Tag: Sara Watkins

RECAP: The BGS at Bonnaroo 2016

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Anyone turning to music for solace likely found a welcoming home in That Tent, where John Moreland was getting the BGS Stage started with his gut-wrenching Oklahoma Americana. “Well the older I get, truth gets harder to find. And famous false prophets get by off of robbing good men blind,” he sang on “Blacklist,” one of the earlier songs in the set. “Maybe I don’t have it in me, maybe it doesn’t have me in it. And if I don’t fly, that’s fine, just let me find the place where I fit.”

His songs don’t need frills — for something as minimal as a guy and a guitar, a set from Moreland rings through the air with a certain level of force. That’s partially thanks to his lyrics, which are conversational enough to feel like a chat between old friends and insightful enough to bounce around in your head for a while until they take on new meaning.

Following Moreland in That Tent was Sara Watkins with a set that would mark the first of many rousing performances of hers on the BGS stage. “This is the maiden voyage for a lot of these songs,” she said at one point. But her setlist was populated with recognizable numbers like “Say So” and “Long Hot Summer Days,” the weather-appropriate latter of which was turned into a group effort when she asked the crowd to sing along. The Secret Sisters sat in for a few, too, making for a high point on the stage before the clock even hit three.

The Wood Brothers were a worthy follow-up to Watkins’ harmonies, and plucky instrumentals on early songs like “Atlas” and “Mary Anna” drew several curious passersby. “Luckiest Man,” arguably the group’s best-known number, drew a heartwarming swell in volume as the crowd sang along — a promising sign of what was to come throughout the day.

“We haven’t had the luxury of being here all weekend,” said Steep Canyon Rangers mid-way through their set, following the Wood Brothers as the afternoon went by. Their song, “Tell the Ones I Love,” was a shot of energy on an otherwise hot, heavy day, with rich vocals and a beat that picked up as they went along. This is a band that at their best when they’re picking at instrumentals, and the sheer speed of their fingers on the longer jams had onlookers twirling and swaying.

The momentum kept up for newgrass innovators Sam Bush Band, and while the transient crowd was starting to get rowdy (“We hear your request, but we’re going to keep playing,” they responded to one heckle with a laugh), the mood was as warm as the weather — which, by the way, was really dang warm.

As the day’s big Superjam grew nearer, the crowd forming outside That Tent grew from modest to massive, stretching back to the vendors and filled with onlookers waiting for a glimpse of Ed Helms and his all-star on-stage compadres. He started off the collaborative headlining set with a hand-clapping rendition of bluegrass classic “I’ve Endured,” sharing the mic with Sean and Sara Watkins. The three of them were soon joined by Scott Vestal and Sam Bush as Sara led into “Here I Go Down that Long Road Again.”

“We’re going to do an old Bill Monroe song,” said Bush. “Do you all know who Bill Monroe is? The father of bluegrass music?”

It’s safe to say the crowd’s answer was affirmative on that one, and Bush took the lead on “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” The song was followed by an appearance from Amanda Shires, whose performance of Roger Miller’s “Dang Me” kept a fun, upbeat vibe on the lyrics and allowed Shires' and Sara’s dueling fiddles to take the spotlight. Shires stuck around after the song ended for a duet of “In Spite of Ourselves” with Helms that was prefaced a healthy amount of gushing over the song’s writer, John Prine, from both parties. A tough act to follow, Helms brought Bush back out, along Steep Canyon Rangers’ Nicky Sanders, for “Lovesick Blues.”

Last-minute guest Langhorne Slim was up next, performing “Lawyers, Guns & Money” with the Watkins Family Hour band, who went on to perform “From a Buick Six” with Bush. From there, the vocals really reached out and grabbed you — Lee Ann Womack’s pristine voice made “Lord I Hope This Day Is Good” sound like just the gospel we needed on a long, hard day like Sunday, and to follow it up with two songs from the Secret Sisters — “Big River” and “All About You” — felt downright indulgent.

Womack returned for two more songs with the Watkins Family Hour, “Little Lies” and “Let ‘Em In,” before Steep Canyon Rangers came out to steal the stage for Merle Haggard’s classic “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink.” Once Helms returned to the stage for the last few songs, he called Amy Reitnouer (our fearless leader here at BGS and the mastermind behind the festivities) for a moving performance on Neil Young’s “Long May You Run” with the whole gang back out on stage.

The jam was more than just a dang good time; It was a reminder of the peacefulness and overwhelming sense of unity that festivals — and music, in general — have to offer. Long live the BGS Superjam. (How many days until next year?)

