Interview with Randall Goodgame - Part 2 [Gourmet Music Report #34]

We continue our conversation from last week with singer-songwriter Randall Goodgame. Also, below I'll tell you what songs to download to have a good starter kit of Randall's music.

DT: What was the inspiration behind your 2005 CD "War & Peace"?
RG: Well, the big deal when I was making this record was it was during the time when we were ramping up for war. I had never experienced anything like that growing up so it had a big impact on me. As a songwriter you try to respond to the world around you; take in what you see. "Susan Coats' Pants", "So Far Away", "Dear America" are three of the songs that have war themes.

DT: You also started the album in a unique way. What led to the creation of the Peanuts Trilogy?
RG: Well it just sort of worked out that it had some themes, some war language in them so they could fit on the record well. But the inspiration behind it was the passing of Charles Schultz. I remember sitting on my bed in the duplex that we lived in - my wife was at work - and I was just sitting picking having just the night before watched a special on Charles Schultz because he had just passed away. The first couple of verses came out just like they are on the record. Then I had those two verses for a long time. I just couldn't get much further on it. Then I made little breakthroughs here and there over the next couple of years. I thought for a lot of the time that I was writing the same song - that it was going to be one some big epic adventure. Then eventually I realized it was three different songs.

DT: Tell us about the themes behind your latest album "Bluebird".
RG: Yeah, Bluebird. It's been so fun hearing people's feedback from it. There's only 6 songs on there so we call it an EP. Which is funny, because EP stands for Extended Play. [Laughing] I got people asking me about that all the time. You know, there were some themes running through. There's definitely a theme of relationships and brokenness and loss. But also the hope of redemption kind of permeates through the whole thing. There's some really sad songs on the record but there's also real hopeful songs. I feel like each in a different way address the human condition - being broken, broken up by your relationships, your circumstances and then the hope of better days to come.

Randall Goodgame is the special guest on this week's "Under The Radar". If you want to start your music collection of Mr. Goodgame, I would suggest downloading these 4 songs as a good starter pack: "Sylvester" (from Arkadelphia), "I Did Not Catch Her Name" (from War & Peace), "Heaven Waits" (from Bluebird), and "God Made Me" (from Slugs & Bugs & Lullabies).
http://radarradio.net