Tag: 5+5

BGS 5+5: Ric Robertson

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Artist: Ric Robertson
Hometown: Greensboro, North Carolina
Latest album: Carolina Child

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I attended second grade at Garden Ridge Elementary in Flower Mound, Texas. The twenty or so of us in my class put on a play about popcorn, some of us dressed as corn that had been popped, others of us were merely kernels. I was a kernel. My one line happened before the big final musical number, encouraging the other kernels, “WE CAN DO IT!” Then the song…

“Weeee can do it (POP! POP!) weeee can do it (POP! POP!) weeee can do it, if we try, try, try.”

What a thrill. Still waiting to pop.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

Ideally I spend the four days before a show without any sleep, alternating every hour between practicing didgeridoo circular breathwork techniques in the sauna and soaking in a bathtub filled with lukewarm matzah ball soup. Then I try to always miss soundcheck and arrive at the gig exactly 13 minutes before it starts. Finally, I look for all the emergency exit doors and fire alarms in the venue, and make sure to set them all off immediately before I walk on stage to create some excitement for the audience.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I never wanted to be a musician, I just happen to be one. It’s working out alright, though I’m not sure I’d recommend it. The list of things I want to be grows bigger everyday, the last few additions being:

· kitesurfer
· card-carrying member of the Bohemian Grove
· cat

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Break even.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Seven cheesy Gordita crunches from Taco Bell while watching a Justin Bieber livestream in bed. With napkins, of course. And a bowl of Fiona Apple Jacks for dessert.

Photo credit: Gina Leslie

BGS 5+5: Jesse Daniel

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Artist: Jesse Daniel
Hometown: Ben Lomond, California
Latest Album: Beyond These Walls
Personal nicknames: Jessup

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

When I was really young, probably around 6 or 7, my mom took us down to see my dad’s band play at a place called the Fernwood Lodge. We were camping down the road from the music venue and because my brother and I were a few years shy of the legal drinking age, we had to stay back at the tent while the older folks went and played music, partied, etc. There was an older woman who was watching us, so I waited until she fell asleep and I followed the sound of the music up to the bar where my dad was playing. I remember walking onto the front porch and watching my dad on stage from the window outside. Somebody told my mother that I was there and she came outside to get me. I thought she’d make me go back, but she let me stay and I hung out with them. We danced and listened to my dad’s band play with the bikers, hippies and rednecks. I remember knowing that I would be on that stage when I was old enough. It made a huge impact on me.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I was doing a show with Colter Wall, opening up solo at a place called The Orpheum Theater in Flagstaff, Arizona. I was slightly unsure of how the crowd would take a solo opener, because there were thousands of people there — it was sold out on a Tuesday night! The crowd was extremely receptive and I’ll always remember their excitement. As I got to the end of the set, I played “Soft Spot (For the Hard Stuff)”, which is one of my more known songs. The crowd sang the words of the chorus back to me at the top of their lungs and it gave me chills. Still does. There’s no feeling like it.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

As far as a mission statement goes, I’ve told people for a long time that my goal is to make good country music and live a good life. I want to lift others up with my music, help them through life’s hardships and make them happy. Country music is life music and I want to tell stories that are true. I’m in competition with no one and never will be. I’ll keep running my own race and doing what I love.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I love being outdoors. As a kid, I grew up next to a mountain creek and we’d spend whole days catching crawdads, swimming and playing in that creek. If I ever get stressed or overwhelmed by life, going swimming or fishing is a guaranteed way to clear my mind and get back in touch with the here and now. On my new record Beyond These Walls, I’ve got a song about fishing and another about the beauty and simplicity of nature. Nature is as much a part of me as the music is.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I do a mixture of both, partly truth and partly fiction. I love telling stories from others perspectives. A lot of my songs are about my own life experiences, but I’ll attribute them to the character of the song. Many are stories from real people I’ve met in rehabilitation facilities, jails, on the street or on the road. When you look for it, the inspiration is endless. Stories are everywhere and they are waiting to be told.

