Tag: hangin’ & sangin’

Hangin’ & Sangin’: Ani DiFranco

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From the Bluegrass Situation and WMOT Roots Radio, it’s Hangin’ & Sangin’ with your host, BGS editor Kelly McCartney. Every week Hangin’ & Sangin’ offers up casual conversation and acoustic performances by some of your favorite roots artists. From bluegrass to folk, country, blues, and Americana, we stand at the intersection of modern roots music and old time traditions bringing you roots culture — redefined.

With me today in the Writers’ Rooms at the Hutton … Ani DiFranco.

Hello!

Hello! So glad you’re here.

Nice to be here.

…

Your latest record, Binary … I want to get granular on some of the themes because you have recurring themes going on here. And I love your brain because your music makes me think and feel so much about the world around me. So let’s get into that.

Alright!

Connection with each other, with nature, with life in every possible manifestation… do you feel like advances in technology have helped or hindered all of that?

Yes. [Laughs]

[Laughs] Okay.

Yeah. I feel all of that and more. Yeah, see, this brings us right to my ongoing meditation of late in my life which is that everything is binary. And, by that, I mean not either/or. I mean both. Always. All the time. Everything is made of relationship. That’s my new way of looking at stuff. Ones and zeros … it brings us closer together. It increases our information. And, yet, it separates us and isolates us and makes us less conscious through that separation and isolation. So, it’s all happening.

Do you think it just enhances what was already there? So, like, if you’re, prone to connection, it enhances that; but if you’re someone who is prone to isolation, it enhances that. Potentially?

Possibly. Yeah. I don’t know. I’ll pontificate with you all day. Let’s go!

Yeah!

Seriously, who knows? I mean, it seems like we are being pushed to recognize that it does bring out something that is very dark, something that is latent, in terms of that disconnection — that sort of road rage that happens between two metal boxes that doesn’t happen between two faces.

When you’re up in someone’s countenance …

Conversing with their heart! BAM! [Laughs] Yeah. I think it has a propensity to draw that out of us. So I think there’s a danger in it. There really is. Of course. Anything that powerful of a tool is going to be dangerous.

Yeah. I’m assuming you’re familiar with Brené Brown’s work to a certain extent …

Yeah. Yeah.

That’s one of her ideas, that you can’t hate close up, so get close up with people.

Yeah. Get to know your neighbor who’s too loud.

If that’s what it takes.

Totally. Mr. Rogers. He rocked that stuff back in the day.

…

Which points to the premise of “Pacifist’s Lament”… which is, who among us is ready and willing to step fully onto the high road? You have to have a bigger vision and a lot of humility to know that winning at all costs isn’t winning at all. So, how do we get there?

Yeah. Yeah. This competitive advancement of the species. Yeah, maybe, to some degree. But, really, cooperating is how we succeed.

I guess that song, “Pacifist’s Lament,” comes right out of that moment of recognition when I’m sitting there watching the NRA lady say whatever the talking points are and I’m so full of anger that I just want to shout at her. Then I remember when that kid shot up that church in South Carolina and the families of the victims stood before him and spoke to him like a human being, said, “I forgive you.” They said just the most humbling solution to the world’s problems. They’re living and breathing and showing us the way. And I have so far to go, myself.

But I think, as a society, we’ve slipped so far from this idea. We can’t dismiss each other. We just can never give up on each other. We have to reach out and build bridges over even the most turbulent waters. So, I mean, it’s a daily struggle for me as much as anybody.

The idea in “Telepathic” of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, that sort of deep empathy of trying to imagine what burdens they’re carrying, what fears they’re facing … is that something you do?

Yeah. And you don’t have to think about it at all. You just feel it. You just feel it in a moment sometimes with people. All the distance that can lie between you and someone on the other side of the counter. All of the walls. All of the veils. I guess, yeah, connected to what we’re talking about, I just want it to all go away. I want us to all be family, but we can’t because of so much in society and history. It’s that searching around — and not even intentionally — just when you feel what someone else feels, it can be overwhelming.

Watch all the episodes on YouTube, or download and subscribe to the Hangin’ & Sangin’ podcast and other BGS programs every week via iTunes, Spotify, Podbean, or your favorite podcast platform.

Hangin’ & Sangin’: Lilly Hiatt

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From the Bluegrass Situation and WMOT Roots Radio, it’s Hangin’ & Sangin’ with your host, BGS editor Kelly McCartney. Every week Hangin’ & Sangin’ offers up casual conversation and acoustic performances by some of your favorite roots artists. From bluegrass to folk, country, blues, and Americana, we stand at the intersection of modern roots music and old time traditions bringing you roots culture — redefined.

With me today at Hillbilly Central, Lilly Hiatt! Welcome!

Thank you!

 

Okay, Trinity Lane, your record, came out last summer. Let’s talk about songwriting, because I feel like this record is songwriting as a way to understand yourself, right? The record’s kind of overflowing with that.

Yes, it is that, definitely. [Laughs]

How much easier is it for you to dissect and process whatever you’re going through with writing versus talking it out or some other form?

Well, I think both are useful, but sometimes with writing — I think because you’re alone, or I’m alone when I write — sometimes things will come out that maybe are a little buried down or you didn’t know were there, and you’re like, “Hmm, alright!” And so that’s kind of the fun part about that. It’s kind of like the guard is really down there.

How often does something come through that you didn’t even necessarily know was there and then, afterward, you’re like, “Oh, huh, okay, that’s how I feel about that!”

Yeah, I mean that happens a lot! It happened the other day, when I was playing around, and sometimes it’s a little startling, but usually it’s really relieving, like “Oh, gosh!” It happens a lot.

I love it, sometimes when I’ve got stuff swirling around — this just happened recently, too — the only way I can think to express it is to just start writing it in a weird free-form poem, whatever kind of thing. The words don’t necessarily even have to make sense if someone else were to read it, but it can express. And then, when you add on a melody, which I don’t do because I’m not a songwriter, then that enhances it that much further because the music can take it in a whole other direction.

Yeah, totally, it’s an exciting thing to do. And I think it’s a useful tool to write things down, for anyone really. Because sometimes you really don’t understand things, when they’re just swirling around in your head, and maybe you don’t understand them on paper, but it’s a document of that moment and how you were perceiving it then. And, if that changes later, it may, but it’s interesting.

