M.R.

5-2008
Friends and music fans,

There has been a trend in the independent music business where artists are raising money by asking their fans to donate cash to the production and promotion costs of a future record.

In return they receive thanks in liner notes, advance copies of the cd, t-shirts, etc. It's set up like a PBS fund drive. The more you donate the more stuff you get. I have been toying with trying this concept out since I am no longer with a label and right now prefer to keep it that way. I go back and forth with it. If the record doesn't make enough to pay for the next record do we come a knocking again? This could get expensive for fans. It has always seemed a little upside down to me but the music industry is upside down and backwards and the cottage industry is the only way to go at this time. We're thinking of a downloadable initial distribution record to cut down on manufacturing and shipping costs.

So… I'm writing to test the waters and get some feedback from you. Please write to us and let us know your thoughts on this idea. Attached is a link to a new song I've recently recorded to give you an idea of what you might be getting into. Please write me at: troopcontact@running-time.com

Here's a little "down payment" on new music; the unreleased, new track "Nobody In The Whole Wide World"

Thanks a million for your time.
Sincerely,
Troop

2-2008
Interesting note from a supporter/fan

Hey Greg,
I was in Nashville recently but missed your show at The Bluebird by one day (damm it). Maybe next time.

I'm guessing that you already know this but, maybe not. I have been reading Joe Ely's wonderful book "Bonfire Of Roadmaps" which is kinda written in blank verse. In the part about a 1992 tour there's a stanza that goes like this -

"...headlines scream, "TROOPER SHOT!" but, Greg seems to be doing just fine night after night walking bravely in front of beer guzzling crowds, laying his stories on the line, not batting an eye."

Now that's some endorsement isn't it, coming from the great road warrior himself. Congratulations !!! - Michael


10-2007
Trooper Plays Bullwinkle to Moose's Flying Squirrel
This is rich! Trooper is in his Subaru wagon after finishing the day's lesson plan at the songwriting workshop at Not Back To School Camp in Vermont and off to town to pick up supplies and make a few phone calls. It's around 9:30pm and pitch black out when his car smashes into something that crushes his car, and sends it spinning out of control, bouncing off a guard rail and finally coming to a stop in the oncoming lane.

What did he hit you ask?

A 1000+ pound bull moose with a full rack of antlers!

The moose took flight upon contact, landed somewhere in the road and was able to make it's way to a grassy spot off the side of the road where it laid down and died. When they got to the scene of the wreckage, the State Troopers and EMS were stunned that Troop wasn't dead.

The Fish and Game warden showed up as well to ask Troop a question he never expected to hear. "Would You Like to keep the moose"?

Greg decided - since he still had a few more gigs on this run and no vehicle for a dead moose to ride in comfortably - to turn down the offer.

The silver lining to this is that the Burlington Free Press pronounced Greg now 41 years of age!! He is of course delighted by this development and is currently pricing ladders and hedge clippers for a long delayed topiary project at home. Click here to read the news account in the Burlington Free Press.

M.R.

4-2007
International Songwriting Contest
Hey all. Troop wanted me to post thanks to all of the judges that cast votes for him in this year's International Songwriting Contest. Greg's song "This I'd Do" pulled a 2nd place in the Folk/Singer-Songwriter category. A BIG thanks to each of you from the guy with the broken hand and busted nose!

M.R.

...AND!
'Popular Demons' once again available!

Here's the skinny my friends. While wandering through the Nashville offices of Sugar Hill records, a case of 100, factory fresh, shrink wrapped copies of Greg's 1998, Americana Chart topping, 'POPULAR DEMONS' was discovered! Get one now and we'll sweetened the deal. Your purchase will include one of our NASA designed, space age, beverage KOOZIES. What a combo: a GREAT CD and something to keep your....beverage cool while ya listen.

Folks, I'm not kidding, when these babies are gone...that...is...IT. (At least until one of the crew stumbles into a bucket filled with a bunch of cash to buy this title back from Koch Records.)

...now, please form an orderly line and come get one while we have them. M.R.


11-2006
* 4 of 5 stars - Nashville Tennessean reviews 'Greg Trooper the BackShop Live'
"...a night that was more entertaining than most of our big-ticket, tour bus-riding artists are able to deliver."
Peter Cooper, Staff Writer Nashville Tennessean


ON SALE NOW!

