tuck's music journal

I write about local music stuff in West Virginia and nearby Ohio. I post lots of information about the Greens and musical benefit events I organize for my non profit organization. Americana music focused.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

No Depression 's Kim Ruehl's interview with Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams requires little introduction. After all, over the course of the past three decades, she's become one of the most reliable singer-songwriters on the Americana/roots/indie/whatever scene.

When I was preparing for our recent interview, I was considering the artfulness with which her career has grown over the past 30 years, despite the fact that she's never scored a pop hit. In fact, it struck me as a bit of a blessing to her catalog that she's somehow managed to skirt the mainstream.

Consider Shawn Colvin. I'm a fan, so stay with me. She had that one song that struck on pop radio, for whatever reason, "Sunny Came Home." Compared to her entire moving, memorable catalog, that wasn't her best song. But, suddenly, mainstream America knew Shawn Colvin, and they continue to know her for that tune. I know comparing the worth of songs can be like comparing that of individuals (how do you measure it?), but I'd say it was no "Diamond in the Rough" or "Polaroids" or "Steady On." It was surpassed on its own album by "Trouble" and "If I Were Brave." It was the cockroach song - the one which showed itself to the rest of the world, while back here inside the walls, we all knew there were countless more milling about, going persistently unseen.

I say this not as a criticism of Colvin's work. Like I said, I'm quite fond of her gift. I only find it unfortunate that your average casual music fan knows her for that song.

Lucinda Williams, meanwhile, has skirted that whole issue. People know Car Wheels on a Gravel Road or they know Essence, or the Folkways recordings. They're familiar with individual songs like "Lafayette" or "Joy" or "Six Blocks Away." They have their personal favorite, but it's one they've chosen. Not one which mainstream radio has chosen for them. It's a feat, the sort of thing much more likely for an artist starting their career right now, than for one whose career launched decades ago, and spanned the era of MTV and corporate radio. And, it's a feat which has led Williams to the level of artistic control and integrity which has become a bit of a trademark for her work.

So, that's where I started when we got on the phone a couple weeks ago, and you can read the whole transcript below. But first, I should mention she's taking the stage at the 2nd Annual No Depression Festival Saturday, Aug. 21, 2010, at 7:05 p.m. (Tickets are still available here.)

And now, for my full interview with Lucinda Williams:

KR: Since this is for ND and they gave you a lot of ink in the print days, and you were on the cover a few times, I was wondering if you ever read what's written about you.
LW: Sometimes. I always read the stuff in No Depression. I used to read more, but now I read less and less of the stuff that's out there. ND always wrote good stuff about me, so I didn't mind reading what they wrote. [laughs] As a general rule, though, I don't voluntarily read it now. If someone says, "Here's a great review," I'll read it. I used to read all of it, and then it got to be...sometimes, the more there is out there, there's always gonna be the one or two weird ones.

KR: Do negative reviews get you down?
LW: Most of them aren't all the way negative. I think as an artist, your sensitivity gets heightened, especially when you're on the road and you're working night after night. It's probably the hardest when a new album comes out. That's when [you have to wonder] whether it's four stars, or did you get three stars...but that's why I don't read too much of it, becuase you get sensitive. For the most part, overall, I've had good press. I can't really complain. Some of my best friends are music critics [laughs]. Maybe because my father's a writer, and I grew up with writers, I'm real comfortable with music journalists. I find kind of a common bond.

KR: Well, and you've also been in this industry making records for 30 years now, so you must just get used to the constant feedback.
LW: That started happening after Car Wheels, because that was the album that put me out there. Up until then, I was the critic's darling, and then I went from the critic's darling to being the star, and that kind of thing. It's similar, but maybe on a different scale. I wasn't playing big arenas like REM. Although they went through the same thing. First they were the underground band, then they made it and people started taking potshots at them. It's just [a matter of] going up the ladder. Wilco went through the same thing. People wanna feel like they just discovered you or something.

My first album, the self-titled one on Rough Trade, that was the one that people were like, "Where have you been all these years?" Then I did the Sweet Old World album. Then Car Wheels kind of put me in the spotlight, and that got all the great reviews and the Grammy. Then, after Car Wheels, things started moving to a different place. All the while, I was building a fanbase.

