Moot Davis Interview by Stephen Rapid

1 Great jacket on the cover. A Manuel? It’s a contrast to the suited Moot of Man About Town. Which one is closer to your spirit?

Thank you, that suit was made by Jaime Custom Tailoring in Hollywood, CA several years ago. He makes stage clothes for Dwight Yoakam, Chris Isaak and ZZ Top. When I got hooked up with Pete Anderson back in 2003, I started going to Jaime to have things made. Believe it or not, I’m still paying off this jacket. 

After I take all the photos from an album shoot, I try to find ones that speak to me, that standout, that are evocative and tell a story.  This album cover is strong image and there’s mystery to it. And it’s the mystery that I identify with more so then the rhinestone suit or the business suit of “Man About Town”.

2 To the music now. The press release describes it as more roadhouse rock than country. Was that a natural development?

It’s a natural progression going from the honky-tonk stuff to more sort of classic rock and that’s really what I’ve been listening to a lot of. I still revisit the old “golden era” honky-tonk stuff every now and then but it seems to be on the more of a special occasion. “Man About Town”, had 3 or 4 rockers and the rest country/honky tonk, my plan was always to flip that on this album. 

3 You are using your regular band on this album. Did this allow you to work the songs up live in advance?

Yea, we worked on the songs for about a year and a half. I would write them and bring them to the band and I have a rough sketch but we really started beating the songs up and give them their own kind of sound as I would bring them in. So it was a really nice change to have my own guys (Bill Corvino, Joe Mekler, Michael Massimino)with me as opposed to using studio musicians which can be a little sterile. 

4 All your albums have been produced with a guitarist/producer. Do you find that’s advantageous recording with a working musician?

 Yes, plus I really love the sound of the guitar and I love people who know how to play it. I also find that communicating with guitar players who are also songwriters (both Pete and Kenny write some killer songs), makes a big difference.  So it’s the combination of them being a working musician and songwriter that I find this most attractive.

5 A lot of artist seem to be seeking a description to define what they play feeling that the straight term “country” is open to be misunderstood these days. What’s your take on that?

Well, I’m less interested in labels and terms and more focused on songs.  When I sit down and work with the guitar, I never know what’s going to come out. I mean, it’s kind of like a channel and if it works that day, you’re an open channel and I’m receiving some sort information from somewhere and whether that’s going to be country or roadhouse rocker or whatever, I really don’t know. And I try not to ask too many questions about it, I just try to dial  in the cosmic radio, to get the right frequency you know? 

6 You have worked outside the major label system but were you ever approached by a major label?

I did, SONY Nashville got very interested right around the same time I hooked up with Pete Anderson. They flew out to see us play in Los Angeles and we had dinner afterwords. They were all very nice, and they called me a few days later asking me if I wanted to play ball.  I had the gut feeling that I’d make better albums with Pete, and I knew that he would never go for their deal of “keeping Pete as producer but recording albums in Nashville”.  The SONY guy also said something to the effect of “we already have a “Derailers”, on the label so we would have to change your direction.” This is also before Pete and I had any of our differences, so I thought the right thing to do was to stay with Pete, loyalty wise and for the good of the music. So I told the SONY guy “I wasn’t much of a ballplayer” and that was that. 

7 Would you consider the major label route with all that that entails?

I would consider everything but the small labels that I’ve been on and I, we been doing what labels used to do, which is artist development. That’s where you get three or four albums to find yourself as an artist, to find your sound, to develop. We’ve been doing that on a shoestring for years and I think it’s really paying off. I’m very proud of the “Goin’ In Hot” album. 

8 You own the label, Crow Town Records, with Michael Massimino are you considering other acts for the label and why that name?

 I have a pretty singular focus on what I’m doing and I leave all that kind stuff to my business partner Michael. This is a pretty new venture for us and I think we’re going to see how this album does and then go from there. I know Michael certainly is interested in taking on other acts but the label has to be able to be profitable. Our namesake comes from the old west novels series “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry. I read all those books along time ago and was fascinated by this town “Crow Town” were all the worst of the outlaws hung out. The name has stuck with me through the years and it just ended up being our record label name.

9 Does your music sustain you or do you need to work in other areas? 

This year we are pretty busy so I don’t have to take up any secondary work, on years were not touring so much, I’ll do some behind the scenes work on film and television shows either New York or Los Angeles. 

10 When the studio you recorded the album in burned down did you feel that you would have to start the process again and if so would you have changed anything?

Yea, I was already trying to work it out in my head how we’re going to start from scratch again and rerecord the whole thing. You can’t quit, so I was just trying to see when everybody schedule would allow us to get back in the studio. I wouldn’t want to change anything really. I was concerned with recapturing what we had. 

11 The reaction to the album has been very positive. Does that make it worthwhile or do you have to have the commercial part?

You do need a little bit of the commercial part to stay in business and go on to make the next one. That being said, I’m really glad that the reaction to the albums been positive and it does make it worthwhile, this is a creative process and you do something privately and then you try and share it with people and you hope they like it. 

12 Is it a vital part of the process to have an album to back up a tour or can you survive without a regular album release?

My personal goal is to release an album the year for the next five years, or as close to that as I can get. It’s always good to have new product to sell when you’re on the road but there are a lot of places even in the United States were we haven’t been yet, so as time goes by, those are the areas we’re going to start focusing on in between releases. 

13 After your time in Nashville, where you recorded your gig sales album you hooked up with Dwight Yoakam producer Pete Anderson who also played with you live. Looking back why do you think that didn’t take off for you both?

I think it served it’s purpose, but I don’t know if that formula was ever supposed to really be anything other than it was. During our time together we toured all over the United States Europe and Japan, got several songs placed in films and made two really good albums. Did it come close to the success that he had with Dwight, no, nowhere near as close. But I’m not Dwight and my path is different than his, even though some of the same people show up in each career. 

14 You have played in Europe before but making the trip seems more difficult now, especially with a band, have you any plans to release the album in Europe and to tour also?

The album is distributed worldwide, so it’s definitely released in Europe and we’ll take any opportunity to come over there that we can. The last time we were there in 2013, we had a full U.S. band and we had a blast. It just seems that the economic troubles that our countries find themselves in, make it harder for offers to come perform.

15 As an artist what goals do you feel you would like to achieve in the future?

Again, the idea is to release an album the year or as close to that as possible for the next five years. Along with that constant touring both in United States and abroad, hopefully some more placements in film and television. That, and to continue to make new music. Those are my goals and that is my path.  

Interview with Jim Lauderdale

I first became aware of Jim Lauderdale when he had a track featured on the second volume of the Town South Of Bakersfield compilation. That collection was produced by Pete Anderson who went on to produce a whole album on Lauderdale that went unreleased at the time of recording (1988) though a couple of singles went to radio at that time. It was later released thanks to fan Tony Rounce on Westside in 2001. Planet of Love was the first Jim Lauderdale album to be officially released coming out in 1991 on Reprise. It was produced by John Leventhal and Rodney Crowell and contained Jim’s classic song about George Jones, King Of Broken Hearts. In support of this Reprise arranged a European tour that found Lauderdale playing in Dublin alongside fiddler Mark O'Connor and the band Little Texas as part of their label's sponsored tour of Europe.

I was totally taken with this slice of country that was in marked contrast to Little Texas' pop-orientated confections. Jim Lauderdale had brought with him a dream band that included the late Donald Lindley on drums, Dusty Wakeman on bass, Gurf Morlix on pedal steel and Buddy Miller on guitar. They were exceptional. Jim noted that that particular gig, in Bad Bobs, was one he still remembered as one of his all-time favourites. After their set I made it my business to meet Lauderdale and we have stayed in touch ever since.

During his career Jim has been with both major and independent labels and now releases albums at a pace to keep up with his prolific writing talent. His next release will be a double CD of country songs entitled I'm A Song. It showcases 19 tracks of new material and a new version of King of Broken Hearts and features such guests as Kenny Vaughan, Al Perkins, Patty Loveless and Lee Ann Womack. Lauderdale was in Ireland for the Belfast Songwriter's Festival and an Ubangi Stomp-promoted gig in Dublin.

Prior to the show Jim and I caught up and I started by asking Jim how technology had changed his life. He said that it had taken him a long time to get comfortable with the process and he only started to text in recent times but, aside from communicating, it had allowed him to co-write. "The two songs I co-wrote with Elvis Costello were written when we were on the road in two different busses. So I had to get someone to send him the ideas I had. Also with Robert Hunter I've written quite a bit with him over the internet".

This way of writing has enabled him to be more prolific with his album releases. In eighteen months Jim hopes to have released five albums. He has lately been releasing albums two at a time and he felt that at this stage in his career it can't hurt. "Though I love live gigs, my favourite thing to do is to go into the studio". Song ideas come to him all the time, but without a project in mind he may not finish a song without a deadline which becomes  an important part of the writing process. I wondered did he then go over his notes when he had a recording project upcoming? "Sometimes, but I'm very disorganised. There have been several instances where I can't find the exact melody. For instance there's a song called Vampire Girl that I thought might suit Buddy (Miller) and myself. I started to hum the melody when I was on a plane, I felt when we come to record we can do this. But when it came time to do the recording I couldn't find it so I started again and then lost that version. Buddy still liked the idea and so it wasn't until the night before we recorded it that it all came together". Other songs though, he has completed and knows where they can be found, but overall Jim finds that,  though it's stressful, working under pressure produces results.

Jim also has to remember all the song details, so that when it comes time to release an album he has to put all the writing credits together. Something he was in the process of doing for I'm A Song, so that copies could be manufactured for an upcoming Australian tour. He had been working with Jeremy Dillon, an Australian director who was doing a documentary on Jim. When Dillon arrived in Nashville there was no studio footage shot, so a session was booked. "I wanted to have James Burton and Al Perkins come in, so we went into the old RCA Studio A". The studio is leased now by the artist Ben Folds who rents it out. They spent a day recording and filming there and they cut around nine song in the old way,  all tracking together. But after the session Lauderdale realised that he only had these nine songs and he wanted to add a new version of King Of Broken Hearts. Jim thought about how George Jones had re-recorded some of his classic songs and he felt it might be a good thing to do,  as the original album is long out of print. He felt the need to add a couple more songs to complete the album. The list of possible songs kept growing and then a waltz melody came to him in the studio. Musicians like  Kenny Vaughan and Russ Paul were on a break. "I had no lyrics so I thought’ I'll send this melody right now to Robert Hunter’ and the very next day he sent me a lyric which was great". An old writing partner, Odie Blackmon, was his co-writer on a number of songs. He has also included a version of I Lost You one of the songs he'd written with Elvis Costello that was on the Costello's National Ransom album. Jim also expressed disappointment that Costello's band The Sugarcanes, which included Jerry Douglas, didn't have a longer run. They played Vicar Street during that particular tour to much acclaim.

Towards the end of 2013 he released a bluegrass album called Old Time Angel which he wanted to record in the old way, using just one central mic for vocals and a couple of other mics to pick up all the instruments. His man of choice for his bluegrass albums is Dobro player Randy Kohrs who produced Old Time Angel. The other album that came out around the same time was an album Black Roses, one that he'd had in the can for a while,  which he'd recorded with the North Mississippi Allstars in their studio. Spooner Oldham was on piano and David Hood was on bass. Both were musicians that he had wanted to work with. He described that as a "blues, baroque soul" style of album. There is also an acoustic solo album that he wanted to do called Blue Moon Junction a reference to the fact that he often tours solo and wanted an album to reflect that. That  situation has often been dictated by the expense of taking a band out on the road.

He justified this level of releases by saying that "I still feel like a newly signed act in a lot of ways and don't feel I'm hurting myself by releasing this many records and I really felt compelled to do them". There is also another album in the can, one he has recorded with Nick Lowe's band. Jim describes it as a combination of soul, mercy beat and a bit of rockabilly. He particularly wanted to play with Lowe’s band and producer Neil Brocklebank. "Nick has always been one of my favourites and I've always loved his band". He recorded the album in London but only arrived there with one completed song, thinking he would write the rest while there. It was stressful as he was writing after playing a series of gig. A further complication was added when his guitar hadn't arrived and he missed his flight so the time he had allotted to write was lost. He finished another song that he had originally sent to Costello as a title and melody. That song titled I Love You More turned out to be one of his favourites. For a second round of recording he had a number of songs he's written with Dan Penn. "He's such a terrific guy". John Oates (of Hall and Oates) was also another collaborator for the album's songs. "John actually has very deep roots and we really clicked as writers". 

We talked about the changing face of the Music Row styled song and how many writers were now out of favour, something that must have a deep effect on his career as a writer for other artists. "There was a period in Nashville when I was very fortunate, where people where recording my songs. Now that's over, pretty much. I will pitch some to George Strait, who's going to record soon, as he still has five records left after his farewell tour. But that practice is now ended unless someone comes along who wants to integrate that into today's country". Everyone has a time and he mentioned writers like Dan Penn, who had a lot of cuts for a time, and then directions changed and it got harder to place songs.

The last straight down the line country album that Lauderdale recorded was Country Super Hits, Volume 1 seven years ago,  so he felt the time was right to put out this new set of songs. However over the years with Jim's distinctive melodies and vocal phrasing I tend to think of it as all Lauderdale Music; that although the albums take different paths they come from the same place. He also made inroads back to playing and writing bluegrass which was one of his main musical influences growing up. It was an area in which he was having some success. Because they can no longer get played on mainstream radio, the economics of playing bluegrass are more favourable and many artist have also moved in that direction,  Alan Jackson being one such artist. Jim does mention though that Jackson's next album will be a country record.

There is a possibility that there may be some more traditional country coming from Nashville,  however the odds seem stacked against it. "Nashville still has much of the Brill Building days about it. You get in a room with somebody to try and write a song that will get cut. Oddly enough, that set up rarely worked for me when I paired up with somebody intentionally trying to write for somebody else". Most of Jim's cuts came from someone hearing one of his demos or an album cut. He doesn't listen to radio that often and feels that maybe he should be more in touch with what is current on radio, but just doesn't feel engaged by what he hears. He has recently done a panel discussion with other writers like Bruce Robison. They talked about writing for another artist and that it didn't feel true in some respect, but it would be hypercritical to say that they wouldn't be very happy if someone new cut a song they had a hand in. "But when I've gone through that process it always gives me a sinking feeling".

The quality of demos has been more and more finished in recent times. Sometimes songs being demoed for a particular artist are so close to the artist’s style and arrangement that all that need to be done was to take the demo singer’s voice out of the mix and drop in the particular artist's voice. It was back when Lauderdale was working with producer Tim Coats in Garry Tallent's studio that he realised that what they were doing were in fact finished tracks to all intents and purposes.

Buddy Miller has replaced T-Bone Burnett as musical director on the TV show Nashville. Lauderdale noted that Burnett was a fan of Miller’s and had been helping out when Burnett was one of the show's executive producers. “Buddy is putting a lot of time and effort into it and trying to give some young writers a break, which is good, as it helps nurture a community". He also noted that Miller had used a couple of Lauderdale's songs, one in the first season and one in the current run. One of the producers had spoken to Lauderdale and co-writer Odie Blackmon about some of the scenarios and  they had written songs to suit those specific storylines, but that, in the end, the network has the final say on the song choice. 

Having an agent is important for any artist, or rather having the right agent is important and Jim felt that he hadn't attracted the agency he would love to be with as he, at the moment, isn't sufficiently well known in his own right to draw a big enough audience. This again showed that Jim Lauderdale is a realistic person in understanding where his career is at the moment. Most of his Irish visits have been shows that he set up except when he came with Emmylou Harris and then later supporting Trisha Yearwood.

We talked about the ageing process and Jim said that photography was something of a hit and miss situation and he when he looked at photography now saw how much he had aged. "I really look like that!" being a common reaction to his own photo. This is something that all artist have to come to terms with as they grow older in the public eye. However he is still around and making records, while many of his contemporaries who started out  when Jim did are no longer in the business. That is a tribute to his talent and determination as well as his charm. He is still dedicated to his love of music and its expression.

Jim had been in Ireland a few years back to produce, at my behest, Bray Vista. He asked about them and about any new upcoming acts that are around at the moment. I mentioned a few names to him and the fact that there is a reasonably healthy live scene, especially on the acoustic side of things. Lauderdale reiterated his love of opportunity to come over to Ireland and Jim Lauderdale is a welcome visitor anytime.

 Interview by Stephen Rapid.  Photography by Stephen Rapid

Interview with Sturgill Simpson

Having released an acclaimed debut album Sturgill Simpson has been touring in the UK (opening for Laura Cantrell and doing his own gigs) to support the UK release of the album, He is also about to bring out a second album and is excited about that. He is the sort of person who is happier talking about his music than about himself but is, like his music, opoen and honest. Lonesome Highway took the opportunity to talk to him prior to his first Dublin date.

Do you find it liberating to be playing gigs in a solo capacity?

I did it before I … well, I still don’t consider myself a professional musician, but it’s how I started out. The first gigs I did were playing by myself. After a year on the road with the band, where you can stretch out a little bit, you still have to follow a bookends regime. But for sets like this I never write a list. It’s about whatever the crowd feels, I feel. But it is very freeing.

Your recording to date have been with a full band though?

Yeah, I think it’s important texturally and there’s still a lot of sonic exploration that I want to do. Doing that without a band is tough, but someday, I’m sure, I’ll get around to the old hauntingly sparse melancholy acoustic album. I don’t think it’ll be the second album though.

You previously front the trio Sunday Valley who can be seen on YouTube. Did you release an album with them?

We did but it didn’t really get released;  we just put it up on iTunes ourselves. We sold it at gig and I think I’m still sitting on 800 physical copies at my house that I ordered right before the band broke up. They’re sitting in a corner doing nothing.

Did you have a natural break-up or did you feel the need to move on?

No, it was definitely on purpose. It was a local band that I played with in Lexington, Kentucky for years. It was never really the music in my heart,  even though I was writing all the music (laughs)! I just kinda reached a point where I felt that this is not what I wanted to do. That’s not best for everybody. I was mainly yelling over the top of myself. It was such a loud band so I never though of it as singing.  

Was that the punk rock influence coming out?

No. It was the punk rock influence in a lot the other band members. I never listened to much punk rock if I’m honest. It was a lot of fun and we had a good following in a local setting. It was fun until it wasn’t. I had realised that I had to do this other thing that I was doing at home by myself 

You’ve stated the influence that your grandfathers had on the music you now play. How did that come about?

Absolutely. Both my grandfathers, really; my maternal grandfather very specifically. He was a big influence just in terms of what he played and the guys that he listened to. We watched Hee-Haw and things like that as a kid. I just wanted to emulate that more than anything. But as a teenager you find things like Led Zeppelin and you steer off the path. In  my early twenties I came full circle and it’s been kinda consuming ever since.

But before coming full circle you absorb the influence that Zeppelin had in their music too.

Yes, very much so. They had folk, blues and country elements in their music. I mean any good music to me is soul music. I was exposed to and absorbed so much traditional country and bluegrass as a young child that after a while your palate says “enough”. Then you got to go see what else is there. 

In those Zeppelin days the only people I was aware of wearing Western style shirts were rock acts. Country was more a red neck thing and thus avoided to some degree.

(Laughs) Yeah.  Zeppelin and Cream. The redneck thing is still a big part of it. Which is weird but it’s more so in the commercial side of things in the States where it’s almost a marketing ploy to put that stamp on your music. I run from it every chance I get. 

Do you have any association with that underground thing that’s going on?

I don’t really have much to do with that and it’s a bit of a scene with some of the punk rockers who had heard Johnny Cash records.

You moved to Nashville; was that a move to get closer to the roots of the music?