Before we started the show we were talking about our mutual friend Amanda Shires. She recently challenged me — she owes me breakfast, by the way — she uses an app called Flowstate, wherein you set a timer for either five or 10 minutes or whatever, and you just write. And if you stop for five seconds before your time ends, it erases everything you did. So you have to keep going!

You just go! That’s cool!

The first time I did it, I had about nine seconds left out of the whole thing, and I saw a typo that I wanted to go back and fix, and [it deleted everything], it was just a blank cursor!

And you just lost it! Well, that’s really cool. I’m a big fan of the let-it-flow method, myself. You can always go back and edit, but sometimes what comes out is what needs to. And Amanda’s a cool writer. She is a true writer, and she disciplines herself even though it comes from her heart, and I think there’s a lot to be said for that, too, you know, just taking the time to freestyle! Whatever!

If you had to define what your job is, as a songwriter, what would you say it is, in terms of the parameters or responsibilities?

That’s a good question, and I’ve heard a couple writers who I admire talk about what they think that responsibility is, and I try not to take it too seriously as in “I have a real something to say that you need to hear!” But, I do think, if you have a way with words and you have a strong suit in one way or another, whether that’s painting a picture or being introspective, then maybe there is a service in that, of connecting with people. The things I write about are really mundane, like breakups and stuff that everyone deals with — pretty simple stuff. But if you can just kind of nuance it in a way that strikes a chord with others, it can be powerful, and it’s powerful for me to share that stuff with other people.

Have you figured out ways for yourself to block out the outside opinions and trends and not let them sway you? Just say, “This is my truth and this is what I’m gonna say and how I’m gonna say it”?

Yeah, I have, and I’ve gotten better as I’ve gotten older and more confident in myself. But I mean, still, of course you care what other people think, but I care more about making music that I feel good about … whatever that means. So it’s not to pander to any one way or another or any group. You know, sometimes you have to tune it out. And nobody really expects that much from you! I think we get more in our heads, it’s like, “Just write stuff!” Whatever! [Laughs]

If it lands, it lands!

Yeah, exactly. It’s fulfilling to write things.

…

Let’s get a little granular on your song “Different, I Guess,” because it’s a fascinating piece to me, for a number of reasons, and Amanda, among others, say it’s one of the best songs they’ve ever heard.

That’s nice.

But structurally on that, it starts out just kind of cruising along, and then it sort of flails a little bit, and then it goes back. On a scale of 1-10, how much do rules matter to you?

They don’t really.

Okay, so on a scale of 0-10 … [Laughs]

I mean, maybe we’ll give them a 1 or 2. Sometimes I’m like, “Hmm, you can’t do that,” but then I’m like, “Oh yes, you can!” And that song was actually kind of the beginning of a foray into … it’s funny because I think somewhere in the back of my head I followed, not one particular structure, but I disciplined myself with getting a good form for a song. And I was like, “You can do whatever you want in that song, say whatever you want!”

You don’t have to have a chorus, you don’t have to have a bridge …

Yeah, exactly! Because I think of some of my favorite songs, and they don’t have those things. They’re not “perfect” — whatever that means. So that one was fun. It just kind of spilled out, and I was like, “I’m not changing anything!” [Laughs]

“Take that, world!” Lyrically, too, it’s so raw and real, but it’s still painted with poetry. I love the line, “I don’t have to have you to know what this is.”

Thank you.

Because, in the end, it’s about how we’re responding to something. It’s often not about “that” — whether it’s a person or a situation or whatever. It’s what’s going on inside of us. So “that” doesn’t even have to be there for the work to be going on [inside of us].

It’s true. I think, when we love things, we want to possess them a lot of the time.

Funny that, eh?

It is funny! Ultimately, it’s not how that works, you know? But I don’t know. [Laughs] Every love is different!

And the other line, “No one’s really been at their best” … One of my life’s mottos for the past few years has been trying to be my best in any given moment so that I don’t have to have remorse or regret, or second-guess myself if I’d made the best choice. And what’s funny is that that is sort of echoed in that, too, even though you say, “No one’s really been at their best,” that sentiment is still in there and that’s fascinating to me.

Thank you. Well, I appreciate your insight into that song. It’s cool hearing people’s take on things, you know? And yeah, “at your best” … I don’t know! [Laughs]

Which at any given moment is [high or low]. [Laughs]

But I know what you mean, where you just want to know you gave it what you had.

Watch all the episodes on YouTube, or download and subscribe to the Hangin’ & Sangin’ podcast and other BGS programs every week via iTunes, Spotify, Podbean, or your favorite podcast platform.

Hangin’ & Sangin’: Chance McCoy

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From the Bluegrass Situation and WMOT Roots Radio, it’s Hangin’ & Sangin’ with your host, BGS editor Kelly McCartney. Every week Hangin’ & Sangin’ offers up casual conversation and acoustic performances by some of your favorite roots artists. From bluegrass to folk, country, blues, and Americana, we stand at the intersection of modern roots music and old time traditions bringing you roots culture — redefined.

With me today at Hillbilly Central, Chance McCoy! So Chance McCoy, part of Old Crow Medicine Show, and more!

And more! So much more.

So let’s do a little Chance McCoy 101, background thing because you don’t have a website for people to go and find out about you so I think we need to teach the people.

Yes, I’m the 21st century George Harrison of Old Crow.

Alright, let’s go with that.

The Quiet Crow. [Laughs]

Yeah, okay, I’ll believe that. [Laughs] So you grew up in West Virginia, playing in punk and rock bands, yeah, a little bit?

Yeah, a little bit.

In your youth.

A little bit. The first band that I was in was called the Speakeasy Boys, and that was more just an excuse to get drunk and run a speakeasy than it was to be a band. But I did learn some music in there.

Right. And they were sort of old-time without knowing they were old-time? Kind of like the punk version of old-time?

Yeah, we didn’t know what old-time music was, actually. We didn’t know what bluegrass was, and we had heard the term “old-time.” And we were playing some old-time music. We had a washtub bass player. We were playing “Soldier’s Joy” and things like that. But it took me, like, a year of being in that band for somebody to finally tell me what old-time music was. [Laughs] We kept asking around, “What is old-time music?” and nobody could tell me!

