C. F. Morrison Guitars

Chuck Morrison started building guitars in 1974. In Boulder Colorado. Two years later he added mandolins to his production and named them after the flatirons which overlook the city. In 1979 he moved to Bozeman, Montana where he partnered with Steve and Maxine Carlson to build and market the mandolins. While Chuck sold his share of the business the following year and moved to Vermont, Flatiron continued on, spawning a strong musical instrument building tradition in Montana.

In Vermont, Chuck spent 12 more years building guitars of all types, a few other instruments and performing many different styles of music. He earned a B.S. in Environmental Science and returned to Colorado in 1992 to begin a new career in computing. 25 years later, having designed and built his own solar powered workshop and home, he turned is attention back to designing and building guitars.

I didn't know any of this a few months back when I started going to a new guitar society meeting in the area.  I think it was my first meeting that I saw a very unique guitar.  Chuck Morrison is the president of the Guitar Society of Northern Colorado and he was toting around this guitar and letting everyone try it out.  What I didn't realize was that he also designed and built the guitar.  

As you can see below it's not a typical guitar.  Notice the sound hole, the cut-away and there's more that isn't readily apparent; a sound port in the lower bout that can be opened and closed, an adjustable neck and Morrison's Offset Keel neck design that allows great access to the upper frets.

Chuck is gearing up to market a line of his acoustic guitars based on features used in the guitar you see above.  It's such a unique guitar I had to ask him if he would be kind enough to talk about his work for the blog.  Not only was he gracious enough to do so but he even accepted my self-invitation to tour the shop and hang out for a bit to learn more about how he builds his instruments.  It was a great visit.  Check out the interview below to learn more about Chuck and the instruments he builds.


You were a student at CU when you left to start building instruments.  What was so compelling for you at that time?

In retrospect, I have no idea. We all feel things strongly when we're young and later on we ask "what was I thinking ?"  It was an exciting prospect and I made the leap.

One of your bridge configurations is a nod to NBN guitars, a Colorado company.  How has NBN and other Colorado influences affected your instruments over the years?

I credit Reb, Andy and Monte for motivating me to start building guitars. Aside from building great playing and beautiful instruments, they turned out to be great people. How could I not try to emulate them ? They did some different things on their guitars, so it never felt wrong to change things up on an instrument in pursuit of a better result. Other influences from that time were Max Krimmel and Pete Nightingale. I'll always credit Dave Goodrich for driving me to understand what quality means.
The obvious NBN influence on my steel string guitars is the staggered bridge pin configuration. The rationale is to reduce the chance of the bridge wood splitting between the pins. It has an interesting visual quality as well, but it's primarily functional. I redesigned the bridge shape long ago and it fit the pin configuration nicely, so I kept it. The other thing I do is carve the neck heel and peghead on the classier guitars. This came directly from the NBN Limited Edition series, which in turn came from high end banjos. Reb and Monte built banjos at ODE before becoming NBN and you can see some of that influence in those guitars.
I should mention that I am proud to be a part of Colorado's lineage of instrument building, which I've traced back to 1959. There have been some outstanding builders in this area and that continues to this day. The rosette I designed and use for my Classical and Flamenco guitars honors the Colorado connection.

Your Keel neck design is your own invention.  It has its obvious purpose, but what do you hope is the result of players having improved access up the neck of an acoustic guitar?

Ultimately the hope would be that the repertoire of the acoustic and classical guitar would expand to include the greater range. It takes a while to get out of first position playing, but once you make that leap, you shouldn't be limited by the instrument your're playing. I'm removing the physical block to the upper notes. Actually using them is up to the players/composers.

Your site is full of what you call technobabble, you have a very scientific approach to building, like your examples of Chladni patterns.  How has that affected your approach over the years?

I started looking at Chladni patterns in the 70s. At the time there was very little published research regarding how this related to guitars. It was primarily violins and even that was not in great depth. So it was completely guesswork. Over the decades various people started publishing on this subject. Alan Carruth's work published in American Lutherie in the 90s and Trevor Gore's recent design book are good examples.
My own approach changes all the time as I try to relate what I see in spectral analysis and chladni testing to what I hear. It's a very complex subject that is complicated by the fact that hearing is such a limited sense in humans. In the end it's all about how a guitar makes you feel as to whether you want to play it again and again. 

Your site mentions a philosophy of improvising in your building, comparable to that of a musician improvising in a song?

I view building an instrument in the same category as composing a piece of music. Many builders make their guitars all the same, copying some well known pattern. But that's the same as playing the same piece of music over and over again. Aside from being boring to do, it's boring to everyone else. I'm improvising with the wood as I build. In the process I learn a lot that just copying a pattern can't teach me. The instrument is more interesting and has it's own identity because of this. That scares a lot of people who think that guitars should all be the same. 

I get the feeling you don’t build anything very traditional.  You are drawn to the new and innovative?

The way I see it, every "traditional" instrument was just someone's experiment that ended up being successfully marketed. The joy in building for me is in creating something that has it's own identity. Why would I want to make someone else's instruments?  For that matter, why would I want to make two the same?  I'm not a factory and my instruments aren't clones.

The steel string guitar you've been displaying lately has an adjustable bolt-on neck, a sort of pie-slice shaped sound hole in the upper bout and a voicing port in the lower bout.  How did you arrive at all of this?

The upper bout sound hole was to be able to access the neck adjustment. The shape of the hole was entirely based on the shape of the area involved and the voicing port was based on my understanding of the properties of resonant air masses and my desire to adjust the sound of the instrument dynamically. It all does what it was designed to do. There are many variations on these themes and I'm exploring them in newer guitars.

New design for the upper bout sound hole.

Is everything done in your shop by hand?

That is a matter of definition and most people don't have a clear one. That's why companies get away with calling instruments that are obviously built on factory production lines "Handmade". So in commerce today, the term is meaningless.
However, to answer the spirit of the question, compared to how a guitar would be built in a factory, absolutely yes. Compared to how Antonio Torres built guitars in 1860, not so much. I've done it both ways and I lean towards the latter.

You are planning on employing a small team to start building soon and making your guitars available.  Will there be a focus on a specific design and when and where can people start buying these instruments?

Employing is perhaps the wrong term to use. I'm attempting to combine the skills of a few experienced builders to create a new line of instruments based on some of my design principles. We will be going in together on these instruments and see if some of the variations we come up with speak to people enough to justify further efforts. The marketing strategy has not been fully vetted yet, so if anyone is interested they should probably just email me directly.

Folks, you can browse Chuck's site, C. F. Morrison Guitars for a ton of interesting stuff and find his email there if you are interested in contacting him about his work.

    

Mary Flower

Good little interview with Mary Flower.  Check it: Mary Flower – Interview and Music

Here's a song from Mary's latest CD, Misery Loves Company, one I highly recommend.

 

And then there is this little gem.  I love it and it's on my list of songs to learn!  

   

   

Glenn Jones Interview Smorgasbord, & Music Too!

Dwars session and interview

VPRO
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Recorded 13th November 2004
Broadcast 14th April 2005
-Friday Nights With

-Lauren’s Blues

-Teething Necklace

-Linden Avenue Stomp [with Jack Rose]

-Richard Nixon Orchid

-Sphinx Under Curious Men

Download it here

All rights reserved by Spinning On Air

Great show with David Garland in the WNYC Studio.  Talking...Music...press play, you know you want to.



See all the photos HERE

All rights reserved by Spinning On Air

An Interview with Pat O'Connell

(Photo by Michael Lenzi)

All week Delta-Slider will be running interviews with artists from the Imaginational Anthem Vol 4 release.  Today we are talking to Pat O'Connell.
 Considering the critical acclaim that this series has garnered, how do you feel about being included in this 4th volume?
  It’s a thrill to be included on this. The comps are very well done. Actually, of the four, Vol. 4 is my favorite. Seems like there is more consistency between each track. In compilations, I prefer that to lots of variety. For example, on the previous comps, you go from 12-string guitar to banjo to lo-fi blues-to hi-fi jazz, long tracks, short ones, etc, etc. This volume sounds like 10 performances that are very aligned with each other.

Your compositions are very melodic. Do you think part of that comes from your background as a songwriter?
  Yes. For me, the melody is the thing that really conjures an emotion. When I used to write rock songs, the melody always came first and was more critical than the lyrics.

You've said that you don’t play the dissonant sounds that are in vogue right now among many solo guitarists. What is it about that that doesn’t appeal to you?
  I don’t think it is entirely because it doesn’t appeal to me. In fact, some of my favorite guitar music I listen to has plenty of dissonance. For example, John Fahey had that amazing ability to play something that is going along nice and pretty then he just slips in a blue note or a minor chord or something unexpected that is sort of twisted, but genius at the same time. I always try to achieve stuff like that but rarely succeed. I don’t know, when I start playing stuff that’s bluesy or discordant, it starts sounding to me like I’m playing outside of my skin or something. Like that’s not what I’m meant to do. It’s hard to explain.