That’s exactly why I did that. At the risk of sounding like a cliche and extremely egotistical I wanted to make the kind of country album I wasn’t hearing anywhere else. I had a number of songs that I’d been sitting on for a few years, though most of the album (High Top Mountain) was written while we were recording it. There’s a few I wish I could take back but mostly I wanted to make what I was taught that country music should sound like, or my interpretation of that anyway.

You have said that there’s an element of psychedelia in your music too.

Definitely. I have a second album that’s coming out over here soon. It was recorded back in October and that is very much a psychedelic country record. 

Barefoot Jerry-ish?

No more like if Merle Haggard dropped a bunch of LSD. Which maybe he has (laughs)!

That sort of cross fertilisation is interesting. In the 60s you had both The Beatles and Buck Owens, for instance, aware of each others music.

I’ll give myself away a little bit. I shouldn’t talk as much. But sonically what introduced me to that was a lot of the early Gene Clark or Godson Brothers recordings from the late 60s in California which were so psychedelic and the production approach with people like Clarence White and interweaving acoustic guitar was just so beautiful. 

Especially something like the Byrds Live At The Fillmore where you hear Clarence playing Eight MIles High and blending two strands of music together.

Oh absolutely. 

We talked then about the famous B-Bender that Clarence White played. Marty Stuart now owns and plays it regularly.

Marty and I have the same manager so when they’re doing the TV show taping I get to stop by every once in awhile. I got to pick on it one day and it  feels so weird, it’s almost like playing a hollow body. I don’t know how he does it. Marty tours with that thing. 

We talked about the talent of Kenny Vaughan and how he can play such a myriad of styles that are influenced by Jeff Beck as much as Roy Nichols and so many other players.

What I love about Kenny is that he can hit eight or nine different facets of music in one solo. He’ll sneak it all in there.

We were taking about all the different influences you have come through listening to country music.

Some people can get a little hung up on the tradition and purism side of things. This is 2014 and my producer (Dave Cobb) and I had a long conversation about that. He said “aren’t you worried that people will think you’re running from whatever the last record was?”  I said that I’d already made what I call a traditional record and I felt that I’m not running from it But I certainly didn’t want to turn around and do it again right after that. We incorporated a lot of things this time that will probably take people a little while to get used to. Then I’m not going to make a Merle Haggard record because he already did it and I’m pretty damn sure that I’d never do it as good as he did it (laughs). Taking it somewhere new is the only way it will survive.

We discussed how the better country retro bands in a live context do introduce a new audience to the music and artists of classic traditional country music that they may not come across otherwise. Music needs to be heard in a live context so that it becomes something living and breathing. But that’s only one aspect of the music that is now called Americana.

That can be a self made trap. Building a wall around yourself you become a novelty and I never want to feel that I’m putting a costume on. It’s a bit of a dangerous  road as you build a fan base and then that’s what they expect every night. But on the off-chance I ever play the Ryman I may want to walk out with a disco ball hanging from my suit though (laughs).

When you see an artist walking out on stage in a Nudie or Manuel suit and the light catches the rhinestones it’s like a light show and you know you’re going to watch that person. Jim Lauderdale does that …

… or Marty. He owns that. Jim and Buddy Miller though,  they crack me up. I did a radio show at Buddy’s house not too long ago and they’re both just the sweetest guys. They’re all about their shirts. They have a collection of amazing shirts. When Jim showed up he and Buddy spent about five minuets talking about the shirts they were wearing. I was like “what’s happening?”.

We enthused about how The Mavericks are a band who, while they have a respect for the traditional values they create something new that’s very much their own from a myriad of influences.

Raul is just about my greatest living musical hero right now. I love the In Time album. When the album came out last year I went down to the Siriuis station in Nashville as they were doing a little live in-studio acoustic concert. It was the best show I’ve seen in ten years. They weren’t even doing their “show” but it felt great and there were probably 40 people in this little room. It felt like it was levitating. It was just so good. 

Tell me something about your new album Metamodern Sounds in County Music?

We came off the road from what seemed like an infinite tour and we cut the whole think for a really good price in about four days. Our producer happened to have a week and a half off so I figured that we’d just done seven weeks of shows and we’re not going to get any tighter and I was sitting on a mountain of songs so we went in with my band to do the record. It was an honour and an extreme … I don’t know if privilege is the word … to have played with guys like Pig and those guys,  but I feel like I got my sound down a little bit more on this one. 

Your road band is you and your trio of bass, drums and guitar?

That’s it, just four little guys. We keep a very low stage volume. My guitarist plays through a little 5 watt Champ. I play my Martin and we kind of let the room do the work. We’re having a lot of fun. In Nashville if you walk in with anything over a 15 watt amp you don’t play there again. They say “well that guy doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing”.

Bluegrass was the next topic up for discussion and specifically the Station Inn. 

You never know who might walk in there. I’ve been in there and gotten free mandolin lessons from Ricky Skaggs. That was so surreal. It’s probably my favourite club in the world. We did our CD release there last year. That meant as much to me as playing the Opry. Bluegrass is what I absorbed and played the most. The first time I moved to Nashville was in 2005 (and) all I was doing was playing bluegrass. At some point, I don’t know, I just fell in love with a lot of the older writers and I started to write a lot. I used to just hang out in the Station Inn rather than playing with anybody other than infinite jam parties around East Nashville. I still don’t consider myself in the music business. I’m not going to meeting or anything. I’m just putting records out and going deeper in debt. 

Do you writing a lot?

I try to write everyday if I can. 

The first album you have said was, to a degree, autobiographical. Is the new one from a different perspective?

I probably don’t want to go into that too much but I kinda wanted to see if was possible to explore outside the box with lyrical themes and subjects through the guise of country music. As I said it is very much a psychedelic record. It’s introspective and everything else. There are no’ tear in my beer’  songs on this album. I felt I couldn’t sing another heartbroken song. I wanted to sing about black holes or Tibetan Buddhism or I don’t know what. It comes out on my label in the States and through Loose on the UK. I didn’t start my music career until I was 34 as growing up in East Kentucky everybody plays music but never in a way where you think I could do this for a living. You do it after work. So I did everything else first. With High Top Mountain I proud of all the songs but that first time as an artist and with a producer you’re feeling each other out. They have their ideas about what they think is best. With this new one I feel that I cleared my throat a little bit and got my sound. I’m pretty excited about the new record even though the first one has only just come out here. 

Finally on your travels have you come across anyone you could recommend or who has impressed you?

Yeah, we played a couple of shows with Jason Isbell and he’s just amazing. He’s a really, really sweet guy too. About half the times, unfortunately, when you meet people that you were just floored by or are in awe of, or you might just want to pick their brain,  they turn out to be giant assholes when you talk to them. They just can’t be bothered. A couple of times they’ve been real heroes of mine. At the same time I can understand it too. I definitely have some days where I shouldn’t be sitting at the merch booth. Outside of country there’s a lot of bands that kinda blow my mind like Tool. I admire what they do a lot. I thought that the last Daft Punk album was pretty incredible. I actually never leave the house when I’m home to be honest. If I’m on the road I don’t get out to clubs. So I kinda get into a hole where I end up listening to the same five or six record for six months. There’s three or four records that I listen to once a week. So I don’t know much about new music to be perfectly honest. But there’s a guy in Texas just put out a good album called Jason Eady (Daylight & Dark). I heard it in a friend’s house and I thought it was fantastic. Great writing is what tends to grab my ear.  

Interview by Stephen Rapid. Photograph by Ronnie Norton

Interview with Sam Outlaw by Stephen Rapid

Sam Outlaw is the performing name of California based country artist Sam Morgan. Outlaw is actually his mother's maiden name. He continues a long tradition of West Coast country music that always seem to be at least one step removed from Nashville. Its exponents generally deliver a more heartfelt, harder brand of honky-tonk, well documented in such books as Gerald W. Haslam's book Workin' Man Blues. Outlaw joins such similar minded contemporary exponents as Dave Gleason in keeping the true spirit of the music alive, yet each is doing it in his own way.

Nobody Loves is the title of Outlaw's debut album which is full of self-written songs that have a sound like the new-traditionalists of the 80s and 90s,  which is to say country music, but looking forward as much as it looks back. I'm not sure where I came across the name of Sam Outlaw on the internet but when I checked out his site (www.samoutlaw.com) it showed an accomplished, likeable and talented artist and one who appeals to an attractive coterie of ladies too, something that should never be discounted in achieving a lasting career. Some of the current crop labeled of underground outlaws seem to have, predominantly, a male audience. There is, however, much in Outlaw’s music that will have a broad appeal.

Lonesome Highway took the opportunity to contact Sam and ask him some questions. One of which was to enquire if the name Outlaw had caused anyone to accuse him of making association with the "outlaw movement" past or present. The answer was a succinct "no".

You come from South Dakota and now live in Southern California but your association with country music doesn't derive from your upbringing. Where does it come from?

I was home sick from work when I was 22 years old - channel surfing. I stumbled on CMT’s "100 Best Country Singers" or something like, and heard/saw George Jones for the first time. It totally blew my mind. I went out the next day and bought a George Jones album, along with music from Emmylou Harris and others. Before that, the only other good country music I had been exposed to was the Western Swing Revivalist group Asleep At The Wheel (Ray Benson). My dad was a huge fan of their music so their albums were regularly played in our home. Holidays, road trips, etc. 

There has been a strong tradition of honky-tonk in that region that you want to revive. Why do you think it died out and what has been the reaction to your music there?

Music historians could better tell that story than myself, but as far as the reaction to my music in So Cal it has all been pretty positive. The best compliment I can get is when someone says, “I don’t even listen to country music but I really liked your songs.” My guess is that most folks in Los Angeles think country music is only what’s on modern country radio and simply haven’t been exposed to something better.

The music feels right for someone who has experienced sad times. Has country music something to offer in these straitened times?

I think country  music is the best kind of music, so I’m always blessed to hear it. Good times, bad times or in-between. Sometimes sorrow can inspire creativity as a means of processing and exhaling a sad experience but I don’t think one has to “be sad” to write a good heartbreaker, nor is heartbreak a prerequisite for a good country song.  

Some of the best known exponents of California country music have been Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Dwight Yoakam. How much an influence was that harder edged version of country music on you?

Those artists have been a massive influence on me! Not only directly,  but indirectly. For instance, the first time I heard the song Bottle Let Me Down was from Emmylou Harris’s album Pieces of the Sky. It wasn’t ‘til later that I heard Merle’s version. Dwight Yoakam is particularly inspiring because he’s done it all as an Angelino. 

Who are your main influences past and present?

Too many country influences and heroes to name, but here’s a start: George Jones, Willie Nelson, Ray Benson, Don Williams, Keith Whitley, George Strait, Dwight Yoakam. Non-country influences would mainly be The Beatles I guess. But that’s probably the case for everyone. 

At what point did you decide you wanted to play country as opposed to any other form of music and did you listen or play other styles previously?

When I first heard George Jones something just exploded in my head and heart. A few years later I decided to put a country band together and start playing my songs for people. 

You have released your debut album on vinyl (though it is also available as a download). Was there a reason you decided to do that at this time?

Vinyl is the best. And even though it’s expensive and I figured very few people would buy the album or care that it’s on vinyl it just seemed like the right thing to do.

On your website there are several well-shot short videos that give an insight to Sam Outlaw. Do you see that as a vital medium for spreading the word?

Video can communicate and influence emotions better than any other medium. It’s the best way to tell a story that goes beyond the songs.

How conscious are you of creating a look, an image? Do you have experience in that area?

Look and feel is very important to me. Not so much to create an “image” but to create a larger environment for which people can enjoy the music and feel part of something fun and authentic. I’m learning as I go.

Are you a full time musician or do you need to create an income in other areas in order to fund your music?

I’m a full-time musician with a full-time job to pay the bills (and the band). Ha ha! It’s a lot of work but it’s important to me that my players are paid for each gig and that I don’t have to always rely on favours. Otherwise I’d be asking other people to suffer for my art and that gets old really fast. 

What inspires you to continue to write and sing?

I suppose I’m most inspired by listening to great country music. 

Do you fear for the future of the more traditional forms of the genre as Nashville pushes further towards pop and rap affiliations?

No.

Another line from one of the videos is that you're just "a drifting cowboy looking for sushi" that seems to encompass the old and the new in one sentence. Is that something you're aiming for?

I aim to capture the spirit of country music in an authentic way - much like the “neo-traditionalists” of the 80s and 90s. George Strait records didn’t sound like Bob Wills records, no matter how much he might have wanted them to. Ha ha. I grew up in the 90s but the music I love is rooted in the 40s, 50s and 60s. It all mixes together in the end. 

Where are you hoping to take your music from here?

My short term goals are to make a music video for a new single I’ve just recorded - then record a new album. Label backing would be nice as I’d like to hire the best pickers in the land. The bigger picture has really nothing to do with me though. What I want most is for more people to discover how good good country music really is and to enjoy it with me. 

Interview with Greg Trooper

A New Jersey born singer-songwriter who has released twelve albums of crafted writing to date and who has had his songs covered by such respected songwriters as Steve Earle, Vince Gill and Billy Bragg. He has worked closely with a number of producer's including Garry Tallent, Buddy Miller and Dan Penn. His current album Incident On Willow Street was produced by Stewart Lerman and included the songs Living With You, Mary Of The Scots In Queens and One Honest Man. Trooper has long been a Lonesome Highway favourite and took the time to answer these questions.

You can look back over a career of over twenty years as a singer/songwriter. What reflections do you have of how things have changed or evolved over the years?

For me I’d say my songwriting has hopefully evolved. I’ve learned to take more time with a song and go over it and edit, edit, edit! 

Your ambitions will have obviously have changed over the years and the fact that you are still performing and recording suggest the core inspiration is the music itself. Would that be your inclination also?

I still have professional ambitions. Still want to reach a larger audience, still want to work larger venues but the youthful “rock star” thing is long past. I still believe, and maybe more so now, that the work is thing. What I mean by that is working at songwriting and performing and trying to connect with an audience is my priority and goal.

 The landscape for delivering music has changed dramatically over the last few years. How has that affected you?

’m now the artist, record label and publisher. This takes more time and effort away from concentrating on just being “the artist”. Kind of had to pay attention to it all before anyway but it’s a different psychology.

The digital age has it’s pros and cons. I can deliver my music on my own and see more financial reward right away from selling and downloads but no matter how much I pay out to promote my music I still don’t seem to have the reach I did when recording for a label. That may change. We’ll have to see. The first rule in this business is there are no rules.

The advent of such funding sources seems ideally suited to an artist with a reasonable fanbase. Does that make it easier or are things still as problematic as ever?

Funding is a huge issue for the independent musician. Kickstarter and the like have been a great asset but how many times can you go back to your fans for your recording and promotion budget? I’m hopeful this record can generate enough income to finance my next project although life and bills can be quite demanding.

Has the lived circuit changed too and has the age of the audience been a factor in how and where you play these days?

My audience ages right along with me. I’d like to see more young people at my shows but it’s a tough sell. I believe my songs relate to any age audience but it takes some convincing to get 20 somethings to a 50 something’s show.

You lost your friend the late, great Larry Roddy who was a great supporter of your music, Has that been a factor in not being back in Ireland in recent times?

Larry was not just an agent for me. He was a dear friend. I learned so much about so many things from him. It has been hard for me to tour Ireland with out him there to talk about Dylan, The Blues, and Irish history. I’ll be back though.

The new album Incident On Willow Street is another great addition to your fine body of work. Was there a particular inspiration behind the songs?

Not really. It was more subconscious than that. The songs have a lot to do with escape or finding a different path than the one you’re traveling. This all came out from the writing more than contemplating what I was going to write. I will say the songs are not autobiographical. That would bore the listener. I like to say my songs are reality based fiction.

You worked with some fine players on the album such as Larry Campbell and producer Stewart Lerman. How does the selection of the producer/players effect the outcome of the music?

Casting players for an album is key to the outcome. I’m lucky to know such great players. They’re musical instincts are just incredible. Couldn’t do it without them.

What are the highlights, for you, of the work you have produced to date?

Hard to answer that. I still look forward to every gig. Still love the writing and recording process. It’s all still fresh and amazing to me.

The nature of what you do can be lonely as you tend to travel a lot solo. Has that become more difficult as time goes on?

Yes and no. Alone can be productive and positive but there are those mornings you wake up, wash your face, look up in the hotel bathroom mirror and say “ oh no, not you again”.

Do you still draw inspiration from similar sources?

I look for it everywhere. Books, articles, movies, music, conversations etc. I just wish I could remember all the mental notes I take.

What are the next projects for you and for the future?

Right now I’m trying to work and promote this record as much as possible. As I go I’ll write songs and I’ll have to see where they take me. Hopefully Ireland in the fall of 2014.

Interview with Tom Bridgewater of Loose Music

 

Tom Bridgewater set up Loose Music the independent record label based in Acton, London in 1998.  Previously he was behind the vinyl only record label, Vinyl Junkie. With roots singer-songwriters, Americana and country providing the core direction they heave released music by the following artists: Giant Sand, M Ward, Mark Mulcahy, Neko Case, The Handsome Family, The Felice Brothers, Dawes, Deer Tick, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Johnny Fritz, Israel Grips Nash and  Danny & The Champions Of The World. Lonesome Highway took the opportunity to ask some questions from someone operating in that side of the process.

Your musical ventures have always been related to Americana/Roots/ Country music. When did you become aware and awakened by that genre of music?

An old family friend - the actor Kenneth Cranham - used to make us tapes to play on long car journeys. The beautifully decorated tapes were made up of music by the likes of John Prine, JJ Cale, Emmylou Harris, Randy Newman and Jesse Winchester. So I became unusually fond of country music as a youngster.  

Did DJing at Nashville Babylon point the way to releasing music through Vinyl Junkie and Loose Music?

I had already set up Vinyl Junkie (and then Loose Music) by the time that we found ourselves in Dublin in late 1998, spinning tunes and drinking Guinness by the gallon. But it was all part of the journey.

In the current climate it’s tough to sell records yet you seem to have found a balance to make it work. How have you done that?

Loose is run on a wing and prayer and we have always spent our budget of half a shoe-string. But we manage to trudge on heroically! People ask me “how’s business”? and I proudly say “well, we’re still in it”! I reckon thats no mean achievement these days. How have we managed it? Thanks to the good people who buy records by our bands. We salute you! 

For Loose is the physical product still outselling the downloaded versions?

Indeed it is, but digital sales are increasing while physical sales decline. We issue most of our albums on CD and LP these days. We usually make the LPs limited edition and numbered with download codes included. I think that the limited edition element helps. To me it’s all about the physical product. Having something to hold in your hands.

In the CD versus Vinyl debate where do you stand?

Personally I like both but if I really love an album then I will usually buy it on vinyl. Artwork is a big but increasingly forgotten element of records and obviously you cannot beat the sound of an LP. Thats been scientifically proven, by Neil Young! And some people say that records smell of bananas so thats good too.

There was a time when it was though a single act could break through for Americana - Nirvana style - and thus focus attention on the music. That look’s unlikely now but do you see a similar possibility for mainstream success?

We work with a number of bands that really could appeal to a wider marker: Danny & The Champions Of The World, Israel Nash Gripka, Treetop Flyers and Frontier Ruckus (if they write a chorus!) to name but four. However, to “break through” you need serious marketing muscle which Loose simply does not have. So we depend on good press, radio, online and TV where possible. If you can achieve all those four pieces of the jigsaw on a decent scale at the same time then you have a chance. With The Felice Brothers we had “Frankie’s Gun” on two TV shows at the same time: Outnumbered on the BBC and Skins on Channel 4. It soon became our biggest selling record.

