The Get Up Johns Transcript

December 29, 2007

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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