Interview with Sean McConnell

It’s ten o’clock in the morning in Nashville when Sean accepts my invitation to talk. All just part of another media day that he spends being interviewed and answering questions about his new album, A HORRIBLE BEAUTIFUL DREAM. 

It’s a self-produced project by Sean, at his home studio, Silent Desert, just outside of Nashville and distribution in the United States is being handled by Soundly Music, based in New York City. 

Sean has been releasing top quality albums since 2000, in addition to writing for numerous other headline acts over many years and producing other artists albums from his home-based studio. We were delighted to have the chance to learn more about this new album and to reflect on the path taken by this superbly talented singer-songwriter;

You grew up in Boston, one of 4 siblings and your parents were both Folk musicians, active on the local circuit. You moved to Georgia, aged eleven, and that must have been a wrench at the time, leaving your known life behind?

It was a big shift. We have a very big family up in Massachusetts and we were really close to them, and all of our friends, so leaving was a little bit of whiplash, especially at that age. It definitely played a big role in what I was writing at that ripe age of eleven years old!

I believe that you wrote your first song aged ten years old so you were obviously influenced by your parents right out of the starting blocks. Your first album appeared when you were fifteen years old, what do you remember about it?

Yeah, the first record was called, FACES, (2000) when I was fifteen. My guitar teacher at the time had a home studio and he said why don’t you come and record some of your songs. I will always have gratitude towards him for the opportunity and even for the idea to record some of these songs. It came out and I had it on the internet, sold it at gigs and just bootstrapped it. 

Would you say that this DIY ethic, which has continued through your career, was influenced by your parents and watching them going out and making music themselves? 

It definitely was part of it, seeing my parents playing gigs and working hard to write songs and get their arrangements together. It was a big part of it in the beginning. And then as with anything that you do, you want it to grow and you keep spending more time at it, figuring out what you need to do, booking my shows for many years when I was younger and then how to get a booking agent, it just organically grows.  I think my career has been a really slow build of one notch at a time. A lot of it is just putting in the hours, getting on the road, keeping your head down and playing your music. 

Between the six years (2000 - 2006), you create and produce four albums, which is a huge work ethic for one so young. At this point you have moved to Nashville and attend college at Middle Tennessee State University.

Yeah, in Murfreesboro, just about thirty minutes outside of Nashville. I moved for college and I never went back home. I met my wife in my sophomore year and we got married really young so I stayed here. Nashville is a good place to be if you’re doing music, so it seemed like a good fit (laughing).

Your wife, Mary Susan, holds a doctorate in special education and is the host of the podcast, Mama Bear, which assists parents in challenging child-care situations. I also read about your incredible adoption story and your beautiful daughter, Abiella, that you brough home from Ghana. It’s a story of such bravery and love and I was very inspired when I read about your journey.

Well, thank you. Both my wife and my daughter are magical ladies. I’m a lucky man.

Were you starting to spend more time writing songs for other artists at this stage?

Yeah, so when that happened, I didn’t go looking for a publishing deal. Warner Chappell Music was the first publishing company that I worked with. Alisha Prewitt, who has become a dear friend, heard a demo and called me. She showed up at a show and really believed in what I did. I was new to what publishing was and whether I fit inside that world. I was with them for about eleven years or so and it was about writing songs everyday with different people or occasionally by myself. It started a whole other chapter of my career that was unexpected and really exciting.  

You then moved to Rounder Records (2016). Was this a conscious decision to have a label do some heavy lifting for you regarding business issues while you got on with the creativity of writing?

Yeah, up to that point I didn’t have any experience with a record label. I always want to put my best foot forward and it felt like at the time it was a decision to try something different and reach a wider audience with some help from a label. I think that we accomplished that and I still have a special place in my heart for that self-titled record that we did in 2016.

The next year, again with Rounder, you released an acoustic version of that album, titled UNDONE. You decide to switch back to recording under your own name again and Silent Desert appears as your own publishing company and recording studio.

The early version of the studio was not what it is now. It was just a room or two upstairs in our home but it is now a separate building. Mary Susan is also a potter and a painter and she has her own studio, next to mine, with a kiln and a wheel. She is very talented.

You also have a farm with chickens and pigs I believe?

Yeah, it’s very grounding and we like being out on the land.

You were invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in 2016. How did you find that whole experience?

I can’t remember how that happened. But when I got the invitation, I was so thrilled. It’s something that you hope for and wait for. It was a big night. My Mom and my aunt flew out, my wife was there and it was the first time that my daughter got to see me in a venue. It was an absolutely magical memory.

In 2019 you released SECONDHAND SMOKE and you tour the album in Europe, appearing in Dublin on one of the tour dates. Was that your first time to visit?

It all runs together in my head but I had been there just one time before. I didn’t have a show but me and my tour manager flew over for the day. We had two days off after a show in London and it was at the very top of my list to visit. We were there for twenty-four hours, walked around and took everything in. It was amazing, one of my favourite memories.

SECONDHAND SMOKE was a huge record for you, certainly in Europe, and this new record carries on the momentum. I’m really impressed with it, thirteen songs and a very generous fifty minutes of real quality. I wanted to ask if this is a more personal album for you, opening yourself up and feeling more vulnerable?

Yeah, I feel like you’re right that this record is a little bit more of a peek inside my psyche, my heart, my family and my stories. The songs are very personal to me. It’s definitely a vulnerable record for sure.

What The Hell Is Wrong With Me, (daughter Abi plays rhythm sticks on it) has a lyric about “hiding from a storm and being frightened from the day I was born.” Is this something that you experienced or is it how you feel when thinking of Covid now?

It’s an early memory for me and it starts off the song. I remember being very little and being with my family on the front porch and terrified by a storm coming in.  It’s very autobiographical.

I Built You Up, is a co-write and a song that could equally be about someone in the public arena or some personal connection. Is that how you wanted to portray the song?

Yeah, I think we wrote it to be both of those things or even more. It’s really the propensity we have to lay our own wishes and desires, or expectations onto somebody and how, for good or for bad, a lot of times people just can’t live up to that. 

There is a sense of redemption on Waiting To Be Moved, with a lot of religious imagery in the song. Do you have a strong Christian faith or is it a more spiritual message that you are giving?

I would say both, I was raised Catholic and grew up with a mother to whom that was really important and she handed that to her children in a very special way. The older I get, my faith becomes my own and my ideas and my philosophies have expanded and morphed and changed, but are still holding onto some of those core beliefs that I was raised with. There is a lot of that in this record and a lot of the songs that talk about fighting with faith or doubt. It is a very universal theme and a lot of people can relate to that.

Leave A Light On is a standout track and very memorable. You refer to doubt and believing that there is something bigger out there. Is that a song to yourself or a to a friend?

I think that good music will fit different occasions, I originally wrote it for someone that was going through a difficult few years, but now when I sing it, sometimes I could be singing it to myself. A lot of people have responded to that song and thanked me for it and said that It speaks to them in a special way. I’m glad that it’s on the record and getting out into the world.

You have a very rich, soulful voice and one which connects deeply. Did you have an interest in this music growing up? 

Yeah, I’ve always been really attracted to Gospel music and Soul singers and its definitely something that I listened to a lot growing up. Also, there is something that I was born with in my spirit that just wants to sing that way. There is definitely some of that on this record.

Another record, LIVE FROM BASEMENT EAST, was released on digital format in 2020, with Sean donating the proceeds towards rebuilding the destroyed music venue and helping Nashville recover from the terrible hurricane damage that was caused last year. It is typical of the humanity and generosity of spirit that Sean displays in everything that he does, whether reaching out to community or caring for his family. 

I look forward to meeting Sean in person when he can make it back over to Europe and continue to build on the momentum that had seen him visit five or six times over the two years before Covid changed our world. 

Check out the wonderful music of Sean McConnell on www.seanmcconnell.com or from your preferred media source.

Interview by Paul McGee

Interview with Mike Harmeier

When they launched their career over a decade ago, Mike & The Moonpies were essentially a covers band with a repertoire of over three hundred songs. Having earned a reputation in Texas as one of the leading country dancehall bands, a succession of cracking studio albums has subsequently transported them from high end impersonators to one of the most pivotal bands in the country music genre.

Rather than stick with a tried and trusted formula with their studio output, each of their last four recordings has found them challenging themselves both sonically as well as in the songwriting of front man, Mike Harmeier. Those albums included recording with The London Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road in London, paying tribute to the oft-overlooked country singer Gary Stewart and, with their latest release, ONE TO GROW ON, creating a concept album of deeply emotional and fiercely honest songs.  Described by Saving Country Music as ‘one of the most anticipated releases all year’, it more than lives up to expectation and will most certainly feature at the business end of our favourite albums of the year.

 Normal touring duties have recently resumed for the band and we caught up with Mike Harmeier as he headed off on the road for a series of shows in America before coming to Europe in the new year.

How did the Covid related restrictions in 2020 pan out for you personally?

It was definitely a time for reflection and a re-assessment of what’s really important to me. I got to spend time with my wife and three-year-old son that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise and got a ton of things done here at the house that I never would’ve gotten around to. I’m trying to remember all of the lessons and epiphanies that I experienced over that year and keep that perspective now moving forward.

You like to experiment with ONE TO GROW ON following last year’s TOUCH OF YOU – THE LOST SONGS OF GARY STEWART and CHEAP SILVER AND SOLID COUNTRY GOLD (one of the Lonesome Highway albums of the year in 2019). Where did the idea of a concept album come from?  

We always try to steer away from making the same records that we have in the past. I’ve always wanted to make a fully conceptual album and build a narrative that flows front to back. When the first couple of songs started to flow for this record, I started seeing a character develop that seemed to be a little of me and a little of someone that I didn’t really know. I decided then to really explore who this guy was and try to tell his story. It wasn’t until I had written all of the songs that I really sat down and put them in the right sequence to build the character. It was a very fluid process and it evolved over the whole course of making the record. 

Did revisiting Gary Stewart’s songbook influence the musical direction of ONE TO GROW ON?

I most definitely learned some things while making the Gary record. I think my biggest take away from making that record was experimenting with new ways to move my melody lines. Gary always went to unexpected places with his vocal melodies and that must’ve really ingrained itself in me while singing this record. I found places to go that I never would’ve thought I’d find vocally.

Johnny Paycheck is referenced on the opening track. Is he also an artist whose back catalogue is played on the tour bus?

From the beginning of the band we have all been huge Paycheck fans and have built a lot of our performance aspects around old Paycheck footage and recordings. We take a lot of pages out of his book. We found a lot of old bootleg concerts that we love to listen to for inspiration and to get pumped up before the show.

Were the songs on the new album written during quarantine and do you normally write between tours or when you’re on the road?

Most were written during quarantine. I tend to write at home anyway but this time felt a lot different. Definitely more rewrites and editing than ever before. Once we started to build this character narrative, we did dig up two songs that we had never cut for any previous albums. They were songs we had tried but never found a home until now. Brother and Whose Side You’re On were originally written for a movie soundtrack but they lined up perfectly for the aesthetic of this record.

Did you have the opportunity to ‘road test’ any of the songs on your last tour or were they written after that tour?

We didn’t get to play these songs on the road prior to making the record. We hardly ever do that anyway, so it wasn’t a big change for us. We like to really arrange things in the studio before releasing them into the wild. 

Is there a chunk of Mike Harmeier self-examination in some of the songs?

Absolutely. I was consciously writing from a character’s perspective during the whole process, but subconsciously I think I was learning all the lessons that my character was speaking to simultaneously. It’s a very chicken or egg scenario.

There is a central theme of ‘growing up’ and taking responsibility across the album. Is this in any way a reflection of many years touring with the band and is life on the road less frenetic now than in the early years?

With over a decade under our belts touring and recording, we have all grown up quite a bit. We really pick our battles now a little smarter and I think we’ve all learned about what’s really important to us both personally and professionally. And we have all learned to appreciate where we’re at and take pride in the work it took to get us here. I think we are all more grateful people these days. Those are all major themes on this record. 

Adam Odor, who produced the album, seems like an unofficial member of The Moonpies at this stage. How important is his contribution both to your songs and your sound?

Our whole game really changed when Adam came on board. It was the first time we really had an outside influence on our music and business, that we welcomed with open arms. We immediately found ourselves on the same page with the same work ethic and he’s been paramount in both the sound of our band evolving and the way we operate.  

Were you able to get everyone into Yellow Dog Studios in Wimberley to record live or were you restricted with Covid?

We did a lot of pre-production from our homes. Everyone had built home recording rigs while making the Gary record, so we utilized those again to trade ideas and demo things out. We were able to all get together at Yellow Dog though to cut the final product. 

It plays out like an album made for live shows. How have the songs been going down on the tour?

Most of the songs are upbeat on this record and I think they could all fly for live shows, unlike some previous albums. We’ve been adding them into the set and so far, they are crowd hits. I look forward to when everyone knows the words and we can all sing them together. 

Are you finding the atmosphere at the shows even livelier than before given that punters have been starved of live music for so long?

This has been very apparent to us. Crowds are bigger than ever and everyone is really participating more in the shows. More singalongs than ever before and in general just a more attentive audience. It’s been feeling really great.

As someone who always seems to be one step ahead, are you already thinking of the next album and will you continue to strive for something different to this one?

We had a few ideas for a new record before we even started this one. We always have a trick up our sleeve and when the time is right, we will pull the trigger on the next one. We have some very cool ideas for some cool places to go sonically and a different approach to recording we’re thinking about playing with next time. Stay tuned.

We’re huge fans of Mike and The Moonpies having seen you play a number of times at AmericanaFest in Nashville. You have shows lined up in the U.K. for April of next year. Will you make it over to us in Ireland for the first time or should we be booking flights for the U.K?

I don’t think we have any Ireland shows this time but we are already planning another trip back over again. So come see us in the U.K. and keep your eyes peeled for some more tour announcements next year.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Shaye Zadravec Interview

Artists such as Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris carved out hugely successful careers interpreting songs written by others - today, Shaye Zadravec is following a similar path with her recently released album, NOW AND THEN. With an angelic voice and the capacity to recognise songs that deserve to be reborn, the album’s ten tracks include songs written by Jay Farrar, Jesse Winchester, Mandy Barnett, Paul Westerberg and Lynn Miles. Also included are two songs written by Ian Tyson, one of which is a duet with the legendary singer songwriter. The album has rightly been receiving glowing reviews, not only in her homeland Canada, but particularly in Europe, where she continues to expand her fan base. We chatted with Shaye recently to get the history behind the album and her chosen career. 

When did you start singing and did you receive formal voice training? 

Singing is something I had done since I was a child, simply because I loved doing it. When I turned eighteen, I decided to go to an open mic event. I knew I wanted to be on stage because I had performed dance and theatre previously. Singing live created quite a fear for me and I wanted to conquer that. From that first open mic event I was introduced to a world of music that I hadn’t known existed. I had been always in the dance world or theatre in Calgary and had no reference point to the local music scene. I was hooked from that first open mic and started going to more events, and meeting more people. I actually only started taking voice lessons this year after recording my album, to make sure I was doing it right (laughs).  When I listen back to my own music, it is hard not to analyse the notes that I was singing. It made me think that maybe I could’ve done things a little bit differently. I actually took the singing lessons throughout Covid just to keep me sane.

Based on the selection of songs for the album, I get the impression of an artist with exquisite music tastes or good parenting, our possibly both. 

I have two siblings and we have been very fortunate to have been exposed to all kinds of music from a young age. The arts were always very much encouraged at home, whether that be singing or dancing. My Dad’s father was a musician, so music was a large part of his life. I did find that when I was in junior high school that I was humming a lot of songs that were different to what my friends were listening to. 

Can you explain where the title of your debut EP NORWAY came from?

That was a very interesting story. I started working with my manager Neil McGonigill a few years ago now and he encouraged me to go into a studio and record some demos. To find out what my actual musical groove was, he asked me to interpret certain songs. One song that he suggested I try was a Chip Taylor song called I’ll Carry For You. I took the song home and learnt it, and went into a studio in Calgary called Airwaves Studio and recorded it. I was actually quite nervous, because I had not done anything like this before and we basically sat on the song for a few months. Neil is good friends with Chip and eventually sent my version of the song to him. Chip was excited enough to talk to his producer Goran Grini, who totally unprompted added some instrumentation to the song and sent it back to us. When we got it back, we thought it was quite a beautiful sound, having been unaware of what to expect. After that we decided to do a couple more songs with the same format, where I would record and send the songs to Goran who is based in Norway and he would send them back with added instrumentation. When we had the songs together for the EP, we were trying to figure out what to call the album and the guitar player that I work with, Tim Leacock, suggested I should call it NORWAY, as a thank you to this gentleman I had actually never met, but did all this work for me.

The two opening tracks on your current release NOW AND THEN are the Jay Farrar written Windfall and Jesse Winchester’s Biloxi. They set the tone of the album perfectly. How did the selection process for the songs work out? Were they chosen by you or did you have an input from others?

The opening song Windfall was the newest song in my repertoire and that was brought to me by Goran. He is a big Jay Farrar fan and asked me to sing that song. He also thought it was a song that may have been overlooked and had a fantastic hook to it. He felt it deserved another chance. He was right, I really believe that song could be so universal and that anyone could sing along to it if they wanted to. It also had the right vibe to be the first song on the album. Biloxi is my dad’s favourite song. He’s a huge Jesse Winchester fan and has always considered him something of an underdog.  It’s one I’d been intending to use in the project for a long time, having known the song so long. The Slider by Roy Forbes was pitched to me years ago by Neil while Mandy Barnett’s The Whispering Wind has been one of my favourite songs for many years. The album is mostly a collection of songs that I had always had with me at some point. It’s kind of a timeline of my music career so far. That’s where the album’s title NOW AND THEN comes from – and it’s also the first two words in the opening song.

Skyway, written by Paul Westerberg of The Replacements, is also very impressive. 

That was actually one of my favourites of the songs to record. Part of my inhibition as a singer is that I feel that lots of the songs I perform on stage tend to be quite understated and mellow. The common feedback I often get is that I need to pick it up a notch. I actively went out looking for a rockier song that I could make something of in my own way. I wanted a song from The Replacement’ collection and I found Skyway. I wanted to rock it up a bit, but I thought this is not the time, so I selected the most melodic song from them that I could find. 

You also got the opportunity to record a song with the legendary Ian Tyson. How did that unfold?

That was again through my manager Neil, who had known Ian for quite a long time. He used to be his manager and tour manager. Ian is advancing in years and lives in a ranch at Long View and doesn’t play that often anymore. We wanted to try one of his songs which may have been previously overlooked. We chose a Christmas song, Silver Bell and wanted to record it and release it as a single, which we did. We needed Ian’s blessing first before recording it and he invited us over to his ranch and we got to sit in his famous stone house, which is on his property and is where he does all his writing. We sat there and worked up the song. I was singing it with him to see if he was comfortable with my vibe and what I was doing with it. We then thought, why not sing it as a duet, as the song is from two perspectives and he was all for it. I was a bit nervous in his company, I just hung in the background while he talked to Neil and Tim Leacock. My plan was just to sing and if Ian Tyson approved my singing, that’s all I needed.  But he was very welcoming, not afraid to give feedback and eager to make the song sound as good as it could be. 

You also include another Ian Tyson song Summers Gone on the album.

Yes, that song is completely different to what people think of when they consider Ian Tyson’s music. Traditionally people will think of Four Strong Winds or Someday Soon, when they think of him. This song is totally left field, but also one of Ian’s favourite songs that he had written but slipped somewhat under the radar. When I covered it, I felt it was more of a crooner type song and not just a country song, even though there is country music content in the lyrics. 

Are you continuing to seek out somewhat undiscovered songs to make your own?

Yes, I do look for songs that would resonate if they were given a second chance. However, I don’t want to just limit it to that, as there are some songs that I just love singing at my shows, even if some of them have been done to death already. In terms of my recording career, I would prefer it to be songs that resonate with me and deserve another shot. Watching the Linda Ronstadt documentary, The Sound of My Voice, it seems like she was motivated by songs that sat in her heart, many of which got an extended life by her recording them.

Do you have a couple of gems that you’ve written yourself but are somewhat nervous to put out there on a recording?

(Laughs). I have written a couple of songs including a few co-writes and I do perform one of them live. It’s a love song to send people off at the end of the night with a good feeling in their hearts. As far as my owns songs go, I feel that I write goofy songs. When I look at what I’ve written down and try to work a melody, I find a lot of humour in the writing. I’m not sure I want to introduce myself to the world as a goofy songwriter.  That might be down the road a bit.

Have things opened up for live shows in Calgary yet and are you performing solo or with other musicians?

Yes, to extent things are opening up, but people are being careful. I’m actually happiest doing outdoor shows at the moment and with Covid still around that seems like the safest way to proceed. I generally have Tim Leacock on guitar on stage with me most of the time. I haven’t expanded beyond that yet, but now that things are starting to roll, I may change that. I have learnt how to perform on stage with multiple musicians and how to take the lead as an artist.

