Tag: wanda jackson

Celebrating Black History Month: Big Al Downing, Yola, Elizabeth Cotten, and More

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

To celebrate Black History Month – and the vital contributions of Black, Afro-, and African American artists and musicians to American roots music – BGS, Good Country, and our friends at Real Roots Radio in southwestern Ohio have partnered once again. This time, we’ll be bringing you weekly collections of a variety of Black roots musicians who have been featured on Real Roots Radio’s airwaves. You can listen to Real Roots Radio online 24/7 or via their FREE app for smartphones or tablets. If you’re based in Ohio, tune in via 100.3 (Xenia, Dayton, Springfield), 106.7 (Wilmington), or 105.5 (Eaton).

American roots music – in any of its many forms – wouldn’t exist today without the culture, stories, skills, and experiences of Black folks. Each week throughout February, we’ll spotlight this simple yet profound fact by diving into the catalogs and careers of some of the most important figures in our genres. To kick us off, RRR host Daniel Mullins shares songs and stories of Big Al Downing, Yola, Cleve Francis, Charley Crockett, Elizabeth Cotten, Dom Flemons, and Lead Belly.

We’ll return each Friday through the end of the month to bring you even more music celebrating Black History and the songs and sounds we all hold dear. Plus, you can find a full playlist with more than 100 songs below from dozens and dozens of seminal artists, performers, songwriters, and instrumentalists from every corner of folk, country, bluegrass, old-time, blues, and beyond.

Black history is American roots music history; the two are inseparable. As we celebrate Black History Month and its legacy, we hope you’ll join us in holding up and appreciating the artists who make country, bluegrass, blues, folk, and Americana the incredible and impactful genres that they are today.

Big Al Downing (1940 – 2005)

Big Al Downing was an engaging entertainer whose winding career included forays into many genres, including country music. An Oklahoma boy, Downing played piano on Wanda Jackson’s signature rockabilly hit, “Let’s Have A Party,” before pursuing a solo career, finding some mainstream success, dabbling in R&B, and even scoring a Number 1 disco hit, “I’ll Be Holding On.”

However, Downing made history in country as one of the earliest Black artists to find success in the genre. Beginning in the late ’70s, he would have a string of fifteen singles hit the Billboard country charts over the next decade, three of which reached the Top 20. He was nominated by the Academy of Country Music for their Top New Male Vocalist award in 1980. Big Al would be a frequent guest on the Grand Ole Opry, Hee Haw, Nashville Now, and more.

Downing’s soulful singing on hardcore country songs like “Bring It On Home” and “Touch Me (I’ll Be Your Fool Once More)” endeared him to fans, while his story song “Mr. Jones” has remained beloved by country enthusiasts. His career spanned five different decades of country, rockabilly, and more, remaining active in the country music world until shortly before his passing in 2005 after a brief battle with leukemia. Downing is a member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame and Rockabilly Music Hall of Fame, and his legacy is still remembered by longtime fans of country music.

Suggested Listening:
“Mister Jones”
“Touch Me (I’ll Be Your Fool Once More)”

Yola (b. 1983)

Yola is a soul, country, and roots powerhouse! Born in the United Kingdom, Yola’s voice is a force of nature – rich, soulful, and packed with emotion. She started as a songwriter and backing vocalist before stepping into the spotlight with her 2019 debut album, the GRAMMY-nominated Walk Through Fire! Featuring contributions from Vince Gill, Molly Tuttle, Charlie McCoy, Ronnie McCoury, and more, the project was produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, and quickly endeared her to roots music lovers everywhere. She even appeared as a guest vocalist with all-star group The Highwomen.

With her unique blend of country, rock, and soul, Yola shatters boundaries. In 2021, she dropped Stand for Myself, an album full of bold, genre-blending anthems that brought her more GRAMMY noms. She has even dabbled in acting as of late, appearing on Broadway in Hadestown and playing Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the hit blockbuster Elvis. Do yourself a favor and check out this bon a fide star in roots music.

