Tag: 5+5

BGS 5+5: Rachel Maxann

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Rachel Maxann
Hometown: Memphis, Tennessee
Latest Album: Black Fae
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Fickle Hellcat, I ended up making it my last album name instead.

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

I absolutely adore my producer and although this isn’t necessarily a ritual, we tend to fall into a pattern when recording. We sit and talk about our lives for a while and generally catch up as friends while I sit in his massage chair. Sometimes I’ll have a glass of wine while he drinks his favorite new cocktail concoction. Then we’ll dim the lights in his studio and we’ll proceed to record whatever we want to work on that day. I’m excited for the next round of songs that we do! I don’t think it would be the same result if we didn’t have such a good friendship.

What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?

Putting my own name on my music first and foremost. I’ve had a fairly long career with many different formats, some of those being bands. In the past, I would be insistent in creating a new band every time I got new players. An old friend gave me the advice of putting my name out there first, because while different players come and go I’ll always have myself and my songs. It really changed the way I presented myself.

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

Wood and the water have a profound effect on my mental health. The album cover of Black Fae is actually at my favorite park in Memphis that is close to my house. On good weather days, I’ll take a run or walk with my dog and just enjoy the shady greenery. Though I love water in all its forms, I feel most relaxed at the beach, and if the ocean is not available I spend time by the lake. “Remember the Stars” was written on a month-long solo trip with my dog in Mexico. Every day I would pack my guitar, a book, and my notebook and sit by the beach and just be.

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

I would love to pair my music with comfort foods. The lyrics have a lot of difficult topics and emotions, I would want the listener to be in a warm, safe space in case they are triggered by any of the songs. I have a history as a therapist, and whenever I had a client face an especially difficult feeling I would encourage them to have their loved ones nearby as well as their favorite comfort items. It can ease someone in and out of the process. If it were for myself, I would pick up a vegan oxtail meal from my favorite local Memphis chef, Camri McNary AKA The Vegan Goddess.

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

I wouldn’t describe it as hiding behind it, but rather morphing my experience into a way that is more relatable to the listener. In some cases in the process of writing the song, it becomes more of a message to others rather than about myself, because often what I’m writing about is universal experiences even though they’re deeply personal. With “Last Cut” I first wrote it when I was in a dark place and having suicidal ideations. Shortly after having completed the original version, I lost a friend to an overdose which shifted my focus from my own grief to those of my friends and his family. When I sang it later, it naturally evolved into a story of my sadness into a message of awareness as well as encouragement to those that may be having similar feelings.

Photo Credit: Lucia Lombardo

BGS 5+5: Ellis Paul

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Ellis Paul
Hometown: Charlottesville, Virginia
Latest album: 55 (available June 9, 2023)

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I can’t say which artist has inspired me “the most,” there’s too many great ones in the generations that came before me and too many new ones popping up as I go. And some of them are unconscious influences. I don’t go to James Taylor or Paul Simon consciously, but they are such a part of my youth and DNA that I know they are there. The Beatles are my go to teachers, as is Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell. Their entire catalogues. When I listen to them with a magnifying glass, I’m constantly awe struck. They make my humility rise as a dominant emotional state. I’m good at what I do. But the gap between them and me is clear to me – but it is also where my great frontier lies. The best version of me is somewhere out there ahead — in that direction — and I need them as inspiration to explore it. To guide my improvements. So I dissect their music. And thank them. While their songs lie like frogs in the biology class of my mind.

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

All of it! Everywhere I’m engaged in life can create a song — so I’m constantly on the lookout. I see what I do as a form of literature. There is a reason why Bob Dylan is walking around with a Nobel Prize in Literature. It’s storytelling, poetry, lyricism wrapped in imagery, dressed within melody and colored orchestration. It’s a visual medium in people’s brains as they watch the details unfold in a song while they are listening. So it’s like a movie or a painting. The music is a dance. It’s flowing. It’s a kind of geography.

Everything from a great meal to a great movie can inspire. Anytime I’m stuck, I try to get out and see a film or go to a museum or take a walk. Read a book. Watch how film makers tell their stories. It’s all a deep well to drink from, aren’t we incredibly lucky? I love my job.

