Dale Ann Bradley | Saturday & Sunday
June 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Bluegrass/Ameri
Don Rigsby | High Lonesome
May 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment
From remote Isonville, Ky., to an international following in Bluegrass music, Don Rigsby has remained true to his mountain roots and made his own marks as a powerful tenor and distinctive mandolin player. Rigsby has released three solo albums. His first, “A Vision,” won the Association of Independent Music’s “gospel album of the year” award and was nominated for an IBMA award. He received the 1999 Bluegrass Now Magazine Fan’s Choice Award for vocal tenor of the year and the 2001 Governor’s Kentucky Star Award. “Empty Old Mailbox,” the title track from his third album, won the 2001 Song of the Year award from SPGBMA. In 2005, Rigsby was awarded two IBMA awards for his role as producer of the Larry Sparks project “40” for Recorded Event of the Year and Album of the Year. He has recorded two albums with Dudley Connell, with plans for a third, and continues to perform and record with Midnight Call and Longview. http://www.donr
Doyle Lawson Transcript
March 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. On the fourth part of each show we feature authors of sound. One of my favorite authors of sound is a man named Doyle Lawson. He has played with just about anybody you can think of in the field of bluegrass. His band is always the best in the business. Welcome to the show.
Doyle: Thank you very much. It’s good to talk to you.
Dr. Kent: Now, tell me a little bit, where are you right now?
Doyle: Well, I am actually in Fredrick, Maryland, on my way down to Bethesda for a concert tonight at the Strathmore Theatre. And then we come back to Fredrick to the Weinberg Theatre tomorrow night.
Dr. Kent: How is the life on the road? How does it treat you?
Doyle: Well, I’ve been doing it for 45 years, and it’s treated me pretty good. [laughs] It all depends on how you take it and how you look at it. If you love to travel, as I do, it doesn’t bother you. If you’re not one that enjoys to travel and being on the road a good deal of the time, then I would suggest that you maybe take up bookkeeping or something like that. [laughs]
Dr. Kent: Your bands are always so incredible. How do you go about choosing the members of your bands?
Doyle: Well, I look for people that will fit the moods of the style of music I play, that can blend in with us and join in their efforts and keep the transition between one musician and another as seamless as possible, and still keep that sound that’s identified as Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver.
Dr. Kent: And they can all sing, that’s for sure.
Doyle: Primarily, the first thing I look for is the vocals, their vocal prowess and how they’ll blend with my voice and the other guys in the group at the time. But vocals are the primary thing I look for at first, and then I look at their skills as far as playing whichever instrument that I need to be played.
Dr. Kent: Let’s talk a little bit about your gospel music. I think you do gospel music the best of anybody in the business. Why is it that you have that soul in all of this music? Where does it come from?
Doyle: Well, I grew up in east Tennessee and my father was involved in quartet music. They sang all a cappella. During those days, when I was a child, most churches in and around the east Tennessee, southwestern Virginia area would have a quartet within the church, or a trio of some sort, but a lot of a cappella music.I learned to love gospel music being brought up in church and hearing my father in the quartet he’d sing with. It just left a lasting impact on my life. And I’m quick to tell people that as far as gospel music is concerned, he was my first and biggest influence.
Dr. Kent: Your newest album is called “Help Is On the Way.” There’s a whole bunch of albums that you all have put out. I love that every album is full of gospel music, full of vocal music, full of soul. This newest album, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver “Help Is On the Way,” let’s listen to the title track, “Help Is On the Way.”[music]
Dr. Kent: That song is the title track from “Help Is On the Way,” released in 2008 by Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. And that mandolin solo was yours, am I right?
Doyle: Yes, sir, that was me.
Dr. Kent: When did you start playing the mandolin?
Doyle: I started trying to learn to play mandolin when I was about 11 years old. One of the fellows that sang with my dad in the quartet, I discovered he had a little mandolin and asked my dad to see if I could borrow it. He did and I did, and I began to teach myself to play the mandolin.I’m self-taught pretty much, but along the way I had some help from the legendary Jimmy Martin of bluegrass fame, which was actually who I wound up going to work for my first professional job. In February of 1963, I took a job with Jimmy. But I started liking the mandolin when I was about four or five years old.I’ve played a lot of different instruments. The fact is, my first professional job I was a banjo player, but mandolin has always been my first love. And still, above all the things that I play, that’s my favorite and primarily that’s what I play most of the time.