The song selection on both the EP and the album in the main are songs that could work stripped back or indeed with an orchestra. Was that a consideration in the song selection process?

The NORWAY EP could have been very difficult to reproduce live without an orchestra behind the songs. But, having said that, I’ve performed them on stage with Tim and they work surprisingly well. With only two guitars on stage there are certain melodies that may feature piano on the recording that has to be replaced by guitar. But it is possible to strip the songs down without losing the effect. When I do get the opportunity to perform on stage with multiple musicians all their parts are there on the studio recording for reference. It can work both ways. 

You must be relieved to be finally getting the chance to leave the house and get out and perform once more?

I really am. I did find during Covid that I’m alright with my own company. For an artist it is all too easy to develop inhibitions by comparing yourself with other artists that you see on stage. You’re thinking ‘should I be writing more original songs’ or ‘should I change my hair colour and create more waves’. You can start to get inside your own head in normal times. During Covid, when I took a step away from the visual stimulation that the industry encourages, it allowed me to concentrate on the music and not the other smoking mirrors. The negative was and is, not knowing how long all of this is going to last. You start to question why you got into the industry in the first place. But it is coming back and so many people need music and art in their lives.

https://continentalrecordservices.bandcamp.com/album/now-and-then

Interview by Declan Culliton

Erik Shicotte Interview

An ironworker by trade, Erik Shicotte’s days are filled with erecting fire training towers across the United States of America and his evenings are regularly spent writing songs in motel rooms. His mini album MISS’RY PACIFIC was recently released on Shooter Jennings’ record label Black Country Rock, quite an endorsement for a relatively unknown artist. With a booming baritone voice and songs about trains, trucks, highways and blue-collar workers, the album made quite an impression at Lonesome Highway when it arrived for review a few weeks back. Life has been like a rollercoaster ride for Erik over the past year as he explained to us via Zoom recently.

Where are you located at the moment?

Madison, Wisconsin, the dairy State, which is mostly home for me. I’m from here and when I’m not on a job I spend most of my time here. 

Before we get to the album, tell me about the ‘Mid-Western Guilt’ phenomenon that I read and hear about?

(Laughs) Mid-Western guilt is more or less a concept. Mid Westerner’s tend to be stubborn, hardnosed, complain about the weather but we have a strong sense of community. Even if we hate each other, you never let your neighbour down. I like to play off that a bit, being raised here and seeing how I grew up here. Sunday church-based lunching culture still exists here and there’s still a market for polka bands in Wisconsin. There’s a lot of unique attributes to this place that are very important to who I am as an artist and a person in general. But the Mid-Western guilt is a joke about ourselves because we have to be a bit self-deprecating to put up with the winters here. We have to be a bit masochistic; we get up to thirty degrees centigrade in the summer and negative thirty in the winter as well as the wind chill factor.

I understand that you have a day job as a steelworker as well as your musical career.

Yes, I work with a crew that builds fire training towers for local Fire Departments. Sometimes it’s military work, like air force bases. The towers are built for fire fighters to do live burn training on and can be used again and again. We build them tip to tail, from start to finish. It keeps me moving and it keeps me thinking. 

Is that lifestyle helpful in terms of your songwriting?

Oh definitely. Being out on the road and spending your life in hotel rooms is very conducive to the life of a country singer. It gives me both ideas for songs and the environment to write them. Typically, my songs come out a couple of years after the subject matter I’m writing about. I haven’t quite figured out how my timing works yet, but I’ve got a lot of things swimming around in my head for songs about the actual work and the boys on the crew. The song Niners on the EP is about a winter spent working in Wyoming building a tower out there and the misgivings of the crew, the weather and everything that was going on out there. We had boys getting drunk and not showing up for work and we had winter storms whistling down the canyon. It was the first song where I explored what was going on around me at the time. I wrote that in Room 104 at The Day’s Inn in Thermopolis, Wyoming. Some of the shit that went on at that job you never quite forget (laughs). 

Does that line of work limit your opportunities to perform live?

Yes, generally speaking. I probably could find some opportunities to play when I’m out on the road working, but the last couple of years with the pandemic and all the other crazy things that have been going on in my life personally, it was not conducive to finding shows. A lot of the places we’ve been, like that little town in Wyoming, didn’t have any venues to play except for the rodeo grounds, but it was the depth of winter and there wasn’t much going on there. 

There appears to be something of a revival in what is called Outlaw Country music with acts like Colter Wall, Jaime Wyatt and Vincent Neil Emerson, to name but a few, all making names for themselves. Do you consider yourself part of that community?

Personally, I don’t try to fit into any one corner. I’ve got this Waylon tattoo on my arm and that’s probably where my loyalty lies. Though I do think you’re on to something with that. There is a growing appreciation, invigoration and drive among musicians and fans, gravitating towards whatever you want to call all these niche markets of Americana and Outlaw, and it is growing. A lot of the people making these tunes are also very versatile musicians. I’m looking forward to see what Vincent (Neil Emerson) does next, since you mentioned him. He’s a cool cat, I enjoy his tunes and I think he’s definitely going to be sticking around for a while. I’m looking forward to hearing his songs for the next decade at least. I’m aware of those artists you mentioned and the bigger banner folks like Tyler Childers. Even around here there’s some local artists doing their kind of stuff and trying to find their sound. It does sound a lot like outlaw to me.

Do you take encouragement from the success that an artist like Tyler Childers has achieved without selling out and recording music on his terms?

It’s been breath-taking to observe, witness and listen. He is very much himself, he’s not a label and he is not bought by anyone. It’s very encouraging to see that happening because it gives the likes of myself and so many others hope that we can maybe make enough money to live doing this, to survive and maybe even flourish one day. It makes me realise that here might be a place for me out there.

MISS’RY PACIFIC was released on Shooter Jennings’ Black Country Rock label. How did that come about?

My management team is made up of Brit DiMattia and Ash Seiter and Ash had worked with Shooter’s label before and knows them. We were all thinking we would be self-releasing the album but Ash said: ‘let me send a quick text’ and low and behold BCR were interested. We pretty much had the record ready to go and sent it to them. We had also done most of the artwork and it just happened to be right in line with what BCR were looking for. Now there’s Jennings’ blood on my album, which feels absolutely insane to me 

The production for the album was handled by Aaron Goodrich, who also plays with Colter Wall. Tell us about his input?

He is quite a character. He’s been a godsend through all this. Ash (Seiter) had worked previously with Colter and knew all the guys in the band. I was on the road working during this process and we were trying to figure out who we could get to play on the album. Ash got in touch with Aaron, who really took the reins on the recording. I never at any given point got the opportunity to sit in the studio with any of the players. I still have not got the chance to meet any of them.  Between the pandemic and my being on the road for work, we had to piecemeal the album together. Aaron was a complete blessing and we got a couple of other guys from Colter to play. We got Jake Groves on harmonica, Pat Lyons on the pedal, Eddie Dunlop also played petal steel. Miss Tess played bass. Aaron put together a bunch of amazing players. Being that this was my first real recording project with session players, I did not have the vocabulary or the words to tell him what I was hearing and how I wanted the songs to come out. Lacking the vernacular to tell them what I wanted, I basically just told Aaron to listen to the demo and play what the guys feel. That could have been a blessing or a curse for a session player, who sometimes just wants a sheet of music to play from. There was a lot of creative licence on the album, simply because I did not know any better. I also put together a little Spotify playlist of songs that reminded me of the sound I was hearing in my head and what I was looking for and sent it to Aaron. He made it all happen.  I got these tracks back from him to do my vocals and guitar over, and I am thinking ‘Holy Christ, we’ve made record, this is a real thing and it sounds good.’ What they created was beyond my dreams. 

Was there a temptation to include a few cover songs to record a full-length album?

I did think about it and I do have a few covers that I would like to record at some point. I have a bad habit of turning double four songs into three quarter songs and turning stomps into waltzes, which can be a problem. With the time constraints going back and forth with files, it took us a good month or two to get all the these tracks together. It could have been three or four days in a studio but because of the way we were recording it took months to get them back and forth, and eventually mixed. We did have other songs we could have included but we basically ran out of resources and it would not have made sense to try to do more.

The songs on the album visit different places and different themes. There’s a sense of movement and constant mobility within the songs.

Well, the songs were written standing still (laughs). There’s only one of them that was written when I was actually living somewhere, which is always a recurring theme with me. I’ve probably got half a million on these bones already and that’s all domestic travel. I’ve never even had a passport and all that travel is either on rims or rails. I never fly, I don’t trust those sardine cans in the sky. Travel has always had a strong presence in my mind and in my songs.  I am not sure how to say it exactly but I guess I kind of wax cinematic in my own head about life in general, whether it be mine are somebody else’s and I try to provide a soundtrack to those thoughts.  

The album’s title MISS’RY PACIFIC pays homage to the Missouri Pacific Railroad, one of the first railroads west of the Mississippi River. That title and the artwork on the album suggest a fascination with trains, is that right?

I love big stinky freight trains. They speak to my soul in ways I cannot accurately put into my writing as yet. It’s just a big part of me and what I enjoy. Most of my friends either work for the railroad or are as obsessed with it, as I am. We’re the kind of guys that stand next to the tracks and watch a freight train go by at forty miles an hour. We won’t say anything but just stand there and feel the rhythm, the motion and the rumble. Diesel exhaust is one of my favourite smells (laughs).

I understand an Irishman can take credit for your finger picking guitar skills.

Yes indeed, that was Ian Gould. He gave me lessons when I got my first guitar and laid the foundations for what was to come. He taught me the basics and I kind of made it my own from there. A lot of the way I learned was just messing around until something sounded neat. Eventually, I started messing around too much and Ian told me that I was probably wasting my money because I was not listening to him, but that’s a recurring theme with me.

The album’s out and the reviews have been very supportive. Are you looking forward to bringing those songs on the road in the near future?

I am actually very much looking forward to getting out and playing and supporting this record. I can’t right now because I smashed my hand up. A stack of headers I was nailing together blew over in the wind and I had a floating finger for a little while. There are pins in there now and is it healing up slowly. My physical therapy to get the hand back up to strength is to get back playing guitar.  We are looking at playing shows in September so hopefully things will be fine by then.  I leave all the booking to my management; it is all kind of Greek to me. We have some opening slots lined up with Mike and the Moonpies and down the road I want to be playing festivals. Things are opening up in the States but a lot of acts are fulfilling their contracts playing shows that had to be cancelled during Covid. 

 Tell me about your fascination with Kacy Andersen of Kacy & Clayton.

(Laughs) You heard about that? For one, her voice is incredible. My management work very closely with Kacy & Clayton and I have had the privilege of hanging out with them when they played Wisconsin. We were imbibing certain drinks after the show, sitting around playing songs to one another. Just getting to hear Kacy’s voice up against my sounded great, I’m not sure how it sounded to everyone else, but it sounded good to me. I immediately thought that I need to do a duet or something with her. Her voice is so perfect, frail on the warble, delicate, yet also strong. The quality of her voice is just incredible. I felt privileged to have witnessed and heard her voice in that informal venue, drunk in a garage listening to her doing her thing without any stage lights or any of that. It truly does just come naturally to her.

Final question. Has this happened very quick for you or was this part of a career plan?

I have been doing music for a long time, I played in cover bands for years. I have written for quite a while, though much more seriously for the past three to four years. I have one previous recording, a four-track mini album which was done in my buddy’s living room. It was a labour of love. My management wanted me to drive towards what my individual sound is and to record an album with session players. We started recording this album this time last year with the song Silver when I was on a job in Oregon and we finished it by winter. Since then, it has been one thing happening after another. I don’t always understand what is going on all the time but I am not completely overwhelmed. Although it is taking quite a while to actually sink in.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Rodney Crowell Interview

With a career that has spanned five decades, Rodney Crowell is one of the most revered singer songwriters in the country and Americana genres. Alongside over twenty studio albums, numerous collaborations, two Grammys and six Americana Music Association awards, the Texan’s benefactors read like a ‘who’s who’ in country music royalty. His songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Emmylou Harris, Crystal Gayle, Alan Jackson and Lee Ann Womack, among others. His recording output in the past ten years has impressively yielded no fewer than nine albums with the latest TRIAGE released this month. He is also credited for his commitment to lending a hand to emerging artists, regularly appearing on their albums or in the case of Vincent Neil Emerson, taking on production duties. Lonesome Highway chatted recently with this most engaging and modest man about the new album and a lot more.

Your recording output in recent years is the most prolific of your fifty-year career to date?

Maybe time is compressing itself as I age. I just like the job more than ever and getting my work done. 

Given the political and environmental climate at the time of writing, there is little anger in your latest album TRIAGE. Instead, it breathes empathy, love and gentleness.

That was intentional. Certain things do make me angry. I know the countryside when you get outside Dublin and into Wicklow, heading on down south in Ireland. It’s like a beautiful garden.  You know, we have such a beautiful green planet. The sun will come out and food will grow. This planet that we live on is such a generous, warm and friendly host yet human kind treats it like a waste basket. That’s what makes me very angry. But anger is not becoming of a man who has empathy. So, I thought in writing all the songs on Triage, I’d followed the notion that some of the best advice you are going to get as a writer and performer is ‘show don’t tell.’ I tried to make the language in the songs display the way I present my ideas and my longings for a better understanding of this world that we live in and how we share this world together. It can’t be preachy. I’m very much a monotheist but very much anti religion, because of the controlling factor. The teachings of the great preachers of any particular religion often get worked by others for personal gain. As a songwriter and performer, I do not want to display any of those attributes. Hopefully I can just share with others my sensibilities, my feelings and my ability to articulate. 

Is the album’s title TRIAGE, a reflection of the medical meaning of the word? 

When I finally looked up the definition of triage, it refers to prioritising things in a medical situation, particularly in a dire medical situation. That’s how I felt about the songs and that’s how I felt about my place as an artist in as much as the audience that I’m able to reach. How do I prioritise the first things we need to get done? The earth that we share is number one and quickly following that is universal love, which we should all share on our best days. I understand that there are a lot of ‘ifs’ about that very thing. That’s why the title song Triage starts with ‘I think I know what love is.’ Maybe I don’t know what it is for you or my next-door neighbour, but here’s what it is for me and I’ll share that with you. If it fits, good, we are one step closer and if it does not fit, no harm (laughs).

How would a twenty-five-year-old Rodney Crowell feel about the album?

I wrote a song at aged twenty-three called ‘Till I Gain Control Again that might just fit fine on this album. At aged twenty-five, to answer your question, I was already on my way to being the person that I am now. A lot of things happened in my early to late twenties that sent me on a path that I am still very much on today. I would hope that my twenty-five-year-old self would look at TRIAGE and say ‘Hey, you’ve gotten better at writing and making your thoughts more concrete, you’re not flying by the seat of your pants as much as before.’ Honestly, I think I was an inspired young writer who tripped the wire now and again, and sometimes got something really good, but I wasn’t nearly as consistent or dedicated as I am today. As you said earlier, I have been very productive in the past number of years. I think my productivity is just testament to my work ethic. If I’m not on the road performing, you can bet I’m up early working on writing every day.

You are seen as a mentor to many young songwriters trying to establish themselves in a challenging market. You recently produced one such artist Vincent Neil Emerson’s self-titled album. How did that come about?

Vincent was sent to me by an industry man who sensed that I would be able to guide him towards a better expression of his song writing, if that’s fair to say. When I first listened to some of Vincent’s songs I thought ‘ok, he’s done his homework and paid attention, he knows how the Townes Van Zandt’s and Guy Clark’s of the world made their mark.’ I felt I could help him focus and make that record.  Being a producer is like being a photographer in a way, figuring out how to put a frame around this young songwriter so that one, such as yourself, will get the full impact of his strengths. Vincent is a poet, his heart is in the right pace, he’s a young man who’s going to be wonderful. He’s going to be a Billy Joe Shaver type of artist for a long time.

You’ve also worked with and aided other local artists such as Andrew Combs and Michaela Anne.  Do these artists have the same opportunities as you would have had in your early career?

Good question. Yes and no. When I and Guy (Clark) and Steve (Earle) were coming up there weren’t many older singer songwriters around. I’m old enough to be the likes of Vincent Neil Emerson’s father and can share with him my insight into how to frame himself and get his music out there. Andrew Combs and Michaela, that you mentioned, are good friends of mine. Certainly, in terms of return for their time invested and monetary gain, the internet has stacked the decks against them. Back in the mid to late 70’s, record companies used to invest money to get us out on the road and understood where our audiences might be, but that money’s gone now. I’m hoping for someone like Vincent and others, that their association with me may lead to people that follow me picking up on these artists, which may be helpful. If you don’t have that type of help and you’re coming on the scene now it’s rally daunting. 

You’ve a very heavy touring schedule coming up. You obviously still get a buzz out of playing to a live audience. Have you still got the appetite to tour and play live on consecutive nights?

I still get a buzz out of playing for sure, I don’t know if I get a buzz out of the travel. But as we say, we don’t get paid to play, we get paid to travel. Looking back a few weeks ago in Texas, I was taking part in a tribute to Jerry Jeff Walker. We had all been in quarantine for so long and Jimmy Buffett, Steve Earle, Jeff Hanna, Emmylou and myself were down there. We were all going ‘wow, this feels like we’re nineteen years old again’, because we hadn’t been performing for so long. Coming out of the Covid pandemic, things are fresh again and it’s going to take a while to wear that out. I’m looking forward to performing to people again even though I’ not looking forward to the travel part of it. On a tour bus it’s very doable for me, I feel like I’m a turtle in my shell. Once you take to the airways there are so many things that can go wrong. 

On a personal basis, tell me what good and bad emerged from quarantine for you?

The death of someone very close to me due to Covid, the passing of John Prine, Hal Willner, Joe Diffie were all low points. That notwithstanding, the isolation was a blessing to me, having no travel for sixteen months. I stayed back in my studio with a little bit of recording gear and recorded about thirty or thirty-five songs where I played all the instruments myself, banged on pots and pans, banged on the windows to get a drum sound and recorded it all. None of which is probably worthy of being released but certainly points the way to what I may do pretty soon.

Interview by Declan Culliton

McKain Lakey Interview

A gifted artist who plays banjo, fiddle, acoustic and electric guitar, McKain Lakey is also a songwriter, teacher, sound engineer and luthier. Her recently released album, SOMEWHERE, showcases her devotion to old time country and folk music. We spoke with her recently to learn of her journey as a young devotee to folk and roots music, her wood working skills, her studies at the celebrated Berklee College in Boston as well as the recording of her most impressive new release.

Tell me about your first introduction to playing music?

I am originally from Washington State, out in the north-west. I started playing music when I was about eleven or twelve. I started taking guitar lessons and my teacher was a lovely woman and the first person that really exposed me to music and in particular folk music. She also introduced me to the community of folk artists in the north-west. They were mostly older folks so I was the young kid running around, trying to learn from all of these players.

It’s quite unique to hear of an 11-year-old listening to folk music.

The first music that I started learning were the songs by Elizabeth Cotton. As it happened my teacher had learnt directly from Elizabeth. For me that was a special way of starting to learn folk music, particularly as a girl, because I felt this was like lineage that was passed down from woman to woman. That was my first exposure to folk music. It also meant that I was connecting with different people and different age groups and also learning the history of folk music. The technical part was important but I was probably more drawn to the human side of it at that time.

Alongside your song writing, performing and teaching you are also a skilled luthier. How did that come about?

I grew up doing a lot of wood working with my dad: he always had projects going around. I gained a deep understanding of working with wood. After college I decided that I wanted to know all aspects of music, including the woodworking and creation of the instruments that I played. I got to know a lovely older gentleman who is a luthier and I basically asked him if I could learn from him. He took me under his wing. It was a sort of casual apprenticeship, learning how to build guitars and other instruments. I don’t do it to make money because I am really slow at it. Building instruments is something that I do between all the other things. It’s really a way to relax for me and something that I love, but not as a career.

Travelling to learn the history of music seems equally important to you. Why is that?

The last few years before the pandemic hit, I was spending half the year teaching music and the other half on tour playing shows. It was a combination of factors and learning the history of music was definitely one. I did want to dig in and learn and see all the various regional areas, the music played there and the nuances of those areas. But some of it was just simply wanting to see the country, meet people and see what life is like in different places.

You recorded your first album WEST in 2018. It’s quite acoustic and stripped back, much more so than your new release SOMEWHERE.

In 2018 I decided to concentrate on music full time. I knew I was going to be spending a long time on the road and WEST was something that was recorded live in a friend’s living room in Birmingham, Washington before touring. The album is certainly where I come from with old time acoustic music. The new album SOMEWHERE was an idea in the back of my head for a long time. Especially after travelling solo for a long time, I was looking for an excuse to make a record that people could dance to.

You selected a producer, Johnny Sangster, who has worked with rock bands such as The Posies, Mudhoney and Supersuckers for the new album. What drew you to him?

