Hadley McCall Thackston Interview

‘’Hadley McCall Thackston has created an album that sounds like a June Carter and Amy Winehouse collaboration, written and recorded in heaven and communicated through a young artist whose vocals and poetry pay homage to both of these legends’’. So said Lonesome Highway when reviewing the Wolfe Island resident’s self-titled debut album last year. We caught up with Hadley to get the background to one of our favourite albums of 2018. 

Firstly, tell me about your Irish connections?

Since I was little, I had this obsession about living in Ireland. I used to tell people I was living in the wrong country!  After finishing high school and after graduating, I got my au pair job lined up in Ireland in 2011.  After a year in Cork, I knew I would be told to leave eventually, so I applied to UCC and I got accepted to study Theatre there. At college I got to meet some musicians, I hadn’t been singing for years or song writing, so Ireland really brought music back into my life. 

What type of musicians did you encounter?

Two lads that lived in student lodgings. We became friends, they were amazing guitar players and we started jamming in student housing and said, ‘‘let’s write something’’. One of them would write melodies and I would write the lyrics, it was sort of indie pop stuff. When I moved back to The States, I didn’t have anyone to write melodies for me and had to sit down and see if I could do it myself. I tried, I’m a basic guitar player with the basic chords, but I did write. The first songs were crap, but eventually they came along, and I decided that I could do this myself and didn’t need anyone else. 

When you say the songs were crap, how do you know that, they could have been impressive to someone else’s ears?

(Laughs) The first one I wrote was trying to be like the artist Meghan Trainor, who wrote All AboutThat Bass, about the empowerment of women. I was so angry at the time that I wrote a song calledICould But I Won’t. It wasn’t very good, but at least I knew I could hear a melody in my head and translate that. Many of my early songs are on the record so maybe they weren’t all crap! 

Would you test those songs on others or just form your own opinion?

At first, I wouldn’t play them for anyone else, I was so nervous. Then Wyeth Wood, a childhood friend of mine, asked me to play them for her. At that time, I didn’t know if a wanted to do Theatre or Music, but had to do one or the other. My friend told me I really should do music, so I decided to put a hundred percent attention into Music and put Theatre on the back burner for a little while. So, I became more and more confident but even when I first came to Canada from Georgia, I was shaking I was that nervous. So, it’s taken a while to get that confidence, but my voice has grown and I feel better about it now.

Tell me about the move from Georgia to Canada?

The artist David Corley, who Chris Brown at Wolfe Island Records produces, went to college with my mom at UGA University in Georgia. One of my friends recorded me on my porch at home and posted it on Facebook, which I didn’t want.  David saw it because my mom shared it. David then showed it to Chris. I was planning to go to Nashville and try and make it there, but Chris asked if I wanted to go to Wolfe Island and record a demo there. I was supposed to be only up there for two months, so I said ‘‘sure, sure’’. Within a month a knew this was home for me, where I would want to be. I became instant friends with Chris, who said I should do a record and it all sort of snowballed from there, a weird universal thing. 

Tell me about the Wolfe Island Ontario experience and living up there?

Its such a tiny community, there are only about thirteen hundred residents all year round. Everyone is odd in the best sense, characters in a nice way. You have old- school farmers, there are five families that have been living there for over a hundred years, so it has this lovely old time feel mixed with a modern thing, which is wholly my personality. Its like being in summer camp, you walk in to the village and everyone’s says’’ hello’’. Its an amazing community and watching the local children grow up in that environment is unlike any other place I’ve even been, it’s really special. 

Can you get gigs there?

Yes, there are three restaurants / music bars on the island. You can go to The Witt, The Grill or The Hotel. Take your pick. We play The Grill a lot. It’s funny, I don’t really play Kingston, on the mainland, at all. Just the island or sometimes around Canada. I don’t go to the mainland to play that much; the islands are really fun and last year we had the Wolfe Island Garden Party which was great.  There’s so many musicians and singers living on the island.

A better move for you than heading to Nashville?

Yes, it’s just as well I didn’t go to Nashville, they would have chewed me up and spat me out! I could possibly go to East Nashville now, but I feel I’m still so new and don’t know what’s going on half the time (laughs)! I’m still learning, sound checks are even new to me (laughs). Certainly, I want to make it down there at some stage, a Southern tour is a goal of mine. I really want to play down there. 

 How long was your debut album in the making?

Two years, Chris had his fingers in so many pies at the time and I was still writing, I only had five songs that I’d written before moving to Wolfe Island.  I wrote five more on the island, so it took a while, but it was worth it. 

I believe that all the songs on the album were written outdoors?

Yep, on porches. In the South every house has a front porch, either screened in or open, but all covered, as it’s so hot in the summer. When I was in Atlanta the porch became the place where I’d like to write and when I moved to Canada it so happened that my roommate that I’m living with, her house has a wraparound porch. It feels so Sothern overlooking the hills, so I wrote the rest of the album there and on Chris’ front porch also. I was porch hopping, starting a song somewhere and maybe finish it elsewhere but always outside where I seem to get inspiration, it’s comforting.

The song Somehowis a particular favourite of mine. Tell me where it came from?

Do you really want to hear how that song came about (laughs)? I was driving back from Ashville back to Atlanta and listening to Hozier from Ireland. I love him, want to marry him! So, I was driving along daydreaming and putting the song together in my head. The song was kind of written to him a little bit! You know, ‘’Hozier, I don’t know you but it’s about you (laughs). Bit like a stalker, but true!’’ 

Ellipsisis also a lovely song, with its theme of adolescent vulnerability?

Well, writing that was actually therapy for me, I was really struggling at the time. I’ve never been successful in relationships, not putting myself out there at times when I should, that was what inspired that song. 

 Butterflyis possibly the most striking statement on the album. A heartfelt prayer to unshackle oneself from the pressures that imprison young people in todays commercialised world? 

What frustrates me most about the music industry today is the sexualisation of women and young girls, often by women. Songs being sung about nothing really, with inappropriate images selling the songs. And  young girls listening and seeing that, that’s not what they need. It causes so many confidence issues with girls, body issues. Personally, it really affected me growing up, I really struggled. I was talking to Chris (Brown’s) niece Ella, about this. She’s fourteen now and I see a lot of myself at that age in her. We were talking all about it around the time my own niece Caroline was born. So, the song came together, the second half of the song was about Caroline and Ella is the butterfly. I was asking girls to empower themselves and be strong, there’s so much more to us than just a face and body.  I’ve nannied kids since I was in my teens and I’m thinking ‘’are the parents actually listening and looking at what their daughters are exposed to’’. It’s so toxic and being aware of how it affected me growing up, struggling with body dysmorphia, I really wanted to write a song that girls could listen to and feel empowered by. Because in the industry everyone’s a product and I’d love to get in there and say ‘’ c’mon girls, you don’t need to be wearing shorts and crop tops, you’re not even singing, just shaking and dancing around the stage’’. And there are so many amazing female artists out there singing beautiful things but we’re not hearing it, certainly not on Top 40! 

With the album hitting the thirty minute mark, were you tempted to include any cover songs on the album to lengthen it? 

I describe the album as my soul written down. If you didn’t know me, I wanted people to listen to the album and get who I am. The stories tell who I am and what I believe in. I was never tempted to include any covers. There are covers that I love performing, but for me I really wanted every song to be written by me from my heart. I also think a thirty-minute album is just perfect, a little treat! I also like the idea of shorter songs, where the writer has said enough in maybe just over two minutes and does not need to keep going on. I’d prefer to quit when I’m ahead and tie it neatly with a bow! David (Corley) is amazing, he can write a twelve-minute song. I can’t imagine doing that. I prefer tiny little things, that’s how my brain works. Mountain Song,the last track on the album, I could have added another verse or another bridge, but I said ‘’No, that’s perfect as it is’’. I talked a lot to my producer Chris about this and were happy with where it ended up.

The album crosses many genres from old time country across blues and even jazz. What were you listening to as a young girl growing up?

A really wide variety, both my parents were complete music heads. Emmylou Harris, Iris DeMent, Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Patty Griffin and The Carter Family were all around me at home. The Beatles were my favourite, but I also love classical music, I played double bass in an orchestra growing up. I listened to a variety of music but I guess my roots are in female singer songwriters. My first memory of music is at three or four years old, making my parents play Maxwell Silver Hammerfrom Abbey Road by The Beatles over and over again. A totally morbid song, but I loved it (laughs). I loved a lot of Irish artists too, The Chieftains, The Pogues, The Cranberries, The Dubliners, I grew up with all those too. The Chieftains Christmas album is still my Christmas album.  I just love music and don’t limit myself, any genre as long as its good. 

Have you writing more songs for another album?

I have lots of things started but I do want to do something completely different next time around. I love the way acts like The Decemberists always do something different, not afraid to try anything. I’d like to do something that people would think ‘’Oh, I didn’t expect that of her’’.  I just want to roll with it and not limit myself, I’m just having fun at the moment and going with the flow.  

 Female artists and radio play, an ongoing industry hurdle?

It’s a hard place to be but I’m all for just getting in there and having a go. Most of what’s played on the radio is just the same stuff regurgitated. I just don’t want to hear that anymore. Amy Winehouse had a great quote ‘‘I turned on the radio and couldn’t hear what I wanted, so decided to make the music I wanted to hear’’. That really stuck with me and it’s how I feel as well. 

You were heading to Static Roots Festival in Germany last year to play backing vocals in The Stephen Stanley Band, when one of the other artists pulled out at the last minute and you got your own showcase slot. How did that feel?

You could probably see my heart beating in my chest at the time, I was so shocked! It was my first tour and my first festival. I only got in one rehearsal but after that I was ok and could breath again. I just have to focus on my career now! 

Interview by Declan Culliton

Carson McHone Interview

Playing residencies in Austin’s legendary venues like The Hole In The Wall and The White Horse as a teenager provided the ideal grounding for Carson Mc Hone’s career as both a writer and performer. Two- and three-hour Happy Hour sets and late-night shows to a variety of drinkers, listeners, barflies and dancers were both an education for her, keeping the music and beer taps flowing and also the   memory bank ammunition for writing material from the experiences and encounters. Mc Hones’ first U.K. Festival showcase was at Americana Fest at Hackney in London recently, where she played a solo set to a large and attentive crowd. Lonesome Highwaymet with the self-assured and engaging young Texan, to learn about her career to date as she prepares to further establish herself in the European market.

Were you writing before you considered putting music to your compositions?

I was, my mother’s a writer, writing mostly short fiction and poetry. I grew up in a house where every surface became a bookshelf. I read a lot as a kid and was writing from a young age. The schools I went to had great literary teachers and there were certain classes offered. I was able to take a poetry class when I was in seventh grade. I started writing what you could call poetry and prose when I was much younger and didn’t get a guitar until I was about sixteen or seventeen. That’s when I started putting the two together and started writing songs. I’ve always kept a journal and I’ve always loved to read and write, which got me into playing. Music was always a big part of my life, neither of my folks were musicians but they worked in the beer business for a long time, so a lot of their friends were musicians. I had a lot of music around me and I took classical music lessons, Suzuki style violin, so I had music around me all the time but didn’t start really playing seriously until I was 16 or 17. 

What music would have been around you at that time in Texas?

 Well, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark are Texas legends, especially in Austin. My dad was really into bluegrass, so there was Ralph Stanley, Allison Krauss, Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams and some more modern stuff. My folks are big fans of Dylan and Cohen, so from a young age I knew who those people were. I started reading their lyrics, really coming at their music from a more lyrical side. 

You weren’t listening to the Rock and Indie artists your peers were likely to tune in to?

Not really, I probably lived under a rock! I wasn’t exposed to the normal rock and roll teenager stuff, gravitating towards the folk stuff that my parents liked.

You’ve obviously had tremendous support from your parents and been heavily influenced by them rather than a rebellious teenager?

Absolutely, it meant the world to me to have supportive family, I’m sure it keeps them on edge sometimes (laughs). When I left high school, I wasn’t interested in going to college, but didn’t have a plan otherwise. I thought I’d go and do the music thing until I had another plan. When I decided it was what I wanted to do, I came home from school and immediately got a regular gig and started putting a band together for the first time. My folks were fully supportive, they’re both very close to the music business. Having a vineyard and a bar brings you close to that musical environment.

The early gigs involved playing residencies at 16 or 17 years old. Was that solo or with a band?

 Solo at first and gradually I made friends who would come and sing with me, but for the first few years it was always solo. When I came back from school there were venues I wanted to play but was told ‘‘you need a band, this is a honky tonk not a songwriter room’’. That was good for me because if I wanted to play there, I had to put a band together. So, I just grabbed a group of people that I knew from playing around and the band tended to be different people, depending on who was available. So, that became my first time playing with a band at 18 years old.

A good learning experiences playing with a band to talkers, drinkers, barfly’s and listeners?

 Yes, that’s the community that’s going to support you at that stage of your career, if you’re to survive. I always wanted to also surround myself with musicians that were better than me, it’s good to know what you’re up against from an early age, playing with and to all sorts. 

Playing covers or your own material at that stage?

 Half and half, obscure covers by the likes of Patty Griffin that nobody probably heard before and probably thought were my own songs! I was writing quite a bit then and its funny to look back on those gigs now and wonder how I filled up three hours of playing. What songs was I playing? Probably a lot of my own songs that I’ve forgotten! 

How can you possibly remember all the lyrics playing for three hours?

 Sometimes it’s just muscle memory. Though its funny, if I’m teaching someone a song and I need to start at the bridge again, I’m like ‘’no I need to start at the top again, I can’t remember where I was’’!

You brought producer Mike Mc Carthy on board for your recent album Carousel. He’d worked with Patty Griffin, who you mentioned earlier, had that a bearing in your decision to work with him?

 Mike lived in Austin, he raised his daughters there, living there for twenty something years. He’d heard my name and a mutual friend introduced us. I went in to his little studio when it was still in Austin to do some demos. He wasn’t really producing but engineering, so he took a backseat without saying anything, it was like we were sounding each other out. So, he came back to me later and said ‘’come in and record every song that you’ve written, I want to hear them, bare bones, guitar and vocals only’’. So, over the next year we chatted about making a record together, how we’d approach it and decided to just go for it. In that time, he had moved from Austin to Nashville where he’s doing more work up there, in Quad Studios on Music Row, it’s now owned by a publishing company. 

What do you think Mike brought to those songs that you have previously recorded on other albums?

I think he took them out of the singer songwriter realm, introducing a different way of approaching them, showing me how I could morph the songs. We recorded seven songs that I had already done before. He helped to re-structure them and place them in a new light, which has been good for me, even for writing new songs. We agreed that this introduction to my songs on the album was like a handshake between us, as the songs are really who I am and where I started. It was pretty healthy to do that because it was a fresh take on the songs, even though some of them are pretty similar to the previous recordings

He managed to separate your vocal from the music to the extent that they don’t interfere with each other yet work particularly well in parallel?

That comes from people either having an innate sense for the songs or not. He engineered the record as well, works with great gear and knows how to capture the sound and make the vocal shine through in a way that it’s not buried. We were also working in a real studio. It was all really new to me, when I’d recorded before it was in people’s houses, even if they had full blown studios in their houses, this was kind of different and certainly next level. He didn’t want me to change the way I’d been singing them, he just wanted to push everything else into a new light to cradle my vocal. 

In a hugely crowded workspace, he’s given you your own identity. I listen to the album and its very much Carson Mc Hone. Its hard to capture that but he has managed to?

That was the exact goal.

A number of younger artists, like yourself, are addressing mental illness in their writing, rather than bottle up the inevitable career hurdles such as rejection, uncertainty and insecurity.  The track Sadfrom the album is just one example?

 I think so and I’ve said this before, talking about that song in particular. You need to recognise that in yourself and in other people and respect that. If you look at it as a bad thing and push it to one side and shame it, you’re not addressing it. It will screw you up but equally if you dig into it too much and let it take over, it can also destroy your life and do terrible things. There’s a really fine balance that needs to be met. Sadmay not be completely admitting that, but it’s a good start. And it takes a bit of pride to write like that also, the reason I wrote that song was that someone was giving me a hard time about writing sad songs, saying I was just wallowing and making myself miserable. I was ‘‘No, this is what I need to do to be ok with myself’’. There is an attitude about it, but if you can recognise those things in yourself that make you melancholy, it’s a thing to nurture to a certain extent, as it leads to you to empathy and allows you to recognise it in other people.

Drugs is also an interesting song on the album?

So, that song, its actually sort of a co-write. A friend of mine wrote a version of Drugs, the original version. I had never really co-written with anybody, I still really haven’t. I heard that song in Germany on tour with a group of songwriters on a project called the ATX6, where six Austin songwriters from all different types of genres are brought to International Music Festivals. One of the artists couldn’t go that year and my friend Chris Brecht, who organises the whole thing, he’s also a songwriter, sat in and he played a song called I Need Drugs. He just sang that incessive chorus, ”I Need Drugs, I Need Drugs, I Need Drugs” over and over and I thought that it sounded great. But I didn’t want to just cover the song, as there were lines in it that just didn’t feel like me. So, I ended up getting really drunk one night and leaving him a long voice message asking him if he minded me going in and re-writing the song! If someone asked that from me, I’d probably go ‘NO’, but he encouraged me to sing it and change whatever I wanted. His song was originally about being in a bad relationship and doing drugs. Instead, I just concentrated on the metaphor I guess, and wrote about misuse or abuse of another person and how that can be like a drug. I’m so grateful for him for letting me do it as it became a really fun exercise because it allowed me to totally rip stuff out of myself and put it in there. It didn’t have to be true to this narrative, which gave me great freedom instead of having to tell a story about this thing that actually happened to me. Instead allowing me to put bits and pieces of things into a song that already had a skeleton. 

Your writing is very personal and confessional. Does that exclude you co-writing going forward?

 I just haven’t really done much or any of it, though I’m sure I will be going forward.  I think it’s a really healthy exercise for learning different turns of phrases, ways to structure a song and also bouncing ideas off someone else has to help in writing clever songs. Recently I did start a co-write with a friend of mine which we haven’t finished yet. He sent me a chorus that had this phrase that he wanted to write about.  I thought what if we turn it on its head, still using this line and he thought great let’s do it, so that was fun and something I probably need to do more of.

  You appear to be as well suited to Loose (Record Label) as the label is to yourself. How did that marriage come to be?

I’ve never signed a record deal before and they have been so kind and supportive. New territory for me and they’re such lovely people, putting us up and looking after us. My manager Tim knew of Loose and I had done some tours with Joe Pug, who mentioned them to me, because he knew I was going to be in Nashville last year for Americana Fest. Meeting Tom (Bridgewater) and Julia (Grant) and hanging out with them was what did it, putting faces to the names. We chatted and the rest is history, they seem like family now! 

You obviously perceive Europe a target market for your music?

 I think so, I know people in the States and in particular Texas, that have bigger careers in Europe than at home and Europe seems hungrier for the Roots and Americana stuff. Chris Brecht, that I mentioned earlier and heads up the ATX6 project, had us playing Germany four years ago. People seemed to appear out of the woodwork, coming to shows with photographs of me to be signed. I was wondering ‘’ how they even know who I am, or where did they hear my music’’. People knew my songs and it felt really good so I feel really lucky that the Loose label can facilitate me. 

The persistent lack of radio plays in the States must be irritating for you as an emerging female artist?

 I don’t know how the deal with that. With the exception of the smaller independent radio stations, much of what gets played is lacking in soul. I’m thinking ‘’why bother waste money on trying to get airplay’’.  I’d rather just go and play shows where I can go and shake someone’s hand and speak with them face to face. The major radio stations seem to be saying ‘’we’ve already played a woman in the past hour’’. It’s so bizarre!

You currently touring solo in the U.K. Are you comfortable with that or prefer the company of a band on the road and on stage?

 I love having a band but I probably need to work solo tours for a while before I can afford to bring my band over. I love playing with a band, it can be fun and doesn’t always have to be a rock show, it can be very delicate too. Solo’s good too and It was really cool that so many people came to see me last night.

Where do you see yourself career wise five years down the road?

 Oh man! I should have an idea, because I think that’s healthy. I hope to have a couple more records under my belt. I love being on the road and when I’m not touring, I just love quiet space to write, so I’d be happy to be still doing that and being able to afford to do that.  I’ve made some big moves in the past year but don’t have any money (laughs). I don’t mean for it to sound desperate but I want to keep challenging myself, playing interesting shows and writing music that excites me. 

