The Rizdales' Tom Dunphy releasing solo album Everything Was New

Tom Dunphy is releasing a long overdue solo album "Everything Was New" cut with pals Steve Briggs & Burke Carroll. 

Here's the scoop...

The announcement of a solo album by a band's founding member is often the telltale sign of an imminent split due to "creative differences." However, Tom Dunphy's new solo recording project isn't a matter of trouble at home with The Rizdales but more of a busman's holiday. 

When Tom's longtime partner Tara Dunphy took a brief hiatus from London's premiere honky tonk country combo to sing and play fiddle with her friend Lindsay Schindler in contemporary celtic band Maggie's Wake, it was the perfect opportunity for Tom to record an album of his own – something he'd been putting off for at least 22 years. 

Naturally his first calls were to his trusted Toronto pals, guitarist Steve Briggs and pedal steel ace Burke Carroll, who've performed with The Rizdales over the years in various situations and both were delighted to sign on. 

With a stockpile of song ideas that weren't quite right for The Rizdales, Tom convened with Steve and Burke at Adam Plante's Beats Working studio in London, Ontario in 2024 to hammer out the tunes that quickly took shape as "Everything Was New." If the look of the album's cover design by Steve Good brings to mind the artwork of Elvis Costello's 1981 album "Almost Blue," it's not a coincidence. Costello's classic country covers detour was a huge influence on the young Tom Dunphy who got his start playing punk rock covers with high school pals in The Crooked Beat, named after the song by The Clash off the Sandinista! album. 

But hearing Costello's take on old school country gave Dunphy a fresh perspective on the corny stuff his parents played at home. Along with it came a whole new appreciation for the songcraft at the heart of a song with lasting relevance. Those lessons learned from Almost Blue were first applied to Dunphy's honky tonk country band the Juke Joint Johnnys who released one album in 2001, the aptly named Gone For Good. Within the next year, Tom married Tara which gave rise to The Rizdales and now, seven albums later, Tom is finally paying homage to the recording which started him on the path to the soul of country music. 

Thankfully, what Dunphy and crew came up with on Everything Was New is much closer in spirit to the unvarnished honky tonk sound of Ray Price, Wynn Stewart, Webb Pierce and Lefty Frizzell than anything by Elvis Costello or currently coming out of Nashville. You can get a digital copy of the album's first single "You Make Me Shake" via Bandcamp right here, stream it via Apple Music right here or simply have a listen below.  

Tom Dunphy is launching "Everything Was New" in Toronto at The Cameron House (408 Queen St. West) on Saturday, April 12 from 8pm to 10pm and in London, Ontario at The Richmond Tavern (370 Richmond St., London, Ontario) on Sunday, April 13 from 3pm to 6pm. Both events are PWYC. 

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