Suggested Listening:
“Whatever You Want”
“Hold On” (featuring Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile, & Natalie Hemby)

Cleve Francis (b. 1945)

Do you remember Cleve Francis? He grew up listening to Hank Williams in Louisiana as a child before making his first guitar out of window screen wire and a King Edwards Cigar Box on his way to becoming an inspiring country artist. Cleve isn’t just a singer – but he’s a songwriter, a dreamer, and a doctor? That’s right, before he hit the stage, Cleve was saving lives.

Dr. Cleve Francis was a practicing cardiologist before he pursued his passion for country music full-time in the late ’80s. Cleve brought a fresh voice to the genre in the 1990s with his smooth voice and heartfelt lyrics that resonated with country fans, resulting in four singles on the Billboard country charts. Cleve’s style of country earned him appearances on major stages like the Grand Ole Opry, The Today Show, and more.

Though he eventually returned to medicine, Francis left an enduring legacy, inspiring many Black country artists who have followed in his wake. He was instrumental in the curation of the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum’s “From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music” exhibit while also helping found the Black Country Music Association in the mid ’90s.

In 2021, he was recognized with a Black Opry Icon Award, and his album Walkin’ is on display at the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington D.C., where he could still been seen frequently performing at the legendary Birchmere music club until his retirement in 2021.

Suggested Listening:
“Love Light”
“You Do My Heart Good”

Charley Crockett (b. 1984)

One of the most authentic voices in modern American roots music, Charley Crockett has a story that sounds borderline mythical. A descendant of Davy Crockett who grew up in Texas, Crockett spent his early years busking on street corners from New Orleans to Dallas to New York, learning the art of storytelling from life itself. His travels took him to California, Paris, Spain, and Morocco before returning to Texas and releasing his debut album in 2015. Crockett’s recording output has been impressive, frequently releasing multiple albums a year and balancing his records with heartfelt originals and a deep catalog traditional songs from the likes of Tom T. Hall, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck and more.

The common denominator is Charley – his voice carries a raw, timeless quality that cuts straight to the heart. Now performing at the Ryman Auditorium and on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Charley’s rise hasn’t gone unnoticed. He’s earned critical acclaim and has racked up accolades from the American Music Association and a GRAMMY nomination. With black, Cajun, Creole and Jewish heritage, Crockett’s unique take on country and American roots music is sure to speak to music lovers everywhere for years to come.

Suggested Listening:
“Jukebox Charley”
“$10 Cowboy”

Elizabeth Cotten (1893 – 1987)

An underappreciated hero of American folk and blues, Elizabeth Cotten was born in 1893 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Growing up in a musical family, by the time she was 7 Elizabeth taught herself to play guitar left-handed. She flipped the guitar upside down, creating her own unique picking style, now known as “Cotten picking,” which featured alternating bass notes played with her fingers while her thumb played the melody.

Elizabeth wrote her iconic song, “Freight Train,” when she was just 12 years old. This classic has been recorded by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Tommy Emmanuel, Doc Watson, and dozens more artists across multiple genres. But her music remained largely unheard for decades as she spent much of her life working as a domestic housekeeper. It wasn’t until she reached her 60s, while working for the Seeger family – yes, that Seeger family – that her incredible talent received a proper platform. Working for a family that loved and appreciated music inspired Elizabeth to resume playing. With the Seegers’ encouragement, Elizabeth recorded her first album, Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar, in 1958, recorded at home by Mike Seeger, a member of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.

Cotten went on to perform at major festivals thanks to the folk revival, w0n a GRAMMY at age 90, and inspired countless musicians before passing away in Syracuse, New York at the age of 94. Elizabeth Cotten was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Suggested Listening:
“Shake Sugaree” [Live]
“Oh Babe, It Ain’t No Lie”

Dom Flemons (b. 1982)

Let’s shine a spotlight on a modern-day troubadour, the Grammy-winning musician, historian, and storyteller Dom Flemons, The American Songster. An avid folk music fan, Flemons was a busker in his home state of Arizona before moving cross country to North Carolina to help found the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a band that revived the nearly forgotten legacy of Black string band music.

Flemons has been a successful solo artist for the last decade-plus. He is a master of multiple instruments – banjo, bones, guitar, harmonica – you name it! His music blends old-time, folk, blues, jazz, and country, tracing the deep roots of African American contributions to American music. From the Grand Ole Opry to Carnegie Hall, Flemons brings history to life with every note.

