Tag: Folk

Rose Cousins Shares Her Truth More Freely with ‘Bravado’

Posted on by Editor

“I’ve always been interested in human struggle,” Rose Cousins says, musing on “The Fraud,” a song off her latest album Bravado. “I think being a living human being is really hard.”

Bravado listens like a series of object lessons on the contradictions inherent to being human, with Cousins using each song to meditate on themes like pretension and vanity, as well as loneliness, solitude, and the crucial distinction between the two. Across the album, her songwriting is as sharp and clear-eyed as it’s ever been, a feat she attributes to pushing herself to dig deeper and share her truth more freely than she’d done on past efforts. Bravado follows her Grammy-nominated 2017 album Natural Conclusion.

BGS caught up with Cousins in late February, just a week after she released Bravado, speaking by phone as she was at home in Halifax putting together packages for Kickstarter supporters. Much has changed for musicians since then, rendering some bits of our conversation irrelevant (like her tour in support of Bravado, which was canceled due to COVID-19), and other portions — as when Cousins shares her desire to spend more of her energy on practices like walking and meditation — strangely prescient.

BGS: When did you begin work on the album, and when did you feel the project was truly starting to come together?

Cousins: Every year I go on a writing retreat with a group of songwriters from Boston; we’ve been doing it now for 10 years. I wrote two of the songs at the retreat: “Love Comes Back” and “The Fraud.” “The Fraud” was the song that really revealed to me the concept of “bravado.” I thought about the word “bravado” and thought it would be an amazing title, and isn’t that an interesting concept?

I went into the studio to work with some different musicians in Canada I hadn’t worked with before. We had such a great time that I booked some more studio time in May [of 2019] and in between that time wrote “The Benefits of Being Alone.” Once I wrote that song, in March of last year, I was like, “It’s on.” I really wanted to write a song that was coming from my perspective of being a single person, and, while society has different stigmas around [being single], it’s not all bad.

I think people experience loneliness whether they’re in a relationship or not. And aloneness is a really rich thing — spending time by yourself and having your own creative time and energy to devote to yourself and what you want to do. So I was really excited when that song came. I knew after our sessions in May that I was chasing a record.

Back to what you were saying about choosing the word Bravado as your album title, that concept comes up in “The Expert,” too. Can you elaborate on why you felt that idea was so representative of this collection of songs? I always find it interesting when an artist chooses a title for an album that isn’t also the title of a track.

It’s definitely the thread that goes through all the songs. When I was writing “The Fraud,” I was singing, almost in an observational way, about my own self, about presenting yourself one way and feeling another way. And if there is a time in the world that that is happening, it’s right now, where people are presenting versions of themselves that aren’t necessarily true. Maybe it isn’t a complete lie, but we never used to be able to filter photographs. Only people who worked at magazines could do that. Now we are putting versions of ourselves through social media that are depicting the best bits. …

Since my last record, I’ve been thinking a lot about what matters to me, what’s really true, what do I love, what are the things I can let go of? And how can I be more in touch with myself and the ground? It’s really hard. I don’t think there is a single human being who escapes any of that. You can have 75 emotions in one day….

The hardest, deepest, most uncomfortable work — and this is where I’m at in my life — is dealing with your own self. And where you are calling upon bravado. That’s the concept of this whole record. It’s the duality of being a living human being. We present the version of ourselves we want but when we’re in a vulnerable situation, can we live up to the person that we presented? That’s the question for me.

To your point about trying to be more real and truthful in your everyday life, there was a quotation in your bio that stuck with me. You said, “I realized I was chasing a theme and a feeling I had been pondering for months. And it turned into a whole record of perhaps my best writing.” Did that personal digging contribute to your feelings about the finished album?

My last record was definitely some of my most truthful writing. I remember having nervousness about some of the stuff being too dark or that kind of thing. Of course it’s hard to have perspective on your own work, but I historically feel like I elude; I don’t always tell the full story at one time. I elude telling the full story and I allude to things. With this record, it feels closer to an admittance and staring really hard at the way I’ve set my own life up. By being more truthful for my own self, I think that always makes the writing better, and makes the connection to the music better.

Elsewhere in reading about the album creation, I came across a passage where you share that you felt a kind of pressure to be productive, as opposed to going for a walk or enjoying silence. Did making this record alleviate that feeling for you in any way, or offer you a differing perspective?