How frustrating is it to know you have a great album on the label but the actual sales are not commercially significant?

I made a change in career about 20 years ago and started to put records out. It wasnt really that I saw myself swimming in a banjo shaped swimming pool and admiring my platinum discs on the wall of my Malibu beach house; it was because I wanted to see if I could enrich people’s lives with the music that I love. To me the best moments are seeing any sized venue full of smiling faces watching one of our bands that the crowd probably wouldn’t have heard of if we hadn’t signed them. Thats something that makes me very happy and proud. Its not all about commercial success, to me its about doing something worthwhile with your time on this earth, man.

In choosing which acts to release do you rely on your own judgement or are there any other criteria involved?

We have a very small team here at Loose and we all have to agree that its a good plan to sign a particular act. We sometimes play them to our distributors in other countries but really its down to us. You just have to go with your gut instinct.

You are based in London and have released a number of UK acts. In that light you must fell that these acts are as good a those from the US. Would you agree?

Some are. Danny & The Champs and Peter Bruntnell and Treetop Flyers definitely are. To be honest, I don’t really like comparing USA and UK acts but I certainly wish that here in the UK and Ireland we started getting more behind our own talent rather than giving disproportionate amounts of airplay and column inches to American acts because they come from towns with romantic sounding names.

What do enjoy most about running the label?

As I said before, seeing happy faces at gigs and that feeling of doing something artistic and creative with my life. It’s also good to be your own boss and just not turn up to work occasionally.

Has your love and enthusiasm for the music been diminished by the financial side of making music happen?

Not really, I find it more disheartening when we lose a band because some bigger label comes along and lures them away from us with offers of all the gold they can eat. If you want loyalty in the music business get yourself a dog! There are of course exceptions to this rule and I am forever indebted to those acts that have stuck with us through thick and thin. They know who they are and I love them.

What have Loose got in store for 2014?

Fabulous music from friends old and new. We just want to keep on keeping on.

Interview by Stephen Rapid

Link to current Loose Sampler:

https://soundcloud.com/loose-music/sets/loose-2013

Interview with Peter Bruntnell by Paul McGee

Your new release Retrospective, is a collection that spans almost 15 years of recording. What motivated you to look back at this particular point in your musical career?

The idea for the retrospective was not mine, it was suggested by my new manager and sounded like a good idea at the time.

When you started out as a recording artist, who were your musical influences?

Neil Young, Nick Drake, Tim Harding, Acetone and Uncle Tupelo.

How has your song-writing evolved over the years?

It’s become more English as a result of the realisation that an English/Welsh songwriter will always suffer if they are trying to be Americana. I don’t consider my songs to be Americana even if some journalists or punters do?

You lived in Canada for a period of time as a younger artist. Can you talk about how this influenced your music?

Living in Canada was great, I met a chap called Bill Ritchie, who I write most of my songs with. These days over the phone.

You have steered a path that did not include major recording contracts or major labels in your past and I wonder if this has added to your reputation of being ‘under the radar’, but held in high esteem by many within the industry?

I don’t really know about that, perhaps it has though.  Artists on major labels have bigger marketing budgets so that would obviously help with radio awareness. I can’t listen to the radio, it all stinks, as far as I am concerned.

Would commercial success earlier in your career have altered your world view to any great degree?

Yes, but I’m not sure how though, other than I would have a bigger house, more guitars and my wife wouldn’t give me such a hard time for being a loser piss poor musician?

Eight releases over 15 years are reflected on the current Retrospective release and I wondered if the process of looking back revealed any unexpected insights?

Listening back was interesing and brought back some great memories. I had a great time in the recording studio with the players and the producer Pete Smith.

What does it take to write a complete, fully realised, song in your view?

That depends, some songs happen straight away and others can take a month.

Have you ever had the offer to place your songs in a movie/ TV series?

A song called Ghostdog was in something, I can’t remember right now.

Did you ever tour America to any great degree, given your connections with Son Volt?

I’ve toured a fair bit in America with Son Volt and Jay Farrar solo, also the North Mississipi Allstars.

What is your view on the changes in music distribution today?

Nobody is buying much, so touring is essential. The majors still control the radio and press.

As an essentially independent artist, does the new environment of downloads, YouTube and a return to cottage industry herald a new dawn to you?

The internet is good for gig awareness.

What continues to motivate you to write and perform?

I still love playing live and retain some interest in writing songs. I also like the recording process and have started recording other songwriters in my studio which is something I will probably continue to do.

Interview with Yvette Landry by Stephen Rapid

 

Yvette Landry grew up in Louisiana she is a musician and writer playing a variety of instruments in several Cajun bands, She is also an educator and teacher. Yvette released her debut  album titled Should Have Known in 2010. She also fronts her own band. Yvette has played numerous festivals and played and toured outside of the U.S. She has performed with the Red Stick Ramblers, Pine Leaf Boys, Bill Kirchen, Cindy Cashdollar, Darrell Scott and many more. Yvette co-produced her new No Man’s Land with some of those friends including Bill Kirchen, Cindy Cashdollar, Geno Delafose, Dirk Powell, Richard Comeaux, and Joel Savoy. Not content with that Yvette also published her first children’s book The Ghost Tree. She kindly agreed to answer some questions for Lonesome Highway.

It says "Musician, Author, Educator, Interpreter" on your website. That sounds like a pretty rounded full on life style. How do you make them all fit without compromising any of these aspects of your life?  

It's not easy, but if you keep things organized and learn to manage your time wisely, it's very doable.

You grew up in Breaux Bridge in Louisiana and growing up must have absorbed the music and atmosphere of the area which has filtered through to your music. What was the overriding influence and how did country music fit into the overall scheme of things? 

Well, growing up, I was involved in music in school. I took piano lessons and played in the school band. Unfortunately, my parents were not into the cajun music scene. We mostly listened to records and the radio. The one record that my parents played over and over again was Willie Nelson's Stardust album. I guess that's where I my first taste of country came from. 

The songs on Should Have Known and No Man's Land have a pretty timeless quality that suggest you have listened to the some classic songs. How do you set out to write your songs?  

Interesting question.  I don't really "set out" to write songs, they just sort of write themselves. It's hard to explain, but I get this feeling and when it comes, I pick up my guitar, grab my paper and pencil, and before you know it, I've got a song.

Do you have a preference for writing over performance or as you do both is it more of an integrated process?  

I love the performance aspect of music. It's something I can sort of control. Writing just comes. I never know when it's coming or even what is coming!

Did you find writing your book The Ghost Tree very different from your song writing?  

The story about "how" the book was written might be even better than the book itself! Short version, I told a story to the four-year-old son of a friend.  Just sort of made it up on the spot. I never had any intension of writing a book, it was just a story - but before I knew it, I had an illustrator, a publisher, and this thing was going to print!

You produced both your albums Joel Savoy and used some fine players. Where both what you expected them to be or did the process change the songs in any way? 

For the first album, I had no expectations. Matter of fact, I never intended to record an album. I had written some songs and had played them only for my parents.  My dad was battling brain cancer at the time and he would always tell me I needed to record the songs, but I insisted that I didn't know what I was doing and was not going to record. A couple of months later, he passed away and in his memory, I recorded the album. I just phoned a few friends, explained the situation, and we went into the studio, unrehearsed, and laid down the tracks. It was magic! For No Man's Land, I was scared to death! I knew that this album needed to be a strong one to follow up Should Have Known, but I didn't really know how to do that. So I took my ideas, called up some friends and thought, "well, if it worked the first time, it'll probably work again!"  Went in with no expectations except for wanting to do my best. I figured if I had that attitude, then I couldn't be disappointed with the product.  Most of the songs came out just as I had heard them in my head. The one song that changed was "Yea, You Right." Once we got in and started recording, I knew that I needed Geno Delafose and his bass player Pop Esprit to lay down the grove. Other than that, not much changed.

Your albums are self released does this give you the freedom to record and release exactly what you want with the obvious financial constraints? 

Pretty much. Because I work full time as a teacher, I don't go on tour. I think most labels want someone who can be on the road to "market the product" so I really didn't focus on that too much. Just wanted to put it out there as quickly and easily as possible.

You play locally and have toured internationally. Do you find the audience reaction and expectation changes with the territory?  

Yep. At home, we're a dance band. People come out and dance, drink, talk, have a good time. It's very social. When you get outside of our little area of "Acadiana", especially out of state and overseas, people tend to sit and listen. It's got more of a concert feel. That's a really strange feeling for me, to have people just watching. But, the more I do it, the more comfortable I get doing those type of shows.

Having played with other artists do you enjoy the break of being less in the spotlight as happened when it's your show?  

Absolutely!  I love the variety that I have playing with different bands. When I'm playing bass, I'm just sort of along for the ride. I love holding down the rhythm section. When I'm on accordion, I'm sort of in the front, but my guitar player does most of the vocals, so they're the ones in the "spotlight." Then every once in a while, I get to be up there.  It's scary, but I love being able to have my own voice.

As a teacher and as a musician you have exposure to different aspects of life. Do you draw on that for your songs? 

A friend of mine once told me that song writing was easy - all you have to do is pay attention. I took those words to heart. It was absolute genius, because if you truly open your eyes and pay attention to everything that's happening around you daily, you have plenty to write about. So whether it's in school, or in a bar, or walking to the mailbox, there is always something happening that you can potentially draw from.

Perhaps the best know country musician from your home state is Webb Pierce is there a lot of country music there now?  

There's a small country scene around my hometown, but as far as the state, not so much.

When you record your next solo album will you continue in the direction of your two albums or do you see yourself moving from that?  

Wow, that's a tough one. I take things day by day, so we'll just have to wait and see on that one.

Do you see your music as a reward in itself or is there a desire to reach a wider audience. If so would that make you compromise given that mainstream radio is moving towards a heavy pop/youth bias?  

When I started playing music, my one goal was to play at Mulatte's in Breaux Bridge (my home town). It's a famous cajun restaurant and I thought, "Man, if I could just play there..." With that said, (and I did play there), everything else is just lagniappe! I'm along for the ride. I make music and play music because it lights up my soul. I love seeing the smiles on the faces of people who come out to dance or to listen. If my music reaches a wider audience, I would be ecstatic for sure, but I can't see me changing what I'm doing.

With all that you have done and achieved what's next for Yvette Landry?  

I never know what the universe is going to throw at my doorstep next. I do have another book in the works, I'm continually writing songs, trying to be a good mother, daughter, sister, friend and teacher. Right now, that's enough, but I'm always ready to travel along new paths, so time will tell.

Finally, who are you favourites artists from the past or present?  

Right now, I just can't get enough of Darrell Scott and Tim O'Brien. I was fortunate enough to play with Darrell several years ago and have been a huge fan ever since. As for Tim, well, who doesn't like Tim O'Brien?!  

Interview with Joe Henry by Paul McGee

Thank you for taking the time to speak with Lonesome Highway and your fan base in Ireland?

My pleasure to take a few moments with you here, truly. Thank you for your attention.

When you started as a musician who were your main influences?

I was obsessed with songs long before I ever thought of that as something one might choose to be. I just recognized songs to be my language, and saw myself within them –did not see in them where I wanted to go, but saw in them, in fact, who I was. We are all most vulnerable to influence when we don’t know we are being influenced; and as such, when I first heard Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Glen Campbell, and Dusty Springfield as a young boy of 7 and 8, I was completely seduced and accepting of their collective version of reality. Not to sound overly dramatic –though it was-- the atmosphere their music created was the air I breathed.

Did you find it hard to gain a foothold in the industry at the beginning and what was your first big break?

It is still hard, and I am not sure I have ever had what one might refer to as a “big break.” I still operate very much under the radar –not exactly by choice; but I do recognize that what I do is not for everyone, and am at peace (most days) with that. There is a lot of freedom that comes along with my low-grade recognition: I feel I have no one’s expectations but my own to serve, creatively-speaking.

With 12 studio recordings, spanning 20 plus years, what subtle changes have you noticed in your approach to song writing over the time?

Well, the most notable change for me might be that I used to be concerned with whether my songs, lyrically speaking, might be too obtuse and abstract for some listeners; and now…I don’t give that much of a thought. I don’t ever mean to be difficult; but at the same time, I don’t ever deliberately shift my direction on behalf of what I imagine might be more “accessible” to others. I offer what I have open-heartedly to whomever the song might speak. We are all called to own our voices and to offer what we each can most uniquely offer; and I am trying to be less fearful about doing exactly that.

Do the early recordings stand the test of time or do you wish to revisit them and bring the perspective of an older view to bear, in hindsight?

I rarely listen to my old records on purpose; and if I did, it wouldn’t be as entertainment. I did the best I could at every juncture, but I have no illusions that I would be satisfied with them from this vantage point –or even if I am supposed to be. I am proud of the work and the accomplishment that it all represents; but I happen to think I am better at my job now than I used to be. Hearing an old recording is like looking at your junior high school year book picture: I know that that’s me; I just don’t know why I was dressed that way on picture day.

You have produced many recordings for other artists; Solomon Burke, Loudon Wainwright III, Rodney Crowell, Salif Keita, Bonnie Raitt, Mary Gautier, to name just a few; tell me about the challenges here and how you got started on this road?

My professional godfather is songwriter/producer T Bone Burnett; and he was the first person to encourage my work as a producer alongside my work as an artist. But I never decided to be a producer, consciously. I just…found myself being asked to assume the position. I was as surprised then as I am now by the work that continues to come my way, and am grateful for it. I love making records –for myself and with others.

The goal is the same, on my record or anyone else’s: to make something meaningful come out of a pair of speakers. And the challenge really comes down to allowing a song to dictate policy…to not being married to an idea beforehand, and letting the song identify itself and be the compass blade. If I am ever at a difficult moment with an artist on my watch, the solution more often than not is to remind the artist that it is all about “it” –the song/recording—and not about them. As soon as we are serving the song, not an artist or an idea, problems vanish.

I have heard that some of your earlier recordings were described as "idiosyncratic broadmindedness” – is this a view that you subscribe to?

I am not sure what someone meant by that, exactly, though I think I am broadminded, musically-speaking. Anyone growing up roughly when I did has been exposed to a wealth of music from across time and distance. And all of it is fair game; all of it is valuable as human expression; ad I have been influenced by everything I’ve heard.

I have also read a quote from you that states; ‘If you are being honest, you are being entertaining’ - can you elaborate on this please?

I have never said that, but have said the exact opposite, when talking about the so-called “confessional” songwriters: I said that it is foolish to ignore song craft in favour of believing that just because you are being “honest” it is automatically meaningful –or entertaining—to others. I have also said that in this context, I believe honestly to be wildly overrated. Just because you are willing to rip a page from your diary and set it to music doesn’t make it a good song. Further: just because you made up a story in song from thin air doesn’t mean it isn’t “true.”

Eclectic is a word that describes your muse and the reach that you have into the creative firmament. So many artists have wanted your guiding hand and your particular take on song arrangements and melody – is this ever daunting?

It is daunting and flattering in equal measure; but I am very wary of trying to direct anyone else’s songwriting, as I hold that statement to be very personal. If someone asks for songwriting help or opinion while I am producing, I will offer it; but I would never volunteer without being invited that someone else’s song needed my help. I might decide a particular song doesn’t speak to me, but that doesn’t mean I should manipulate it so that it might.

One of the great unsung bands, in my opinion, is Over the Rhine and I know that you have produced some of their recordings. What does it take for artists like this to break through the queue of talented hopefuls to sit at the commercial table for the feast?

I have no idea, truly, what it takes to “breakthrough” commercially, at any significant level. But I do think that the best gamble is deep and generous writing, and soulful singing; and Over the Rhine are heroic in that regard. I can’t say enough about them.

Lisa Hannigan is an Irish Artist of great talent that you have worked and performed with – can you speak a little about this special bond and how it ended up with you playing your first show in Dublin recently?

Well, Lisa in not only one of the greatest artists I have ever worked with, but she is quite honestly one of my favourite people I have ever met. My entire family loves her as I do…she’s a remarkable and –I don’t use the word lightly—a special person; a truly great singer, a gifted songwriter; a generous, open-hearted, and egoless collaborator; and she will only get better, I am quite certain.

When I first worked with Lisa on her album “Passenger,” I was warmly embraced by her whole band, and I have become more than casual friends with most all of them, sincerely. I had never been to Ireland, but there was nowhere else on earth I more wanted to visit. I feel deeply connected to the creative landscape there, and always have. Anyway…my relationship with Lisa’s world convinced me that the time was right; and that whether invited or not, I was going; so I accepted a well-paying date in Switzerland with the notion that it would facilitate, at long last, my arrival to Dublin.

Were you surprised with the reaction that you received to your body of work at the show?

Yes, I was surprised to be so warmly received; but then again, Lisa and her camp –most notably her dear friend and tour manager Una Molloy—went to great lengths to see that my inaugural visit would be a satisfying and successful one –and it was in every way.

You were very generous with the inclusion of songs from Lisa and I wonder what you see for her into the future?

I wasn’t being generous, but selfish: I wanted Lisa onstage with me, and wanted to sing with her. Period. She was the generous one, letting me ride her coattails into Whelan’s as she did. As I said above, she will only get better. She has that kind of voice, that kind of soul: I believe ten years from now, her voice will take on some additional overtones, and there won’t be a better singer on the earth.

I was interested in your encore of a Jackson Browne song and I wanted to ask if he was a particular influence on your approach to song-writing over the years?

Jackson and I have been friendly for two decades; but I must say, he’s a bigger influence on me now than he was during my formative years.

When Lisa and I was touring in America last summer –and with John Smith and Ross Turner in our company—I invited Jackson to come to our show in Los Angeles, and mentioned it in passing to Lisa and the boys; and once I had, I realized what a significant thing it was bound to be for them to have Jackson there. That led to us listening to and talking a lot about Jackson Browne as we travelled, inching our way toward California. And out of that, we began singing “These Days” together as an encore, just because we all have a mutual love for the song. It feels great to sing it together in 3-part.

Once we finally arrived in Los Angeles, I told Jackson we’d been performing “These Days”, and asked if he might care to sing it with us, which he did –and it was a highlight of the tour for all of us; and as such…we have continued to sing it --Lisa, John, Ross, and I—whenever we perform together.

Finally, having teased your Irish fans with a premier performance, can we expect a return visit in the near future?

I would love to come back –and sooner than later. I am discussing with Lisa now how we might collaborate on a full tour of Ireland. I am not sure when it can happen, but I am committed to the idea.

Interview with The Kennedys by Paul McGee

 

Thanks for taking the time to talk with Lonesome Highway and your fans. May I start by asking how you reacted to the recent Ireland/UK tour which saw you play a punishing schedule of 24 dates in just 30 days?

Maura: We love to play, so a gig every night would be ideal! This was our first UK tour without the benefit of Nanci Griffith's crew and bus, so it was a challenge, but an enjoyable one, to get ourselves around "low to the ground". We loved it.

What were the highlights of the recent tour – people, places, reflections?

Pete: Driving all the way west in Ireland and playing Listowell as the first show of the tour was a quick plunge into the real culture, distinct from American influence, although our presenter there loved to shout "rock'n'roll" in an Elvis Presley voice, so we felt somewhat at home! After the show, we went down to the John B Keane and were treated to an informal session that covered everything from traditional songs to Tom Waits, many of them sung by random patrons.

You’re presently based in New York and I wanted to ask how easy it is for you to run your affairs from a big city, as opposed to being based in a more rural setting, where your music is not swallowed in the daily rush.

