Tag: 5+5

BGS 5+5: Spirit Family Reunion

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Artist: Spirit Family Reunion
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Mag, Kendo, Pank, Zuba, the Stiv.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

There are many treasured stage moments to choose from, like collaborating with some of the biggest inspirations for our band, but probably the most transformational moment was our first performance at the Newport Folk Fest on Sunday morning 2012. It’s hard to put into words what made that moment so special, but it was as if all these enormous things like years of passion, dedication, exhaustion, the music, which has a life of its own, the history of that festival, and so many more elements were all being crystalized into what felt like one single moment that was so extraordinarily palpable. It was a genuinely special moment that revealed the power in music. Both fleeting and eternally memorable.

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

We had been screwing around playing some haphazard late-night sets at a bar that a couple of us worked at. One weekend this guy Frankie from the bar invited us up to Saugerties, New York, to a big house he was looking after which belonged to the guy from Swans. We gathered some instruments and he put a microphone in front of us, and I think that was the first time we heard ourselves recorded. We maybe had one or two original songs at the time, but it gave us enough encouragement to put some real effort into this thing. We got a few more songs and a few more musicians, and all of a sudden we had ourselves a band.

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

We usually eat a meal together before whatever is next. When our band was beginning we used to get together pretty regularly to make big family feasts. On the road a good meal can reach legendary status, and over the years we’ve gathered up some favored spots we always try to return to. A good meal has a special way of bringing people together.

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

Our band has always been guided by the social nature of music. We want to convey the energy and attitude of the good old stuff that pre-dates the record industry, while being genuine and relevant to ourselves today. The danger of looking back is to fetishize either through absolute preservation or appropriation. We are drawn to the raw, communal, rebellious spirit of the old music we love, and we want to translate that into our own original expression that is vibrant and alive right now. We want people to sing and dance who have no idea of the old stuff we’re referencing, and we want traditionalists to recognize that familiar essence in the music we’re making today.

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

When we got to open for Pete Seeger in 2013 the organizer of the show said Pete requested Chinese food and asked if that was OK with us. We said whatever Pete wants is fine by us, but I think we were far too nervous to eat anything before the show that evening. Pete Seeger has always been a guiding light for our band and it was an unbelievable honor to join with him that night, cold leftovers and all.

Photo credit: Rakel Stammer

BGS 5+5: Davina and the Vagabonds

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Artist: Davina and the Vagabonds
Hometown: Twin Cities, Minnesota
Latest album: Sugar Drops
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Dottie Boots & The Hostiles

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

This question gives me anxiety. It’s so hard for me to pick one. I would say Led Zeppelin for my love of English Blues. Preservation Hall for collective improvisation, horns, and Trad Music. Siouxsie and the Banshees for Siouxsie Sue’s style. Louis Prima for letting me know it’s OK to have a sense of humor on stage and still kick ass at music. Nick Drake for singer-songwriter and Tom Waits for everything.

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

Nature, which I consider art, helps ground me to understand my emotions enough to write. Fashion to give me a certain strength and little “feel boost” when I wear certain things.

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

I find either songs come strangely easily, like “Where the hell did that come?” to being just absolutely never-ending to finish. This new album took me three years to write and arrange. What a head wreck when you can’t write… let me tell you! It’s past frustrating for me; I still have mountains of songs I haven’t finished.

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

Before a show: I sit with myself and put my face on. I hum and listen to music. Before the studio: I just freak out due to being nervous and anxious, drink loads of coffee, run around looking for all my material, making sure it’s prepared, and possible cry.

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

My heart’s on my sleeve. If I’m gonna feel, I’m gonna let you know.

Photo credit: Christi Williams

BGS 5+5: Steelwind

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Artist: Steelwind
Hometown: Oklahoma City
Latest album: Blue

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

We would love to have biscuits and gravy along with sausage, bacon, and fried eggs with the one-and-only Sam Bush, followed by a raging morning jam on the porch. How could you not have a good day after that?

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

When recording we love to set the mood with the lights down low and candles lit — you’d think we were inviting a girl over for dinner. Our go-to delivery food was Chipotle… we love Mexican food! Smoothie King was also near the studio and we became addicted to the almond mocha smoothie with cold brew coffee in it. The more caffeine, the better!

