LITTLE ROCK — Having credentials as a former “fall-down drunk” doesn’t usually lead to a successful career as an entertainer, but AJ Gaither begs to differ. As the main man in the Fall Down Drunks, Gaither led a band that had gotten praise for its mix of blues, folk, punk rock and bluegrass, but now Gaither is going it alone.
“My guitarist had a kid and the drummer left town,” Gaither says, “so I decided to go it alone. My last show with the band was last year at New Year’s Eve, and since then, I’ve traveled a rocky road, but it’s gone over well.”
During the band’s brief tenure, it released a CD, 13 Shots With the Fall Down Drunks. Now Gaither has his first actual solo album,Half-Lit and Whole-Hearted, which he admits has some introspective songs on it, unlike the wild debut disc, which he characterizes as “short, jukebox drinking songs.”
Embracing the life of the independent artist, Gaither performs only original songshe writes and produces himself, and when he records an album, he even burns the copies that he sells to fans. He books his own shows and does his own driving.
Gaither is based in Kansas City, Kan., just across the state line, but he considers himself more of an Arkansanthan anything else. When he was contacted, he was camping near Little Rock, in between shows at the Parrot Beach Cafe in North Little Rock, after starting his current tour in Joplin, Mo., and then continuing on to Eureka Springs.
“It’s cheaper to camp when on the road, rather than go to a hotel,” he says. “I’ve got a conversion van with a bed in it, and it’s just me and my dog, a Labrador, which keeps me company and protects my gear. After I do this End of the World party at the Parrot Beach, I go to Russellville, then next week to Maxine’s. I love that place!
“I’ve done a few shows there, starting when I had the three-piece band a couple of years ago, and when that fell apart, they still gave me a shot as a solo act, whichpeople sometimes picture as a polka act, and I’m playing backwoods country stuff on a drum rigged up to play on my feet. Sometimes I play a cigar box guitar, bucket bass, harmonica and kazoo.”
Explaining his Arkansas origins, Gaither says he grew up all around southern Arkansas, primarily in Camden and Locust Bayou, with a grandmother who took him to a Primitive Baptist Church, where he got his first exposure to music.
“I came to have a balance in my approach,” he says,“since you can’t live your whole life all sheltered, nor can you get all out of control. I like gospel music and partying, too. I was always a fan of music, but I didn’t pick up an instrument until 2009, and then my day job affected my music and vice versa. For a while I had a job working security for one of the big stadiums in Kansas City, so I’d see all these big acts that would play there, and I decided that was what I really wanted to do.”
As for his last name - Gaither - he’s used to the question about whether he’s the black sheep of the famous gospel-singing Bill Gaither music family, but he doesn’t think so.
He says, “I’ve made that joke before at my shows, but since the name is not that common, perhaps we are related.”AJ Gaither
8 p.m. today, Maxine’s, 700
Central Ave., Hot Springs
Admission: Free
(501) 321-0909
maxineslive.com
Weekend, Pages 31 on 12/27/2012