Tag: Johnny Cash

3×3: Jade Bird on Boyfriends, Barbies, and the Bluebird

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Artist: Jade Bird
Hometown: London, England
Latest Album: Something American
Personal Nicknames: Jadey … I wish I had something more imaginative … Birdmeister has a ring to it.

If you had to live the life of a character in a song, which song would you choose?

Ooh, great question! Every character seems to have such a bleak ending in the songs I like … I’ve always felt a strange connection to “Look at Miss Ohio.” There’s something about the character’s spirit running from having everything. I suppose any of the girls Ryan Adams or Hank Williams sing about — must be nice to be that doted upon.

Where would you most like to live or visit that you haven’t yet?

Nashville!! Although I’m on my way there soon to play the Bluebird with the incredible Brent Cobb, who I got to know on his tour this side of the Atlantic.

What was the last thing that made you really mad?

If it isn’t a boyfriend … I often get frustrated the most with myself. Generally, not doing the best I can at something really winds me up.

 

Brooklyn First photoshoot of the trip… as you can see it was a serious affair #jazzhands @shervinfoto

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If you had to get a tattoo of someone’s face, who would it be?

Oh wow. I don’t know if I like ANYone that much. If it was do or die, someone with a pretty face, like James Dean or a young Leonardo DiCaprio *swoon*.

Whose career do you admire the most?

Patti Smith or Johnny Cash — both I think are totally authentic through their whole career. The amount of music they put into the world is so inspiring in different ways. Cash’s hundreds of songs and Smith’s real push toward a new sound at that time.

What are you reading right now?

In Cold Blood

 

What a first meal I literally died and went to heaven after this… #newyorknewyork

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Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Both, I think every artist has a way of being so. I love being on stage more than anything, yet sometimes I very much like to hold up in my room and hide … until food and water is needed … and sunlight. I’m a bit like a plant, really.

What’s your favorite culinary spice?

I can’t cook to save my life, so I’ll go with paprika. On a side note, I don’t like dill .. .or too much coriander — they used to put it on everything in my old school canteen — not good.

What was your favorite childhood toy?

Barbies were definitely leading, at some point, followed closely by a life-sized Siberian husky who I named Shadow. I did used to create an army of my grandma’s ornamental elephants. (You’ve opened a can of worms here!)

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

LISTEN: Matt Jaffe and the Distractions, ‘Folsom Prison Blues’

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Artist: Matt Jaffe and the Distractions
Hometown: San Francisco, CA
Song: “Folsom Prison Blues”
Album: California’s Burning
Release Date: March 3, 2017

In Their Words: “Johnny Cash is an empathetic badass who walks the walk, and ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ is a blueprint for our record. The Tennessee Three’s boom-chicka-boom is basically proto-cowpunk — is that a mainstream genre yet? — and the lyrics cover everything from prison to train travel to California to hope amidst despair, all in four short verses. Besides a self-destructive urge to carbon date our music, we wanted to give folks some context for what we do, and here’s Square One: Cash at Folsom.” — Matt Jaffe

Photo credit: Edward Saenz

Matt Urmy, ‘We Must Believe in Magic’

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The longevity of music is predicated on the consistent passing of the baton — transferring sonic power and rich histories from one artist to another. Songs are not things that just spontaneously generate from the sky, anyway: Every note has a genetic component of one before it, every melody a mother or father. Nashville’s Matt Urmy knows this well. His new album, Out of the Ashes, was co-produced by the late Cowboy Jack Clement. But it’s also a testament to how fragile the art of creating can be. After the two made the bulk of Urmy’s record at Clement’s Cowboy Arms Hotel & Recording Spa, it suffered a tragic fire, and everything they built was assumed to have gone up in flames. A year later, the remnants surfaced — quite literally out of the ashes.

Urmy’s “We Must Believe In Magic,” recorded after the fire to help complete the newly unearthed album, was originally released by Johnny Cash, and features Clement’s sturdy and soothing vocals. The lyrics — and the majestic chug conjured up in this ethereal rendition — are a message to never lose hope when it feels like your world (or the fruits of your artistic labor) are burning. “We must believe in magic. We must believe in the guiding hand,” they sing. “If you believe in magic, you’ll have the universe at your command.” Clement passed away soon after at the age of 82, leaving a lifetime of work behind — and a guiding hand to help the new generation of musicians keep the magic alive.