So yeah, it was amazing! We basically ran a bar out of a basement of a friend’s house and, every Sunday, a friend of ours would go down to the Potomac River and fish out a bunch of catfish and we’d fry them on a barrel, and about 200-300 kids from the local college would show up and we’d play music. It was a ball.

That’s awesome!

So that was my experience learning folk music and bluegrass and old-time, and then I started performing in folk clubs and I was like, “Why is everybody sitting down and listening? This isn’t what you do, here’s a beer! Go ahead and dance, just start dancing!”

What do you think it was about that kind of music, or maybe it was how you guys were doing it, or maybe it was the beer and catfish, but what was the appeal to those college kids?

Um, I think the appeal was that we created a scene. Our bumper sticker read, “We’re not a band. We’re a party.” [Laughs] That was the appeal!

Your life motto ever since!

Yeah, I think that works for a lot of acts. Sometimes it’s not about the music; it’s about the event — creating a party. So that was very much what the draw was in that band.

And then once you got into the more “proper” old-time and folk scene, it was a whole other vibe.

It was a whole other vibe, yeah. It was great because, growing up in West Virginia, I’d actually never heard folk music, because it was pretty rare. I mean, it still is. I didn’t know where to look. I didn’t have any connections to it. So, when I finally discovered folk music in West Virginia, I was in my early 20s, and I realized that there was incredible depth, this well of music that went so much deeper than just the surface level “Soldier’s Joy” and all that kind of stuff — “Pig in a Pen.” And that’s where I really started to fall in love with old-time music, especially. And I was lucky enough to study and apprentice with master musicians form West Virginia, so that’s where it started to change for me. And then I took all that and went out and tried to perform it and that’s when I realized … [Laughs]

That’s when you ran into all the folks who were … the “that ain’t bluegrass” folks.

Like, “Well, actually …” [Laughs]

…

So you were just living out in a cabin and teaching fiddle at Augusta Heritage Center when you got the “Hey, come try out for our little string band, Old Crow Medicine Show” call.

Yeah, I got a cold call! Yeah the little string band that you know, we have the song “Wagon Wheel.” Nobody’s heard it.

Nope! What was it like stepping into that band with them having been a band for so long, even though they took a few years off, sort of regrouping?

It was really hard because I had to figure out how to join this band, like you said, that had already been a huge band that had been really successful, and I had to figure out how to enter the band and not make it seem like I was trying to replace Willie Watson or what he did. And that was always something that was really a sensitive issue where we all wanted to integrate me into the band in a new way where it didn’t feel like, “Oh, Old Crow’s back, but now this guy’s replaced this other guy.”

So there was this intentional shift in the band, and I tried to take sort of a back seat role and a more supportive role in that band, and not try to, you know, try to get myself out there and play a leading role in the band. And, in doing that, I was able to really support them to go in directions that they hadn’t gone before, and I was integral to the creative process and helping write the songs and record the records and doing all that, but I was sort of the behind-the-scenes guy, where I was just kind of trying to make Old Crow great again, and lift them off.

Because, when I met them and they went on that tour that I joined them on, when they reunited, they had kind of come out of a broken place with having lost Willie, and then being like, “Is anyone gonna like the band anymore? Are we gonna be able to do it? Is it gonna be any good?” So it was a real fragile situation that I came into, so I really tried to come in and just support them as musicians and help them realize their vision for what the band was gonna be moving forward.

And clearly that worked, or it was just a coincidence that you joined the band to play on Remedy and oh, it wins a Grammy, the first Grammy for a record.

[Laughs] I like to say I have the Midas touch. Any project I join wins a Grammy.

If anybody needs a fiddle player/banjo player/guitarist/carpenter …

I can build it. I can play it.

And you can win a Grammy.

[Laughs] Yeah, it was an amazing rise to success, especially coming from where I had been before I got the call. I had kind of sunk into poverty in Appalachia and it was rough times, for sure. I was just scraping by, barely, when Ketch [Secor] called me. So that was a good call to get.

…

You recently did some solo shows here in Nashville. So is that still a lingering ambition in your mind, are there projects coming?

It is! Yes, there is a project coming. I’m gonna be going into the studio in a couple weeks here, after I finish building it. [Laughs] And laying down my next record, which is gonna be called The Electric Crow. It’s kind of the next creative project where I wanna use all the different elements, all the different kinds of music that I play, and kind of bring that through my own creative focus and hone in something completely new. So, yes, that is on the way!

Watch all the episodes on YouTube, or download and subscribe to the Hangin’ & Sangin’ podcast and other BGS programs every week via iTunes, Spotify, Podbean, or your favorite podcast platform.

Hangin’ & Sangin’: Larkin Poe

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From the Bluegrass Situation and WMOT Roots Radio, it’s Hangin’ & Sangin’ with your host, BGS editor Kelly McCartney. Every week Hangin’ & Sangin’ offers up casual conversation and acoustic performances by some of your favorite roots artists. From bluegrass to folk, country, blues, and Americana, we stand at the intersection of modern roots music and old time traditions bringing you roots culture — redefined.

With me today at Hillbilly Central … Larkin Poe! Welcome!

Rebecca Lovell: Thank you!

I think it’s actually Hangin’ & Bangin’ today with all these amps. Because we’ve not really turned it up so much as we’re going to today. I’m a little bit excited!

RL: Yes! Great!

So we’ll see how the crowd handles it! Such a random sampling of my friends have come forward this week going, “Oh my God, I love Larkin Poe!” What’s that about? Explain yourselves! Random people. Like I have one friend who listens to Cat Stevens and Joni Mitchell pretty much exclusively, and she’s like, “Oh I just found them. I love them!”

RL: Well, we love Cat Stevens and Joni Mitchell, and we like Black Sabbath. I mean there’s a very limited number of bands that we don’t like. I mean we grew up in Atlanta so we love hip-hop and urban music, but we grew up playing classical violin and piano as kids. Our folks put us into lessons, I guess, when I was three and you [Megan] were four? And we started violin. So we were classical kids until I guess our early teens.

Then you were grassers.

RL: Total grassers! I was a banjo, bluegrass fanatic for many years and swore I would never play the mandolin, swore I would never do a bunch of stuff that we ended up melding our way through.

And now look at you! Strat …

RL: I know. Now we’re playing electric guitars. It’s crazy! [Laughs]

…

The most recent release, Peach, last September it came out. You guys self-produced it, played everything, but that wasn’t the plan going in, right? Necessarily?

