Kassi Valazza Interview

 It’s 10 am local time in Portland, Oregon when Lonesome Highway makes contact with Kassi Valazza via Zoom. An early bird by nature - ‘I usually get up around six, so this is late for me,’ she says - Kassi is between tours, having recently completed a run of solo dates on the West Coast. She heads for Europe in April, for dates in the UK and Ireland, including two shows at Kilkenny Roots Festival. Recently signed to Loose Records in the UK, her latest recording, KASSI VALAZZA KNOWS NOTHING, is due for release in May. Born and raised in Arizona but currently living in Portland, her music on the album is a cosmic journey with gentle and considered ballads plus more diverse and psychedelic inclusions. The album’s title is somewhat tongue in cheek with her studio backing band being TK & The Holy Know-Nothings.

 Was your relocation from Arizona to Portland, Oregon career related?

 No, I actually wasn't even playing music when I moved to Portland. I went to school there to study painting. I had friends who lived in Portland and I wanted to leave home but also be close to home. So, I stayed on the West Coast and went to Portland and I've been here almost 10 years now. I actually only started playing music professionally in Portland.

I understand that your dad was a musician. What type of music was he playing and listening to?

Yeah, my dad was a little bit of a music snob and also my mom was kind of strict about what I could listen to. So, I felt that it was easier to just listen to whatever they were listening to. My dad listened to a lot of folk and country music. He grew up in the 60s and bands like Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills and Nash were really big influences for him. That's kind of what I was hearing. 

I can hear a lot of West Coast 60s music in your work, but also UK folk music from that decade with Sandy Denny certainly coming to mind.

I actually didn't grow up with Sandy Denny or Fairport Convention’s music. It wasn't something that my dad was actively listening to in America. I found that stuff on my own and over the years I’ve fallen in love with that electric folk sound. It's incredible.

Whereas many of your peers might quote Townes Van Zandt and Joni Mitchell as their main influences, you’re more likely to make reference to the lesser-known but hugely talented, Michael Hurley.

Yes, I got to know him through Portland. One of the first shows I played in town was opening for Michael Hurley and he completely blew me away. I'd never seen somebody able to play music in any kind of way like him.  He'd either have a sax player with him or just a bass player. He always has these weird combinations of performers and ensembles of players and it always sounded so interesting. You'll still never hear anybody like him. He's completely his own creature, which I love about him as an artist. I think that's what makes a really incredible artist, somebody who sounds entirely like themselves.

He's been recording music back to the mid-70s and yet he is still very much an underground artist.

Which is also why I love him. I don't think his intention was ever to get famous. I think he just does stuff because he likes doing it and I think that's often where really good music comes from 

There seems to be a vibrant music scene in Portland with The Laurelthirst Pub very much the centre for alternative roots music.  Looking at their listings I see that Jerry Joseph, TK & The Holy-Nothings, The Pine Hearts and you are all due to play there soon.

Oh, yeah. And that's where Michael Hurley plays all the time too. We're really lucky to have that space. I've had an excellent time playing shows in Portland, everybody here is so supportive of the arts. Even during COVID, they were trying to find ways to safely put on shows and support musicians. I feel like we've been doing great here. 

Your last full-length album DEAR DEAD DAYS was released in 2019 but I understand it had been shelved for a few years before its release.

Yeah, well, we had recorded it and it was pretty much done. There were things about it that I just didn't like, so I just wanted to redo it. It took almost four years to finally finish it and put it out. And I'm glad I did that because it sounds a lot better than it would have. I did it with a group of friends, I didn't have a label and was not working with a manager. It was literally me and a group of my closest friends just trying to make art. And I was lucky that years later people found out about it and liked it.

What changes did you make and what did you not like about the original recordings?

There were people on it that I felt weren’t doing what I needed for the songs and so we changed a bunch of songs and I wrote some new ones. It was like when there's no time limit and you don't have professionals glaring at you trying to get something done. Why not just take as long as you need to make something? I think there was something really magical about those days in the process of making that album. I've definitely done recordings where I could have worked on it for ten years and probably never have been satisfied. But I do think there is something special about that project when we all knew that it was finished. It was recorded all over Portland. It's so hard to get housing here because it's so expensive. I had moved in those four years maybe seven times. So, all of those songs are recorded in different houses and basements. What makes it such a special record is that it was really disjointed, kind of a mess, yet like a quilt, it finally came together.

Your 2022 four-track EP HIGHWAY SOUNDS is a genre-shifting listen that includes desert noir, country and folk. Was it your intention to create four distinctively different tracks for that record?

There were four different types of tracks on the record all right. It's funny and may sound stupid, but I never intended DEAR DEAD DAYS to be a country album and I never intended HIGHWAY SOUNDS to be a Western album. I just like a lot of different sounds. I think as an artist you can't put yourself in a corner because if I was just doing the same thing over and over again, I would be miserable. And I'd probably be a banker rather than an artist.

Watching Planes Go By, the first single from the new album opens with the lyrics ‘Michael blames his broken foot on lost time, sitting by the window watching planes go by.’ I wondered if this was a reference to Michael Hurley.

I don’t know, maybe. I think all of my songs are just reflections of myself and people I know. I don't think that we should take them super literally. That’s the fun with songwriting. When you hear something, you should be able to relate it to yourself in some way. I like a lot of balance in everything that I do and I think a lot of the melodies and the way that I write music is very much the way I feel. There’s also a lot of sunshine in my music. I feel that it's really important to balance that out. Also, I just might not be a very positive person in general.

That track and others on the album like Welcome Song are beefed out with some fabulous fuzzy guitar breaks yet other tracks on the album are considered mid-tempo ballads.  What are your criteria for both musical directions?

It's all different, it's all depending on how I'm recording.  On the new album everything was live, all the vocals and all the instrumentation. We recorded in a room together with the band TK and The Holy Know-Nothings, who are just such incredible musicians. You're rarely going to find a songwriter that writes and composes every single song; it's a combination of people working things out together, a combination of what I want and what the band hears. It’s all about collaboration. They hadn't heard the songs before we went into the studio and within the course of five days, we had it done. Anything can happen when people don't know the songs because it’s a lot looser and more magic can happen, and you don't overthink it. And I think that's what happened with this album.

The guitar work on the album is amazing.

Yeah, that's Jay Cobb Anderson and Taylor Kingman playing together. There's a song on the album where they're kind of playing duelling guitars. And that was really fun for me because my favourite part of playing music live is just not doing anything and watching the others play. It was really fun for me to record those with them – they're incredible and I also feel the songs worked out.

You delayed the release of the album until May of this year. Was there a particular reason for that?

I think that was mainly down to the problem of getting vinyl. Some of the wait time for labels is up to two years so I got really lucky working with Fluff and Gravy Records and Loose Music because this album is coming out way sooner than I thought it would. They are getting it out way quicker than most labels would have.

You’re due to play dates in late April and early May in Ireland at both Kilkenny Roots Festival and The Workman’s Club in Dublin. Will you be solo or with other players?

I’ll have two friends with me playing keys and pedal steel. We’ll be doing a different rendition of the majority of the songs from the new album. With a little trio, it will be a psychedelic quiet intimate time at the shows.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Pug Johnson Interview

As well as being one of our favourite album titles of last year, the full debut album from Pug Johnson and The Hounds, THROWED OFF AND GLAD, featured in our ‘Best of 2022’ at Lonesome Highway. The album’s sound is unadulterated Texas outlaw, exploring life’s darker side in places but also loaded with high spirits and wicked humour. Much of the material also mirrors Johnson’s real-life trials and tribulations as he finds his feet in an industry that is seldom easy to navigate. It’s still very much a ‘work in progress’ but heading in the right direction, as Johnson explained to us when we spoke with him recently.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your musical career to date.

Okay, I'm from Beaumont, Texas, which is in the southeast corner right next to the Gulf Coast and Louisiana. I started playing music when I was 13, trying to learn to play the guitar. I started off writing poems when I was a kid and eventually it kind of transitioned over into songwriting. When I was in high school, I started my first band. We took it pretty seriously and I wound up going to a school for music close to home. When I graduated, me and a few members of the band moved to Nashville. 

How was that Nashville experience for you?

We were all music majors having just graduated and we all knew that we needed to get somewhere where there was a music scene going on: it was either go to Austin or go to Nashville. We all had some friends that had already gone to Nashville and we thought that Nashville was where we would have a better bet of actually catching work as sidemen. I went there also trying to sell some of my songs. We pretty much all just went our separate ways eventually in Nashville. I had just turned 21, so that wound up kind of like really being my college experience and so that was two years that I didn't really get a lot done. I wound up working at a Kroger grocery store and trying to go to writers’ nights. I also wound up selling weed for a while. The big lesson that I really learned is that I wasted quite a bit of time there. I was living in a one-bedroom apartment with two other guys that I went to college with. Three of us crammed into this one bedroom and that was when I first really started drinking heavily. But I got some great stories worth telling and writing about from that time.

Did you get to play many gigs there?

Me and a friend would do a set every Thursday night at the Nashville Palace, which is just by the Opryland. It’s one of the touristy areas and we had a six-hour set and there were no breaks.  It was mainly covers but we could also do songs that we had written. I built up a pretty good repertoire of covers –when you're playing for six hours, doing it every week, that happens. I also started playing a lot of writers’ nights, though I felt that I wasn't good enough at first.  You only get the chance to play two or three songs so I was getting far less playing time than I wanted and had to learn how to stand out really quickly. That's where I came up with a lot of songs for THROWED OFF AND GLAD.

It's a great title for an album: where did the idea for the title come from?

It's a classic cheesy story.  I had just moved to Nashville. I'd probably been up there for two months or so, some friends and I were having a little get-together and I went to the patio to smoke a cigarette and wound up kind of stumbling out the door. And one of the guys there said: ‘throwed off and glad.’ Eventually, I wanted to write a song with that title because I thought it was a funny kind of notion, and it can go different ways. I pictured a stoned cowboy laying back in the corner of this smoky dive bar bobbing his head. It wound up being my theme song while I was in Nashville.

There are some powerful tracks on the album. Miss You All is particularly dark. 

Yeah, I was kind of isolated at one point while I was in Nashville and getting into a dark place, which can happen when you start kind of spending too much time by yourself. You get to think of all kinds of nonsense. You think, maybe because people aren't reaching out to you that they don't care about you. It's pretty easy to make yourself feel down and isolated if you're on your own.

Angel is another track that is extremely soul-searching.

That was the first one I wrote after I moved to Nashville and it was about being homesick, missing a girl, and a little bit of guilt because I was pretty promiscuous by nature at that time.

Did you record the album in Texas?

Yes, in a studio here in Beaumont called Four Eyes. It was started by a guy that was one of my professors in college and I reached out to him, telling him that I'd got all these songs. He had sold the studio to a guy that was a fellow student in music college with me, I think he started a couple of years before me. He was one of those guys that I just knew even back then that he was on a whole other level than the rest of us. That's Ryan Johnson, and ever since he's been my producer, who I go to when I want to make a record.

You’re due to embark on a fairly extensive tour right now.

Yes. I still haven't even toured as I should have. My wife, Mindy and I have been in the process of changing our living situation so that I can do that better. We’re getting ready to move to Hill Country close to San Antonio. Mindy’s managing me, she quit her full-time job and right now she's taking care of the business end of things, and I'm the creative side of the partnership. We’ve sold our house and bought a motorhome, so now we're about to hit the road in a big way. 

Will you play solo or with a band?

We're hoping to put together a touring band, it will probably be the group of guys who will be on the next record as well.  I’ll tour solo at first, but we have room in the motorhome for a few guys to crash. But, the plan is to get a hotel room and let the guys take the room and Mindy and I will stay in the bus. 

In a very crowded marketplace and without the backing of a major label, how difficult is it to get your music recognised?

We had some good fortune through my friends in the Teague Brothers Band.  Through John Teague we were actually able to hook up with the Smith Music group. They've been a big help because before that we were just doing CD Baby, and with that we weren't really seeing a lot of growth. Through Smith Music, we were able to get on a couple of playlists and get into some rotations, and we're seeing a lot more growth that way. We’re also just spreading ourselves by word of mouth.

Slowly but surely there appears to be more recognition for roots music in recent times. Are you noticing this in Texas?

Yes. One of my professors back in college talked about the music business and music tastes as a pendulum that swings between the poppy commercial stuff and the grassroots. It's going to go back and forth. And I think right now people are leaning more towards something more roots’ based. 

What’s on the Pug Johnson music playlist in recent times?

In the past couple days, it’s been The Stanley Brothers. I'm not going to lie; I've still been listening to THROWED OFF AND GLAD quite a bit. It’s like Tarantino when he talks about how he makes his films for himself. That's exactly how I feel about making records. I still also go back to the classics a lot, Waylon, Willie and Merle. I was recently doing a deep dive back in to Merle’s early stuff with The Strangers and there’s some really good deep cuts there that I need to go back and check them out again.  

Is that similar to what you were listening to when you were younger?

Like most kids my age, my brother was into modern rock, but he would also play rap and hip hop.  I was listening to Waylon and George Jones; I got it from my grandpa and my dad. They would love to listen to music and sing along. My dad would come home from work on a Friday and we'd be getting ready to go out to dinner and he would turn on these country tunes. There was a Johnny Bush record that he had that he would put on all the time and pour two fingers of whiskey into a glass for himself.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Greg Cahill Interview

On the eve of their extensive Irish and UK tour in Jan/Feb 2023, including a Celtic Connection date, Greg Cahill, anchor man and founder of the long running, multi award winning, bluegrass ensemble, Special Consensus, sat down with us for a wide ranging interview. Past illustrious members of the band include Robbie Fulks, Chris Jones, Josh Williams, Rick Farris and Dallas Wayne. Bucking the trend by always touring here in the post-Christmas winter season, Greg gives us some insight into what makes him tick, and the secret of maintaining a successful band over such a long period. Long may they run.

What is the current Special Consensus line-up?

The current band comprises Dan Eubanks on bass, Greg Blake on guitar and Michael Prewitt on mandolin. I am very happy to have each of them in the band - they are all superb players and singers and wonderful human beings. I thoroughly enjoy making music with them and can't wait for the recording we just finished in the Compass Records studio (with Alison Brown producing, as usual/thank goodness) - should be released in the spring of this year. 

Being an Irish publication, I have to enquire about your Irish heritage?

My mother had a bit of Irish but more German in her family tree. But my father's dad was born in Chicago in 1898, soon after his mother arrived from Ireland. The Cahill and O'Cahill clans we apparently have in our lineage were primarily from the Tipperary, Kerry and Clare regions. 

What are your earliest musical memories and influences growing up? Where did the swing influence originate? 

My grandad was a great harmonica player and he began teaching me how to play when I was around 5-6 years old. My grandmother would often give him a new harmonica for Christmas and he would give me one of his used ones. When I stayed with them, he would show me a tune in the evening and then I would sit and try to learn it the next day while he was at work. I often could not get it exactly as he played it but later learned the hand-me-down harmonicas often had a blown reed or two. My mother was a great piano player who learned from her mother, who played for the silent movie houses. My grandad (mother's father, whom I never met) worked for the railroad and was killed in a railroad accident when my mother was quite young and her mother gave piano lessons in their apartment to support them. We always circled around the piano at family gatherings - mom played the old standards and everybody sang songs like Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue, All of Me, Baby Face, etc. I wanted to learn an instrument so I began taking accordion lessons when I was about 8 and did so for maybe 6 years. I learned how to read music and play some of those old standards, which is where my penchant for swing music began. My accordion teacher also began introducing me to some of the jazz standards as well. My folks listened to Dixieland music recordings when I was in bed falling asleep so I heard lots of tenor banjo music (like Eddie Peabody) and I'm certain that definitely enhanced my liking of swing music and the sound of the banjo. My father sang in the church choir and one of my younger sisters took accordion lessons and the youngest took piano lessons so we had plenty of music around the house.

How did an Irish-American from Chicago become interested in bluegrass music, and end up playing the banjo, in particular?

A friend brought his 5-string banjo to our high school graduation picnic and I thought that was the coolest sound. He was playing Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary folks songs and I just really loved the sound of that banjo so I bought an inexpensive long-neck banjo and carried it with me to college in Minnesota. I eventually co-founded a folk trio with friends and found my way from the "new" folk music scene to Pete Seeger and ended up buying a Sears, Roebuck and Co. 5-string banjo, a red "How To Play The 5-String Banjo" book by Pete, a 6-string and a 12-string guitar to play Pete Seeger and Weavers folk songs as well as the more "current" folk songs like If I Had A Hammer, Charlie and the MTA, etc. I soon traded in that banjo and bought a Vega long neck 5-string banjo to play in a folk trio through my last two years of college in Minnesota. Then I heard the 5-string banjo on The Beverly Hillbillies and I was hooked. I met a banjo player in the Chicago area who showed me some licks and tunes and the journey began. I went into the Army after graduating college in 1968 and came back to Chicago area in 1970, where I worked for the Cook County Dept of Public Aid and then went to graduate school (on the GI Bill) to get my Master's in Social Work degree. I had a day job and a wife and son but I was playing the banjo as much as possible and I sold the Vega and the 12-string guitar and bought a Gibson Mastertone 5-string. Richard Hood played banjo in the Greater Chicago Bluegrass Band and he brought me to bluegrass festivals and concerts and I was now very deep into the music.

You formed ‘Special C’ an unbelievable forty seven years ago. Does this mean you hold the record for the longest running bluegrass band ever? And who among the band’s alumni holds the record for putting up with you the longest?  

We actually formed The Special Consensus around 1973 - just friends trying to learn more about bluegrass music and eaten up with playing. We played just for fun, then at parties and eventually started to play in Chicago clubs. But by 1975, the bass player Marc Edelstein and I decided we wanted to try to play professionally as a touring bluegrass band. The other members were finishing degrees or working day jobs they did not want to leave so we basically reformed with guys who were of the same mind and that is why we call 1975 the beginning of The Special Consensus as a touring and recording full-time bluegrass band. The name began as The Special Consensus Bluegrass Band, then we dropped "Band" from the name, then "Bluegrass" and finally "The" because everyone called us "Special Consensus" or "Special C."

I believe Rick Faris gets the prize for staying with the band the longest, which is 11 years.

’No bus wreck, bounced check, or personnel change can shake this band’s determination and joy in making great bluegrass’ (Tim O’Brien 2005). My overriding feeling that remains after seeing you play over the past twenty years (only!) is of that of the sheer enjoyment of the band members, which is contagious for the audience. What is your secret? 