Before I started taking guitar lessons as a child, my upbringing was very much rock and roll. I did have a love of gritty and analogue type music with a bit of an edge that goes along with that. With SOMEWHERE I wanted to capture some of that sound and some of that grittiness. I was also interested in recording to tape as I thought that it would be a really cool thing to do. Johnny has a lot of experience doing analogue recording. I knew I wanted to have a folk-influenced album with the rock edge to it production style wise. I felt Johnny was the ideal person to capture that.

Alongside your own playing there is some timely brass inclusions, in particular the ripping sax solo by Jane Covert-Bowlds on Decibel Jezebel.

I still get chills listening to that sax solo no matter how many times I hear it. I just love brass. And it also turns out that some of my very closest friends in Seattle are horn players, so the day that we did horn overdubs was my favourite part of the recording with all my friends just hanging out and playing horns. I was trying very hard to give each of them little features on the album because I love them as people and also their playing.

I also hear some New Orleans influences on the album. Am I right?

There are definitely some. The title track especially was inspired by some Dixieland style. It’s a sound that is still new to me so I’m still digging into and learning more Louisiana specific styles. I’m not an expert by any means but I love a lot of music and the various styles that come out of Louisiana.

When and where was the album recorded?

I was supposed to be in Washington last March for a friend’s wedding when Covid hit and as a result I was stuck in the north-west for a lot of the pandemic. I had been planning to record in Seattle and then tour out there but I wound up stuck in Washington. We started recording in August and spent a period of nine days on the album. Three days of basic tracking, three days of overdubs and three days of mixing. Those first few days it was just me, bass and drums, we recorded all of them live. I was in a booth and they were masked in another room. We recorded all the basic tracks together which I loved. We had horns fiddle, guitar and pedal steel overdubbed.

Where can people get copies of the album or stream it?

The album is accessible on all streaming platforms at present. I already have CDs and a bunch of people have already ordered them which is awesome. I’ve been directing people towards Bandcamp to order it as they are better to artists than most other places. I would love to do a vinyl and that is something that I want to look down the road a bit.

What expectations did you have when writing and recording the album?

 As I mentioned before, on one level the goal was simply to get people dancing. (laughs) That was possibly one aim for me given that the album was made during the pandemic and I was definitely missing dancing, celebrating, being with people and being in a joyful space. On a very base level I just want to make people happy as I thought ‘everything is so sad now: I want a reason to celebrate.’ The flipside had been getting people dancing also possibly means better festival slots, especially coming from a background where I have been playing acoustic, solo music in most cases. I had probably made people sad and crying playing solo, so hopefully this album will make them happy. This album has been in the back of my mind for a bunch of years and I think there was a part of me that wanted to prove something to myself. I went to Berklee College to study music. That was a really challenging time for me. It was pretty hard and very competitive. I actually came away from that experience feeling pretty down and possibly lost as to where I was musically, and not actually wanting to play music I know at that time. 

Tell me more about your experience at Berklee College.

Part of the experience was not being seen for what I was capable of. There are a lot of very talented people that go to that school, so it is very easy to get lost. After that experience I felt like I had something to prove with SOMEWHERE, as in ‘this is what I do, this is what I am capable of and this is the level that I set for myself.’ I wanted to make that a reality for me: that was the personal side of actually proving that to myself. A large part of my experience at Berklee was very much gender related. At the time that I was there the college had only thirty per cent women attending. I found that culturally in the school there was quite a lot of disregard for the experiences of women students. At least that was true when I was there. Often the culture at the college was looking at students and thinking ‘okay you’re a cocky, we need to take you down a peg or two.’ Whereas, I started being pretty intimidated in the first place, so being taken down a few pegs I was in negative peg territory (laughs.) It was also a culture shock for me going from a rural town to the middle of Boston with a lot of people who had been training to go to Berklee for ever. I randomly applied to the school and received a scholarship, so maybe I was a little bit out of my depth at that time.

Do you consider there were many positives from the time spent there?

I’m not sure. That’s actually a question that I ask myself a lot. The things that I am most grateful about are the friendships that I made there, people that are very important to me in my life both musically and for their friendship. When I was there, I was a vocalist, though I did not do a lot of singing as I got caught up in a lot of trauma.  I studied audio engineering which was great in some ways and challenging in other ways.  I am grateful that I got the theory background of music at college but most of the technical skills I had already developed myself, either before or after Berklee.  Most of the study that I have done pretty deeply around folk music history in the US has been since going to college, basically learning things myself. It was helpful to know that I was capable of learning what was put it front of me there, that part should be credited to the college: but as far as the experience of the school itself, I feel that I have been in recovery for many years. (laughs) It’s difficult for me to say overall how I benefited from the experience. Although, it does look good on my CV, so I’ll just run with that. 

Have you been able to set up touring dates now that things are starting to open up again?

I have been very slowly dipping my toe into playing and booking shows. My schedule at present is still pretty open but I’m hoping that things will begin to open up as the summer goes on and into the fall. I am hoping to strike a balance between doing some solo shows and then bringing the band for bigger shows and for festivals. I am envisaging a five-piece band. That would be me, bass, drums and probably Jane on saxophone and someone ideally playing fiddle or pedal steel.  I would consider travelling anywhere that wants to have me. (laughs) In the short term, it’s North America but I would love to come out to Ireland and the UK at some stage.

Interview by Declan Culliton

The Green Line Travelers Interview

Swedish band The Green Line Travelers provide further evidence that classic country music lives and breathes outside of the Texas and Tennessee borders. Their recently released album BAKER’S BOG BLOWOUT created quite a stir at Lonesome Highway. It combines some killer original tunes alongside a selection of classic cover songs and is honky tonk heaven for lovers of that genre. We tracked them down to find out more about their passion for all things old school country and a whole lot more. Daniel Bjorkande, the band’s lead guitarist, kindly responded on behalf of the band to our questions.

Sweden has become very popular in recent years for touring Country and Americana artists. Are you noticing an increased appetite for those musical genres?

Maybe so. There are a few booking agencies that have an eye out for great country and Americana acts, also upcoming ones, so at least there have been opportunities for Swedes to go and listen to great bands and artists. There’s been a show called “Jills veranda”, “Jill’s Porch” in English, that has aired on national television in later years. The plot is that a Swedish artist goes to meet Swedish country artist Jill in Nashville and gets to cover a country song and go through a bucket list. It may have grown an awareness for the more general public and a hipster or two that country music isn’t just Shania Twain. A lot of great artists have appeared in the background (Charlie McCoy, Hogslop Stringband, Sierra Ferrell, Johnny Hiland) and episodes have given viewers a glimpse of e.g., American Legion Post 82.

Tell me the history behind The Green Line Travelers? 

TGLT formed in late summer 2013. David Ritschard and Agnes Oden were performing with their bluegrass outfit Spinning Jennies at a Swedish roots music festival and met bass player Anders Hojlund. They had talks about forming a rockabilly band. Anders knew me and asked me to join on electric guitar. It soon morphed into a hillbilly outfit when they got to the actual playing. The line-up was completed with drummer Fabian Ris Lundblad, actually a schooled drummer who had been studying jazz at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, but also a keen admirer of country and bluegrass. After the line-up was completed TGLT had their first gig in February of 2014. 

Initially we played a lot of rockabilly festivals in Sweden, with recurring dates in Stockholm where we grew a small following of family and friends. Our EP was recorded very early in our career: it featured two original tunes and one was a polka, in the style of The Buckaroos. Digging deeper into classic country we got the idea to get Nudie-styled suits and found Maria Bansgaard Køster, North Country Maiden, and had her make suits for us. It might have been what caught the attention of the organizers of the Nashville Boogie Festival in Nashville and we were invited to play there in 2017. It was quite an overwhelming experience and we met a lot of nice people and had some fun gigs and festivities. 

Where did your own love of classic country develop from?

Each one of us could probably give our own answer to that question, but in short you could say that for David, Fabian and Agnes, classic country music grew on them from their love of bluegrass music, whereas for Anders it was the rockabilly connection, while I approached classic country through a love of classic soul music, like Motown/Stax. When the band got together it started out as more of a hillbilly band, but it has slowly grown to become a classic honky-tonk country outfit. Now we are knee-deep into classic country and there is probably no turning back. For the record we got pedal steel player David Wigstrand to do his thing. We’ve admired his playing for quite some time and he really put his mark on the record. 

You were awarded "Honky-tonk Group of the Year" at the Ameripolitan Music Awards in 2018. How did that nomination come about in the first place?

That’s a good question! We were deeply honoured. Our recorded output at that time wasn't really representative of how we sounded then, we had already moved on to more classic country. We might have had some help from a few semi-live videos filmed by Chris Magee (Bopflix) that were filmed when we played Nashville Boogie. 

You buy into the total package of old-time country including the fashion aspect. How important is this to you? 

We’d say that's really important. Of course, music is the main thing and dressing down can be a blunt statement as well, but for us the stage outfits is kind of a ritual. It frames the live performances to be a very important solemn thing and a way to pay our respects to the music and also to the audience that might be listening or dancing to our music. Also, a thing like Nudie-styled suits can create a certain kind of vibe and at best an extra layer to the experience. For our new record we chose to leave our suits, maybe to try to not be framed as just a costume act (we love acts with costumes). We have a Volvo on the front cover and Göran with his flamenco suit on the front cover. For the band photos we couldn’t leave out a cowboy hat though. 

I understand that the band’s title borrows its title from a subway in Stockholm. Where did the title of your recently released album BAKER’S BOG BLOWOUT come from?

That’s correct, our band name is a reference to the green subway line that runs to the Southern parts of Stockholm where we started out and had our first rehearsal space. “Baker’s Bog” and for that matter “Blowout” are direct translations of stops on that line. For a reference to our EP - Highvalley is yet another stop. Also, we thought Baker’s Bog was slightly reminiscent of Bakersfield.

When and where was the album recorded?

It was recorded on Gotland, the island east of the Swedish mainland in the Baltic Sea. The purpose was to isolate ourselves and be thoroughly focused on recording the album. The studio, Vall Recording Studio, is located in a barn. The basic tracks were recorded in the spring of 2019 and there were plans to release it that summer, but lead singer David had a breakthrough as a solo artist singing country music in Swedish that summer and then covid struck. Then additional overdubs were recorded in Stockholm last year. Initially the plan was to postpone the release to after the pandemic, but since no one knows when that is we went through and did it. 

The well-chosen covers on the album include songs previously performed by George Jones, Connie Smith and Conway Twitty. You’ve recorded these quite similar to the original versions. Were you tempted to reconstruct these songs or would you have viewed this as musical sacrilege?

Foremost we chose them because they are amazing songs and that they fit with our original songs and the record as a whole. We just tried to record them in the simplest possible manner, kind of like a lot of country acts and also rock bands did in the 50s and 60s, like: “this is a hit that just came out. Let’s just record it in a similar manner as the hit, we might get a hit as well.” Kind of like pretending these were not 60-year-old songs. Ha-ha, I don’t think we are gatekeepers out to stop musical sacrilege. We encourage musical sacrilege if it serves the song and art. However, The Green Line Travelers might not be the band to break the fold, invent new musical genres and expose the world to sounds never heard before. We’re sing-and-dance women and men.

The song Honky Tonk Saturday night is wonderful. It features Kristina Murray, a much-loved artist at Lonesome Highway, on vocals. How did that connection come about?

Thank you very much. We think Kristina is wonderful too and we are very glad that the song has been well received. Initially we met her at the Nashville Palace when we played the Boogie. I think we heard her perform with JP Harris and somehow, she got around to talk to Fabian. Next, we met her in Memphis at the Ameripolitan Awards where we were nominated in the honky tonk group and female categories respectively and said hi. When she toured Sweden with Southern Ambrosia, we crossed paths again at a festival and she did a great gig. It was probably then when I had that song in the can and thought her voice would fit well with Fabian’s as a duet. Fabian mailed and asked her and she recorded her part with Michael Rinne in Nashville. 

Was the song Honky Tonk Tuesday Night on the album inspired by the now legendary Tuesday night sessions at The American Legion in East Nashville?

Yes. We have played there three times. The first night especially had a quite cinematic quality about it. Like a Tarantino movie or that scene in True Detective where a band plays “One-Woman Man” in the background? It felt really cinematic to be in Nashville at this place where they serve light beer, the water tastes like chlorine and these people in the audience aren’t faking it, they are doing the two-step for real and their cowboy hats are a part of their culture. And there were young people too. Probably hard to relate to for an American, that their everyday life can be that romantic for Swedes, but we have grown up with that on TV and it was like stepping into your own romantic dreams. So, the song is a tribute to those sessions, the Legion and what’s good about East Nashville.  

Have you had the opportunity to have a full-scale album launch with the current restrictions due to Covid?

No, sadly not. We haven’t yet scheduled a release gig either. It looks like the restrictions for live gigs might remain for a long time in Sweden. 

Where do you see your market in practical terms? Are you looking locally, further afield in Europe or America?

Well, locally (nationally in Sweden) lead singer David’s solo career is looking to take off, so we might have to look elsewhere. On the other hand, a legendary Swedish music critic wrote in his review of the record that we deserved a big break. We’ve saved that in our scrapbook. We know little about a European country scene but we would love to tour more in Europe. Thus far, we have been in Finland and France, and have had a covid-postponed gig in the UK. We’ve had some nice compliments for the record from Ireland and the UK. We'd love to do gigs there. Please reach out!

Obviously, we’d love to go back to the US and do an actual tour. For example, it would be another romantic dream come true to play one of those Texas dance halls. Would they two-step to “Pretend Girlfriend” and “Nine For My Pride”? That would be something. The next step might be to try to get on country radio (or at least the outlaw/classic/retro kind) all over so that a hypothetically interested audience might get to hear us. Either way we are thrilled about how the record has been received, and the kind words that have been said. 

Interview by Declan Culliton

Mac Leaphart Interview

Like many before him Mac Leaphart landed in Nashville with the intention of taking Music City by storm, writing commercial chart-topping hits and winning Grammy’s. When things did not quite go to plan for the South Carolina singer/songwriter he returned to his previous existence as a self-managed performing and recording artist. With two full albums and an EP under his belt, it is his most recent album MUSIC CITY JOKE that has finally brought him the attention his hard-hitting and somewhat tongue-in-cheek writing merits. Setting his sights high, he engaged Brad Jones (Hayes Carll, Josh Rouse, Chuck Prophet) to produce and brought Nashville top session players Fats Kaplin, Will Kimbrough and Matt Menefee on board for the recording. The album – it spent over ten weeks in the Americana Radio Album Charts – combines some frank insights into the less glamorous side of Music City alongside deeply personal ballads and side-splitting fun songs. We caught up with him recently via Zoom to talk about the album and his 10-year experience in Nashville.

Can you talk about your move to Nashville and your expectations at that time?

 I moved to Nashville from South Carolina in 2012, almost ten years ago. I came here to do the typical Music Row songwriter thing. I wanted to write songs for other people and I put a lot of time and effort into that. I was trying to write commercially viable songs and I thought I wrote quite a few good ones. My problem was I did not know how to get them heard or get them into the hands of people who could get the songs on the radio. After a few years of doing that, I decided to do the artist thing instead. It got frustrating to be spending so much time for the songs not to go anywhere. They were not songs that I had intended performing myself but songs that I thought would suit other artists.

Did you record any of those songs?

 Actually, one of the songs I wrote back then made MUSIC CITY JOKE. The song is called The Same Thing and I wrote it with Tim Jones from the Los Angeles band Truth and Salvage Company and Whiskey Wolves of The West. Tim and I wrote that one and I thought it would be a cut for somebody. I actually forgot about it until Brad Jones, who produced my record, asked me if I had any more ballad type songs for the album, which I did not. I dug up that song and sent it to Brad and he loved it. It is actually a lot of people’s favourite song on the album. I am glad that it got in because there is something about the slower songs that does not strike me. I like to write songs that are fun to play live. The slower songs can be good to listen to but it can be hard to put them in a show when you are trying to keep everything up and flowing.

Were you also performing alongside writing in those days in Nashville?

 In the early days I was doing a lot of writers’ rounds. In Nashville there would normally be probably ten writers’ rounds happening every night. I actually hosted one for a couple of years called Southpaw Supper Club. It got that name because it was at a pizza place. I’m actually starting to host it again but at a different venue, so we’re calling it the Southpaw Social Club this time. The name Southpaw came from the sound being somewhat left of centre and not typical Nashville. I was doing a lot of writers’ nights back then and meeting other writers and writing with them. I guess that if you stick around Nashville long enough and write with enough people, eventually somebody is going to put one of those songs on an album. Some of the songs I wrote made it onto other people’s albums, which is kind of vindicating as well as frustrating.

Your two previous albums LINE ROPE ETC and LOW IN THE SADDLE, LONG IN THE TOOTH were self-produced. You opted for handing over the reins to another for MUSIC CITY JOKE. Why?

 I did both those earlier albums with a great engineer but we didn’t really know what we were doing. We just had some songs and did the best we could editing them. I felt I needed a producer this time. For a decade I had just been bouncing around playing bars and making records, and I hadn’t figured out how to get people to listen to them. For this one I thought I would put everything into it and get a strong team together. The first member of the team was hiring the producer.

What drew you to Brad Jones to produce this album?

 Brad had been on my radar from TROUBLE IN MIND that he worked with Hayes Carl back in 2008.  I really liked that album. I had a mental list of people that I would like to work with and Brad was one of four or five producers that I talked to. I sent him some of my songs and I liked his vision for them the best.

You surrounded yourselves with a lot of talent in the studio. Did you hand pick the players for the recording?

 No, that was Brad’s doing. I brought in Logan Todd on drums and Brad brought in Fats Kaplin on violin and pedal steel, Will Kimbrough on guitar and Matt Menefee on guitar and banjo. Brad also played bass and also got Carey Kotsianis, who is just a great singer, on backing vocals. It was really cool because I had never worked with session players before. Normally when I made an album, I played all the guitar and maybe a little bass. This time I had a sonic vision for the songs and to get the sound that I did from those musicians was great.

How did that sonic vision develop? Did you have an absolute feel for the music to accompany the songs before recording?

 Not really. Brad doesn’t like the players to hear the songs before they get to the studio to allow for spontaneity. In the mornings we would get to the studio, have some coffee and just talk about the songs. The guys would make their notes and we would decide to try fiddle on this song or steel on another song, and that’s how it ended up working out. I guess Brad knew that he also wanted this album to have this Fats Kaplin vibe to it.  Those players had all worked with Brad a lot, which I think helps. We were all on the same page because Brad was the conductor, so to speak.

I don’t expect that you are going to be appointed to the Nashville Tourism Board giving some of the lyrics on the album. Are they based on real life experiences or simply observations?

 (Laughs). Both. Take a song like Music City Joke.  It is kind of an exaggerated and I hope mostly funny take on my experience in Nashville coming here from South Carolina. I was listening to country radio and thinking that I could probably write songs like those before realising that there is a whole lot more to this game. There are also some very personal songs on the album. I wrote Every Day as a tribute to my wife. That was a very personal song and actually very hard for me to write. I was in a little bit of a slump with writer’s block and I wanted to write it because my wife was having a bit of a tough time then. It’s like Willie Nelson says, he would rather give you a song than diamonds and gold, so I did the best I could with that song. Window From the Sky literally came from a bird that got trapped in this building where I was living and I worked on the symbolism of that and the idea of not realising that the door is always open. Whether it’s a bad relationship or a job that you think you can’t get out of, the door is never closed. And then a song like El Paso Kid was just a story I had that came from the idea that adversity can lead to greatness. You read these stories about great personalities that accomplished a lot having started off in the slums. My life has been so different to that.  I come from a whole lot of love and support from my parents and I often wonder would I be more driven if I did not have that background and sometimes that makes me feel uncomfortable. I was drawn to the character in that song as he really had to fight to get anywhere.

The song Division Street is also particularly graphic about an area where the less fortunate in Nashville often ended up?

 Division Street is one hundred per cent accurate. It’s not the rough end of town now that it was years ago. When I drive down there now there is a bunch of luxury apartments and fancy restaurants, which were not there eight years ago.

The artwork on the album’s cover shows your good self with a sign reading ‘kick me’ on your back, which also tells its own tale about Music City.

 I just thought that was funny, I guess. To use the term that you use over there, it is all kind of taking the piss, so to speak. I just thought that’s the way it feels like sometimes in Nashville. My buddy Gabe Ford, who takes all my pictures, went down to Broadway with me and I said ‘just get me standing in the middle of the street and put a kick me sign on my back’. I am hoping to do vinyl with the album this year because I think that would look really good on a full album cover.

How important is the artwork on an album for you?

 I’m a great fan. Do you know that Moe Brandy has great album covers? He was big in the late 70’s and 80’s and one of those guys that is very Nashville country. He always has a great story on the cover of all of his albums.

How did the last twelve months pan out for you?

