REVELATION ROAD: A DISCUSSION WITH SHELBY LYNNE

This article is written by MIKE RAGOGNA at THE HUFFINGTON POST

MIKE RAGOGNA: Shelby Lynne, you’re back for another visit. Thanks. How are you?

SHELBY LYNNE: I’m doing great, man. How are you?

MR: Doing very well. Since you’ve been here before, I think it’s best we just dive in. Your new album REVELATION ROAD, to me, is a collection of paradigms of faith. Did I get that right?

SL: Well, I’m glad that you got that from it, Mike. To me, it’s a collection of the songs that are a reflection of my life today.

MR: Nice. I love how in the song REVELATION ROAD you use the sinner vs. the preacher analogy. That sort of seems like a reflection of the times, wouldn’t you say?

SL: I mean, that’s where I am. I can’t imagine thinking what anybody else is thinking, you know? That’s why I write songs and I’m lucky to be able to do that and write what’s in my head and in my heart. I think that it almost feels to me like a crossroads of some kind.

MR: Nice. On a more personal note, would you mind sharing what inspired you to write these songs?

SL: Well, I think it’s just about letting the past be the past and living your life in as much of a positive way as you can. If you hang on to things you can’t change, you tend to get stuck. So if I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that you have to keep rolling on.

MR: That kind of ties in nicely with the sentiments of the song WOEBEGONE, doesn’t it?

SL: Yeah. That song is just a clever way of saying that I’m tired of being miserable. I just want to move on and be where life takes me for a change, you know?

MR: This album seems to be the most personal one you’ve made so far.

SL: It is personal. I wrote songs on there about my sister and growing up and such. I really concentrated a lot on writing this record for me. There’s lots of lyrical content about feeling like I’m back in Alabama and being a kid. I really looked at it in a positive all love kind of way. It was amazing how the songs kind of wrote themselves when I let go of any bad feelings I may have had.

MR: A revelation that came to me after listening to songs such as WOEBEGONE was just how often during rough times, I had no choice but to turn to friends and family as a source of solace. Was that the same for you?

SL: Well, it’s not quite the same for me. My family is not where I go for comfort. For me in life, you choose the people that you want to be around and sometimes family is not necessarily it. So, if you make the right decisions, you’ll know it because you’ll start figuring out who you want to be around and who’s not good for you to be around. Sometimes, you realize that you’re pretty damn lonely in doing that, so you have to accept the fact that being lonely is quite all right.

MR: Right. Has this been a year of making those kinds of decisions for you?

SL: Well, I’ve made them all my life, but I never really decided to write songs about it before. As a songwriter I’m pretty fortunate in getting to write about my life through songs. I can either put it all out there literally, or I can disguise it within a melody or poem, but it’s what I do. I’m very fortunate and I like doing it.

MR: Shelby, one of my favourite songs on the album is I DON’T NEED A REASON TO CRY.

SL: It kind of says it all in the song. Sometimes, you just sit down and cry. You don’t need a reason.

MR: Another of my favourites is HEAVEN’S ONLY DAYS DOWN THE ROAD.

SL: It’s a song I wrote from my father’s perspective after he had gone over to the other side. I guess you can make the song as complicated or as simple as you want. But this song is a personal avenue for me.

MR: That’s so beautiful. Now the last time we talked was before Christmas 2011. What have you been up to since then?

SL: Well, let me see. I went on tour in Europe, which was great. It was just wonderful going there and playing for so many wonderful people. Then I came back and started writing songs for this record. I knew I had a little bit of time to sit and work, so I moved into a recording space where I could go and work in my free time. That’s how I made this record. It’s been a great process and I’m glad that it’s done and the record is coming out. I’m really happy with it.

MR: And this record was written, performed and produced by you. I bet that feels pretty fulfilling. But that’s quite an undertaking, wouldn’t you say?

SL: Well, I got a really small simple recording space to work on this one. I would just go in every day when I felt I was ready and work song by song. There was lots of experimenting. I didn’t know if any of these songs would come out worth a damn. (laughs) I just thought I could go in and feel it out, peck away or add stuff, you know? It’s hard to explain. I had something in my head and I just tried to go and put it down on tape.

MR: The mixing and overall sound turned out well too.

SL: Thank you very much. You work with what you have, you know? I like to try to keep it as analog as possible because I like that sound and feel.

MR: Nice. So that’s how you got that sound?

SL: Absolutely. I still roll 2 inch tape.

MR: Where do you even buy that these days?

SL: You can get it if you’re looking. Sometimes, I worry about finding it because it can’t last forever. The world we live in just doesn’t roll that way. But as long as they keep making it, I’m gonna keep doing it.

MR: Well, they predicted CDs would be obsolete by now, but they’re still around.

SL: I give that a year.

MR: Really? Do you think we’re all ready at the end of the CD age?

SL: I think so. I’ve been talking to all of my people about it because when you have a record company, you have to think about all of those things, you know? I think in a year or two, they just won’t be around. I mean, I still buy vinyl if I can. It’s weird because my record is coming out on vinyl, but we include the digital download inside the vinyl. That way, you can get the artwork and record and you can still put it on your iPod. I just wanted to do both. Another problem with CDs is that there’s just nowhere to put them. (laughs) That’s just the world that we live in now. There’s no more room to store stuff like that. (laughs) We live in a world that’s fast paced. Everything can be done at the touch of a button.

You have to really concentrate on making a record on tape or putting a record onto vinyl. Even playing a vinyl on the stereo is a foreign concept because you have to get your body up and turn the record over to hear side b. (laughs) I have forced myself to use tape because I like the creative aspect of it. I just don’t get inspired through looking at computer screens. I like to see the tape running and feel it.

MR: That’s beautifully put. Working with tape just makes a very different sounding track.

SL: It does. With 24 tracks, you have to make a commitment. I like to layer a lot when I make records. I may put in 3 or 4 guitars or 3 or 4 harmonies. Then I start counting down every time I add something because I’m running out of tracks every time. With digital, there’s an unlimited amount of tracks and I just don’t find that to be very creative.

MR: Were there any major differences working on this album over others now that you were the producer?

SL: Well, there’s nobody to argue with except myself. (laughs) And it’s a lot less stressful. I mean, I like working with producers, but this time, I didn’t want to. The record business has also changed so much. I could go into a million reasons about why I didn’t want a producer, but in the music business, you’re either the wonderful BEYONCE, who I love, with a big label and lots of money or you’re on your own. Right now, I’m really enjoying being on my own. And I just wanna say I love BEYONCE and that new record. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) Yeah, it’s awesome, but what do you think of ADELE? I can’t get enough of those two albums.

SL: She’s amazing, such an incredible singer. She’s the real deal…and to be so young and so gifted? That’s awesome.

MR: Yeah, she’s great. Looking to go back a bit. What would you say the major differences are between REVELATION ROAD and, let’s say, I AM SHELBY LYNNE?

SL: I would say the most major difference is the songwriting. It’s just me going it alone with no collaborators. As far as the recording part goes, it’s basically the same. I used 2 inch tape on that record as well. A lot of the ideas in my way of recording come from the lessons I learned back when I first started. I like the way that record turned out. It’s a layering process – you put down a performance and then you layer your record around it. That’s the way I feel like I like it.

MR: Shelby, another favourite song from REVELATION ROAD is TOSS IT ALL ASIDE. Can you tell us more about that song?

SL: It’s an emotional song because it takes a relationship that’s over to another level. There’s nothing left to do but end it all, so that’s what it’s about lyrically. That’s a song that I actually wrote a while back but I never had a chance to put on a record until this one. I thought it fit perfectly. I thought about it a lot in the ordering of the record.

MR: I enjoyed being able to take the time and digest a lot of your songs before we spoke again. To me, it’s so important. Have you ever been in a situation where someone hadn’t listened to your music before an interview?

SL: Yeah…and it makes me mad. (laughs)

WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM: A CONVERSATION WITH JACKIE DESHANNON

This article is written by MIKE RAGOGNA at THE HUFFINGTON POST

MIKE RAGOGNA: It’s a joy to be talking today with JACKIE DESHANNON who has a new album: WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM. Hello there, Jackie.

JACKIE DESHANNON: Thank you. It’s a joy for me as well.

MR: Jackie, I want to start out by recognizing that you have in your repertoire some of the biggest anthems of all time. One is PUT A LITTLE LOVE IN YOUR HEART and another is WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE. You like this love thing, don’t you?

JD: I think that’s part of who I am. I grew up in Kentucky and started singing gospel songs when I was very young and the give someone a hug and try to be nice to people and help anyone you can way is really part of me. I think that, especially today, we need some love, sweet love and we need to put a little love in our hearts for sure.

MR: And we need to not be looking at the world through BETTE DAVIS EYES.

JD: (laughs) That’s funny. Yes, for sure.

MR: Readers may be confused by the BETTE DAVIS EYES reference. Don’t worry. We’ll get there, gang. So today we’re talking about the new album WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM. It’s another compilation of your staples, filled with hits and a couple of songs here and there that have very interesting backgrounds. But Jackie, let’s talk a bit first about the early days. How did you get into the music business?

JD: Oh, well. That’s about eight hours…That’s where the camera pulls back. (laughs)

MR: Hey, we’ve got plenty of virtual space, Jackie. (laughs)

JD: (laughs) Actually, my parents were both singers and played musical instruments and I come from a varied background of classical and country blues and my mom was a big band singer. We always had musicians in the house, so music came to be pretty naturally. But, you know, in those days, it was pretty hard for a girl my age to actually break through. I just sang at different places to try to get noticed, made some demo records, made a few records that were breakouts locally and ended up meeting EDDIE COCHRAN. I worked with him at different parties we would do for disc jockeys when they had dances and were promoting their records.

He said, “I think you should go to California. You look like a California girl and I think you’d be successful there.” So, I said to my parents, “Well, if Eddie Cochran said so, we have to go,” and that’s kind of how I got out to L.A.

MR: What was your first big break?

JD: Well, I signed with LIBERTY RECORDS and that was the start of my recording career, basically. It just sort of happened. They were, I think, pretty much a singles oriented label – they were not like a COLUMBIA who did four or five or six albums with someone before they actually started selling. They were a young record company and I liked the president, so I ended up signing with them.

MR: One of your first hits NEEDLES & PINS was written by JACK NITZSCHE and SONNY BONO.

JD: Yes, that was a song that was written for me for a recording session. I had worked with JACK, he did a lot of arranging for me and we were really, really close friends. I helped with it, but didn’t really get any credit for it, which is fine. The thing was that the record company didn’t want to record it and I just ended up saying, “Well, if we don’t do this song, then I’m not gonna go into the studio for a while.” So they gave in…and that’s how the song happened.

MR: WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM is another one of your hits and across the pond as they say, we have a group called THE SEARCHERS, who also had monstrous hits with NEEDLES & PINS and WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM. What gives?

JD: THE SEARCHERS were a very big group in England and when my record of NEEDLES & PINS came out, they covered it and had a very, very big success with it. They were fans of mine and it was a little disappointing that it didn’t really happen as fast for me, but at that time, there was kind of this thing with BILLBOARD and CASHBOX where you needed to have bullets, as they say. You needed to be in the TOP 5 across the country and NEEDLES & PINS, oddly enough, was maybe TOP 5 in Chicago and then it was TOP 20 in Washington. It was just bouncing around. So we didn’t get the big broad connections that we might have. Nevertheless, THE SEARCHERS did a great record and I think that people were covering records more in those days, so they would’ve had a hit with it anyway…They were very big in London. And, of course, being a songwriter, I was absolutely over the moon that they recorded WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM.

MR: And then there’s BREAKAWAY, which became a classic in a strange way and is my favourite TRACEY ULLMAN recording. What is the story on that one?

JD: I don’t know the story on BREAKAWAY. (laughs) It kind of has a life of its own. I was so amazed to see it in THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, being performed at the kitchen table by ALICIA KEYS and QUEEN LATIFAH and JENNIFER HUDSON. It was amazing. It just has a life of its own. I really don’t know how to say much more. TRACEY ULLMAN did a fantastic version of it that was a major hit in the U.K. It’s just, you know, one of those songs that does its own thing.

MR: Now Jackie, there is a certain BEATLES connection – a certain someone went on tour with them. Would you care to elaborate?

JD: Well, I had the great honour of performing with and opening for THE BEATLES on their first U.S. tour, which went across America. It was for about six weeks and I just had an amazing, amazing time. And of course, nobody needs to say how great THE BEATLES are, but we’ll say it anyway. They’re the best.

