Stop being polite and start getting real

Photo | facebook.com/robaldridgemusic

Band: In the Round: Jay Burgess, Caleb Elliott, Rob Aldridge
Date: Sunday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m.
Venue: Callaghan’s Irish Social Club, 916 Charleston St., callaghansirishsocialclub.com
Tickets: $15, available through Brown Paper Tickets (limited number available)

The Azalea City loves a good songwriters’ round. This show format allows for the audience to witness a group of songwriters providing intimate performances along with telling the stories behind the songs. Callaghan’s Irish Social Club will be welcoming a trio of songwriters for a very special round. 

Jay Burgess (The Pollies), Caleb Elliott and Rob Aldridge (Rob Aldridge & The Proponents) will be traveling from the Shoals to entertain local songwriting enthusiasts. 

The last time he was in Mobile, Aldridge and his Proponents opened for Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit at the Saenger with a set at Callaghan’s the following night. With his new album, “Mind Over Manners,” set for an early 2022 release, Aldridge will be coming to the OGD armed only with his acoustic guitar and a batch of fresh songs. 

Music Editor Steve Centanni and Aldridge discussed this upcoming show as well as the new album.

Steve Centanni: You just got off tour with The Proponents. What’s it like making that shift from the full band to going on stage solo?

Rob Aldridge: Well, you know, we didn’t have a very long run, but I have done that before. Really, it’s not too bad. I started out for years before I even had a band doing solo stuff. I had some good advice years ago. When you play acoustic, imagine that you’re playing for two or three people in front of you. I approach it by imagining that I’m picking a song in somebody’s living room and try to make it conversational. It’s different for sure, but I don’t mind it at all. I actually kind of enjoy it.

Centanni: You did this past Frank Brown International Songwriters’ Festival, right?

Aldridge: I did. I just got home last night. After Frank Brown, I went and opened for Cary Hudson in Meridian, Mississippi, and just drove home last night, so if I sound a little tired …

Centanni: It definitely sounds like you’ve been busy. What did you think of this year’s Frank Brown?

Aldridge: Man, it’s like my fourth or fifth year doing it. It’s always great. You meet a lot of different characters and people who come from totally different backgrounds, and you get to mix it up. I joke with people that I go and play those shows that they book me for just to have an excuse to go sit around the table at the River House with other writers late at night and swap songs. It was the first time that I went down there since I stopped drinking. The times that I would probably be at the bar drinking, I spent more time writing. I wrote one with another guy and a wrote a new one by myself. I focused more on writing this time, and it was nice.

Centanni: You’re going out on this tour with Caleb and Jay, and you really don’t get to see a lot of songwriters’ round tours. Usually, they just get a bunch of people on their respective tours and throw them together in a round. How did this come about?

Aldridge: Me and Caleb and Jay are good friends. The three of us are extremely competitive ping-pong players. I think that we’re taking that same approach to these shows. Hopefully, it will have that vibe of an in-the-round sort of thing. Since we’re all so familiar with each other and enjoy spending time together, there will be more collaboration on each other’s songs. I know Caleb is gonna bring his cello with him. I would imagine that the banter is going to be sort of a comedy show in itself, once we get going.

Centanni: It’s good timing too. You’ve got that “Mind Over Manners” LP coming out, and I checked out the title track. How do you think that one represents the album? What else can we expect?

Aldridge: Well, you know, that song in particular, I wrote in response to the Black Lives Matters movement, when we were all sitting at home with our own thoughts for months on end. The premise of that song is essentially a White man responding to other White people who were upset about those marches and unfortunate riots and things that happened. As far as people who didn’t understand or were complaining about that, it’s basically me saying to them, “Well, what do you expect after what we’ve done and what they’ve been through?” 

The sentiment of “Mind Over Manners” ties with a lot of themes on the record. Lyrically, it’s a tour through the human experience and explores things like religion, addiction, anxiety, female empowerment and complicated love. Some of it comes from being stuck there in the pandemic, when you’re with your own thoughts, as I said. The phrase “mind over manners” can sort of apply to a lot of different situations where someone is forced to do what’s best for them or everyone and overcome adversity.

Centanni: The cool thing about you is that you have a lot of cool friends. Who joined you in the studio?

Aldridge: It was the core group that is The Proponents. Stone Anderson finished all his bass parts before he passed away in April. We had Rob Malone [on guitar] and Nick Recio on drums. We had Caleb Elliot and Kimi Samson come in, and they did string parts for the record. Jay [Burgess], of course, produced and engineered it. Our friend Wanda Wesolowski, who’s got her own great record out called “One Hit Wanda” with her band Wanda Band, she sings a duet with me on there. We have Clint Bailey from The Pollies, who plays keys. It was cool. We’re all friends, and I’m lucky to have the type of friends that I trust to add to my stuff. We had a great time doing it, too.

Centanni: When will we get the full album?

Aldridge: Jan. 21, 2022, will be the release date. The song “Mind Over Manners” will be released as a single next week on Nov. 17. There’ll be a couple more singles released before the record comes out, but on Jan. 21, you’ll be able to get it everywhere.