Country Music People December 2016 | Page 3

contents December 2016 Features 12 Dale Watson The‘ Keeper of the true country flame’ is as outspoken as ever. 20 Irene Kelley Kelly Gregory meets the hit songwriter and bluegrasser. 26 Sara Watkins Michael Hingston talks to the singer, songwriter and fiddle player. 50 Holly Dunn Walt Trott pays tribute to the late singer and songwriter. 52 Neil White Duncan Warwick talks Johnny Cash with the best-selling author. 58 Shakin’ Stevens Jack Watkins meets a whole new rootsy Shaky. Reviews 30 CD Reviews 48 Live Review Regulars 4 News 8 Tour Guide 11 This Month In Country Music 18 Nice To Meet Y’ all- Denny Strickland 19 The David Allan Page 25 The Nashville Skinny 29 Nice To Meet Y’ all- The Reeves Brothers 49 Americana Roundup 56 Nice To Meet Y’ all- Arty Hill 57 CanCountry Charts 64 Americana & UK Country Charts 65 Billboard Country Charts Courtesy of Billboard Inc. 12 cmp- DECEMBER 2016 THE OUTSPOKEN KIND DALE WATSON DECEMBER 2016- cmp 13 D ale Watson is not just the‘ keeper of the true country flame’. Yes, he protects it, cossets it, and values it greatly, but he also likes to throw some petrol on it occasionally, or use it to light the odd incendiary device. All of which endears him even more to anyone who prefers their country music to sound like‘ real’ country music. For more than two decades he has been tirelessly hitting the road and building a fan base the old fashioned way. Once or twice major labels have come a calling but they were given short shrift when it was suggested that Watson soften his uncompromisingly country sound. Never one to shy away from issues, Dale Watson is the one artist who will say what most others are all thinking but are too concerned about record company and radio politics to say anything. As far back as 1995, on his debut Hightone album Cheatin’ Heart Attack, Dale was coming out in a Nashville Rash due to the direction country music was heading, and the following year he was pleading for DJs to‘ speak up and say what’ s wrong’ on Real Country Song from his Blessed Or Damned release. There was also the straight to the point Country My Ass and more recently it only took Watson mere days to get his feelings on the Blake-gate story onto disc. Watson has also made a bunch of truckin’ albums over the years, not for any reason other than he likes that truckin’ sound … and he cares about preserving it! If he fancies cutting an album of early Elvis tunes in Sun Studios he’ ll do it because he wants to, and if his beloved honky tonk is in trouble he’ ll step in and help by actually putting his hand in his pocket as he did with Ginny’ s Little Longhorn in his hometown of Austin, Texas. He has since sold his share in Ginny’ s but opened his own bar – The Big T Roadhouse – in St. Hedwig, just outside of San Antonio, where his recent live album- Live At The Big T Roadhouse, Chicken S #!+ Bingo Sunday – was recorded. Additionally, Watson has also just released an album of covers – Under The Influence – containing songs made famous by the likes of Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, Ronnie Milsap, and Buck Owens, again because he felt like it. In fact, throughout his lengthy career Dale Watson has usually released a new record, sometimes two, every year, but possibly never before two in as many months. Dale Watson is a true maverick, and encompasses the true meaning of the term‘ Outlaw’ as well as Willie Nelson in the mid-70s. Not only that, but he can write songs to rival anything Haggard ever committed to wax. It’ s no wonder he has become a hero to the fans of‘ explicitly hardcore country music’. And another thing, as well as his Remington(“ I liked it so much I bought the company”) moment with Ginny’ s, disillusioned with the label‘ Country’ and its associations with things with which he’ d rather not be associated, Watson invented the term‘ Ameripolitan’ to refer to his musical style. That has since grown to become a whole genre embracing honky tonk, rockabilly, Western Swing, and Outlaw, and has held its own awards show for the past few years. Watson laughs hysterically at the suggestion that country music might be at its lowest point ever and concedes that singers, and fans, of real country have lost the battle, and despite all the talk of it coming back around in any mainstream chart is a pipedream. However, he still remains positive.