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

One of our new songs called “When We’re Gone” was re-written three or four times. The song started out in a minor key, then we switched it to a major key, and then switched it back to a minor key. By the time we were done it sounded nothing like the original version, but we loved the end result.

As songwriters sometimes we get lucky and write a song in 15 minutes, which happened with “My Baby’s Gone.” However, we really had to grind out “When We’re Gone.” We love how it can relate to everyone’s life, not just ours, which is something we try to do with all our songs. We even had a fan in Germany say it’s his new favorite song!

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Blake Parks (fiddle) has been influenced most by world-renowned fiddler and resident Oklahoman, Byron Berline. Blake actually learned to play fiddle by watching instructional VHS tapes that Byron had made. Michael Henneberry (guitar) draws a lot of inspiration from Canadian singer-songwriter Fred Eaglesmith. While Steelwind’s songs certainly have their own feel, if you listen closely you’ll likely hear some of Fred’s influence.

Becca Herrod (mandolin) is a die-hard Alison Krauss fan, and her music has beautifully impacted her musical style. Kenny Parks (bass) loves the playing of Mark Schatz, and you can hear him doing bass runs reminiscent of Mark’s style.

Adam Davis (dobro) is a disciple of “Flux” aka Jerry Douglas. Joel Parks (banjo) is a huge John Hartford fan. In fact, the whole band is!

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

While Blake and Michael co-write all of Steelwind’s songs, they discovered bluegrass music at different points in their life.

Blake was around 12 when he went to RockyGrass, a festival in Colorado. It was there he saw musicians his own age playing and enjoying bluegrass music. He then realized it was much more than just music his parents played and was inspired to become a musician himself.

Michael fell in love with bluegrass when he worked as a logger in the New Mexico mountains during his summers off from college. He lived without electricity there, and their main source of entertainment was music. There’s something about mountains and bluegrass that go together, and that’s where it all started with Michael.

Photo credit: Alexa Ace

BGS 5+5: Chely Wright

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Artist: Chely Wright
Personal nickname: Chels

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

I don’t mean to sound like I’m too cool to acknowledge that books, films, and paintings affect me (of course they do), but I think the single biggest influence on the work I do comes from human interaction and my observations of it. I absorb communication (spoken and non-linguistic) between people — whether it’s firsthand or from the sidelines — in the ways that one might go to the Met to see their favorite Degas. I do think, at times, that the way people interact is a form of art, because the composition matters and because it requires context and begs for interpretation.

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

When I was just a little kid, I’d sit in front of stacks and piles of my parents’ vinyl record collection as my mom would curate the playlist of the day. Buck Owens, Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris, Bobbie Gentry, Conway Twitty, Hank Williams Sr., Elvis, and The Beatles… those were some of the artists in heavy rotation in our household. I remember being four years old and all I wanted to do was listen to those records. I was learning to read at that time too and my mom would help me as I sounded out the words written in the liner notes. I recall saying to my mom, “I want to do this. I want make my own records.” To which she replied, “You can.” And in that moment I really believed that I could and that I would.

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

Mission Statement: Find joy in every part of the work. The music. The people. The solitude. The airports. The chaos. The struggle. The triumph. The songs. Find The Joy.

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

I try to walk a lot wherever I am. I’ve always cherished the experience of putting my feet down on dirt, gravel, pavement, and stone in places where I’m pretty sure I’ll never walk again. There’s something profound about it for me. Like most folks, I do my best thinking on my walks. Usually, on these walks, I don’t think about melodies or lyrics, but rather, I think about characters. The characters I consider (mostly fictitious) have free reign of my imagination for 1-2 hours to share their monologues or dialogues with me. I remember being a kid on my paper route and doing the same thing. I don’t know why I enjoy it, but I do.

