Country Music People May 2017 | Page 3

contents cmp May 2017 Features 12 Drake White Douglas McPherson meets the man bringing rootsy country soul to mainstream music. 18 Willie Nelson As Willie Nelson turns 84, Spencer Leigh looks at what Willie might do next... DOUGLAS MCPHERSON MEETS A MAINSTREAM SINGER WITH FOLK ROOTS. D rake White likes his music “real and raw.” So much so that for his alone in a bar drinking song Waitin’ On The Whiskey To Work he achieved his incredibly engaging and convincingly wrung-out performance through what can only be described as method singing. “I think everybody can relate to being bellied up in a bar and just waiting for the whiskey to work - just waiting on the buzz to kick in and numb the pain of whatever you’re going through,” says White. “We were in the studio and it wasn’t coming across right as far as the vocal was concerned. We sat down and drank about five shots of Tennessee water... and I got a good take on it. That’s why that vocal hits you. I’m literally waitin’ on the whiskey to work while I’m singing it.” As well as White’s in-the-moment performance, the song is striking for its haunting arrangement. Lyrically, it’s such a hardcore drinking song that it could have been cut by any top drawer country singer from the past sixty years. Earlier generations would have wrapped it in fiddle and steel guitar. White, by contrast, marries the heartbeat of a drum machine with the softly wailing harmonica of Willie Nelson’s sideman Mickey Raphael and some sparse synthesiser notes from Billy Nobel that are as chilling as droplets of water falling from an icicle or the measured ticking of a clock. 12 cmp - MAY 2017 MAY 2017 - cmp 13 Page 12 26 Brandi Carlile Recruiting artists and activists across generations for an album to benefit the charity War Child. Brandi Carlile talks to Kelly Gregory. 52 The Mavericks AS WILLIE NELSON TURNS 84, SPENCER LEIGH LOOKS AT WHAT WILLIE MIGHT DO NEXT. The Mavericks’ frontman, Raul Malo tells Duncan Warwick about the new album and doing it their way on their own label. 60 Little Bandit Little Bandit’s Alex Caress talks classic country and more with Duncan Warwick. I n Japan there is a new pop sensation, Hatsune Miku, an artist with pigtails who has a repertoire of 100,000 songs. Remind you of anyone? Well, not quite, because the big difference is that Hatsune Miku isn’t like Willie Nelson: she isn’t real while Willie Nelson is a very real human being. Hatsune Miku is a 16-year-old virtual pop star developed by Crypton Future Media. The humanoid sells out arenas where “she” is backed by live musicians. You only have to look at Rolling Girl on YouTube to realise that real live fans love her, cheering and stomping along to her programmed moves. It falls in line with Japanese tastes as they invented karaoke. I am sure an American version of Hatsune Miku will follow and could become, with multi-million dollar marketing, the biggest pop music sensation of all-time. As Willie Nelson might sing, it’s crazy. The other week I was chatting to Kimmie Rhodes when she was playing Liverpool. She has made a couple of albums with Willie and knows him well and she said, “A lot of artists make an album a year and they don’t go into the studio until they’re ready. Willie’s always ready and he doesn’t mind doing the same songs over and over.” Over the years, there have been many artists who have recorded a hit song, then a live version and then a new studio version when they moved to another label. The most prolific country star prior to Willie Nelson was Johnny Cash. He left Sun Records in 1958, but he didn’t re-record his Sun material like I Walk The Line until 1964. In the late-1960s he included some on his live albums from Folsom Prison and San Quentin. He revived I Walk The Line as the title song for a Gregory Peck film in 1970 and then, in 1988, he included it on Classic Cash when he moved to Mercury. He sang part of it for Rodney Crowell’s I Walk The Line (Revisited) in 2001. He recorded prolifically for Rick Rubin in his later years but Rubin didn’t want him doing old songs, so that’s only six versions of I Walk The Line in 45 years with a few more on quasi-legal live recordings. (There appears to be some loophole in the US copyright law which permits vintage radio broadcasts to be issued on CDs without the artists’ permission.) AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN.. . 