MR: Um, this same certain someone dated ELVIS PRESLEY, right?

JD: Well, yes…We had some interesting dates. Our dates were musical dates. I would go up to the house and sing with ELVIS. He loved gospel music and he’d have THE JORDANAIRES up there. And, you know, being from the south myself, we had that connection with the church and gospel music. I went to see him a couple of times in Las Vegas and he introduced me from the audience. He was an amazing guy. I learned a lot from ELVIS. He loved his fans more than life and he just was so humble and so amazing. I think that people who have a big attitude are not on the right path, because this guy sells more records than practically anybody and his fans love him. I think that’s great.

MR: There are so many ELVIS stories and they range pretty broadly. Of course, people like to tell the horrific ones, but there are all those beautiful stories as well, like the one you just told.

JD: Those negative stories? That was not really ELVIS’ spirit and if you ask anybody that’s had an opportunity to see him or meet him, they will tell you exactly what I did – that he was an amazing talent. And actually, he didn’t have as much opportunity to show his talent as he could have. ELVIS was a great actor, but for some reason, the Colonel didn’t really push him or get him out there the way he wanted. I think ELVIS was always frustrated by that.

MR: You were also friends with THE EVERLY BROTHERS and RICKY NELSON.

JD: Yes, yes. One of the things that would happen out in Los Angeles at that time – when I was recording and when other people were recording – we used to go to each others’ sessions. If I was recording, maybe they would drop by or I would go to one of their sessions. It was just kind of a thing that artists did in those days.

MR: It was almost like a big support group.

JD: Yeah, it was. It was very different and I love that and cherish those memories for sure.

MR: Jackie, you also were a movie star!

JD: (laughs) Oh, well. I think SURF PARTY has circled around the globe by now.

MR: (laughs) Everybody has seen that movie.

JD: I think that, you know, it’s a classic. And C’MON, LET’S LIVE A LITTLE is a classic too. But I did have an opportunity to do some of the TV shows, which I really was a big fan of. I did THE VIRGINIAN and THE NAME OF THE GAME – I did a lot of fun stuff.

MR: And of course, there was READY STEADY GO!

JD: Of course, of course. You know, things were happening and I was right at the centre of the scene at the time. It’s hard for me even to think back and go, “Was I really there?” But I was!

MR: I also want to ask you about your MARIANNE FAITHFULL connection with COME & STAY WITH ME. At the time, you and future LED ZEPPELIN member JIMMY PAGE were writing together. How did that come together?

JD: Well, I was in England recording and I was very used to working with people like GLEN CAMPBELL and JAMES BURTON and TOMMY TEDESCO – all these great, great guitar players. So when I was there I said “Who’s an amazing acoustic guitar player that I can have on my sessions?” and they all said that JIMMY PAGE was the guy, because he had played on a lot of different hit records at the time and was one of the guys on the A list of studio musicians to call.

So I said, “Great, let’s have him,” and they said, “Well, you can’t get him here because he’s in art school.” I said, “What???” Anyway…He did come over and I knew right then that he was an amazing talent, so he played on a song of mine called DON’T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME, BABE and we did some writing together. One of the songs that was inspired by that relationship was COME & STAY WITH ME. MARIANNE FAITHFULL recorded it and it was a big hit for her. We’re big fans of MARIANNE’S.

MR: After that, you started cowriting with RANDY NEWMAN.

JD: I did write a couple songs with RANDY NEWMAN, which I’m very proud of. I don’t think he’s cowritten too many songs with that many people. He was a friend, and again, people were just kind of hanging out. I think he was writing some songs for the publishing company that I was with and I was fortunate enough to have him for a partner.

MR: You’ve also musically partnered with VAN MORRISON.

JD: Yes, I was fortunate enough - again - to work with VAN. He’s an amazing talent. I did a little back up for him on a couple of his concert dates and we ended up doing a few sessions together and writing a couple songs.

MR: And a couple of them are on my favourite album of his: WAVELENGTH.

JD: Oh, I love that album. It’s amazing. I’m such a VAN MORRISON fan, all the way from ASTRAL WEEKS on down.

MR: With him, it’s hard to find what album is your favourite – most people say MOONDANCE or ASTRAL WEEKS or SAINT DOMINIC’S PREVIEW – but for me, it’s definitely still WAVELENGTH. It has KINGDOM HALL, WAVELENGTH and the hit that should have been: NATALIA.

JD: He’s awesome.

MR: He is awesome. Let’s move on now to the BURT BACHARACH and HAL DAVID song WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE.

JD: WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE was a song that I think that several people had passed on. I was told that I would have the opportunity to work with BURT BACHARACH and HAL DAVID and I was really over the moon. I was so excited to work with them. We were rehearsing songs that would possibly make the session and HAL DAVID wanted BURT to play WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE and he was kind of reluctant to do it. So, finally, after a bit and going over some more songs, he said, “Please play this for Jackie.” So he did play it for me and after I learned it, BURT just said, “That’s it. We’re going to New York. We’re gonna record this song.” He was very excited about the way that I sang it. It’s become a classic, so I’m very pleased about that.

MR: You’re also in the SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME.

JD: Yes I am and I…wow. That was a pretty special evening.

MR: How so?

JD: Well, I think every songwriter would like to have that happen to them and although there are women in the SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME, there are less women. I kind of love the fact that a lot of times, I would be so inspired by ELIZABETH COTTON and some of the great blues singers that will not get the recognition that they should or haven’t to this day. The first thing that I thought of was ELIZABETH COTTON and I thought, “Wow. This is so cool. I’m a woman and I’m in the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.”

MR: And then there was a certain song called PUT A LITTLE LOVE IN YOUR HEART, which has become a perennial.

JD: (laughs) Well, that song is definitely my favourite for a couple of reasons. The first one is the fact that, as a songwriter, a lot of my songs were passed on to other people when perhaps I might have had a hit with it, but who knows? But I got a chance to sing this song and it became a very big record. And I love the message. That’s what makes it my favourite song.

MR: And then, of course, it was redone by ANNIE LENNOX and AL GREEN years later.

JD: Oh yes – there have been so many great records of it. But it doesn’t get a lot better than AL GREEN and ANNIE LENNOX. And to have MAHALIA JACKSON record it and so many other great singers…It’s just a gift that keeps on giving, really.

MR: What was it like to create that song? We haven’t even touched on your creative process yet. Can you use this song as an example?

JD: Well, I wrote that with my brother RANDY MYERS and JIMMY HOLLIDAY. We were working on an album at the time and he was actually just at the piano playing this little theme (Jackie sings) and it was one of those things that kind of fell out of the sky. The whole chorus came out very fast.

MR: There’s no better song that I can think of that sends out that message.

JD: It’s interesting because I will be at a place and I’ll ask somebody about that song, just off the cuff and they know that song. It’s just one of the best feelings you could ever have to be able to write something that people remember and that reaches them in a very spiritual way.

MR: We’d be remiss if we left out BETTE DAVIS EYES.

JD: Yes, don’t leave BETTE out!

MR: What’s the story behind that song?

JD: Well, it’s kind of an interesting story in the sense that DONNA WEISS and I wrote the song and we made this rock demo with a very driving rhythm – a really uptempo beat. (Jackie sings) I was going into the studio to record it and I thought that it would be the same arrangement that I had on the demo, but in contrast, the producer and I had a disagreement on how the song should be recorded. In those days, the producer really was the guy that had the last say. At the record company, it was a, “Well, what do women know?” kind of thing and we ended up recording it that way…and it was a good record, but it was a different record. So, DONNA happened to take this demo to KIM CARNES and she was recording. Obviously, she liked it and she recorded it. They went on a big promotional tour and finally got a lot of people to listen to it and it became a great record.

MR: I believe it’s the first official sort of new wave song that hit the top of the charts with the synth patterns and all. (sings synth part)

JD: Yeah, it’s definitely a classic and of course, KIM did wonderful vocals on it. The whole record, I think, is just a masterpiece.

MR: Yeah, I think so too. MISTAKEN IDENTITY was a very strong album. Speaking of masterpieces…

JD: …Uh oh, here we go!

MR: (laughs) You were portrayed in a certain NBC series: AMERICAN DREAMS. I loved that show. It’s a real shame it went off the air so soon.

JD: Wasn’t it a great show? It was an amazing show.

MR: The very lovely LIZ PHAIR portrayed you in it.

JD: She did and I was invited to watch her film that and the tears…I was just crying. She was so perfect. She’s such a great talent and I couldn’t have had anyone do it any better. She just owned it. It was so amazing.

MR: Jackie, what advice do you have for new artists?

JD: (laughs) Well, it’s such a different planet today. I guess that you can just get on the internet and get your exposure. It’s very easy to do in that sense. When I was doing it, there were just a few tiny labels, so it was very, very hard to get your songs out and get your music out. But I think the main thing is you have to believe in yourself and have the drive to continue when people say, “I’m not interested,” or “I don’t want to know.”

Adding to that, the other thing I would do is get a really great music attorney so that you get paid for whatever you do and so that you really understand how the business side works and so that when you make decisions, you are informed. So many people coming up in my day just didn’t understand and a lot of people don’t want to listen if you say, “You have to think about this because you may not get paid the way you think you will.”

They’re so excited to do something that they don’t take the time to make sure that they understand it from a business level and then when the disappointment comes and they don’t get paid properly and they don’t see the kind of royalties they’re looking for, then they don’t understand what happened. So I think being informed is really, really, really important.

MR: You have a new song on WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM: STAY IN MY LIFE.

JD: I do. I’m very proud of that song. I haven’t been writing a lot lately, but that kind of got me on a roll and I’m starting to write a lot more.

MR: Ooh, so you’ll be recording another new JACKIE DESHANNON album soon?

JD: I will. I’ve got like five songs all ready. I’m a little bit of a cook in here.

MR: Congratulations, Jackie. Great news. Are you going to tour?

JD: I am doing a day here in Los Angeles – OCTOBER 24 – for THE SOCIETY OF SINGERS and I will be doing a lot of the songs from the new album. I think we’ll have to see how it goes. But we’re going to do this set pretty much acoustically. We’re going to sing a lot of the favourites and I’m really looking forward to doing that. Hopefully, as it goes along, we’ll just see what the muse has in store for us.

MR: The acoustic approach on this album is so smart, because sometimes when a pop record is produced, songs get lost in the production. But not these with the approach you took.

JD: Exactly. I wanted it to be like that. What we did is revisited the songs, so it’s no comparison to the real record; we never tried to go that direction. It’s, “Gee, I’m stopping by your house for a cup of coffee. Would you like to hear Put A Little Love In Your Heart? I happen to have my guitar with me.” It’s that kind of thing. It’s inviting someone into your living room or just sitting on the beach and playing the songs and letting the audience get a picture of what the songs are about – as opposed to the production being the focus.

MR: On the album cover, there you are sitting on the couch – in your living room maybe?

JD: I’m sitting on the couch. The photograph – I am so proud of – it was photographed by HERB RITTS, who was one of the most brilliant photographers. He goes everywhere, from VANITY FAIR to all of these great portrait pictures. It was a great honour to have him photograph me and I’m so sorry that he’s not with us – but he is in spirit. I said to him, “I never really knew myself until that photograph.” It was a picture of me, really of me, as an artist. I was so grateful and feel so privileged to have that photograph that he did on the cover.

MR: We’ll have to stop there, Jackie. But this has been incredible, as always. Whenever we do this, I’m giddy for weeks.

JD: We have a good time! We’ll do it again.

MR: Jackie, all the best with the new album.

JD: I appreciate your support and thank you. Thank you.

CLOSE UP: A CHAT WITH SUZANNE VEGA

This article is written by MIKE RAGOGNA at THE HUFFINGTON POST

MIKE RAGOGNA: Hey, Suzanne. How’s it going?

SUZANNE VEGA: I’m good, thanks.

MR: What’s been going on with you these days?

SV: I’m looking forward to the release of CLOSE UP VOLUME 3, which is coming out NOVEMBER 1. I’ve been doing this project where I’ve been re recording most of my catalogue, so VOLUME 1 and VOLUME 2 came out last year…and VOLUME 3 was released earlier in the UK and now here in the US in November. It got great reviews in the UK, so I’m really happy about that.