 Fortunately for us my wife’s work in healthcare continued, so we didn’t really suffer financially but I did have that residency at a little bar not far from my house, that I felt was really getting off the ground. That was the Southpaw Social Club, that I mentioned earlier.  It had been on for six months and I felt we were really getting people interested. For me there also was a lot of silver lining over the past year.   Good friends of mine who live down the street started some outdoor neighbourhood concerts last year. They were fantastic and they are still doing them now that things are opening back up. I just played their last Friday and there was a few hundred people sitting out and chairs in the front yard. Also, I met and got to know all my neighbours. We just all hang out on the street with our kids and get to know one another. Everything kind of slowed down for me in terms of the hassle of trying to get out there and make things happen. Again, I am fortunate that I wasn’t depending on the gigs to feed my family and for me. When you play in bar bands for years, which I did, you sort of take the performance for granted. Sometimes you’re playing music that you don’t like, written by other people, in bars to people who are not listening. You can therefore take performing and the joy of playing music for granted. I’ve got shows lined up for the summer and the fall, and I have never been more excited about getting out and playing. Playing live music when you are in the room and people are listening to your music is a great experience. It’s an engagement that can’t happen with the live streams.

How do you intend to tour in the album now given that it is a mixture of ballads, story songs and some rockers as well?

 If I go on the road with a band, it is probably going to be a three-piece. We have come a long way from Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band. I watch some old clips from The Old Grey Whistle Test and I wonder how anybody could afford to have a band like that and on the road. I don’t intend attempting to replicate the album exactly, as it would mean bringing a certain type of musician on the road, which is not practical. I intend to do a little bit of both, solo and with the three-piece band. Sometimes on the road you get gigs at a coffee house where they only want you to play solo and can give the other guys a night off. It is also unchartered territory for me because I have played a lot of bars and colleges in the past, so getting out there and trying to sell tickets and play for people that have enjoyed this album is really exciting. Most of my albums had just fallen under the radar until this one.

The album has earned great reviews including a nine out of ten on the Saving Country Music website.

 I was really happy with that review because country in terms of music to a lot of people these days can be a bad word. It can mean something that is musically disingenuous because of what people perceive and hear on the radio as country music. ‘Trigger’ Coroneos has got a real community on his Saving Country Music  page of people who are really into Americana and red dirt and traditional country music. I really appreciate you all writing reviews of the album and spinning it. It means a whole lot to me because I’ve been doing this a long time and it’s great to work hard and people enjoy your music, which is the point in making music. You all keep doing great work over there, we really appreciate it.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Dave Clancy Interview

Ireland has always had many riches awaiting discovery when it comes to musical talent. Currently, there are many artists producing work of the highest standard and seeking ways to get their talents recognised in the wider marketplace. One such artist is Dave Clancy who has been involved in the music industry for many years now, gaining valuable experience and contacts as a session musician as his career developed. 

His debut album, appropriately titled, The Path, was released late last year and has been gathering much interest over recent months. It is a superb achievement, full of real quality throughout and one of the strongest debut albums I have heard from an Irish singer/songwriter in many years. Lonesome Highway caught up with Dave recently to chat and ask him about his career to date. 

Can you tell us a little about your formative years, growing up in Corofin, County Galway?

My Dad came to Tuam from Sligo in the early 70s to join a showband where he met my mother. We settled in Corofin shortly after I was born. Music was always in the house. My dad was a self-taught guitar player. He then moved to the organ as his band needed someone to play it so he put his hand up. He continued to play semi-professionally right through to the 90’s. At the time Corofin had a very strong traditional music background. I dabbled in it a bit but I was a bit lazy on the practice side of things. I was sent to learn piano from an early age too. I guess all these great opportunities gave me a good base for my own musical discovery, which I think really took off when I went to secondary school in Tuam.

Were you listening to music from a very young age and who were your early influences?

I remember having a compilation CD of blues music when I was about 11 and being enthralled by the emotion in the playing of B.B King and picking up a guitar and trying to copy the licks. As kids we used to be brought to a jazz session on Sunday mornings in Galway that my father used to play at. It was mostly Dixieland Jazz with great musicians and I used to love listening to it. In my teenage years I loved Pearl Jam, Nirvana and all those classic 90s rock bands. When I was about 15, I got turned on to the likes of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and I became fascinated by the mystery of the music and the words and how timeless it felt. Also, I was inspired by seeing local bands like The Saw Doctors become big touring acts and singing about local characters and issues.

At what stage did you start to take music seriously as a possible career?

In all honesty not until my 30’s. Right through most of my 20s I would play every weekend with my friends in bars, while working in a steady IT job. But I really felt the music was drawing me in all the time, and I would have to take time off work here and there to pursue my musical interests. In 2014 I quit my day job and decided to dedicate myself to music full time. It can be a struggle sometimes but I’m lucky to be surrounded by a great crew. I also teach music as well which gives me a great balance.

Was there a healthy music environment surrounding you at this time or did you have to travel to find your ‘tribe?’

I moved out to Headford from Galway city around 2011. There is a pub and music venue called Campbell’s Tavern there, which is a mecca for music. Over the years it has hosted great acts. It has hosted the likes of Greg Brown, Iris Dement, John Prine, Tim O’Brien, The Wailers and loads of other fantastic Irish and International acts over the years. But it was the local community that drew me in and the singing, playing and song writing of the musicians that played in the local sessions. Wednesday night was traditional tunes and Thursday was folk and songs. I heard so much music there that inspired me.

Has the role of session musician brought you a discipline when it comes to working in different genres and delivering what various artists and producers want from you as a player?

I just love playing. I try to play every day, and I enjoy creating the atmosphere for a song as much as singing. When backing another singer on whatever instrument I’m playing I try to keep it as simple as possible and stay out of their way and serve the song as best I can.

One of my favourite roles is adding flavour to other people’s music. I play a few instruments to varying degrees of competency and I’m always trying to improve. During lockdown I’ve built up my own little studio and learned how to self record. I can now contribute to projects remotely which I’m very excited about. 

Your debut album began life back in 2018 with the initial song ideas and some creative input from your musical friends, Eamon Brady and Liam Caffrey. Both were central to the recording and production process of the project. Can you tell us something about their influence and collaboration?

The guys had a huge influence on the direction of the album. I would sing each song live with my guitar between 6 and 10 times, mostly without using headphones. We would then pick the take we thought was best and build on that. It was a very organic process. Then we would discuss what instruments and players we would add to the track. Eamon was all about the performance and arrangement, while Liam is the real audio expert. But both can fill either role.

You have also called upon an impressive list of musicians to add their talents across the ten songs on the album. There are appearances from Nicola Joyce, Noriana Kennedy and Noelie McDonnell (The Whileaways), Fergal Scahill (We Banjo3), Matthew Berrill (Headford Music Works / Irish Memory Orchestra), Pauline Scanlon (Solo, Lumiere, Sharon Shannon), among other fine players. How did you see their various roles when deciding how to include their creativity in the arrangements?

After I had the basic vocal and guitar track finished, we’d chat about who we would like to sing and play on the track. Noelie, Nicola and Noriana were so encouraging through the whole process. I’ve known and played with them for years. They are master songwriters and musicians. Anything they add is just going to make a song better. 

Matthew was my housemate for 5 years and is one of the best Jazz musicians in the country. He can play anything and his understanding of music and harmony is way beyond anything I will ever know. He always does the right thing and can bring any song alive. 

Pauline is the most gifted singer I know. She sang on The Welcome, which was written by Tony Small. Pauline knew him well and he was very influential in Dingle, where he lived for many years. I loved the song so I was delighted she sang that song with me. 

Wil Merrigan added tasty double bass to some of the tracks. I tried using electric bass but it didn’t suit my songs, so Wil came in and really helped bring the songs to life. He’s a real pro.

Fergal and I were neighbours growing up in Corofin. He is a world-renowned fiddle player among many other instruments. He is as good at playing behind songs as playing blazing tunes. I was lucky to be able to call on him for his beautiful playing.

It was great to call on dobro wizard Tom Portman, Gerry Paul (electric guitar) and Shane O'Donovan (drums) to complete the picture.

It is an ambitious undertaking and how did you find the process of seeking financial support, via your KICKSTARTER campaign? 

Crowdfunding is a great concept. It allows the listener to buy into the project at an early stage, thus providing the finance to bring it to completion. I wouldn’t have been able to get it onto Vinyl and CD with all the artistic presentation without that help.

Was the recording momentum stalled during the initial Covid-19 lockdown of 2020 and the sudden lack of mobility and access to playing with others in a studio setting? 

I had about 80% of the recording complete before the lockdown. We mixed the album remotely during lockdown using new technology. Liam and Eamon could mix and I could hear the results in real time. It was amazing really. It’s something you couldn’t have done a few years ago.

The album release was in December 2020, a challenging time of year to try and make an impact. Were you pleased with the initial reaction to the launch? 

As part of the Kickstarter process, I emailed out a download link to all the backers in early December before the official release to streaming and download services. I got some lovely emails and reactions from people, and I got the feeling that people listened to it as a whole piece of work. I probably went against the normal process of releasing a single followed by another, and then the album. I just wanted to get it out there to do its thing naturally. I’m still a big believer in the concept of an album, the running order and that it is a snapshot in time.

You speak of being in the Folk tradition, but there is also a very Irish twist running through the moods of the music; an atmosphere of reflection and a plaintive yearning. Is this something that you were chasing? 

I think folk music is a living thing and can be independent of the style in many ways. It’s music for everyone to enjoy and share. I suppose deciding to include one of Tony’s songs on the album may help bring that beautiful song to new ears. I’d love it if one of mine could someday be passed on for someone else to sing. I try to look out as much as I can when I write. There is of course a lot of personal stuff within the songs. Everyone is carrying some burden. For me melody, simple words and singing can be a great healer. I love how voices and instruments bounce off one another.

There is a sense of loss but also of hope and optimism in what lies ahead. Do you think that you have captured the spirit of these difficult times that we are living through right now?

The songs were all written before the pandemic. It’s great that you hear hope and optimism in the songs, as I’m always trying to direct them that way even if they start out differently, and a lot of them did start during a time of grief for me personally. We all need hope especially in these trying times.

What was the inspiration to use Abbey Road Studios as part of the mastering process?

John Astley who mastered the album advised me to get the vinyl cut in Abbey Road with Miles Showell. He is an expert in half speed mastering, which gives the best possible audio quality on Vinyl.

The ensemble playing is a real delight on the album and I’m sure that you are very proud of how everything turned out?

I’m delighted. I’m blessed that my best friends are also such talented musicians. I love how different instruments can bring something to a song, and having such a pallet of sounds to choose from was inspiring.

Are there any plans to tour the album once we get the green light to return to live performance in the coming months?

I’m going to wait and see. I’d like to wait until I can perform the songs in front of a real audience. I’m hopeful that I can do this before the year is out. Certainly I’ve been finding it a little difficult to finish songs that I’m working on at the moment. I think when I know I can go out and play them to a real audience they will come together. I’m doing a tour in the UK with Bird On The Wire (The Songs of Leonard Cohen) in September. I’m very hopeful that this can go ahead. A lot of the musicians who played on my album are involved so it will be very exciting for all of us when we hit the stage eventually.

It has been so hard to develop any real concrete plans during lockdown. Have you been trying to perform online in any capacity and have you used the time consider your next steps? 

I did a very short online gig with Galway Music Residency in December. Myself, Matthew Berrill and my good friend Eoin Wynne did a stripped-down performance of some of the songs from the album. It was actually a lovely experience but what performers and the audience are really craving the real thing at this stage. I think a lot of people are suffering from online fatigue. 

Interview by Paul McGee

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgqUfNK_Ygg

Album is available to purchase at https://daveclancymusic.com/shop

Hope Dunbar Interview

Nebraska resident Hope Dunbar is living proof that there are classic Americana and roots songwriters tucked away in small town America, far from the bohemian enclaves of East Nashville and Austin. Her latest album, SWEETHEARTLAND, is an outstanding compilation of songs. It is impressive how these songs came to life: her only real opportunity to write is when her husband is at work and the children at school. She has successfully navigated the pressures of home life while keeping her artistic vocation alive and kicking. We spoke with the upbeat Hope recently via Zoom to get the back story to the album and her passion as a songwriter.     

How are things in Seward County, Nebraska? 

Things are good. I live in a small town called Utica. We have eight hundred people and we are actually called a village. We don’t have a lot of villages in the United States but Nebraska is very rural, a lot of farms and a lot of ranches in the west, so eight hundred people for Nebraska is a pretty medium-size town.

Are the inhabitants aware of a singer songwriter in their neighbourhood and could they identify themselves in some of your songs?

When people are working hard and raising crops and children, and working with machinery, they do not pay much attention to the woman on the corner house who is writing songs. It gives me a lot of anonymity and the space to write songs. My neighbours don’t typically come to my music shows. I always say I take the village with me wherever I go because. I get a lot of inspiration from it, but they are not necessarily always tuning in to what I write. When they do, some may see themselves in a song but not on a general basis.

You’re not originally from Nebraska?

No. I’m originally from the West Coast in California. I went to university in the Midwest near Chicago and that is where I met my husband John, who was from that area. So, we have spent most of our lives in the middle of the United States.

What music were you listening to growing up?

Like most kids I was listening to what my mum and dad and my older brothers were listening to. My mom and dad introduced me to everyone from Simon & Garfunkel to The Mamas and The Papas to The Kingston Trio and Ray Charles. My brothers were into The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Van Halen. I also had an exchange student who was from the Czech Republic. She introduced the whole family to every Queen record.

How did your involvement in music get under way?

My early music education was very classically based, with traditional piano lessons as a child. I then really fell in love with singing and choir. I started doing voice lessons around junior high and into high school and I was very much interested in developing as a classical singer and soloist. In college I was doing lyric soprano and voice training and light opera. The song writing did not come until much later.

What kick started that desire to write? 

It came from a desire to revisit music. I had taken a break from music for a long time and did not have a lot of music active in my life at that time, with the exception of being a listener. I took a long break after university, then I had the children and I was looking for an outlet and an ability to bring music into my life again. It began by doing folk harmony songs with another friend of mine. When the children were playing, we’d get our instruments out and sing songs together.  It developed organically into wanting to try and write a song, which had never really crossed my mind beforehand. That first day when I wrote, it just really clicked something in my brain and I became a little obsessed with song writing from that time on.

Did you have the opportunity to perform at that time?

At the time I guess the answer is yes. We were playing at the Farmers Market and we were playing at the local library, playing to ladies who wanted to hear some folk songs. As I developed I did very small performances for a few years until there was a very cool venue in Nebraska, which was bringing in some major singer songwriters. This venue was a major part of my musical development, as they were bringing in people who were considered nationally under the radar but were working as touring musicians. They were playing amazing music that you would not find on popular radio. This introduced me to artists like Jeffrey Foucault, Amy Speace and Mark Erelli. Those artists were so inspiring. My first goal as a songwriter was to open up for one of the shows. When Mark Erelli comes back, I’m going to be the opener for him, when Krista Detor comes back, it’s going to be me opening the show. I worked really hard to get those opening slots for a few years.

 Your recently released album SWEETHEARTLAND is somewhat more forceful and fuller in comparison to your last album THREE BLACK CROWS?

That was my intention. I wanted to build on from what I did on THREE BLACK CROWS and really just expand my musical universe. I think when you’re touring alone as a solo singer songwriter, you have to make a record that matches what the live show will be. I used that to inform how THREE BLACK CROWS developed. With this record I felt the most important thing was that I wanted to do right by the songs, make the sound bigger, make it more aggressive and more confident. Also, the studio is also a magical place. It gives you the opportunity to create the musical world that you want to live in. And importantly, it creates the musical world that the songs should live in. I gave myself permission to create that world, even if it does not match up exactly as how I might interpret the songs when I hop up on stage to perform them.

I gathered that the touring experience after the release of THREE BLACK CROWS did not sit particularly well with you?

I love that record and I love everything about it, but I was surprised that the work promoting it just kept going and going. They didn’t give me a crown of glory and serve me and my meals in bed on a tray when I was touring it. I had an image in my mind that I wouldn’t have to grind as much, but as you know, the truth of a working musician is that you have to keep grinding.

Tell me about Prompt Queens, which I understand you developed to regenerate your appetite for writing songs after touring THREE BLACK CROWS?

Prompt Queens is a podcast that I started with my sister-in-law Emily Dunbar. We started it after THREE BLACK CROWS, when I was feeling a little discouraged. We had a desire to start a podcast for a while and this seemed to be the perfect time. She and I would give each other prompts each week and we would write a song during the week on our own, and we would only play them to each other when we started the show. We would therefore be introducing the other person to new music that they had never heard before. In each episode we have a conversation about how this song came about and what was the thought process behind the song. The whole idea, which was invigorating, was to be a model for this tricky and difficult road that is song writing.  Sometimes it comes easy and sometimes it comes hard. We wanted to reveal to the audience that the well never runs dry and the best thing that you can do for yourself is to keep writing.

Did any of the material from those sessions end up on SWEETHEARTLAND?

Yes, the title track and the song Dog Like You. I also wrote the song The Road Is when I joined another writing group in the middle of Prompt Queens, where I was also writing songs on a weekly deadline.

Had SWEETHEARTLAND been completed pre-pandemic?

Yes. I sat on this record. It was finished before the pandemic but it took me a year basically just to decide when the time was right to release it. I wanted to honour and celebrate this record in a very public way and hired a publicist to reach out and get the music to as many places and new listeners as possible, including people like yourselves.

I have to ask you about the lines: ‘She was a bottle blond in a mini skirt, she was mutton dressed as lamb in a One Direction tee-shirt’ from the song What Were You Thinking?

I actually read the phrase ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ in a book. It was so funny. I had never heard that phrase before. It was a woman judging the appearance of another woman who was dressed younger than she should have been. I kept that line in my mind for a while trying to find the right place to use it.

Tell me about the lines on Woman Like Me: ‘Call me a rose whose first bloom is gone, but a woman like me sings the prettiest songs.’

I hope that when someone hears that line, they think that a rose in its first bloom is very beautiful and a rose that continues to bloom is also as beautiful. That song is about the woman who has lived life and is questioning her value and her significance having perhaps lost some of her identity in the work she was called to do or the place where she is living. It’s a song that some people find to be terribly sad when they hear it, other people hear it and find it to be terribly hopeful. When I wrote it, I was intending it to be hopeful. I didn’t particularly think about this when I wrote it but what I love about that song is that it grows and changes through the years as I have sung it. I feel that it will always be a relevant song to sing even twenty years from now and I am thankful for that.

You headed to Nashville to record the album?

Yes, I recorded the album in Nashville using two producers. One was Zach Smith, who is part of the duo Smooth Hound Smith and the order was Jesse Thompson, who co-produced the record. I had met Zach at a song writing conference in Colorado and he and I just hit it off as friends. He is fun, creative and has a great spirit and lots of energy. He’s also way more rock ‘n’ roll than I am. His band Smooth Hound Smith is much cooler than I am.  So, when I started thinking about how I wanted a bigger sound and a bit more rock ‘n’ roll on this record, I immediately thought that this was a project that I really wanted to do with Zach.

Do you envisage opportunities to tour the album in the near future?

Things are slowly moving on and we are starting to add some dates to my calendar. For example, I am going to Kansas City this weekend to play in an outdoor show and I am really looking forward to adding more dates into the future. I don’t know what the summer holds. I have a family and one of my sons is graduating from high school and starting university in the fall, so that is a conflict of how many dates I want to be on the road while preparing him to go off to college. I hate to reply with a muddy answer, but it’s all a bit up in the air at the moment.

And on the recording front, are you working on another album and what musical direction will you go the next time around?

I’m very thankful and also in celebration mode about SWEETHEARTLAND but I’m also thinking about the next record. I’m looking forward to seeing where that takes me. I write quite a bit, so the songs have been piling up. I have the material for the next record which I am already imagining. What I would like to do in a perfect world is split the difference and find the middle ground between THREE BLACK CROWSand SWEETHEARTLAND. I’m a story-based writer but there are still notes and colours that I left out of SWEETHEARTLAND on purpose. For the next record, I would like to revisit some of those themes and tones that you might have heard more on THREE BLACK CROWS.

 Interview by Declan Culliton

Beki Hemingway Interview

Ever since the release of her debut EP, back in 2007, Beki Hemingway has been quietly building a reputation as an artist with an abundance of talent. Together, with her husband, Randy Kirkman, they have proven themselves to be quite a formidable team, when it comes to negotiating the rapids of a career that has seen their music travel to many different corners of the globe. A writer of memorable songs and a singer that can stand right up there with the very best, Beki took some time to chat with us about her latest album, Earth & Asphalt, together with other reflections on her life journey so far. 

It’s been such a quick year so far, despite the lockdown and Covid-19. Are you still enjoying the feedback from your new album release, Earth and Asphalt, in December 2020?

