Janet Paschal, Famous Singer & Author of Treasures of the Snow

June 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. It’s my pleasure to have on the show the musician and author Janet Paschal. Welcome to the show.

Janet Paschal: Thank you very much, nice to talk with you.

Dr. Kent: Well, I sure would like to listen to a couple tunes, I’ve got a couple in the queue. But let’s talk for just one second before I do that. Tell me a little about your latest record.

Janet Paschal: Well, I’ve been doing what I do for a number of years, and over the years people have remembered songs from as far back as 30 years ago, and I’ve still continued to get mail and email about some of those older songs, so for this record project we went back and recaptured 12 of those most requested songs from as far back as 30 years ago and re-recorded them. We kept the same, original arrangements and just updated the music and the technology of course, and we called it Treasure.

Dr. Kent: I’d love to listen to a track from that, I’ve got the song Hide Me, Sweet Rock of Ages in the queue, so let’s listen to that.

Janet Paschal: Okay.

Dr. Kent: Actually, why don’t you tell me a little bit about that song before we listen.

Janet Paschal: Ok, that song I recorded for the first time when I was singing with my first professional group. I was 18 years old, I lived in North Carolina, I wanted to sing Christian music, and they were coming through my area, and they were looking for a soprano, and I auditioned and they hired me. We recorded this song a couple years later, so it’s special to me for a number of reasons. Because it’s a fun song, and because it was with my original group, but also, you know, a lot of times music and songs will take you back to a certain place in your life, and that’s just been another rewarding aspect of doing this CD, it recaptures those old tunes, and it reminds us of some of the places we were, and some of the experiences we had through those years.

Dr. Kent: Wonderful. So let’s listen to this song that will take us all the way back to the beginning, Hide Me, Sweet Rock of Ages. Here it is.

(music)

Dr. Kent: Wow, what a tune.

(laughter) It’s a fun song, it really is.

Dr. Kent: It’s got to be fun, doing this kind of music.

Janet Paschal: It really, really is, because it is feel good music. It’s buoyant, and it lifts your spirits, and it has a positive message. It’s really a lot of fun, especially when you have a little history with it.

Dr. Kent: You’ve been onstage for a lot of people in a lot of countries. Tell us a little about that.

Janet Paschal: Well, I have sung in almost every country. Not every country, but certainly the majority of them, and it just astounds me that music seems to cross over language barriers, and facial expressions, and the actual chords and progressions of chords. They translate in different languages, and I have always just sung in English, and many times the audience didn’t speak English, the majority of them. But somehow they seem to have been communicated to, so it works.

Dr. Kent: You are a unique musician on the show because you’re also an author. So you’re a sound author and a sound author. And your book is called Treasures of the Snow, and it looks very similar actually to the album Treasure, which is kind of neat. But tell us about the importance of this book in your life.

Janet Paschal: Well, it’s actually my second book, and I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, and plowed through a year, about a year and a half of treatment. I chronicled that journey, and of course I did newsletters and blogs and so many people requested that they get a copy of that, and was I going to publish it. So finally I was due for a new book. So what I did is I worked this out so that the book is in three sections, and the first section deals with breast cancer, my plowing through that. And then the other two sections are other stories from the road. But the idea, and we did release the CD and book together, that’s the similar covers and the similar titles, but the idea is when Job was explaining to God about how faithful he had been, and explaining some of his (inaudible) to God, God just turned on him and asked where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth, and can you tell all the waters of the beaches, how far to come and no further? Do you know when a mountain gives birth? In other words he made Job realize how small he was. But one of the things he asked him which intrigued me was, have you seen the treasures of the snow? And I had ton know on that a little bit, I didn’t quite understand it. And then it occurred to me that snowflakes from a distance all look the same, but when you examine them closely, they’re very different, and they’re very unique. So for me, that spoke to me in that the situations, the things that I will have to plow through, like breast cancer, you know, some of the rough places in life, if we just gnaw on those things and try to swallow them a little bit and understand what it means in the larger scheme of things, then there are real treasures to be had, there are wonderful life lessons to be learned, and great takeaways from those things.

Dr. Kent: Well, and that’s such a hard thing to do when you’re going in and out of emergency rooms or clinics or hospitals, because those places have a horrible feel to them in some ways, and your family’s being dragged into it, and they’re all emotional, and…

Janet Paschal: You know what was the strangest thing for me was following the signs to oncology for the first time. I was treated at Duke Medical Center, and my husband and I were looking up at the ceiling following the signs to oncology, and it was just, it was so surreal, because my family didn’t have any history of cancer, and that was sort of a tough day for me, just following those signs.

