Written By Cary Barnhard

John Ralston (Recess Theory, Legends of Rodeo) has released his first TWO solo records. "Needle Bed" recorded in Knoxville with producer Michael Seaman and "There's Always and Ambulance Around the Bend" recorded with Jay Bennett, formerly of Wilco. Heat Beat managed to catch up with the prolific Mr. Ralston and talk about music.

HB: How did you get interested in music?

JR: You mean way in the beginning? I suppose just from hearing my Mom's records like The Band and a lot of Neil Young around the house and of course The Beatles. I guess just from listening to her records. And she was a folk artist, a singer/song- writer and stuff like that.

HB: I'm glad you mentioned The Beatles because I really felt a Beatles vibe when I was listening to "Needle Bed".

PL: Yeah, I keep hearing that. (Laughs)

HB: Was it intentional?

PL: No, well the whole thing is, even making the record was unintentional. I had no plans of making a record when I went up there.

HB: So how did that happen?

PL: I was kind of down. I wasn't touring for a while. A friend in Knoxville who owns a studio up there, called me up and said, "John, why don't you come up and stay at my house for a while?" So I drove up there and ended up making a whole record. It was a surprise to me! (Laughs)

HB: Is that why you have two releases this year?

PL: That was the start of it. I'd been in touch with Jay Bennett to do the last Legends record that we never made. I'd sent the stuff to Jay to show him what I was doing. I ended up going there to record two songs that were going to be on "Needle Bed" and do a few overdubs. We ended up not doing any of those things. We recorded twelve new songs, again unintentionally. (Laughs)

HB: It seems like you can barely go to the supermarket without recording an album….

PL: (Laughs) It would almost seem that way, yes! It's partly true. I write a ton. I sort of fall into it sometimes. It just so happens I had a lot of people encouraging me to make music at the time and so I did it!