52 cmp - MAY 2017 MAY 2017 - cmp Reviews BRANDI CARLILE HAS RECRUITED ARTISTS AND ACTIVISTS ACROSS GENERATIONS FOR AN ALBUM TO BENEFIT THE CHARITY WAR CHILD. SHE TELLS KELLY GREGORY THE STORY. S 32 Album Reviews ometimes in life certain albums come along that evoke vivid memories and strong emotions and can transport you back to the first time you heard them — the place, the people, the sights, even the smells. You can feel everything as if you were actually there all over again. There aren’t many albums that make such an impact but Brandi Carlile’s The Story is one that never fails to have that effect on me. It has since become one of my all-time favourites and a companion to revelry, car journeys, and nights alone in headphones. It isn’t just the emotionally powerful songwriting that had me so absorbed in the music of the ballsy songstress, there’s also something about her incredible, expressive voice that can get right inside you, an indomitable and charismatic quality that is hard to find. Recently celebrating it’s tenth anniversary, the acclaimed T Bone Burnett-produced The Story has been revisited and reimagined by a host of guest artists including Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, Secret Sisters, Margo Price and Shovels & Rope, with each artist enjoying the freedom to cover the song of their choice in their preferred manner. This has made it a melting pot of styles with artists as diverse as Pearl Jam and Adele alongside the predominantly country lineup. The Grammy-nominated singer- songwriter has her own charity - The Looking Out Foundation - which she founded in 2008 with bandmates Tim and Phil Hanseroth. So committed are they that since its inception $1 from every concert ticket goes directly Regulars 26 cmp - APRIL 2017 4 News 8 Tour Guide 11 The David Allan Page 56 Nice To Meet Y’all - Western Centuries 57 Americana Roundup 58 Nice To Meet Y’all - Sarah Shook 63 Nice To Meet Y’all - Jake Worthington 19 Page 18 towards the foundation’s efforts and “making music mean more.” However, the idea behind this project came about when she was affected by images of suffering children in war zones and feeling that The Story was her most recognised work, Carlile was moved to take action. The Seattle based singer tells the story behind Cover Stories. “My wife, Catherine, and I were trying to find a way to impact the refugee crisis in regard to children with our foundation. We were using The Story as a kind of projectile, of sorts, so that we could find a way to give it away and earn money for this crisis that was becoming really upsetting to us after the birth of our child. “When Catherine lived in London she was the charity organiser for Paul McCartney so she had become acquainted with War Child. And we got on the internet and we googled War Child to see what they were up to and they totally coincidentally had this campaign called ‘The Story’ campaign. We couldn’t believe the coincidence and we took it as a sign and called them and asked if we could put out a record to benefit their cause. Specifically The Story campaign because they were telling the stories of young refugees and their plight, and not always just refugees either, in the Congo they have child soldiers and so it’s just children who have been impacted by war. And so they gave us their blessing and we got to work and we started finding artists to cover the songs.” T he title track on The Story is Carlile’s biggest hit and has appeared on shows like ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, in a General Motors commercial and aired during the Beijing Olympic Games as well as during the Super Bowl. It has wormed its way unsuspectingly into people’s lives and become part of the public’s consciousness without the majority of those people even knowing who the singer is. To prove this point, just a couple of months ago I was flicking through channels on my TV and LeAnn Rimes was singing The Story on the Graham Norton show. “I don’t know what it is about that song,” laughs Brandi. “I must say I really don’t. I love it. I’ve always loved The Story, but people want to sing it. “It’s like every time a new season of American Idol or The Voice starts we get all these requests from contestants who want to sing that song on the show, probably because it has a big vocal moment in it. “Nobody sung it like Dolly, though, and that’s the only person I’ve ever reached out to.” For the new album, Cover Stories, philanthropist Dolly Parton puts her stamp on the song and Brandi explains how she managed to get the country icon on board. “Well, I wrote Dolly a handwritten letter and I just told her how I was feeling about what was happening to the kids coming out of Syria basically. I told her the biggest thing I’ve