Dr. Kent: The one thing I have heard about Jimmy Martin, who has now left us, but one of the best voices in the history of bluegrass. One thing that I’ve heard about him is that he was a school himself. He taught everybody how to sing, how to play. Didn’t matter if he was better than them at that instrument, but he would tell you if you were doing it right. Is that right?
Doyle: Absolutely, Jimmy was a taskmaster for sure, but he had when it came to his music, he knew exactly what he wanted and settled for nothing less than that. That was, of course, that was my earliest days of professional training.Before that my dad was the same way in the music he sang, even though they didn’t play, they sang; and they were very disciplined with it, as was Jimmy.So, that’s carried with me all these years. I’m much the same way when it comes to my group. When it comes to my music, I have a definite idea about how I want it to be. I tell them; the reason I hire these people is because I know that they can do what it is that I ask.
Dr. Kent: And you have such a different brand of bluegrass, I think. My opinion. One of my favorite albums is called “A School of Bluegrass.” It’s all of your outtakes from over the years.
Doyle: Yeah, that was something that I had. Over the years I would tape rehearsals and sometimes pick up a live show along the way or something like that. I got to looking through all the things that I had stored up. I discovered that pretty much I had rehearsals or some music by just about every formation of the groups down through the years to celebrate my 25 years as a bandleader.So the record company suggested that, since I’ve had so many great musicians come through here and go on and do quite well for themselves, that maybe they would like to call it “A School of Bluegrass,” because I am known as a taskmaster sometimes.But I never asked people to do anything that I wouldn’t do myself.
Dr. Kent: And you put out an album a year, at least. How do you do that?
Doyle: Well, you stay after it. There’s an old saying, out of sight, out of mind, and I’ve always tried to stay productive for the people. It’s good for me as a professional musician. It keeps my chops up. Keeps my interest up.I don’t want to slide into that safety zone where I say, “Well, OK, I’ve done this. I’ve done that. I’ve done this. I want to coast awhile.” I don’t believe in coasting. If you are going to be out here doing it, be productive.For two reasons: one, it keeps your talents up to par; and it gives people something fresh to know that Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver are still out there working hard to make sure that they have music that they can enjoy.
Dr. Kent: Now, my last question for you. How do you balance this: In the bluegrass world today, there is such a different group of folks that love the gospel and love the non-gospel music. How do you keep the gospel music alive?
Doyle: Well, you know, it’s something that for me that is more than just doing the music. It’s something that I believe in. My faith is very real and important to me in my walk of life and I believe myself, and show as an example of the way I think people should behave.I love gospel music, as I stated earlier. So I have found that my audience, whether it be an all-gospel concert or a mixture of both… sometimes I may go out at a concert and I start to trying to get a feel for the audience what they are enjoying the most.Sometimes I may do 60 percent bluegrass and 40 percent gospel. Or I may do 60 percent gospel and 40 percent bluegrass. It all depends on what they are really enjoying. If they are really enjoying the gospel music more, I do that. If they are enjoying the secular, I make sure that I do a good amount of gospel, but I kind of leave that up to each audience where we are going as to how much I’m doing of either one.
Dr. Kent: This has been a real honor speaking with Doyle Lawson of Quicksilver. You are a legend. It’s been great chatting with you and your new album is called “Help Is On the Way” from 2008.We’re going to listen to a track, a secular track called “Sadie’s Got Her New Dress On.” Thank you for being on the show.
Doyle: Been my pleasure. Thank you.[music]
Dr. Kent: Thank you for sitting in to Sound Authors. I’m Dr. Kent. I’ve been speaking with Doyle Lawson of Quicksilver. That’s who we are listening to in the background.And with two novelists: Kate Maloy with “Every Last Cuckoo,” Jim Olson with “The Eagle Unchained,” and then a woman who’s an expert on writing, Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Go visit all them on the web. Visit us atsoundauthors.com and we’ll see you soon.
