Jackson Browne played five sold-out nights at Vicar Street in Dublin. There’s a lovely, intimate feel to this venue, although it does hold about 1,000 people. Down at the Crossroads went on night 2 and here’s what we learned:
1. Jackson Browne, though pushing 70, still puts on an outstanding show, bantering with the audience, utterly at ease with his band and his extensive back catalogue of songs, and able to hold his audience utterly captivated for over two hours. He’s a great musician as well as a great songwriter, showing off considerable piano and guitar chops along the way.
2. Jackson Browne’s catalogue of songs, going back over forty years, is as good as you’ll hear from any other artist. He played songs from every era of his career, many in response to requests from the audience. He basically abandoned his set list after a couple of songs and performed whatever he could hear shouted out to him (or understand, given the broad Dublin accents of some). Most of these songs have a timeless, enduring quality to the music and an on-going relevance in the lyrics. I’ve lived with some of them for most of these past forty years – they are like old, favourite shirts that you just love to pull on. They’re comfortable, they fit you, they’re just part of you. That said, they’re not dad-rock. A young friend of mine who was unfamiliar with Jackson Browne, told me this week he had checked out his early albums after my enthusiastic Facebook posts about the concert. His comment – simply, “wow.”
3. The band Jackson Browne has assembled for this tour is top notch. Of particular note are Val Callum, who’s played guitar with Jackson for some time, and Greg Leisz, lap steel, pedal steel and all round guitar genius who has joined the band for this tour. Grammy award winner Leisz has played with a who’s who of rock, country and Americana artists and is a jaw-droppingly good musician. His slide guitar and pedal steel work throughout the evening was nothing short of sensational. Val Callum is the sort of guitarist who plays wonderfully and tastefully, maybe unnoticed unless you’re a guitarist and realize just how good the understated stuff is, and then who suddenly, when he gets the nod from Jackson, will dazzle with fast, syncopated runs up and down the fretboard. And spare a thought for Bob Glaub, the bass player – another top class musician – who played bass on the song “The Pretender,” back in 1976, but who was never credited. Browne made that right just before the band launched into the song, to the delight of the crowd.
4. He didn’t play “The Rebel Jesus,” despite repeated calls for it from one member of the audience. Couldn’t remember it, he said. Fair enough, it’s a cover of a Chieftains song (which appears on The Next Voice You Hear). But I’d love to have heard it. The song gets to important matters about the person and mission of Jesus:
“Well we guard our world with locks and guns And we guard our fine possessions And once a year when Christmas comes We give to our relations And perhaps we give a little to the poor If the generosity should seize us But if any one of us should interfere In the business of why there are poor They get the same as the rebel Jesus.”
5. And finally – Dublin is a remarkably welcoming city. I managed to get myself hopelessly lost driving to Dublin and was starting to worry about getting to Vicar Street in time for the concert. At a set of traffic lights I rolled down the window and asked directions from a taxi driver in the next lane. “Follow me,” he said and led me all the way to my destination. I tried to pay him but he resolutely refused. Then, after the gig I was sitting in my car desperately fiddling with Google to try and find my way out of the city. Then came a knock on the window and a guy said, “Do you know where you’re going?” He then said, “Follow me.” He jumped into his car and I followed him through Dublin until he got me on the main road to Belfast. The kindness of strangers.
Described by Rolling Stone as “pure magic to watch and hear,” Texas singer/songwriter and three-time Grammy Nominee, Ruthie Foster has been singing solo since she was 14 years old. She’s shared the stage along the way with the Allman Brothers Band, Susan Tedeschi, Blind Boys of Alabama, Warren Hayes and Eric Bibb.
She has ten albums to her credit, including the recently released Joy Comes Back, which is both a joyous celebration of life and reflection on the wider world.
DATC: Ruthie, congratulations on the new album, which has been very well received. You’ve been pleased about that?
RF: Yes I am! It was a challenging and rewarding personal journey recording it so I’m extremely pleased to hear that folks are really enjoying it as much as I do.
