Wide Open Country Premiered New Video For Abe Partridge Today On “Tax Day”, Tuesday, April 17th

MOBILE, AL–Today, on what is officially known as “TAX DAY“,  Wide Open Country premiered the new video for “Ride Willie Ride (Or Thoughts I Had While Contemplating Both the Metaphysical Nature of Willie Nelson and His Harassment By The Internal Revenue Service)” from the Mobile-based singer/songwriter and folk artist, ABE PARTRIDGE.

Wide Open Country said:

Wordy beyond its title, “Ride Willie Ride (Or Thoughts I Had While Contemplating Both the Metaphysical Nature of Willie Nelson and His Harassment By The Internal Revenue Service)” sounds more like a one-way conversation with a rambling fan of Nelson’s than a typical country song. But it comes from a real place, with Alabama-based singer, songwriter and folk artist Abe Partridge writing it while grappling with his own personal life struggles.

“”Ride Willie Ride’ was a song I wrote while I was simultaneously exploring the catalog of Willie Nelson and undergoing my own IRS woes,” Partridge says. “The verses are a bit scattered, but that is the way you think when a force as unforgiving as the state is coming after you.”

Although it fits the mood of recent album Cotton Fields & Blood For Days, Partridge wasn’t initially sold on the song as something worth playing live, much less recording in the studio.

“The song was born in about a week,” he says. “I thought it was terrible. The only reason it made it on the record is because Shawn (Bryne, a guitarist, mandolin player and bassist) and I were fooling around in Nashville singing songs. I dug this one out, and he dug it. I had never played it live before recording it in the studio. It has since become regular on my live sets, and it seems to connect with folks.”

In the video, a couple of proverbial men in black tote off Partridge’s stuff, down to his last few dollars, as he plays the song. When he tries to either distract himself or make some much-needed cash by creating art, they see it as kindling for an already blazing fire. The song and video share one clear message — If it pays a creative person’s bills, the IRS wants a cut, whether you’re Johnny Paycheck, Nelson or Partridge.

Please watch the video here.

Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine said, “Fans of John Prine will appreciate the sharp storytelling of Abe Partridge—an emerging Alabama folk singer with a knack for spinning gritty gothic tales and a rich gravelly voice akin to Tom Waits. At 37, Partridge has already lived quite an interesting life. He moved to Kentucky in his 20s and studied to be an evangelical minister. When the calling faded he joined the Air Force and served in Qatar. After returning home to Alabama, he started indulging the urge to share some of his experiences in song, blending a mix of influences that range from grunge to blues masters like Son House. Key Tracks: ‘Ride Willie Ride’ is a mellow twangy rumination about past mistakes that pays tribute to another one of Partridge’s influences, Willie Nelson.”

The influential U.K.-based Americana blog, The Rocking Magpie said, “It was the stark opening track ‘Colors’ that initially caught my attention; with Partridge sounding like a prodigy of Townes, Guy and Rodney the way his lyrics poetically twist and turn via a grizzled and lived in voice over a jagged acoustic guitar and  a cello or violin. It was only on the third time I listened to track #2 ‘Ride Willie, Ride‘ that I actually realised that it was a love song from a songwriter to Willie Nelson; and boy; is the world a better place for this song being in it!“

The song is from Partridge’s 2nd full-length recording, Cotton Fields and Blood For Days,which was released in January of 2018 on Skate Mountain Records.  Ranging from the earthy to the surreal, from the spiritual light to the depths of depression, the 8 original songs and one cover on this new CD come together with a gripping intensity. Partridge draws listeners in with a combination of southern gothic storytelling and a dark humor delivered in a gravelly tone that conjures up images of Tom Waits in his barstool warming days.