'The BackShop Live' is now available from this web site AND at all of Troop's shows. One guy, one guitar and a room full of happy folks all captured - as it happened in January of this past year - on a couple of high quality mics. Twenty tracks of songs and banter with almost zero overlap with tunes already featured on the fabulous live one, 'Between a House and a Hard Place.' - MR

You want I should give you a full song sample? Well all right then, here it is:
"This I'd Do" * LIVE * - MP3 format

* 'The BackShop Live' entered the Euro Americana Chart at #9 for August!

* Already playlisted at WGWG 88.3fm, WNCW 88.7fm and WSGE 91.7fm with all the best stations across this tiny bluegreen planet soon to follow! THANKS Larry & Ed at KDHX 88.1fm in St. Louis MO and Steve at CFBX 92.5fm in Kamloops, BC Canada and Doug Dick WVGN Virgin Islands.

* "Tip of the Hat" to Doug Young at KRCL 90.9fm in Salt Lake City UT!

* A big "Yo!" to Meg at Sirius Satellite Radio for the add to her Disorder 24 show.

* 4 of 5 stars - Ctl.Alt.Country
"...this one is completely on his own, just a man and his guitar. And, it works wonderfully well!"
Benny Metten

* Country Standard Time
"Trooper shines from start to finish in the vein of Guy Clark, John Hiatt, Tim Easton or Kevin Welch."
Jason MacNeil Country Standard Time

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4-2006
Good news! "Straight Down Rain" is once again available for purchase...as a Digital Download. All 12 tracks and a PDF based, printable cover. Nearly 40% off the hard copy cost, no waiting for Postal Service delivery, AND a price that's less per song than iTunes! Cool deal.

ALSO, there's a new live Greg Trooper CD that will be available soon at shows and off this web site. Recorded January 2006 - one man, one guitar. You gotta hear it! Stay in touch. - MR

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12-2005
Cheers everyone! A tribute record to Nick Lowe is out on Brewery records and I've contributed my version of "What's Shaking On The Hill". Check it out - fun stuff! Thanks for a wonderful 2005 folks. - GT

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10-2005
Nashville Scene's best of 2005
BEST AMERICANA ALBUM: Greg Trooper's, 'Make it Through This World'
"This native of New Jersey has been making journeyman folk-rock records ever since he moved to town more than a decade ago. On his best album yet, his lyrics gain in detail and poetic feel, and are only deepened by the relaxed warmth of his vocals and simmering soul of his record’s arrangements. Trooper has been on a run since 2000, and Make It Through This World suggests he’s getting better as he goes." —Michael McCall

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8-2005
"...one of these days Alice - BANG, zoom to the moon." Well, almost.

Greg Trooper has been all over the world, but the Nashville based singer-songwriter had never really ventured outside the stratosphere.

Until Stephen K. Robinson went up in the Space Shuttle Discovery on August 3, 2005 and took Trooper with him. Well, at least took Trooper's music with him.

Robinson is a guitar player and a music lover, and he also happens to be a much-awarded NASA astronaut. On mission STS-114, where Robinson became the first human to perform an in-flight repair on a shuttle's exterior, the astronaut enjoyed listening to Trooper's 'Make It Through This World', released earlier this year on Sugar Hill Records.

Robinson even confided to Trooper that "...it was great to hear your music playing all through Discovery on the day before we came home." The mission specialist/flight engineer and the guitar-slinging balladeer plan to catch a Mets game together soon...

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6-2005
Some recent reviews and interviews regarding "Make It Through This World."