RL: It wasn’t the plan. You know, it’s interesting, so much of the way in Larkin Poe, it’s always sort of organically shown itself to us, as we’re on the way, you know what I mean? So we were in the studio writing and rehearsing, just trying to get together some ideas to record, and it felt like we were shoving a square peg in a round hole with all the different production situations that we were finding ourselves in. And I have very strong musical opinions and, together, we’re just like loggerhead, you know, bowling anybody else’s opinion down the rabbit hole.

Huh, I wouldn’t have necessarily guessed that. [Laughs]

RL: So we decided, and it was really at Megan’s behest, she was just like “You know what? We [always] get in a room with a producer and you’re just like a bull in a china shop. Let’s just do it ourselves! Why are we fighting this? Let’s just hang together.” And it was so freeing! It was just so fun! And I think that you can hear that on our record.

So while you were doing the writing and pre-production, was the sonic vision sort of coming into focus for you? So you knew you could pull off what you wanted to do?

RL: Yes.

Megan Lovell: Because, at the time, Rebecca was sort of playing around with GarageBand and making our own beats and stuff like that.

RL: To demo the songs.

ML: And we ended up getting demo-itis and really liking the demos. So we were like “Okay, well we can just try this,” and actually keep the vocals that were recorded through the computer microphone into GarageBand!

RL: Crazy. But you know, I think it is a big concern as an artist because you do take the songs that you write and the way that you produce them so personally. For us, I think that we were fighting with not wanting to indulge ourselves too much, and then we started playing the demos for friends and family and different people in the industry that we trust, and they were like, “This is really unique. You guys should just do this!”

And simultaneously, while we were rehearsing, we started making cover videos that we were releasing on Instagram and Facebook, and we had an overwhelming response on social media from the videos, which were literally just Megan and I sitting in a room playing guitars. And people were saying, “Ah, finally it’s just you guys. Make a record like this! We’ve been waiting for this! Your records are always too overproduced. You guys need to just make a record like this!” So, that kind of feedback with the feedback of people saying “Hey, your demos are cool,” we decided, let’s have a little courage.

And that’s what was in your gut anyway.

RL: Yeah! Move with it, you know? Follow the spirit!

…

When I was researching, I read an old interview with you guys that was talking about how The Observer had, this was a few years ago I think, put you guys between Jack White and Dolly Parton, in some article or something. That is the perfect [combination] …

RL: Absolutely! Oh my God, yeah. I think every artist, whether or not they realize it, you always sort of have your boundaries. Like genre speaking, who are your touchstones? And absolutely Jack White and Dolly are two huge ones. Because Dolly Parton, I mean, our mother’s from East Tennessee and so Dolly’s always been a big hero, just from her growing up close to Pigeon Forge and the whole myth and legend and fantasy that is Dolly. And, musically, she’s been such a big influence. And then Jack White, on the opposite extreme, you know? To be playful and poke fun at yourself, but then also be able to do sort of that Jack White-y alter ego and crank it up.

ML: But they both stay true to their roots which I love.

RL: Same!

And Dolly playing so many different instruments, that’s in there, too. When I read that, I was like, “Oh, that’s probably one of the most perfect, like you said, touchstones” for a fairly undefinable band, which I think you guys are.

RL: Well, thank you!

If asked “Well, how would you describe [Larkin Poe],” I’d say, “I don’t know, who cares!”

RL: Yeah! You know, we spent many years trying to figure out what to call ourselves. And I think, especially when you get in an office with the industry, then it’s very tempting to try and put labels on what it is that you’re doing musically, in order to let them know how to sell it, you know, and you can’t fault anybody for any of that.

Sure.

RL: But, we had a really moving conversation, we were out on the road, we were in Austin, Texas, with Elvis Costello — we toured with him for many years as his backing band. We had been sending him demos of our songs, and so he sort of had an insider view on our current creative forecast or whatever. And he said, “You know what? Be undefinable. Don’t let them put a label on you. You guys do exactly what you do. Don’t worry about that. If you’re worrying about that, you’re wasting your time, and your fans’ time. Just go for it.” And we’re like, “Yes, sir.” [Laughs]

Watch all the episodes on YouTube, or download and subscribe to the Hangin’ & Sangin’ podcast and other BGS programs every week via iTunes, Podbean, or your favorite podcast platform.

Hangin’ & Sangin’: John Oates

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From the Bluegrass Situation and WMOT Roots Radio, it’s Hangin’ & Sangin’ with your host, BGS editor Kelly McCartney. Every week Hangin’ & Sangin’ offers up casual conversation and acoustic performances by some of your favorite roots artists. From bluegrass to folk, country, blues, and Americana, we stand at the intersection of modern roots music and old time traditions bringing you roots culture — redefined.

With me today at Hillbilly Central, John Oates, the one and only!

Pleasure to be here, thank you.

So glad to have you. Your new record, Arkansas, out February 2.

Yes.

Which is …

Coming up soon!

Two weeks!

Yeah, we have a lead track that’s out — the actual title track, “Arkansas,” is out right now, with a video. I’m really excited about the record. It’s been getting a lot of good feedback so far, and I’m very proud of it.

I love that you describe it as “Dixieland, dipped in bluegrass and salted with Delta blues.”

[Laughs] Well, I was forced to come up with a description! But one thing about the record is, there’s an incredible group of musicians playing on this record.

Absolutely.

Sam Bush, Russ Paul, Guthrie Trapp, Josh Day, Steve Mackey, Nat Smith. And I assembled this group of musicians and I knew them all. They’re all buddies, and we’ve played together in various configurations, but I didn’t know what was gonna happen. And when they started to play — and everything was live pretty much on this record — it reminded me of Dixieland, where all these great players [have] these interweaving musical ideas and no one is stepping on anyone, but yet it’s all complimentary. And it’s all like a beautiful chaos, I guess you could call it. And that’s why I said it reminded me of Dixieland, in a way. It’s kind of like bluegrass, Americana, Dixieland, with Delta blues.

Did that collection of players … because I know you did assemble them, you sort of handpicked each one right?

Yeah.

So did the [final product] surpass your dreams of what you thought it could be?

Absolutely, because I had no idea what it was going to be. Actually, the record started out as a tribute to Mississippi John Hurt, and I was going to do a traditional guitar and vocal thing, and just play his songs, because he’s a big hero of mine and I know so many of his songs.