Maura: In New York City, especially where we live in the Village, you're constantly aware that Dylan, Kerouac, Guthrie, Holly, Coltrane, Miles, Ellington, Armstrong, Holiday, Leadbelly, et al, walked the same sidewalks, and did much of their greatest work right here.

The new album is your first in four years. Can you fill us in on what caused the break in momentum that had seen, pretty much, ten releases in the previous twelve years?

Pete: Maura cared for an ill family member (who is now totally recovered), and produced a solo CD, and that was quickly followed by our reunion of sorts with Nanci Griffith, which involved many trips around the US, Ireland and the UK, as well as the production of Nanci's CD, Intersections, which we handled, so all of that was time consuming, albeit in a creative way.

Your first release in 1995 ‘River of Fallen Stars’ was partly written while touring with Nanci Griffith in Ireland. How big an influence was she in getting you the initial recognition that your career needed?

Maura: We credit Nanci for getting us started, because you can't just say, "we write songs, and we're great". If you are coming out of Nanci's band, you have her imprimatur, so to speak, because she will only work with people in whom she strongly believes, so that's the foundation of the whole thing. Working with her was also a chance to work on various occasions with Dylan, Emmylou, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, John Prine, Lyle Lovett…the list goes on and on, so watching those people up close was like getting an advanced degree in contemporary folk.

Can you talk about your early musical influences and what it was that got you started on this road in the first place?

Pete: I grew up partly in New York and partly as a "townie" or native of Arlington Va., just outside of Washington DC. The townies don't participate in national government, and we had our own music scene that was drawn from a cultural diaspora from the deep South to DC, where there was work. The migrants in the 1940's brought with them blues, gospel, jazz, honky tonk country and bluegrass, so I heard all of those things every day when I was growing up.

Pete, can you tell the readers a little about your guitar technique; when did you begin to include classical pieces into your playing and was there a specific player that influenced your unique playing style on the fret board.          

Pete: I never fancied having one style, because the players I liked; Doc Watson, Chet Atkins, and local guys like Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton, all combined different styles in a way that kept the music interesting and fresh. Gatton was my roots music mentor, but I also learned to read music after hearing Segovia play "Bouree".  I figured out the first half, and realized that I would have to learn how to read (music)and understand theory to play the second half! So that set me on my way.  Reading (music) enabled me to do gigs with artists like Leonard Bernstein, Charlie Byrd and Burt Bacharach; something that never would have happened if I hadn't kept exploring and learning.

Maura, were you always drawn to singing. Did you learn guitar as a natural extension to your joy of singing?

Maura: I've always sung, and I've always had an ability to absorb lyrics and melodies, especially from my idols growing up; Sandy Denny, Patsy Cline, Emmylou and Nanci, too. Learning their phrasing and melodic sense was the foundation of my own vocal style. My goal on guitar is to be a great rhythm guitarist!

Is your time spent in the studio the key to on-going creativity between you both?

Maura: We not only spend time in the studio; we have literally lived there for two decades, since we set up our first home studio back in 1994, before Pro Tools etc., when that was considered very pioneering. We record as soon as we get the inspiration for a song, so it's a different energy than "formal" recording.

Does the live experience give you a new energy or do you question the treadmill of touring; another town, another sound check, another travel commitment?

Pete: Bruce Springsteen said, "It's the OTHER twenty-two hours that are hard!", and he's right, that the travel and logistics are tiring, but the energy of playing for a great audience really sustains you. No plans to ever retire!

Can you tell us about playing in the White House in front of the President of the USA twice!?

Maura: We were hoping that Clinton would sit in and play some sax, but I think he was a bit busy being feted at his inaugurations! He has great taste in music, so were on a long bill that included Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Aretha, Dylan, Al Green…wonderful to be lost in that shuffle!

What are the key lessons that you’ve learned over the years of being professional musicians?

Pete: Tell you own story through the music and support others when they tell theirs. That makes the whole experience sort of a village culture in which you are constantly interacting with friends, both on stage and in the audience. That's paramount, more important than having a great voice or instrumental technique. Dylan tells his story in a different voice than he did in 1963, but it's still a great story...

Has the business side of being a musician changed so much with the Internet and free downloads, that it is easier to reach your fan base than before, but more difficult to earn a proper living with music treated as a commodity?

Maura: You have to adapt to a paradigm shift just as musicians in the 1920s had to adapt to radio and recording. The notion of selling discs will probably die out with our generation, but the notion of promoting your music around the world with the touch of a button was unknown just a short while ago so there is a certain freedom in no longer needing corporate entities to market you, but as with all freedoms it comes at a price.

You have always been generous in your recognition and support of other artists. Many cover versions of songs appear in your live shows and on disc. Can you discuss what moves you to pick one particular song?

Pete: When I was a kid, I saw Hendrix. He opened with "Sgt. Pepper" and closed with "Wild Thing". When I saw The Beatles, they opened with "Rock'n'Roll Music" and closed with "Long Tall Sally". So there is merit in honoring your influences. Shakespeare's plays were based on earlier plays and stories, so we all take part in "the folk process" and we love to acknowledge our sources, rather than try to conceal them. It's a celebration, so to speak.

What are your plans for the immediate future?

Maura: We will be playing a special Nanci tribute show, with a full set of her songs, in Southport, England on 22 September, followed by another of the same show at the Greeen Note in Camden Town, London, on 24 September. 

Is Life still Large?

Pete: We get to live our dream. It doesn't get much larger than that!

Photograph by Ronnie Norton

Interview with Rose's Pawn Shop Paul Givant by Stephen Rapid Photography by Ronnie norton

Based in Los Angeles, Rose's Pawn Shop is a five-piece  band who play roots rock incorporating elements of both acoustic string band and bluegrass music with an upright bass and fiddle which can shift those elements around. Guitarist John Kraus moves from Gretsch lead guitar to banjo with ease, his skill on the former helping his playing on the latter. The band is led by singer/songwriter Paul Givant who has listened to a lot of music but found a special affinity with bluegrass and American folk music.

The band’s name came about after Givant's former partner, following their split-up, took the band's instruments and sold them to a local pawn shop. After a period of live performances they went into the studio to record their debut album The Arsonist which was followed in 2010 with Dancing on The Gallows, produced by Ethan Allen. Only Givant and Kraus survived from the first album so the current line up now also includes Tim Weed on fiddle and mandolin, Stephen Andrews on bass and Christian Hogan on drums,  all of whom also add vocals to the sound.

Prior to this extensive UK/Irish tour,  the band finished off their third album. On this tour they played many  venues that had free entry. This was the case on their Dublin date as they playied in the relatively cramped quarters of the front bar in Whelans. The two-part set showed the band's skills and strong songs. The mix of guitar and banjo as lead instrument colour the tone of the song while the bass and drums are in tune with both textures. The fiddle touches on traditional as well as Celtic and gypsy jazz tones that give the songs depth. Paul Givant is a strong singer who was fighting a sore throat but still managed to sing out and the band gave vocal support with John Kraus singing lead on the traditional tune Sam Hall with its "God damn your eyes" refrain. While they held the attention of some casual barflies and the few who had come along especially to see them, the band will be better served next time by playing the upstairs venue. 

Right before we left for this tour we hit the studio for the last month and a half and we finished what will be our third record and it's being mixed by the producer right now. We couldn't get it out in time for this tour. So we decided to tour on Dancing on The Gallows which hadn't been available over here before. It will be new to most people over here. 

This is your first European tour?

Yes, this is our first time to come over. So we're finishing up the first week of the first tour over here. It's been great. We've been playing places big and small including Edinburgh and Bristol and some small places like one in Shropshire. We sold out three shows and all the others have been well attended. Not big rooms but to have over 100 people come to a show when we've never been here before is great. I hope that we can get back on a regular basis. We were told that Dublin's a little hard if you've never been before so that's why were playing here (in the front bar) to get a foot in the door the first time out. So hopefully we can build on that.  

What direction will the new album take compared to the previous two?

There's many of the elements of the last record in the new album but it is a bit of a departure. It was produced by a gentleman by the name of Ted Hutt. He's worked with bands like Old Crow Medicine Show, Gaslight Anthem and the Dropkick Murphys. He was one of the founding members of Flogging Molly. He was great to work with the songs. Dancing On The Gallows pulls from a lot of styles, which is what we do; we have rock and country and bluegrass and Celtic, all of which are a part of Rose's Pawn Shop,  but I think this record is going to be a little more narrow in focus. Its going to be more our own sound,  a more unique signature than what we have previously put out. I mean I love our first records but I think they're more derivative sometimes than this new record will be. 

How much are you directly influenced by the Californian country-roots rock tradition?

Growing up I listened to so many different types of music and in this day and age it's hard not to be exposed to a lot of different things. When I was very young I listened to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone and bands like that. As time went on in my late teens and early twenties I got more into folk and American roots music like Woody Guthrie and Bill Monroe. As a band we come from different backgrounds and from different places but we all meet in Los Angeles. That's where I grew up myself. California is a real melting pot with so many different musical styles and cultures; a lot of fusing different styles together which is what we tend to do.

On the more contemporary side?

I remember listening to Gillian Welch, The Revelator album, and something about that record really struck me. I loved the way the songs sounded really old (but) are all current at the same time. They had a timeless quality and her writing was really straddling that line. She was writing songs that could have been written 100 hers ago. But they also seemed very relevant to people's lives. That record made me want to try and write songs like that, so that record was a huge influence on me. I mean we're not trying to sound like that album but rather more current but still with sounds that are sonically old.

Is the writing generally a solo concept or more of a group effort?

The general process is that I will write these song on my own,  then I'll bring them to the guys and they'll help me flesh them out. They like to say that I start the song and then they'll fix it (laughs). I want to say finish it,  they want to say fix it. This recent record has been a bit more collaborative. I started the songs but we had more time to work together from that starting point. Some of the songs we started at moment one together. 

A lot of the album is acoustic based but there is still that rock element; a lot of banjo and fiddle with acoustic guitar and stand-up bass. Then we have the drums and electric guitar thrown in here and there. It's still very much acoustic based. We hope to have the album out later this year. It's being mixed right now. A lot depends on whether it goes out on a label or we do it ourselves. 

Would a label be something that would be your first choice?

We have never released through a label yet. We've always done things independently. That has its benefits,  but a label can help a lot in other ways. It tends to lend some level of credibility to what you're doing. They have the money to do more extensive marketing. We're open to working with a label if it's the right fit. 

We have a manager who will be shopping the album around. There are some pretty good connections between our producer and manager and some labels that seem initially interested. We had just recorded the record and had one day off before we got on a plane to come over here. We haven't even heard it. So I don't know what it sounds like (laughs). I heard some playback in the studio but barely anything. Ted, our producer, is a really smart guy so I'm excited to her the final mix. 

Do you tour a lot in the current climate?

We have kind of turned ourselves into a touring band so we tend to play mostly outside of LA. We tour at least 100 days a year and probably then play LA two or three times a year. Some bands play there every week but that is not us. We've been lucky over the last couple of years to get more and more festival opportunities, some of the Americana roots festivals.  We've got some great ones coming up including playing with the Del McCoury Band. One is called Old Settlers Music Festival which is held just outside Austin, Texas. We have also done some dates supporting bands like Reckless Kelly and Railroad Earth and we recently went out with Bighead Todd and The Monsters. We’re getting more of those opportunities now. 

There are a lot of festivals that do a pretty good job of mixing the new acts with the more traditional ones. We've played them with people like Sam Bush and Old Crow Medicine Show. We kinda straddle the line with some of the more underground bands too. Bands like Hillgrass Bluebilly are good friend of ours. There's something honest about putting down the electric guitar and picking up a banjo. There's a band from LA, Old Man Markley,  who are from that background, they have that punk/bluegrass thing going on. Compare this to most of what is getting country radio airplay now, which is either pop or mainstream 80s rock. On the other hand, while Americana is a broad thing there are many traditionalists who get real uptight if you move away from what they think bluegrass should be. 

 

Interview with Christopher Rees

 

Born in Wales, Christopher Rees has developed his own path through roots music. He takes in everything from Welsh Male Voice Choirs to Appalachian influences in his music. He released his first record in 2001. That ep was Kiss Me, Kill Me. His first album 'The Sweetest Ache' came out in 2004. His latest album, his sixth 'Stand Fast' has just been released. His music is special so Lonesome Highway took the opportunity to ask him some question prior to his departure for SXSW.

When did you become interested in the story of Dorothy Squires?

I saw a documentary Cerys Matthews presented / narrated about Dorothy Squires on TV a few years ago and immediately became captivated by her story. When I learned that she was from my home town of Llanelli I was just gob-smacked. I just couldn't believe that such a huge star had come from my home town, hit the big time in London and then Hollywood and I knew nothing about her until I saw this documentary. What that says about the local media in Llanelli or my lack of awareness of my home town heroes I don't know. But her life story is quite remarkable. She was equally blessed and cursed.

It's a rags to riches to rags story that beggars belief. From her humble beginnings in Llanelli to the glittering London club scene of the 40s and 50s, a much publicised marriage to Roger Moore (before he became 007), the famous parties, Hollywood lifestyle and multi million record sales, she appeared to have it all. But then came the much talked about break up with Moore, her singing career began to slide and after a brief revival in the late 60s she lost one house to fire, then another to flood and became obsessed with taking the tabloid newspapers to court. There she lost most of her fortune before being declared a 'vexatious litigant' and was banned from The High Court. Bankruptcy soon followed and sadly she was forced to spend the rest of her days a poverty stricken recluse, back in Wales, living in a small terrace house provided by a charitable fan in the Rhondda Valley until her death in 1998 aged 83.

Her story is both glamorous and heartbreaking and I just couldn't resist the temptation to write about it. It would make a great film too I think, but that would be a much bigger project. I've tried to  condense it into a nutshell. I wanted to capture certain aspects of her personality with heartfelt compassion and respect despite the somewhat flippant title. The song provides some brief observations of her character in 3 short verses but ultimately I wanted to produce something that portrays and celebrates a much maligned yet truly amazing Welsh singer.

After working with the South Austin Horns did you feel the need to get back to the roots of your sound?

It wasn't so much getting back to the roots of my sound as much as these were the songs and the sound that slotted together and formed the best collection of material when I started thinking about the next album. I often stock pile songs and compartmentalise play-lists according to style and sound and the ones that compliment one another so I had been building this collection for a little while with the belief that the songs worked well together.

I really enjoyed working with The South Austin Horns and hope to do another album together at some point but for an artist in my position it is very challenging to try and tour or promote an album as ambitious as Heart On Fire was with a full 9 piece band. I was lucky enough to play a few festivals like Glastonbury with the 4 piece horn section and it felt absolutely wonderful to have that sound behind you but 9 people is a lot to manage and afford, unless you have some serious financial backing which sadly I do not. But that doesn't ever stop me attempting to make the best albums I possibly can no matter what the songs call out for. Saying that I did enjoy the relative simplicity of 'Stand Fast'. It is a pretty raw yet powerful album and can be fully represented with a basic 4 piece band set up of voice/banjo, electric guitar, bass and drums.

The majority of the instruments are played by yourself apart from the drums and, on one track, trumpet. Is that your favoured way of working or something of necessity?

To be honest it's a bit of both. I do enjoy working alone. I enjoy exploring the songs instrumentally as much as I can within my own limitations and especially enjoy it when I am able to stretch my own limitations and have small little breakthroughs where I might actually find a new guitar part or bass line or banjo pattern that I feel really works, enhances the song or takes it in a new direction. And when that happens I don't really see the need to get someone else in to recreate or replace the part I've worked really hard to find just for the sake of having someone else on there. Surely it's the best way to actually improve and progress as a musician and songwriter – which is always something to aim for. If I hit a wall and can't make a particular part work I'm not too proud to ask for help and I'm lucky enough to have some great musician friends who I can call upon, but it is very rewarding when you can solve a problem, find the feel, the style and the sound that your looking for and make it work yourself. Playing drums is a somewhat different matter and apart from the little bit of drums I played on my second album 'Alone On A Mountain Top' where I did actually play everything on the album myself I've never really had the facility to learn how to play drums. Maybe one day. I did used to play French Horn when I was 11 or 12 but that was a long time ago so I leave any horn parts up to the experts these days. 

Your music seems rooted in the appalachians but how much of it is filtered through the valleys of Wales?

I'm not sure really. Obviously you are influenced by the music you listen to. I don't believe that you have to come from a certain place or environment to be drawn to music from another time or place. If it resonates with you and you surround yourself with the sounds and soul of a certain style of music then I suppose certain elements will rub off on you. It's the same for anyone who might listen predominantly to say German Krautrock, or Indian sitar music or anything else from anywhere on earth. If you can connect with elements of that music or environment it will form your primary influence and shape the way you approach music and what you actually feel drawn to write and play. It happens in the same way that your immediate surroundings, parenting and upbringing will shape who you are as a person. It's all about what you engage with and are drawn to.

I was born and raised in Wales and I am a proud Welshman. As a child you can't avoid the sound of a male voice choir or church music or certain folk songs and that goes deep into your psyche. I do feel very connected to Wales as my home land. I also feel a very strong connection to great music. It  just happens to be that a lot of the music I felt most connected to came from mid century America. I do feel proud that Wales has produced such great, big, emotional singers as Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey, but as a teenager growing up they felt as distant and superhuman as Elvis or Johnny Cash or Hank Williams. They are all great performers! They are all people to look up to, to admire and be inspired by.

To be specific about Appalachian music I think when I started playing banjo I was certainly more drawn to the old time Appalachian mountain sound rather than super fast bluegrass. At first that just seemed unattainable to me through pure technique and speed. But I blinding started navigating my way into playing banjo as a finger picking guitarist who could fumble his way around open G tuning and write songs. There is something so immediate about the physical acoustic response of a banjo that it can stop you in your tracks or send you flying as a writer. After almost a decade of playing banjo I recently had a little break through and am now beginning to actually play and write in a more traditional mountain clawhammer style. It's just clicked and now makes sense to me. I'm slowly decoding the puzzle. There are certainly a lot more banjo based songs in the pipeline. But the pipeline is also full of various other batches of songs that are capable of going in other directions too. I'm aware of my strengths as a song writer but I don't particularly want to be pigeon holed musically so I just write whatever feels good in the moment it arrives or is encouraged into life. I try not to stylistically censor myself.

What were your influences for Stand Fast?

I guess the strongest influences were the sound of the banjo and a Gretsch guitar soaked in reverb and tremolo through a Fender valve amp. I quickly started to realise that combination of intricate finger picking and big twangy, sweeping electric guitar chords created a certain atmosphere that I really liked. I'm really not sure I could pin point any particular artists as primary influences on the entire album like I may have been able to do more readily for the last album. I guess after so many years a lot of your formative influences rear their heads without you actually noticing. It's just in you. But I hope that I've found a certain distinctive voice of my own by now. Sound wise you can pick out elements of Appalachian banjo music, rockabilly twang, country shuffle, mariachi trumpets gospel and even a Welsh male voice choir, but I don't think I approached the album with any specific artists in mind. The play-list just came together as a whole on the basis of what songs worked well next to one another. I always try to produce a coherent album that works as a whole above anything else. 

Who of your contemporaries do you admire?

David Eugene Edwards (16 Horsepower, Woven Hand) was significant in for making me pick up the banjo to begin with. I did connect and engage with his darker approach to it which itself draws heavily on Appalachian mountain music. I feel fortunate to say that I have toured with several contemporaries I really admire from William Elliott Whitmore to The Sadies, Eli Paperboy Reed, Michael J Sheehy, John Murry, Dan Aurbach (The Black Keys) and then of course living heroes of mine like Kristin Hersh, Billy Joe Shaver, Steve Earle, Alejandro Escovedo, Wanda Jackson, Steve Earle and John Cale. I also love bands like Calexico, and Devotchka as well as songwriters like Ryan Adams, Mark Lanegan and many more.