When someone leaves the band, I don't try to replace that person with someone who plays and/or sings just like the departing member - I look for someone who will bring his/her special talent to the band. I of course want people who at least know of us and some of our music but who are also on the same page, so to speak, with the kind of music we play and our sheer love of bluegrass music. We love the traditional bluegrass and consider ourselves to be pretty traditional sounding but with some material that is newer and perhaps not exactly what might be called bluegrass but we then make it our own and love to play songs from different genres that we "grassify.". And personality has everything to do with joining the band - we want people who love making the music as we do and who are willing to work at it and grow with us. Sometimes even the greatest player or singer may not be the right fit with our "band personality" so we don't ask them to join. 

Some readers will not be aware that Robbie Fulks (guitar ’87- ‘89) and Dallas Wayne (bass ‘88 - ‘92) are two artists who graduated from ‘Special C’ in the early days, and have gone on to make names for themselves in the country/Americana sphere. Can you tell us a bit more about their days with the band? (We love a bit of gossip, so don’t hold back)

We had the best times together! Robbie and Dallas are superb musicians, songwriters, wonderful human beings and true music scholars. They have studied and lived music most of their lives - both are voracious readers and both know so much about music history, especially country music. There are too many stories to tell - I truly would not know where to begin but will say we have the utmost respect and love for each other to this day - friends forever. One brief story about the silliness and fun we had is that we often had lodging provided for the band but not always the most comfortable sleeping situations for all. If there were different degrees of comfort, we had the "system" of flipping coins in various combinations until a winner was declared. The winner could choose whatever bed/room he desired. We would continue the process until we all knew where each of us would sleep. One morning, after a night of not very comfortable beds/quarters for any of us, Dallas and Robbie came skipping out of the building singing "Rollaway, rollaway, rollaway bed..." They made up an entire hilarious song about the situation right on the spot, singing as we laughed hysterically. Talk about making a difficult situation into a fun experience... great guys!

Apart from songs penned by yourself and other band members, you always include several covers on your albums. What are the considerations when deciding on other writers’ songs to include - are you driven by the lyrics, or the instrumental potential for live performance, perhaps?

We are always on the lookout for a good song. We are always making lists that we all contribute to and when we are preparing to record, which now is usually bi-annually for the Compass Records release schedule, we let our professional songwriter friends (especially those whose songs we have recorded on previous albums) know that we are on the search for new songs. We do receive many unsolicited songs from people we do not know and we try to listen to all of them as well. We primarily focus on our original material and that of the songwriters we have worked with. Sometimes a theme begins to appear as we listen to so many songs but sometimes there is no obvious theme and we look at songs from other genres that we feel would be fun to record. We have often included old country songs, swing songs and tunes, classic rock and roll songs and gospel songs. I must say that we work hard at our music - we are always listening, always trying to perfect our stage performance and always trying to learn and to raise the bar. It becomes a "leave egos at the door" and work together mission to make the best band song selections and performances. We are so very fortunate to have Alison Brown as our producer, who is just brilliant at hearing songs that fit our band sound, at arranging any type of material with us and at pushing each of us to raise our personal bars as well as the band bar.  

Tell us a little about the TAM (Traditional American Music) programme which you instigated in the 80s. Were you the first band to do this outreach into schools and institutions, something that has now become very common practice?

Other bands brought bluegrass music into schools before Special C - the McClain Family, the Goins Brothers, to name only a couple - but we were at least one of the first to provide written materials for teachers to use in the classroom before and/or after we came to make our presentation. In the early 1980s, a teacher friend of mine in the Chicago area asked me to bring my banjo into her classroom to play for the students, most of whom had never seen a banjo in person. I did this and then other teachers asked me to do it for them and I eventually asked our guitar player at the time (Chris Jones) to come with me. Soon the band would come in and there was clearly interest in having us introduce primary and even high school students to bluegrass music. I went to the library to do some research (there of course was no internet, no cell phones) and I wrote our description of our TAM Program that included pictures of the instruments and the basic history of bluegrass music. We eventually brought the program into schools around the country and even to schools in Ireland, England, Scotland, Canada and South America. This written TAM Program material became the model for the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) "Implementation Manual" to help bands create their own school programs and that led to the IBMA video production that Nancy Cardwell and I produced to encourage bands to go into schools and also to hopefully inspire students to learn more about bluegrass music.    

Generally, you don’t have a fiddle player in the band. Is this a conscious decision?

We all love playing with a fiddle in the band! We always have a guest fiddle player of two on our recordings (and usually a dobro player) for that "full" bluegrass sound. The reason we don't have a fiddle player in the band can be summarized in one word: economics. We already split the band income six ways (after paying our booking person commission). We each get one share and the band gets two for operating expenses that include having a band vehicle (Sprinter) and paying for all travel and some lodging expenses. Hence, there are four seats in the van and we have four rooms in our booking contract - the fifth person would increase our expenses and make the split reduce our individual income, which is the primary job income for all of us. 

You travel extensively across the US and further afield, playing at festivals etc. Which up-and-coming artists and/or bands have impressed you recently, that you think we should keep an eye on as the future of the music?

I see so many great young bands - I can hardly remember names but I am very impressed with so many of them. The obvious are Molly Tuttle (who sang and played clawhammer banjo on one of our recordings) and Billy Strings. There are many others  like Kody Norris, East Nash Grass, Po Ramblin' Boys, Laura Orshaw, Henhouse Prowlers, former Special C members Rick Faris and Nick Dumas (who left with blessings to begin their solo careers) and a band you may know (said tongue-in-cheek) named We Banjo Three.

Interview by Eilís Boland

Emily Nenni Interview

Traditional country music is attracting more attention from new and wider audiences both in the States and Europe and the likes of Nashville-based Emily Nenni is keeping the honky tonk flag flying vigorously.

Despite the many hurdles that women face in a male-dominated industry Emily’s career has moved at a brisk pace through hard graft, attention to detail, dedication, and no end of talent, which has resulted in three solo records over the past five years. She independently recorded her debut album, HELL OF A WOMAN in 2017 and followed that with her 2020 EP LONG GAME. Both provided glimpses of an artist whose enunciation and vocal range are pure country, allied to an ability to create songs rich in both detail and content.  Emily has turned up the heat a number of notches with her latest album ON THE RANCH. Written in the main on a ranch in Colorado during a period when Covid deprived her of employment in Nashville, it’s a noble effort in keeping real country music alive. A giant leap forward for Emily has been the support of New West, who added her to their roster. Just off the road from a tour with Kelsey Waldon, we caught up with Emily before she packed her bags for Australia for a tour with her label mate, Joshua Hedley.

How daunting was it for you to move to Nashville at twenty-one years of age?

It was daunting, but because I was so young, I didn't think too much of it at the time.  I didn't know anybody there. I had been to Nashville once before and I really just put myself out there because I was so young and it was also exciting there. I just went there and worked hard. I knew I wanted to make music and be a part of it, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to just be a songwriter. I didn't really think I had the courage to sing in front of people. I was still pretty shy singing in front of larger groups, so I had a couple of beers and started singing in front of some folks and that happened about six months after moving into town. Robert’s Western World was where I first cut my teeth. I would watch their house band, Brazibilly every Friday and Saturday: they are so loyal to traditional country music and they play it so well. I learned so much from listening to them. I was then introduced to the folks at Santa’s Pub where they do a similar thing to Robert’s but to a younger crowd and in a much more laid-back way.

At what stage did you progress from spectator to performer?

I played my first show playing originals with a band at the first-ever Honky Tonk Tuesday at American Legion Post 82.  That was about eight years ago and I probably played to about five people. There was still a table in the middle of the dance floor back then. I didn't have my songs recorded at the time and didn’t have consistent players because Nashville is a busy town and a lot of the players were also touring.  So, I had to get players to learn my original songs and I was still learning how to lead a band. That took some time. I'm still learning, learning a lot, that's the beauty of it, you're always learning.

The American Legion has become a ‘go to’ venue for traditional country music in Nashville. It’s attracting increasingly large numbers of younger people every Tuesday night to both dance and enjoy great music.

I think that's a beautiful thing. I'm really glad that a number of us are keeping traditional country music alive. The Honky Tonk Tuesday nights started with some older folks there but as the crowds got bigger over the years there have been more and more people in their twenties coming along. I toured with Charley Crockett for a month and saw a lot of younger folks in their cowboy hats and a lot of them were still in college, which means a lot because there’s a lifetime ahead of those people to continue to support country music and spread the word. It is still far and few between but I'm hoping it will get much bigger again.

Where did your love of traditional country come from?

My parents listen to every genre, we listened to music all the time in our house. My dad worked in radio since the 70s and my parents moved from New York to California in the 80s. We’ve always been a music loving family: my mom played a lot of Patsy, Willie and Hank Williams. Those are really the three that I heard a lot of growing up and I took that with me when I moved to Nashville. I never really leaned towards pop/country. I still think Shania Twain is great and I love her but we are more of a Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson household.

Your 2017 album HELL OF A WOMAN is anything but pop/country, more a statement of your intended musical direction, would you say? 

Yes, I recorded that with my former guitarist Mike Eli. We actually met at Robert’s Western World. I showed him a couple of my songs that I'd written and we just started recording and writing some more just from home. We recorded that probably over the course of a year and a half and I wasn’t really trying to shop the record or have anyone release it. I had a lot more to learn and a lot more people to meet back then. There's a combination of quite a few musicians on that record because I recorded it over a year and a half but a couple of those songs I'd written when I was nineteen years old, like Hurt All Over and Canyon. The song Hell Of A Woman wasn't initially going to be on the record, but it ended up being the title track and that logo is on my T-shirts now. All those songs except for Canyon are autobiographical and about what I felt and experienced when I was twenty-one years old, living in a new state and a new city.

In terms of autobiographical writing, the songs Gates of Hell and Matches from ON THE RANCH read like exorcisms. 

(Laughs). Yes, Gates Of Hell is definitely a very therapeutic song, it's about a relationship when I was twenty-one. And you know, I started to think about these things during the lockdown. During that time, I had a lot of free time on my hands and was thinking about a lot of things for my writing, so yeah, very therapeutic.  Song writing is a very therapeutic thing, so I'm very grateful to have that outlet.

 ON THE RANCH has been released on the New West label. Had you recorded the album prior to signing with them?

Yes, I had just started working with one of my booking agents and I had just finished the album six months beforehand, having recorded it at a friend's studio. I told my booking agent that I wanted to shop the album as I'd already released a single from it. New West had heard of me and enjoyed my self-released last EP LONG GAME. They had been listening and had an eye and ear out for me a year, and they liked the record. After we sent it to them, I had to play a couple of very intimidating shows for them. They're just the nicest folks and they're working so hard for me; they liked the record just as it was and I'm really grateful for that. They appreciate that I'm making my own music and that it’s more traditional.

What difference has signing to them made for you?

It has made such a huge difference. Before then I was surprised anyone heard my music at all, I just put it out. My single Long Game ended up on a big Spotify playlist, probably just by chance, but now I have a fantastic team working with me on publicity and digital radio. I've also got a great booking team who know the market. I have no knowledge of all these things.

Were the songs for ON THE RANCH written at the ranch in Colorado where you spent time during lockdown and how did you end up there?

I had a few songs written, In The Morning and Matches were written before we went to the ranch in Colorado. Mike Elijah – who I had written the last couple records with – his wife was turning thirty and she was working at the ranch. So, we said: ‘why don't we just drive up, work more on this record and write some more songs.’ We came back to Nashville a few weeks later with the rest of the record written. I messaged my buddy, Jake Davis, who had engineered and mixed my other records and we got some studio dates on the books.  We had recorded demos in my basement and I went into the studio with Mike Eli and Alex Lyon, who co-produced the record, and also played bass. We had a couple of other folks play in the studio and we got it done in three or four days.

Did the environment at the ranch in Colorado have a marked input on your writing for the album?

Anna, Mike's wife, grew up barrel racing in rodeos when she was younger, so Can Chaser is a song about that sport. I got a perspective on a different career on the ranch that expanded my subject matter and I definitely gained a lot of respect for that different career.  It's just like being around women in country music as you get to talk about the good and the bad and your experiences as a woman. I dated a cowboy when I was twenty-one. The majority of the time you're born into that life, I certainly wasn't as my parents are New Yorkers and I was raised in California. I really admire that lifestyle, it's a lot of hard work. When I worked at the ranch, I was doing what I did in Nashville, serving breakfast and dinner and playing music for the guests. I did take care of a calf named Scott that lost her mom, I tried to try to get her to gain some weight and feed her, but I'm not a cowgirl by any means.

Are you a ‘nine to five’ writer or do your songs come to you in bursts?

It does just come in bursts. I jot down my ideas or some lines as they come to me. With the song Hell Of A Woman, I think I was just sitting at my kitchen counter and that song came out in ten minutes. Sometimes the songs come out of nowhere, sitting on the couch or I might be walking the dog and the song will be finished by the time the walk is over.

You’ve recently played two album release shows at Santa’s Pub in Nashville with Pat Reedy and Hannah Juanita supporting you.

Yes, I've known Pat since I was twenty-one, he's such a good buddy and we've played quite a few shows together over the years. Hannah Juanita is wonderful. She moved here just a few years ago. Her voice is so easy on the ears, I love her. It was really great to play those shows at Santa’s and celebrate with people that I have known since I moved here, and that have always supported me

You’re also busy on the road and have just returned from touring with Kelsey Waldon are due to head to Australia with your New West label mate Joshua Hedley.

Kelsey and I have known each other for a while. The tour with her was the best, the month really flew by. She has such an incredible band and she’s a great songwriter. She was also very encouraging of me and my music which means a lot, coming from another woman. We all stayed in Joshua Tree together for a couple of days and went hiking and had a lot of meals together. I was given twenty-four hours to decide about the dates in Australia when I was on the road a couple of weeks into a tour. I really can't wait, I'm really excited.  Joshua Hedley’s band The Headliners will be backing me up. It's going to be half travel and half shows, a two-week ordeal. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.   

Any plans to get over to us in Europe?

I’m very excited about getting over to Europe. There are talks about shows over there and I hope that happens soon. I’ve only left my country a couple of times, a few hours in Mexico and then a week in Cuba. In the meantime, I have my first headlining tour lined up here for March and April next year.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Caleb Caudle Interview

The past two and a half years have been a rollercoaster ride for singer songwriter Caleb Caudle. A few days before the release of his 2020 album, BETTER HURRY UP, a tornado struck Nashville, where he was living with his wife, followed a few weeks later by the pandemic. With his touring schedule interrupted and with no notion of when it might resume, he headed back home to North Carolina to ride out the storm. Caleb spent that enforced time during the pandemic hiking in the woods near his home and taking inspiration from the natural surroundings and overall peacefulness. His recently released album is titled FORSYTHIA, named after a plant that flowers in spring, heralding new birth after the winter months. Given the album’s conception, it’s little surprise that the material is calming, tranquil and deeply personal. It has been the subject of hugely positive reviews with Lonesome Highway’s among them. We spoke recently with Caudle and found him in assured and upbeat form, and enjoying being back on the road doing what he loves best.

I understand that you are living in rural North Carolina at present. 

We moved back to North Carolina a couple of years ago. We were living in Nashville for a while but we're back here.   

How does that compare to living in Nashville?

We're in what we call ‘out in the sticks.’ So, no stoplights and just a lot of land and animals. It's a good place for me when I come off the road. Nashville is great. It's a big musical community, but it's also a big city and so I feel like I thrive a little bit more when there's less noise and I'm out in the country. I like them both for different reasons but I'm really drawn to the more wide-open spaces. When I played in Dee’s Cocktail Lounge in Nashville for a tornado relief fund in 2020, that was the last time I was on stage prior to the pandemic, just before we moved back here.

That tornado struck Nashville just before you released BETTER HURRY UP in 2020, immediately followed by COVID. So, you haven't had the opportunity as such to tour that album prior to releasing FORSYTHIA earlier this year. 

It's kind of like I'm getting to tour two records at the same time now, which is kind of interesting. 

You had both your parents and your wife singing backing vocals on the track Bigger Oceans from the BETTER HURRY UP album.

They didn't know they were going to be doing that. My wife brought them out to the Cash Cabin, where we were recording, and they were just listening in. I said ‘all right, you're up,’ and so my wife and both of my parents went into the room, put their headphones on, and they sing along to the chorus. That was a really fun experience. 

You suggested that you felt that FORSYTHIA might be your last record when you were working on it. What bearing did that have on the preparation and recording?

Well, I think there probably was a pretty good amount of pressure as a result. But it was also kind of freeing in a way because I felt like I needed to just be myself. I didn't have to do anything other than that.  If this was going to be the last record, I was going to put forward my best ten songs and surround myself with legendary players like Dennis Crouch, Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas. I knew they'd all do a great job and they really did. So, it's a really special record and I think that the mindset of going into it as if it might be my last record is one that I'm going to carry forward into all the records I make.

I'm intrigued by the list of artists that contribute backing vocals on the album. Gary Louris, Elizabeth Cook, Courtney Marie Andrews and John Paul White are all credited.

They were just people who I'd met and become friends with and I just thought they would all do a great job and of course, they did. It was just all really natural. It’s cool to get to meet so many people throughout the world touring and just become friends and be able to collaborate with them.  

How did the connection with John Carter Cash come about?

I had worked out at the Cash Cabin once before and John’s house is right there. We met through that and started writing a few songs together. We wrote The Gates together, which is on the new record. When the pandemic hit, we were just hanging out and he offered to produce the new record and since no one was touring, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush and Dennis Crouch were available to come and play. I think everybody was just kind of antsy and wanted to play music with other people instead of singing into their phones. It was just kind of a really nice pandemic project, a little silver lining for us.

Over what period did the recording take place? 

It was from the winter of 2020 into the following summer, over maybe a course of about six to eight months.

FORSYTHIA is your ninth album. That’s a fairly prolific output and suggests someone who is constantly writing songs.

I try to just keep it constantly moving and record a new record every couple of years. It's kind of the pace I've been working at. Luckily, I feel like I've toured so much now that I've built enough of a fan base that really wants to hear another record and they're all really supportive of that. The writing is sort of the hard part for me, all the other stuff like recording and touring, I can kind of figure out, but I always want the writing to be as good as it can possibly be.

I believe that you spent some time in New Orleans. I can hear influences from that city on the new record.

I was down there for about maybe a little over a year. It's a very vibrant city with a lot of culture and I felt like the thing that I took away from there was a lot of the grooves that they work with. I try to incorporate some of that into what I’m doing now. So, hopefully, that comes across. 

You grew up surrounded by music from a young age, but similar to many of your peers, you got into punk and new wave before returning to roots and country. 