After I cut a few tracks, it was like, “Okay, this is alright, but it’s been done before, and I’ll never do it better than the original.” But I loved the music and I loved the songs themselves and I thought, “Well, I’ve never heard these songs played with a band,” because it’s so associated with that classic guitar and vocal presentation. So one night I just said, “Let me just pull all these guys together,” and honestly I wish I could say it was this concept that I had with my master plan. [Laughs] But it wasn’t! It was just dumb luck and a beautiful thing because [after] the first track we cut, my engineer turned to me and he said, “I don’t know what this is, but it’s cool.” And I said, “Yeah this is good, let’s just keep doing this.” And that’s how it happened, so it was totally organic and it just evolved from the players.

…

So tell me about some of the songs on the record. You’ve got some Jimmie Rodgers, you’ve got some Emmett Miller, some other folks on there, some of your stuff. What’s the key to sort of crafting a new song that fits within that comfortably?

Well, I didn’t know I was gonna have an original song on the record. I took a visit to a place called Wilson, Arkansas, which is about 30 miles northwest of Memphis, just on the other side of the Mississippi River, at one time one of the biggest plantations in America. And I did a show there, and it’s this cool little town that’s being reimagined or reinvented as an arts community. It’s really cool. And the night after the show, we went outside, and the cotton fields were just rolling through the distance. There was the river, and it was very evocative. And it just seemed to crystallize this musical journey that starts, I guess, in New Orleans, really, and just goes up the Mississippi River through the Delta and, by the time it gets to Arkansas, I think it’s kind of the last rural stop on the musical journey northward.

…

It’s so fun to see artists … you’re very far into your career, you’ve had massive success, and then, as a solo artist, you kind of have to start not quite from scratch, but almost from scratch. But you’re still super excited about exploring and experiencing, aren’t you?

Yeah, I am. I think it’s the best time of my life. It really is, for a lot of reasons. I love the music I’m making. I love the friends I’ve made here in Nashville and the community that I’m a part of. But even more so, that I have this incredible career with Daryl Hall and the legacy of music that we’ve made together that provides a foundation and the ability for me to have total creative freedom which, for a lot of artists, that’s what they dream of, you know? I think, if you asked any artist what would be your ultimate dream, it would be that. And I have it. And so, because I have it, I wanna make the most of it. I wanna milk every second out of that experience.

Watch all the episodes on YouTube, or download and subscribe to the Hangin’ & Sangin’ podcast and other BGS programs every week via iTunes, Podbean, or your favorite podcast platform.

Best of: Hangin’ & Sangin’ 2017

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The best part of my job is, without question, Hangin’ & Sangin‘ every Friday at Hillbilly Central. Not only do I get to talk with and listen to some of my absolute favorite artists, but I also get some quality time with my own personal Gelman (aka Justin Hiltner, BGS’s social media director). We keep it loose and fun while still digging into some deep, interesting topics. Because of that, inevitably, after the show, the artist says, in a pleasantly surprised tone, “Wow. That was great! It didn’t hurt at all. Thank you!” I don’t know what other interviewers are doing — or not doing — but we’re sure thrilled and touched by that compliment. Every time.

To close out 2017, I’ve pulled together a batch of the best moments from throughout the year. Some happened on camera, some off, but each made our little show that much more special — as did each of you for tuning in. Thanks for supporting us!

Watch all the episodes on YouTube, or download and subscribe to the Hangin’ & Sangin’ podcast and other BGS programs every week via iTunes, Podbean, or your favorite podcast platform.

Hangin’ and Sangin’: Birds of Chicago

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From the Bluegrass Situation and WMOT Roots Radio, it’s Hangin’ & Sangin’ with your host, BGS editor Kelly McCartney. Every week Hangin’ & Sangin’ offers up casual conversation and acoustic performances by some of your favorite roots artists. From bluegrass to folk, country, blues, and Americana, we stand at the intersection of modern roots music and old time traditions bringing you roots culture — redefined.

With me today at Hillbilly Central, Birds of Chicago — Allison Russell, JT Nero, with Steve Dawson back in the corner. Welcome, you guys!

Allison Russell: Thank you! Thank you for having us.

You know how happy I am that you’re here!

AR: Well, we are equally, if not happier, to be here.

I love mutual admiration societies. That’s the best kind. Okay, there’s so much going on with you guys. The new American Flowers EP. It’s mostly acoustic, but not strictly acoustic.

AR: Mostly.

And you just moved to Nashville. And then you have the full record coming out in May, Love in Wartime, produced with Luther Dickinson and you [JT Nero], as co-producer.

JT Nero: That’s right.

. . .

On the EP, the anchor of it, I’m gonna say, is the song “American Flowers,” right? Like that’s sort of the heart of it.

AR: Yeah, for sure.

To me, what’s going on in that is, it’s a reminder of the inherent goodness in all of us. But that’s a challenge. It’s a really hard thing. When folks are walking around wearing swastikas or carrying assault rifles, that’s a really tough thing to hold onto. But it has to be an absolute, doesn’t it? Compassion and kindness.

JN: It does. And I think, I mean, a couple of things: People have always been walking around with assault rifles. Our ability in this age to be aware of everything that is going wrong at a given moment is intensified in a way that it never has been before, and it’s very easy to slip into kind of doomsday mentality. Now, having said that, there are some things going on in this country that have never gone on before.

Certainly not in our lifetimes.

JN: Well, I guess I mean administratively. The “American Flowers” thing … it was important to me to not write a song of kind of obvious angel after obvious angel. The vignettes are about different people who are, perhaps, not obviously heroic.

They’re flawed. They’re humans.

JN: But you know, it’s about common humanity, and just letting these little windows emerge from different points of resonance. For me, I lived in San Francisco for a year …

Chicago boy.

JN: Yeah, I’m a Chicago boy. Just letting those voices emerge. And I think sometimes, particularly when we live in an age where — and, again, some of this is good — we are, from both sides, kind of political fire-branding all the time, and we are literally driving home messages all the time. If you can find a way to let people’s humanity emerge in a less heavy-handed way, sometimes that can be, for me, a little bit more … you just feel it more.

Yeah, yeah. And I think as well … the other thing that has to be absolute is our integrity. Whichever side you’re on. No matter how low the other side goes, we have to stay high, because even if that means losing something in the short term, if we lose that, we lose everything in the long term. And I think that kindness and compassion, that’s our everything.