It did not. It’s funny. So this month, February, I tried to protect all of February as best I could from travel so that I could be home and deal with all the Kickstarter things and all of the press that’s coming in, all of the merch, all the things people don’t see and don’t need to know about. Within that, I dedicated myself to two things that I have been talking to myself about for years: I’ve taken a walk outside every single day and I’ve meditated every single day. Those are two things I’ve wanted to incorporate into my world.

I definitely am a workaholic. I definitely have this thought-circle in my mind of, “If you’re not doing something productive, if you’re not moving forward…” I can’t let myself off the hook… I’ve still been trying to put those desires into motion. There are plenty of days when I don’t want to go for a walk, but once I’m outside I feel better. Why is it so hard? Why is it so hard to get back to the gym, or stop eating garbage? It’s because we’re emotional people and we form habits and you have to make different decisions. Sometimes the psychic pain of change is horrible and also exactly what we need.

That’s a good segue to one of the songs I’ve found myself coming back to a lot, which is “The Time Being (Impending Mortality Awareness Society).” First of all, that is such a fantastic title. I’d love to hear how you wrote that one.

I feel very lucky to have a friend, an older gentleman, who is a fisherman. We were catching up one day and he was talking about coming back from a fishing trip where he had a gentleman with him who was much older than him. He said, in passing, “impending mortality awareness.” I thought it was brilliant and about a month later I found myself sitting at a piano and came up with that first line, “The Impending Mortality Awareness Society meets twice a week / Do or die because time is of the essence.” And I kept running with that…

Of all the stuff we’ve just talked about, isn’t it the hardest to just be present? That’s what going for the walk is. That’s what meditation is. Can you give yourself a moment where you tune in to your own body and your own brain and pause? It is about paying attention to what is important. It’s about telling the people you love that you love them. It’s about checking in with your fears. Because most of them are not real. It’s about acknowledging that time is in motion and you need to get your head out of your ass and be in it.

Photo credit: Lindsay Duncan

WATCH: Alec Lytle & Them Rounders, “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Alec Lytle & Them Rounders
Hometown: Woodside, California
Song: “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” (Paul Simon cover)
Album: The Remains of Sunday
Release Date: April 17, 2020
Label: CEN/The Orchard

In Their Words: “There is a bit of an interesting story around the album cut; it was fully recorded live, no overdubs. The band was in the live room at Sound City Studios and I was in the reverb chamber. The chamber is a huge, empty, concrete vault normally used to add reverb and echo to the mix in a very natural way. So I sat in there, hearing the band over headphones. No light, total blackness. All that echo and reverb is because of the space I’m sitting in. This is the same reverb chamber that became famous from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours that was recorded there too.

“I chose to put this song on the record after sitting with it for about six months. My sister passed away recently after a brutal battle with cancer. She loved music, she was the first person I ever heard play guitar and sing, she sang the soprano part when my sisters and I would sing together. I played this song at her memorial service because my family and I felt like this song represented how we want to remember her. I decided to include it on the record as a marker for her… a testament to her memory.

“Dylan Day (guitarist/Jackson Browne, Jenny Lewis, Beck) was spending a few days at our house in November. We had just finished playing and recording some other songs in our living room when we noticed the light starting to fade at the end of the day. Dylan and I decided to play the song outside our back door while the sunset over the forest. It was a one-take thing… filmed and recorded in a matter of minutes. This was likely only the second time Dylan and I played this song… the first time for the record, and then this time behind our house.” — Alec Lytle

Photo credit: Scott McKissen

LISTEN: Liv Greene, “Wishing Well”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Liv Greene
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Song: “Wishing Well”
Album: Every Bright Penny
Release Date: April 20, 2020 (single), May 8, 2020 (album)

In Their Words: “‘Wishing Well’ is the oldest song on the record. I started writing it in my junior year of high school about the age-old story of moving on, and all the ways heart and mind stay stuck during that process. Of course the story became more real to me as I got older, and I think it resonated even more deeply when that happened. To me, it speaks to that quiet glimmer of hope we hold on to in our mind, sometimes even subconsciously, that things will work out in the end. It’s about how coming to terms with that hope can help you to understand your own feelings, but it’s also about how that hope can hurt you. Sometimes we hold on because we won’t let ourselves let go, and sometimes we do it because we know our story with that person is not finished. This song speaks to that middle ground, and to the process of admitting, to yourself and others, that that’s exactly where you are.” — Liv Greene