His 2018 album, Black Cowboys, uncovered the often overlooked stories of African American pioneers in the West, earning critical acclaim and a GRAMMY nomination. Today, whether performing solo or collaborating with legends like Taj Mahal, Sam Bush, and Rhiannon Giddens, Flemons keeps the rich traditions of American roots music alive. In addition to educating audiences about the origins of roots music, Flemons creates great original music as well, truly embodying his moniker.

As The Boston Globe said, “most folk artists go by ‘singer-songwriter’ or simply ‘musician.’ But ‘American Songster’ speaks to a greater truth about the work Flemons, a multi-instrumentalist, has accomplished.” We couldn’t agree more.

Suggested Listening:
“Steel Pony Blues”
“Nobody Wrote It Down”

Lead Belly (1888 – 1949)

He was a man of legend, his voice as powerful as the chains that once bound him. Born Huddie Ledbetter in 1888, the world knows him as Lead Belly. Imprisoned and pardoned multiple times, Lead Belly carried his music from the prison yards of Louisiana to the streets of New York City.

Legend has it that his musical gift led to his release. His background makes his prison, chain gang, and work songs even more haunting, including “Midnight Special.” His original song, “Goodnight Irene,” has been recorded more than two hundred times, including versions by Ernest Tubb & Red Foley, Moon Mullican, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Reed, and Johnny Cash. It is viewed as a verified country standard.

“Duncan and Brady,” “In the Pines,” “Cotton Fields” – his songs told stories of hardship, freedom, and the American experience. Lead Belly’s music shaped folk, blues, rock, and country inspiring legends like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash, The Johnson Mountain Boys, and Nirvana.

Lead Belly died in 1949, but his music lives on. His voice still echoes in every blues riff and folk song today. Lead Belly was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

Suggested Listening:
“Black Girl (In The Pines)”
“Irene (Goodnight Irene)”

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Photo Credit: Big Al Downing via Team Entertainment Records; Elizabeth Cotten via Smithsonian Folkways Recordings; Yola by Valeria Rios.

Country Pickers, Center Stage

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

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Double-, triple-, quadruple-threats are not uncommon in country music, not in the least. It’s a frequent occurrence, tripping over or into a country artist that’s a songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, writer, thinker, and so much more. In fact, until more recent decades, wearing many hats was seen as a sort of prerequisite to making hillbilly music. After all, this is “just” country music, it’s got a wide and deep DIY tradition, and the folks who make it often have to also load in the gear, sell the merch, post on social media, and produce the albums, play the demos and scratch tracks, write the lyrics, and otherwise steer the creative ship.

Some of the most successful artists and most original voices in country music are perfect examples of how multifaceted skill sets translate directly to star power. You may not need to be a Telecaster shredder to make it onto the radio or you may not need to be able to pick like Mother Maybelle to make a living, but if you can back up your songs with mighty playing, it certainly translates with audiences.

From Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, and Wanda Jackson to Charlie Daniels, Willie Nelson, and Bonnie Raitt, here are just a few legendary examples of hugely successful country artists who are or were excellent musicians and instrumentalists, too.

Chet Atkins

A record company executive, producer, and pioneer of the “Nashville Sound,” Chet Atkins was also a one-of-a-kind guitar picker, renowned across the globe for his unique style – which was inspired by Merle Travis. Atkins certainly made “Travis picking” his own, arguably eclipsing all of his predecessors and continuing to influence guitarists today. An inductee of the Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Musicians’ Halls of Fame, Atkins’ impact is hard to understate and his resume includes work with Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Hank Snow, Waylon Jennings, and countless others.

DeFord Bailey

One of the first superstars of the Grand Ole Opry, DeFord Bailey was a world-class harmonica player who was also the first Black performer on WSM’s fabled stage. Some sources also credit Bailey as being the first musician to record music in Nashville. However you approach his career and music, Bailey was a seismic presence in the earliest days of country. Born in 1899, Bailey faced constant racism, bigotry, and marginalization on the Opry, in Nashville, and as he traveled and performed. He passed away in 1982 and was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

Glen Campbell

Even at the highest heights of Glen Campbell’s superstardom, he refused to let his superlative instrumental skill take a backseat to his roles as frontman, songwriter, Hollywood actor, TV star, and tabloid veteran. Campbell’s approach to country music as a true multi-hyphenate celebrity bridged generations, connecting the hardscrabble, DIY generations where multiple skills were necessary to make a living to the modern era, where he helped pave a way for famously multi-talented picker/singer/writers like Vince Gill and Brad Paisley to not be pigeonholed as one thing or the other.