When I was younger, I was really influenced by bands like The Clash and The Replacements, although I grew up around country music as it was inescapable where I grew up. I wanted to get out of that and explore other music. You're trying to escape and get away from that and blaze your own trail but it was cool to rediscover country as an older man, the stories are just so meaningful. I like the plain speak of it. You know, it's almost conversational. I re-found the music through the likes of The Byrds, Gram Parsons, and Emmylou Harris and worked my way backward from there. It's just kind of a big web and I feel like everything is sort of connected – the blues and country, it all comes from a similar place. And so, I just try to blend all that together.

Have you been busy touring both albums of late and is that solo or with a band?

Well, I've done some stuff in Nashville. We did the 1,000th episode of Mountain Stage in Charleston, West Virginia. Then we played in Atlanta, Georgia and then North Carolina and then headed northeast to New York and a couple of other places. We're touring as a trio, so it's me and then there's upright bass, and then there's a dobro player.

You are returning to Europe in the New Year for some dates. 

Yes, I was over in the U.K. in early 2019 and went to Scandinavia as well. I'll be over there again playing solo in January and then I'll come back later in the year with some more musicians. I've had nothing but good times as far as all the shows I've played over there so I'm looking forward to getting back. I've never played in Ireland and I've got to correct that.

How have you found the dynamic performing live again after the pandemic?

You know, I think I first got into this industry for the connection between the performer and the audience. Everybody feeling the same thing in the one room is like a religious or sacred kind of experience. Having not had that for a while and now having it again, I’m just not taking it for granted and am really making the most of each show and just having a blast.

Are you constantly writing?

I'm always writing a bunch. I'm always trying to think about what's next; you have to plan so far ahead.  I feel like I'm in a constant state of trying to write the next best song, it's kind of what keeps me going, keeping my eyes and ears open, just trying to look around and take note.  There are songs and there are stories everywhere around you. And I think to be a great writer, you just have to really pay attention and so I'm just trying to work on that. 

Are you your worst critic?

I do bounce ideas off different folks that I trust, but at the end of the day, I kind of know when a song is great, and I know when one isn't as great.  So, yes, I am my own worst critic, but I think I'm just trying to perfect myself.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Pete Gow Interview

London-based Pete Gow’s three solo albums have been a dramatic departure from his work with Case Hardin, the band he fronts and is credited as the leading songwriter. The most recent, LEO, was released in April this year. It followed on from HERE THERE’S NO SIRENS (2019) and THE FRAGILE LINE (2020), and its recording took place in a starkly contrasting environment to the earlier ones. We recently caught up with Pete to learn about the recording of LEO and some of the contributors to what is a stylistically impressive venture on all fronts.

As I recall, you had already done the spade work for your latest album LEO, when we spoke back in May 2020. Did the enforced lockdown, which I understand delayed the completion of the album, change the musical direction of it in any way?

The lockdown - and the attendant inability to be together in the studio - certainly meant we had to make a number of decisions in isolation, without the usual studio practice of throwing ideas around, trying things on for size, then sending them back if we don't fit. This environment was oddly conflicting. It encouraged a certain level of efficiency, otherwise things could/would be left unresolved for days, even weeks, but it also allowed a freedom, especially for producer, Joe Bennett to take an idea and run with it or overdub it as far as he wanted. So, as far as that changing the musical direction of the album, it did. We had originally chatted about bringing back some lead guitar, maybe adding female vocalists, all of which had to be discarded quickly and without room to ponder, or regret. But it meant that the horns, also something we discussed 'introducing' to this project in pre-production, were allowed to become central to its sound.

LEO took a somewhat different musical direction with the introduction of a horn section, as you say, yet in many ways, it seems like the completion of a trilogy following your earlier albums. Was that a conscious thing?

It really does feel like a sister or brother, I guess, to both those albums. I've always slightly struggled with seeing 'The Fragile Line' as an album in its own right. It was devised as a companion piece to the live shows, an antidote to the somber mood of HERE THERE’S NO SIRENS. I once said those songs on SIRENS made a brilliant record, but a terrible set list – however, it soon took on a life of its own and contains many folks’ favourite songs. What was conscious was to expand the sonic production on 'Leo' so it could - as you say - sit alongside its predecessors without feeling like a re-tread.

You teamed up once more with Joe Bennett to produce the album with you and contribute instrumentally. Were the recordings conducted remotely given the environment at the time and, if so, do you feel that had any marked effect on the final product?

We actually beat the clock on recording the basic tracks by a matter of days. Fin (Kenny, drums) and I were at Farm Music in late February and recorded the drums, guide vocal and guitar for what became Leo plus Cheap & Shapeless Dress and Happy Hour at the Lobby Bar and a couple of covers (Elvis Costello Oliver's Army and Jimmy Webb's paen to bro-mance If You See Me Getting Smaller.) A week, or so, later, the shutters came down.

Was it just Joe Bennett, yourself and Fin Kenny playing on the album? Were the horn parts performed by Joe?

It was. As with both its predecessors, Fin and I recorded our respective parts and then left Joe to the rest. It's not simply that he is capable of playing all these instruments, he is quite brilliant at them. Once this stuff gets transcribed and given to the members of the 'Siren Soul Orchestra' for the live concerts, everyone is amazed by just how crazy good all these parts are.

The final touches came courtesy of Tony Poole, an individual highly regarded by us at Lonesome Highway. What did Tony bring to the party?

He brings the greatest ears in the business. I don't pretend to understand the 'dark arts' of mastering, but my aim is to get your listening experience as close as possible to when I first heard the completed tracks blasting out of Joe's studio speakers. Tony has taken these songs, like those he worked on before them, and puts you in that room with us.

There are lots of references to bars, rock and roll lifestyle and personal struggles on the album. Is there a degree of personal reflection mingled with imagination?

Ha, good observation. In fact, it gets better, or possibly worse. I mentioned earlier two additional songs recorded for the project that we ended up peeling off and releasing as a vinyl only single during lockdown. One was specifically about a hotel (Happy Hour at the Lobby Bar) and the second about a hotel (Cheap & Shapeless Dress).  I'm not sure when, or even how, the next batch of songs will come, but I have promised my partner and all those that hold me dear that there will be no more hotels, no more bars and no more drinking (in songs).

Tell me about the character Leo, in the track Leonard’s Bar. He reads like a character in an American hard boiled noir novel but must be hugely significant to have the album named after him.

You will be relieved to know he is a composite of both the real and the imagined. The earliest genesis of Leonard, as a character for a song I can recall was a guy who served me in a bar in Baltimore, who had 'This' and 'That' tattooed on the knuckles of each hand. That's the first reference in my notebooks I can find of someone who could go on to become that character. During that same trip, staying with family, my partner, Mikaela's brother - Nathan - was sleeping off a divorce back at their mothers for a few weeks, so that fed into some of the colour we get in Leo's life in the second verse of the song.

Listening to the album transports me back to Van Morrison’s work with The Caledonia Soul Orchestra in the early 70s. Was that an influence?

Not directly, but I'll take it. I've always been a huge fan of that period Van Morrison: the live album 'It's Too Late To Stop Now' has always been a favourite, but we never really discuss influences ahead of recording. I think I tried that with Joe ahead of the first Pete Gow album and he completely ignored me, so I haven't bothered since.

The Pogues are referenced on HERE THERE’S NO SIRENS and The Clash this time around. I get the impression that LONDON CALLING is possibly closer to your heart than SANDINISTA?

I mean, for sure there are a couple of great tunes on SANDINISTA (Somebody Got Murdered and The Magnificent Seven to name, well, both of them), but LONDON CALLING, man, what an album, top to bottom. I stand by my assertion that side III of that record - Wrong 'Em Boyo, Death or Glory, Koka Kola and The Card Cheat - is pretty much a perfect run of songs. To tie into your question, I saw Joe Strummer perform with The Pogues as a guest during their 1988 run of shows at what was The Town & Country Club in Kentish Town.

I have to compliment you on the album’s artwork and packaging, something that is often neglected on releases in recent years. Who can take credit for this?

Thank you and thank you for noticing. I recently took delivery of the vinyl pressing of LEO and it looks simply stunning. Since Case Hardin's third album (PM - Clubhouse Records) I have used Rumney Design for everything: album art, promotional materials, merchandise, and Darren Rumney and I have still never met in person. We always work the same, I send him the finished recordings and a lyric sheet, then, once he has lived with the album for a few days, we start discussing artwork. He is so in tune with what we are trying to achieve. It's scary as he pretty much nails it in concept first time, every time.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Florence Dore Interview

North-Carolina based Florence Dore is a singer-songwriter, a musician, an author, an academic who teaches creative writing, song writing and literature at the University of North Carolina, and a mother. She released her debut album PERFECT CITY back in 2002.  Blending punk, folk and country, it earned her comparisons with Lucinda Williams, Laura Cantrell and Liz Phair. Her second album, HIGHWAYS AND ROCKETSHIPS, was released earlier this year on the Propellor Sound Recordings label. We were present when Florence and her band featured the songs from the album at a knockout gig at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in Madison, a suburb of Nashville, during Americana Fest recently. Those band members were Mark Spencer of Son Volt on guitar and two members of The dB’s, her husband Will Rigby on drums and Gene Holder on bass.  Here Florence fills us in about the time gap between her albums, her early days growing up in Nashville, her academic career and her rediscovered passion for songwriting. 

I understand that you were born and raised in Nashville.

Yes, I grew up in Nashville, my father taught at Vanderbilt and met my mom there. My grandmother grew up next door to Minnie Pearl, who ended up being my cousin through marriage.

Were you into the music scene there growing up?

Yes, I was, even as a small child. I mention that in the intro to the book that I wrote titled THE INK IN THE GROOVES, which refers to the writing in the grooves of the records, it’s about rock and literature, which are my two passions. Music was in the air back then; my mom was into Bob Dylan and The Band. The song Rebel Debutante on the new album talks about E.R.A. and Dylan on the radio, growing up there and the Robert Altman movie Nashville. That’s my Nashville, when I see that movie, I think of the early 70s empty vibe downtown. I had a session guy who was my guitar teacher when I eventually got lessons and he actually took me to see Linda Ronstadt in concert. My mom took us out of school when I was in the second grade to see Johnny Cash play at Opryland. I had an academic dad, he was a philosophy professor, so we were not a rock and roll or musicians’ family, but I was obsessed with artists like Crystal Gayle. I saw her play when I was a little kid. I grew up and started filling in the dots, to create the history and actually understand exactly what was happening in Nashville. When my dad talks about moving to Nashville, which he did in 1957, he says there was only one radio station there back then.

What changes do you particularly see when you return there?

The last time I spent a significant time in Nashville was when my husband Will was about to retire from playing with Steve Earle, having played drums for Steve for fifteen years. We went down there when our daughter was very young, she’s seventeen now. Will was working on Steve’s album TERRAPLANE BLUES, which was in 2015, and when I got to see Nashville, I realised exactly how much it had changed. I had previously moved back to Nashville after college with some friends and it was still that Robert Altman version of Nashville back then, deserted downtown but had a beautiful sort of fallen glory to it even though nothing was really happening there. Yet there was Tootsies and the old Ryman which wasn’t really being used but it still had these great storefronts selling old treasures and cool thrift stores. I remember buying old bricks from a building that had been decimated. When we stayed there when they were recording TERRAPLANE BLUES there were bachelorette parties crowding the streets and it just felt so commercialised. I’m glad for the booming industry but it definitely makes me a little sad. I do love Nashville.

You were pursuing an academic and artistic career when you released your debut album PERFECT CITY. 

Yes, I was really doing both until I had our daughter. My husband Will was going on tour and I had health insurance and a regular income from my academic job and I love teaching undergraduates. But the real reason for the break from music was that I wanted to be a mom, two travelling musician parents is very hard on a child and I really wanted to be with her. The music industry is a hard place for women, generally. We’re told on the one hand that we can do everything and on another hand that we’ll neglect our kid. I tried to do one thing at a time.

Do your current students realise that you have a parallel career as a ‘rock chick’ as well as a lecturer, if that is not a politically incorrect description?

No, I’m perfectly cool with that, I’ll take it as a compliment. Now I actually teach songwriting and I made a record when the pandemic hit with three other people called COVER CHARGE, to support The Cat’s Cradle music venue, and I had one of my students on the record. I was telling a colleague of mine who teaches creative writing how different teaching creative writing is from teaching literature classes. He replied that when you’re teaching creative writing you are in among the students, which is true. You are vulnerable with them, we all become students of the song and it’s a lot less top down. HIGHWAYS AND ROCKETSHIPS came out in June so more of my students do know now, but that’s cool. I do try and bring rock and roll into the lectures anyway.

Do you find writing literature or songs more challenging?

I have never tried to write a novel, my books are all non-fiction, but all writing is difficult in some ways. When I just came home from being on tour for a month it took me a few days to get into writing mode again. I think that’s true for any king of writing – it is for me anyway as I have to re-enter the writing frame of mind. We are friends with The Mastersons, because they played with Steve Earle for many years, and they write when they are on the road because they have to with so much touring. I couldn’t do that, unless I had a tour manager to take care of all the other bullshit for me.

When were the songs on HIGHWAYS AND ROCKETSHIPS written?

The only song on the album that I wrote back in my last album THE PERFECT CITY days, was Sweet To Me and that song was about my grandmother. I really wanted to write another record and I was working on another project with Jefferson Holt, the former manager for REM, also known as their fifth member and an old friend of my husband.  When he heard PERFECT CITY, his reaction was ‘holy fuck, let’s do that.’ So, I took about six months to write about twenty songs in 2019 and Jefferson put me in the studio with the other DBs including Chris Stamey, who I didn’t mention earlier, and from there we just decided which ones were the best. We recorded the album at Mitch Easter Studio in Connersville, North Carolina with Don Dixon, which is the same place where Don and Mitch Easter recorded those REM records.

You do say that your writing is autobiographical, but I don’t expect the song Rebel Debutante is.

You want to know something, that’s about my mother, she was a real rebel debutante. There are some fictionalised pieces in there, together with pieces that are completely true as well (laughs). One thing about returning to write songs, I realised that you ought to take some poetic licence. It’s not always about telling your own truth, it’s about telling a truth. When we were out on tour we drove through Oklahoma and Arkansas which I hadn’t done before. There are a lot of Trump supporters out there and people who are allured by fascism and that led me to try to write a song about someone that is out in the middle of nowhere and feels forgotten and how that frame of mind can be manipulated by people like Donald Trump.

Your show at Dee’s Cocktail Lounge during Americana Fest in Nashville was one of the highlights of our annual trip to the festival. Is that your regular touring band?

That was our favourite show of the tour. When you’re on stage the energy and positivity coming from the audience really matters and you were all bringing the love, we had a great show there. Because I’m married to Will Rigby, I’m in The dB’s’ family, so Will is my drummer. Mark Spencer is an old friend from back when I used to play in New York a bunch, and he’s my touring guitarist also on the record. Peter Holsapple, who is one of the other songwriters in The dB’s, plays guitar on the record. He mentored me in coming back into music. Gene Holder, who is also in The dB’s, doesn’t normally tour at all but Will told me to ask him if he would come along with us and everyone was shocked that he agreed and he’s coming on the next tour and is totally into it. On the record, we had Jeremy Chatzky on bass, but that was our regular touring band.

Would you recommend your students pursue a literary or artistic path by way of career advice?

It’s practically impossible surviving as a musician these days and it’s also getting increasingly difficult to make money as a teacher, people are devaluing the arts. But I say ‘go for it.’  You have to try, otherwise, we are going to kill it, we can’t all be bankers or lawyers. I used to be much more practical in giving my students advice but it matters so much in life that people continue to create art.

Given your parallel careers what two current writers and musicians are impressing you mostly?

Two writers, Roddy Doyle, I love his writing, and over here in the States, Lorrie Moore. She has a collection of stories called Birds of America, which is brilliant and my favourite of her books. She makes all kinds of rock and roll references in her writing. The singer songwriter that I love right now is Daniel Romano, he is an absolute machine and has so much music. Luckily, my husband Will culls Daniel’s music for me. I feel like a late comer to the party but I’m really enjoying Margo Price’s music as well, particularly her debut album.  

We’re hardly going to wait another twenty years for your next album.

No, because I’m too old to have any more children (laughs). I’m actually working on songs for the next album right now. I don’t know what the timing will be, that’s up to my record label but I want to have twelve songs ready to go so that we can go ahead and start recording whenever they are ready. I’m extremely privileged to have an amazing label behind me. Jefferson Holt, who supported me when I returned to writing songs, has started a label, Propellor Sound Recordings in Nashville together with a guy called Jay Coyle. That label is about to also put out early DBs stuff that’s never been released before.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Interview with Whitehorse

Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland were on the Lonesome Highway radar even before they joined forces and Whitehorse came into being in 2010, a move that made perfect sense for the Canadian husband and wife duo. It was a decision that has yielded eight full-length albums and four EPs. In a particularly creative purple patch during Covid, they recorded three of those full-length records, MODERN LOVE, STRIKE ME DOWN and I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING, the latter due for release in January 2023. Despite the daunting and uncertain times that motivated the new album, it’s possibly their strongest recording to date, combining classic country ballads and 70s’ influenced roots tunes. We spoke recently with Luke and Melissa about the stimulus to record a full-on country album, the writing and recording process for the record, and Luke’s tip for the perfect Bolognese sauce.

I recently read an interview with Jeff Tweedy where he described writing country songs for Wilco’s latest album as being like ‘comfort food.’ Does that resonate with you given the musical direction of I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING?

Luke – I love that metaphor about comfort food, there is something comforting about understanding what the rules of engagement are when writing songs. When it comes to art forms that have a long history, we tend to know the rules. It’s not that they are enforced in a draconian way, but we don’t stray too far, because there is comfort in the writing, just like food. It also liberates you to focus on nuances because some of the big questions are already answered. What’s going to happen next musically? We know what’s going to happen next because it’s country music and we know what comes next. That frees you to focus on other things like the minutiae of the storytelling. Whereas, with us, going back to roots or country music there was comfort in going back to a place where there are guard rails that you are familiar with and that allows you to focus on the minutiae.

Melissa – It definitely gives you a licence to be a little more sentimental and liberating in the song writing. It allows me to be a little sappy without being cheesy, which is not an approach I usually take.

The lyrics are certainly anything but cheesy. When I listen to songs such as Six Feet Away, I think of the lockdown when people could only visit their elderly parents by looking through a window at them from a distance. Was the pandemic the primary influence for much of the album?

Melissa – Yes, you’re absolutely right. We wrote this record during the first six months of the initial lockdown and when, like the whole world, we were in shock at what was happening and how we were all going to move through this. John Prine died from Covid and it was a very intense time, so that is very much the theme of this record. People are probably sick of talking about Covid but there were so many real emotions that still reverberate to this day, we’re still climbing out of it and returning to some kind of normality, still feeling its effects and trying to navigate the future.

