Track listing:
1. Not Your Fault
2. Under The Stares (Love Will Bring you Down)
3. Somewhere Along The Way
4. Broken Heartland
5. The Ocean
6. Your Best Friend 7. Steps
8. One Good Reason
9. Deeper Than Blue
10. The Only One
11. Would You?
12. Days [click to listen]
13. Blue Million
14. Jumpstart [click to listen]

General Information:
Originally titled “Songs For M” many of the songs on the new cd “Retox” by John Eberly (see his previous cd “Imagination” –voted best Wichita-area release of 2004) were written in response to a request by John and Martina McBride for songs for McBride’s most recent release. The recordings were submitted as simple acoustic guitar/vocal tracks, mixed and regarded as “finished.” These demos for M. McBride circulated among friends of John E.’s who urged him to go into the studio and flesh out the tracks. Arrangements were made and over a ten-day period in late February he worked primarily with Josh Davies on Steinway piano and synthesizer (Davies also mixed and co-produced “Retox”), Matt Penner on drums (veteran of the local punk rock scene in bands Penny District, and Last Ride Out). Playing acoustic, electric and bass guitars, and handling all vocals and harmonies –with the harmonic help of wife Katherine on some tracks, Eberly also enlisted the aid of Josh Goss, who previously played alto sax on some dates in Hutchinson supporting the “Imagination” cd, to add sax, harmonica, and flute.  

The result is “Retox” the reinvigorated, intoxicating, full sound of the potential the songs that began as stripped-down to the basics unplugged demos for Martina held all along. They have an over-all “Country-rock” feel, although more akin to the roots of Country, Blues, Rock, and even Rockabilly -check out “One Good Reason”- than to any contemporary “Country” music sound. Some tracks defy any label –such as the rhapsodic “Would You?” while others echo early Rolling Stones with Andrew Loog Oldham, like “Under The Stares (Love Will Bring You Down)” while “Days” is decidedly Beatlesque. “Broken Heartland” not only defines the song’s Kansas roots but also that the home is most often where the heart breaks. Defining broader parameter’s of loss ala a country blues form reminiscent of Leadbelly, “A Blue Million” also takes its title from an old Captain Beefheart lyric. Like 2004’s cd “Imagination, John Eberly’s songwriting inspirations are eclectic and his powers of synthesizing various styles and influences not always easy to detect or define.

The cover image of John Eberly splayed across the stage apparently unconscious holding a bass guitar is based on the classic image of Orpheus washed up on the shore with his 4-string lute returning to the world of consciousness after descending to the underworld.

John Eberly regularly performs as a solo artist, often with the help of his wife Katherine on vocals, guitars and sometimes drums/percussion. He works with various break-out groups that in the past year have included a string quartet from the Hutchinson Symphony, as well as the entire Hutchinson High School symphony orchestra. The musicians assembled for the RETOX sessions will form the core of the band that will perform music from the cd under the nom de plume John Eberly & The Shiftless Drifters.

Watch local listings for performances in Wichita and surrounding area this summer!

For bookings
Contact: email
Phone: 620/474-1861