AR: It is.

We can’t let go of that.

AR: This summer, we did some festivals in Canada and, at one of them, Billy Bragg and Joe Henry were doing their duo together and Billy, at one point, said to the audience, “You know what we do? We’re musicians, but really, empathy is our currency. That’s our job, our job is to remind ourselves and each other of our shared human experience.” And I think he said, “Cynicism is the enemy and empathy is our currency.” That just really resonated for me, that idea. Empathy is not easy, either. As you said, it’s really not easy sometimes. It’s really hard sometimes. You wanna have this knee-jerk “No!”

It is tough, but there are so many little, sort of everyday activisms — “love is resistance” type of stuff. A song, a smile, a hug. That’s when I knew you were my people is the first time we hugged, I was like “Oh, yeah, we’re gonna be okay!”

AR: [Laughs] Friends!

But yeah, and I think all of those things — being joyful, coming together, sharing in an experience of music — that’s all resistance, when what you’re sort of staring down together is so dark and full of hate.

JT: We’re lucky to do what we do. It’s easy to sound … I mean it’s kind of a cliché, like “music is the common language” … but it is! [Laughs] I’ve never seen anything kind of like disarm or get people to put aside [that] first level of armor or defense, when they’re in a room. I’ve never seen that get done away with more effectively than with music. And that’s what I come back to it for, when I’m not performing, when I’m just listening to it.

AR: More than that, because we’re traveling so much with our music, we’re on the road 180-200 days of the year at this point. And we’re going all over this country from red state to blue state, to Canada, to parts of Europe, and we’ve received so much kindness from strangers everywhere, everywhere we go. When you are just at home and [aren’t] meeting people every day and seeing these cycles of awful things that get replayed and replayed and replayed, you can start to have a very skewed perception that that’s the majority of the world, and it’s not! It’s just not. The majority of the world, the majority of people, are kind. Like what we were talking about, the vast majority. We received so much kindness from strangers, from all backgrounds and walks of life and belief systems and all the rest of it. So it’s really a reminder to us, literally daily, when we’re out in the wind, out in this country and all over the place, the kind of kindness we receive, it reminds us that this is also true.

Watch all the episodes on YouTube, or download and subscribe to the Hangin’ & Sangin’ podcast and other BGS programs every week via iTunes, Podbean, or your favorite podcast platform.

Hangin’ & Sangin’: Peter Bradley Adams

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From the Bluegrass Situation and WMOT Roots Radio, it’s Hangin’ & Sangin’ with your host, BGS editor Kelly McCartney. Every week Hangin’ & Sangin’ offers up casual conversation and acoustic performances by some of your favorite roots artists. From bluegrass to folk, country, blues, and Americana, we stand at the intersection of modern roots music and old time traditions bringing you roots culture — redefined.

Hey everybody! Welcome to Hangin’ & Sangin! I’m Kelly McCartney from the Bluegrass Situation. With me today at Hillbilly Central, Peter Bradley Adams over there in the middle, flanked by Caitlin Canty and Evan Galante as support folks and court jesters, in the case of one Caitlin Canty!

Caitlin Canty: [Laughs]

We were dishin’ a little bit before we went live. We’ll get to that later.

Peter Bradley Adams: Heckler.

Yeah, heckler. So Peter, latest record, A Face Like Mine, came out April?

PBA: April

I got that right. Didn’t even write it down!

PBA: It seems so old!

Well, it took us like six months to get you pinned to come on here. We’ve been trying!

PBA: I’m sorry, its all my fault.

Okay, as long as the people know.

PBA: But I’m glad to be here, and I’m glad these people came with me.

…

I said this to Andrew Combs, when I had him on, but it fits you. As a singer, to me, and this is, again, part of why I feel drawn to your stuff in certain moods. But you’re like a drummer who just sort of hangs back in the pocket a little — like you’re not pushing the beat, you’re just right on the back end. And what you’ve done by creating the soundscape that you have, it’s like you’ve created this musical world that supports that so well.

PBA: Thank you.

That’s an observation more than a question.

PBA: I mean, for me, it feels like I’m just kind of hiding and trying not to mess anything up. [Laughs] It’s all fear! But I understand what you’re saying. It does kind of sit in there, but I’m growing weary of just sitting in there so nicely.

Interesting.

PBA: So I’m trying. I’m not there yet, but eventually, I’ve gotta get out of that little soft pocket.

Well, you’ve been stepping forward a little.

PBA: Yeah, I’ve been leaning in a little bit.

How do you feel like you’re gonna [push for it]? What’s next? You have the physical voice — what you’re born with — so how do you take that further? You’re not a crooner.

PBA: Yeah, I don’t know. For me, it’s just about … to sort of find the sound which is [natural]. I mean, I can’t have a different voice, so just trying to find that sound. And also don’t spend so much time styling it, trying to make it sound nice. Which then you immediately lose the way you sound. I mean, it still can be effective for some people and the intention can be there, but I guess that’s kind of what I’ve been thinking about a lot — just how to strip off all the affectation, and I definitely haven’t figured it out yet.

…

At this point, what’s your process for figuring out your phrasing? Because I know that was something that, particularly on this latest record, you were very intentional about your phrasing and things like that. So what’s your process for polishing that up without falling into the pretense?

PBA: Well, I don’t know. I think you’ve just gotta …

You’re a mystic, Peter Bradley Adams!

PBA: [Laughs]

CC: You do know! I’ve written a lot of songs with Peter, and he’s like our construction man! Like, you’ve said this term, “the way the words feel in your mouth,” the way they come with the vowel sounds. You’re really good at the bricks of building a song, the foundation is really strong.

PBA: Thank you.

CC: I’m like a mosaic maker, like “Ooh, that’s pretty!” And I try to cobble all the other stuff together and figure out how it fits. But you always have the good, solid [foundation] of everything.

PBA: It could be that I’m just being overly controlling, like “Oh, no, you need to hold that out just a little longer then do that little turn at the end there.” Because, to me, that’s important …

CC: It is!

