BluesAmericana 1

BLUESAMERICANA is an attempt to cover the seemingly natural cross-over genres of both Blues music and modern Americana. As Nashville continues to forge ahead with its Americana base and recording strength, Blues music, often viewed through either a Mississippi, Deep South or Chicago prism, is also finding a way to expand into the Nashville-end of the business.

As Editor of leading UK print title, Blues Matters, I find myself frequently talking to major blues figures and also many of those Americana guys who see no boundaries in the music; some have now made themselves Nashville residents because of the opportunities Music City genuinely offers.

After years writing about the music that I love for titles, online & print across three continents, maybe time I just also had a blog with some of the stuff I normally do. I'll add to this each time I have a new interview or feature that might work.

Lucinda Williams is a long-time personal favourite, a lady with a drawling voice, stunning song-writing talent and always interesting delivery. A three-time Grammy winner - so far - her latest album is simply wonderful. I was fortunate enough to hook-up with her by phone at her new home in Nashville recently. Here's the result of our laughing conversation:

Lucinda Williams may be in self-imposed lockdown but her spirit remains wild, free, raucous and rebellious.  Thankfully, most would say. Catching up with Williams at home on the eve of the release of her 14^th studio album, ‘Good Souls, Better Angels’, she throatily laughs and is clearly having a ball, despite the self-imposed confinement that Covid-19 has brought to the global musical fraternity.

After around forty years in the business, Williams is little short of being a true US national treasure, a musician who unceasingly holds the power to surprise, inspire and delight with each passing year. Indeed, in recent years her albums have truly grown in importance and strength, never slowing or slipping quietly form attention. With each new release, she seems to carve out yet another unexpected slice of extraordinary emotion and power. Both previous releases, ‘Down Where The Spirit meets The Bone’ (2014) and ‘Ghosts of Highway 20,’ (2016) were delivered on her own label and set the tone for her continued visceral view of life, love and pretty much everything in between. “Good Souls, Better Angels’ is another offering that continues that trajectory with absolute assurance and raw emotion at its howling heart but is released by Nashville’s leading Thirty Tigers label.

In some ways Williams blurs musical edges with every new offering – post-punk blues and Americana merge with disturbing imagery and fearless honesty giving her work a truly unique vibe and essential commanding significance. With three Grammys already in the bag and accolades that most would virtually kill for, Williams is never one to sit back on her lauded laurels but instead pushes on always working the road – and with her strident lyricism now complimented by her husband and manager, Tom Overby’s input and production help. Her trusted road-band, guitarist Stuart Mathis, bassist David Sutton and drummer Butch Norton, all add their assured flourishes to the new album which Williams describes as being: “Really pretty stripped-down. Ray’s studio has cool, old equipment and we’d been working on the road touring the 20^th anniversary of ‘Car Wheels On A Gravel Road,’ which Ray originally produced back in 1998, so when we got into the studio again it all came together in about two weeks. It felt like we were all on fire.”

So, I ask, is this lockdown hurting, preventing promotion of the new album and the usual necessary support tour-work? Williams thinks not: “Well in reality I’m here at home doing interviews, speaking to lots of journalists about it all, so maybe that’s even better! I’m doing a lot of press and that’s filling up time. I’m taking it one day at a time. I have downtime. Last year I was out on the road so much, so this does give me that downtime.”

 And maybe, after it’s all over, after who knows how many months indoors with your husband and manager, and you’re free to hit the road again, divorce might be on the cards, I quip. Williams howls with laughter: “You’re a real funny guy,” she says.

Of course one of the wonderful things about Williams is the sheer impossibility, not to say pointlessness, of trying to categorise her music, or slip her into a musical box. Genres simply and genuinely dissolve when Williams, with her genre-stripping vocal delivery, roars round the next musical corner: Americana, country, rock and blues – all have their place, all tell a story, and all are included in her unbridled passion and power. This is a lady with stories to tell and a voice that soars above such pointless exercises. When I suggest this latest release marks something of a departure from her usual fare, Williams laughs and heartily agrees: “Yea, well I’m really happy with how it turned out. I went into the studio with much more than we recorded here. So I’ve some songs that are ready and will make it to the next album.  They’re not all like these,” she explains, hinting at the darker nature of some featured on ‘Good Souls, Better Angels,’ songs that don’t just scrape at the surface of difficult themes but deeply slice into and expose them mercilessly.

The current incumbent of Pennsylvania Avenue takes a hammering; and Williams own, alarming personal domestic violence experiences are reflected in the lyrics too. When I express my horror at the domestic violence issues featured, Williams is frank and forthright: “It was me once. I found myself in that place, in one of those relationships. He’d drink whisky and become a sort of Jekyll and Hyde character. There’d be this change in his personality, really terrible. It was as if he didn’t know who I was! I’ve written about him before, my songs ‘Jailhouse Jesus’ and Buttercup’ are both about that time, about him too. I was kinda nervous about including the song on the new album at first. We were in the studio cutting it and a real big, famous rock-star was there listening. He said he didn’t think I should include it. Maybe better to put it out as a ‘B’ side to a single, but not as an album track. I had a doubt in my own mind. But the others there were really supportive, so I put it on the album.”

