The Pirates of the Mississippi

The roar of delight that greeted the Pirates of the Mississippi when they took the stage at the 2006 CMA Music Festival was all the proof they needed that the band had been welcomed home. It was, recalls Pirates’ founding members Rich Alves and Bill McCorvey, an especially touching moment.“Besides the moms and dads who grew up with our music,” McCorvey marvels, “we had kids coming up to us who weren’t even born when we first came out.” Adds Alves, “I still have something in my car that I’m going to have framed. It’s a little piece of spiral-notebook paper with little-kid writing on it—and a heart—that says, ‘I love the Pirates.’ It tore me to pieces. I said, ‘You know what? The music still works.’”Proof that the music still works—and magically so—is apparent in Heaven and a Dixie Night, the Pirates’ new album on Evergreen Records. Although it is not, strictly speaking, a concept album, it pulsates with images and rhythms of the rural South—from the dreamy, starry-eyed title cut to the droll lamenting about hard times in “Fish Bait” to the emotionally gripping miracle tale of “A Snowman In Birmingham.”“Drinkin’ Money,” “Kickin’ Up Dust” and “Is That Country Or What” all spark chuckles and nods of recognition as they celebrate the various ways by which blue-collar folk unwind and enjoy themselves. “When Love Is Meant To Be” is a tender testimony to the notion that love overcomes all differences, while “A Nickels’ Worth Of Your Love” puts all of life’s other joys into proper perspective. “I Wouldn’t Change A Thing” and “Me” both counsel the wisdom of accepting one’s basic identity, no matter how humble. “Rollin’” is a tribute to the lure and healing power of the open road. And “Gravy” toasts those little adornments in life that elevate satisfaction to ecstasy.Alves and McCorvey co-wrote every song on the album and co-produced it with John Kelton.Heaven and a Dixie Night is the seventh in the Pirates series of truly remarkable albums. It was preceded by Paradise (1995), The Best of the Pirates of the Mississippi (1994), Dream You (1993), A Street Man Named Desire (1992), Walk The Plank (1991) and Pirates of the Mississippi (1990).Beginning as a five-man band, the Pirates signed to Capitol Records in 1989, the same year Garth Brooks made his debut on the label. As befitted musicians with deep country roots, they scored their first hit with an electrifying version of Hank Williams’ “Honky Tonk Blues.” Over the next few years, they populated the charts with such favorites as “Rollin’ Home,” “Fighting For You,” “Till I’m Holding You Again” and “Too Much.”But the Pirates signature hit came in 1991 with “Feed Jake.” Ostensibly about a dog, the sometimes-cryptic song ultimately became a plea for tolerance. Even more surprising was its accompanying music video. The Pirates didn’t even appear in it, relying instead on actors to convey the story. “The label asked us what we wanted to do with the video,” Alves remembers, “and I told them that our identity wasn’t about the way we dressed or the way we looked. It was about the music. That’s the point we wanted to make.” CMT viewers loved the video and voted it one of the year’s Top 10.The Pirates’ music gained them so much attention that they began to tour almost incessantly. “We were on the road about 300 days a year for seven years,” Alves explains. During that time, they worked with Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, the Judds and Hank Williams Jr., as well as headlining their own shows. “Eventually, we were just burned out,” Alves continues. “So we shook hands and went our separate ways.” That was in 1996. “The other guys have gone on to other things,” Alves notes. “We’re all friends, and we all still talk to each other.’In 2000, Alves and McCorvey who had been songwriting separately, got back together to co-write. And before long, they were singing together as well, both the Pirates’ hits and their new songs. (Together and individually, Alves and McCorvey have had their songs recorded by Montgomery Gentry, Alabama, Rascal Flatts, Sammy Kershaw, Jamie O’Neal, Mark Wills, the Oak Ridge Boys, Clay Walker and Barbara Mandrell, among others.) One day, while the two were pitching songs to Evergreen Records’ chief, Johnny Morris, he suggested that it might just be time for the Pirates to record a new album and that Evergreen would be happy to release it. A year later, they completed Heaven and a Dixie Night. Now that the album is out, the Pirates have resumed touring.“It’s been great getting back out there and seeing the reaction,” McCorvey beams. “From the beginning, it was always the joy of playing live music.” Alves agrees, “Deep down, we’re still gypsy minstrels. There’s something about playing your own songs with your own band and getting that acceptance from the people that gives you a goose-bumpy, lump-in-your-throat feeling. You know, how Garth Brooks is up there screaming, ‘Yeeaaaah!’ That’s what it feels like.”
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