Doyle Lawson | Bluegrass Gospel Harmony
March 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
If Bill Monroe is the father of bluegrass, Doyle Lawson is the father of Bluegrass Gospel Harmony. His band has always had the best vocalists, and over decades in the business, each release he puts out is better than the last. We spoke with him about gospel, being on the road, and being in the business for so many years…More about Doyle Lawson from his website www.doylelawson.com:
I was born on April 20, 1944 in Ford Town, a part of Sullivan County, near Kingsport, TN, to Leonard and Minnie Lawson. I have two brothers, James and Les, and one sister, Colleen. As far back as I can remember, I loved the sound of music. Just about everyone listened to The Grand Ole Opry, and our family was no exception. Though I listened to all the stars on the Opry, the group that impressed me most was Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys. His music was different, more intense. High lonesome is the term we used for it. I could hardly wait for Saturday nights to arrive so I could listen. I decided early on that I wanted to play that kind of music. My father, mother, and sister all sang gospel music when I was young. They were members of trios and quartets that sang a cappella music in churches and at revivals, and such. No doubt, that was where I acquired my love of quartet music. When I was 11 or 12 years old I expressed an interest in learning to play the mandolin, so my Father borrowed one from one of the members of their quartet, Willis Byrd so I could try. I mostly taught myself to play by listening to the radio, a few records, and watching the occasional TV show. I eventually returned that mandolin to Mr. Byrd, and years later, he gave it back to me at one of the first concerts Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver played in Sneedville, TN. I still have it. I met Jimmy Martin when I was 14 years old. He is from Sneedville, TN where we had moved to in 1954. Around that time, I made up my mind that I wanted to play music for a living, and realized that only playing one instrument was somewhat limiting, so I made it a point to learn how to play the banjo and guitar, too. Four years later, in February 1963, I went to Nashville and got a job playing banjo with Jimmy Martin. In 1966, I started working with JD Crowe in Lexington, KY. I first played guitar and later switched to mandolin. In 1969, I was back with Jimmy Martin for about six months playing mandolin and singing tenor but then went back with J D Crowe until August of 1971. I started with the Country Gentlemen on September 1, 1971 and stayed with them until March 1979. By this time, I had played in bands for more than 10 years, that had their “sound” before I joined them. I wanted to put together a group that would have “my sound”. To that end, in April 1979, I formed a group that I first named Doyle Lawson & Foxfire but soon changed to Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. I was looking for “our sound” and that first group tried many different types of songs. I wanted a strong quartet like the ones my dad used to sing with. In the next few months, Terry Baucom, Jimmy Haley, Lou Reid and I laid the foundation for what has become the Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver sound. The makeup of my band has changed many times in the last 27 years. I jokingly tell folks that Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver is the “farm team” for bluegrass. I try to integrate each member’s special talents into my group, while not sacrificing the Quicksilver sound. While the sound changes a bit with the introduction of a new band member, it is important to me that people hear what they expect to hear when we take the stage, no matter who is in the group. My Father passed away in 1994, but my Mother still lives in Kingsport, TN, only thirty minutes from us. Suzanne, my wife, and I were married June 24, 1978. I have one son, Robbie, and we have two girls, Suzi and Kristi. Robbie and his wife, Carla, live in Kentucky. Suzi graduated from King College and works for the Daymon Corp in Meadowview,VA. Kristi attended King College for 2 years and is trying to finish up her education at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. We live close to South Holston Lake and enjoy the solitude of the water and mountains. Suzanne bought a small sailboat last fall and when I’m home and there is a breeze, we sail. I collect western memorabilia of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, etc. I also enjoy looking at old cars, and I recently bought a 1946 Ford Coupe. It has been restored from the ground up and I’m enjoying riding around town in it.We are all members of Cold Spring Presbyterian Church and while Suzanne and Suzi are there almost every Sunday, I miss a few when I’m out on the road. I love golf, and play every time I have the opportunity. We have a Men’s Bible Study on Tuesday mornings and if I’m home, I try and make Bible Study and then several of us play golf.
