A couple of months ago, my soul sister Shilah Morrow sent me a soon-to-be-released album from The Supersuckers, called Holdin' The Bag. As a long time Supersuckers and Eddie Spaghetti fan, I was blown away by the song craft and musicianship. In fact, I think it might be the finest work the Supersuckers have ever done. I signed on to help spread the word. As we were in the planning stages of album release, it was discovered that Eddie Spaghetti had stage 3 throat cancer, and needed immediate surgery. Touring was put on hold and Eddie underwent two successful surgeries. We had planned to have The Supersuckers play at AmericanaFest to launch the album. What to do? A ‘Plan B’ was put in place; an Eddie Spaghetti Stand Up was made! We call him Flat Eddie, and he wound up on stages all over Nashville during AmericanaFest; with Los Lobos, Raul Malo, Nikki Lane. “Flat Eddie” made his way to LA for a benefit show at The Viper Room this past Saturday night, but lo and behold, Eddie Spaghetti himself took the stage!
The album comes out on Friday, October 16th, and what an album it is! The title track "Holdin' The Bag" is a stone contender for song of the year in my book. There are mighty cool contributions from Hayes Carll, Lydia Loveless, Jesse Dayton, and Mickey Raphael. Listen to a few tracks here, on Soundcloud.
In the meantime, here is Eddie Spaghetti with Metal Marty from the 2011 Music Fog Marathon at Threadgill’s in Austin, Texas. Eddie was on a solo album release tour for the Sundowner album. Today’s song is from The Supersuckers 2003 album Motherf**kers Be Trippin', "Pretty F**ked Up."
You can contribute to the Eddie Spaghetti Beats Cancer fund, and also check out the special pre-release bundles here. The next Eddie Spaghetti benefit show happens this Saturday night in Seattle!
- Jessie Scott