You used to sing, why the transition to instrumental? Do you sing or perform any songs by some of your influences, for example the blues players?
  Me? Sing blues? I don’t think so. Simply put, I just don’t have a very good singing voice. When I used to sing in a band, the hardest part was just trying to sing in tune. Recording vocal tracks was a nightmare for me. I kind of faked my way through it and actually managed to come up with some decent stuff once in a while. Believe me, nothing moves me like hearing a great vocal performance, but I guess I finally just decided that it wasn’t worth the effort. I don’t think that had anything to do with starting to play instrumental guitar though. It was just a nice coincidence that I started to get into finger picking. Suddenly I could satisfy my urges to compose, without the roadblocks of vocals and lyrics.

Looking in from the outside, I see a guy that went from a 90's rock band to a solo guitar instrumentalist. How did you get from A to B? Or was that part of your playing always there?
  Like many others, it all started for me as a teenager with Rock and Roll and songs I heard on the radio. Then, as time passed I simply kept exploring, constantly checking out different music, of any genre really. Some stuck, some didn’t.
But when I found something I liked, I kept digging deeper, reading liner notes of albums and finding who influenced that artist then seeking out those influences and so on. Just soaking everything up like a sponge and developing my preferences. For example, you’re 16, just got your driver’s license, driving around and you hear a Tom Petty song on the radio and everything is great. Sounds familiar, right? Well, maybe you go to Kmart and buy a Tom Petty cassette and read in the liner notes how he was influenced by Bob Dylan. So you borrow a Dylan album from a friend, read the liner notes and he mentions Miles Davis or Leadbelly. You’ve never heard of either of these characters but the names sound cool so you wonder and keep searching, and on and on. This isn’t what happened with me but that’s the basic idea. Exploring. But to be more specific, you may recall there was this sudden buzz about Nick Drake maybe 10 or 15 years ago. So I checked him out and was quite blown away and bought the box set. His finger picking is incredible to me and it may have been what started me thinking about trying to focus on playing acoustic guitar. Once you start down that path it can keep you busy for a while. There are just countless artists to explore and the nice thing is it’s all relatively obscure. So when you discover something new you have that feeling like it’s your little secret.

I think you have mentioned to me that you like your solo guitar to be just that, solo. No overdubs, simple recording methods…can you comment on that?
  When it comes to finger picking acoustic guitar, to me, it’s just by design a solo form. Adding other instruments just distracts from the intimacy. From a composing standpoint, I like the idea that with just one instrument, you are very restricted. There’s only so much you can do. So the challenge (and the art) is to play something that moves a listener within those constraints. I’ve messed around with drones and banjo harmonies, harmonicas and other stuff but they usually seem arbitrary. Don’t get me wrong I love duets and small combos. But with the type of picking that I do, which is basically like a version of Travis-picking, solo is the only way that works, for my ears.

Do you think you will ever go back to playing in a band? Or: Do you think your solo playing will ever be anything more than solo? In others words, do you see yourself going down the road that so many of the new solo guitarists have gone down: adding percussion: synth, or whatever?
  I’m not very interested in adding percussion or synth for the reasons I mentioned in the previous question. As for other solo guitarists doing this, I haven’t heard an example of this yet that I’ve enjoyed. But hey I’m sure some folks dig it. So no, my solo playing will most likely be just me and a guitar. Will I go back to playing in a band? Absolutely. But I will most likely play bass guitar. That’s really what I’m more comfortable with. Been listening to a lot of 70’s funk and soul records lately. I’d like to find a band like that. Although Albuquerque is not exactly a hotbed for that sort of thing.

How does your rock background in rock affect your playing now? Or does it?
  Most pop and rock & roll songs are 2:50, have a little hook and have verses and choruses. If you break down most of my songs you’ll find that they are structured the same way.

Who's the most famous person in your cell or email?
  My Aunt. She’s famous for her tuna casserole.

If you could sit down and jam with any musician dead or alive. Who would it be?
  Grant Green

How did you learn to play your style?
  First, I just kept trying to learn how to play tunes off the records. Trying to copy tunes like Creole Belle, Freight Train, John Henry, Vastopol, stuff like that. Of course, nowadays, there are also so many instructional books and DVDs and tablature on the internet. I take advantage of those things as well. Anyway, as you become comfortable copying other people’s tunes it’s natural to start trying variations so you can play them your way. Then of course, you start trying to create your own tunes, but it’s really using all that stuff as a guide. I was finding that what I liked best was playing picking patterns as opposed to a looser more freestyle picking. I love when a pattern is developed then you just put slight variations in it to see what happens. Once you get it down, it doesn’t take a ton of dexterity, like for example playing a ragtime piece. It’s kind of easy, yet the hard part is arranging it into a good tune. Also, the open tunings are a big part of my style as well. Picking patterns work best for me in open tunings.

Is the 12 string guitar or a slide piece something we’ll ever hear from you? Or are you mainly interested in the 6 string?
  I enjoy playing slide and I’ve recorded a few tunes. So yes, that’s a good possibility. 12-string however is a different story. I’ve dabbled, but I just can’t get used to it. Also, I tend to change tunings a lot and the thought of tuning a 12-string does not sound appealing.

How did your musical career start?
  I only had a “career” in music for a few years back in the 90’s when I was with Number One Cup. It started when we signed our record deal and ended when we broke up.

In the arena of solo guitarists, who is an important player to you?
  The most important must be John Fahey. He pretty much sums up everything I like about solo guitar.

How important is Ray Kane’s work to you?
  Of the Slack Key players, he is probably my favorite. He leaves a lot of space between the notes and never tends to get too “sappy”, which some slack key guitarists are guilty of. Also, his tunes for me are easier to copy than other slack key players because they are relatively simple and there is such clarity in the picking. So I learned a lot from him.

It sounds like Hawaiian Slack Key style influences your compositions. Is that accurate?
  Absolutely. I love that stuff. It is to Hawaii what country blues is to the rural south. Sort of a homegrown folk style that gets passed down to each generation. If you listen to it a lot and then learn some of the tunes yourself, it can easily seep into your own compositions.

Future projects we should know about?
  I’m working on recording some traditional guitar tunes. Hopefully I’ll feel like assembling them and releasing something some day.

Be sure to check out Pat O'Connell on CDbaby
Pat is also on MySpace

Leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of IA4 on CD.  I'll pick the best one on Friday.

And don't forget that you can buy IA4 on vinyl, very limited edition and well priced.  Get it HERE

Probably much shinier than this old thing.

BUY Tompkins Square from EMUSIC

An Interview with Mike Fekete

All week Delta-Slider will be running interviews with artists from the Imaginational Anthem Vol 4 release.  Today we are talking to Mike Fekete.
When I met you on your last tour you mentioned having a strong opinion about guitars for solo guitar, would you like to expand on that? Maybe start by telling me what you play...
  I play a Taylor 312ce which I bought new in 2000, right around when I started playing solo guitar. It's been my main guitar since then. I think that what I was talking about when we met was about solo guitar records, not about guitars themselves.

I am curious about what attracted you to solo guitar.
  What I'm drawn to most is the idea of seeing how much can be expressed by one person within the constraint of one instrument.

You have some pretty long pieces, how much do you improvise during live performances? While recording?
  When I play live I like to connect pieces together and improvise the segues. As far as improvising within the actual compositions, I do change the amount of times I repeat certain ideas, but I rarely do anything like improvise a melody. I never improvise while recording.

You seem to go on tour regularly lately, is that something you enjoy?
  I like everything about it. It's always interesting to see how the music resonates differently based on the geography. Also, I'm a big fan of driving long distances alone, and touring with this kind of music provides many opportunities for that. The only hard part I can really think of is trying to talk about it without sounding cliché.

How is George Winston important to you?
  He has everything to do with me being a solo instrumentalist. It was his solo piano album, Plains, that first made me want to play solo instrumental music. He also produced and released--on his Dancing Cat label--the compilation, Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Masters, which was the first guitar record to have a big impact on me. In addition, I recently found out that he was responsible for providing the previously unreleased first half of Fahey's, America, for the 1998 CD reissue--which is my favorite Fahey album and the most influential on me. He told me that he was going through a used record bin in Los Angeles and he came across a double LP in a blank sleeve and the only thing written on the label was "John Fahey" which was in what he recognized as John's own handwriting. It turned out to be the original test pressing of America, including the first half, which at that point nobody really knew existed. George has influenced my music in many different ways, and I've also gotten to know him personally a bit, and through that relationship have been inspired by his deep kindness and generosity.