Squared Roots: Johnnyswim on the Perfect Imperfections of Johnny Cash

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Through wars with authority and battles with addiction, Johnny Cash carved out a place in musical history for himself that is the stuff of legends. The rebellion and redemption, as well as the humor and humility, that run through his songs resonated — and still resonate — with fans around the world who have bought more than 90 million records. An Arkansas native, Cash grew up listening to the Carter Family, spent time in the U.S. Air Force, found his way into music while in the service, got married just out of the service, struggled with addiction and affairs, had four daughters, got divorced, and, eventually, married the love of his life, June Carter, with whom he had one son. In the midst of all that, the “Man in Black” made some of the most popular and influential music of the 20th century. He passed away in 2003, four months after June’s own passing. 

For the husband-wife duo of Johnnyswim (comprised of Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano) Cash represents an artistic archetype worth emulating. As such, for the 12 years they’ve been making music together, Ramirez and Sudano have blazed a musical path that similarly reflects the lives they live — lives of faith, family, love, and wonder. Johnnyswim’s deep passion and immeasurable joy for their work is most evident in their live shows, where the audience reflects it all right back at them. There’s no doubt Johnny would have loved their jaunt into the balcony of Ryman Auditorium to be among those fans at a recent Nashville show. It was right out of the Cash playbook.         

Usually, I can connect the dots for myself on these picks. Other than the fact that he has quite a few songs the drunks all sing, help me get from Johnnyswim to Johnny Cash.

Abner Ramirez: [Laughs] Amanda and I … the influence our parents have given us from their varying backgrounds into what we’re doing today is the desire to do the thing we are most passionate about — to live for that and that alone. The trajectory is not record sales or moving up in a company. The trajectory is “how close are you to the mark of doing what you’re truly passionate about.” And I think, if there’s an artist I can point to that, in all his albums and the interviews I’ve seen him in, it seems like he had that true north trajectory. And that’s, to me, the most drawing facet of any artist.

There’s the … I want to say “no bullshit” but there’s a better way to say it. There’s that gritty, imperfect … I mean, us being on Conan and Amanda forgetting the lyrics and me singing a little bit sharp because I was so excited and nervous, that’s some of my favorite stuff because it’s real. Otherwise, have a computer go do it and put a pretty face on it. Anybody, with enough money, can be beautiful. It’s not about doing something perfect or exactly beautiful. It’s about being honest. And, sometimes, the only place you see that honesty is in the imperfections. That drives us toward our passions. We’re not trying to be perfect. We’re trying to be passionate. And I think Johnny Cash was one of the most passionate artists I’ve ever listened to.

Amanda Sudano: On a personal level, Johnny Cash was one of the very first artists that we bonded over when we first met and were writing songs. We would listen to him all the time, riding around town, singing along, being fully absorbed in the stories of each song. He was kind of our joint one true love. He was our first threesome. [Laughs]

[Laughs] That’s AWEsome.

AR: [Laughs] Oh, God! There have been none since. That should be said.

AS: [Laughs] First and only!

So, Abner, when you were parking cars at the Palms [in downtown Nashville], how often did you sneak down to the Johnny Cash Museum?

AR: You know what? It wasn’t there, when I was at the Palms. I’m older than I’d like to be. [Laughs]

[Laughs] Right on. Of all the different facets and eras of Johnny, is there one that you guys gravitate more toward?

AR: I think it’s seasonal for us. Ask me that question again in six months or six days, and I’d give you a different answer. But, for me, I love the Folsom Prison moment, when he’s established as a worldwide star and he’s recording this album. And I’m sure it was his choice to do it at the prison. I love the moment when he’s saying, “The record label wants me to do this thing and they’re filming it, and they want me to do this and that. And the only thing that matters is that you like what I’m doing and I like what I’m doing! So screw them!”

There’s something about that attitude of bucking the system … even though, of course, we’re in the beginnings of our career, we’re just getting started … there’s something about that attitude of not submitting to every opinion that a suit has for you that really is still in fashion in 2017 because, being people that are in pursuit on the grind, for so many of us young artists, that seems like the only wise decision — to agree with somebody who has a larger catalog or more experience — just to submit. Many times it is the wise thing, but it’s not the only wise thing.

