We need your help to record & promote a great sounding country record about everything from pot to prison, love and loss and politics.Web: charlieharrisonmusic.com
JL: A fair question. Currently, I've got about 5 hats. I get really into one at a time and wear it until it doesn't feel like me anymore and then I switch it up. Recently, I've been on a quest for the perfect black hat...they are surprisingly hard to come by. Hoping I'll find one on the road out west this May!TMC: You worked with Will Kimbrough on the new album. Were there a couple of "a-ha!" moments - from either of you - as the two of you spent time working through songs, the recording process, etc.?
JL: Will and I agreed before the session that we wouldn't rehearse the songs he played on ahead of time. We tracked them live in the same room which gave the tracks a great energy.
I think sometimes the most inspired sounds come when you feel slightly unsure, like you're dancing on the edge of a cliff, not sure if you'll fall or not. He never falls though. I trust him. He's one of the greatest players of all time, and it was an honor to have him on the album.Darling, It's A Waste of Time is a swinging, tap-your-toe, yet blusey song - one with which you cannot suppress a smile as you listen to it.
JL: The hot chicken. Also East Nashville itself - I'm not sure I could still live in Nashville if it weren't for this neighborhood - it's amazing how rivers have always forged two very different parts of town with completely different energies. I feel lucky to be able to walk a few blocks and see Todd Snider and other great songwriters like Don Schlitz (he wrote "The Gambler") for happy hour at The 5 Spot. It's really incredible how collaborating with other artists can happen so naturally here. All you have to do is take a few steps out your front door.
That's not to say living here doesn't come without challenges - there are many of those too. For one thing, there are no mountains. I am the best version of myself when I can see nature all around me in an obvious way - that's what inspires me most.
I also think that because this town is so saturated with incredible talent. There is this survival mentality and maybe even a sense of fear of being left behind. It can become this 'every man for himself' kind of place where everyone is begging for scraps from the table. It's not easy, but I am learning if you can get past this perspective and try to continue to cultivate a supportive community of artists, it's a much more enjoyable experience. I am also very competitive so this is a good reminder for myself on a daily basis.TMC: I understand many of the songs on the new record are based on your travels a year or ago through the southwestern states of the US. (By the way, I dig the subtle accordion on Gone Gone Gone.) Did the songs come to you in those moments - or did you reflect back on those experiences to compose them somewhere down the line?
JL: Thank you! The songs pretty much came out in a flood once I returned home. Whenever I go out on the road, I try to explore and take in as much as I can - it's amazing what you can find in a town if you go on long walks. I end up collecting these sensory experiences and observations of the characters and the cultures I come across. This always finds a way to the page.
JL: This is a very insightful question because everyone really is different in these three main ways. My best songs are the ones that come out of thin air, I guess you could say from the big creative wellspring, or the muse. This is a strange thing, but my very best songs come two at a time, back to back, in one sitting. This is rare though. And some songs come to me bits at a time and require more work. Either way, I always try to come back and edit them after the 'honey moon' phase has passed.Mountain Air is another of my genuinely favorite songs from the album. As recorded, it's thoroughly enjoyable. But heard live, it takes on a different perspective. I've listened to it - outdoors - in East Nashville - sitting with my eyes closed - a bit of rhythmic head nod - a slight smile on my face - and a cold one on the table untouched as the song unfolds..
JL: I think I feel a connection with my audience when they are actively listening - pretty much what you just said, you're the perfect audience member! It does depend a little on the song though. I think for the more rollicking blues songs it's nice to look out and see people moving and feeling the music. I have noticed I do really well out west, and I'm not really sure why. If I figure it out, I'll be sure to let you know!As the album nears its end, my third fave Virginia Morning continues to hold the listener's ear. The title and visualizations don't exactly evoke the U.S. west. Yet I'm glad it was included. The richness of the backing instruments is again featured as is Lafser's spot-on pitch in varying vocal ranges. Plus,one can never have enough mountain - or train - songs.
CH: When I turn on the radio, I wonder if anyone will remember any of what they will be playing in 15 years. This used to bother me, but I have gotten a little more zen about it. It's not music that does anything for me, but if it makes someone else feel something then great. I’m glad they have it.TMC: All four songs on the EP have a 'full' band sound. This makes sense with the EP being a Charlie And The Regrets release. What are some things you've learned about going from an individual performer to a member of a band?
That said, I think that you are right about the consistency in Texas music tastes. A lot of that comes from Texas culture which says “I don’t really give a damn about what people are doing in places that aren't Texas”. So we still have radio stations that play Texas music, and people hold onto the really great heritage we have here. One benefit of being a little self-obsessed is that we keep our musical legacy as part of our identity and won’t swap it out for the hottest new thing. People here still speak of Guy and Townes with reverence.