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

I’m not a big foodie and I’ve never answered questions about the intersection of food and art with any style or substance, to be honest. I can say this though– if you give me a night of Rodney Crowell and Joe Henry together on stage, I’d be pretty damn happy with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Photo credit: Matthew Rodgers

BGS 5+5: Chris Staples

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Artist: Chris Staples
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Latest album: Holy Moly
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Buns, Stapes

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I would have to say Tom Petty. I fell in love with his albums as a youngster from Florida. His tunes were always about being dumped or being bummed. How did this guy from Gainesville, who probably grew up in a trailer park, make these great songs and become a rock and roll sensation? He was pretty dorky and genuine at the same time. He was from a few towns away from where I grew up and it always filled me with hope.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

So many to choose from, geez. I played a show recently in San Francisco. It was in a top-floor apartment near Chinatown. There were 75 people crammed into this apartment so it was pretty cozy. I had just hurt my back really bad on tour; people helped me carry my gear and merch up four flights of stairs, which was really nice. Everyone was so excited to be there. I could hear a soft rain through the open windows of the apartment, as well as sounds from the city drifting by. It just felt magical for some reason.

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

I watch a lot of documentary film. I just watched a great doc called Los Angeles Plays Itself. It’s about the many filming locations in L.A. that have been used across decades of film and in different genres. The documentary makes the assertion that L.A. is a character in many films that does not mirror reality. It delves into some of the darker truths about the city. Great film, but it’s also a look into the mind of a director with a sort of twisted perspective.

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

Usually before a show I try to find some time to walk around outside and get some fresh air. Sometimes I try to find someone at the show that reminds me of an old friend. Someone who makes me laugh or seems interesting. If I have a 20-minute conversation with a stranger at a show, I forget that I have to play and I’m not nervous at all about playing. For me, it’s the best antidote I’ve found to being nervous. A fun conversation with someone can take me from being almost crippled with nervous energy to being ultra chill. It still amazes me.

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

The opposite happens more often. I write a lot about other people a lot but I say “I.” Sometimes my friends text me and say “I didn’t know you went through a divorce??!!” I have to explain that it’s just a song. The names/places/events can be made up but the sentiment is all real, and universal. I think music listeners are conditioned to think that the singer is the person in the song. It’s just an aspect of this medium that is confusing. I think it’s good in a way for people to wonder but never really know. It’s different for screenwriters or authors. No one emails Stephen King asking if he broke someone’s legs with a sledgehammer. It’s a given that all of his stories are born out of his imagination.

Photo credit: Andrew Shepherd

BGS 5+5: Griffin House

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Artist name: Griffin House
Hometown: Springfield, Ohio; currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee
Latest album: Rising Star
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): “Balls” was my nickname, which is part of why I named my 2013 album Balls. I guess you could say it was kind of like a self-titled album. My friend (when we were younger) thought it was funny to add the suffix “balls” onto everything. All nouns, common and proper, including people’s names. Griff-balls apparently had a nice ring to it, since it stuck. Eventually it was shortened to G-Balls and eventually just Balls. It was fun when that album “dropped.” The jokes were endless.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

So many influences, but I think probably Woody Guthrie is the greatest. I do a little more singing than I heard him do, being influenced by guys like Bono and Jeff Buckley, but Woody passed down an American tradition to Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Wilco, etc; his songwriting influenced [and] shaped how we’ve all done things. I relate to him particularly being a guy with his guitar traveling all around America and singing and telling stories about what’s going on around him. He really paved the way for all of us modern day troubadours singing any kind of folk songs.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

One of the first shows I played when I started was opening for John Mellencamp. I was so nervous I told the crowd I was going to go back behind the curtain and “When I come back out,” I said, “Can you just pretend like you are all here to see me and go crazy?” They gave me a standing ovation and went wild before I even played a note. On the last song, I did a victory lap around the audience of 5,000 people and high-fived everyone and then finished the last song. I mostly did it because I didn’t know if I’d ever if I’d ever have an opportunity like that again and I wanted to make the most of it (and have a good story to tell). It felt like something you’d see happen in a movie.

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

Lots of film. I love watching movies and disappearing into the scenes that I’m watching. It’s a great escape for me and sometimes inspires a song. Going to museums and looking at paintings and sculpture is a wonderful joy for me too. I also love books; I majored in English Literature in college and learned to really appreciate writing during that time. Poetry and literature probably have the biggest direct influence.

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

I saw Rattle and Hum and wanted to be Bono, circa 1988. [U2] were just so unbelievable. That set the bar pretty high, but I’m also content just making a living, telling my stories, and being a singer and storyteller playing for smaller crowds.

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

“Yesterday Lies.” I think it took me a couple years to write. But the toughest ones were the ones I couldn’t write at all. Every one I finish is easier than the ones that never happened.