Photos by Elli Papayanopoulos for the BGS

An Apocalyptic Mood: A Conversation with Parker Millsap

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When Americana fans met Parker Millsap, he was barely out of high school. He may have been wailing about truckers and God with a fiddle and a formidable backbeat, but the Pentecostal-raised Millsap’s raspy, Isbell-esque vocals on breakout single “Truckstop Gospel” delivered the familiar tropes with a particular wit. That wit, his rich voice, and the performances it yielded were enough to garner a nod for Millsap at the Americana Music Awards in 2014, and his remarkable strength as a poet and writer — coupled with his relatively young career — made his sophomore LP all the more hotly anticipated.

The album itself, entitled The Very Last Day and slated for release on March 25, continues Millsap’s evolution as a storyteller. Tracks like “Heaven Sent,” which narrates a young gay man bargaining with a religious father, or “Hands Up,” a ballad about a convenience store robbery, bring Millsap’s gift for character development to the forefront. One need only glance at the liner notes to know that his words are put to fine use, from the involvement of producer Gary Paczosa — known for his work with Alison Krauss and John Prine — to vocal contributions from contemporaries like Sarah Jarosz. 

So tell me about you growing up – when did you start getting into music?

Well, I grew up singing at church — you know, starting at age four or something like that — and when I was about nine, I started playing guitar. When I was about 13 or 14, I started playing in bands, just around my hometown. Right about then is when I started getting into songwriting because I wanted to have original material to play with the various bands I was in. Also, during high school, I had an English teacher who really got me into words, got me into writing, like a creative writing class. That all happened at about the same time.

I like that. Are you still much of a reader?

Absolutely. Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, Jon Steinbeck: Those are three of my favorites. They’re all kind of different writers, but they’re all creative in a funny way. Steinbeck’s really subtle, which I like — in a funny and a not-funny way. I think Kurt Vonnegut’s funny in a morbid and kind of existential way. Tom Robbins is kind of crazy.

What about writing this record, specifically?

I wrote these songs over a period of about two years. We were touring a whole lot, leading up to making the record. They just kind of accumulated. I went through a bunch of different phases while writing this record, from Arcade Fire to Roy Orbison to Motown — kind of all over the place, as far as what I was listening to. At the same time, I was watching The Walking Dead and reading a bunch of post-apocalyptic books: Stand by Stephen King, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. I was kind of in an apocalyptic mood for a minute.

That’s interesting. You definitely have a storytelling angle to your songs.

I grew up listening to a lot of singer/songwriters who did that — who used storytelling as a way to write songs — so it wasn’t very foreign to me. At the same time, I like to read. I love fiction, so I was familiar with the concept that the author isn’t the character in the story. It makes for more options [Laughs] … at least when it comes to songwriting.

Your instrumentation changed up a bit on this album.

Yeah.

Tell me about what that brings to the record for you.

I’ve played electric guitar for about as long as I’ve played acoustic guitar. I just, when I got into songwriting, I started playing acoustic guitar more because that was what all the singer/songwriters that I listened to did. So it didn’t feel unnatural at all. It came down to serving the songs — I had these songs, and we just dressed them up how they needed to be dressed up.

Y’all lived at the studio, right — not just figuratively?

Yeah, for like two weeks. The whole time we were recording, we lived upstairs — above the recording studio. So we just got to go hang out and be a band and record for a week. Gary is kind of an audio wizard on top of being a great producer because he’s very relaxed — he’s not trying to force anything. It makes a big difference.

What makes a song stand out to you?

If it seems sincere … if it’s got mojo … that’s what I listen for.

I really like the new Alabama Shakes record. It’s kind of … I don’t know … it’s a creative record. It doesn’t sound like they’re trying to do anything other than what they do, and I really like that — I appreciate that. It sounds authentic. It’s got mojo.

[Laughs] That, it does. So you said you started out in church, and you see religious references in your songs. Is that intentional? Do you feel like that informs your work?

It just offers a perspective, really. It’s just a perspective I grew up in. It’s easy, when I’m writing a story or a song, to go there. Those references come naturally to me, I think, is all it is.

I didn’t realize growing up that not that many people were raised the way that I was. It was a pretty normal life. I didn’t live in a super strictly religious household — we watched TV, we listened to secular music. I wasn’t that isolated or anything. I did get to see really spirited live music three times a week, people really playing. In church, nobody’s really performing for anybody else — you’re just doing it. There’s a certain thing about that you can only get in that situation.

What about coming from Oklahoma and that music scene?