Interview by Declan Culliton

Jaime Wyatt Interview

One of my musical highlights of 2018 was Jaime Wyatt’s gig at 3rd & Lindsley in Nashville. Wyatt has had to cope with some serious personal issues over the years, from substance abuse to incarceration, following a troubled childhood. What has never been in doubt is her talent as a songwriter and performer, evidenced by the release of her terrific album Felony Blues in 2017. She’s in a good place at present and you get the impression she has only scratched the surface of her talent bank with that album and possesses the skill set to generate much more intoxicating music going forward. She spoke frankly with Lonesome Highway about her career to date, as she continues to navigate her way along an industry that often provides setbacks and highlights in equal measures. 

I loved your recent comment about your mother’s positive response when you put a Hank 111 album on your player! I had the pleasure of meeting her in Nashville recently and its obvious how immensely proud she is of you. How critical is her support for you as your career develops?

My mother and I are very close, as she mostly raised me on her own. She has always been a “seamstress for the band,” as she supported my father in his career in the 1980’s. She’s actually a seamstress and singer/songwriter, so I’m very fortunate that’s something we get to do together.  

You’re following in her footsteps as I believe she also has performed on stage with some big hitters?

My mother and father sang and wrote songs in the 1980’s in Los Angeles. My mother sang backups on the Porky’s movie soundtrack and sang on Skunk Baxter’s solo record. She could have had more credits as a singer, if she had an easier life. 

One of the first things she said to me was ‘You know Jaime is Irish’, which I loved. Tell me about your Irish ancestry and what it means to you?

My last name is O’Neill, my father was born into a large Catholic family of Irish descent. My great grandmother came from Dublin and her family from Cork. I identify greatly with my Irish roots. Their passionate love of poetry, song and emotion is something I feel fortunate to have inherited, by my Irish bloodlines. 

Your songwriting is acutely personal and soul bearing, giving the impression of a writer who is more content writing in the first person. Tell me about your writing process, is it a case of noting every day experiences and encounters and developing them into songs over a dedicated period of time, or are you constantly writing songs even when touring?

I am constantly writing phrases on the road, noting ordinary experiences which could possibly convey an emotional story or carry a more complex meaning. I write things down in a journal and take voice memos of how those phrases would be sung, or they might just get catalogued until my sub conscience processes them into a melody or hook phrase. Once I am anchored, I get into song construction and start recording and playing back, going through several edits. I am obsessed with the melody flow and fitting the right word into the puzzle, while staying true to the story. The song and melody usually leads the story, though sometimes I think I get to lead the story.  

You were exposed to lots of rock music by your parents growing up attending concerts by Grateful Dead and the like. Like many artists of your generation you embraced the Grunge scene as a young woman, subsequently progressing to blues.  Explain the progression to where you are at musically today?

I grew up on a lot of rock ‘n’ roll & folk singer/songwriters like Dylan, Stones, Prine, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Tom Petty and I got to see concerts with my parents, as they always knew someone in the band or crew. Some shows I saw as a child were: The Grateful Dead, Booker T & The MGs, Neil Young, Bonnie Rait. My mother was always singing old Hank Williams songs around the house. I was raised in Washington State, about two hours south of Seattle, where grunge originated. My sister and cousin were attending shows and buying that music, which they shared with me. It was a very exciting time and that music was so expressive, it was certainly inspiring to my, as I was just picking up the guitar. When I started playing guitar, I was learning Nirvana songs like everyone else, then I started studying music, dissecting it, and eventually got back to the origins of rock, which was blues music. 

I should note that as a child I worked at the neighbour’s horse barn, where the local modern country music station was always playing and I became versed in 90s country. I was running around the woods singing Patty Loveless, Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, Alan Jackson and more. Then shortly after that I discovered Jeff Buckley and Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, so really, the only common thread of all my musical taste is passion. 

You’re on record as describing yourself as quite a shy individual yet on stage you exude confidence. Rather than suffer from stage fright does your stage persona actually allow you to let yourself go?

Yes, most the time. The stage is a place of freedom- it’s a place safe to be outgoing and present my art for others. Something I’ve noticed over time, is that the more involved and excited the audience is, the better I can entertain. I feel like it’s such a collective thing, I can’t do it on my own, I sing higher and louder with better runs when I am performing for others, then what I can dream up alone in my bedroom. It’s quite a magical thing. 

You signed two record deals when still in your teens just before the bottom fell out of the music industry music. How traumatic was this for someone at that age presumably with expectations of a career breakthrough?

It was my first encounter with disappointment in the music business and therefore the most earth shattering. In my mind, this music career was supposed to fix all the neglect, abandonment and confusion of my childhood. I inherited the addiction gene and had a hard childhood, so my career was the only thing keeping me responsible. When the career fell through, it made for the perfect storm of drug addiction.

Your descent into drug abuse and subsequent sentencing to eight months in the L.A. County Jail has been well documented and I’ve no intention in dwelling too much on what is now history, particularly as you’ve moved on and put that all behind you.  Stone Hoteland Wasco, are both based on that experience. Did that whole struggle at that time inspire your song writing or is that an over simplification?

I started writing Stone Hotel in jail. I was inspired by some fiercely resilient people I met while incarcerated. People who came from dirt poor neighbourhoods ridden with drugs, prostitution and violence and society told them they’d never amount to anything. They responded to our mistreatment in jail with this attitude of “the cops work for me,” which I found thoroughly entertaining and noteworthy. I didn’t have a guitar for a couple years, so I finished that song a few years later. 

It’s a similar story with Wasco. My cellmate was writing to a dude in Wasco State Prison, whom she saw in court and they started planning their wedding through these letters. I tried to include deeper meanings for universal human truths in each song, but I think they came off as dumb as they sound! Also, it took me years to finish and perfect these songs, as long as it took to put together the pieces of my life and spirit. I’m still working on the latter. 

I’ve been loving every minute of Felony Blues since its release. It’s branded you an ‘Outlaw’ artist which is quite understandable. What steered you in the ‘country’ direction and away from a more indie sound and what artists music pointed you in that direction?

Well it’s funny, because my first band was very country-folk and I always wanted to make a country record. I always heard twangy guitar or steel licks, but I was making music on the west coast and indie rock was big, so my songs were produced that way. When I learned how hard it was going to be to get another record deal, I gave up on trying to please everyone and decided I would dive deeper into studying country. Probably because my mother reminded me of the many country songwriters who struggle with drugs and incarceration, but found an audience in Americana, embracing these stories of hard-luck and ruff ways.  

Your cover of Merle Haggard’s Misery and Gin is to die for, invariably I have to play it at a second or third time when I get to the end of the album. How did you come about selecting it for the album?

Thank you. I met a gentleman named John Durill, though my dear friend Abby North and John wrote tons of songs for Cher, Haggard and Nancy Sinatra. We hung out and I listened to his songs as he told me stories of the music business in the 70s and 80s. He said he had the perfect song for me, that he’d written for Merle Haggard for the movie Bronco Billy and it was called Misery & Gin. Being that I am an addict/alcoholic, it proved to be the perfect song for me. He taught it to me at his house in LA and the rest is history. 

Did his real-life experience of turning his life around having witnessed Johnny Cash play San Quentin strike a chord with you?

Yes, it’s one of the best stories I’ve ever heard, and one that changed my life, Merle Haggard being incarcerated, when Johnny came to perform for inmates at San Quentin prison. 

Comparisons have been made, certainly by myself, with your album and the early Lucinda Williams work. For me the similarities go even deeper than that, I see likenesses also in your fragility, perfectionism and stage presence. Coincidence or is/was she a role model?

Lucinda Williams has been an influence from the time I first heard her, when I was a young child and my mother played me “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.” I never knew much about her stage presence or personal life, so I can’t say why we are similar, but I agree and would suspect that people who long to be close to the flame of inspiration, inevitably get burned in the process. 

Many artists of your vintage record a ‘country’ album, get industry recognition and proceed to take a complete detour with their next recording, invariably developing a more indie sound. Are you tempted to try something different next time around or continue with your present sound?

I’m still moved by country music, so I’m still studying it and going deeper. That buzz isn’t gonna wear off for a couple more albums. But rock n roll, folk and soul music always surfaces throughout my recordings. 

Is your early career side project with band American Bloomers in hiatus to be revisited or history at this stage? 

History for now. They are super talented, I’m just coordinating tours with my band and writing for this new album. 

So, you’re working towards another solo album at present? 

Yes, right now, tracking in April. 

Finally, I believe you tell a charming ‘cowboy boots’ story about meeting Bonnie Raitt which I’d love to hear?

I was 4 or 5 years old and my parents took me to see Bonnie Raitt at the forum in LA. This is one of my only memories of living in California. I was extremely moved by her performance, then I was backstage and got to meet her. I had cowboy boots on and I noticed she did too. Maybe it was the boots, but it was in that moment that I wanted to write sing and play guitar like her. 

We are dearly hoping for dates in Ireland from you in the coming year. Is it likely to happen?

I sure hope that can happen very soon, as it would be a dream for me as well. 

Interview by Declan Culliton

The White Buffalo Interview

The White Buffalo, aka Jake Smith, played at the Bluesfest in Dublin’s 3Arena in late October, 2018. We were able to catch a few minutes with him before soundcheck to chat about his career and the growing reputation that he has been enjoying since his music started reaching a bigger audience. With a sound that spans Southern rock, alternative country and folk Americana; The White Buffalo performs with an intensity that sees him break strings on a regular basis with his performance method. Backed on tour by regular bandmates, Matt Lynott on drums (The Machine) and Christopher Hoffe on bass, The White Buffalo is a band you will not want to miss.

You perform under the name ‘The White Buffalo’. Is there a back story to how the name came about?

Yes, but it’s not terribly exciting...! Some of my friends came up with it; we just threw a few names into a hat. My name is Jake Smith, which is not very mystical or intriguing and I wanted to come up with something that was grander than just a singer songwriter and which could be just me on my own with a guitar or with an ensemble or a trio.

The name has a great imagery about it 

It does, I think it sticks in your head a little bit.

You started life in Oregon?

Well, I was born in Oregon but the family moved to California when I was very young. So, I’m pretty much a California boy.

Your first recording was Hog Tied Like a Rodeo in 2002?

Yes, it was independently recorded and released. I felt that the production had kinda got away from me at the time so I took the decision to re-record the album and released it under the name of Hogtied Revisited in 2009... There were a few new songs on there but the bulk of the record was the same, with a different production.

There was an E.P. in 2005 and then some more time before your next releases?

I was playing all the time, beginning to plant seeds and build a fan base and still looking to do everything independently. I had content but just not the means to record and put it out.

Unison Music Group arrived on the scene about then. Bruce Witkin and Ryan Dorn. Were they always in the background?

They are record producers and engineers who had a small boutique label. My lawyer represented them and he recommended me. They came to a show and we ended up doing it, which was cool. I was building things on my own fairly well but they opened up the recording hugely while still giving me my own personal freedom. They are really great to work with.

Can you tell me about your song-writing process?

I usually sit down with a guitar and write music and melody at the same time. Sometimes it comes from a stream of consciousness, from a silence and where things seem to come in from nowhere... Not always knowing what the songs are about but picking out what is valid or interesting in something that I’ve said during that lucky time and finding a jumping off point and crafting it from there.

Are the songs always character based?

Some are loosely based or autobiographical. Others are complete fantasy and dark - there’s love songs, heartbreak songs and a lot of the songs are character songs or murder songs.  A lot of my content is based in narratives and smaller human stories that are about grander themes and are moderately universal, so that people can attach their own lives too... 

Ultimately, I want to hit somebody in an emotional place; in the heart or the mind and make them think about things.. I like the darker side and the more shadowy side of the street, I think it’s interesting in a kinda darker, exciting World.

In 2012, we saw the release of your next album, Once Upon a Time In The West. 

This was the first one with Unison and as I hadn’t recorded in a few years, I had a bunch of songs to choose from. I’m usually pretty prolific and consistent anyway when it comes to writing but I just didn’t have the means; so, every couple of years, we now just go into the studio and make an album.

Shadows Greys And Evil Ways in 2013. It was a concept album based around the return of an army veteran coming back from the war in Iraq and his struggles to adapt.

It starts out as a love story, where a young couple meet each other and he really can’t support his new family and lifestyle, so he joins the army and goes to Iraq. He kills, loses his mind and then comes home damaged and tries to assimilate. He still feels blood thirsty and ends up killing on American soil. The ending part is more about the road to redemption and the idea of can he be human again. Through the love of his woman he gets as close as he can.

Did the album concept come to you as a fully formed idea or had it built over time?

There aren’t really that many people who write in a Kisner narrative style anymore. I wanted something with a real beginning and an ending. I had songs going in but I wasn’t really considering a concept album but when I looked at the structure of the songs and the layers of them, I thought that I could format and create this story, so I filled in the gaps. That created the ebb and flow of what the album is.

How did you develop your links with TV shows, Sons of Anarchy and Californication?

Again, my lawyer played a part. I had no management or label and no representation apart from my music attorney. He had a lunch with the music supervisor from Sons of Anarchy and as I write a lot of conflicted songs with a lot of very human people making terrible decisions in life, which had a nice marriage with the show. We did some collaborations and it was really something that built my fan base to a point and made people dive deeper into my catalogue to see that there was more... I also had song placements on NBC's This Is Us and the Netflix original series, The Punisher. Also, on the Netflix series, Longmire and in Chris Malloy's movie Shelter.

Did you notice a shift in the number of your album sales as a result?

Not so much, I think that it’s fleeting. Your song will come out and it has a boost for a couple of weeks and it will spike, but it’s not monetarily life changing. 

These days, the younger generations just want to buy the single song that interests them and no real commitment to anything beyond this

 It’s real important for me that every song has an emotional purpose and I don’t like to have any filler. The single song world is a contemporary thing. In my kind of artistry, the album is important to me. The highs and lows, the tempos and the feelings and how you sequence the album and to build an emotional journey that you go on. 

Darkest Darks & Lightest Lights appeared in 2017 and before that you had released Love And The Death Of Damnation. Both have consolidated your success as an artist of quality and with the lack of radio play these days, I wonder if the only way to gain mass appeal is through film or tv work?

I’ve gotten more licences as a result but I think that people have to champion you. It’s really not about having the pay day on your licence but more about having it grow your fan base and have people go deeper into your catalogue and come out to shows. You really make very little from the online modern musical formats like Spotify.

In the garage, is a loose blog that you do and have on the website. 

A lot of people think that I’m this dark, brooding person because I write all these heavy songs, but I’m really quite light-hearted and this is just another way of getting in direct communication. It is a place where I create a lot of my compositions and talking candidly about my work; it’s just me putting my phone out on a little stand and talking about whatever is happening. Nothing is really rehearsed.

Ernie Ball (the eponymous corporation started by Ball to market guitar accessories), did a series of documentaries around the time of Love and the Death of Damnation?

They have been really supportive and have done a handful of films and videos. They did a whole documentary series in 10 parts about the recording of the album, the highs and lows. Each one had a theme and they were released each week and they put it out there. There is also a short film that is more of an art piece than a marketing project...  It was called ‘Where the Buffalo Roams’.

Any plans to come back and tour Ireland in 2019?

There are a lot of Irish people coming to the shows so I would love to come back to Ireland and do a little bit more than just Dublin.

Interview by Paul McGee

Kristina Murray Interview

The Independent Country and Americana music scene in Nashville continues to flourish, having generated a wealth of talented and outstanding artists over the past few years. Names such as J.P. Harris, Erin Rae, Nikki Lane, Lillie Mae, Kelsey Waldon, Andrew Combs, Lera Lynn, Pat Reedy and Joshua Hedley immediately spring to mind, to name check a few. All these acts have released stand out albums in recent years, some with little or no financial support from the music industry. Kristina Murray is yet another such like artist. Highly regarded within the Nashville traditional music community ("The best country vocalist out there at the moment" - according to J.P. Harris) she has released one of Lonesome Highway’s Albums of The Year titled Southern Ambrosia. Not surprising, given the quality of her 2013 debut album Unravelin’ and her live shows. It was a pleasure to catch up with the engaging and straight-talking Murray who discussed the album and the realities of an independent artist surviving in an increasingly unforgiving industry.

Tell me about your decision to relocate in Nashville in 2014, your expectations and initial impressions when arriving there?

I relocated to Nashville for several reasons. I was born and raised in the South, and after six years in Colorado, it was just time to come home and be closer to family. I was tired of the snow and cold. Additionally, Colorado is an isolated music community, and it’s difficult to gain higher-level career traction without the music industry business connections plentiful in a city like Nashville; touring out of such a big state in the middle of the country is more difficult than on the east coast/south, and I started to crave more musical variety than what Colorado offered for me. Moving to Nashville, I expected to be humbled by the world-class musicianship (and I was, and still am!), and I expected to find a community of likeminded country music enthusiasts and other singer-songwriters; took a little while longer than my patience typically allows, but I did find it and am so grateful to my community here in Nash.  

Many artists speak of being ‘lifted up by greatness’ by moving to Nashville given it’s musical traditions and community. Was this the case for you?

Absolutely; it’s simultaneously humbling and inspiring to live in the city that basically created what we know as country music. So much incredible (and not just country) music has been made in this city; because of that history, combined with my peers and heroes living and working in this region, I certainly feel continuously motivated to be a better musician, singer, writer, guitarist, collaborator and band leader, sometimes to my own detriment and exhaustion. Though I won’t always admit it, it is astonishing to me how much musical progress I’ve made in the last four and half years. 

There appears to be a particularly supportive community among the musical immigrants that move to Nashville rather than a competitive environment. Has this been your experience? 

Yes and no; there are certainly genuinely supportive pockets of the community and again, I am fortunate to have strong friendships with working musicians who help and support each other, but—and especially being a woman—there is a sense of competition that is inherently in the business. If labels, organizations, festivals, special events, radio shows, venues, journalists and media outlets made more of a concerted effort to include more than just one or two woman-artists, I think that feeling of competition would dissipate some. 

With property prices soaring in East Nashville over recent years it must be increasingly difficult affordability wise for artists to survive there. Is this a genuine concern among your musical community?

Certainly it’s a concern. I’ve personally never even been able to afford to live in East Nashville and have always lived in significantly less wealthy parts of town. (I know for myself, in addition to pursuing my music career goals, I have to work two jobs to support my artist career and also my basic needs and bills.) All this time working regular jobs siphons time away from writing, playing, practicing, booking. This often happens though; artists come in and create a rad community, then branders and “tastemakers” want to be a part of that community, or worse to commercially exploit it, in whatever capacity they can and thus push out the artists. It’s an old story. 

The American Legion has become, in recent years, a breeding ground for younger artists rekindling the classic country flames. Nashville artists like J.P. Harris, Joshua Hedley, Kelsey Waldon, Pat Reedy and from farther afield Kayla Ray and Zephaniah OHora are also producing quality ‘real’ country music. From the front line are you detecting a growing appreciation from punters and even more so from the industry itself?

People that appreciate great music have always been around, so I wouldn’t say it’s a new growing appreciation so much as it seems it’s currently trendy and hip to support traditional leaning country and maybe folks are just jumping on the bandwagon? Or, perhaps listeners are just hungry for something with substance, I don’t know, I’m not an expert! I do know that JP, Pat, Kelsey, Zeph and myself…we all create and study and listen to and sing this music because we love this music and will continue to make it long after “the trend” is gone. I don’t really have a good grasp on—or, to be frank—care about what “the industry” appreciates. If somebody wants to pay me money for my song, if a label wants to pick me up… great…I desperately need it! But, like Welch wrote and sang, “gonna do it anyway, even if it doesn’t pay.” 

There is no roadmap anymore for artists like yourself to follow which inevitably leads to a sustainable career in the music industry. The talent is as strong as ever but the opportunities for exposure seem increasingly difficult. How frustrating is it to deal with this on a practical level?

How much time do you have? The music business is arbitrary, impractical, without rhyme or reason, and what works for some artist and bands, doesn’t work for others. Seems to me that unless an artist has a financier, whether that’s independent or family wealth, or via a label, it’s rather impossible to get to the “next level.” Hard work and talent only go so far; I know, I’ve been working for over ten years, and know a ridiculous amount of artists and bands working much longer and harder than I have that are still not at a sustainable career level. You’re right in that there is an embarrassment of riches with regards to talent, but without the financial component…well…I guess I just have to accept that I’ll be a fringe artist. I’ve just recently started to be OK with it.