MR: Let’s talk about another project you’re associated with, PIONEERS FOR A CURE, for which you contributed your take on THE STREETS OF LAREDO. October being BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH and this album is released, of course, coordinated with that. Is this a cause that you’re particularly aligned with in addition to other causes?

SV: This is in addition to other causes. Most of the time, if I have to prioritize, I work on behalf on human rights and especially children’s rights. In this case, I took this on because I love the song. I like the cause. I recently had some experience where my father in law and mother in law both passed away from pancreatic cancer within the space of a couple of years of each other. So all of the proceeds from this particular song are going to the hospice that nursed them in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

MR: I’m sorry for your loss, Suzanne. So do the royalties that come out of the sales of the project go to artists’ various causes?

SV: Yes, exactly. As the artist, you choose a charity that’s the recipient of the proceeds and it goes there directly.

MR: Some other artists on this project are TOM CHAPIN, RANDY BRECKER and TOM VERLAINE. How did it work? Were you approached by someone?

SV: Yes, it was BETH RAVEN who approached me for this. I know her from some NARUC meetings I attend in New York. She asked me if I wanted to do it and I said I would love to. So I researched this song and we got taken out to this house in New Jersey. It was all very mysterious and we recorded it there.

MR: And there are like a hundred songs involved. It’s not just about what comes out on this CD collection.

SV: I guess not. There’s a website that’s associated with it – I think it’s called THE AMERICAN COLLECTION because there’s another collection with Israeli songs. So the website is quite extensive and you can go there and check it out.

MR: A moment ago, you mentioned you were affiliated with other social causes such as children’s rights and of course you have one of the best narratives out there on child abuse in your classic LUKA. What are a couple of your affiliations?

SV: Well, of course, there is AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, which I’ve been a part of since 1988. There’s a group called CASA ALIANAZA that I’ve done a lot of work for, especially in the UK. We’ve raised money and given out leaflets. They are a group associated with COVENANT HOUSE here in America. They deal with children’s rights and they actually get involved in children’s lives, especially homeless teenagers here in New York – the COVENANT HOUSE is associated with them. Those are two of the groups I’m affiliated with.

MR: You’re in New York now, right?

SV: Yeah.

MR: You’re watching the Occupy protests that are happening right now?

SV: I am kind of watching it, I must admit from a distance. I live five miles away from where it’s going on, but I’m watching it in the news and I’m interested to see where this is going.

MR: Apparently it’s a grassroots movement.

SV: A lot of people are feeling very discontented and it’s completely understandable.

MR: It seems like the intentions are very good with everyone who’s involved, but the hard thing right now is: how do you turn everything around with who’s in place in government and who’s in place in corporations? How do you know where to begin?

SV: Exactly…and how do you frame the problem so it can be addressed? Right now, it’s sort of a vague feeling of discontent people are giving, giving vent to people that have different answers and different things they want to talk about. So eventually it can be more than just a mouthpiece for emotion. Hopefully, at some point, it will click.

MR: Hopefully, people like Obama and Boehner are watching.

SV: I’m sure they are, believe me.

MR: Obama’s election happened partly out of a grassroots movement. I wonder if he’s looking at this deciding whether or not to be front and centre or he’s just hoping it goes away.

SV: Maybe neither? Maybe he can take some of that discontent and channel it. I’m sure some of that is aimed at him. There are a few people who are unhappy with the amount of change he’s been able to affect. To be honest, I remember the night he was elected, him saying that this is going to take time. I still stand by him and I think he is still doing a good job, despite the kind of opposition that he’s had to deal with.

MR: OK…Back to the music. In addition to the PIONEERS album, you have a new one coming out soon called CLOSE UP VOLUME 3.

SV: I’m hesitant to call it a new album, because if you call it a new album, people expect new songs. I don’t blame them one bit. I would think so too. These are new recordings of catalogue songs.

MR: Though these revisits respect their older arrangements, they also breathe more. They come off more mature.

SV: They are more intimate. First of all, they don’t have some of the production they had. When I had the big record deals, a lot of the production was aimed towards “How do we get this on the radio?” so they have effects and reverb and all kinds of stuff on them. A lot of that was to be able to get it on – if we could even think about it – TOP 40 radio. So these songs are performed much more intimately and they are engineered so you can listen to them with your ear buds and it actually sounds like I’m talking to you right up close.

MR: I’m assuming you used mp3s with the ear buds to achieve that?

SV: Yes, but we’ve done them various ways. We’ve done them digitally and I don’t really remember now. I know with the BEAUTY & CRIME record, we recorded a lot of things digitally and transferred it to tape in order to get the warmth you sometimes get. I don’t know JOE BLANEY’S secrets; all I know is when I listen to my vocal on these recordings, it’s full and warm. It doesn’t have that thin bright sound the older recordings have.

MR: That supplies the intimacy – that being the mission.

SV: It’s sort of meant to humanize it. Some people have said, “Close Up? How Close Up? Are you in the room? So, you’re playing in a small club?” No, I mean close up like I’m in your face, like I’m in your ear. That’s how close. Maybe that will make some people uncomfortable, but if you listen to the new recordings, it does have this warm grainy intimate sound.

MR: And air.

SV: Yes, the air around the guitar parts and the melodies and the vocal. It’s the song that stands up, not so much production – not that I have anything against the productions. I really stand behind all of my old albums, but I don’t own them. I don’t own the actual recordings – A&M owns 6 of them and BLUE NOTE owns the 7th. So, these I actually own and I can do what I want with them for the rest of my life. That makes a difference.

MR: As you know, I come from working with catalogue for a while. From the artist perspective, it was often hard to come to an agreement on what the track list etc. might be since two different angles are at work.

SV: Well, back 25 years ago when I was a receptionist looking for a record deal, the contracts that they had available back then didn’t seem like a bad deal. It was better than answering the telephone as a receptionist, so the 12 or 16 percent deal didn’t seem so terrible. These days though, it seems if I can make more than that if I own 70 percent of my own catalogue, then why not do that, especially in this day and age when record labels are not interested in holding on to individual artists. The big companies are sort of like dinosaurs. Unless they can sell millions of records, they’re not going to cultivate you and nurture you.

MR: At A&M RECORDS, you were in a beautiful place for that.

SV: I must say I had a happy relationship with them for 18 years, so I’m not complaining about that. These days, I’m thinking how can I go forward and that’s what I’ve chosen to do. I’ve started my own record company and I’m re releasing most of my catalogue on the CLOSE UP series. Most people get it when they come and see me live. They look at me performing and they say, “Ah, what is on these CDs is what she’s doing live these days.” It might take a little while for the whole idea of re records to sink in to people who are not familiar with the record industry and how it works. I’m sure there are people who say, “We love the original. Why do we need to buy it again?” You don’t have to buy it again. But if you want to know what I’ve been up to, then you could buy it if you wanted to.

MR: That’s another interesting thing. Traditionally, people would say, “Why would I want a re record?” I think we still associate them with those awful doo wop re recordings and the like.

SV: Yeah, you would think to yourself, “Why would you want to re record?” I’m not trying to recreate some nostalgic moment. I’m trying to say, “Here’s the song in its bare bones form.”

MR: Of course, your lyrics and performance then get to pop out.

SV: And the guitar work. Whatever I need to get the song across, whatever it is I need to get the song across, that’s what it’s boiled down to. There’s no extra stuff and there’s nothing cut away too much. It’s just what each song needs to end up on its own.

MR: Suzanne, what advice do you have for new artists?

SV: Let’s see…I thought you were going to ask me what was the best advice I had ever received.

MR: Sure, let’s go there first. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

SV: One day, back in the 80s, I had the occasion to speak to PETER GABRIEL. He gave me this lovely bit of advice that I’ve sort of taken to heart. He said, “Take your idiosyncrasies and blow them up.” I have done that in my own career. Sometimes it’s been good for my career and sometimes it hasn’t been. It definitely leaves you open to more criticism. People say, “What the heck is that?” or “Why do you need to write about blood?” or whatever I’m writing about. So you leave yourself open to more criticism…but at the same time, you get to be yourself, you get to be a distinctive person in the landscape. That’s something that I would pass on to a younger artist.

First of all, have something to say and second of all, have a style to say it in. To add to what PETER GABRIEL said to me, I would say know your limitations because that becomes your style. A lot of people these days try and expand themselves. If you have an eight octave range, then good for you. But if you have a one octave range then work within that because your limitations become your style and that’s what you become known for. Don’t be afraid to be yourself, even if it garners criticism. You will get criticized but you will be remembered.

MR: It’s the antithesis of what goes on in shows like AMERICAN IDOL, where you’re there to be molded.

SV: Yes, you’re kind of fit into a machine and you come out the other end.

MR: It’s almost a reality show on how not to make a true artist.

SV: Well, yeah, although when my daughter RUBY was younger, we would watch it and there are some things to learn from when you watch it. Mostly, I learned about songwriters – I learned about STEVIE WONDER and different interpretations you can make of a song. There’s always something good to find there. But ultimately, you will get a pop star out of that system, but you won’t get a real artist.

MR: I interviewed SCOTTY McCREERY for HuffPost recently. I like him as a young talent and as a person and I was wondering what path he would take.

SV: That’s the thing. Somebody like KELLY CLARKSON? In the end, she is some kind of artist and she has tried to kick against the system and they end up resisting terribly. She’s really had to fight for the past few years for her own vision of how her albums should be. So there you are.

MR: Yeah, very true. Hey, is RUBY musical?

SV: Yes, she is. She is a vocal major at LaGuardia and she’s been doing some composing and playing a bunch of different instruments. In some ways, her musical talent comes from her dad – MITCHELL FROOM the producer. Her talent is a lot like his in the scope of what she loves.

MR: Has she thought of herself as an artist in the same way we think about singer/songwriters?

SV: Well, she writes songs, but her instincts are more like a musicologist. She is way more sophisticated musically than I am. I’m not being modest. I’m just saying she can read music, write music, she knows how to modulate and she knows how to do all of those things I used to hire her dad for. She’s written some songs, but I think her interest goes beyond being a female singer/songwriter. She’s interested in composing and right now she’s interested in reading all of the biographies of different composers.

MR: It seems like everybody’s doing well.

SV: I’m doing as well as I can in this economy as we referenced before. I definitely don’t feel above the fray as far as I’m concerned. Me myself am involved in this economic crunch we’re going through.

MR: I think everybody is to some degree. The economy is playing the most heavily on making any real future decisions for most people I know.

SV: I know…and I know people who are just starting gardens and growing their own vegetables, because it’s so much cheaper than going to the store and buying them. It’s that kind of time we’re living in. The good thing about being where you are is that you can still be in contact with the world because of the internet and the huge technological side. You can still be a part of the global consciousness; you’re not in LA, but you can still join with the world’s traffic if you want to.

MR: That’s really it. The old stereotypes don’t exist any more. It’s an amazing thing to watch.

SV: It is an amazing thing and it gives you a more global awareness. I remember for the first time realizing way back when, like 15 years ago when I first started fooling around with the internet, that there was a person in Turkey and I could hear from her. When I would go to Turkey there was somebody that I knew who would come to the shows and I could look them in the face. That was so different than just this faceless country. Turkey even today still feels fairly exotic to me, but the internet makes us all feel the global identity more than before.

MR: As opposed to boarding a Pan Am flight with FRANK SINATRA.

SV: (laughs) With FRANK SINATRA?

MR: You know, a COME FLY WITH ME reference. You know, post World War II culture flying around the world to explore mysterious and exciting cultures!

SV: Oh, I see.

MR: It was lame. Sorry. (laughs)

SV: Yes that seems terribly old fashioned to get on the plane and go there, you can learn all about it beforehand, or you can participate in parts of the world where you can see what’s going on and participate in it. You can take part in it and you can know what’s happening in ways outside of the normal media.

MR: Is there one thing about SUZANNE VEGA that we don’t know that you can share?

SV: If you want to know those things, you have to go join my Facebook page because lately, I’ve been uploading these pictures of what I’m wearing now or where I am. I’m so surprised by people who get on line and say, “This is not you,” whether it’s my pair of shoes or they’ve decided they don’t like my goggles. I did a picture of myself in a bathing suit on the beach, I posted it up and I was surprised by how many people were vicious. They were saying, “This isn’t you,” or they thought this is really great and that’s cool. So, you would be surprised by some of the things I would wear when I’m not on stage. On stage, I think I dress conservatively. You would be surprised to know what’s in my closet.