“ Yeah, we have lost, but that’ s why I took the right of Ameripolitan. I gave up then because it all started with Blake Shelton saying what he said but he was actually saying what Nashville really meant so I knew it was over at that point. It wasn’ t going to get any better.“ Our goal is to make a music chart of our own with Ameripolitan. The thing is, this kind of music was never meant to be a big thing, y’ know, it was never meant to be mainstream. It just appealed to mature-minded people and the mainstream is …“ Of course I grew up with this and I liked it. I was never a rebellious teenager musically, so when I heard my dad doing it I always liked it and the people that he liked I liked. But, I can’ t tell you how many people come up to me and say,‘ Yeah, my grandad used to listen to Merle Haggard and stuff. I didn’ t like it. Now that I have Duncan Warwick catches up with the“ Keeper of the true country flame” and finds it is still burning brightly in Dale Watson’ s hands. DECEMBER 2016- cmp 21 20 cmp- DECEMBER 2016 Irene Kelley W hen Irene Kelley arrived in Tennessee in 1984 the sleeping giant of the Nashville music machine was just waking up to a more roots-based music following a decade in the dozy doldrums. The seeds had been sown with George Strait, who had already been having hits for a year or so, and the garden was being tended for the new country explosion that was a year or two off. Record labels were clammouring for more roots-based music after years of pop influenced material, which meant artists such as Ricky Skaggs, Sweethearts Of The Rodeo and Keith Whitley were starting to garner attention from major labels. It was an exciting time for country music.“ Oh it was,” agrees Kelley.“ It was really just coming up. Randy Travis was just starting to come up, Ricky Skaggs had just got to the country scene after playing in JD Crowe’ s bluegrass band and I’ m watching these guys like Ricky and Keith Whitley and Carl Jackson, and these guys are all bluegrassers and they’ re all getting major label country deals. Vince Gill also, because Vince was in Byron Berline & Sundance Band, and also Marty Stuart. So it was really exciting for me to see that because I could see that the heart and soul of bluegrass was very much part of country.” Nashville afforded her that and, after discovering her flair for songwriting in her teenage years, Irene Kelley left behind her life in Pennsylvania to start a new life in Music City.“ I came to Nashville to be a singer and, much to my surprise, I was touted as a writer and a lot of my songs were starting to get more attention than I was as an artist. I continued and I’ m fine with that, that’ s fine. When I moved here, though, I moved here to be an artist and so that’ s been sort of up and down but the mainstay has been the songwriting and I’ m really grateful for that and that’ s wonderful. The songwriting part is always a good thing and it’ s probably good for me because I’ m more of an introverted person anyway so I can dig into my songwriting and that’ s always there for me. And then when I go to do an album I kind of know when and what to record and if I have something missing in the repertoire I just say,‘ Well, I’ ll just write one like this because this is what I need— this kind of tempo or this kind of statement.’ So, being a writer, that’ s really helpful in that way,” says the Latrobe, PA. native. The give and take between singing and songwriting came full circle when Kelley struck gold and managed to get her wellknown song- A Little Bluer Than That- cut by Alan Jackson.“ It was really great. That was my second cut and I sang on the record. I sang the harmony part in the studio,” she reminisces.“ The first one [ cut ] was actually by Carl Jackson. He recorded the song on CBS, it was a single for him with a 64 in Billboard and it was a song called You Are The Rock( And I’ m A Rolling Stone). I wrote that song by myself and then I wrote with Nancy Montgomery and we wrote Love Can’ t Ever Get Better Than This. Ricky [ Skaggs ] and Sharon [ White ] had that out as a single in 1988 and it was in the Top 5. Then, just a couple of years ago, they did a whole album of duo songs and they rerecorded the song and put it out again on the Skaggs Family label.” Irene Kelley could have given Patty Loveless a run for her money, and when MCA signed her back in the late 80s maybe that was what they had in mind.“ Well, I was working with Nancy Montgomery and at the time her husband, Marshall Morgan, had a studio and that’ s where we wrote the Ricky Skaggs song and we were just trying to get songs cut,” states the well-respected singer and songwriter.