You run your own label which gives you the freedom to record and release what you want but, in this age of the download, what are the most difficult problem you face getting your music out?

It has it's pros and cons. Yes, as long as I can stay afloat I can continue to record and release what I want, but with the shear amount of music available online these days it is difficult to try and raise your head above the parapet and get the exposure and attention that you might think you deserve. But then everyone thinks that don't they? The lack of any significant marketing budget means that I have to take on the heavy burden of responsibility when it comes to promoting a new record. Press and radio pluggers don't come particularly cheap and can often struggle to deliver enough of a tangible return in boosting actual sales to justify the expenditure. I think the longer I can survive making music and keep doing what I'm doing the more chance I have of being eventually heard and allowing the music to find its own audience. Nothing has ever come particularly easily to me and I have to be dedicated to achieve what I want to achieve. But I do feel that things keep moving forward in the right direction and I do feel lucky to have earned the odd break I get here and there. I'm committed to improving as a  musician and songwriter. And if I can do that I will always be creating new music and moving forward as an artist whether it sells well or not.

Are you able to survive strictly as a working musician or do you need to find other sources of income?

Yes, but I do have to be very frugal and careful how I manage myself and my finances. I have to play a lot of solo gigs to be able to pay rent. I would love to be able to demand the figures that could justify taking my band out on the road for any length of time but I have to do a lot of the leg work solo just to make it work financially. I try not to lose money touring although that can happen from time to time. I'm definitely have more of the slowly, slowly catchy monkey mentality than the speculate to accumulate mentality. I've seen lots of bands I know have lots of money spent on them then get chewed up and spat out the other side disillusioned with music and throw in the towel. I don't want that to happen especially if I'm the one who is over spending on an uncertain investment. The journey as a musician is its own reward. It is all about survival.

What is the over-riding impulse for you to make music?

There is an over-riding impulse and urge to find some form of artistic expression. To express the way you feel about yourself and the world around you. When I was younger I used to find it in painting or photography or dance but when I started making music and writing songs that was it. No turning back. The sense of achievement I get from creating something out of nothing is just fantastic. And I never take it for granted. Over the last three years I've made annual trips to Nashville where I've done some co-writing with other songwriters in a publishing house on Music Row. I had never co-written with anyone prior to my first visit but it came really naturally. Song writing isn't some magical, mythical process that comes down upon you like a lightening bolt. Yes, sometimes you might get moments when things happen but a lot of the time you just have to give yourself over to the creative process and just sit and work at it. As I said before the process of making music is its own reward. I am at my happiest when I'm alone with my studio and instruments in a cottage in the middle of the countyside writing new songs. It gives me a great sense of fulfilment and satisfaction.

What are you're feelings about your body of work, is there an album you favour or do you judge you own work on the strength of the songs?

Generally my favourite album is the latest one or the one I'm going to be working on next. I don't tend to listen to them much after they have been release but certain songs do hang around in the set lists for a long time. They are generally tried and tested live favourites and I often include a few from all the albums - apart from the first one 'The Sweetest Ache'. I never really carried any of those songs forward with me after I moved onto my second album. I guess they were from a slightly different musical perspective and perhaps don't work as well in a solo context. Just the other day someone came up to the merch table at a gig and looked at all 6 albums spread out and commented on the albums as “Quite a body of work”. I hadn't really thought of it like that much before as it's an ongoing process that I keep adding to but I do believe that the best is yet to come.

I think you have created a distinctive sound. Is it what you had in your head when you started out?

Probably not. I'm not really sure what I had in my head when I first started out. I think I have gone through various different phases whether it's obsessing over string arrangements, horn sections or whatever and continue to have periods where I might embrace one thing more than another and be drawn in a different direction. But the banjo and swampy/twangy Gretsch guitar combination is something that I feel very comfortable producing. No matter what musical direction I choose to follow I always want to sound like me and have a strong identity. Maybe that is the distinctive sound that will define my music but ultimately I think it always revolves around my voice and my vocal identity whether it's surrounded by dozens of other musicians or alone with a banjo.

What are you plans for this year?

I'm going back to Austin, Texas for SXSW this week and then return to Nashville later on for more co-writing sessions on Music Row. I've co-written 8 songs in Nashville over the past few years so I'm hoping I'll write another 3 or 4 on this next trip so that I'll have enough to put out an album of songs written exclusively in Nashville. My 'Nashville Songs' album if you like. I'd also like to possibly return and record the thing properly in Nashville with a choice band of Nashville musicians and maybe even work with a producer. After that I'm hoping to do a short tour of The Netherlands in April. I'd love to get back up to Scotland and return to Ireland too. I just need to keep on touring as much as possible to try and promote this new album and cover as much ground as I can.

Is the label as important as the music or just a means to getting your music released. Do you have any plans to release any other artists in the near future?

I have released other artists on the label like Michael J Sheehy's beautiful album 'Ghost On The Motorway, The Snakes and the Haiti Vodou album that I put out to raise money for the earthquake disaster, but at the moment it is more of a platform for my own work. If I come across an act that I absolutely love and could work with, I would certainly consider investing my time and efforts in them – if I could help and they wanted to work with me but, like I said earlier it's all about survival and I have to protect my own future, so I have to be very careful.

What has your years as a musician, label owner taught you?

I think I've learned a lot about myself through music and through writings songs. Having the ability to externalize and express whatever I'm feeling internally is cathartic and healthy  even if it can sometimes be somewhat dark. Creating something positive out of something negative is rewarding but it's also rewarding just to create, no matter what it's about. It's all valid in that moment. You have to cherish and nurture those moments. The actual craft of song writing is a constant fascination and as far as I'm concerned that is why I do what I do. It may sound a little precious and worthy but it is the truest thrill in the entire process. Yes, it's nice to have your ego stroked at gigs, in press or radio or whatever but there is a much deeper confidence and self belief to be found in the writing of a good song. And then you realise that you are in it for all the right reasons, no matter what anyone else says or thinks about you. That's what really drives me and sustains me as a song writer. As a label owner I've learned a lot of the little pit falls that are there to trip you up and make things get very expensive. I'm no entrepreneur or svengali. I'm just trying to get my music and the other music I love out there as best I can on very limited resources. The business side of things can drag you down sometimes and be very distracting from the main reason you started doing it to be begin with. But it is a necessary evil and having the platform to release music without depending on anyone else is a great thing.

How do you set about writing, do you draw for real life or from your imagination for inspiration?

There is no particular formula or specific way that I approach writing. It can happen in many different ways and often involves both real life reflection and wherever your imagination wants to take you. I've certainly written my fare share of deeply personal songs that come from real life experiences but then there are also those story telling narratives that might draw from fiction or the gospel, or folk lore, a twisted imagination or whatever and that can also be really rewarding as a writer. If you can invest yourself in the story or the song, inhabit the material and deliver it with conviction it's equally valid and rewarding – sometimes even more so. That's when you can really flex your muscles as a song writer. One way is no more valid than the other but depending on the subject matter you can generally tell the difference.

What would be your dream band?

Instrumentally I would love to explore all the sounds available within an orchestra. I suppose an orchestra is the ultimate dream band in terms of the sonic palette. But if you are asking me what musicians I'd like to have play in a fantasy band, well I think most dream bands would feature Jimi Hendrix (Lead Guitar), but it's hard not to just want to include all your favourite artists. I love Tom Waits so he'd have to be in there somewhere even if he's just coughing or banging a piece of led pipe against an open piano. John Bonham could thump the crap out of the drums and Nina Simone would keep everyone in check. That combination could be a complete disaster but it'd be fun to find out. 

Thirteen. Unlucky or not?

Let's hope so. I'm way too superstitious. But I've had to entertain the notion that 13 could be lucky or else I would probably never leave the house for the entire year. And that would just be irrational and self defeating. It's been a good year so far and I hope that will continue. 

Interview by Stephen Rapid

Interview with Petunia

You need a powerful presence to front a band like the Vipers, a very talented bunch of players, two of who were in bands previously fronted by the dynamic Ray Condo. In the man called Petunia they have a equally striking frontman, one who is able to step back and allow his players their time in the spotlight. Petunia cut his teeth as a  busker who discovered classic country along the way and currently hosts a show that mixes his own songwriting talent with classic country songs that distill the essence of what is good and vibrant about the music. Lonesome Highway took the opportunity to talk to him prior to one of his recent Irish shows.

When did you started to treat music as a career?

I started playing music about fifteen years ago,  playing in the street for six or seven years. I played in every major city in Canada, every street corner. I played in New York City in the Subway and that got me an article written up in the New York Post, it was a whole page. I woke up one day and was taking the Subway to work and there was a picture and people were looking at me. I hitchhiked around Canada and did some shows. I used to make movies and I met a lady I feel in love with and she had a suitcase full of country music tapes. That was the first time I heard Hank Williams, Jimmie Rogers, the Carter Family and various others. They're the main three I started out with. From there I started playing on the stage every now and then but hitch-hiking you can't book regular shows. I moved all over Canada and played with different musicians and while doing that I meet a lot of the guys who are playing with me now. Jimmy Roy and Stephen Nikleva both used to play with Ray Condo. When I'd go up to Vancouver I would go up and see Ray and I'd see Jimmy and Stephen play and I thought "wow, I'd love to have those guys in the band". Then Ray passed away. Ray Condo played in Ireland in Kilkenny and Jimmy was also with Big Sandy.  Marc (L'Esperance) joined later and we used some different bass players and now Patrick Metzger is playing bass with us.

So your love of country grew from listening to those tapes?

I'd never heard country music before that, so yeah.

What had you listened to previously?

Immediately before, it was mostly classical music,  the year or two before I heard those songs.  But before that it was bebop music, experimental jazz and I was into punk rock before that in my teenage years. I had my hair all spiked up and a leather jacket with studs.  Most people I meet in country music now feel that punk rock and country are very closely related. It's so common that people that use to be punk rockers are now at our shows. Fans of regular country don't necessarily get what we're doing. They want to hear Hank Williams or Johnny Cash but the punk rockers they latch on and they know what we're about. They have the same roots that I do. 

There seems to be a fair amount of country now in Canada with people like Lindi Ortega and Daniel Romano.

I don't know those people but a lot of acts apply for grants which are available in Canada but I have never applied. I was brought up with a different attitude, not that it's wrong, maybe it's wrong in the sense that if you rely on a grant, and the key word is rely, which I call a hand-out, then what happens when it runs out? You don't learn how to make the money you need. If you tour and rely on the money that's available with the grant it can all fall apart when that ends. While if you have never applied for them in the first place and you go the harder road you learn how to do it. Even going into a studio if you have tons of money you can use a wonderful studio with great engineers and everything else but you haven't had much experience working in a studio. You haven't learned any tricks, how to mic something so that when an engineer is mixing something you can say "well, actually this is the way it should be miced". 

Do you know Greg Garing at all?

No, I don't know him.

I can see some similarities in what you both do.

You are writing a lot of your own songs now?

Well on the new album there are two that aren't mine. I wrote the rest. Forbidden Lovers is a Lefty Frizzell song. He's one of my favourites.

You draw inspiration from that era?

I draw from the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and so on,  whatever I hear. We're learning a Dead Kennedys song right now. 'Cause it sounded cool.  There's  a couple of my songs that are heavily influenced by Peruvian music. I spent time there. When you travel around you hear things. Now that I'm here in Ireland I'm sure that will be there too (laughs).

I heard about a great Scottish guitar player who learned from listening to the radio as there was no country music going on then. So he learned off the radio. In the Caribbean with Bob Marley and others there is a huge Grand Ole Opry listenership. There a lot of country music influence in early reggae. It was AM radio. 

You have released your album in vinyl too.

Yeah, it comes with lyrics,  a picture and a download card. It was recorded in Los Angeles in the Sound Factory which is next to Sunset Studios. We had a Grammy award winning engineer (Ryan Freeland). It was mixed by our drummer Marc. He's a top notch engineer and the proof is that when the mixes were sent to Bernie Grundman who said "who did the mixes?" He though they were brilliant as he barely had to do anything. He just ran it through his analog gear. 

Did you release it yourselves?

It's Trapline Productions, which is me and another fellow.

Is it your first album with The Vipers?

I have,  me the Petunia guy, eight or nine albums. We did another one before this one which was just done to have something to sell on the road. We did it in, like, four days. We were leaving in five or six days and we went into the studio, a room. We brought in our gear and laid it down. Spent a day or so non-stop mixing it and mastering it, then we were on the road. Just so we could have a CD to sell. This is kind of the official debut. 

How has Europe taken to you guys?

Excellent. 

Different feel from the audience?

It is the reverse. We have had to adjust. I'm not faulting anyone. They're just different. Here's the thing how do you respond?

LH: Well, we get into it, enjoy some real country and tap our feet.

Petunia: That's the level of understanding here while in America the level of understanding is people getting up to dance and drinking loads of beer. The two audiences see things differently. In a bar in America people make a lot of noise and they drink. That's the norm. There's no one telling you to shush. If some guys says ‘ shhh’  he's liable to get punched out. But here they listen. But there if the band is really good they do shut up and they listen because they are genuinely interested. But there are no rules and it's not like you are creating them. If they listen, then you're creating a scene. That's something special. So you know you're doing something good when that happens. You don't have that sense over here because everyone's quiet anyway. They're ready for things on a more intellectual level. It may even be the use of language. With the Irish or Scottish you have conversations on a different level. We have played in many theatre settings and when people are sitting and watching you they're ready for some that's a more intellectual kind of stimulation that the average American person. But I haven't been here long enough to say. I used to live in London for a year but I didn't go see too much music. I lived in Brixton, Leytonstone and Stoke Newington. I just spent time in all these places, in squats mostly. There wasn't much live music I could pay for. I played a little bit but didn't make any money playing in London. This is the first tour here with the band so I'm trying to add little side of the theatrical to the show. Talking between songs, things like that. We make some space for people to dance if they want to at the sit-down shows too. When people do that,  it helps, because when people are dancing you feed off that. 

Petunia: Do people here dance less?

There's a bit more self-consciousness about dancing with a band playing, everyone waits for someone else to start but once it breaks out it can spread quickly. These less inhibition in a dance club with a DJ though. 

How much of what you do is about being an entertainer rather than just a musician?

A bit of both.  If people are there for a good time,  then it's part of the job to give them a good time. But also as a musician, what it is historically to play music in front of people, then you have to look at your role. Its part spiritual and part entrainment. The spiritual part is wide and you have to consider too what's your responsibility as a musician? I could be operating on any level in trying to do that. If that includes politics or something sociological or religion or whatever I think people are interested. 

Well the origins of country music comes from the blues and a mix of different influences that reflected peoples lives to a large degree.

Take someone like Hank Williams. You think of him playing blues music or country blues. You don't think he's a rebel but if you're back in 1948/49 and you're in a place that's full of white people I can imagine that his playing a music that nobody was doing then as no one is doing exactly what he's doing and it's to a white audience so that's a socio-political statement without even talking about politics, just by the fact he's doing it. Johnny Cash told a young song writer "don't talk about politics" but he himself was a political figure I suppose. Yet he did songs like Don't Take Your Guns to Town. His songs don't usually talk about thing directly but they are stories that a relevant none the less. 

Interview by Stephen Rapid. Photography by Ronnie Norton

Interview with Ben Kyle by Stephen Rapid

 

Ben Kyle is a singer and songwriter who has just released his debut self-titled album after being a part of the band Romantica and releasing an album of duets with Carrie Rodguiez (We Still Love Our Country). Ben Kyke’s album was a surprise when I first heard it and became a firm favourite and one of the albums of the year. So Lonesome Highway to the opportunity to ask Ben about his background and his musical influences.

Ben, you left Ireland when you were 13. What memories do you have of living here before that?

Oh many, many very good memories indeed. I recollect a very rich boyhood; mostly memories of family and friends, schools and sports. I was the third of seven children. My father was a medical doctor turned ecumenical pastor, a sort of physician turned spiritualist. You could say he went from being concerned with healing bodies to healing hearts.

My mother played field hockey for Ireland. I like to say she was an international sports star turned head coach of 7 children. We were a Protestant family with a Catholic fertility ethos! We grew up in a type of community life, frequently engaged with not just our own friends but our parent’s friends, stopping in for tea, coming over for dinner, or often living with us.

It was a fairly routine life, with summer holidays on the same beach each year... I had four brothers with which to hone my football skills and 2 sisters with whom to enact faux weddings and living room concerts. 

Did you inherit any musical impulses or roots from your Irish heritage? 

I imagine I did although growing up, as many do nowadays, with an eclectic soundtrack, it's difficult to discern what really came from where.  But there IS something of the land, the air, the ethos of the place you are from, that remains with you in your soul and comes out through your music.  We did learn traditional songs in school and those melodies still resonate with me.  GK Chesterton once wrote of the Irish "All their wars are merry and all their songs are sad".   If there's a sweet mellowness or a melancholy longing in my music I think it may come from here. I think of the Irish poetic heritage too; Synge, Swift, Wilde, Yeats and Joyce among many, and their great concern with words. A reverence for words has followed me too.

What are your earliest memories of music and your initial influences,  and when did you start to play?

My grandmother was a pianist, organist and choir director.  My father was a songwriter himself and wrote a lot of music for the church. We used to have family 'praise times' where we'd all sing together and play our own instruments. I shared a room with my older brother and on Saturdays he would always be tuned in to the "Top 40 Countdown" on the radio. They would be giving away albums to the first 5 callers and he would just sit there with the phone on re-dial! That's how we built our first record collection!  I remember some of the spoils- Paul Simon, Lionel Richie, The Boss.  As I look back, I realize there were a lot of classic songwriters in rotation; Dylan, Van Morrison, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel among them too. We had an old Dylan songbook lying around, so when I picked up the guitar, those were the first songs I learned to play. But in our house it was as natural to make up your own songs as it was to play somebody else's, so I began a sort of rudimentary writing right away. My uncle had a moderately successful duo group in the 70's called "Stewart and Kyle," so I joined ranks with my boyhood chum Ricky Higginson and formed "Higg and Kyle" - it didn't have quite the same ring - and we began gathering material for our first album by photocopying pages from the biblical book of 'Revelation' that seemed to provide colorful enough imagery to set some tunes to. The album was shelved by "Higg and Kyle Records" for obvious reasons, but the ambition was clearly there, and it would only be a matter of time before that aspiring songwriter matured and refined some of his own 'revelations'.

Some early years were spent learning and imitating songs that I enjoyed listening to, with less compulsion to write. But after my family's emigration to America at the tender age of 13, I was ripe and ready to coalesce and express some of the things I was feeling and observing about my 'new world' in the song form. These early musings came out in a sort of Dylan inspired, but adolescently awkward and youthfully self-righteous toned, socio-political commentary. Thankfully any demonstration recordings have been long-lost or burned and these early sketches survive only in the forgivingly nostalgic memories of a few teenage campfire companions!

Was Romantica your first band?

Yes. I continued to write and play through my teens. I tried to give up music while enrolled in Art School so I could give myself fully to the studies, but I was never able to really let go. I even showed up at a painting critique once with a song instead of a painting. (Thankfully, I'd a gracious professor.)  But after I finished the degree, I knew the next thing was to follow the music. So that's when I began Romantica.

There's a clip of you playing I Don't Want To Go Out Tonight with Romantica. Were some of the songs written over a period of time that feature on your solo album?

Yes they were. I had been playing a few of the songs with Romantica, but they just seemed to fit the feel and context of this album.  