Mojo 6/2005
"Make It Through This World is his most concise and endearing release yet...making for uneasy easy-listening that's the Americana equivalent of In the Wee Small Hours." - Sid Griffin


Uncut 6/2005
Make It Through This World
4 stars
Jersey-born Greg Trooper's cut some exceptional solo records. With Dan Penn producing, this eclipses them all- a laconic country-soul masterpiece with hope and grit nestled into its eloquent storytelling. - Luke Yorn


USA Today.com
Greg Trooper, "Make It Through This World"
A songwriter who would describe showing love to a hard-hearted girl as being "futile as a prayer" might not be a religious man, but Trooper's songs have the ring of gospel truth. Sure, the organ and the piano testify to each other on Dream Away the Blues, and the slide guitar sways and shouts like a Pentecostal preacher, but mostly it's in the care the Nashville singer/songwriter shows for even his least desirable characters, and in the way they all strive for meaning in their loves and lives. — Brian Mansfield

PureMusic.com CD review

Chicago Sun-Times Greg Trooper, "Make It Through This World" (Sugar Hill)
Greg Trooper has for years been regarded as one of the most accomplished songwriters in Nashville. His 1998 album, "Popular Demons," is considered by many to be one of the defining albums of the Americana movement. Trooper has been steadfast to his folk-pop style but on his new release, "Make It Through the World," he walks in new territory, thanks to the thoughtful guidance of producer Dan Penn.
Penn has written some of the most gorgeous soul music ("Dark Side of the Street") of recent memory, and Trooper's 12 original songs are infused with the gentle breeze of Penn's brand of instinctive street soul. Driving the songs are seductive guitars, a warbling organ and a relaxed Southern backbeat.
Even when the strains of country leak into songs as on "I Love It When She Lies to Me," there's a sense of originality that propels the music and vocals. With Pat McLaughlin, another great singer-songwriter on harmony vocals, the songs, including "This I'd Do" and "Lonely Pair," are perfectly cast as gentle blue-eyed soul. With this fine release, Trooper and Penn hit just the right note, proving they are at the top of their game.
Mary Houlihan

being THERE magazine interview with Zayne Reeves
"Greg Trooper's latest album for Sugarhill Records, Make It Through This World, is as fine a slice of white soul music as you're likely to hear all year long..."

Montreal Gazette
Make It Through This World" (Sugar Hill)
On earlier albums, Greg Trooper has used alt-country and folk-rock settings for his well-crafted songs. Here, though, Trooper teams up with legendary rhythm 'n' blues producer Dan Penn to give his music a soul-infused edge. Numbers like Lonely Pair and Close to the Tracks are a very appealing synthesis of old school R&B and classic country music that come alive under Penn's warm-sounding analog recording approach. That there are no synthesized sounds on these tracks also helps. You can sense the whirl of the Leslie when Kevin McKendree plays his washes on the Hammond B3 organ. One of the most appealing tunes is Green Eyed Girl, a nice mix of a laidback R&B groove with a raggy, Piedmont-style blues guitar arrangement. Mike Regenstreif

Detroit Free Press
"Make It Through This World" (Sugar Hill)
The ghosts of singer-songwriter Trooper's musical heroes -- Hank Williams, Otis Redding and Bob Dylan -- sweetly haunt his eighth album, but it's old-school soul inspired by Otis and lovingly enveloped by Hammond B3 that predominates. Best example? The infectious and lilting "This I'd Do," which humbly offers: "If you want me just to spite someone who's done you wrong/If it's games like that you like, count on me to play along." There's nothing here quite as eerie as "December Skies" or as affecting as "Muhammad Ali (The Meaning of Christmas)," both from 2003's "Floating," but the New Jersey-born, Nashville-based Trooper's gift for constructing delightfully offbeat lyrics remains arresting. The folk-like "Sad, Sad Girl" likens an emotionally barren woman to an abandoned mining town ("Coal turned to diamonds, but she won't let you find them"), while the country-leaning "Don't Let It Go to Waste" takes a similarly remote woman to task with the line: "I think you're as lonely as a Sunday morning that never had a Saturday night."
By Greg Crawford, Free Press staff writer

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4-2005
Greg visited with Melissa Block earlier this week for an interview that will air nationally on 'All Things Considered' this Friday 4/22/05 on an NPR affiliate radio station near you. It'll be interesting to hear what he's got to say - I'm looking forward to it.

Also, Greg has recently been featured in the Folk section of internet retailer, Apple's iTunes.com. - MR

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3-2005
The new record, "Make It Through This World" is cooked! Releases are March 22nd in Europe and April 12th in the good 'ol USofA!

HOW 'bout a sneak peak! 'Dream Away The Blues' CLICK HERE

ALSO, the cool folks at Sugar Hill have created Greg Trooper IM icons and wallpaper for your PC/Mac. Just click below and download till it hurts! Pretty neat!
http://www.sugarhillrecords.com/ecard/gregtrooper/

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11-2004
New music in the works!

