Paul Boatright

I came across Paul Boatrights website today. Paul used to play drums in the Faith Healers and then went on to form Punkinhead. Very cool guy and amazing musician. Check out his site here. A little info about Paul below……

Paul’s first public performance was at age 11 when the music store delivered his first drum set to the junior-high school cafeteria for an assembly that night. The nervous emotional charge of performing in front of an audience so quickly was burned into his memory and has stuck with him throughout his career. Those who have seen him in his element know he can be truly electric in front of an audience. He started his career as drummer and singer in a punk rock band called D.O.L. with Wade Ogle and Paula Frazer of Tarnation, touring with popular underground bands like The Butthole Surfers, The Flaming Lips, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Faith No More. When Paula left the group he and Wade formed the Faith Healers who were known for high-flying energetic shows where Paul played drums like John Bonham except standing up, and made eerie sounds using a light-controlled theramin and a strobe light. They placed the song “Black Elk’s Bones” on the CMJ new music compilation and released one album “Camera Psyche Soul Head” (1989.) He then left The Faith Healers to play guitar and sing in Punkinhead, a punk-funk band with charm that grew into a very hot live act known to bring the house down nightly. With the opportunity to be center-stage Paul flourished as a live performer and they toured constantly releasing two records, “New South Soul” (1992), and “America Dreaming” (1994.) They cut a strange path over the southern musical landscape, bringing praise and weird times from music business outlaws like Memphis producer Jim Dickinson and Rolling Stones producer Andrew Oldham. They were hired for one festival specifically to be the act between Bill Monroe the father of bluegrass and James Brown the godfather of soul. The agency said “there was no other band that could do it.” They spent privileged time in New Orleans playing with some of the greatest musicians in the world, and took the south for all it was worth up and down the chitlin circuit. After performing five hundred shows in two years time fatigue set in and Paul left the group in 1995. Declining an invitation to audition as guitarist for James Brown’s band he moved to Los Angeles in pursuit of a solo career. After almost ten years with no touring and no new releases Punkinhead is still mentioned by some as the greatest band they ever saw. Curiously while Paul lived in Los Angeles he was known as Fate Edgeman, a name he assumed from his great uncle Fayette Edgemon who was a moonshine runner and minstrel dancer in the Ozarks during prohibition. Hillbillys had slurred the name over the years into “Fate,” and Paul had talked of using it for a blues moniker someday. When asked later about the name change he would only say he “wanted a completely fresh start.” In L.A. he moved into the Silverlake area and quickly connected with Paul Kimble of Grant Lee Buffalo as a bass player. They did several shows and recorded an album for London Records which was never released. Through Kimble he met singer-songwriter Jude who hired him to play guitar and wurlitzer for tours in France and the U.S., including performances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Late Show with Craig Kilborn. They also performed on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic September 10th, 2001 which is available in the Morning Becomes Eclectic archives. Paul is now happily residing in Arkansas making music.

spacer

Leave a reply