We have been really pleased with the feedback on the new album, ranging from small Americana blogs to the cover of Illinois Entertainer (Chicago’s premiere music mag), and airplay on some really great Americana shows, but in recent months, things have slowed down. That’s down to us as we do all our own PR and we have let the lockdown blues get to us, and we’ve had to focus on other projects to pay the bills! We hope to begin a new push over the summer months to let people know that Earth & Asphalt exists and we think it’s pretty good!

It was a challenging time to put out a new record, with all the distractions of Christmas. Was it a case of there never being a really ‘perfect’ time to launch the new songs, given the constraints of self isolating and the virus threat?

I can’t say I’ve ever understood market timing, even in a normal year but in 2020, nothing was predictable. What we did get is that we had just completed our first crowdfunded album, and we really felt a debt of gratitude to our fans and funders, so wanted to get it to them as soon as it was complete. 

Once they all had their copies, we had thought about waiting a bit to release EARTH & ASPHALT officially, but crowd funders who already had their copy were starting to say such nice things about the album on social media and with free PR like that, it seemed a waste not to make it available right away...so with a whimper, it appeared on Bandcamp. Only recently, did we go the official route of making singles available on Spotify.

You have been very active over the last year with live streaming and online concerts. Is this something that has given you a sense of focus during these months of not being able to play live?

In April of 2020, we were live nearly every night with Song of the Night and it was a complete blast. We did theme weeks like “on tour in the house” and “what’s in my closet?” and it gave us tremendous focus, a reason to rehearse, dress up a little, and have virtual visits with friends and fans from all over. We also filmed a songwriter in the round concert with Gillian Tuite and Elena Duff (remotely, of course) to make up for a cancelled Workman’s Club gig, and were able to be part of Spirit Store’s video series as well as performing a few one-off concerts for venues in Scotland and the USA. It has been good to stay active, but I can see a real difference in my countenance between those early Song of the Night videos and recent ones. We are so ready for LIVE music and normal interactions to return, and thankfully, it looks like that may happen before too long.

Did the album come together over a short space of time or had some of the songs been in the creative cupboard for a while?

The bulk of the songs were written specifically with “the next album” in mind since WHINS & WEATHER (2017). Exceptions are Cost Me Everything which was rediscovered when I rifled through old Garage Band files one day. It had been there for at least 5 years, and I had forgotten about writing it. Birmingham was written with Jonathan Rundman a decade ago for a follow up to Tennesota - a sequel that we wrote most of but never recorded, but Birmingham  just seems to fit nicely with the material on EARTH & ASPHALT. Cinderella Twinalmost didn’t get done in time to include, though the title had been rattling around my brain since we passed the sign on our last US tour.

Is the song-writing process something that comes easily to you?

I can go a year without writing a song, and then a few will come to me quickly. I’ve been very undisciplined and tend to wait until it DOES come easily. It’s either a concerted effort to make sure nothing sounds forced, or just lazy. However, during the pandemic with all touring and live music cancelled, I have taken a side job as a staff songwriter. While I mostly write lyrics for them, I find it is helping me to learn the discipline of powering through a block.

How did you find the process of recording in different locations, with both Dublin and Dundalk featuring at different stages?

We’ve used this process for the last few albums and it works nicely. We do the bulk of recording at home with Randy as producer and engineer, and then finish up with someone else in a different location - primarily to have that extra set of ears to help us determine when it’s finished, to break any ties, and keep us from killing each other!

Using Conor Brady and Camden Recording Studios, pre-lockdown, must have given you both the room to stand back and get other opinions on the songs and the direction they were taking?

Definitely. We really respect Conor’s ear, and enjoy working with him. Even during the lockdown weeks, Randy and Conor benefitted from sharing files and opinions of how things were shaping up, and his guitar work on Shape of My Face  is one of my favourite things on the album.

The inspiration behind a number of the tracks seems to come from a personal perspective and originates in a period of self-reflection for you, Beki. Lay Your Burdens Down and Shape Of My Face bring images of having time to assess where you have been, where you are right now and the perspective gained?

Shape of My Face grapples with the aging process, which I have felt a little more acutely these past few years as I’ve been confronted with some medical issues, but Lay Your Burdens Down comes almost verbatim from something Randy was saying to me about a tough time he went through a while back - a fight with God, if you will. (A better wife might have been listening without lyrics in mind!). More often, only when I look back on what I’ve written can I see what I needed to learn.

There is also a great sense of the past and memories of youthful abandon on songs like Cinderella Twin and Birmingham. Were you revisiting the joys of being free to decide upon your own destiny back then? 

There is a lot of nostalgia in both of those, as well as a lot of fiction. These aren’t my memories per se, but things I might have imagined around familiar settings when I was younger.

Having said that, songs like, California, yearn for a simpler time when there was still innocence and nobody was judging you. Have the years given a sense of something lost at the price of self-awareness gained?

I don’t think that self-awareness is the culprit here. It’s about contrasts and the sacrifices made living a life of constant motion. I grew up a military brat and have been a touring musician for a lot of my adult years. I’m used to moving, and I get the itch to rearrange the furniture a lot. The price is sometimes that I don’t know how to be still, I haven’t been able to be a constant presence in anyone’s life (except Randy) and there is a loneliness that comes with that. People who are trying to manage 2000 friends on Facebook instead of having three best friends in their community may relate to some of the same feelings. The main thought here was to recognize constancy - though I may not be good at it, I value it tremendously

We’re Not Going Anywhere is a testament to the enduring love that both you and Randy share, almost an ‘us against the world’ mantra for living. Has your journey since those early years in Chicago been everything you had dreamed of when you were first cutting your musical teeth together?

No way! First off, we were in separate bands for the first five years together and we said we’d never work together musically. Ha! No marriage is ever predictable and we are two stubborn commitment-phobic opposites, but we ride the ups and downs together, and I suppose that is the message of the song. Commitment wins the day. It has been both worse and better than we ever could have expected and here we are several albums and anniversaries later. We love each other. Aw.

You were initially attracted to a New Wave/Punk energy as a young performer, whereas Randy was more into a Hard Rock/ Metal direction. How did you initially meet?

I was a backup singer traveling through Chicago and a mutual friend introduced us at a church service the morning after the concert. We met again about six weeks later at a music festival outside Chicago, and Randy would NOT stop calling me after that. The first time he visited me in Denver, he had bought me a guitar, and I knew that if I didn’t marry him, he’d be really mad about the guitar.

Chicago was a vibrant music scene back in the 1990s. Were you aligned with acts like Tortoise, Eleventh Dream Day, Urge Overkill and Smashing Pumpkins at the time? 

Those acts were a bit before my time, but Randy’s former band would have played at many of the same venues during the same era. We were regulars in the same coffeehouse scene that launched acts like Andrew Bird and Alice Peacock, and we often borrowed Dolly Varden’s rhythm section in those days. Michael McDermott was very much around, though always more famous. We played a few shows with him and were on a Chicago compilation CD together. (A few years back, he told me that his parents had a poster of me up in their house).

Your shift over time to a more classic Americana sound would seem to draw as much from bands like Lone Justice and Uncle Tupelo. Who were your influences as you grew into new musical directions?

Lone Justice is an early and persistent musical influence, as well as Maria McKee’s first three solo albums. We’re also big fans of Patty Griffin, early Gillian Welch, Wilco, and Emmylou Harris. I really like some of the Jayhawks’ music, and classic stuff like the Eagles, Paul Simon, Glenn Campbell, and Jim Croce have all left a mark.

Did you always find performing live to be a natural expression of your talents?

The singing has always been great fun. Talking between songs used to be incredibly awkward, but I took an acting class to help with that, and though I still find it a bit hard sometimes, I am able to relax and enjoy the interaction much more. It’s really a two-way conversation, anyway.

Your voice is so expressive, containing both gentle and warm tones, together with a powerful dynamic and range. Did you ever take singing lessons growing up?

I’m not very good with lessons, but yes - off and on, starting in high school. Usually, it was all drills and Italian arias, which I was not very good at. When we moved to Denver in 2005, I had developed some bad habits on the road, and found a teacher who taught me some really different warm ups and ways of thinking about the physiology of singing. I only spent six months with him, but it helped me break some habits and think about maintaining my voice a bit better. I’m probably overdue for some more lessons!

A song like Cost Me Everything appears to be the perfect vehicle for your talents, both gently reflective and yet laced with such power and controlled angst. How do you place yourself in the right space to deliver a vocal performance like that? 

(No clue. I just sing it.) And thank you.  

Travel is one of the cornerstones of career musicians. In your case you have made a conscious decision to couple this with a desire to serve communities in a Christian fellowship. Where were the roots of this direction born?

Well, certainly traveling and meeting all kinds of people makes one more aware of a world outside themselves and the many needs that go unmet. I’m not a political or activist kind of artist, but I do think that personally, we all long for our lives to make an impact in some way, especially as we grapple with that aforementioned aging process. For me being given a microphone is an invitation to sing, not to preach, but having said that, I don’t hide my Christian faith, and for all the uncertainty of the freelance lifestyle, one of its benefits is the flexibility to pursue work with causes we believe in between tours. Maybe this is just a natural side effect of growing up, and taking our faith more seriously.

Your initial introduction to putting down more permanent ties in Ireland came out of a friendship with The Sweet Sorrows, who also live here. When did you all first meet?

We met Sammy in Glasgow about 15 years ago, but were aware of his band the Electrics as early as the mid-90s when I worked at a record store that carried their music. It’s a wonder we didn’t meet sooner - we have several mutual friends and my band in the 90s played at the same festival at least once. We met Kylie in Denver after they married. About 8 years ago, my mother remarried a Horner from Belfast, so I think we might be related now!

It’s now been four years since you first settled in Ireland. Do you look back at your decision with great memories or has it been a more challenging journey for you both?

Both of those things ring true. It was a challenging move as it ended our “year of yes” adventure with a cancer diagnosis that effectively kept us in Ireland until I was healthy again. We had been visiting for years, and we had tossed around the idea of moving here before. Obviously, we decided to stay. We’re very happy to be where we are in Dundalk now, and can look back on our first two years in Wexford with good memories. We miss our friends there and look forward to traveling back soon.

The abiding message in your song, Comfort, the closing track on the new album, is one of acceptance and forgiveness; “May you have many to carry your load, And resolve to try again.” Is this your code of the road as you look towards the future?

Code of the road - that’s good Paul. I think it will be!

Congratulations on the new album and hopefully increasing numbers of new listeners will find their way to your superb music?

Thanks.

Are there any final thoughts that you would like to leave us with?

Buy it on Bandcamp or order the real CDs directly from us at www.bekihemingway.com

Interview by Paul McGee

West Of Texas Interview

West of Texas is a “real” country music band, formed in 2003 by Jerry Zinn who is the singer, songwriter and band leader. The band’s debut album Heartache, Hangovers & Honky Tonks began as a 3-song EP called The Heartache Single which was released in 2010. It was intended to be a full album before health problems hit Zinn and he was unable to sing. When Zinn recovered and was able to sing again he put together a new line-up to play gigs. This was just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit and playing live music came to a full stop. Because of this Zinn went into the studio to finish the album he had started over ten years earlier. The end result is a testament to his belief in the strengths of country music and is a welcome addition to the best contemporary albums of that genre. 

Does the search for authenticity in life easily translate into authenticity in your music?

It surely does. I could have easily gone more rock or maybe more folk in my songwriting and sound and had more shows and maybe more fans. But I had a sound in my head that needed to come out and nothing was going deter from doing that. Not the even the bars/clubs that told me they wouldn’t book me, because my sound was too retro. I’d rather not play than change my vision. 

You began this journey to record back in 2010 but got side-tracked by some serious ill health. How did that have on your view on life and music?

It was difficult to hang up on my guitar on the wall and not play. It was what I had been doing since I was 17, in one band or another. It depressed me to not be able to play and to have an album worth of songs almost complete I couldn’t finish. For a while I couldn’t even listen to country music, because it would just depress me. I was used to listening to country music and walking around the house cleaning or something or maybe driving and singing my heart out. A lot of the time I couldn’t do that and it was very frustrating. 

What are the origins of your deep interest in hardcore country music?

A few years after my grandad passed away my parents, sister and I moved in with my grandma. There I found my grandad’s record collection. Around that time my parents bought four CD’s of Time Life - Country Compilations of the 60’s & 70’s. After that I was hooked. If you’ve seen the album artwork…not the picture of the people on the cover, but the worn out parts, the ring wear, the dirt, the part that says, Dukes Record, that I had my grandma write. It’s all a nod to my grandad’s record collection. 

You gathered together some very fine players who are associated with California country music. Is the West of Texas band name a nod to the Town South of Bakersfield albums?

It’s actually not. I didn’t know of those records until after I became part of the LA scene. West of Texas was actually a song title I had and never wrote. I had a notebook that I’d write down ideas like song titles, misheard lyrics, a sentence or two of a story. When it came to a band name I was thinking how can I blend the west coast or California with Texas. The band started talking about band names and I said, West of Texas and it stuck. 

There are also south of the Border influences are they a key component in the overall sound, alongside other influences, for this album?

I wanted to have a well-rounded record with some different styles of country music. I also just wanted to see if I could write a Tex-Mex or Cajun song. I could have easily put a couple more shuffles in their place, but the album already had several shuffles. I’m also looking forward to the future to try out some different country styles and rhythms.  

Did you find that it was difficult to write songs that sounded as if they could have been written back in the 60s and 70s . If so were you a student in those classic heartbreak songs?

When I started the band I think I had to get past 5 or 10 songs before I found the sound I was looking for. I think when I wrote Foolin’ and a couple days later wrote Whatcha Drinkin’, I knew I had found what I was looking for. And yes, I had certainly poured over a lot of records from the 60’s and 70’s and became a student of the sound. 

You wrote Foolin’ with your wife, that was a cheatin’ song. Are they those kind of songs drawn for observation in the same way that Dwight Yoakam had some drinkin’ songs written by a non-drinker?

Certainly written as an observation of other people. When I write songs, I often come out of the bedroom and say, what do you think of this? I think I was stuck on the lyrics on Foolin’ and we started talking about the story, which lead to passing the notebook back and forth until the song was completed. 

The cover draws on the sleeve concepts from the likes of Porter Waggoner. Was that a fun thing to do?

When I came up with the idea, I’m not certain I had seen that Porter Wagoner record yet. I think I was trying to go for a Moe Bandy kind of look. I remember telling my band my idea for the cover and they didn’t like it. They thought it should just be the band logo. Let it be known now that I will never release an album with just the logo on it. I think that’s a cop out. Aren’t we here to tell stories? Why not tell a story on the cover?

Making the picture on the cover (and inside the gatefold pictures) was a great time. Invite your friends over. Tell them your idea and somehow we pulled it off better than I could have ever imagined. 

You have connections to Stoughton Printing where you work. What’s your role there?

First let me explain to everyone reading this who Stoughton Printing is. Stoughton Printing is the oldest record jacket printer/manufacturer and are known for printing the Old Style Tip-On jackets. The Tip-On jackets are how record jackets used to be made. Printed on paper and glued and wrapped around the board. If you look at those old 50’s, 60’s and some of the 70’s record jackets, they were Tip-On jackets. In the 70’s, record labels found a cheaper way of making jackets that were printed right to the board. 

I can nerd out about record jackets all day long, so it was a perfect fit. My role there is a Production Planner. I talk to record labels and artist all day and help them with whatever project they are working on. It could be a basic record jacket to a gatefold jacket that opens like a pop-up book to the most elaborate box set. 

That whole imagery seems to be largely dismissed and erased from the current music that emanated from Music Row these days. Do you think that that is a mistake?

YES! When I see the artist just staring back at the camera and there’s the artist name and album title, it’s such an easy way out and it’s boring. I guess I say that and there are plenty of classic country artist just looking back at the camera. Maybe it’s the rhinestone suit setting them apart from just being in jeans and a t-shirt. I’m sure there will be an album at some point of me just staring back at the camera and people will point out this interview to me. 

Obviously you are releasing this album during the pandemic and that has undoubtably put restrictions of how you can promote the album. But did you feel that, despite that, the time to put it out was now?

I was hopeful by the time the record came out, we’d be coming out of the lockdown and mask wearing. That obviously didn’t happen. I’ve tried to be creative in social media post and trying to get the album cover in front of people, in hopes that’d be interested in finding out what the music sounded like. I think if you like traditional and classic country, when you see the artwork on the cover, you certainly have to be curious of what it could sound like.  

You have played alongside some fellow conspirators in the real country movement. Do you feel an affinity with these artists?

Defiantly. Most of us are all putting out records with pretty much no budget at all and who doesn’t like to root for the underdog. We also have some sorta unspoken bond, listening to our influences, creating a sound in our head, and doing whatever it takes to get it out. 

Overall, is it easier to release your music as West Of Texas rather than as Jerry Zinn?

Yes, I’m pretty sure I will never release music as Jerry Zinn. I’ve got plenty of band names in a notebook, if the West of Texas name ever comes to an end. 

It has taken some time to get this album recorded and released but is to too early to be think of the next album at this point?

No it is not. After not playing for years, I feel like I need to make up for lost time. I’ve talked to a friend about doing a duet album, I’ve thought about doing a trucking album, I’ve thought about doing a classic country cover album, a western swing album and of course another album of originals. I’ve got a lot of ideas and as long as I have a band and the money to record and put out albums, I’m going to do it. I’m not going to be stopped by rules, like you should only put out one album a year and after you put that album out you have to tour this long before putting the next album out. I don’t care what anyone has to say. I’m not following any rules. As long as I have ideas, I will try to execute them the best I can. 

What were the highlights of making Heartaches, Hangovers & Honky Tonks, equally what were the downsides?

The highlight was getting it done and seeing it in physical form. You don’t know what a struggle it was to get this thing done. Besides the health stuff, I certainly had my demons whispering in my ear, why finish it, because it’s not that great and no one cares.

The downside was deciding to record my vocals for the album in my living room and it being summer time. I had to turn off the air conditioning, so it wouldn’t get picked up on the mic. I also had my wife and two young boys go sit in our bedroom, where she had to keep them quiet while I was recording. It took a lot of takes.

Did you have a favourite track from the album that stood out for a specific reason?

Oh man that’s hard. I really like My Whiskey Life. I think the lyrics are some of the best I’ve written. That was also the first western swing song I’d ever written and I think it’s going to be hard to top. 

The album has received some great reviews is that an encouragement to know your music is so well received in this day and age?

I can’t even believe the reviews I’m reading. I’ll be in the middle of reading a review and the reviewer mentions my name alongside of Dale Watson, Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel, Rual Malo of the Mavericks and the Derailers and I have to stop and think, what in the world is happening right now? It is certainly encouraging. All I want to do is go write two albums worth of songs right now, but unfortunately, I still work two day jobs, and I have two kids and a wife. So, I haven’t had much time to play or write. I have also been trying to work on getting this album out to as many people as I can. There wasn’t much of a budget for promotion, so I’m emailing DJ’s. When I find a DJ that likes it, I ask that DJ if they know anyone else that might be interested in it, then that leads me to a couple more DJ’s. It has taken up a lot of my time. 

In the same vein who is your favourite artist from the past?

Just one?!!! You can’t do that to me! Can I name three? Wait, can I name four? Here’s what I tell people (I’m naming more than one just give me a second)…Jim Reeves will always have a soft spot in my heart, so he’s at the top. There’s a whole story that goes with that, but I’ll leave it at that for now and maybe when I put out the next album, if you remember, you can ask me about that. I realize Jim Reeves wasn’t what anyone was expecting, since my song writing is more influenced by the hardcore honky tonk shuffle stuff. So the other three are Johnny Bush, Faron Young and Merle Haggard. 

What are your plans and hopes for the future. Will it be difficult, once things open up to put a band on the road?

I haven’t talked to the band about making a plan really. The last member of the band just got vaccinated, so practicing will start in the next few weeks or so I’d guess. We’re really itching to get out and play. But we’re also going to have to see how Covid goes. California is looking pretty good right now, so hopefully they’ll start to open things up more. Once that happens we’ll be watching other states.

Finally, recoding v live shows and vinyl against CD?

Recording, because I like making something out of nothing. I get excited when all these ideas I had all come together. The band plays a huge part in that and when they take it to the next level it is mind blowing. 

I’m not an audiophile guy, but there is defiantly a sound difference between Vinyl and CD. I own both and if a band I like puts out a CD and doesn’t put out Vinyl, I’m still going to buy it. But I’d prefer Vinyl that comes with a digital download, because you can’t play Vinyl in a moving car.   

Interview by Stephen Rapid Photograph by Andy Garcia Reyes

Addison Johnson Interview

Inspired by his love of traditional country music, North Carolina born artist Addison Johnson packed his bags and headed to Music City to record with the sounds of George Jones and Waylon Jennings uppermost in his mind. Ten years later and with a lot of water under the bridge, he has released his latest album DARK SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. This is a hard-hitting compilation of stories that he’s justifiably proud of - and it has attracted lots of love from fans of this genre. We tracked down Addison in Nashville for a Zoom chat about the album and life during and after lockdown.  

 What were your ambitions leaving North Carolina for Nashville?