And having your own compass inside your chest that burns when you’re going the right way — how important that is — that’s something that, right now, is so important to us. So that part of his career when he’s famous, but he’s still gritty and doing the wrong thing a lot of the time …

AS: If you listen to his live recordings, you get a sense that it’s not about the recording. It’s about the people he’s in front of. I feel like that’s so important. Now, most of the time with the shows you go to, it feels like you’re kind of watching them on TV. It feels like, “This is entertainment. This is a performance. They’re up on stage. We’re down here.” I think that’s something we’ve always tried to copy, really, that sense of him being one with the audience. It’s not just him on stage for you to ogle at. It’s him being part of you and you being part of him, and “we’re all in this together.” I feel like you get that sense in every bit of his live recordings, which I love so much. It’s really helped us.

A lot of that goes with what Abner said before: It’s not about perfection. It’s about the moment. If you can focus on that and quit worrying about perfection so much and worry more about being present, then the music becomes more alive than it could ever be if you were just playing the notes. Anybody can just play the notes, but let’s have some fun!

That being said, I do love the later years. I feel like, in every song, there is this bittersweet sadness of a man who has loved and lost, especially after June was gone. Those last recordings, there’s something so powerful about that tone of his voice. You can hear that he’s at the end of his life. You can hear that he’s lost his best friend. And there’s something so powerful about that. I think, especially in times when we’ve been going through loss and dealing with our own hurt, it’s helped us identify it and make the bitter a little sweeter, just hearing it in his voice. I have days when I just want to listen to the very end of Johnny Cash, the very last record of Johnny Cash’s, because that seems appropriate.

I’m glad you brought June into it because I think she’s an important piece to not lose in all of this, particularly because of your relationship. Through that lens, what do you see that June brought to Johnny that he wouldn’t have had on his own?

AS: What didn’t she bring that he wouldn’t have had?! She stabilized him in a lot of ways. I imagine them being much like me and Abner — obviously, on a very different spectrum. But with June coming from a family of musicians … and I come from a family of musicians … and being able to harness some of that passion. We had a friend that once said something like Abner was the passion, the fire, and I was the intimacy. And that was something that made us special because Abner has all this fire, and mine was smaller. It was a smaller flame. But it was that intimacy that made us, together, kind of come alive.

And I feel like you hear that … you hear something different in Johnny, post-June. For the rest of his life, she was able to bring out the more subtle flavors of him. There was just a sensibility of someone who’d been in music and wasn’t one of those girls who was starry-eyed at him all the time. That kind of balanced him out.

It’s important to not let the guys get too cocky about it all. You can’t fawn over them all the time.

AR: That’s right. Especially when they don’t have the right to be too cocky about it.

[Laughs] Especially when they sing a little bit sharp on Conan .

AR: [Both laugh] That’s exactly right!

Do you guys feel like the legacy and legend of Johnny — and even his music — if he hadn’t lived such a raucous life, it wouldn’t have been the same. What do you think it would be?

AR: Of course not. No.

AS: He wouldn’t have had the stories.

AR: He wouldn’t have had the stories or the honest place to come from when he was telling the stories. You learn the lesson, like you learn through loss, that, yes, it sucks. That is a statement on its own: When you lose somebody, when there’s a rough patch, whatever it might be, it really is the thing that makes the rest of your life take flavor. Picasso says the painting, on its own, isn’t the most valuable part. It’s the plane that it’s in, the dimensions that you put it in, because there are limitations — the frame gives it limitations. And it’s what you do within those limitations that make it beautiful. If there were no limits, there wouldn’t be beauty. And I think that’s what loss and suffering and hard times do to us: They put a frame around a canvas and it’s what we do within that frame that makes it beautiful. If it were limitless happiness, I think you’d be limited in the true beauty you could create.

Seeing as you’ve stated quite clearly that you “want to write a song the drunks all sing,” which of Johnny’s songs do you guys wish you’d written?

AR: “Sam Hall.”

AS: [Laughs] I was gonna say “Sam Hall”!

AR: [Laughs] I don’t think he even wrote it! But that’s my favorite Johnny Cash song. I think it’s both of ours.

AS: Whenever we’re on a road trip, that’s the one where we’re like … you know when you get a little bit delirious? There’s always a point on a road trip, right as you’re pulling up to where you’re going or, at some point, you’re going to fall asleep and you decide to double-down and try to stay awake? That’s our song. We’ve sung that song so many times on the road, so that would be the one that I secretly wish we would’ve written.

AR: [Sings] “The sheriff, he come to, he come to. The sheriff, he come to, he come to. The sheriff, he come to, he said, ‘Sam, how are you?’ I said, ‘Sheriff, how are you?’ ‘Damn your eyes!’” [Laughs]

AS: [Laughs] The only way you could write that song and sing it as legitimately as he did is if you really mean it and fully commit. Because it’s so ridiculous. But he does it. And I want to have that sort of commitment.