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

One of the best rituals I have in the studio is working with a grid sheet and stickers to watch the progress I’m making as the album evolves. I put it on the wall so everyone involved can see it. It’s a big piece of paper usually 18” by 24”. The songs are on the left side going down and all the tracks run across the top. After a musician plays their part, I give them a sticker to fill in their square for the song. It helps me project out, to see what’s left to do, and to see how much has been done. It helps to focus my thoughts on the parts left to finish and I can be creatively thinking about how I want the remaining tracks to lie against the ones that are completed. It also makes the musician feel good for some reason. They always love it. The stickers are usually cool, like Wizard of Oz characters. It brings out the first grader in people. They choose which sticker and then find their empty box and fill it with Toto.

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

Mainly— create beauty in every part of your work.

Now, since I’m in my fifties, this would be by making the most of your talent and my skill set. Focus on the writing because that is the part that will be left behind when you part from the earthly side of things. The recordings will tell the story of you in the years to come when your gone. So I’m editing the songs until they shimmer, working more in the studio to get things right and less as a road dog doing shows. I was always writing and recording on the fly. Coming into the studio with a voice torn up by the road. And songs written on airplanes. I’ve got more space now, because I’m established, and can live off of fewer shows. I can’t sing as high or sustain notes the same way, but I have more patience and wisdom now. I’m a better writer for those things. And the best is yet to come.

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

I like character driven songs and usually have a couple on every album. The latest album, 55, has a song from the perspective of a tattooed lady in a circus. I did it as a writing exercise where I was assigning circus characters to my songwriting students. So I had to assume a lot of different things with this song: a woman’s perspective, a time/era perspective – because I felt like it was occurring in the late ’40s – and then someone who is essentially a circus act in a freak show. It was fun to write. Unlike, say a “bearded lady” or conjoined twins, the tattooed performer chose to look as she does. I don’t feel like she is a victim of circumstance in the same way, so the character invites the listener to gaze upon her physique. Circus life can be tough as well, doing show after show, so you sense her boredom. Despite the fact that she is lighting the wick on the big gun of the human cannonball. She’s a bit over it.

Photo Credit: Jack Looney

BGS 5+5: SloCoast

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: SloCoast
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Latest Release: “What Are We Waiting For?”

(Answers by Trevor Jarvis)

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

There are seven of us in this group. Collectively, we all have a wide variety of tastes and influences, but one artist we all love in common is Alison Krauss & Union Station. I guess you could call that group our North Star for SloCoast. Good players, good songwriting, killer harmonies — the stuff we all love. Our band crush, for sure!

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

We recently played a show at a farm up near Sacramento. In the middle of a song, Mark [Cassidy] broke and replaced a string right when he was about to take a solo. The band just vamped while he was doing it and then we all came back into the song form together when he was done. It’s always memorable when something like that happens cause it’s like one big trust fall.

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

A lot of life experience usually informs our writing — could just be a simple conversation that sparks some kind of idea. Going out to a show can also be really inspiring. Just hearing a good song can open up a lot!

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

Almost every time we write a song, there will be a flow period where everything writes itself, but then we’ll get stuck on one final line. Sometimes it takes hours (if not days) to finish that one line. This seems to be our process with every song — and it’s maddening.

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

Honestly, we have more of a post-show/recording ritual than we do beforehand. After the show, or a long day of writing or recording, we usually sit in a circle with a bottle of Jameson on the table and talk/jam into the midnight hours. Just hanging out together is good for the soul and creates a perfect environment for making new music, too!

Photo Credit: Elle Jaye

BGS 5+5: Rodney Rice

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Rodney Rice
Hometown: Morgantown, West Virginia
Latest Album: Rodney Rice 
Personal Nicknames: Munch

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

I gravitated towards guitar and writing lyrics as a kid. It was never a conscious decision. It was something I started doing at a young age that I kept working on and carried with me through all my life events. By that time I went into record my first album writing and playing music was a part of my fabric, my identity, in my DNA. Jason McKenzie (longtime drummer of Billy Joe Shaver) helped get me into the studio for my first album which turned out to be a step change. After I recorded I never thought if people would want to listen to it. Another step change occurred working out of the Bomb Shelter in Nashville which provided a whole new experience by exposing me to a method of recording I hadn’t done before. 2” tape. Seemed fitting to send to vinyl and now I have my first vinyl record.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

This is a tough to select only one. My mind immediately goes to Dylan, Prine, Billy Joe Shaver. I have seen them play shows, front row center stage soaking everything up like a sponge. Equally important are artists I play with on stage and in the studio — they have a huge impact on me. I have been very fortunate to surround myself with great musicians.