I didn’t come from a lot of money and never really had a goal when I moved to Nashville. I loved to write songs and I wanted to be a part of trying to pursue that. I moved to town with about fifty bucks in my pocket and took out a student loan to Middle Tennessee University. I was probably somebody who was never meant to go to college, but I went anyway and majored in beer and girls for a few years. I also worked every small job in Nashville. I moved here to be part of country music because it is something that I have always been passionate about. There is not another person in my family who is a musician, so the direction was never really there. I came down to see if I could figure it out and ten years later they still have not kicked me out. I grew up listening to country music in North Carolina. My grandmother played old 33 records of George Jones and Merle Haggard and guys like that. That is where my love of story songs came about but finding my own musical direction is something that I had to do on my own.

I understand you gave up drinking a few years back. Had you fears that your creativity might suffer as a result?

A lot of creative people and artists are possibly not that structured a lot of times. We often come across criticism on a daily basis. More criticism that many people would see in their entire lives. And that hits on self-confidence and the like and that’s where a lot of the drinking starts. So, it was one of those things that when I really knew that I wanted to quit drinking I was scared, because I thought that it would be like superman taking off his cape. I would lose my powers to write and to bring that inspiration. But once I was able to think clearly, I actually found the opposite. Within the first few months when I quit drinking, I basically wrote the entire DARK SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN record then. Being sober also helped me to think more clearly and not give up on songs as much I used to.

There are a lot of dark and hard-hitting songs on DARK SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN.

I just love dark music. It’s not that I am opposed necessarily to love songs, but how many different ways can we write a love song that has not already been written. That’s why I got into story songs and songs about things that people do not talk about a lot. I prefer stories a bit darker: about guys running moonshine or a guy running from the police and things like that. I never sit down and say ‘I am going to write a song today.’ It just happens. I am more the type that will sit down when I’m ready to write and I’m practically in a coma for thirty minutes, and when I come around the song is just about written.

How autobiographical are the songs on the album?

There is a lot me in some of these stories, especially Blue Eyes Red and Black Leather Red Letters. When I first moved to Nashville I went out and had a lot of fun. Being on the road and touring most of the time was really part of growing up for me after moving here at twenty years of age. I had to learn things the hard way, I was a big drinker and I had drank heavily since I was probably sixteen years old. It’s something that I struggled with a lot but through that I was able to have different experiences, some good, some bad. Some of the songs on the album came from those times and experiences. I ended the album with Black Leather Red Letters because I’ve also been a big fan of having a gospel song at the end of a record. It’s a number of things, firstly to pay tribute to the faith that I have but also to pay tribute to the country music legends that used to close their albums with a gospel song.

When was the album initially due for release?  

I had actually planned on releasing it in the spring of 2020. By January of last year, I could see the writing on the wall and that something wasn’t quite right and that it was going to be a crazy year. So, I thought why not hold off on until the summer and see what happens. And what ended up happening was that we decided to delay it all together and not put it out until 2021. I got back to writing again and was feeding more into the songs that had already been recorded. We started going back under the hood and stripping stuff out and putting new stuff in. We actually finished the record before Thanksgiving of 2020 with all the new stuff that we had added in.

You’ve resisted the temptation of writing and recording a formulaic Music Row pop /crossover album masquerading as country?

When I first moved to Nashville, I signed a publishing deal immediately and I thought ‘man this is really easy.’ The more that I got into it, the more I thought of how much I had sacrificed leaving North Carolina and my family and my grandfather, who was just a giant. He was my inspiration and I missed the last years of his life. I had to make so many sacrifices. I finally came to the realisation that I did not want to write crappy songs for money. What was more important to me was to try and build a legacy that I could be proud of and would make the sacrifices worthwhile. That is something that I have truly stuck with instead of just going ‘beer, truck, girl’ songs all the time. That’s what really frustrates me with this industry. In my opinion we have the most talented songwriters in the world right here but many of them are being handcuffed by corporate greed to make the quick fast buck. That’s not at all what country music is about. I like a pick-up truck and back in the day I liked a cold beer and I like pretty girls, but that’s not reality for most people that listen to country music. That’s a fantasy. Country music is about the ups and downs, the pressures and the successes of what happens in a real person’s life. For me it’s all about trying to continue on that legacy the best I can, for the people that have meant the most to me. That tradition is so important to me, so I don’t go and try to make a lot of money sitting with five guys in a room writing songs every day. I do this my own way and it’s something that I can be proud of when I go to sleep at night.

As an independent artist in a competitive industry, how do you go about marketing yourself?

I market myself by any means possible (laughs). We try to use every avenue. I am not a huge fan of the streaming stuff and I feel that as a music industry we have pickled ourselves financially by doing that. But it’s something that if you do not embrace you will be left behind. We’ve had very good success by way of streaming. I was pretty late to the game on streaming. I found it hard to go and spend $15,000 and record and two years of my life of writing, and then I get to give it away to someone who pays a $9 subscription. Rollin’ Stolen from the new record is approaching 100,000 streams and that’s a really big step for us.

I understand that you also use your passion for fishing as a means of self-promotion?

The fishing goes back to my grandfather who was a huge fisherman and bass fishing particularly, which all my family were passionate about. I got the passion but maybe not as much of the talent. Most outdoor people, whether they fish or hunt or just like being outdoors, like traditional and old-time country music. So, I thought it would be a good idea to combine the two. I reached out to a number of local companies in that industry and offered to share their stuff with my fans and by return they might share my country music with their clients. So, we both support each other’s products. That’s kind of how this whole thing came about, simply out of my love for fishing and it’s a little niche to go along with my music. I got in touch with a bunch of people from companies who want to hop on to the idea which is really cool because they are fans of what I do as much as I am fans of what they do. I always say that they support me on the water. So, when we had the new record coming out you had all these fishing pages on social media plugging this record. When I am playing at shows some people want to talk about music and some people want to talk about fishing. I’m just a good old boy from North Carolina, there’s nothing special about me and sometimes I think people feel comfortable coming up to me and speaking about things that they are comfortable about, like the outdoors and fishing. It’s been a really cool connection because I have a passion for fishing anywhere with water. If you fill the bathtub up, I’ll probably have a shot there, too. I’ve got a hitch on the back of my van and if I’ve got a couple of extra days on the road, I’ll go play the show and go fishing the next day. It’s been a lot of fun to do.

Where do you place yourself in the country music genre?

I don’t know if I’m an outlaw country singer, I might be an introduction to outlaw country for some people. I think I sit in between traditional and blues music. I hear all the time around here people saying that country music is dead. It’s not dead, you just have to look for it. If you want to take your significant other one out to eat you can find McDonald’s off every exit, but if you want to go and have a nice meal you need to look it up on your phone, check the reviews and do the research. If we can do that for a good meal, why can’t we do it for music? I consider myself to be somewhat a part of the Americana genre but I think Tyler Childers does have a point by calling Americana ‘the basement with all the cool kids who are hiding from country music upstairs’.

I see that you are getting back on the road and playing live shows again?

Coming out of Covid, everybody wants to open up but it’s like sticking your toe into the pool to see if the water is cold or not. So, at the moment I’m keeping it quite low-key. I’m playing solo or with duos and trios, but as time moves on, I’ll be bringing out a full band. As things have gone for me lately the need to bring a band is growing.

How have your shows been received coming out of lockdown?

I think it’s a combination of things with people stuck in the house for the past year and also musicians having some good records out there. But the response of the shows has been incredible, every single show seems to be better than the last.  When you’re used to being out on the road one hundred and eighty days a year, you have your road family out there, people that you see in various places always turning up. It’s like seeing your family getting on the road meeting these guys again.

On a personal basis have you any positives to report from the pandemic?

Absolutely. If I were to talk to you in March 2020, I would’ve told you that the world is ending. In the end I probably have to credit 2020 with one of the best years of my life. It was purely because I picked myself up off the floor after years of feeling sorry for myself. There is no industry or person on this earth that this pandemic doesn’t touch. Artists needed to get back to work and we were probably able to accomplish a lot more than most people. I was very fortunate in that I was able to get a record down and had platforms like social media to reach out and get in touch with my fanbase. Being off the road presented an opportunity for me and my small team to work at stuff like promotional pictures and the website, to set myself up to be more successful. Also having the extra time to write songs was extremely valuable to me.

Interview by Declan Culliton

The Shootouts Interview

The Shootouts’ music shows a deep love of traditional country music. This forms the bedrock of their signature sound. The roots of these band members have since grown into the solid blend of vintage Nashville, Texas swing and Bakersfield bravado. Just a number of influences that are part of the band’s DNA.

This is obvious from the release of their debut album Quick Draw from 2019. It gained a nomination for Honky-Tonk Group of The Year at the 2020 Ameripolitan Awards. They have just released their equally impressive second album Bullseye. Having been highly impressed with these two albums, we caught up with founder and lead vocalist Ryan Humbert to ask him some questions about the band’s history and all that being a real country combo entails these days.

As a band you seem to be invested in the culture of traditional country music. When and where did it enter into your consciousness and then become the music of choice?

For me, it goes back to my childhood. My dad’s record collection and my mom’s love of country radio in the 90s is really what sparked my interest in the genre as a whole. I picked up a guitar my junior year of high school and that was it. When I was first learning how to play, I’d sit with my grandpa in his basement and play old country, bluegrass and gospel tunes while he sang. 

All that being said, The Shootouts wouldn’t exist had I not met Brian Poston (The Shootouts guitarist) in 2013. We were introduced by a friend and ended up bonding over our mutual love of traditional, classic country and talked about the idea of performing it on our own terms. We finally decided to give it a shot, just as a fun passion project – a side project, even. We recruited our drummer Dylan Gomez and played our first show in October of 2015 in Cleveland. From the downbeat of the first song, I knew there was no looking back. I finally felt like I was doing what I was meant to be doing. 

It’s pretty inevitable that a myriad of other influences are there before or after the conversion to that centre. How do they affect the way you approach your particular blend of country?

Our sound has always been a big melting pot of the various forms of country music that we love – countrypolitan, honky tonk, Americana, Western swing, Bakersfield and more. And there’s no doubt it’s all filtered through our Ohio “Rustbelt” roots. It’s been really rewarding for us to play this music and put our own mark on these classic sounds. 

It would seem the notion of fun is pretty important in the overall approach. Was that always the objective?

Absolutely. I love ballads just as much as I do novelty tunes – but I’ve always been drawn to the artists that can blow you away with a tongue-in-cheek barnburner. Many of the bands that we love have that same thread running through their catalog. There’s a long standing tradition of humour in country music, which I think is a really unique characteristic of the genre and one we like exploring from time to time. I think country music is at its best when it’s fun for the listener and the musicians.   

Tell me about your current line-up?

The band consists of myself on guitar and vocals, Brian Poston on lead guitar, Emily Bates on background vocals, Dylan Gomez on Drums and Ryan McDermott on bass. We’ve had the same lineup since before our debut album Quick Draw. 

In your choice of Chuck Mead for producer you have made what would seem a fairly obvious choice of someone steeped in the music but also a man who knows how to get the best out of the band and the songs?

Working with Chuck was a real honour for us. We’ve been fans for a long time, so we were obviously excited when he was interested in working with us. When we started The Shootouts, BR5-49 was a major influence on us. He was definitely a perfect fit for us. He just instantly understood what we stand for. He brought a lot of knowledge of the country music genre to the table. He was honest yet encouraging. His enthusiasm was contagious and that’s so helpful in a studio setting. 

Chuck’s longtime friend “Cowboy” Keith Thompson engineered, and we cut live in his studio. I think you can hear that energy in the recordings. It’s a real band playing real instruments together. You just can’t convincingly replicate that feeling any other way.

We started the album on March 8, 2020 and by the time we were done eight days later, the pandemic had set in and the world was drastically changing for everyone. We were watching it play out on our cell phone screens during the whole making of the record. It was very surreal. When we started the album had someone told us things would be so different eight days later, I don’t know if I would have believed it. Who knew?  

The overall all-encompassing nature of the Americana tag would seem to have left the door open to such a wide selection of musical genres and blends that there is a feeling that hard core country is getting lost. How would you feel about that?

Part of what I really love about the Americana genre is the diversity. Sure, it can be hard to describe what “Americana” means sometimes, but to me—you know it when you hear it. The traditional country genre, and all the subgenres of it, have long been a part of Americana, and I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon. Of course, styles change, things come and go – but I think the bedrock of the genre will continue to be traditional roots music for many years to come. 

When it comes to songwriting and choices, what do you want from a song that fits The Shootouts brief?

In one sense or another, the song has to be incredibly sturdy. Country music is deceptive. It may seem simple but it needs to be able to tell a story, make you cry, make you laugh – sometimes all at the same time. The sad songs better be really sad, and the fun songs really blow you away. 

Do you also, on that subject, feel that the heartbreak, hangovers and hang-ups are the essential make-up of a good country song. Can you describe a perfect country song from the past and one for the future?

To me, heartaches, hangovers and hang-ups is what country music is all about. One of my all-time favourite country songs is “The Green, Green Grass of Home.” The Shootouts perform it often. Talk about a song that covers a lot of bases: beautifully written, with a simple story that ends up throwing you a curveball in the last verse. To me, that’s about as perfect as it gets. That would be my choice for the past and future. If someone asked me to present them with just a few songs that define country music, that would be at the top of my list. That song will hold up long after we’re all gone. 

Do you feel that the reaction to your live shows and recorded music indicates that there is a younger audience who appreciate the music?

Absolutely. One of our favourite compliments we receive after folks see us live is this: “I don’t like country music, but I really like you guys.” That really means a lot to us, because it really confirms that we’re on the right track by following our hearts and carrying the torch for the genre and music we love. Ideally, we’re able to help people of all ages understand there’s more to country than just what you hear on corporate country radio. So far, we’ve had a really positive experience with that.  

Do you therefore need to have a day-job in order to survive on something different than gig money and CD/Vinyl sales?

I think a lot of independent musicians have side-hustles these days. Especially when you’re still getting your footing in the music world. All of us definitely have other forms of income to help pay the bills. But we’re working towards transitioning to a full-time working, touring band. 

Which format works best for you?

I’m a vinyl fanatic, so seeing our albums on vinyl is exciting to me. And it definitely seems to be selling well these days for a lot of folks. We’ve seen a lot of success with it as well. I’m still a big fan of physical media. About two years ago I really got into coloured vinyl. I went to school for graphic design, so everything about it appeals to me—the oversized artwork, the individuality of each coloured pressing, listening to music differently than you would an MP3—it’s all a part of the vinyl listening experience.

Can you talk a little about that part of the graphic aesthetic and heritage?

As a designer, I’ve always been drawn towards retro and vintage artwork – especially pop and comic art. It seemed like a natural fit to me – graphics that are reminiscent of vintage pulp comics with a band that takes a vintage, retro approach to their music. I think they go hand in hand. 

Somewhat in tandem and aside from the obvious importance of the music, how does such aspects the style and heritage of the associated style of dressing play a part in how you present yourselves?

I was always told that you should dress for the job you want. Putting on the vintage style clothing not only helps us present the music in a more formal way – honouring those that came before and the bright, unique stage clothing that they wear – but it also helps us “get in character,” if you will. There’s just something about playing this music in jeans and a t-shirt that wouldn’t feel appropriate at all. 

Does Europe feature in your long-term goals?

We’d certainly love to play Europe if the opportunity arose. 

In that light BR5-49 used to be regular visitors to the UK and Ireland but haven’t made it back in a good while. Is that simply down now to the costs and logistics of travel for an independent act without label support?

I know it’s definitely a tricky prospect, and sometimes the finances just don’t make sense. It can certainly be hard to do something that far-reaching without support – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t doable. There’s so much that goes into putting something like that together and also having it make sense from a business standpoint. 

It seems strange that Music Row and mainstream radio commentators often herald the death of country music in favour of a pop/dance mutation of the form, yet it survives and thrives. Can you offer an opinion on that?

There’s a lot of heart in traditional country music and those who are still presenting those types of songs to the world. That heart and soul will always shine through and connect with people. It will always have a home. As I said earlier, times change. Things come and go and come back again. Country music helped birth rock music and has helped people through some difficult times. It’s truly the music of the common man. It connects people and tells stories that are relatable to so many people. That type of music will always survive—and thrive. 

What does the future hold for the Shootouts and what would be your ambitions?

We plan on continuing to carry the torch for traditional country music, in all its forms, for as long as we can. We’d love to continue to make records and play shows that support that mission, and spread the word to all of those who are interested in hearing it – and hopefully converting a few folks along the way. 

Interview by Stephen Rapid Band photo by Jamie Escola

Melissa Carper Interview

You could be forgiven for assuming that DADDY’S COUNTRY GOLD, the recent release from Melissa Carper, was a re-release of a recording dating back to the 1940s or 1950s. It’s a blend of old-time country and jazz that pays homage to legendary names who have influenced Melissa’s vocal arrangements throughout her career, such as Kitty Wells, Billie Holiday and Jimmy Rodgers. That career kicked off as a child in her parents’ family band The Carper Family and continues today with her roots duo Buffalo Gals, the four-piece band Sad Daddy and her present day acoustic trio version of The Carper Family, alongside Beth Chrisman and Jenn Miori. We chatted with Melissa recently via Zoom and she spoke proudly about the album, the musicians that feature on it and her other projects.

I understand you started your musical journey at a young age?

Yes, I started playing the clubs when I was about twelve in The Carper Band.  It was my mom on guitar and two other brothers and myself. I had a younger brother than me on drums, my older brother was on lead guitar and vocals and we all sang a little bit. My mom and older brother did most of the singing back then. My dad was not a musician but he was the manager.

Having been raised on a diet of traditional country music when did your love of jazz kick in?

I liked jazz before I went to college in Nebraska to study music and got to love jazz vocalists at college. I used the school library to listen to all kinds including Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. I would say that over time they all influenced my own vocals. Any music that I love I listen to over and over again, and often sing along. I probably pick up some vocal phrasing from that. I also love the blues and listen to a lot of Lead Belly. I’ve probably tried to imitate him as well (laughs).

I believe that you’re also lover of Jimmie Rodgers’ music?

Yes, absolutely. My dad bought me the complete collection of his songs. They came in six or seven tapes that had every song he recorded on them. I listened to those tapes over and over, I just could not stop listening to them. And when I first started writing songs, I would have been subconsciously copying his form. I’d sometimes even deliberately start thinking ‘I don’t know how to start this song’ and would make it sound like Mule Skinner Blues or one of his other tunes.  I picked up a lot listening to Jimmie Rodgers’ songs and I suppose I tried to copy both his and Hank Williams’ vocals a lot. We can’t help being influenced by what we listen to, consciously or not. I listen to so much old music and I think I developed the style for my vocals from all of those influences.

What was the motivation behind the DADDY’S COUNTRY GOLD album?

 I had been planning that album in my mind for several years. I wanted to gather my best tunes for a compilation album.  I had a whole lot of tunes written that I had played with other bands over the years. I only have one other solo album and wanted to represent my best songs on an album. When I write a country song, I often add a bit of swing and the song ends up being more of a Western swing tune. For the album I just put together what I thought were my best songs that would fit together. I had been dreaming of putting this album together for a while and that was one of the reasons why I moved to Nashville.  I felt that it would be the place to do the album. I spent two years living in Nashua from 2017 and spent most of the time just going out and listening to a lot of the folks I had admired, and becoming part of that musical community. Organically it worked out by being able to invite a lot of those folks to work on the album. It worked out perfectly. 

How did you come to work with Time Jumpers bassist and session player with so many big hitters, Dennis Crouch?

Shortly after I moved to Nashville, I got to meet Dennis. My girlfriend Rebecca, who plays fiddle with me, was playing a gig with Dennis. She had been hired to play fiddle in a band that he was playing bass on. They happened to be having a rehearsal in one of the rooms in our house. I came home from somewhere and there was Dennis Crouch in the house. I ran into him around town a few times after that and I asked him if he would give me a bass lesson. He said he didn’t really do lessons but asked me to come over to his sometime and we can talk bass. So, I went over to his house and he gave me some tips and allowed me to play his bass. Dennis is from Arkansas and even though I’m not from there I have spent many years there. I felt that we also had that connection. I asked him out of the blue if he would help me produce an album. He didn’t really know my music that well but came to a couple of our shows. He then told me that he would help me select some musicians for the album and also recommended Andrija Tokic to produce the album at his Bomb Shelter studio in Nashville. 

Was there any conflict with those two producers and yourself all working on the songs?

No, we all worked really well together, there was never any conflict. Dennis and Andrija both had different inputs and pretty much everything they suggested worked out fine. It was just so much fun working with them and to be in the same room as the people that Dennis brought in to the studio, it was amazing.

There’s a pretty amazing list of musicians credited on the album?

Yes, there is. Dennis played bass on most of the tracks. Chris Scruggs played guitar and pedal steel, Jeff Taylor was on piano, accordion and organ, Billy Contreras was on fiddle, Rebecca Patek played violin and strings, Matty Meyer was on drums and Lloyd Green also played pedal steel. Rebecca, Sierra Ferrell, Brennen Leigh and Ranger Doug all added backing vocals.

