Growing up in rural Maine, Americana singer/songwriter Picott became interested in music early. Even as he finished school and started work, he kept up his interest.
He eventually left Maine for Boulder, Colo., and then Nashville in 1994, holding on to his construction-related work while trying to start a career as a songwriter.
“I spent the first four or five years as one of those crazy Nashville guys who works eight hours, comes home, locks himself in a room to write for a few hours, and then comes out to go and play all the open mics and anything else I could get into,” Picott says. “I was one of those obsessed guys.”
A break came when, as a result of being signed to Alison Krauss’ management company, he was able to open for her. He’s done well enough since then in Nashville — he has his own record label, Welding Rod — that he can hang up hanging the sheet rock, but he is still aiming for greater national visibility. But it has to be on his terms.
“As a writer, I have a white-knuckle grip on that concept of writing what you know,” he says. “So everything I write about comes from either my own life or somebody around me. I really don’t step outside of it. It works for me.”
ROD PICOTT performs Wednesday, March 4 at Southgate House Revival. More info: southgatehouse.com.