You’ve spoken about your love of The Allman Brothers growing up in Georgia and your exposure to Bluegrass when living in Colorado. When did traditional country make its initial impression on you?

As a little girl, I heard Patsy Cline and some Loretta, and my momma had a couple Emmylou, Jessi Colter and Joni Mitchell albums; as a middle and high schooler, I was into 90’s country too, like Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Trisha. But the real, hard stuff, I didn’t get into that until college. I worked at a summer camp in the north Georgia mountains on my summers off from school and we listened to Hank and Junior, Waylon, and bluegrass…a lot of that stuff. And oh boy, when I found Buck and Don, and George Jones, it was all downhill from there; I was obsessed. 

The album cover of your excellent album Southern Ambrosia has a striking resemblance to Emmylou’s Luxury Liner, with the only disparity being that your image is slightly less revealing. Coincidence or intended?

Ha! I think it was a faraway subconsciousness? I studied so much Emmylou in my early years of playing music, my early and mid-twenties, and I absolutely love ‘Luxury Liner’ (my second fave Emmylou record, after ‘Quarter Moon’). However, I didn’t even think about that connection when I first saw the original polaroid (which is slightly less dark than the cover), until I showed a friend the finished ‘Southern Ambrosia’ cover and she said that same thing about the resemblance to ‘Luxury Liner.’

The album most certainly establishes you as an accomplished songwriter notwithstanding your well recognised vocal ability. Over what period were the songs created?

Man, thanks! Kind words indeed! ‘The Ballad of Angel and Donnie’ and ‘Lovers and Liars’ are the oldest tunes; I wrote those in 2014. ‘Jokes On Me’ and ‘Slow Kill’ were written in 2017, so a span of four years. I generally throw out about 98% of what I write, because it’s not good enough; I’m definitely not a prolific songwriter, and used to worry A LOT about that. More so recently, however, I’m embracing that if the few I write a year are really good, then I’m ok with my non-prolific-ness.  It’s all very subjective however, and that fucks with me.

How difficult was it opening up your heart and writing material from a very personal and autobiographical backstory? 

It’s pretty much the only way I know how to write. When I try to write from other perspectives or stories that are not my own, it’s difficult for me and the result almost always feels cheesy and stupid, and I’m afraid that everyone knows I’m making it up and “I don’t know what I’m talking about.” I adhere to the writer’s adage: write what you know. 

You’ve managed to approach downbeat subject matter with an upbeat sound on tracks like Slow Killand The Ballad Of Angel & Donnie, in some ways drowning the sorrowful theme. More often than not, other’s songs dealing with topics such as booze and pills dependency tend to be less pacey to say the least. Was this premeditated? 

So awesome that you caught that! ‘Angel and Donnie’ just spilled out that way; the muse was working ferociously the night I wrote that one, and I like that the intense and frantic sonic element of the tune reflects the story of those nefarious characters and their crippling, murderous loyalty and addictions. ‘Slow Kill’ was different. I wrote that song at a mid-tempo, and I still love to perform it live that way so that the words are heard more clearly. However the way it turned out on the record, man, it’s my favorite cut on the album! The lyrics of that tune are so hopeless and desperate, it needed an upbeat musical component to be listenable. It’s a bit of my bluegrass training shining through: songs that sound happy and upbeat but, under the surface, are actually pretty dark topics. 

The contradictions in respect of being a Southerner are aired on the opening track Made In America and continue throughout the album. Conflicting pride and shame, a suggested difficult growing up also get an airing.  Did the writing for the album act as an opportunity to purge these opposites? 

Southern identity is a tricky thing: the tension and juxtaposition of pride and shame, of paying homage to positive traditions of being southern (food, politeness, accents), while trying to redefine tired stereotypes of the south, and acknowledge our violent, oppressive past. There’s a desire in me to loudly recognize that the effects of cultural, economic, racial, religious and political history in this region creates what we are today, for better, but, more often than not it seems, for worse. I’m just trying to put these stories and perspectives and opinions on the table and say ‘hey. look. listen.’ I don’t ever really think of my work in songwriting as “writing for an album;” these are just truth-telling songs and luckily, this collection of songs that became Southern Ambrosia had that common thread. 

The final track Joke’s On Me is exceptionally personal and raw. A pivotal and defiant statement to close the album before moving on?

The sequencing fell so naturally for this record, and I personally either love a giant, banging album closer or a soft, introspective self-reflection. Seems to me that great albums are a recorded imprint of an artist’s life at that point in time. Once Joke's was written in spring of 2017, I knew it was the closer for the album because that was a dominant feeling in my life for a good year after my breakup with my long term partner. The song is very personal and true to me, and exactly how I felt about that breakup. The track on the record is the demo and we chose that purposefully so you could feel the raw pain of it all.  

You’ve put the hard graft in, written the songs, recorded the album and released it.  As an independent artist what measures do you now take to get the album to as wide an audience as possible? 

I ran a PR campaign for three months prior to the record release, and a two month radio campaign once it was released, but unfortunately that’s all my “budget” could afford. I’ll just keep pushing the record independently as a one woman DIY machine and play the long game, I guess. I’d love some help via representation from a label, booking agent or manager, but that has yet to come for me. Five years after my first record came out, people are still finding and listening to that one, so onward and upward!

Do you intend touring the album with a band in The States further afield than Tennessee or concentrate on venues closer to home?

I’d love to tour all over the US/Canada, and I am determined to do it! However—and this isn’t new news—unless you’re a well-established act, have a booking agent (I don’t) or have some mailbox money coming in, touring is extremely expensive. I’d prefer to take a four piece band (five piece being ideal) but I think, strictly for financial reasons, I’ll have to do solo touring for a while, to establish stronger fan bases. 

Do you see Europe as an option touring wise?

Would love to tour Europe! I toured Sweden and Norway this summer and absolutely loved it. So, yes, I’d LOVE to get over there. Again, however, see “the touring is extremely expensive” comment above. 

It often appears to me that quite a number of artists, both male and female, are recording a country album early career and then changing direction towards a more indie sound in their follow up album. Do you see yourself changing direction or have you even had the chance to consider a future project so soon after releasing Southern Ambrosia? 

For me, I know I’m going to continue to write and record art I think is good, meaningful, true, and worth releasing…however it comes out! I think artists should make their art, in whatever sound or shape that takes form.  

Interview by Declan Culliton

Cliff Westfall Interview

"Hot damn. I don’t know who the hell Cliff Westfall is or where he’s been hiding out for so many years, but he just released a hot shit country record that will whip the pants off of most others released this year and many from years prior, and get you making room on your list of favourite artists’’. I’m borrowing that quote from Kyle “The Triggerman” Coroneos, creator and head writer for Saving Country Music.com, guardian of ‘real’ country music and slayer of the commercial garbage currently impersonating country music. The quote precisely reflects Lonesome Highway’s opinion of Westfall and his debut solo album Baby You Win, which made an equally lofty impact on us when it came across our radar earlier in the year.  There’s a lot more to Westfall than great songs, hillbilly boogie, honky tonk rockin’ and keeping essential traditional music alive and kicking. Behind all these admirable virtues is also a musical philosopher and enthusiast. 

How would you best describe your music?

I sometimes call it electrified honky tonk. I like to play with a five- or even six-piece band, and keep the music pretty raucous at live shows, with a lot of high country harmonies, twangy guitars and pedal steel, turned up to 10 at least if not 11. 

To come at it from what it’s not: People often describe my music as retro, but I really don’t see it that way. It doesn’t offend me or anything – in fact, I think it’s intended as a compliment, but I’m not trying to recreate what Lefty or Hank or Merle did (not that I could anyway). I’m trying to write and perform songs for right now, not create a museum-quality replica of something from another era. At the same time, classic honky tonk is very much my inspiration, so if people are comparing my songs to the classics that I love, I’m honoured. 

One other thought on the tension between tradition and newness: I think tradition is at the core of what country music is about, both from the standpoint of stylistic continuity on a musical level, as well as being concerned with the role of tradition in people’s lives. I think that I’m a traditionalist on both of those levels, or at least I try to be. If you’re doing it right, you’re writing in your own world but having kind of an ongoing conversation with the past too. And if you’re doing it wrong – I’m thinking here of a lot of contemporary Nashville “product” – you end up with stuff that doesn’t seem related at all to what came before.

I have to ask you about the striking album cover. A throwback to previous decades?

Ha, yes – thank you, I would say that the cover IS pretty retro! I don’t think I’ve said this in an interview before, but the image was inspired by the cover of the Louvin Brothers album Tragic Songs of Life. I showed it to my friend Billy Woodward, a New York-based artist, as an example of something that I thought would fit the vibe, and what you see was his response. I thought he hit a home run with it. 

A couple of things I love about it: 1) I’m a huge fan of early film noir – films like The Asphalt Jungleand Out of the Past– and it looks like it could have been a movie poster from the era; and 2) That image of the dejected guy in the chair is obviously me, but I never posed for it; Billy just kind of put me in there. I thought that was cool. 

Fortunately, the album itself is of an equally high standard musically. Tell me about its conception and how long you’ve been working on it?

The big picture is that I had a bunch of songs that I knew I wanted to record, and I had fallen in with a bunch of really amazing players, so it seemed like the time to go for it.

The songs range in age. I had been part of a honky tonk band called The Steamboat Disasters in New York in the early 2010s, and a few of the songs on Baby You Windate back that far (e.g., “It Hurt Her to Hurt Me,” “I’ll Play the Fool”). After that band broke up, I formed an acoustic duo called The Needmore Brothers that played mostly in the Catskills, a couple of hours north of New York City. Some of the songs came from that period too (“The Man I Used to Be,” “Sweet Tooth,” plus the cover we did of “Hanging On” – in fact, my Needmores partner Matthew Horn (a/k/a “Short Fuse Needmore”) sings harmonies on the record a couple of songs that we used to do together (“Sweet Tooth,” “Hanging On”). And then, there were some that I never really played until I started going out under my own name around 2016 – for example, “More and More,” “Baby You Win,” “The Odds Were Good.”

I have to give a lot of credit to Graham Norwood, who started playing with me as a guitarist and harmony singer around that time. He helped me put the band together, he’s one of the two producers of the album, he and I together chose the songs to put on Baby You Winas well as what to leave back for the next one. And also to producer Bryce Goggin of Trout Recording in Brooklyn. He’s better known as a rock producer (The Ramones, Phish, Antony & The Johnsons, Evan Dando), but he understood exactly what we were going for, and created a great working vibe for the band too.

You have certainly poured your heart into it. Beautifully packaged with an impressive lyric book, were you determined to tick every box in terms of its presentation, regardless of the financially outlay involved?

Thank you. I wanted to put out something that I’d want if I was buying it. And for me, especially as a kid, the package was always such a huge part of the experience of listening to a record. Put the album on, pore over the cover art, read the lyric insert (if any) for the millionth time… repeat.

It pays homage to the early sound of Dwight Yoakam, an artist very close to your own heart?

I’m really glad to hear that, because Dwight Yoakam is foundational for me. What I love about Dwight is the way that he brought in elements of rock and roll and still managed to stay very much a country traditionalist in terms of his songwriting. I think actually that you could say the same thing about Dwight’s own hero (and one of mine too), Buck Owens. Both of those guys managed to do the seemingly contradictory thing of pushing the envelope while writing songs that felt like old standards.

You’ve mixed the standard country fall backs of booze, heartache and regret with no end of humour on tracks like Till The Right One Comes Along and the title track. Listeners to your style of country often are taken in by the melody without actually exploring the lyrics. Your lyrics appear to be every bit as critical as your melodies? 

Again, thank you. As a fan, I have always been attracted to good lyrics. I love songs that tell a story, or make me laugh, or make me think. At the same time, good lyrics gain part of their power by the way they drive the rhythm and melody. I think that when somebody really does it right, the words and music seem nearly inseparable, so that you can hardly imagine one without the other.

I’m also glad that you noticed that “Till the Right One Comes Along,” which is kind of a dark weepy ballad, has elements of humour too. I think that’s true in life generally, that you can say serious things with some degree of humour. It’s also part of the way I was brought up –Southerners and the Irish probably have that in common!

What writers switched the lights on for you and in particular which ones encouraged you to incorporate humour in your writing?

In no particular order: Roger Miller, Don Gibson, Shel Silverstein, Jerry Chesnut (who wrote “A Dime at a Time” and “Looking at the World Through a Windshield” for Del Reeves, in addition to stone classic weepers like “Another Place, Another Time” and “A Good Year for the Roses”), Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Mel Tillis, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant (who wrote hits for The Everly Brothers and Little Jimmy Dickens). Among contemporary writers who inspire me in that way, Robbie Fulks and Mike Stinson are both great. 

Tell me about growing up in Owensboro Kentucky and the music that you were exposed to as a child?

I’m glad you asked that. The music and culture that I was exposed to there as a kid really shaped what I’m trying to do as an artist. For one thing, my family was full of talkers. Family stories, often laugh-till-you-cried hilarious even if the underlying events might have been kind of dark, got told and re-told, and that was just part of how we related to each other. I thought that was completely the norm until I moved away from home and realized that it wasn’t. 

On the musical front, I thought that adults everywhere listened to country music, and that kids listened to rock and roll, and that that was the way of the world. 

My folks absolutely loved country music – they honeymooned in Nashville and talked for years about meeting Hee Haw comedian Archie Campbell in a bar, to give you a sense of how deeply they loved it. They were pretty old school as parents: If there was a choice between what I wanted to hear and what they did, it wasn’t a choice at all. So that classic honky tonk sound was all around me, even if as a kid, I preferred the AM rock and roll stations. 

My dad – technically my stepdad but he’s the one who raised me – was a police officer, and he was a big, tough guy. My mom worked in a liquor distillery. My neighbourhood was pretty tough in its own way, too. I recall being introduced to other kids as “This is Cliff, his dad’s a cop but he’s cool,” which may give you a sense of the general vibe in the neighbourhood.

Owensboro was a great place to grow up. It’s on the Ohio River, kind of industrial (liquor production, steel, coal, etc.), but it was surrounded by rural areas – including musically famous places like Rosine (homeplace of Bill Monroe, which is also where my  great-grandfather was from), Muhlenberg County, which produced Merle Travis, the Everlys, and others. But a lot of those rural areas were dry, and Owensboro was kind of a Sin City where people would come to drink and party. So, there was just kind of a honky tonk vibe, and my folks definitely partook of it pretty liberally. As a 10- or 12-year-old, I would sometimes mix the drinks at their parties – everybody drank bourbon and Coke, so it wasn’t exactly advanced mixology. The only real challenge for me was to see how stiff I could make them without getting them sent back. And country music blaring the whole time: Jones, Haggard, Waylon and Willie, Conway Twitty, Loretta, Dolly, Charley Pride, etc.

What music and artists outside country made the strongest impression on you? 

I could go on all day about that too. I probably lean mostly towards vintage Southern music – early rock and roll, gospel, and R&B. The early rockers weren’t that far from country anyway, but I particularly love Chuck Berry, who I think was the greatest lyricist ever because he was so precise and rhythmic and at the same time so hilarious and smart. Buddy Holly and Elvis loom pretty large for me as well. I also love LOTS of R&B and soul music: Percy Mayfield, who most famously wrote “Hit the Road, Jack,” Ike and Tina, pretty much anyone who was on Memphis-based Hi Records – Al Green, Ann Peebles, O.V. Wright. And a million others probably.

I also love a lot of early garage rock, punk, and pub rock. Nick Lowe is one of the greatest songwriters ever, I think. X, the New York Dolls, the Stooges, the Sonics, etc. But I love lots of the stuff you can hear on any classic rock station, too: I’m a huge fan of Dylan, the Stones, the Kinks, the Beatles, Creedence.

How pivotal was the surgency In Cowpunk in directing you towards performing?

When I went away to college in Lexington, Kentucky, cowpunk was just beginning to be a thing there. My friends and I were especially into Jason and the Scorchers, but most of the bands doing that came through town at one time or another, and there was a thriving local scene that I was part of both as a fan and performer. It’s weird to think about, because it seems obvious now, but it came as a complete revelation to me that you could mix country with fast, hard rock and roll. Learning that my two favourite things could just be joined together like that was amazing – it was like discovering how good bananas and peanut butter taste together or something. (Something I highly recommend, by the way.) And also, the punk DIY ethos carried over into cowpunk, so we were like, why can’t we do that? 

Anyway, yes, I think it was really pivotal in getting me to go for it. At the same time, I was always someone who leaned more towards the country side of the cowpunk equation among my friends and bandmates. 

So, when did Cliff Westfall the listener become Cliff Westfall the performer and do you recall your first gig and some of the setlist?

I dabbled a bit with singing with musician friends in high school but didn’t really have any true gigs until I got to college in Lexington. I started a duo with a friend of mine, doing a mix of originals (most now mercifully forgotten), and covers of everyone from the Butthole Surfers to Hank Williams. But I don’t remember exactly what the first gig was or what we played. Later on, we added a rhythm section and got a whole lot louder, which was a blast.

The dreaded crossover pop country market is strong nationwide in The States due to the marketing machines driving it across so many Radio Stations. However, classic or traditional country appears to be making some impact outside Nashville and Austin at present with growing audiences in California and New York. Has this been your experience?

Oh, definitely. Maybe I’m being optimistic, but I think there’s an increasing recognition that people doing things their own way, and playing outside of the rules of corporate country, are the true innovators. Just look at the Grammys this year, where it seems like the majority of country nominees are outside that cookie cutter mould. I think that’s cause for optimism, even if the industry machinery is still pushing pop country. I know from looking at my own Spotify numbers that I do well in places you wouldn’t necessarily expect – Texas, Kentucky and Tennessee are up there, but people are listening in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York too. 

Are there many opportunities to perform live in New York for you?

Most of the venues in New York are pretty open to diverse genres. And on top of that, there are a lot of country and country-influenced acts here too, so it’s really not that hard to get bookings. On one hand, country is not the go-to genre here the way that it is in the South, but New York is still a huge city, with a decent-sized audience for just about everything under the sun, definitely including country. And I think we’re making a few converts along the way, too. I sometimes do bills with indie rock bands and end up playing for people who say they didn’t think they liked country music, but they liked our show. It’s kind of an awkward compliment to get, because it makes me want to defend country as an art form. On the other hand, if my image of country music was coming from mainstream country radio, I’d recoil in horror too.

Have you ever been tempted to relocate to Austin or Nashville?

Funny you should ask. I’m probably not going to make a permanent move, at least in the short term, but I have plans in the works to start spending real time in each of them. I love New York and I have roots here now, but those two cities are both so important, and both are chock full of amazing players too. And Nashville for me is just a couple of hours from where I grew up, so it’d be nice to be close to home.

Last question. It’s 1986 and Cliff Westfall has just released Baby You Win on the Reprise label.  The launch of stardom?

Ha! I’d love to think so. I do think it would’ve fit in well with the stuff that was going on back then. But the truth is, I couldn’t have written this album without getting a lot more life experience first.

Interview by Declan Culliton  Photography by Rosie Cohe and Diego Britt (live)

Kayla Ray Interview

The topic for our weekly Lonesome Highway Radio Show on 103.2 Dublin City FM some weeks back was "Outlaw Ladies in Country Music of Today and Yesterday." Nine artists featured, not surprisingly Dolly Parton, Lucinda Williams, KD Laing and Elizabeth Cook were all selected. Possibly not quite as obvious but equally deserving of the accolade were Charline Arthur, Gail Davies, Kimmie Rhodes and Audrey Auld. All these names would be familiar to hardcore traditional country music lovers. The final artist that we felt also justified the distinction was a young lady from Waco Texas named Kayla Ray, her recently released album Yesterday & Me having made quite an impression on the lovers of all things classic country amongst us at Lonesome Highway. What’s principally notable about Ray, unlike so many of her contemporaries, is that she is heart and soul country, not someone dabbling experimentally in the genre or playing the pop / country card trick. A flag bearer for traditional country among her generation perhaps. ‘’Wow. I’m thrilled to be a part of that list. I would be proud to be considered that, carrying on tradition via truth is certainly my intent.’’