Ray Charles

Any conversation around or collection of superlative country pickers and musicians would be glaringly incomplete without the inclusion of Ray Charles. His incursions and experimentations in country music are many and infamous. His 1962 album, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is routinely listed as one of the best country albums of all time. He’s worked with and performed with Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ricky Skaggs, Travis Tritt, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, and many, many more. Plus, his country forays demonstrate a deep, holistic understanding of the genre. Charles is a quintessential country multi-hyphenate and country-soul in the modern era would feel especially lacking without his seminal contributions to that tradition.

Charlie Daniels

It’s hard not to wonder what young, hippie, “long-haired,” Vietnam War-opposing fiddler Charlie Daniels would have thought of his older self, and his more harebrained and often hateful beliefs later in life. But the controversial and outspoken musician, at all points of his career, was a picker’s picker. Over the course of his life he performed and recorded with Earl Scruggs, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and many more. But his chief contribution to American roots music may just be his fiery, unhinged fiddling on “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Just wander down Lower Broadway in Nashville on any given Saturday night to feel the impact of that particular show-stopper. In this clip, he chats and performs “Uncle Pen” with Scruggs and Del McCoury.

Vince Gill

That buttery voice, that stank-face inducing chicken pickin’, that high, lonesome sound – Vince Gill is all at once country and bluegrass, Nashville and Oklahoma, western swing and old-time fiddle. Whether with The Eagles, preeminent pedal steel guitarist Paul Franklin, the Time Jumpers, or so many other outfits, bands, and iterations, Gill is simply right at home. Because, at his core, he’s just a picker. He may play arenas, but he knows he belongs at 3rd & Lindsley or the Station Inn. Or Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman. A quintessential picker-singer-frontman, Gill continues to define the myriad ways country stars can maintain their selfhood and personality – instrumentally and otherwise – even in their wild successes.

Merle Haggard

Speaking of chicken pickin’, country’s most famous Okie was a shredder, too. A sad song, a glass of (misery and) gin, a Telecaster, and the Hag – that’s all we need, right there. Merle’s playing style, even at its most technical and impressive, was simple and down to earth. You could tell he cut his teeth playing bars, fairs, and honky tonks. You could almost hear him pulling himself up by his bootstraps as he played.

Wanda Jackson

The Queen of Rockabilly has been slaying rock and roll, hillbilly music, and the guitar for more than seventy years. In 2021 she released her final album, Encore, when she was 84 years old. It features her signature passion and fire – and performances by Elle King, Joan Jett, Angaleena Presley, and more. Jackson has been representing the vital contributions of women to rockabilly and rock and roll for her entire career, just as often commanding the stage with her growly, entrancing voice and her powerful right hand.

Willie Nelson

Who would Willie Nelson be without Trigger? Without a tasty, less-is-more, nylon-string guitar solo? For decades, Nashville, Music Row, and guitar players around the world have been emulating his particular sound as a guitarist – whether they know it or not. Sure, he’s a hit songwriter, a star and front-person, a collaborator of Snoop Dogg and Frank Sinatra, and a connoisseur of fine bud, but perhaps more than all of these accomplishments, Willie is an impeccable picker. He can hold his own with the best of the best, because he is the best of the best.

Brad Paisley

Brad Paisley’s fame crested at perhaps the perfect time for him in country music, combining a rip-roarin’ guitar playing style with a sound that was entirely trad while carrying touches of the bro country wave that was about to inundate the genre. As such, he was able to build a career on the diversity of his skill set, before Music Row and the power behind it began prioritizing music that didn’t need to be musical and voices that didn’t need to be singular. Luckily, Paisley is both those things and more, and despite the many eyebrow raising moments across his career, our faces more often show shock at his mind-bending skill as a guitarist than anything else.