It’s like “Boy Named Sue.” You have to give yourself over to the whole thing.

AS: Uh huh. Yeah!

MIXTAPE: Lee Ann Womack’s Country Primer

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When we needed an artist to make us a Mixtape of classic country tunes, we turned immediately to Lee Ann Womack … and not just because we love her very, very much, but also because she grew up hanging out in an East Texas radio station while her father played some of the greatest country music ever made. LAW noted that these aren’t, necessarily, her favorite country songs and they don’t go all the way back, but they are certainly a solid representation of the genre’s great past which has absolutely informed its wonderful present.

Johnny Cash — “I Walk the Line”
The ultimate crossover artist, he took country beyond all boundaries. He’s not just one of the greatest country artists, but one of the greatest American artists of all time.

Bill Monroe — “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
He might have been known as the Father of Bluegrass, but music in the country genre was heavily influenced by Bill Monroe. I love — and have borrowed from — the mournful sound of his vocals, the electricity of the harmony vocals, and the drive of the instruments in his music.

The Carter Family — “Wildwood Flower”
Nicknamed the First Family of Country Music, the Carter Family were pioneers of mountain gospel and country music, utilizing harmony vocals in a way that would influence the country genre for many years to come.

Waylon Jennings — “Lonesome, On’ry and Mean”
He had a career as a sideman for Buddy Holly and as a disc jockey in radio before he ever came to Nashvillle to make country records. He was part of the first platinum country album, Wanted: The Outlaws, along with Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser, and Jessi Colter. To me, Waylon was the epitome of the marriage of rock and country, bringing all of his West Texas vibes to ’70s country.

Tammy Wynette — “Stand by Your Man”
You’d be hard pressed to find someone who isn’t familiar with Tammy and her song “Stand by Your Man.” It’s been a controversy several times over! Her voice is like a broken heart poured directly through stereo speakers and her life seemed like a living, breathing country song.

Loretta Lynn — “Coal Miner’s Daughter”
The ultimate country female singer, she wrote and sang about her life, which reflected so many of the people in rural America and the things they were going through. Listening to her music, one could learn a lot about the times she grew up in, and that’s country music: real life.

Dolly Parton — “Coat of Many Colors”
Her Appalachian roots, so present in her voice and music and, obviously, in the lyrics she wrote. The perfect example of a country girl with bluegrass/mountain influences.

Buck Owens — “Together Again”
From Sherman, Texas, and, along with Merle, created the Bakersfield sound. As is often told, Buck influenced countless other artists in and outside the country genre, not the least of which was the Beatles. I always loved his use of the telecaster and harmonies via Don Rich, and could hear their influences in so many of the country acts that followed.

Merle Haggard — “Okie from Muskogee”
The smoothest and prettiest voice of the male country singers, I always loved Merle for his music and his appreciation of music. I love his playing and especially love his studious approach, pouring over the catalogs of masters like Bob Wills and Jimmie Rodgers — not to mention the blues and jazz music influences you can hear in him. He fascinates me. Along with Buck, they created a whole new country music scene in Bakersfield and refused to play by the rules. I love it.

George Jones — “He Stopped Loving Her Today”
I could do a whole list of just George Jones songs. To me, he surpasses all others because he actually created a new style of singing. Often imitated but never, ever has anyone come close to duplicating. As Gram said, “He’s the king of broken hearts.”

Hank Williams — “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
A country boy with so much soul, he transcends any genre and is one of the greatest songwriters in all of music.

Willie Nelson — “Crazy”
An American treasure, Willie is another artist who really transcends all genres, but there’s no mistaking his country upbringing. He puts music first, before any kind of labels or boxes, and he definitely influenced Nashville and Texas music in a huge way and showed that, when it’s honest, country music and country artists can have mass appeal.

Sugar + the Hi-Lows Join Nashville Ballet for Johnny Cash-Inspired Shows

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In 2014, the Nashville Ballet performed “Under the Lights,” an original ballet about the life of legendary country artist Johnny Cash. This year, the Ballet will reprise the show’s performance as part of Attitude, an annual series celebrating contemporary dance. 

Nashville’s Sugar + the Hi-Lows reimagined a number of Cash songs for that 2014 debut and will return for this year’s series of performances, which run February 9 – 12. The duo, comprised of songwriters Trent Dabbs and Amy Stroup, were recruited by Nashville Ballet dancer and “Under the Lights” choreographer/creator Christopher Stuart.