As far as the band, we do have big plans. And while it can be discouraging to try to figure out how we might fit in with what is popular today, I am inspired by bands/artists such as Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen, Hayes Carll, Ray LaMontagne, etc. who are continuing to make the quality of music we aspire to and play to large audiences across the country and around the world without much attention from radio, etc.
Lastly, I think tastes ebb and flow. People loved Waylon Jennings and the other outlaws because they were doing something different from mainstream artists of their day. Today Willie, Waylon and the boys are still relevant whereas some of more fluid acts of their time are not. At some point, I think people will begin to gravitate back to rawer country music when they have had their fill of the other stuff.
Just in case, I am working on a song about going to the lake in my truck with a rap breakdown.
CH: When I was playing as an individual performer, I wrote the songs and put together the arrangements. When we put together band shows, I would book musicians and tell them the parts I wanted them to play.The video for the band's first single Baytown was recorded by Harrison's brother at Houston's The Rose Garden, a 60 year-old beer joint near his house.
I got some experience working collaboratively with a band I played with in Virginia (Charlie and The Contraband), but that project came to an end right about when we were finding our footing.
As we put together The Regrets, all of a sudden there were multiple ideas about how we play and what we should do. It was hard and great.
On Start a Company we spent hours arguing about two little breaks in the solo section that most listeners probably won’t pick up on. At the time it was frustrating, but it is awesome to be a part of something that Gregg [Daildeda, drums], Mitch [Burman, bass] and Willy feel passionately enough about to fight for.
The other cool thing that has happened is that as we continue writing, the other guys are bringing in more musical ideas that would not have occurred to me. So what I might have written as a three-chord song gets taken somewhere else new and cool.
CH: I didn’t mean to be so transparent, but you nailed them. My buddy Taylor (Western Youth) introduced me to Near Truths and Hotel Rooms when we were playing bars together in Austin, and I have loved Todd Snider ever since. I sort of stalk him. I grabbed Elvis (his road manager) at a show in Virginia and gave him a demo. Then to make sure, I figured out Todd’s address in Nashville and sent one to his house. I don’t know what I thought he would do with them, but for some reason I felt compelled to have him listen to my songs.
Hayes Carll got a similar treatment at a show in Washington, DC. He was very nice about it, but even if he hadn't been I would still be a big fan. Trouble In Mind is on the turntable right now.
Hayes and Todd really inspire me with the way they have connected with fairly broad audiences while singing about whatever was on their minds including everything from love to war and being Mike Tyson's Main Man.
I listen to those guys all the time so I suppose it makes sense that they bleed through to what I write.
I am also influenced by the usual suspects of Texas music: Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Robert Earl Keen, etc. Max Stalling and Bruce Robison’s last few records play a lot in my house.
CH: New Night was one of those songs that seemed to be birthed more than written. It came together quickly and felt right. It's pretty simple musically and lyrically, but nothing feels forced or artificial to us. As we were putting it together, I was imagining one of my heroes singing it on a record in the 70’s, and I like to think it would fit in then. It is a crowd favorite now.
Also, we recorded all of New Night live with the exception of Willy’s vocal, which we would have recorded live if I had more than eight channels in the home studio (I am working on that). I really like the vibe that we captured and the fact that what you hear is honest to what we do.
CH: Willy T is great. He plays with a few bands in the area (The Broken Spokes, Sean Reefer and others), and I am glad he decided to be part of this. We have been playing a lot together over the last year so we had ideas about what we would track. We tracked New Night and Ease Away live, but we did go back and spend a lot time on the lap steel part on Start a Company.
The idea was to get some interaction between the vocals and the lap steel, and I hope we did that. We spent more time over at his house recording this part than we did tracking anything else (so I am glad you noticed it). Going forward we want to continue to bring out Willy so that the lap steel is more part of the frame of the song.
CH: We play Regrets material (including tracks that we didn’t cut for the EP) as well as few of the solo tunes with a bit of a different flavor. I think that we sort of walk a country/rock line with a few of the tunes, a la Drive By Truckers etc. Recently we have been fortunate to be joined by a great guitarist Blake Thames on some shows which allows us to expand on what we had been doing in our own songs.
We are having fun with some long road house gigs where we are playing for 3 hours. So we have added a few covers into the library including stuff like “Feel Alright” (Steve Earle) and our version of “Gotta Get Drunk”. For the most part, we try to stay away from the stuff everyone has heard a million times. At the end of the day though, I know a reference point can be helpful to somebody in the audience.