The mini-album you recorded with Carrie Rodriguez quite obviously suggests that you have a love for traditional country. How deep was that?

I discovered traditional country through Gram Parsons. There's a purity and straightforwardness about it that I love, but there's also a charm and an easy self-consciousness about it, like "I take myself really seriously" but at the same time "I don't take myself too seriously."  As a band it was our favorite touring soundtrack. Many a highway mile was passed to the sound of Hank, Lefty, Marty, Buck, Merle, Porter, Dolly, Townes, George, Cash and co.

How did you decide what songs to record given you had a limited amount of studio time?

We each threw some ideas out and landed on the ones that we both agreed on, and felt we could give our own 'thing' to. 

Do you intend to record together, in that way, in the future?

It was a brilliant experience with Carrie and the band and I love recording that way... locked up, with the limit of a couple of days.  There's no plan at the moment, but if the stars align, I'd do it again, for sure.

Is your solo album a side-step or do you intend to continue as a solo artist?

It wasn't a side step, so much as a next step and I'm seldom aware of what's two steps ahead!  I imagine there'll be more Ben Kyle releases, but there could quite possibly be more Romantica releases too.  

Some of the songs suggest a weariness with traveling and need to be closer to your family. Is that an option for a working musician?

It's a great question. It's definitely a tension. I think it's all about finding the right balance. And also about defining what you do and hope to do. If you hope to be a sensation, then you probably ought to assume the kind of rigorous touring schedule that the industry demands. If you hope, as I do, to be open to a sort of spiritual navigation system, have a grounded family life, make beautiful albums and sustain a living by periodically traveling to perform and share that music in a meaningful live experience... then yes, you can be a working musician and remain close to your family!

You use the pedal steel as an integral part of the sound on the new album.  In one case you have four separate steel players. What attracts you to an instrument that was so integral to country music at one time?

I love the sound of the steel guitar. The way it bends and moves so fluidly from note to note, chord to chord. The way it swells in and gently departs. It's very analogous to a feeling.  To me, it sounds like spirit in its very timbre and tone. Especially when played with less 'twang' and more 'vibe'.  It carries longing. In a sense, the steel guitar is to American country music, what the low whistle or the uilleann pipes are to Irish music. It's not a wonder Daniel Lanois calls it his 'church in a suitcase'. 

This album is self-released. Is that the best path for you?

It's good for this moment.  I wanted to understand the benefits and drawbacks.  It allows me the autonomy to follow the sort of path I outlined before.  But it also gives me an appreciation for the role and function of a good label.

What is the best way to get to know Ben Kyle?

By reading this interview!  The new album is very personal, so that's a good way too.  

What is music to you?

Music is about feeling. It's all about feeling. Getting a feeling,  expressing a feeling. Expressing how we feel in this world in a medium that can be felt by everybody.

Do you have any plans to return to Ireland?

I love Ireland.  I don't imagine finding myself living there again, although I wouldn't resist her if she called - and gave me a good reason. But I hope to return often to visit and to play. 

Interview with Ryan Bingham

 

Ryan Bingham released his latest album on his own Axster Bingham Records , a label he formed with his wife Anna Axster, after three albums on Lost Highway. His most notable success so far has been with the song The Weary Kind that he wrote with producer T-Bone Burnett and which was featured in the Oscar winning film Crazy Heart. The Weary Kind is not indicative of the songs he is currently writing or playing. He has played in Dublin three times and his most recent Whelan's visit was without his band The Dead Horses, but with a new set of musicians and a shift in the sound which featured a mix of acoustic, roots and outright rock songs. We caught up with Ryan for a brief chat before the show.

Was it a good time to start your own label?

Well, it seems right. I have a good team around and we hired a publicist. We're working with Thirty Tigers in the US and we do separate deals for the album in other territories.

The songs on Tomorrowland seem to have  some anger and an amount of tenderness in them.

You know,  I never really thought about it while I was recording the record,  but after going back and listening to it I can hear a bit of that myself. After The Weary Kind and the film Crazy Heart it was the first time I'd taken any time off from the road, I took about a year off. There was a lot of stuff happening at the time. Right about when I made Mescalito my mother passed away and then right after The Weary Kind came out my father passed away. I was going through a rough time through all of that stuff. That and the way society is today for a young person growing up trying to deal with the world and trying to make sense of it both economically and with social issues is tough and that stuff just came out in my music. It comes from travel and the places I go to and the people I meet when I'm on the road and talk to. 

Playing the electric guitar had a lot to do with it as well. It was the first time where I had a place and could set up an amp and some pedals and experiment. The first time I played electric was when I did the first record and Marc Ford, who produced it, just handed me an electric guitar and said "I think this will fit your personality". But after that,  I never really had a chance to practice as we were straight out on the road and I was just playing rhythm guitar. I had to learn as I went along, so when I got home, as I say I set up and tried some different amps and began to experiment with the sound. I listen to a lot of stuff like The Clash, Zeppelin and Hendrix. I was learning about tone and just listening.

Did the perception after Crazy Heart that you were a county singer distract you from your natural course?

Oh yeah, totally. When I first started writing and recording I was still very much trying to figure it out, what direction I was going in and I still feel that I am. The more I learn and go on the road and tour,  the more I'm influenced by different styles, different music and different cultures. So when I get home I always feel that I'm experimenting and having some fun. For some record labels that's hard to market, especially when they need to put you in a genre, they need to find a place to put you so people can find a way to buy it. I had that country stamp of this is what it is. Any time I tried to veer in and out of that it was always something I had to deal with as I went along. I try not to worry about it too much.  

So where do you think your music will take you?

A lot of times it depends on what kind of mood I'm in. I still love playing acoustic guitar with that feeling of just a guitar and a song. That's where I started when I played in those little dives in Texas, in the roadhouses and stuff. You can always turn it into anything you want after that. You could bring in fiddles and banjos and make it folk or country or you can have the electrics. For me, I don't like to be restricted as I'm kind a free spirit and like to roam around and be adventurous.

Your roots and stories still have their basis in that Texas tradition though.

Totally. My foundation is that. That's how I still write. Even though this time I wrote on an electric guitar, it was still just me and the guitar. The tones and tempos came from that and whatever mood or feeling you’re in. But it definitely starts with a guitar and a song. 

Does you process start with the words or music first?

I've always got to start with the music first it seems. It's always sitting and playing around with the key or the melody that brings out whatever emotion it is. Sometimes I don't know what that emotion is at the beginning. It turns into whatever it is and I have to go back and then try to figure what it's really about. 

Following the success of Crazy Heart and The Weary Kind,  did a lot of offers come in for soundtrack work?

I did get some offers to do some fairly straight pop-country stuff. Put the cowboy hat on and polish the boots up,  but I really didn't think that was a good direction for me if I want to be creative and experiment in the future with my music, so I just tried to stick to what I was doing. 

The fact you now have your own label gives you that freedom.

Yes it does.

How has this tour been going?

It's been great. I'd been off for about a year and a half so I just did some dates back home and with all the new music and new sound it was interesting. It's always an adventure and you never know what it's going to be like till you get out there. We're having a blast. 

Who's the band? 

Matt Sherrod, who plays on the record and (also) plays with Crowded House, and his wife Kelly is playing bass. Evan Weatherford is on guitar. I met Matt through Justin Stanley the album's co-producer. They played with Beck years back. So I met Kelly through Matt and Evan was living in Nashville too. We just started jamming and playing.

Did you find the songs changing as you began to jam and rehearse?  

When we did they always seemed to take on a life of their own.

Would you have liked to go back and record them again after playing them live?

Very much so. Next year I'd love to do some live recording. We have a bunch of songs out there, and to find the right venue and have the energy of the crowd, who take it back and forth and to record that and the new ways of doing the songs is something I'm interested in trying. We keep it loose. I mean, we rehearse the songs to an extent but we leave space in there for them to take on a life of their own.

With your own label and channels of selling your music, is that an effectives means of survival for an independent band?

I think so, if you're willing to get out on the road and tour. Because I remember when I first started and was doing home recordings and demos and playing small gigs in roadhouses and places that, the internet was around and websites were beginning and you could at least put your tour dates there if you had an savvy. Now with social media (you) can instantaneously let people know that you’re coming into town. You can sell your music off your own website so It's like worldwide distribution. So if you’re out there, it's easier than ever to build a fan base. 

How important is a physical CD for you?

I don't know. We still have a lot of people who like to buy them. A lot of people are buying vinyl, especially at shows. I can see there being more vinyl with a download card included or both together. But a lot of younger kids are buying vinyl. It's pretty cool to see. But in some cases labels will wait to see what the demand is before they go and print up thousands of copies. I think people still like to have something to hold onto. Some friends of ours - a band call The Americans -  a folk/jug band, who can play a set of music from the 20s or the 40s, all old-timey influences -  they did their own album and they bought decks of playing cards and put a download code on that . The cards had their logo on and they sold that at gigs.

How far do you think ahead as regards what you might do? 

It's such an adventure and it changes from one day to the next, so it's hard to have any expectations as to where you're going to be (laughs). I'm enjoy the journey and writing songs and I'm enjoying playing with this new band. They're a lot of fun and inspiring to play with and so has (been) setting up the new label and the creative freedom to know that I can get into it and see what I can come up with. There's the idea of the live album and also, maybe, a double album with one half acoustic and one half  electric.  Ten songs on each half.  It's nice to be able to play both ways as I still love to do acoustic shows too.

Interview by Stephen Rapid. Photography by Ronnie Norton

Interview with Ed Romanoff

Meeting Ed Romanoff one encounters a friendly and curious man who has had a successful backstage career in the entertainment industry, working on the staging and presentation of a wide range of shows and events. He comes late to the world of being on stage rather than backstage and is a talented writer and engaging performer in his own right. We talked to Ed before his first live show in Dublin. 

You were a late starter to songwriting I believe?

Yes, I was. It's something I became interested in in 2009. I had a thought that I really wanted to start writing songs, so I started to go to songwriting retreats. That's where I met Mary (Gauthier). She was teaching, as was Darrell Scott and Beth Nielsen Chapman.  I also met Josh Ritter there. He and I became good friends. I'm a curious person by nature so I wanted to know the craft side. Just what makes it work, how could you build a song that would hold up, before you get into the inspired side of writing, of what you're trying to say? 

Then there was another guy who I met out in California who was really interesting. He took apart a lot of the Beatles' songs and analyses why they worked. I don't know if they were aware of what they were doing and that they were doing it intentionally, but there's a pattern to a lot of Beatles' songs. I find that kind of stuff compelling. 

So I was a late starter and I guess you know my story? Which is; I thought I was tone-deaf and in the family I grew up in, my father was tone-deaf, so I didn't sing. But I liked music and I started to play the guitar and I wanted to write some songs so I started to take voice lessons. That was with a guy named Bill Riley who is a voice coach in the city, in Manhattan. He works with people like Celine Dion, Stevie Wonder and Pavarotti. The first time I went to see him (Riley) I was so nervous to be sitting in the same seat that Bruce Springsteen sat (in), I could barely breathe. I was nervously sitting there and he said "first of all, your posture's terrible and you have cleared your throat 20 times since you walked in the door and I'm not doing anything until you gargle". He took me in the kitchen a made a baking soda mixture with warm water which he had me gargle.

That was about two and a half years ago. Working with him I have extended my range dramatically. I could sing maybe within twelve notes and now I have three octaves. I had four notes in the low end I didn't know existed.  None of the high end too.  That was something I would never have even tried. So it turned out I'm not tone-deaf as I had thought I was. The father I grew up with I had discovered was not my father. 

Some people sing so great and they talk good. Whereas if you don't sing that good, and that's a category I put myself, you have to think about what you’re saying. I also come from the Mary Gauthier school.  I was taking her class and I knew her a little bit, but not that well, and I knew she was working on her record about having been adopted (The Foundling) so I sent her a demo of a song I'd written called Orphan King and she liked it and she asked me to finish it with her. I couldn't believe it, as a student for your teacher to say "I like your demo let's go work on it down in New Orleans". That, at the orphanage where I was left on the day I was born, and that was like as if John Prine had said "hey, do you want to go and get a sandwich". 

So we flew down to New Orleans and we stayed near the orphanage in a hotel, this was after Katrina, and the place was in bad shape. I literally slept with my boots on as there had been a power outage earlier and there had been people outside my window trying to figure out how they could get in. I figured that if they got in I could run down the hallway. We then finished the song The Orphan King and it got on the record, stunningly. Working on that song was an eye opener to me as it was the first time for me to see a person's process. Mary is the bar by which I aim to be. We went through probably 80 drafts of that song. It was so fascinating to watch how she worked. She's inspired and she's hard working. She comes at thing with an insight. She says amazing things, so I used to follow her around with a note book. Every single word was looked at and when we were done she said “if anyone asks you just tell them we wrote it in the cab on the way to the studio” (laughs).

Some writers spend a lot of time getting a song right.

It matters.  I'm pretty new at it as I've only been writing since 2009. I have found that for me, and my experience is limited, that it helps me to get close to where I think it's done and then to play it out at some clubs where I get a chance to play and I find out how the songs ‘grows up’ in a way. There are certain words you feel fall away and areas where you begin to feel that something else might work better. 

For those of us who are fascinated by the process of making music it's important to be involved in some way.

I agree. That's why I started to work as a producer behind the scenes. I produced entertainment shows for years and years. I did comedy with all kinds of people from Jay Leno, George Burns and a lot of country acts - Reba McEntire. I worked with a lot of Motown bands too, producing their live shows. I liked being around it. But I never dreamed that I would be on a stage, ever. A, I was terrified and B, I didn't think that I could do it.

The one cover on the album is the Harlan Howard, Hank Cochran song I Fall To Pieces.  How did that come about?

A friend of mine said why not do that Patsy Cline cover and I thought "mmm, a Patsy Cline cover? That's insane. Why would I do that?” but I played it and I really connected with the song. Then I found out that (co-writer) Harlan Howard had been in a lot of foster homes as a kid and it apparently ended up with him being in a foster home where his mother lived and so the legend goes that song is really about his mother, but who knows if that's true? 

When I started playing it and it started to go down well live and when I started to work with Crit Harmon as a producer, who's fantastic, he said let's move it down one and a half steps and swamp it up a little bit. I had a mixed sense about it and I was looking for something on it. In the studio Duke Levine was playing the riff and in doing it I had made a mistake on one of the words. When you have great writers like that you don't change the words and I said "Crit, I got to redo that as I sang one of the words wrong". He said "No. It's done, don't break it". That was our one pass. It was our practice run and he said "don't break it". I was thinking I've song a word wrong and people are going to think that I think I know better. So I said "Please let me sing it again" and he insisted that as I was playing it on the acoustic the mics were picking up everything and it wouldn't work. 

Crit Harmon is a believer in that there is a magic to certain takes, and it's hard to figure out which one it is, and if you start thinking too much you're just singing words. It now seems right to me that very often the first one has got a certain charm to it. So what he did was after we'd done the basic tracks, there are four tracks I believe where the vocal was the first take, and we went back and we took those basic tracks and every night we did one shot at each song. We had a candle lit and a cup of whiskey and we did it like a show. We did that four nights in a row and we picked the best first passes. So there's very little punching in. In the end it was worth it. And almost invariably it was the first one of the night that had it. It's one of the reasons why I Fall To Pieces went so well for us as it's such a perfect song. I feel if the writing's worked out in advance then the other stuff falls into place. If there's something not right with the song, then it can take a bunch of time to fix. 

Covers tend to say something about a writer by the choices that are made in picking a song.

Josh and I have talked about this as I was deciding whether to put a cover on the album and he said "You know sometimes it's hard for people to decide if they like somebody until they hear how you interpret someone else's song". I thought that was interesting. I have been opening for a woman recently called Rachael Yamagata. She's a really special writer - she's like, if this is possible, the female Townes Van Zandt of female piano singer/songwriters. She just says and does things that she doesn't know why she's doing them. She is so special. She invited me to go on the road with her and she's in that same place as Mary. I couldn't believe it when she invited me. 

I opened for her on one show and this is when I was working behind the scenes, about five or six years ago. And I didn't play piano but I started to take piano lessons when I was doing the voice lessons. So anyway I wanted to play a song of hers that I was there the day they recorded it as I felt a connection to it. So I played one of her songs opening for her and it was interesting because the people in the audience knew the song so they were able to sing along. It might have been a bit of a crazy choice to cover the song of the act you’re opening for, but that's the thing about being a little naive about it. I don't know enough to know when I'm doing something, so that allows me take some chances. Now I'm going to get to play it on tour with her and sing the song with her. 

What do you intend to do next?

I'm halfway through the next record. I'm working on two projects right now - one is a book and the other is the next record. The songs I did for this record are all basically true stories. Lady Luck is about my cousin. TwoYellow Roses is about my hometown. St Vincent is kinda autobiographical, Sacred Wrecks the same. But, to be honest, I'm over that,  but I had to get them out, I guess. They were sort of in the way. So now I've got one about a bank robber named Willie Sutton. He's famous in the US, he's was an Irishman actually. He robbed 200 banks but got pardoned by Governor Rockefeller. That was because he was such a popular guy and Rockefeller wanted to get re-elected, pardoned him and did get re-elected. I found that very interesting so I write the song about him and I really like it.  

The songs I'm doing right now they feel the same but their happy and they're kinda on the other side of things. Another that I've finished that I like a lot is called Less Broken Now. There was a woman in my office who got Lyme Disease and she almost died. But, thankfully, she survived and I went to see her and I went to give her a hug but she had wires hanging out and I said "I don't want to hurt you" and she said "oh, it's ok I'm a little less broken now". So I took that and wrote a song about a relationship. So I'm having a lot of writing about these different things. 

What's the book about?

The book is about... it started with the DNA test I took with Mary. We were on the road and she said she was going to take this DNA test because she don't know who her family was and so I said "I'll take it too". I woke up one morning and I looked in the mirror and all these years I thought I was a composite of my parents. So I saw my Mum and my Dad in the mirror and then I look and I'm thinking "ok, who's this half?". 

That was a weird feeling and as I like puzzles I thought "well here's one". So I wanted to solve it. I decided I could either hand it off and get someone to look into it or do it myself. So what I did was, when my mother died, I went through her address book and her scrap book and then I flew round the country and started to interview my mother’s friends. So the book is about the conversations I had with these elderly women and from that I found out what happened. It was amazing and these women were so funny. I didn't find out who my father was but I found out how it happened. Then I found a family who it could have been but the guy had passed away so I met his kids and we have since become really good friends. 

It also turned out that my DNA matched this guy Niall Of The Nine Hostages. I was like "this can't be right" so I sent it in and the science was done with this group who said "you're in". So my name is in now next to McCracken, O'Malley, O'Connell. A bit like a New York City fire department roster. (laughs). Then it's Romanoff! But it turns out we're related. This family who I have now become friends with, they have the exact same DNA, but not the same genome. So they are also related and they didn't know it either. We're actually distant cousins, not half-siblings. In the DNA breakdown there was 4% Ghanaese and I can't dance (laughs). I have to really practice with a metronome for tempo. I was told that this was over a very long period of time. But the majority was Irish. I didn't believe it at first. 

Meeting Ed Romanoff one encounters a friendly and curious man who has had a successful career in the background of the entertainment industry working on the staging and presentation of a wide range of shows and events. He comes late to the world of being in stage rather than backstage and is a talented writer and engaging performer in his own right. We talked to Ed before his first live show in Dublin. 

You were a late starter to songwriting I believe?