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

I heard this discussion somewhere once before, but I can’t recall exactly. For me, I think it’s not a conscious hiding and I usually blend them together. Like in the last verse of “Get to Where I’m Going” where I sing “Loving someone who don’t love you back, puts a pain in your chest like a heart attack / Ain’t nothing left, there’s no point to stay. I played my part, so I’ll be on my way.” In “Every Passing Day” I start with “I got a lead act in a play, that I’m living today.” Yeah, I blend them. But sometimes when I use “you,” I am referring to someone else.

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

A large portion of my life was spent on whitewater rivers, but having moved to Colorado, backcountry skiing has been my activity of choice. Staying connected to nature helps keep my mind, body, and soul focused. What I mean by that, these activities in the wilderness are at times physically demanding (body). Conditions can be intense at times, cold and wet, but having to remain mentally focused on the dynamic of the situation (mind). All this taking place in a vast wildness backdrop where I am just a speck on a mountain or a drop in a river (soul). These skills are not lost upon returning. When life is challenging, uncomfortable, stay focused on the task at hand. I think you would find this perseverance in other independent artists. The industry is stacked against us but it’s not a determent. We are all just drops in a big river; we all start and finish the same but take different route over the course of in between.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Anytime I am playing a new song that I know the audience has yet to hear but somehow, they are singing along to it. I could be way off base, but my thought is “Man, I must have got it right this time!”

Photo Credit: Laura E. Partain

BGS 5+5: AHI

Posted on by Editor

Artist: AHI
Hometown: Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Latest Album: Prospect, out November 5, 2021
Rejected band names: UrbanPeasant (high school rap name) and Back To Now (University band name)

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

Before I left home to backpack across Ethiopia, I gave away, sold or just plain threw away hundreds of CDs — the only thing I kept was my Bob Marley stuff. I felt like nothing contemporary was speaking to me the way The Wailers did, even though this was music from before I was born. So I said to myself, if there’s no contemporary music that gets me through life the way Bob Marley does, then I’ll teach myself how to play guitar and sing, and I’ll make the music that I need to hear. Because if I need it, I know someone else out there does too.

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

The crescent moon is probably the most captivating thing in nature to me. The moon in general. For some reason the moon makes me feel less alone and less on the outside of everything. We’re all looking at the same moon and it connects me to something bigger than myself. I want my music to connect us to each other and give people the reassurance that they’re not alone.

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

Life is an art form. And I try to draw everything from real life. My own life, people I know, my family, my friends. There’s art in struggle, hardships, and triumphs of life.

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

The song “Until You” went through more changes than any song I’ve ever written, before ultimately becoming the first single off my upcoming album Prospect. I had a base melody that I knew was special, but just couldn’t figure out where on earth the song was trying to go. The first conception of the song was written in 2017 and it took me over three years to get it to a place where I was happy with it. I have at least three or four completely different versions of that song on my computer, with different titles and everything, but it was worth the struggle.

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

I found my voice through music, so I write songs to help you find yours.

Photo courtesy of ShoreFire
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BGS 5+5: Laurel Premo

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Laurel Premo
Hometown: Traverse City, Michigan
Latest Album: Golden Loam

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

For me dance is such a huge influence. I’ve spent quite a few years as a dance musician for square dances, being a traditional fiddler. That role of being more the motor for the good time, as opposed to being the focal point, has always resonated deeply with me. But beyond that, I know that just my experience as a participant in social dance in both American old-time and Nordic traditions has given my body a vocabulary that comes out in my music. I’ve found a through line in my voice that, no matter the tempo of the music, I always am wanting to make these larger slower pulses, make longer groups of beats, tap my foot at a slower frequency. I’m certain that that longer embodiment of phrases, and the pull, and balance, from dance have played into my nature there.