“ So we wrote the song and Marshall recorded the demo for us to be able to play for Ricky and we got to work in the studio to sing the female part. He just got interested in what I was doing and talking to me about helping to find a label and going in and recording stuff. So we recorded about six songs and somebody, a friend of ours, took it to MCA Records and played it for them and they said they wanted to release the whole album. So we finished the album up and we ended up having two singles come out but the album never came out.” Bluer than that...“ I feel like bluegrass is the last frontier of traditional country music.”. Kelly Gregory talks songwriting, coal mining, and her new album- These Hills- with the bluegrass queen. DECEMBER 2016- cmp 27 26 cmp- DECEMBER 2016 T he excellent new album Young In All The Wrong Ways is the third release for singer, songwriter and fiddle player Sara Watkins. It has been four years since her last solo outing Sun Midnight Sun, but being a solo artist isn’ t the only string to her bow( so to speak) and she keeps herself very busy with numerous projects. Many musicians view being a solo artist or part of a band as a binary decision, but Watkins appears to have covered many aspects of band, solo and collaborative projects over the last couple of years. Sara was a member of the band Nickel Creek since the age of 8, along with her older brother Sean Watkins and virtuoso mandolinist Chris Thile. The band had been on hiatus since 2007, but they came back together in 2014 to tour and release an album of new material. Sara and Sean also run a monthly residency in Los Angeles called The Watkins Family Hour, where friends such as Fiona Apple, Benmont Tench, Don Heffington and Greg Leisz come along and share favourite songs. Last year they took the Family Hour out on the first US tour. Then there is the band I’ m With Her, where Sara toured with two other talented singer songwriters: Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’ Donovan; Sara also toured the UK with the super-ensemble the Transatlantic Sessions in January 2015 and there was a tour with Patti Griffin. That is a lot of different projects. I recently had a chat with Sara over the Sara WATKINS phone from her home in Los Angeles and we discussed her new album and her myriad other musical activities. I asked about the Nickel Creek reunion a couple of years ago.“ We had a fantastic time, we love singing together. It was great because we wrote so quickly and we recorded [ the album ] really quickly, which was different for us. We were in the studio for thirteen days and it was fantastic – a really fun experience.” Sara explained that her intention was to take some time out to make the new album, but it didn’ t turn out that way.“ Last year was supposed to be an off year so that I could record this album and finish writing the songs. It ended up being filled with all kind of fun projects that I hadn’ t really planned on, they just kinda happened. The Family Hour was a really special tour. It is a residency that we usually do one place in Los Angeles, but we took it around the country. Our friend had asked us to make a record to document the Family Hour band at his home studio. This guy Sheldon Gomberg has a great set-up and for two or three days we went down to his place and recorded some cover songs that we do. We had some time and we thought‘ maybe we should do some tour dates’ and Sean [ Watkins ] said‘ why don’ t we put out this album and tour it?’ We made this tour that I will never, ever forget. We travelled round the country. In towns where we knew people, we invited them to be a part of the show and to sit in and bring some songs and to share on this collaborative tour. It was really special. We continue to do the monthly show in Los Angeles. I don’ t think we will go out on tour for a while, but it was really special.” The producer on Young In All The Wrong Ways was Gabe Witcher, fiddle player in Punch Brothers( the band that is fronted by her Nickel Creek bandmate Chris Thile). With both artist and producer being fiddlers, it is a surprise that the instrument is featured so little on the record.