Alabama Astronaut: The Podcast

WHO: Ex-preacher, songwriter, artist Abe Partridge; City Cast/Houston Chronicle podcast producer Ferrill Gibbs

WHAT: The Alabama Astronaut podcast

WHEN: Sept 7, 2022

WHERE: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Audible, YouTube, and Alabamaastronaut.com

Acclaimed Alabama songwriter Abe Partridge and podcast producer Ferrill Gibbs release an ambitious new podcast named Alabama Astronaut – the search for undocumented songs of the Appalachians.

Abe’s quest to captured them brought him face-to-face with the deadly practices of an oft-ridiculed subculture amidst a concerning barrage of American crises that seemed to suggest a nation in decline. Even so, as he pursued this music, genuine relationships across cultures began to spark.

Episode “Foreword” begins with a reluctant Abe getting his hands tied by a serpent-handling preacher in Gray, Kentucky. (His hands were literally tied up…the compelling audio was captured on a Sony handheld digital recorder, like so many other unforgettable moments in the series.)

As the preacher dragged Abe across the serpent-handling church, to make an example of the folk artist, Abe could only relent. (Perhaps he’d had it coming, given his own past as a fiery preacher in Middlesboro, Kentucky.) But seven episodes later, in the series finale, it's a sold-out show in Nashville featuring that same wrist-tying, serpent-handling preacher – who's accompanying Abe on banjo.

Alabama Astronaut is a bizarre and wonderful story, with mistrust giving way to genuine friendships across four states: Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. In the process, Abe captured generations-old songs…music that till this day has never been properly documented. (Perhaps it’s because the songs mention the free-handling of serpents and the drinking of poisonous substances.)

Abe and Ferrill recorded multiple albums in small buildings across the chilly hillsides of Kentucky, then post-produced them in Nashville, Tennessee. This podcast captures all of it.

Songs of Them Who Believe the signs...

Meet Your Host

Ferrill Gibbs is a musician and a podcaster who cut his teeth producing and hosting a weekday show for the Houston Chronicle.

He also worked alongside veteran writer, Lisa Gray, audio producing for City Cast Houston. Nowadays, he is the Director of Podcasting for the CBS affiliate KBTX in College Station, Tx.

Ferrill lives in College Station with his wife "Fish," who attends vet school. Ferrill's songwriting has been featured on CMJ, American Songwriter Magazine, and Americana UK.

Besides podcasting, He's also a published author: his young adult novel The Secret Island of Edgar Dewitt (inspired by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill) is part of the Chicago Review Press and is available on Amazon and all other platforms.

He makes music with his band All The Kimonos and their most recent album - The Listening Room - can be found here.

More info. at - https://www.ferrillgibbs.com

*Photo Credit: Lynn Oldshue

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Meet The Songcatcher

Abe Partridge aka The Alabama Astronaut, received national and international recognition in early 2018 when he released his first official full-length release, Cotton Fields and Blood For Days, to rave reviews and substantial airplay on Americana radio. It landed Partridge a lengthy feature in The Bitter Southerner and the album was chosen to be one of their “Top 30 albums of 2018.” Ranging from the earthy to the surreal, from the spiritual light to the depths of depression, Partridge draws listeners in with a combination of southern gothic storytelling, dark humor, and gripping intensity.

Partridge was on tour in the Netherlands and Belgium in November of 2018 when he met and bonded with David Ford, who says, “By the time you’ve witnessed ten thousand men take to the stage with an acoustic guitar to sing about their feelings, you can easily get to the impression that whether magnificent or mediocre they’re all to some degree just recycling the schtick of Bob Dylan, James Taylor or any number of whiskey-sodden bluesmen. Then one rainy night in the Netherlands I saw Abe Partridge take to the stage with an acoustic guitar and it felt like the first time anybody ever thought to try it. He didn’t just sing his songs, he set fire to them. It was brutal and tender and smart and angry and funny and brilliantly, uniquely authentic. I saw it as a magnificent reminder that great songs, delivered with honest intensity were what first made me want to do any of this in the first place.”

When Partridge is not writing or touring, he is creating his folk art paintings, which now hang in art galleries around the Southeast and in the private collections of Tyler Childers, Mike Wolfe (American Pickers), and Rick Hirsch (Wet Willie). He painted the cover art for Charlie Parr’s, Last Of The Better Days Ahead (Smithsonian Folkways). His monthly subscription-based art club has sustained him (and his wife and 3 children) during the Covid-19 pandemic.

American Songwriter Magazine said, “Abe Partridge has established himself as one of the most respected songwriters and visual folk artists in the southeast.”

Partridge is currently putting the finishing touches on a new studio album projected to be released in early 2023.

More info. at - https://abepartridge.com

*Photo Credit: Cathy Partridge

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