MR: Everyone, don’t forget to go to SUZANNE VEGA’S Facebook page.

SV: Yes, you can see some of those interesting items, which I suppose as I go along, I will be posting them more and more.

MR: Anything else happening in your world?

SV: Just the Facebook page would cover that and also if you go to www.suzannevega.com and you sign up there, you can find out when I’m doing the CARSON McCULLERS play, when box sets are coming out, all sorts of things.

MR: Before we leave, I want to ask you about INSTANT OF THE HOUR AFTER, the new song coming from the project that you’re collaborating with DUNCAN SHEIK on. Can you go into that a bit?

SV: The song is based on a short story by CARSON McCULLERS. I have written a play and I’m still doing some work on that play, of the life and work of CARSON McCULLERS. I wrote 12 to 15 songs with DUNCAN SHEIK and it’s gotten a great response. I think we’re going to restage the play for the fall of next year, probably in San Francisco. But as I said, if you go to the website, you can sign up for all the latest updates on that.

MR: What was the experience like?

SV: It’s been so great to work with him. I’ve known him for years and I was really hopeful this would work out and it’s worked out beyond my wildest dreams. The melodies that he comes up with are so beautiful, it’s been very inspiring working with him on this. I can’t wait for everything to be in place. So in the meantime you get a taste of it on VOLUME 3.

MR: Looking forward to VOLUME 4, Suzanne. As always, it’s been terrific. Thank you so much.

SV: Thanks, Mike.

NIGHT OF THE HUNTERS: TALKING WITH TORI AMOS

This article is written by MIKE RAGOGNA at THE HUFFINGTON POST

MIKE RAGOGNA: Hi, Tori. How are you?

TORI AMOS: Hi, Michael. How are you?

MR: Excellent, now that I’m talking with you! Oh, my God.

TA: (laughs) You’re funny. Where are you?

MR: I’m talking to you from Fairfield, Iowa. It’s really a pleasure.

TA: Well, thank you for having me.

MR: Tori, your new album NIGHT OF HUNTERS is very different from many of your other albums in that it’s just you, a piano and an orchestra – all centred around a classical theme. What inspired you to do that this time around?

TA: Well, somebody from DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON approached me – that’s the classical side of UNIVERSAL. This German musicologist DR. ALEXANDER BERG found me while I was out running around the world and he said, “Listen, I have an idea for you to consider. What about doing a 21st century song cycle based on classical themes?” and I looked at him and said, “Can we start drinking now?”

He said, “Look, it’s a challenge. I know it’s a challenge. But you’ve been writing this musical, so you should know how narrative works in a song cycle. And how many times have you been offered something like this?”

I said, “Never. I’ve never had this opportunity and if I’m going to do it, I really need you to supply me with endless amounts of classical music so that I’m exposed to more than I know myself.”

MR: Were there specific pieces that resonated with you more than others?

TA: Well, yes – those are the ones that made the record. And there were a few others that did resonate, but with the story you’re always thinking, “OK, this has to have a beginning, a middle, a denouement and an end,” so I had to make some tough choices and the CHOPIN piece kept coming back to me. It’s funny how these pieces start stalking you, because they do. They really, really do.

Honestly, you’ll be sitting there watching a movie and eating popcorn…and all of a sudden, there it is again! There’s the SCHUBERT piece in the room and you think, “Where’d you come from?” That might sound a little “Is that how it really happens?” But what is key here is that the songs demand you to respect them and yet a lot of them wanted to be in this 21st century expression even though most of them are over a hundred years old.

MR: Tori, what was it like listening back to this song cycle when it was finished?

TA: I had listened to SCHUBERT’S WINTERREISE. I just talked to the German and any time I say “Winterreise,” I get corrected on how it’s supposed to be said; I studied it, realizing how the structure needs to work. It’s very different from a musical, but there are similarities. And so, what was kind of key was deciding, “OK. If this is going to be a cathedral – if we look at the song cycle like a sonic cathedral – then how do we build this thing?” What was key was getting SHATTERING SEA, which opens the story, setting it up like a cliffhanger and then bringing in another character that would take us into the story further. So I designed a character ANABELLE which is kind of a mythic Irish representation of the Triple Goddess or nature, or however you want to see it.

MR: The narrative comes off so beautifully as it goes. Now you mentioned the musical you’ve also been working on: THE LIGHT PRINCESS.

TA: It’ll have a different name, but the musical is inspired by GEORGE MacDONALD’S THE LIGHT PRINCESS. I’ve been working on it for five thousand years, yes. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) So this album really did go hand in hand with the concept of how you’re creating at this moment.

TA: Well, yeah. I think that DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON was correct in that I wouldn’t have been able to approach a 21st Century song cycle if I hadn’t been hammered by the whole musical writing process and with such an incredible creative team that I’ve been lucky enough to be working with. They’re at the BRITISH NATIONAL THEATRE. This team is connected to them in some way. So I’ve been cutting my teeth on narrative in a really disciplined way and I’m thankful for it, though there are some dark days during the musical process.

But it really helped me to be in a place where I could understand what this DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON person was talking about when he said, “Why don’t you write a song cycle, but based in the 21st Century…and remember, song cycles can travel in time and do anything you want, as long as you have your foundation clear.” So I think I understood that architecture finally. After all these years – at 47 – I was ready to take up the challenge.

MR: Are there artists – classical composers – that you have a better feel for now, as opposed to before you did the project?

TA: Oh yeah, completely. I mean, I feel that way about all the composers that are on this project. Each song is a variation on a theme except for one, which was inspired by another piece and it’s all notated on the record what the original themes are and where they come from. I’ve always had a soft place in my heart for SCHUBERT, but once I got STAR WHISPERER, that was really the first one that came that was complete. It’s nine and a half minutes. Once I knew what that was, then I started throwing away all kinds of things that I was working on, because they just weren’t good enough. I realized, “OK, this is the benchmark, this Schubert variation. Everything has to live up to that.” So that was kind of a breakthrough moment.

MR: When you create – even before this project and before starting work on the musical, say back even as far as LITTLE EARTHQUAKES – what is your process for the creation of a song?

TA: The one thing you have to have is a delicate ruthlessness.

You have to or you can’t hear correctly. You have to be able to listen to what’s coming through the cosmos. Say you’re walking down a street in San Francisco and you see something and because you see it, it translates to sound for songwriters. So, seeing means you’re hearing. When I can hear something, that’s how I really understand it and I know that might sound strange to you, but you’re dealing with a form of songwriting ether – it’s etheric – and you’re having to take this and make it tangible.

So having said all that, going back to LITTLE EARTHQUAKES, you have your instrument, whatever that is – for me, it’s a piano – and sometimes, you just play to understand what you’re feeling. But then, once you do that, you can’t leave it there. This is where the delicate ruthlessness comes in. You can’t just say, “Oh, because I was feeling that, it’s great.” No, it’s usually not. Then you have to get out your chisel and you need to start sculpting it into something, into a form. That’s the art form of songwriting.

MR: One of my favourite TORI AMOS songs is SILENT ALL THESE YEARS. It affected me very deeply when I heard it. I couldn’t believe I was hearing those words come out on the radio. Do you know where that moment of inspiration came from and do you think back on how great it was?

TA: Well, I think my whole life had been leading up to that moment. It’s one of those things where I had been writing for a long time before that success. So, it didn’t just come overnight – I mean, that was 27 years of work, as I’d started playing at two or two and a half. So it all culminated into that after many, many, many – I mean hundreds of songs – had been written. They might not have all been copywritten, but had been written. Then when LITTLE EARTHQUAKES, that body of work, was coming out, it wasn’t as if that was my first go. That’s how the world might’ve seen it, but it came after many, many, many, many years of songwriting.

MR: Everything on that record was very pointed and poignant. It had this “You’ve got to listen to this” quality.

TA: Yeah, that was the idea for that record.

MR: Your recordings in general demand attention. Is it intentional?

TA: Well, I think that making records is its own sort of – hmm, what do you say – what would it be like in surfing terms? Like surfing a huge 25 foot wave…a 30 footer. I think in making records, you can get locked into some kind of dimension where you don’t know if you’re gonna make it out alive. A lot of people have made records and that’s it – they’ve never made them again, or they’ve made a couple, they’ve had a success and then it’s done. The thing about making records is that it’s a real discipline. You have to be able to stay focused, knowing when the magic is there. You can play something a hundred times and there’s no magic and you can’t explain why, but you just know when you’re listening back. There’s that elusive something, that sparkle, that something that makes you want to play it again.

Like, “Could you play that again?” It’s very difficult to define these things, but a good producer begins to eyeball it. It’s almost like you have to be a hunter and you can hunt that frequency down and the tone of it and you have to know when you have it and when you don’t.

I usually have a team around me. It’s not just me. It’s never just me.

It’s always about a team when you’re making records – I think – and it’s about pulling different people together at different times to make music together. So many years on, still making records, each record is never approached casually.

It’s not a casual exercise. It’s fucking ferocious. But there’s something quite sexy about it, too.

It’s like I’ve heard surfers talk about riding these waves that could really wipe them out and kill them. Well, you know, making records can be like that too. Surfers lose their lives. I don’t mean to belittle their experience, but I’ve known many musicians that love to surf and would say, “The difference in your analogy, T, is that we could die,” and what I would say is, “Yes, but how many musicians’ careers have died because they make the wrong record?”

MR: Interesting perspective, really. Now, in the past, you got to work with the great ARIF MARDEN. That must have been a marvelous experience.

TA: Yeah, I must say…I’ve been so fortunate to work with so many amazing people over the years. I’ve been really, really blessed. I also love working with AHMET ERTEGUN, who is related to ARIF. AHMET ERTEGUN danced with me at my wedding. His wisdom was so…he really gave me some amazing advice over the years.

MR: I imagine that this team you’ve surrounded yourself with has not only contributed to your music and your records, but also to your life.

TA: Yes, absolutely.

MR: Considering your incredible catalogue, what advice do you have for new artists?

TA: Like what kind of advice?

MR: What should a new artist do creatively to further their adventure?

TA: Well, you have to be clear on what your style is and you have to embrace that style and if you’re not loving it, then you need to expand it. And you can always expand what I call your palette. But you have to keep expanding your chord vocabulary and if you’re a songwriter, your structure, because the problem now in the 21st Century is how many times have you listened to the radio and thought, “Oh, wait a minute. That song sounds like this other song that sounds like this other song.”

See, now you’re coming down the food chain in the 21st Century and a lot of writers have come before you who have written in possibly similar structures, so it’s challenging, but new artists have to have even more in their arsenal than they did fifteen years ago if you’re going to be original. You need to play with structures and not just listen to the radio of today, you need to go back to some of the great masters and look at their chord progressions, because it’s a bit different from the derivative that you hear all the time right now. I don’t mean what you hear all the time and everywhere, but you do with the obvious TOP 40 stuff.

MR: Well, that cycles right back to your approach on NIGHT OF HUNTERS, your classical song cycle and exploration of the great works of the last few hundred years. I really do appreciate your time, Tori. It’s been very special for me and I’m sure for the readers. Thank you again.

TA: Thank you. All the best.

THE HOLLIES PART II: A CONVERSATION WITH GRAHAM NASH

This article is written by MIKE RAGOGNA at THE HUFFINGTON POST

MIKE RAGOGNA: Graham, let’s talk about the new HOLLIES DVD LOOK THROUGH ANY WINDOW. It covers from 1963 to 1975 and it’s loaded with vintage footage as well as interviews including those with you and ALLAN CLARKE.

GRAHAM NASH: It was really terrifying to see myself growing up. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) How did THE HOLLIES get together?

GN: It was basically me and ALLAN singing together since we were six years old. We’d sing THE LORD’S PRAYER at the beginning of class and stuff like that – we sang in little funny school shows and stuff. ALLAN and I could really sing together, so that became the basis of it. The (other) guys came up to us one day and said, “You know, you need a lead guitar and some drums and some bass.” Me and ALLAN had been just two acoustic guitars, so they had to prove it to us and they did; they played some of our stuff and it rocked. So we formed a band, which later – a year and a half later, in December of 62 – became THE HOLLIES.

MR: Can you talk about the reaction you all had to THE HOLLIES’ first hit record?

GN: I remember it to this day. We were going to do a show on the BBC and we were walking down the street in London and approaching two workmen who were working on a storefront. They had a radio there and out of the radio came BUS STOP. It completely blew our minds.