DATC: Tell us what you wanted to achieve with this album and a bit about how it came about.
RF: The CD actually took about two and a half years to do. I took my time obviously finding songs that expressed what I wanted to say; from letting go of a relationship to exploring what love means to me, redemption and forgiveness. It’s really about my life experience during that period of time.
DATC:Joy Comes Back, the title track, sounds celebratory and…joyful! And it’s got a wonderful gospel feel and sentiment. Can you say something about the song and also about the continued gospel influence to your music?
RF:Joy Comes Back is very much about celebrating. I wasn’t quite there yet but really needed this song. What is says is simple and to the point, set Joy as your intention and know that it’s on the way! As for my gospel influence, I grew up with inspiring singers in my extended family who sang gospel all over Texas and my mother was a beautiful singer too. So I suppose that anything that comes out of my mouth is going to sound close to gospel music at this point in my life!
DATC: There are some nice bluesy songs on the album – the kind of down-home version of Richland Woman Blues with Warren Hood is very cool – you’re clearly very much at home in the blues. But other songs are more soulful, or have a gospel feel – how would you define your music? Do you have a niche, or even want a niche?
RF: There are many shades to the blues for me. I consider some tunes a lot lighter in spirit and delivery than others, such as Mississippi John Hurt’s style. His piedmont style of guitar playing is just fun to play. I do enjoy the deeper, soulful version of the blues as well. It gives me a chance to open up vocally in a totally different way! But my overall niche is more about capturing the spirit from my point of view in a song. I just call it spirit music!
DATC: One of the songs is Abraham, Shawnee Kilgore’s elegy to President Lincoln, which talks about fighting for freedoms. Does this song, do you think, have a resonance just at the moment?
RF: Yes, I agree that the song has much to say about where we are today. But the essence of why I wanted to record it is about the chorus, “when I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad.” It’s a simple statement and it’s the truth about how I try to live and go about making my own decisions.
DATC: Black Sabbath’s War Pigs is a bit of a surprise! It’s a powerful antiwar song from 1970. How relevant do you think it is today, and why did you decide to include it?
RF: I did put a lot of work into the arrangement of this one as a special surprise! Being a vocalist myself, I’ve always appreciated awesome (and charismatic!) lead singers of rock bands. The War Pigs vocal opening has always sounded like a blues line to me and I love playing slide on the resonator so I thought I’d try it. The message is very relevant and needs to brought up.
DATC: With the way things are at home and in the wider world, what role does music and musical artists have to play?
RF: I think we as musical artists do have a unique and important platform that can lift a cause to another level, whatever that may be; if we genuinely care about it. It’s not my place to say that it’s our duty to do so, but I will say in my own experience that singing and performing for a cause that’s important to me has been the most rewarding work I’ve ever done.
Robert Cray made a welcome return to Belfast after too long an absence and wow’ed a packed main marquee at the Cathedral Arts Festival.
Sexagenarians can rock as hard as anyone. Three of the four members of the band are in and around 60 years old – so what? This is a superb blues quartet delivering as tight and as cool as sound as you’ll hear.
Bass players with dreadlocks and bare feet are pretty cool. Richard Cousins, wielding a selection of four and five string basses, is surely the hip-est bass player around, as he jumps around dreadlocks flying. He seemed to appreciate the shag carpet laid on for him in Belfast. And – the crack between him and Robert during the evening was great fun.
Bass Player Richard Cousins
Robert Cray is one of the best male singers you’ll ever hear. His singing is molasses sweet and boy, can he hit those high notes. With a career going back to the 70s, five Grammy awards and numerous nominations, he’s shared stages with luminaries like Albert Collins, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. But who can both sing and play quite like Robert?
The tone he gets from his Strat and Matchless amps is so glassy you could slip on it. He is one seriously good guitarist, mixing jazzy chords and lines with the blues in a quite distinctive style. You hear a few notes and you know you’re listening to Robert Cray. And the man can fret across six -six! – frets.