Considering the critical acclaim that this series has garnered, how do you feel about being included in this 4th volume?
  I'm a big fan of the first three volumes, and of Tompkins Square in general, so it's a total honor. Also, I personally think this new volume is a solid addition to the series, and I'm very proud to have been a part of that.

Tell me about your connection to Pat O'Connell. Have you met other members of the compilation?
  I got in touch with Pat after hearing him on the Fahey tribute, Revenge of Blind Joe Death. We began communicating and discovered that we both grew up in Ohio, and literally right down the road from each other. The more I got into his music, the more I could see how much we come from the same place musically as well. What I'm drawn to most about Pat is his strong sense of melody. He currently lives in New Mexico, and I'm in Washington State, and we still haven't met in person--although I've enjoyed getting to know him via email. We've been trying to meet up in Ohio to do some shows, but we haven't been able to work it out yet. The only person on the compilation that I've actually met is Aaron Sheppard. I first met him at a show I was doing in Santa Cruz. I played with Sean Smith in San Francisco the night before and Sean had been raving about Aaron--so based on that I invited him to come up and play during the set break. His playing was so impressive that it turned into a long break. I invited him up after my second set as well. Afterward, he told me it was only the third time he had played in front of an audience. One thing I really love about Aaron's playing is how articulate the rhythm of his right hand is. Besides being a great guitarist, he is also one of the nicest people I've met. We did a show together down in Portland not too long ago, and I hope to do more performances with him in the future.

Future projects we should know about?
  I put out four EP's between 2001 and 2006 which were all limited release, and are currently unavailable. I'd like to make them available again, and that'll probably be my next release. Also, I have most of my next album written, and I'd like to have that out sometime in 2012. I like to sit with music for a quite a while before I record it.

Be sure to check out Mike Fekete on CDbaby
Mike is also on MySpace, and Facebook.

Leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of IA4 on CD.  I'll pick the best one on Friday.

And don't forget that you can buy IA4 on vinyl, very limited edition and well priced.  Get it HERE

Probably much shinier than this old thing.

BUY Tompkins Square from EMUSIC BUY Mike Fekete from EMUSIC

Sean Smith - Acoustic Guitar Magazine Interview

Painting of Sean (as death courier and light emitter) by Fletcher Tucker

I'm a big fan of Sean Smith so when i saw him featured in Acoustic Guitar magazine I was excited that he was getting some recognition in such a big magazine.  But I was also a little disappointed at how short the interview was.  Turns out it was edited.  Smith posted the unedited version on his Myspace page and I thought I would repost it here, it's a good read!

I just noticed that Sean is also offering a free d/l of a live solo performance from San Francisco at the Verdi Club, April 23rd 2009.  Great sound quality, playing and set list.  Get it HERE
(Unedited) Acoustic Guitar magazine interview with Charles Saufley from 3/09 posted here with permission from Sean Smith.



The following is from Sean Smith's MySpace page, enjoy.


A few months ago I was featured in Acoustic Guitar magazine alongside Sir Richard Bishop and James Blackshaw as examples of the acoustic guitar "underground."  I was very happy to be included in the article, but felt that much of what Charlie and I spoke about did not make it to print. So, for those who care, the following is from the interview which occurred in March of 2009. Much has transpired since then, but I think a lot of what I say is still relevant.


The article can be found in the November 2009 issue and includes tabs and notation to tunes of Sean Smith as well as Blackshaw's and Bishop's.


- What music experiences that aren't related to fingerstyle or folk
guitar still inform your playing?
- Do you actively try to incorporate those through technique or composition?


I worked in record stores for 13 years. My Mother is an artist. My father is a builder. Needless to say, I gain inspiration from a vast array of sources. I own about 3000 LP's, and even though I haven't been listening to much music lately, I have definitely devoured every single one of those records. I love good ideas. Well executed ideas. Primitive, accidental outsider ideas. I just wait for stuff to speak to me.


Inspiration and composition is a mixture of the divine, being open to hearing and seeing, and plagiarizing. Like Jean Luc Godard said, "it's not where you take it from, it's where you take it to." I'm on a path of self expression and self discovery/revelation. Sometimes its feelings or emotions, and they can come out in many tonal ways. Sometimes it's a concept. I always consider myself a conceptual artist before being a guitarist. A lot of the time I'll have a whole story or idea to express in wordless song. And I know that it is possible to communicate without words. This is not empty music. It can sometimes be without boundaries because it is wordless. It can be free-er than even the simplest pop song. It is universal, but many of us have not been shown how to take it in.



Sometimes I downright steal shit, recontextualize. I've gotten in trouble for that, but I don't regret it, and I don't regret getting caught. Sometimes I just have to have a lick, or a turnaround or a chord progression, but I don't feel guilty. I believe that it's unavoidable in my music. I am of the mind now that I will acknowledge publicly what I have stolen. It makes it a smoother ride, this life. But it's not always so apparent. I've "covered" songs from memory in different tunings, instrumentally and in the end I just don't think they are close enough to credit the original songwriter although I will credit their influence.


I am an immediate critic of my work. I edit instantly. No rough drafts. Works in progress at best. I don't have outtakes. I don't have 2nd takes. (well, maybe 2nd takes) but if it's fucked up, I just stop, start over or decide to move on entirely. Any recordings that have not made it to release are just not congruous with the record they were intended for.


I was in tons of different bands over the years, playing tons of different instruments. The last instrument I was proficient at was the drums. I've been writing music since I was 10. And people who have known me all this time can hear my personality in all my work starting at the beginning.


To be honest, I don't really know what I'm going for. I'm on the path, searching for myself and the meaning of this life. I'm trying to get by. But I also know that music and art is important. It is important to share. Anything can be someone’s favorite. Out of nowhere without reason. There are so many people in this world and souls can speak and be spoken to in a million ways, all of utmost importance and weight. And while sometimes it's about being cool, most of the time it's about communication. I'm always squashing together a lot of concepts, and always trying to get better about communicating their meaning. But sometimes, the listener or the seer does not need to be shown the way. The variable is the magic in art. It's not always about theory. Honestly, I don't always know the universal truth. We are all searching, I hope.


At very least I listen to a lot of different music and I try to glean from it what speaks to my soul. I love jazz. I love Sabbath. I love Afro beat. I definitely have a thing for instrumental music, but I love songs. Doo-wop, Motown, Ska. A lot of Ska. Neil Young. Devo. I use it all to inform what I do, but there's only so much time in this world. I hope I can get to as much of it as possible someday.


- How do projects like your electric trio fertilize what you do in the
acoustic realm?


The trio is called Sean Smith & the Present Moment. It's been a trio for a while now, with Spencer Owen on drums and Marc Dantona on bass guitar. I've had up to 12 members in different forms premeditated and improvisational. But now it's been distilled to the trio. I love it. Its higher energy, we get loud. I break a sweat.



It's actually been mostly acoustic, rather, acoustic guitar through an amp. I have been introducing the use of effects lately. It's really interesting to me. Some of it is old tunes recontextualized, and now some of my music just doesn't work solo. It's a grand transition. It's still finding its identity. Sometimes I don't know who's in control, me or the music. Spencer and Marc illuminate so many aspects of the music for me and really know when to step up or lay low. It's still based in fingerpicking guitar, but the in newer stuff I trying to take the thumb out of it. In a way it's like some sort of jazz trio, of what style I don't know. But it is definitely informing my solo stuff in retrospect. Two different beasts entirely.


- What first led you down the path that ended up at Berkeley Guitar?


Was it literally a discovery of a Takoma record in a basement or
something more gradual? Was it a reaction to something in particular?
When we were teenagers growing up in Monterey, My old friend Matt Baldwin was first to actively discover and explore Takoma and John Fahey. At first, I thought that he was just "some old folkie" and disregarded the possibility of my interest. Matt got into fingerpicking and did a lot of hard work in deciphering the technique. There were a few distinct moments I can recall that led me down the path and I'll describe the journey.


Peter Lang was my easy way in. (I've always been a bit of a contrarian, so instead of diving right into Fahey I tried to go another route to somehow prove my originality. It's a small town complex...) "The thing at the nursery room window" was the first solo guitar album I studied. You'll find a lot of bastardized technique from Lang on my first record, and I even stole a whole section from him for part of my tune, "Love Always Beautiful." (When I met him, I gave him the record and told him to watch out for the rip-off. He later wrote to me with kudos, impressed that I was able to plagiarize so well and in a different tuning. I listened deeply to that album many, many late nights living at home with my Mom.