The music scene in Oklahoma is kind of small, but it’s a pretty dedicated group of people that go see shows and go play shows. Mike [Rose, his bassist] and I, how we kind of turned that into making money, is that we played this place every Tuesday for two years. Before that, we went to this thing called the Tuesday Night Music Club on Tuesday nights. It’s just Cushing, Oklahoma, so it’s just a songwriting circle in this lady’s house, but John Fulbright would show up or other Oklahoma songwriters, and we’d just play music in the living room on Tuesdays. So that’s how I got hooked up with the Oklahoma scene — I got to meet a lot of older songwriters who had been doing it for a while.

But you recently moved to Nashville, right?

Nashville is different. I grew up in a town of less than 10,000 people. [Laughs] And then I moved from there to a town with about 10,000 people, and from there to Nashville. Nashville’s a little faster. I like it. I live in Inglewood. There’s a lot more to do. There’s also a lot more traffic — I’m used to "across town" meaning "about five minutes." [Laughs]

That’s the truth. You have some people who sang with you on the record — Sarah Jarosz, Sara Watkins, Aoife O’Donovan — that’s some pretty lovely company. How did those collaborations happen?

We got in touch with the girls because Gary said, "Hey, this could be some great harmony." I said, "Hell yeah." And he said, "I know some girls." So he got them all over and it worked. It was super-easy — they were all super-easy to work with. Great voices. It’s always fun to bring other people in to work on a song, because you get someone from the outside and they come at it from a different angle. It’s something different that’s usually better than going at it alone.

One of the songs that struck me on the record was “Hands Up.”

That one just started out with the idea of … well, a lot of my songs start out like, "What if there was a song where … blank?" So that one was like, "What if there was a song where there was a guy robbing a convenience store?" From there, it just happened. I just sat down and started working on it. It’s funny, you start with a character and, by the end of writing the song, you know more about him.

On a related note, I’ve seen you talk about nursery rhymes and Bible stories and the varying perspectives in them — the fact that the story you’re taught isn’t necessarily the whole story. Do you ever include that same duality in your songs on purpose?

I just find it interesting to write from the first person. So that’s … I guess actors do it, when the tape’s on: You get to be somebody else for a second. Just like, "What’s it like? What’s that like? What’s it like to be this person or that person?" It keeps it interesting for me.

Photo credit: Laura E. Partain

LISTEN: Willy Tea Taylor, ‘Bull Riders & Songwriters’

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Artist: Willy Tea Taylor
Hometown: Oakdale, CA
Song: "Bull Riders & Songwriters"
Album: Knuckleball Prime
Release Date: October 23
Label: Blackwing Music

In Their Words: "I come from a small town of bull riders and songwriters, and we all travel the same roads to the same towns. This song is about doing what you love and accepting all the consequences … good and bad." — Willy Tea Taylor

Instructions: Follow your heart, no matter where it leads.

Photo credit: Andrew Quist

Watkins Family Hour Grows Up, Hits the Road With Star-Studded Variety Show

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Sean and Sara Watkins first gained a whole bunch of attention when Nickel Creek — their trio with Chris Thile — took to the bluegrass circuit in the 1990s and, eventually, caught Alison Krauss's ear. Their highly successful run lasted until 2007 and made them a lot of friends and fans along the way. Somewhere around 2002, the Watkins siblings gathered up some of those friends they'd collected and started a monthly variety show at Largo in Los Angeles. They dubbed it the Watkins Family Hour and, this summer, they decided to take the show into the studio and on the road … including a recent stop at the Newport Folk Festival. Below, Sean Watkins dishes on WFH's future, the Los Angeles folk scene and famous friends.

As the music business hurtles toward an unknown future, you guys have gone back to revive the lost art of the variety show. Have you found over the years you've been doing it that people are hungry for that simpler presentation and that communal vibe it brings?

Yeah. Yeah. I grew up playing bluegrass in San Diego — my sister and I. One of the things that really got us started and helped us learn was a weekly show that was at a pizza place. We always tell this story with regard to Nickel Creek because it's kind of how we started Nickel Creek. But, looking back, I realize that these weekly shows were a core band and people would step in and be guests. It was very casual. I look back and see a line between that and what we're doing now.