Photo credit: Louise Bichan

LISTEN: Brian Wright & The SneakUps, “What You Don’t Know”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Brian Wright & The SneakUps
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “What You Don’t Know”
Album: Lapse of Luxury
Release Date: May 8, 2020
Label: Cafe Rooster Records

In Their Words: “‘What You Don’t Know’ was one of three songs written in an afternoon/evening a few days after I got back from a particularly long tour. The other was ‘Heavy Metal Shed Kids’ and the third got chopped up and used for parts. I was nearly finished with LOL (Lapse of Luxury). It needed a simple song to bring it back down to earth. I was burned out. I had taken on too much and couldn’t keep up. You can hear it. Moving too fast and missing out. The song was a way to let the people I loved know I that I knew something had to change. While I was writing it there were people over; I could hear them outside the shed. They’re in the recording if you listen really close. I walked outside and our guests were naked, dancing around a fire pit to something perfect. It was light and free. It was cool. I felt better. I was home and I was lucky again.” — Brian Wright

Photo credit: Stacie Huckeba

LISTEN: The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers, “Leave Town”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Leave Town”
Album: I Will Rise
Release Date: TBD (2020)

From the Artist: “‘Leave Town’ is an anthem for the brokenhearted. It’s a cathartic crying out for a change. This song is about dealing with the emotional aftermath of a bad breakup and holding onto hope for a new beginning. Steeped in American roots music, the song is built on a foundation of foot stomps, hand claps, and good old-fashioned shouting. The fierce choruses are sung by a full choir. The pedal steel, organ, and 12-string guitars weave themselves into the song and set a backdrop for a mellow lead vocal on the verses. ‘Leave Town’ is about wanting to get away from anything familiar… including oneself.” — Will Wadsworth, The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers

Photo credit: Grant Westhoff

LISTEN: Aaron Burdett, “Dirt Poor”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Aaron Burdett
Hometown: Saluda, North Carolina
Song: “Dirt Poor”
Release Date: April 17, 2020 (watch the teaser)
Label: Organic Records

In Their Words: “‘Dirt Poor’ is about nostalgia and hope and the passage of time. We’re all doing the best we can with what we have each day, and trying to look ahead and plan, but for the most part we’re all adding up tiny decisions and moves day to day with the hope that they add up to something we want in the end. My family moved into an old summer cabin in the woods in Saluda in 1979, when I was four and my brother John was a newborn. My brother Joseph was born a few years later. This song is in part about my parents and our family and my experience growing up there, but it’s also about their friends and the community in aggregate. It was a simpler time. Or at least I think it was. That’s another element of this song I hope comes across: our perception and memory of times past. The nostalgia element, if you will.” — Aaron Burdett

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

Whiskey Sour Happy Hour With Ed Helms: View All the Episodes & Donate Here

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

As the enormous, ever-turning wheels of the music industry ground to a halt and the coronavirus crisis first came to a head, BGS co-founders Amy Reitnouer and Ed Helms were already brainstorming what would become the Whiskey Sour Happy Hour.

“MusiCares felt like a really natural fit,” Helms told the Recording Academy in a recent interview. “I hosted their gala a couple of years ago. I’m a big fan of that organization. And then more directly on the medical front, Direct Relief was also just a no-brainer because they’re doing incredible work [to make] sure frontline workers are properly protected and supplied.”

The mission was pretty simple: Support the music industry and our BGS family, while also bolstering first line responders doing the difficult, vital work of fighting this virus in hospitals and clinics across the country and around the world.

Here’s the great thing — although the show concluded on May 13 with a no-holds-barred, star-studded finale show, each episode is still available for viewing right here on BGS (as well as on our YouTube channel). Why? Because we’re still raising money! At this point, our generous fans, listeners, and supporters, have given more than $54,000, so we’re keeping Whiskey Sour Happy Hour online until May 25 to give you the chance to not only rewatch and experience these wonderful shows, but also to give you the chance to contribute, if you can. Your gift will be split half and half between MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund and Direct Relief.