Leading up to that I would catch glimpses of Matt's development in technique. He was really into the 2nd (1st widely recognized ) Kottke LP. We would all sit in awe as he played "Busted Bicycle." Still at that time, I didn't think there was anything "cool" about it outside of being flashy and for reclusive folkie nerds. Along the line, Matt persuaded me to play duets with him, first, Fahey's "Lion" from "Yellow Princess" in which I played strummy rhythm guitar with a flatpick. Later, Matt gave me a set of Jim Dunlop fingerpicks and showed me the ins and outs of open G tuning. We played Fahey's arrangement of "Dvorak" which was a duet by him and Terry Robb on "Let Go" (also an outtake from "America") and a version of "Bottleneck Blues," which I think was a ripoff of "Moon Goin' Down" by Charley Patton. We called it "Tall Can Blues." I still play every show with the fingerpicks that Matt gave me and I hope I can forever.


Between getting the Lang record and having Matt strong arm me into playing and practicing finger patterns, I got a copy of Fahey's "America." I popped it on one night when Matt was over and he explained to me how Fahey was one man playing one guitar, but could be just as heavy -if not heavier- than Black Sabbath, which was language I could understand. I totally got it and then ensued the absolute perversion of finding Fahey records out there in the ether. But, even after getting almost every Fahey recording and every version, I've probably clocked more hours with "America" than any other record, (maybe in general, to be totally honest.)


Let me just stop right here to say that, I acknowledge everyday my debt to Matt for bestowing me the gift, wrapped up in the right rhetoric for me to understand, of the path of solo guitar. He led me in and let me go, and I think I responded correctly, devouring knowledge, be it records, conversation, technique, etc.


Another revelatory moment was when I read Fahey say that the technique was merely the means. That we all, who choose to play, have our own palette to work from. He invited anyone to learn from him, steal from him, but if you simply imitated him, then you were a hack. I agree and I keep that in mind all the time.


The particular aspect I began reacting to and using solo guitar as my means of expression is this: I was sick of playing in bands. I was in so many go nowhere, pain in the ass bands growing up, starting when I was 10 years old. While some were great, I really never studied any technique or practiced in the classic sense. I was on a different trip back then. I quit playing music for about a year and a half. I took up poetry. I always need to express myself somehow. But when I learned that you can be the band, the thumb is the bass and drums -the other two are the guitar and vocals, WOW. I didn't need anyone. I was no longer at the mercy of "the band," and I could do away with the torture of singing and writing lyrics. (no offense to anyone, I appreciate a good song when I hear it and I am moved all the time, but if I need words, if I need a song to express something, it most likely exists, ready and waiting, and the search is fun for me)


I just took off. Really practicing for the first time ever. I am challenged all the time, for sure, but in a way, I feel like a natural. I would just choose a tuning or a picking pattern and write a song so I could practice. That's how I ended up with all the songs on my first record. Nowadays I find the songs in many different ways, and a lot of the time I feel like I channel them, they find me, sometimes fully formed.


The "short" of how I ended up doing the Berkeley LP is as follows. Matt and his old girlfriend moved to Berkeley for school. I spent all my time with them, so I was now alone. Every kid in my town wanted to move to the Bay Area, so I followed that urge. I moved to Berkeley. I suppose I wasn't ready for the city. When Matt got to Berkeley he met Adam Snider. He called me and told me he had met a kid who was so our people, so our hometown it was uncanny. He and Matt were both studying the same thing and were into all the same shit. Adam got started on fingerpicking and took off like a rocket. He did have me and Matt to learn from, we gave him all of our secrets. It was amazing.


After a bit, I was asked by Josh Rosenthal at Tompkins Square to contribute a track to "Imaginational Anthem vol. 2" and to put together an album showcasing the new breed of guitarists playing in Berkeley, forty years after Fahey and Basho were there and Takoma got its start. I thought we were being a bit hoaxy, until I realized that those guys weren't from Berkeley either. There is something about the place that drew us all there and inspired the music that we play(ed) and deeply. I decided to keep it in the family and make it a real Berkeley affair. All our meetings regarding the record were at The Pub on Solano (that's where all the photos were taken) and the recordings were done at Fantasy, the legendary Berkeley studio. But I did want to nod at the related mentality that we all had come from in a way, which was kind of a metal thing, so I had John Baizely from the metal band Baroness do the artwork. (Stoked I did, because he's like real famous for his art now)


I think that sums up the Berkeley thing and basically my life story...



-As show's like last night's demonstrate, there's a community of
musicians making acoustic guitar- or folk- based music that are
drawing on very diverse influences and musical experiences. There are
certainly precedents for this, but the borders seem a lot more porous
now, resulting in some very mutant strains. Thoughts?


Obviously there was a revival of interest in the folk thing. It's always been happening, but now different people are paying attention. And it's definitely been a hipster thing in the past few years, the psyche folk thing. Out of that comes a lot of rad stuff. And a lot of drek. The only issue is that the kids that are getting started on it fresh have no frame of reference and a lot of the people who are playing it want to act like they made it up. Some of these teenagers have never heard Bob Dylan. It's weird.


But on the other hand, it's giving rise to interest of young people all over, way awesome obscure shit that never had it's due its first go-round. I like to think that I'm kind of a LP digger, but there is plenty of stuff I would have never heard of if it weren't a hipster cool thing.


Lastly, in this modern age, we have the opportunity to glean influence from so many places far and wide, popular and not, that we are hearing sounds and combinations of sounds that are very new. And while music and the scene may seem highly schizophrenic, that just the nature of the times, the modern identity. I feel grateful for it. The impostors are easy to spot. But nowadays the impostors are sometimes the real deal. We're not going to know what it all means or how to categorize it for a while.


-On the technical side, I'd be interested in knowing about tunings and
your right-hand approach and whatever else you might find relevant.


I play mostly with my fingernails now. Three finger style, thumb and the first two. A lot of my old stuff I have to use picks. I use Jim Dunlop .025 steel fingerpicks and a molded plastic Dobro pick. The ones that actually say "Dobro" on them are the best, but I don't think they make them anymore. I wear the picks the wrong way, like claws curving down over the top of the finger rather than on the pads of the finger. That's how I get that real fretboad slappy sound. It's kind of severe. I think you can get better tone wearing them the right way, but I've never taken the time to learn.


I play mostly in open C, but also in G and D. Major and minor in all three, just a twist of the tuner. I play a little in standard if I can defy its conventions. I'm really not a standard guy. I like to be able to syncopate on all six strings if I want.


I believe in a steady bass. Independent fingers. Phrasing mathematically, give and take. It's hard to explain. I like it to sound like its moving forward and folding over itself. I do have an interest in traditional technique, I don't always obey it.

Ragtime Ralph - The Interview

I became aware of Ragtime Ralph via the Fahey Guitar Players Yahoo! Group. It was the summer of 2008 when he posted an offer to send 100 people his CD, "Lost Blues 1929-1934" for free.
Ralph just finished recording for his latest project and will begin mixing this week.
Ralph describes himself as “…a bit of a luddite when it comes to technology...no car/TV/computer/toys...my only fun is my guitar and my metal detector for poking around looking for archaeological relics.”
If you are interested in keeping up with Ralph’s latest recording adventures I recommend you sign up for the Yahoo! Group or check in here at the blog periodically.

If you are new to Ragtime Ralph, click here to see what's available to download.

Tell us about the guitars you play.
My guitar...Dixie X...an early 1930s Regal wood bodied resonator...beautiful fat V-neck and wonderfully warm tinny, banjo-like tone on some songs and a real low down bluesy growl on others. She needs a bit of work, but is in pretty fine shape for a budget guitar from the "golden era"!

On the early Ragtime Ralph recordings I played various guitars: Larrivee 6 & 12 strings/Kona Hawaiian guitar/National metal body guitar (model unknown)/Guild acoustic (model unknown)cheap ukulele/cheap dulcimer...and a hand built one string...with a tin can stuck on the end of it!

Did I read somewhere that you used to play surf music? What other musical journeys have you been on besides American Primitive?
Ahhh...surf music! I've had several musical epiphanies in my tenure on this planet...country blues/John Fahey/surf music/Savage Republic/Stereolab...the surf music came at a time when I was quite fed up with Fahey...he'd accused me of using his name to get known in show biz and I needed an out...my best friend played me "Surf Beat '80" by Jon and the Nightriders and it blew my socks off! From there I played lead guitar in the Garage Surfers/the Unknowns/the Surfdusters/the Fridge Magnets...bass in Beaver Patrol...then bass in Quonset which was a bass/scrap metal percussion duo based on Savage Republic...I also auditioned as bass player for Courtney Love’s band Hole...until I heard that Fahey had died...then I changed my name to Blind Brand X.