CH: So far I have played at venues with the following: mechanical bulls (many), club owners pimping out of the club office (offered the band a discount), club owners dealing out of the club (no discount offered), real rodeo arena, and a semi-truck cab as a sound booth - but no chicken wire yet. I hear there is a place outside of Austin where the chicken wire is still up, but I think the roughnecks and cowboys raising hell in the 70’s and 80’s have kids and a 401(k) now.TMC
One of Willy’s other bands has a big biker following, and they play private parties for motorcycle enthusiast social organizations. He has told me about some crazy stuff at those parties, but they mainly happen off some back road somewhere which is probably best for everybody.
Don't get me wrong, we still have rowdy audiences. A guy tried to fight me for not playing a Keith Whitley song, But I am guessing that the really crazy stuff is in today’s boom towns up in North Dakota or somewhere.
MK: I've been writing and composing songs since I was 15 years old. I had always had a writing partner until around 2002. At that point my then-writing partner, Denny Hays, was preparing to move to Charlotte. He challenged me to start playing guitar. At the end of the first week I had written & composed my first solo song. I continued to play drums as a fill-in for bands up until about 2010. I didn't really do anything musically again until the summer of 2012. I started writing and playing a little bit around that time. In the spring of 2013, I stumbled upon Couch By Couchwest. I was intrigued by this wonderful venue for artists to submit songs for the world to hear and decided to submit a song. I met some incredible people by doing this, and they encouraged me to share my music. I decided to do a solo EP as a gift to myself for my 50th birthday in June 2013. I wrote, recorded and mixed Guided Spirit in a two-week time frame. I was very surprised by how much people liked its the rawness. It is a very unpolished release, but I am extremely proud of it.
MK: I wanted to show some growth from Guided Spirit to the full length release For Your aMUSEment. The Trumpets on "Last Night" were a surprise. I had originally envisioned having trumpets on the track "Gone For Good". But as we started preparing songs after the original mix, my producer Mark Skelton suggested that we write a trumpet line for "Last Night". Mark & I worked up the part, and then he and and one of his daughters played the trumpet part. Mark's other daughter played the flute part on "Wings". I should mention that these girls are twins and were first year band students at the time we recorded the parts. I think they did an amazing job. Ben Johnson from Arkansas did the organ & bass work on this project. His interpretations added a lot to the all of the songs. We actually have 2 versions of "Feelin Like I've Been Here Before". The version on the album is lovingly known as the lounge mix. The organ work helps bring out the mood of the original feeling of the song.
MK: The magic of production. I'm old school and think that when you record a song it should sound like you are playing it live. In other words, we keep it as simple as possible. We record the guitar and vocal work at the same time and typically do it in one take. After reviewing the initial raw mix, I may make some minor changes in lyrics or composition and then record the vocals and guitars again. Once we have all the parts done, my producer sends me the songs. I tell him what I want more of, less of or just gone.
MK: Unabashed Widespread Panic fan....I love that. I get a lot of inspiration musically from Widespread Panic. I do write a lot after attending their shows. I'm not sure exactly why. but I think it is the way their music reaches down and grabs your heart & soul. I go to a lot of live shows not just Widespread Panic. I write a good bit after shows, and I think it is from watching artists and their fans enjoy the beauty of music and the joy it elicits from one's soul. There are a lot of artists that inspire me. I am amazed by the songwriting of BloodKin (Danny & Eric), the late Vic Chestnut (everyone should listen to Vic), John Hiatt, John Prine, Neil Young, James McMurtry, Daniel Lanois, Kris Kristofferson, Keith Whitley, Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, John Doe, Billy Joe Shaver, Guy Clark and (the Master) Bob Dylan.TMC: Do you find yourself keeping a journal of couplets, refrains, riffs and such? Or do you generally have the majority of a song come to you in a single setting?
MK: I've tried many different ways of writing over the years. I used to keep a journal of ideas, phrases & words that interested me, but I explored a different formula on For Your aMUSEment. On aMUSEment I either came up with a melody or riff first and then built the song around it. I didn't write any of the lyrics down until after we recorded the rough mix. Then I went back and made some lyrical changes before we went back to record the songs that would be on the album. I am of the opinion that songs are never finished. I believe they always grow and that it is OK to change the lyrics as I please as I continue to play them. I made them up - if I wish to change them then I will. The only song I wrote in one sitting was "Wings".TMC: As much as I dig so many forms of music, I'm completely ignorant of most of the gear used by musicians. Gibson, Fender, Martin. Tele, Strat, Les Paul, SG. This pedal, that fader, pick thickness, capos. "Acoustic" vs. dreadnought. Etc. Describe your guitars, how you went about choosing them, and why you are partial to them.