We started doing the Watkins Family Hour because we found ourselves in the middle of a really cool scene that revolved around a club called Largo in Los Angeles. We met some really great people, great musicians. Found a lot of people who just wanted to play — amazing musicians and session people who would cost thousands of dollars to play on your record just wanted to go out and play for fun in the evenings. We started meeting these people and gathering new friends. The owner of that club [Marc Flanagan] gave us the opportunity to start a monthly show. It was his idea. He just said, “Why don't you guys just have fun, try out new songs, do covers, have guests?” So we did. And it's just been really fun. Especially in a town like L.A., it's kind of a nice change. It's something different from the usual day-to-day stuff. I think it's relatively unique. We certainly have a lot of fun doing it.

I used to live in L.A. and booked clubs, so I know Flanny from way back. And he's always been supportive, brought people together, and had those cool scenes happening. But it was interesting to see him step out into this world, musically. It's a little bit different from the stuff he's pursued in the past.

He grew up in Ireland and is very familiar with that traditional music. And the music that we grew up playing has its roots in that, so I think he could get into it through that. But he really loves all kinds of music. If he feels it's good, it doesn't really matter what it actually sounds like.

Yeah, was it surprising to you guys to find such a welcoming audience in L.A.?

I don't know. We just stumbled into it. It was really great right off the bat. I didn't really have any expectations. I guess I was pleasantly surprised to find so many musicians — like Benmont Tench and Greg Liesz who are regulars in the band — so many people like that who just want to get out and play. In a big, huge, challenging city like Los Angeles, that can really make things a lot more warm. And it did.

I'd think, too, that the Largo audience-at-large trusts Flanny's taste and curation based on what he's always done.

Exactly. Yeah. There's a certain trust there. People go to see shows just because someone's playing there, not having heard them before.

You guys have had all sorts of folks on the show over the years. Who's been your favorite guest? Or maybe your favorite story would be more diplomatic.

There are so many. There have been a lot of nights when I looked around on stage and I couldn't believe that particular combination of musicians was there. People from all different backgrounds, from all different parts of my life. People I don't know. People I just met. That kind of thing happens a lot.

There was one night, in particular, at the old Largo on Fairfax … a lot of people were in town and a bunch of people showed up. On stage at one time were Benmont, Greg Leisz, David Rawlings playing electric guitar, Jim Keltner playing drums, and John Paul Jones playing bass. It was just ridiculous. I think Fiona Apple was there, too. It was a crazy band. Jon Brion was there, too.

There was one moment when I think we all … one night when Booker T. came down. He actually came to rehearsal, too, and we learned a couple songs. It was just amazing, the level of respect. Everybody in the band, you could tell they respected him and they listened to him, paid attention. It was like school. It was amazing. He's very gracious. And also very demanding. He has an amazing presence. Everyone was bringing their A game. He sang “Knockin' on Heaven's Door” — the Dylan tune.

It's so wonderful that all these amazing players just want to get out and have fun. We recently ran an interview with Rickie Lee Jones where she said that once she got famous, no one wanted to play with her for fun. They wanted to get paid or they want something from her. That was her experience in L.A. and New York, so it's really cool to see those guys coming out for the hell of it.

I think we've been doing the show long enough to where they've heard that we're not crazy and we're okay. The guys in the band have been around so long that, if people don't know Sara and me, they'll know them. And know that, if they are a part of something, it's probably okay. So we've been able to benefit from their personal clout over the years.

On the upcoming tour, you guys are playing multiple nights in a lot of the cities. Was that a product of audience or artist demand? Who wanted you more?

It was the initial idea that I had and mulled it over with Sara, to go to a few towns, pick a smaller venue, and set up camp there for a few days. We were having a conversation with Fiona Apple and she was saying she wanted to get out and play. She said, “Anything you guys want to do. If you want to do something, let me know.” So we thought, “Why don't we do some Family Hour shows? Just pick a few towns.” Initially, we thought we'd do New York, Nashville, Chicago, and San Francisco. We decided we'd book one or two shows and, if it sold out, we'd try to get a third. That happened in a couple cities and we added a bunch more dates just because it seemed like it was going to be fun and people seemed to respond in an encouraging way. It turned into a proper tour.

With the kind of talent that you guys all have, you could really do some creative arrangements, but you don't re-work the songs all that much. They stay pretty true to the originals. I mean, “Going Going Gone” still sounds like a Dylan tune even in your voice.

When we made the record, we did it in two-and-a-half days. We did it when we weren't even planning a tour. We weren't even planning to release it. We just had a friend who had a studio and he basically said, “Come on over and record. It'd be good to have this even just for you guys.” So we did. We just did covers. We didn't have any plan. We just showed up and said, “How about this song?” I think we started with “Not in Nottingham.” So we had that in the can and then, a few months later, we had the idea to do the tour. It worked out nicely that we had the record.