I think it’s great that you cultivate two different personalities, Ragtime Ralph and Blind Brand X. Does it give you more freedom to play two different styles of music? Where did the names come from?
Ragtime Ralph was my alter ego before Fahey died and Blind Brand X was after his unfortunate demise...for Ragtime Ralph I just came up with the name one day...it sounded more jazzy than just plain ol' Ralph Johnston...the Blind Brand X came from my distaste for today’s consumer society...just a dig at blind brainwashed consumer spending habits...brand x is better than brand z....that kind of mentality...it also differentiated the way I'd play...then and now...then I used fingerpicks and tried to play fast like Leo Kottke...ignoring the subtlety and space between notes...now I play with pauses...and fewer notes rather than more...I find it quite interesting, reinterpreting Ragtime Ralph songs the way Blind Brand X plays them...it gives them a whole new incarnation...but holding on to the spirit of the original versions.

What about how you learned to play this style, did you have a mentor? Did you learn by ear?
I started playing this style of music when in 1969 I saw John Fahey on the PBS show Guitar, Guitar...I was so knocked out by what I'd heard that I immediately tracked down several Fahey albums (Yellow Princess/Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death) and started teaching myself by ear. I had the good fortune to have an older brother who owned a guitar shop...I worked part time there and learned some tunings from some books and magazines he was selling. I took one lesson at another shop from a guy who taught me a Mance Lipscomb song "Texas Rag"...and that song will be on my next CD! The only other lesson I took was from John Fahey himself! He and his wife Melody stayed with me for a night...John was playing at the Vancouver Folk Festival the next day...I was having difficulty with a chord in one of his songs...he straightened me out and the song "Ragtime Piece In G ( aka Television Rag) appeared on Ragtime Ralph Volume 4.

Can you tell us a little about how you were almost a part of the Takoma catalog? What happened there and how did you feel about that then and now?
Fahey had contacted me after I'd sent him copies of the first three Ragtime Ralph EP’s...he seemed to like my stuff and over dinner one night when he'd come up to Vancouver to play at the Soft Rock Cafe where I opened for him he suggested to me that he might be interested in releasing the album (Volume 4) I'd completed. Then out of the blue I started getting weird phone calls from John...he said I was using his name to get "known in show business", and one time a very drunk Fahey phoned me at 3 AM babbling about some sort of nonsense or another...by then I was starting to get an inkling that John might be a little troubled...so I released the album myself and never really thought too much about the Takoma thing...I've always been very wary of people making all kinds of promises...it seems to happen to me fairly often...someone has a big idea...more often than not it turns out to be mostly smoke and mirrors...especially when I hear it coming from some drunk in a club somewhere...that's one big reason I like doing things the way I do...I'm not beholden to anyone. It was nice though that John recorded my arrangement of "Away In A Manger" on his Varrick Xmas album...I'm so proud when I show folks the record with my name right on the label...that's the biggest kick I got out from my tenuous relationship with Fahey. I never felt any resentment towards him 'cause he gave me so much in the form of music. John never liked to take any credit for how his music affected people like me...but I bring his name up whenever possible and try to turn folks on to his wonderful music!

Why do you give away your music?
I have to quote my favorite "rock band" Savage Republic for this one..."I can't seem to see the things you see" from their song "Film Noir"...I am in turmoil with the capitalist system...I have so much while the rest of the world starves...I need very little, so I figure I might as well take a bit of burden off the system and at least offer what I do to the world for the world to enjoy without the world being mired in the red tape that seems to entrap all of us in our daily lives...I need no reward for what I do...I don't seek fame or glory...I just know that my music might inspire others to do the same...and the music they might produce will possibly go on to inspire others!

Can you tell me how you came up with the Empty Square Records name?
Empty Square comes from me misunderstanding Charlie Patton’s lyrics on "Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues"...I always thought he was singing "Eat all your blossoms and leave you an empty square"...but blues scholars have determined the lyrics are "Sucks all the blossoms and he leave your hedges square"...to me it doesn't really matter...as mistakes lead to new and exciting discoveries...a lot of my songs are based on mistakes made when playing songs I already think I know...a slip of the finger and...voila!...a new sound/chord/melody...I often look forward to mistakes to shake me out of the doldrums that encircle me while playing the same song over and over again...like finding the gold nugget in the slag heap! The tattoo I have on my left arm was based on a photo of Charlie Patton...and I added the "Empty Square" in banners surrounding a suit wearing, guitar playing skeleton! What some of us will do for attention!

Are you planning a road trip/tour anytime?
I'm actually planning on traveling the USA on my holidays...renting a car and visiting the gravesites of Fahey/Patton/Hutchison/Hurt/White...and stopping in on Joe Bussard and Glenn Jones...and I hope to maybe pass through some of the towns of folks on my mailing list and maybe...pickin' a tune or two. I'm hoping this will all take place starting in May this year! I will elaborate further later!

What is your latest project?
My latest project is "Wreck of the Ol' 78"...I'm doing 13 of my favorite old blues and country songs and we are going to engineer the whole thing to sound like a batch of dusty old 78s! I really love the sound of old records and I explain my fascination in the CDs notes!

How are you doing your current recordings? Are you using a studio or is it a home set-up?
We're doing the recordings in Oliver Conways Aero Studios...Oliver is the soundman at the Vancouver blues club The Yale, as well as being the guitarist for several local blues/rhythm and blues bands. It's a small room in the basement of a music equipment supply company and he has a nice digital setup and knows how to get around it quite nicely. We use 4 mics: one near the resonator, one at the headstock and 2 room mics about 4 feet away and about 5 feet in the air. We usually do one or two takes of each song as I seem to know the stuff pretty well before entering the studio...I don't care if the takes are perfect, just as long as the flubs aren't obvious!

Any chance you are going to be on the upcoming Imaginational Anthem Vol. 4?
I'd sent Tompkins Square Records several of my releases, but I never heard back from them...I don't crave exposure...I'm having lots of fun doing what I'm doing...in the past I was turned down by Kicking Mule Records, Windham Hill Records and eventually Takoma Records but I knew I could never commit to being signed to a label because I work lots and am extremely, how would you say shy, to play in public...a hurdle I've not yet been able to conquer.

If a label offered to sign you would you do it?
I don't know if I'd want to be signed to a label...they probably couldn't justify spending money on someone who probably wouldn't tour to support an album...my approach of playing, recording and sending out free music satisfies my needs...to play...to document...and to communicate with others...apart from these things I have no goals...I just like to send the music out...like that Police song "Message In a Bottle"...set the music adrift and see where it ends up...even if nothing happens with the music in the outside world, I'm still happy and satisfied with what I do. Not being signed to Takoma never phased me a bit...I just kept and keep on releasing my own stuff...Fahey HATED the business end of Takoma and I don't want Empty Square to become a business. Fahey also disliked playing in public but felt trapped because it was his job, not a hobby like music is for me, although it's a hobby that pretty well dominates my non worklife. Oh well, I'll just dawdle along and enjoy this marvelous gift bestowed upon me...it makes me happy and seems to make other people happy too....I can't ask for much more than that!

Blueswax E-zine interview with Otis Taylor

Decoding Otis Taylor
By Stacy Jeffress
This story originally appeared in BluesWax and is reposted here with permission.

"Some people are Blues interpreters. I'm more like a composer."

Otis Taylor
Photo by Stacy Moore

Otis Taylor is not one to spoon-feed music to his listeners. You have to work at it; your appreciation for his roots-based, jazz-infused, African call-and-response brand of trance Blues is going to come only after some investment of sweat-based equity on your part. He is not about to hand you some twelve-bar, foot-tapping Blues and call it good. And you are largely on your own in deciphering what the minimalist lyrics of his songs mean, but you can be certain that he has a message to deliver.

It follows, then, that Taylor is surely not going to make it easy on an interviewer who admits to being new to, and perhaps a bit wary of, his music, although he did display much good humor, often at his own expense, during our conversation. This is a man who takes great pride in his artistry and cultural contributions but can laugh when his wife Carol teases him for writing what she calls his "huge amount of unfinished songs." Taylor acknowledges that he can be cryptic and that his music is "an acquired taste" defying categorization in the Blues world.

Taylor discussed his latest release, Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs, as well as his music's appearance on the soundtrack of the recently-released feature film Public Enemies.

Stacy Jeffress for BluesWax: It's a privilege to talk to you. I have to tell you I'm new to your music. I've been listening to the CDs and wanting to learn about your music. Your music is different than what I'm used to. I'm looking forward to getting a chance to ask you about it.