I understand that Andrija Tokic has a reputation of getting things done quickly?

He is fast at what does, he doesn’t waste any time. He is so fast at the tape, even though it’s an old-fashioned way of doing things. But the musicians were so fast also. They had never heard my tunes before and I had written charts for them before they came in to the studio. Basically, we started at 10am in the morning and worked until 1pm. On the first day of recording, in those three hours we had the basic tracks for six songs done. The following day we did the same thing, and had six more tracks down. This was with the musicians never having heard the songs before. We all recorded live in the same room and by the second or third take, that was it. It was all so surreal and magical for me. I had never before experienced anything quite like it. The only over dubs were fiddle, steel and harmonies. Everything else was live, all of us in the same room: bass and drums, rhythm guitar, piano and myself singing. 

Did Dennis playing bass take the pressure off you and allow you to concentrate on your vocal styling?

Yes, it really did. I’ve never done that before as I am usually playing bass and singing at the same time. It really freed me up on vocals and I know I phrased things differently because I had that freedom. Also having Dennis on bass was great, because he is such an incredible player. I would not have been able to come close to what Dennis added to the songs. He kept encouraging me to play bass on a few tracks. The only reason I’m playing bass on three tracks was that he was pushing me to play.

Did you have a particular market in mind for the album?

I guess I didn’t give it much thought. With the bands that I’m in, we have always attracted more older audiences. It’s funny because little kids seem to like our music as well, when they hear us play. I’ve never had music that seems to appeal to a younger hip crowd. I probably did not know what my market was (laughs). Yet some of my friends in that younger age bracket have bought the album and really like it, which is great. I think more of that that younger age bracket might find the music refreshing, if they get the opportunity to hear it. 

I believe that you finished recording before the pandemic kicked in?

We did. We recorded in January of last year and did the over dubs in February. I feel lucky that we got all that in before things hit. I had thought while recording in January that the album would be out sometime in 2020. I think it was wise to take advice to wait to the spring of this year.

Have you had the opportunity to play a live launch of the album? 

Yes, on March 19th we had an outdoor show in Austin, Texas. That was a lot of fun, we played everything off the album and I had a great band with me.  Emily Gimble played piano, Jen Miori from my other band The Carper Family was playing guitar and singing, Rebecca Patek was on fiddle and Jason Baczynski on drums. A lot of folks came out for the show that had not been out for a while. It felt really good.

I also have a Nashville album launch show on June 17th at the Station Inn. They stream the shows from there so anybody can watch. I’ll have a bunch of the players that featured on the album – Dennis Crouch, Jeff Taylor, Matty Meter, Rebecca Patek and Brennen Leigh – on stage with me. I’m excited about playing The Station Inn.  One of the great things about living in Nashville for a couple of years has been getting to go to shows there.

 Are you taking a breather now or still writing?

I have to wait and be inspired by something to write. I have been inspired by living on this farm in Texas for the last while. My creativity has come back after a bad year in 2020. I have written a few new songs this year and me and Brennen Leigh have also co-written some songs.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Bobby Dove Interview

‘Being a musician is the one time in my life that I really fit in to anything. I’m probably an outcast to everyone except musicians, regardless of what music they play. That’s my tribe, for better or for worse,’ confesses Bobby Dove.  I hooked up via Zoom with the spirited artist whose current release HOPELESS ROMANTIC has deservedly been earning killer reviews. After an introduction to Bobby’s cat (‘my tour manager at the moment’) we chatted about the album, the talented bunch of musicians playing on it and its predecessor THUNDERCHILD.      

What’s a typical day in Manitoba during lockdown?

Try to get out of bed (laughs). Only joking, I do karate, which is probably the only scheduled part of my life right now. I’ve barely seen anyone for a year, haven’t seen my family. Haven’t seen my mother’s face since last May, I really miss her. My dog, that was living with my mom, died back home.I’m one of the people that during this pandemic has done nothing by way of physical movement and involvement in any kind of project. I haven’t even been in an empty club with a sound person.

Before we talk about your new album HOPELESS ROMANTIC, tell me about your debut album THUNDERCHILD, that blends, honky tonk, ballads and some full-on roots tunes. The title track is particularly wonderful.

It wasn’t at all intentional but I think that album back in 2016 just happened naturally. Sometimes you just bring someone on to a project and it really works. I brought Bob Cohen in to play guitar on that one song, the title track. He used to be Jesse Winchester’s guitar player and he rocks out. What I think about the THUNDERCHILD album is that it shows my versatility as an artist and a songwriter, and that I don’t just write country songs. I do love country music and country music arrangements, and old-time country music has had a huge influence on me. On that album the songs did not come from a certain place in time, I also reached back for songs I had written ten years earlier. I had written Cowgirl Bob when I was nineteen, just as I reached back for a song on the new record Gas Station Blues, which I wrote ten years ago. 

I can identify a lot of country artists and bands on HOPELESS ROMANTIC from Emmylou and The Hot Band on that song you just mentioned Gas Station Blues. Am I also hearing John Prine on the song Early Morning Funeral?

You’re one hundred percent right and you’re not the first person to mention John Prine with that song and I really appreciate that. When we were recording that song, I said ‘let’s do this like a John Prine song.’ The song has that John Prine swagger. It was also different to most of my songwriting because I had a co-writer on that one who does not even consider himself a singer/songwriter. He’s a guitar player named Eric Sandmark, who used to play for Ray Condo and used to be my drummer. The song was about him so I called him up to get some background information about his day job as a pallbearer, so I could put that into the song. I was on the phone to him back and forth and he ended up injecting a couple of rhymes into the song. I said to him this is as good as a co-write. I don’t normally write songs with other people but this was as close to a co-write as I have ever got. So, I gave him credit for that song. The musicians I had in the studio knew exactly what I meant when I said ‘let’s do this John Prine style.’ 

Tell me about those musicians and how you came to co-produce with Bazil Donovan of Blue Rodeo.

I put the band together individually with musicians I had played with and met in Toronto. I had Burke Carroll, the pedal steel player, on my last album. I found guitar player David Baxter playing with Corin Raymond and I asked him to play a gig with me. Singer songwriter Doug Paisley hooked me up with Basil Donovon. I had seen Doug open for Lucinda Williams at Massey Hall and he had seen me play in some little bar. He sent me an email telling me how much he appreciated seeing me play at that tiny hole in the wall and he put me in contact with Basil. It was crazy because when I put these players all together, I didn’t realise that all these guys were actually already in a band together called Hey Stella, who backed up the singer songwriter Lori Yates.  Michelle Josef, who plays drums on the album, is also in that band with them and it made perfect sense to also use her. So, I’d put together a band that were already together. I co-produced with Basil. Sometimes he didn’t like my ideas. It was funny, he’d say ‘no we’re not ending the song like that, it’s not professional.’ I was nearly in tears. Making a record is such an emotional experience but it worked out perfectly well in the end. At that stage I had played about twenty shows with the different players in the band in Toronto. We never rehearsed because I was driving back and forth from Montreal to Toronto. I was fresh off the highway, six hours on the road, get to the club, change my shirt, put on my sunglasses and I was ready to play. So, the things that we would nail would be the old-time country songs, because they had been playing them for years and knew them so well, and I knew them from the records.  Then we’d get to my originals and they didn’t come together as easily. But when we got into the studio and had the time to play the songs a number of times and record them it was another story. 

When was the album recorded?

We started in September 2019 and there were a few things added later, like Jim Cuddy’s vocal on Chance In Hell. He added that just before I mastered the album last November.  Most of the album was done in September 2019 and and most of the vocal tracks are the original recordings from the studio with me tracking acoustic guitar and singing with the band. There are very few overdubs.

Is classic country where you see yourself as an artist or are you more of the Daniel Romano school, where your next album might be from a completely different direction?

I not sure if I’m locked into classic country. I don’t know what’s going on in Daniel Romano’s head but I wish I did because I love that guy. I met him five or six times in Nashville at AmericanaFest and the guys from the record labels were all over him. He knew my debut album and was saying ‘you need to meet Bobby’ and trying to give me a leg up (laughs). I’m more of the ‘who knows what they’re going to do next’ because I have a foot in different worlds. My background is not country, that said, I am a diehard honky tonk listener and that is going to influence everything I do and whether I like it or not, I’m going to be some sort of country artist for as long as I can imagine. You can never be too sure because the magical thing about art is the X Factor. However, I’m definitely more Daniel Romano than Dwight Yoakam. 

Before Covid-19 was it possible to get numbers out for country music in Canada?

Yes, it was. I was just at a point in my career when I was going to set up some shows supporting the album and selling tickets, when this pandemic happened. I have been building on the street credibility that’s been growing for me. Some festival directors had started noticing me and I got to play some major Canadian Folk festivals on the West Coast like The Vancouver Folk Music Festival. I also got to open for Irish Mythen, who’s a powerhouse singer and a solo artist. She definitely took me under her wing at a couple of festivals and got me to open for her at sell out shows in great rooms. 

I would try and organise roots and country music shows in Montreal, where I come from, but Montreal is a large city in a French province and the bigger music scenes there are more indie, electronic and even world music.  If like me, you’re a small fish in a very large pond, it can be difficult. Montreal isn’t easy and it’s ironic because one of the most famous singer songwriters Leonard Cohen is from Montreal. I grew up in the same neighbourhood as him, a Jewish kid, listening to his music as a little kid. I’m a songwriter and only discovered country music when I was twenty-five and not from a front porch in Alabama. I don’t pretend to be from the Southern States.   

What was your musical background prior to releasing THUNDERCHILD? Were you playing in bands or a solo artist?

The answer is both. I played my originals and country covers in a band with Eric Sandmark on drums and a punk rock bass player, and I would usually lead with my telecaster, sometimes hire a fiddle or steel player. Folks were calling it "cowpunk"! When I dissolved that band, before recording THUNDERCHILD, I played mostly solo or in duos with instrumentalists for a year or two. I have, and will always be invested in playing solo shows, but I also love duos, trios and any combination that works for the event. 

Since the release of that debut album have you been touring and playing solo or with a band?

I have been touring mostly solo for financial and logistical reasons and because I did not have one or two musicians that could constantly play with me.  I had a band for my shows in Toronto. Also, I did not want to have the worry about accommodating other people all the time. If you can support your own music with a guitar and a suitcase it becomes the logical thing to do. So, if I went to Toronto I’d play with a band and if I went to Alberta, I had a band there that I would use. There were other times that promoters would hire me solo specifically. So, even though Vancouver Island Music Festival could of course afford to hire me with a band, they preferred just me and a guitar, playing my songs and telling stories.

Interview by Declan Culliton Photograph by Jen Baron

Esther Rose Interview

HOW MANY TIMES, the third studio album from New Orleans-based singer songwriter Esther Rose, deals with emotional scars not altogether healed - and it’s a striking listen from start to finish. With delicate and almost fragile vocals matching the project’s theme and assisted by some of New Orleans finest players, Esther is undoubtedly heading for a place in the best records’ lists at the end of the year. We caught up with her via Zoom to learn more about this winning song collection.

Hopefully we will get to see you perform in Ireland in the not too distant future?

I hope so, I have not been to Ireland. I was in the UK in 2019, that was as close as I got to Ireland. I was on tour with Pokey La Farge’s band, supporting them. I’ve toured with these guys a lot in the past, they’re great friends. I remember being massively intimidated by how tall everyone was in Glasgow, everyone was six feet tall and super tough (laughs).

 With your latest album HOW MANY TIMES due for release in the coming weeks, do you get anxious prior to a release and how the album will be received? 

There is a lot of anticipation. This is my third release and it does get easier. I have more of an understanding now about the nerves and the waiting. It really is correctly named as a ‘release.’ I also think that people are not going to tear down the underdog in their reviews. In some ways when you start getting more super critical reviews you might be getting to the next level. I often think the people that are reviewing albums like my own probably already like it. We’ll get to find out soon. 

Your writing is particularly personal. Do you need to be emotionally moved for inspiration when writing songs?

I guess I’m emotionally moved all day long. I’m an introvert. That’s the way I am in the world. Songwriting is an incredible tool as it allows me to do something that I think I’m good at.  Getting deeply into people’s feelings and situations. I’m so glad that I found songwriting because I didn’t come to it until I was twenty-seven. It was a great discovery to find something that I want to do, can do and am good at. 

Given its very personal theme and with the album written and recorded over a two-year period, did that prolong your sensitivities or did writing the individual songs give you comfort? 

It’s not that I was emotionally stressed for two years straight, but each time I wrote a song I was dealing with a specific situation. I’m always trying not to write the same song twice. I use songwriting to explore certain situations. So hopefully when I’ve written the song, I’ve also gained an insight into how I’m feeling at that time. It’s really a way of being present with reality. 

How important was the song sequencing on the album?

The sequencing is very important. On this album time the songs are not in chronological order, which was the case with my first album. With my first album I wanted to share the developments as they happened. On this album I wanted to take the listener through the flow of how the songs tell stories of heartbreak and processing, from being at home alone depressed versus finally going out on the town again. Maybe seeing the person I was writing about again, all these little stages that you go through. It couldn’t be chronological this time. 

I sense that the song Keep Me Running is a reminder to take care when you may be vulnerable, don’t get sucked into another relationship?

Definitely, that’s well said. I feel that since I’ve written that song, I’ve come around a bit. I’ve an impulse to walk, run, keep moving, a fight or flight sort of thing. It’s important to have that energy and momentum to pick yourself up. Nobody is going to do that for you, we have to be able to do that for ourselves.

The musicians on the album really breathe life into the songs. I’m particularly impressed with the fiddle playing by Lyle Werner.

Lyle is a wonderful person. He was the first person to join my band. I met him on the levee in New Orleans. He was jogging, probably the only time he has jogged in his life. I’d heard of him and knew he played fiddle, so I just stopped him and asked him if he wanted to join a band. He literally ran home and got his fiddle. My projects are always changing with new musicians coming in and I have a ton of people around the world, in San Francisco, New York, the UK that are trained up on my songs. I had the same band for this record which was super special. It allowed us to really develop our sound together. Lyle just really cares about the tunes and you can feel it in his playing. All the guys that played had a deep understanding of the tunes. 

I can feel the New Orleans influences on the album. Is that something that you aimed for?

Many of the musicians I play with are from all over the world. They’ve all come to New Orleans to play music because of the culture there. You can play on the streets, and maybe play three times in one night with different bands. The sound on my album comes from having such a diverse bunch of musicians to work with. 

Tell me about the recording process for the album?

It took exactly one year with two recording sessions, a year apart. We started in January 2019 and bookended in February 2020. We finished before the pandemic and on the first day of the two-week span of Mardi Gras. It’s a very special day with gorgeous blossoms everywhere and a sexy parade that kicks off the two weeks before Mardi Gras. It’s so specific in my mind to finish on that day and be loading out from the studio on a day when the city had all this momentum.

Had you intended the album last year?

It got pushed back a little bit with Full Time Hobby, my awesome label in the UK coming on board, but it was always scheduled for around this time. I have a strong songwriting push within myself and my US label likes to slow me down a little bit and give it a full year before I’m back in. 

How did you handle the lockdown and did any positives emerge for you from the enforced quarantine?

I went to live with my sister in Vermont during lockdown. I live alone in New Orleans and I was not keen on going through the quarantine experience alone. My sister and I are incredibly tight so it was a great experience to be close to my family for the first time in a long time. We hadn’t spent as much time together since we were kids in high school. We’re always looking for positives and that was my feeling at the beginning of the pandemic. I was lucky to have a safe place to land and also getting to know my nephew, who is a budding songwriter. I got him interested in guitar and he knows every word from all of my songs by now (laughs). But it’s also important to realise exactly how difficult this situation is for many and what’s happened in our lives. It’s almost like it’s still so close that we can’t really see it.

Have you considered when you’ll be back touring?

I’ve had to put touring out of my mind to just get on with my life. I just put it out of my mind because it was so devastating to make plans to tour or play live and see them go away. I think it’s important now to just stay hopeful and appreciate the things in our daily lives that are bringing us joy. 

Have you been taking a break from writing?

No breaks. I love writing and recording, that’s what I do. I have a new collection of songs and I’m trying to find the right place to record them. They’ve all been written in quarantine and never performed live and I feel very excited about them.

Interview by Declan Culliton Photograph by Akasha Rabut

Stuffy Shmitt Interview

Stuffy Shmitt relocated to Nashville in 2014, leaving behind a self-destructive lifestyle in New York, while struggling with bipolar disorder. He’s a larger-than-life character, with over half a dozen cracking albums under his belt, while remaining somewhat under the radar. With a renewed zest for life, Stuffy regaled us via Zoom about his latest album STUFF HAPPENS, his forthright writing and his love of East Nashville. 

A lot has happened in East Nashville over the past twelve months?

The tornado struck this day last year. Myself and my wife Donna were left alone but three or four blocks up it was total devastation. It’s mostly fixed up now but you can still drive down Gallatin Avenue and see places still boarded up. Not everybody had insurance, so there are still remnants of the tornado.  

Your CIRICULUM VITAE is most impressive. Names like Willy De Ville and Levon Helm, among others, are listed as people you’ve recorded with.

I released an album called OTHER PEOPLES STUFF. I had always wanted to do a covers record for fun. I got a bunch of rock stars on it. The bass player that I had been using on a couple of other things was Catherine Popper, she used to play with Grace Jones, Jack White and lots more. She’s also in the band Puss n Boots with Norah Jones and Sasha Dobson. She had played with me in most of my bands and had recorded with me on all my records. She asked if I wanted Levon Helm to play drums on a tune on the album as she knew him. I replied that I wanted him on two tunes. So, she called him up and he said he’d love to play. Here’s a good story. He played on Crazy Mama, the old J.J. Cale tune and a gospel song called So Soon In The Morning. I played him the original of that gospel song, which has all these fills and stuff and I said: ‘let’s do it like that’ and pay homage to the original recording. He did, but he didn’t need to do one fill in the entire song and the groove is just dynamite (laughs). It’s sexy and cool and makes the song just chug along. No fills, not one.

I used to throw Willy De Ville out of a bar where I was bar tending. Him and Gordon Gano from The Violent Femmes. I used to throw them out of that bar repeatedly and that’s how we became friends. That was back in 2003, that’s how long ago that was.  Willy was so wild, sometimes things just got out of hand. He was so dramatic and flamboyant. He’d wear features in his hair and he’d go round all the tables in the bar commenting on the tune that was playing. Sometimes it just got too much.  I really miss Willy, he lived just down the street from me. When I look at his early shows on You Tube, wow they are dynamite. 

Eventually you needed to get out of New York?

What happened was it changed for me. I always use the analogy that New York was like a lover to me. When I got there first, I really loved it there but it changed. I didn’t like who she turned into. I lost all my favourite clubs and bars, and big steel buildings were going up all over. It just didn’t seem as funky and dangerous anymore. It was great when it was scary and rocking, broken glass in the streets, drag queens running past you, rock and roll man. Now its all nice and neat and I just got pissed off at it. 

Why move to Nashville?

Because all the places I played live in New York closed down, except The Bitter End. That stayed open. New York just got too straight, I wanted some wild and wacky place. I lived in Hollywood for a while but one of the only places for me for real music is Nashville. It has the greatest musicians of anywhere in America, including New York. 

I believe your first gig in Nashville was at The 5 Spot and that you brought your own audience along?

That was completely nuts. First gig in Nashville, nobody knew who I was. I had neighbours who are real rednecks, I mean they have a complete Trump mug collection with a different member of the family on each mug. I don’t have a lot in common with those guys. So, I got talking to one of these neighbours and told him I was playing my first gig in Nashville at The 5 Spot. At the time of the gig there was a rainstorm and it was pouring down. The gig was at six o clock or some ridiculous time, because I was new in town. So, I went down thinking the place would be empty but it was packed with soaking wet eighty-year-olds. My neighbour had called all his friends and told them they had to go down and support my first show. There were some younger guys there but mostly the oldies. I went up to the bar tender and asked him how he liked my crowd and he just turned to me and replied ‘Well, they’re drinking.’ 

How did the connection come about with Brett Ryan Stewart, who worked on your latest album STUFF HAPPENS?

I didn’t know him before I moved to Nashville. Part of my bi polar fun is my habit of getting in peoples faces from time to time. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t (laughs). He was in The 5 Spot and he was sitting at the counter. I walked up to him with this goofy hat I had on and said: ‘didn’t you push me off a Ferris wheel once.’ I stole that line from Steven Wright.  He came back with some really snappy reply and we started talking. At the same time my wife Donna was at the other end of the bar talking to this guy called Chris Tench, who ended up producing the record. He was really colourful and she said: ‘you’re probably going to love my husband.’ I didn’t know that Brett and Chris were close and worked together. So, they came to a gig and we talked and after a while we decided that we had to work together.