Greg writes that he will be entering the studio in November '04 to begin work on a new CD. At the helm producing will be the legendary Dan Penn. The core session band will be:

Kenneth Blevins - drums (John Hiatt, Chuck Prophet, Sonny Landreth and others),
Dave Jacques - bass (John Prine as well as that fine bass work all over last year's 'Floating'),
Kevin McKendree - keyboards (Delbert McClinton, Tom Principato),
Bill Kirchen - guitar ("Smoke, Smoke, Smoke [That Cigarette]" era Commander Cody and MUCH more).

...sounds like a wild ride! MR

Winston Salem Journal

Copyright 2003 Winston Salem Journal

"There's something so philosophically Zen-like and musically stripped-to-the-essence about the 12 songs on Trooper's new album, Floating, that it stands quite apart from the pack."

Harp Magazine

Copyright 2003 Harp

"Floating, with its steady rockin' country-bluesy feel (courtesy of a rhythm section out of the Danko and Helm school), features well crafted tunes that make the album the most worthy blind buy in a while. Memorable characters, vivid stories and just enough un-whiny, though possibly reluctant, self-revelation to leave a personal stamp; like a master luthier's initials written on the inside of a well-made guitar. This album should be required listening at Songwriter U. It could just as well have been called 'This is how it's done.'"

(May 2003) Nashville Tennessean
**** RATING
By CRAIG HAVIGHURST
Copyright 2003 Nashville Tennessean

''I've had good luck in many bad situations,'' sings Greg Trooper in the song Lucky That Way, and just as he can't get the girl in this whimsical choo-choo of a tune, Trooper's luck in the department of reaching the audience he deserves hasn't been what it should have been.

Since New Jersey-raised Trooper settled in Music City, it's been plain he is one of our finest folk-rockers. He loves vintage instruments and robust melodies. He shuns pretension like influenza. His spot-on, tough and tender voice is free of quirks and long on communication. And he writes near the upper reaches of the craft. So it's a blessing that Sugar Hill Records has picked him up after his last two labels folded.

This collection looks and feels rather like 2001's glorious Straight Down Rain, but perhaps only because Trooper has reached a point of refinement with his art and packaging that shouldn't be messed with. The first thrill is the first cut, where a simple lyric is aided by an anguished high note that sounds dissonant at first but that quickly becomes the perfect blue touch-up to a song of longing.

Hummingbird is a purring Mark Knopfler-like rocker about a daddy who doesn't play his old electric guitar anymore. ''It sits in the closet gathering dust/His chubby little fingers they're just gathering rust,'' Trooper sings. Later, a duo with Maura O'Connell exceeds the quota for rhapsodic beauty.

Muhammad Ali (The Meaning of Christmas) is so potent that Steve Earle devotes this album's liner notes to explaining why he heard it and instantly learned it to play live. It's a song about a hero, related with immeasurable tenderness and insight. Every songwriter needs heroes. Trooper's one of mine.

(May 2003) All Music Guide
****1/2 RATING
By THOM JUREK
Copyright 2003 AMG

So finally Greg Trooper gets a deal on what amounts to a real label. And while it's a label normally associated with bluegrass and superpickers, that's fine. Sugar Hill has issued records by Guy Clark, too. It's about time. On Floating, Trooper reveals once again that he is an artist of the old school, one for whom development is a journey, not a destination. Each album stronger than the last — which is saying something when you've never released a bad one — is an exercise not only in the language of lyric writing and melody sculpting but also in the intimate communication that is supposed to occur between singer and listener. Trooper's songs on Floating are the musical equivalent of the poetry of somebody like Kenneth Patchen. His eye is keen, looking for the smallest, seemingly most insignificant detail in a shadowy street-corner scene, and his ear is even keener, picking up the whispers and silent conversations kept within but held in common experience and spoken, laughed, and cried from....CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST!

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2003 REVIEW SHORTS...

A pleasing balance of acoustic folk forms and classic, electrified pop idioms makes this earthy singer-songwriter's latest an ever-changing delight…The title track is a masterpiece…

Honey-voiced alt-country / folk guy Greg Trooper sings almost as well as he writes-- and that's saying a lot on both accounts. His new album, "Floating" (Sugar Hill), is an understated beaut from first to last.