MR: BUS STOP is one of the great pop classics.

GN: And we did it in less than an hour.

MR: What was the session like?

GN: The session was interesting because our original bass player ERIC HAYDOCK had left the group that week. We were doing ABBEY ROAD in London at EMI later that week and we didn’t have a bass player. So BERNIE CALVERT – who had all ready played with TONY HICKS and BOBBY ELLIOTT in a group in the north of England – joined us. That was the very first thing he ever played on.

MR: And so many great recordings followed. One of the forces behind your recordings was RON RICHARDS, who oversaw production.

GN: He’s a brilliant man.

MR: How did you all meet?

GN: We were playing a show at THE CAVERN in Liverpool. It was a lunchtime show for the young working girls in the district there. They would have a show from twelve o’clock to one o’clock, which was exactly their lunchtime and I had, the night before, broken the last string on my guitar and I couldn’t afford to buy strings. So I played the entire show without any strings and RON RICHARDS was there.

He was looking for – in his mind, probably – the next BEATLES, because if THE BEATLES came from Liverpool, surely there were other bands. Although we were from Manchester, we were playing at that lunchtime show. He loved what we did, he loved the effect that we had on our audiences and how passionate we were. He invited us down to London. The first record that we released was sometime around March of 63. It was a hit and we haven’t looked back since.

MR: Now I also spoke with ALLAN and asked him about the story behind CARRIE ANNE – if there was a MARIANNE FAITHFULL connection there. So I also wanted to ask you the same question.

GN: The story with CARRIE ANNE is that we wrote it – started it – as a song for MARIANNE FAITHFULL. We’d all seen her and we all wanted her. She was a deliciously sexy young Catholic schoolgirl with all of the baggage that comes along with that. We loved MARIANNE and she actually came on the road with THE HOLLIES for a month or so. So we started it out to be a song about MARIANNE and then we chickened out. We tried to find a name that was kind of similar to MARIANNE and one that would not give the game away, shall we say. We came up with CARRIE ANNE; me and TONY started writing it mainly and then ALLAN came and joined in.

MR: The most memorable thing for me about that record is not just the hook and the fun production and the sound, but your reaching those phenomenally high notes.

GN: Yeah – well, you know, what can you do?

MR: Sorry to fawn, but I’m a big fan of your vocal abilities.

GN: Thanks. I’ve still got it too.

MR: (laughs) Do you have a favourite HOLLIES recording?

GN: No, it’s like trying to say which is your favourite kid. I have fond memories of all of them – of CARRIE ANNE, of BUS STOP, of STAY, of SEARCHING, of JUST ONE LOOK, of I CAN’T LET GO and on and on and on. I remember them all fondly. My favourite song, actually, is the one I’m writing now, which I’m going to play for you when we see you.

MR: Nice. Graham, at what point did you decide to leave THE HOLLIES and move on with your career?

GN: Hearing myself sing with DAVID (CROSBY) and STEPHEN (STILLS) in 68.

MR: And it was CASS ELLIOT who put that together, correct?

GN: CASS did, but that’s in opposition to what STEPHEN believes. STEPHEN believes that the first time we sang together was in CASS’ kitchen, but it wasn’t. It was in JONI’S living room.

MR: Now that’s a topic we could talk about all day…you and JONI MITCHELL.

GN: I loves JONES and she loves me. What we had together was very special and we both realize it.

MR: So, the various CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG configurations began – as did your solo career, with SONGS FOR BEGINNERS. Every track on that album is very rich with lyrics and emotion. What do you think of it now when you look back at the album?

GN: People seem to really like that record and I’ve often wondered why. I’ve been going back recently and listening to it and seeing what it is that I did…and yeah, they are some pretty decent songs. I’m serious as a heart attack about music and I wanted it to be the best. The reason that those songs didn’t end up with CROSBY, STILLS & NASH is because everybody was writing at the same time. And when you’re with CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG you can only have two or maybe three songs per album because the other three guys write. I had all these songs that were in my head and I had to do something with them. I would’ve gone crazy if they’d not been recorded. I needed it and we always said when we were together that it wouldn’t be a named group. We would use our names, because we were going to make music with whomever we wanted at any point in our lives.

MR: And there has always been an element of social consciousness in your music.

GN: Yes. My last show with THE HOLLIES, which was at THE LONDON PALLADIUM, was a benefit for children. When THE HOLLIES were on the road, we would very often go to hospitals and check out kids, go and take a guitar and play them songs and stuff. I’m a human being…We all need help in this world. This can be a pretty gloomy world if you choose to look at it that way. So yeah, I like to speak my mind…and I realize that not everyone’s going to agree with me. But certain people will.

MR: Beautiful. Are you going on tour to support the DVD?

GN: I’m about to leave for the airport and go to New York. CROSBY and I have a show in New York and then we fly the next day to Europe and start in Dublin.

MR: Graham, before we go, I want to thank you very much for your efforts over the years when it comes to trying to advance alternative energy use and development, your being one of the early voices of the anti nuclear movement and also for creating WIND ON THE WATER, your recording with DAVID that’s a masterpiece on protecting whales.

GN: CROSBY and I just made a DVD of a live show that we did about 2½ months ago. It’s an incredible concert and a fabulous DVD. The reason why I’m saying that is because the performance of WIND ON THE WATER on that recording is fabulous. We have to wean ourselves off this oil monster.

MR: We’ve sort of weaned ourselves off the nuclear monster, but there’s more work to do.

GN: Well, yeah, but the nuclear industry – even though it hasn’t been supported by any investment from Wall Street since its conception – relies on public funding. In these economic times and especially the times after the Fukushima disaster – with the information from THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES that over a million people were killed at Chernobyl – I think it’s a stupid way to boil water, when the sun is boiling down on us. I’m in Los Angeles right now and the sun is boiling here.

MR: In some parts of the country, it just doesn’t make sense not to use a natural resource.

GN: I agree. I have solar on my house here and where I live in Hawaii.

MR: Graham, what advice do you have for new artists?

GN: Believe in what you’re doing. Don’t waste people’s time, especially your own. Time is the only thing we have…time and family. That’s it, period.

MR: Do you feel at this point that there are a lot of artists who are actually doing that?

GN: I don’t care. There are a lot of people that are very involved in trying to make the world a better place, but of course, you can almost count the people that own the media on two hands. They want a bunch of sheep.

“Just lie down, let us rob you, buy another pair of sneakers and a soft drink and shut the hell up.”

I’m not one of those people and there are a lot of people here in America who feel the same way. They’re getting sick and tired of the gap between the rich and the poor getting wider and wider by the day.

MR: There will be a blowback, I feel, towards Obama, but I personally think that’s the wrong blowback.

GN: It is the wrong blowback. You’ve got to understand the incredible mess he inherited, but quite frankly, money buys the law. Money buys politics. Money buys congresspeople and senators and even presidents. That’s the way it is. So we have to fight to be heard, we have to fight for what we believe is right and we have to not waste time doing it – like I said before.

MR: Beautiful, Graham. Thank you for that. Terrible segue, but I need to ask you what’s coming up for you beyond the tour.

GN: Well, I’m working on ten records at the same time – all in my mind and on my computer. I’m doing STEPHEN STILLS’ box set right now, which will be three or four CDs. I’m working on the CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG live 1974 tapes, which will be at least a three CD set. I’m working on a benefit album that me and CROSBY have done, because we’ve sung with some incredible people. So I’m putting together that album as well as an acoustic record of me and CROSBY from 93. A bunch of stuff.

MR: Graham, thank you very much for your time. This was very special.

GN: Thank you, kid.

THE HOLLIES: CHATTING WITH ALLAN CLARKE

This article is written by MIKE RAGOGNA at THE HUFFINGTON POST

MIKE RAGOGNA: ALLAN CLARKE of THE HOLLIES…How the heck are you?

ALLAN CLARKE: So well. How are you, Mike?

MR: Terrific, sir. OK. Let’s talk about the new DVD LOOK THROUGH ANY WINDOW that captures THE HOLLIES from 1963 through 1975. How did this project come together?

AC: Well, a guy named DAVID PECK rang me up one day – he runs a firm called REELIN’ IN THE YEARS that has put out a lot of really great DVDs about some great people. He asked me if he could do a DVD about THE HOLLIES. I thought it was about time that something be done like that because nothing had ever been done about THE HOLLIES. It took him a couple of years to get the stuff together and some of the stuff that came to light even I had forgotten about. Most of the things that are on the DVD are full length performances and then there are interviews with myself, GRAHAM NASH, TONY HICKS and BOBBY ELLIOTT. It really spans that time between 1963 and 1975 because that covers most of our hits.

MR: On the DVD, you discuss JERRY LEE LEWIS and how you were inspired by his energy and that energy was in THE HOLLIES’ recording of I CAN’T LET GO.

AC: I don’t know how far back you go in your knowledge of music. I go way, way back, but when I was young, my favourite artists were JERRY LEE LEWIS, LITTLE RICHARD, BUDDY HOLLY and EDDIE COCHRAN. Those songs, at that particular time, had this feel that whenever you heard them, you had to get up and dance. And of course that’s what we did. It’s like whenever you heard the song GREAT BALLS OF FIRE the excitement sort of crept into the body and you had to get up and dance. I CAN’T LET GO gave me that same sort of feel. It got me the first time I heard the original song. I’m just glad that we were able to remake it and have a hit.

MR: There are many on camera interviews on the DVD. Can you share the one about CARRIE ANNE with us?

AC: Well, once we were doing THE TOM JONES SHOW in England and as I was walking down the corridor, I heard GRAHAM and TONY singing this song that sounded great and I thought I’d better get in there and see what was happening because I needed some of that song. (laughs) I think that TONY was pretty much doing it on TAMBOURINE MAN to rouse up CARRIE ANNE…and I got the middle eight on it, so I was really pleased.

MR: The way that you guys recorded your group vocals is shown on the DVD and it was very interesting to watch. There’s footage of the three of you around a microphone because, apparently, you wanted to be able to look at each other’s lips. Is that how it worked?

AC: There just happened to be a film crew in the recording studio that day and they asked if it was OK for them to come and get some footage of us recording stuff and we agreed. So none of that was really planned. We just happened to be doing what we always did earlier in our career; the three of us would be around one mic and we would pre record the bass track in a basic form and then put the vocals down, then do double harmonies. Then GRAHAM would usually add a treble harmony on top of all of that. We tried to be really careful not to overdo things. That just happened to be the way that we always recorded our harmonies. It was very raw.

When we first got to ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS and realized we would be working with four tracks, we thought that was really great, because when we went down to EMI to try and get a deal, we went in and played our whole menu that we did on the road in an afternoon and it turned out to be our first album. So you really didn’t have too much time to mess around.

MR: While we’re on the subject of EMI, what is the story of how THE HOLLIES got signed to the label?

AC: Let’s face it. If it hadn’t been for THE BEATLES I don’t think any of us would be where we are today. When they actually broke through on the charts with LOVE ME DO, all of the record companies in London were sending their A&R men up to Manchester and Liverpool to try and get as many groups as they could because they knew that there was going to be an explosion of Northern Sound and we were one of the lucky ones to pass our audition. I think we were one of the best after THE BEATLES. I think we only became signed because of them…but in the eyes of the public, we were THE BEATLES of Manchester. That’s what happened; a lot of groups got into recording because of THE BEATLES.

MR: On the DVD, we’re treated to footage of ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS with gents running around in white coats.

AC: Yes, that’s right – the engineers. (laughs) In the early days in England, all of the radio personalities were very posh and it was the same for all of the technicians in that studio. I don’t know why, but that’s how it was. It was really very strange.

MR: And there were the tea boys, many of whom became popular engineers or producers later on.

AC: Tea makers like TIM RICE used to go out and get tea for us in the early days.

MR: Wow. At what point did you start working with RON RICHARDS?

AC: RON came up to see us at THE CAVERN where we were performing one night and he just gave us a once over because he was supposed to be the guy that was going to take us into the studio and record us. He liked us straight off. GEORGE MARTIN got THE BEATLES and he got us. He was a great man. He had a great ear for songs and it was more or less down to him picking the songs that we recorded. We always knew that we had one song in the can when RON would tell us to “Come on up and have a listen.” Then we knew that we didn’t have to do any more to the song.

MR: Great. And ALAN PARSONS worked on HOLLIES recordings.