Yes I was. It's something I became interested in in 2009. I had a thought that I really wanted to start writing songs, so I started to go to songwriting retreats. That's where I met Mary (Gauthier). She was teaching, as was Darrell Scott and Beth Nielsen Chapman, I also met Josh Ritter there. He and I became good friends. I'm a curious person by nature so I wanted to know the craft side. Just what makes it work, how could you build a song that would hold up before you get into the inspired side of writing of what you're trying to say? 

Then there was another guy who I met out in California who was really interesting. He took apart a lot of the Beatles' songs and analyse why they worked. I don't know if they were aware of what they were doing and that they were doing it intentionally but there's a pattern to a lot of Beatles' songs. I find that kind of stuff compelling. 

So I was a late starter and I guess you know my story? Which is that I thought I was tone-deaf and in the family I grew up in my father was tone-deaf, so I didn't sing. But I liked music and I started to play the guitar and I wanted to write some songs so I started to take voice lessons. That was with a guy named Bill Riley who is a voice coach in the city, in Manhattan. He works with people like Celine Dion, Stevie Wonder and Pavaroti. The first time I went to see him I was so nervous to be sitting in the same seat that Bruce Springsteen sat, I couldn't barely breathe. I was nervously sitting there and he said "first of all, your posture's terrible and you have cleared your throat 20 times since you walked in the door and I'm not doing anything until you gargle". He took me in the kitchen a made a baking soda mixture with warm water which he had me gargle.

That was about two and a half years ago. Working with him I have extended my range dramatically. I could sing maybe within twelve notes and now I have three octaves. I had four notes in the low end I didn't know existed. None of the high-end too. That was something I would never have even have tried. So it turned out I'm not tone-deaf as I had thought I was. The father I grew up with I had discovered was not my father. 

Some people sing so great and they talk good.Whereas if you don't sing that good, and that's a category I put myself, you have to think about what your saying. I also come from the Mary Gauthier school. I was taking her class and I knew her a little bit but not that well and I knew she was working on her record about having been adopted (The Foundling) so I sent here a demo of a song I'd written called Orphan King and she liked it and she asked me to finish it with her. I couldn't believe it, as a student for your teacher to say "I like your demo let's go work on it down in New Orleans". That at the orphanage where I was left on the day I was born and that was like as if John Prine had said "hey, do you want to go and get a sandwich". 

So we flew down to New Orleans and we stayed near the orphanage in a hotel, this was after Katrina, and the place was in bad shape that I literally slept with my boots on as there had been a power outage earlier and there had been people outside my window trying to figure out how they could get in. I figured that if they got in I could run down the hallway. We then finished the song The Orphan King and it got on the record, stunningly. Working on that song was an eye opener to me as it was the first time for me to see a person's process. Mary is the bar by which I aim to be. We went throughly probably 80 drafts of that song. It was so fascinating to watch how she worked. She's inspired and she's hard working. She comes at thing with an insight. She says amazing things, so I used to follow here around with a note book. Every single word was looked at and when we were done she said if anyone asks you just tell them we wrote it in the cab on the way to the studio (laughs).

Some writers spend a lot of time getting a song right.

It matters, I'm pretty new at it as I've only been writing since 2009, I have found that for me and my experience is limited that it helps me to get close to where I think it's done and then to play it out at some clubs where I get a chance to play and I find out how the songs grows up in a way. There are certain words you feel fall away and areas were you begin to feel that something else might work better. 

For those of us who are fascinated by the process of making music it's important to be involved in some way.

I agree, that's why I started to work as a producer behind the scenes. I produced entertainment shows for years and years. I did comedy with all kinds of people from Jay Leno, George Burns and a lot of country acts - Reba McIntyre. I worked with a lot of Motown bands too producing their live shows. I liked being around it. But I never dreamed that I would be on a stage, ever. A, I was terrified and B, I didn't think that I could do it.

The one cover on the album is the Harlan Howard, Hank Cochran song I Fall To Pieces how did that come about?

A friend of mine said why not do that Patsy Cline cover and I though "mmm, a Patsy Cline cover? That's insane". Why would I do that but I played it and I really connected with the song. Then I found out that (co-writer) Harlan Howard had been in a lot of foster homes as a kid and it apparently ended up with him being in a foster home where his mother lived and so the legend goes that song is really about his mother, but who knows if that's true? 

When I started playing it and it started to go down well live and when I started to work with Crit Harmon as a producer, who's fantastic, he said let's move it down one and a half steps and swamp it up a little bit. I had a mixed sense about it and I was looking for something on it. In the studio Duke Levine was playing the riff and in doing it I had made a mistake on one of the words. When you have great writers like that you don't change the words and I said "Crit, I got to redo that as I sang one of the words wrong". He said "No. It's done, don't break it". That was our one pass it was our practice run and he said "don't break it". I was thinking I've song a word wrong and that people are going to think that I think I know better. So I said "Please let me sing it again" and he insisted that as I was playing it on the acoustic the mics were picking up everything and it wouldn't work. 

Crit Harmon is a believer in that there is a magic to certain takes and it's hard to figure out which one it is and if you start thinking too much you're just singing words. I now seems right to me that very often the first one has got a certain charm to it. So what he did after we'd done the basic tracks, there are four tracks there I believe were the vocals was the first take, and we went back and we took those basic tracks and every night we did one shot at each song. We had a candle lit and a cup of whiskey and we did it like a show. We did that four night in a row and we picked the bet first passes. So there's very little punching in. In the end it was worth it. And almost invariably it was the first one of the night that had it. It's one of the reasons why I Fall To Pieces went so well for us as it's such a perfect song. I feel if the writing's worked out in advance then the other stuff falls into place. If there's something no right with the song then it can take a bunch of time to fix. 

Covers tend to say something about a writer by the choices that are made in picking a song.

Josh and I have talked about this as I was deciding whether to put a cover on the album and he said "You know sometimes it's hard for people to decide if they like somebody until they hear how you interpert someone else's song". I thought that was interesting. I have been opening for a woman recently called Rachael Yamagata. She's a really special writer - she's like, if this is possible, the female Townes Van Zandtz of female piano singer/songwriters. She just says and does things that she doesn't know why she's doing them. She is so special. She invited me to go on the road with her and shes's in that same place as Mary. I couldn't believe it when she invited me. 

I opened for her on one show and this is when I was working behind the scenes., about five or six years ago and i didn't play piano but I started to take piano lessons when I was doing the voice lessons. So anyway I wanted to play a song of hers that I was there the day that they recorded it as I felt a connection to it. So I played one of here songs opening for her and it was interesting because the people in the audience knew the song so they were able to sing along. It might have been a bit of a crazy choice to cover the song of the act your opening for but that's the thing about being a little niave about it. I don't know enough to know when I'm doing something so that allows me take some chances. Now I'm going to get to play it on tour with her and sing the song with her. 

What do you intend to do next?

I'm halfway through the next record. I'm working on two projects right now - one is a book and the other is the next record. The songs I did for this record are all basically true stories. Lady Luck is about my cousin. TwoYellow Roses is about my hometown. St Vincent is kinda autobiographical, Sacred Wrecks the same. But, to be honest, I'm over that but I had to get them out, I guess. They were sort of in the way. So now I've got one about a bank robber named Willie Sutton. He's famous in the US, he's was an Irishman actually. He robbed 200 banks but got pardoned by governor Rockerfeller. That was because he was such a popular guy and Rockerfeller wanted to get re-elected, pardoned him and did get re-elected. I found that very interesting so I write the song about him and I really like it. 

The songs I'm doing right now they feel the same but their happy and they're kinda on the other side of things. Another that I've finished that I like a lot is called Less Broken Now. There was a woman in my office who got limes disease and she almost died. But, thankfully, she survived and I went to see her and I went to give her a hug but she had wires hanging out and I said "I don't want to hurt you" and she said "oh, it's ok I'm a little less broken now". So I took that and wrote a song about a relationship. So I'm having a lot of writing about these different things. 

What's the book about?

The book is about... it started with the DNA test I took with Mary. We were on the road and she said she was going to take this DNA test because she don't know who her family was and so I said "I'll take it too". I woke up one morning and I looked in the mirror and all these years I thought I was a composite of my parents. So I saw my Mum and my Dad in the mirror and then I look and I'm thinking "ok, who's this half?". 

That was a weird feeling and as I like puzzles I thought "well here's one". So I wanted to solve it. I decided I could either hand it off and get someone to look into it or do it myself. So what I did was, when my mother died, I went through her address book and her scrap book and then I flew round the country and started to interview my mother;s friends. So the book is about the conversations I had with these elderly women and from that I found out what happened. It was amazing and these women were so funny. I didn't find out who my father was but I found out how it happened. Then I found a family who it could have been but the guy had passed away so I met his kids and we have since become really good friends. 

It also turned out that my DNA matched this guy Niall Of The Nine Hostages. I was like "this can't be right" so I sent it in and the science was done with this group who said "you're in". So my mane is in now next to McCracken, O'Malley, O'Connell. A bit like a New York city fire department roster. (laughs). Then it's Romanoff! But it turns out we're related. This family who I have now become friends with they have the exact same DNA, but not the same genome. So they are also related and they didn't know it either. We're actually distant cousins not half-siblings. In the DNA breakdown there was 4% Ghanaese and I can't dance (laughs). I have to really practice with a metronome for tempo. I was told that this was over a very long period of time. But the majority was Irish. I didn't believe it at first. 

Welcome to the tribe Ed.

Interview by Steve Rapid. Photography by Ronnie Norton

JD McPherson, Jimmy Sutton, Jason Smay Interview

 

When JD McPherson and the band played in Dublin recently (see live review) we were able to have a quick Q&A with band members JD, Jimmy Sutton, label head, bassist and producer and drummer Jason Smay.

One quote I read was that you had an inclination to sound like Stiff Little Fingers on Del-Fi Records so I figured you guys had a wider musical upbringing that some might expect.

JD: I keep forgetting about these things that I say. They pop back up and I laugh. 

Jimmy: You know what when you say something it's signed sealed and deliver and may come back on you.

Growing up in a small town like Broken Arrow was music your link to a wider, weirder world?

JD: Completely. It was all I did. Draw and listen to music and read about music. I read every magazine I could get my hands on. Photo copied fanzines as well as Creem and Spin and whatever. It was all there was to do. That and getting into trouble. 

What was the range of music that you were hearing back then?

JD: My Dad grew up in Alabama and his music was rural black music. He listened to blues and rhythm and blues. He also got into jazz in the army. I liked his blues stuff. I wasn't so much into the jazz when I was I school. I just didn't get it. He was listening to some pretty heavy stuff like Thelonious Monk. I love that now but back the I didn't. My Mom listened to whatever was easy listening on the radio at the time. So my first kinda thing when I started to get into music was through my older brothers. They were into Southern Rock and Arena Rock - Zeppelin, Hendrix. Basically guitar music. That what I was starting to do - play guitar. I though that Eddie van Halen was the best thing that there ever was. As I got older I realized that Bo Diddley was more interesting. 

We talked about the way music comes from a lot of sources and how early country music brought a lot of different strand together and later sophistacaction with singers like Ray Price. JD felt he was like a country Dean Martin and Jimmy said he had elements of jazz in his delivery, depending on what part of his career you were listening to. Music for all of us was a wide open world.

Jimmy was your background similar?

Jimmy: I grew up on the south-side of Chicago by the University of Chicago. It was a real inter-racial culture surrounded by a ghetto. Literally one block from my house was the start of Brownsville. I had all kind s of stuff hit me from all angles. But I have to tell you my first concert ever was Count Basie. He used to play our church on the south-side. My first rock concert, which was the day my brother said I turned cool was The Ramones, before that he said I was just a pest. When I do these interviews I think about it and when you slam Count Basie and The Ramones together you got something there. But in Chicago the local station they were playing Joy Division before anybody else. They were playing everything before it caught on. It was pretty eclectic. I kinda learned a lot from that but as JD said when your young you can only digest so much. So I was really listening to jazz and things like that back then. My brothers were a hugh influence on me and The Beatles were a big thing. The along came The Ramones and DEVO and I had a crush on Debbie Harry. But then a lot of that punk thing came along and it was hand in hand with rockabilly. All the cats - The Stray Cats, The Polecats, The Rockats, the Bob Cats. That was like my Kiss when I was a teenager. That open the doors. I think we all shared that experience and we all wondered "who wrote those songs?". So that's me in a nutshell.

Was it similar for you Jason?

Jason: I grew up in a small town near Rochester, New York. It was small and there was no real music scene in it. So I grew up listening to what my Dad listened to. That was Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple, 60's rock music. I was always interested in rock 'n' roll so greaser culture was something I found myself in real quick. That's what I was brought up on. 

Jimmy: Greaser Culture, that's a good one (laughs).

You guys got together after JD contact you Jimmy?

Jimmy: Yeah, he contacted me on MySpace. When you get approached as I was and I was getting tapes all the time it was "Ok, sigh, here's another". So when I listened to JDs I was definitely taken by surprise. It was "yep, he's got it, that's my boy" (laughs). It's funny you guys both talked about your parents and I should mention mine. My Mum is from Peru so she listened to a lot of latin music. She was disorganized and had this record collection and there were two Elvis records in it, one was a gospel record and I forget what the other one was. My father listened to whatever was on the old-time radio which was WGN and that was mostly big-band jazz and vocal harmony groups - whatever was happening. 

Jimmy: I think the soul resurgence has helped us a little bit. We're not soul but I think we're maybe soulful. 

You are still touring Signs & Signifiers even though it came out on Hi-Style two years ago. Is that a something that holds you back?

JD: It came out in October 2010. 

Jimmy: October 18th. on my small little label Hi-Style. Which was just me talking a big game.

JD: It's fun to go into a new town and play this stuff, like tonight. I just know tonight's going to be wonderful. I just can't wait.

Jimmy: We have a great feeling about tonight.

Jason: I was a good sign that when we were coming in  the immigration guy said "Oh, you're playing in Whelans so you must be good! - have a good show"

Jimmy: While in Heathrow they just gave us shit.

You had a vision about how this project would sound and also how it would look?

Jimmy: Well both JD and I are art school kids. We are both into visuals and concepts. I think that's what attracted me to JD. 

JD: It's the talking about the concept for a record, the packaging and all that stuff is just as exciting as everything because that was part of one thing that I really liked, well two things actually, that I liked about punk. That was the economic freedom - the do everything yourself type of thing. The other was that all the bands were like tribes. Bad Brains was this... not even punk, David Bowie had tons of stuff to look at. So I love coming up with the visual side.

Jimmy: I goes along with the fact that most of us like to listen with our eyes.

The demise of packaging is somewhat over dramatized.

Jimmy: It's fun. It's exciting, another one of our senses engaged. We listen but we also want to look. 

Ronnie: You have got the look right, so the first thing that people who don't know the music see is the styling.

Jimmy: Thanks.

Ronnie: You tour list is pretty tight. Is that how it works for you guys?

JD: You worry more when you look at the schedule but when you just do it it's alright. 

Jimmy: It's pretty exciting times right now with the recording coming out on Rounder. It's kinda a fun ride.

JD: A shot in the arm for sure.

How do you go about touring?

JD: Back in the States with our regular set-up were hauling around an acoustic piano, an M3 and a Leslie. We put everything into it. 

Jason: You get into a groove with it as it's just what you do. When you do have a night off it feels, for me, wow, aren't we supposed to be doing something tonight? What's going on here.

Jimmy: As Jason said there something to be said for lack of schedule but it takes a bit of time to get there. It's almost like your internal clock. So going back to what you said about the schedule being insane but, I think, at this point were just like on. The record has been re-released and it feels like it has fresh legs. But yes we'd love to put out another record and play some new material but at this point we can't even figure out when we can rehearse.

Do you think that the music will change when you do do the new album?

JD: It occurred to me that when I made this record, for me, I just wanted to make a real traditional rock 'n' roll record.That it could be indistingishable from something from another time. I just wanted to do that because it was something I'd always wanted to do. But then getting to know Jimmy and getting to know the studio and being there and listening to stuff it was about half way through that things began to change a little bit. Songs like A Gentle Awakening and Signifiers were written. That's when I got really excited because  I sensed that this was a new thing to me. 

Jimmy: It also developed early on when some key words that came when we first started talking about trying to put out a timeless record and as JD's a great wordsmith so I started to wonde if I could push him to be more contemporary yet still timeless. To sound like you're not trying too hard. 

JD: Our conversations were around that too. I was talking about the three or four songs I had going into it like Scandalous. That's a very Lieber/Stolleresque thing as I was totally aping on those guys. The new record I still want to be rhythm 'n' blues but I really want to open that up a lot and mess with that.

Your look, sound and recording process are all rooted in an earlier era of music making. Is that something that is important to you methodology?

Jimmy: Well, we recorded most of it live right to quarter inch. That being said you have to have a good performance in the space that you are in. The microphones are going to pick up the same things so we had to sound good right there and then. That also made me think who I was going to get on the session - what piano player, what drummer as not all drummers can play to a smaller envoirnment and yet still sound intense. A lot of drummers are very heavy handed. Once they try to play quiet they sound like they're trying to play quiet and that's the thing. You need to get over that hurdle. The drummer I originally got was Alex Hall who was very fluid and he also knows how to rock. Someone like Scott Leigon the piano player he just loves all kinds of music. He loves Johnnie Johnson and the first time I heard him play we had this wedding band and we were playing this song with a simple left hand piece (Jimmy hums the riff) and he said "Oh. that sound's great" and he was more than happy just to play those three notes throughout the song and that's rare. You don't find that many players that do that. As far as guitar I think JD's a great guitar player. I love his styling. I think he want's to play like Eddie van Halen sometimes (laughs). I love the simplicity, it's the way his brain is working.

What's the plan  to achieve world domination?

JD: I just want to keep playing and making records but right now things are happening that I can't really explain. Last night Nick Lowe was in the dressing room and at another gig Tom Waits was in the audience. Dan Aurabch from the Black Keys came to a show in St. Louis. That kind of stuff freaks me out. 

When you played I heard some comparisons between you to early Blasters.

Jimmy; That's great I love The Blasters. 

JD; I remember when I first started to listen to punk rock I used to think "this is it, I'm a punk" and it was punks listen to this and skinheads listen to this and rude boys listen to this thing, each segmented, and then I remember reading about shows in the early 80s with the Blasters, Dwight Yoakam and X on the same bill and I was like "ok, you can have this cross pollenation of people". So I like it when we get a mix with the opening act. We did a show recently with a New York punk band Lucious and it was great.

Jimmy: If It's all the same thing then it numbs the senses.

Thanks guys.

Interview by Steve Rapid with Ronnie Norton. Photography by Ronnie Norton

JD Wilkes

 

According to online information Joshua "JD" Wilkes was born in Texas in 1972. He later moved to Paducah, Kentucky a State where he acquired his honoury title of Colonel, something that was bestowed on certain residents associated with the State. Wilkes is a southern renaissance man best known for his musical endeavours but who is also a film maker, his Seven Signs was premiered in 2007 and is available on DVD. He is a cartoonist with his Head Cheese strip appearing in Nashville's Metromix and his work also featuring in other publications. He had a book Grim Hymns that  featured his artwork and his sideshow banners can be viewed at www.jdwilkes.com/banners.htm a site that features his artwork in general. 

He founded the Th Legendary Shack Shakers in the late 1990s in Nashville, playing the honky-tonks on Lower Braodway. He is now the sole original member of the band. Their album Cockadoodledon't was released on BloodShot records in 2003 though a live recording of an earlier line up was featured on Hunkerdown released on Spinout in 1998.

Believe, Pandelirium and Swampblood were released on Yep Roc between 2004 and 2007. Their most recent album Agri-Dustrial came out via their own label Colonel Knowledge in 2010.