KR: And yet somehow you've never really had a big pop hit...
LW: I was so critically accalimed when I first got discovered and more people were just kind of...I don't know how it goes. You can't get great reviews from every reviewer for every album.

KR: But, do you think maybe it's a blessing in terms of your audience that you've never had a big pop hit? You've kind of skirted that, and yet still been respected all along...
LW: I don't know. I guess. I'm sort of balanced on the edge between...are you saying the fact that I haven't "sold out" or whatever?

KR: I think some of the singer-songwriters who have scored big hits, people just know the one song. Whereas, with you, people kind of know your whole catalog.
LW: Yeah, they follow my career. I've always made albums. I think that's the nature of the kind of music I do. Each song is crafted with the same attention to detail, and it comes out as part of an album. At a certain point, I didn't even think about trying to get a song played in rotation on the radio, because radio started changing so drastically. Really, the only way the kind of music I'm doing [can get known], you have to get out there and play live and make records. It's a slower climb, but that's how I've always done it and it's worked for me.

I get stuff on the radio, but at this point you're not gonna hear me on K-ROCK. That would be fine if you did, but at this point it's kind of nebulous. It's like worrying about having a video on MTV. That used to be a way to get to more people. Somehow, not by choice, I just kind of skirted around all that. I wasn't against doing a video, but if I was going to do a video, I wanted to do it my own way, and do something real artistic. That wasn't going to fly. At the time, I didn't have that kind of creative control with videos. With the music, I did. But, the first time anybody ever talked to me about making a video, they wanted to put it on CMT - the country music video channel - because they said MTV would never play it. I'd get all these treatments from the different directors and I just didn't like any of them. If I was going to do a video, I wanted to do something like Bob Dylan Don't Look Back - that kind of style.

Then the days of MTV came and went and I survived. [laughs] I survived and here I am. And now it's all about my Facebook fan page, which, just since i got off the road at the end of last year, I had some time. I didn't pay attention at all to that stuff, but I started going on there and I set up a personal page and then I started chatting with my fans a little bit. Amazingly enough, my fanbase grew on my fan page from 10,000 to now over 75,000, just because I've been going in and conversing with them. Most of them go, "Is this really you?" and I say, "Yeah it's me" [laughs].

KR: Do you spend a lot of time looking for music online?
LW: No. Tom does that, though. He's all connected in with all that. He knows about every band, songwriter, and singer who walks the face of the earth. Tom, my husband/manager, worked in A&R at record companies in marketing for years and years. He does a lot of that. He goes on the Velvet Rope and checks in. This morning, I said to him, "Did you hear the original bass player in the Kinks died?" and he said, "Yeah that was a couple weeks ago." I said, "Ok, well I just read about it in Rolling Stone yesterday."

I'm online, in the meantime, and I'm looking for a weight bench and some skin care that isn't loaded with preservatives, and that kind of thing. Trying to find rugs for the bathroom.

KR And you're working on new music now?
LW: Yeah we're in the mastering stages of a new record now. I started writing toward the end of the year. We got home [from the last tour] in November and I was writing a little bit every day or every few days. We got everything cut and mixed. We've been working with Don Was. We recorded over at Capitol Studios. It sounds great. We're finishing mastering and everything.

KR: So you'll be playing new tunes at the festival?
LW: Yeah

KR: Is there anything else you want people to know?
LW: We're just looking forward to [the festival]. We haven't played in a little while now, and we have this great new guitar player who's going to be playing the shows with us, named Val McCallum. He played on the record. Him, Greg Liesz...we wanted Greg to come out but he was booked in Australia. Then it's my regular bass player and drummer - Butch Norton on drums, David Sutton on bass. For these shows it'll just be the four of us. Rami Jaffee, who's now playing with the Foo Fighters and used to play with the Wallflowers, he played keyboards and accordion on the record. He might try to come and do a couple of the shows with us. I'm not sure which ones, but he was booked up with other stuff, too. It'll be cool. It's going to be great, we're looking forward to it.