Yesterday & Me follows her debut album Love & Liquor and contains lyrics that are particularly striking and forthright, projecting a no holds barred honesty in her writing. "I wrote all of those songs over the course of the year or two following my 2014 release. This album is very reflective of the stages of my life at the time and any trials or tribulations of that era bore great lessons worth sharing in a very transparent fashion.’’

The opening track Rockport is the ideal song to enlighten the listener of the direction in which the album is heading. A tale of intended liberation and challenge that descends into drug addiction and suicide, it was written by Jon Dews, a friend of Ray’s. "Jon is a brilliant writer, a brilliant dude and an all-around great friend. I knew the first night he played it for me I had to cut it. The melody paired with such a vivid story just pulled me in and blew me away."

The other cover on the album Once A Week Cheaters, sung with Colton Hawkins, is a timeless male/female country ballad that would sit comfortably on any Porter Dolly or Jones/Wynette album. It was written, but never recorded, by the exceptionally talented country singer Keith Whitley, who passed away at such an early age from prolonged alcohol abuse. "My friend Erin Enderlin - an incredible songwriter out of Nashville. Look her up, y’all won’t regret it - had been given this demo along with a few others by a man who was an early plugger for Whitley. It was a real honor to have the shot to record that song. And, I’ve known Colton Hawkins (we call him Banjo) for ages. We’ve knocked around the Waco circuit together for years now and I’ve always thought his delivery was so effortless and expressive. He’s a big Whitley nut just as I am and I knew he would be perfect for the job.’’

The ongoing opiates epidemic and the whole issue of anti-depressant prescription, which combined are the biggest killer in The States at present, and the blatant involvement of the pharmaceutical industry and medical industry, is addressed inPills, in both a humorous yet ‘in your face’ manner. A YouTube video captures Ray performing it with a smile on her face. However, it’s a serious topic that she obviously has strong feelings about. "Sure, we live in a very strange time concerning big pharma, vulture capitalism and the perpetuation of addiction. No one is immune and it’s worth shedding some light on.’’

There has been no shortage of gifted female artists from The Lone Star State over the years. Rosie Flores, Nanci Griffith, Lee Ann Rimes and Lee Ann Womack have been household names for decades together with the more recent breakthrough artists Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and to a lesser degree Sunny Sweeney and Sarah Jarosz. In a comparable manner to both Lambert and Musgraves in particular, Ray writes passionately about her home State, but in an edgy fashion that is less likely to have Country Music Radio queuing up to playlist her material. The track Red Rivers Valley’s Run Dry is very much a slice of hometown Texas for Ray, the subject matter which is very close to her heart. "Yes! You could say that. Tifni Simons sings on this track with me. She was our favourite bar tender at Papa Joes, our local haunt. The story is reflective of both her life as well as that of the journey of many women I’ve known, struggling to find their place and something that represents survival. While very little of this story is literal, I do believe that there are elements of existence that happen no matter the location. This track is a co-write with my dear friend Joshua Barnard, who played all of the lead guitar on this album. He and I were kids together and he knows me better than most. We were touring through the Red River Valley and I presented him with the story line to which he replied, “Sounds like a waltz to me”. The rest is country music.’’

There’s no end of torment and suffering on the album, beautifully articulated it has to be said. The album’s title Yesterday & Me and the track itself is as much about looking forward as over one’s shoulder, implying lessons learned and gained. ‘’Thanks for your kind words. It means a lot that you listened so closely. And yes, absolutely. This song as well as the album as a whole is very personal. It is about pain, struggle, triumph, regret, reflection and the hope that tomorrow brings.’

A preference for writing autobiographically emanates throughout the album, potentially therapeutic in attempting to put closure on certain experiences. "As I age and venture out, I am enjoying more of a story line building approach. However, my innate reactions as a writer have always been to write from an autobiographical standpoint and, writing has certainly always been my go-to in working through any emotionally challenging situation. What is refreshing about Ray’s music is that it is both natural and free willed. Her influences and musical backstory have always been in country music. Unlike many of her peers she did not embrace a rebellious grunge period in her teens.Her signature sound is unapologetically classic country, which is a breath of fresh air given that the majority of ‘country’ music being produced these days is anything but traditional and more mainstream pop or rock. ‘’This means so much to me. I am trying to write with purpose and that gets so easily washed away with all the distractions of mainstream production. I guess I just missed grunge! Country music still deals with all the sex drugs and rock and roll themes, it just does it in a way I have always found more relatable.’’

The classic country revival or continuity seems to be more common in Texas than Tennessee. Artists following Ray’s roadmap are often not given the light of day in Nashville, or are diverted down a Music Row pop backroad. The impediments are not defeating her and if anything, seem to create a motivation for her to keep on fighting the machine. ‘’ I do see a big current change happening and it is exciting!!! As far as frustration goes, I welcome the challenge. Working from a deficit and creating triumph in the name of something I care about is something I take great pride in. So, as far as that dilemma goes, I say bring it on. I will certainly never quit."

Ray’s musical journey to date reads as the perfect apprenticeship, both technically and administration wise.  She toured with The Texas Playboys as a teenager gaining invaluable experience in many ways and the perfect introduction to performing in the live setting. "I remember being scared to death most of the time! Those guys are legendary!’’ She progressed from there to work as tour manager to Jason Eady while still in her early twenties, more priceless exposure to the highs and lows of touring.  

"Oh, you know all great country songs start with, once I was dating this tele picker. Ha! Really though a mutual acquaintance was playing lead for him at the time. There was a management need to be filled, and I was going to school for commercial music management, (as to eliminate the middle man in my own career for as long as possible). I saw an opportunity to hop in a van with boys I loved who made music I loved. I was free and I could do it, so I jumped at the chance. Some of my fondest touring memories were made with those Eady guys and I learned so very much from each of them.’’

The connection with Eady proved fruitful, he went on to co-produce the new album with Ray. It also resulted in an introduction to Eady’s wife Courtney Patton and other accomplished female songwriters on the same page as her. "I just love Courtney so much. Watching their relationship blossom has been so awesome. She is great. So are Brennan Leigh, Erin Enderlin, and Jamie Lin Wilson just to make a few." Another common tread between Ray and Eady is their love of all things Merle Haggard! "Oh yeah! Our camp invented the game of the “Hag Off”. Basically, knowing more Merle than anyone else in the pickers circle. It’s a heated match till bloody the end. Ha!’’ 

Given how vast Texas is, Ray could probably spend a lifetime touring that State. However, she harbours ambitions to try and reach a greater audience and in particular to try and bring her music to audiences in Europe. ‘’Oh yeah! We’ve toured in 16 other States since the album release, with no intent of slowing down. I fully plan of touring in Europe just as soon as I can figure out how to make the logistics work! Honestly, I look at it like I do music here in the States, taking a hit is like placing a bet and I can’t wait to put my chips on Europe!’’

The commercial success of artists like Kacey Musgraves, Brandi Clark and Miranda Lambert must result in some head scratching and thinking ‘maybe I should dumb it down and sugar coat my music a bit’ or would that be taboo? "I think we live in a time where both are obtainable. I have my goal and I don’t intend to waiver. Should I be awarded the opportunity I still fully intend to hold fast to my integrity.’’

The touring continues for Ray, continuing to get more people on board, but she’s also at the planning stage of her next musical venture."I think we have a lot of steam left in this album however, I do have a really neat project in the works but, I’ve decided to keep its content under wraps for the moment. I will say, the boys and I are awfully excited about it!’’Hopefully we get the chance to see Ray perform in Ireland in 2019. "I would LOVE to do this! Any reader willing to give some advice on how to make it happen please feel free to reach out. Have guitar, will travel!’’

Interview by Declan Culliton

Hannah Aldridge Interview

Existing as a musician in today’s overcrowded market requires a lot more than simply talent. The real dynamic is getting exposure, which for the majority of emerging artists is the first and most difficult obstacle. ‘Can I afford a publicist, a tour manager, a plugger?’‘Should I tour solo or with a band?’‘Can I even afford to tour?’These are ongoing dilemmas that particularly challenge American and Canadian acts that tour Europe, given that many of them recognise a greater opportunity to establish a core following in Europe than in their homelands. Without the financial support of a record company, a luxury that few enjoy, the cost of touring can be crippling and offer little reward for the hours of travelling in cramped vans, sleeping in less than salubrious accommodation and clocking in exhaustingly long days and weeks. 

With all this in mind it was interesting to chat with the Muscle Shoals native Hannah Aldridge a few short weeks after she returned home to draw breath after a gruelling European tour - a tour which also included recording her third album. Given the loyalty and support given to Aldridge by her U.K. followers, she decided to record a live album in The Lexington in London and rather than perform with a full band she undertook quite a novel method for the recording. The show comprised of a mix of solo songs by Aldridge, duets with a number of U.K. artists and the guest artists also got to perform a few of their own songs. She closed the show by getting the full entourage on stage to perform her signature tune Burning Down Birmingham. Altogether it promises to have the makings of a fine album!

But let’s go back a few years. The daughter of country music songwriter Walt Aldridge, it can’t have been easy to have a Music Hall of Fame inductee as a father and to garner so much industry attention at an early stage in her career. I wondered how much pressure that placed on her as a young performing artist. 

“I think initially I really struggled to find myself as an artist and to feel very confident when performing, but a couple hundred shows later I started to notice that people stopped addressing me as ‘Hannah,Walt Aldridge’s daughter’ and started using my name as a stand-alone statement. That was when I really started to feel like I wasn’t living in that shadow.”

Aldridge recorded her debut album Razor Wire at an analogue studio called‘1979’, four years after a traumatic period in her life which found the then 27 year old divorced, with a young child. The album was raw, bursting with emotion and possibly therapeutic by way of tackling the demons that haunted her at that time. Hard hitting songs like Howlin’ Bones and Parchment displayed an ability to write extremely personal and honest material.

“I think I just try to write the dialogue that goes on in my head more than anything. I write in a very conversational way because a lot of my writing is me trying to make sense of my own experiences and thoughts. Sometimes I write a song and sit back and listen and I have no idea how I strung those thoughts together. It’s like pulling the curtains back on my inner dialogue.”

Her second album Gold Rush followed three years later, with less expression of anger but lots of regret and reflection on songs like No Heart Left Behind, Shouldn’t Hurt So Bad and Living On Lonely. It also includes the dynamic Burning Down Birmingham, a crowd pleaser written after a particular frustrating gig in that location. Reflecting on the material on the second album, which appears every bit as autobiographical as Razor Wire, even appearing to re-examine a number of the same issues, I enquire if the sores were healing but not completely gone at that time? “I think those are reoccurring themes in my life,’’ she explained, adding with admirable honesty,“self-destruction, self-doubt, depression, fighting for something, standing my ground, etc. I am usually only compelled to write when I’m trying to write myself out of a dark place.’’

Touring these albums drew her to Europe where she has regularly performed solo. I asked Hannah just how difficult is it for an artist travelling solo or does the aloneness create the space and environment to gather thoughts for songs?

“It is almost impossible for me to write on the road’’ she replied. “I have to make an effort to carve out time to write when I’m home. It is really difficult to explain to people what it’s like to book all your own tours, then tour manage your own tours, and spend 250 days a year alone dragging 150 pounds of merch and gear in and out of airports and trains and cars. Some days by the time I get the venue, I have plotted out a whole new career for myself. Then I play the show and decide that I want to keep going. Ha!” But you have built up a growing and loyal fan base in Europe - how important is that market to you in terms of continuing to develop your career? “It’s vitally important. Europe has been the market that has opened its arms to me without any bandwagons, or a label, or agents, or huge magazines. They allowed me to grow and organically build a fan base there and I’m so grateful for that. I am currently working on expanding my touring in Central Europe as well.’’

What about comparisons between playing solo compared with performing with a band, for an artist like her who performs in both formats? No doubt it would not be affordable to tour Europe with a full band but I wondered which was her preference. “I love playing with a band because it’s a different energy on stage. I also love having companions on the road. But I love having total control of the shows and tours when I am alone as well. I feel like I connect with the audience on a more personal level during solo shows.’’

And her talent of winning over audiences early in the sets by essentially including them in the show by using both stage banter and encouraging them to sing a chorus here and there - does that work better in Europe than the States?

“It actually works great both places but I think initially everyone is completely intimidated by it and by the end they feel like we are friends. Some shows I can read an audience and tell that they aren’t going to participate or listen as well as others, but for the most part, people really enjoy it.’’

Despite Aldridge’s amiable and gentle stage manner I suspect that she is also a very assertive person. So,what about the talkers, the ones that insist getting near the front and spend half the show talking as loudly as possible - do you react or ignore them?  “I have stopped songs many times and told people talking that I would wait until they were done to finish, because I didn’t want to interrupt them. I know the whole goal of music is to entertain people so I do take it on as my responsibility to try to captivate an audience in a way that they don’t want to talk and not take myself too seriously. But, also, I’m not going to let people talking ruin the show for everyone else.’’ 

Aldridge’s performances in recent years, even when performing the darker material, depict a relaxed, confident and reconciled individual. Is it a case of having vented all the anger and infuriation and now being in a better place?

“I think I thoroughly enjoy that time I have on stage to be allowed to be myself and say what I feel and what I want without feeling strange. I’m allowed to be strange on stage. I feel very relaxed on stage, but only because I play so much. I don’t get to talk about my love for vampires and ghosts on a daily basis; or say out loud that I, like so many others have thought about suicide; or say that I struggle with different topics or that I relate to the fear of getting older and so on. It is a safe place for me to talk about those things and joke about those things through music. I know in a room full of people there is at least one person that needs to know that they can relate to someone.’’

And having written so many deep, personal and dark songs is it more difficult to write fictionally?“Absolutely. Even my fictional songs I write from my point of view. I have a hard time writing if I don’t feel connected to the topic.’’ 

Having also had experience in co-writing I wondered how it compared for someone that writes so personally? “Solo writing for me has to almost be like a song is just laid in my lap. Those usually just fall right out. Co-writing takes a different finesse and I love it so much on the days where I have no inspiration.’’

Aldridge is difficult to slot into one definitive music genre and not surprisingly is often lazily classified as a country singer, which could not be further from the truth. I wondered how she would describe her music (without using the termAmericana!). “That topic is one that I could write a whole article ranting about, but in short, I would rather be called anything other than lazily being called Americana. If people like my music because it’s county or rock or pop or Americana to their ears, that’s absolutely ok for me, but I do not want to be on any bandwagons. I was strongly opposed to cliques in High School and I’m strongly opposed to cliques in the music industry. I’m just here to play music and anyone who likes it, likes it and anyone who hates it, hates it.’’

The standard of female artists residing in Nashville presently, outside the commercial country genre, is staggering. Lera Lynn, Erin Rae, Ashley Mc Bryde and Kristina Murray, to name a few, have all recorded super albums this year. Despite this, Margo Price is the only female artist in Nashville to deservedly reach the audience she warrants. How frustrating is this for an artist like Aldridge and what does it takes to break that mould? “Promotion is a powerful thing. The further I go, the more I come to understand that almost none of the music business has to do with music. Luck, money behind you, and/or the right group of friends is what it amounts to most of the time. So, for me, I have to just keep my nose to the grindstone and try not to feel too jaded about these topics and be grateful for the things I have accomplished and the opportunities I have had.”

At the Static Roots Festival in Germany earlier this year I was most impressed that Aldridge hung around after her early showcase, watching all the other acts perform. “It’s extremely important to make sure you are current on what is going on and who is who. Also, when the situation occurs that I see an artist that just blows me away, I always feel like a student trying to learn something. Additionally, I think it’s extremely important to support each other. There are times I don’t watch other people if I am busy or not feeling in the mood, but recently I was reminded about that because there was a specific girl that a friend met in Europe and the first thing that came out of her mouth when they said my name was that she didn’t like me because she opened for me 5 years ago and that I didn’t pay attention to her. I didn’t even remember meeting this girl, but to her she had been mad about that situation for 5 years. I think it’s important to be aware that not everyone understands if you’re tired or having an off day and try your best to always be standing in the front cheering each other on. And the one day that you don’t … you will have someone mad at you for years - ha!”

Having just completed her live album in London, what’s next on the on the writing and recording front? “I just finished that live record and beyond that I am giving myself the patience and room to not have the pressure of a third studio record. It will come when it comes. I don’t have any desire to forcing out songs just for the sake of putting out a record. I would much rather write until I have songs I like and then think about recording when that’s done so that I put out a great record, not just the first 12 songs I write!”

Interview by Declan Culliton

My Politic interview

Kaston Guffey is both a very talented artist and a driving force behind My Politic, a Roots band that embraces all that is great about the Americana/Country/Folk genres in contemporary music today. Growing up in Ozark, Missouri there is a strong likelihood that Kaston was influenced by the music of the Bottle Rockets and Uncle Tupelo, two bands who originated in the state. Also, the traditional Ozark culture, that includes stories and tunes passed between generations and communities, would have left a strong impression on him. 

Kaston writes the lyrics across the seven albums that My Politic has released to date and he also plays a central role in creating the song arrangements with his long-time collaborator, Nick Pankey. As the creative hub of My Politic he has some interesting views on the human condition and growing up in the USA. His music is highly recommended and the band is certainly top of my list as most likely to succeed. An undiscovered gem for many people to explore and enjoy.

Tell me about your long friendship with co-partner Nick Pankey and the origins of the band?

Nick and I started playing together when we were around 14 years old. We played in a couple high school rock bands and when I started writing songs and playing more acoustic stuff, he peeled off with me and we started focusing on making albums. We did 3 full lengths in Ozark, just the 2 of us. We moved to Boston together in 2010 and made 2 albums there in our living room and then we made the move to Nashville in 2014 and got more folks involved. Nick and I have always gelled really well together in life and in music. Like brothers. 

The first three releases were steps on the stairs; 2008, 2009, 2010. All produced by James Carter with both you and Nick. There is the strong sense of a group of friends, in a collective and producing music locally in Ozark, Missouri. Is this how you remember it?

Ozark is a small town, outside of Springfield, which is much bigger. We fell in with some great singer songwriters that were a bit older than us and we played where we could. Springfield has a really strong music community. Unfortunately, we left before we got fully involved in it but every time we go back and play, we meet more and more folks doing great things there. 

These early releases have a very bare bones, confessional sense to the lyrics. They seem to focus on topics such as growing up, moving on, new beginnings, self-doubt, loneliness, relationships, existential questions and looking for hope in tomorrow. Have you always sought to explore the human condition in questioning both the past and the future?

I think so. It is what is most interesting to me. Those early releases were just things that were pouring out. I was pretty closed off emotionally and I think I was using writing as an outlet. I was also just exploring how to write songs. I think the later stuff is a bit more polished and crafted. The subject matter isn't all that different, I’m definitely interested in the human condition and trying to understand what folks are going through and how they deal with it. Myself included. 

Is your song writing process from a personal perspective or do you prefer character songs that allow a freedom in adopting certain personas?

I like exploring both, often in the same song or collection of songs. Sometimes it all comes down to where a line I like ends up taking the song. I think a lot of them start from a personal feeling or anecdote and then that's when I can detach and start building characters, if that is the direction the story feels the most comfortable, or I can stay very personal if it's what is right for the song. 

When did you move to Boston and was this move entirely focused on building your career opportunities further?

We moved to Boston in 2010. For me the move was mostly to get away from what I knew and experience something different. We ended up making two albums in our tiny living room, taking a lot of the things we learned from Jamie Carter and doing it ourselves. I think that experience taught us a lot. 

Your fourth release, American Will, comes across as a more rounded, mature work with the fiddle of Eva Walsh a precursor for your current sound. The country influence seems more pronounced and the writing more observational of heartland America, as opposed to personal experience. Would you agree?

I have to wonder if that was caused by leaving Missouri. I was pretty nostalgic for it while we lived on Boston and I think that feeling was bleeding into the writing. I think that still happens now. We live in Nashville, which is a lot closer to home, but I still get in these writing moods where I want to explore what it was/is like back home; those different characters and experiences of growing up in Missouri. 

Seven albums in ten years has been quite an output and you still have youth on your side. Do you come from a musical family background and what were your influences growing up?

I don't think either of us come from particularly musical families. My grandma played organ at church and my sister Keshia can sing beautifully. I’m not sure about anyone else. When we started making records together, we were also singing in the same choir in high school. That was a major help musically. I was listening to a lot of Dylan records and things like that. I started collecting vinyl when I was 12 years old, so there was a lot of old records to soak up. 

Your insights and observations are very much part of the attraction in listening to My Politic. Does writing come easy to you or does the creative muse visit you on a more sporadic basis?