DONATE HERE! And as you do, you can also check out each of the four prior episodes of Whiskey Sour Happy Hour below! No donation is too small in making a difference, any amount helps:

Special thanks to the Americana Music Association, TX Whiskey, and Allbirds for their support.

You can also give by PRE-ORDERING WHISKEY SOUR HAPPY HOUR MERCH, also to benefit MusiCares and Direct Relief.

Episode 1:

Our inaugural episode got off to a bit of a rocky start when our entire website CRASHED because you turned out in such huge numbers. An excellent problem to have. We’re all in this socially distant boat together, aren’t we?

So, we weathered the technical difficulties, exercised patience, and landed with a gorgeous, heartfelt, and tender first episode — complete with a surprise appearance by comedian and actor Jenny Slate (who has been visiting a pet cemetery a lot during her confinement) and a mother/daughter duet of “Keep On the Sunny Side” by modern country queen Lee Ann Womack and her Americana rocker daughter, Aubrie Sellers. Fresh off the release of Fiona Apple’s critically acclaimed pandemic-perfect album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, producer Davíd Garza played us a little number, too.

Between Watkins Family Hour dueting through a window (rockin’ the at least six-feet-apart rule!), cartoonist Matt Diffee’s dry, dry goods, Yola’s undeniable effervescent power, and our ringmaster Ed Helms choreographing the entire thing, Episode 1 was the perfect first effort for WSHH.

Episode 2:

April 29 brought a much less dramatic downbeat, as Episode 2 kicked off just as planned — and with a cameo from a very stern, nocturnal friend. Who we miss very dearly, already.

Ed may have seemed a little enamored with Texan piano man Robert Ellis’ robe, but we all were so who can blame him? Julian Lage and Margaret Glaspy massaged every last strand of tension from our weary bodies and ears with two simple, resplendent duets together, a rare treat that may not have happened if it weren’t for good ol’ shelter-in-place. Raw, virtuosic, genius musical talent was on display by mandolinist Sierra Hull, Americana godfather Rodney Crowell, and Ed’s buddy Ben Harper — who may have elicited a few tears with a John Prine tribute we all needed badly at that point.

The comedy was not in short supply either on week two, viewers found themselves temptingly influenced by Nick Kroll and given a literally unbelievable bicycle tour by Rob Huebel.

Episode 3:

It felt like we really hit our stride on episode 3, packing in so many incredible performances there simply wasn’t a single frame to trim. With that being the case, right off the bat the show went zero to sixty with Avi Kaplan’s booming, resonant baritone melting all of us. Aoife O’Donovan called upon her husband, cellist Eric Jacobsen, and their housemate, Eric’s brother Colin Jacobsen, to form an impromptu trio of guitar, cello, and violin. It was the perfect make-do, isolation arrangement for “Red and White and Blue and Gold.”

Now, if you hadn’t tuned in specifically to catch the cameo of Jerry Douglas’ three matching katanas, you may have tuned in for one of the most prolific and well-loved comedians of the past decade or so, Jim Gaffigan. Ed and Jim spend some time catching up, talking about life in the time of COVID-19, and sharing laughs, too.

The evening was capped off by Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi doing what they do best, reminding us that the world is much smaller and we are all much more connected than we’re often led to believe. Who else besides Rhiannon would you want to hear cover Bessie Jones’ rendition of “O Death” right now? Exactly. No one.

Episode 4: 

We truly did not intend to “save the best for last,” because this is a how-could-you-ever-pick-a-favorite-child situation, here. Somehow, though, we landed in week four with an absolutely stacked, jaw-dropping lineup. Stephen Colbert stopped by — on his BIRTHDAY of all days — to visit with Ed. Yes, Broccoli Rob and the ‘Nard Dog are on speaking terms. But that wasn’t the only way The Office permeated episode four,as  the Indigo Girls also shared a song with the Whiskey Sour Happy Hour audience. It may not have included Jim Halpert and Andy Bernard tipsily singing along with “Closer To Fine,” but it was just as good, watch for yourself to confirm.

The Banjo House Lockdown crew of Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn made an appearance, Molly Tuttle once again wrestled a six-string into submission with her otherworldly clawhammer technique, Rosanne Cash covered Bob Dylan, Chris Thile brought in Bach, Buffy Sainte-Marie sang to us from the jungle of Hawaii — need we go on!?