I have been hosting the Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver festival in Denton, NC for more than twenty-five years. A few years ago we started a golf tournament on Thursday, the week of the festival. I’d like to be able to say we were defending our title every year, but we aren’t. (Just wishing)The gospel music that we record and perform on stage has always been important to me. Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver have made many more gospel recordings than secular ones. It is apparent to me that the folks who buy our music and come to our concerts feel, as I do, that there is no better message than the message of Jesus Christ. On the first Sunday of May, in 1985, I rededicated my life to our Lord Jesus. It is my fervent hope that my “musical mission” will lead others to Him.
Robin Williams Transcript
January 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Announcer: You have been listening to Sound Authors Where Authors Sound Off. If you would like more information about Sound Authors and Dr. Kent’s guests, visit soundauthors.com. Now, back to Dr. Kent and friends.
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. On the last segment of every show, we feature an author of sound, and on this show, I am honored to have Robin and Linda Williams on the show. Not only is their music heavenly, drifting from somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon Line, somewhere where the world must still be untouched by commercialism.Their music made up the soundtrack to my own childhood among countless others. We tuned in every week to Prairie Home Companion to hear the lonesome Gospel quartet, Robin and Linda Williams singing some song, must be from the angels. Welcome to the show today.
Robin Williams: Good afternoon, how are you? Well, it’s afternoon here, I don’t know where you are. Are you on the east coast or the west coast Dr. Kent?
Dr. Kent: I’m on the east coast; I’m up in New York.
Robin: Yeah OK, good afternoon to you too, well greetings from the Shenandoah Valley, sunny Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Dr. Kent: Thank you sir, how is the weather down there?
Robin: It’s good, started off raining; now we got the sunshine, so it’s a good day, it’s a good day.
Dr. Kent: So, your music is part country, part folk, where does it come from inside you and your wife?
Robin: Well, it just came from a variety of influences and then through the individual prisms of Robin and Linda Williams, it comes out as an individualistic style. If you listen to our music, you can hear a little bit of bluegrass, you can hear a little bit of old time country music. You can hear a little bit of the country music of the 50s and the 60s. It’s, as I said, an individual sound. That was our goal, when we first started out 30 years ago, to find something that people would hear and know exactly who we are, and I think, on some level, we succeeded there.
Dr. Kent: Absolutely. Did you grow up singing?
Robin: Oh yeah. I grew up… my father was a minister. So, there was a lot of music around all the time, mainly in the church. So, I ended up singing in church choirs, and that’s how I first found my voice. Found the fact that there was music in my soul, it was singing in churches. As it turns out, when I met Linda, we had pretty much the same kind of experience. It was singing in churches, and then that lead to high school glee clubs and then at some point, both of us picked up instruments and then went on our way into finding and making a life in music.
Dr. Kent: Do you still enjoy it? I know, I myself am also a musician, and I still have the real joy of it, but I can imagine if you are on the road all the time, does it get tiresome sometimes?
Robin: Well, sometimes it does get tiresome, but only if you get tired. One of the things we decided long time ago was learn how to do this in the right way, so that when we are out there on the road, we make sure that we don’t get so tired that it becomes a grind. The best day of everyday, Kent, is playing music, and that’s what… if you’re on the road, the best part of the day is when you get up in front of people and are able to bring these audiences the music that you want them to hear, the music from your soul.It’s not tiresome; I don’t get tired of that, we live for that. It’s just part of what we are, and part of what we look forward too. I mean, at this point in time, right now, we are fortunate enough to be able to take some time off, and we are working on new material. We got another record that we are going to record at the end of February, and that’s what we are working on, but the reason we are doing this is, so that we can get up in front of people and sing our songs.
Dr. Kent: Well, the newest album is called ‘Radio Songs,’ and that was all recorded live on Prairie Home Companion?
Robin: Yeah, it was. We have been thinking about this for some time. We have been doing this a long time first of all; we have been doing it for over 30 years. We have been getting a lot of questions every once in a while. People would say, “What kind are you… are you thinking about a retrospective?” It’s something been in the back of our minds, and we just thought, “Well, if we are going to do a retrospective, why not see if we could do a retrospective of our stuff on the Prairie Home Companion, because, that would be… you would have some of the material from our repertoire, but then people would also get to see what it is we do with the Prairie Home Companion, which is serve the show.”We love this material on the radio songs, this stuff that we did just one time, and just because that’s what the radio show and Garrison Keillor needed at that time. That’s one of our roles on Prairie Home Companion.