Thank you for saying that Paul. I feel like I am always writing in some way. I’m sporadic when it comes to sitting down and putting pen to paper, it usually happens when I have 4 or 5 songs going at once. That's when I have to start organizing. Lines and ideas are things I’m constantly looking for, because you always have to be ready for that moment when things start to line up and you feel inspired to actually write it out. The one thing that can always improve is the craft and that just takes doing it over and over and over again. 

My initial introduction to your music was through a review copy of Anchor. One of the key songs on that release is God vs Evolution and I wondered how this song idea arrived?

I wrote that song in Boston before we moved to Nashville. I think that one came out done in one sitting. We grew up in a very religious area and then moved to Boston where things were more scholarly. I liked playing with the differences there. 

The latest release is built around twelve story songs, from different perspectives. Are these characters doomed to loss or is there any hope of redemption?

I think there is. I was going through a lot when I wrote that album. I think there are pieces of my psyche in each of those stories and it was a kind of snapshot of what I was feeling in that moment.  

Since moving from Boston to Nashville have you found it easier to get a foot on that ladder to greater recognition?

Boston felt like a more transient city for people. You go to school then maybe you leave. It was a great place to write, play out and record but Nashville is just a whole other thing. It feels more permanent for us here. There are obviously more opportunities because it's kind of the centre of the song-writing / music universe. More than that though, it's really nice to be around creative folks every day and watch each other grow. It makes you want to be better and that's probably the best opportunity we have here in Nashville. 

How did you find the other members of the current band?

We met Will Cafaro, our bass player, up in Boston through a band called Tumbleweed Company. We didn't start playing with him till Nashville. Wilson Conroy was a similar story, we met him over at the Tumbleweed band house too. I heard Jen Starsinic playing her own songs and I thought they were really incredible. When I found out she played fiddle too, I really wanted her to play our stuff because I knew she would approach it from a songwriter's perspective. They are all so incredibly talented and we are lucky to play with each one of them! 

Is touring something that you currently do on a local basis only?

We have done a decent amount touring through the South, Midwest and New England. We haven’t made it over to y'alls neck of the woods yet, but hopefully soon. 

What are the constraints to bringing the band out on tour?

I just want to make sure everyone gets paid and that I’m not wasting their time. That can be difficult. Also, space… Ha, ha! We travel in Kia minivan and when you pile 5 people and all our gear in it, it becomes very close quarters. We all get along pretty good in spite of that. Also, we are really lucky to play a lot of house concerts around the country and the hosts are always so gracious. We usually end up staying at their houses and it makes it so much easier. 

Playing the AMA Festival is recognition for what you are building. What comes next?

We will inevitably make another album, hopefully soon. We would really like get out on the road more that we do. And maybe we come to Ireland? That would be a dream come true. 

Do media outlets such as You Tube bring you more admirers that you are aware of?

I think so. I certainly think YouTube is a place where people go to discover new artists. Videos are important these days.

What is the idea behind the Mad Valley Lodge?

The Mad valley lodge is a house concert series we have been doing once a month for about 5 years now. We usually have 2 artists (mostly local) play. The idea is that it is a listening room. The focus is on the artist 100%. It can get really disheartening when you play gig after gig to folks that couldn't care less that you are there. It has also been an incredible way for us to meet amazing folks in Nashville and build a community of like-minded creative people. The idea was basically to have an intimate listening room for folks that we admire to play their songs in and for the audience to get to have that up-close experience. We love putting it on. 

It has to be all about self- belief, especially based in Nashville where the competition is so fierce. What is the essential glue that makes you endure?

Writing songs and being a part of a community of creative people is what it's all about. Being around really great writers and musicians on an everyday basis just makes you want to be better. These folks become family. 

Well, there you are … Words of wisdom from a talented singer-songwriter who has a real shot at enduring success. There is an energy and enthusiasm that shines through in the performance and creative output of this artist and the music of My Politic is well worth investigating.

Interview by Paul McGee

Clay Parker and Jodi James Interview

Having abandoned solo careers to work as a duo, Clay Parker and Jodi Jones discovered at an early stage that their ability to co-write far outweighed their talent for writing individually. The latest result of their collaborations is the delightful recording The Lonesomest Sound That Can Sound, released earlier this year to glowing industry reviews. No Depression, Rolling Stone Country, The Bluegrass Situation and our good selves being among many publications that were suitably enthralled by the album.  Because of their hectic touring schedule, the album took quite a while to write but was recorded in one days sitting as detailed by Clay Parker, when he recently took time out to park the tour bus and chat with Lonesome Highway.

Your recently released album The Lonesomest Sound That Can Sound made a hugely positive impression on me when I was given it to review. Despite being prolific co-writers, the album was created over an extended period of time, engaging a variety of engineers and studios. Was this a conscious decision or simply logistics?

We’re on the road a lot. So, what made sense both economically and logistically at the time was to record in layers. It certainly wasn’t the ideal way to make a record, and for the last couple of years, we’ve been piecing together a studio of our own that functions in the way that we want to make records going into the future. But The Lonesomest Sound That Can Sound album began when we found ourselves with a quickly put-together day session at a studio in Nashville where we recorded 12 songs in about 8 hours - just the two of us. We sat on those recordings for a while and even considered releasing them as is. But somewhere along the way, we decided that we’d like to hear some additional instrumentation mixed in. So, we had some of our favourite hometown musicians gather at a dear friend’s studio in Baton Rouge, and we tracked everything else in about 5 days.

Despite this, there is a definite consistency about the recording both musically and thematically. Was this difficult to achieve given the recording process?

No, I wouldn’t say so. Even though the tracking process was spread out over time, the other guys did their thing in 1 or 2 takes per song; and in that way, it was still treated like a live recording where most of the decisions were made in the moment. I think consistency just presented itself - we didn’t really have to strive for it.

There is also an air of calmness and tranquillity across the album. Was this an atmosphere you consciously set out to create or a reflection of your collective personalities?

We’re pretty calm and tranquil people, I suppose. But more than that, we like the sound of space and air and dynamics in most of the songs we play. It’s something we try to achieve when we play live, and that idea sort of dictates how we like to record and mix. 

The last track Killin’ Floorparticularly stands out for me. It weighs in at a hefty twelve minutes plus, yet does not seem a second too long. Tell me about the song and your decision on its length?

Killin’ Floor just sort of fell out one night. One verse was written to the particular melody and tempo, and then verses just kept piling up; but we didn’t really pay much attention to its length while writing it. We ended up printing out the few pages of lyrics, clipping out each verse, and moving them around on the floor until we agreed on the final order.When we recorded it, we told the engineer that we’d only do one take of it because of its length. There are flubs all over the place, and we weren’t sure it would make it on the record. But eventually, we recognized it as a suitable book end to the album.

The album has already been receiving great reviews, even with your relatively low profile. How difficult is it to maintain that momentum and get airplay on radio stations that support Americana and (genuine) country music?

That’s a good question (laugh)! There’s surely not a shortage of great music coming out - it’s a big pond with a lot of big fish. We were fortunate to meet some fine folks who specialize in that stuff - who get records from bands like us to some well-known publications - and they really got behind this record. But for us, the indispensable part of what we do is touring. 

You’ve enduringly created your fan base by constantly touring, self-managing, attracting both punters and industry people. Was this a game plan or did it simply develop when you commenced touring as a duo?

We like the DIY-as-much-as-possible approach to nearly everything - from fixing broken gear to making our own merchandise. So, it’s just naturally what we fall into. 

I’m interested in your writing process as co-writers. Have you a particular trusted format and how different is writing songs to be performed as duets rather than individually?

One of us usually comes up with a musical and lyrical phrase of some sort. We’ll typically get together and shift a couple of words or add/take away a chord or something like that, then we’ll separate for a while and work independently of one another. The interesting thing that happens is that we usually end up working in the same direction - kind of like walking on a parallel path with someone. So, by the time we get back together, we’re usually still on the same page. We take the best ideas and phrases, thread them together, then figure out how it’s best sung. Many of our songs wind up as full duets, and that’s probably the main difference in writing for the duo as opposed to solo work. It stretches what you can do in terms of melody and harmony where the individual parts can weave back and forth.

You were approached to perform in Ethan Hawke’s soon to be released Blaze Foley biopic, Blaze. How did that come about?

Ethan and his crew were scoping out locations to film around a small town in south Louisiana where we play fairly often. They were also looking for local musicians for a few scenes, and our names came up in conversation. A few days later, we had an email from him - which kind of stunned us - and he invited us to join them for about three days of shooting. That was an easy “yes” for us, being that we’re both big fans of Blaze’s music and Ethan’s work. He is an incredible collaborator, but he also has a unique way of unfolding his visions for everyone in the room to become a part of. It was fascinating to watch.We just had a couple of small parts in the movie, and count ourselves fortunate to be involved. We actually just saw it a couple of weeks ago in Austin, and it was great. So great.

Comparisons have been made, not least by myself, of the likeness of yourselves to Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. Are they artists that have influenced yourselves and do you actually listen to much music while touring?

We do listen to a lot of music -- almost all the time. In our tour van, because a friend gifted us with a subscription to Sirius radio, we’ve been listening mostly to Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead (laugh). Otherwise, it’s mostly music from the past… blues, old soulful country, songwriters. And of course, our friends’ records. Any music with guts, that’s what we gravitate towards.As for Welch/Rawlings, we love their music. Somewhere along the way, they shifted the paradigm of what male/female duos can be. While many of those existed before (and after) them, their unique sound blended with a deep and evolving translation of the vernacular of American folk music was a complete game-changer. And now, as a duo ourselves, you can’t un-hear that stuff just like you can’t un-hear the Beatles or the Everly Brothers. So, the comparison is certainly a fair one, and one that makes us feel at home within the tradition of the duet sound.

What other artists have most influenced you and pointed you in the musical direction you follow?

Between the two of us, we probably share the most appreciation for the music of John Prine and Bob Dylan. It’s visual music that often happens in scenes. There’s always more than one thing going on. I suppose that’s the kind of work we look to. 

Have you a game plan going forward or do you intend just continuing what you are currently doing?

Well, we never want to get too comfortable staying in one place or doing one thing. We’re constantly trying to evolve and dig deeper into something, whether that’s writing new music or piecing our studio together or booking shows or whatever. But our basic modus operandi will remain intact, and we’ll continue putting out records and touring as a duo.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Interview with Kimmie Rhodes

The term ‘Country Royalty’ should never be used lightly, but when you are given the opportunity to meet with an artist who has recorded and released a total of sixteen solo CDs, written and produced three musicals, served as an associate producer for the documentary, They Called Us Outlaws (presented by the Country Music Hall Of Fame), then the feeling of being next to someone with a special talent is hard to shake off.

Add to the above a theatre production titled ‘Is There Life After Lubbock plus many appearances on Film, Stage and TV; a novella/cookbook which she published and her show Radio Dreams, which focused on the history of American roots music and artists. 

Her songs have appeared on multiple television and film soundtracks and she has her own record label and studio, Sunbird Music, for over 25 years. Kimmie lives and records in Austin and tours internationally with her son and producer/multi-instrumentalist, Gabriel Rhodes.

Lonesome Highway met with Kimmie Rhodes during her short tour of Ireland to discuss her career, her creative muse and her recent book, Radio Dreams, a duet memoir with her soul mate Joe Gracey, who died back in 2011. Her enduring relationship with Joe Gracey has a timeless quality and his memory endures through the pages and tales in this excellent book.

LH: You have concentrated on doing gigs in Northern Ireland over recent visits. Has this been a conscious decision on your part?

Kimmie: No, not at all. I don’t know if the audience is just more receptive to what we do up North or just that I don’t have anybody booking me down in the Republic. I have played the Seamus Ennis centre at the Naul a lot of times and we were at the Venue Theatre in Rathoath earlier this year. If there are suitable venues in the South then I would love to play there. I have travelled all around Ireland; Cork, Galway, The Burren and the West Coast so it would be great to play other places. 

LH: Tell me about Sunbird Studios, your recording hub in Austin.

Kimmie: When I met Joe Gracey in Austin in 1979, he had been mentored by “Cowboy” Jack Clement as a producer and he, in turn, had been mentored by Sam Phillips at Sun Records/Studios in Memphis. That was an independent label and so I guess there was always the spirit of not compromising and just going ahead with what you believed in and putting it out there. Joe had lost his voice to cancer, having been a popular DJ and a singer, so he had become a record producer and had a small publishing company also. 

So, I started with an independent focus. It was not easy to make a record in those days because everything was analogue and demos were recorded on 4-track TEAC reel to reel machines. When Joe had been a DJ he had played Willie Nelson’s records on the radio and he had invited Joe out to his place, so I got to meet him and we went to his studio, which had two 24-track machines. I was amazed and here was an invitation to make my first record, in a 48-track studio where we just had to come up with the money for the band.

You had to have a label or some kind of a deal in the early 1980’s as making a record back then cost a minimum of $20,000. So, I made my first two records at Willie’s studio. It was hard for me to get a record deal that I wanted. I was not prepared to do what the major record labels wanted me to do; I looked right and I sang well but I was too wild for the commercial market they wanted me to fit into.

So, when digital music came along, we decided to start Sunbird as a studio; it was originally meant to be a writing room behind the house, but we changed that and I had this dream to paint the space yellow and put a white baby grand into the room. Well, I had this photographer friend who owned a white baby grand and her house had burned down, so she needed a place for her piano and there am I doing the dishes one day when along comes this truck with a piano! It’s been in my studio ever since, probably going on 20 years now… We make most of our records out there since those days.

LH: I read that “Cowboy” Jack had said to you that ‘It only takes 3 minutes to record a hit’ and that ‘we are in the fun business, so if we are not having fun, we are not doing our job’.

Kimmie: Well, he was the first person that I met when I first came to Nashville and he had this great recording studio. One day I went to visit him and when I walked in there was nobody about, which was unusual. I went back to his office, where he was there on his own… He asked if I wanted to go for a ride and I thought we would take one of his cars; he had two identical white cars, called R2-D2 and C-3PO. He took me around in a golf cart, bought an entire box of popsicles in a local store and we drove around eating them! He was this legendary figure who was all about having fun. I said that my Dad had grown up in a carnival and he was all about having fun too so I knew that it would work for me and I didn’t have to modify myself in any way. You have to believe in that kind of magic!

LH: Did you have an innate feeling from a young age that music was what came naturally to you?

Kimmie: I think that you are born to be who you are meant to be. Life just placed me with the perfect people, in pretty good timing, to go ahead and develop into who I was. I have always had music in my life, even back to a babysitter who used to play the pump organ for me! She would let me play with the sheet music and that was one of my earliest memories of the magic of music. We were just transported.

LH: And the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree when I see your son, Gabriel with his amazing talent and natural flow on the guitar, among the many instruments he can play

Kimmie: He has been exposed to music all his life from the time he was a little boy and able to fit into Joe Gracey’s lap. He started with the recorder and then played the saxophone, then he started playing with all the musical people he grew up around. We had moved out to the hill country to be close to Willie’s studio because Gracey was working there. 

There were always characters hanging around like David Zettner, who was Willie’s first bass player after he had stopped playing with Ray Price and decided to form his own band. Zettner had also played bass on my records and there was Johnny Bush on guitar; Jimmy Day on the steel guitar; Paul English on drums; and Bucky Meadows, who had come from the Charlie Christian school of jazz players. Gabe just grew up around all that. 

I was with a British label and I went to record in Memphis before mixing and mastering in Nashville. Gabe was left with David Zettner and Bucky Meadows as babysitters and when I got back, they had taught Gabe how to play the guitar! It would have been almost unnatural for him not to have picked up on music as a young child. 

LH: By his mid-20’s he had progressed to producing your records

Kimmie: I had a publishing deal with Almo/Irving Music, Herb Albert and Gerry Moss, on the back of some success with Trisha Yearwood and Wynonna Judd. Part of that deal was that I would write songs for the company. Mostly I wrote by myself at that time so when I had to demo a song, Gracey would record it and Gabe would play on it, so it was the perfect vehicle for us. He just grew from that and passed me out. At one point, I would leave small instruments lying around the house and they would disappear. Later, I would hear Gabe practicing with them up in his room but he really cut his teeth playing on those demos for big publishing companies. 

I had been involved in writing a play with Joe Sears (small town girl) and while I was gone Gabe had cleared all the furniture out of the way and set up a small recording space where he took about 12 of my songs and made tracks on a couple of small ADAT machines (a magnetic tape format used for the recording of eight digital audio tracks)… He told me that he had gone ahead and produced my next record!! Luckily, I really liked it and it turned into Rich From The Journey, my next release.  

As a side story, Bob Ezrin, who had worked with Pink Floyd on The Wall, was working on a film, Babe, Pig In The City. Bob Ezrin was the music director on the film and one of my suggested songs he liked was Heart Of A Believer. We would be on the phone a lot and he said ‘those guys who are playing with you really know their stuff’ – to which I replied, ‘Well, that is my 20-year old son who just moved the furniture out of the room and produced that track’. 

So, Gabe ends up talking directly to Bob Ezrin, one of his heroes. He really had an almost instant success by producing something that he had no initial permission to do! So, we have had a lot of magic happen. 

LH: What’s it like to play in front of a live audience and make music with your son?

Kimmie: For the most part, I don’t think about it in those terms. We built it from the ground up and it is innate, will always be there, all the time. It is special and we are so close as a Mother/Son, so it is naturally something that people can see. He looks after me so well.

LH: As an artist and a performer, your craft is highly developed. Yet you have a generosity that allows your talents be shared by other stars who have taken your songs and had hits with them (Willie Nelson, Wynonna Judd, Trisha Yearwood, Amy Grant, Joe Ely, Waylon Jennings, Peter Frampton, Mark Knopfler, Emmylou Harris). How does this work for you; is it a conscious decision?

Kimmie: I love to sing and I love to perform but I feel like at some point my writing just surpassed my singing and performing. In terms of having to give up one, then I would always have to write. I would be writing a song for me and it never occurred to me that anybody would want to take one of my songs in the first place. By the time that people did look at my songs, I wanted to have success and it just happened to be that those people were really big stars at the time, so what’s not to like? 

Also, I needed the money. I was married to a man who could not speak for 30 years, but who was able to work with me. I had two sons and we had a daughter, but I just never wanted to be famous in the first place. Success for me was being good at what I did, make a living at it and being able to travel. One of the things about being famous is that you don’t have that freedom to walk down the street anymore. Another thing that was great for me was that I got an opportunity to make good money through writing songs at a time when my children needed me most. I still kept making records and they were always the best calling cards for my songs anyway, in that most of those cuts that were recorded by other artists came off of my records. 

I could travel to Nashville and keep living in Texas so it was a good situation to be at home with my family and then be able to tour when the time was right. I did not want to have a family at the end of a phone all the time so when I was at home I could see my kids in the morning and be there in the evening but when I travelled to New York or L.A. then I was out writing or playing and that got my full energy. 

LH: Do the songs come easily?

Kimmie: When I was working as a professional writer I got on a real roll; I got swept up into it, whether co-writing or writing solo. There was always a song that was unfinished in my brain, playing away and the lyrics were always full of meaning. I would be off in my own world and any downtime, in my brain, I would be always writing. I had 100% permission to do it as it was my job, I was getting paid well for doing it. I have a good work ethic and can be very disciplined when I want to do it. It’s like a journal to me and I always want to do my best. I have always written about what is going on. 

When Joe Gracey died I knew that if I was going to write around then, my songs were going to be just too dark. I didn’t have the perspective of being able to write from that place where you can see the darkness balanced with the light. A good friend of mine, John Gardner, who was a drummer with Don Williams and played on a lot of my records, suggested that we get our families together and just spend a week recording some covers that Gracey would have liked for different reasons. And so that ended up as my 'covers' record. Other than that, I have always been able to pick up the guitar and just write.

LH: Is the process of co-writing a compromise for you?

Kimmie: I got good at co-writing and I would go out to L.A. and write lyrics while the music was mostly written by others. That was an interesting experience. I worked with Kevin Savigar, who was a producer with Rod Steward, who was really great at programming tracks and coming up with melodies. Writing with people like Emmylou, Waylon Jennings, Al Anderson, Peter Frampton, Gary Nicholson was as much about hanging out with them and writing at the same time. I don’t have to write with anyone where it turns out to be a painful experience.

