Cam King | Amplified

September 18, 2009 | Comments Off


Dr. Kent:  Welcome back to Sound Authors. And we’re talking today to a great musician and a co-author of a book called Amplified, and it’s fiction from leading alt, country, indie rock, blues and folk musicians. Welcome to the show, Cam King.

 

Cam King:  Thanks, Dr. Kent, it’s great to be here.

 

Dr. Kent:  Tell me about this book. Did you know this many of your co-musicians had written fiction?

 

Cam King:  No, I mean, the idea of being a fiction writer, it’s not that far fetched from song writing, and I had written in one form or another, either as a whim or a form of expression for a good portion of my life. I think a lot of people who are songwriters probably have that urge to express themselves in some form other than the three minute song or ballad or whatever. But it was, it was a great honor to be included in this collection.

 

Dr. Kent:  Well, and I mean, your writing style is fantastic, you could write a whole novel, I love it. I mean, from the very beginning, you know, the first word of your essay is “Clump.”

 

Cam King: “Clump,” yes, well, that’s pretty much the sound an armadillo makes when it hits your oil pan.

 

Dr. Kent:  Now, having lived in the south, I’ve seen many dead armadillos, but I’ve never heard that sound. Have you heard that sound?

 

Cam King:  I’m afraid I have. I have never, I never hit an armadillo in my life until after the book was written, and I was traveling on a section of road, which I describe in the book, in the story. And I was just, it was late at night and I was just thinking to myself, this is where I wrote the part where, “clump,” and all of a sudden something went bam on my left tire, and I knew exactly what it was. First it broke my heart, because I don’t like hurting critters. And the second thing, it scared the hell out of me because I wrote that, and I know how the story ends, and, you know. Kind of gives you a pause there for a moment.

 

Dr. Kent:  Well, yeah, and the story’s called Road Kill. You know, what is the difference between, you know, writing prose and writing a song?

 

Cam King:  Well, for me, speaking for myself, they both come from a very similar place. And a lot of it takes place either behind the wheel on the motorcycle, or engaged in some activity that allows the mind to focus on a function and yet the higher functions allow you to escape the confines of the earth and draw from the ether, I would say. A lot of my songs have come to me behind the wheel when I’ve got other things on my mind, or when my mind is empty. But the connection between the music and the short story, I would say for me they both come from a similar place, and it usually takes some catalyst to push it in one direction or the other. This story, Road Kill, which I’ll be very brief, is just a story of a red neck who loves to run over armadillos, and in my world the critters always win. I tell people it’s sort of a Stephen Cam King hill country horror story, so that kind of throws it all together there. The idea actually came to me because I drive the very roads that I describe in the short story. I’m from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I live in the hill country of Central Texas in the little German town of Fredericksburg. It’s ten hours from Albuquerque, and I travel there every couple of months to take care of the boys with home and my mother. And during those long hours on the road, ideas come to me, either in the form of this story, or in the form of a song.

 

Dr. Kent:  And how does this, you know, and you can speak for the others with this as well. How does writing this, actually it’s a gorgeous book called Amplified, and how does this affect your singing career and playing career?

 

Cam King:  I haven’t really, I haven’t seen a direct correlation. Other than the fact that the, when the book came out we had a wonderful gathering in Nashville with myself, John Weinford, Mary Gothie, Roddy Folks, and Dave Olne. We were all roughly Nashville based players. I actually came in from Texas for the event. But we were able to have a book reading at a local book store just down the street from the world famous Bluebird Café where everybody showcases their music in Nashville, and the editors, and the people who’s idea was the book, which was Steven Horowitz and his wife Julie Shafer. They came in from St. Paul, and we had a wonderful gathering, and I was extremely impressed with the readings done by my fellow writers. And we retired to the Bluebird afterwards and had a wonderful night of music playing songs that in my case were connected to the story, and others. It was, so to answer your question, I don’t know career wise how this has affected any of my other writers. I know for me it’s been a wonderful adjunct to my writing, and as an experience in itself it’s been a wonderful thing, and it’s given me the impetus to continue my writing and also seek new avenues for the stories that I do write.

 

Dr. Kent:  Absolutely. Well, and you do have the unique honor of, the cover of Amplified is beautifully designed, and right about the title, of course, is a cute little armadillo, a live one.

 

Cam King:  Yeah, yeah. I was, I had nothing to do with that, that was an independent decision made over at Melville House Publishing, a wonderful publishing house. Boy, they have got an incredible catalog, but it was somebody in their graphics department that decided to put the armadillo on the front, and you know, all glory to the armadillo, I was just a catalyst to the story.

 

Dr. Kent:  It must’ve tickled you to see it.