AC: He was actually an engineer at ABBEY ROAD before he went out on his own. He had such a great career with THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT. I did a single called BREAKDOWN on one of his albums myself and I really enjoyed it. He was just a brilliant engineer. I really enjoyed it.

MR: I remember it. Great track. By the way, THE HOLLIES’ ANOTHER NIGHT with SANDY, I’M DOWN and that hypnotic title track – is one of my favourite albums, which was beautifully engineered by ALAN and I think it’s an early sonic blueprint of what he did with THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT on ARISTA, obviously not arrangement wise. Allan, it seems that THE HOLLIES’ success also can be attributed to the team that surrounded you.

AC: You’re right. It was very much a combination of not only the group but the people behind the group. What we used to do when we knew we were going to have to get an album together was meet with everyone for about three weeks prior to recording and start getting ideas together. We got into a rhythm of being able to write songs that we thought would be great for the albums. And you’re right…I did love the ANOTHER NIGHT album and I wish it would have been a bigger hit than it was because we really thought that that one was going to help us break through again in America and that we’d be touring here. It didn’t really work out that way, but we enjoyed making the album and I think that a lot of that was because of RON RICHARDS and the ideas that he had for the songs that we wrote.

MR: Very nice. Now you recorded outside of THE HOLLIES as a solo artist. In fact, weren’t you one of the ones that caught on early to the music of a BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN?

AC: I could say that. I won’t, however, take any credit for BRUCE’S music and ability because he proved that all on his own. The story behind that is that there was a publisher who got some of his stuff before he broke and I remember this publisher playing his songs and thinking that they were great and wanting to record all of the songs, which I did. I even recorded a version of BORN TO RUN. But BRUCE got his out before me…and that’s history. (laughs) No, I’m a great admirer of his. Always loved his stuff and always will.

MR: Getting back to THE HOLLIES, can you tell us the story behind how you guys came up with that name?

AC: That was a long time ago now, but I think it had to do with BUDDY HOLLY, of course. It was also Christmastime so that influenced it as well. Ultimately, it was out of panic because as we were going to go on stage to play, the MC asked what he should call us and we just told him to call us THE HOLLIES and it stuck.

MR: Are there any cool stories that we might not know about you guys before you became a big group?

AC: Many people don’t know this, but GRAHAM and I played on the first ROLLING STONES single NOT FADE AWAY. We were just walking past a recording studio where THE STONES were recording and they asked us to come in because they needed some help. It was myself, GRAHAM and GENE PITNEY. I think GENE was clinking a two penny piece against a brandy bottle and I was playing maracas. But we were on the single. (laughs)

MR: Awesome. How did THE HOLLIES assemble originally?

AC: I met GRAHAM as a five year old 64 years ago and we’ve been friends ever since. We got together and always sang together right up until our dads bought us guitars and we started playing skiffle. Then skiffle turned into rock & roll and we started doing THE EVERLY BROTHERS and BUDDY HOLLY stuff. After that, we got a band together and were in so many different kinds of bands that eventually it got to THE HOLLIES and we turned professional. But all of that was over the span of about 15 or 16 years.

MR: Nice. Then you had BERNIE come on for the song BUS STOP. Can you tell us how that came about?

AC: Well, ERIC HAYDOCK left the group and we needed somebody to replace him really quickly because we were in the midst of recording and doing live shows. As it turns out, BERNIE was around and he had worked with TONY HICKS and BOBBY ELLIOT in a previous group called THE DOLPHINS. He fit in right away. He was a very heavy and laid back bass player and that’s what we needed. He was quite different from ERIC.

MR: Yeah. That song became quite a classic in the US. Why do you think that is?

AC: It’s just one of those classic songs that lasts forever. It was written by a guy named GRAHAM GOULDMAN, who brought it to GRAHAM NASH when we were looking for new songs. The two songs that we took from him were that one and LOOK THROUGH ANY WINDOW, which wound up being a big hit here in the States.

MR: Let’s talk about some of your other hit songs, like your anthem HE AIN’T HEAVY, HE’S MY BROTHER. Can you tell us the story behind that one?

AC: Well, TONY HICKS used to go around to publisher’s offices trying to pick up songs to play for RON. One day, he came upon the song on a publisher’s desk and asked the publisher what the song was like and he said, “You won’t like this one. It’s a ballad.” But TONY listened to it anyway and he really liked it. So he came back and played it for us in the studio and we said that it was slow, but it was great. The lyrics were fantastic and it actually meant something, so we knew we had to give it a try. It was very slow in taking off, but when it did, it was so big.

MR: I would say it’s one of the great pop records of all time.

AC: Fancy being the guy that sang that. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) Can you tell us about LONG COOL WOMAN IN A BLACK DRESS?

AC: ROGER COOK was a great friend of mine and we used to write a lot of songs together. That particular song we weren’t really taking very seriously. We used to meet at the studio and have a bottle of brandy and mess around with tunes and such. About 15 minutes after we started writing this song, it was over, done and written and I thought, “Wow, that was quick.”

So I brought it back to the studio and played it for the guys and the guys thought it was a great album track. They told me to play the guitar and sing, which I did…and again, the whole song was recorded in less than 30 minutes. I did one take of vocals and guitar and the guys said we should leave it like that because it didn’t need any more. It was one of those songs that had those HOLLIES harmonies and it went on the album. The next thing I knew, I had someone ringing me from the States saying that they wanted to publish the song because it was racing up the charts. We didn’t even dream that that song would be as big as it was. It was just one of those songs that came out of the ether and it’s a classic.

MR: I think for many guitar players, it’s still mandatory to learn your guitar hook.

AC: Everyone tries. (laughs) We were being inducted to the ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME a couple of years back and one of the posh guitar players that was playing there as well came up to me and asked me how I played that guitar lick because he couldn’t figure it out. And after I showed it to them, they were amazed at how easy it was and they were making it so difficult.

MR: That’s great. It’s also great that you guys were inducted into the ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME. How do you feel about your career and that of THE HOLLIES?

AC: Speaking for myself, I think that I am just one of the luckiest guys in the world to be able to have done what I did and enjoy it. I got paid for something which I love to do and had some great success. But, as I tried to tell my grandchildren who are now playing guitars and such, you have to be in the right place at the right time for these things to happen.

THE HOLLIES were and what followed after that was a combination of people getting together to make great music and the audiences actually going out and buying it and putting us where we were. It’s not just us five guys. There are a lot of other people that had to be in the mix. I’m glad because everyone seems to know THE HOLLIES and they know us for the music. I mean, I walk down the street now and people haven’t a clue who I am, which is nice. But when I’m in America and they play LONG COOL WOMAN in the store, I can’t help but enjoy how much everyone enjoys the music.

What a great thing to have achieved.

MR: And we can’t forget to discuss another song everyone loves, THE AIR THAT I BREATHE, from another terrific album, the self titled THE HOLLIES.

AC: Right. That one was originally recorded by PHIL EVERLY and RON RICHARDS’assistant played it for me because she thought it was a great song and that THE HOLLIES should do it. I loved the song, so I took it to RON again and we wound up putting it down and having another great hit. That’s one of the only songs where you can hear the first note and know exactly what song it is.

MR: That’s right. We also know STOP STOP STOP because of that banjo part.

AC: Yeah. The first time we came to America, we played at this theatre in New York and we were on with SOUPY SALES…remember him? (laughs) LITTLE RICHARD was also on the bill and JIMI HENDRIX, who played for LITTLE RICHARD at the time…and tons of others. One of those nights, we went out to a club owned by the guy who was producing these shows called THE ROUND TABLE and there was a Turkish belly dancer in there doing her bit. That’s where we got the idea for the song STOP STOP STOP. The lyrics were swimming round in our heads. Some of it we even wrote in a taxi. The idea of it was to get this Turkish theme by using the banjo and it worked very, very well.

MR: There was a period for THE HOLLIES when there was an absence of a certain ALLAN CLARKE. What happened?

AC: Well, when I was writing the songs of ROGER COOK before LONG COOL WOMAN was a hit, I was playing with the idea of doing some solo stuff and I had all of this material that I needed to do. I approached the guys and said that I had some stuff that we weren’t recording so I wanted to record it myself. I think that what they thought was that if I had any success of my own, I would leave the group like RYAN did and they weren’t really willing to put up with that, you know?

So I was told it was either stay with the group or leave the group and record on your own. I decided to leave and went into the studio and started doing my own stuff. The guys found another guy to replace me and I thought he had a great voice. They had about three hits with him. He reminded me a lot of SCOTT WALKER. But unfortunately for THE HOLLIES, he didn’t quite have the presence on stage that I had. After about three years, they all came back to me and asked me if I would like to come back to the group and I accepted because I never wanted to leave in the first place.

MR: THE HOLLIES’ seventies albums were terrific for the era. And have we spoken about that masterpiece from RUSSIAN ROULETTE – WIGGLE & WOTSIT – yet?

AC: That was a terrible song! (laughs) I don’t like to say that I had anything to do with the writing of that song, honestly. (laughs) It was a fun song. We were experimenting with different sounds and different ways of writing songs. That’s what those albums were more or less about. I thought the album A CRAZY STEAL was beautiful. We thought that we had a chance of getting hits with the newer songs we were making because they were different and more in the American way, but it wasn’t meant to be. The songs are still there though and they still sound great.

MR: Allan, with all of the success and experience that you’ve gained over your life and extensive career, is there any advice you would give to a new artist?

AC: (laughs) I suppose it would be the same advice that I am giving to my 18 year old grandson,who is a brilliant guitar player and songwriter. I tell him that the reason it all happened as it did is because I was in the right place at the right time and I was doing it for fun. It just happened to turn into a career without me doing anything to promote it at all. It doesn’t happen like that for everyone. What you’ve got to do is keep your feet on the floor and do the best that you can in anything that you do. Don’t make the music the most important thing and think you’re going to be number one; you have to just enjoy your music and I hope that it can happen for people the way that it happened for me.

MR: Now that THE HOLLIES have all been reunited for the release of this DVD, do you think there’s any chance of you doing anything else together?

AC: No, I don’t think so. I’m working on this project with GRAHAM and the other guys are working away in England somewhere. I left the group 10 years ago and one of the reasons I left was because I wasn’t able to hit the high notes any more. I figured I would rather be known for what was than as someone who tried to struggle on for too long. My wife was also diagnosed with cancer in 1999 and we decided that it was time I put my guitar away. We thought we’d just spend the rest of our lives hoping the cancer would go away, which it did and she’s doing beautifully.

MR: Beautiful, Allan. I’m happy for you both. Thank you so much for spending this time with us. We could talk about so much more.

AC: I could talk for the rest of the day about things that happened in our careers…the reason why GRAHAM left, how we met and stayed friends, because, as I said, we’ve been friends for 64 years and will be for many more. I will actually be seeing him later this year because we are being given BUDDY HOLLY guitars by an organization called THE BUDDY HOLLY GUITAR ORGANIZATION that has made 25 copies of his favourite guitars. GRAHAM and I both get one.

MR: I hope you both enjoy them for many years to come. Thank you again for your time and conversation. It was an honour.

AC: Thank you Mike for having me. The honour was all mine.

NOW & FOREVER: CHATTING WITH SHEILA E.

This article is written by MIKE RAGOGNA at THE HUFFINGTON POST

MIKE RAGOGNA: Hey, how are you?

SHEILA E: I’m fantastic. Thank you.

MR: Sheila, you are always fantastic.

SE: (laughs) Life is good. What can I say?

MR: Life is good and you have a new album NOW & FOREVER that you made with your family. Can you tell me how you guys decided to come together and make this record?

SE: Sure. It happened about three years ago. We were talking about it and we decided to do a family album together because, actually, we’ve never done one. We figured out we played on each other’s projects and thought, “Oh my God. We’ve never done one together!” So we said, “Let’s do it,” and we got together and started writing some songs, which was actually a little bit challenging because we had never written together as a family either.

MR: How did it work out?

SE: That was kind of exciting and because we are all individual leaders in our own bands, it took a minute for us to even figure out how we were going to work things out because everybody had to give 25% as opposed to, “No, let’s just do it this way.” You know? So it was a little bit challenging on that end. Then we decided at that particular time, we made an A list of celebrities and artists and friends that we wanted to be on the CD. So by the time we started recording it, of the people that were available – of course the list had 50 – 60 people on it, we had a lot to choose from – we ended up having EARTH, WIND & FIRE, JOSS STONE, ISRAEL HOUGHTON, RAPHAEL SAADIQ, GEORGE DUKE and GLORIA ESTEFAN on the CD.