Dr. Kent: Yeah, and you are a very spiritual person no doubt. Job is such a heavy book in the Bible that a lot of people like to skip over. But when you’re going through times like that, it’s pretty brave to go into Job. Talk about the book of Job.

Janet Paschal: Well, you know what I love about Job, a lot of times I go there and he does my venting for me. Because a lot of times I’ll read in Job when he was saying, “Oh, God, why do the wicked prosper?” and a lot of times I sit and I read that and I go, “Yeah, yeah, I want to know the answer to that, too.” And so it helps me just to sort of process whatever it is that I’m plowing through. But you know, in the larger scheme of things we’re all creatures of this earth, and we’ll all have great days, and we’ll all have very painful days, and good times and bad times. And so I think the crux of the matter is how we take the tough things in life, how we juggle those and balance them and how we incorporate all of that into our joys and our pleasures, and hopefully when we’ve figured it out, when it’s all said and done, then we have made good decisions and we have left the world a better place.

Dr. Kent: Well absolutely. And certainly you have quite a list of accomplishments, and you’ve inspired a lot of people. You’ve put out a ton of CD’s and probably all the way back to records. Did you put out a record at the beginning, or was it a tape?

Janet Paschal: Yes, absolutely. My first solo project was an LP, and I still have people come up to me at concerts and want me to sign it. (laughter)

Dr. Kent: Well, I’ve got to say, I’m an iPod user, and an iPod lover, but there’s something about LP’s, the pictures on them, they’re so big and so tangible, and you put the needle down on them, there’s something about it.

Janet Paschal: That’s exactly, and you know, the sound is sweeter too, I think.

Dr. Kent: So you still have an LP player?

Janet Paschal: Yes, I absolutely do.

Dr. Kent: Well, it’s been such a pleasure speaking with Janet Paschal, she’s got a book Treasures of the Snow, and it’s really just a wonderful book to pick up, and such an inspiration to people, and for all of those like me who look at the book of Job with a little bit of fear, this is a good entrance into that. And the album that goes with it called Treasure is really a great album, full of great energy. So tell us where we can find out more about you.

Janet Paschal: You can visit my website janetpaschal.com, or you can Google me, so Google will definitely get you there.

Dr. Kent: Exactly. Well, Janet Paschal has done so many wonderful things with her life. Thank you so much for being on the show, and for helping so many people.

Janet Paschal: It’s a pleasure talking to you. Thank you.

Dr. Kent: Actually, before you leave, why don’t you say a couple words. We’re going to go out with the tune We Shall Wear a Robe and Crown. Do you have anything to say about that one?

Janet Paschal: Ok, this is again, I recorded it back probably 30 years ago, but it was one of our, the group that I was in at the time, it was our big hit, so, and you know, it still is, it’s been recorded by 150 different people, but it is still a great song.

Dr. Kent: Well thank you so much, and have a wonderful day.

Janet Paschal: Thank you. Bye.

Dr. Kent: Now this song is from the album Treasure, and it’s called We Shall Wear a Robe and Crown. Listen to this.

(music)

Dr. Kent: And that was the tune We Shall Wear a Robe and Crown by Janet Paschal, off of her newest album Treasure. Thank you so much to all my guests on the show today. I had Mark David Gerson, I had Janet Paschal, I had Mark K. Updegrove, and at the beginning the wonderful children’s author Kathy Lasky, who wrote that wonderful biography of Charles Darwin. Everybody have a safe week and pick up a great book. I’ll talk to you on the flip side.

Posted by admin | Filed Under TRANSCRIPTS, Gospel, Pop, Religion, Inspiration, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, PODCAST

James Reams | Old Time Music from New York & Kentucky

March 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent: That was a tune from James Reams and the Barnstormers from an album called Troubled Times. The song is called Troubled Times and now we have the honor of chatting with James Reams and these are indeed troubled times so welcome to the show James.

James Reams: Dr. Kent, it’s so wonderful to hear your voice!

Dr. Kent: You are from Kentucky and you ended up in New York. Tell us about that journey.

James Reams: What happened was when I was a kid I really enjoyed print work, there was a person that I met who was actually a young girl and I had some romantic interest in her and also I had some interest in print making and I came to new York city with a cardboard box and a pair of work shoes and got thrown into the whole trade and it was probably the best thing that happened to me in my life as I was raised there in eastern Kentucky and it was sort of hard scrabble but all of a sudden I came to new York and it was a completely different world. I got to meet people from all walks of life and it was an amazing adventure and still is.