Turning back to the album and its different feel from much of her previous output, Williams agrees: “We went into the studio with my road band. Usually I bring in others, musicians and singers, and I sort of harmonise along with them. But we ll talked about it, and didn’t do that this time. I think it really adds something to it all. I had a listening party in New York City and Jesse Malin told me the album had a sound, it was a cross between Howling Wolf and Iggy Pop. I loved that. It was exactly what I wanted, what I was aiming at,” she laughs again.

The entire production was ‘organic’ she confirms, never strictly or purposely planned: “I had an organic perspective for this one. I was in the studio again with Ray Kennedy – we worked together on ‘Car Wheels’ (on a Gravel Road). So I feel I’ve come full circle here with this one. Ray has this Nashville studio. I was asked to go along, check it out. And it was just right to cut something there. Although, originally, it was never the plan to record another whole album with Ray at the time. But when I got there into the studio, it was obvious right away. And with Ray engineering again, it just had that sound. He just knows what I’m looking for.”

Williams is pleased when I mention the raw, blues feel and vibe that is evident with the new release, and she confirms a love for that rough-edged, raw Delta sound, an admiration for blues legend, Robert Johnson, that has bubbled its way to the surface here: “I’ve always loved the imagery in Robert Johnson’s songs.  Those really dark Delta blues are sort of biblical. I was inspired by Leonard Cohen – he dealt with that in his songs – and Bob Dylan and Nick Cave. The Devil comes into play quite a bit on this album,” she quips. 

Parting company, I tell Williams we once met briefly at Scotland’s wonderful Celtic Connections Festival a few years ago. She appears to ponder the thought before chuckling and saying that she remembers the gig, had a great time back then in Glasgow, and she hopes our paths will cross again sometime soon: “I hope we meet up again, come and say hello, wherever, or maybe whenever, that might turn out to be!”

Lucinda is clearly one of those who successfully crosses musical divides with ease and consistency.

Another old favourite, always a pleasure to hook-up with is US acoustic blues giant, Rory Block, a lady who has met and played with so many of the true seminal giants of the genre. Recently I spoke to Rory again about her latest recording project:

Rory Block is a US acoustic blues great. Now in her sixties, Block has been travelling the world, toting her guitar, picking the blues and always with her trademark slide to hand for more years than even she wants to remember. We managed to squeeze in some time with her in the middle of a hectic US tour schedule with a new album on Canadian label Stony Plain, ‘Prove It On Me,’ about to hit the streets.

In recent years Block has turned out a series of truly inspired albums, themed around the great traditional blues players that inspired, influenced and impressed her as a youngster and as a performer. Artists covered included the likes of Bukka White, Mississipppi John Hurt, Skip James, Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi Fred McDowell and Son House, many guys she herself met and players she considered as mentors.

Now, a few years on, she has moved from the ‘Mentor’ series of remarkable recordings to the latest project, the Power Women of Blues series. Block’s debut release in the series featured the music and work of Bessie Smith, an album that picked up positively rave reviews generally. The second in the run, ‘Prove It On Me,’ highlights many lesser-known blues women but is equally likely to wow the blues-loving public. This is music from artists like Arizona Dranes, Elvie Thomas, Helen Humes and peppered with a few revered blues names including Ma Rainey and Memphis Minnie.

So, where did the stimulus, the concept for the new series come from, I ask, and where did she find these largely overlooked ladies:: “When I did my Mentor series, it was based on six males, all guys I’d known and met. Just the way it was. But I knew there were all these great women out there too. So I thought I must do this new series of power women in blues. The first, Bessie Smith, was a certainty, a no-brainer to ignore. Then when it came to the next, ‘Prove It On Me,’ I was interested in the unknowns, and there are just so many of them. An old buddy, guitar builder and blues singer Marc Silber, in California, said I should check out Arizona Dranes. ‘Who? I said.’ I’d never heard of her. But with YouTube these days it’s possible to find so much and there she was. I loved it. So I began researching, looking and studying these other players. I actually found one that blew me away but I didn’t take a note of her name thinking I’d find her again. But when I went back, despite trying so many times, I’ve not found her yet!”

