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