“We watched Matthew Perryman Jones perform with Attitude four years ago,” Dabbs explains. “He’s a dear friend of ours, and we thought the idea of having these two art forms come together is really something else. Chris Stuart had reached out to Lightning 100 to ask Mary Brace, who’s a DJ there, if she had any picks for who would make a good match for this concept, and she said us and Chris called us. That’s how it started.”

Stuart was initially inspired to develop “Under the Lights” after he saw the music video for “Hurt,” Cash’s 2002 cover of a Nine Inch Nails song that the artist released not long before his death at the age of 71 in 2003. For the most part, the 2017 performances will stay true to the show that Stuart and the rest of the Nashville Ballet debuted in 2014, one that Stuart worked carefully alongside members of Cash’s own family to curate. “I think we’re switching out one or two songs but as a format, it will be pretty much on par,” Stroup explains. “Last Summer, we got to go with Chris and some of the Nashville company to Little Rock and perform it, as well. It’s just been an incredible experience to see the ballet and see it in full. It’s pretty much the same story, with Johnny Cash and some of his best-known work and some of the duets with Johnny and June brought to life.”

“Chris pretty much chose [the songs] himself,” Dabbs adds. “I think he spoke to some members of the Cash family to get permission and to get ideas. It was a mix of Chris and some of the Cash family.”

Songs included in the ballet include “Ring of Fire,” “I Walk the Line,” and “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” — the last of which is a personal favorite of Dabbs’ — as well as a handful of Sugar + the Hi-Lows originals. Though honoring Cash is at the heart of the project, Dabbs and Stroup work a bit of their soulful blend of rockabilly-tinged pop into the mix, too, as well as a healthy dose of historical context. 

“When we were first asked to approach this, first of all, Trent and I were like, ‘How do you approach such a legend’s work?’” Stroup says. “Trent and I are both songwriters, even outside of being Sugar + the Hi-Lows, so we found it interesting to go back and research and find out how and why these songs were written. For example, a song like ‘Ring of Fire,’ we think of Johnny Cash’s version of that song and the horns that we hear and it’s really upbeat, but the song was actually written by June and two other people, and she wrote it more as a ballad and she played it for Johnny and he had a dream and heard the horns in the song. Then he said, ‘Hey, can I cut this version?’ So, on that song, we kind of perform it more as June wrote it.”

As passionate fans of both Cash and of dance — if you’ve heard their latest album High Roller, you already know it’s tailor-made for the dance floor — both Dabbs and Stroup have found “Under the Lights” to be one of the most artistically and emotionally fulfilling experiences of their musical careers. 

“I think being such fans of dance that it’s kind of like going to a show while you’re playing it,” Dabbs says. “In fact it is. [Laughs] But it’s much more experiential than anything else live. We both try not to watch the dancers too much, but when you look up and get a glimpse of what’s happening, it affects you in a lot of emotional ways and, to me, the experience of the whole thing is much more powerful than just us and a band playing in front of people.”

When the final curtain closes on this particular Attitude performance, it won’t be the duo’s last rodeo with the Nashville Ballet. They already have plans to take part in Seven Deadly Sins, which will feature music from the current roster of Ten Out of Tenn. That show debuts in May.

Photo credit: Karyn Photography

Peter Cooper Offers Behind-the-Scenes Look at Nashville in Forthcoming Book

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Peter Cooper knows a thing or two about country music. A songwriter, journalist, and current Country Music Hall of Fame writer/editor (among other things), Cooper has spent decades studying country music and picking the brains of the genre’s biggest luminaries. In April, he’ll release a new book — Johnny’s Cash and Charley’s Pride: Lasting Legends and Untold Adventures in Country Music — via Spring House Press. Complete with a foreward from legendary music writer Peter Guralnick, the book is a collection of essays detailing some of Cooper’s most storied encounters, from his time spent with the late Cowboy Jack Clement to trading thoughts on songwriting with Taylor Swift.

“Part of it was inspired by all of these people streaming into Nashville anew who don’t really have an understanding of the people who built this Music City,” Cooper says of his impetus to write Johnny’s Cash. “The book begins with Cowboy Jack Clement, because I think he’s the guy that everybody would be better off having met and been around. He’s just one of the most purely creative souls I’ve ever been around.”