 

Cam King:  It did, of course, but I love the little guys. Like I say, I live I the hill country of Texas, and we do have the armadillos, and they are just a gorgeous sight to watch snuffling around in the yard whenever they turn up, and it’s always a heartbreaker whenever they get hit on the road. But as I described in the first sentence of my book, of my story Road Kill, when they’re startled, and anybody who knows armadillos, they’ll do this, they jump straight up in the air. Very few armadillos are hit with the tire. They usually jump straight up in the air when they’re startled and that’s what gets them.

 

Dr. Kent:  Wow. And you know, your whole career started with a horror movie. Did that have any influence on your story that’s just a little bit of a horror story?

 

Cam King:  Oh, that’s an interesting, I haven’t really considered that, Dr. Kent. I moved to Austin, Texas from Albuquerque in 1975, and brought with me a body of songs that I had written while I was in Albuquerque. And I recorded several of those in a local recording studio to sort of jump start my musical career in Austin and get some people listening to my stuff. And it just so happened that the music director for Toby Hooper who had just finished the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was coming through Austin and visiting studios looking for music for the next movie. And the next Toby Hooper movie was a thing which ended up with several titles: Starlight Slaughter, Eaten Alive, it was a horror movie that really had an interesting cast of characters: Neville Brandt, Stewart Whitman, Carolyn Jones, and a young Robert England who played Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street. It was a really weird movie, and they featured four of my songs in there. And that was my first, that was my first foray into the music business per se, with having my songs listened to by a wide audience, but as for its influence on my writing, I really can’t think of a direct correlation. Although being an American male I think I’ve had a love affair with horror movies for a good portion of my life.

 

Dr. Kent:  And there’s a good portion of comedy in the book, and of course in your essay it’s, when it’s violent there’s a little bit of tongue in cheek and you know, what role does humor play in these kind of tall tales, fiction writing?

 

Cam King:  Oh, I mean, you take stories like Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, and other American classics, I would say my direct, my most direct influence is probably Mark Twain. Because Mark Twain was able to take Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn say very scathing and indicting things about America at the time. About our patriarchal racism, the injustice, the brutishness of the frontier mentality, and he was able to write that in such a funny way that everybody laughed and then they thought about it, you know.

 

Dr. Kent:  Yep.

 

Cam King:  And for me, it’s only one way of doing it, and for this story it served its purpose, to tell a story that without humor would have been somewhat of a study in macabre sadism, and of course that’s not where my heart is, I just wanted to tell a funny little story, and if you’re going to tell a story like a Grimm’s fairytale where horrible things happen to children and witches and stuff, what better leavening agent than humor. Otherwise it’s truly a grim tale.

 

Dr. Kent:  Exactly. Well, and so the book is called Amplified, it’s fiction from all sorts of folks. What was the process like of editing? You know, there’s all these musicians with these great stories, and how did they choose you? Did they just call you up?

 

Cam King:  Well, I can’t speak directly for the editors, but I can tell you my relation, which enabled this to happen. First of all, I think the author, the editors, Steven and Julie, make it very apparent in the book that they explain that the people that were included in the book were included at their invitation because of their fascination with their music. And Steven is, I think my relation to this election process was a little different. I happened to be an old friend of Steven’s, but it wasn’t strictly old buddy nepotism, the old buddy system that got me in the book. Steven called me and he asked me, he told me what he was doing for the project and asked me if I knew of any Texas writers. He wanted to get some Texas voices in on this thing. And I sat there for a second scratching my chin and I said, “Well, I know one,” and he said, “Who?” And I said, “Moi, tis I, old boy.” And he said, Well, if you’ve got something, send it to me. And he happened to call at a time when I had this story on the burner in my head, and it was partly written. And with the impetus of him suggesting that I submit something, I sat down one afternoon at my nephew’s computer and wrote one of maybe three drafts that I sent off, and Steven responded very favorably. He liked the tone of it, it contrasted very well with some of the other material that was with the book, and so for me it was the same thing as when I got my Garth Brooks cut. It was sort of like, I wrote this thing, can you believe I knocked this one reasonably out of the park. It was Steven’s idea, it was his idea to include it in the selection, and so I have nothing but gratitude for the whole process. I was selected, and I did the best I could with the story, and I’ve got other stories in the works. But this really is a valid, sort of a vindication and a validation of my efforts as a writer. And I’m very grateful to Steven and Julie for the opportunity to be included in the work.

 

Dr. Kent:  So you’ve kind of done the trilogy of important things, you’ve been in a horror film, you’ve been in the Grand Ol’ Opry, and you had a song covered by Garth Brooks.

 

Cam King:  Yeah, Garth Brooks and then Lone Star, can’t forget Lone Star. Those are some important friends of mind in Nashville. The guy who sang that song, my…go ahead. Go ahead, Dr. Kent.

 

Dr. Kent:  Yeah, go ahead. The guy who sang your song?

