With a voice that fully emphasises the tales he tells so well in his down to earth songwriting, Jeremy Pinnell is a country artist with a capital C. He writes from the heart, suggesting that it’s his only means of dealing with the cards he has been dealt. His debut album OH/KY from 2015, offered snapshots from many difficult years and bad life choices which he had finally put behind him. He followed that album in 2017 with the superb TIES OF BLOOD AND AFFECTION. A classic slice of outlaw country, it presented Pinnell in a more relaxed and untroubled manner. His latest album, GOODBYE L.A, was recorded in early 2020 and was due to hit the shelves that year until Covid hit. The album was produced by Jonathan Tyler, who steers Jeremy and his band down an 80’s style country vibe, a little rockier and a little less honky tonk than its predecessor. It’s an album that he’s justifiably proud of and one that he’s about to tour in the coming months. We caught up with the straight talking and most engaging Kentuckian as he planned to get his career back on track after a testing period starved of the opportunity to tour with his band.
I understand that you are about to hit the road again with your band for shows in the coming months?
Yes, we’re back on the road but not as much as I’d like to be. We’re just testing the waters, it’s like we are getting out there but everybody is still not sure about things. We’re doing what we can and are excited to be out on the road again.
You played some live dates earlier in the summer. How did that feel having been starved of gigs since early 2020?
It was nice to be out playing to people again. You don’t realise just how much humans need other humans. It was good to be out playing live music and to be out with my band again. We’re all good friends and we like hanging out and getting away on tour for a while. I’ve got a real good group of guys and we just love being together.
How did you manage during that period when live shows were not an option?
For a while it was good, being home with my family. The Government was giving me some money, which is always nice. But that soon ran out so I got a job with a local construction outfit out here in Kentucky. I’ve been doing that, playing some shows and waiting to go on the road agai
The new album GOODBYE L.A. is a slight change in direction for you, a little less honky tonk and a bit rockier than TIES OF BLOOD AND AFFECTION from a few years back. Does that signal a tweak in style for you going forward?
That’s a good question, but you know the next record might just be straight up country. I feel like this record is still pretty country but with a different sound. I wanted to experiment with some different forms of country music. I was listening to a lot of Gary Stewart and 80’s Waylon Jennings when we were touring. There’s an album called NEVER COULD TOE THE MARK by Waylon with songs like The Entertainer and Sparkly Brown Eyes that I was listening to when we were travelling in 2019. We were on the road for over one hundred and thirty days that year. GOODBYE L.A is a culmination of what we were listening to during all that travelling. We went straight into the studio at the beginning of 2020 after touring to record those songs.
I got that impression listening to the album that a number of the songs were written while touring. Night Time Eagle and Doing My Best particularly come to mind.
Doing My Best, that’s a real story. You know that in Montana they celebrate the 4th of July on the 3rd of July. So, we were on the top of this hill watching all the fireworks and then the next day the town was like a ghost town. We went downtown to do our laundry and it just happened to be payday for my band and I got the call from my manager telling me how little I could pay everybody that week. My heart just sank in my stomach, the money is hardly ever right. So, that song is about us enjoying ourselves but it ain’t always easy on the road.
You brought Jonathan Tyler on board to produce the album. Had you worked with him before?
I hadn’t worked with Jonathan before. A buddy of mine Scottie Diablo from L.A. hooked us up. I heard what Jonathan did on Nikki Lane’s album HIGHWAY QUEEN and I love that record and that sound. I reached out to him and we stayed connected and it was such a great experience working with him. He’s got an ear for music that other people don’t have, he’s been in the game for a long time. He’s younger than me but has been working professionally in music for way longer than me. He’s such a pro and also a hard worker, like all the guys in my band, we’re all hard workers. We just get the job done and Jonathan is just a super positive guy. We brought things to the studio and he’d say ‘that sounds great but let’s try it this way’ and everybody would get excited because it was a new and different sound on the songs. It was just a great experience all round.
