In-Studio Performance: Rayland Baxter

Rayland Baxter is the son of Bucky Baxter, the multi-instrumentalist from New Jersey who has played with the likes of Steve Earle and Bob Dylan and even on Rayland's own records, but the younger Baxter, himself didn't pick up a guitar until the age of twenty. A Lacrosse player in college, he tore both of his ACLs in two years, and it was that which led to his current music career, from Tennessee to Colorado and Israel, and his stop at the WUMB studio on July 28th. He has a laissez-fair attitude and abides by, "natural progression, knowing when to let go and just go with the flow".

Joining Baxter were two out of the four other musicians in his band, Matt Musty on drums and Nick Bennett on guitar. The trio began with "Yellow Eyes", the lead single from the forthcoming record Imaginary Man. From there they played a song inspired by a trip to Detroit,"Mr. Rodriguez", also from Imaginary Man, dropping August 14th. They closed out the set with a cover of Neil Young's "Vampire Blues".

More information on Rayland Baxter can be found on his website RaylandBaxter.com  or in the adjacent video, "Who Is Rayland Baxter", which he refers to as being "kind of like MTV cribs".

-Kendall Stewart