John Ralston

John Ralston, who fronted Legends of Rodeo, confronted financial hardship and the absence of any contract once label difficulties derailed the rollout of the band’s debut album, A Thousand Friday Nights. The Florida native suddenly lacked any public channel for his songs until a random meeting with recording engineer Michael Seaman reversed the misfortune that had followed the label breakup. The pair connected at once, prompting Seaman to host Ralston at his Knoxville, TN residence. Joined by ex-bandmate and drummer Jeff Snow, Ralston headed to Tennessee and captured, within a single week, the material that became his first solo album, Needle Bed. He issued the record independently, then traveled to Chicago intending only to add overdubs with Wilco’s Jay Bennett, who had already admired Ralston’s songwriting from the Legends of Rodeo era. The sessions instead yielded an entirely new, unreleased album titled There’s Always an Ambulance Around the Bend. In April 2006 Vagrant Records, which had signed Ralston the previous January, reissued Needle Bed. For the follow-up, Ralston adopted a broader sonic palette by assembling a backing band and stacking more than one hundred separate tracks on every song; the result, Sorry Vampire, appeared in October 2007.