Photo credit: Kayla Lilli

BGS 5+5: Anya Hinkle

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Artist: Anya Hinkle
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Latest album: Eden and Her Borderland
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Anyabird

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I guess far and away I have to answer — Gillian Welch. I grew up in the New River Valley of Virginia listening to Tony Rice, Norman Blake, Taj Mahal, Hot Tuna, Muddy Waters, Grateful Dead, and Old and in the Way, loved bluegrass and blues, but also female folk singers like Joan Baez and Judy Collins, pop stars like Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, and songwriters like Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, and Suzanne Vega. It just took Gillian to come around with her Revival album and put all that together for me, that you could incorporate all those great roots sounds into something completely modern and original. I was living in California at the time I heard her first album. I grabbed my fiddle and headed straight down to 5th String Music in Berkeley and started going to every bluegrass jam I could find. I thank her for giving me the idea that I could do it too — because of her genius, I could begin to imagine myself singing and playing guitar and writing songs too. It’s important to have someone you can look up to and that you can relate to so you can even have the idea in the first place.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

For more than a dozen years now, I’ve been hanging around the Cumberlands with my buddy “Hippie” Jack Stoddart, someone who, in his rough and audacious way, brings people together to make a lot of magic. Hippie said to me one day, “I want to introduce you to Zona.” He’d been doing a lot of outreach work out of an old school bus bringing groceries and coats and toys and stuff to people living in former mining towns in Middle Tennessee. So he brought me up the mountain to meet the hardened sweetness that is Zona Abston. We sat around her kitchen table and she told me her life story, a miner’s daughter, growing up with little education and no money, not much luck or hope. When we collapsed back in the truck, Hippie said to me, “You better write this shit down!” And so I did. I wrote every detail: the cancer, the hunger, the cheating, the shining, the debt, the babies, the heartbreak. I came back with a mess of notes and thought, “How do I make a song out of this?” So I sat down and tried to pull out the most specific and moving details of everything she told me and created a ballad for her. I was super nervous to play it for her because, well it was HER life. SHE had to live it. But when I sang it for her the tears rolled down her beautiful face. She said, yup it’s all true, every word of it.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

I actually thought about this a lot earlier this year, during the pandemic when I was trying to understand what my purpose was in music when it seemed like the industry was going to hell. I decided to focus on three things, and wrote them on a yellow sticky note that is taped in front of my desk for quick reference. The first is authenticity, and a commitment to truth and honesty to who I am as an artist. It’s a challenge to believe that it’s all already inside. I don’t need to grasp at something outside of myself. I just need to continue to learn to trust myself and be myself. The second thing is connection — connection with other artists and musicians, connections with my fans and supporters, and connections with anyone along the path. Those beautiful relationships are the foundation for anything I can possibly hope to accomplish in this lifetime. Saying “yes” and valuing the people that show up for me is oxygen. The third thing is creativity — growth and discovery. Allowing myself to surrender to the journey, giving up thinking I have to have everything figured out and under control. I need to just submit to curiosity, openness, and faith.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Before I was a musician I was trained as an ethnobotanist. I traveled half the world studying plants and their uses and connections to culture. I love referring specifically to plant species in my songs because they can be so symbolic in our physical world. For example, in the the title track for my new record, Eden and Her Borderlands, I use a couple of plants that carry a deeper meaning. The cedar is fragrant and twisted, it’s green the year round, its oils are used to protect against decay and disease, it is sacred and ancient in its symbolism. I also use the sycamore. It is stately and grand, always grows near sweet water. It is often a boundary and its presence on the landscape signals a threshold that we approach and then cross over. Adding these botanical details to the song is like adding spices to a recipe, it gives more depth, even for those that might not know anything about botany. And who knows, maybe it will inspire people to love plants like I do!

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I love this question because initially there can be so much fear in exposing your true self. Absolutely mortifying to lay bare the thoughts and emotions of a real human, the one behind the Facebook posts and the stage persona and the person you think you are or wish you were. The real one with all the real flaws, that is the person that is actually interesting. But the songs really push yourself (myself!!!) to look in the mirror and substitute the “you” with “me,” to get personal. Well, it’s a journey of acceptance and insight. Getting personal is the thing that connects us to the rest of humanity and, honestly, the thing that makes a good song, the thing that makes a song relatable.

