Rainer's pals honor, assist him with album

One day after work back in 1976, Tucson slide-guitarist and songwriter

Rainer Ptacek invited Mike Kirkpatrick over to the house to play a little

music.

That evening changed Kirkpatrick's life.

Now, more 20 years later, Kirkpatrick's band, the Chicago-based

Drovers, joins about a dozen other acts on a new album tribute to Rainer

that has received national attention.

Kirkpatrick, who at the time was studying classical guitar at the University

of Arizona, gave guitar lessons at the music store where Rainer repaired

instruments.

``I walked in the door with my guitar, we sat down and we started playing

music, and we didn't stop for hours,'' Kirkpatrick remembers today.

``From that day forward, nothing was the same for me. I decided then the

kind of music I wanted to play, from the heart,'' he said, calling from his

band's office in Chicago.

``If I hadn't met Rainer, I wouldn't be doing what I do now.''

In 1979, Kirkpatrick, a former Tucsonan, moved to Chicago, where he

has led his folk-rock group for several years.

He says he didn't hesitate when Giant Sand's Howe Gelb called to enlist

the Drovers for ``The Inner Flame.'' The recorded tribute to Rainer

(usually known simply by his first name) and his rich, blues-inflected music

was released last month on Atlantic Records.

The Drovers, who have released four albums on their independent label

Tantrum Records, play Rainer's tune ``Worried Spirits.''

``The Inner Flame'' includes such major stars as Robert Plant & Jimmy

Page, Emmylou Harris, the Lemonheads' Evan Dando, P.J. Harvey,

Jonathan Richman, Giant Sand and others, all performing Rainer's tunes.

Gelb conceived the album last spring, when Rainer was felled by an

inoperable brain tumor and cancer.

The brain tumor has shrunk drastically and his cancer is in remission, but

many medical bills remain.

A portion of the proceeds from ``The Inner Flame'' will help relieve those

debts.

Rainer has yet to receive an accounting of the album's sales from the

record company. But he says the family already has benefited, although he

does not specify the amount it has received.

Similar tribute albums were released during the last few years to help raise

money for ailing musicians Victoria Williams and Vic Chesnutt, both of

whom appear on ``The Inner Flame.''

Singer Kris McKay, although she lives in Austin, Texas, is a frequent

Tucson visitor and a close friend of the Ptacek family, which includes wife

Patti; sons Gabe, 20, and Rudy, 13; and daughter, Lily, 21 months.

``I pretty much fell all over myself wanting to be on this album,'' McKay

says from her home in Austin, taking a break from plans for her third solo

album.

She recorded Rainer's ``One Man Crusade'' for the album last year in

Tucson.

McKay says Rainer embodies ``a spiritual center in music.''

``He's sort of like a quiet backbone, and everyone whom I've encountered

who knows Rainer is inexplicably affected by him and his music in one way

or another,'' McKay says.

Kirkpatrick also notes that Gelb ``was absolutely instrumental in getting all

the artists (on `The Inner Flame') involved, and in getting all the recording

done.''

But the album may not have been released by major-label Atlantic were it

not for the intervention of former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, who

has been friends with Rainer for several years.

``Robert has been such an extreme help on this. I don't think it would have

been possible without him,'' Rainer says.

``He's done a lot in the way of leaning on the record company to get this

album out.''

Plant took the project to Atlantic Records and got the green light for its

release, Gelb says.

Rainer met Plant in England a few years ago. The pair eventually teamed

up in the studio close to the time Plant's 1993 album, ``Fate of Nations''

was released, Rainer says.

Some of the songs they recorded together ended up as the B-sides for

Plant's CD singles from that album. One of those collaborations, a song

titled ``21 Years,'' appears on ``The Inner Flame.''

In the July 12 issue of Billboard Magazine, Plant says ``The Inner Flame''

is ``not an attempt to create a slick sort of pop production, it's basically an

attempt to try and interpret what Rainer is trying to do, trying to bring it out

ourselves.

``I think the project has a sanity about it. I think it has a great deal of

appeal.''

Mike Kirkpatrick uses similar language to describe Rainer's qualities.

``When Rainer's having a good night, there's something in the air that you

don't get with other performers; there's something utterly unpretentious and

real about him,'' Kirkpatrick says.

Many critics and fans have tried for years to define the flavor of Tucson's

music, none satisfactorily.

But Kris McKay knows the Tucson sound.

``When I'm away from the desert for too long, I just put on a record of

Rainer's,'' she says.

``I close my eyes and I'm there.''