gulf of mexico Archives - The Bluegrass Situation

Artist: Wood & Wire
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Latest album: No Matter Where It Goes From Here

Answers by Tony Kamel and Billy Bright

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

Water, for sure. I mean there’s so many metaphors available there. When writing I tend to lean towards the rivers, but it’s all the same water. We are all just part of the water cycle. — BB

Growing up on the Gulf Coast, the ocean has always been a consistent theme in my writing. I essentially learned to swim in the Gulf of Mexico. A lot of unique characters down there that are easy to tell stories about and put them into song. “John” on the new record is about a friend of mine that split time in Galveston as an artist and Alaska as a salmon fisherman. — TK

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

Stand-up comedians and the way they work material out on stage. Maybe they don’t inform the music itself, but certainly the idea of putting your art out there, trying things out, adjusting to the audience, making yourself vulnerable, and developing swagger and confidence (especially) when things are going south. Being comfortable being uncomfortable is quite the asset and the best stand-up comedians have that mastered. Recently I’ve listened to all of Tig Notaro’s recorded material. She’s absolutely brilliant. There’s a video of her on Conan where she just pushes around a stool because it makes a funny noise… sounds ridiculous. It is. You should watch it. — TK

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

Music and food do pair well. Like if you’re eating a meal and there’s music in the background, or a band, that can be dreamy. Musicians and meals, not as dreamy. Too frequently, they’ll disappear when the bill comes, or are checking their Instagram page the whole meal. All that aside, Trevor has been talking about Sonoran Dogs in Tucson and we have never been able to check that box. So I’d have to say Sonoran Dogs with Trevor Smith. — BB

Definitely Sonoran Dogs in Tucson with Trevor Smith… or maybe Machaca at Lucy’s Cafe in Kings X in El Paso, Texas, with Billy Bright. Oh wait…..I’ve checked that box and it was every bit as dreamy as I could have imagined. (see “My Hometown” on the new record for El Paso references). — TK

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

I knew from about 10 years old I wanted to create. I didn’t know I wanted to make it the way I (tried to) make a living until I was working a sales job and it came down to doing one or the other full-time. At this point, no matter what I do for living, it’ll have to be on my own terms. Like my bandmates, I’ve never been good at doing what I’m told — and that certainly isn’t getting better with age. — TK

My first band ‘practice’ ca. 1987. But those moments happen all the time. I still want to be a musician someday. I fell down the acoustic music hole for good when I saw The Bad Livers live in 1992. First time I ever saw a banjo played in real life, or ever, like that. — BB

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

I’m not an intentional songwriter, they just come out sometimes and sometimes end up being recorded. I can’t think of a single song I’ve written where I doesn’t mean I. I should try that though. So should you…. — BB

Agreed. I’m not super intentional either. Kinda speaks to the relationship I have with songwriting. I don’t always enjoy it — it’s not always fun. For me personally, if I’m not feeling creative, or I’m not inspired, I don’t even try. It comes in waves. When the wave comes, I really buckle down, let it flow however it comes out, and ride it to the bitter end. And by I, I mean you. — TK

Photo credit: Alison Narro

It’s one of bluegrass and old-time’s favorite days of the year! The “Eighth of January” can be heard from every jam, every folk club, every radio tuned to the bluegrass airwaves — well, it ought to be like that.

To do our part, we’ve collected eight great versions of “Eighth of January,” that is, “The Eighth of January,” or “Jackson’s Victory,” or “Gulf of Mexico” to mark this auspicious day. At the end, we hope you’ve found a new lick to add to your own versions of the tune and we hope “eighth” doesn’t look like a word to you anymore, too!

Tui

Let’s start with a decidedly old-time take from fiddle/banjo duo Tui, AKA Libby Weitnauer and Jake Blount. Here’s hoping you make a stank face when they ever-so-slightly pass over the b7 — if you recall your last music theory course, see also: “the subtonic” — in the B part. (If the parts have been counted wrong, this writer begs your forgiveness.) The frailing rakes by Blount on the banjo, the pair’s playful deviations from each other, only to return, totally enmeshed a moment later… it’s delicious.

Charlie Walden

The old-time fiddler of Missouri, if Charlie Walden doesn’t come up in the first round of results when you search the internet for “Eighth of January” something is very wrong. His command of raw, timeless (and seemingly effortless) fiddling stems from a wealth of talent combined with his insatiable appetite for tunes — he’s collected countless melodies, stories, and songs from fiddlers all across his home state.

Tony Rice

An old-time fiddle tune fully assimilated into the bluegrass canon? This right here is how. That’s Darol Anger and David Grisman on the tasty twin parts, Todd Phillips on bass, and the one and only Tony Rice holding it down and shredding it up all at once. Every time they slightly push, syncopating the tail-end of a random melodic phrase here and there, a shiver should go down your spine.

Jeremy Stephens

No one alive plays Don Reno-style banjo better than Jeremy Stephens. Full stop. Now, if you’ve already hit play and have listened through to his first solo, you should know this: He recorded Scarlet Banjo at the ripe old age of 16. You know him now thanks to his quintessential sound with High Fidelity, but Stephens has been burning a torch for unencumbered, fully-realized traditional bluegrass for a long time. And it’s always been this good!

Scotty Stoneman with the Kentucky Colonels

The Kentucky Colonels were inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2019 and though Stoneman was not an original member, he left an indelible mark on the band’s legacy, which manifests chiefly through his “hot” fiddling on the band’s essential live recordings. Though fans may be most familiar with hearing the Colonels hold on for dear life in the wake of his bow at truly incomparable tempos, Stoneman is relatively subdued in his captivating improvisations over “Eighth of January.”

Eric Weissberg

Deliverance reverberates throughout the ages for all of the wrong reasons. If you forgot this was on the original soundtrack to the infamous film, we don’t blame you. That’s why we’re here to remind. Weissberg’s banjo playing — especially his fantastic melodic approach, heard here — certainly deserves more recognition than simply being regarded as the originator of “Dueling Banjos” in its modern form.

Johnny Cash, “The Battle Of New Orleans”

We may have neglected to mention earlier that this tune is named “Eighth of January,” commemorating the day of “Jackson’s Victory,” because (cruel, genocidal) President Jackson won “The Battle of New Orleans” that very day in 1815. Yes, this tune has a lot of titles — and lyrics, to boot! Here’s the Man in Black lending the dusky patina of his baritone to our song du jour.

Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves

This particular variation on “Eighth of January” was found in recordings of African American musicians Nathan Frazier and Frank Patterson, who were first recorded in Nashville in the 1940s, so you’ll notice de Groot and Hargreaves stray from the melodic phenotype of the others on this list. It’s a gentle reminder that the way these tunes travel — from picker to picker, across generations, across counties and countries — is just as important to the history of string band music as the tunes themselves. Just about a year ago (hmm, how is that so easy to remember?) we featured this track in an edition of Tunesday Tuesday, solidifying this BGS tradition.

Photo of Tatiana Hargreaves (L) and Allison de Groot: Louise Bichan

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BGS 5+5: Wood & Wire