Dr. Kent: As someone who, I live out on Long Island but I do know there’s an old time thriving music scene in New York and what I love about your music is it’s not polished to the T, it’s got that old time feel to it. Tell me about your theories on music and how that fits in New York City?

James Reams: Well you know yeah, I actually like the old time sounds and I was raised that way and I know also that you appreciate it too. I know that you have a book coming out about Doc Watson actually and he’s a hero of mine and so many people and what I like about music is I like it to be authentic and real and when we go and record an album we do it live in the studio with very little fixing and I also for years in the city I helped support a blue grass and old time convention that happens every year and this following year will be 12 years that we’ve had it going on. It’s called bluegrass and old time jamboree in park slope and it’s held by the Ethical Society and we have over 700 people who come in and have workshops and we have masters of the instruments. New York has a lot of great figures and they show people how to play mandolin, fiddle, banjo, we have film series and we really enjoy it, we’re having it in September.

Dr. Kent: Where do folks find out about that?

James Reams: They can go to my website at www.jamesreams.com and also a facebook page that has a listing of things and a nice film of last year where we had a new lost city ramblers celebration. We had two of the original new lost city ramblers and it was special to them because it had been 50 years from the night that they played together and its very rare film footage on that facebook page. You don’t have to be a facebook member to see it.

Dr. Kent: I’m looking at it right now, it’s in September 11-12, 2009 in Prospect Park area. That seems pretty neat and there’s some video up there of John Cohen, I think that’s who you’re talking about right?

James Reams: That’s right, John Cohen and Tom Paley. Tom has this really interesting history because he used to work with Woody Guthrie. Toms a New York fellow who is a big part of old time music and played with Woody Guthrie and now he lives over in England and he comes over occasionally. I recorded an album with him too, something that came out on Copper Creek Records. Mysterious Redbirds were Tom and I and Bill Christophersen recorded an old time album of some of the old-time songs and tunes. Tom was just such a big influence on me and part of what I love about music is to honor those who have made it and I also had another opportunity to make an album with a real legendary character, somebody in bluegrass many people may not know probably, a cult legend named Walter Hensley who was the very first banjo player to play Carnegie Hall. He played with Earl Taylor and I think it was 1952 [1959] and I did two albums with him and that was really exciting too and one was actually nominated for a blue grass recorded event of the year by the international bluegrass music association, which I know you’re a member of.

Dr. Kent: I am now, I just joined and the funny thing about blue grass I like that the world talks about old time music as bluegrass but there’s such a big difference. There’s a different amount of heart in old time music I think.

James Reams: I think there is a big difference and the music that I love the most straddles those two and in the 1930s and 1940s and probably even a little into the 50s there were people who straddled those two and that’s the type of music that really inspires me and there’s still some people doing that today, like the Dry Branch Fire Squad and there’s a number of groups that try to straddle that old time bluegrass, but you’re right there’s two different camps and that’s sort of a shame. Even in bluegrass there’s like two different camps, traditional and contemporary and I think all the labels and I know that you’re a believer in this too. All those labels, they help have people understand, but also they hurt. I think that a lot of times musicians like yourself and myself what we do is create music and its almost organic, it just comes out from us so I’m hard pressed to even sometimes label what I do even though I think most of the time I get my records thrown in the bluegrass bin. It feels like an extension of me and I think that’s where music becomes a wonderful part of your life.

Dr. Kent: I had the great pleasure this year, I went to the thanksgiving concert of Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger at Carnegie hall and that was a real blast for me because I grew up with that music and their music crosses over between bluegrass old time somewhere in there and Pete Seeger, it was so neat to see him as part of the inauguration ceremonies this year. Talk about Pete Seeger and I guess the history of this music. What’s your take on all of it?

James Reams: Well Pete Seeger is I think an unsung hero of music and also his half-brother Mike Seeger too but Pete Seeger had that rainbow quest television program out of NYC and you still get the films of that where he brought in like Doc Watson and Clint Howard and Fred Price and those folks and also Johnny Cash and the Stanley Brothers. People in the urban world had become aware so I think Pete Seeger has really made so many people aware of their roots and that’s what I think right now in America you really see this new type of music; Americana, and you see that its being embraced by more and more people and I understand how people say I don’t really like country music because its turned its back on the roots of music. I think that if people have a sort of idea that they don’t like something like country music maybe they should explore the roots because the roots of it are extremely beautiful because it’s made by everyday people who struggle and with making their lives better through music.