Otis Taylor: Different than what you're used to. What are you used to?

BW: I guess Blues music that's more, maybe superficial. You can learn a lot from your music; it's like you're teaching us about events and history that we didn't know about, such as the Ludlow Massacre ["Your Children Sleep Good Tonight" from 2005 release Below the Fold].

OT: That's a different album.

BW: What elements are present in trance Blues that might not be in other types of Blues music?

OT: Trance music is like voodoo music, the congas. That's trance music. Something with no chord changes. Howlin' Wolf did a lot of trance music, R.L. Burnside.

BW: On the new CD, I was looking at the musicians that appear, and a lot of them have a jazz background. Could you talk a little about how you select the musicians who appear with you?

OT: I saw [pianist] Jason Moran once in Germany, but I didn't pick up on him. Then I saw him in West Virginia playing at a concert - I said, "Whoa, I could do something with that," and I did. I just felt it, you know? Like when you talk about the Ludlow Massacre, you've heard that song ["Your Children Sleep Good Tonight"]?

BW: Yes.

OT: I had Rayna [Gellert] from [Rounder Records folk group] Uncle Earl play with me. I had a vision for it. I just see people I know. "Hey, I could do something with that, you know?" That's a very unique sound; you don't hear that cello-fiddle combination too much.

BW: And the cornet with Ron Miles was a very interesting element. How did you hook up with Ron?

OT: I met him at a music showcase a long time ago, and I asked him to sit in, and I just kept him in the back of my head, so he's slowly played on more albums and more albums. He said he really wanted to play with Jason, and I said, "Okay, I'll work on it."

BW: Tarus Matean [on bass]?

OT: Tarus and Nasheet Waits [drums] are in Jason's band called The Bandwagon, so I brought out his whole band. Sometimes we had two bass players in one song.

BW: It was interesting that you had Gary Moore on guitar on several tunes. I was reading up on him.

OT: I met him about four years ago in Brighton; he played on Definition of a Circle, too. I had opened for him at Santa Monica at the end of the night. I did a lot of touring with Gary.

BW: I've had the privilege of meeting Cassie [Taylor's daughter who sings and plays bass with her father's band]. She is absolutely delightful, an amazing poised young woman. You obviously did some great work parenting her, you and Mrs. Taylor. I enjoy her when she's hosting the International Blues Challenge.

OT: Yes, she does. That's what I was told.

BW: I enjoy the song about my daddy works for the Pullman Company ["Working for the Pullman Company" on Below the Fold]. It said in the liner notes she sang that when she was little. Did you work for the railroad when she was young?

OT: My father did. I used to do a lot of traveling to Santa Fe in the antique business. So she sat under the piano, and she made up that one little line, then I made up the chorus. At that time I wasn't even playing music anymore, I was retired from music, but I kept that song in my head because it was such a good song ["My daddy's gone to Santa Fe/My momma's taking care of me/He's working for the Pullman Company."]

BW: It's a lovely song, and she has such a nice singing voice. Was she always musically inclined like her dad?

OT: I think so, yeah. I'm not that musically inclined, but she's way better than I am.

BW: You have a lot of devoted fans who would beg to differ with that statement. I was asking [BluesWax Editor Don Wilcock] what it was about your sound that attracted him so much, and he said that you push the boundaries of what music sounds like. Do you think that's an accurate description?

OT: Oh yeah. Artists are supposed to push the envelope, you know. I'm a Blues artist, not a Blues musician. Does that make sense?

BW: Tell me how you distinguish the two.

OT: Some people are Blues interpreters; they interpret the Blues and play like other people. Some people are like composers. I'm more like a composer. Doesn't that make sense?

BW: It does, obviously your compositions are very strong. You have so much to say to your audience. During the years that you were not performing regularly, how did you express that creativity? Were there other outlets?

OT: I think buying antiques and sort of looking for what's going to be ahead of the curve is an art form. I was always buying crazy stuff. It's not the same, but it still is an art form.

BW: What kind of crazy stuff?

OT: Art deco, black photos, bicycles, televisions, art nouveau, paintings, whatever.

BW: You were buying guitars from George Gruhn in the 70s. How did you get hooked into him?

OT: Somebody told me about him. I used to go to Utah, and I used to go to Tennessee to buy guitars.

BW: Were you continuing your musical performance at home?

OT: I basically stopped except for playing my piano, my banjo sometimes. I only played in public once for nineteen years.

BW: What spurred you to go back to the music full time?

OT: I did a benefit for somebody. I had a friend who had a bicycle team; he was the sponsor. He was bankrupt, so I helped him out at his new coffeehouse. He had clothing stores and lost them all, so he opened up a coffeehouse, and we played for him.

BW: How long ago was that?

OT: 1995.

BW: I saw you perform at the Blues Music Awards. I absolutely loved it. I hadn't seen Anne Harris before on violin, so much energy.

OT: She's a great show, she's very visual. They said we'd be on the big stage, but we were on the side of the big stage. I brought more people because I thought we were going to be on the big stage. She jumps three feet in the air. She does really outrageous things. She needs about five feet by five feet of space, or at least ten by ten feet. She can really break loose.

"I'm a Blues artist, not a Blues musician.Does that make sense?"

BW: Your songs have a lot of depth, and they're not just "my baby done left me" kind of songs. They're very thought provoking.

OT: That's just because people are that smart. They just want to sell records, and I don't care. I make the kind of music that's not really commercial. I just don't care. I'm sure other people can write like that; they just may not be comfortable because they won't sell records. It isn't that they can't do it; they just choose not to do it.

BW: If you're not in it for the commercial reasons, what does it mean to you when you're nominated for the Handy and the Blues Music Awards?

OT: It's a little touchy there; they told me they don't have a category for me. It's really tough. My albums don't get it. I've just lately been nominated for banjo, not for my albums.

BW: White African won as Best New Artist Debut [in 2002].

OT: That was a long time ago.

BW: How do you characterize the difference between that time and now?

OT: That time and now, I think I got two nominations for Truth is Not Fiction [2004] which won Downbeat Blues Album of the Year, Downbeat critics, you know Downbeat magazine? Then I won Downbeat Blues Album of The Year the next year for Double V. Then I was off for a few years. Then I won for Definition of a Circle [2007], and then I won for the banjo album, Recapturing the Banjo [2008]. So in the last 10 years, I've won four Downbeat Blues Album of The Year Awards, but I can't get my albums nominated for the Blues [Music Awards] because they don't feel comfortable with what I'm doing. They tend to categorize me.

BW: But then you won this year.

OT: Only for banjo, see. I was nominated last year for banjo and the year before that for banjo, but not for my albums.

BW: Who's the constituency for the Downbeat awards?

OT: The critics.

BW: So that's the difference between critical and commercial success, I guess.

OT: Unfortunately, not commercial. I'm not a crybaby, I'm just saying there's a disconnect. Jay [Sieleman of the Blues Foundation] told me he has no category for me, he's very honest about it. What can you do? It doesn't stop me. I just don't have a category. I'm a man without a country.

BW: But you're a man whose music is on a major movie soundtrack [Public Enemies].

OT: Yeah, Michael Mann's a big fan, he gets it.

BW: Had your music been used before on soundtracks?

OT: Yes. There was a movie called The Shooter with Mark Wahlberg, sharpshooter Danny Glover. There was a movie called The Badge with Billy Bob Thornton. I scored a documentary called Purvis of Overtown [about contemporary Miami urban painter Purvis Young, 2006]. They put my music on American Idol, Crossing Jordan.

BW: I didn't realize you had that wide of exposure.

OT: Hollywood's been very very good to me.

BW: What's important for folks to know about the new release, Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs?

OT: I don't know. What's important is what they can possibly discover. You want to keep everything a surprise, don't you? Maybe for them to hear sounds they've never heard before if they're not familiar with me. It's hard to say what's important. What's important is that I do this interview. That's almost like a legal comment, "Your Honor, what is important? He's dead, is it important that he had a heart attack or is it important that this woman stabbed him fifteen times? He's dead, Your Honor, he's still dead." What's important is what's important to the person who listens to it.

BW: I enjoy the summaries of the songs that you include.

OT: I do that because I never could understand people singing songs. My wife says I write in a very cryptic way.

BW: I'd agree with your wife.

OT: She says I write this huge amount of unfinished songs. I don't agree with that part, but that's what she thinks. I write conceptually. I just try to get the point across. The words don't matter as much as the point.

BW: I'm grateful for the synopses. That helps me understand what the point is.

OT: It's like a decoder ring.

BW: Exactly! I just said that to my boss today, this synopsis is like a decoder ring for an Otis song.