You don’t have to make a mushy face when you launch into a guitar solo, but, clearly, it helps.
And finally – twenty odds years between visits to Belfast is far too long. The standing ovations Robert Cray got at the end of the evening hopefully will persuade him to come back soon.
Lee Hedley
Post script: The supporting act, the Lee Hedley Band was terrific. They treated a hugely appreciative audience to a set of well-known Chicago blues. Tight rhythm section, cool lead guitar from the excellent Frank Carberry and the charismatic Lee Hedley in front, with his tasteful blues harp and well phrased singing.
Kenny Meeks makes great bluesy sounding Americana music. He has worked extensively alongside artists such as Sixpence None the Richer, Buddy and Julie Miller, and Al Perkins, and has four albums to his credit over the past 12 years or so. He’s a great guitarist and gritty singer – and an accomplished songwriter. His new album, New Jerusalem, which we had in our Best Americana list for 2016 is a very fine collection of original songs, all with a gospel flavour. Down at the Crossroads has the opportunity to talk to Kenny recently, and he was gracious enough to be very open and honest in response to our questions –
DATC: Kenny, congratulations on the new album, New Jerusalem. It’s great – chock full of very cool bluesy Americana songs, with unmistakable gospel content. Tell us a bit about how the album took shape.
Kenny: Thank you very much Gary. What got these songs flowing, and this record, was the suicide of an elderly neighbour who was a bit of a grandfather-figure to our kids (especially my boys) – which impacted our family deeply. Also, the sadness of the sudden death of my brother Paul was pretty rough.
These events stirred something in me that became a response to suffering, pain, and isolation. As I began writing songs, a little bit of my history came out. I wrote all but one of these songs through this season of grief and reflection. Also, it’s a bit of a legacy record for my progeny……a peek into my soul and my story. I’m not sure I’ll ever make another record this personal again. It’s not just about those topics, but that’s what got things going.
DATC: Tell us about the title track, New Jerusalem – what is that all about?
Kenny: It’s about the afterlife. I do believe in it, in a biblical way. I wanted to sing about it. I wanted the song to be a celebration and a proclamation. It’s also about a vision of greater unity among followers of Jesus. The absence of schisms, and unity, in Heaven. It’s for me as much as for the listener.
DATC:Mercy Pays the Toll is an interesting song. It talks about “when pain moves in to stay,” and “when this world wears us down…and leaves us tired and sore.” It sounds like there’s some personal experience in there. You ask the question – “how do we live?” What’s the answer, in your experience?
Kenny: This song is in response to the pain I was seeing around me. I’ve certainly had – and caused – my share. But people live with chronic pain, chronic poverty, chronic sadness, post-traumatic stress, or mental impairment. I don’t think I necessarily ask the question looking for an answer. I think the question is meant to be a meditation. How can we share burdens of others? Some so heavy, they think their only way out might be to take their own life?
But, I think the answer is to always love. If only love could be my default response to every situation….. and when it isn’t, we have mercy. Maybe “How Do We Love” would have been better said?
DATC: There’s a bluesy feel to your music, but it’s never downbeat. How have the blues as a genre influenced you and your music?
Kenny: Maybe the blues has been misunderstood as a sad genre. It’s not. I mean, life is sad, and the blues are certainly about life. But, I hear a lot of joy in blues music. But…there is the presence of a yearning in all music, and certainly in the blues. So, I think you’re right in a sense.
I read in a Time article about Delta music history, that lyrics like ‘I’m gonna leave you baby’ were sharecroppers speaking in code that they were going to leave their landowner for a better deal. That was the author’s take. Dunno if there’s any truth to it. But, allegory has always been very present in African American oral tradition and music.