I really enjoyed your live streams during that period of lockdown

Melissa – The technical side of it was hilarious as neither of us is good at that. We didn’t have a proper set-up, we’d have the iPhone balanced on a stack of books. We initially set it up wrong so the opening part of our first performance was upside down. I think people were just laughing along with us. It was very telling of that time and place, and what everyone was going through. We had our fancy performance clothes on but had our slippers on off-camera, and our son was bouncing on the couch behind us.

The two previous albums that you released last year, MODERN LOVE and STRIKE ME DOWN, incorporated a range of genres from power pop to rock and indie to disco. What directed you down the country route forI’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING?

Luke – It was almost like an accident. Melissa makes the point about John Prine passing away and that kind of set us off. My recollection is us sequestering ourselves into corners of this not enormous house in Toronto – no one has large houses in Toronto. Melissa had managed to claim the bedroom with the big TV, I was relegated to the kitchen, which made sense because I am a kitchen-pottering type of guy anyway. We are both night owls, but I do tend to stay up later, so we established this routine, because we were locked in our home for so long. We would both put our son to bed, he was staying up late also. I would have a nap for an hour, wake up at midnight, put on a podcast for an hour, maybe open a bottle of wine and listen to country music, artists like John Prine and Kris Kristofferson. It wasn’t deliberate or a conscious thing but for some reason, I just gravitated towards those songs and then started writing songs. All of a sudden, I had a pile of songs.

Melissa - It was a very prolific time for Luke He kept sending me demos of these beautiful country songs that he was writing, so at some point, I said: ‘Ok, I gotta get on it.’ So, I picked up the guitar and started writing some country songs, too. I could see where Luke was going grammatically, very much of the moment and inspired at that time. There are moments with an artist where it just flows and pours out of you, and Luke was in that creative headspace. At that point, I started to write some songs that fitted what he was doing.

Luke - I’m flattered when Melissa says I was prolific. What she really means is that in order to get six good songs I have to write twenty-five. For her to write six great songs, she writes seven.

Were the songs co-writes or written individually?

Melissa – We typically write separately and then edit each other’s work to compile the songs. We co-wrote all the songs from the ground up on the MODERN LOVE record from last year, which was the first time we had ever done that. Otherwise, it’s a solitary and personal process for each of us. We both need to feel connected to the songs, so we are at ease picking and choosing the ones that work, and the bottom line is that we both need to feel good about the song. We’re quite good at not letting our egos get involved. We may need to rework certain songs to get to the place and that’s what we often do.

Tell me about the recording process for I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING?

Luke – We recorded this whole suite of songs off the floor, just like a band would. Melissa would be singing; I would be playing guitar and we had drums and pedal steel. We just played the songs until they sounded right. It was recorded close to home in a studio in Toronto. There’s no percussion added, no piano or keyboards, the production is very much what you would expect from a four-piece band on stage.

Melissa – That was about it and after that, we just put a lot of focus on Luke’s guitar and my vocal. I don’t think we spent as much time on any other record making sure those elements were as good as they could be. It was still very much lockdown mode in Toronto, a pretty intense time and we were getting our temperature taken going into the studio, filling out forms, and wearing masks. It felt very tentative and we really had not done anything up to that point in a studio, literally sitting at home, so actually going into that studio, taking off our masks and picking up our instruments, playing music with other humans, it felt so intense.

Luke - Yes, there was and is a feeling of ‘this might be the last time,’ which might sound fatalistic and apocalyptic, but there was a feeling of needing to savour this. I was playing country licks, drawing from Albert Lee, James Burton or Pete Anderson from Dwight Yoakam’s band.  You kind of have to get it right and I spent a lot of time just doing that. We were trying to get closer to the genuine article stylistically. When something has that amount of history it’s important that you pay tribute to the past. As an aside and in a similar way, I made a big pot of Bolognese yesterday. It’s been my fixation since the pandemic and every time I do that, I’m also trying to get closer to the genuine article.

A chef friend of mine gave me a tip passed on to him from an Italian grandmother for Bolognese sauce; never use red wine, always white wine.

Luke – Wow, that’s great. I love that. An Italian friend told me that at the very end, add a clove or two.

What triggered holding back the release date until January 2023?

Luke - We’ve been kicking things around for a while now and we had entire tours planned that we had to cancel and then try to gauge whether audiences are ready to come back to shows again. We made four albums during the pandemic. Our label Six Shooter know that we don’t idle very well and, as you pointed out, there is a combination of a lot of music on MODERN LOVE and STRIKE ME DOWN. Both ourselves and Six Shooter felt it was right to conclude that recording period with those two albums, as it would have been too jarring to put those two records out and follow them with this album. It remains to be seen but if people enjoy this record we may follow it with the covers compilation, and stay in that place musically for a while, we may spend the next few years staying in that lane.

Melissa - Country has always been a part of what we do. If you listen to our first self-titled record, there is a lot of it in there. This may be the first time we have fully stepped into country but, stylistically, there are a lot of roots and Americana right through our catalogue, so it’s not totally out of character with us. It will be interesting to see what people think of it and if it clicks, because it would be nice to stay here for a while. It’s an inspiring headspace to be in, to write songs in this genre and style. Singing and playing a beautiful country ballad is wonderful. We’ve just finished a tour playing a bunch of songs from this album and it did feel very exciting.

You included a couple of killer cover versions of Summer Wine and We’ll Sweep Out the Ashes in The Morning in your showcase at Americana Fest earlier this year. Were you tempted to include covers on the album?

Luke – It’s a funny thing about covers. When I was growing up in Winnipeg it was always ‘are you a covers band or are you a real artist?’ I say that tongue in cheek because great artists like Elvis Presley never wrote songs. After I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING comes out and if people seem to enjoy it, we do have the option of releasing a compilation of mid-70s inspired Americana covers that we’ve recorded.

Melissa – It was very intimidating approaching some of those cover songs, because artists like Tammy Wynette and George Jones, Emmylou and Gram were classic voices. Well, maybe not Gram       (laughs).

Luke – Gram wasn’t a great singer so can you imagine how emboldening it was for someone in my position? ‘If Gram can sing with Emmylou, I can sing with Melissa and get away with it with my croaking toad of a voice (laughs), and we can get something together as a collective.’ I get a lot of solace from Gram and Emmylou that way.

I remember the last time you both played Ireland at Kilkenny Roots Festival prior to forming Whitehorse. You were telling us how excited you were to visit Kilkenny Castle, given that there were no castles in Canada.

Luke – I remember that well. Actually, I didn’t realise until that weekend that my family roots go back to Kilkenny. I’m Doucet, which is French, but my mother’s side of the family are Ormonde. I learned that the castle in Kilkenny that we visited was previously in the ownership of The Earl of Ormonde, which is an interesting family connection.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Margo Timmins of Cowboy Junkies Interview

The word ‘unique’ can often be bandied about when describing a particular band or artist. But, when referring to Cowboy Junkies, whose signature sound over three and a half decades and 25 albums has remained distinctive and individualised, it is wholly appropriate. From their ground-breaking recording, THE TRINITY SESSIONS, to their recently released full covers album SONGS OF THE RECOLLECTION, their ability to combine elements of folk, country, rock and blues, both on original material and well-chosen covers, remains unmatched. It was a great pleasure to chat recently with Margo Timmins, who talked freely about the band’s early days, their collective love of playing live, and their longevity. 

‘Staying together in the band was always more important than winning the argument. So, we always seemed to be able to solve it, before we became like Oasis,’ she joked.

 Your recently released album SONGS OF THE RECOLLECTION was your first full covers album. Did the enforced downtime of 2020 have a bearing on that? 

Yes, I don't think it would have happened otherwise. It was a project we had been talking about for a long, long time, a complete covers album. It took a lot of time because it wasn't as simple as ‘Okay, let's get together and do some songs.’ It took so much time going through the archives and listening to so many songs and then trying to find different versions of those songs. That’s why I don't think it would have happened without COVID, which gave us the time.

What is the band’s process in selecting suitable songs to cover?

When you choose the song, you're choosing songs that you love and grew up with and meant something to you, that's always the first step. The process is then what do you do with that song? More often than not when we are doing a cover, we may find that we are not doing it in any way that offers any value from the original. We’re not a covers band, so we are looking for reinterpretations rather than simple covers and if you can’t do that what is the point?  That happens quite a lot.  I might love the song, the boys can play it and I can sing it, but the last question is always ‘what is the point?’ That often leads to songs being shelved and sometimes we might go back to them in later years. For example, we recorded Thunder Road and when we first attempted it, I couldn’t find my way into the song. It’s such a big song to take on. We shelved it but brought it out a number of years later, maybe I was a little bit older and wiser then, possibly a better singer.

You have also just released your ‘lost album’ SHARON, thirty-three years after it was recorded live at the iconic Sharon Temple in Ontario. What was the deciding factor in not releasing it back in 1989?

SHARON was our next recording after THE TRINITY SESSIONS. We were then in the business with a record company and the expectations that go with that.  What the record company really wanted was Trinity Sessions again.  We weren't averse to doing another album off the floor like that, but we also didn’t want to redo THE TRINITY SESSIONS.  And of course, that was always the conflict between us and the record company. So, we said, ‘okay, we'll do it off the floor, and we'll see what we get.’ We went to Sharon, which we knew had this amazing sound and quite a history. We recorded the album and we liked what we heard, but it was too similar to TRINITY SESSIONS, it was just more of the same, and we just didn't want to become that type of band at that time. So, we said ‘no’ and, luckily, our first record contract gave us a lot of power and we had something to bargain with. Instead, we went into a studio and did THE CAUTION HORSES, which is sort of SHARON revisited but in a studio.

Your debut album WHITES OFF EARTH NOW!! mainly featured blues covers. Had you also been interested in country music prior to the recording of THE TRINITY SESSIONS, which followed?

You know, it's interesting but in Canada, country music was not a big thing like it was in the States, especially in the southern States. We did not grow up with country music. We grew up with folk music, early Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Dylan, so we would focus on folk and rock and roll. Mike and Alan and I are all 60s kids so later in the 70s when punk came along, it was like,’ Oh my god, we love this.’ Toronto had a huge punk scene at four or five different clubs. All the bands came through, we saw all of them in small clubs like The Edge. Everybody played The Edge, we saw The Cure and The Police there, they all pulled up in their station wagons. That era was huge for us as young teenagers. It was punk that told Alan and Mike that you don't have to be a big rock star. You can just pick up a guitar and just do it, that was the message.  That's when they started to pick up guitars and started making noises and soon, they had a couple of bands together. Hunger Project was their first band, very punk-oriented and then Germinal which was more sort of jazz instrumental.  That led to Cowboy Junkies and our first album WHITES OFF EARTH NOW!!, which took us into the States. We toured for months on that album in our station wagon and while we were driving around the States we were listening to Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle on the local radio stations, and reading articles about who influenced them. We started listening to all this music with different ears, going back to artists like Patsy Cline. So, this discovery of country music happened to all of us at the same time simply because we were all listening to it in the car on the road. That opened up a whole new world of music to all of us and vocalists who were just phenomenal. The fun thing was traveling around looking for gigs and going into these towns that had huge used record stores. We'd be finding all this new stock and having so much fun listening to it. What none of us realised at that time was that it was really helping us also become the band we became by dipping into that sound.

Had there been a degree of music snobbery on your behalf previously when it came to country music?

Oh, yes, one hundred percent. Country music was for hicks, not for sophisticated people like us. But it was so mind-expanding and hit us at exactly the right time.  Punk gave our generation the permission to go where you want to go, listen to whatever you want to listen to, do what you want to do and who cares what anybody thinks. So, when we came home from that tour we wrote THE TRINITY SESSIONS, which had more of a country vibe to it because of the point we were at just then.

So, what were your expectations recording THE TRINITY SESSIONS, and was it simply a self-indulgent project based on where you were all at musically at that time? 

Well, firstly we were a Canadian band and Canadian bands really weren't on the map then. There were a few but not really a lot of young bands. Our expectation was just to put out a record that we liked. We had put out WHITES OFF EARTH NOW!! ourselves, we sold it out of our band house and through the mail.  Before rehearsals every night, we would fill the orders and mail them out the next day, and that's what we expected from Trinity. Especially in 1988 when Michael Jackson was at the top of the charts and big production was what was out there. Certainly, THE TRINITY SESSION was anything but that.  Our intention was just to create a good record. We walked into Trinity Church with that expectation that day. If we hadn't gotten what we wanted, we would have just walked away. We had no record company, there was no time limit. We would just have gone and recorded it again elsewhere if we didn’t like what we got, there was no pressure that way. However, once we set up the sound, the whole thing took about seven hours. Most of it was just trying to find the right position for the mics and the musicians. We found that, because there were no overtakes or overdubs, if you made a mistake, you screwed it up. I can remember as if it was yesterday, singing I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, hearing it floating around the room and thinking ‘don’t screw up.’

Not only did it launch the band’s career, but its success allowed Peter Joseph Moore, who produced the album, to leave his nine-to five-job and launch his career as a full-time producer.

Peter has always been there and still is when we take our stuff to him to mix or master it, depending on what it is. You know, he has a very unique ear, so he's been important, very important. He’s been with us forever.

Your lifespan as a band has been extraordinary with no line-up changes over thirty years. You seem to have taken control of your own destiny and operated on your own terms throughout those three decades.

It's not that we haven't had our troubles and our differences, of course, but I think at the end of the day, we love playing as a band. You know, the Junkies is the four of us playing and if you change one of us, not to say it'll be better or worse, but it would be different. Even now, after all these years, when we get on stage and play, it's the same if not better.  I don't mean musically, I just mean getting the feeling we get from the appreciation, the joy, contentedness, whatever it is, It's the same as when we were young people playing in the garage. And I think at the end of the day when we had differences, the music always won out, you know: staying together in the band was always more important than winning the argument. So, we always seemed to be able to solve it before we became like Oasis. We always seem to be able to solve any problems and nobody's ever quit.

With four individual parallel lives outside the band has it been difficult to schedule your regular tours?

Everybody has children but I was the only mom. So, when my son was a teenager and before that when he was a young kid, we set up a sort of routine where we would go out and play Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then get home. In that way, I could keep an eye on my son and luckily, we have always had an easy-going relationship. That’s what we did pre-Covid and now we’re back on the road and my son is part of our crew as well as having another day job when we are back home. We are actually touring more now, out for two weeks at a time with a six-week gap in between. We’re heading to Europe soon for a month, which we haven’t done since my son was a little baby when he also came on tour with us.

Collectively do you still get the same buzz from your live performances?

Yes, we do. Playing live is really why we make records. It doesn't really make much money for you, but it gives you the income to tour, and that's what we do. We are a live band. That's where our joy is and as we've gotten older and moved further away from the industry and business side of things, it’s actually got better.

Looking back at your career, are you happy with the way things have worked out for you individually and for the band?

I think I'm really happy with the way they went. Joining a big record company and getting that early money gave us income and freedom, it also bought my house, which was nice. More importantly, it also gave us our audience. We reached a lot of people and remarkably they're still there. We wouldn't have been able to reach out and have a power machine pushing us out there and putting us on radio without a label behind us. So, we created this audience that is fiercely loyal. I'm always amazed that they keep coming back to our shows. What I would tell my younger self is that if you have bad managers and hangers-on, you need to let them go and not keep them around too long. We also had a period when we tried to manage ourselves and that didn’t work out, we needed a manager then. Those things could have been managed better but that’s all hindsight.

Finally, given your surname, I presume that you have Irish Roots?

Yes, we do.  Our ancestors all came over on the boat, I'm not sure exactly when but it was in the mid-1800s. They came over to make a better life here, apparently. Some succeeded, and some didn't. The story has it that a lot of them went to Northern Ontario and got into prospecting and mining.

Cowboy Junkies play at The National Concert Hall, Dublin on 17th November 2022.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Mariel Buckley Interview

If you need a pointer for the talents of Canadian singer songwriter Mariel Buckley, look no further than her winning the annual Project Wild contest in 2019. The competition, sponsored by radio station Wild 95.3 and Alberta Music, earned Buckley a cool $100,000 towards her career overheads and she put some of that funding towards the recording of her fine, recently released album EVERYWHERE I USED TO BE.  With the production overseen by Marcus Paquin (Arcade Fire, The National, The Weather Station, Tim Baker, The Barr Brothers) plus a host of Canada’s finest session players contributing, it’s an album that packs a hefty punch from start to finish. It features Buckley’s most unguarded writing to date as she lifts the veil on some difficult personal issues. We spoke recently with the career-focused artist about the album and her musical influences. 

 Where are you based at the moment?

I am in Edmonton, just three hours north of Calgary but I'm originally from Calgary.

I understand that you grew up in a fairly conservative environment. How difficult was that for you?

It's a fairly conservative part of Canada, for sure.  The Far West is kind of in that right hand cradle but honestly, it was not too bad. There were obviously exceptions that I talk about on the new record and there was certainly an old-fashioned mindset in a lot of religious and social values for sure 

Did that draw you to music as a way of kind of dealing with that?

Oh, definitely. I was a big music fan since I was just little, I would burn CDs and really dive in and I definitely felt understood and heard when I listened to music. So, definitely being an outsider was a big push for me to get into music.

When did Mariel the listener become Mariel the writer and performer?

It took some time. I was pretty shy about it. My brother is also a singer, songwriter and performer. He was ahead of me by quite a few years and when I started to see him performing, I would have been about fourteen and I was kind of toying with the idea. It still took me another five or six years of practicing in my room before I would be comfortable sharing my own stuff.

Was there any particular artist or album that convinced you that you had the songs and the talent to take the next step?

Not that made me feel more confident. I certainly heard a lot of records that made me think that I really needed to practice more if I wanted my own records out there. Right around the time when I wanted to start performing, I heard a lot of Neil Young and a lot of Lucinda Williams, which would have been both from my brother's collection. When I heard Neil Young for the first time, I certainly learned that there's room for some strange songwriters in folk music.

Winning the Project Wild commercial radio artist contest with a prize of $100,000 must have been hugely rewarding both in respect of the income and also an endorsement of your talent.

Yes.  It was a development kind of contest that took about a year to complete from start to finish. There were ten people accepted and there was a series where we had to write a marketing plan and a grant report. We then had to do a performance piece, just like one of our shows with original content. We were then essentially scored and graded and the winner was allotted the prize money. The money was facilitated through our provincial Music Association, so I don't actually receive the funds directly. But the funds go towards touring and recording.  So, it was a huge help.

There appears to be a huge support for the arts in Canada.

Oh, yeah, we're very lucky in Canada. I think we are up there with some of the most federal arts-funded people in the world. We're also very fortunate to have this Project Wild project, which is a privately funded contest. So, I was just lucky to tap into it, I guess.

That must have been a huge confidence booster for you.