Dr. Kent: I just saw you sing with your wife in Town hall.
Robin: Oh, really?
Dr. Kent: Yeah, and it was a wonderful show. I had never seen a show live before; it sure is fun to see.
Robin: Yeah, it’s a great show. That must have been right after thanksgiving?
Dr. Kent: It sure was.
Robin: Yeah, well then you got an idea of what we do. We come out and serve the show. That’s part of our role and that’s… What makes the show so exciting for us is that you do stuff that you don’t do ever again. Actually, now that we have this recording out on radio, so we’re going back and putting a lot of some of these materials that we’re singing once, putting it back into our repertoire and that’s been a lot of fun.
Dr. Kent: I bet. So, let’s listen to a little bit of a song I picked out here from the new album “50000 Names”.
Robin: Good, good, good.[music]
Dr. Kent: Can you give me a little bit of back story on the song? It’s a beautiful one.
Robin: It’s a Memorial Day show, and Linda and I were familiar with that song, we knew the song having listened to the CD of the author of the song, Jamie O’Hara, and we knew the song. So, in our effort to have something for the Memorial Day show, we worked that song up and we went and sang it on the show. That’s a good example of what I’m talking about in terms of serving the show, and also a good example of having done that song one time. We did that song one time on the show and then moved on with our lives.Then, as we were listening, trying to put things back together for this CD, we found that song again and we are glad we did. We put the song on the CD and almost immediately after having had the CD released, people started coming to the shows and asking to hear that song. Actually, that song gives a good idea of what Robin and Linda Williams are about. We’ve learned a lot of lessons from the country music of the past that we do have one step in modern times and we use what we’ve learned from the past to be up-to-date.
Dr. Kent: I got a little quick little question here for you, we’re running out of time. But, that song about all the names on the wall, your music touches all kinds of people out there - liberals to conservatives, north to south. Had you ever get in to politics?
Robin: Well, not really, not too much. We certainly have our feelings. I think, we’re more on the Democratic side than the Republican side, but I think, people can find our politics in our music, and that’s the way we live our lives, yes. We have our feelings, but we don’t bring it to the stage too often.
Dr. Kent: Well, that said, I’d love to close out the show with one of my favorites “Shotgun Shells on a Christmas Tree,” and this is from a great album called “The First Christmas Gift.” Actually, my good friend, Nick Reeb, from college of King Wilkie, plays on a couple of tracks on that album.
Robin: Wow! Is that right?
Dr. Kent: Yes.
Robin: You went to college with Nick Reeb?
Dr. Kent: I did indeed.
Robin: Oh, golly great! Oh, boy, that’s [indecipherable].
Dr. Kent: Yes, right, well, what can I say. Let’s listen to a little bit of “Shotgun Shells” here.
Robin: Good talking to you.
Dr. Kent: Yes.[music]
Dr. Kent: Thank you to my guests today especially Robin and Linda Williams. Thanks for being on the show, Robin.
Robin: You got it.
Dr. Kent: Thank you to my guests, Eliza Stillwater and William Federer, to engineer Anthony Farabee, host guru Sonia Darte, Executive Producer Charlavan Hart, and Sound Engineer Ruben Columbe.Be safe, and see you next week. Find out more at SoundAuthors.com.
Robin & Linda Williams | Dulcet Duet
January 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was our great honor to have Robin Williams, of the incredible vocal duet Robin and Linda Williams, on the show today. He spoke to us about their new record “Radio Songs” which was recorded on the show they often frequent, Prairie Home Companion, over the last decade. He spoke to us from his home in Virginia.