American blues music shaped me early, through a trip to a family farm in Horse Cave Kentucky, where I wandered to the sharecropper home next door. I was real little. The neighbour was on the front porch, playing a dimestore electric guitar through a little amp with a jack-knife slide. That’s where they found me, slack-jawed, standing in front of that porch. This instantly became the music to which I would compare all other. It’s still in my mind like it happened yesterday.
I also really liked Dixieland music as a 9-year old trumpet player. My dad took me to meet Al Hirt at a record store. But, when I bought my first guitar with paper route money at 12, it would most certainly be manipulated with a jack-knife slide. When my mother passed away that same year, the blues became important to me. But, beyond sadness, maybe yearning? Some folks equate tempo with …you know – fast = happy, slow = sad. Man, the slower the better for me. And sometimes the real slow stuff is downright joyous!
DATC: How come the blues, with some of its associations with the crossroads and the devil and so on, can be a vehicle for gospel music?
Kenny: As for the ‘deal with the devil’ I kinda see the “Crossroads” legend, as we know it, as a deal for fortune and fame, not specific to the blues. I’m fairly certain the music we consider to be the genre called the blues was uniquely born from the music of the African American slave population in America. And if their spiritual music wasn’t the birth mother, it certainly was the midwife. So, I think the blues have more kinship with the music of the African-American church than any other genre. It seems really natural to me, in an organic kind of way. I’m not fond of obvious “repurposed” blues-Gospel music. But Rev. Gary Davis …man… that is the absolute loveliest stuff ever!
DATC: Who are the blues and other artists that have influenced you most, either musically or lyrically?
Kenny: Robert Johnson. Ray Charles (my desert island artist…just Ray…all I need…ha!) I love John Lee Hooker. I love Taj Mahal. Jimi Hendrix. Aretha Franklin. Ralph Stanley. Leon Russell. Grant Green. Les McCann and Oscar Peterson. Bob Dylan. John Prine. Rev. Gary Davis. And Duane Allman. I could go on and on (laugh). If you go back, listen to some of Robert Randolph’s mentors in the Sacred Steel tradition…oh boy. I know I’m forgetting some real important musicians that have influenced me, sorry!
DATC: Tell us a bit about yourself, Kenny – first of all, your website mentions your “migratory childhood, and blue-collar upbringing.” Explain that and how that plays into your art.
Kenny: We moved to Dearborn Michigan from Henderson Kentucky when I was 7. It was like a foreign country. So, exile, longing for the familiar surroundings of home. And the music I was hearing through this time kinda changed from country music to Motown, plus British invasion stuff and psychedelia. So the migration to Detroit brought lots of new music into my world. The blue-collar aspect is simply that my dad was a working guy. He was a brilliant mechanic, and he could fix stuff that other guys in the shop couldn’t figure out. I miss him. [Kenny’s father Alvis passed away in 1992].
DATC: You’ve been performing and writing songs for nearly 30 years – how has your music and career evolved over that time?
Kenny: Thanks!…Actually, about 40, but who’s counting? (laughs) Ummmm, pretty much same ol’ Kenny (laughs). I’m trying to learn how to learn better. And learning how to unlearn stuff I’m supposed to forget! I try to make honest music; hopefully that comes through. I think my songwriting has improved a bit. And, I learn from my kids and all the younger people I work with.
And, I’ve always really loved playing with other artists too. That hasn’t changed. I have made music with insanely talented people. Pretty humbling. If I started naming them…well, I’d leave out someone. But you know, it’s very humbling. As for my artist career, I mean, my friends know I always say “why would someone come to see me when they could stay home and listen to a Ray Charles record?” These days I sometimes play guitar for a very special lady named Sandra McCracken, whose music just takes your breath away. We’re going to play with Liz Vice next week. I’m really looking forward to that.
DATC: How do you find audiences at your shows react to the gospel feel of your songs – people, perhaps, who don’t share that faith?