Photo credit: Gabe McCurdy

BGS 5+5: Erik Koskinen

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Artist: Erik Koskinen
Hometown: St. Peter, Minnesota
Latest album: Burning the Deal

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Playing with Tom Rush was great, because he was a big influence when I was young. I’ve played with a lot of others as well. Also, the first time I looked up and saw a good-size audience singing along to one of my songs.

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

Literature and poetry. When it’s good it has flow and rhythm like music does. Good writing makes you think, it doesn’t tell you what to think, and songwriting should be like that as well.

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

I was in a play on stage acting with no music and I got a standing ovation from 700 people at age 11 and I was hooked on the stage. Rock ‘n’ roll came a few years after that and connecting with an audience deeply is what we strive for. Otherwise we’d stay home and play to ourselves.

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

That has changed over the years, but now I live on an old farm and I have a garden that is big enough to feed my family and the neighbors. I am not great at it but I do it a lot, so something is bound to grow.

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

All the time, or never at all. The thing about songwriting is that you can lie, tell the truth, scam, fool, be humble, and exaggerate. And we might never tell the secrets beyond that. That is our right as songwriters. We need to leave it up to the listener to decide for themselves what is and what isn’t.

Photo Credit: Darin Kamnetz

BGS 5+5: Pony Bradshaw

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Artist name: Pony Bradshaw
Hometown: Chatsworth, Georgia
Latest album: Sudden Opera
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Buzz (It’s more than a nickname, I suppose. All my family and friends have called me “Buzz” since I was a baby.)

What artist has influenced you the most and how?

Growing up in East Texas (Redwater, TX – Home of the Dragons and Class of ’98) I was exposed to Townes Van Zandt relatively early. Him and Lightnin’ Hopkins. My tastes have definitely broadened over the last 20 years but I will always hold Townes in a consecrated view. His poetry and spirit I use as guides, or at least a highly subjective gold standard.

But over time I’ve tried to digest myriad styles of music, mostly because I get bored, and ultimately, hopefully, creating a ‘stomach of genres’ out of my own music, melding poetry, epic, history, satire, realism, etc. Maybe create something that consumes all categories to become one in and of itself. I don’t want to be afraid of ideas that I can’t bring to an absolute conclusion. It’s more about searching and learning than wrapping a song up real nice and neat for a listener. The ego is mighty, though.

Lately, I’ve been bedeviled by the works of a Hungarian writer named László Krasznahorkai. He writes dark, philosophical fiction, seemingly post-apocalyptic, dense as shit. Long paragraph-length sentences sometimes a page long. I read an essay of his that reminded me that art can be practiced unsuccessfully and to think that success is the only way to be an artist is ludicrous. Also, it ends with, “be like a ninja.” I try to keep it in the back of my head and I’ve written it in a few places so I stumble upon it now and then.

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

Over the past couple of years, songwriting has become more of a sacred act for me. More mystical. But you can’t wait around for inspiration to show her face just as you can’t beg her to accompany you in the trenches. There’s a fine line, a sweet spot, if you will, that I’ve learned to recognize. It usually means being free of outside responsibility for at least 3-4 hours straight. Dependence on uninterrupted time is paramount. Trusting your voice or instinct is essential. Once you compromise yourself it’s hard for anyone to believe a single line you mutter.

I suppose my mantra, or mission statement is a concoction of mysticism, work, self-reliance, and idleness. A mixed bag of contrarieties, but I find it a more invigorating approach. I feel it an honor to even be considered a songwriter and a traveling musician. We’re just a band of peddlers trying to spread a personal gospel. The “job” or “trade” should be treated with respect and I aim to do just that. You must know everything. The minutiae, miscellany, etc. All knowledge comes from experience, some believe. I tend to agree. Then to distill that knowledge from experience and shape it into “art”, bound with poetry and melody, is what I strive to do everyday when I settle into my work. [It’s] an eternal devotion. You must be willing to play the long game. Chipping away, in search of le mot juste.

