Randy Weeks

Originally hailing from Minnesota, singer/songwriter/guitarist Randy Weeks was a founding member of the Los Angeles-based country-rock band the Lonesome Strangers, who recorded his song "Ton of Shame" on their 1986 album, Lonesome Pine. The group's self-titled 1989 album featured his song "Daddy's Gone Gray," and both his "Fine Way to Treat Me" and "Ton of Shame" were on 1997's Lonesome Strangers album Land of Opportunity. (All three songs were co-written by Jeff Rymes, co-leader of the band.) Weeks appeared as a vocalist on Dwight Yoakam's albums Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room (1988) and Under the Covers (1997). He sang and played several instruments on the 1989 self-titled album by Chris Gaffney & the Cold Hard Facts, which featured his song "I Was Just Feeling Good." He has appeared on albums by Pete Anderson, Rick Shea, Ramsay Midwood, Anny Celsi, Dee Lannon, and Tony Gilkyson. His recording of his song "Countryside with You" was featured on the soundtrack of the film Shallow Hal in 2001. His most successful song is "Can't Let Go," which has been recorded by the Burden Brothers, Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time, Mason Daring, Hometown News, and Lucinda Williams, and was featured on the soundtrack of the 1998 film Jack Frost, in Williams' version. Weeks' debut solo album, Madeline, was released by HighTone Records on March 13, 2000. He self-released Sold Out at the Cinema on June 6, 2004, and followed it with Sugarfinger on August 22, 2006. Relocating to Austin, TX, from his longtime base in Los Angeles, he signed to Certifiable Records, which released his fourth album, Going My Way, on February 24, 2009. ~ William Ruhlmann