Had you written the songs for the album prior to hooking up with them. What did they bring to the recordings?

Some of them are older songs, some newer. It was magical working with them. I’d always produced all my records myself. I wanted to be the boss, didn’t want to kiss anyone’s ass, including record companies. I did a bunch of pre-production with Chris, which I’d never done before. In New York I just went in to the studio and it was one, two, three, four and play. It was different with Chris, who told me we needed to work all summer on these songs. So, he sat in my house with me and we went over and over them, arranging the tunes. When we went into the studio and it was magical. Brett is a brilliant engineer and also a great songwriter himself, a super guy. He gets sounds that you would never believe and has a world class studio. Chris could play guitar like nobody I had ever seen and is so naturally brilliant, almost savant. So, it was like, you tell me what to do and I’ll do it, though we did all produce it together. I trusted them, which was the first time I’d ever trusted anyone with my music. 

Are all the songs written on personal experiences? 

Oh yeah, you want to know how my life went, just listen to the records.

You don’t hold back on songs like The Last Song and She’s Come Unglued. Has your writing caused friction and have you lost many friends over the years as a result?

Yeah, all the time. The Last Song is about a girl called Mary. We were living in the village and had split up at that time. There’s a line in the song ‘Mary what happened’. Her reply was ‘do YOU want to know WHAT happened’. That was time for me to slam the phone down (laughs). The unglued song is about my ex-wife. I don’t make stuff up. I just tell the truth. 

The song It’s Ok, was written in exasperation or forgiveness?

Exasperation. It’s sarcastic and cynical. After a while I could not do any more for that girl, so I just shrugged my shoulders and said ‘It’s Ok’. It’s also the most accessible ‘hit’ (laughs). 

I believe your neighbours Aaron Lee Tasjan and Brian Wright both played on the album?

Yes, they both played on that crazy rock tune Sweet Krazy and also played on Scratchin’ At The Cat, which might be my favourite track on the album. I have an instrumental track of that song that’s even better. 

You also have some cool videos of a number of the songs from the album?

The people that do my videos and also Brett’s videos are a couple from Georgia, not the State, the country. A husband and wife, Anana Kaye and Irakli Gabriel, they’re super talented and also have a band. They’re also the best video makers I’ve come across. 

Tell me about your previous album titled 12 SONGS?

12 SONGS is like a greatest hits collection, songs lifted off other albums. I made it before I moved to Nashville to be able to show people the width and breadth of what I do.

The track Nothing Is Real from that album is exceptional, almost frightening. I always hit the replay button when it finishes.

I’ve really happy to hear that. That song is the title track from an earlier album and a lot of people think ‘what the hell’ when they hear it. It’s also a true story, I saw all those things. I wrote Nothing Is Real after I nearly died from pneumonia, I actually saw all those things that are in that song. I had morphine in one arm and ativan in the other arm. They put me in a self-induced coma and I saw all those things. I wasn’t supposed to survive but I did. 

Are you writing at the moment?

My writing comes in spurts. I’m not exactly what you’d call prolific, though every day I’ve got a lot of stuff written on cocktail napkins. I need to be really emotionally moved to be creative unless somebody gives me a deadline, that’s different. I wasn’t getting my shit together for STUFF HAPPENS until Brett came up to me and said ‘Ok, June 28th we’re going in the studio.’ Time to write something. 

What are your hopes for STUFF HAPPENS without being able to tour the album at the moment?

The whole shutdown has changed people’s moods, not being able to play live. I intended selling a million copies of the album and It’s OK is going to be a major radio hit. Local radio likes me, they actually played the Last Song yesterday. It doesn’t usually get airplay. We’re on a bunch of other stations around the country. You’ve got to tour, get on TV, have a soundtrack to a popular movie from an album. It’s hard. 

Is Nashville home for you now?

Yes, I’m going to stick around. I’ve done New York and Hollywood. I’ve got a real house here with a backyard which I never had before. 

Interview by Declan Culliton

Cristina Vane Interview

It’s quite likely that the name Cristina Vane may be new to you. Currently residing in Nashville, the Italian-born artist’s debut album, NOWHERE SOUNDS LOVELY, will undoubtedly turn a few heads on its release in April. Having studied classical music as a young girl, Cristina later became enthralled by country blues and old folk guitar styles. She mastered fingerpicking acoustic and slide guitar skills as well as clawhammer banjo technique. Her splendid album, which is an exemplary cocktail of traditional and modern roots music, highlights how adept she is as a songwriter and vocalist.  We spoke with Cristina a few weeks prior to the release of the album.

Congratulations on the new album NOWHERE SOUNDS LOVELY.  It’s a great listen and a perfect blend of traditional and modern country roots music.

Thank you so much. “A blend” is very much what I am going for in my original music.

You studied classical vocals, music theory, piano and flute in your younger years. Did you have ambitions of pursuing a career in music at that stage?

I did not have ambitions to be a performer or rock star, although I always was passionate about music. I had a lot of interests throughout my childhood and wasn’t sure which direction they would lead me in, and I secretly also didn’t really think being a ‘musician’ was realistic or attainable for me. It seemed like such a vague concept - how did one chance into being a musician outside of choir and band?

You have described yourself in the past as a ‘‘a rock kid who is obsessed with old music.”  What sparked your appetite to explore American culture and music?

It started in London, when I was home for the summer and performing at a bar in Camden. I saw Sam Green playing lap slide and I had to have that sound but didn’t want to turn my guitar sideways so I settled for bottleneck. After graduating college, I found the music of Skip James and Blind Willie Johnson and then my interest was captured forever more. Working at a folk guitar shop in L.A. for a few years also opened up my world to clawhammer banjo, travis picking, and lots of other interesting things. 

After graduating from Princeton University, you relocated to Los Angeles and worked at that store you mention, McCabe’s Guitar Shop. Was this pre-planned to further your education in developing different guitar skills?

I moved to Los Angeles because as a city kid I couldn’t think of another metropolis besides New York that I would enjoy and be able to pursue music in, and I didn’t want to be in New York–half of my school was there after graduating, so L.A. felt far away and a fresh start. My brother and cousin lived there so I had family, and all I knew was it was sunny, the food was great, and there were a lot of opportunities in the music industry there. Getting a job at a guitar shop was not “pre-planned” to help my guitar playing, it was just a logical step for me to be around more music and more like-minded people while earning money to do something I enjoyed very much. It was one of my many jobs while I lived in Los Angeles and at the time when I was working there, I had three other part-times. McCabe’s remains my favourite by far.

You worked with guitar instructor Pete Steinberg there. What did that experience bring to your playing technique?

Pete taught me how to fingerstyle. He taught me alternating/stride bass style picking, as well as the coolest riffs from different classic tunes. He worked with me every week for at least a year and a half because he believed in my passion for it, and even entered me in my first ever fingerstyle category competition at the Topanga Banjo & Fiddle Festival, working up a whole solo and coaching me through it for months. Pete taught me the foundations of excellent fingerstyle playing, but also taught me some patience and discernment, and also, how to be totally insane and still well liked.

Did you have regular gigs in Los Angeles and what type venues were available to you?

I started gigging about a year or so after arriving in L.A. – at first at tiny coffee shops and in the back of bars where I went to open mics. Little by little, a friend would hire me for a party, or I’d play a bigger bar and then I got my first band together. We played a lot of local Venice bars and also really random, far-away gigs. Basically, anything I could book. I remember my first big band show with a different line-up at the Mint, when we got 53 people there. That was a huge deal for me at the time and really warmed my heart.

You then basically booked your own five-month long tour. What States did you visit?

I went through California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Mississippi, and Georgia.

You wrote the bones of NOWHERE SOUNDS LOVELY while touring that summer. Explain the title of the album for us?

Totally. In the song ‘Travelin’ Blues’, the refrain goes “onwards and upwards, well this path leads to nowhere / nowhere sounds lovely, well I’d sure like to go there”.  I felt that the sentiment in those lines, but even just those words, reflect how I felt about traveling that summer. It was wonderful to have destinations but to be totally honest, it was the act of being alone and doing what I loved for five months that really changed me more than having checked off a new place. 

Did visiting and playing in certain places give you the ammunition to write particular songs for the album?

Absolutely. Even though I am half American, I grew up overseas and it was my first time seeing some of the most stunning and impressive natural phenomena across this vast country. There is nothing quite like the Rockies, the prairie, the southwest, the deep south. It was such an inspiring time, and I was so stimulated by all of these new scents, people, accents, foods, and sights.

Any particular locations or experiences that stand out?

The Dakotas are dear to my heart, Asheville was a very special time for me, Taos New Mexico also captured me. Camping in Utah for two weeks on my August break was amazing and definitely a highlight of the trip, as well as my hikes there and at Glacier Park. One of the absolute top experiences of my tour was my time in the south specifically, Clarksdale, Mississippi, and all of the nearby gravesites I visited of my blues heroes. 

You knocked on Cactus Moser’s door to produce and play on the album. What drew you to him?

Cactus not only is a killer drummer, but he had also produced Wynonna & The Big Noises’ latest record at the time. I loved the way he balanced folk and contemporary influences, which really is why I went with him as a producer. And because he has great banter.

Artists such as Jake Xerxes, Rhiannon Giddens, George Mitchell and Art Rosenbaum are folklorist as well as recording musicians. Do you see yourself following a similar path?

I am obsessed with Jake Xerxes Fussell. I would be honoured to even be in a similar path to any of those folks, but I don’t know if I really will be following a similar one to be honest. My intentions with Instagram are simply to share my musical journey and shine a little light on whatever influences pop up along the way. However, my interests don’t lie so much in reinventing traditional songs as writing my own material that may have been inspired by these songs.

You appear highly organised, what are your career plans?  

Oh gosh, I am glad it looks that way because at this end it often feels like I have no idea what I am doing and am late on everything. I would like to get to a level of touring where I can comfortably pay my band to come on the road as well as take care of my needs. I would like to expand my playing abilities for sure – trying to work on my playing on the guitar, banjo, and recently the mandolin. That’s a never-ending hustle. Other than that, I guess just keep making more music.

Is Nashville home now or just another stop on your life journey?

For now, Nashville is home, but I am starting to wonder if I’ve gotten so used to moving that I need to do it. Either way, I plan to be in Nashville for the foreseeable future.

Interview by Declan Culliton Photograph by Alex Skelton

Aaron Lee Tasjan Interview

 Since arriving in East Nashville in 2015, Aaron Lee Tasjan has established himself as one of the most interesting and versatile artists in that thriving music community. His genre hopping escapades have gifted us with a catalogue of music that encompasses Americana, folk, power pop, rock and more. His recently released album titled TASJAN! TASJAN! TASJAN! is a treasure chest of poppy glam rock gems alongside a few heavenly ballads. It also contains the most personal and candid writing of his career. We chatted with the ever engaging and charming artist via Zoom recently.

Last year must have been an incredibly difficult period for musicians. Setting aside the negatives, did any positives emerge for you in 2020?

That’s a good question. Yes, there were. My partner Erica Blinn, who is a wonderful artist, has been making an album here in our house. She’s been recording and playing all the instruments herself for the album. It’s been a real gift during this time because the house is filled with incredible music and powerful artistic statements. That has been something that definitely improved the mood a lot last year. For me personally, I think I’ve been able to connect to my home life, which I haven’t had the chance to do before. I have been living with Erica for three years but we both tour constantly. We have known each other for a very long time, probably ten years before we got together. Normally we were only spending two weeks together here and there. So being at home together really felt like having a home life. It’s been grounding for me in many ways.

The new album TASJAN! TASJAN! TASJAN! is deeply personal and unguarded. Was it always going to be a ‘this is me warts and all’ type project?

At times in the past when I had made records, I kinda realised this passion that I had for creating records with intention. But at a certain point you have to leave room for the record to reveal itself to you and actually guide you, in terms of what it is you are actually saying on the record, which tracks are connecting, are really sparkling and lifting the music to the best place it can be. I did not start with the intention of writing and singing only about myself, but I noticed over time that the songs, where I was actually doing that, felt like the ones that were really compelling. In a lot of ways, I think it felt like something that was newer for me. It was a territory that I had not explored in depth before on previous records. I think there is a piece of me in every song I write, but that lyrically my tone had previously been more observational than on this record. This one is really about me and I think that these songs seem to just leap out of the speakers, and really feel exciting. So, it was an easy road to go down but there was a moment when I realised ‘I see what I’m doing, this is going to be a record where I’m singing about myself’.  So, the songs are directly about me and out of my life.  It did actually become that record about myself, which was not intentional at the beginning.

Did you have reservations as to how the material would be received, in particular the references to sexuality? 

Yes, a little bit.  Reservations might not be the correct word but you are aware of the fact that you are going to be categorised differently than in the past, due to the nature of some of the things that I am singing about on this record. Any time you sing about things that are super personal people often want to apply that label to you in a broad term. It is human nature to do that. We are all trying to figure out where each of us is coming from so that you know how to relate to each other. But we need to remember and acknowledge that people are many things, and it is not always that easy to use a wide brush stroke to describe an artist or music or whatever. We need to leave space for what that artist is becoming or about to become. I feel that if you are living life in the right way, it’s unlikely that you are going to be the same person in ten years’ time that you are today. That’s a little bit of what I’m trying to say on this record, to hold a space and allow people to become who they are over time.  But also, to recognise the things about them in that moment, things that we can point to and say ‘that’s really interesting, I can relate to them this way unlike before’. It is a process, very much like a song, it’s a story that is slowly unfolding over time and that is why it is worth paying attention to.

Do you feel that honesty in writing is generally received with open arms, notwithstanding how difficult it may appear at the time? 

Yes, I think you’re right. It’s interesting how those things that feel really scary at a certain time, but after you’ve gone through them, they turn out to be beneficial moments for all of us because it takes real strength to be vulnerable, I think. At least in America, I feel like our society has almost come to treat vulnerability as a liability. Whereas it’s actually an enormous strength, because it does allow us to relate to each other in a really intimate way. I think you make a really good point about how honesty and vulnerability tie right in with that sentiment.

With the song Don’t Over Think It, are you pointing at yourself or at the rest of us?

Oh, definitely at myself (laughs.) But I figured it is probably something that others have considered also. It was a recurring thing in my life, to the point where I finally said: ‘I have to write a song about this’ (laughs). I am always doing it to myself. For me, songs can be like a mantra because as a performer you sing the songs every night. So, you want to make sure that these words that you communicate every night have a meaning for you and that you can delight in, find your humanity in and be able to share that with people. I am sure there are people who might approach their art as more of an acting role going on stage. I can appreciate that, but for me I just couldn’t go on stage and actually fake it. 

Are you generally very hard on yourself?

I traditionally have been but I have been trying very hard through different approaches including therapy to hold myself with a little bit more tenderness. I think I recognised on this record that when I am too hard on myself it gets to the point where it goes beyond just being a critical eye and gets to a place where I am actually undermining what I am doing. That is a pitfall that I try to avoid. It is about holding myself in that place where I don’t become overly self-critical and allowing myself the space to go: ‘I don’t have to be perfect and in fact what I currently am hearing as being wrong about this, is the same thing that may very well endear it to somebody else’. It’s a fine line. I think. as an artist, you’re always walking a lot of fine lines. I think it was John Lennon who said that an artist is the one that has the biggest ego in the room and then can turn around and be crushed in a second with one sentence from somebody. I do think there is some truth in that, it is a kind of tight rope walk.

You recorded once more with Gregory Lattimer who also worked with you on KARMA FOR CHEAP in 2018. How did the recording process compare this time around?

Some of the songs  were done piecemeal from the beginning this time. Those were Now You Know, Got What I Wanted and Not That Bad . Interestingly, those tracks sort of stood as they were when they were finished. We felt like we just put them together piece by piece but the full picture was already there and we did not need to do anything else with those songs. It was more the ones that we played live from the floor that we ended up doing multiple versions. Some had different time signatures and different tempos, there was a lot more experimentation when there was a live band there. Simply because you can do it more efficiently when there is a group of people there.  

I presume you played a lot of the instruments yourself on the album. Who else contributed?

I did yes. I played a lot of the instruments myself but I also had some great drummers. I had Dom Billet who plays with the wonderful Yola and others. Jon Radford, Devon Ashley from The Lemonheads and Fred Eltringham from Sheryl Crow’s band also played drums. Erin Rae and Andrew Combs also contributed and we had a super special guest player on Up All Night, the great bass player Keith Christopher from Lynyrd Skynyrd.

New West were not exactly on board from day one I understand. You waited for some while to break the news to them that you were working on a new album?

(Laughs). God bless them. They were apprehensive. This was the record I particularly wanted to produce myself having not done that before. I ended up co-producing it with Gregory (Lattimore) simply because he is such a good creative partner for me. New West were a little apprehensive, simply because I didn’t have the experience of producing myself. There was nothing for the record label to look at and say ‘well he produced that album and it went well’. I did have to prove myself a little bit to them but for an artist like me a challenge like that ultimately ends up being a good thing. I do have a certain level of ambition for myself within what I’m doing. I always want to try and create something that has elements to it that my previous work may not have had. Sometimes you need people to push you to do that. New West were honest and were not sure that they saw me as a producer. Rather than trying to change their minds, I thought why not record a few songs, send them to the label and they may be more apt to allow me to finish the project myself. So, I sent them four songs I had basically completed recording, Another Lonely Day, Sunday Women, Don’t Overthink It and Now You Know was the other one. I sent them those tracks and they listened to them with an open mind. They thought about it for a while and came back and said ‘actually we really like this direction and think you should keep going. Let us know if you need anything else’. That was really down to Kim Buie, who is A and R at New West and was in a position to make that call. She was the one who stepped up to the mark and believed in the project. Much respect and love to her for that.

Have New West and others tried to point you in a particular musical direction over the years?

New West signed me having seen me play a set acoustically and solo, very much in the vein of artists I had seen doing that and admired like Todd Snider and Ray Wylie Walker, Tim Easton, Mary Gauthier. It seems logical to me that New West would have perceived me as a folk singer. I feel comfortable playing an acoustic guitar by myself, but I feel equally at home playing in a band scenario playing electric guitar, sometimes very loudly and other times very quietly. I like the dynamic range of being able to go from solo to a full band arrangement. Allowing myself to remain open to my folkier inclinations, gives me a wide dynamic range musically and allows me to do all sorts of things, which is exciting for me. Bands like The Byrds and Bob Dylan’s mid 60s records combined those elements of folk music and rock music and that to me feels like a tradition and freedom that should exist in all kinds of music and cultures.

I understand you’re playing the 3rd & Lindsley to launch the album shortly. How long has it been since you’ve actually performed live on stage?

Since last March at the start of the pandemic. Unfortunately, because of COVID-19, the 3rd and Lindsley show is a solo stream without any audience. 3rd AND Lindsley ON SUNDAY NIGHT is the name of the event put on by the Radio Station Lightning 100 here in Nashville every week.  They are a tremendously supportive Radio Station of local artists. They just debuted the full new album on the radio show the other evening. We are very grateful to them for all the support they offer. There will be an in-store event with a full band that we are going to do at Grimey’s record store in East Nashville in the coming weeks. It will be without an audience but with a full band and streamed everywhere free of charge.

Unlike the vast majority of today’s artists, you have a unique and individual fashion style. How important is this to you?

To me it’s really a part of my art. I create those looks for each record that’s based on the music that I’m writing, performing and how I’m feeling at the time. A lot of times I will start wearing certain styles to the studio when I am recording a record, because it helps me inhabit the space where the music is coming from in totality. That’s what I want to do: be a walking breathing piece of art. A lot of these pieces that I’m wearing on the record covers, I’m creating and making myself. It’s hard to find fashion for men that seems interesting to me. I love all kinds of fashion but I’m also not an artist in a position to spend $1000 on a pair of pants. (laughs). Instead, I can go to the thrift store and buy a suit for $10, come home and decorate it and make it something that it wasn’t before. That’s what I also do with my music as well, taking things that have already existed and putting them together in a way that feels interesting to me. So, there are parallels to be drawn between my music and fashion.  It allows me to embrace the full identity of what I am making or creating.

When do you see normality returning for you career wise?

I’m certainly hopeful that it’s sooner rather than later. I honestly don’t know what the reality of that is. We did book a tour for November and I’m hoping that will happen. If it doesn’t, we are just going to keep doing everything we can to bring music to people in a way that we can for now.  It’s not just about being monetarily compensated for my career or whatever. For artists like me, playing to a couple of hundred people, I love to get talking to those people after the shows, hear their stories how they relate to the music and get a depth of understanding of how they connect to the music. You cannot really do that via your phone or computer.  There’s also the feeling of standing in a room with people in an audience and everyone is feeling the same experience together. That is very special to me too. And we will get back to that when it’s safe to do so. But safety is paramount and I hope that folks have started to realise that the more that we do now to wear masks, to be safe, to socially distance, to not go out except when necessary, the sooner we are going to get back to the life that we all love so much.

Interview by Declan Culliton Photograph by Curtis Wayne Millard