Following is the biography of Robin and Linda Williams from their website www.robinandlinda.com:
“Individually their voices can melt cheese,and in duet they can do all-purpose welding.”__ Garrison Keillor, host of A Prairie Home Companion
Robin and Linda Williams are like your next-door neighbors - assuming your neighbors are the salt-of-the-earth and top-flight performers to boot. One minute you picture borrowing a cup of sugar from these two; the next, you’re completely stunned by their jaw-dropping talent. Bottom line: You feel right at home at a Robin and Linda concert, and their music stays with you like an old friend.Favorites of fans and promoters alike, they have crisscrossed the continent (and beyond) for more than three decades, performing the tunes they love & a hearty blend of bluegrass, folk, old-time and acoustic country. From The Grand Ole Opry to Austin City Limits, Music City Tonight to Mountain Stage, clubs, festivals and countless other venues, Robin and Linda never cease to wow audiences wherever they go.Their chops don’t stop at singing. They are first-class instrumentalists and superb songwriters, able to, as The Washington Post put it, “sum up a life in a few details with moving completeness.” It’s why their compositions have been recorded by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tom T. Hall, Kathy Mattea, Tim and Mollie O’Brien, George Hamilton IV and The Seldom Scene. Irish singer Mary Black included their haunting “Don’t Let Me Come Home a Stranger” on her CD Full Tide.
“Vocally and instrumentally, the Williamses combine impeccable musical discipline with a bare simplicity and an utter lack of pretension.”__ Stephen Holden, The New York TimesThe couple met in 1971. Linda - originally from Alabama - was teaching school in South Carolina. Robin, who grew up in North Carolina, had been making the rounds on the national coffeehouse circuit. It wasn’t long before they hit it off romantically. And the uncanny blend of their voices was icing on the cake. These days, they make their home in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.Their first album came out on a small Minnesota-based record label in 1975, the same year they debuted on A Prairie Home Companion. Their association with the popular public radio program has landed them on major stages from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl. As half of The Hopeful Gospel Quartet, they have collaborated on several CDs with the show’s host, Garrison Keillor, and were prominently featured in the 2006 film “A Prairie Home Companion,” directed by master filmmaker Robert Altman.Of the many recordings Robin and Linda have offered up over the years, you’d be hard pressed to settle on a favorite. Whether their early productions like Shenandoah Moon andDixie Highway Sign or later albums such as Sugar for Sugar and Devil of a Dream or the more recent Deeper Waters, The First Christmas Gift and Radio Songs (on Red House Records) each is a worthy addition to any music lover’s collection.
“Among contemporary country performers,Robin and Linda Williams shine like a diamond amid rhinestones.Their sound is so sincere as to give the listener chills.”__ David W. Johnson, The Boston GlobeR&L (as their pals are apt to call them) are in constant demand, along with Their Fine Group, which formed after they teamed up with former Red Clay Rambler Jim Watson(bass, vocals and mandolin). The fourth chair of the Fine Group is a rotating chair filled byJimmy Gaudreau (veteran of The Country Gentlemen, J. D. Crowe, The Tony Rice Unit, Chesapeake and Aldridge, and Bennett & Gaudreau) on mandolin and mandola,Tony Williamson (mandolin), Chris Brashear (fiddle), and Tom Corbett (mandolin). Whatever the configuration, the band keeps the joint jumpin’. Robin and Linda Williams: dynamic, hilarious and better than ever.
The Get Up Johns Transcript
December 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors Radio. And on the fourth segment of each show, we always feature a musician, an author of sound. And today I have the special pleasure of welcoming my friend, Josh Wenck from The Get Up Johns. Welcome to the show.
Joshua Wenck: Hi, Kent. Do I have to call you Dr. Kent now? I didn’t realize you had changed your name.
Kent Gustavson: No, you can call me Kent. How are you doing?
Joshua Wenck: I’m pretty well. How about you?
Kent Gustavson: Very good. Do you have any New Year’s resolutions this year, next year?
Joshua Wenck: None that I can say on the air.
Kent Gustavson: Very good. So let’s hear what you have to say about your album, ‘Trouble in Mind’. It’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s a brothers-style duet. What do you feel about it? It’s been out for about two years, a year and a half.
Joshua Wenck: It’s been out for about a year and a half. We made it kind of quick and dirty. It was all recorded live. We were trying to reproduce the sound of the old radio programs that a lot of the early country musicians would do just to make ends meet.The Louvin Brothers had several different shows, in particular, that we listened to. There are a couple of recordings out there that have been re-released on CD of some of their radio material. And so that’s kind of the production quality that we were looking for, the instrumentation is pretty minimal and simple. It’s in the bluegrass genre, but without as much instrumentation, as most bluegrass music is.
