Search - Sara Petite :: Lead the Parade

The CD features a collection of 12 songs (plus ghost track), all written by Petite. Inspiration for the songs comes from broken hearts, tiny Paris apartments, funerals, imaginary parades and tall tales from Tiger Mountain, a place where Petite s family still has roots. Other themes include social justice and men that come on too strong. Recorded at DoubleTime Studios in Santee, the album serves up a diverse and delicious palate of musical styles ranging from alternative country to bluegrass and roots rock. The first song and title track Lead the Parade is the tale of her grandmother s funeral, a Scarlet O hara-type event as seen through a wistful dream. The Secret, a song Petite co-wrote with Nashville-based writer Kenny Greenberg, exposes the thoughts of a young girl who sneaks off to see a secret beau that her momma doesn t know about. Greenberg was named 2005 Nashville Guitar Player of the Year, and has written hits such as SHeDAISY s Little Goodbyes and Trick Pony s Nobody Dies from a Broken Heart. ) Paris Incident hints at an affair with a Roma-Gypsy musician in Paris. The upbeat Buy Me a Ticket is a plea to a coal miner to buy his daughter a ticket for the train, in hopes that she will come back and help her family get out of coal mining. The bluegrass-influenced Uncle Irving is a tribute to her colorful Uncle, an eclectic nature writer who raised a bear, chickens, pigs, goats and other animals in his home. Dead Man Walking looks at the last minutes of death-row inmate, as he takes his final steps down the aisle to pay the ultimate penalty for a crime. Other songs include Little Girl, which looks at unkept promises and broken dreams, and Heaven Bound, a vision of the ways love affects us. In addition to Petite, the album features several musicians, including renowned bluegrass musician Dennis Caplinger (fiddle, mandolin, banjo). Sugar Daddies band members, Johnny Kuhlken (drums/percussion), Wade Maurer (electric and upright bass) and Rick Wilkins (lead and rhythm guitar). Tiger Mountain Boy, David Banjoski (banjo) and the 7th Day Buskers Shawn Rohlf (banjo, mandolin). Alex Watts (lead and rhythm guitar) of Bastards Sons of Johnny Cash and Working Cowboy Band plays on Lead the Parade and The Secret. Mighty Joe Longa from Joey Harris and the Mentals plays a Hammond organ on Dead Man Walking and honky-tonk piano on the reprise version of Lead the Parade, which appears as a ghost track. Backing vocalists include: Siobhan O Brien, Irish folk singer and niece of renowned 60s Irish pop singer Brendon Bowyer; and Jeff Berkely of Berkley-Hart.