I recently took a songwriting course with Mary Gauthier. In the song I shared, I kept referring to myself as “babe.” She said, who is babe? She focuses a lot on pronouns, you know, who are we talking about here? Because in our heads, it’s always about us. It can’t NOT be. We are trying to figure out what the hell we are doing here and if we are at all worthy of anything we are pretending to do. It takes a lot of working through fear to write songs. It’s good work.

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

BGS 5+5: Phöenix Lazare

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Artist name: Phöenix Lazare
Hometown: Salt Spring Island, BC
Latest Album: Gold
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Fawkes, Bean, Peanuts, Peanuts & Popcorn, Pheen

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I’m from a small island off the coast of British Columbia, so I’ve always spent the most time with the Pacific Ocean. From a young age, whenever I needed space I would bring myself to the beach and let the sounds of crashing waves calm me down. Often I’ll bring a journal to do some free writing or even a guitar to explore song ideas, but I find that even the silence inspires me to go home and create. I’ve even used voice memos I took of birds and natural sounds to open songs before, including the album’s first single, “Against All Odds.” I took this particular voice memo recording at my grandmother’s house right after COVID hit, when the transition of winter to spring felt bittersweet.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Joni Mitchell has undoubtedly influenced me the most as an artist, songwriter and human. When I started taking music more seriously in adolescence, my parents bought me one of her biographies and I thought to myself, “Who is this crazy lady?” It took me a few years to finally pick up that book, but once I did I never looked back. I started listening through her discography and learning about her journey as a songwriter and performer. I was instantly captivated by her character; I admired her authenticity and radical unwillingness to conform to standards that the music industry pushes artists. The diversity in her music between albums is a beautiful reminder to create what feels good and not look back.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

My song “The Other Side” took years and a lot of growth to complete. It’s a very vulnerable song that reflects on my first love, looking back with gratitude rather than regret. I was hesitant to record and put it on the album because it’s so personal, but I decided I want to be an example for songwriters that it means more when a song comes from a place of true authenticity. I’ve had a few audience members come up after shows and tell me how deeply they connected to it after a breakup, so I’m glad I set aside my doubts to write and share it.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

This is a very interesting question… as someone who is an enthusiast of both music and food, there are so many answers I could say. But for some reason, as a nod to my English roots, the one that sticks out in my mind is pairing Will Champion (drummer for Coldplay) with a classic Indian curry dish — my favourite is aloo gobi. I would love to share an order of garlic naan with Will and listen to his thoughts about his journey as a collaborative band member in the music industry. Coldplay has influenced my music and my life so heavily and their music would pair well with a spicy meal.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

Although it might not be the very first moment, it’s the most memorable — years ago back in 2014 I brought together family, friends and community members to host a farewell concert at my hometown’s local theatre. It was a fundraiser to support the transition to my first year attending Berklee College of Music in Boston and the house was packed. Even though I was young and was still finding my sound, I performed alongside my dad, brother, and so many other talented friends. It meant the world to feel so supported in the pursuit of my dreams and in that moment I knew that music was what I was meant to do.

Photo credit: Stasia Garraway

BGS 5+5: Anna Tivel

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Artist: Anna Tivel
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Latest Album: Blue World

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

Literature and poetry really get in my bloodstream and make me want to write, all those vivid words and ways of telling a thing. I get the itch to write the most from reading things that unravel like a song but are in much longer form. Right now I’m digging deep through the novels and short stories of Annie Proulx and finding so much inspiration. The way she spins a story, unadorned and brutally human, feels honest in this way I’m forever working toward with songs. Andre Dubus sparks a similar feeling, this gut-punch of everyday struggle told in a way that feels just like reality, but more stunningly laid out in bite-sized, brilliantly observed and relatable moments. I dream of writing songs that make people feel that way.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