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

I have a really early memory, I’m not sure what age, but before I was big enough to hold any instruments. I was in my bedroom, standing next to the door, and I could hear my folks playing music on the other side of the wall in the living room, my mom really tearing it up on some fiddle tune. In that moment, alone, I remember that I started air-fiddling and kind of marching around or dancing in the little corner. I just wanted to be part of whatever was going on there.

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

I took a while composing this lap steel track, “Father Made of River Mud,” from the new record. For a bit, it was separate pieces, in different tunings, that I didn’t know if I’d be able to fold together as one. It’s a really beautiful moment for the maker of a piece, when some kind of grace math helps everything line up in your head, and then you get to hear the thing for the first time in its full form. That tune is like a circle, it doesn’t really have to end at any one point.

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

I try and spend some time ruminating with memory that reflects back at me the elements of my personal experience that I want to embed in the performance, to make more vibrant what I’m laying down there for listeners. It’s almost a way of remembering myself to myself, because there are a lot of possible distractions when you’re recording or performing. Every little step of the setup could be something that takes you away from your body and the meaning you’re trying to imbue in the work. So, I just real quickly try to go into the wilds to try and counteract all of the civilization that I’m traversing through.

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

In the last two to three years, my wild haunts have been woods, dunes, and rivers. I grew up in the woods, so shadows and green, what reverb the places with a great amount of life growing have, and the scents of being real close to the ground — those are all deep in me, and as an adult I go back to similar places to find quiet, and to kind of listen beyond that quiet. Walking rivers for the past few years, learning fly fishing, has brought about a whole other set of turns, including just a beautiful sideways weight from the gravity of the river flowing against you. I definitely take gestural impulses from my time spent in the wild, and work to keep all my senses open to what rhythms lay in front of me.

Photo credit: Harpe Star

BGS 5+5: Noel McKay

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Noel McKay
Hometown: My hometown is really the little Central Texas Hill Country community of Pipe Creek. I currently live in Nashville, Tennessee.
Latest album: Blue, Blue, Blue
Personal Nicknames: I think that in the US, Noel is a sufficiently unusual name that I never really got a nickname. It’s a fairly common name in the UK, as it turns out.

Which artist has influenced you the most… and how?

The artist that influenced me the most is Guy Clark. Guy took a shine to one of my songs when I was a young songwriter. He did a lot of nice things for me and I won’t ever forget it. As I began to dig into his catalog, I realized the depth of his work. Of course, I will never live up to the expectations that come from being spoken about favorably by such an amazing writer but, every day, I try to anyway.

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

With the pairing of food and music in mind, I would love to sit and eat Cajun food with Lucinda Williams somewhere in the Atchafalaya Basin. So much of her work has had a huge impact on me.

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

The moment I knew I wanted to be a performing songwriter was when I was 11 or 12 and hearing Randy Newman’s records Sail Away and Good Old Boys. The very sharp expressions of his worldview really appealed to me and made me feel like it was possible to sing about something besides hedonism. Up to that point, the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati had been showing me a sort of cartoonish example what musicians were supposed to be like.

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

I have a few rituals in the recording studio. When cutting basics, I find that it’s best to avoid caffeine for the purposes of keeping a relaxed vibe. When singing, I do lots of breathing and drink tons of water. When in mixing, I like to have books with lots of pictures, i.e., vintage guitars, famous painters’ works, sculpture, archaeology, things that allow me to be partially distracted so that my ear remains engaged, but I don’t micromanage or obsess over a small part of the bigger song picture.

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

If there’s a mission statement for my career, it is this: “You Do It Or You Don’t.” I’ve tried both.

Photo credit: Aisha Golliher

BGS 5+5: Taylor McCall

Posted on by Editor

Name: Taylor McCall
Hometown: Easley, South Carolina
Latest Album: Black Powder Soul

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

“Black Powder Soul.” It took me three days.

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

It used to be standing in a river fly fishing. But now I don’t get to do as much fishing these days and slipping out into the country fuels my songwriting.

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

Cold shower to start the morning. Breath work and meditation.

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

To me there are deeper layers of hidden message and “hiding” in a song. A tasty sonic phrase can not only sound cool and intriguing but also mean a million different obscure things. To not only me but the listener.