Dr. Kent: All right, so you’ve got this record Wild Card, another one Troubled Times. Give us your advertisement about that.

James Reams: The Troubled Times record is really interesting because it has a CD and DVD. In the DVD I actually interviewed a lot of the pioneers of bluegrass music. Jimmy Martin, Sonny & Bobby Osborne, and the DVD is free when you buy the CD Troubled Times, its one of those two-for discs and there’s a documentary about myself and the jamboree and the Barnstormers and follows us making this music out of NYC, which so many people say this seems so strange – a bluegrass band out of NYC but we do and if you look at our schedule we’ll be playing west Virginia this year and places like that. The documentary shows how we grow bluegrass in the cracks of the city where we say red clay meets concrete. I guess you can get it at cdbaby or amazon. Plus I have a number of other albums available like you said; Wild Card, with the great John Glik and all of them are still available except my very first one Song Birds, which is out of print.

Dr. Kent: I love the sound and we’re going to play one more track. This one is from Wild Card, we’re the kind of people that make the juke box play. Tell me about that?

James Reams: I’ll tell you what that is; I like to take some of the older country forms and I love honky tonk country music and we’re the type of people who make the juke box play is a honky tonk song written by Johnny Paycheck that he was never able to record. We found it, changed it and made it bluegrass and we’re just so proud of it. So yeah, we hope that everybody enjoys it and I want to thank you for your time. I really appreciate you calling. I’m in Arizona now and I appreciate you tracking me down!

Dr. Kent: Absolutely, I would love to have you on again sometime. Its fun chatting about old-time music. There’s not many of us out there, I think a lot of people would love it if they hear it, but I’m a big fan.

James Reams: I know you’re originally from Oklahoma and the whole bit and I think it’s wonderful what you do along with everything else.

Dr. Kent: It’s been an honor speaking with James Reams. We’re going to listen to a track from Wild Card called We’re the Kind of People that Make the Jukebox Play. Troubled Times has a bonus DVD and what a perfect song and album for these times. Thank you so much for chatting with me and lets get together again down the road.

[music]

Dr. Kent: That was a beautiful tune from a guy named James Reams and that was his band with him, the Barnstormers. You can find out about him at jamesreams.com. What an honor to speak with all our superstar guests today. Alphie McCourt’s A Long Stones Throw, Dr. Allan Hamilton with The Scalpel and the Soul and Donald Greco’s Abramo’s Gift. Be safe and we’ll see you next week and read a good book between now and then!

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

Interview with Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir: Bob Keelaghan | Sound Authors Radio

December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment

[Music]

Dr. Kent: That was a song by the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir called Dumb It Down from their new album and I am excited to have one of the members on the show today. His name is Bob Keelaghan. Welcome to the show.

Bob Keelaghan: Well, thanks for having me, I’m much obliged.

Dr. Kent: I came across this music while surfing CDbaby and what a fascinating sound. Its half old time music, half Tom Waits. Where did you come upon this sound?

Bob Keelaghan: Well I don’t know I guess its sort of like for me personally its I grew up in a household where there was rock and roll from my brothers and sister and folk music from my parents and in my fathers case Irish music. So I had a mind towards both worlds. My initial first love was rock. When you’re a kid you listen to like your Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and stuff and as you start getting more mature as a person and musician you want to find out where that comes from. Also I had teenage exposure to Stevie Ray Vaughn.

For me it took going back further and further to find those sources and it just kind of led me back to early delta blues and also country music. So it’s kind of like a convergence of going back to the source but also have a knack. I guess it’s a contemporary perspective from rock and roll and some weird stuff like Tom Waits, ### and other innovators. Judd Palmer who is the other name, musical guy in a band, he had more of a love for John Lee Hooker when he was a teenager as well. And I think some of that early blues sort of led him back too, like those same sort of sources. And that’s what I’ve started going for you know?

Dr. Kent: Do you check out the early records from the 20s? some of the style that you all sing in is very reminiscent of that early rough blues straight off of the streets; kind of yell as loud as you can so people on the streets stop by and give you some money kind of blues.

Bob Keelaghan: Yeah definitely; like myself I’m a big fan of people like Skip James, River Davis, Booker White all of those people like that and I know Judd was a big Howard Wolff fan as well and Howard Wolff got his talent from people like Charlie Patton. When I sort of deeply got into this music is was just the idea that like listening to those old recordings from the late 20s or early 30s, you get by all that scratchiness on it and you realize that everybody can sing, everyone can play, there’s no faking it.