Asked why she thinks these women were ignored and overlooked by the resurgence of interest in blues back in the 1960s in the USA, Rory is quick to explain the conundrum: “With women back in the 20s and 30s, it was a different world. It was difficult, maybe even near-impossible for them to just go out on the road. They couldn’t jump a freight-train and turn up to play at a Juke Joint without being criticized and labeled as some kind of low-down woman back then. It was a big issue. Sure, a few did go out and take it on…Bessie Smith, Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey… they made it in their own way. But it was no easy choice if, say, they had a home, a family and kids. I was lucky when I started out in New York. I met all these great blues players who were being rediscovered. John Hurt – a real sweetie, one of the nicest people I ever met – Fred McDowell – he used a little, single knuckle slide - Reverend Gary Davis - some spend their whole lives trying to play like him - Bukka White, Skip James, Son House - he was always quiet and shy. But at that time it was all males. So this series is a statement of love to those great women of blues.”

But with so many true greats of acoustic blues music already in her personal mix, who does she think is, or was, the greatest? Without a second’s hesitation, Rory fires back: “Robert Johnson is top of the mountain! There are lots of other styles but Johnson was in a league of his own. Others played some great slide, there’s always Willie Johnson who had a very strident style, and Skip James; Gary Davis, never – though I was told he would at home sometimes and some heard him, Stefan (Grossman) heard it – Mississippi John Hurt didn’t play much slide. But Johnson was the best. It’s that simple, for me anyway.”

But surpringly, perhaps, the slide style didn’t come easily. Block tried various ways of playing before she hit the slide method after listening in the studio one day to a friend, Bonnie Raitt, playing through the speakers: “I started playing when I was about ten, you can do the math,” she quips with a laugh. “I stopped for while but basically it’s been guitar and me for my life really. I went through many stages, all types of picking. I heard Tommy Johnson and that was a style that worked for a while with that sort of strumming bass sound. Then I had to adapt to another style, to analyse it – Son House – playing slide.”

“At first I’d overshoot the fret and notes, then I’d undershoot it. It was so frustrating. It was just never like that perfect tennis back-hand really! But Bonnie was on an album and I was listening to speakers in the studio. I’d asked her how she did it but I still found it a battle at times. I was just way too tense., so it was hard to always get the right fret!  I heard that Bonnie was relaxed, she took what I now call ‘a stroll up the neck.’  I could hear that Bonnie was relaxed and funky, so I relaxed into it. I teach this at workshops and with my students now!”

And she recalls a meeting with a UK picker that also helped move her on, pushing her own developing talent ever further ahead: “I had a visit from Brendan Croker of the Notting Hillbillies, a guy who plays with Mark Knopfler. Again, he was a great slide player. I could see that he played up then down, playing with the slide in another way. It was a revelation! I play with bare fingers, I only used a thumb-pick on the Reverend Gary Davis album (Mentor Series) because you must use one to get anywhere near that bass sound he had. You really need a thumb-pick for that Reverend Gary Davis attack. His style has an edge related to the thumb-pick.”

Returning to the theme of power women in blues, Rory inevitably mentions Memphis Minnie with a cover of her track, ‘In My Girlish Days,’ included in the new album: Of course Memphis Minnie is another of those women who we all know and love. She was great. And of course she was also a guitarist. She’s impossible to ignore, the only difficulty was in choosing which track to include,” she laughs.

We joke about the strange idea that she might be nearing retirement, a theme we touched on when we last spoke together a few years ago: “It just didn’t take! I’m totally immersed in the music, I think. Whatever the explanation might be it’s sure gonna be difficult! And I have my own studio and so much more I want to do. I still enjoy being on-stage playing. I’m now on my fourth road-bus.  I got tired of driving over the Rockies, maybe getting to Denver then the old bus would break down and I’d be in a rental car!”

As her latest release ‘Prove It On Me’ hits the streets, Rory confirms that she is planning a six-disc set of Power Women in Blues, to mirror her Mentor set: “Six is a good number, could make a nice box-set size,” she confirms and adds, when prompted,”I honestly don’t know what the next will be, who it will feature. I just haven’t got it yet. There are just so many great, strong blues women out there to discover.”

Before we part, Rory emphasizes her appreciation for the blues music world generally: “I’ve had such wonderful support from the entire blues community over the years. It’s always welcome to have the support. Awards, for example, are always welcome too. The whole blues community is like a great family, a blues family. That’s important always!”

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Hi, Hi, Mister American Pie:

 For now, I'll close with a final interview, a chat with a guy who wrote one of the greatest, mostly widely admired songs on the twentieth century, as recognised by the American recording Industry and countless others. Don McLean, another guy I've had the pleasure to spend time with on a few occasions and always find a true pleasure:

  

Don McLean. Is hardly known for his blues work or output. But as the guy who wrote one of the most important songs of a generation, around fifty years ago, with ‘American Pie,’ he hit the global charts, the airwaves and the world for a cert home-run.  One copy of the original, hand-written lyrics alone fetched over a million bucks at auction and McLean laughs at the thought and says he has a few other hand-written copies still to hand.