Well, yes and no. I obviously was so excited to win, but I was also like, ‘oh my god, what sort of expectations do folks have now, can I live up to those expectations?’  There was a bit of reckoning that I had to do but that didn't take too long to get over.

Your latest record EVERYWHERE I USED TO BE arrived four years after your last release MOTORHOME, which was released four years after your debut album DRIVING IN THE DARK. Was this an intentional four-year cycle or a coincidence?

So far, it's been coincidental, and I would say, you know, with semi-confidence, I'd like to shorten that significantly with the next follow-up. The only reason this one took four years was partly because of the pandemic. But things do seem to happen for me in four-year bands. I don't like to put things out before I feel like I've got something reasonable to say.

I believe you were going to call the album SAD ALL THE TIME.

That song Sad All The Time is a B-side now. It was just a satirical song I'd written for the record that I was sort of toying with using as the title because I just found that sort of satirical and funny, and for all the depressives out there. But I waffled back to EVERYWHER I USED TO BE for the title. I just felt that that one really encompassed a lot of the themes that I'm talking about on the whole record, that feeling of growing in a liminal space and moving on, so all that stuff seemed to be wrapped up nicely in that tune. So, that's why I ended up picking that one.

I read that you wanted to make a good pop/country record but the album is far removed from what is masquerading under the pop/country genre coming out of Nashville.

Well, what I mean when I say that is that nobody can argue that great pop music is some of the most influential music that anyone's listened to, as well as some of the most interesting stuff to listen to. When I made this record, I wanted it to say things that would complement my very traditional sensibilities of songwriting and production. I wanted something that was more contemporary in feel, and less contemporary in content because I like that sort of juxtaposition. I think that to do pop music with that sort of polished sound really well is an art and especially without all the digital stuff and much of the crap coming out Nashville and, on the radio, which I agree with you it's not good. It's very fun to do that but it’s also difficult to do well.

Less than a minute into the opening track Neon Blue, I was reminded of Kathleen Edwards and that comparison remained with me both in the songwriting and delivery of a number of the songs 

Yeah, she's the best and a big-time influence for me in songwriting. She was such an original voice coming out of Canada. There hadn't really been a female singer like her, especially out of Canada, until she came out. That was a very promising thing to see for a young songwriter like myself at the time. So yeah, she’s top of the batch for me.

There is a lot of soul-searching on the album. The track Hate This Town particularly stands out. Mixed emotions?

Yeah, it's obviously super heavy. But I loved writing that song. It came out to me very quickly, as difficult things often do, because it feels very cathartic to get them out. So, as much as the song is dark, it’s also a little bit sickly and funny in spots. I really like playing that song because it really disarms people quickly.

I love the lines on the song Love Ain’t Enough, ‘Thought I saw you in the back of my car, you were combing your hair in the mirror, I was falling apart.’ Are lines like these personal recollections or part imagination?

Mostly recollection. With that particular line, I think I was I was trying to do a Bruce Springsteen thing. He does such good artistic call-backs and memories and tells them in a way that makes you feel like you're in the back of a 1960s Muscle car. So, I think I was doing something similar there, but a lot of that is from my own experience

You called on Marcus Paquin to produce the album. He previously worked with Arcade Fire, The National, Tim Baker, The Weather Station, and The Barr Brothers. Did the funding from Project Wild give you the freedom to choose your producer?

Yeah, it certainly did. That was a huge help in landing Marcus. The National and Arcade Fire are great bands, but certainly his work with Tim Baker, The Weather Station and the Barr Brothers was a big reason that we chose him because he has such a cool approach to music. Marcus is not prohibitive by any means but, as you know, the costs to record an album are immense and to be able put all the finance down at once as opposed to paying it back over time really allowed me to kind of get everything in place with all the people that I wanted, and in a relatively short window to get it all done. That was a very big gift.

How long did it take to record?

Everything was recorded live off the floor except for my vocal, which is doubled on the record. There are a couple of synth patches but mostly everything is live off the floor with me in the band and Marcus playing percussion in a room. We did it all in about twelve consecutive days, without any pre-production. So, everyone came in pretty fresh which was also really fun. On this record, the only returning staff from my previous albums was Tyson, who is a bass player from Vulcan, Alberta. Everyone else was a session player from Alberta or Ontario or Quebec.

You are due to continue your hectic touring schedule supporting The Bros Landreth in the U.K. and Europe soon.

Yes, we're in Germany and Denmark after the U.K. dates with them, and then I’m over to Sweden with my full band.  I start touring again in February and March of next year, that's mostly in Canada and then the spring and summer will be in North America. We'll be back to Europe in the fall of 2023.

Are you happiest on or off the road?

Most of the time on the road. But everybody's always the same. You get about three weeks in and then you kind of want to be at home. And then when you sit at home for a couple of weeks, you start to want to go back on tour. It’s always one or the other.

You appear very structured. Do you have a career game plan in the short to medium term?

Yeah, absolutely. I certainly am a person who likes to make plans and try to hit my milestones. Hopefully, we'll get another record out in less than four years and then just keep touring, and keep growing it. But, you know, I'm glad people are listening to it so far and seem to dig it. I want to be able to work and keep playing and make a little bit more money as the years go so the band gets fed and everyone’s doing okay.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Michelle Rivers Interview

Unlike most aspiring singer-songwriters who head to Nashville to follow their dream, Michelle Rivers chose a somewhat different career path. Although she grew up in the small town of Leipers Fork, barely thirty miles from Nashville, the bright lights of Music City were not for her. Instead, she headed north to Montana, where the more peaceful lifestyle and environment fuelled her passion for song writing. Her latest record, CHASING SOMEWHERE, which follows her debut recording BREATHING EMBERS from 2016, has been getting lots of love both in her homeland and Europe. It’s an album loaded with tracks delivered with discipline, confidence, and grace by Michelle, and includes gilt-edged playing by some household names in country music. Speaking with Michelle, we got the impression of an artist with a definite game plan, which appears to be progressing very much as intended to date.

Your father is a singer songwriter and had a studio in Tennessee, so music was there for you from a very young age. Did you buy into what he was playing or rebel as a teenager and seek out other music?

I loved what he was doing, especially when I was younger. As a teenager, I definitely went through a phase where I was listening to pop punk and bands like Green Day.  I got really into that in high school. For me, it was the contrast between the very polished and perfect Nashville sound that I grew up with that I loved. But I didn't necessarily feel like I fitted into it so that was what drew me to punk music.  I think it was just the wildness and the rawness of it. That kind of led me into bridging those two worlds and discovering Americana and Outlaw Country, Red Dirt Country, the different subgenres of country where the music is a little bit freer and less polished. It's not that I don't like music that sounds polished, but I just love the authenticity of somebody expressing themselves through music and not trying to create something that has a commercial sound.

Despite growing up in Tennessee, Nashville did not appeal to you career-wise?

I love Nashville, and I still love to visit Nashville. I’ve lots of wonderful friends and family who still live out there. But yeah, it just wasn't my place. So, I went to Nashville for that one year of college. That wasn't for me, then gradually started making my way west to Texas and went to the same college that many family members had gone to. But then after that, I was like okay, now it's my time to move to the mountains and also make music a part of my life.

 Montana is a long way from Nashville. What drew you to that part of the world?

I had always wanted to live in the mountains. We grew up in Tennessee, out in the country. Walking down to the creek and walking through the woods, was a big part of my childhood. My parents would drive us to Colorado to learn to ski, but also to go hiking and fishing and all those things. That happened every summer and so when I became an adult, and it was time to make my own decisions, I planned to move to Colorado, but my sister had already beat me there as she found herself a rancher cowboy and moved there. My mom had visited Montana and she came home from that trip just raving about how incredible it was and that I would love it, So I ended up getting a job up here in Montana and never looked back. I moved here fresh out of college and just never want to leave.

Is there a strong music and art scene in Montana?

Yeah, there actually is. It's such an interesting place for music and for me as an artist to grow and develop. There are lots of artists who make pottery, paint and do different creative things, but also, there are quite a few singer songwriters. I live just north of a very quirky area called Whitefish Mountain Resort, close to Glacier National Park, which is very popular to visit. A lot of tourists come in summertime, which is good for musicians, except that there's also the expectation for artists to play cover songs. There’s such an interesting collection of musicians up here who can play shows five nights a week and get paid to do it. I grew up in Nashville where if you're a small independent artist, you don't really get paid to play until you've done your time. You have all these waitresses and regular everyday workers who are spending their nights playing for free or for tips. Up here, I can play music and I can get a little extra money for it and have the opportunity to play live music in a regular way. The area has also definitely helped me to grow as an artist and there are quite a few wonderful songwriters in the area that you just wouldn't think would live in the middle of nowhere Montana. It is such a beautiful place to live and such an inspiring place to live, I’m inspired by this kind of lifestyle. Montana has created a pretty neat musical culture. I'm not the only one that uses a ton of natural imagery and small-town life is woven into my music. That's something that quite a few of us are doing up here.

Have you found yourself more productive in your song writing since moving there?

Yeah, absolutely, I've always loved nature. I recognised a little bit later in life that nature is very calming and very healing for me, and when I go into a city it's fun for a while. I can handle it for a few days and I really enjoy it. I do enjoy just being around a lot of people and enjoy playing shows in cities. But that creative part of me is most inspired when there's stillness, and there's quiet.

There are a lot of songs on CHASING SHADOWS, fifteen in total. Were you tempted to save a few for your next recording?

Yes, I was tempted to and I was advised to consider that by some other independent artists and friends.  People in the industry telling me:‘Well, it'd be smart if you release ten songs, and then a five-song EP later, or save some to be singles after the album.’ Every one of those people was totally well-meaning and I did consider it. It costs a lot of money to make a record and you do want to maximize what you've done profit-wise.  We live in a generation where releasing content regularly is so important, and so I get that side of things.  But when it came down to trying to narrow it to ten or eleven songs, I just could not let go of any of these songs because it feels like a complete body of work. So, it was a difficult decision, but I definitely feel like I made the right one. And you know, I do see more artists doing that. I mean, Zack Bryan releases nearly forty songs on a record, yet he has this incredible following of people who are listening to all of those tracks. I think sometimes, as independent artists, we try so hard to do what the ‘right thing’ is, make smart business moves and I think sometimes you can lose the artistic presentation of your work when you focus too much on that.

Was the album recorded in a studio with the various players or did they record remotely?

It was kind of a mix of everything. We recorded in October of 2021. I flew to Georgia, which is where my producer Jason Hoard lives. We could have recorded in Nashville, but Jason has a friend who owns this little cabin in the middle of Georgia and he's like: ‘I think that's where your record needs to be made.’ Jason has his own studio, so he brought all of his studio gear to the cabin. We recorded most of the bones of the album live. I did go in and cut my vocals later, as I sang a scratch vocal while we were recording live. We then sent it off to a few other musicians that we wanted to add in different parts, mostly players that my producer uses on his own recordings.  

Those players include big hitters such as Jenee Fleenor on fiddle and Barry Bales on bass. You also had Al Perkins playing pedal steel.

Al Perkins is a family friend of ours from our Nashville days.  When we were talking about pedal steel, Jason had someone in mind for it. I very shyly said that I would really love for Al Perkins to be on this record.  It was an incredible experience to have him play on it. I'd heard him play live with different groups growing up and even heard him play at church. That was the closeness of our family friendship.  Just to hear him play on my record and knowing that he's played with Emmylou Harris and Buffalo Springfield was really, really incredible. Right before my record, he played on Miranda Lambert's huge radio hit ‘If I Was a Cowboy.’

The track Buy Myself A Job on the album sounds autobiographical?

Yeah, I think I was reflecting on my journey as a musician. I don't own a Westphalia camper van, that's like a dream for me to own a campervan and just travel everywhere I want. But, you know, aside from that, it was mostly a reflection on the journey of all of these musician friends that I have, and just how hard it is to be playing for tips playing or free, spending gas money trying to do all of these things because you feel you are called to this music career. It’s a career that has not got a path, there is no path to take and the road is always winding and difficult.  I tried to capture as much of that as I could in the song but at the same time, I had that hopeful feeling of someday I'm going on the radio, touring, and that things are coming to fruition.  I think that that happens when you don't give up and you just keep that positive mindset, reminding yourself that this is what I'm meant to do. 

Last Cowboy is another favourite track of mine from the album.

I actually co-wrote that with a friend, Jessee Lee, who I met in Wyoming at a songwriter festival.  I'd been sitting on this song idea for a little while, it's really just about what a cowboy means to us. There's an old cowboy culture in Texas and a little bit in Tennessee, although it's mostly a horse culture and country music in Tennessee. Jesse and I both come from these rural backgrounds and have so many definitions for what a cowboy is and what that means. Is it that hat that makes you a cowboy? Is it the way you dress? Is it the fact that you actually have cows?  What makes you a cowboy? All of those are the questions that kind of influenced us to write the song, so it's really just a reflection of who we think a cowboy is. My favourite line on the song it is ‘he's denim in a black suit kind of crowd.’ A cowboy isn't necessarily a very popular thing at this point in time and this particular cowboy is trying to live life in the city where he stands out like a sore thumb, even in a city like Nashville.

You have quite a number of shows lined up this year, where will you be playing?

I'm mostly playing Montana, Wyoming, and Washington this year. I still have a part-time, day job teaching elementary music for half days. During the school year, I'm like a weekend warrior. I'm really working hard to plan my first big tour in June 2023. I'll start with a regional tour then the southwest, the southeast, and I also want to come over to the UK and Europe. I think it makes the most sense to probably tour as a duo or trio at first.

How would you measure success for yourself?

That's such a great question. I think that the definition of success is constantly evolving for me. I try to set small goals, to focus on the next thing I want to accomplish. Over a year ago I decided that I'm going to make this record, so I feel like I'm successful right now. I think to be able to do music full time is what success would look like for me. I've been a part-timer for a little over a decade now.  Just to be able to do it full-time and be able to make a modest living doing what I love would be a success.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Wade Bowen Interview

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE SECRET AND THE TRUTH, the latest recording from Texan country singer songwriter Wade Bowen, arrives twenty years after his debut album TRY NOT TO LISTEN. The intervening years have yielded eleven more, collaborations with Ray Wylie Hubbard, Pat Green, Radney Foster and Cody Canada, two duet albums with fellow Texan Randy Rogers and, not least of all, regular high placings in the U.S. Country charts. His new album is arguably his strongest to date: it includes three co-writes with Lori McKenna and a duet with living legend Vince Gill. Lonesome Highway found Bowen in sterling form, refreshed and hugely enthusiastic about the album and the upcoming dates on his hectic touring schedule.

I get the impression that the enforced pandemic lockdown gave you the opportunity to take a few steps backward and re-group.

The pandemic was a good way for me to pull the reins in a bit, without actually wanting to at the time. It gave me time to rethink everything and I came out of it refreshed, re-energised, with a better grasp of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. I think that’s what you hear on my new record. The other positive to come out of the pandemic for me was Zoom, the fact that we can see and talk to each other. All the songwriters started to write on Zoom and that was great. I got to write with my good friend Grammy Award winner Lori Mc Kenna. She lives way up in Boston and I’m in Texas, so we hardly ever got to see each other before the pandemic, along comes Zoom and I was able to interact and write with Lori. Having that resource has become huge for me. That became one of the best things to come out of the pandemic for me, being able to interact with people like that.  

When were the tracks for SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE SECRET AND THE TRUTH written?

Some were written during the pandemic and some were just written in the last year. I never stop writing until the record is done, I finished this record in December of last year so I was writing right up to then, even in the studio. I never feel a record is done until it’s turned in and you can’t mess with it anymore.

Where and when do you traditionally write. Is it on the road or locked in a dark room?

I’ve got a place in Nashville and I make trips back and forth there and I do actually hole up in a dark room. That’s my place where I can clock in and clock out and write there. I also force myself to do some writing on the road but don’t write when I’m at home as that time is spent with my family.

You decided to self-produce the album. What motivated that?

I had co-produced stuff for other artists but had never produced a record on my own. I guess I reckoned that if I going to mess it up at least I’m only messing up my career and not someone else’s. I’m at my best when I’m on the ground trying to get up, in a corner trying to fight my way out. Producing this record made me get out of my comfort zone and made me work harder on the songs, and every other aspect of the record, whereas previously I’d pass it on to someone else to let them figure it out. By having my own hands on it, I think it helped the record overall. I’m normally hands-on anyway and this was something I really enjoyed.  I’m looking forward to doing it more going forward.

You re-engaged players that had worked successfully with you in the past for the recording. Guitarists Tom Bukovac and Jedd Hughes and drummer Chad Cromwell came on board once more.

I wanted to go back to the early stages of my career, that early Wade Bowen sound but with more of a country aspect. Lyrically and production-wise it’s more country but still with the vintage Wade Bowen sound. I wanted guys around me that knew me and I wouldn’t have to talk stuff through with them in the studio as those guys instantly know where I am and what I want from them. Tom Bukovac is one of the biggest reasons that I have a career. He played guitar on my early records and on almost every record I’ve done since then. It was nice to go back to all those guys and also try some new things.

How would you describe your sound?

I hate to be too broad with what I do, I simply define my sound as country music. I think it has so many borders now and so many lines in the sand, I just think everybody has their own version of country music. Rock and roll did that back in the 60s and 70s, putting lines in the sand. I just say I play country music. I’ve always loved country music and I’m just a boiling pot of all my influences over the years, from the 80s and 90s country and my influences from the Texas country music that I grew up with – Willie, Robert Earl and Waylon, all those guys. I just wave that country music banner as proudly as I can.

Lori Mc Kenna, who you spoke about earlier, is credited with three co-writes, A Guitar, A Singer and A Song, A Beautiful World, and the title track Somewhere Between The Secret and The Truth. Tell me about your connection with Lori?

We have been friends for a long time and being able to reconnect, as I mentioned, through Zoom allowed us to catch up again, talk about our families, just be buddies, and also get some great songs written. That connection has been huge for this record. She’s a great friend but also as talented as it gets, and a phenomenal songwriter. Whenever I bring my quirky and weird ideas to her, she’s not afraid to dive into them and say ‘I get what you’re saying, let’s try that and see where it goes.’ I think that our friendship getting a lot stronger is a great thing that came out of the pandemic for me. My day instantly gets better just talking with her.

Is the title track self-descriptive?

I had actually finished the record and added that song at the last minute. I wrote that song the day after I thought the record was done, so it’s funny how that works sometimes. As soon as I wrote it, I knew it was the title of the record. It summed up my internal thoughts. Somewhere between the secret and the truth is pretty much all of us: we all have our lives tucked in between those things. I love that it’s truly a country song, sounding like a cheating song but at the end throws you a loop with the person in the song making a good decision. It really hit home to be the title track for so many reasons. I’m glad we sneaked back into the studio and finished it off.