MR: When the family came together and listened to this when it was done, did you guys do a little ceremonial thing sitting down with maybe a glass of red wine or something to celebrate what you had made?

SE: Were you there? (laughs) Yeah, absolutely, that was exactly what happened.

MR: That’s great. And what was the feeling afterward?

SE: Oh, it was fantastic. It’s pretty amazing and we were all thinking, finally, after all of these years playing together as a family, to really accomplish this and do something. I think we were – us kids, meaning my brothers and I – were looking at Pops and saying, “Wow, this is something that he’s always wanted,” and we were proud of him. We call him our secret weapon because no one has Pops as their secret weapon. He’s pretty amazing. He brings the legacy of the family and what he’s brought to Latin jazz and that was also just a wonderful thing because putting together the music, making sure that he was involved and bringing his part of it and what that entailed, we were really proud of him. So it was pretty awesome to look at him and say, “Man, you know, Pops, this is for you.”

MR: Very sweet. Of course, we’re talking about PETE ESCOVEDO and your brothers JUAN and PETER MICHAEL. So since this is your first album together, it opens the door for many more projects like this, doesn’t it?

SE: Oh, absolutely it does! I’m going to try my hardest to start working on my CD in about two months and I’m hoping to release it by the end of next year on my birthday.

MR: Nice. Happy birthday way way in advance.

SE: Thank you. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) Is the family going to be featured on it?

SE: We might do that as well, as Pops wants to do another record and then we all decided you know, this was so much fun, for a first project together and as a family, so let’s do another one. First, we thought, “Well, let’s just try to see what happens,” but now, we’re so excited and starting to hear the songs on the radio and everything. We’ve really been pumped about it. Wow, we can’t even wait to do the next record. But it’s been great even playing the songs live and some people knowing the music that you’ve written…and when people know it and they like it, it’s just a great feeling.

MR: With a musical family like yours, it’s got to be difficult to get together and not just want to make music together all the time, right?

SE: Well, that’s kind of what we do and that’s why we were like dumbfounded, like, “Wait a minute. We haven’t done a record before…Really?” This is crazy, so I mean that’s what we do. We get together all the time. We’re always playing together and creating. I think there’re not enough hours in the day to be able to do what we all want to do.

MR: Sheila, as you were saying earlier, you had some surrogate family members join in, like EARTH, WIND & FIRE and RAPHAEL SAADIQ. Do you have any particular fond memories of when they came into the studio? Maybe what the experiences were like?

SE: Oh, absolutely. When EARTH, WIND & FIRE came into the studio they were, I think, just as excited as we were. We started telling stories. The first that came about was PHILLIP BAILEY was explaining how, back in the day when they first started, EARTH, WIND & FIRE, they opened up for Pops’ band – him and my dad’s brother. They had a band called AZTECA, so EARTH, WIND & FIRE opened up for them and they were like, “Oh my God. This is Azteca.” They were signed to CBS. It was a huge band, it was an eighteen piece band and they were just trippin about. We’re in the hotel with them and they’re catering all this food and drinks and people were hanging out and it was a party and we wanted to be a part of this band. This was amazing!

I want to say PHILLIP said he was maybe 20 or 21 years old when that happened. So it comes all the way back around full circle and everybody’s telling stories about when they were on the road. It was just pretty amazing.

Then when we were, it was a song that I wrote for EARTH, WIND & FIRE on the CD called PEACE & JOY and when we were actually doing the song, RALPH JOHNSON – who was the original percussionist for EARTH, WIND & FIRE – I looked at him and I said, “OK, here’s the percussion breakdown. So this is your timbale solo,” and he freaked out and he said, “No, no, no, no. Wait a minute. I’m in front of four Escovedos. There’s no way I’m going to be in the studio and do a timbale solo. You’ve got the best percussionists here!”

I said, “Man, we wrote this song for you guys. You’re being featured on this and we’re just so humbled and totally just like, thank you thank you. This is amazing.” It was a great moment.

MR: I’m sure you grew up on EARTH, WIND & FIRE records too, right?

SE: Absolutely we did. Again, my younger brother, PETER MICHAEL, he was saying in the interview that he was trippin. He said, “I grew up on Earth, Wind & Fire and they’re sitting here and we’re playing together.” It was amazing.

MR: I have to throw RAPHAEL SAADIQ into the mix now. Lately I have been really loving his work. Got a RAPHAEL story for us?

SE: I’ll tell you the story before he became RAPHAEL SADDIQ. He was in my band. Most of the musicians I used all came from Oakland, the Bay area and he was in my band with two of the members of TONY TONI TONE. But originally, he was in the band with me and we went out on a tour and we starting opening for PRINCE and then I disbanded the band and I took half of the band with me for the SIGN O’ THE TIMES TOUR and RAPHAEL and two of the other members, I didn’t bring them with me. That’s when they started TONY TONI TONE…and that’s a great story.

MR: Now you recently did a residency with PRINCE in California and we talked about that in an interview dedicated to the show. How did that end? You were in the middle of it the last time we talked.

SE: Yeah. I did either 14 or 17 of the 21 shows because I was in and out and again, trying to get this record out with the family, so I was multitasking. It was crazy, some of the times, I don’t even remember being there. It just seemed like one big huge dream that I just played for like a month straight. We had such a great time, we had so many artists that came to see us – and friends and fans, they really loved that opportunity to afford being able to come and see the show. Actually the E FAMILY opened for one of the shows for him at the FORUM.

MR: That’s really sweet how after all these years you’re obviously tight with PRINCE, but the family is tight with PRINCE too. Love that.

SE: Yeah. When we first met in 78, once he first started to come and hang out and I brought him to one of the shows with the family – of course, we were playing way back then – he looked at me and he said, “Oh my God. Where did you guys come from? This is crazy. You guys play this music all the time? How’d you learn this? What’s going on?” And again, this is Pops. This is what he’s been doing all his life and he shared that with us…and that’s why we know.

MR: Will you share with us the creative process when it comes to all of you working together as the Escovedo family and when everybody is coming from a different place, what does Sheila bring to the mix creatively? You know, songwriting etc.?

SE: It’s pretty crazy because we are similar because we all bring everything to the table. Our writing process is different for every single song. None of us ever write the same all the time. We don’t usually start with just a melody. We could start with a drum beat or a title or a word or an idea or a story. So every process was different. What I brought to the table was what I always bring and I think that’s what is so great about the family. We all bring the same thing and that’s 150% of The Sky’s The Limit. We don’t limit ourselves or say we can’t do this or we can’t do that. There are no mistakes. You just keep doing it until it feels right.

MR: Nice. Is this album the most special out of all the recordings you’ve recorded?

SE: Up to this date? Absolutely. It means a lot for many, many reasons – because it’s family, because of what Pops has brought to the table, his legacy. The passion we put into it, thinking about how after all these years we were able to do this. It’s a labour of love. It’s special. We are a close family anyway. But it was emotional. It was love, it was friendship, it was everything that we grew up with and all the different genres of music combined together. It’s one of the most special things I think I’ve done.

MR: Beautiful. By the way I’m looking right now at the E FAMILY stage plot. There are more drums and percussion instruments on this map than in Sam Ash.

SE: (laughs) Yeah there’s a lot of us. Just imagine, how many bands have four percussion players? And that’s the other crazy thing about it, is that we all trade instruments. I go to congas sometimes, I’ll play timbales, I’ll play bongos and JUAN will come and play drums. PETER MICHAEL will play drums. So we’re switching throughout the entire show.

MR: Yeah. It seems way large and the show is about how long…?

SE: It depends on if we are headlining or opening or if it’s two shows a night or whatever. It varies from an hour to an hour and a half to an hour and forty five. It just depends. About an hour or an hour and a half. An hour is too short. We love to do an hour and a half. It’s better.

MR: Yeah, especially if everybody is dancing in their seats or otherwise. Actually, I can’t imagine there’s anyone in their seat when you get on stage.

SE: Yeah. I’m telling you, it’s happy, happy music and I think that’s definitely why people enjoy it. I think they see the love between the family and the passion. I think we make the audience feel, “You are a part of our lives.” I mean without them we wouldn’t have a life and to be able to share the gift of music that God has given us with everyone. Like saying, “Man, we’re just as happy as you are and you’re part of this family as well.” We encompass that. We encourage that with the friends – I always say friends instead of fans. But it’s just that and I think they see that and I think that’s what we get back from them. They feel what we feel.

MR: Really beautifully said. Really sweet. I want to ask you about the song NOTHING WITHOUT YOU. Can you give a little background on that one?

SE: My brother JUAN and MICHAEL ANGEL were the two that originally brought this song in and they gave us a little demo of the song and we thought it was a great idea for a song. Then once we started working together, all of us got together and started messing around with the song. We thought, “This is a cool little latin…r&bish.” I don’t know, a little something like a cha cha. I think it’s one of the first songs we wrote together.

MR: I wanted to ask you about I LIKE IT. What’s the story behind that one?

SE: I LIKE IT…PETER MICHAEL cowrote that song and he brought that in and it’s pretty funny because I think it was a song that was more on the young side. When Pops first heard it he said, “Ah, where do I fit in?” (laughs) We try to figure out ways of incorporating Pops when musically our music is a little bit younger than his. But once he got the idea of, “Hey, guido cha cha and a little hip hop,” and now, you know, he’s got his little swag on. It’s all good. (laughs)

MR: With all that percussion, the big arrangements and all the other elements like your guests, you would think, “There’s no room. There’s no space. There’s no air.” But the record feels like it has plenty of space as well. How did you do that?

SE: Wow. That’s pretty cool that you get that and that you understand that because that’s a part of, again, having four percussion players or four drummers or whatever. We have to figure out where we can and cannot play, so the key is when not to play. That’s what makes it happen and gives you that space that it needs to breathe.

MR: Yeah, that gap.

SE: Yes.

MR: I don’t want to ask you what is your favourite song, but may I ask you which was the song on the album where you went, “Awesome”?

SE: Huh. Wow, that is a difficult and unfair question. I want to…oh gosh, that’s really hard. I don’t know. I can think of two, one was the EARTH, WIND & FIRE song…

MR: PEACE & JOY.

SE: Yeah, because once we wrote the EARTH, WIND & FIRE song and we presented it to them, they freaked out and they said, “This sounds more like us than we do.” (laughs) Once we put them on it, they were kind of emulating what we had because we’re such fans. It’s like we knew what they sounded like because we grew up listening to them so they were pretty amazed by that.

And the JOSS STONE tune, the way that that came about was that I asked JOSS to write a song with me and then said, “If you have an idea or come up with an idea or a title or anything…” So she gave me a title and a couple of lines and she sang it on her phone and sent me an MP3 from London. I took the idea with no music and wrote the music and by the time she came back to the States, she came and sang the song and I played her the music and she loved it. That’s how we wrote that song. We just went, “Wow, technology.”

MR: Wow, technology.

SE: Awesome.

MR: Yeah, just like you. (laughs) Sheila, I really do appreciate your time. I don’t want to keep you much more, but I do want to ask you like I do every time we chat…But you know, artists change their minds. What advice do you have for new artists?

SE: What did I say the last time? (laughs)

MR: Work hard, study your craft…Something like that. I don’t remember.

SE: No, you’re pretty close. Absolutely. No, you’ve got to work hard. You have to study. You have to understand what you want to do. You have to be confident. You have to be humble, respectful and don’t bring any baggage and really know what you’re going to do. You know, it takes a lot of work. It just doesn’t happen overnight.

I think that sometimes the difficult part in seeing shows like AMERICAN IDOL and shows like that – not to put it down, I think it’s amazing, I wish we had it when we were younger – but I actually, at the same time, enjoy the change to be able to start from scratch, start in the garage, start in small places and build and understand what it takes working behind the scenes and playing in places you wouldn’t be caught dead in and making it happen. That experience, I think, has made me what I am. And I think that’s another thing about starting with AMERICAN IDOL. Where do you go from there?

MR: Exactly. The poor kids. It gives the illusion of, “Hey, well, all I need to do is kind of sing OK and I can have a record deal.”

SE: Yeah, it’s really hard. I’m hoping they are helping these kids really prepare themselves for what it’s going to take, because we’ve seen some of them fall and it’s hard and they’re alone after they leave that show. That’s my biggest worry, you know, that it is a lot of pressure. It was pressure for me when I was younger once I really made it, you know? I can’t imagine going from nothing to all of that.