For more on the 2010 No Depression Festival, check out the full lineup and schedule. Visit Lucinda Williams' website for a full list of her current tour dates.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Greens off to sunny Florida- hope they don't get discouraged by the Gulf and the Oil spill!

I believe this is the weekend the Greens are off to play at a wedding in Pensacola Florida. Unfortunately, minue Nate; so someone else is filling in on drums. I believe they were getting the bus out on the road again, if they got an inspection sticker. Oops, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that publicly. I hope they have smooth travels, and a good story to tell at the end of the trip. School back in session in Morgantown coming up!!!

songwriter night tonight in Marietta

Todd Burge and the Galley crew have organized a songwriter night tonight up there in Marietta. Lots of the local favorites of songwriters and performers will be there, and its a chance, if you haven't seen it yet, to see the Adelphia. They have lots of exciting shows lined up in upcoming months, so check them out.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Greens show last night in Marietta

The Greens put on a great show last night in Marietta at the Brewing Company, to a very enthusiastic and appreciative crowd. As always happens the greens got the crowd up and dancing throughout the evening. Weaving in old and new songs craftily; taking the audience on a happy musical adventure. The Greens hustled back to Morgantown today for two different shows; a County Fair and a night at Gibbie's. They will be over a month before coming back to the Mid Ohio Valley. They have a wedding in Florida to play for next weekend; taking the bus!!!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Most current list of performers at the Americana Festival in Nashville Sept. 9-11

Abigail Washburn ~ American Aquarium ~ Hayes Carll ~ Peter Case ~ Exene Cervenka ~ Elizabeth Cook ~ Susan Cowsill ~The Defibulators ~ Tommy Emmanuel ~ Frazey Ford ~ Frontier Ruckus ~ Mary Gauthier ~ Kevin Gordon ~ Ray Wylie Hubbard ~ Wanda Jackson ~ Jon Langford & Skull Orchard ~ Sarah Jarosz ~ Shelby Lynne ~ Charlie Louvin ~ Corb Lund~ Raul Malo ~ Chuck Mead ~ Micky and the Motorcars ~ John Oates ~ Over the Rhine ~ Joe Pug ~ Dex Romweber Duo ~ Paul Thorn ~ Steeldrivers ~ Stone River Boys ~ Sweetback Sisters ~ Todd Snider's Rock and Roll Revue featuring Jason D. Williams, Dan Baird and Friends ~ Chip Taylor ~ Tony Joe White ~ Will Kimbrough and more tba.

Adelphia booking up a storm

I get word of Southern Culture on the Skids; Steve Forbert; bookings at Adelphia in Marietta; some other sooner local events coming across the announcements. Check out the Galley's website, or a related Facebook page.

Green tonight- hot fun in the summertime.....

The Greens return to the MOV - its like a HEAT WAVE- burning in ya heart; tearing all apart. (Martha and the Vandellas). Marietta Brewing Company tonight. See what they have in store for their patient fans in the MOV. They play two shows back in Morgantown tomorrow so you gotta be quick to catch 'em. No chance for them to participate in the Neil Young Tribute tomorrow night in Parkersburg at the 6 Pence Pub. We'll soldier on without their contribution of: Cinammon Girl, and such.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Neil Young Tribute this Saturday

We have lots of our Americana Music Tribute Series shows throughout the year, and this Saturday we revive the Neil Young Tribute. This has not been an annual event, unlike most of the others, but we wanted to celebrate Neil's music again, so put this one together for August. Saturday, 9 pm at Six Pence Pub in Parkersburg. $5 donation supports the work of Children's Home Society here in the area. We'll be having local musicians playing songs of Neil Young, and a few contests and prizes.

Greens back in MOV!

The Greens will be playing at Marietta Brewing Company this Friday night- Friday the 13th!!! OOOOHHHHH, spooky. Its been a while since the Greens have been here, it will be a great opportunity to catch up with them, and see what they have been up to, and to get revitalized with their infectious music.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival lineup- wow!