If you play the house party somewhere in the southern united states in the 1930s or if you’re playing a house party anywhere with that kind of music in that era, you don’t have an amplifier to rely on. You’ve just got your instrument and your voice and you had to be heard, whereas nowadays if you’re making a record you can rely on the studio. You can rely on an amplifier to get your noise across. But paying attention to the way they did things back then its a lot more pure, a lot more direct I guess.

Dr. Kent: That’s what’s so fascinating about coming across your record; it was really a surprise to find a band that’s really getting out there. There are a few out there, there’s a few bands that can really play street music. For example, what’s their name from oh I can’t remember. A live show from you guys must be the way to see you and I read that you were just in the UK.

Bob Keelaghan: Yeah, we just did a five week tour of the UK and Ireland.

Dr. Kent: How were you received?

Bob Keelaghan: Oh tremendously, it went way better than we ever could have expected. We did a bunch of festivals and club shows and there wasn’t a dog in the bunch. So it was pretty tremendous.

Dr. Kent: And it’s neat. Once you search out fans of this kind of music they’re pretty die hard and what fascinates me is I’m a huge fan of Captain Beefheart and the weird Tom Waites stuff. This is so much there but at the same time its really not. This is really true ethnic music. Did you write all these tunes? Are some of them public domain? What’s the story on that?

Bob Keelaghan: This is our third CD and on each of those we’ve got a mix of originals and covers. I don’t think we’ve ever gone more than about three covers per CD. On the new one our covers are kind of straight up. I mean the Funhouse Song and ### Express and there’s also a Balfo Brothers Song called Vows to Balfa and its just kind of wherever our listening takes us. At certain times we look for inspiration in what you do and sometimes it goes back to dredging up an old song and just reworking it. Its either I’m sitting around by myself or Judd is sitting around by himself and we’ll be playing the guitar or banjo and something will come out. You know, one of these songs will come out and we just bring it to the other guys.

Dr. Kent: How did you go about writing a song in this style? What are these songs about? Are they ramps? Are they personal? Do you write love songs? Do they just come out by the sound? How do you do it?

Bob Keelaghan: Its probably all of that comes into it. I think it depends on what we’re going through at the time I guess. Like our last CD Fighting in Onions, I think there was a lot of despair on that one probably just because various personal circumstances going on. So it was the sort of thing where after we recorded it I realized there was a fair bit of bleakness in it. The new one, I think it’s more uplifting. There’s some of it is kind of funny when you see reviews coming back on things.

The new one I think there is both just kind of philosophical thoughts about the world like in Judd’s case there’s song like 10,000 which is his ode to nature in 10,000 years. Or Go Back Home, which is the idea of just going back home after a long time and seeing how much has changed and maybe how you don’t fit in. For my part, I’m probably a bit more of a ranter but I guess maybe I kind of rant in a vague way. I think for me it’s just like what’s on my mind, whatever I’ve got to get out. Maybe it’s either a mourning death or there a bee in my bonnet I’ve got to get out and that makes me feel better.

Dr. Kent: What’s the next step for the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir?

Bob Keelaghan: We’ve got to do some shows over the side of the Atlantic, depending on when it fits into our schedule respectively. We don’t know; there’s talk of going back to the UK for more shows. I think also with this new CD I think we’re sort of pushing some of the boundaries of sound. I think we’re at the point now where we’ve got to throw out a few more curve balls. So we’re going to start writing again and see where that takes us. We’re not the sort of guys that plan ahead too much; circumstances come up and we go with it. Wherever the road takes us.

Dr. Kent: The last question I’ve got for you and then I’ll play the track you were just talking about Go Back Home. One question about the title of your band. Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir. Now did mountain gospel come first and you said well we got to say we’re agnostic or how did that come out?

Bob Keelaghan: There are a number of stories about how it came about. Several of the bands I think actually were playing in a gospel choir beforehand. It was a weird gospel choir; it dealt with spiritual issues like it was a weird thing they got tied up in. When that band split the other members of that choir obtained legal rights to the name. It split because I think Judd and Vlad were in that band and they wanted to go in a heavier direction and basically because of the legal issues is where the agnostic came out of as well. They were sort of tied more to the idea of a heavier agnostic sound as opposed to like a new age spiritualist sound.

Dr. Kent: Well I love the title; also 10,000. There’s a picture of a $10,000 bill. Explain that quickly and then we’ll go.