Music has always been the place I felt most at home in my mind, where I could just be, work things out and communicate in a slower, more intentional way. I first found that freedom playing violin as a kid, backing people up later, learning that kind of conversation without speaking that feels so powerful. I started writing songs when I was about 23 and it was a completely magnetic force of expression that I must have been really hurting for because it took hold of me immediately and forcefully. I don’t remember consciously thinking, “This is what I want to do with my life,” just couldn’t seem to think about anything else. I’m forever grateful to be able to move through the world this way. It constantly pushes me out of my box, allows me to bump up against the world, try to see it more clearly and with more curiosity all the time, try to reflect something true.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Seems like touring is always shaping the way nature plays out in my writing. You’re on these long expansive drives through empty country, red canyon cliffs, vultures, sun bleached sagebrush, and heat waves on the blacktop that stretch out farther than you can see. And then two days later you’re in a dense forest, lush and wet and forty shades of green darkness. And then you’re suddenly in a giant metropolis. Watching it all change for hours and hours out the window feels like a recipe of sorts, like gathering all the images that hold an emotion to draw on later when a song is forming. I love to set a scene for the emotion of a story to play out in, and this constant observing of the natural (and man-made) world through car and plane windows seems to help tie human struggle and beauty to place and landscape in a way that feels necessary.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I want so badly to have pre-show and studio rituals, like vocal warmups or a three-piece show suit or something, anything. Mostly I let shows eat me alive in good and bad ways and I’m trying to work on being more intentional about that stuff. When I have time and space, I like to read something beautiful or listen to something that moves me before a show, sit somewhere all alone and take in some words and music that make me feel free and vast and inspired. It feels really good to get up on stage and get the chance to play my heart out after that. I’m going to do it more, just decided. OK I have a ritual starting now.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Write and write. And play songs for people. And try to be 90 years old someday and still loving these two things with wild abandon.

Photo credit: Matt Kennelly

BGS 5+5: Aaron Burdett

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Artist: Aaron Burdett
Hometown: Saluda, North Carolina
Latest Album: Dream Rich, Dirt Poor

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

There have been many and they have all influenced me in different aspects of my music. From the control of Broadway and operatic singers to the technique of multiple guitarists to the artistic approach and craft of various songwriters, it’s not just one or two sources. And honestly I’m not sure that a lesson I learned from an artist 20 years ago would strike me as at all meaningful today if presented with it, but that lesson at that time is what got me to the next stage and is why I am where I am today.

I refer to John Hiatt a lot as an influence; his music meant a lot to me at one time and conceptually means just as much to me today. He writes with heart and emotion and incredible depth, but also with a lightness and humor. He’s a serious songwriter who does not come across as taking himself too seriously. I’ve never met him but that’s the impression I get. He writes songs with personality and a unique voice. He uses phrases that don’t necessarily make literal sense. He’s his own person and does not sound quite like anyone else. I like that.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I don’t think songs work unless there’s some of the writer’s own truth in there. The emotional connection can’t happen if there’s not some of my own feeling included in the work. The flip side of that coin is that without adding in some observed or fabricated content there are only so many things you can write about from your own experience. I think that ratio is the secret sauce — enough of yourself that you can connect to the character, and enough diversity in the content that the listener stays interested in the narrative.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

It’s been a long process for me and it’s still ongoing. I’m not sure if I’m a musician yet. I connected with music and singing in particular pretty early on, and I started playing guitar in my early teens. At first listening to music was inspiring, and a place to have new experiences, but then eventually performing and creating my own music became my focus. Then when the music industry questions get thrown into the mix, I’m still not sure what being a musician is all about. Is it being someone who creates music? Someone who performs music? Someone who makes a living performing? I ask myself these questions a lot.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Keep going and keep creating. Don’t get complacent and don’t stop. Keep reading and following the signs and don’t be too rigid in your vision for the future. Stuff happens and most of it is good. Adjust as necessary. Get good people to help you and utilize them, if it’s management or booking or your spiritual advisor or whatever. Do the next right thing, and then the next. Don’t let the big picture overwhelm you, keep breaking it down to the next step. Be an artist. Be in the world but not of it. Be kind to others and be kind to yourself. Trust the process. Be patient and persistent. Do not be discouraged.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I’d love to have a full Korean multi-course meal with all the trimmings, with Jerry Garcia and Doc Watson. I imagine that pairing would produce a few good anecdotes.