A Guitar, A Singer and A Song is a duet with Vince Gill and a standout track.

Every time I’ve met him and been around him, he’s been nothing but phenomenal. I told him that the song is about a guitar, a singer and a song and that he is top of that list for me for all three of those things. I actually still can’t believe when I’m doing interviews like this that I’m talking about a duet with Vince Gill, as it blows my mind. He was great to work with, a dream come true for me. He’s such a gracious and kind human being.

You’re back in full swing touring once more. Did you get to play many shows in 2021?

Yes, I played quite a few shows last year. After 2020, which was rough, we were able to make sort of a living in 2021. It’s been slowly increasing ever since and I’m so thankful for that. I tell everybody that I’m always on tour, I never stop. I’m a weekend warrior, I play every weekend, probably forty-five to forty-eight weekends every year.  I take off Christmas, that’s about it. We’re working the record right now, and also playing The Grand Ole Opry again, which is a huge thing for us. I still hope to get back to Ireland, that was my favourite trip of my whole life when I went there with my family and played some shows. My wife and I still talk about Ireland and how much we loved it over there. There are days when we say ‘let’s just move to Ireland.’

Interview by Declan Culliton

Joshua Fleming Interview

Six-piece Texas band The Vandoliers was formed by Joshua Fleming in 2015, following the demise of his punk band, The Phuss. Blending the punk sensibilities of his former band and Fleming’s love of outlaw country music, the band has established itself as one of the most energetic and hell-raising stage acts on the circuit and has toured with Flogging Molly, Turnpike Troubadours, Toadies and Lucero. Despite the demise of their record label Bloodshot, they have gone from strength to strength and are currently touring Europe and the U.K. for the first time. We caught up with Joshua by Zoom to get the low down. 

This is your first trip to Europe and the U.K. How are you finding it?

Yes, it’s been great so far. We’re in London right now, we’ve been playing a couple of festivals and some shows. We just played The Maverick Festival, playing to a thousand people stuffed into a barn and overflowing out onto the street, it was incredible. We’ve a couple more shows and festivals in Europe and then we head home.

When did you decide to target Europe for shows?

We were at SXSW in 2018 and Bloodshot approached us and wanted to take us on and it happened from there. I’m a landlocked Texan and had never crossed the ocean before. I started out very excited about it but, when it was cancelled the first time because of Covid, I got kinda scared. Right before I eventually left for the tour this year, I was just hoping that people will enjoy what we’re doing, which they seem to be. 

How did the demise of Bloodshot affect you, having released your 2019 album FOREVER on their label?

Yes, it was bad. Everybody’s career was set back during that time. It was like, ‘oh well, there’s another thing gone wrong’. We were on top of the world before that, recording the new album for Bloodshot, the one that we’re about to put out now.  We were playing with bands like Lucero and The Toadies, we had been discovered by the band Flogging Molly, lots of stuff was going to happen in 2020, and then it didn’t. The first concern with Bloodshot was when we didn’t get a contract extension, which meant that they were in some sort of trouble. A little bit later the label disbanded and folded. Like ourselves, every band had a choice, either stop and change or try and hold out.  In March 2020, we finished recording the record the way it was supposed to be at that time, the first version of it. When we got back in the studio later that year songs like Every Saturday Night, The Lighthouse and Bless Your Drunken Heart made it onto the album. So, in the end everything worked out for the right reason. We were supposed to be on this tour in 2020, but I don’t think we would be drawing the crowds that we are now, so it’s all worked out. 

The new album will be self-titled. Is that a statement that this record particularly defines your band?

Yes, I feel like this is a turning point for the band. We’ve been burnt to the ground and we have rebuilt. There’s a lot of stuff on this album that we’ve never done before, we’ve pushed harder in every direction and I think it has the best songs that we’ve put out. The original songs were written before covid and written before I was a father. I went through more challenges, grew up a bit more during that period. Usually, I’m writing songs based on where I am with my life at the time. When the album didn’t come out on time in 2020, I just kept on writing and found more songs that defined where I was at that time and what person I was at that moment. I think we really got to the point where we had the right songs for this album and it’s ready to go. We then had to figure out how we were going to put the album out and decided to start our own label.

How do you describe your music and were the early cowpunk bands such as Jason and The Scorchers, Meat Puppies and X influences?

Yes and no. When I first started writing, I was listening to Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton and classic outlaw stuff.  I don’t know, I think the damage was done for me playing with my punk band, The Phuss, before starting this band. It’s all Texas music. As you get older your songs evolve, I was lucky that I got to grow as a person and still being in a band now. I’ve been along different paths and I’ve found this one. All the guys in the band had been aware of each other, the final line up of the band is a mixture of my best friends and musicians that I have most respect for. We are all players that wanted to keep things going with this band.

You’ve recorded four albums in a relatively short time. Had you written the material for the debut album, AMEN-KINDA, while you were still with The Phuss?

No, I wrote about twenty songs to start the band. We formed in the studio because we didn’t know we were going to be able to do what we’re doing now. I just called some friends up with these songs I was working on. We found a sound and were just going to play one show at this little local festival. We had a really good time and booked another show and, all of a sudden, we had a band.

With your normal hectic touring schedule, how do you find time to write?

I’m always writing. I’ll put my headphones on in the van and put on sounds that block out the noise of the van and write some lyrics. I’ve written thirteen songs on this tour already.

You’ve toured with Flogging Molly and Turnpike Troubadours, were they not anxious that you might be too dynamic to open for them?

(Laughs) Flogging Molly wiped the floor with us every night, those guys are great, we had a great time with them. They had us on their Salty Dog Cruise, we got to play with some of my favourite punk bands of all time on that cruise. We were the first band to play, we were the sail away band as the boat starts moving. We played in front of three thousand people and I got to open for Face To Face and Descendents with my country band, it was ridiculous. After that we played with Turnpike Troubadours opening shows for them which was really special, I’ve always wanted to play with them.

Any particularly noticeable differences between playing in Europe and the U.K. compared to the States?

There’s a lot, for a start it’s a bit smaller over here and people are a lot better mannered, maybe not as loud in the mouth. We’re starting off in Europe having worked so hard getting around America over the past seven years and it does feel right at home here, it’s good.

How difficult is it for all of you, being on the road so often?

We’re a week away from going home and then twelve days later we leave again. Our families are making sacrifices as we all are, but it’s all because we believe in the same things. As long as we respect each other, love and listen to each other, things go pretty smoothly. We got the chance to produce this record and put it out and I’m working with the best team that I’ve ever had. My life and my career, like everyone in the band, is hard.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Steve Hammond Interview

I have to admit that the collected works of Steve Hammond were not on my radar until I listened to his latest release HONKY TONK RECORD CLUB No 1. However within his varied output he has touched on the genre. There are the solo albums TIME WILL KILL US ALL and THE HOUSE OF DEATH as well as  KEEP TRUCKIN’ by Leeches of Lore and all the albums by Black Ale Sinners. They can be found at his lorco.bandcamp.com label site. Lonesome Highway took the opportunity to ask Steve Hammond some questions about his work and times.

Looking at your Bandcamp page and the number of releases there you seem to be in this for life. How important is making music to you?

Music is the most important thing in my life after my family.

Tell us about the trials tribulations and also the good times of being involved in the music industry since you started?

Well, I don't consider myself part of the industry. There may have been a time when I was trying to "make it" at least on a small scale but the industry only cares about money and popularity which are not things I consider virtues. I don't consider art that doesn't make money as a failure. I think if an artist creates the art they set out to make then it is a success, even if no one sees it or hears it. That said I do appreciate when people like my music, but if no one did I'd still make it.

Traditionally influenced country is a part of your vocabulary. When did you become interested in writing and performing in that style?

I grew up on country. Songs by people like Hank Williams or Johnny Cash have been with me my whole life. I did rebel against country as a teenager but rediscovered first bluegrass then singers like George Jones and Dwight Yoakam in my early 20's. My first country band started as a sort of punk bluegrass thing then evolved into honky tonk.

Another aspect of what you do is “original space age country.” How does that expand on the more traditional version?

I'm really into music from the honky tonk era, roughly the late 40's to the mid 60's, and that era definitely inspires my music, but the experimentalist in me always wants to do something new with it or fuck it up somehow or make it weird.

The songs on the album cover many of the themes and mores relates to the form. Where do you draw inspiration from?

They are mostly just classic honky tonk themes: heartache, cheating, drinking, death, trucking, religion, etc.. But maybe I'll write a cheating song that isn't gender specific, or a trucking song from the point of view of someone who's fed up with big rigs on the road or a song about the fallacy of religion. 

You have released a series of singles from this album in the past are they statements or promotional tools?

They were kind of very limited edition singles, only 20 or 30 of each. They were 7" records hand cut on a 1940's lathe so they were scratchy, lo-fi and mono. Perfect!

When you are able to perform live do you have a regular set of players or do you need to find and rehearse new ones each time?

At the moment here in Troy, NY I have my band The A.M.'s. We play not only my songs but the other members' songs too. We have only been playing less than a year so these songs from the new record were already recorded before I started this band. Before that I was in various bands around the country and then also spent a fair amount of time doing solo gigs.

What sort of venues do you normally play when you get out on tour?

I love a good dive bar or honky tonk of course. I think that is the natural habitat for this kind of music. I also tend to play a lot of breweries.

How about overseas gigs?

I have toured Europe and played in Mexico and Canada but that was all with rock or punk bands generally. Would love to get back over to Europe with my honky tonk band!

Many have used the pandemic to their advantage to write and record rather than play. How did it affect you?

In 2020 I released a new song every week (the "small songs" album). Of course I didn't know the pandemic was going to happen and I think the music got darker and was influenced by it. It did leave me a lot of creative time! Then in 2021 my wife and I had a baby so a lot of stuff has been put on hold and my creativity has been focused elsewhere but I have been writing a lot more music lately.

Taking the new album as a statement of intent. What do you feel is good and bad about country music in the mainstream, or in the alternative area, these days?

To be honest I don't listen to a lot of modern country. Every time I hear modern country I'm always asking "Is this country? It's so hard to tell …” I consider myself a honky tonk artist rather than a country artist mainly because that is the style of music I'm into. I don't want to confuse anyone wanting to hear Florida Georgia Line or whoever. If you like Buck Owens or early 60's Ray Price or the Byrds during their psych-country era you might like me.

What do you think your new release will give you in terms of direction?

I just hope folks who listen to it or buy it like it and I hope to break even so I can release the next one!

You have three steel players on this album and it seems an instrument that is vital to your current sound. Has it always been that way?

I also play it on there so that's four! Steel guitar is probably my favourite instrument and if it doesn't have a steel guitar it probably isn't honky tonk.

As an independent artist how difficult is it to survive these days. Has the internet been good for you?

I love/hate the internet. It is easy to release music these days but much harder for anyone to pay attention. I have such a niche and small following that I'm not sure that it matters, but there probably have been a few folks that found me because of the internet so for that I am thankful!

How does your music relate, for you, to what is happening around you?

Even if it's not conscious, the world around me surely finds its way into my music.

Interview by Stephen Rapid.

Sunny Sweeney Interview

The past two years have been a rollercoaster ride for Austin-based singer songwriter Sunny Sweeney. On top of the pandemic, the completion of her fifth studio album MARRIED ALONE was delayed by over twelve months following the electrocution of producer Jeff Saenz, who was due to mix it. Further tragedy was avoided quite recently when Sunny and her bandmates were involved in a motor crash that fortunately left them relatively unscathed. However, better times are most certainly on the way with the forthcoming release of her outstanding new album. Sunny has also been offered a weekday DJ slot on SIRIUS XM’s Willie’s Roadhouse Channel, where she now hosts from 6 am to 12 pm, broadcasting from all over the country when she heads off on tour. We caught up with the vivacious and engaging artist who will more or less be on the road until the end of the year.

You played The Midlands Festival about 15 years ago. What do you remember about that trip to Ireland?

Honestly, you know what I do remember in Ireland was going to the Guinness Brewery and drinking there. We are in the U.K. later in the year but won't get to Ireland this time around, though I want to come back really badly. So hopefully next year. I’m Irish, we used to be O’Sweeney. I guess when my relatives came over, they dropped the ‘O’ and it was just Sweeney, but as you can probably tell I'm very Irish, as are my entire family. We all get sunburned easily.

You had a serious motor incident a few weeks ago. How did that occur and did you sustain any injuries?

Well, we had taken my car for a show instead of a van, which we normally take to the gigs, but there are no vans available right now whatsoever. On this particular day, there were just going to be three of us travelling. So, I just decided to take my car to save gas and all that. We left the gig, had played really early and we were going to drive about five hours to go back to Nashville. After about two hours from Nashville, I was just passing someone that was in the right lane. I was going around them and when I went around them there was a two-hundred-pound deer in the road. We just like popped it, obviously the deer didn't make it, and we just kind of skidded to a stop for a couple of hundred yards, it was really scary. Two of us were not hurt at all, just a little burnt from the airbag and my guitar player hurt his fingers, but they're better now. We're looking at a really frightening experience. We talked about it that night, surprisingly, we don't wreck more often because we’re often driving late when there are drunks on the road.

I was very moved by your social media posts earlier this year when a journalist wrote suggesting you were ‘a one-hit wonder’ with your song From A Table Away, from the album CONCRETE, particularly when you’ve since recorded two excellent studio albums and a live album?

You know, some people think that artists don't have a life, they don't exist, and are not successful because they don't get millions of plays on Spotify.  That pissed me off, not because of what he said, it pissed me off because he acted like a keyboard warrior, just saying shit that he doesn’t need to say. It's hurtful more than anything else. I have the thickest skin and you can seldom hurt my feelings, and it didn't really hurt my feelings, it just made me mad. I was just like, ‘who is this guy’? He doesn't realise that I'm out there pumping it day in, day out, playing as much as we can: literally blood, sweat and tears.

You have very recently been given a DJ slot on Sirius Radio XM, with a 6 am to 12pm slot Monday to Friday. How did that come about and what sort of additional pressure does that put you under?

Sirius XM is what we listen to all the time. I've been a fan before it was Sirius XM as I had XM back in the day. I have been offered a couple of these gigs over the years and I've always turned them down because the music sucked on the channel and I would never put myself in a situation to promote something that I thought sucked. Anyway, one day, this guy Jeremy Tepper called me and he said: ‘I know this is super random, but we've been passing your name around for doing a radio show on XM.’ And I was like, ‘ok, which channel’ and he goes ‘Willie's Roadhouse’. And before he even got it out of his mouth, I said, ‘yes, I want to do it.’ I didn’t even ask for any details. It’s been really cool and really fun. The format is basically four or five songs and then you talk and then four or five songs and you talk again. I'll tell you, I have turned into an actual machine, I'm actually not a human anymore, but it's doable, it's totally doable. In terms of content, we play all traditional country, mostly 50s to 80s stuff. Today we actually played a duet that I did with Jessi Colter, a remake of Good Hearted Woman, and so it's stuff that's either traditional country or influenced heavily by traditional country.

We had the pleasure of listening to your latest album MARRIED ALONE, which is due for release in September and we love it.

Thank you. It is a little different from my last albums. But then also there is some stuff on it that I wanted to stay familiar with, I didn't want to piss off the country fans that I have, but I also wanted to broaden my horizons and show more of my other influences and stuff.

Tell me about bringing Paul Cauthen on board to co-produce.

Well, I've known Paul forever, we used to play at the same clubs back in Austin a hundred years ago. He used to be in a band called Sons of Fathers and I followed that band. I loved that band. And then he did his own thing for a while. His voice has always captivated me and his individuality has always captivated me. He is wild as hell but he’s got such a good attitude. To me, he's like a cheerleader, almost like a giant cheerleader. I didn't want to use the same people again on this record, I wanted to go outside of the box. I know how to make country music but needed and wanted some direction to go a little bit outside the box. Paul’s name got tossed around and I thought ‘yes, let’s do it.’ and use Paul. Using Paul also brought Beau Bedford and Jeff Saenz into the mix. So, you know, you’ve heard the album, there's a couple of songs that are like completely out of the box for me, as well as the country ones.

You recorded the album at Modern Electric Sound Recorders in Dallas?

Yes. Dallas is only three hours from Austin, where we all live, so it made it really easy because it was recorded during COVID. We didn't want to get sixteen hours away from home in Nashville and then somebody gets COVID and then not be able to go home and have to be stuck in a hotel in Nashville for you know, two weeks or whatever.

Over how long was the album recorded?

It was over a few sessions in the studio. A full week first, Monday through Friday, long, long days. Ten in the morning till two the following morning. We had the rough mixes for ten songs completed then and we were going to start mixing the record after we did some overdubs and emailed people all over the world who were adding bits as everyone has their own home studio now. We were supposed to start mixing on June 6th 2021. On June 1st the guy that was going to be mixing, Jeff Saenz, got electrocuted and he lost both of his arms. The story is truly amazing and he is pretty damn inspirational. Anyway, when that happened, I kind of just was like: ‘You know what, stop everybody, just stop and get your priorities in check. Who do we think we are? This is Jeff's life, our music is so insignificant compared to anything that he's going through.’ And so, we stopped everything and I just didn't worry about it for like months and was thinking that it'll happen when it happens, I'm not worrying about this anymore.  Jeff’s accident was just so eye-opening to me and is still to this day, it makes me realise how fragile everything is.  Anyway, we decided finally about six months later to go back in and do two more songs and make it a twelve-song record instead of ten.

Who did you get on board for that final mix?

Ok, so here’s the story. We decided to get Beau Bedford, who was the other producer, to work on these extra two songs, How’d I End Up Lonely Again and Want You To Miss Me. Beau was also going to take over where Jeff left off and mix the whole record. Beau, Jeff and Paul are all close friends and work very well together. On the very last day of mixing, we went up to Dallas and were just hanging out in the studio and waiting for Beau. He had called me that morning and he said ‘hey, I'm gonna be about ten or fifteen minutes late, I’m really tired and can you go to Starbucks and get me two coffees.’ I was thinking that it was a bit weird to ask for two coffees but we got them anyway.  But what had happened was that he had gone and collected Jeff and brought him in to finish the album, which was amazing.  That was like the last week of December last year and I feel that if we had put those original ten songs out, it would have come out during 2021 when things were still really wild. It's like a two-and-a-half-year process from when we started it. But the timing is probably perfect and I do believe in everything happens for a reason.

You have some big hitters singing with you on the album. Vince Gill, Jim Lauderdale and Courtney Patton all sing alongside you.