 

Cam King:  Oh, well, one of the guys who sang my song was Johnny Rich, who was the bass player with Lone Star, and he went ahead to form the duo Big & Rich.

 

Dr. Kent:  Ah.

 

Cam King:  Which is one of the more successful acts coming out of Nashville right now. So I decided to go ahead and include them as coming out of the CD player of my character’s story.

 

Dr. Kent:  Great. Yeah, and so what does it feel like coming out of that very interesting and successful career as a musician, now you’re an official author?

 

Cam King:  Oh, it’s a hoot. It’s wonderful. It’s part of living what I think is a very full and productive life. I am still a songwriter. I am still a musician. I have a podcast in the works called Second Set, which is sort of a highly subjective view of Texas music, which will be thrown out there at some point. I am an active member of my community here in Fredericksburg, Texas. I am an avid woodworker and vegetable grower. It’s so hot right now I’m growing stewed tomatoes and peppers, but being an author in addition to all of this is absolutely wonderful. It rounds the whole thing out and just, just really, a great reason to get up in the morning and think creative thoughts.

 

Dr. Kent:  Well, where can we find out more about you.

 

Cam King:  I have been, I tell people I have been blissfully absent from the Internet. I’m in the songwriter protection program, and I don’t know if you can find me on anonymous.com or what. But I have been somewhat lax in hanging up my web shingle. And I do play with a band called The Freddy Steady Five, and people who want to find out more about me can Google my name, Cam King. They can also find me through Steady Boy records, which is the label belonging to my good friend Freddy Steady Kirch, who’s been my partner in music for 30 some-odd years. We played in a band called The Explosives in 1978. We played with Rocky Erickson and recently did a world tour with him. You can find out through Steady Boy records, Freddy Steady Five, Cam King. It’s one of those spiral things, Dr. Kent, you just kind of fish out there and find little pieces. But maybe in a year or so there’ll be something with my name on it that actually has the whole www attached to it.

 

Dr. Kent:  You never know, by then it might be a different, maybe it won’t be, maybe it’ll be zzz. Www will be gone.

 

Cam King: (laughter) It probably could be.

 

Dr. Kent:  Well the book is called….

 

Cam King:  You know, it’s interesting, it’s interesting getting to be the author on your show, because normally I’d be the musician, so this is really a…

 

Dr. Kent:  And you are. You are a sound author.

 

Cam King:  …an honor and a change for me.

 

Dr. Kent:  A fine sound author.

 

Cam King:  That’s pretty much it. And I understand you’re a bit of a bluegrass nut yourself. You wrote a book about Doc Watson?

 

Dr. Kent:  I am, I’m actually in the process of that coming out, yeah. I’m a huge bluegrass nut and I love all kinds of music. I love all the musicians that are in this book with you. And I’m not a big fan of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but I’m a fan of the music.

 

Cam King:  You don’t have to be a fan of that.

 

Dr. Kent:  Yeah.

 

Cam King:  Like I said, they came to me, I didn’t come to them. But you know, I’ll take the honors where they land on me. I’ll drop one name at you, I was very lucky in my youth to have met and got to hang with a man who has been a great influence in my life, and that was the late, great Clarence White.

 

Dr. Kent:  Oh my goodness, wow.

 

Cam King:  Yeah. So, I’ll just throw that one bluegrass name at you there.

 

Dr. Kent:  How was that? You hung out with him?

 

Cam King:  One day, when I was in high school.

 

Dr. Kent:  Wow.

 

Cam King:  He was playing with The Birds, they came to Albuquerque. I finagled a day long interview, hung out with Roger McWilliams, Gene Parsons, Clarence White, John York. Also Dwight Axton and the guys in Three Dog Night, and it was pretty much a kid’s dream come true. And Clarence has long been an influence in my life. I got to know his brother Roland in Nashville, and so that’s my…

 

Dr. Kent:  I talked with Roland White about a week ago. Really nice fellow.

 

Cam King:  What a small world, my friend. A small world, indeed.

 

Dr. Kent:  Yeah, and Clarence White, man, that man can play the guitar.

 

Cam King:  He made that Martin speak didn’t he? Of course, I inherited a lot of his telecaster playing, I’m an avid B string bender myself, and it has marked a lot of the work that I’ve done.

 

Dr. Kent:  He just changed the world of music, there’s no question about it. And a fun thing is that Clarence White, of course, hung out with Doc in the early 60’s, it’s fun to think about that.

 

Cam King:  Doc’s influence on Clarence is very evident, but boy, you couldn’t have influenced a better player, could you.