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

BGS 5+5: Gabe Dixon

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Artist: Gabe Dixon
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Latest Album: Lay It On Me

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I think I was 11. I already loved music and had been taking piano lessons for a few years, but that summer, I went with my parents to see a music festival in downtown Nashville, and I watched a set by Béla Fleck & The Flecktones — the original group, with Béla, Victor Wooten, Future Man, and Howard Levy. Until then, I had no idea that people could be that good at playing their instruments. They were so virtuosic and fun, and the crowd loved it so much. Later that evening, I remember standing in the front yard of our house in Sylvan Park, looking up at the sky and thinking, “I want to be a musician when I grow up.”

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I’m not a very religious person, but before I go on stage, I always take a moment to be grateful and to ask God to work through me so that something bigger than me — love, joy, goodness, light — will shine through me and into the hearts and minds of the people I’m playing for. Sometimes I do that in the studio too. But the stakes feel higher in a live setting, so I’m looking for all the help I can get!

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

For a handful of years, I was a “staff writer” at a publishing company, and the most difficult songwriting sessions were the “blind date” country sessions they set up for me — you walk in the room, meet the other person, and your job is to write a song for “the country market.” Often you’re just hoping some big country star will cut it, and you’ll make some money, and they almost never do. Those sessions often became an exercise in putting limitations on what I wrote in hopes that it would be what some generic country singer would like. I often heard, “That line makes him sound like a wimp. Jason Aldean would never sing that.” Or, “We can’t put that chord in there, it’s too fancy-sounding.” Some people are really good at that kind of writing, but for me it was pretty soul-crushing. The only songs of mine that country artists ever ended up wanting to record were ones that I wrote for my own albums. So I mostly just write for myself now.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

It happens more than I mean for it to. The classic writing advice is to “write what you know,” but, to a certain extent you can’t help it. Even when you are trying to write from someone else’s perspective. I did this with my song “All Will Be Well,” “All Will Be Well/even after all the promises you’ve broken to yourself” and also with “Flow Like Wine.” “Why the furrow upon your brow / I see beauty between the lines / oh love, don’t you worry about our love / Let love flow like wine” were written for my wife, but when I really examine it, I realize I was probably writing to myself too.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Bring forth compassion, love, and peace through music.

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

BGS 5+5: Bruce Iglauer, Alligator Records

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Artist: Bruce Iglauer, Founder and President of Alligator Records
Hometown: Sweet Home Chicago
New Release: Alligator Records — 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music
Latest Album Produced: The Preacher, The Politician or the Pimp by Toronzo Cannon
Personal Nickname: Mr. Alligator

What’s your favorite memory from working in the music business?

After all these years, it would still be the first session I produced, back in 1971, with my favorite Chicago blues band, Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers. We cut their debut album in two four-hour sessions, direct to two-track (I couldn’t afford multi-track recording) and 100% live in the studio. They played the same ragged instruments that they played in the South Side Chicago clubs. Hound Dog had a cheap Kingston guitar played through a Sears & Roebuck Silvertone amp built by Danelectro. Of the six speakers, two were cracked and distorted beautifully. Brewer Phillips played an ancient Fender Telecaster through a not-too-old Fender Concert amp, and Ted Harvey beat on an old Slingerland drum set. We recorded a couple of takes each of about 25 songs both nights, and chose the best for the album. We tried to make a record that felt just like their gigs at Florence’s Lounge, a South Side neighborhood bar where they played every Sunday. They rocked the house, so the slogan of Alligator Records became (and still is) “Genuine Houserockin’ Music.”

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to work in the music business?

I came to Chicago in 1970 to work for a year as the shipping clerk at Delmark Records, a venerable small blues and jazz label. Then I was going to go back to college. The first week, the boss, Bob Koester, asked me to come to a recording session as “gopher” (the guy who goes for things like sandwiches, whiskey, guitar strings, etc.). I watched as, before my eyes, Chicago bluesman Junior Wells, accompanied by Buddy Guy, Louis Myers, Fred Below, Earnest Johnson and the best blues piano player in the world, Otis Spann, sculpted a blues record that’s worth hearing 100 times. I couldn’t believe this music was being created live right before my eyes. It was incredibly exciting. After that, I had no thoughts of going back to college.