Kent Gustavson: It’s kind of in the vein of Gillian Welch.
Joshua Wenck: More like Gillian Welch from ‘Time (The Revelator)’, it’s real stripped down. No bass. No banjo.
Kent Gustavson: You’ve been headlining with some pretty heavy folks, including ‘Spider’ John Koerner, who I love, and recently Ralph Stanley, right?
Joshua Wenck: Yeah, we opened for Ralph here in Minneapolis just about four weeks ago. That was an honor to be sure.
Kent Gustavson: And you’re not necessarily from the Appalachian Mountains. What’s your background? How’d you come to this music?
Joshua Wenck: I came to this music just sort of by accident; a church that I attended during college used the old country hymns for their service music. Through that I got to know the Stanley brothers, Hank Williams, the Louvin Brothers, and Johnny Cash, and just started going back into the catalogue, if you will, of Americana, roots music and Appalachian music, and really fell in love with it.I was trained in college as a classical tenor, but I didn’t end up pursuing that. I really fell in love with the way that Appalachian singers use their voice, particularly, Ralph Stanley and Roscoe Holcomb coming out of the primitive Baptist lining tradition. I just think it’s a really beautiful and haunting way to use a voice. My voice doesn’t have nearly as much of the color as their voices do, but it’s something that I really enjoy doing.
Kent Gustavson: Let’s listen to a little bit of the title track, ‘Trouble in Mind’.[music]
Kent Gustavson: That’s a beautiful track and it’s my favorite song on the album. How would you describe your feelings towards this music? The emotion in there is palpable, but how does it feel to sing that music?
Joshua Wenck: I don’t know, I’ve never thought about that. That kind of harmony is referred to as ‘high lonesome’ harmony. And I think for both my partner and I, the attachment to that kind of singing and that kind of music kind of comes out of a feeling of lonesomeness. So it’s like an aching, lonesomeness, but there’s sort of a beauty in that, I guess. I don’t know, Kent. You’re asking me to answer something that I haven’t really thought about that much.
Kent Gustavson: Instead of the hot, humid Southern porch, we’re talking about the long lonesomeness of the dark, cold Minnesota winter.
Joshua Wenck: That’s right, it is that.
Kent Gustavson: So where are you going to be for New Year’s this year?
Joshua Wenck: For New Year’s, I will be sitting on my couch watching football and drinking beer.
Kent Gustavson: Good American tradition. Let’s listen to one more track from the album, ‘Cluck Old Hen’. It’s a beautiful tune.[music]
Kent Gustavson: Yeah.
Joshua Wenck: That’s the way to ring in the New Year.
Kent Gustavson: That had some fire in it right there. Are you going to take over the world - The Get Up Johns - in 2008?
Joshua Wenck: Very likely not.
Kent Gustavson: What’s the plan?
Joshua Wenck: We’re going to release a new record, hopefully, by the end of the summer or early next fall.
Kent Gustavson: I’m looking forward to it, and we can find out more at www.GetUpJohns.com. Can you say a little bit about your name?
Joshua Wenck: Yeah, it’s a traditional song that a lot of early country artists have played. We don’t play it, but it’s a song about John the Revelator - or is it John the Baptist? It doesn’t really matter.
Kent Gustavson: It’s one of those Johns.
Joshua Wenck: One of those Johns, and we’re a couple of Johns ourselves, or so they say.
Kent Gustavson: The music is intense and fascinating, coming from a Minnesota duo. High harmonies. It sounds great. Have a great New Year, Josh. Visit The Get Up Johns online at www.GetUpJohns.com. It’s a great CD. Take it easy.
Joshua Wenck: Thanks, Kent.
Kent Gustavson: And thank you so much to my other guests, Lorie Conway, Lisa Marie Mercer, Sally Franz, and of course, The Get Up Johns. Let’s hear a little more of The Get Up Johns. Thank you to engineer Anthony Farabee, host guru, Sonia Darte, executive producer, Charlavan Hart, sound engineer, Reuben Columbe and Randy Jackson.Be safe and tune in next week for an election special, just before the primaries. Find out more about the guests and listen to podcast episodes at SoundAuthors.com. Good luck to everyone in 2008, and I’ll see you next week.
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