 

Dr. Kent:  Exactly. Well, thank you so much for chatting, it’s been a blast. And the book is called Amplified, and it’s fiction from a whole bunch of folks, and it’s out there everywhere. And you should go to anonymous.org and find Cam King, or Google him at Cam King, that’s C-a-m King. And he’s got some great stuff out there. You can also find him on all sorts of records here and there, or rent Texas Chainsaw Massacre and try and find a circuit queen.

 

Cam King:  Well, Texas Chainsaw Massacre was before me, I came after that, but you can usually find a connection there somewhere.

 

Dr. Kent:  All right, well it’s been great chatting with you, and I hope, I wish you all the success with this book. And I can’t wait to see when your book comes out, it’s the full…

 

Cam King:  Yeah, it’ll be happening. But thanks a lot for your time, Dr. Kent. I don’t know where, between all your music and your writing that you find the time to talk to people like me, but I appreciate you taking the time.

 

Dr. Kent:  All right, we’ll talk to you later.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Folk, TRANSCRIPTS, Fiction, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

Susan Oetgen | Likeness to Lily

September 14, 2009 | Comments Off

 
icon for podpress  Interview with Likeness to Lily [26:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From their website:

Elegant and epic, realist and romantic, foreign and familiar - Likeness to Lily is a Brooklyn-based New Music quartet with a flair for telling syncopated stories in the patois of post-modern pop. Vocalist Susan Oetgen’s classically poetic melodies come from the heart of everyday life and love, and find pulse and passion in the jazz-inspired rhythms, harmonies and compositional savoir-faire of pianist Tony Melone, drummer Evan Pazner and bassist Ian M. Riggs.

Since forming in 2003, Likeness to Lily has performed regularly in the downtown music clubs of New York City, recently venturing forth to appear in concert series and performing arts venues along the East Coast, notably on the Vermont Arts Exchange’s Basement Music Series in N. Bennington, VT, and the Hump Day Groovz Series at Washington, DC’s Busboys & Poets. In 2005, Likeness to Lily independently recorded and released their debut record, Solitude’s Dollhouse, which features the song ‘Jewelia’, as heard on A&E Television’s prime-time reality show, Random 1.

In March 2008, Likeness to Lily premiered an original multimedia song-cycle entitled Bazm-o-Razm on the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s Music off the Walls series at the Brooklyn Museum, featuring chamber musicians from the Brooklyn Philharmonic, visual images by artist Justin Waldstein, Iraq War photos by Pulitzer Prize-nominee Alan Chin, and choreography by Sahar Javedani. Bazm-o-Razm was reprised at The Performance Project @ University Settlement in May 2008, and will be performed again on December 5, 2008 at Galapagos Art Space, for the occasion of Likeness to Lily’s Farewell, Recruit CD release. Farewell, Recruit contains the complete music of Bazm-o-Razm, as well 6 other original songs that integrate the dramatic depth of opera with tight, but conversational, song arrangements and ageless acoustic appeal.

For the full discography, see Music.
For a printable, downloadable presskit, see Booking.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Pop, Experimental, Folk, Classical, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, Jazz, PODCAST 

Jessica Lovell | The Lovell Sisters

September 10, 2009 | Comments Off

 
icon for podpress  Interview with Jessica Lovell [21:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

There is a word often used when describing rising Americana stars The Lovell Sisters: Passion. It’s what these three young women—Jessica (23), Megan (20) and Rebecca (18)—feel when they step on stage to perform. Passion is the fuel that feeds their writing and arranging, and it colors every note they play and sing on Time To Grow, their forthcoming new album.

Time To Grow features five original songs, including two award-winners; the title track, “Time To Grow,” is a finalist in the 2008 International Songwriting Competition, and “Distance,” a Grand Prize Winner in the 2008 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Rebecca was prompted to write “Time To Grow,” a colorful description of life on the road, after her discovery of the finger-style guitar playing of Kelly Joe Phelps. When asked about the story behind “Distance,” Rebecca says the chords and melody came in a flash while the lyrics took months to refine.

As their audience grows, it diversifies, too. “We were exposed to a broad spectrum of genres growing up  and now draw from a wide variety of musical influences,” says Rebecca. “We try not to limit ourselves. We listen to everything.” When Megan seeks inspiration for her dobro playing, she is just as apt to turn to the work of electric guitar greats like Derek Trucks and Mark Knopfler as any of her acknowledged predecessors and peers in country or bluegrass.

With Time To Grow, The Lovell Sisters share their passion for music with their fans, with their colleagues, and especially with each other. “All three of us have different personalities, different strengths and weaknesses,” concludes Megan. “But we take care of each other, and our various strengths help lift each other up. As sisters, we’re very much on the same wave length and I think people can really see that in the way we interact on stage.”