What advice would you give to an artist who’s pursuing a career as a singer-songwriter?

Be a realist. The chances are better than not that you will not be able to make a living doing this. Be prepared to be hungry. Then, if you’re truly determined, insist on making your own statement. Don’t consciously think about being “commercial,” but do think, “Will other people relate to this music, or am I just indulging myself?” If your music doesn’t communicate, then you should perform for yourself in your bedroom and get a day job! If you do perform, remember that each performance is a way of auditioning your songs to the people you want to be your fans. Pay attention to their feedback, both what they say and how they react to each song, each verse, each line.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I guess that I should answer that about both artists and producers (because above all, I’m a talent scout and producer). The artist who influenced me most has to be Elmore James. He wasn’t the best technical guitar player in the world, but he played and sang with such undiluted passion that every record he cut is worth listening to over and over. The first two things I listen for with an artist are passion and originality. He had both. As far as producers, I’d name my old boss, Bob Koester, of Delmark Records, for letting artists be who they are, and Tom Dowd, for inspiring artists to great performances in the studio — including Ray Charles, The Allman Brothers, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Freddie King, Eric Clapton and literally hundreds more.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Find blues and blues-based artists who have that passion and originality, and help them (whether I’m their producer or not) to capture that passion and originality in a recording. Then, be the bridge that connects the artist to his or her potential audience. That way, if the Alligator Records team and I succeed, artists will make records that will rock people’s bodies and souls, and we will help the artists reach more and more ears and (hopefully) get the recognition they deserve.

Photo credit: Chris Monaghan

BGS 5+5: River Kittens

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Artist: River Kittens (Mattie Schell and Allie Vogler)
Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
Newest Album: Soaking Wet

What’s your favorite memory of being on stage?

Well, I have been performing since I was a kid… and there have certainly been some amazing highlights I’ll never forget as an adult (playing Allman Family Revival at the Beacon Theater for one!), but I think the most special for me was a community theater production of The Music Man when I was probably 11 years old. I played Winthrop (a boy part of course… the bowl cut helped), my mom played Mrs. Paroo, my dad played Marcellus Washburn, even my sister and Aunt Janet were in the show. I look back in those memories and think, “Wow, our family was like half of that musical! How cool!” It was a cool thing to share as a family and really made me fall in love with musical theater, which really shaped so much about the kind of performer I have become. Long live Broadway! 😂 — Mattie

One time we were playing this four-hour gig and we were just kinda getting through our songs. It was hot and we felt like we were background music. I was definitely in an auto pilot state. But this lady in the audience starts laughing. She’s laughing at one of our funnier songs, “Dressing on the Side.” It was her first time hearing it and she was cracking up to our lyrics, while I was just deadpan playing the song trying to get through it. Her hilarious reaction quickly brought me back to reality and had me laughing real hard during the rest of the song, and show. Just by laughing she was able to pull me out of a funk and my song probably pulled her out of one too. It was a really genuine, hilarious moment and a good reminder to enjoy playing my songs that I’ve played a thousand times for the people who haven’t heard them before.

Also gotta mention the time I put a praying mantis on my microphone (Missouri outdoor gig) and I went to sing in it and he charged at my face and tried to get me. That was hilarious. — Allie

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

There is nothing better than playing music outdoors. It just feels right. I think I come from a long line of porch-sitting musicians. I know my great-grandfather used to play and dance on the front porch with my grandma and her nine siblings. I have a huge family and we have a gathering called June Jam every year on some farmland in Illinois. Friends and family come from all over and we camp out and potluck and jam into the wee hours of the morning. It’s my favorite time of year. I bought a kayak a few years ago and paddle the Mississippi River quite often. The Mississippi has influenced a lot of my songwriting. I’ve lost friends to that river, I’ve had some of the most memorable family moments on that river, I’ve had countless jams along that river, but it never ceases to fill me with wonder and awe to be out there in the middle of it. It’s incredibly inspiring. — Mattie

