About the Freight Train Boogie website

FTB Mailing Address
About Advertising
About the Reviewers
Review Archieve

The Freight Train Boogie website is a quality place to get news and reviews of Americana and Roots CD releases. It is primarily the work and passion of Bill Frater. I started the site in 1997 because I wanted people to know about all of this excellent music that wasn't being played on the "regular" radio stations. I also had an idea to do a radio station on the Internet that was like the old freeform stations yet played Americana and roots music.

Here are some e-mail comments I've received....

(It's) "home-made aesthetic accentuates the folky flavor of Americana and alt-country music".  -Entertainment Weekly  (June 6, 2001)

"I have been all over the net the past couple of weeks visiting sites and have to give credit where credit is due.  Yours is the best Americana/ whatever you want to call the genre web site out there."  -R

"Your site is way cool, a relevant, authoritative source for Americana music.  Thanks for what you're doing."  -KB

"You're doing a wonderful service spreading the word about roots music."  -DT

"Just wanted to drop you a note to compliment the FTB radio show, and really, the page in general.  Over the past year or so, the show and page helped expand my knowledge of Americana/ alt-country, whatever you call it.  There's tons of stuff out there and it's good to know I can be tipped off to gems through y'all."  -JJ "I really appreciate what you're doing with FTB.... it's just the best, thank you very much."  -AC

"Just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know how much I am enjoying your show on Live 365.  I stumbled upon your website by accident and then went to your station and have totally become enamored with your show!  I listen every day while I'm at work and I've gotten turned on to so many artists that I wouldn't have heard otherwise. It's like having a friend who brings over his record collection and turns you on to some great music!" -Pam

FTB Mailing Address

Freight Train Boogie
P.O. Box 4262
Santa Rosa, CA 95402

If you are submitting CD's for review and radio consideration, kindly send 2 copies. Thanks!

Advertising on the Freight Train Boogie

My advertising rates are very reasonable. I prefer roots music-related sponsors. A single banner ad on any 3 pages of your choosing starts at only $75 a month. Discounts for independent artists and for multiple month buys. Please e-mail me for details.

The FTB Reviewers

Kay Clements: Kay is the General Manager of KWMR, a community radio station in Pt. Reyes Station, CA. She also hosts a weekly radio show called "Roadhouse Twang" (Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 PM, Pacific time).

Bill Frater: Bill is the creator, editor, reviewer and webmaster of the Freight Train Boogie. He hosts a weekly radio show on KRCB, in Sonoma County. The show is also called the "Freight Train Boogie" (Thursdays, 8-10 PM) and you can hear the show live on the Internet too. He lives with his daughter Rosie in Santa Rosa, CA.

Don Grant: I saw my first concert in 1963, when the Beatles hit Toronto, and I was 12, so there's how old I am. I've observed, and been a fan of, several genres of music over the years. Somehow, most of them got stale with time. Today I find the most satisfaction in what we call the Roots/Alt.Country /Americana style. It seems, of late, that this is where I find most of the creativity and originality in music today. It is transcendental music, (and not that goofy 60's definition of transcendental, either; see Steve Earle), that speaks about us, for us, and, with us. I do believe in people; I'm not a particular believer in 'handles' when it comes to music; for me, (as Gram Parsons said, paraphrased,), "there's only good sounds and bad sounds". Congreve wrote that "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast", let it do so to ours.

Scott Homewood: Born a Yankee in Upstate New York, he has since seen the error of his ways and has moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. He has quickly shaken off his formerly evil Big City ways and has embraced Americana music in all its forms (except for the shit you currently hear on country radio). He is often published, constantly pissed at the current state of the music industry but happy every once in a while. This is what he calls his life. Send him stuff to review before he kills somebody. Oh yeah, it better be good. Content note: people who copy something but do it well will get better reviews than people who make their own garbage. So listen to Buck Owens and learn, punk.

Doug Lang: Doug Lang is a songwriter-singer from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, who's been doing live radio for a quarter century now in Canada. Better Days is his Vancouver-based roots music show that webcasts at www.coopradio.org  on Thursdays, 10 pm to midnight Pacific time. Doug's My Space page is myspace.com/betterdaysradio

Michael Meehan: After spending parts of his life in El Paso, Northern California and Alaska, Michael and family have settled on Long Island's North Fork, nestled between the Peconic River, family farms and world class wineries. A fan of Americana art, literature and music, Michael is a bass player, songwriter and chef of some local renown.

Keith Robb: 40 yrs old, Akron OH resident. I've played Guitar since I was 9 and took up the Non-Pedal steel about 5 years ago. I play out 2-3 times a week. Nuthin too wild. Just a little western swing/ honky tonk jam band at Brady's Leap Cafe (located in an equally neat place called the Kent Stage). Influences are: for guitar Hank Garland, Danny Gatton, Junior Barnard and Luther Perkins. Steel guitar: Alvino Rey, Jeremy Wakefield, Cindy Cashdollar and Jerry Byrd.

Kevin Russell: Kevin is a Sonoma County multi-instrumentalist who plays with the contemporary bluegrass of Modern Hicks and the swinging Americana of the Lucky Dawgs.

Clint Weathers: At 36 years old, Clint Weathers has been all over the musical roadmap. He studied jazz guitar performance at Central Missouri State University, played in rock and blues bar bands, and written research papers on the hidden meanings of Steely Dan and Dead Kennedys lyrics. After burning out on Nashville country, classic rock, and modern jazz, he was all but ready to give up on music. One day he discovered alt.country, and his love of music was reborn. Matching his years of musical experience with his years of writing experience by writing for FTB is truly a labor of love. Clint gets the chance to see every week that real, honest, authentic American music is alive and well. His thanks go out to everyone picking in bars, recording in their garage, and selling their CDs out of the backs of their cars.

Festival and Conference Review Achieve

Best of 2004 CD's
Best of 2005 CD's
Best of 2006 CD's
2005 Grey Fox Festival Review
2005 MerleFest Music Festival
2004 Americana Music Assoc. Conference
2005 Americana Music Assoc. Conference
2006 South by Southwest Music Conference
Ten Questions with Hank III (from 2006 SXSW)