Posted by admin | Filed Under Pop, Bluegrass, Folk, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

Darol Anger | Fiddle Virtuoso

September 5, 2009 | Comments Off

Dr. Kent: Now, my next guest on the show is Darol Anger, he’s known as one of the best fiddlers in the country for a long time now He was a member of the Turtle Island String Quartet, an amazing group of musicians. They cross over from classical music to folk music to all sorts of things. We’re going to listen to one song from him called Love On Three Levels, and after that we’ll talk to him live.

(music)

Dr. Kent:  What a beautiful song from Darol Anger. That song is called Love on Three Levels. And now I have Darol live on the show. Welcome to the show.

Darol Anger:  All right, I’m glad to be here.

Dr. Kent:  Tell us about that tune, Love on Three Levels.

Darol Anger:  Yeah, well, it was dedicated to somebody who I was with at the time, and we had a place that actually had three levels, so I decided to write a tune that had three sections, and had a lot of three-type rhythms. I decided to throw every three I could in.

Dr. Kent:  You have such an amazing background, you know, when you started talking about numbers there, so many of the tunes that you’ve done and that the Turtle Island String Quartet, of course, and all these projects you’ve done have crazy rhythms and this and that, but they all sound beautiful or crazy fast, and this and that. And it’s only when someone tries to go and play it that they realize how difficult some of that stuff is.

Darol Anger:  You must be a musician then, huh?

Dr. Kent:  Yes, indeed. Yes. I wouldn’t even try to…  But how’d you get your start with doing some of the more I guess crazy stuff? There’s straight time fiddle playing, and you’re certainly great at that, but how did you get into some of the more difficult stuff?

Darol Anger:  Well you know, I grew up at a time when the Beatles were very popular. In fact, I got into music because of the Beatles. So that kind of ruined me for any kind of traditional, period, supposedly pure kind of music style,  I think. Just growing up in that kind of aesthetic. And I’ve just always been interested in stuff that was interesting to me, you know. I’m just interested in a lot of things. I love all kinds of music, and to me it doesn’t seem that weird. I just try to make it so that it’s beautiful, you know, that you can listen to it without having to worry about how it’s all constructed, but if you really want to get in there, if you want to get into it, you can.

Dr. Kent:  And you’ve played with some people that would make most fiddle players just absolutely drool. From legendary Stephane Grappelli to Mark O’Connor and Bela Fleck and then of course Vassar Clements who passed away a couple years ago.

Darol Anger:  Yeah. it’s been an incredible education.

Dr. Kent:  The violin is such a tiny little instrument, but it can do so many different things.

Darol Anger:  It’s one of the most flexible instruments that is made. You can see it’s spread to all parts of the world, you know, just about every culture. Even the East Indians use the violin in their music now, it’s amazing. Something that was invented basically 400 years ago in Italy has spread all over the world. That sort of tells the story right there about how flexible and how you can just pretty much do anything with it. I love it. And I have been really, incredibly luck to play with all these people. I guess David Grisman and Tony Rice really were the guys that really taught me the most at first about music and playing music and stuff like that. Playing in David’s band was incredible, and he was very generous with his knowledge. He kind of stuck with me when I was struggling, cause I wasn’t that great a player when I first got on with him, and he had faith in me and let me develop at my own pace, which was as fast as I possibly could, but it still seemed like forever, trying to get up to those guys’ level. And who knows if I even am yet, but it’s been an amazing, amazing trip. I feel incredibly lucky and I was just in the right place at the right time.

Dr. Kent:  And what’s so interesting about David Grisman’s groups and those is that they can pick extremely fast on some crazy tunes, but he and a lot of that generation of players, they can really do melodies, you know, they can slow it down and play the tune.

Darol Anger:  Oh yeah, that’s been such an important thing for me. And that’s something you aren’t necessarily going to get at first. I think many young players are kind of in a stage where they’re just adding stuff and I think it’s a necessary stage, you know, that people just instrumentally try to do more, and just add to their repertoire, and it’s not necessarily, the time, to focus in on the essence, the melody. I guess I’m kind of in a place where I’m starting to carve away at everything that doesn’t sound like me in my playing. It’s an interesting time where I’m actually working on eliminating stuff, rather than adding. I might go through another period of adding, you know. I certainly just recently have been really interested in Swedish and Scandinavian string band music. There’s this group called Vasen, great, amazing Scandinavian players. And that seems like I’m going to be adding a lot of stuff there, you know, but right now I’m just carving away, trying to get at the melody.

Dr. Kent:  What projects are you working on right now?

Darol Anger:  Well, I’m in Berkeley, California and I’m going to be playing a couple shows at the original Fillmore auditorium with the Yonder Mountain String Band tonight and tomorrow night. I’m really looking forward to that. Those guys are just some really great people. They’re very creative, exciting musicians, and it’s going to be fun. For some reason they seem to just love me, and I’m happy to be part of their world. That’s good, I’m just kind of sitting in with them. And then next week I’m going to be teaching at a fiddle camp in Big Sur, California. That’s south of Monterey, down on the coast there, and it’s going to be a beautiful place. I’m going to be working with the great Irish fiddle player Liz Carroll and Bruce Molsky, and the Clarridges, I don’t know if you’re familiar with Tristan Clarridge, six-time Grand National fiddle champion who plays cello with Crooked Still.