PBA: But then I’m like possibly squeezing the life out of it, you know? By telling you, I mean, she’s had a lot of experience with me asking her to phrase stuff differently. [Laughs]

CC: Well, that’s when I’m singing to your stuff, but when we’re writing, it’s like figuring out the words. And I think you sing based on what word sounds best in the rhythm. So it’s like you’re just reacting naturally to it, sort of. That’s how you’ve talked about it before. Just inserting myself!

PBA: Then, what she said! That’s how I do it! [Laughs]

…

Because your songs are sort of ridiculously rich with that sort of, to me at least, what I hear in them, is that sort of spiritual seeking and self-examination and that stuff. And I know not all of it is based in your day-to-day reality. I mean, it’s storytelling, but you’re still in them, you’re still putting yourself out into the world to be under a microscope.

PBA: Yeah.

How does that feel? Do you have any qualms about that, or is there just no choice — you kind of have to?

PBA: Yeah, I kind of have to. I mean, I have some regrets about some stuff I’ve put out, you know, a little “ugh,” a little cringey. [Laughs] Not much, I mean everyone does.

Because of the writing or because of what you revealed?

PBA: I think, maybe both. [Laughs] How it was performed or sung, but I’ve let that stuff go. Yeah, I don’t [have a choice] and I don’t set out to write a song about something — ever. It just kind of happens. You sort of start and these words start coming kind of unconsciously, and then, when you figure out where it’s going, then for me, it’s this very conscious, tedious effort to really hone it in. And that’s the harder work part, the less kind of flowy part. But yeah, then there is some sort of running theme, I think, onto a lot of the stuff.

Do you feel like you can express your fill-in-the-blank emotion better through music or through words?

PBA: Well, that’s a good question. I mean, since I’ve just gotten back into writing some instrumental music, it’s been really liberating in a way.

Yeah, because melodies can express things that words never can touch.

PBA: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that a lot of my lyrics work well and they resonate really well with the melody, but you wouldn’t want to sit there and read them as a poem. [Laughs] It’s not something that I would ask anyone to do … I don’t think songs have to achieve that. I think that they’re sung for a reason.

Watch all the episodes on YouTube, or download and subscribe to the Hangin’ & Sangin’ podcast and other BGS programs every week via iTunes, Podbean, or your favorite podcast platform.

Hangin’ & Sangin’: Little Bandit

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From the Bluegrass Situation and WMOT Roots Radio, it’s Hangin’ & Sangin’ with your host, BGS editor Kelly McCartney. Every week Hangin’ & Sangin’ offers up casual conversation and acoustic performances by some of your favorite roots artists. From bluegrass to folk, country, blues, and Americana, we stand at the intersection of modern roots music and old time traditions bringing you roots culture — redefined.

With me today at Hillbilly Central, Little Bandit! Or Alex Caress of Little Bandit.

Hi!

…

Breakfast Alone is the album. Nashville Scene voted it best country album of the year!

I can’t believe it!

Frankly, I was shocked and so happy when I saw it.

Yeah, I mean for a really independent record to obviously have made that sort of impact is humbling. It’s awesome.

Yeah, cool. And we premiered a video (“Sinking”) this week on BGS, so you’re just going to town!

Yeah, me and Stacie Huckeba, who directed the video, went up to the river and made sure no one was around and jumped in the river naked. There were some shocked joggers, but it was alright. [Laughs]

…

Well, we mentioned your new video for “Sinking,” but in your “Bed of Bad Luck” video, I appreciate how fully and honestly you represent yourself. You have your fella in there, and you’re making out with him in it, and I feel like … I appreciate it as art, first of all, but I appreciate it as a gay person because that takes the energy; it kind of sucks the air out of the room and it takes the shame out of it. So, then, if anybody does have an issue with who you are, it’s not you, it’s clearly them. Was that kind of part of your thinking, in not just that video, but how you present yourself as who you are?

Yeah I never wanted there to be a question, or have it be “Is he or isn’t he?”

Scuttlebutt.

Yeah, “I heard that he has a boyfriend” or whatever. May as well just put it out there, and I felt like, at the time that it came out was in January of this year, so it just felt like the right moment to be open and to be honest and show the world that I don’t care. [Laughs]

…

Even in [the Americana world], though, do you ever feel tokenized? Othered? Because I go to a lot of shows, and there are very often, probably nine out of 10, I’m probably the only queer in the club. Although I do joke that sometimes Kacey Musgraves is there to help me balance the room. [Laughs] It’s not that I don’t feel welcome; it’s just that I notice, “Okay, I’m the only one. Okay, whatever.”

There is an element of tokenization, is that the word?

Let’s go with it. We could say “tokenigaytion.”

[Laughs] I was hoping that I wasn’t putting myself in that position by having come out of the gate with that video, but for the most part [there’s], been a lot of support and a lot of the right things have come out of it, you know?

At AmericanaFest this year, they invited me to a panel about identity in music with Patterson Hood and Chastity Brown, Rev. Sekou, [and] I felt like, “What am I doing here? I’m just gay!” [Laughs] … But you know, I felt that there might be elements of tokenization — tokenigaytion — but I feel like the conversations that have come out of it have been more valuable than any of that.

Right. And you also run around with a pretty cool group of folks — Margo Price, Adia Victoria, Nikki Lane, and a bunch of other super talented people who also have some element of outlier in their identities, too. So that must help, I would assume.

Yeah we “grew up,” so to speak, at the Five Spot, just hangin’ there every night and playing shows, sort of feeling like outcasts over in East Nashville doing our own thing, before it was “East Nashville,” you know?

…

Musically, you have this classic sound. The outlaw country vibe is all the rage these days, but you go further back than that. You go back to ‘50s, ‘60s — where country, pop, rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly was sort of all still mushed together. Where did that come from? Was that stuff that you listened to growing up?

Well, growing up, it was a lot of Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, and my dad loved Roy Orbison and stuff like that.

There it is!

Yeah, and I feel like that contributed a lot to it.

Roy’s kind of the quintessential intersection of all that stuff.

Yeah, and having that sort of drama in the music really appealed to me. [Laughs] Because I did theater, too, and that sort of theatrical thing that you can bring to music and a live show really appealed to me. I love getting on the stage and sort of putting it all out there.

…

Song-wise, what’s so great is that you sketch out the lives — and, more than once, the death — of these marginalized characters, in a song like “Platform Shoes,” for instance. What draws you to those types of stories? And to murder?