Yes. Courtney sang on All I Don’t Need and Jim sang on Someday You’ll Call My Name, which I wrote With Brennen Leigh, who is one of my best friends. That song has actually just gotten into a movie by the way. It’s in a BJ Novak movie that’s actually not out yet, but I saw the preview of it. It's out in July and it's called Vengeance. It's like a whole minute of the song in there, which is pretty cool.

And you have Vince Gill duetting with you on the title track?

Yes. I didn't write the title song Married Alone, but I have had it on hold for two and a half years. I basically fought that nobody would take that song from me because I knew I wanted it. And so anyway, after we recorded it, I just couldn't picture anything else except Vince singing on it. So, I just got a wild idea and I went out and called him and asked him if he would sing on this with me. He said ‘yes’ before he even knew what it was, saying that he trusted my judgment. So, we sent it to Vince there and then and we're all just like sitting there going ‘YES.’ When it came back, it was just mind-blowing to hear his voice with my voice because I've been a fan of his literally my entire life. 

You’re due to go back on the road soon?

We’re gone now until mid-August.  We are home for five days and we go back to Europe then for a month. And then we'll be back for five days again and back on tour pretty much for two months. We're pretty much gone from July to mid-December.

What players will you have on tour with you?

I have my guitar player Harley Husbands and I have a female bass player, Amanda McCoy, a drummer, Brandon Barnes, and a steel guitar and lap steel guitar player, Steve Nelson. Oh, and also my little yorkie, who is completely spoilt.  

We won’t get to see you play in Ireland this year but we will get to see you perform at Americana Fest in September?

Yes, we’re playing and Brennen Leigh. Kayla Ray is also playing, she will blow your mind, her songs are so good. Brennen, Kayla, Courtney Patton, Jamie Lin Wilson and Erin Enderlin, that’s like our little circle. Make sure and come and say ‘Hi’ at Americana Fest when you’re over.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Sierra Ferrell Interview

Very much a refreshing addition to the Americana and roots musical landscape, Sierra Ferrell’s debut album LONG TIME COMING, released last year on the Rounder Records label, has propelled the West Virginian from emerging artist status to one that has well and truly arrived. The album’s eclectic musical template embraces folk, gypsy jazz, country, old-time and ragtime. The possessor of a stunning smoky jazz vocal range and an artist that is evolving into one of the most captivating to surface in recent years, Ferrell opened her European and U.K. tour at The Button Factory in Dublin.  We chatted with Sierra just before she took to the stage to enthrall a packed house with a dynamic ninety-minute set, accompanied by two crack players, Geoff Saunders and Oliver Bates Craven.

You've been practically catapulted into a major career advancement over the past twelve months with what seems to be endless touring dates. How have you been coping with that?

It's amazing but can also be terrible at times. It’s great that people are interested in me and they want to hear my music, because it's always been my life and my passion and always been something I knew I was going to be involved with. But I never really knew it was going to get this far with it.  I'm very honoured but I also feel like I need to pay more attention to my mental health a little bit more. You know, we all have our internal battles, and a lot of times we don't even realise what the battles are because it's something that's imprinted on us at a younger age.  Growing up, we don't really realise some things that mess with us until it's, like, until we're older. It's just life, you're always going to have a bad day, everyone does. So, I guess for me, on a personal level, I feel like I need to have a partner with me when I’m touring and right now, I don't really have one. So, I have to battle with this a lot. But the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.

Is Nashville home for you now?

Yeah, whenever I'm there (laughs).

The music community in East Nashville is a very tight-knit group and very supportive of each other.

There is great support in the music community in East Nashville. It can be a bit weird when you arrive at first but when you get over that little hump, you’re in. I just wing myself out there and hope for the best, sometimes there’s a crash and sometimes I get lucky. In Nashville, I got lucky.

 Nashville is regarded as a ‘ten-year’ town for artists to make a breakthrough, but you’ve succeeded in less than four. What were your expectations when you moved there?

Well, when I went there, I definitely wanted to move in the direction of doing more stuff with my music.  I started playing in this honky tonk cover band The Cowpokes for a while at the American Legion, I was just really hoping for the best and just putting myself out there. I wasn't making much money and I lived in my van. I didn't really know what the future held for me, it was very lonesome, tiresome and just weary at times because I didn't really know where my life was taking me. Then slowly but surely people started kind of coming around and people seemed to like my music and they wanted to lift me up and so now, here I am.

Getting that gig with The Cowpokes was some achievement, I would have thought that there would be any number of artists looking for that slot. How did that come about?

It’s kind of funny because like, you know, I like to dress a little differently every once in a while and just do my own thing. That’s definitely not a Nashville thing where a lot of singers like to wear rhinestones. Most people didn't really know who I was, they thought I was just a kind of just weird girl hanging out. You know, I was wearing platform shoes and berets and stuff, but when they heard me sing, I won them over. Kevin Martin, the lead guy who played fiddle in The Cowpokes, left the band for a bit and he moved to New York.  I just so happened to be at the right place at the right time. I started crunch-running all these honky tonk songs and before I knew it, I was in their band.

And then Rounder Records stepped up to the mark overnight and signed you to their label?

There was a little bit more to it than that, it was about a year before I was signed to Rounder. The engineer and producer Stu Hubberd along with Gary Paczosa, who is the Rounder guy, just started coming to my shows a lot and I would do the honky tonk stuff with The Cowpokes but I was also playing my own stuff. They kept coming to the shows, loved my music and kept saying ‘you’re going to get signed to Rounder Records’. I was saying, ‘Ok, prove it’ and then within a year they signed me.

The musical direction on LONG TIME COMING has your numerous influences stamped all over it, from gypsy, Latin, jazz, bluegrass and country. Did you have to fight with Rounder to have control over the musical direction on the album?

They were very open-minded and welcoming of something different. Some people’s music is just one style, and while there is nothing at all wrong with that, I think Rounder liked that I was different. I wanted to reach and uplift other artists and people with different musical styles and they allowed me to do that. I particularly wanted to reach out to women. It’s hard to be a woman generally in the world let alone being in the music industry.

Your times spent in New Orleans simply oozes out of much of the album.

Absolutely, not only is New Orleans magical, it has such history, though it is sad that so many locals that have lived there all their lives and have family history are being pushed out as it becomes more and more gentrified.

You have some wonderful players on the album including Billy Strings, Chris Scruggs, Tim O’Brien and Jerry Douglas to name a few. Did Rounder have these players lined up for you?

I actually had a lot of names in the hat, Billy Strings being one of them. It was recorded at Southern Ground in downtown Nashville in January 2020 during the pandemic which was a really weird time, but those players were all available then.

You ended up with an album that includes everything from bluegrass to fiddle-induced jazz and old-time waltzes to Dixieland. Where did all those influences come from?

Being from West Virginia people automatically assume I’m all about old-time music and a banjo on the porch. I often shock people when I tell them that I grew up with mostly radio music around me and also a lot of Gospel music from going to church and joining in a lot of choirs. As I got older, I started travelling, hitch hiking and hopping trains. A lot of the train kids were listening to all this older music from the 20s, 30s and 40s. I just got really wrapped up in this old music, even listening to Haydn Quartet, who was a harmony group from the early 20th century. I was getting goosebumps from that music because it was so genuine and had so much feeling and purity in it.  People are trying to smooth out the edges in today’s music, killing its soul.

So how do you possibly follow that album?

I don’t know, I’m going to have to think of something (laughs). I do have a handful of songs that I’ve been messing about with on the mandolin and the fiddle. I also have a lot of other songs in the style of Why’d Ya Do It from this album. I’m not sure how I’ll progress from the direction of LONG TIME COMING, because I had a lot of those songs for quite a while. I’m just working through this one at the moment. There are a number of people that want to do a record with me but right now I’m not even sure when I’m going to have the time to work on the next one. 

I understand that we will also get to see you at Americana Fest in September?

 Yes, I’m pretty sure it’s a Saturday show but I’m not sure what venue yet.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Shawn Williams Interview

A native of New Orleans, Shawn Williams ditched her secure employment in radio to pursue her passion as a singer songwriter and performer. She has recorded four full-length albums to date. The latest WALLOWIN’ IN THE NIGHT is generating lots of love, not only from us at Lonesome Highway but much further afield. It’s a passionate and hard-hitting guitar driven project that rocks and soothes in equal measures, and features a host of New Orleans’ ‘go-to’ players. Unfortunately, Shawn’s touring van developed a serious engine issue at the start of her scheduled dates, leading to the postponement of a number of shows. We caught up with her recently via Zoom to learn more about her and the striking new album.  

Such a shame that you had to abort your tour recently when your van had engine problems. What is the latest update?

I am in Georgia at my mom's right now and I am dropping the van off tomorrow to be worked on, and it will take three to four weeks to repair. In the meantime, I’m going up to New York and staying there for a couple of weeks. I'm staying at a friend's house and watching her cats while she's away, even though I’m allergic to cats. I've booked some solo shows in New York, which should be good.

What’s the situation with your touring band given that you’ve lost those shows?

I lost my drummer, who was new to the band. I’m auditioning for a new drummer at present and I expect by September or October we can pick the tour up again.  Right now, I'm planning shows for late September, or early fall: things are kind of getting back to normal with venues booking three to four months in advance.

Are you originally from New Orleans?

I was born in New Orleans but moved around a lot. I lived in Georgia, I lived in New York and now I'm back in New Orleans.

I believe that in a previous life you worked in radio?

Yes. I worked in radio for thirteen years starting when I was 18 in Atlanta.  I also worked in both New York and New Orleans. I was an on-air personality, a producer then I became the programme director of the stations.

Had you been writing and performing during that time?

I have been writing music all my life.  I began when I was nine years old and started playing guitar when I was fourteen. I was basically writing and singing them to myself. I always hated my own voice; it took a friend in New York who made me play one of my songs for him. He told me I should be writing music, playing in front of people and recording. I got back to New Orleans and I found that people were so inviting there and welcoming, which helped me work on my fright of playing in front of people.

Did you give up the day job when recording your debut album SHADOW?

No, but when I released that first record, I was really tired of the corporate radio world. I found it so draining and entertaining has always been in my blood. So, I just quit my good paying job and worked my way up, starting with going on tour all by myself for almost two years straight with only a couple of weeks off. I was completely broke at that time but would never look back.

There’s an eclectic variety of sounds on your albums. What was your go-to music growing up?

I'm a big fan of Neko Case, Lucinda Williams and Ryan Adams. I love rock, I love psychedelic music, I love singer songwriters. I end up incorporating all those genres in my music, it just oozes out. Growing up, I listened to everything from George Strait to Salt-N-Pepa and also some New Orleans Rap. Jewel was my greatest influence. I got her first album, Pieces Of You, when I was ten. That's what made me want to learn guitar. I listened to her album and taught myself how to fingerpick, which makes me feel more in touch with the instrument. She was a big influence for me as a writer. I thought, ‘wow’ writing like that and with sarcasm. That style perfectly suited my personality.  

Your song writing is hugely emotional. Quite a number of the tracks on WALLOWIN’ IN THE NIGHT read like open wounds. Is your writing personal, imagined or observational?

A bit of all three, but mostly personal with a lot of imagination.

How difficult is it to perform some of those songs live, particularly solo?  

It can be hard to hold back the tears particularly when I perform this album live. I do try to hold back a little bit of anger naturally when I perform them.  When I was playing What’d I Do Wrong on my live stream the other day in the hotel stuck in North Carolina, I was having to hold back the tears with that one.  That song definitely brings back certain emotions. Songs like You Don’t Care at All and Everything You Stood For on the record are older songs, probably about ten or twelve years old. I wrote them when I was living in New York and I put it on this record because I can still draw from them in my current situation.

A number of the tracks are unlikely to receive radio play given the lyrical content?

Using certain words definitely portrays a lot of emotion and to take that out removes a chunk of emotion from the song. I did also make radio-edited tracks with this album to facilitate radio play.

No, I’m happy with the original. A Christmas album is probably a bridge too far but can we expect a 'happy’ album from Shawn Williams at any time?

I would find it a little tough to write happy songs because it can get a little cheesy and forced. I could write about the butterflies and the sunshine but who wants to hear that?  Maybe I might release a happy album at some stage but no Christmas album anytime soon, maybe a Halloween one.

Can you tell me about your writing process?

I generally just sit down and write whatever comes to mind at that time. I write songs in five to fifteen minutes but 20 minutes max.  If it takes me any longer than that I am filtering it too much and starting to think ‘what if the listener doesn't like this song?’

You chose to self-produce WALLOWIN’ IN THE NIGHT. What production experience did you previously have?

I have produced all of my records.  I have progressively gotten more comfortable in the studio, particularly knowing how to communicate with other musicians. I don't know music theory or anything like that, but I found I was able to get what I wanted across a little better with this record.  I recorded my third record, THE FEAR OF LIVING THE FEAR OF LOVING, on my little phone on my GarageBand app and played all the instruments. I'd never played bass or keys before.

You were surrounded by some crack players for the recording including Dr. John’s guitarist John Fohl, ex- Hurray For The Riff Raff, Casey McAllister, on keys and New Orleans roots rock band,The Iguanas, as your rhythm section. Were they all available at the same time?

Yes, they are usually around New Orleans in springtime and tour during the summer. They are on all my records except my third one, which I recorded myself, playing all the instruments during lockdown. We recorded in springtime 2021 at Blue Velvet Studios in New Orleans where I also recorded my first two records.

How do you feel about playing locally in New Orleans? Many of your peers admit to avoiding playing at home too often as they find it can be intimidating.

Absolutely not, I love playing in New Orleans. Prior to the pandemic I was playing from six to eight times a week, often two shows a night and mostly with my band.  At the moment I'm generally just playing once a month at ticketed shows. In New Orleans since the lockdown has eased, places have started to open up again but the clubs have changed managers and bookers and unfortunately, most of them are going back to either traditional or cover bands. I'm not going to do that, if I were to do that I may as well go back to the corporate radio world. They reckon that's what the tourists want to hear, which is pretty unfortunate.  

Is the corporate radio world very much a thing of the past for you?

Definitely, I would never go back. It was great fun at the beginning but then the big corporations started to take over the little stations and it became like any type of corporate world job. It ended up that there was no creativity and radio is supposed to be fun.

Will we get to see you perform at AmericanaFest in September?

I’d love to play but as of right now I’ve nothing lined up, but hopefully, that might change. I'm definitely going to try and book something around AmericanaFest in Nashville.

Any ambitions to make it across to us in Ireland?

I’d love to, I really want to come over to Ireland.  I'm Irish from my dad's side as my great grandfather was born in Ireland.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Emily Scott Robinson Interview

Every now and then, an artist emerges and takes your breath away with their ability and their craft. Emily Scott Robinson is one such artist. I can remember the first time I heard her sing and the way in which she captured my attention to listen more intently to the wisdom in her words. Not only does Emily sing like an angel, but she also possesses the natural talent to observe the human condition in all its flaws, finding both empathy and understanding in the daily push to endure, and to believe that we matter. I see a bright future ahead for this superb songsmith and it was a pleasure to sit down with her for a brief conversation before her Irish stage debut at the Cellar venue in Dublin. 

Welcome to Dublin! Your first concert on Irish soil and thank you for coming over. You grew up in North Carolina and you reflected that Dar Williams was one of your early influences?

Yes, I just love her and I got to go on tour and open for her last December. They say that you should never meet your heroes as they are just ordinary people too but she was so gracious and kind and that really meant a lot to me. I have not found a lot of female musicians who would mentor me and take me out on the road, so it was really special. She is very generous of spirit.

Were your parents very influential regarding music as you were growing up?

I grew up with a piano in the house and we all grew up taking various musical lessons. I was classically trained on the clarinet, which I played for about twelve years, from age eleven through university. I also sang in the church choir. I taught myself how to play guitar, playing along to records by Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Dar Williams, Indigo Girls.

What was it like performing in public for the first time?

I was in high school and I had been working up some Joni Mitchell covers, like Both Sides Now and California, songs I really loved ... I played at an open mic night and was very nervous, but got that first  hit of the drug of performing for people. Discovering that I had a voice that was very clear and unique, like a high soprano ... It was a very gentle introduction into performing.

When did you first start writing your own songs?

I didn’t start until I was into my twenties. Up to then it was mostly learning cover songs, sitting around the campfire at Summer camp, and for my friends. At college I would perform in local coffee shops, and play a lot of covers. Lots of Nanci Griffith, who I know was loved in Ireland. She was actually the inspiration for my first song. I saw her in my home town in 2007 and was so inspired by her that I went straight home and wrote my first song. That was the only time that I got to see her play live and she was a really big influence on me. I recently found the original programme from the concert in my keepsakes too.

If we jump forward to 2016 and the recording of your debut album, MAGNOLIA QUEEN. Self-produced by you and very much based around your acoustic guitar and the songs?

If I’m honest, that set of songs weren’t even mastered. I had won eight hours of studio time in a local studio where I was living at the time, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The engineer there, Bret Nolan, had the common sense to set me up with just a guitar mic and my vocals. No click tracks, no overdubbing, no production – just simply me and my songs.

And that is the real joy of the album. There is a simplicity and an honesty to it. Your command of language and turn of phrase are superb. For someone so young to have such insight into what can happen in relationships and to capture such complexity was something quite special.

Thank you for saying that. I do a lot of character writing and settle into and embody a character. A lot of my characters are speaking from a much older age and looking back on their lives. I have always been a person who just picked up on other peoples’ emotions very easily - really empathetic and intuitive.

Perhaps there is no such  thing as character writing, without having a little bit of you wrapped up in there too?

Yes, always. I was talking to Gretchen Peters, on Twitter, about this and I said that character writing is like a way of exploring all the rooms in the house of my psyche – there is always some of me in all of those characters and those songs. I think it’s very Jungian in that way! (laughs) …

 If we move forward three years to 2019 and your second album. What was the shift for you over that period of time when you look back?

That album, TRAVELLING MERCIES, every one of those songs was written while I was living in an RV trailer, on the road with my husband. I started doing music full time in the Spring of 2016 and that record has a lot of the fabric of our travels around America and my experiences as a touring musician and stories from that era of my life. It was my first album with a full band in the studio and I asked a lot of friends and musicians; “Who do you recommend working with?” So, I was looking for a producer who could guide me through the experience of making a full-blown record in the studio. I heard a lot of stories coming out of Nashville about producers who had different styles and where the songwriter would be buried by the band or the production. I wanted the production to elevate the song-writing and the solo artist at the centre.

So, I worked with Neilson Hubbard who has produced songwriters like Mary Gauthier, Amy Speace, and Ben Glover. Everything that moves in the orbit around Nielson is really beautiful. He is just a very authentic artist, and like a midwife of music – helping to bring music and birth it out into the world. He’s amazing.

You are touring a lot at this stage, in 2019, and building on your success to date?