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

Easy! Jimi Hendrix and jambalaya!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0rFdqyreyBtJhzIEjDQFlT?si=gdYxqJ2ZRgyNeUW29izWFw&dl_branch=1

Photo credit: Laura Partain

BGS 5+5: Kelley Mickwee

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Kelley Mickwee
Hometown: Austin, Texas, by way of Memphis, Tennessee

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

All of the elements. Mother Nature, the universe and the natural world are my religion and informs my spirituality, so I’d say nature inspires everything I do. As far as on the daily, I have to do something outside at some point no matter what the weather or where I am or how busy I get. It could be anything, from digging and planting in the garden, pruning, cutting the grass, and watering the plants to taking long hikes with my dog, Moe. If I am in town, you can usually find me at one of our off-leash dog hiking trails with Moe. It’s very centering and really impacts my mental health and general well being. Especially when the sun is shining. And THAT, in turn, gives me the inspiration, energy and right mindset to sit down with a pen or with my guitar to work on a song. Or do anything, really.

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

Not enough. Ha! I learned pretty early on as a songwriter that for me to write the best lines I can, I have to just speak from experience from the first person and be as open and honest as I can or am comfortable. I definitely have many “character” songs about other people or from their stories, especially songs that are co-writes, because then you are sharing a narrative with another writer so who knows how many people/experiences are wrapped up in that one song? But, in general, I tend to write from a first-person experience or relationship. Especially if it’s a song I write alone or start on my own before sharing with a co-writer.

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

I think as songwriters, we are constantly getting input from all kinds of sources and storing it away for when we sit down to write a song. This could be anything from a conversation we had, or another song we heard on the radio, or a movie we just watched. I have written several songs from quick lines I wrote down while watching a film or a documentary. And I am always searching for inspiration and guidance from poetry, especially lately. I took an online poetry course in 2020 and it really gave me some new tools to use when writing lyrics.

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

This one was easy! A locally sourced vegan meal in London with Paul McCartney. I am actually a pescatarian who doesn’t eat or drink dairy, so not technically a vegan. But…when in London with Paul McCartney!

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

Every time! It is not easy for me to complete a song. Very very rarely do they just roll off the end of my pen, or float down from the sky, just waiting to be written down. I have many songwriter friends who have story after story of songs just spilling out of them and it makes me envious of that feeling. I do have one maybe two that came out, say, in a day. But even those were painful and agonizing at times. Like finishing a thesis that’s due the next day. Gosh! That sounds awful. I just mean, I want every line to count and be the best line it can be and as honest and original as possible. I think that’s where the good stuff lives. And so, if it takes me a bit longer to get there, so be it. Because the end result, a song I am proud of and can’t wait to sing, is SO sweet and rewarding, in all of the ways.

Photo credit: Taylor Prinsen

BGS 5+5: RC & the Ambers

Posted on by Editor

Artist: RC & the Ambers
Hometown: Tahlequah, Oklahoma
Latest Album: Big Country
Personal nicknames: RC “Rooster” Edwards

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Probably have to say John Prine. Something about the way he could be heartbreaking, hilarious, and most of all clever in the same song. He teaches a lesson about not taking yourself too serious. Nothing wrong with a song being fun. Nothing wrong with a song being sad. Sometimes both. Gotta remind myself that sometimes.

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

Two events come to mind. I was maybe 6 or 7 or so and my ma took me to see this group play in the parking lot of the Hardee’s burger place in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. Everybody was singing, dancing, having a ball. I thought, man, I wanna make people do that. That group was the California Raisins.

At some point my brother got a VHS copy of the Richie Valens biopic La Bamba starring Lou Diamond Phillips. He watched it over and over again so I did too. “Here’s a bit of a rattlesnake.”

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

My favorite has to be when Turnpike used to have a pre-show ritual known as the Golden Hour. One hour before doors we would all gather up, drink a few salty dogs, and watch an episode of The Golden Girls. Started out it was just me and Laser. A week later you had to get there early to get a seat.

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

The river for sure. We go kayaking almost every Sunday or Monday at Diamondhead here in Tahlequah. Our version of the Illinois River is beautiful here. It’s always been sort of reset button to chill out and start a new week.

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

Too often probably. Classic deflection mechanism. I’ve also written a song about someone else and later realized it was about me.

Photo credit: Amber Watson