One of North Carolina's greatest -- and yet underrated -- cultural traits is that of her music and the quality and quantity of musicians. And the kinds of music that the state has produced is varied, from country (Randy Travis) and bluegrass (Doc Watson), to rock (The Connells) and folk (James Taylor), to rap (Petey Pablo) and jazz (Nnenna Freelon) -- and everything in-between.
For a quarter of a century, John Plymale has been one of the godfathers of North Carolina's music scenes as a musician (Pressure Boys, Sex Police) to a producer. But recently Plymale completed his greatest work so far: "Songs for Sixty-Five Roses." The album is a treasure-trove of songs by North Carolinians being performed by fellow North Carolinians. Among the cuts on the album are Ryan Adams' "Oh My Sweet Carolina" performed by Portastatic; Travis' "Forever and Ever, Amen" done by Greensboro's Athenaeum; Drive By Truckers; handling of Superchunk's "Driveway to Driveway"; and Queen Sara Saturday's "Seems" as performed by Mike Garrigan.
But this is a special album beyond the collaborations and networking that it took to complete. One-hundred percent of the proceeds from the sales of "Sixty-Five Roses" (http://www.songsforsixtyfiveroses.com/) will go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. You see, Plymale's daugther, Allie, has the terrible disease. (The album's title is a play on how chlidren pronounce cystic fibrosis.)
"I'm not good at asking for help when I need it," Plymale recently told the Raleigh News & Observer. "I don't know if it's because I'm embarrassed, too proud, afraid or whatever. But I have a hard time with not being able to just handle something on my own. I don't like to show weakness because it's my job to be in charge of things even if I don't know what I'm doing -- which is the case more often than not. So I can usually keep up a good game face.
"But not with this."
Here's to finding a cure for CF; and here's to John Plymale.
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