Unlike many books about country music, Cooper’s doesn’t seek to serve as a definitive history of the genre. Instead, he lets his stories do the talking, offering color commentary on some of country’s most colorful characters. He wrote the bulk of the collection in the order it appears in its final published version, with one anecdote or interview lending itself to the telling of another in a conversational, almost stream-of-consciousness style of writing. There are also personal moments, where readers are treated to passages that read more like memoir than encyclopedia entry.

“A lot of things in the book are similar to stories I might tell somebody if I’m sitting next to them on an airplane or at a bar,” he explains. “They ask about Nashville characters like Cowboy Jack, Bobby Bare, Tom T. Hall. Rather than present any sort of linear history — and rather than have straight profiles of people — I just wanted to tell stories about storytellers and offer up what some of my interactions have been with them. A lot of times, when you get to know these people, they’ll trickle out some good hillbilly wisdom, and I was trying to remember those moments. I really want to tell [readers] it’s a self-help book. It’s really good advice from some really smart people, with some funny stories thrown in there.”

He did add one chapter, though — “Don Light and the Impossibility of Unscrambling Eggs” (“Don Light was fond of saying, ‘You can’t unscramble eggs,'” Cooper laughs, when asked about Nashville’s explosive growth in recent years.) — at the behest of Guralnick himself. “[Guralnick] had known Don Light very well and he knew that I had spent some time around him typing down the things that Don Light said,” he explains. “Don Light was this fascinating, kind of creative pragmatist who found a way to get Jimmy Buffett a record deal. He was the first independent talent agent in town. He brought Keith Whitley to Nashville and got him a record deal. He helped found the Gospel Music Association. He started the Jesus business and the ‘my head hurts, my feet stink, and I don’t love Jesus’ business.”

While readers will be hard-pressed to find a selection in Cooper’s book that lacks humor and humanity, one story about beloved country artist Lee Ann Womack has a special place in his heart. “There’s a story about Lee Ann Womack threatening bodily harm upon me that I thought was cute,” he laughs. “Heck of a singer and a wonderful person, as well, but she was dissatisfied with a largely positive review I’d written about her and threatened me late at night on a cell phone. She’s one of the best singers I’ve ever heard. In a room with her without a microphone, when there’s nothing between her voice and your ears, it’s just staggering.”

If there is a theme running throughout Cooper’s book, it’s that storytelling is at the heart of good songwriting, and that sharing stories about songs can’t be done without putting at least some of one’s heart on the page. “If you’re unbiased about music, or objective about music, then you’re not going to write anything good about music,” he says. “If you can’t listen to Emmylou Harris and be moved by it on some level and you stay cold and calculating at a distance, then you aren’t going to write anything of value.”

Greg Blake, ‘Hey Porter’

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Johnny Cash is, of course, a titan in the canon of American music. Bands of all styles have covered his tunes for as long as they've been around — ranging from noodly jam outfit Phish doing "I Walk the Line" to pop-punkers New Found Glory tackling "It Ain't Me Babe" in 2007. Here's another to add to that collection: Greg Blake's "Hey Porter." The Colorado picker opens up with a flourishing, fantastic bassline provided by bluegrass badass Mark Schatz, before diving into a classic bluegrass clip.

"I finish the first two verses and then Blaine Sprouse, Jeff Scroggins, and John Reischman trade off solos over the melody line of the verse, with Schatz interjecting that funky bass theme in the spaces between hand-offs," Blake says.

The crisp clarity of the recording make it seem like Blake's take could've been the original. The team power behind the track is as driving as the mighty train Cash first wrote about. You can learn more about Blake and his new record Songs of Heart and Home here.

A Conversation with Filmmaker Beth Harrington on Her Carter Family Documentary

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For those who appreciate a good movie about music, the name Beth Harrington stands at the top of many lists of excellent filmmakers. The Boston native’s 2003 documentary, Welcome to the Club: The Women of Rockabilly, was nominated for a Grammy Award and applauded at numerous film festivals around the world. The last dozen or more years have been dedicated to completing her latest film, The Winding Stream: The Carters, the Cashes, and the Course of Country Music. Now living in Vancouver, WA, the one-time member of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers talks about how her passion project is progressing.

So, how long has been since we've had coffee? Two years?

I bet it's been more than that. I don't think I had any hope of finishing the film the last time I talked to you.

Really?

Well, I didn't think there was any real clear-cut path to the end. There was so much money to raise. I had enough money to make a film, but if I finished it and didn't have the music licensed and the archival footage licensed and the photos licensed, I couldn't show it to anyone.

It's been a long and arduos road, it sounds.

Yeah, it has.