When the opportunity again arose to speak with McLean at home (one of four houses, he tells me) in California’s Palm Springs area, I couldn’t pass up the chance of catching up with the guy, picking up on themes we touched on when his last album, ‘Botanical Gardens’ launched in 2018. McLean is always warmly friendly, much as might be expected from a modern US roots music master who generally keeps one strict personal rule in place - writing his own material and seldom, if ever, recording the work of others.

With Grammy awards, BBC Lifetime Achievement Awards,and one song designated a top 5 song of the 20^th century by the Recording Industry of America, McLean is self-evidently one of the most important musical figures out there, with songs recorded by the likes of Madonna, Garth Brooks, Weird Al Yankovic and countless others.

Turning again to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry historic song, ‘American Pie,’ McLean laughs as he recalls the issues that its release caused him at the time back in 1971: “I had an album out at the time, ‘Tapestry.’ It was doing well in a sort of under-the-radar-way, getting loads of airplay across the US on mostly FM stations. Then American Pie launched, with a major label, (United Artists), and began being played everywhere. So, all those FM guys and jocks and fans all howled and told me I’d sold out – gone commercial - because of its popularity.”

Of course, while the music world was still spinning in the wake of the song, with huge debates and discussions swirling around about the possible meaning of the lyrics and the song itself, there was a concern it might prove something of a one-hit-wonder. Those with such thoughts were soon to learn how wrong they were as McLean continued on his stunning trajectory delivering yet another extraordinary and successful track with the still-lauded and generally admired, ‘Vincent,’  a song with no ambiguity whatsoever, dealing with the life of the revered Dutch artist, Vincent Van Gogh.

When this song is mentioned, McLean is quick to explain that to him it was yet another song he wrote, rather than something he considers to have been special in any significant way: “I’m a songwriter, it’s what I’ve always done. Over fifty years now, writing my own material, recording it and working on the road. I managed to keep the rights to my material, unlike many who were forced to sign away their rights to the labels. I never did that, I always kept control of my songs and still have that.”

It quickly becomes clear that McLean is particularly proud to be a songwriter above all else. That he has been immensely successful seems to be almost an afterthought, the process being of primary significance in his mind. With control of a now huge back-catalogue, McLean is about to embark on a new stage with a link to Time-Life/Warner Bros and the simultaneous release of over 170 of his songs digitally on June 5^th. In addition, he has a new album, ‘Still Playing Favourites,’ due to drop in the Fall, followed by a huge international,  world tour marking the 50^th anniversary of the release of ‘American Pie’ in 2021.

These days he works with a trusted support band and has an assurance that few can probably match: “We’ve been together now so long. We do a different show every night on the road. I never repeat sets. I’ve enough material and the band all know it to allow me the freedom to work like that. We rehearse, of course, but often hit the road with an initial set list that just grows and changes nightly. By the third or maybe fourth night, they know where I’m going.”

Our chat turns back in time to recollections of one of his old buddies, the late folk singer and genuine US icon, Pete Seeger. McLean bought his first home in New York State’s Hudson Valley, not far off from Seeger, who he already knew well: “I bought it for cash (due to success of American Pie). It was a roof over my head. It was a farmhouse style place, beautiful and I lived there between around 1971 and 1990 in particular. I used to tell Pete that he wrote one of the worst songs ever. For years he never got it. “Little Boxes,’ is just a terrible song. It’s a song by a Boston, Massachusetts, intellectual. I always said it was about the dreams and aspirations of many Americans in reality. People like my own ancestors who would have loved to have owned a little box on a hillside with their kids going to university! Years later, Pete finally told me he ‘got it.’ He finally understood what I meant with my criticism of the song. Pete was his own man, like an athlete in ways. He’d just pick up his banjo and guitar, sling them on his back and go out on the road. Not something I’ve ever been able to do really.”

“Pete always had a great ear for folk music. A tuned ear almost. He’d pick up a feeling in a sound and he could work with it. He functioned at a high level. There were all these bands then, like the Kingston Trio, all covering the same material, singing ‘Little Boxes,’ with their Boston, bullshit accents. I didn’t like any of that back then, but Pete eventually said to me, ‘You might be right about it! ‘ Pete was like a PhD. He was no great songwriter but he was a great adapter of material.”

Out of personal curiosity, I ask why he always favours Martin guitars. McLean laughs with the simplest of explanations: “They’re the best guitars in the world. I love them. I’ve over 50 Martins here all around in cases. I’ve many D45s; D28s; 0021s and 00028s. They’re all great guitars. After a while on the road, I take them and put them in their cases, tell them it’s time for a rest!”

As we close, I wish McLean the best of luck with his latest venture and future: “I guess I was just born to be a musician and a songwriter. It’s in my make-up. I have a drive to be successful. I’ve always had that drive to be a musician. I still do.”