Yes, actually, we do. Because as Bryan Sutton, Gabe Witcher, and Ed jammed a bit on the bluegrass tune, “Billy in the Lowground,” who should show up but… KENNY G!

That’s right, the king of sexy sax blazed through a solo on “Billy in the Lowground” and proceeded to trade bars with Bryan, Gabe, and Ed before sitting down for a chat. That wouldn’t have been satisfactory in and of itself, though, so Kenny played us an original before bidding adieu as well. Please have your lighters ready for waving at that selection, entitled, “Loving You.”

To cap off an already inconceivably perfect series, Ed, Gabe Witcher, and a host of our WSHH friends wrangled us a superjam. Admit it, you knew we would! Where the BGS team gathers, there a superjam will also be. Chris Eldridge, Madison Cunningham, Robert Ellis, Sierra Hull, Noam Pikelny, and so many others joined in on “The Weight.” There may have been a tear or two among viewers when the women of I’m With Her came on screen together in their matching yellow jumpsuits, but how could we ever confirm that?

Bonus Episode:

We just had to give y’all a bonus episode!

Our back-by-popular-demand show featured extra performances and footage from artists who had already graced the Whiskey Sour Happy Hour lineup including: Watkins Family Hour, Madison Cunningham, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Davíd Garza, Matt the Electrician, Valerie June, Ben Harper, Billy Strings, and Rodney Crowell.

Billy Strings played us a bluegrass gospel classic via one of his (and our) heroes, Doc Watson. Ben Harper treated all of us to a heartstrings-tugging rendition of an original, “Never Needed Anyone,” which was recorded by Mavis Staples on her most recent album, We Get By. And Rodney Crowell closed out the show with a dramatic solo performance of “Highway 17.” An extra week of music, an extra week of generosity, and an extra week of sharing WSHH with all of you!

Whiskey Sour Happy Hour has been a resounding success thanks to all of the artists, musicians, and creators involved, thanks to our generous supporters, thanks to the hardworking team who built it, but especially thanks to you for tuning in and for giving. (Which you can still do, by the way. Right here.)

While we as an industry face the most uncertain times to befall our community in our lifetimes, it’s comforting to have gathered with all of you for the past four weeks to enjoy this show, while taking direct action to lift up those around us and those fighting COVID-19 every day. Thank you for being a part of Whiskey Sour Happy Hour!

Special thanks to our sponsors: the Americana Music Association, TX Whiskey, and Allbirds.

Read the April 15 announcement:

The BGS team and our co-founder Ed Helms are excited to announce Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, a 21st-century online variety show to benefit MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund and Direct Relief.  Debuting on April 22 and presented in partnership with the Americana Music Association, TX Whiskey, and Allbirds, new editions of the event will be broadcast each Wednesday for the following three weeks — April 29, May 6, and May 13. The shows begin at 5 pm PT/8pm ET.

With Helms serving as host of the series, Whiskey Sour Happy Hour will draw on his long-running Whiskey Sour Radio Hour shows at LA’s Largo to bring world-class music, comedy, and interviews directly into homes across the country and world. 

The premiere edition of Whiskey Sour Happy Hour on April 22 will feature music from Lee Ann Womack, Aubrie Sellers, Billy Strings, Davíd Garza, Yola, Watkins Family Hour, and Madison Cunningham — plus an appearance by cartoonist and humorist Matt Diffee. 

Whiskey Sour Happy Hour can be streamed right here on The Bluegrass Situation, as well as on our YouTube channel. Other confirmed guests for the series include Chris Thile, Yola, Billy Strings, Sarah Jarosz, Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi, Rodney Crowell, Aoife O’Donovan, Robert Ellis, and our current Artist of the Month, Watkins Family Hour. Additional artists will be announced in the coming weeks. 

“As soon as we realized the severity of the current crisis, Ed and I both knew we had to do something to support both our musical and medical community—and not just a one-time thing, but something that could promote more sustained giving through multiple shows,” says BGS co-founder Amy Reitnouer Jacobs. “In a short amount of time, our BGS family of artists has come together in such a big way to make this happen. It makes us feel like even though we’re all separated right now, we’re closer than ever before.” Fans will be able to donate to MusiCares and Direct Relief here, as well as via links provided wherever viewers watch the show.