The soundtrack has an interesting mix of music, both old and new. Were the new songs commissioned for the film?

Some of them were. While we were making the film, there was an album being recorded that was a tribute album to the Carter family. So we filmed some of that. And we were allowed to use the stuff we filmed. So when we made the soundtrack album, that stuff got released again.

Which ones specifically?

The John Prine one (“Bear Creek Blues”).

… which is one of the ones I like.

Absolutely, I love that one. The George Jones one (“Worried Man Blues”), the Sheryl Crow song — which is in the film but not on the CD. Rosanne [Cash] did the title track.

So, the challenge you were facing from the music licensing standpoint had to do with the original Carter Family material?

Yeah. [The CD] just scratches the surface of what we used in the film. We had lots and lots of Carter Family songs — 30 or more tracks that were mostly original recordings, or radio recordings, from when the Carters were on Border Radio. That stuff largely belonged to Sony, so Sony had to be paid.

Gotcha. They weren't up to negotiating, were they? [Laughs]

We're glad that they let us license the music … let's put it that way. [Laughs]

That's terribly cynical of me. We'll just make sure that, in the interview, that comment is clearly attributed to me and not to you. [Laughs] There’s one tune on the CD with an introduction of the family and then there’s a little snippet … they only sang a few bars.

That’s their theme song, that’s why. “Keep on the Sunny Side” was their theme song, so they sang it on every show. And then they went into another song.

You know what I found striking? I’ve heard the Carter Family’s song countless times, as we all have. Maybe not these exact recordings, but we’ve all heard them to some degree. What was most striking to me is how youthful they sound in these songs.

I never thought about it that way! It’s funny, because I always think of Sara as having this very gothic sound. Even as a young woman, she was very authoritative sounding. It was really a strong voice. To me, that’s an older person’s authority. But even then, she was probably only in her 30s. I think they were kind of youthful. And Maybelle was younger than them, so she was energetic and inventive, and she found all these new things to play. That’s fresh and youthful sounding, I think.

It becomes even more interesting when you have what sounds fresh and youthful in its delivery but sounds old from a stylistic and technological standpoint. What inspired you to do this film?

I had made another music documentary called Welcome to the Club: The Women of Rockabilly and, in making that film, I had met a whole bunch of women who were contemporaries of Elvis Presley.

Like Wanda [Jackson].

Wanda, Janice Martin, the Collins Kids, Brenda Lee, a bunch of others who didn’t make the cut but are mentioned in the film. A lot of them talked about what they grew up with and, of course, a lot of them grew up with the Carter Family. The ones who were in the film toured with Johnny Cash and Maybelle and the sisters. There were very strong connections there. Plus, Rosanne Cash narrated that film, so the whole time I was working on it, I was connecting these dots in my head. I knew who the Carters were. I knew Johnny Cash, of course. I was growing up when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album came out with Maybelle and Doc Watson and all those people on it.

I don’t know that there are many people who fully grasp what the relationships were between all these names. Everyone knows the name June Carter Cash — if you know Johnny Cash you know that name — but I don’t think people fully appreciate who she is and where comes from and what that’s connected to … unless you’re deeply into roots music, like BGS readers are. But a lot of people don’t know. I thought it might be useful to connect those dots for people and tell that story because it’s a big saga and a really interesting family. They influenced people, not just in country music, but in folk music and country-rock or whatever you want to call it in the '70s. And they still continue to influence people in Americana today.

I thought it would be cool to do that. I never imagined it would take as long as it took, but I certainly thought it would be interesting to people. The cool thing is, one of the best compliments I get for the film is when people say, "I don’t even like this kind of music and I like your film."

Nice.

So I think, "Cool, my work here is done." Because I just want people to know there’s this underpinning in American music. It’s a thread of the bigger fabric of American music that I think people should know. As was said in the film, "People should know who they are like they know who the first president of the United States was." Maybe a slight overstatement, but I think there’s something to that.

Well, it’s a statement from someone who’s in the front row, the front pew. There’s no need to preach to him. He’s basically standing up and turning around to the rest of the church and saying, "Listen, they’re up here." So I totally get that. How long has it taken up to this point?

Twelve years.

Twelve years!

Well, we’re into the distribution part now, so I’ll have been working on this for probably about 14 years by the time I finish. I never expected it would take this much of my life. 

That’s a lot of patience.

It’s a lot of something. I don’t know. [Laughs] Stubbornness, maybe. I don’t know if it’s patience. It’s definitely stubbornness.

