,” Bullard said. “I was trying to put it on a different car. It’s just to pay homage to one of my heroes.”
Inspiration behind Bullard’s original songs on the album comes from bad relationships or his past drug addiction. “Any experience I go through, I try to take something from it,” Bullard said. “The majority of my songs are probably about bad relationships. There’s a portion of my life where I was a drug addict, and I’ve been clean for eight years now. And it all fell into the same toxic lifestyle.”
Bullard said whenever he overcame situations, he had a lot of songs.
“It was like a puzzle. My life was like this puzzle, and the pieces didn’t fit,” Bullard said. “Some of these songs were around for a long time, and Missy said they deserved the light of day. It was her going through these songs that made them happen.”
Bullard said that with seven albums’ worth of songs, he can’t explain the inspiration. He isn’t able to pick one specific thing, but he is sure they were about bad versions of himself.
All proceeds from the album sales will benefit Eddie Spaghetti’s cancer fight. Eddie Spaghetti, a member of the Supersuckers band, is battling stage three oropharynx cancer.
Missy Davis Jones is the president of Big Mavis Music, and she said the album has been in the works for a while.
“I’m really excited to finally have an opportunity to release this fantastic record. It’s been in the works since January of last year,” Jones said. “It’s the second record my husband and I have co-produced at our studio, Southern Harmony Recording, and we’re very proud of the quality of musicianship that we were able to produce locally, with locally sourced talent and musicians.”
Bullard and the Late Night Sweethearts will perform music from the album and other favorites at the release party. Fagan and Nealey will be guest performers.
Bullard said whoever buys the first hundred copies at the release party will have a copy of a song that will never be released by him again.
The event is free and open to the public.
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