Jeff Weaver of The Rarely Herd will surely be among the millions of TV viewers glued to their sets tomorrow night when American Idol is broadcast on Fox. Arizona, a song he wrote and which The Herd recorded in 1992 on their Midnight Loneliness project, may be included during the Homecoming segment of the May 15 broadcast.
The produers of American Idol were looking for a song about the home state of finalist Jordin Sparks, who hails from Glendale, AZ. Weaver said that the call came from out of the blue.
“AI’s producer/music director called me Friday evening with an urgent request to get the rights to use the song Arizona. They were on the hunt for songs about Jordin’s home state, and ours came up…they liked it because it was uptempo and lively. At that time, the producer also stated that (so far) it was the only song that they had complete clearance to use, but did intended to use more than one (as background) during her feature.”
At this point, Jeff isn’t 100% sure that his song will be used on tomorrow night’s show, but will be watching with high hopes. You can find the lyrics and an audio sample for Arizona on The Rarely Herd web site.
“The lyrics had no particular or personal meaning. I just pointed a finger at a map, and wrote a song about it. In many of my songs, I just let the story evolve while writing. Another song titled Arizona John (on our Return Journey CD) was written the same way.”
It would be a fine thing to hear bluegrass music on such a popular program, so let’s hope the banjos ring out tomorrow night on American Idol.