Dolly Parton

How is it that Dolly Parton can play so many instruments so impeccably with those iconic acrylic nails!? Nowadays, you are just as likely to hear Dolly performing to a track – yes, she does lip sync and pantomime playing along with recordings – but don’t get it twisted, she absolutely can play a passel of instruments from her beloved “mountain music” traditions. She plays guitar, banjo, auto-harp, dulcimer, and has even been known to pick up a bedazzled saxophone from time to time – though we can’t guarantee she actually knows how to play that one, we’re still blown away.

And what about thatone viral video with Patti LaBellewhere they play their acrylics like washboards? Dolly can make music with just about any instrument.

Bonnie Raitt

How many people do you think enjoy Bonnie Raitt’s soulful blues and Southern rock sounds without knowing she’s also often the one playing the guitar solos and making that bottleneck slide weep? Raitt is a Grammy winning songwriter, a fantastic vocalist and song interpreter/collector, and – above all, in this writer’s opinion – a superb guitar picker, especially playing slide. She can hold her own with just about anyone, and she has. Her phrasing and use of melodic space demonstrates that she’s been honing her craft for her entire life. That taste can’t be taught, it has to be found. Boy, has she found it.

Marty Stuart

Marty Stuart’s long, fabulous, superlative career began with him filling the role of sideman for such luminaries as Lester Flatt, Johnny Cash, Vassar Clements, and Doc Watson. He plays guitar and mandolin, working up his chops as a youngster with pickers like Roland White as his mentors. When his solo career took off after his Columbia debut in the mid-eighties, his ear for fine picking remained present throughout his music – however far afield from those early bluegrass and country days he may have traveled, stylistically. Whether bringing in psychedelic surf sounds or Indigenous flavors of the American West, Stuart’s catalog of music centers virtuosity that’s never gratuitous. And his band, the Fabulous Superlatives, featuring crack guitarist Kenny Vaughan and multi-instrumentalist Chris Scruggs, represent a high level of picking prowess, too.

Tedeschi Trucks Band

By many measures, Derek Trucks is the world’s foremost living slide guitarist, but don’t overlook powerhouse vocalist and co-band leader, Susan Tedeschi in order to venerate Trucks! Both started playing as youngsters – Trucks when he was a kid and Tedeschi when she attended Berklee College of Music. These two are guitar and blues royalty, helming one of the most impactful modern blues and Southern rock orchestras on the planet. They’re consummate musicians, knowing just how to surround themselves by players who support and challenge, both. Even with their laundry list of personal accomplishments, together, Tedeschi & Trucks – who are also married – are so much greater than the sum of their parts.

Keith Urban

Keith Urban brings a scruffy, down to earth guitar playing style to his polished and glam mainstream country sound. Yes, even as far away as Australia, having instrumental chops means having country currency. When he moved to Nashville in the early ‘90s, with a few Australian radio hits and awards under his belt, he immediately found work as a side musician and co-writer in Music City. It wasn’t long until his star ascended stateside, too – and then, as quickly, around the world – bolstered by arena-ready guitar. Now readying his first album since 2020, Urban shows no signs of slowing down, with the music or the picking!

Photo of Glen Campbell courtesy of the artist.

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The Simplicity of a Song: A Conversation with Kelly Willis

Posted on by Editor

Kelly Willis almost gave it up 20 years ago. After being dropped by not one but two major labels, the Lone Star singer/songwriter wondered if there was room for her in country music. “It was a huge struggle,” she says today. “I just didn’t know if there was a place for me. I wasn’t going to stop making music, but I didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep making records.”

Fortunately, Willis broke through on 1999’s What I Deserve, an album of dusty, sturdy country tunes that introduced her sharply broken-hearted voice to a wide audience and allowed her to settle into the industry on her own terms. Her story is proof that artists can still thrive professionally well outside the mainstream, and her longevity is almost as impressive as the music she makes, both as a solo artist and as a duets partner with her husband, Bruce Robison.

Back Being Blue is Willis’s first album in more than a decade, and even its title announces a return to what she does best: singing low and lonely country tunes that signal a deep understanding of country music without sounding beholden to any one particular trend or tradition. The title track is a languid third-wheel lament with a breezy country-funk rhythm section. “I’m a Lover Not a Fighter” is an energetic Texas swing cover of the Skeeter Davis hit. “Modern World” sets an elastic pop groove loose in a middle-of-nowhere roadhouse. “Freewheeling” is a spare countrypolitan weeper that she describes as the most personal song on the record.

