Country Rock sextet Ridge Runner just returned from Nashville, where they showcased for labels, collected business cards and passed around their sophomore CD, the aptly titled Kickin’ and Stompin’. As half of the band — lead vocalist/acoustic guitarist Jeff Workman, bassist/vocalist Troy Brown and fiddler/vocalist Ron Ball — relaxes over beers and fish and chips at the Back Porch Saloon, they proudly recount their Music City triumphs.
“I think it was the most productive thing we’ve done as a band besides make this CD,” says Brown.
Where previous albums crammed RR’s influences into one set, Kickin’ and Stompin’ refined and distilled those influences into a more cohesive yet satisfyingly diverse whole. And those influences are plentiful, from Country both classic and contemporary to Pop and Rap to the Kings X T-shirt Workman is sporting: Funktry Music is an appropriate name for their publishing company.
They play Friday and Saturday night at Randy’s Roadhouse in Batesville, Ind.
This article appears in Mar 11-17, 2009.