Another pleasure has been working with Chris Difford (ex Squeeze), who formed a partnership with ‘The Buddy Holly Foundation’ to run a week of writing at Pennard House, Glastonbury for aspiring young artists. It’s fun and I get to pass on what I have learned. I also get to visit universities and with honorariums where I get paid and talk with the students. We also do radio classes, women in music, poetry classes. It’s all a real privilege. 

LH: The book has taken up a lot of your focus over the last few years. In addition, your past projects have allowed you to collaborate in other creative mediums. Do you think that having Willie Nelson as a mentor so early in your career helped give you that confidence to try new things?

Kimmi: There are a lot of people with talent out there but when Willie mentored me I think he saw me as a wild child and someone who would have (as we say in Texas), a tough row to hoe and maybe struggle in the business.

 He had struggled in Nashville himself to establish his career as a recording artist and in Texas we didn’t have a music scene; we had a live scene with the dancehalls and he came back to establish himself. He was old enough then to be my father and came from those days when a farmer wanted to put the mule in the barn on a Saturday night and just go dancing. Those were his roots and he had grown up singing Gospel in Church and so had I, with my Father and my Brother. Singing in the choir on Sundays was what we did. We never really had a band but we also performed at sing-ins, with someone on piano where people would sing along.

There was so much focus went into all the things that I have done. The documentary They Called Us Outlaws was a 12-hour production and I was passionate about the Austin music scene and passing on all the relevant detail of those times in the mid to late 1970’s. Lots of people became involved including Doug Sahm, Marcia Ball, Bobby Earl Smith, Joe Ely and many others.

So much revolved around the influence of Joe Gracey and his activity as a DJ, Journalist, Engineer, Producer, Publisher etc. Growing up, Joe had never liked Country music but then he went to work at a Country music radio station in Fort Worth that had Lawton Williams as one of their local DJ’s. Lawton had written the song, Fraulein, that was a big hit for Bobby Helms and had also been on the Chet Atkins label as an artist before he became a radio DJ. Then along comes Chet Atkins making a new radio format called countrypolitan… 

So, Country music radio suddenly changed and then along comes the explosion of the 1970’s with Dylan, The Beatles and The Byrds. Joe is now playing Sweethearts of the Rodeo and Willie Nelson’s record, The Party’s Over, which he really liked. So, he ends up in Austin as a DJ and he started playing Willie and these other Country songs on his radio show and that starts a whole new direction for the scene there. 

All these things came together to create more of that magic. Pretty soon the whole scene took off with artists coming in from all directions. It was just like Hemingway and Paris! 

When I moved to Austin it was as if someone took a fish in the water and just let it go… I was with people who liked me and encouraged and helped me. I found my tribe and it just grew and grew over all these years.

Coda:

Kimmie was more than generous with her time, giving almost a full hour to our chat and we spoke after a very special house concert that our gracious host, Andy Peters, presented with great success. 

Her tours this year have been to support the book release and we met in the beautiful landscape that surrounds the village of Rathfriland, Co. Down, with its rolling hills and spectacular scenery framed between the Mourne Mountains, Slieve Croob and Banbridge.

Kimmie played guitar and told stories between two sets that covered much of her career and she was joined by her wonderfully talented son, Gabriel Rhodes (Gabe), who played some incredible guitar to both colour and lift the songs to new levels of feeling, technique and warmth.

Kimmie’s book is a must-read and captures many stories that will make you laugh and cry along with many insights into her music career. The full title is Radio Dreams: The Story of an Outlaw DJ and a Cosmic Cowgirl. A fitting description for this gracious and humble person who displays a real enthusiasm for life. Natural to a fault and very open to the magic that the World sends her way.  

Interview by Paul McGee

Interview with Minton Sparks

To describe Minton Sparks as unique hardly does her justice. Unparalleled is probably a more accurate description of the speaker/songwriter Nashville resident whose music, poetry and storytelling about people and places in the rural South are gossip laced, provocative, intoxication, hypnotic and spiked with black humour. Minton took time out from her hectic schedule to discuss her career path to date and much more.

Comparisons with Flannery O’Connor and Hank Williams regularly feature in articles written about you. Were they actual influences and what other writers and musicians stimulated your chosen career. I’m particularly interested in your musical inspirations given that your Gold Digger album suggests full on blues, gospel and jazz leanings, whereas your earlier work were more rural country?

I’m a big Flannery O’Connor fan.  Musical influences are all over the board. Tom Waits, John Prine, the Indigo Girls, Patti Smith. My collaborator guitarist, John Jackson, is one of the most versatile musical talents I know. Once the piece finds it home note, or what I’m trying to say, he finds a way to come under that and make it soar.

You are extraordinarily unique in that no one else (with the possible exception of punk poet John Cooper Clarke) is mixing the spoken word with music as you do. What was the deciding factor that inspired you to put music to your poems?

I was a published poet for years before it dawned on me that maybe twenty people were reading my work. My guitar teacher at the time, Rob Jackson, was willing to begin putting my poems to music. Together we forged a possible new genre. It took me a couple of records to figure out what I was even doing because I didn’t know an artist at the time doing the same thing.

I particularly love the logo on your shirts that reads ‘The best country singer that doesn’t sing’. Not an absolutely accurate characterisation to be fair. Had you ever considered singing in full voice when you decided to put your words to music?

The past few year I’ve begun song-writing, working with dear friend John Hadley. So today I have 2 or 3 songs in each performance.

Which came first as a developing artist, the stories or the music?

The stories always come first. It takes me forever to dig in and see what the tone is, once I know that the piece comes together. Stories always point to something larger. Gold Digger the title track to current album evolved over time. I tend to edit after I’m able to perform a piece before an audience.

Are you the nosy next-door neighbour and people watching type in creating your tales, or are they all very much works of fiction?

I’m a sponge for drama. Always eaves dropping on nearby conversations. So, I guess you could say I’m the spy next door.

There is tragedy, black humour and desperation in your tales and characters. You seem particularly sympathetic to the people you write about and their predicaments. Do you consider yourself as a conduit representing the relationships and circumstances of ordinary and often voiceless people?

I worked as a therapist in my early days, and then attended Divinity school (though I dropped out later) so I’m very interested in giving a voice to the voiceless, or more importantly listening to those who are not listened to traditionally.

Tell me about the Nashville Writing and Performing Institute that you founded and the motivation behind it?

After each performance, someone comes up desperate to tell the stories caught inside their throat.  After a couple of years, I decided to create the Nashville Writing and Performance Institute as an outlet for folks with trapped stories. We have an open mic for the school once every few months so that students have a chance to perform their writing for an audience. I taught Psychology for 10 years and absolutely love teaching transformation. It’s deeply rewarding to hear someone own a story that used to hold them back. Novelist Dorothy Allison always says, “we are every story we ever survived”. I love her.

From your experiences conducting storytelling workshops across the country. Can the gift be taught or does the student require an inherent skill set that just requires a framework?

The story finding the page is a birth right that a lot of people never discover. I feel like our writing voice is basic to humanity; and it’s a fabulous way to alchemize experiences that otherwise get stuck in the throat. Whether or not, the result looks like someone has “a gift” or not, doesn’t matter. It’s the storytelling that heals the heart.

Does the current political in The States situation give you food for new material or is it a topic you’d prefer avoid?

Oh yeah, the week after the last presidential elections I wrote a piece, Fight Club, out of desperation. I’m trying to see why “my people would ever vote for someone who is so against their basic interests, their basic decency.

You have been working and performing with guitarist John Jackson for ten years at this stage. How influential is he is creating the music that decorates your lyrics?

We’ve worked together long enough that he completely understands the under song of the stories I write. He finds a way into what I’m saying musically. It lifts the piece into another realm. Very lucky to work with him.

Your last album release Gold Digger was particularly powerful and somewhat darker than your previous work. It also rocked out gloriously on tracks like I Am From, Hi Helen and the title track and jazzed out on Mary Kaye Disciple and Black and Blue Tattoo. Was this experimental or a general change in musical direction for you?

We decided to record with a band on Gold Digger. At the time Joe McMahan a fabulous guitarist and producer here in Nashville suggested I do a record with some of the best musicians we could find. Go in the studio and see what we heard. He pulled in Dave Jacques on bass and Shad Cobb on fiddle. So, Joe produced and played on one side of the record and it was just going to be five songs. Six months later we went into the late, great, Brian Harrison’s studio to finish. Brian produced the second side. I’m constantly evolving musically because the stories are coming from a different place as time goes on. I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with folks like Chris Thile, Keb Mo’ and Waylon Jennings.

You’ve graced the Grand Ole Opry, which is a commendable achievement. How did the performance go?

The performance was a dream come true. My Dad always said that I couldn’t claim success until I was on the Opry.  What he wouldn’t understand is they never have spoken word artists on the Opry. So it was thrilling to play both at Ryman and out at the Opry House. The audience was incredibly open to us. Bill Anderson was complimentary after the performance saying, “I think we are going to be hearing a lot more from that lady with the purse!”

With the wealth of female talent in Nashville that find it difficult, if not impossible, to get deserved radio play, what outlets are available to you to market your work?

We almost have to make our own outlets. Americana stations will play us although it’s not an easy fit. We did play the first Americana show here in Nashville. We have a couple of loyal station in Ashville, NC.  We’ve been recently featured on the ACME radio show, and a local WXNA. We are touring and getting the word out that way. We really want to do a European tour next summer

And getting gigs, given how distinctive your shows are, easier or more difficult than regular musicians?

I have a regular series here in Nashville at the city Winery Lounge called, “No Lady’s Land” I’m trying to get the most brilliant talent as openers for the series. That’s how we met Emma Swift. Otherwise I’m out playing storytelling festivals, colleges, and performance spaces of all stripes.

You have worked with two of my favourite artists and indeed storytellers, Sam Baker and Jim White. How did that come about?

I met Jim White in Atlanta on a co bill at the Grocery on Home house show produced by the infamous Matt Arnette.

Jim and I became fast friends and he invited me to spend the winter in Calgary at the Banff Art Center with Sam Baker and Mary Gauthier trying come up with a Southern musical play of sorts. All those guys are brilliant and we had a wonderful time together. I’m so inspired by Sam, Mary and Jim.

I’m aware that you have had pieces published in literary journals but have you considered an anthology of short stories expanding on various tracks from your albums?

I’m in the middle of writing a collection of short stories having to deal with growing up working in an Amusement Park in Bunnell, Florida.

This will probably sound like a ridiculous question but your accent is to die for, to someone like myself from this side of the world! Is it altogether natural or exaggerated for greater affect?

I’m from a small town in Tennessee. I’m afraid it’s authentic. 

You performed in Ireland a few years back. Any plans for a return visit?

We loved playing the Belfast Songwriting Festival and would absolutely love to go back.

Interview by Declan Culliton   Photograph by Gina Binkley

Interview with Jeremy Nail

Texas born Jeremy Nail is a survivor in the true sense. His latest and most impressive album Live Oak was released earlier this year. In many ways it follows a similar theme to his 2016 recording My Mountain, both albums having been written following his recovery from sarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer, which resulted in the amputation of one of his legs. Written in the aftermath of such trauma, both albums are powerful, soul searching, reflective and yet laced with positivity and resilience. Lonesome Highway tracked down Nail to discuss the albums and his chosen musical career path.

How did the writing process for your recently released album Live Oak, compare to your 2016 recording My Mountain?

It was a very similar process, actually. By the time I had finished My Mountain I had developed a style of writing that felt very natural. I like to work each line until the song can stand on its own as a written work. I like to experiment with melodies as well.  On Rolling Dice there was a version I had that was done on a keyboard, and had a few lyrical changes here and there. Live Oak had a sort of upbeat, Grateful Dead feel before I changed the melody completely. Once we get in the studio, we quickly realize what is working and what is not.   

Alejandro Escovedo is a man much admired and loved by Lonesome Highway and an artist that recovered from his own health issues to return stronger than ever. He appears to be like a father figure or even possibly a tutor, in your artistic journey. How did your relationship develop with him?

We hit it off when I filled in playing guitar in his band a few years ago. It was a great experience cut short by health problems that I had to stay home and take care of. When we reconnected, our relationship grew as friends and artists. I was going through this period, of learning how to walk again and dealing with some pain (after battling a rare form of cancer - Sarcoma - which resulted in the loss of one of my legs). He really took me under his wing, and shared a lot about what helped him get through his own health struggles. Alejandro guided me to make an artistic statement on My Mountain in the wake of suffering, which is something he is a master of. I am forever grateful to him for that.

What did you particularly learn from his production input on My Mountain?

I learned a lot about what it means to give songs space. When you add more layers, you still want to do it in a way that serves the song and story being told. 

The Zone Recording Studios in Dripping Springs would appear to be the most perfect setting for recording Live Oak, given how much landscape you use in your song writing. You co-produced at The Zone with Pat Manske, who has worked with the cream of Texan artists. What influenced your decision to work with him?

The last phase of recording for My Mountain was done at The Zone. Working with Pat, we got into a great flow so it felt natural to keep working there. This time around, we collaborated more and really locked in musically. He has a great attention to detail and knows what makes a song special. He also mixed the record onto 2” tape, brilliantly. There is a great vibe with him and the band. I’m anxious to keep going!

The album’s title is inspired by the 600-year survival of an oak tree in Texas and is a classic theme for the album. Was this always going to be the title track of the album or did it surface during the recording process?

For most of the recording process, I thought it was going to be called Abiquiu, but I was afraid people might have a hard time pronouncing it. Then it dawned on me where I was, in terms of place and phase of life. Live Oak was the perfect fit.

The opening track Abiquiu, a small town in New Mexico, articulates the presence of both beauty and decay residing side by side. The sentiment in the song could speak for so many small towns throughout The United States. Presumably it was written based on a live experience passing through the town?

Yes. I was driving through there last summer. What I saw and experienced felt spiritual to me. Both the beauty and decay I saw were very heightened, in such a way that I had to write about it. I grew up going to visit my uncle in Taos who was an artist there, Bill Bomar. There is something about the landscape and air there that is so inspiring to me.

Till’ Kingdom Come, which bookends the album, speaks of your recovery ‘to this new life that I live and breathe’. On reflection, had you not encountered your health issues, do you consider that your musical career might have headed in a somewhat different direction?

I think about where I was before I got sick, if I would have continued that way I don’t know if I would be playing my own music or doing this at all. Though I was playing in several bands at the time, I had sort of a creative block with my own songwriting. Having this experience changed all of that. I love what I do. 

There is a noticeable calmness throughout the album. Is this a reflection of your state of mind during the recording process?

Maybe so. There is a certain intensity in record making because you are listening so closely, seeing what works and what doesn't. I’m lucky to work with people who share the same instincts.

On the subject of your use of landscapes in your song writing.  Is this motivated by your upbringing in rural Albany, Texas surrounded by lots of open spaces?

Definitely. Going back now, I realize what an influence being raised there was. As I go further along in writing and music, as a listener as well, landscapes are like colours on a painter’s palette.

Your family appear to be either farmers or art purveyors. I understand that you studied agriculture. What encouraged you to the artistic career in favour of agronomics?

I was studying at Texas Tech and I wasn’t doing very well in school. I came home one summer and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. My stepdad, who was also a rancher, was listening to me play guitar one day and said, “You ought to do something with that”. I enrolled in the Commercial Music program at South Plains College, and just took it from there.

Ironically, there are unfortunate similarities between farming and musicianship, given how both careers have dramatically changed from the opportunities they offered a few decades back. How difficult is it to survive in such a crowded musical environment at present?

Everyone is on different paths. At a certain point, you have to define what success is for yourself. Like ranching, if music is a part of you, hard times will come and go. You do it because that’s what you do and it’s who you are. If I stay creative and inspired, I know things will work out.

Two studio albums in two years is quite an output, particularly when the material reflects personal moments in time, reading in many ways like intimate diaries. Is this a theme you intend to pursue in further recordings and how precious is song writing for you in dealing with everyday challenges? I’m practically anticipating a third similarly slanted album to complete a trilogy!   

I can’t explain it, other than it’s just the way I write songs. As life goes on, so does art and the things you have to draw from. I imagine I will stay the course.

Like so many of your Texan contemporaries you cut your teeth playing in indie/rock bands. Is this a direction you intend returning to at any stage in the future?

I don’t think so. At this point, I am more satisfied making quieter music.

Any plans to tour Europe in the near future?

No plans yet, but I would love to play there.

Interview by Declan Culliton   Photograph by Todd V Wolfson

Interview with Paul Burch

Paul Burch's unique vision of American roots music has attracted characters and collaborators from punk to honky tonk and beyond. His debut album Pan American Flash (1996) was ranked No. 5 on Amazon’s Best Country Albums of the Decade and all of Burch’s subsequent LPs have been acclaimed up to and including the release of his most recent album, his 12th, Meridian Rising (2016). Lonesome Highway has been fortunate to have seen play in Ireland on a number of occasions and to have interviewed him during this visits. We thought it was high time to catch up with him and ask him a few questions about his musical memories and observations about the Americana music scene in general.

You’ve had a varied musical career that has seen you as an instigator of the scene that revitalised Lower Broadway along side Greg Garing, BR5-49 and others. It’s now a totally different area a regular tourist trap. How do you consider your involvement with the re-genesis of the area now or do you have fond memories of that time?

I do have fond memories of playing on Lower Broadway. At that time I was discovering the first generation of songwriters who had come to Nashville after WWII and started writing from personal experience. I already loved Hank Williams very much and had since I was a lad. But I also started listening to Floyd Tillman who was from Texas and was an influence on Willie Nelson. It’s challenging to write a song as beautiful as Afraid by Fred Rose or as direct as Floyd Tillman’s “Slipping Around” or as funky as Vic McAlpin’s Rocket In My Pocket. Many of the early writers from that era were still around Nashville. And the sound of our band at the time–just guitars and Hawaiian steel - was like a siren song. We had been playing just a few weeks before they came out of the woodwork. Many songs from that time were also admired by my favourite R&B artists like Ray Charles, Arthur Alexander, and Sam Cooke whose work crossed over into rock ‘n’ roll.  

Plus at that time in the early 90s, many of the musicians who played on my favorite records - both country and R&B - were alive and very approachable both in Nashville and in Memphis and Muscle Shoals. Bobby Hebb, who wrote Sunny, came to my work and did a solo concert with just guitar that was absolutely thrilling and beautiful. Though I never met Sam Phillips he was just over in Memphis as was Charlie Rich. I did meet Carl Perkins and George Jones. Everywhere I went I was introduced as someone who was a “pretty good singer” and who cared about the artists. And I was happy to be thought of that way. Downtown there was a kind of flea market junk store that had a whole room piled high with 78s. The good stuff had been picked through but there were lots of one-off pressings of sermons and funerals, odd demos. And it seemed like only Greg, BR549, and myself were interested in that stuff. We had it all to ourselves. To give you a picture of how unplugged we were, around 1995 or so, the Country Music Foundation put out Johnny Paycheck’s early records from the Little Darlin’ era - early 60s - and we each bought out all the copies at Ernest Tubb records. Probably the day it came out. And probably the only copies they sold! But we weren’t listening to the radio at all. I couldn’t tell you what came out between 1994 and 1997 or so. I might as well have been on an island.

We were totally engaged in the music. Everyone told us we would never get anywhere, which just stiffened our resolve - at least mine. My ambition was to make records which itself was considered a bit weird. We really believed that the artists we were covering were vastly underrated. We had the fantasy - mostly wrong - that the musicians from that generation before Elvis knew a change was coming but were not encouraged to be as creative as they could be. As for its current state as a slum for drunks, it was probably inevitable. A lot of investment was happening just as we were getting some press. One might have helped the other. But it didn’t take a lot of vision to see that it could be exploited.  

Your last album Meridian Rising was about an imagined musical telling of the life of Jimmie Rodgers, the Singing Brakeman. You tell the overall story on your website. Tell me what inspired you to create this set of songs that was conceived in musical style that would have been familiar to him?

By chance I heard an unreleased recording of Jimmie with Clifford Gibson, an African American bluesman who mostly worked out of St. Louis. The song was called Let Me Be Your Sidetrack. It was the surviving take of two that were made and you can tell because Clifford anticipates Jimmie’s yodel at the end. I think at the time I was either working on the songs for Last of My Kind - based loosely on the characters in Tony Earley’s Jim the Boy which takes place in the 1930s - or I was working on gathering songs for a documentary about Appalachia. Both might have been going on at the same time.  