In addition to supporting Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, TX Whiskey has already stepped up their efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting 100% of their production to making hand sanitizer. As of March 31, the TX team has produced 800 gallons of hand sanitizer for government agencies. With more raw materials inbound, TX Whiskey is currently positioned to make and bottle 5000 more gallons of sanitizer. On top of that, TX Whiskey continues to support local musicians by giving them an online stage and revenue generator through their Straight From the Couch Sessions — streaming every Friday night in April on IGTV. 

Also a presenting sponsor for Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, Allbirds have been working hard to lift up the healthcare community responding to COVID-19, having already donated $500,000 dollars worth of shoes to healthcare workers nationwide. While supplies last, customers are able to bundle any shoe purchase with a donation to immediately supply a pair of Wool Runners to a healthcare professional who’s already reached out to Allbirds for support. Don’t need a new pair yourself, but still want to help? That’s an option, too.

Special thanks to the Americana Music Association for their partnership and support.

 

Sara Watkins Wants Us to Ride Along on Watkins Family Hour’s ‘brother sister’

Posted on by Editor

Sara Watkins is up to something — or at least, there’s a pretty good chance she’s up to something. The singer/songwriter and fiddler first found international recognition with Nickel Creek, but these days she stays busy with a rotating lineup of other creative outlets, from her solo work (three albums and counting) to her harmony-singing supergroup, I’m With Her. Oh, and then there’s the raucous Watkins Family Hour, an act with her brother, Sean, that holds regular residencies at LA’s Largo with a delightfully irregular cast of collaborators liable to join them.

This time, though, they wanted to focus on the core of the group. Their new album, brother sister, marks the first time that the siblings have sat down to write together. “We were both in a place where we wanted to focus on the potential of the Family Hour in a different way, a totally new approach than what we’d done before,” says Sara. “Apart from a few shows every year, we had never really focused on just us — particularly in writing.”

BGS caught up with Sean and Sara individually to hear more about how brother sister came together. Read the interview with Sara below, and take a look at Sean’s interview from earlier this week.

BGS: This is your first album as Watkins Family Hour in five years. What made you decide to prioritize this particular project again?

Sara Watkins: The first record that we did was sort of an accident. We made it when our friend offered us some free studio time, just to document what we’d been doing for a while. That record was very natural arrangements to songs that we’d been playing for a long time, cover songs. It was about a year and a half ago when we started talking about doing this record. We were catching up on what we’d each been up to, and as we were talking — I don’t remember who suggested it first — it became clear that we were both really interested in digging into the potential of the Family Hour, but focusing on the core element that’s always been there, which is my brother and me. This record is the first example of our collaboration as co-writers outside of a band format. Maybe as a reaction to the first Family Hour album, but also as a reaction to being in the projects that we’ve been a part of, we wanted to really focus on the potential of this combination.

Is there something specific about writing with a sibling that is either a positive that can’t be replicated, or an obstacle you don’t face with other people?

I think that any time you can be completely honest or you communicate well, it plays to your advantage. I don’t know if it’s sibling-related. For the first twenty-seven years of my life, which was the first twenty years of my musical existence, we shared our musical experience pretty closely. Sean and I have the advantage of a shared foundation — a shared musical foundation, a shared personal foundation — but I think at this point in our lives, what made writing together intriguing is actually how much time we’ve spent apart.

Instrumental tracks are rarely the ones held up as singles or played on the radio, but they’re a huge part of the bluegrass tradition — and something you and Sean do really well. In the writing and recording process, where do you begin in expressing a feeling without lyrics?

Playing instrumentals scratches a specific itch for me. It’s less guaranteed [with an instrumental song] that someone’s gonna get the gist of what you’re saying, but I don’t know that that matters. Even with lyrics, Sean and I have found that we get different things out of the same song — more cynical for him and more optimistic for me, or vice versa. People might hear a lyric completely differently, and that doesn’t make it a failure of expression. Maybe that’s a success.

When I listen to instrumentals, I really enjoy things that I can grab hold of. I enjoy a melody or a hook that comes back around. And I enjoy feeling like I’m along for the ride as a listener: that the person who’s playing is taking me with them. Sometimes you can sense, when someone’s soloing, that they’re also along for the ride — that maybe they don’t know where it’s going. I think a lot of us get that from like a Dave Rawlings solo. That’s really exciting.