MK: I have three guitars that I work on the most. I have an Ibanez acoustic/ electric better known as Maggie, a Baby Taylor and an Ovation Celebrity. They all have different tones and all have supplied their share of songs. I used "Maggie" for all of the songs on Guided Spirit. I chose the Ovation for all of the songs on For Your aMUSEment except for "Couch Down the Hall"(I played Maggie on it) and "All About You" (played the Ovation & Taylor on this song). I bet you're wondering why the Ibanez has a name. This guitar was named after my wonderful bride Margaret Alice Kirkland. She gave me the guitar for my 40th birthday to replace my 2 pawn shop guitars.
YW/MS: We got married on March 1st, and the first show of our honeymoon tour was March 6th. We crossed the country three times and went about 20,000 miles. That averages out to about 1,110 gallons of diesel. The odometer on our Sprinter van rolled over 100,000 miles right as we pulled off of our street in California and currently sits at just under 120,000 miles. There’s no way to know how much beer we drank, but some of our favorites were the Deschutes Brewery Fresh Squeezed IPA and the (only available in Wisconsin) NewGlarus Moon Man. We also played at High Desert Brewing in Las Cruces, New Mexico - which is pretty amazing. The van was only broken into once, but we were also rear ended the day before Miss Shevaughn’s birthday. The doors still shut and locked so we just kept on going! Ben Tufts, who plays drums for Miss Shevaughn & Yuma Wray, is one of the best iPhone photographers we've ever seen. (Ben on Twitter | Instagram).TMC: With this most recent set of shows in support of the new album (officially released by the way on March 25th, the day of your Nashville date at The Basement), what are some things the band learned about one or more of the songs during the night-after-night shows vs. how the songs were recorded?
YW: The most obvious addition to our live sound would be Derek Evry (Twitter). He didn't record any of the bass parts on the album, but he joined the band as our touring bass player just prior to us releasing Lean Into The Wind. He’s a super-talented guitarist and singer – so having him on bass and backing vocals almost seems like we might be selling him a little short of his abilities. But he’s really made us step up our game on stage. He’s a seriously intense performer, so with each passing night, both Miss Shevaughn & I found ourselves rocking out a little harder than we did the night before! And consequentially, having way more fun! All thanks to Derek.
MS: We actually toured with most of the songs on the album with Ben before recording them. We knew how much songs can change on the road, and we wanted to give them a chance to mature before we committed to recording. It’s something that we most likely won’t get a chance to do again, and it was a fun way to write. It’s not just the playing over and over again that brings new ideas into the songs, it’s the audience too. You can just become inspired suddenly and throw something out there and the response can be the determining factor in whether or not you try it again. I have to agree with Yuma too. Playing as a full band with everyone contributing and bringing new spontaneous ideas into the live show goes a long way to shape the songs. We actually brought a brand new song “Navigator” into the set a few days before tour, and it felt like we were literally writing that song over the course of the tour.TMC: At least two of the songs from the album - Drifter's Compass and Bleed Me - reference this life you've charted of leaving home and riding the road with your music. Describe some of the ways that work for you in writing songs as you tour. Do you find yourselves writing songs collectively as you ride? Or do you tend to process internally a lyric, a chorus, a riff, etc. that you journal or otherwise document at another time?
YW: Here’s the really infuriating thing about being on the road – so much of your time gets spent driving, loading in, sound checking, loading out – that you don’t really get a chance to be as creative as you would like. Sure Led Zeppelin wrote “Stairway” on the tour bus. But most touring musicians get so caught up in the day-to-day logistics of travelling and playing live that we really don’t have the time to write much on the road. Right now, Miss Shevaughn & I are just off three month of hard driving and playing - and the creative ‘back-up’ is finally just beginning to abate. I’ve started at least two or three new songs in my head that are being pieced together from those lingering ideas for riffs that come to you in the early morning hours when you know you have to get out of the van, wander into the Wal-Mart that you have been sleeping in the parking lot of, and find the bathroom – AND hope it isn't closed for cleaning. The ideas that stick with me through that first-light haze are the ones that are going to make up the songs on our next album.