Produced by Robison and recorded in his rural Texas studio (“I was driving out there one morning and almost hit a huge hog in the middle of the road!”), Back Being Blue sounds like a survey of the influences that have informed each one of her albums, from swing to twang to punk. Uniting these diverse sounds is a voice that conveys dignified heartache as its default setting.

This is your first solo record in 12 years. What inspired you to make a return?

I was having a lot of fun making records with Bruce, and that was taking up all my time and energy. I tried to force myself to get into the studio a few times over the years, but it really felt forced. Honestly, I think what happened was that I wrote that song, “Back Being Blue,” and when I finished it, I felt like there was a shift in my world: “Oh, okay, now I know what I’ doing.” The ball just got rolling. I had something I wanted to say. I had motivation. All it took was a little light bulb going off.

What about that song opened things up for you?

There was a simplicity about it. I’d been trying to write some really impressive songs — deep, meaningful, complicated songs — and none of them were coming together. Then this one came along, and it sounded so simple. It reminded me of the songs I was listening to when I was first getting into music — something from the ‘50s or ‘60s, like Buddy Holly or someone. It just had this vibe that got me excited to write more in that vein. It did open things up, because it gave me some ideas for the choices you make, when you’re writing a song. I could do that. “Okay, let’s simplify.” Or, “Let’s do an old-time country sound.” When you have some direction, it helps you make those decisions.

One of the things I was trying to do was get more universal and less specific about the details of my experience. They’re based in my experience, of course, but I wanted to broaden it and take out the little details. A song like “Freewheeling” is more personal. But they’re all personal, right? It’s all about heartbreak and love, and you draw on your own memory of that, when you’re writing and singing. And that’s what I love about country music. I love being able to sit at a bar with a beer and listen to the jukebox and hear a song that speaks to you. It makes you feel so much better to hear somebody express your own feelings. You feel like you’re not alone.

Did you know at the time that you were writing for a solo album? Or did you think these songs might end up on a duets album?

It was always going to be a solo album. It was time for that. Bruce and I always knew that we were not closing any doors, when we decided to play together; we were just opening more doors. So we were fully aware that we would go back to making solo records again. It just felt like the right time. He made one a year ago, and then I finally got it together to make mine. I wanted to have a record with a purpose and a point. I got lucky with that. I like a deadline, and maybe the deadline helped.

Did you give yourself a deadline, or was one imposed on you?

Bruce and I have to take turns with this stuff, due to our family schedule. It was really the most opportune time for me to make it happen, and it made sense to have it out before the summer, because that’s the best time for me to tour. If you back up from there, you know you have to get it done by this point, which helps me get started writing and recording and seeing what I’ve missed and what I still need to do.

I really thought I wouldn’t make this record with Bruce. I thought we would benefit from having a breaking in all the problem-solving that we have to do together, either raising a family or being in a band together. It seemed like a good chance to do something different and to miss each other. But he was so encouraging about the songs I was writing, and he really got what I envisioned. He would suggest that I work on that song some more or maybe do something with the tempo on this song. I shared with him this playlist of songs that were inspiring me, and he was like, “Oh, there’s a specific reverb on all of these.” He was a great partner, and it made sense to do this together. The conversation was easy. It felt like a no-brainer.

Did you look into other options for producing or recording?

I definitely thought about it. I had a list of names to consider, but I didn’t want to have a big-name producer just to have a big-name producer. And I know myself: I know I’ll lose confidence in what I want to do. If I’m around someone who has a style of their own, I’ll just say, “Your style is great, so let’s just do that,” rather than sticking with whatever weird, quirky thing I wanted to do. Since I hadn’t made a record in a long time, I wanted to stay true to my little artistic expression. Half the fun, for me, was figuring that out and trying to create a unique sound. I thought about a lot of different things, but this felt like the right way to go.

You mentioned a playlist. Who all was on there?

