A penny to read your fortune? A penny is a fortune!
After mining the territory of roots music for the past decade or more Randy Whitt has decided to take on some new challenges. “I am still just a songwriter trapped within my youth; I want to express myself in a myriad of ways”. Randy has been playing guitar for twenty years, but has never had a vehicle to demonstrate the emotion of playing the instrument. Rather than be limited to a specific genre, Randy is focusing now on a broad “Rock” music palette. If modern "roots" music isn’t by definition derivative then what is? Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Cream, what is “Rock” music? The “Penny Prophets” intend to find out. “No one seems to play Rock anymore.” That is what the “Penny Prophets” are going to do.
Randy Whitt and Jamie Sneeringer grew up on the Deep River in High Falls, NC playing guitar and writing songs. Alongside Susie Hicks on fiddle and keyboards, Josh Sokal on bass, and Matt Brown on drums they make up Penny Prophets (formerly Scatterbones), an eclectic mix of Rock and Americana with hints of old school R&B and British psychedelia.
The new record from the penny prophets will be coming out on June 4th, 2010. The cd release party will be held at the Cave on Franklin St. in Chapel Hill. The show starts around 10 p.m. There will be $5 cover charge. Real Music Just Guts and Guitars Country Rock
"You'll find two flavors of Randy Whitt on stage: one leads the honky-tonking Randy Whitt and the Grits, and the other occupies the rootsy and rugged end of the singer-songwriter spectrum, equally comfortable backed by a pedal steel or a laid-back horn section. Same talented dude, different shades of twang." - Rick Cornell Independent Weekly
After finishing a national tour, including stops in L.A., Abilene, Tuscaloosa, Athens, Phoenix, and Honolulu in support of his independently released recordings Randy is back home. He has recorded his 4th CD called The Good The Bad and The Grits, featuring his band the grits. This new recording will be released on Nov. 2nd.
Here's a quote about Randy's last album "We've had some trouble"
The Sound Of Things to Come
"This CD sat on my shelf for a week before I got around to listening to it. You know, the whole busy life thing. But then, I listened to it, and then again, and then again. This is not a work intended for the consuming masses. This is a work intended to get whats in Randy Whitts head into yours. For lack of a better way to say it, its Art.with
the capital A. But its hard. No song is going to go the way you expect it to go. No guitar is going to pickup where you think it will. Its hard and dense, and completely noncommercial. This is what happens when an artist expresses himself. This is a new genre. So, listen to it. Then
listen to it again. And again." -Andrew Parsons
Randy and his band have been featured performers at festivals all over the east coast as well as clubs like the 40 watt in Athens, Ga. and the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC. They have received substantial acclaim in a short amount of time. They have played at the Grassroots festival in Ithaca, N.Y., the Shakori Hills Festival in Silk Hope N.C., the World Beer Festival in Durham, N.C., and many others. Randy has opened or shared the stage with the likes of: Junior Brown, Bobby Bare, Jr., Southern Culture On the Skids, The Avett Brothers, Wayne Hancock, and the Two Dollar Pistols. With enthusiastic touring and playing within N.C., Randy continues to gain notoriety and fans all over the country. Available November 2, 2007