Kenny: Very positive response, not unlike, maybe…a Mavis Staples audience? I think my music is non-confrontational, so the listener isn’t ‘put on the spot’. I never ‘preach’ with lyrics. Proclamation is kind of a good Gospel music method (and I guess that is a kind of preaching). Not all my music is Gospel music, but I think a song like Jesus Knows communicates that He is tuned in to you even if you’re not tuned into Him, you know?…and that’s ok. I just want my songs to make the listener feel welcome. Does that make sense? The important thing about Gospel music is to express that God loves us completely. We ARE loved. Just as we are. Nothing we could ever do could make God love us more. And there is nothing we could ever do to make God love us less. That is the grace of God.
DATC: Are your touring the album at the minute, and where will that take you over the next few months?
Kenny: I don’t have any shows coming up, but thanks for asking. I’d love to play some in the UK. I go where I’m invited, and that’s always such a pleasure. And it has been a pleasure speaking with you Gary. Thanks so much for your interest in my music. God bless you and yours.
A big band of 12 world class musicians is a truly wonderful thing.
The E Street Band isn’t the only one with a cool, long curly haired saxophonist. Kebbi Williams sprang into action straightaway on the first song, Don’t Know What it Means and just got better as the evening went on.
The drum solo is not a thing of the past. Particularly when you’ve got TWO top notch drummers. Tyler Greenwell and J. J. Johnson drove the music forward, with an uncanny, in-sync timing.
The 8-12 minute song in a live setting is what concerts are made for. Seriously – so good were the song arrangements and so outstanding the musicianship, you were disappointed when each song came to a conclusion.
Derek Trucks is a peerless electric slide guitarist. Make that guitarist, full stop. Playing in open E tuning mostly, he makes that Gibson SG sing. And he doesn’t use a pick. And, given half a chance, he’ll throw in a few Indian-sounding licks.
Susan Tedeschi is an excellent guitarist but an INCREDIBLE singer. Blues, soul, Gospel, Americana – doesn’t matter, she’ll nail it. Make no mistake, this band is awesome – but Susan Tedeschi is the glue that holds it together, the voice that makes it all work.
If you have vocalists in the band like Mike Mattison, Mark Rivers and Alecia Chakour, you can afford to do a spiritual (Anyhow My Lord) right bang in the middle of the concert.
One final thing – from what I can gather, it’s a rather German thing to do – my camera was taken from me as I entered the Tempdrom. This I consider mean and just pointless. Never happened to me before in the UK, Ireland or US, for big name or less well known artists. Grrrr.
I had a conversation with some friends recently about the idea of personal responsibility and how that might apply depending on your circumstances, particularly if you happen to be poor. There’s no doubt that poverty limits your choices in life – most of us can’t imagine what it would be like to live, as so many do, on less than $2.50 a day. There are many things that can be said to be getting better in the world, but still – over three billion people live on less than $2.50 a day. And at least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
Hard to imagine getting by on that, isn’t it? Your options for food, shelter, clothing, healthcare – the basics – never mind things most of us take for granted, like leisure, career, travel, entertainment – become pretty limited. Not only that but the lives of the poor become very precarious, because of the environment in which they live (subject to problems associated with climate change or subject to violence, for example) and the ruthlessness at times of those who are more powerful and wealthy.
I reflected on the issue of personal responsibility a while ago in a post about Blind Willie Johnson’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine. What I didn’t consider in that post was a very important point made by Rishawn Biddle in an article provocatively entitled Beyond the Personal Responsibility Myth. Knowledge, he says, is power, but also “the most-crucial tool for acquiring the financial and social resources needed to emerge and stay out of poverty.” Unfortunately, says Biddle, many people in poverty do not have the education and hence knowledge required to make good decisions or to make the best of good decisions made, and become trapped by their own situation and bad decisions. He concludes, “ thinking that bad choices alone explain poverty is as wrongly simpleminded as believing that impoverished people are too tied down by structural inequities to emerge from their conditions.” It’s not a straightforward issue.