Bob Keelaghan: I was in a Chinese grocery store and I saw a package of banknotes and things that Chinese Buddhists burn at certain festivals to enrich their ancestors in the afterlife. I was looking at that and we have this song called 10,000 years and it turned out also to be the budget record. The bill was in the denomination 10,000 and I thought this is a great coincidence and it would look really good as a cover. So we went with that and within that we play music that’s based on ### and this is our way of saying thanks.

Dr. Kent: Well it’s been a real honor speaking with Bob Keelaghan with Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir. Here is a tune called Go Back Home. You wrote this tune?

Bob Keelaghan: Judd wrote that one.

Dr. Kent: It’s been an honor and I’ll continue to check out everything you do.

Bob Keelaghan: Well thank you very much; it’s an honor on our part too, thanks.

Dr. Kent: Here’s Go Back Home from the latest album 10,000.

[Music]

Dr. Kent: That was a song from the album 10,000 by the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir. We’ll see you next week. This has been another great show and my name is Dr. Kent and this is Sound Authors. Have a safe week.

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

Interview with Andrew Calhoun | Sound Authors Radio

December 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment

[Music]

Dr. Kent: Welcome to the show Andrew Calhoun who is on the line.

Andrew Calhoun: Yes, it is I.

Dr. Kent: Well that’s a beautiful song; Jaybird and Sparrow from the album Bound To Go by Waterbug Records. Now this is interesting. This is a bunch of spirituals and shout songs. I love these old records that you got some of these from. Tell us about where you found these songs.

Andrew Calhoun: A lot of them are in old books that are out of print. Jaybird and Sparrow was in a collection by Thomas Kelley who was a chemistry professor at the University in Nashville and he did a collection of these. His parents had been born slaves. He was born in 1870 so he was able to collect a lot of music from the European white collectors who were unable to get to and especially a song like that, that has some sort of the social attitudes about fairness of labor practice. His book was called Negro Folk Rhymes and it came out in 1922 and there’s a number of good books. There’s also some early recordings from people like Don Lomax but actually more songs in this project were from old books so I just go through and find some words you like.

Dr. Kent: What inspired you to do this collection of 35 spirituals and folk songs? After doing several albums of your own music and things like that?

Andrew Calhoun: I’ve always liked the spirituals and this project is really in memory of my mother and was attributed by her passing. My whole family gathered and it was sort of spontaneous but we ended up singing for several hours and one of the songs we sang was All Gods Children Got Shoes. Kind of when I get to heaven I’m going to put on my shoes and walk all over God’s Heaven. Those were songs she’d sung to us as kids and the song really struck me at that moment.

Because my mother hadn’t been able to walk for more than a year and I wanted to find out more about the people who gave us such a great song to help you through an experience like that. So after a few months of collecting spirituals I saw a connection to African religion and I started reading up on that and what I found was a lot. A lot survived the trip and kind of descents of ancestor connections and so forth that came from African religion.

Dr. Kent: You do also tend to your albums have kind of schematic, thematic elements. For example, Telfur’s Cows is a ballad of Scotland and Shadow of a Wing. You tie it together on your website with a description of your spirituality and things like that. How do you go about sitting down saying okay I need to do this album?

Andrew Calhoun: That’s a good question. I find that when I’m doing a creative project that things happen and I kind of let them change under my hand and maybe my original conception will shift and change a little bit. This project changed when I found Kelley’s collection of songs because I just didn’t even know they existed, some of those African American folk songs. But they were written out of our history so I’m trying to revive some of those.

Sometimes I don’t know, you have one idea and then it kind of changes according to the material you’re working with. The Scottish Ballads were a long time love of mine and I just translated them so Americans could follow the story better. I translated them to American dialogue so they’re easier to follow.

Dr. Kent: You’ve been doing this for a few decades, this folk singing. How have things changed for you?

Andrew Calhoun: They haven’t changed that much you know. The more the technology changes the more its still a struggle for me to make music. With all the downloads now or whatever it is, the price of gas, the cost of touring, so pretty much if you’re going to be a folk singer, if you work real hard you can get by but that’s about it. As far as it changing, when I was young there was more of an urban sort of folk singing that was connected to maybe anti-war politics and that urban edge to it.

So there would be clubs in the city where you’d play and it was kind of a community around that and its kind of changed to where I play a lot of house concerts in living rooms and there’s the concert series at the Unitarian Church but the club scene isn’t what it was and that may be true in other forms of music as people don’t go out to hear live music much but house concerts are wonderful. They’re real simple to put on and always very rewarding.

Dr. Kent: You have a quote from Dave Carter on your website and he’s I believe you’re talking about Dave Carter from Tracy Grammer and Dave Carter?

