Jessica Lovell | The Lovell Sisters

September 10, 2009 | Comments Off

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

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

Sarah Watkins | Nickel Creek Singer & New Solo Record

April 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Sarah Watkins | Nickel Creek Singer & Fiddler [21:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I loved speaking with Sarah Watkins about her brand new solo career, tour and record, after so many successful years with Nickel Creek. Check out the tunes and conversation in this interview! More about Sarah’s new album from her MySpace page:

In 1989, Watkins, barely out of her childhood, started playing in a nascent version of Nickel Creek at the seemingly unlikely venue of That Pizza Place in Carlsbad, California, along with her guitarist brother Sean and mandolinist friend Chris Thile (and chaperoned, of course, by her bluegrass-playing parents). The prodigious young trio built a reputation in bluegrass, folk, and country circles, then catapulted to mainstream prominence in 2000 after releasing an album produced by Alison Krauss. When not on the road or in the studio with Nickel Creek, Watkins guest-starred as fiddler and/or harmony vocalist on albums by Bela Fleck, the Chieftains, Ben Lee, Dan Wilson, Richard Thompson, and Ray La Montagne, among others. In addition, Watkins and brother Sean established an informal get-up-and-jam residency called the Watkins Family Hour at L.A. club Largo, “an uber-cool but cozy music and comedy club in Hollywood,” as Sean has put it. Watkins brings the spirit of the long-running Watkins Family Hour to her debut. It was there, in fact, that she developed and fine-tuned the repertoire for the album: “I had lived with a lot of this material for a while. It was tested and tweaked through the years playing at Largo. Songs would come and go; these are the songs that have stuck. Some are newer than others—’Lord Won’t You Help Me’ was a deliberate choice for the record. Some I had done for years, like Jon’s ‘Same Mistakes.’ ‘Too Much’ is a David Garza song, and I always loved it.”

John Paul Jones, who’d briefly toured during 2004 with Nickel Creek and Toad the Wet Sprocket lead singer Glenn Phillips in an ad hoc group called Mutual Admiration Society, had long encouraged Watkins to make a record of her own, offering his services well before she was ready to hit the studio. As Watkins recalls, laughing, “A couple of years ago we saw John Paul Jones at the Cambridge folk festival. He came up after our performance and said that if I didn’t let him produce my record he would never speak to me again. I was thrilled that he was that excited about it. He actually stayed with it and kept in touch. At that point, in Cambridge, I believe we had already talked about winding down the Nickel Creek touring, so it was a really convenient time and it helped me stay focused. It was a perfect moment to start transferring over the creative energy.”

Jones kept a familial atmosphere, and maintained an unobtrusive presence, in the studio, says Watkins: “I think he was allowing the band to be a band and play for each other, rather than have us play through a song, then look to see if that’s what he was or wasn’t looking for. Eventually, John would give us his feedback and directions to guide us in. I think that has a lot to do with the sound of the record being band-oriented, especially considering there were a lot of different musicians coming in.” Cutting John Hartford’s “Long Hot Summer Day” was especially inspired—with Rawlings playing “caveman drums,” Welch strapping on an electric guitar, and Watkins revving up everyone with her fiddle playing. The compellingly straightforward arrangements she and Jones devised allow Watkins’ personality to come through, illustrating both her sensitivity and her strength. Theses sessions had been a long time coming, but it’s clear that Watkins has only just begun.

—Michael Hill

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

Dan Goldman | Lake Erie Sounds

April 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Dan Goldman, Musician [17:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I truly enjoy the textures and scapes of Dan Goldman’s music. I haven’t heard a song I don’t enjoy immensely. Here’s a little more about Dan from his myspace page:

Luxury Pond is the songwriting project of Toronto-based musician Dan Goldman. In addition to writing and performing his own material, Dan plays regularly with Snowblink and Great Aunt Ida. He’s been a member in the Mia Sheard band, Justin Haynes’ John School, Tusks, Maps of the Night Sky, Breaking Sounds, and Kitchenmusik. He’s also created music for modern dance choreographers Jenn Goodwinn, Sara Doucet, Louis Laberge-Cote and Kathleen Rea as well as multi media producer/architect Filiz Klassen.

