Pick It Up by Ron Sunshine & the Smoking Section

" Greg Boyer (formerly with George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic, Maceo Parker, now with Prince) contributes four amazing horn arrangements, along with his P-Funk Horns cohorts, Greg Thomas and Bennie Cowan.

Also featured are: the late, great Howie Wyeth (played with Bob Dylan on "Desire" and "Hard Rain"); songwriting legend Joe Flood (The Band, the Bottle Rockets, Mojo Nixon); Jono Manson (The Worms, the Mighty Sweetones); Doug Petty (Shawn Colvin, LeeAnn Rimes, a host of teen pop acts including Britney Spears' first album); Paul Frazier (Nile Rodgers, David Byrne, Funky Poets, many others); Grammy-Winning saxophonist Craig Dreyer (Keith Richards, Gregg Allman, still a member of Ron Sunshine's band today); Jack Petruzzelli (Joan Osborne, Luciano Pavorotti, BBQ Bob, Vanessa Paradis); and more.

Co-producer, songwriter, and bassist David Santos has gone on to tour with Billy Joel, John Fogerty, the Neville Brothers, Crosby, Stills & Nash, the Northwest Allstar Band, and many others. He is now among the most in-demand players on the Nashville scene.

"Pick it Up" has been featured on: the House of Blues Radio Hour (one of the most widely listened to shows in the U.S.) with Dan Aykroyd--once as the featured new artist of the week, and again as one their top ten picks of the year; Brave New Radio, a nationally syndicated show out of Los Angeles; Felix Hernandez's Rhythm Review, (at the time a national show out of WBGO in the NYC market); another syndicated show out of Dallas; and many other stations have "picked it up." In fact, the record was number one on Scranton's WVIA in September of 1994, and number 16 on the Hard Report's national Blues Breakers chart in October of that year.

WBRR in Birmingham, AL picked the release as their #1 blues record of the year.

"Pick it Up" has also been released in France and is receiving airplay on Europe One, AutoRoute FM, among other radio stations.

"Ron Sunshine is a star!" writes Kerry Burke of Citysearch.com, referring to the lead singer, songwriter, and harmonica player, and bandleader.

Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Ron moved to New York City in 1981 to attend Columbia University where he earned a degree in English and American History, studying under such notable poets and authors as Kenneth Koch, Amiri Baraka, Albert Murray.

Since taking up music full time in 1990, he has performed and/or recorded with Dr. John, the P-Funk Horns, Wilson Pickett, Tower of Power, Charles Brown, Pinetop Perkins, AWB, Johnny Copeland, Buster Poindexter, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Scott Hardkiss, as well as many top local bands like Blues Traveler, The Holmes Brothers, and Joan Osborne.

Ron can also be heard singing and playing harmonica on various national television and radio advertisements.

He fell in love with music as a child, influenced by his four older sisters, who were an award winning a cappella harmony group, and by weekly visits with his live-in babysitter to a soul-stirring full gospel Pentecostal church.

Average Customer Review: 5