Roots Music Report

Liner Notes:

About the Album

When Rick Fowler picks up a guitar, he says everything he needs to say and more. His eloquent playing transfers unfiltered emotion through his fingers onto the fretboard and back out into the world. A combination of deft phrasing, full-bodied vibrato, resounding notes, and raw feel has enshrined him as a sought-after and seasoned six-string journeyman with an impressive back catalog and over four decades on the road in the rearview. Beyond co-founding Fortnox (Epic Records 1982), Bombay, and Bad Fun, he has lent his talents to hundreds of recordings and shined at countless gigs, collaborating with everyone from eighties pop phenomenon Bertie Higgins and blues legend Beverly “Guitar” Watkins to alternative rock royalty like Bill Berry of R.E.M. His oeuvre notably includes the score for the Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary Dirty Work as well as the trio Deadwood Guitar Sessions alongside Michael Doke and Greg Veale. However, he speaks his mind and heart on his solo debut LP, Back On My Good Foot—now newly reissued by Strolling Bones in 2026. He effectively shows the world who he is on this batch of tunes.

“I've always felt a little uncomfortable in my own skin off-stage,” he admits. “When I’m on stage, I’m 100% myself. That’s my place. Music has allowed me to be totally comfortable and do what I’ve always wanted to do. It’s all I ever really cared about; it’s who I am.” 

In the middle of his long-running career, Fowler originally cut Back On My Good Foot in Atlanta during 2007. A veritable murderers’ row of elite musicians joined him in the studio, including drummers Berry and Gerry Hanson, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Randall Bramblett, bassist Michael C. Steele, and organist Tim White, among others. He alternated between a Gibson Les Paul, Paul Reed Smith, Fender Stratocaster, and Fender Telecaster in addition to singing.

“Growing up, Harl actually got me started in blues,” recalls Fowler. “As a young man, I was in various bands. We were doing The Beatles and Rolling Stones songs—like everyone else in our age group. Harl inspired me to pursue blues though. He’d played with some of the greats like Lightnin’ Hopkins, but he never wanted a career. To me, real blues has a lot of holes. It’s sparse. Sometimes you play hot licks, and other times you don’t. The song isn’t an excuse to flaunt every lick you can. My goal was to set an atmosphere, so it’s like you’re living the song and experiencing it.” 

Right out of the gate, a toe-tapping bassline pumps like a heartbeat on the opener and single “Infected With The Blues.” Waves of distortion boom from warm amps, and he assures, “Don’t worry now, I ain’t got all that much to lose. Through my veins runs a sorrow…I’m infected with the blues.” Loose leads snake around the fuzz of creaky, palm-muted power chords. Each vibrato and bend instigates a jolt of emotion.

 “I'm not really a negative person, but I love the whole topic of desperation in blues,” he observes. “I'm a big Edgar Allan Poe fan, and he was an influence on a lot of my writing. In ‘Infected With The Blues,’ the main character is in a horrible situation. He’s trying everything, but he realizes he’s infected with the blues, like someone suffering from a disease.”Honky-tonk keys get tangled up in the undertow of punchy riffing on “Skeletons In Your Closet.” His bone-rattling picking complements a catchy chorus, “You got skeletons in your closet, while mine’s out walking ‘round.”

“I grew up in a small town, and ‘Skeletons In Your Closet’ is about how everybody would gossip,” he sets the scene. “I swear those nosy neighbors knew everything about everyone else. It’s a very simple, approachable, and subtle blues song.” Offering up a fitting homage to his friend and mentor, he cut two of Baggett’s compositions for Back On My Good Foot. He brought “a lonely character on the highway” to life with his rendition of “Hitchhiking.” Then, there’s the title track. Anchored by a steady drumbeat, wailing high strings clear the way for the refrain, “But I’m back on my good foot. I believe I’m coming ‘round.”    
“Harl wrote some great songs, but he was never going to release them,” he recalls. “I thought they were too good not to be recorded, and he told me to do whatever I wanted with them. He had a motorcycle wreck when he was young, and it left him with only one leg. I guess ‘Back on My Good Foot’ is more than just a phrase to Harl.”

Closing out the album in epic fashion, he and his cohorts ride the rails to oblivion on a near ten-minute cover of Savoy Brown’s “Hellbound Train.” The slow-burning rhythm simmers beneath soulful delivery on the verses as the track picks up steam fueled by the fiery inflection of his fretwork. The tandem of guitar and organ unlock a blues catharsis on the bridge. “I’m a big Savoy Brown fan,” he says. “I got to open for them a couple of times, and I’ve always loved the British blues approach. It certainly influenced me, but we did ‘Hellbound Train’ our own way.”

Cymbals skitter, the bass crawls, and guitar whines out on “Road to Nowhere.” It culminates on a call-and-response between the vocals and instrumentation.
“It’s one of my desperation songs,” he reveals. “This guy is going nowhere, but he can’t get off the road. I tried to paint imagery of a lonely stretch of highway late at night.”

After being out-of-print for years, he has now resurrected Back on My Good Foot with Strolling Bones. He passed along a CD of it to founder George Fontaine, Sr. who immediately agreed to re-release it on remastered vinyl with new artwork. Not to mention, it hits streaming services for the first time.
Ultimately, Fowler’s love letter to blues is also the best way to get to know him as a musician.

“When the listener hears this record, I hope they can visualize themselves in the situation the song describes and experience the emotions of the character narrating the story,” he leaves off. “In my opinion, that’s what blues is all about.”