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

Sarah Watkins | Award-Winning Nickel Creek Vocalist Releases New Album & Talks About It

March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment

[Music]

Dr. Kent: That’s a beautiful tune off of a brand new upcoming album by Sarah Watkins and that’s of course Any Old Time, by Jimmy Rogers if I’m right! Welcome to the show Sarah Watkins!

Sarah Watkins: Hello! How are you doing?

Dr. Kent: I’m doing pretty well. So I didn’t know the name of that track when I put it in, all I knew was track 6 and track 9 of the upcoming album and of course that’s Any Old Time. Tell me about that tune.

Sarah Watkins: Well I heard that song off Tony Rice record. I think it was church street blues, his recording of that song and I just loved it and over the years of songs that I liked it sort of stuck around and ended up on the record. It was really fun to record. Tim O’Brien is on there too and that was fun to do.

Dr. Kent: Yeah, Tim O’Brien is the best. So lets get into right away, now you’ve been in the bluegrass scene for a long time for somebody whose 27 years old.

Sarah Watkins: Yeah, I grew up playing in a band called Nickel Creek and we were together from the time I was eight until a little over a year ago now so this is my first solo record and that’s actually the only song of that style on the record. Most of it well there’s a lot of different things on there, but that is definitely the only two-steppable song on there.

Dr. Kent: I love the steel guitar and nickel creek towards the end was also you were starting to develop a real edgy sound and do some really interesting things and of course Chris Telay has gone off and done his own stuff; incredible mandolin player and you are a great fiddle player. Do we hear some good fiddle playing on this album?

Sarah Watkins: Well there’s fiddle playing, you be the judge of how good it is! But its yeah, there’s a couple fiddle tunes on there and true to form when doing interviews on the phone there’s always a siren that goes by whenever I’m on the phone with somebody. I hope it’s not too loud but yeah a couple fiddle tunes on there and I play a good amount on the record actually, probably on almost every song. That steel stuff is awesome, Greg Reese plays all the steel stuff on the record and he’s amazing.

Dr. Kent: So is there a point in your career when you started playing with people and saying wow, these are some amazing musicians and on this record of course you’re being produced by John Paul Jones and you’ve got all these amazing musicians. Tim O’Brien singing harmony vocals, Gillian Welsh and David Rawlings on here, I mean at what point in your career did you all of a sudden say man, its pretty fun?

Sarah Watkins: Oh a long time ago I started saying yeah. It’s been great especially this last year working on this year working on this record has been really special and I’m so grateful and so glad to have all these musicians play on it who I have known and loved for a very long time. Some of them I know on a more personal level than others, but everybody who’s on this record means something to me, professionally, personally, very often both. I’m so grateful to have that kind of connection with the record where I wasn’t necessarily having to pay for everything just to get it the way I wanted to buy the help that I needed to have. It has so much more of a more personal attachment to me because I love Greg Reese, I love playing with him, I’ve had the privilege of playing with him over the last five years and now his music is a part of my life and I could say that about every musician on this record. Each one of them has a special place in my life, whether it’s just musically I’ve grown up listening to them or I’ve just played with them over the years. It was great to have Shawn & Mark Shaft and Christie Lee on the record, which have been for so very long, so there’s a deep attachment to all these songs and the performances that came out on the record.

Dr. Kent: Here’s a question for you; Shawn is your brother, right?

Sarah Watkins: Yes.

Dr. Kent: Being on the road with him and Christie Lee and your bass player when you were young and being on the road, did you get into some pretty vicious fights?

Sarah Watkins: Oh yeah, of course, every brother and sister and brother obviously get into fights and every band gets into lots of fights so it’s a great combination to have both in there! but we also I don’t know if you have siblings but most people that I talk to, the best part about having siblings that you get along with on any level is you can have these huge blow out fights and just five minutes later you’re like alright, you’re my brother, your still here, hang out and move on to the next thing. That’s a really great relationship to have in a band because you do live together and you’re traveling on the road and that’s a helpful basis for a relationship.

Dr. Kent: Did you ever get sick of it? Like the Ben Claiborne complex where he was famous so young and said I got to get out of the public eye. Was there a time when you said this is too much?