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

Regarding nature, I try to get out with my kids, up in the mountains, [do] yardwork or [go] swimming somewhere. I step onto my front porch in the morning and the mountains are the first thing I see. Or we might go traipsing along, or in, one of the many rivers surrounding us, all their names derived from Southeastern Native American languages: Conasauga (Cherokee word meaning “grass”); Hiwassee (Some Cherokee say the name comes from their language, meaning “meadow or savanna,” while the Creek say it means “copperhead snake” due to its heavy population of said snake); Coosawattee (most likely a Creek word meaning “river cane”); and the Oostanaula (I like to agree with the folks that say it comes from the Cherokee word meaning “shoally” river).

We build spears out of sticks and arrowheads, tying the arrowheads on with tough long strips of leaves that look like sugar cane. The kids get all ate up with mosquitoes. It’s a good time. But the majority of my outdoor time comes from mowing or watering flowers. I’ve never been one with balance. I’m usually working on songs or reading if I’m not hanging with my kids.

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

Literature would be the front runner. I’m a bibliophile and sometimes wish I could just get paid to read. I’m now a card-carrying member of the The Melville Society, which prints a literary journal three times a year called The Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies. That’s something I never saw coming 15 years ago. I watch a lot of movies, too. Even the bad ones are useful in terms of making me think from a different perspective or just gleaning information. I watched Bela Tarr’s Turin Horse a couple of months ago. He’s a lifelong friend of Krasznahorkai and they’ve collaborated on many projects. It seems the Hungarians treat art in a different manner than Americans — or the majority of Americans, to be fair. I love to paint, too. In fact I just picked up some new oil paints the other day with plans to finish a painting I started of my oldest son. I keep changing the color of his shirt. It’s been staring at me for months, unfinished, abandoned.

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

I love barbecue and the best I’ve had was at B’s Cracklin BBQ down in Savannah, Georgia. He has a spot in Atlanta now, too. B (Bryan Furman) actually helped get me rolling when I started smoking pig parts and chicken at home. We’d talk about temperatures, smoke times, and types of wood, but he’d never give me the exact recipe for his rub. He’s a good dude. So, B’s barbecue, and if we could resurrect the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier, I believe we’d be sitting on go.

Photo credit: Tom Bejgrowicz

BGS 5+5: Dylan LeBlanc

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Artist name: Dylan LeBlanc
Hometown: Shreveport, Louisiana
Latest album: Renegade
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): My friends all call me D — my only nickname really 🙂

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

One of my favorite memories was from a few years ago in Norway and playing a big festival stage. I thought no one was gonna show up during our set and that we shouldn’t be playing the stage we were playing. But we walked out to a roar of thousands of people, I looked back at my drummer, Jon, and the rest of the band said, “All right, let’s let them have it!”

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

Oh my god, I love literature and music from film, chamber orchestras, symphony. I love Martin Phipps, James Newton Howard, and Hans Zimmer. Music is so important when it comes to film and when I write I sometimes have a little movie playing in my head and imagine myself writing the music to it.

Music really transcends films and if we didn’t have it, the film wouldn’t be near as emotionally devastating, touching, funny, or lighthearted. I miss the long camera shots in movies when you could tell they weren’t working with more than maybe two cameras or sometimes one. You had to rely on the music, frame and emotion of the actor to make it come together.

It proves the theory that less is always more and you don’t need a whole bunch of gadgets and technology to make great art. You just need imagination and drive. I kind of take that philosophy with me in my own songwriting. I love imagery and I think that maybe my strong suit as a lyricist is creating strong imagery that has a feeling attached to it.

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

A lot of the songs I wrote for Renegade were tough because I was doing something new and had never written necessarily uptempo songs before. I found myself having to dig for inspiration and having to actually “work” for the first time at songwriting. But the reward of finishing these songs was immensely satisfying. If I got a song written in two days’ time of sitting there staring at a blank page I was jumping for joy.

I got frightened there for a minute that I would never write another song again. That’s when you gotta just sit down and make yourself do it, where discipline comes in. I’m the worst about procrastination and when things don’t come easy I very often lose focus, so it was a test of going against my nature and having to really make myself stay focused.

I kept a rubber band on my wrist and would smack myself with it every time I’d catch myself drifting during the writing of these songs. Ultimately I wrote twenty songs for Renegade alone and recorded ten. I wrote some really beautiful songs that didn’t make it that I hope to include on the next one.

