New Music From The Freightliners
On July 14, 2018, Richmond, Virginia based Paulo Franco & The Freightliners released their latest single Richmond’s Just Fine, with El Rey Y Su Cadillac as the B Side.
The release coincides with Paulo Franco celebrating 20 years of life in Richmond, Virginia, the birth place of his career as a singer-songwriter. Paulo and the band recorded the songs at P&P Studios in Paulo’s Woodland Heights neighborhood. Bob Rupe (The Silos, Cracker, Gutterball, Sparklehorse) engineered, mixed and mastered both tracks. Bob produced Paulo’s 2016 full length release, The Last Card.
To record these songs, Paulo enlisted the help of his bandmates in the Freightliners, Jimmy Slagle on lead guitar, Doug Thompson on bass and Dave Hess on drums and backing vocals. The song reflects the simplicity and joys that Paulo has found living in Richmond, Virginia for last 20 years with his family. The song captures the intimacy of Paulo’s songwriting as he turns again to people in his day to day life for inspiration. The song was written along with Paulo's longtime songwriting partner and friend, Austin, TX based Shane Cooley (Visit Shane's Website).
Complementing the A side is the B side, El Rey Y Su Cadillac. As a first generation American of Colombian ancestry, Paulo has been turning heads and gaining fans with his upbeat songs in Spanish. Paulo switches his voice from Americana troubadour to Spanish troubadour with ease. His vocals are so authentically Spanish that it is easy to forget you just heard him effortlessly sing in English.
El Rey tells the story of a Latin playboy who cruises his local barrio in his Cadillac in search of adventure and romance. The inspiration for the song is a bit more domestic though. Paulo says that the inspiration for the song are the actual exploits of his beloved cat, Lucius. In 2015, Lucius was diagnosed with colon cancer and was confined to becoming an exclusively indoor cat after years of being indoor/outdoor. One day while shopping for pet food, Paulo’s wife Sonia suggested a pet stroller so that the two of them could take Lucius out for walks in the neighborhood. Lucius took to the stroller like a fish to water. Word began spreading throughout Woodland Heights of the couple walking a cat in a stroller. So when Lucius was out in his “Cadillac” many children would come up and ask to pet him, especially the girls. Of course, he couldn’t get enough of it. This past Fourth of July, Sonia decorated his Cadillac so Lucius could attend the annual neighborhood Parade.
Paulo and the Freightliners have had an eventful year in 2018. In addition to a busy schedule of their own, they recently opened for Eli Young Band, and Paulo and Jimmy had the honor of being local support for Robert Earl Keen. The Freightliners plan on continuing to pound the pavement in Richmond, Central Virginia and points beyond building up their following one fan at a time They head back to the studio in February of 2019 to record some more songs. Stay tuned!!
For more info contact Melissa Nastasi at City Bird Publicity (melissa@citybirdpublicity.com) or Paulo Franco (paulo@peflmusic.com)