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Singer/songwriter Bart Budwig recorded his new album ‘Paint by Numbers Jesus’ live at the nearly century-old OK Theatre in Enterprise, Oregon. There’s a warm, Americana rock tone throughout it—like Wilco meets Kris Kristofferson—lots of tongue-in-check biblical references and a few well-spun covers. Here, Budwig tells us more about the grooving single,”Goliath Got Stoned” and tour plans that include an upcoming show this Friday at the Sunset with Vaudeville Etiquette. 

Name of Band: Bart Budwig

Name of Track: “Goliath Got Stoned”

Tell us the story of the band: The band for the new record Paint by Numbers Jesus is a group of Northwest friends, songwriters and musicians I have met over the years. Oddly enough, the person I’ve been playing music with the longest is the youngest; you can hear Cooper Trail drumming on my first EP, A Coke and a Smile, released in 2008. The man I’ve played the most shows with, John Nuhn, switched from upright bass to electric bass and really brought out the grooves for this record. I’ve been working with Nevada Sowle for a couple years now and he has a become a great friend and asset. He is my lead guitar player live but behind the scenes he has the skill and humility to make whatever needs to happen, happen. That’s what he did for this record. You’ll find him on acoustic guitar and smashing the piano for “Chocolate Jesus.” After this summer he will have played a live show or recording on every instrument in the band (drums, bass, piano, acoustic guitar and lead guitar).

Seth Kinzie is a local piano composer. He is as cool as a cucumber and his piano playing is complex and beautiful and never distracts from a song, it’s addictive and transparent at the same time, transparent but I miss it so much when it’s gone (talk about a run-on-sentence). Simon Kornelis came in as a producer and lead guitarist. I’ve always enjoyed watching Simon play and could sense he had a deep sense of groove and a great knowledge (from listening to records) of what makes a record old school country and swampy. The rest of the band had no idea what to expect but Simon is a cool dude and his sense of tone and style is so great he pulled us all into the swamp with him.

For the special guests on the record, Forrest VanTuyl (an old friend and talented songwriter) sat in on some acoustic guitar, Kati Claborn and Luke Ydstie sang harmonies on “Goliath Got Stoned.” Luke also added a little Wurly to that track.

Tell us the story of the song: “Goliath Got Stoned” is largely inspired by King David in the bible. In his youth, before he became king, David killed a giant named Goliath with a sling and a stone. Later in his life, after he became king, David sleeps with Bathsheba, a woman married to a fighting military man. David slept with her and got her pregnant. He then tried to convince her husband (Uriah) to sleep with her again (so he wouldn’t get caught). In accordance with the laws at the time, Uriah would not sleep with his wife because he was on active duty. David then sent Uriah with an order that would send him to the front of battle and get him killed. 

What’s next? We (the band and I) will be on the road releasing the album for two months. In the fall, I plan on touring around the U.S. solo and recording a new record to release next March. Then I’ll start the album release touring all over again in Europe and then the U.S.