However we think personal responsibility fits into the picture, those of us who are better off can’t let ourselves off the hook. More than ever before, our lives are interconnected, the world is getting smaller, we have responsibility one for the other, and each of us can make a difference. I was reminded in thinking about all this of Eric Bibb’s song Connected. The song isn’t about rich and poor, but it’s a powerful reminder that we are all part of each other, we are all connected. Someone famously asked a long time ago, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” A while later, but still a couple of thousand years ago, the answer came: “If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion – how can God’s love be in that person?”
God Don’t Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson has earned plaudits from all quarters and Grammy Award nominations for Best Roots Gospel Album and Best American Roots Performance for the Blind Boys of Alabama recording of Mother’s Children Have a Hard Time. The album was produced by Jeffrey Gaskill of Burning Rose Productions. The album features a star studded cast which includes Tom Waits, Lucinda William, Derek and Susan Trucks, Luther Dickinson and the Cowboy Junkies. Down at the Crossroads chatted with Jeffrey Gaskill to find out more about how the album came about:
DATC: First of all Jeffrey – congratulations on God Don’t Never Change. It’s a wonderful record; it’s been very widely acclaimed; it’s had two Grammy nominations. That’s no doubt been very pleasing for you – but have you been surprised at just how well it’s gone down?
Jeffrey Gaskill with Lucinda Williams
Jeffrey: I guess I’m not so surprised. I’m grateful for the Grammy nominations – I was hopeful they would come. But I like the fact that it’s gotten great reviews. These are uncertain times – everything’s uncertain, the music business is uncertain, you can’t take anything for granted. But, yes, I’m pleased with the nominations.
DATC: One writer said that your guidance resulted in “Eleven stirring renditions which replicate the soul of the songs, not just the sounds.” Presumably that was what you were striving for?
Jeffrey: Yeah, that was exactly it. Exactly. You know, just going for the heart of the song, and what Willie Johnson was saying at that time. Just bringing it up to contemporary times. And bringing artists together who can convey the song, convey the thought. Really, you know, it’s the thought in the song behind the music that matters the most.
DATC: So why did you want to do an album of Willie Johnson songs?
Jeffrey: Well I wanted to do it way back in 2003, after my Dylan project, Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan came out. But you know, I had to give some things a rest after that and it was hard to find a label that was willing to go to bat for the project on paper before it was recorded. This was at the time the record industry was collapsing.
DATC: So what is it about Willie Johnson’s music that really appealed to you, that made you want to do this album?
Jeffrey: I think it’s the sense of permanence – and I think it’s the same thing with Dylan’s music – these are themes that everyone needs to think about in their lifetime, no matter when in the spectrum of time they’re living their life – it’s really timeless, enduring music. It’s not something to be sung today and forgotten about tomorrow.
DATC: And that’s the thing about his music – it really has endured over the years. It’s been covered by so many artists, in so many ways over the years. There’s something about it that seems to appeal to people in different eras, perhaps coming from different genres of music.
Jeffrey: Yeah, his music can be interpreted in any number of styles, so seminal is it. He himself, we might say, is hidden in plain sight, to the extent that most everybody is familiar with at least one or two of his songs, if not all of them. Although maybe not familiar with him as an artist.
DATC: The interesting thing, Jeffrey, is that Johnson’s music is quite unashamedly Christian; it springs right out of his vibrant faith. How come people still have an appetite for it, and how come artists who may have no particular interest in faith want to cover his songs and find his songs compelling?
Jeffrey: Well, of course some people only see Blind Willie Johnson as a blues artist, with those universal themes. It takes perhaps a little bit more understanding and appreciation of the lyrics and what he’s getting at to really fully realize him as a gospel artist, which he truly is. But he can be taken either way I guess.
DATC: Can you tell us a bit about the process of making this album, Jeffrey? From what you’ve said I gather it was a long time in the making?