Patti Smith, Robert Earl Keen, Fountains of Wayne, Peter Himmelman, Yonder Mountain String Band, Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes, Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, The Felice Brothers, Jerry Jeff Walker, The Wronglers, Doc Watson & David Holt, Kinky Friedman, The Ebony Hillbillies, Skip Gorman, Buddy Miller, Kevin Welch, Kieran Kane & Fats Kaplin, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Lucero, The Magnolia Sisters, Carolyn Wonderland, Anderson Family Bluegrass, the subdudes, Nick Lowe, Moonalice, Earl Scruggs, Blue Highway, David Olney & Sergio Webb, Martin Sexton, Randy Newman, The Flatlanders featuring Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock, Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, Patty Griffin, The Band of Heathens, The Dukes of September Rhythm Revue featuring Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald & Boz Scaggs, Citigrass, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Jenny & Johnny featuring Jenny Lewis & Johnathan Rice, Jonathan Richman, Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women, The Avett Brothers, Kelly Willis, Wendy Bird, Railroad Earth, Richard Thompson, Umphrey's McGee, Gillian Welch, David Grisman Quintet, Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands, Holly Golighty and the Brokeoffs, Keller & the Keels, Hot Tuna Electric, Indigo Girls, Bonnie Prince Billy & the Cairo Gang, Joan Baez, Hazel Dickens, Mondo Cane, Jon Langford, Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys, Evie Ladin, Rosanne Cash, T Bone Burnett and Friends, Jackie Greene, The Del McCoury Band, Justin Townes Earle, Nathaniel Rateliff, Steve Earle and the Dukes, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, James McMurtry
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Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Slide Guitar favorites- from No Depression blog

Driving home from a gig in Mobile yesterday, Mark and I put together a list of our top ten favorite slide guitar players (bottleneck or steel). Here’s what we came up with, with a link to a song for each:

Mark:

1. Mick Taylor - Beautiful tone and exceptional vibrato. "Love in Vain"

2. Ry Cooder - To me he's got the hugest slide sound. His technique and vocabulary are so refined that he's impossible to copy. "Get Rhythm"

3. Lowell George - For his economy of notes and his use of compression and sustain. His rhythm playing was impeccable. "Rock and Roll Doctor"

4. Mississippi Fred McDowell - He incorporated bottleneck slide into funky, hypnotic, rhythmic riffs. "Write Me a Few of Your Lines"

5. Sonny Landreth - He's taken everything one step further, doing stuff that no one has ever done before, including fretting behind the slide. He's influenced the whole next generation of players. "Bayou Teche"

Tom:

6. Blind Willie Johnson - One of the earliest recorded slide players and still one of the greatest. His music was beyond genre and beyond time. "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground"

7. David Lindley - He brought the lap steel, kicking and screaming, into rock and roll in the 1970s, and later inspired a renaissance of Weissenborn acoustic Hawaiian guitars. "Mercury Blues"

8. Jerry Byrd - He recorded with Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, and hundreds of others. He was the absolute master of the lap steel guitar and the source of most of the technique I've managed to absorb. "My Little Chickadee"

9. Josh Graves - He established the Dobro in bluegrass music. Yet his sound with Flatt and Scruggs was so gritty and bluesy that Carl Smith once told him, "If they ever figure out what you're playing they'll fire you." "Fireball Mail"

10. The Campbell Brothers - There's some amazing music being played in the Sacred Steel churches, and the Campbell Brothers -- Chuck on pedal steel and Darick on lap steel -- are making some of the best of it. "The Judgment"

Of course, this list barely scratches the surface. I can think of many other great players who deserve to appear on it, and probably you can too. If so, please leave a comment. Whose name would you add and why?
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Larkin Poe- last night in Marietta

The Adelphia (connected to the Galley) in Marietta had a show last night featuring the band, Larkin Poe. Todd Burge opened for them. This trio (two sisters and a bass player) hail from Georgia, and had previously toured from a young age as the Lovell Sisters. They have played some major festivals and toured Europe. They share song writing duties, and have some intriguing covers thrown in. They impressed the audience with their spirit and talent, and engaged the audience throughout with their music and showmanship.