andy padlo: Bio
andy padlo
Raised in California’s Central Valley, Padlo comes from a family of teachers and musicians. His parents were both performers in local jazz bands. After studying Russian in the US and the USSR, he began making his own music with Redwood Highway, a folk and bluegrass trio in fairs, festivals and coffeehouses around the state. He’s shared the stage with Laurie Lewis, Robin and Linda Williams, Duck Baker, and the Cache Valley Drifters.
His song (written with Reed Fromer) Startin’ Over was featured on Gregg Allman's solo CD "Searching for Simplicity."
Padlo is a frequent Best Song winner in West Coast Songwriter Association competitions. In 1995 he was a featured performer in the Emerging Songwriter Showcase at the High Sierra Festival.
In 2004 he recorded Love’s Dark Satellite, issued by Last Stop Records, which earned praises from many, including this rough compliment from Indie.com’s AJ Beest:
“Padlo's got an honest-to-goodness, real-life voice. You know there's no voice coach, no cadre of controlling suits, and definitely (please, God) no spandex. The flaws in his voice sometimes remind me of the flaws in my life (yeah, I'm a little rough around the edges and sometimes fade out in the middle of things, too) and let me make a closer connection to his work.”
Padlo’s latest CD is a collection of his best songs, recorded with Jim Mirkovic on drums and Gahko Sakai on bass, with simple arrangements and tight harmonies, featuring the entire spectrum of his writing, from Somewhere in Between, a song about a rough night for a 14-year-old kid in the Central Valley, to One LA, about the loss of open space in that same valley. Padlo’s guitar work sparkles throughout this disc, and his voice brings home the simple force of his lyrics:
The stars are coming out along the Great Highway
There's a long dark night waiting down the road
She's got her own long night to face and her man waiting back at her place
And we're all tuned in tonight
To love's dark satellite...
Horus
You and I made our way over boulders
Toward Tower Peak
Under a sky dark as granite shadows
Thunder broke west of the hills beyond Bridgeport
And again above the Emigrant Wilderness
Keep moving, son
Wind in your hair
Not much to talk about.
You'll look for me out here another time,
In these bluffs and snowfields
Among the broken white pines
And come to terms at some camp fire alone
Clouds like the breath of a bull
Sun below the horizon
One heaven swallowed in another
And another
Small loss in all these mountains.
Looking Back at the Blue
Brave face, cold war
Try to keep an open door
Remember what I said before
Well, neither do I
But you know what I mean, baby
Just maybe
You have to be just a little bit crazy
To put on your shoes
And walk across the room
Like footprints on the moon
Looking back at the blue
Some other place
Some other time
Try to keep an open mind
But you could drive a truck through mine
And still have room to turn
Remember Steve McQueen, baby
Just maybe
You have to be just a little bit crazy
To put on your shoes
And walk across the room
Like footprints on the moon
Looking back at the blue
Pale sky
Day break
It’s all been a big mistake
Driving home down the road I didn’t take
All those years ago
And the Mississippi queen, baby…might save me
Keep us all from going crazy
as we put on our shoes
And walk across the room
Like footprints on the moon
Looking back at the blue
Somewhere in Between
Davy had the good looks, Dusty was just cool
Neither of them ever said two words to me at school
We wound up together one night, guess I was the fool
'Cause I had 20 dollars to spend
In the echo of the football game, the night sky full of stars
In the darkness of the alley we looked out for any cop cars
Till the old man we'd paid came back with 3 candy bars and a dark brown bottle of sloe gin
I pretended I was drinking till the other 2 caught on
and they made me tip that bottle back till all of it was gone
after 14 years of following the line my dad had drawn
I was crossing over it then
Inside we know what we mean
Some of us stand tall some of us lean
Most of us wind up somewhere in between.
Davy lit a cigarette and put it in my teeth
Arm in arm we helped each other stay up on our feet
I shivered in the autumn air but that bittersweet smoke set my soul on fire
I was the one who never really stood out
But everything was gonna be different now
I was standing almost 10 feet off the ground
I was headed out under the wire
We turned a corner and walked smack into a crowd of Hilmar boys
Dusty made a crack
Somebody took a swing at him and his head snapped back and I ---
took off running
Inside...we know what we mean, some of us stand tall, some of us lean, most of us wind up somewhere in between
Somehow I found my way home and wound up lying on my bed in my clothes
Aching for the lies I had to tell my folks
And for pushing their hands away from me...
Monday morning I just let them all smile
Davy left off laughing at me after a while
Dusty just winked at me with his one good eye and said
Man, don't worry about it
'Cause inside we know what we mean--some of us stand tall, some of us lean
Most of us wind up somewhere in between...
Morning in America
I go by dark windows that reflect the morning star
The California poppies dance around an abandoned car
It's so quiet--this is where the bodies are
Hey mister, are you all right?
It's morning...It's morning (in America)...
And I haven't slept all night
All I ever think about is how to make it through
Between the words that leave my mouth
And the silent things I do
Love's little failures leave their fingernail marks on you
and no one looks good in this light
It's morning...and I haven't slept all night
Tomorrow belongs to the young
Will I say what have I--what have I done?
It all comes down to someone you really do it for
I refused to name my sources
Now I'm standing at your door
Will you unlock your tired heart for me once more
I know I'm still not getting it right
It's morning...
and I haven't slept all night