So tell me briefly: Where am I going so see it and how’s it being distributed?

It’s being distributed all over the country right now. If people go to Argot Pictures, there’s a huge list of places it’s showing. It opened in L.A. last week. It’s going to be playing in New York in December for a week. It will be in Boston, at some point. It’s booked in over 40 places right now.

Is there hope for distribution via a streaming service of some kind?

Yes, we have a deal for that, but we have to wait until the theatrical release runs its course.

So, while you’ve been doing this for the past 14 years, what’s been in the back of your head to do next?

Honestly, this was so trying that I thought some days this might be the last film I do. The landscape of documentary filmmaking is so difficult right now … especially if you’re doing a music documentary.

Because of licensing.

Half of my budget was licensing. I could have made two films for the price of this one film. And, whereas I’m happy to pay musicians, I’m less interested in all the other business parts of it. I’m one little person who lives in Vancouver, WA, making a film. I’m not Steven Spielberg.

I think that when people hear that you’re making a documentary with Johnny Cash in it, somehow they think that you’re rolling in the dough. That’s just not the reality. So, I haven’t made plans to do anything yet. I have thoughts.

Oh, do tell! We’re not going to hold you to it. But if it’s in print on the Internet …

I know! This is the problem. You’re going to dog me no matter what I do. [Laughs] I think there are other music docs I’d like to do. I think there are some great stories out there. There are certainly stories from my own life that have to do with bands that I was in.

Like Jonathan Richman …

I would have to explore it with Jonathan, and he may or may not be interested. But I think it’s a really great story about the pre-punk era, with some great people in it — including people who launched some of the new-wave and punk stuff. Jerry Harrison from the Talking Heads, David Robinson from the Cars … these are people who were in the original Modern Lovers. That was a very influential band even though it’s not very well-known. I think there are a lot of cool stories there.

It’s really about the story, right?

It’s gotta be about the story. I’ve seen lots of music documentaries where I think, "Well, that’s great footage … but is there a story?" So, I think about that. There are some other things I’d love to do. I might do something narrative with music in it because I need, like, a mental palate cleanser after doing documentaries. Being a journalist — as you know — being accurate and being faithful to the facts, which I strive to be, is very difficult when you’re trying to make something that’s entertaining. That’s why most biopics that you see have no relationship at all to reality! [Laughs]

Exactly! [Laughs] Right, because reality is boring, and we need a story!

Of course!

He didn’t have a mistress, but we put one in just to make it more interesting!

I think that some of that stuff seems really liberating. Like, you could just make something fictitious and fun.

Semi-fictitious? Or completely fictitious?

Well, completely fictitious. If I was going to do it, I would make it completely fictitious. But then you’re right back into the rights issues and the image and likeness of the person. I just think it would be fun to do a music film with musicians that reflected the life of a musicians but wasn’t steeped in the particulars of one musician. I’ve certainly got a lot of content, from doing all the research I did for this film. It goes back to the 1920s and all the way up to the present. I’ve had a lot of time to think about that trajectory and the many influences that this one family had. I think there’s some spin-off of that that might be interesting as a fictional piece.

In the back of my mind, I’m thinking Spinal Tap Goes Americana! [Laughs]

[Laughs] Totally, totally. Spinal Tap and The Godfather — still my two favorite films of all time.

3×3: Shane Parish on John Coltrane, Johnny Cash, and a Moment in the Sun

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Shane Parish
Hometown: Asheville, NC
Latest Album: Undertaker Please Drive Slow (Tzadik)

 

Time to reconnect with my roots… "Never mind what's been sellin, it's what you're buyin…" #fugazi

A photo posted by Shane Parish (@birdonsixwires) on

What was the first record you ever bought with your own money?
RUN DMC, Raising Hell

How many unread emails or texts currently fill your inbox?
86

If your life were a movie, which songs would be on the soundtrack?
"The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash, "Staying Alive" by the BeeGees, "The Boxer" by Simon and Garfunkel, "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane

 

My new solo album, Undertaker Please Drive Slow, is released today on Tzadik Records! Here's the track listing.

A photo posted by Shane Parish (@birdonsixwires) on

What's your favorite word?
Tchotchke

Which sisters are your favorite — Andrews, Secret, McCrary, or Mandrell?
McCrary

If you were a liquor, what would you be?
Tequila

 

Loitering

A photo posted by Shane Parish (@birdonsixwires) on

Fate or free will?
Fate

Cake or pie?
Pie

Sunrise or sunset?
Sunset