Andrew Calhoun: Correct, yes.

Dr. Kent: We lost him a couple of years ago and it seems like he said there’s no better songwriter alive than you. Did you have a relationship with him?

Andrew Calhoun: We were really good friends. I moved from Chicago out to Portland Oregon in 1999 and I played my first gig in Portland with Dave and Tracy who were writers around there and he helped introduce me to Portland and sent me a lot of songwriting students. He was certainly the best songwriter I ever met and very encouraging to me. Yeah, he passed away in July 2002 leaving four Dave and Tracy albums behind. I was very fortunate to get to know him; I never met anybody like him.

Dr. Kent: I saw him and Tracy Grammer about a year before he died and they were incredible, they had great energy together. Folk singing is so much about the live concert and talking about your songs and engaging the audience. Is that why you’re onstage?

Andrew Calhoun: I love performing and its funny, people ask you about your albums but to me it’s always about the next show and its what can happen in a room with people. Sometimes you just see people relax and let go their tensions and see their faces open up and shine. It’s just the greatest reward and every audience is different. I read Chuck Barry’s book and he said at the end of it, “Audiences are different than they were in the 50s. Every audience is different, it’s different every night and that’s why it’s so much fun.” The audiences as much of the show as the person onstage.

Dr. Kent: Folk audiences are one of the last remaining audiences that you can really interact with.

Andrew Calhoun: Well yes, especially in a small setting. A house concert you don’t even use a PA and people can talk back to you. I saw an English singer recently named Pete Morgan and the audience just kept answering back and forth, it was really like a living room show and people talked back. I like that interaction, its one of the great things about spirituals. They’re designed for dissertation. By the end of the first verse you know the response line and people can jump right in.

Dr. Kent: That’s an interesting thing. A lot of us have grown up with a lot of spirituals. For example you’ve got a song on there well, I won’t go there, but a lot of us grew up with a lot of these spirituals and you’re doing different versions of them that are from some older books or a different recording. Michael Haul The Boat Ashore, things like that. How much fun is it for you to see people’s reactions and say oh, I’ve never heard that version?

Andrew Calhoun: That song in particular got radio play because people are sort of familiar with the other one. Yeah it’s nice. The folk songs in sort of their natural sphere they’re always changing and there’s many versions of them. I mean that’s why they’re folk songs but they’re passed along the way jokes are now, you never hear quite the same version. So its very improvisational, a live kind of a form and when you hear different versions of a song, you get a sense of that. I never knew the story of Michael Rode the Boat Ashore, its kind of a folksy hymn along with Kumbayah, which is another song people don’t understand.

Both came from the Sea Islands. Kumbayah means come by here my Lord, it’s a prayer and people say its not enough to get together and sing Kumbayah, they’re kind of putting down some people; it’s their prayer. Well it’s like saying it’s not enough to say The Lords Prayer, sometimes that’s all you can do. Sometimes that’s exactly what you need to do. Michael Haul the Boat Ashore was rowing song from the Sea Islands and directed to the Archangel Michael. They would sing it when the tide was against them so it was kind of a work song and a religious song. I didn’t know any of this stuff when I started researching it. Light bulbs kept going on and I said what is with this song; then I knew.

There’s so much history around it. When I did the Scottish ballads it was kind of just about the songs for me but this project really drew me into it. I’m just finishing a book on the civil war and understand the African American story in America and also in my genre of folk music which has become largely a white genre and I’m trying to understand the reasons for that. I’ve kind of gotten some clues but it’s nice to be on this project and have an integrated group that’s working together and it’s been really, really fun.

Dr. Kent: I know the song No More Cane on the Brazes; I know that song from my own work and I’m fascinated by that one because the cane workers down in Texas, what they said the average life span of those guys was something like six years once they started working in the cane fields.

Andrew Calhoun: Yeah, people know that song but the story of that song; people need to know the convict leasing that went on after slavery really, I mean they kept slavery going in the prison system and to some degree they’ve kept on running the prison system for profit and that’s something that I didn’t want this project not to address. I wanted to talk about the fact that these problems are not in the past. They are still with us and also the way for people to endure slavery overcame them with this kind of spiritual sensibility.

It’s really a remarkable thing and I think of them as teachers. People don’t like to look back at slavery and it’s shameful and shame on both sides but the goal of the story is the grace with which those people endured their experience. They were just amazing individuals. I also wanted to get more of a sense of the individuals behind the songs on this record because people know a few spirituals but it almost has become a generic sense of Negro spiritual instead of well some artistry; it wasn’t people made this up you know. So I’m trying to connect the story to the song and that song No More Cane on the Brazes is a heck of a song. I mean it’s like a movie or a book; it captures a lot of what people went through on those work farms.