“ It was a conscious decision not to have a ton of fiddle on the album, because fiddle is a very strong impression. We wanted the violins to be represented in the string sections, where there is a little orchestration that happens on the album, but we didn’ t want fiddle licks everywhere, because it is such a strong personality. Gabe [ Witcher ] who produced the album and I both come from the fiddle world, so you would think we would be biased towards the fiddle, but we wanted the album to be about the lyrics and the songs and less about that strong personality. It didn’ t seem to fit the arrangements that are built into the songs.” Sara’ s previous two releases included a handful of covers, but the songs on the new album are all written by Sara and have a general theme of change and renewal.“ It does seem like there is a theme on it. It just so happens that I had more things to say, I guess. I had more songs leading up to the making of this album than I typically do. I intended to record a song that my friend had written, but it didn’ t seem to fit the album. It stood out as being from a different voice lyrically, so we didn’ t end up completing it.” S ara has always had an attractive voice, but on the new album she has discovered a larger dynamic and emotional range. She uses the controlled power to great effect in the title track and Move Me.“ Yes, I do find my singing changing. I sing out quite a lot on Sun Midnight Sun. There is a song called When It Pleases You that I sing really out on. In the course of the four years since that album came out, there has been a lot of touring that has allowed me to experiment a bit more range, not in terms of notes scale, but dynamically and tonally. A lot of these songs came from a very guttural place, lyrically. When you are in a transitional place in your life, sometimes there is upheaval that you have to deal with. I think that these songs feel, to sing, the way I felt when I was writing them.” The upheaval isn’ t one specific event, more a periodic reassessment of her life.“ For me it is a transitional thing. Every five or ten years we all go through these periods where we re-examine where we are and reconsider some life choices, or notice‘ I didn’ t mean to be here this long or live in this town or job for so long; actually, I don’ t think that anymore’. Just Michael Hingston catches up with the super-talented singer, songwriter and fiddle player.“ You would think we would be biased towards the fiddle.” DECEMBER 2016- cmp 53 52 cmp- DECEMBER 2016 B y day Neil White is a criminal lawyer, by night he is a bestselling crime fiction writer, which in itself sounds like a character one might find as the star of a book or film. He also happens to be a Johnny Cash fan, something he was destined to inherit from his father whether he liked it or not, for Neil would be awoken to the sounds of his dad playing Johnny Cash records every weekend – literally … EVERY WEEKEND!“ We lived in a council house in Wakefield and he used to work in shoe shops and didn’ t work on a weekend and so you’ d hear a needle go on a record and that was it, you’ d hear Johnny Cash all day. I remember as well there was a picture of Johnny Cash on the wall above the TV. Even right through the 80s when Johnny Cash’ s fame was slipping slightly it was just Johnny Cash and that was it. He was a one-man man shall we say,” reminisces White, illustrating the sheer devotion to The Man In Black. The sounds of Johnny Cash permeating his bedroom walls as a youngster has inspired White’ s latest work which moves away from his crime fiction best-sellers like Cold Kill, Beyond Evil, and The Death Collector to the story of‘ A father and son, the open road, and Johnny Cash’ for his latest novel Lost In Nashville. In the book, the main characters are a successful lawyer and his estranged father who take the trip of a lifetime through Johnny Cash’ s life. They visit where he grew up and the places he sang about in the hope of reconnecting once more, and every chapter is named after a Cash song. With a change of name from White to Gray( James Gray is the lawyer in the book) Lost In Nashville could almost be an autobiographical work. However, while White admits he felt the need for a certain amount of poetic license with the characters, his research and Cash knowledge is right on the money. So much so that as well as being a darn good read and working on several levels, the novel could be used as a travel guide should somebody be inclined to follow in Johnny’ s footsteps themselves. White laughs at the mention of the colour-swapping name change and says,“ That’ s my wife’ s maiden name actually, that’ s the reason why I chose it. The book went through a number of changes because the book came about when I was looking at a map one day and I said,‘ I’ d love to go to where Johnny Cash grew up.’ I think I found his house on some kind of online estate agency in America and thought it’ d be nice to go there. I thought I could maybe chat to the guy who lives there because my intention initially, about ten years ago or maybe more, was to write a book almost like a bit of a Bill Bryson type thing- A journey through the South and meeting people on the way- that was my kind of approach initially. But when I came to writing it I just found that that wasn’ t my skill, shall we say.“ I’ ve always been a novelist and I just found it hard to make it funny or witty and it sounded like a Wikipedia entry trying to get all the detail in. So I thought instead I could do it as an autobiography and do it as if I’ m travelling with my dad who is a huge Johnny Cash fan. So I wrote it that way and I just found that the autobiographical stuff made it too much like I was trying to get too much detail in when the readers aren’ t interested in me, they’ re interested in Johnny Cash. I therefore thought I needed to kind of cut out the autobiographical stuff and so I kept it … The general theme of it is autobiographical but the actual facts of the character aren’ t. I am a lawyer in the North West and I do have a father who lives on the East Coast of England but I’ m not a fancy lawyer with a fancy … I can’ t say not a fancy wife— she wouldn’ t like me saying that would she— but we’ re just an ordinary couple of lawyers who live in Preston. I’ m not a big city flying Manchester lawyer and I do get on okay with my dad. So I kept the general theme but the nuts and bolts are fictional. It was a way of telling the story of Johnny Cash, really.” And the story of Johnny Cash has become a labour of love for the Preston-based novelist.“ It’ s a book I’ ve wanted to write for about ten years, possibly more. It was always a book I wanted to write as opposed to books I’ m contracted to write. That’ s why I self published it, because I didn’ t have the patience to hang around for a publisher. If anyone steps in I’ ll let them have it but I wasn’ t patient enough with it to … I wrote it, wanted to get it out there, and that was it.“ I submitted my last fiction book in January which was a little bit early— my deadline was the end of March— so I thought,‘ Right, I could probably take about four months off and just write it.’ I’ d done the trip with a view to writing the book. When I had the chance and I reached 50 last year and I got permission from my wife to do it, so I thought,‘ Right, I can go. For my 50th birthday present I’ m doing this trip.’ I managed to buy myself four months off my normal writing job to do it on its own so that’ s how it worked out.” The level of detail in Lost In Nashville is stunning as well as educating, but not only does the reader learn of places of importance WIDE OPEN ROAD Best-selling crime author Neil White made it his mission to follow in the footsteps of Johnny Cash for his latest novel, the story of a father and son on the journey of a lifetime- Lost In Nashville. He speaks to Duncan Warwick. All photos by Neil White and used with permission Main pic: Kingsland, Johnny Cash’ s birthplace.“... what I remember as a kid was that he only ever liked Johnny Cash. There was nobody else.” Page 12 Page 20 Page 26 Page 52 DECEMBER 2016- cmp 59 58 cmp- DECEMBER 2016 W hen the stats men got to work on the career of Shakin’ Stevens a few years back, by the time they’ d tallied up all the 1980s hits, they worked out that they amounted to 254 weeks- a combined total equivalent to five years- on the UK pop singles charts. He’ d had four number 1s and sold more singles than anyone. As well as being virtually a resident performer on the lost lamented Top of the Pops, he’ d also built massive following in Europe. Yet I get the feeling he has got equal, if not more, joy and fulfilment in making his latest album Echoes Of Our Times, a curious hybrid of country blues and folk rock which has been warmly received in the Americana field. Having met Shaky for a chat recently, I have to say I can’ t ever recall interviewing an artist of similar stature who demonstrated such immense personal excitement about all aspects of a new album, from the process of recording it, to rehearsing it for live performances, and even down to the artwork and sleeve notes. I find the experience totally moving. Shaky’ s always been a personal favourite, but his creative commitment to this project has revealed a completely new dimension.