MS: OK, the men’s room at any given Wal-Mart is NEVER closed for cleaning, and the women’s room is closed like AT LEAST 35% of the time. Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest… I think that part of the answer lies in the fact that although we’re leaving home to be on the road, every time we get back on the road it feels like coming home as well. I think that if that hadn’t been there for us the first time, we may not have continued to travel so hard. It is difficult to write on tour, but I think that the observations and the subtle feelings and thoughts that you gather as you travel, the people you meet and the histories that you learn, they become part of what you will write about next. It’s a cycle. Ideas need a chance to breathe and to come into being. And they’re all different. Some come quick, others grow slowly. For me, it seems natural to have a hibernation or a germination creatively. My mind’s not dormant. It’s just in a mode that’s taking in instead of putting out, and touring is perfect for that. Like Yuma was saying, once you get off the road so much comes spilling out that you didn't even necessarily know was in there.
YW: Our background/upbringing is actually a little more complex than that – but for simplicity’s sake I’ll say that I grew up travelling. Miss Shevaughn & I started the band in Chicago in 2009. So the inspiration for what we write about comes from a lifetime of rambling & exploring. But in those travels, I’ve met a few people who have influenced my approach to songwriting more than others. In 2005, when I moved to Chicago – I met a singer/songwriter/guitarist from Indiana who now lives in Austin, TX named Simon Flory – he turned me on to some rebellious country songwriters like Steve Earle and Jay Farrar (at least, when Jay was with Uncle Tupelo). At the time, Simon was playing in a shit-kicking outlaw country band called “Merle The Mule” that really expanded my horizons. Up until then, I hadn’t really stepped out of my hardcore/punk-rock comfort zone that I had grown accustomed to while living in Washington DC. I spent the entire year of 2006 hunched over my acoustic guitar, studying classic country and blues, listening, playing and writing.
MS: Don’t forget that we met at a hip-hop club. I grew up in the South. My family lives in southern Arkansas, and I mostly grew up near New Orleans. Yuma and I actually met in D.C. where we both resided for years before we met up again in Chicago. A lot of my family was really musical - bluegrass and southern gospel, Sacred Harp singing on my mom’s side and guitar picking and singing on my dad’s side. My mom played mountain dulcimer, autoharp and guitar when I was a kid. I started performing with her doing folk music mostly when I was about five. I ended up studying opera in college, but I was also really into punk and indie rock at that point. I’d have to say that our friend, Chris Darby, a singer songwriter out of Missouri, influenced our decision to get on the road. He hiked the whole Appalachian Trail and then went on a self-booked tour for 6 months. When Yuma and I started playing together, we realized we were a lot more serious about playing music full time than a lot of other people we’d been playing with. So we did a little two week East Coast tour just to test the waters. As we were driving home to Chicago, I was thinking, “in a year we’ll be on the road full time”. Yuma didn’t know it yet, but my mind was made up. In 2011 we got rid of our apartment and lived out of our car while playing as many live shows as we could.
YW: Don’t take this the wrong way, but I would LOVE to not have to do any of the “business” stuff that we are currently embroiled in as “DIY” musicians. Booking sucks. Tour managing sucks. Self-promotion sucks. Most musicians are not wired to be business-oriented – but the sad fact is that we are trying to ‘come up’ in an era where there are lots of other performers travelling the same road that we are. And if we want to keep moving – we better know how to pull over and fix the occasional flat tire on our own instead of relying on someone else to do it for us.
There are some doors that are not open to us yet because we represent ourselves instead of having a large, corporate artist management company promoting us. But hopefully, when we do get that ‘lucky break’ and have the opportunity to work with people who can promote us far beyond our own abilities to do so, we are not going to get ‘taken for a ride’. I’m confident that, even though we may have to work a little harder and longer than some musicians out there, we are never going to be tripped up by some opportunistic crook looking to take advantage of under-experienced naiveté.
MS: You hear a lot about bands that just come out of nowhere and people who became famous overnight and “weren’t even trying”. I really dislike that narrative because there’s always someone who worked hard even if it was behind the scenes. I think the ‘work’ part of artistic work should be acknowledged. I like knowing what goes into all of these aspects of our job because we have a better appreciation for it and a better understanding of how everything comes together. And we do have a support team. It’s grown as we’ve gone along. We started out with us just emailing a few bloggers to send them our music and now Tony at Pavement PR has helped us with publicity for our last two albums. Lean Into The Wind came out on a Chicago label, Seven Dead Arson, that’s run by a friend of ours, as opposed to our first record, We’re From Here, which we put out totally on our own. I totally agree that I’d love to focus solely on writing and playing at some point, but I like that we’re finding people to work with who really believe in what we’re doing and whose efforts we really appreciate.No rest for the weary. The life for this band is on the road and on the stage - and with a smile and a kind word. Be sure to find a nearby show, and buy their music and the band a drink. Beer for Yuma, tequila for Miss Shevaughn...as long as it's not Patron.
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| Credit: @magearwig from Bucket Full of Nails |