But anyway, I was struck by the recording because Clifford was a good guitar player and played in an open-tuning with phrases that reminded me a little of Robert Johnson who was a few years in the future. In other words, his sound was contemporary to blues at the time but also a little more forward. That’s how I chose to hear it anyway. Clifford was also the only bluesman that Jimmie ever recorded with. So all of this just intrigued me about what Jimmie’s life was like as a musician. I had already read the biography by Nolan Porterfield but it didn’t give me the sense of Jimmie’s personality on record as it connected to the facts of his life. His personality is easy to hear in his music. But integrating the two was what I wanted to do. I thought it would be an interesting challenge as a writer. 

Gradually, after a few years of keeping the idea in my back pocket, it struck me that using the styles of Jimmie’s influences like the Mississippi Sheiks and others would be the best way to present the story. Occasionally I dipped into his forms but for the most part I had the freedom to draw on sounds and arrangement styles that Jimmie probably enjoyed but didn’t cover. For instance, If I Could Only Catch My Breath  has the kind of death-march sound I know from Duke Ellington’s early records for Okeh, which were out at the same time. Most of all it was a great writing trip. And I got to spend time in that world which is pretty wonderful musically.

Are you working on a new release or what consumes you creative energies these days?

I am working on a record. It might be a series of records - I’m not sure yet.  But I’m hunting and gathering as we speak for release next year. 

After eleven albums does get harder to find something new that you want to express?

Thankfully not. I feel more challenged after Meridian Rising to try to take more risks and do something that is hard to qualify but easy to like. Perhaps initially I wanted to state my case that I could write and sing a song and produce an album. For better or for worse - as far as the market place is concerned -I don’t have run that race anymore.  Ultimately, I’d like to create something so beautiful that it lives far beyond my name. 

You toured at one time as a member of Lambchop was it refreshing to be part of a band rather than leading it or do you still like to be the man in charge?

I like both. I’m not sure anyone was in charge of Lambchop - though certainly Kurt was and is the leader. They were his songs. I’m by nature someone who likes to help. I can’t keep quiet if there is an opportunity to encourage freedom of expression. In my own group there are several members who encourage me to take chances and they’re not afraid to disagree. I think there is a Keith Richards quote somewhere about first turning on the drummer and then the band. Once you’ve done that, look out world. As far as being in charge - I know there are better guitarists, vocalists, bandleaders - you name it. But I’m uniquely qualified to tell the story I’m telling in the way I think it should be told. If I can express myself freely, they will too. We’re in it together.   

Your current WPA Ballclub roster includes some 21 names. Do you ever all get together or do you have to pick and choose to suit a venue or budget?

I think you’re the first that’s put a number to it. Typically - on an occasion where everyone can make it - we work best as a quintet. I like the variety of sounds. But anything can work. Ideally it’s nice to have an array of colors that way you’re not boxed in. 

In that light, do you get to tour these days?

Not as much as I’d like to but as I said last time, if someone calls and says “go here”, “go there”, I’ll probably do it. I kind of like working in obscurity except for things that come with obscurity like lack of resources and fewer opportunities. 

A lot of the imagery on your website has a look that seems to be taken from the last century. Is that a time that hold s the most interest with visually and musically for you?

In most cases I used the photos that appealed to me. I was born in the last century so it doesn’t seem so far away to me. As for the photos of me, they where shot just where I happened to be. When the photographer says, “hold still” I’m not going to argue. 

What memories do you have of playing in Ireland?

Good ones!  I’m not there enough. My grandfather’s family was from Cork. I’d like to go back again soon.

Do you have a particular favourite in the albums you have release yourself?

I don’t - but I don’t say that in a disparaging way. They all have their sound, which I’m thankful that happened. I learned something from making all of them. In retrospect, even making one album seems remarkable. I remember thinking after Pan American Flash that it was a nice album and if I couldn’t make a better one or another one, that would be ok. I guess I suffer from being philosophical. I remember the feeling of wanting to write the records and putting them together. But the ability to actually make the songs happen, that’s as much of a mystery now as it was then.  

What about in you production and guest roles?

I’d like to do more. I always keep my ears out. Producing is a lot of work - it’s an investment. 

How difficult is it to keep control of your music in these times. It looks like you have the rights to your albums?

Glider Ltd. is my little label which the older records are available on. But I like labels. I wouldn’t want to own one but I don’t mind being on one at all. As Jason Ringenberg says, a team beats a single person everytime. 

What ambitions have you yet to fulfill? Do you have many interests outside musical ones that take up your time? 

I don't know about any specific ambitions other than to stay alive and keep working. I do still think Meridian Rising would make an interesting film or play so I hope a good young film maker or playwright might emerge from the dark who has an idea. I think perhaps I’ve gone as far as I can in its current form. I have a few more album ideas I’d like to pursue. I’m just happy to be interviewed, really. Will anyone be reading this? 

Finally what has music given you? 

A keen sense of purpose and desperation. 

Interview by Stephen Rapid  Photograph by Jim Herrington

Interview with Kacy Anderson (Kacy & Clayton)

My first encounter with Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum was when they appeared at The Kilkenny Roots Festival in 2015. The young duo, teenagers at the time, were chaperoned by Ryan Boldt of Deep Dark Woods fame, who was playing solo at the festival, having performed with his band at Kilkenny Roots a few years earlier. Boldt has been like a father figure to Kacy & Clayton, bringing them on tour with him and plugging them from an early stage in their careers as Kacy explained. ‘Ryan’s been very encouraging to our career not only advocating our music, but as an example of how to become touring musicians outside of Saskatchewan’

Second cousins, Kacy and Clayton early acoustic albums suggested a maturity in both writing and playing well beyond their years and they eventually came to the attention of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, who invited them to open for Wilco at The Fillmore in San Francisco. So impressed was Tweedy that he offered to produce their latest album, The Siren’s Song, at Wilco’s recording studio The Loft in Chicago. The album, released in The States in 2017and in Europe in the spring of this year, unlike their previous work as a duo, features bass and drums to supplement Anderson’s striking vocals and Linthicum’s finger picking guitar style. The inclusions of the additional instruments give their songs extra depth, something no doubt recognised by Tweedy, whose production rewards the listener with a very late 60’s early 70’s feel, recalling in particular the U.K. folk rock sounds of that era, together with the flower power Laurel Canyon vibe. I get the impression talking to Kacy that working with Tweedy was very much a teacher and pupil scenario, with little time wasted in the studio and I even detect an innocent reverence of the whole experience. ‘Jeff has an endless amount of gear and I got to play a couple of his guitars on the album. His presence was respected which made for timely sessions. We didn’t do any messing around because we knew he wasn’t going to be staying all night for us to get a take!’.

The album features a number of co-writes between Kacy & Clayton ‘I find that finishing songs with Clayton gives me more confidence to bring them forth to other people to listen to because it’s been filtered through another set of ears that I trust with all of my heart,’ adds Kacy. The album tour has them performing with a band rather that the duet format of previous tours, but has she a preference for one over the other? ’It’s nice to have the band with us on tour since the majority of the latest album has a rhythm section. Playing as a duo feels comfortable also as that’s how we started out. Playing as a duo also gives us an opportunity to do some traditional folk songs we love that we haven’t arranged with the full band. The person paying us gets to decide their preference I suppose’.

Kacy comes across as a particularly grounded, practical and polite young lady, no doubt a result of her upbringing in the remote town of Wood Mountain, a four-hour drive to Saskatchewan, where the possibilities to witness live music was restricted. ‘We saw local rodeo dance bands and went up to Regina or Saskatchewan every once and a while to see people like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, John Fogerty perform at the Stadiums’ she explains.  

Self-confessed music nerds who were both experimenting with old folk and country sounds, I wondered how that resonated with their school peers given that they are not the music genres normally associated with teenagers. ‘No one in our school cared about music at all really, so we just got as weird as we wanted with our tastes because everyone already thought we were weird anyway!’.

With the nearest record store, a five-hour bus ride to pick up second hand albums and the internet unreliable in The Wood Mountain Uplands, the opportunities to research their combined fascination of old time country and folk music was limited. A neighbour who grew up on 40’s and 50’s country legends Hank Snow and Bob Willis was one source and The Carter Family and Doc Watson’s music was discovered on a cassette tape of Kacy’s Grandfather. Given that the majority of today’s music lovers and artists have an unlimited source of information available at their fingertips via the internet, it’s refreshing that the majority of Kacy & Clayton’s song writing ideas originated from stories passed down from family members and neighbours, very much in keeping with the origins of the old timey music that fascinates them so much. The daily three-hour journey to and from school also gave her the chance to devour books on the history of music and any biographies she could get her hands on. 

Rehearsing involved driving the six miles from each other’s houses – illegally initially given that they were under the legal age to own a driver’s licence – and their opportunities to perform live were restricted to playing at a senior citizens home on Sunday evenings. It’s remarkable that they are making waves in the Americana scene given these impediments. However, it’s still no gravy train, four albums later and even support slots with Wilco and an upcoming tour opening for The Decemberists. As Kacy explained, ‘It would be nice to get down to play The Americana Fest again in Nashville, but unfortunately it’s very expensive to do’. 

In the meantime, their aim is to attempt to maintain a steady album/tour cycle and see where that brings them ‘Our plan is to keep making an album every couple of years and touring to support it. I hope to repeat the cycle as many times as possible. I think it’s pretty much impossible for us to break into the market in The States but we will keep trying our best’.

I wondered where the U.K. folk influences came from given how striking they are on the album. Kacy replied, ‘It began for me about 8 years ago when I started listening to Fairport Convention, Anne Briggs and Shirley Collins on my iPod riding the bus for an hour and a half to school every day and then back again’.

Comparisons could be made with Dori Freeman, another independent young female artist also residing in the equally rural setting of Galax Virginia and who has an equally passionate love of old time music. Both Kacy and Clayton appear on her latest album Letter Never Read and I wondered where the connection had been made. ‘We became friends over the World Wide Web a couple years ago and it lead to Clayton and I playing a little on her album, ‘She’s a wise woman and I have a great appreciation for her support of our bands existence’.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Interview with Timbo of Speedbuggy USA

Speedbuggy USA are an exciting no holds barred country-punk band from Los Angeles who released their first album in 2000 and Kick Out The Twang this year. They are fronted by guitarist and vocalist Timbo. Lonesome Highway caught up with him after a recent European tour to ask him a few questions.

Tell me what was the inspiration and story behind Speedbuggy USA?

The band started out as a nitro-infused Cowpunk band. I wanted to blend my love for Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, Hank Williams and so on mixed with the energy of The Clash, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Jam, The Pogues. The list of influences goes on forever. We had Steve Kidwiler from NOFX on guitar and Pat Muzingo from Decry and Junkyard on drums.This was in the 90's we just wanted to tour and play our hearts out. We played mostly with punk bands back then. I think it made our music more gritty, it toughened us up .

Usually when a band adds a UK or USA after their name it is because there another brand with thew same name. Is that the case here?

After we released our first record on Greg Hetson's label Porterhouse in the 90's we found out there was a Canadian band (who have now broken up) with the same name. So adding USA seemed to make sense at the time.

Did you have a clear vision for what you wanted the band to be when you started out?

Not really, I definitely had my influences I wanted to blend my love of honky tonk and bluegrass music with a bit of punk rock angst. But I always knew I would let my writing go where ever it would take me. Sometimes band members will help sway a song one way or the another. But I must say my vision of music goes in and out of focus.

Cowpunk is a term that has somewhat fallen out of usage but seems appropriate here.

I think that is true. I really love those older bands like Jason and The Scorchers and Rank ’n’ File. It's a tough road trying to play honky tonk and mixing in something that blows the barn doors off. You really have to love playing it .

The band’s music though has light and shade on the recordings. Do you take a different approach to the live material?

I let the songs change according to the mood of the show and who is sharing the stage with me live. I try not to hold the songs hostage to the recordings.

You have mentioned that you are playing workingman’s music, do you see that as the backbone of country music?

It used to be the back bone but I think country music has gotten more of a pop sound over the years. It's so much more commercial. I lean towards the past for inspiration. Something about those old songs about truckers, cowboys, rail riders, construction and factory workers or the beaten down, the outcasts, the alcoholics and out of luck souls have always appealed more to me.

Do you have a love of the spirit of the West, of the cowboy lifestyle?

That's one reason I stayed for so long in Los Angeles. The history of cowboy music, film and clothing are a big part of Los Angeles history. Once I put a cowboy suit on I'm ready to roll out on the stage like a singing cowboy of the silver screen. “Go west young man” still echoes in my heart .

In that light I’m sure you must have some favourite books and films?

Those old Hollywood westerns were staples of my youth, they were always on the television Saturday nights and in the Sunday matinee’s. As a kid I was crazy about 50'-70's TV cowboys like the Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, The Rifleman, Gene Autry and Gun Smoke were all some of my favourites. I also have a strong affection for those Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. I love how Sergio showed the fine blurred line between the good guy and the bad guy. Nothing is better than a western film .

Speedbuggy seem to be making inroads in Europe do you find that that audience more appreciative of your music?

I love touring Europe, our fans over the great pond mean the world to us they are very sincere and a blast to hang out with. Europe is one reason we have kept going all these years.

Are you able to sustain the band through live work and album sales?

When not touring I'm a carpenter I love building. Not only the camaraderie of a job site but the self worth of constructing something. I'm proud to be a working class blue collar man .

I read that you recently had to deal with serious illness. How did that set you back?

It's been a long road. We couldn't tour or play much. I think in the big picture it's help in my song writing. Nothing like a dose of pain and financial struggle to help write a broken-hearted country song.

How do you feel the music has progressed since releasing Cowboys & Aliens in 2000?

I've really  tried to bring more of that California, Bakersfield sound into our mix. Our guitarist Seth Von Paulus who is the producer of the bands last two records has helped expanded and explore different instruments, tones and rhythms over the years. This has really helped the band get deeper into American roots music .

Were you musically involved prior to that and was your musical direction different?

I've been playing music since I was a kid. The minute I saw Elvis I was hooked. I don't think I had one specific direction in my younger years. I just loved playing  guitar  and singing. I was lucky growing up in Louisiana and being surrounded by so much great music. Cajun, country, blues and rock ’n’ roll 24 hours a day. I always tried to learn from the artists around me and I kept my eyes and ears wide open.

You guys can rock but in a way that works whereas some of the current crop of “country” bands seem more like a bad metal act. Can you explain the difference?

I think maybe the passion is different for Speedbuggy. When I work on a song I'm trying not only to express my art but I want it to find a truer sound. I want it to be real. I think if you are only trying to find that radio hit, you as an artist could suffer. I try to get back to my roots, that’s why I started to play music and pick up the pen, paper and guitar and get to work .

What’s next for Timbo and Speedbuggy USA?

We are working on writing another record. I've been getting with Brady Sloan, our bass player, and our drummer Jaimie Dawson and bashing out ideas for the next record. Fresh off the road has always been a creative  writing time for me. Speedbuggy is also setting up more festivals and tours. For the future Speedbuggy hopes to come to Ireland to perform. So spread the word and let's get this buggy rolling!

Interview by Stephen Rapid

Alejandro Escovedo Interview

Alejandro Escovedo is a real rock ’n’ roll animal, a true believer. He believes in the power and sanctity of music. Music without barriers or borders. In 1998 he was named “Artist Of The Decade” By the magazine No Depression which showed the respect he had garnered throughout his career. A career which had already taken in punk, roots rock and hard rockin’ (and rollin’) as well his own Mexican musical heritage and the innovative use of a string section on stage and in recording. His albums have always been varied and different from each other allowing him to follow his muse as this will takes him. He has had success and he has also been through hard times but the music has always stayed with him. He is about to release a new album The Crossing that relates to the current political climate in the US as well as to his culture. This interview was conducted backstage at his last appearance in Dublin where the performed with his Italian band Don Antonio. Alejandro Escovedo was as open and honest in person as he is in his music and it was a pleasure to meet him and his wife Nancy (and thanks for the cup of tea Nancy).

You have been touring in Europe behind Burn Something Beautiful how has that been going?

It’s been extensive, day to day, 32 shows, in what seems like 25 days. But I know it’s actually been longer. There’s hardly any days off, what days off there have been have been for travel. It started because I have an English manager now, Chris Metzler, and he gave me the option of working with a few different bands and I choose these guys because they had worked so much with all my friends like Robyn Hitchcock, Dan Stuart and Howe Gelb.  

They all raved about the band so Nancy, my wife and I flew over to Bologna and they picked us up and we went to the little tiny village that they are all from and we had dinner, with Italians the first thing they do is eat, then we went to rehearsals for an hour for two. After we woke up the next morning we rehearsed again, all day this time. Then next morning we gather all the equipment together and loaded the van. There was 6 of us and all the equipment in a little van. So, we’d got up at 4.30 the next morning to leave for a 10 hour drive to Frankfurt. We played that night after the long drive stuffed into what I call the “veo-cage.” That was the start of the tour and it’s been non-stop since.

It’s been amazing to be back here. It’s always been non-stop touring for me but my European visits have been more sporadic. But now that I have a manager who has been able to get this tour together of 32 dates there is a lot of interest again. So, I’ll be coming back more often. 

The album moves away from the Americana mode that you are associated with even though you have been a rocker at heart for a very long time?

Well I never really got that far away from it but people never really associated me with it because of Rank & File kinda pinned that Americana thing on me. Also, my association with Bloodshot Records had a lot it too as well as singing on Ryan’s (Adams) record the Whiskeytown album. My taste has always been towards The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, New York Dolls,The Seeds, The Standells … those bands as well as Motown and blues. The Americana thing has come by association really. 

Yet traditional Country was also a part of your musical journey.

You have to think of some of the great country artists like Lefty Frizzell. Nobody was making records and doing arrangements like he was. Bob Wills was basically doing jazz and he was drawing from all the best big bands in America: guys from Benny Goodman’s band and from Lionel Hampton or whoever. Then you had people like Waylon. When we formed Rank & File we found some sort of thread between Waylon’s music and dub music. That’s what we wanted and my rhythm guitar playing was totally skanking with the snare drum. That also reflected Mexican music.

That’s why I think that when you tag a label on music, such as Americana, it doesn’t do anything to help the artistic, creative process. You need to break down walls to create something new. I instantly bristle and want to rebel against it. If you tell me I’m Americana I’ll make metal machine music. I know that a lot of people tend to find comfort in it. It’s not like a real individualistic thing, it’s more a sound. Like the Burrito Brothers or Dillard and Clark or whatever. That is all wonderful music but I don’t think it needs to be recreated. 

When you claim to be the greatest fucking blues band (or whatever) in the world you’re just shooting yourself in the foot. I understand it for press purposes but in the end you have to live with these things. When you get to a certain age and you know better I think it’s best to let the music speak for itself. Let someone else label it because I don’t even know what it is. I’m not sure myself half the time. I’m just playing songs.

This record (Burn Something Beautiful) is taking it back to the Northwest and playing with Peter (Buck) and Scott (McCaughey), especially Kurt (Bloch) on lead guitar. It put us back in the garage and that was a beautiful place to be. I knew I would get that with them and we had toured a little bit together so that gave us an idea what the record was going to be like. It took a long time as a lot of things happened in the interim, a lot of personal things. All of us, not just me, went through a lot of things. Like Nancy (Alejandro’s wife) and I went through a hurricane that led to a year of PTSD. We had to get through that and when that was over we were finally ready to make the album. When we started I wrote with Pete and then Scott came in and we all worked together and we got some really wonderful songs. They allowed me to take over the lyrics so that I could shape a story that was mine as I was going to have to sing them.

Do you draw a lot from the energy levels from the music?

Yes, due to a couple of things, one was the end of my Hepatitis C, finally get rid of that has given me a lot of energy and then playing these songs has naturally inspired me to want to get back into that head space where your discovering things. You know I haven’t had a drink in 15 years because of my health but I got rid of the Hep C and it’s gone. Now people don’t even ask if you drink or not, they just pour you a glass of wine and when I’d say no they acted offended. Then I had a little half glass of wine and it was ok. But when I got to the UK I had a couple of beers and that was ok too.  

Your health, lifestyle and background all reflect in your music?