So I think that’s the goal, for me: to take the listener, give them enough to hold onto, and invite them along for the ride. When we’re writing an instrumental, we want to try and take somebody’s hand and bring them with us. Otherwise, they’re just listening to a flurry of notes.

The melody and cadence on “Fake Badge, Real Gun” could be just as at home in a pop song. What were you going for when you sat down to record?

Sean has a real knack for melodies that have a pop sensibility. He has a really great way of blending and marrying that with the foundation and the scope of his bluegrass background. I think he’s uniquely good at that. This song is really hard to sing. [Laughs] It’s probably the most challenging song that I sing. Because of where the melody goes in my register, I’m always just singing it with my fingers crossed.

We were consciously trying to satisfy what the song wanted, which was percussion and some low end, but we wanted to give that to the song in a way that didn’t make it feel detached from the record. We kept the drums tight and to one side, and gave it bass that wasn’t too percussive. Then, when we recorded some of the other songs on the record that are much quieter — like the Warren Zevon song, “Accidentally Like a Martyr” — we recorded to tape, and Clay [Blair], who was our mix engineer, hit the take really hard. That means there’s some distortion on the tape, but it gives it a presence that I think matches the intensity of the songs that have a bigger instrumentation.

“Neighborhood Name,” a song about gentrification by Courtney Hartman and Taylor Ashton, is a newer number that you decided to cover on this album. What drew you to it?

It speaks to what a lot of people are aware of and sensitive to right now, as the world is changing and neighborhoods are changing. Some of us don’t know what our place is in that and others are being pretty directly affected. It’s also something that has happened for generations. This song doesn’t put an ethical stamp on it, to my ear, as much as it just speaks to the relatability of the sadness of being displaced. In addition to that, it speaks to the question of wondering if anybody’s gonna remember you — if you made a mark at all. And that’s something that’s always relatable, to everyone.

The song I’ve listened to the most is “The Cure.” What does that song mean to you, specifically the phrase “I avoided the cure, but it found me anyway”? Does it have any special meaning?

Life has a way of being persistent in the lessons that you need to learn. We might procrastinate on things that we know are going to be valuable for us or to start things that might be beneficial. Life pokes and prods in a way that often will bring you to those places, whether you like it or not. It’s a funny thing that a lot of us are so reluctant to do the thing that we know is going to bring us the outcome we’re looking for. It’s a strange but calming phenomenon that I think a lot of us can relate to.

Absolutely. It’s kind of a hopeful message. What’s one thing that has made you feel hopeful recently?

That’s a hard question, not because I’m devoid of hope, but because you could be so pessimistic in so many ways: The resilience of nature gives me hope, but we’re also being so mean to nature, and maybe it’s not going to be resilient forever. One thing that I have been enjoying is a lot of family time lately. I think digging into relationships and feeling the invaluable place that relationships should have in our lives, remembering that, feeling attached to that in a new way has made me hopeful. I feel that there are a lot of people realizing that again, and I think that’s really good for the world.

(Read our interview with Sean Watkins here.)

Photo credit: Jacob Boll

LISTEN: David Bromberg Band, “Lovin’ of the Game”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: David Bromberg Band
Hometown: Wilmington, Delaware
Song: “Lovin’ of the Game”
Album: Big Road
Release Date: April 17, 2020
Label: Red House Records

In Their Words: “’Lovin’ of the Game’ was written by Pat and Victoria Garvey. They were on the coffeehouse circuit a little bit before I was, so I never met them or saw them perform. The song, however, was still around. I can’t remember where I first heard it, but I can’t think of another song that says the same thing. It works.” — David Bromberg

Photo credit: Ria Burman

WATCH: Donovan Woods, “Grew Apart”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Donovan Woods
Hometown: Sarnia, Ontario
Song: “Grew Apart” (single)
Label: Meant Well

In Their Words: “‘Grew Apart’ is about the little lies inside the words we use when we’re hurting after a relationship ends. We wanted to tell a story in the video about men trying to help each other — and fucking it up, but trying. Men seem to think that there’s some physical trial we need to put ourselves through when we’re lovesick — drinking, fighting. The wrongheadedness of that idea is on display here. So often it feels like we can’t escape those breakup clichés. The song and the video are about why that might be.” — Donovan Woods

Photo credit: Joey Senft