Chuck Ragan talks musical community and the mother church of country music

by Dave Sharp on Jun 03^rd, 2011

 

Chuck Ragan, the garrulous and versatile front man for Hot Water Music and the catalyst of a successful folk/punk solo career played the historical Ryman Auditorium on May 20^th.

“I was honored to have the opportunity to play The Ryman Auditorium on May 20th, 2011 with Social Distortion and Sharks,” he wrote on his website ChuckRaganMusic.com. “My good friends, Jon Gaunt, Joe Ginsberg and Todd Beene, joined me on stage.”

His creative amalgamation of gospel, country and western, punk and folk was a perfect fit for the old church and former home of the Grand Ole Opry.  He wrote more about the experience and, being music journalists who know when let a story tell itself, we’ll leave it to Chuck to describe his experience in retrospect:

This evening I found myself paying my respects to my wife, my family, my tour mates and the pioneers who wore down that stage floor and paved the road that the majority of my friends and myself have chosen. We were within the walls that harbored and nourished the music and ethics that my family was brought up on while at the same time, sharing it with one of my childhood heroes of a band that my family, church and school rebelled and preached against. To see it all intertwine in this day and time made complete sense and spun me before it grounded me fiercely.

Read Chuck’s entire post about his experience in Nashville here: http://www.chuckraganmusic.com/news.html

In his interview with Sinizine.net prior to the show, Chuck does pay respects to all of the above and talks about his music community, his anticipated reaction of playing at the Ryman and much more.

An Interview with Chuck Ragan from Sinizine.net on Vimeo.