OT: They'll find my records, and they won't have [the synopsis], and they'll have to get Egyptian cryptology people to figure out what I'm saying.

BW: Honestly like on "Sunday Morning" which I love listening to because Cassie's singing is so great, but I was like, okay, what the hell is that song about? And then I read [the synopsis], and I said, "Oh, okay. I hear her singing about the cat on the bed."

OT: "And I kindly said move aside, move aside/Sunday morning will return." I thought that was an easy one, actually.

BW: Well, see, I am challenged in my Otis decoding.

OT: It takes awhile. I wrote that song in 1972. I thought that was one of my easier songs. I mean like "Mama's Got a Friend" and we tell people she's our sister, that's a little cryptic. You have to know what's going on.

BW: That's based on a true story on your mom?

OT: Yup.

BW: Is your mother still alive?

OT: No. I wouldn't have written it while she was still alive. I'm not that spaced. I just gotta wait for everybody to die so then I can write songs. I write those so my kids won't have any skeletons in their closet where they can be blackmailed.

BW: Get it all out in the open.

OT: Yeah, it's better for them.

BW: On "Lost My Guitar," it says the man is mourning not so much for the guitar as for the child. Is the guitar the metaphor for the child?

OT: Yes.

BW: That's one a heartbreaker.

OT: It's a true story.

BW: Who was Emma K. Walsh?

OT: That was Joe Walsh's daughter. There's a fountain - they gave money to the park to name a fountain in North Boulder, a plaque with her name on it. I knew Stephanie; I was friends with his ex-wife. It's a love song, love for his guitar, love for his daughter. It's about separation, too. You get divorced, your life changes, the sort of things maybe you missed, the relationship with this child. He goes and sits by the grassy bank maybe he will remember. I guess it is a little cryptic.

BW: When your wife says it's cryptic, I'd have to go with that.

OT: I like cryptic. But you get the point that somebody's really mourning something, right?

BW: There's no doubt that he's mourning.

OT: When you think about it more, it must not be a guitar 'cause it's too mournful for a guitar. I'm not trying to get deep here 'cause my wife says I'm not very deep.

BW: You have all these serious, serious songs, and then I saw on YouTube a clip of you at the Chicago Blues Festival last year.

OT: I don't put on a sad show, I just write sad albums. There's a difference. People who see me live - I'm not there to depress anybody.

BW: Where you're playing the harp walking through the crowd that is a joyous thing.

OT: But people don't understand. Ask somebody who sees my concerts, do you think those two songs were sad that I did [at the BMAs]? I don't do sad onstage.

BW: The first time I saw you was at the Acoustic Blues Fest in Kansas City a couple of years ago. You were solo. I didn't understand anything at all at that point. I had friends who had seen you, and they just raved about you. And honestly, I didn't get it. What I recall about that, it was that it was rather serious. And then at the BMAs it was anything but, it was just a celebration. It was so much fun. And then that hambone thing at Chicago Blues Fest, that was so much fun, too.

OT: Well you'll see the hambone thing at Monterey. I don't know. You have to find someone who's seen my show with the bands. It's not like that. I'm not trying to make anybody depressed. What can I say? You'll have to go on YouTube and see more of my sets. Get a better perspective. I don't want anybody depressed. I remember getting depressed going to see Midnight Cowboy.

BW: That's the movie to do it to you.

OT: I was depressed for a week.

BW: Ratso Rizzo.

OT: I was him. When I'm backstage at big fancy shows and the rider, all the food, and fancy Swiss chocolates I get. I put that in my bag, I take it home, that's my food. If I could figure out how to put shrimp in my pocket, I would. I can't get over being a poor kid. I was right with him. I would have done that for sure. Put that raw shrimp in his pocket. That was me. When we go backstage, the band knows I have to go through the back room and decide what I'm gonna take, and they can have what's left. I might go back and put two pounds of chocolate after we've toured Europe. Europeans love to give me chocolate. Drives the kids crazy, it's like trick or treating.

BW: There's some of the songs that I connect with better than others, and I'm sure it's my failing more than anything.

OT: Then that's what you should write about it. There's always something to write about. There's always a story inside of a story.

Stacey Jeffress for BluesWax: I asked one of my friends about what he found appealing about your music. It was that you didn't just say, "My baby done left me"; there is content there.

Otis Taylor: You have to understand the culture of America. In the 1930s you couldn't say anything but "My baby done left me" or you'd get lynched. You have to get it in perspective. I can say things that people couldn't say in the '30s. I can sing about a little black boy and a little white girl having a little romance. You couldn't sing that in the 30s, you'd be lynched. Once when we went to Memphis at the Folk Alliance and I played "St. Martha Blues," I was a little nervous playing that song down south.

BW: How were you received?

OT: I was received okay, but I was definitely nervous about it. My first time down south and here I am singing about a lynching. What can I say? I think there are two reasons that I can sing about things that other people couldn't. I sing about things that are not commercial but are interesting. I like interesting stories. I just like a story to be interesting. Did you get an album called Truth is Not Fiction?

BW: Yeah, I've got that.

OT: Listen to "House of the Crosses." I think it's one of the best songs I ever wrote. It visually puts you right there in Russia. I think it's one of the best songs I ever wrote storytelling wise. Some people think "My Soul's in Louisiana" is the best all-around song I ever wrote or maybe "Just Live your Life" [from Respect the Dead]. I really like "House of Crosses" as a visual journey. I don't tell people what to think of my songs, I don't judge anybody. I'm not being political; social political, but not political. I don't tell what anybody what to think.

BW: Is that what politics is? Telling people what to think?

OT: I'm not like Joan Baez or Bob Dylan.

BW: But see that's who I think of is Bob Dylan, the groundbreaker, the one who tells us the news we don't want to hear so much.

OT: I'm the opposite of Bob Dylan - I have no words. I'm the opposite of Bob Dylan or Ani DiFranco. I use very few words to explain myself. Bob Dylan tends to preach more about freedom and do this and do that. I don't do that. I don't want to tell people what to think. I'm not a perfect human being. I'm like an audio newspaper. I sort of give you the news.

BW: Exactly, you give us the news like on Below the Fold.

OT: That's what Below the Fold is about. It's a newspaper expression.

"I don't know much about the Blues,
but I'm good at being black."

BW: In "House of the Crosses," I thought maybe it was my imagination that there was more told in the synopsis in the liner notes than in there was in the body of the song.

OT: Oh, no, I thought the song was right on. "I went down to the house of the crosses/I saw my momma fall on her knees/Well she told me this man's your father/He killed two people and he raped me." Later he was a guard at the House of Crosses watching over his father because he thought he was so evil. He just wanted to be a prison guard to make sure he never got loose, just to watch over him. That's some twisted shit. There's a place called the House of Crosses in St. Petersburg. It's a high-security prison. They don't let people visit; they have to yell up with little megaphones. I thought that was an interesting story just about the prison, and then I came up with the story the next day.

BW: And then on the same CD was the "Kitchen Towel" song, another heart-breaking song.

OT: A ghost story. I like those. But they weren't true, I just made those up. Sort of like Edgar Allen Poe.

BW: They sound like they could be true.

OT: Well, the thing that happened to the people happened to the people. Where they lost their farms and gave up and killed themselves. Did you listen to Pentatonic Wars yet?

BW: Yes.

OT: So, you just like the pretty songs.

BW: I have to say I am drawn to Cassie's voice. On "Mama's Best Friend" I think she's scatting a little bit. She's really developed as a singer, or maybe she could always do that and I just didn't know it.

OT: I kind of featured on this album and let her sing more than one song. Usually I let her sing one song, never three.

BW: I think she's a winner, and it's wonderful that she's part of your group. Is it true you made her learn bass and play with your band, or she was going to lose her allowance?

OT: Kind of, basically. She used to cry. I used to make her practice fifteen minutes, and she would cry. But I knew that she was really good. I knew that she had it. One day she picked up a bass and she asked my old bass player Kenny Passarelli, "How do you do that for "Hey Joe?" [he sings bass line]. She learned that in fifteen minutes. That's when I decided she was going to play bass. It's funny. People go, "Is that really true that you made your daughter play bass?" Like people are just amazed that I did that, how cruel! How many people had to take piano lessons? Is that just twisted or what? Are people sick? I have a way of being the bad guy. "Otis, you write some depressing songs." What about "Teen Angel," that was a big hit, or "Ode to Billie Joe."

BW: Or "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."

OT: Yeah, how about that? But I get blamed for all that; I'm the one who put the depression in the Blues or something. I'm the one who's like, "Guilty, Your Honor." You're doing five to ten for making the Blues depressing. All the depressing Appalachian songs: "Pretty Polly." "Little Sadie." So, can you figure this out, Your Honor? Cause I can't. So I made my daughter play bass guitar. Oh, man!