“ We’ ve had to release this ourselves,” he says of Echoes.“ Once we’ d got all the music together, we took it to a few people, but they’ d all say:‘ Oh, lovely album, but your early image was so strong.…’ So there’ s no big record company behind this.” That makes its success all the more satisfying. It shot to number 22 in the Official UK Album chart, his highest position for a new studio album since 1983, peaked at number 13 in the Physical Sales chart and got to number 2 on the Americana chart. It might be a case of“ thank God” though to his fans, because Shaky has had so many setbacks in recent years that I wonder that if Echoes Of Our Times had bombed, it might have been a psychological death blow to a great career. Maybe that’ s being melodramatic because, to borrow the title of one of the album tracks, Shaky clearly still has a lot of“ fire in his blood,” and has had a burning desire to show us something different for a long time.“ I have been frustrated in my career,” he admits,“ and feel I was never given a chance to show what I was capable of.” Unsurprisingly, some reviewers have expressed surprise at finding that Shaky, the boppin’, finger-clickin’ party song maestro, was capable of producing something so dark, intense and powerful. Shaky always knew how to whip up a storm, but, jeez, some of this stuff is moving with a capital‘ M’. But it’ s not really a case of‘ and with one bound our hero transformed himself into a purveyor of gritty roots music.’ The subject and tone of Echoes may be very different from anything else he has put out as a record, but the bluesy, countrified leanings of the man born Michael Barratt in the Cardiff suburb of Ely in 1948 have been there pretty much from the start.“ In the early days I used to do Hoyt Axton’ s Maybellene, and Lightning Bar Blues,” he recalls, laughing. That suggests a man who knew his Chuck Berry and other early rockers, but who also had an ear for different interpretations, and realised that it wasn’ t enough to just to do a cover of a song to get noticed, but that you also needed put a personal stamp on it. With his great rockin’ Welsh band The Sunsets, he did George Jones’ s White Lightning, and Tennessee Ernie Ford’ s Shotgun Boogie. Shakin’ Stevens and The Sunsets kept the rock‘ n’ roll flag alive when it was deeply uncool. When they supported the Rolling Stones one time, a critic sniffed that they looked like“ they stepped in from the local Palais circa 1958.” It’ s normal to praise the likes of Dr Feelgood now as the pub rock precursors to punk, but the Sunsets, an equally fine band who Wilko Johnson himself thought highly of, never get a mention. That’ s rockabilly for you. Never knowingly oversold by the music press. The Sunsets never had a hit, but Shaky’ s success on the West End stage in Elvis! enabled him to launch a solo career, signed to Epic. Where The Sunsets had kept rock‘ n’ roll alive on the underground scene, now Shaky was part of the neo-rockabilly revival in the mainstream. Hot Dog, his first hit, though only a modest one, was originally released by Buck Owens, as Corky Jones, for the Pep label in 1956, but Shaky’ s reboot was much better. It had Albert Lee on guitar, and BJ Cole on lap steel, as opposed to pedal, bidding to revive the ambience of the early Bill Haley rock-country-swing hybrids, and the sounds of Tennessee Ernie. T he follow-up single Marie Marie was another cover, this time of a Dave Alvin song, and was the first Shaky single to make the top 20. These recordings may have lacked the rawness of 1950s rock, but they’ ve worn well, in fact sound even better today than in 1980. They’ re examples of Shaky’ s talent for taking an indifferent song and making it something special. Marie Marie had Mickey Gee on guitar, and the latter’ s solo on another old song totally reenergised by Shaky, the huge This Ole House, surely owed much to Joe Maphis, the pioneering country guitarist of the 1950s who worked with Ricky Nelson. Shaky was on the road to history now, but looking back he admits to naivety and that he should have changed his manager and his musical direction in the mid-1980s, not long after he had a hit with Turning Away, which had been a Billboard Country smash for Crystal Gayle. SHAKIN’ STEVENS“ I have been frustrated in my career... and feel I was never given a chance to show what I was capable of.” Jack Watkins finds out how Shaky found his roots. Page 58 cmp