The Dirt Daubers, the band formed with his wife Jessica have released two albums. The most recent Wake Up Sinners was also released on Colonel Knowledge in 2011.

JD is a compelling frontman, a formidable harmonica player and musician, a distinctive singer and a rewarding writer and a honest interviewee. On his trip to Dublin with The Dirt Daubers Lonesome Highway presented these questions to him.

As the constant member in both Th’ Legendary ShackShakers and The Dirt Daubers how easy is to maintain a vision of what the both band are?

It’s easy to separate in my mind, since both bands have their own, separate, cerebral hemisphere deep inside my brain. They are separated by a synapse, with the Daubers on the right, the Shakers on the left. 

However, logistically, it can be tricky to “open up for yourself” night after night. And it’s tough keeping people hip to the differences between the bands too. Oh well. They’ll learn one of these days.

The Shack Shakers have had numerous members and you mentioned when we spoke that the band now has a new lead guitarist, can you fill us in on that?

Rod Hamdallah is our new guy.  He stepped in after Duane hopped off to play with Mike Patton’s Tomahawk project (and a new project with Einsterzende Neubauten members).

Rod’s great!  He’s got a bluesy, old soul that fits better with 95% of our material.  So expect to hear a more rockin’, bluesier/swampier sound from us in the future.

It would appear that, although the bands have members in common, the Dirt Daubers are a separate parallel entity rather than a side-project. Is that your intention?

It’s just easier using people you already know who are good.  Finding full time musicians, or “lifers” is a tall order.  LSS and DD have enough common musical roots that we can get away with such a thing.  And yes, the Daubers are a separate-but-equal act.

Have you any intentions to explore southern culture in any formats other than music following the film Seven Signs having done your cartoons as well previously?

Actually, I have more of the same...loaded up and almost ready to fire. New short films on southern musicians/visionaries have already been shot and are in the editing process. And Grim Hymns 2 is ready for printing, once some funds come in. No new media formats, just music, art, and film. Isn’t that enough?!!

Do the Shack Shakers have any intentions to record in the near future as you’ve written a bunch of new songs?

I have a whole record written for LSS. More swampy goodness and southern gothic lyrics. A bit of weirdness thrown in. You know how we are. It’ll be out late this year, early next year.

The Dirt Daubers old-time music still seems to edgy for some traditionalists, is it hard to get past the gate-keepers?

Screw ‘em. Old Time fans have already morphed into being as bad as Bluegrassers.  Funny how they don’t realize that, in Old Time music, it was quite “authentic” to be “wrong”...to play whatever and however the heck you wanted. There were no rules (except maybe those imposed by the limited technology of the day.)  Hell, if it made a noise and there was enough whiskey flowing, it was music, by God!   

“What’s that?  A jaw harp and a pump organ?  Let’s jam!” 

Looking back over the many fine albums and great gigs you have done what stands out for you?

Favorite records: Cockadoodledon’t and Swampblood.

Favorite gigs: Robert Plant tour, Bla Rock in Tromso, Unit D in Tulsa.

What would you rather forget?

Certain “former members”, if you know what I mean.

Agri-dustrial suggested a weary eye on the way rural/urban divide was heading. Do you still keep abreast of the political undercurrents in the US?

Yes, but Jessica helps remind me to not pay too close attention. What can I do about it anyway? I’m just waiting for the Big Meteor to hit.

Both your bands have developed a strong set of fans but how difficult is it for either band to reach a wider audience?

It’s difficult getting the right management. Seems like we’ve had a few duds in our days. Thank God the strength of the live show is what it is.  That is what continues to propel both bands, frankly. 

Despite the problems do you find your creative energies still need the music to express or exercise yourself?

Yes, but I have other outlets. Old Timey banjo playing is what consumes me now. Sometimes it distracts from my other interests and I’m sure I’m driving everyone nuts in the van.

You have built up a loyal following in Europe is that something you want to expand on?

Heck yeah. Especially England, Ireland and Holland. Those places are crackin’ for us, I tell you what.

An early champion was Robert Plant who had you support him on tour. Do you keep in touch now that he lives in Austin?

Not really, but his oldest friend and sound man is a very good pal of the band. They all have places in Nashville too, I think. 

How do you feel that the hillbilly underground is developing, there seems to be a lot of bands out there now?

It’s great as long as the song writing is literate. The whole point is too embrace what’s fun and wild about southern/Appalachian culture while still upholding its spiritual, lyrical and artistic integrity. Otherwise it’s just a belligerent parody that confirms the worst of those “Deliverance” stereotypes.

It’s about being a “wise fool”. Don’t forget about the “wise” part, though.

Any you have seen that have taken your fancy?

Ummm, how many times have I mentioned “Pine Hill Haints” over the years? Am I allowed to mention them again? Oh yeah, and I love “Serious” Sam Barrett, the English ballad singer from Leeds. The two tour together frequently.  

Do you like the direction that Hank3 is taking his music? In some ways his two sides are already reconciled in the Shack Shakers.

I like that he’s pushing the envelope in an experimental direction.  It’s not too terribly listenable to most folks (although I love auctioneering, I worked at an auction house for a year and it’s music to my ears) But, to most it’s challenging so, as a result, he’s got my respect.

What are your hopes for the future of both bands and given that you are doing joint gigs is that an ideal package, or is it hard to do both on the same evening?

As I said, it’s tough. We might need to put more distance between the two. Dirt Daubers should be seen as a parallel band, not a “side project.”

When can your fans expect to see you in person or on record next, or is that too early to say at this point?

Soon enough. Hopefully we’ll have a new record when we return this April. I think you’ll love this new guitarist’s take on things. Personally, it gives me goose bumps.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

Thank you!

Interview by Stephen Rapid. Photograph by Ronnie Norton

Glenn Frey Interview by Ronnie Norton

 

So here I am, Bluegrass Radio presenter, eZine contributor, and eternal  “Eagles” fan sitting, waiting for the phone to ring from Glenn Frey to chat about his upcoming solo album release. With “Desperado” on my mind and every “Eagles” CD on my shelves how do I approach an album called “After Hours “, which includes 14 late night piano songs that would do any of the white shirt and tux, boys proud.

It was very simple, I just listened to all the tracks, settled down on a very comfortable cloud nine and said “Tell me how this magic project came about”, when a very relaxed and wildly enthusiastic Country Rock Legend started chatting as though we had been pals since “Take It Easy” totally altered my musical direction in 1972. He loves to come to Ireland to play Eagle Concerts and even sneaks back to take low level helicopter rides to admire the wonderful Irish countryside, grab a game or two of golf and catch up on whatever Irish Trad he can get to listen to.

And then the bonanza. “After Hours” is the reward for two and a half years of dedicated fun, recording and nourishing the type of music that he listened to on the radio while helping his Mom with the ironing at home in his Grandma’s kitchen. He has dedicated this album to his folks who brought him up on a musical diet of Ella Fitzgerald, Teresa Brewer , Dinah Washington and all the white shirt and tux boys that I mentioned earlier. With fellow Eagles touring band mates  Richard F.W. Davis and Michael Thompson he has put together an album that is going to win him a lot of new fans and surprise all of his dedicated Eagles legions of die hards.

It started with providing a pal with eight hours of background music for a cool restaurant hangout in Aspen Colorado called “Andiamo” and then ten years later getting a request from none other than Clint Eastwood who was music organiser for the Wednesday nights at the AT&T ProAm Golf Tournament at Pebble Beach to sing one of his own songs and something from the 40’s for the volunteer party at the club. He remembered all his research CDs for the Andiamo project, discovered that he could sing Tony Bennett songs in Tony’s key and that lead to a regular gig every February with Jack Shelton’s band at Pebble Beach singing Tony Bennett classics. Apart from blowing the audiences away he found himself getting more comfortable and really enjoying this newfound musical outlet.

A few nights after one of these gigs his long time buddy Michael Bolton came over to him and said “Hey Glenn you sounded great doing that type of music. Have you ever thought of doing a record. “ So emboldened by this compliment and having already had the germ of an idea, when he got back to LA he hooked up with Richard and Michael as co-producers and did some trial recordings of “The Good Life”, I Wanna Be Around “ and “The Look of Love”.  He says “It sounded good and we would know, if it was good. So we went on and on and cut the records for real and two and a half years later with 14 track in the bag “After Hours “was born. And “It was fun doing it”.

When I remarked that I was impressed by the feeling that each track had an individual treatment, he  responded that putting the project together was like doing a thousand piece jig saw puzzle. You don’t do it in one sitting. You need to work on it for a while and then step away.  And because they were all working with the Eagles, they would do a few weeks in studio, tour for three or four weeks and come back with fresh ears. There was something nice about working on it over time, because “Distance brings clarity” “We worked on it very carefully and something that I learned from working with the Eagles and from the Beatles was that each one of these songs is like one of your kids. They need to be treated like an individual. Because I didn’t write any of the songs we were just caretakers and interpreters so we had to get it right and not do anything that is disrespectful to the material. It was so much fun working and finalising the record but in fact the “Journey was the reward”. This is a piano song album , it’s not a guitar song album so with musical arrangements from acclaimed New Zealander Alan Broadbent we’ve done a piano and voice album that has style, real style. And we’re really proud of it and looking forward to touring it.”

He hopes to play Ireland and other European countries in late June so it will be a pleasure to catch the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famer in mellow mode with an album that I reckon will do for Glenn Frey what “Stardust” did for Willie Nelson.

Stand out tracks for me are the steel and guitar tinged “Route 66” and the very country flavoured “Worried Mind” but I think I’m going to have to battle with a certain red headed lady at home here for who gets ownership rights on this one.  And there will be many late night, head phones on , lights out  and totally chillin’ sessions for a long time to come. This album came to me out of the blue and I have no problem shifting loyalty from some of the finest new Bluegrass bands that are filling my airtime these days to listen to a potential classic from an Eagle who is really soaring to surprising new heights in this well chosen new direction.

Move over Vince Gill, there’s a new  “Voice” in town. 

Billy Yates Interview

 

Billy Yates is a gentleman in country music (though he should not to be confused with one namesake from bluegrass band Country Gentlemen) who has been through the major label wringer and emerged stronger to run his independent record company M.O.D. - My Own Damn Label. Through which channel he has released eight albums. Just Be You being the latest. He has toured in Europe and the UK and has now made the decision to tour and promote his work in Ireland. Billy did a series of gigs including one where he opened for Robert Mizzell and used his Country Kings band to back him up. Yates declared that he was "too country and proud of it" and his easy manner won him new fans. His set mixed his own material that included Flowers and songs that had a strong element of humour in titles like Daddy Had A Cardiac And Mama's Got A Cadillac as well as his song of tolerance American Voices and his George Jones co-write I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair along side well received covers of songs from Merle Haggard, Gene Watson and George Strait. The audience immediately related to these choices and made sure his live set hit home. Yates will hopefully bring his own band on future gigs that will add an additional layer of energy and authenticity that comes from the experience of playing together over a period of time. On his gig and promotional tour Lonesome Highway took the opportunity to have a conversation with Billy.

There was a five year gap between your debut album on ALMO and your next release what has happening with your career during that time?

I was wasting my time trying to get another record deal (laughs). But actually when I was leaving ALMO Flowers was doing well. They were having a lot of problems with the label at the time as they had struggled for a long time to get the label off the ground in the Nashville division. I think that there was a lot of frustration in the promotion department. They were about to close their doors but they didn't really know it. But I knew it. I saw it coming. I had a call from Alan Butler, who was running Sony, and he had said "Billy can you get out of that deal?". I said I didn't know if I could get out of the deal or not but he told me "If you can get out of the deal I'll sign you here at Sony". So basically the time spent after leaving ALMO was the time spent trying to make something happen at Sony. That happens a lot of times, it's so not uncommon. A lot of people spend time with a label that doesn't work out. I have a lot of records in the can. I have one at RCA, one at Curb, one at Sony. So that's what I was doing at that time.

Is any of the unreleased material available to you?

I can re-record stuff of course, but as regards to those actual tracks I have no rights. But in all honesty I have evolved some and there were a lot of compromises forced upon me. So some of those works are things that I'm not that excited about. They're good. It's real country stuff because I fought for that. It's music I believed in but it was also a little watered down simply because you had committees that chose the material. 

When had you decided that being a singer and songwriter was your career path?

I grew up on a small farm in Missouri and I knew early on it was something I wanted to do. I didn't know how to dream as big as it actually got, even though it's not been hugh, I still didn't know how to dream that big being in a small town. I knew that the sky was the limit. But I was oblivious as to what was beyond the clouds. As a kid I knew it was something I wanted to do. I thought that that meant singing in some band locally. 

Was country your music of choice growing up or where there other influences?

That's kinda interesting as before I was born my parents house had burned down and they had loved country music and they had played it. So they had been given a gift from the radio station of a whole stack of records. It was Buck Owens, it was Jim Reeves, Carl Smith, Webb Pierce, George Jones, Lefty Frizzell. So you are what you eat so as kids we ate a lot of traditional country music. I always loved that. As I got older even when I was in high school country music was not cool. Not the think to do, you know, but I still loved it. I never lost my appetite for it. When I had my buddies in the car and I was driving round I would be listening to the local pop station just to keep everyone happy, but that didn't mean I liked it. When they weren't in the car I'd go to the highest point in the city and from there I could pick up the Grand Ole Opry. I would sit alone and listen to it a lot of nights and weekends when my friends were out partying. I had such a strong desire to hear that music and that never left. It's still there. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music but there's still only one type of music that gives me goosebumps. 

You wrote some songs with some great traditionally orientated writers including Paul Overstreet, Irene Kelley, Melba Montgomery, Shannon Lawson and Leslie Shatcher. Many of whom seemed to have fallen off the radar now, is it hard to find your self out of favour?

Yeah, one thing that Nashville is a little bit guilty of is that sometimes you're 'flavour of the month' and your lucky if you get to be that guy for awhile. For those guys, and obviously I'm not speaking for them, but I would guess that they would love to be back there. I'm sure they're still writing songs. I was recently at a songwriter's festival in Key West because I like to know what's going on and there were a lot of people there who have had a lot of success and I would love to be able to write with them. I've gone through a phase for the last two or three years were I've not been co-writing at all but have been writing by myself. Now I'm going back to a phase were I'm starting to co-write again. So I went to that Key West songwriters festival because I want to see who's happening. If you're going to co-write you might as well see if you can write with people who are having hits. 

Do you do that to learn something from their process?

I do, If you want to stay current you have to know what's going on. I don't want to live in a bubble. I try to do what I do best and as a artist I'm always going to be country. But I'm also a lyricist and when you write lyrics the way I do I love to hear a big pop melody and I consider how it would sound under one of my lyrics. I'm really broadminded that way. That's one thing that maybe sets me apart a little bit from most of the more traditional people that I know. Again, I know that it gives me goosebumps when I hear great music, 'cause I know it when I do hear it. So I really try to keep an open mind. 

In the 90s country seemed to have a way to particular edgy sound, a blend twang with the better aspects of rock. The way that artists like Dwight Yoakam and Bob Woodruff did for a time. Has that kind of innovation been purged from the mainstream?

That's was a really innovative time. It seems right now we're going through a phase where a lot of the writers are maybe trying too hard to get something on the radio. They're trying too much to get that rather than being innovators. I was writing at a big company and the president of the company came in and said "we have to talk about the songs we're writing and our direction. I'm talking to people at the record labels and they're saying that radio is want this and this and this". I raised my hand  and I said "well this is a promotion guy whose talking to some guy at the radio station and our job is to innovate. We shouldn't worry about what just got cut as when your chasing something you're behind it. If you're going to be a songwriter you need to be ahead and to innovate. I have to write today what's going to hit a year from now. 

In the way that Bill Anderson has been able to write songs that have worked through several decades. Country, but adapted to current trends.

Exactly. It's honest music. I think that's the key. What Jamey's doing is very honest. To me good music is honest. It doesn't matter what type it is if it has that quality. So I don't want to sit here and sound like I'm this big naysayer of what's happening in Nashville because it is what it is. You accept it if you're going to do business in that town. If I just sit and moan about it what good does that really do me? 

The Industry is changing a lot, what has the effect of that been in Nashville?

I think that some of the major labels have to be nervous, if they're being truthful, because the way the world works today is so much smaller with the internet and they way some artists are thriving. Independent artists are kicking ass. I want to be one of those I don't want to be the guy who has to fit in some mould. I sometimes explain it this way -there are acts and there are artists. If you're an act you need those people to tell you how to dress, how to sing and what songs to sing. If your an artist you don't need that. So with the independent world the way it is an artist can thrive and they find their audience and that audience can find them and that makes it honest music. All of a sudden you have a lot of great music out there. But you have to go and find it.  

Producing your music on your own label means that you are the one making those decisions. How does that effect you?

I haven't made any compromises. I don't have to apologize. If you don't like something then I take full responsibility. It was not something that was forced on me. As I get older (laughs), that's going to sound even older in print but I want to be doing this when I'm seventy and doing it my way - whatever that is. Whatever I feel compelled to do. 

You have made several inroads to Europe. This is your first visit to Ireland isn't it?

Yes, I've never come to Ireland before. This is my first tour here so I'm excited to be here. I've tried to be strategic about touring in Europe and Ireland is different as there is a big following for country and if you're going to do it I think you need to try and do it right. There are full time country stations here, you don't have that anywhere else in Europe. I see the future for country music in Europe as something really bright in Ireland and I want to be a part of it if the people will accept me. 

You have had covers from George Jones and George Strait but also by David Allen Coe and Dallas Wayne. Both ends of the scale, that must be satisfying?

You know the David Allen Coe thing is a funny story. He was in the studio working on this record and a buddy of mine was producing it, a guy named Danny Mayo. He called me as I knew Coe from the past as I used to promote shows and I had him on one, and that's another story, but  he's a character and he can be very intimidating. So Danny had called and said can you come to the studio as I'm cutting this record on Coe. So I went to the studio and they had already cut the tracks and Coe was doing his vocals and Danny walked out of the studio and said to me "I'll be right back" but he went out and never came back. There had been some sort of row and so Danny had just left. Coe comes out of the vocal booth and says " where did Danny go" and I said "I don't know" and it was just me and the engineer and he was being real quiet so I didn't know what had happened earlier and Coe says "Hell, do you want to produce this record?" (laughs). I told him I could help home get vocals. So I ended up producing his vocals. He asked me then to sing harmony so I did all the background vocals. I love that fringe stuff. That outlaw thing. There's a little bit of that in me too. I am the nice guy but I'm a rebel at heart. When it comes to my music I'm very rebellious, sometimes to my own demise. Dallas Wayne, that's a cool guy. 

At this point Ronnie had a couple of questions he wanted to ask Billy:

Ronnie: My world is more in bluegrass. Where is that in your world?

I said I grew up doing music with my family and bluegrass was our thing. I've always said I wasn't good enough to do bluegrass and started doing country. I was never that great on the guitar. I could never get that down. Bluegrass is another kind of music that gives me goosebumps. I've never had any bluegrass cover and I'd love to. There's starting to be more bluegrass people in Nashville now. Rhonda Vincent is an old friend of mine. That's been on my mind actually. I've even though about doing a bluegrass record myself. I love to sing it. There was a time when Ricky Scaggs took bluegrass into country and put the drums in there. 

Ronnie: Have you ever interacted with the other Bill Yates (Country Gentlemen)?

No, I've never met him and it's funny as a lot of people get us mixed up. I've had e-mails saying "I'm a huge fan", but it's for him. I'm old but I'm not quite that old (laughs).

Interview by Stephen Rapid with Ronnie Norton. Photograph by Ronnie Norton