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

I honestly drive more than anyone I know. I love the deep, deep south, the moss on the trees and the murky water. I love the alligators and snakes. The snake is my spirit animal and at first I thought that was a bad thing but it actually just means that I always need to stay grounded. Any place where there is a rich history and stories of its own, inspires my work. They make me feel like there is an endless supply of stories to tell, of people who have felt what I’ve felt and seen what I have seen long before I ever felt or saw anything. I feel less alone. New Orleans, San Francisco, Charleston, Savannah, London, Paris, Amsterdam — these places always get me creatively flowing. Just passing through and seeing how much time has passed and how that hasn’t change them all that much.

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

Very often, I hide behind characters more often than not. I think a piece of every songwriter goes into their songs. My friend Courtney Marie Andrews, whom I consider to be one of the best lyricists of our time, is really good at pouring herself into her songs, yet making them seem strangely relatable to everyone. She is one of the best at that and I can feel every word she sings. Then you have Jason Isbell who can listen to a story on NPR and then write an incredibly sophisticated and intricate song about a character to [the point] where you feel close to them while listening to the song.

I feel like I’m a writer who tries to achieve it all but ends up putting a piece of myself in everything, trying to hide behind the “you’s” and the characters [I] am writing about. I am very much still growing and learning how to be a good writer. It is a practice I will always be chipping away at for years to come.

Photo credit: Alysse Gafkjen

BGS 5+5: Her Crooked Heart’s Rachel Ries

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Artist: Her Crooked Heart
Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Latest album: To Love To Leave To Live
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): My choir calls me ‘Coach Racket’ or just Coach which is super sweet. (My sister calls me Racket because I make noise, despite being a generally quite quiet person).

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I’m the founding director and choral arranger for a weirdo charming 60-voice indie choir in the Twin Cities. For our first season finale, I arranged a backup choir part for a song of mine called “Ghost” off my last album, Ghost of a Gardener. That moment there on the Icehouse stage [a venue in Minneapolis], when the outro hit and all the vocals coalesced into one determined statement of faith in humanity and purpose — holy is the best way I can describe it. I’ve never felt so proud, satisfied, gratified, faithful, boundless on stage.

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

I very much enjoy using my hands to create things I find beautiful and pleasing – from linocut prints, hand-sewn CD sleeves, detailed pencil portraits, to homemade rhubarb sour cherry jam… While I can’t say these art forms inform my music, I steadily strive to find ways to merge the various expressions with my music. I make handmade editions of releases, draw portraits of my patrons from time to time, make jam to sell at the merch table… I used to be a fairly unhappy monochrome musician. It’s helped me immensely to find ways to bring more of my entire self to this music-presenting table.

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

I have no idea what led up to this moment, but I clearly remember being a 4-year-old, the youngest daughter of Mennonite medical missionaries in Zaire, sitting on Sue’s lap in our little house in the village. She was my friend, minder, and a fellow mission-worker. I gazed up at her (I adored her) and declared “I wanna be a singer when I grow up.” I have no idea where that came from and why. But it sure stuck. It’s been my engine of purpose; my wheel of longing for as long as I have memory.

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

Ah the toughest time… When I was living in a relationship I knew in my core was not right for me; for either of us. The denial was deep and I wouldn’t let myself see it clearly, let alone articulate it. During that time, whenever I’d sit down to write a song, it was as if I’d lifted a manhole cover and this dark demon snarl of “Get me out / Run / Abort! Abort!” was trying to rush out and burn my life to the ground. So I’d quickly slam the cover back down and do something, anything else. Curiously, once I’d finally been honest, all those snarling sad song fumes just… vanished. They dissolved into the ether and I finally had songs again.

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

Almost never. And if I do, it’s an intentional choice with a reveal at the end when the pronoun switches to ‘I’ and I claim my role within the song. If memory serves, I’ve played this card a few times, though, so I might have used up that hand…

But this links up with something quite important to me in songwriting – attempting to articulate universals with emotionally resonant specificity. “Pleasant Valley Reservoir” describes the day I got dumped and willfully got lost driving the backroads of Vermont. It ends with the lyric, sung almost as a dare: “Am I lost if it’s where I choose to be?” I’m the ‘I’ but that’s totally for us. It’s one of my favorite lines to deliver live. If I’ve done my job, I swear I can almost hear the click of recognition in the audience. Pronouns are wonderfully mutable at times.

Photo credit: Nate Ryan