MR: Yeah. Oh…and Sheila you put your finger on it. I mean maybe something that we have been forgetting in the culture is that after you’re on a show like AMERICAN IDOL or THE VOICE or any of these reality shows where you’re supposed to be showing your talent and you lose the show, we may need to start an organization to repair these kids, you know?

SE: Exactly. Absolutely.

MR: It seems logical that there would be some psychological damage done during or as a result of the process.

SE: I would think so. I feel for some of the kids when I see it and a lot of times, even the ones that don’t make it when they go out for auditions and I think that some of them are pretty good. They go, “I quit my job and this is all the money I have and I have got to make it. This is my last chance.”

This is your first chance! There are many chances. We get rejected all the time and that’s the thing. It’s having that insight to say, “You know what? It’s OK if they say, ‘No.‘ I’ll keep trying and I’ll get better.” It’s OK. They show some of these kids where they’re just like devastated almost to the point of, “If I don’t get this, I don’t know what my life is going to be like.” Oh my God! Your life is just beginning!

MR: Yeah…and of course those are the moments when the camera does the close up on the face.

SE: Exactly.

MR: Yeah. I have such mixed feeling about those shows. Thank you for having that conversation with me. It really is a touchy subject.

SE: It is. It is. I love the show. I love it. But I’m hoping that they are really helping these kids because it is a lot of pressure.

MR: Yeah. Hear that, CLIVE?

SE: Yes. CLIVE, my friend.

MR: (laughs) One last thing. What does your future look like? You have the album coming up, you’ll be touring with the family and there’ll be more E FAMILY projects like NOW & FOREVER down the road. But what else is up for SHEILA E?

SE: I’m almost done with my book. I’m working right now. I’m talking to you from London. I’m working on MADAGASCAR 3 right now with DAVE STEWART and HANS ZIMMER. So I’m having a blast.

MR: Nice. Well, all the best with everything, Sheila.

SE: Thanks, man.

ROGER DALTREY: A ROCK & ROLL LEGEND REVISITS TOMMY

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROGER DALTREY feels that there aren’t many contemporary singers who could lead a band.

“A lot of the new people they choose on shows like American Idol and things like that — I don’t ever hear lead singers,” THE WHO frontperson stated.

“They always seem to choose to pick people that are great singers – fabulous singers – but they’ve never got the voice that makes a great lead singer.”

ROGER went on to name some of music’s most distinctive vocalists: “You hear ten seconds of Rod Stewart, you know it’s Rod Stewart. Ten seconds of Mick Jagger, that’s Mick Jagger. Ten seconds of Eddie Vedder, you know that’s Eddie.”

So, would ROGER join the panel of a singing show to fix what he believes is wrong?

“I’d probably throw them all out,” he said, laughing.

“I quite like the idea of The Voice — that new show, simply because they have to choose the voices. They might present me with fifty voices and if I didn’t like any of them I couldn’t work with any of them. It would be pointless.”

He made the comments while promoting his latest tour, ROGER DALTREY PERFORMS THE WHO’S TOMMY, which kicked off earlier this month.

“I rediscovered how fabulous it is as a piece of music and I decided it needs to be heard,” ROGER said of THE WHO’S 1969 TOMMY album.

The CD, mostly composed by bandmate and guitarist PETE TOWNSHEND, became a Broadway musical in 1993. A film version was released in 1975. But ROGER said that his new tour gives him a chance to present his side of TOMMY.

“I loved the film, but it’s Ken Russell’s view of Tommy. The stage play was what it was and that was Pete (Townshend) and (theatrical director) Des McAnuff’s view of it. But to me it’s always been the music that’s important and I can never get bored with that because it’s brilliant. It’s a classically written piece of music and I’ve never seen Tommy as one person. I’ve always seen Tommy as all of us. We’re all screaming, ‘See me, feel me, touch me, heal me.”’

ROGER said his voice has bounced back since he had a precancerous growth removed from his vocal chords just before THE WHO performed during the 2010 Super Bowl half time show.

“It’s sounding better than it’s ever sounded and this is an extremely long show. It’s richer. It’s got a different resonance…But it’s like Johnny Cash. His voice wasn’t the same at the end. But it was his best work.”

ROGER’S tour wraps up in the United States on OCTOBER 25 in Seattle.

He’ll visit Canada for five dates after that.

ON LINE:

www.thewho.com

MICK FLEETWOOD: HIS VERY OWN RESTAURANT

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Long before the success of FLEETWOOD MAC, when band founder MICK FLEETWOOD was a kid in the U.K. learning how to play the drums, he dreamed of having his own restaurant. His parents entrusted the then nine year old with the stable of the old farmhouse they lived in and young MICK turned it into something of a children’s speakeasy that he called CLUB KELLER.

Instead of booze, he poured Coca Cola.

“I used to serve up Smith’s crisps and fish & chips and stuff for other children to come round,” the bearded rocker recalled during a recent interview, his eyes twinkling at the memory.

“I had my radiogram and my drums in there and it was my world.”

Now, five and a half decades later, MICK is creating a new world for himself and his music: He’s opening a restaurant in his adopted hometown of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

FLEETWOOD’S ON FRONT STREET is set to open early next year and its namesake sees it as the next professional chapter in his life: A place where he can indulge his taste for fine food and drink (including his own MICK FLEETWOOD PRIVATE CELLAR wines), perform with his friends and run the whole show. He plans to showcase local musicians and artists and invite the occasional famous rock star. The new establishment is essentially a large scale souped up version of his old CLUB KELLER.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” MICK said during a visit to his manager’s office in Beverly Hills.

“I’m like one of those weird Chinese creatures where you see something 30 years ahead. It’s petrifying and exciting and fulfilling because…if you keep focused, and it’s a corny thing, but if you visualize and visualize and visualize, a lot of stuff really does come to you.”

CLUB KELLER itself may actually be resurrected, said MICK’S business partner JONATHAN TODD.

“We have an option on a smaller place downstairs and – if we get it – I swear we’re going to call it Club Keller,” JONATHAN TODD commented.

Developing the restaurant is dominating MICK’S time. He helped choose the site (a historic building dating back to 1916 — the year his mother was born), select the décor and create the menu, but he insists “it’s not a shrine to Mick Fleetwood.”

“You’ll know that it’s my place but it will be very tastefully done. It’s not a museum for Mick Fleetwood. This is a real working restaurant.”

He said he’ll draw on the “heritage of Fleetwood Mac” to inform its atmosphere.

“All of this is a responsibility to do it properly and selfishly – a responsibility to something that’s very precious to me, which is everything I’ve done with Fleetwood Mac and my partners and the music.”

The restaurant has taken him away from music a bit and he expects that to continue, but that’s fine with him: “Now I will have a place to play when I want to or need to.”

Besides FLEETWOOD MAC, the musician has two other bands: THE MICK FLEETWOOD BLUES BAND and MICK FLEETWOOD’S ISLAND RUMOURS BAND. With or without his bandmates, MICK plans to play at the restaurant often — and there’s at least one more FLEETWOOD MAC tour planned.

“We’re going out next year. We’re all creatures of habit and we love what we do…Whatever has happened, we are together. The whole thing is powerful and all of that is somehow resonating into what I’m doing with the restaurant Fleetwood’s. It can’t help but have that filtering through it. It’s my place.”

But as his beloved band slows down (“Within the next five to seven years, I sort of doubt that Fleetwood Mac is going to be horribly active”), MICK said he’s excited to devote himself to his new endeavour.

“It’s a sense of plugging who I am and what I am into something…and for me it’s the perfect vehicle.”

JIM CUDDY OF BLUE RODEO: ON HIS NEW CD & THE BEAUTY OF TORONTO

FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS

On the title track of his new solo album SKYSCRAPER SOUL, JIM CUDDY croons about a city that can bring you down but one which he cannot leave because underneath it there’s a heart beating.

The amiable BLUE RODEO frontperson said that the reflective tune is largely an ode to his hometown of Toronto, which he thinks is sometimes misunderstood.

“It sort of came about because…First of all, I think I’ve taken umbrage in the last year (at how) so many people slag Toronto,” the singer/songwriter stated in a recent interview.

“For years and years and years it never bothered me and I never even thought about it. I don’t know why in the last year I’ve gotten kind of prickly about it,” the jean clad country rocker mused while sitting on a couch at BLUE RODEO’S WOODSHED STUDIO, where the group’s many JUNO AWARDS are on display atop an armoire.

“I think that Toronto represents the beauty of many cities around the world — that its beauty isn’t always apparent upon first viewing. You come to Toronto and you may feel like it’s a cold concrete place and after you’re here a while…You realize that there’s an incredible amount of energy in this city and that it’s a very easy place to do creative things because there are so many people to bump into, to bounce ideas off of.”

JIM said the track is also a nod to his early struggles in New York, where he and another BLUE RODEO member GREG KEELOR lived in the early 80s.

The two tried to make it as musicians there, supplementing their paltry income by serving tables, but gave up after three years.

“We realized at the end that it’s a bad place to put together a band,” remarked JIM, noting musicians would suddenly drop out of the group because they were broke and had to move.

“It was just such a difficult place to keep life and limb together. We could never have done Blue Rodeo down there. It was coming back to Toronto, getting a little bit off the incredibly beaten track in New York, that helped us to have the time and the wherewithal to put together a decent band and play a lot.”

The urban nature of JIM’S third solo album, which was released on Tuesday, is also felt in its sound, which has a lot more trumpet than what he normally works with.

“It changed the songs so that they became a little less rural, a little less country.”

He recorded the album in January, May and June with his touring solo outfit THE JIM CUDDY BAND (composed of COLIN CRIPPS, BAZIL DONOVAN, JOEL ANDERSON, STEVE O’CONNOR and ANNE LINDSAY).

“I chose to write from the perspective of being here and looking out, as opposed to many times in my career I’ve chosen to write about being in the mountains or being free of the city.”

BRYDEN BAIRD guests on the trumpet as well as flugelhorn, glockenspiel and vibraphone. Other cameos include vocalist MELISSA McCLELLAND.

JIM embarked on the 14 track project (12 of the tunes are also available on vinyl) after writing the funk infused song WATER’S RUNNING HIGH for his actor wife RENA POLLEY’S short comedy film FOUR SISTERS.

Playing piano on the song is their 24 year old son DEVIN, who studied jazz at YORK UNIVERSITY and noodled a bit on JIM’S last solo CD, 2006′s THE LIGHT THAT GUIDES YOU HOME.

JIM’S family life also comes through on REGULAR DAYS, about a financially strapped pair on a road trip.

The story is reminiscent of the time he and RENA, with whom he also has two other children, drove around Florida early in their relationship.

“We were so exhausted from our lives and she was asleep in the car and it sort of occurred to me then and certainly upon reflection that somehow this was going to be the template of our lives,” said JIM, who has several tour dates lined up for the rest of the year and will embark on a cross Canada tour with his band in the new year.

“That these weren’t just wild days that we were having and then we were going to settle into a normal life. We were always going to have this very left of centre life…and that is certainly the way it’s turned out.”

EVERYONE WATCHED THE WEDDING, about an empty nester who watched the recent royal nuptials to get relief from his life, is the album’s first single.

JIM said he was one of the legions of viewers who got up early in the morning to catch the royal wedding live on TV. But the impetus for the song started much earlier, when he became smitten with the film THE KING’S SPEECH.

“One of the things that I was really struck by was that in order for a king to be a king, he had to be completely removed from the people. He couldn’t be of the people. He couldn’t have normal friends. He couldn’t be seen walking down the street buying groceries.”

“I thought, ‘Well, that’s a very noble thing to do. It kind of brings tears to your eyes that somebody would sacrifice themselves like that.’ I started to read about William and I thought, ‘In a way, this kid is doing the same thing.”’

SKYSCRAPER SOUL also has a purely instrumental track: CITY BIRDS.

JIM said he wrote the song for the 2010 film GUNLESS, starring PAUL GROSS, which GREG KEELOR scored.

“But it was rejected as being too sentimental,” JIM recalled with a laugh. “Which was great for me because I was very glad to have it back.”

JIM said another song from the album, DON’T KNOW THAT MUCH, was also one that he originally scored for the film.

“That was also offered to Greg and rejected. So his rejections are my benefit.”