Rufus Fontain – Rufus Fontain (CD)

What’s a Rufus Fontain? We don’t really know. Doesn’t really matter. Rufus Fontain is balls out hard rock & southern with a touch of metal. The album is not over produced and maintains a certain stripped-down sound and rawness. Ronnie Honeycutt recorded, mixed, and mastered an album full of meaty riff chunks, backend boogie grooves, and lots of kick. Perfection! 'Whole Lotta Rosie,' featuring Jeff LaBar of Cinderella on guitar, was featured on an AC/DC tribute album, received airplay, and is arguably the best cover tune you will ever hear! Roll down the car windows, turn up the volume, and invite your neighbors to kiss your derriere! For fans of Dirty Looks, Jackyl, and AC/DC!

RUFO started with two friends, me, and Tim Lewis, just hanging out, having a few drinks, and recording demos of songs we had written. Many were just ideas at first. Working for days on end at times. We often used electronic drums and eventually enlisted friend and drummer Anthony “Butch” Kratky to replace what we had done with real drums. Many of which are on this album.

In the days of Myspace, you could post songs on your page. We wanted to share some of what we had done and needed a name. Don’t ask where RUFUS FONTAIN comes from. I’ll give you a different story every time. It’s a ridiculous name I came up with that just so happened to stick, and that’s who we are now.

We had a few demos up, and a DJ from the UK grabbed a few of them from the Myspace page and started playing them on his rock radio show. Before we knew it, we were doing well on the radio in several parts of Europe, Spain, Australia, and a station here and there in the US. It was a happy accident. I did a good many radio interviews for these stations, but we didn’t have a record. Just the demos.

At some point, a band was necessary to take these songs out for shows, and we enlisted bassist Jay LeMaire and guitarist Trey Suiter of the amazing group 12V Negative Earth soon followed. Still writing and recording, we played any show we could get. Audiences were entertained, and some industry attention was received. We even played at the Rocklahoma festival, where we met rock industry icon Eddie Trunk, and we were all surprised he knew who we were. But it wasn’t meant to be. Not then.

Over the years, RUFUS has had several amazing lineups. We were fortunate enough to have my dear friends Cinderella guitarist Jeff LaBar and bassist Hayden James. And while Butch was on hiatus, drummer Shawn Hughes and my dear friend and guitarist Mr. JT Vaughn.

At one point, we were asked to do a version of “Whole Lotta Rosie” for a tribute album. We tracked, edited, and mixed “Rosie” in my studio in one day, figuring no one would ever hear it. We just cranked it out and sent it on its way. Boy were we wrong! It was played on many satellite radio shows and in many parts of the world. It’s included on this album as well!

The last incarnation of RUFO was mainly JT Vaughn and I sitting in the studio laughing and working (and drinking), just recording any idea I came up with. Some of those are on this album.

Over the years, I recorded us anywhere I could. From garages, warehouses, and later, my studio in Nashville. A few were mastered by my dear friend Mr. Tommy Dorsey, engineer, and owner of Masterfonics. And a few weren’t.

When my friend and brother Ronnie Borchert approached me about talking to the guys at Eonian Records about putting all of this out, I thought, “OK, FINALLY! This has all been sitting on hard drives for years, and it’s gonna see the light of day!” Thank you, Ronnie B.