Dr. Kent: It’s been a real honor speaking with Andrew Calhoun about his music and his latest album Bound to Go. Thank you so much for being on the show. I’m going to play a little bit of Roll Jordan Roll off that album before we run out of time.

Andrew Calhoun: Great, thank you very much.

[Music]

Dr. Kent: That was a little bit of Roll Jordan Roll by Andrew Calhoun, a beautiful tune. It was an honor speaking with him and all the guests on the show today and we’ll see you next week.

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

Interview with Dale Ann Bradley | Sound Authors Radio

November 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. My next guest is on the show is going to be Dale Ann Bradley an incredible songwriter and singer from down in Kentucky. I’m going to play a song of hers until we can get her on the line. This song is from her latest album and the song is called Rita Mae, it’s the title track, the lead track on that album. Hold on one second and let me play that song.

[Music 01:12 – 04:01]

Dr. Kent: That was a gorgeous tune from Dale Ann Bradley. Her latest album is called Catch Tomorrow and that is the lead track on that album called Rita Mae. And now we have Dale Ann Bradley on the line so welcome to the show.

Dale Ann Bradley: Oh hello and thank you for the invitation. I’m thrilled to talk with you.

Dr. Kent: The music is incredible and of course you have fans all across the country from Alison Krause all the way down to me and a bunch of other folks. Your voice is so pure. You grew up in rural Kentucky. Where did that high lonesome come from for you?

Dale Ann Bradley: I did grow up in the southeastern corner of Kentucky where Tennessee and Virginia all connect up there real close together and I listen to of course a lot of mountain music. It being real rural, it was really hard to get music to listen to you and I grew up in a primitive Baptist church and it had no music. They sang a lot like Ralph Stanley and what he grew up with so I think I first heard that sound was there in the church.

Dr. Kent: How important is I guess your faith still to your music?

Dale Ann Bradley: I am on a cell phone and I’m having a little trouble. Can you repeat that for me?

Dr. Kent: How important is your faith to your music? I know bluegrass is always juggling between Saturday night and Sunday morning. How is that for you?

Dale Ann Bradley: That’s a very good question. My faith has brought me through a lot you know. A lot of hard times and the hard times have actually made it grow stronger and develop. To do what’s in my heart to do, what’s in my heart to sing about? I like songs that are soothing and tell a story that can maybe draw or develop an answer to a problem from. I feel like we’re getting beat over the head enough and I like songs that do that, that make people feel something. Hopefully uplift them and bring strength to them. In answering that question, that’s kind of what the music means to me in the spiritually based sense.

Dr. Kent: Also, part of what you do and you’ve got some amazing people playing with you from Allison Brown to Tim O’Brien. What does that feel like going on the road? And Michael Cleveland of course, an incredible fiddle player. What does it feel like going on the road with these people?

Dale Ann Bradley: Oh my goodness. Well of course Tim O’Brien, Allison Brown, Alamosa and Larry Sparks were all guests on the album. I can’t explain what it was like working with Allison Brown. It was incredible and we’re actually getting ready to go back in so I look forward to doing that again. She’s a genius. The things that she adds does not take away from the initial idea and I love that. She wants to keep that initial expression intact and of course with her natural producing abilities, what she brings to it just adds.

Of course I got the privilege of working with Michael Cleveland right when Michael came out of high school he came to work with me. He worked with me close to two years and went to work with Rhonda Benson for awhile. Then he came back to my band and was part of the album of course. Now he’s traveling with his own band and it’s just great.

Allison Krause has always been one of the most gracious people that I have ever met and has always been so supportive in any way she could be and I was so honored that she said those things in the liner notes. Of course Tim O’Brien, he’s one of those naturally gifted people that it just oozes out. So it’s been a thrill and a highlight; something I will never forget working with all those people.

Dr. Kent: Before I run out of time here on the show I want to play another track. It’s been a real pleasure speaking with you Dale Ann Bradley. You’re coming out with a new album soon then?

Dale Ann Bradley: Yes sir. We are going back in hopefully just within the next few weeks so it wont be long. We may have some surprises and hopefully we’ll do something that people like.

Dr. Kent: Here’s another track from Catch Tomorrow by Dale Ann Bradley and this track is called Run Rufus Run.

[Music 09:00 – 12:04]

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