Dr. Kent:  Oh, I have heard that. Yep, I’ve heard him play. And Liz Carroll is an extraordinary player, she played with, what’s the name of that group, Solas, was it?

Darol Anger:  She had possibly played in Solas for a short time. Liz is actually one of the few fiddle players who I get scared to take my fiddle out of the case around her. She’s amazing, you know. But I’m used to being a little scared.

Dr. Kent:  It’s funny that yeah, it would be fun to watch all the fiddle envy going on backstage between all the fiddle players.

Darol Anger:  Oh, yeah.

Dr. Kent:  No, but I think you’re all underpaid enough that you all respect each other, right?

Darol Anger:  Oh, we love each other, you know. It’s just such a different, difficult instrument. I always like to say that there’s this imaginary nation of string players. We’re all kind of go through the same thing, we’re just trying to struggle to play this instrument, it’s very unforgiving and you know, we’re a community of people whose imaginary boundaries are scattered through and beyond all the other imaginary boundaries that people make up. We’re very aware of how difficult it is to do this, and are mostly really supportive and very admiring of each other’s work. Liz of course is just one of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. And I’m actually really looking forward to getting over my fear this week, this next week, just to learn some Irish fiddle playing from her. She’s just so terrific, and she’s got a new record out with John Doyle, the guitar player.

Dr. Kent:  Oh, he’s the one that makes me put my guitar back in the case.

Darol Anger: Yeah, those two together are just like a meltdown, you just think the whole world’s going to just come alive and start playing and spinning.

Dr. Kent:  Exactly. Well, your music is very much admired, and I’m a huge fan of the Turtle Island String Quartet.

Darol Anger:  Well, thanks.

Dr. Kent:  As a classical composer, actually, that was one of my earliest introductions to some crazy harmonies.

Darol Anger:  That’s great. Um, you mean, Jazz harmonies, right?

Dr. Kent:  Do you still do anything with that group?

Darol Anger:  You know, I see those guys a lot. I left the group, let’s see, we started the TISQ in 1985 and I left the group in ’96. But they’re still going, with two of the original members, and they’re just doing better than ever. I think the group is just amazing. So it’s exciting to have helped start something that’s become sort of an institution, you know. Or to have started something that seems to go by itself. I guess it’s something that the world needed, and now it’s continuing.

Dr. Kent:  Well, it’s been such an honor chatting with you, and we’re going to listen to one tune on the way out here called Overture From the Acadian Suite. Talk about that for a second, and then…

Darol Anger:  Oh yeah. That was inspired by my friend Michael Doucet, who has the group BeauSoleil. Michael is sort of a closet jazz fiddle player, and he’s quite the amazing guy in general. He came to me with some music that he got from a documentary that was made in the 30’s, which was all drawn from this amazing Cajun source material that was some of the first field tapes to be made in Louisiana. And it was turned into this movie score by Virgil Thompson.  So there’s this amazing score for this movie, called The Louisiana Story, all based on Cajun music. Michael wanted to sort of turn it back into a piece that The Fiddlers Four could play. So there are two layers of digestion here that are required, you know.
So I did that, and then I wound up doing music for a documentary about that same movie. Michael did the voice-over narration soundtrack for it. So I wound up kind of adapting all that stuff, and now it’s just into another phase, it’s been through a whole cow’s stomach kind of thing. And it’s actually genuinely something really nice, so I’m kind of working on that for string orchestra, I want to develop that into something and maybe Michael and I will do solos on that, so it’s a project.

Dr. Kent:  Well very cool, I’ll be psyched to listen to that with everybody else here, and I really appreciate you talking to us.

Darol Anger:  Well it’s a pleasure, yeah, I hope you guys are having nice weather out there. Of course in California it’s always the same. It’s pretty fun. All right…

Dr. Kent:  It’s creeping towards summer here, very slowly.

Darol Anger:  All right, that’s good. We like that part.

Dr. Kent:  So we can find out a lot more about Darol Anger on his website, http://www.darolanger.com, and there’s a ton of stuff on there including where he’s going to be appearing, and all his recordings and samples and all sorts of good stuff. Thank you for chatting with us today.

Darol Anger:  Hey, well, it’s my pleasure. Thank you so much.

Dr. Kent:  And we’re going to listen to that track I was telling you about called Overture from the Acadian Suites, he just told us about that, let’s listen to it.

