Sometimes your environment or who you know determines who you are. For Reverend Greg Spradlin, this is certainly the way you talk about his career as a musician. Born in Pangburn, Arkansas, White County, Greg Spradlin has been making music since his teens. Today he works as a consultant for non-profit organizations and after many years of experience acts as a senior manager for the Heifer International Foundation. From time to time he sometimes appears on stage.
What happened in between? Greg Spradlin’s musical journey. While in high school, Greg played guitar and performed with bands in bars and clubs in Central and North Central Arkansas. While studying at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, he was recruited to go to Los Angeles and join some kind of prepackaged Southern rock band that one Bryson Jones wanted to form. Warner Bros. was interested in them. In 1992, the group was about to make a deal with Warner Bros. when everything collapsed. Warner Bros. staff announced that changes were coming or layoffs would occur. Spradlin went back to Arkansas dejected, completed college, did odd jobs, and eventually started The Skeeterhawks. They made passionate country rock that combined a rolling punk spirit and soulful, Gram Parsons-tinged twang.
The Skeeterhawks signed with Synapse Records – a rap label that wants to branch out – in San Francisco. The band went to California and recorded a sub-par version of the record they had already made in Arkansas. Everyone got a bad feeling about the label and the deal, a feeling that got worse as the days went by without anyone seeing a penny. The band went back to Little Rock, the record never came out and they never heard from the label again.
Perhaps this story would have ended here and Spradlin would have shelved his rock & roll dreams, had it not been for Jim Dickinson. Born in Little Rock, Dickinson was a respected producer and musician and one of the godfathers of the Memphis sound. He has played on iconic records by Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. The two grew close and Dickinson became something of a musical father figure to Spradlin, who Dickinson still calls his “Obi-Wan Kenobi” (from Star Wars). Dickinson and Spradlin planned to make a record together, but this dream came to an end with Dickinson’s death in 2009. Dickinson’s death shocked Spradlin but also woke him up. He felt his mentor was still pressuring him.
In 2010, Pete Thomas, the drummer for Elvis Costello, Randy Newman and Sheryl Crow, was in Little Rock to record a number of songs with producer Jason Weinheimer’s wife Indy Grotto for her solo album. It was Weinheimer who then encouraged Greg Spradlin to come and jam with the British drummer. That session was a life-changing experience for Spradlin, although he didn’t know it at the time. The unmistakable chemistry at the time initiated a musical journey that would take Spradlin to Los Angeles to record ‘Hi-Watter’ in 2012 with, among others, Pete Thomas, Los Lobos founder / singer / guitarist David Hidalgo, the late keyboardist Rudy Copeland (Solomon Burke, Johnny Guitar Watson) and bassist Davey Faragher (Cracker, John Hiatt). The album, “Hi-Watter,” the debut album from Rev. Greg Spradlin and the Band of Imperials—a raw celebration of hip rock, soul, blues, R&B and gospel—was finally released in July earlier this year.
“My mom’s records were Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, all great stuff. My dad,” Spradlin recalls, “loved Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. That was the diet I grew up with. My mom had a box of 45s. It was everything from the early Elvis to Howlin’ Wolf, the early James Brown … that’s what I listened to. So I grew up listening to music that was very old. I’ve always loved music that is timeless and has no expiration date.”
As a result, the music from “Hi-Watter” comes out a bit more rocking and robust. This is immediately apparent from the soulful tones of the opener “Gospel of the Saints”, which is introduced by Pete Thomas in a relaxed manner, from the aptly named “Go Big,” the compelling title track “Hell or Hi Watter” and “I Drew Six.” The ballads “Stainless Steel,” “Don’t Make Me Wait,” “What Would I Do” and “Sweet Baby” betray the soul side that he got from his mother. With “The Maker,” this unexpected rock experience comes to an end.
Rev. Greg Spradlin & the Band of Imperials’ “Hi-Watter” is an album that you play at a riotous moment on Saturday night, before cleaning your battered soul with gospels of the Lord on Sunday morning. Inspired by the Reverend’s dear deceased friend, “Hi-Watter” is the ultimate proof that talent always comes to the surface, even if the wait sometimes takes years.