Jeffrey: Labels loved the concept of the album and the artists who were interested in recording, but the budget and the financial end just wasn’t feasible while the industry was collapsing. So inevitably I wound up raising the funds through a kick starter campaign. I was grateful for kick starter, but it’s not really in my nature to want to go out and do things like that. But, you know, when your back’s against the wall, and you want to get something done like that, you’ll do what needs to be done. And then the thought came to me about his dilapidated home in Marlin in Texas that I had visited, and what could be done about the wood from it, and through some extraordinary generosity, a woman down there whom I had befriended was able to secure some wood from the house before it was demolished. And that became the Blind Pilgrim Collection – the cigar box guitars.
[Wood that had fallen free from the dilapidated house where Johnson lived with his wife and singing partner Willie B. Harris in Marlin was delivered to the capable hands of George Brin at String Tinkers in Putnam, CT. He carefully cleaned up this old Southern Yellow Pine and painstakingly hand-made ten magnificent finger-jointed boxes book-matched front and back to create these cigar box guitars.]
DATC: And there were some guitar picks as well weren’t there? I’m kinda kicking myself – I wish I’d tried to get one of those picks!
Jeffery: Well, they were made from the same wood that the guitars were made from. I said, “do you have any scraps left?” and in fact there were three very small pieces of wood left, and so I sent them out to a fabulous pick maker out in California, and he was able to get a hundred picks out of that wood. [Chris Brossard Picks (www.brossardpicks.com)]
DATC: Wonderful. So how did you go about recruiting the artists – I mean it’s a fantastic cast on the album, and all the performances are very, very strong. So how did you go about recruiting them, Jeffrey?
Jeffrey: Well, just sending letters to management, saying, hey, I’m Jeff and I made a record called Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan, and I’m working on this Blind Willie Johnson project, and here’s a song, and I wonder if you’d consider singing it?
One artist we tried, an Irish one other than Sinead O’Connor, was Van Morrison, but we never heard back from him. That would’ve been nice.
DATC: So you suggested songs for particular artists, rather than artists choosing?
Jeffrey: In most cases yes. With some exceptions – like for Sinead O’Connor, I think I gave her different suggestions up front and then she came back and said she wanted to do a different couple of songs. But then I gave her Trouble Will Soon be Over. So that took a little bit of back and forth. But I think we landed on the right one.
DATC: You sure did! It’s probably the surprise of the album, but it’s really fabulous. I wouldn’t have thought of Sinead O’Connor doing a song on an album like this. But she really nails that one, doesn’t she?
Jeffrey: Yeah, she totally nails it. And when I heard that, it really surpassed any expectations I had for the record. That and the Cowboy Junkies. I’m proud of all the tracks – they’re all great – but I really feel like, Sinead O’Connor and the Cowboy Junkies take it to another level, to a real contemporary sound, and show the relevancy of the words and of Blind Willie Johnson’s music. And these are the sort of songs that can be played on the radio, you know, anywhere, anytime.
DATC: What do you think the songs of Willie Johnson have to say to the modern world? We’re going back a long time to a particular social context, to an individual in very difficult circumstances, singing songs about faith – what can these songs say to the modern world?
Jeffrey: Well I like to think that the world is an improved place since his time. But I would think Willie Johnson would think that the lessons from his songs are still relevant. I would hope there is less desperation now than there was back then, and that there would be more empathy and understanding.
DATC: Have you another project in mind, Jeffrey, or do you just want the let the dust settle a bit on this on at the moment?
Jeffrey: Yeah, maybe let the dust settle for now. I do have another project in mind, it’s more of a audio museum exhibit of shaker music. I’m from New England and this music comes from the area in which I live. It’s got real historic importance.
DATC: Sounds like a great project. Thank you Jeffrey. Again – congratulations on the album our best wishes for the Grammys.
1. Jackson Browne, though pushing 70, still puts on an outstanding show, bantering with the audience, utterly at ease with his band and his extensive back catalogue of songs, and able to hold his audience utterly captivated for over two hours. He’s a great musician as well as a great songwriter, showing off considerable piano and guitar chops along the way.