His brand-new Sugar Hill debut, Floating, is filled with songs of love (not the Hallmark variety) and cleverly depicted characters, but it's a lurking darkness that gives Trooper his edge. Live, Trooper will sweat and scuffle and rivet you in your seat.

Like all the best songwriters, Nashville-based Greg Trooper wrings powerful results from words and melodies that often seem simple and effortless…There's nothing that even resembles a dud in this batch of 12…

Greg Trooper writes songs that can penetrate even the thickest skin and reach right down to your heart…While many artists are mining the rich vein of music known as "Americana," Trooper's songs exemplify the individualistic pioneering spirit of the best of this new genre.

Floating keeps alive a four-album streak of excellence, with each release bring something new to the table.

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(Apr. 2003) THE NEW RECORD IS DONE!
"Floating" has recently been released on Sugar Hill Records. As hoped Greg has two new tunes RIGHT HERE for your listening pleasure. First, 'When My Tears Break Through' co-written with Buddy Mondlock, a song about building up your guard and using denial as protection, as skin if you will, until someone shows a little tenderness or understanding and suddenly you fall to pieces. Next, 'Lucky That Way' a bluegrass informed romp about unrequited love.

Take 'um both around the block for a spin and then head into Greg's online store, right here at www.GregTrooper.com, and grab yourself a copy of..."Floating" - MR


(Jan. 2003) A new record label and new project.
Greg has recently been signed to Sugar Hill Records. He's in the studio cooking up a fresh, new album with Phil Madeira at the knobs. You enjoyed "Straight Down Rain," so you can expect a repeat performance as Phil produced that one as well. Hopefully Greg will slide us an advance taste for the web site once they get a couple "in the can." Check back frequently - I'm not making any promises...we'll just have to see. - MR


(Nov. 2002) The new CD is here and it's a LIVE ONE!
"Between a House and a Hard Place" was recorded in June of 2000 at Pine Hill Farm in Durham NC. Greg is joined by Michael McAdam (from the criminally overlooked Good Humor Band out of Richmond VA) on electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin and harmony vocals. And, as if bringing together a great songwriter with a deadly sideman isn't enough, the CD was produced by Eric "Roscoe" Ambel who's producing credit's include: Whiskeytown, Freedy Johnston, The Bottlerockets, and Backsliders (...and that guy, what's his name? Oh ya, Ryan Adams). Seventeen tracks of the real deal - three of them new. Git ‘cha one...NOW! - MR


(April 2002) Houston Chronicle
A soccer dad with a song in his heart
By MICHAEL D. CLARK
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

Greg Trooper may be thought of as a songwriter's songwriter in music circles and as a splendid tunesmith to his fans. But to his 7-year-old son, he is sometimes just a ride to soccer practice.

A late ride to soccer practice. "Dad, they're already practicing," sighs young Jack Trooper.

Father Trooper tells his boy to run out there and start kicking and everything will be fine. It's all in a day's work for a soccer dad who doubles as one of Nashville's best-kept singer-songwriting secrets.

In addition to his 16-year recording career, Trooper, 46, has had his songs recorded by such diverse talents as Steve Earle, Vince Gill....CLICK here for the complete article


Billboard
Straight Down Rain As one of roots music's largely undiscovered gems, singer/songwriter Greg Trooper has released a trio of critically acclaimed albums while operating mostly under the mainstream radar. Too bad, because he is an artist of considerable insight and passion; his debut for Eminent showcases plenty of both. the reluctantly affectionate "Nothin' but You" shows Tropper's more Dylanesque tendencies, while the thumping "Staring Down the Night" is downright unnerving. A romantic at heart, Trooper makes "Real Like That"(with Julie Miller) a country love song that's too hip for the genre, and "Once and For All" is a declaration of Yankee love. Phil Maderia's production is adventurous; the downbeat "Doghouse" is interesting, if sonically weird, and "Trampoline" utilizes wah-wah pedals, melodica, and B3 organ to pleasing effect. If Trooper continues to release such solid material and radio finds a place for it, this well-kept secret will be a secret no more. - Ray Waddell