But, yeah, the record is … I like hearing what these guys do within the context of a simple song. And that's how they work best. That's how the Family Hour is. We don't really sit down and get crazy with the arrangements. It's more about being in the moment and listening to each other. Everybody's also in bands where they have to play these arrangements and they have to really be in a different headspace. This is a nice change from that.

Right. And, with such a wide array of songwriters are covered on the record … maybe there isn't a process for picking. Is it just that somebody says, “Hey, let's do 'Steal Your Heart Away,'” and boom?

Yeah. We've got good relationships with each other. If someone suggests a song, usually it works. That one was on a mixtape that David Garza gave us years ago. We just thought it was a cool song and the band thought it was great, too. You can tell when people aren't into a song. It won't have the enthusiasm. But we know the general idea of what we like in a song, so it's usually okay.

“Brokedown Palace” must be taking on a new bittersweetness after the recent Dead shows.

It's funny that we had that released right around the time that the shows were happening. It's just a really great song. That one, in particular, is so fun to play with that group of musicians. It's really fun.

Since Thile isn't a Watkins, he had to go and get himself that Prairie Home gig. Can we expect any sort of collaborations between the two projects?

[Laughs] I don't think so … but who knows?

Photo credit: Roman Cho

LISTEN: David Berkeley, ‘Last Round’

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For his new album, Cardboard Boat, singer/songwriter David Berkeley aimed to do something a little bit different, so he put his degree in literature from Harvard to work and added “author” to his job title by writing 10 short stories to accompany the tracks. Collected as The Free Brontosaurus, Berkeley's novella will be released on the same day as his album.

Through both collections, each piece has a main character, and that's the perspective from which the songs are sung. Berkeley first tested the combo album/book concept in 2010 with Some Kind of Cure and 140 Goats and a Guitar. But the new project fine tunes the idea, weaving them together in a more proper way.

“'Last Round' is the fourth song on my new album, Cardboard Boat," Berkeley says. "Like all the songs that pair with female characters on the album, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek sings back up. The character 'Last Round' is based on is a pacifist-outsider-artist who catches her husband in bed with another lady. She kicks him out and gets a divorce and tries to be very Zen about it all, but never really gets over him. Despite her hippie nature, she finds herself getting angrier and angrier and lashing out at everyone around her. This song is her empowerment song, in a sense. It's a song of rage and revenge and liberation. Fitting, it's in the cleanup spot in the track lineup.”

Cardboard Boat floats on September 25 via Straw Man Records, simultaneously withThe Free Brontosaurus via Rare Bird Books.

Photo by Kerry Sherck

MIXTAPE: Sara Watkins

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Sara Watkins is a very busy lady.  Between her new solo album (Sun Midnight Sun, available here), extensive touring schedule (she recently wrapped a tour with Dawes, and is currently opening for Jackson Browne), and monthly appearances with brother Sean Watkins on the Largo stage for the Watkins Family Hour (which can now be heard everywhere via the WFH Podcast on Nerdist), the former Nickel Creek fiddle player has had quite a year and is showing no signs of stopping.  Fortunately for The Sitch, Sara sent us the songs she can’t stop listening to for this month’s Mixtape…

ARTIST:  Nina Simone
TRACK:  Be My Husband 
ALBUM:  Pastel Blues

‘I came across this song recently and I can’t get enough of it. Nina holds the grove, the movement and gut of the song in her claps and voice. When a performer can contain both of those aspects all in their self, it can be very compelling. And Nina Simone is certainly compelling here.’

 

ARTIST:  Shara Worden
TRACK:  We Added It Up
ALBUM:  All Things Will Unwind

‘I saw Shara perform in New York for the first time a couple years ago.  She only sang one song that night, but I was really excited by her charged right out that night with the band The Decemberists. She is a smart and playful composer and arranger.  I’m very glad she does what she does. It is inspiring to me.’

 

ARTIST:  Fleetwood Mac
TRACK:  What Makes You think You’re the One
ALBUM:  Tusk

‘I listened to this song everyday for a month while working on a record.  I had never heard that sort of bombastic drumming before. Unpredictable, each hit on the drum kit sounds more like an uncontrollable reflex than a part with any sort of forethought.  I took this sort of drumming to heart when making this new record.’

 

ARTIST:  Bobby Hicks
TRACK:  Maiden’s Prayer

‘I love this waltz.  My friend Jenny Anne played it at my wedding when I danced with my dad.  Nobody plays this beautiful melody like Bobby Hicks.  Nobody.’