You then decided to hold off on the album release date?
We got the album recorded right up to the wire. We had finished up recording at Sam’s Place in Austin Texas, and I had flown back to Kentucky on a Saturday and on the following Monday they started asking people to stay at home. When we were down recording in Texas people were talking about Covid, but nobody was really sure about what was going on and the seriousness of it. We had the record recorded and had time to mix and master it, so we just decided to hold on to it. Why rush it? Everybody is just at home, there wasn’t any reason to be in a hurry releasing it, so we just took our time.
Am I over stating it by calling it ‘your happy and fun album’?
No, and I hope that comes across on the album. I wanted to make a fun record because the mood has been so heavy here in the United States for the past six years. I wanted to make a record that gave people the freedom to be happy, to dance, to love each other. All those thoughts were in my head.
Did you have the opportunity to road test any of the songs from the new album when you were touring last?
Yes, we started playing songs from the record towards the end of 2019 and the start of 2020 before we recorded it, because we wanted to be studio ready. Some of the feedback was very good. Though I remember I played the song Goodbye L.A. in a taco joint in Ohio where we were getting paid hardly anything and some guy called me a sell out for having a different sound on the song (laughs). I thought ‘Dude, I’m playing a cheap taco joint’!
I love that song Goodbye L.A. and particularly the lines where you reference ‘I wish they all were California girls’ by replying ‘he ain’ t seen my woman with the long hair and curls. She might kill you in the night, she might love you in the day, but she’s a good woman who knows how to stay’
That’s a song about my wife. She’s an Italian girl and she’s got an attitude, if she gets mad at you, you’re done! She is really committed. Being in a relationship with someone who is a travelling musician is not easy. As bad as times get, she has stuck around and that’s why I say ‘she knows how to stay.’ We do really well, she does great when I’m gone and takes care of things.
When you’re on the road, do you have a predetermined setlist for the tour or do you mix and match depending on the location and the reaction at previous shows to certain songs?
Our guitar player Junior Tutwiler, is a great guy, you can hear that on the record. He does the tour managing and he’s the band leader. At some point you’ve got to turn things over to somebody else, so I get him to put together the different setlists. We usually have a ninety-minute set and a forty-minute set depending on the venue and if we are opening up for someone, and we do change them around a bit.
How are bookings going to tour the album?
It’s been really great; we work with a booking agency out of Nashville and they have been pushing us. We’ve had no problems getting where we need to get, things are good. We usually travel light as a four piece, me, a guitar player, bass and drums.
You were due to tour Europe in 2020, will you get the opportunity to reschedule those dates?
I hope to be over there next year. We are really focusing on 2022, we have three tours booked in the United States and then I hope to get over there. I love it over there and often think about moving over there, it’s such a different way of life than it is here. It seems like you all live so close together and have figured out how to respect each other’s space, which is something that does not happen in the United States. People respect art in Europe, it can be like the wild west over here, you never know what is going to happen at shows. You can have a really attentive crowd or a wild crowd, it sure keeps you on your toes.
Now that you are heading off on tour, how does the issue of vaccinated or non-vaccinated audiences play out. Is that at the discretion of the venue owners or who calls the shots?
I got vaccinated because I wanted to go out and tour and live my life. A lot of people over here don’t want to get vaccinated for whatever reasons. I wish people on both sides would stop telling each other what to do. I’m just doing what I need to do, it’s like that Hank Williams song Mind Your Own Business. It’s usually the venues that dictate the rules, we just want to play music. Things haven’t really calmed down over here since the pandemic hit and the election. As my wife says, it just feels like you are a little sick in your stomach every day.
With the new album about to be released are you already thinking of your next recording?
I’m thinking of releasing some singles and maybe doing an acoustic record. The idea of doing another record just now is a bit overwhelming at the moment, it takes a lot of work and a lot of your time.
Interview by Declan Culliton