Yes, this was the time when I first got a booking agent. Up until then I had been doing all the bookings myself since 2014 and playing anywhere that I could make it work -   house concerts, backyards, breweries, restaurants, theatres.

You were also starting to see the arc of your career climb with the confidence of a studio album behind you?

It was my first national and international press and my first placements in the streaming world happened. It was pretty wild and I was just going up, up, up and up – until Covid hit.

So, what did you do during Covid shutdown? Did you go back to the basics, questioning what it’s all about, or did you throw yourself more into song-writing as a release?

I threw myself more into song-writing as there was little else to do. Also, I did get back to the basics of living my life, cooking, hiking, mountain biking, taking care of myself. Reflecting on what is important. Everything mattered to me before Covid. There was a death in my family in late 2019, and the song Hometown Hero is about that. And with the pandemic hitting, both events just washed me clean of worrying about things that really didn’t matter in life. It kind of rinsed me, and I feel really grateful that I’m not spending any energy worrying about things that just don’t really matter.

Amid all these challenges and upsets, along comes Oh Boy records. How this this come about?

Apparently, they had been watching my career and I had no idea they were interested. I had always watched what they were doing, but never met with John Prine, or Fiona and Jody. Kelsey (Waldon) and I were just talking about this and of course she had a profound friendship with John. He was like a second father and took her out on the road and loved her like a daughter. His death had a profound effect on us all in different ways. I had written this song, The Time For Flowers, during the height of the pandemic and right after John died.

So, six months after I had released it, I got a phone message from Jody at Oh Boy records, who said that he had just listened to the song and it really moved him in what had been a difficult year. He said that they would like to work with me and I had no idea that they were paying attention to young, up and coming artists. I was so excited and so surprised. It came out of left field and there was no part of me that was expecting that. So, Jody and I spent about a month having conversations over zoom calls and discussed the label. I met the team and discovered that we had a lot of common ground in our values about what matters in the music business and why we make music; and how John had built his career and how I am building mine. It is all about the personal connection with the fans; the music and our relationship with the people. It’s all about artistic integrity, creative control, being fun and funky and heartfelt and weird; and being true to who you are.

In April 2021, we ended up making a new record, AMERICAN SIREN. Jason Richmond was the producer and I liked the way that he pushed me out of my comfort zone sonically. We did the record with almost all North Carolina artists. So, Neilson has my Nashville crew and Jason is my North Carolina crew. The sounds and the aesthetics coming out from each are all different. It was a magical experience and also a challenging project as we were all just coming out Covid and had access to the vaccine. Everyone was just coming out of our caves wondering if it was safe to be in a room with each other again. Steep Canyon Rangers played on a couple of songs and they are a pretty famous bluegrass band over from where I’m from.

If I was to go back to that young girl in Greensboro, North Carolina; growing up, playing open mic nights and learning her craft - and I bring you forward to who you are now, an artist, living in Colorado and seeing your success build. What would the older self  say to the younger self?

I would say ‘trust me,’ because there are a lot of things about who I am now and what I’ve done that I had to find the courage to do in my life and career as a musician, in those moments, that just took every ounce of courage and faith that I had – and more. I sometimes think that the woman I have become is so powerful and free and honest; that she would really scare the girl that I was. The girl that I was would see me now grown into the fullness of who I am. There were just a lot of things that I wanted, when I was younger, to be wrapped up neatly with a bow, as young people want. The fullness of my life and my song-writing has been embracing the fact that you just can’t do that. We exist with all the messiness and beauty and hardship and grief and joy. It cannot be tied together.  I think that she would be a little scared of me, but also a little proud and in awe of her older self. ‘You get to do what?’   

Finally, have you been pleased with the response to the new album internationally?

I had been told that my music was reaching people across the ocean, across different cultures and language. It has been one of the greatest joys of my career. To experience this heartfelt connection and shared understanding of the human experience through my songs. I have been floored!

Interview by Paul McGee

Katie Spencer Interview

The UK Folk genre has always defied the urge of the media to place it in a neat little box. From the traditional roots of song collecting, through to the contemporary revival the 60s and 70s, and the creation of many sub-genes since, Folk music continues to expand and to thrive. Whether you define it as Progressive Folk, Nu-Folk, Inde-Folk or Folk Rock; there is something to be found for all tastes. From Davy Graham, John Renbourn, Bert Jansch and Nick Drake, all the way forward to the enduring talent of Richard Thompson and Martin Carthy, there is a rich tradition to be explored and celebrated. John Martyn was a key inspiration in the move away from traditional Folk towards a more progressive style of experimentation; one that included Jazz influences and free-form exploration. As a young girl, growing up in East Yorkshire, Katie Spencer was inspired by this music and wanted to create her own style of self-expression. Over years of developing her craft, Katie has just released one of the best albums of the year with THE EDGE OF THE  LAND. It is an ethereal, free-floating, haunting affair and quietly addictive. Katie first captured media attention back in 2016 and has been winning many new admirers with her considerable musical talent ever since. She very generously took time out of her increasingly busy schedule to share her insights and thoughts with us.

Congratulations on the new album release, THE EDGE OF THE  LAND. Have you been pleased with the initial media response to the music?

Thank you! Absolutely, it feels wonderful to have this album out there. The reviews have been brilliant, and I have been blown away by the response. I found out yesterday that the album has reached number fourteen in the Official Folk Album Charts, and that’s all down to kind folks buying the record, which is lovely as a DIY artist.

Growing up in East Yorkshire, were you introduced to music at a young age?

Yes, although my parents aren’t musicians themselves, they are huge appreciators of music. As a kid they would take me to local folk festivals, and there was always music in the house. I’m very grateful for that, and the accessibility of folk music in general is great for young kids I think.

Who were your initial influences when you started listening seriously?

I started listening seriously to music when I was about twelve, I think. I had a long bus journey through rural East Yorkshire to get to school and I’d listen to hours of music a day. As a kid I listened to lots of indie music, but I started to really dive into songwriters when I was about fourteen, I think. Laura Marling was a wonderful role model for me then, and I still love her albums now. Then when I started to play the guitar at around sixteen I discovered this late-sixties, early-seventies folk revival stuff – folks like Bert Jansch, Sandy Denny, John Martyn, Roy Harper, Joni … That world really blew my mind then!

Was your instrument of choice always the guitar?

Yes, and I think given the chance to choose again it would definitely be the guitar. I love how versatile it is, and each person totally has their own voice within the instrument. It’s a beautiful, varied thing!

You seem too young to have been influenced directly by the early 70’s folk and songwriter movements. How did you find your way to this music?

I can remember watching a documentary on folk music, on the BBC one night. John Martyn came on screen and I fell in love with his music. The atmosphere that he created in those few minutes was astounding, so deep and connected. From there I found lots of other musicians involved in that same scene, and have loved it ever since.

Your guitar playing is very accomplished and do you practice every day to maintain the high standards?

Thanks! I love playing, but I don’t keep to a regular schedule. Some days I’ll play a lot, others not at all. I do like to keep a sense of connection with my guitar though, it keeps it feeling natural and smooth when I play live. Recently I have tried to play something new and fresh each time I pick my guitar up, even if I’m just rehearsing, which is fun.

Your partner, Henry Parker, is also at the forefront of the new Folk movement in England. Does it help having him to bounce musical ideas off and to try new things?

It is a privilege to hear his ideas forming, it feels special to have heard the beginnings of a lot of his songs, up in the top room of our house. And then hearing the finished piece, it’s wonderful. We generally keep our music fairly separate, but it is a lovely thing to be able to share songs and ideas together – absolutely! We keep chatting about working together on a project in the future too, so fingers crossed we’ll sort something out soon.

Who else do you look to on the current circuit for inspiration and encouragement?

There is a brilliant scene in Yorkshire at the moment, particularly in Leeds with lots of younger folks releasing first-class albums. Chris Brain and Iona Lane are two good friends who have both released outstanding records recently. It is great to have that community there to inspire and encourage.

Your debut album, WEATHER BEATEN, appeared in 2019. Can you reflect on the recording process and did you change much in the approach to the new album?

The recording process was incredibly different to my most recent album. For Weather Beaten I went into the studio and recorded all of my parts separately, then I had individual sessions booked for each musician to come and add their parts afterwards. It meant that we could really dive in deep and pay attention to every tiny detail, which was really interesting. I learnt a lot, and this was only my second real time in a big working studio, so it was a great experience, and good to take our time over the album.

You have the talents of Spencer Cozens and Tom Mason in common over both albums. How did you come to choose the other musicians on the new album?

I’m a huge fan of both Spencer and Tom – they’re both a joy to work with and are incredible musicians. I also worked with Arran Ahmun on this latest record. Back in 2019 we both played at a concert in Glasgow, celebrating the music of John Martyn (Arran had been touring and playing drums with John for years). I love what he does, and I think he brought a beautiful touch to the recordings. Nathan Bray on flugelhorn was a suggestion from Spencer. I enjoy that jazz/folk cross over so it was a treat to work with him, and I’ll hopefully have the chance to do so again.

The organic playing is quite haunting and did you record everything live, off-the-floor, during the sessions at Steinway Recording Studios?

Yes, the four of us went into the studio for two days, set the microphones and instruments up and played through the record a couple of times. I’m so glad we took this approach, not only because the memories we made over those two days were so special but because I think we hopefully managed to capture the movement and the space of the songs.

The jazz-like arrangements are so fluid and the playing carries a spontaneity that can only be captured with many hours of playing as an ensemble and mutual trust. Was this the case?

That’s kind, thank you. Although we met before the session began, we hadn’t played as a trio before. I had played with both musicians separately, but not with these songs. They are both amazing musicians, and luckily we got into the groove and it happened.

The cover version of Annie Briggs, Go Your Way, (recorded in 1971), fits seamlessly into the album. What inspired you to include the song?

I’m a big Anne Briggs fan, she’s so authentic and her voice is emotionally powerful. This song seemed to fit with the others on the record because she is essentially dealing with some pretty hefty emotions and processing them through landscapes and the natural world. This is similar to some of my songs on THE EDGE OF THE LAND, I think.

The song, Roads, seems to conjure up memories of a childhood friend.  Do you write from a personal perspective usually?

Yes, all of my songs are written from a personal perspective – be that emotionally or of the natural world. It’s what comes naturally I suppose, and it also seems to give the music a longevity for me personally. If I have that connection with the music, it means I can go out and play those songs on the road every night without tiring.

Equally, Shannon Road, appears to reference a particular memory of adolescence and growing up in a small town. Is there a nostalgia that tugs at your sleeve to be expressed?

I think I have an unhealthy relationship with nostalgia, ha! I spoke to a friend about this recently, they said that it’s part of being a songwriter, but I don’t know! I suppose it’s a desire to capture those sharp, distilled feelings.

Wormhole, seems to channel feelings of loneliness and a sense of isolation. Is this something that you have witnessed, growing up in a rural environment?

I have been lucky enough to mostly enjoy my own company growing up. I’m an only child too, so I suppose I had to get used to that! But for sure, there have been times when I’ve felt disconnected or left behind. I chose to commit to music after leaving college (and kindly had the support to do so) instead of heading to university with my friends, so I suppose there is a bit of that in there too.

The sense of taking time to experience the quiet calm of nature is something that runs through the songs. Was this something that surfaced as a result of Covid lockdown?

Growing up in the countryside certainly provides a good foundation for appreciating the natural world, but yes, the lockdown certainly brought that gratitude to the fore. It was the only real chance of escape at that point and I dived into that with relish, I guess!

How is the year ahead for you in terms of touring the album?

I have just finished a UK tour, and I’m excited to get out to festivals throughout the summer now. In the autumn I will also be heading on tour, visiting some of the places I didn’t get around to this time.

Hopefully, we will see you play in Ireland at some stage?

That would be wonderful!

Interview by Paul McGee

Isaac Gibson Interview

What kicked off as three neighbourhood kids in small-town Castlewood Virginia (population 2045) with two guitars and a banjo has mushroomed over the past decade into a six-piece, ass-kicking country band. With a pipe dream, three albums, numerous tours and a reputation for hard graft and dynamic live shows, 49 Winchester came to the attention of Nashville record label New West, who signed them up and have recently released the band’s fourth album FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD. With this year’s calendar packed with festival dates, headlining shows and supporting Whiskey Myers on tour, the band’s hard-edged country sound is likely to accelerate them from ‘emerging’ to ‘arrived.’ We spoke with frontman Isaac Gibson to hear about the band’s back story and their latest recording.

Are you at home right now? Tell me about growing up in small town Castlewood, Virginia?

Yes, I’m right here now in my homeplace, Castlewood, Virginia. It’s a great place to grow up, there’s not a lot to do so it’s a hard place to get into trouble. A creative outlet can sometimes be a hard thing to find in a town in Appalachia, but playing music was one of the things that made growing up here so great. The people here are fantastic. You’d be hard-pressed to cross the whole of the U.S. and find kinder or more polite people.  It is different here. I didn’t grow up in a place where there was a huge music scene, and I didn’t have access to live shows when I was a kid, so 49 Winchester was like something that just sprang out of the ground and blossomed when we all graduated high school. It comes with its own unique challenges but, overall, it’s a blessing to be where I’m from to be certain.

Are you all from that town?

Me and Chase Chafin, the bass player, we’re next-door neighbours and we’ve both known Bus Shelton a long time. That’s where the band started with two acoustic guitars and a banjo most of the time, just three local boys and kindred spirits that wanted to play some music.  Noah Patrick is also from around here and there are six of us in the band now. Our drummer Justin Venable is from Johnson City, Tennessee and keyboard player Tim Hall is from forty minutes up the interstate. All six of us are just a bunch of kids from the mountains.

Were there raised eyebrows locally when you started the band rather than take up nine to five employment?

Both, by and large people told us to ‘go and do it, we’re proud of you,’ and there were some people when we first started out that it was hard to convince that one day, we’re going to be people that get to travel the world, make some money selling records and playing shows. It was hard coming from a place that isn’t a huge haven for art. For many years here in Appalachia the only thing you could do was work in a coalmine or work on a railroad hauling coal out of a coal mine.

Were there particular bands that influenced your musical direction?

We all have a lot of different musical influences and as we hung around with each other the music that we each respectively loved rubbed off on each other. Folk Soul Revival was a big influence, our drummer Justin played with them for a lot of years. What it came back to was a lot of cool funky country and rock and roll sounding stuff. That’s what it was from the start and what has evolved with the band.

The band formed in 2014. Fill in the gaps between then and appearing at SXSW recently?

The most important thing between those two points was a group of people with one simple focus who never wavered from it. We’ve worked really hard, stayed focused and changed our lives to suit this band. There’s a great sense of loyalty and pride that comes with being in this band that we have fostered from the beginning. A whole lot of hard work can be attributed to a slow climb for a number of years and the recent uptick in that curve that we are now enjoying. Eight years of working really hard and trying in a very conscious way to spread our music to as many people as we possibly could.

Does touring as a six-piece create its own complications with personality clashes and different individual pressures, and does the band operate as a democracy?

A whole lot less democracy and a whole lot more family. There’s a great atmosphere of camaraderie and fraternity within the band. We’re more like brothers than bandmates, all of us. The biggest thing that we do is maintain that focus, our life’s mission is this band. We’ve invested so much of ourselves personally that there is no compromise. This is our bubble of protection and the place where we can function in a way that pleases us, pays our bills and gets us in front of the people that we need to get in front of to share our art. We know it’s all business when we are on tour, you need to get out there and work for each other, but there’s a whole lot of peace and love in 49 Winchester and it’s always been that way.

I believe you have a background in metal. How does that translate into what the band is doing now?

That’s common ground among every single member of the band. We’ve all spent some portion of our lives as metalheads. I love the energy, the anger, the drive and the profound emotion that goes with metal. The energy from that music has translated into what we do live, which is a lot of jumping around and a lot of whooping and hollering.

Your songwriting is traditional country, real life stories about where you come from and what’s going on in your lives. Tell me about the progression from you writing the songs and the final product.

I write the songs, the melody and the progression and bring them to the guys to let them flesh out their parts with minimal input from me. As unique and variable as our sound can be, it is because all the guys have creative freedom to play what is in their hearts as opposed to suiting some need for my songs, as if they were sole possessions of mine. It has always been a ‘band thing’ with us. I might write the songs but the band’s input, feelings, emotions and their skill is important to me, and I want it to translate to the records and how we play live. That idea has allowed us to remain true as a band; there’s some healthy non-conformity in our music and I take pride in that.

Your sound has remained consistent from your debut album to the latest recording FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD.

There is a core of things that we have always stayed true to. The process hasn’t really changed, what has changed most is that we have grown and matured so much, both as musicians and people. We are grown men now and we weren’t when we started this band. We were high school kids back then that basically just had a dream and infinite free time that summer. Eight years later it has taken us this far and hopefully is going to take us further.

Where did you record this album and what was the recording process?

We recorded at White Star Sound in Charlottesville, Virginia, with our engineer and co-producer Stewart Myers. The foundations of all the songs had already existed and most of them had already been played live and had worked their way into our live set with a couple of exceptions. We went into the studio, laid down drums and bass, and started building the rhythm sections. It wasn’t live recordings per se. There is merit in a live approach, just going in there and letting it fly, but we were really conscious of how we wanted things to sound and took a week on little intricacies that we didn’t pay enough attention to on our other albums.

What has signing to New West meant to 49 Winchester?

John Allen, the president of New West reached out to us and said that if we were going to be making a record anytime soon, we ought to do it with them. We were going to be putting out our fourth album on an independent label like we always had before. When New West came knocking and we saw their line-up of artists, the past works that they have released and talked with other artists about their experiences on the label, we realised that this was a golden opportunity, given how artist- centred New West is. They are big on maintaining the cool, they are not going to try and commercialise you. There has been an enormous benefit since signing the deal. We were afforded time to get in and work out things the way you need to, instead of scrapping together for cash like we have done on albums in the past. Immediately on recording the album, the wheels were turning in a way that we never imagined. The New West team have knocked it out of the park and they’re working their tails off for us. It’s been a huge difference and a huge blessing.

Is the album title a statement of 49 Winchester’s intent?

You know that song was actually an old 49 song that never made a record. It was one of those songs that I got stuck on, a writer’s block kind of thing. The lyrics for the new version just hit me like a bolt of lightning when we were in the studio. It changed and evolved into something completely different. As soon as we knew that song was going to make the cut, we knew that it was also a great album title for the band.

Which of the album’s songs are you most proud of?

From a lyrical perspective, I felt Russel County Line was always a strong song. I knew it had weight and power, the melody was cool, and the song is bittersweet. I think it still holds up for me and I like playing it live. It’s the song on the album that I’m most proud of and not just for those reasons but also the significance it has to my home, to my lady and to the people, and places that I love here.

Interview by Declan Culliton