Rodney Rice was surrounded by music growing up, whether on radio, kitchen tape deck, or television. When he was about 12, he started playing the guitar. Rice worked for a while on oil and gas rigs in Texas. One night he talked to Jason McKenzie, (longtime drummer for Billy Joe Shaver), and McKenzie pointed him to the Congress house studio in Austin, where Rice made his first two albums, Empty Pockets and a Troubled Mind and Same Shirt, Different Day. His first album found success on the Freeform Americana Radio chart, while his second album reached number 30 on the Americana Music Association albums chart, after debuting at number 9 on the European Americana Chart. For his eponymous third album, Rodney Rice, Rice found a studio, through album notes, the Bomb Shelter, in Nashville, and finally reached out to them amid the pandemic. (IVPR, 2023)
Rice recently released a new song from his upcoming self-titled album; a rambunctious country shuffle called Rabbit Ears Motel. Echoing classics from the likes of Pure Prairie League, the Supersuckers, Jason & the Scorchers, and Jimmy Buffett’s first couple of albums, Rabbit Ears Motel is about so much more than a place to stay in Colorado. Telecaster licks jump around pedal steel fills between Rice’s refrain of “Checking out when I check in to the Rabbit Ears Motel.” Rabbit Ears Motel is part of Rice’s third full-length album, the upcoming Rodney Rice. Out on May 19, Rodney Rice finds Rice traveling over a wide terrain of emotion; from the death of beloved grandparents and the loss of a cherished pet to the grueling monotony of the road and the joyful celebration of marriage. Rice’s warm, gritty vocals, his ingenious and canny lyricism, and his ability to lay down a melody move listeners emotionally and physically, encouraging them to get up and dance even as they let the lyrics settle into their hearts.
Rice knows just how to capture the fleeting glimmers of an emotional moment in life and turn them into songs that evoke our own feelings of despair and hope; loss and love. He delivers those lyrics with a knowing nod and wink, creating memorable characters in his songs whose imperfections remind us of folks we know. As he says, “Music is a common language that reaches all and brings people from worlds apart together.” Rice cannily matches music with lyrics, pairing a glimpse of a world turned upside down with a jaunty New Orleans jazz swing melody or an ode to young love with a lively country shuffle.
Fans can stream or purchase Rabbit Ears Motel and pre-order or pre-save Rodney Rice ahead of its May 19. Rabbit Ears Motel also has an accompanying music video by director Joshua Shoemaker which follows Rice on a time-warped, neon-soaked journey through the lyrics, and characters, of his brand-new tune.
Rodney Rice track list:
How You Told Me So
Get To Where I’m Going
Nothing To Lose
Rabbit Ears Motel
Roll River Roll
Little Pieces
Set Em Up
Wonder Where I Came From
Every Passing Day
Catch Rodney Rice on tour:
April 30 – Santa’s Pub – Nashville, TN *
May 19 – Broadway Roxy – Denver, CO
May 20 – Trinidad Lounge – Trinidad, CO
May 26 – Swing Station – Laporte, CO
June 16 – Reed’s Package Liquors – Laramie, WY
June 17 – the press. – Steamboat Springs, CO
June 23 – Soulcraft Brewing – Salida, CO
June 24 – Benson’s Tavern and Beer Garden – Salida, CO
July 7 – The Bull Pin Bowling Alley & Sports Bar – Estes Park, CO
July 8 – The Speakeasy – Longmont, CO
July 14 – Stagecoach Saloon – Franktown, CO
August 5 – Stagecoach Saloon – Franktown, CO
Sept 1 – Stagecoach Saloon – Franktown, CO
Sept 9 – The Speakeasy – Longmont, CO
*With the Ice Cold Pickers
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Rodney Rice release date
SA Examiner 