(music)

Dr. Kent: That was a beautiful tune by Darol Anger, and we’ll see you next week. Pick up a good book, and we’ll talk to you next time.

Posted by admin | Filed Under TRANSCRIPTS, Bluegrass, Folk, Classical, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, Jazz, PODCAST 

The Lovell Sisters | Musician Jessica Lovell

June 9, 2009 | 1 Comment

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. On the four part of each show I like to feature an author of sounds. This group the Lovell Sisters really impressed me the first time I saw I heard them and that was on Garrison Keillor’s Show “A Prairie Home Companion”. They were pretty young when they were on the show. And I was blown away by their sound. This group is just come back from Sweden. They were on about a week tour in Sweden and now they are back in the Midwest and their going to go down south pretty soon and out east. They’re going all over the place so now I have Jessica on the line from the Lovell Sisters. Welcome to the show.

Jessica: Hello. Thank you so much for having me. How are you doing?

Dr. Kent: Very Good. So you just come back from Sweden I see.

Jessica: Yes we actually just got off the plan not long ago and then drove Atlanta where we flew in up to we are now in Middleton Wisconsin and we’re doing a show here tonight. So it’s been a good time. Everybody had a fantastic time in Europe, we were in Norway and Sweden for almost three weeks and now we are going on another 10 day run. Kind of in Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and down to Maryland and gong back home. We live in Callhoun Georgia. But our mother and father, we have a little brother who is 6 years old. His name is Thomas are very much anticipating out return home. But we’re having a good time.

Dr. Kent: Now your three sisters. Tell me about the family a little bit you told me you got a little brother and parents but tell me about the Lovell Sisters.

Jessica: Well my name is Jessica, I’m the oldest. I play fiddle. The middle sister, her name is Megan. She plays the Dobro. Our youngest sister Rebecca plays mandolin and also plays finger style guitar. That’s the three of us we’re also touring with two guys in our bank who are fantastic instrumentalists. Daniel Kimbro playing the bass and Matt Twingate playing guitar. So we really have fun on the road. It’s been really a great band. The band is really tight and of course we’re very excited about the new CD in our lives we’re playing the new songs and so it’s been awesome.

Dr. Kent: So how about without further a do I’d love to play the title track from the album were going to play the whole track so you can put me on speaker and chill out a bit. Its called “Time to Grow” the title track from the Lovell Sisters new album. When’s it come out?

Jessica: I think over the summer date not exact the release date not been quite set. That is should literally know that in the next couple days here. We’re really excited about that and I think its going to be released a little sooner but kind of more information TBA later on that.

Dr. Kent: Cool.

Jessica: The record we just finished recording in Nashville.

Dr. Kent: We’ll talk to you in a minute after this tune is done.

Jessica: Ok Thank You so much.

Music Playing

Dr. Kent: That’s a beautiful tune from the Lovell Sisters “Time to Grow.” It’s the title track of their album that’s going to be released this summer. Jessica promising us that there be a digital version to released before that. So welcome back to the show again Jessica.

Jessica: Thank you so much.

Dr. Kent: Tell us about tack

Jessica: Sorry one more time?

Dr. Kent: Tell us about that track a little bit.

Jessica: That track we had some fun making this record. I think for us the last couple years have been a real learning experience for us. WE basically have decided to keep creative control and through make the record the way we wanted to. Just play the music that inspired us and this is a song that Rebecca out baby sister and she’s playing finger style guitar on this track and Megan playing Dobro and I’m playing fiddle. So we went into the studio and were able to create the sound that we wanted I think that not being on a label is really giving us the able to do that and so “Time to Grow” I think is also kind of what this whole record really means for us. WE put out our debut CD in 2005 after going on Prairie Home Companion. Which was an awesome experience for us going on Prairie home Companion. We put out that first CD and so now it’s been awhile since we put out a CD. That time for us to learn a whole lot and find out own voice. I think this record really is a good snap shot of what we are over the last couple years. We’ve toured a lot and had the opportunity to meet a lot of really really cool people and artists and just to have a lot of experiences. We certainly wouldn’t have otherwise had except for just having people supporting us and going out on the road. Rebecca was 25-26 when that first record come out and she just turned 18. So getting involved with songwriting as well that all those different things floating around the creation of into this CD and which that was the title track.

Dr. Kent: I was listening to the show that night the Prairie Home Companion and that was my first introduction your group and you did a bang up job on that show. I remember going to your website that same day because I was so struck by it wasn’t only you guys have great sound and a great song style but I was blown away by your instrumental talent as a trio.