There’s nothing like a tragic country song, and there’s something very real and palpable about tragedy and death that you can really wrap your mind around. As far as, you know, murder and all that stuff …

‘Cause it’s not just death, it’s murder. Let’s be clear!

Some of that is thinking about all those old murder ballads and kind of seeing a little bit of the humor in that, and kind of taking that trope and throwing it on its head and making it something a little bit more subversive.

And I’ve noticed in reading about you that I’ve seen the word “sardonic” applied a number of times, and comparisons to Father John Misty and what not. And I get that. That’s definitely there, but I feel like — and you can tell me if I’m getting this right — I feel like there’s a compassion underneath that, in your songs, that I don’t necessarily hear in some of the others in that milieu that write like that.

Right, I mean it’s not supposed to be a comedy show, you know? And it’s not supposed to be 100 percent satire or commentary. There’s a little bit of humanity in there.

It’s like you’re telling it from the inside out rather than an outsider just watching something.

Right. Because, I mean, there’s still humanity in it. There has to be a way to connect to that character’s humanity. And I guess that also brings you back to the theater element, because you put yourself in that person’s shoes, you’re gonna start to feel those emotions, too.

Watch all the episodes on YouTube, or download and subscribe to the Hangin’ & Sangin’ podcast and other BGS programs every week via iTunes, Podbean, or your favorite podcast platform.

Hangin’ & Sangin’: Old Salt Union

Posted on by Editor

From the Bluegrass Situation and WMOT Roots Radio, it’s Hangin’ & Sangin’ with your host, BGS editor Kelly McCartney. Every week Hangin’ & Sangin’ offers up casual conversation and acoustic performances by some of your favorite roots artists. From bluegrass to folk, country, blues, and Americana, we stand at the intersection of modern roots music and old time traditions bringing you roots culture — redefined.

With me today at Hillbilly Central, Old Salt Union!

All: Hey!

John, Justin, Jesse, Rob, and Ryan.

Jesse Farrar: That’s right. That’s right.

Ryan Murphey: That’s a first!

Is it?

RM: People usually mix it around a little bit.

Heck no, I’m a professional here, guys. I do appreciate the alliteration of it all, so that is helpful.

JF: It’s like a sonnet!

…

So you guys have your latest record, it’s a self-titled release. Fourth release? Not fourth album, necessarily, but fourth release.

JF: Yeah it’s the fourth release, ‘cause we did a vinyl as well, a four-track vinyl. So, yeah, it’s our fourth release.

First on Compass Records.

JF: First on Compass Records, that’s right. And it’s self-titled as it’s kind of a culmination of all the stuff we’ve done prior. We reimagined it here in Hillbilly Central, and we rearranged it and re-recorded a lot of it, so it was kind of a “Best Of” if there ever was one.

Yeah, I was wondering about that, in terms of whether you felt like those older songs didn’t get a fair shake the first time around, or they had evolved some as you’ve played them over the years?

JF: Both really, yeah, I think we play 250 shows a year, so every night you’re trying to spice it up. Some things stick, some things don’t.

…

Alison Brown produced this one. You guys met her a few years back. So what is it about how she gets what you guys are doing? Is there something special about that?

JF: I just know from personal experience, she has such an open, creative mind and so, when you sit down with her at a table like we did, it’s really, really inspiring because you just bounce new ideas off of her and she doesn’t turn any ideas down. She’s open to explore. And I think artists, in general, sometimes don’t necessarily explore. Even if they don’t like an option or even if it’s not maybe their first option, they’ll kind of shut it down. But Alison’s very good at exploring these options, and not only that, but she has such a great ear and she’s such an amazing musician. So not only will she explore this idea, but she’ll find a way to make it really work.

Yeah, I was gonna say that, to me, the producers who are artists as well, because, this is actually quoting her, they’ve been on both sides of the glass, so they know how to extract a performance, they know how to take a song in a different direction instead of what’s brought.

…

Now you said you guys do 250 dates a year. … I think being road dogs is what develops a band and a fan base. Tell me where you started and the process and what that’s done both for the chemistry and the whole thing?

JF: Not to berate or bash anyone, necessarily, but we hit the ground running and we never really looked back. And I do agree. I come from kind of a musical family, so I saw these other guys in my family do that, which is, you just put your pedal to the floor and you just go. And that’s how you develop a sound, that’s how you develop a fanbase, that’s how you develop everything. And you see some bands skip that step. Whether they have financial backing or whatever, they kind of skip those hard times. I think those are vital to really find out who you are as individuals and as artists as a whole.

…

Other than pure sweat, what do you think it takes to rise above the fray in the world of string bands? Because there are a lot of dadgum string bands.

RM: There definitely are. I mean there’s the obvious that everybody tells you — persistence. I mean expecting to get knocked back, and you just have to keep pushing, keep chomping at the bit, keep continuing, progressing, and growing, and it’ll come.

JF: I think, musically speaking, there’s some people that kind of close off walls. They say, “Well, we’re a string band. We can’t go this direction. We can’t explore these ideas.” And that’s never been the case for us. I think the thing that maybe separates us is that we’re really open to anything. If John writes a song or Justin writes a song and it’s this crazy polka, we’re gonna explore it. I think that’s why working with Alison worked so good, as well, because we kind of had that same mindset. But, yeah, you’re right, there’s all sorts of string bands we run across every single night, a different breed, a different flavor. Yeah, persistence, and I think having fun and enjoying the music that you’re playing plays a big part. I think that translates to the audience members, sitting at home on a computer or at the venue.

…

There are a lot of different influences that you’re folding in here. But you had to start with a foundation of bluegrass, right? Or no?

RM: Kind of the opposite, almost. At the time we started, Justin had been playing mandolin for a few months, I had just bought a banjo, John was playing classical music, and Jess was pursuing his hip-hop career. [Laughs]

…

JF: Rob’s been in the band for over a year now. He’s the most recent member, but he probably came into it with the most bluegrass mindset, as far as pieces of the puzzle connecting. He kind of had a bluegrass mindset whereas I was doing hip-hop, alternative, classical, and I was a jazz major, and Rob was also a jazz major. So we had all these different things and we thought, “How can we take these instruments and let all of those genres kind of bleed into it?”

Watch all the episodes on YouTube, or download and subscribe to the Hangin’ & Sangin’ podcast and other BGS programs every week via iTunes, Podbean, or your favorite podcast platform.