The Carter Administration

Debuted: August 31st, 2009

Now Playing:

“These Boots Were Made for Knockin”

This song was ostensibly written at the behest of the fine folks at the Nashville Cream blog for their second birthday celebration. They had surveyed their readers to scientifically decipher what made the most rocking songs rock, for the purpose of Frankensteining together "Nashville's Most Awesome Rock Song." We were given an exhaustive spreadsheet with the results of their poll and charged with writing the song. As expected, riffs were better than chord progressions, keyboards and jamming were universally bad, and short guitar solos and songs about doing it and partying were good.

The song is really about the bouncer at the Bear Flag Restaurant whorehouse in Steinbeck's Cannery Row. After we played it, the Cream said something like, "The Carter Administration's rendition of Nashville's Most Awesome Rock Song sounded, well... like The Carter Administration." As I can think of no other band I'd rather sound like, I took this as the compliment it was intended to be. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, I suppose the compliment was dual.

-Todd

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The Session:

The Carter Administration

Debuted: August 31st, 2009

About:
On my free weekends in 1998, I was usually sitting on the porch of my girlfriend's sisters house at the corner of Belmont and Blair in Nashville, TN. There was a band living next door in the upstairs apartments and they were almost always rehearsing... or perhaps "practicing" is the better word here. Nevertheless, I developed a fondness for sitting on the porch, drinking beer and listening to them struggle through song after two-minute song. My girlfriend would often come out on the porch with a fresh beer and chide me for my interest in such nonsense. But as the beers and weekends went by, those practices became rehearsals. The house parties with the band became block parties with more bands and DJ's. Occasional gigs at the Springwater gave host to bigger and better gigs and recordings... and I came to barely, and only in a drunken stupor, acquaint myself with Ryan Ervin, Todd Anderson and Todd Kemp. It was an easy time to enjoy, appreciate and remember that little three-piece band that never quit, known as the Carter Administration.

A few years later, my more talented, self-adopted little brother, Andy Willhite (who coincidentally introduced me to the for-mentioned girlfriend) was playing a final gig with another band and the opening act was a now two-piece (minus the first Todd) Carter Administration. Andy heard what their gift of power-pop genius and several years of practice had created, and he smartly inserted himself into that new situation with a bit of good-natured manipulation and a mean table-tennis game. The three of them clicked... and have never stopped, slowed down or missed a beat since. Today, the little band with the unstoppable sound are commonly referred to as "local rock veterans" or "the best band in Nashville" and "prolific and consistent" or "smooth as silk" among many other clichés reserved for those that have paid their dues. They've since added a fourth member, a local rock legend in his own right, Sam Powers, and have a more focused and mature-without-sounding-old feel than ever before. The following is only a taste of what this band has created, and has left in them... hopefully for years to come.

-Brandes "Brandez" Holcomb