Sarah Watkins: No, I’m not in the public eye. I mean nickel creek fans were really enthusiastic and totally into us and they made us feel like rock stars but that is a very small world and I don’t think we ever felt like it was too much for us or that it was an unreasonable amount of exposure. The world is very big and nickel creek was very small so we didn’t have to deal with it. I felt that I got tired of touring a lot because in that machine there’s five or seven years where I had not been home more than two months at a time and very often it was only a week or two weeks at a time. After awhile it changes your relationships with your friends and family and I got tired of that. So it’s nice to be home for over a year and be able to nourish those relationships back to functionality [inaudible]. That was what I got tired of and I’m really glad to have had some time and now I’m actually ready to go back out again and really excited for the record and all that.

Dr. Kent: What’s it like so far the difference for you between being on the road with Nickel Creek and now being out there under Sarah Watkins, your own name?

Sarah Watkins: It’s a huge difference. I’ve done limited amounts of touring by myself, I went out and opened for a few people this year; for [inaudible], and a couple others and its completely terrifying at first and then after awhile, I started remembering I can do this, this is fine, people do this, I can do this. It’s a matter of getting used to it and making changes in how I perform and I can learn how to be a better entertainer. Its an adjustment but its really fun to realize more and more that I actually can do it and I’m not going to be out there all by myself a whole lot this year, I’ll be out with one, two or three other people depending on the trip, or if I open for somebody or do my own show, I’ll have a band. It’ll be a huge range of situations this year and I’m looking forward to experimenting with each scenario and just you know having fun with it.

Dr. Kent: Tell me about this record. Its self titled as far as I can tell and it’s coming out on the None Such Label. We heard one song off it, you’re western swing tune, tell me about the rest of the tunes.

Sarah Watkins: Well half are mine and half are songs that I borrowed from other songwriters and they’re not terribly far off from Nickel Creek stuff, except there’s not much mandolin because one you play with Chris Deeley it’s hard to play with others and we have the shining crewship of [inaudible] playing mandolin and John Paul Jones on one. So it’s represented. Chris plays mandola but the songs I wrote are well, you’re just going to have to listen to find out. It’s not super crazy but I was glad to be able to play some songs that my friends had written that have come close to my heart in recent years and it’s good to record them.

Dr. Kent: Immediately once you’re in the process of getting on the road to support an album, you’re already thinking about the next album because it’s been so long since you recorded that one. Are you already planning the next one?

Sarah Watkins: I’m not planning it. I kind of feel like I’m not ready to start packing away ideas but I’m looking forward to it and I’m always trying to gather songs and thinking about what the next step will be but I’m actually still very anxious to look forward to see what happens with this record. Since it’s my first one I don’t know what to expect, I don’t know if I’ll be touring this summer or working throughout the year, it depends on how people respond. I’m just taking it day by day, month by month and see what happens.

Dr. Kent: Now you got a couple shows coming up – you had one last night in LA and you have a couple more coming up?

Sarah Watkins: Yeah, when I’m home off the road, we have a residency in Los Angeles at a club called Largo, which has basically my home club. Shawn, my brother and I played there for six or seven years but we used to be our little outlet from nickel creek when we were off the road, it was our way of playing non-band material, songs we liked. It was a safe plays to spin with songs we had written which we maybe hadn’t finished developing and since the bands off tour, we’ve played there more often. Basically almost every Thursday we play so yeah, next month until I start traveling more promoting my record.

Dr. Kent: Awesome! The record’s called Sarah Watkins, it’s on None Such Records, and it’s coming out April 7, is that still right?

Sarah Watkins: That’s correct, yep!

Dr. Kent: I’m excited to listen to it and now you don’t know what track 9 is do you? That’s what we’re about to play?

Sarah Watkins: Oh shoot track 9, there are fourteen tracks on there so I have no idea what track 9 is actually.

Dr. Kent: Okay well we’ll be surprised then. It’s been such an honor chatting with Sarah Watkins of the very well known group Nickel Creek, with her own upcoming solo record, Sarah Watkins. Thank you so much for chatting with me.

Sarah Watkins: Thank you.

Dr. Kent: Let’s listen to track 9 off Sarah’s upcoming solo album.

[Music]

Dr. Kent: That was a gorgeous track off the upcoming album by Sarah Watkins; its self titled on the None Such Label and we chatted with her about time with Nickel Creek and her upcoming tour and all of that with the new record. Go out and buy that record, it’s beautiful. Amazing vocal tracks; some originals and beautiful fiddle tunes like that one. Thank you so much for tuning in to Sound Authors today, this is Dr. Kent and enjoy these last days of winter. Pick up a good book.

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

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