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

This is a hard one, but I’ll have to say Paul McCartney. His melodies have been ingrained in my head since childhood. I’m a huge fan of all of his projects and his personality in general. He is such a prolific musician and everything he writes makes me really feel something. RAM is definitely a favorite album. And he just seems so fun loving from all the interviews I’ve seen on the internet. — Allie

Well, although this is a question I get often, it’s always a tough one to answer. It honestly depends on what year it was. Haha But for the sake of brevity, I’ll say The Band. I really dove into their catalog in my early 20s and haven’t seen music the same since. My Uncle Wayne (another huge influence who happened to give me my first mandolin) lent me a copy of Levon’s book This Wheel’s on Fire and it resonated with me and really inspired me. The Band was a group that had some serious talent and killer songwriting that just grabs you, but they never took themselves too seriously. That mentality is always a goal of mine because music should always be fun, especially when it’s good. — Mattie

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

I’m working on something for my grandmother, and I have been for a while. She always wanted me to sing, and I want to write the perfect song for her. I do know that when the words come, they’ll pour. There’s a lot of imaginary walls in songwriting, for me anyway. I gotta either climb them or let them fall down, and honestly the lyrics are better when the walls fall down. They’re more like floodgates. — Allie

I wrote a tune based off of a local legend in the area I’m from on the Mississippi River. There is an old house in Alton, Illinois, that was part of the Underground Railroad and it has a massive widow’s peak. There’s a story of the wife of a river boat captain who watched him sail off and when he never returned, she waited for him in that widow’s peak until the day she died. It took me ten years to write that song, because I wanted it to be a little haunting and do the story justice. But then I thought, “What the hell was she waiting for?” So I changed the story up a bit. I wanted better for this woman, I didn’t want her to wait around, I wanted her to take action. I gave her a much happier, purposeful ending and that’s when I was able to finish writing. — Mattie

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I’ll go get some street tacos and a beer with just about anybody but if I get to choose, I’m takin’ Randy Newman out for crawfish, oysters, and Sandinistas. Then we’re hitting the piano bars. — Allie

Photo courtesy of Big Hassle

BGS 5+5: Ida Mae

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Ida Mae
Hometown: Nashville / London
Latest Album: Click Click Domino (out July 16, 2021)

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

As a kid my dad had a load of music documentaries on VHS. I can remember watching one on Jimi Hendrix which opens with Pete Townsend talking about Jimi Hendrix’s performance at Monterey Pop Festival… the film then begins with Hendrix storming into “Rock Me Baby” at Monterey Pop, a Stratocaster and fuzz pedal plugged in to a Marshall stack. I can remember getting shivers from my head to my toes! I remember also being fascinated by the guitar, I’d go to my posh mates’ houses and would stare into their music rooms and silently look at their guitars like they were strange, rare holy relics.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Joining Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss on stage was an incredible moment and an honor that we’ll never forget.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

We love film but in particular for me photography plays a big part in how I visualize my songs. I love the work of Garry Winogrand, William Eggleston, Martin Parr and Stephen Shore to name a few. I very often have a place or time in the back of mind when I’m writing, even if its not explicitly mentioned in the lyric and I find photographs are able to open up and inform all sorts of creative decision making and lead ideas.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

We’d like to share a tube of Pringles with Bob Dylan. Maybe a trifle with Mavis Staples? Oooh or share a Twix with Richard Thompson.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Fantastic question. I think persona plays an incredibly important part of what any artist does. It allows you to inhabit characters and roles as almost as an actor. It’s important for the self preservation of the artist to make the distinction between the picture they choose to paint and their personal lives. As a songwriter, things can get very self-indulgent and self-obsessed and that gets tedious after a while. I often imagine painting myself into some sort of impressionist’s painting… it’s you almost, but the lines are blurred and reality is more based in what’s on the edge of your conscious mind, in raw emotion and letting the story play out in the atmosphere you create sonically and poetically. Every song is relatable to us in some way, sometimes they are incredibly personal and other times they’re explorations of the way you were feeling at some point in your life… and sometimes it’s just fun to play with words!

Photo credit: Joe Hottinger