BW: You took her around the world, that's terrible.

OT: How many people had to take violin and piano lessons? Go figure. See how I get kind of a bad rap?

BW: When she tells the story it's done with humor and affection. "Well, my dad made me play in his band." And the rest of us would love to be in her shoes.

OT: She had to make money to help pay for college. She always forgets to tell you that her mom and dad sent her to college.

BW: It's mentioned in the article that she went off to Chicago to go to college and study theatre.

OT: She leaves out the parts where they spent a lot of hard-working money, and then she drops out. Nobody gets that part of the story. Well, I tell you, I'm an acquired taste. You have to listen to the music more and more. Like opera. Once you get it, you get it. I'm still waiting for Porter to get it. He's still working on it.

BW: Porter? Who's that?

OT: Historian [Bob] Porter. [He was just inducted into] the Blues Hall of Fame. He does all those radio programs, but who knows, maybe one day he'll get it. I don't know how to tell you how to review the album. I just took different genres and brought them together. Because Blues is the base of all American music, of jazz, of rock 'n' roll. I believe Blues is an attitude. My music is very roots oriented and, since Blues is an attitude, there's always call and response in my music which is part of the African experience.

BW: That's like the segment of the PBS series, Martin Scorsese's The Blues, that Corey Harris was in and he goes to West Africa, and what's the word, "griot"?

OT: Yeah, "griot," it's part of the griot tradition, storytelling. That's their history books, that's how they keep their history through music and stories,

BW: I read other books since them that disputed that there's a West African tradition that came over and took the form of the Blues. But that's something that you subscribe to, that it's a descendant?

OT: Well, think about it, blacks weren't allowed to read, right? So, how was anything passed down if people weren't allowed to read?

BW: The verbal history.

OT: Yeah, so somebody's full of shit, no offense. I'm blunt about that. Duh, come on, man, are you joking? In the tradition of the whites not letting them read. Call it what you want, but they had to keep on passing everything down verbally. It was pretty tough for the first hundred years.

BW: B.B. King has been quoted as saying that the Blues started at Dockery [Plantation] in Mississippi.

OT: I don't exactly know where it started. I'm not a historian. You know what I say to people? I don't know much about the Blues, but I'm good at being black. You can quote me on that. I'm serious. I was born on the south side of Chicago. Came to Denver when I was four. My parents came from the Deep South.

BW: Where in the south were your parents from?

OT: My mother was from Lake Providence, Louisiana. My father's from Memphis.

BW: How'd they end up in Chicago?

OT: 'Cause everybody was going that way like the Irish leaving Ireland. The great migration up north. You might get shot, but you probably wouldn't get lynched.

BW: And then your uncle was murdered?

OT: My uncle was sort of a gangster; he was shot in Chicago. He was shot before I was born. My mother was sixteen when her brother was shot.

BW: Goodness.

OT: It's no big deal.

BW: It's kind of a big deal.

OT: A lot of people get shot in Chicago. He carried a gun. It's like you see in the Mafia movies, the guy always kills somebody. My uncle's probably the one that killed. A lot of people didn't make it. They ran the streets. A lot of people didn't make it. There was a certain lifestyle that he lived, and you've got to live by it. Some people say that he maybe killed people, we don't know. You know those family rumors that spread around. He got killed in a crap game. He was a really handsome guy. They always said I looked like him, my eyes were like his. His name was Andrew Bell. All my relatives go, "You got eyes like Andrew Bell." He had light eyes. Am I helping you at all with all these boring stories?

BW: I don't think they're boring at all. I like your stories. Do you have brothers and sisters?

OT: I don't talk about my family too much. Just my uncle 'cause I write about it. Take a couple of listens to the album. Have a glass of orange juice, and let it seep in. Did you listen to the banjo album [2008 release Recapturing the Banjo]?

BW: Yeah, I really like that one, and I enjoy the variety of artists that are on here. Your original songs are so different than the norm and then you pick some songs to cover like "Hey Joe." Do you just pick the songs you want to cover? Is there any rhyme or reason?

OT: I had an album called Blue-Eyed Monster that I won't re-release. So whenever I play live I play "Hey Joe," and people go, "I wish you had 'Hey Joe' on one of your records," so I put it on the banjo record. I thought it would be a trippy thing to do. It's like a sorbet, sort of breaks up the banjo-ness of the album. It sort of catches you off guard. I was playing lead guitar on that one, too, which was fun. I don't get to do that much. The other people picked some covers, like "Liza Jane." Everyone brought a song to the table.

BW: I like "Ran So Hard the Sun Went Down."

OT: I wrote that one. It's very traditional, not the way we did it, but it's a traditional sound, then I just layered it to make it crazy.

BW: So much on the most recent one feels like jazz no doubt since there are so many jazz-based musicians on there. Do you encounter any criticism for using so many jazz musicians?

OT: I encounter criticism for what I do all the time. That's why I can't get a category. But you have to listen to it and see how it interplays with the Blues-based roots part of it. It's the attitude of the jazz. Some jazz guys won't tell you it's jazz. They'll say it's not really jazz. Ask some jazz guys, "Is that jazzy?" No, 'cause it's trance. It's trance music. There's a lot of interplay going on.

BW: Jazz guys can get pretty territorial.

OT: They sure can. So, it's really just Otis music. I like the way that I went into it. I didn't go into it immediately. Then, I came back out of it, too.

BW: Do you have a sense of who your fan base is, your demographics and who you attract?

OT: I don't know. I have all kinds of people walk up to me and say, "I'm really a fan of yours," and I didn't even know they existed. I'd like my fan base to be younger. Since the movie, here's a little story for you. "Ten Million Slaves" [from Recapturing the Banjo] on i-Tunes was selling four hits a week. When the trailer [for Public Enemies] came out, it went up to nine hundred, so I know there's some new people. It's averaging about five hundred a month on i-Tunes hits, so there's a lot of new people who know who I am. If they were Blues fans they would have already had my records. So these are all new people.

BW: That's got to be good news.

OT: It is good news. I can't tell you who my fan base is.

BW: What sort of festivals do you get invited to, folk, roots, Blues?

OT: Only a couple Blues a year and jazz festivals in Europe 'cause they have Blues night, roots festivals. I don't do too many Blues festivals. It's really funny - I won [the 2004] Living Blues Entertainer of the Year Reader's poll with Etta James. I won that one year, and that year I only did two Blues festivals. So I'm kind of a rebel. I think I played at King Biscuit. The first time I went to King Biscuit I think I had twenty people in the audience, the second time I went I had fifty, the third time I think I had maybe eighty, the fourth time I went I had six hundred people on acoustic stage. It's been a hard journey for me. I don't know what will happen next. I must have new fans, because they're buying my songs.

BW: Cassie, as a younger woman, is this a natural fit for her?

OT: She's probably gonna break loose and do her own thing. That's up to her.

BW: You must have done something right for her to take the leadership position she has at the Blues Foundation.

OT: She did that all by herself. I had nothing to do with that.

BW: And initiating the Youth Jam this year at IBC. She learned how to be proactive from somebody.

OT: I'm proactive but maybe in a more negative way. I'm outspoken. She's a little sweeter than I am.

BW: One thing I find appealing is the pictures of your childhood that you include in a lot of your CDs, you as a baby or a toddler.

OT: I was forced to do that. When you open the inside [of Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs], you see that picture of me? That's what I wanted the cover to be, but they thought it was too scary. So I gave a baby picture, figured they're not going to complain about that.

BW: I've seen pictures of you in other ones, like you on a bearskin rug.

OT: That was a joke. The person who did the cover for that wanted me to do a nude photo. I said, "You're out of your mind." I said, "Okay, I'll give you a nude." My wife hated that I did that. But I said, "Okay, we'll go with a nude."

BW: I thought maybe you were showing us your softer side.

OT: I just did it as a joke, something interesting, I didn't take it very seriously. It was just decoration. Take a listen to the records, and let it seep in. It takes a little time. It doesn't soak in for people on the first listen. If you listen to all the instruments, you can hear them all clearly all at the same time which you can't hear in a lot of music

BW: You're so versatile in all the different instruments that you play on these recordings.

OT: The other guys are way better musicians than I am. I make sure everybody's better than me, or they can't play with me. I'm the producer, so they've got to be better, not emotionally, but technically better than I try to get the emotion out of them. But like Ron Miles is a genius. Jason is the next Herbie Hancock.
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Stacy Jeffress is a contributing writer to BluesWax. She can be reached at blueswax@visnat.com.
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