I had some Nick Lowe and some Marshall Crenshaw, the Louvin Brothers, and Skeeter Davis. I think we managed to represent all of my inspirations on there, and it’s stuff that has contributed to the music I’ve made over the years. I was thinking about when I first moved to Austin and started making music, when I was in a rockabilly band and people were really starting to experiment with blending country and punk. First it was called cowpunk, and then I don’t know all the different names it had. I just knew I wanted to look at some of my favorite music that really made me want to make music myself.

What did you learn revisiting some of that music? Did you hear it differently so many years later?

I probably listen to that stuff frequently enough that it didn’t feel like something I was going back to. But when you’re listening to figure it out, you think of it in a different context. It was fun to hear what people were doing with reverb, especially some of those country artists in the ‘60s. That reverb is so cool. We tried to do some of that, but it didn’t work in this modern context. It was fun to revisit Skeeter Davis and think back on my first foray into being in a band.

I was a huge rockabilly fan, so Wanda Jackson and those artists were heroes to me. I felt like I could hear the evolution of my own singing. When I first started singing, I would just copy those people, but I would lose my voice trying to belt like them. It can be embarrassing, but that’s an important part of the process and, eventually, you do find your own voice.

You signed with a major label and released three albums in the early 1990s. Did that disappointing experience affect your relationship to that material? Do you hear those songs differently now?

Some of them I do. I’ve had my favorites that I’ve clung to over the years. Although, at this point, I’ve done so many records that I can’t do more than one song from some of those older ones. And there are only a handful of people in the crowd who go all the way back to the first albums. A lot of people first heard of me when I did What I Deserve, so they might not be familiar with my three MCA records. I always like to do “I Don’t Want to Love You” and “River of Love” from [1990’s] Well Traveled Love. And I do “Hidden Things” from [1991’s] Bang Bang. I try to stay familiar with those records so that, if somebody calls out a song from one of them, we can play it. It’s a little tricky, but I’m proud of that material.

When I made those records, I remember distinctly thinking I was always in the opposite of whatever the prevailing trend was. When I wanted to do Fender guitars, everybody else was doing fiddles. When I brought fiddles back in, they were doing Fender guitars. It seemed like I was out of step with whatever was happening at the moment. But I was at least staying true to my vision.

The first time I heard you was on your cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Rex’s Blues,” off the Red Hot & Country compilation. How did you that come about?

That was a really cool turning point for me. I had been dropped from my MCA deal, and I was trying to start over. I thought I needed to be at a label that would look at me like I have no history whatsoever and just let me create whatever it is I wanted to create without them trying to decide who I am. I was signed to A&M and released an EP, even though I never released a full-length album.

At the time, the Red Hot & Blue people asked Jay Farrar to do a song for that album. At first, they wanted it to be all duets, and they asked him who he wanted to sing with. He picked me. It was a wonderful experience to make music with him and be part of that project, and it really opened people’s ears to me. It made people look at me differently, I think: “Oh, if Jay Farrar wants to sing with her, then maybe there’s more there than we thought.”

After having so much trouble with labels, did you ever think about quitting?

When I got the chance to make What I Deserve [in 1999], I really thought that it was going to be the last record I would get to make. I was only 19 or 20, when I got signed to my Nashville deal, and I had made these three records that were not what they wanted. It was a huge struggle, in that regard. I just didn’t know if there was a place for me after that. I wasn’t going to stop making music, but I didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep making records. Luckily, What I Deserve ended up being the most well-received record I’ve made, and it gave me a fresh start.

And now it seems like you’ve carved out this very particular niche for yourself in the country music community.

I hope so. Don’t quit. Don’t stop. Just keep going. A lot of my favorite musicians just keep going, and what they’re contributing is really worthwhile and valuable. I’m grateful that they’re still doing it. I think I was lucky that I made my entrance when I did, because I got this national exposure with MCA and a kind of platform that other artists these days aren’t given. These days, labels aren’t investing in young artists. They’re not grooming them or giving them time to grow. I was lucky to get to do that.

And I live in Texas, where there’s a great music community throughout the state. You can play and play, and people always come out. I think it has something to do with the dancehall culture, which was such a community experience. Everybody went out to dancehalls and took their families, and that became part of the culture here. Whatever the reason, I feel lucky to be here.

Photo credit: George Brainard