Jessica: Wow! Thank You so much. That’s really cool, I mean that was actually out 2nd official; gig we been involved in classical music and like sing in our church choir prior to that so we heard bluegrass and just started messing around more like at home on weekend and we played this little place called the Sigoneon Opry on Friday nights and that’s where we heard Bluegrass for the first time. That acoustic music that how we landed that one and found out the same time we were going to be playing on Prairie Home Companion. We sent in a demo and so we were so nervous to go on that program but it went well and that opened a lot of doors that we didn’t’ even know existed and its been am amazing ride since then. Now we’re making music which is just a great blessing it’s an opportunity for us to be touring around especially us sisters as well.

Dr. Kent: As part of that your on the your not an easy from the outside seem oh what a blessing you get to play all these gigs but then when you describe all the nitty gritty of it you get off the plan and drive for tons of hours to the next gig and to the next one. It’s a hard life on the road.

Jessica: You know it is but I think that from a lot of that comes a lot of inspiration for the song writing itself as well and makes you feel like a step away when your away from home. It’s a different kind of reality like for instance today we flew into Atlanta driving 14 hours from Atlanta to Wisconsin, snowing for part of it, it was raining for part of it. You get your good and you meet, there’s things on the road you never expect and I think its true of everyone you want to try and plan your life as much as you can but you know a lot of times stuff happens and it maybe the best thing that ever happened and you just have to be flexible and move forward and stay close to the people around you that’s something especially for us that we realized how important people are in your life no matter what’s happening around or to you that those people are really the whole part. Kind of been the point on another track of this CD that’s called “Subway song” that Megan wrote and that really incaps that for me. Yeah we’re having such a great time. Thank you for having me on by the way this is great talking to you.

Dr. Kent: Absolutely again your music fast want to ask you one more question and we’ll play another track from the record.

Jessica: Yeah Sure.

Dr. Kent: About your instrumental ability the three of you, How did that develop?

Jessica: You know we started playing classical violin and piano when we were younger little like maybe 6 years old. Music has always been a hobby for us. So all three of us started on violin and piano we played in symphonies and quartets. We still; we still love classical music although we aren’t as involved in it as we were starting out. Then we heard bluegrass music for the first time, that’s when Megan started playing the dobro and Rebecca started playing the mandolin. We were really proud of Rebecca, she become the first woman and youngest contestant ever to win the Merlefest International Mandolin competition. I think just being able to play and there’s more and more girl pickers out there we’re meeting. I think that’s really great. There’s a lot of women in the music industry just great role models for the girls getting started like Alison Kraus to the Dixie Chicks. There’s a lot of great singer/songwriter instrumentalists that are great role models. Yeah we’ve been playing bluegrass for I guess 5 or 6 years. So that’s how long we’ve been playing the current instruments. It’s a good time and the band we have is great.

Dr. Kent: Cool. You must be pretty good at it because you sure didn’t sound like you were playing your second gig on Garrison Keillor. Ever since then this is a beautiful album. It has the sound of the Dixie Chicks they play their own instruments and you guy do the same thing. You’ve definitely developed some serious talents there. I love this new album. Tell me about this track “Take One Moment” and we’ll listen to that.

Jessica: Sure “Take One Moment” I love that track. That was written its kid of funning talking about being on the road and off the road. It was written by Megan and Rebecca. We been on the road for at least a week and had 24 hours at home. As so as we were in the house, all of a sudden the girls were gone didn’t know where they were. They disappeared and breakfast came and breakfast went still no girls and they came back downstairs, they had written this song and recorded demo that’s how heard it. Rebecca has a little studio in her room its like a one Mic and a tool rig. She really enjoys recording things and kind of experimenting and this is one of the things that came out of Rebecca’s room. So I hope people will enjoy it I really love this track.

Dr. Kent: Thank You so much for chatting with me. We’re going to listen to this track and we’re going to say Good Bye for this week. I can’t wait to talk to you again sometime and I’ll definitely keep up with what you’re doing.

Jessica: Wonderful Thank You so much.

Dr. Kent: And we can go to lovellsistersband.com and there’s a whole bunch of information about their tour, which is going on all over the place right now. We’ll talk to you again soon.

Jessica: Thank You.

Dr. Kent: We’re going to play a track called “Take One Moment” and this is from the upcoming album from the Lovell Sisters “Time to Grow.”

Music Playing

Dr. Kent: That was a beautiful tune called “Take One Moment” from the Lovell Sisters album “Time to Grow.” Check out their CD when it comes out later this year, it their second release. An amazing group of sensitive vocals and incredible instrumental skills.

Wells its been my honor today to have three authors and one musician on the show. Of course I chatted with James Bond Anthology author Raymond Benson at the beginning that was a blast. Paul Doyle who was narcotics agent and chatted with us about his book. That is already doing very well and also Jeremy Robinson, who is the author of Antarktos Rising and talked to him special worlds in fiction. And take it easy this week and pick up a good book and we’ll see you the next time.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Bluegrass, TRANSCRIPTS, Folk, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

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