My music has always been drawn from a certain respect for life and death. Including the grief that we have to work through for so many things. It could be a personal experience. My previous wife committed suicide but the effect of that was to really open up my music a lot. I became more able to come open about what I was going through. There is no greater compliment to me as a writer as to when other people come to me and relates that a wife or brother or someone they know and love has passed away and that my music has guided them in some way. To help find some kind of understanding of that. 

All I was doing was writing about my feelings and thoughts about what I was going through and I really expected nothing of it. But then people started coming to me like people who had experienced suicide in some manner. Suicide is a mysterious and never ending cycle of feelings. It’s like a ripple effect in that it affects people so far beyond the actual act people you’re not even aware of sometimes. It was a little daunting as I don’t think that I was prepared to give anyone advice at the time. Last the same time it helped me as I could see how far I’d gone as opposed to someone who was just new to this experience.  

On the album (Burn Something Beautiful) we talked about the process of getting older and raging, especially in Rock ’n’ Roll. I played a, I think 73rd birthday party, for Ian Hunter and he came out and showed us all what it’s all about I don’t care who got up there to sing as once he got up there you thought of no-one else who had performed prior to that. I often play I Wish I Was Your Mother or All The Young Dudes as a solo encore at gigs because Mott The Hoople were wild. Ian’s still making great records and his band is amazing. He’s been a big inspiration for me. When I was a punk rock kid in Austin all I knew was to turn the amp right forever, good hair and wear tight trousers were the whole thing, right!(laughs). I was constantly asked to play something when a guy would hand me a guitar so I’d learned Mott’s I Wish I Was You’re Mother they loved it and they didn’t know who wrote it. 

You have worked with some inspiration producers in your career.

Yes, people like John Cale, Tony Visconti, Chris Stamey and Peter and Scott on this album and I give them all the credit for that. When I work with a producer I really like to let that producer do his thing. There’s a lot of guys that I know have a very strong ideas of what they want to do and then they start butting heads with the producer and to me that’s not wealth he’s there for. If you think you know enough to produce your own record why invite someone in. When I invite someone in I allow them to guide me and I have to trust them. It takes me a long time to decide who I want to work with because I don’t want to work with just anyone. I have been offered the opportunity to work with some interesting people but, also, I don’t want them to just make their own record either.

The current political climate in America, for someone with your background, must be difficult to say the least. Do you feel the negative side of this?

Absolutely. It’s a frightening time in our country and it seems to be a frightening time in the world the more I travel. America is faced with this resurgence of right wing and in France with Marie LePen and England with Brexit. There seems to be a trend in that direction that has to be stopped. The world seems to have reached a boiling point again. Then in the 70s and 80s it became about money - and about ME. So hopefully this will draw us back to a place where we become more concerned with each other. I keep thinking that these devices that we are drawn to and addicted to … I’m talking about phones and computers in a world where it’s called ‘social media’ but to me it’s done everything but create a social world.

Interview by Stephen Rapid     Photograph by Nancy Rankin Escovedo

Interview with Prinz Grizzley

Prinz Grizzley and his Beargaroos – Chris Comper Interview

My first encounter with Chris Comper was at Kilkenny Roots in 2017, when he and his band – Prinz Grizzley and his Beargaroos - played no fewer than six shows on the Smethwick’s Free Trail over the weekend. The appearances made quite an impression on the festival organisers and punters alike, to the extent that they were invited back this year. On this occasion they were booked as a premier act, performing two showcase gigs together with being invited to play the festival ‘wind down’ party on the final day of the festival. It is no coincidence that 2018 has also found them playing at The Static Roots Festival in Germany and being invited to play shows at Americana Fest in Nashville in September. However, what might appear as overnight success is far from the case, Comper has been working tirelessly over the past number of years to establish himself and his band in a sometimes-overheated European market, competing with the countless number of visiting American and Canadian acts together with artists closer to home. While reviewing the Austrian’s 2017  Come On Inalbum in Lonesome Highway it was summed up as "a joy from start to finish, nothing new or ground breaking, simply good lived in music that hits the spot from an unexpected source." We caught up with Comper, while at home drawing breath between tours to get the low down. 

Austria is well acclaimed musically, with Vienna considered the European Capital of classical music. However, not many roots bands have emerged from Austria. Where did your enthusiasm for country music originate from and what artists and albums pointed you in that direction career wise?

Apart from all the mix tapes (CCR, Bruce Springsteen, Status Quo) my father passed on to me, he gave me a Bellamy Brothers Best of Cassette as a gift. I loved the melodies and the harmonies of them, have to admit I still do. I guess from then on countryesque music had a place in my heart. Later on, I was really into Oasis at that time, but also lent my ears to Ryan Adams, a friend gave me a copy of John Hiatt´s Crossing Muddy Waters. The honesty and power of that record really blew my mind, from then on, I knew one day I would try that kind of music myself. And then when I made demos for the first songs of what would become my debut album, I still wasn´t sure in what kind of environment I would place them, until Daniel Romano´s "Come Cry With Me" hit my horizon.  I knew then that pedal steel was the way to go. Not to forget the Album Harvest by Neil Young, I bought that CD 3 times because of the heavy use of it!

I get the impression you’re a particularly structured individual. Well-rehearsed sets, top quality instruments, well packaged album with great artwork and one of the few bands that always have their setlists printed! Is it important for you that every box is ticked correctly?

To tick every box is my way of working, structure keeps my wheel turning, otherwise I couldn´t handle everything alone. There´s my family, my full time job, booking shows, writing songs etc...  Sometimes I should have a 25 hours day or a manager.

Tell me about the song writing for your current album Come On In. What was the starting point and over what period were the songs written?

The oldest song on the album is Personal Hell, I wrote it about 8 years back for a friend of mine. I Can See Darkness and Fiery EyesI shortly wrote after the release of the last Golden Reef album in 2012, I guess. They have been around for a while. All the other songs on the album I wrote shortly before I recorded them, I would say none was older than 6 months. Most came pretty easy after I knew in which direction I wanna go.

Which came first, the words or the music?

That depends, if I have a kind of topic in my mind or some kind of feeling is hunting me. When it’s a topic thing its words first, when it’s a feeling always music. And I try to stick to one rule, chorus first.

There are a lot of heartache and pleas for forgiveness and redemption on the album’s lyrics, often camouflaged by the upbeat music that accompanies them. Did you write of personal experiences or entirely fictional?

In every song is a bit of me, that´s why I am writing songs.

Is opening track Wide Open Country particularly confessional? 

Maybe!

The track Walls, is a particular favourite of mine, recalling Ryan Adams' Jacksonville City Lights period. It’s not a song that you perform in your shows? 

Walls is a very personal song, I wrote it after I visited my Grandpa in the nursing home for the first time. It was his lifetime nightmare to spend his last days in such an environment, but there was no other option. After his third stroke he lost control over his body and wasn´t able to talk or walk anymore. When I looked in his eyes I saw the strong man that I knew was gone, his eyes were empty and that broke my heart. I had real troubles to do the vocals for this song, until I really reconnected with that very day of my visit. Then I did it in one take and after that I was in tears. I guess to do this song live, I need to separate myself from the emotion of it, but I haven´t found a way of doing this yet. That´s why it’s not on the setlist.

The artwork and packaging on the album are impressive but very dark. Was that a reflection of your state of mind at that time or purely to create an ambience?

Never thought of this, maybe it was both. All I know, the artwork fits the songs perfectly!! In my opinion.

Recalling your early band Golden Reef, do you feel they would have made a breakthrough in the indie rock genre given the breaks and what did you learn from the experiences in that band?

I would say in those days indie rock was a battlefield, so many good bands especially from the UK. If you hadn't the luck to get signed or have at least a good manager you were lost in the thick of this forest. What I learned is, if there is no one helping you then help yourself, don’t wait, just do it yourself. When one door closes another one opens up.

How have you changed as a writer and musician since your early days with that band?

Can´t say, still hunting those songs and try to make that guitar work. But I would say I am more focused on finishing a song than I was 10 years ago.  I think this came with my kids, if you have ten minutes until the baby cries for food you take the idea and try to make it work.

Things have really come together for you and your band in a relatively short period of time with appearances at Kilkenny Roots Festival in Ireland, Static Roots in Germany and upcoming showcases at Americana Fest in Nashville. What triggered this and have you medium to long term plans going forward?

Kilkenny was really good to me and the band. John Cleere gave me the opportunity. I took it, we went there and played our hearts out, did six 90 minutes sets in four days and luckily the people liked what they heard. It opened a lot of doors for me. But I still have to work hard for everything, every gig, every opportunity. No time to put the feet up.

Pedal steel gets pride of place both on the album and at your shows bringing much of your material to another level. How important is that sound to you?

Like you said, the Pedal steel takes my songs to another level and also gives a sweet touch to my sometimes growling voice.

Is it feasible for you to survive concentrating on the European market or do you need to look further afield?

I think the European scene is really good, especially the UK, there are a lot of places to play and every place is easy to reach. I mean, there´s a good reason why so many American and Canadian bands coming over to play one tour after the other. As a European artist to tackle the American market, you need at least some kind of a hit or an album that can keep up with the big guns. One step after another!

Are you working on a follow up album to Come On In and if so will it travel a similar musical path?

In fact, I will be in the studio later this year. But I have written so many songs over the last two years that I could make more than just one album. The songs go from blues to folk to country and even a bossa nova, we will see which ones make the cut. So, there should be an album coming next year.                  

Interview by Declan Culliton 

Interview with James Wilson -Sons Of Bill

Sons of Bill’s fifth studio album OH GOD MA’AM, might never have seen the light of day. A series of setbacks including marriage breakdowns, addictions and James Wilson suffering a dreadful hand injury when falling on broken glass, could have resulted in the project being abandoned. Fortunately, these stumbling blocks were conquered and perversely contributed to the recording of their most mature album to date (see our Music Review section). The band from Charlottesville Virginia – which includes brothers James, Abe and Sam together with Joe Dickey on bass and Todd Wellons on drums – took advantage of the additional time available to them to experiment beyond their trademark luscious guitar and harmony driven tones. The venture has resulted in their most impressive and perfected work to date. Lonesome Highway caught up with James Wilson while on tour in the U.K. to discuss the album, which was released by Loose on 29th June. 

The recording of your recently released album OH GOD MA’AM was delayed for a number of reasons, not least the horrific hand injury you suffered. What effect did the delay have on the finished product?

I’m not sure other than the fact it took much longer than expected. But it also gave us a chance to live with the music midway through the process like we’ve never been able to before. We knew we weren’t going to hit print on this album until we knew it was our best. 

They say that tragedy inspires creativity, but just how difficult was your period of recuperation and did you consider walking away from the project and band at that time?

It was certainly a time of hardship, in a time when the music industry is just as precarious. No one makes it through life without crippling tragedies, but ours just seemed to hit each of us all at once.  I knew I wanted to finish this album, but we all sort of made the unspoken decision that if the album was going to be finished, we were going to have to grow and make something different. It couldn’t be just another record of rock and roll innocence.     

Much of the writing is understandably dark, with unanswered questions, reflecting both personal and worldly issues. Given that the song writing duties are shared, how was it co-ordinated given that the writers had different issues to deal with at the time?

We live in strangely superficial, and unreflective times - which I think is reflected in both our art and politics. It doesn’t feel like there is a lot of room for art to articulate our internal lives very much, since so much of our lives are lived on the surface. We tried to make a record that was comfortable in its introversion, and hopefully it reaches people there. If you dig deep inside yourself, and strike oil, people think you’ve tapped their phone lines. That’s what you shoot for anyway. 

Was it intended to be a concept album, to be listened to in its entirety rather than a collection of unconnected songs?

Not at all. But I do think its best listened straight through. I feel like this one really works as a whole, as a single piece.

The title of the album is interesting, can you tell me what inspired it?

It’s just a band inside joke. Todd our drummer was accosted by a prostitute in Tampa one tour and that’s what he shouted.  Since then we haven’t stopped saying it. The title to me falls somewhere between intrigue and terror, but also formal, it just felt right for this record.

Do you feel it’s more difficult or smoother working with siblings and does the "big brother knows best" attitude prevail?

Not at all, you have to trust your band mates artistically and at the end of the day the music has to win. Trust your goosebumps and follow the music.

You recorded in both Nashville and Seattle, working with both Sean Sullivan and Phil Eek as producers. Were there specific reasons to engage two producers?

Not really, the album was just a longer process given all of our personal setbacks. It was always a dream of mine to work with Phil Eek, and he’s an incredible artist and engineer. He was hard on us in all of the right ways. 

The album heads in different directions than much of your previous work with a more electro indie sound. Abe (Wilson) brings much of the material to other places with his synthesizer playing. Did employing Peter Katis to mix the album heavily influence this?

We were just bored with our knee jerk way of doing things and took time to find a sonic palette that fit these songs. We had more time than ever to make this record so we got the chance to really experiment in a way we never had the luxury to before.

Is the album an exercise in collectively "shaking off demons" or an indication of a change in musical direction going forward?

I think it’s a more mature record. I think there is an adult humility too it, and I don’t see us regaining the innocence of youth any time soon.  But as I said before you’ve got chase down what gives you goosebumps, and that changes throughout your life. If you’re not doing that you’re not making art you’re just engaging in product assembly.  

Molly Pardon makes an appearance on the album, adding vocals on Easier. Given that you guys harmonise so well what was the impetus to invite her to perform?

Molly is the best singer in Nashville in a town full of singers.  She has this amazing ability to be both perfect, while still transmitting emotionally and lyrically.  I would have let her sing the whole album if I could!

What tracks in particular are the ones that you’re particularly proud of?

Gosh, really the record as a whole I would say.  But Sweeter, Sadder, Farther Away has a tragic simplicity too it that I’m proud of.  

The sound brings to mind 1980’s UK bands such as New Order and Echo & the Bunnymen, together with more current bands War On Drugs and The National. Were they conscious influences on you when recording the album?

They were certainly big influences on us growing up along with their more ragged American counterparts REM and the Replacements. We just searched for the sounds to fit the songs and settled somewhere pretty awesome, I think.

In fact, many industry insiders together with punters would feel your profile should be up there with both War On Drugs and The National. How frustrating has it been in not reaching much larger audiences given the calibre of your back catalogue

Art is one thing and commerce is another separate thing. Commercial success has to do with a million factors that are outside of your control. I can stand by the music we’ve made, and I won’t be ashamed to play it for my grandkids. At the end of the day that’s all you can really hang your hat on, and it’s the only thing you should never compromise.

Has material from the album been challenging to recreate live given the complex arrangements?

It has, but we just fall back on our experience as a touring band. We make eye contact, count to four, and rock like murder, as Paul Westerberg says. 

Five albums in and having navigated so many obstacles and hurdles over the past twelve years, do you feel stronger as a band for the experiences and where do you see yourselves twelve years down the road?

Rock and roll is about survival in the 2000’s. We’ll continue to survive and make music god willing.  I plan on making music until they throw dirt on me.

Interview by Declan Culliton

Interview with Ana Egge

Ana Egge is very typical of the type of artist that appeals to us at Lonesome Highway and one that is greatly admired by our team. Difficult to slot into any one genre – even Americana – she has recorded ten albums over a career that spans two decades, together with appearing on records recorded by Ron Sexsmith, Nels Andrews, Joel Plasckett and Matt The Electrician. She has toured with Iris DeMent, Ron Sexsmith, Shawn Colvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore and performed on stage with Lucinda Williams, John Prine and Sinead O’Connor. Her pedigree was recognised early in her career when, at 19 years old and following the release of her debut album River Under The Road, she was voted Best Singer Songwriter and Best Folk Artist by the Austin Music Awards. Her latest recording White Tiger, released in June of this year and reviewed by ourselves, is yet another wonderful addition to a catalogue of recordings that should take pride of place in every serious music lovers collection. If in any doubt Lucinda William’s declaration should convince you. "Listen to her lyrics. Ana is the folk Nina Simone!’’ Ana took the time out to chat briefly with Lonesome Highway about her roller coaster career to date and her latest recording.

By modern day standards your upbringing would be considered unconventional. Did the freedom and lifestyle you enjoyed growing up inspire you as a songwriter?

Yes absolutely. We didn’t watch much tv and I had tons of time outside in the quiet. I still love and long for a quieter time in my life. Space and time is mostly what I need to write and I had loads of that when I was young that taught me a hunger for that.

Your music has evolved and varied over the years, Americana long before the genre was recognised. I expect your inspiration came from a diverse range of artists?

I was just a guest DJ on a radio station in Boston and got to pick 10 songs that inspired me. I included songs by The Buzzcocks and Django and Dolly Parton.

Has the emergence of the Americana genre given your music a home or managed to introduce your work to a wider audience?

I still don’t really fit in there either unfortunately. I think I do, but I haven’t really been welcomed or acknowledged by the powers that be. Still an outsider.

Your homemade guitar Junior seems to be leading a life as charmed as Willie Nelson’s legendary Trigger! Do you still tour with it?

I do! Just had a crack in the back fixed and had to play one radio show in NJ last week without her. I REALLY missed her.

Recording albums in to double figures is no mean career achievement given the vagaries of the music industry. How do you compare the industry of today with your early career years?

It couldn’t be more different. My first album came out in 1997. Tower Records was still everywhere. People still bought physical albums and streaming didn’t exist. 

Your debut album River Under The Road was recorded with Asleep At The Wheel back in 1997. How did you get them on board and what were your career expectations back then?

I was mostly just blown away about everything that happened for me back then. Many doors were opened by incredible people. I didn’t understand how I could be so lucky but now I see more like they recognized me as one of their own. Music brings people together for a reason especially when it brings us together to collaborate! I lived on an intentional community in NM with Sarah Brown’s family. Sarah Brown was the bass player in the house band at Antones in Austin. She’s played with Bonnie Raitt and so many others. She was my entrée to the scene there. She introduced me to everyone, taking me around with my guitar to sing my songs.

Your 2007 covers album Lazy Days featured material from a range of artists including 60’s Brit pop bands The Kinks and The Zombies to Arcade Fire. Did the album reflect bands that had an appeal to you or was it about the particular songs that featured on the album?

I am a fan of all of the songwriters I covered for that project. There were a couple of songs that I wasn’t previously aware of that I found for Lazy Days however. It was an interesting thing to keep it to laziness. Not allowing songs about love or romance or sleep. Only laziness. There were a couple Nina Simone songs and Dylan too that I really wanted to do but after really pouring over them I had to admit that there weren’t really about that.

Your recently released album White Tiger, with it’s laid back and peaceful vibe gives the impression of an artist in a very comfortable place at present. A fair reflection?

Yes, that’s fair. 

I had recognised many similarities in the work of both yourself and Anais Mitchell prior to hearing White Tiger and was therefore pleasantly surprised to learn that she features on the album. How did you both connect?

Anais and I first met in 2004 and have been friends ever since. She’s brilliant.

Producer Alec Spiegelman (who also worked with Anais Mitchell) co-wrote three of the album tracks. Had you worked previously with Alec?

Alec has been touring with me for 3 years. Eventually we started writing together (I’m goin’ bossa nova) which led to making this record together.

Tell me about the album’s title track. Obviously dealing with a friend in help of support. Was the song written in reaction to a person’s actual predicament or is the individual fictional?

Based on truth. And a very difficult time that my friend has been going through. Sometimes it’s hard to bellieve that things will get better. When things are so bad you just want people to acknowledge that. And not have to make up some silver lining ya know? Just, as a friend to say, yes, this is just horrible. But I didn’t want to leave it at that. I wanted to say, you’re going to make it through this. It’s horrible now, but soon you’ll be in another place. A better place.

Equally is the gorgeous Dance Around The Room With Mea personal reflection of motherhood?

Totally. I wrote it for my daughter who’s 4. Such a simple song and so uplifting!

Girls, Girls, Girls is such a killer song.  It’s so catchy and radio friendly that it could feature in a TV commercial in the future! Your pension royalties secured perhaps?

From your lips to God’s ears!

You’re presently residing in Brooklyn which is as far away as possible from your childhood residence in North Dakota. Are you well and truly a city girl at this stage?

Oh man, I long for my space and quiet! But I so love living here. NYC is a special place. I’m in love with this city. I am amazed by all of the great music and constant influx of talent and art and all of my favorite writers coming through town to read from their new books. It’s a wonderland in many ways. 

I believe you are due to play the U.K. in October of this year. Any possibility of a trip across the Irish sea for a few shows?

We are working on that! I so hope so!

Interview by Declan Culliton  Photograph by Shervin Lainez