ever had, the biggest thing I’ve done is The Story and it’s the only thing I can use, you know, I don’t have the career that other people have. I don’t have the money or the platform or the voice that some of the big artists have that can do amazing work like Bono and Elton John and stuff, and all I’ve got is The Story and I’d like to know if you would sing it and APRIL 2017 - cmp 27 Page 26 The Mavericks WITH A NEW ALBUM AND THEIR OWN RECORD LABEL, IT’S BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR THE MAVERICKS. FRONTMAN RAUL MALO TALKS TO DUNCAN WARWICK. T he Maverick’s latest album might be called Brand New Day but musically it’s business as usual for Raul Malo and the rest of the gang. The title does, however, hint at the fresh start everybody’s favourite good-time band has made since finding themselves in a position to release their own records and become absolute masters of their own destiny. This was born as much out of necessity as desire when Big Machine records let them go last year, and now Mono Mundo Recordings is a self-contained label with distribution via Thirty Tigers. Despite always being as cool as f***, The Mavericks have historically found it difficult to find a true musical home. Like a square peg in a very tiny round hole, they have generally been considered to be unclassifiable. Sure, they initially came to the notice of MCA Records in Nashville following their independently released Miami-recorded debut, and they even dented the Billboard Country Charts on a couple of occasions, their What A Crying Shame album might well be one of the greatest ever country releases, but there’s never been a group quite like them, or anywhere near as good as them. Frequent forays into Latin, lounge, and the more interesting side of rock has meant that record companies are at something of a loss about where to pitch them, but one thing is for certain, the public love them, and country fans have stuck with them. Having become synonymous with 52 cmp - MAY 2017 their huge UK crossover hit, Dance The Night Away, they are frequently labelled a ‘party band’, and indeed, any Mavericks live show is sure to have a party atmosphere, that not only transcends genres, but age ranges as well. There’s nothing not to like about the group formed 25 years ago in Miami (albeit with something of a hiatus before reuniting a few years ago), unless you are afflicted with absolutely no sense of rhythm and you don’t appreciate a melody that makes you want to sing along, even if it’s in a different language, and there’s a reasonable chance it will be. One thing sure to delight the longtime fans is that Brand New Day opens with arguably the countriest thing they have done in a while - Rolling Along - which with nearly a polka rhythm features banjo and fiddle. Mavericks main man Raul Malo lets out a hearty laugh as he says, “For years it’s been, ‘When are you going to put a banjo on a record?’ It’s like, ‘It’ll never happen. Hell will freeze over and we’ll never do it.’ There were countless banjo jokes back and forth and so finally… all kidding aside I love and I have a lot of friends that play bluegrass and stuff but I like to give them shit. Why not? They’re bluegrass guys and they play a little banjo so you’ve got to give them a little shit. For years just back and forth and then finally I’m like, ‘Okay, we got this song and we’ve got to put a banjo on this.’ It just sounded like it needed it and it was perfect, it was great. We got a real player to come in and play it. He’s awesome. He’s one of the top guys in town. “That was our fiddle and banjo song and of course the last soloists are the accordions and the horns just to make sure people haven’t forgotten about the Mexicans.” Malo laughs some more and adds, “They’re still here.” Crucial to the sound that The Mavericks have made their very own are the other members of the band. Eddie Perez, the sharp-dressed guitar maestro, the ever present Paul Deakin on drums, Jerry Dale McFadden, who used to be the unofficial extra member of the band prior to their reforming in 2012, and whose pumping keyboards help to infuse the sound with a ska feeling so often, and now Michael Guerra, with whom Malo worked so frequently whilst pursuing a solo career for a while and whose accordion playing has become critical in the Mavericks’ identity. “Well the songs definitely lend themselves to the accordion,” asserts Malo, “and Michael is one of the best musicians in the world, and he and I have really, we’ve been playing together for so long so he knows how to not only turn the accordion into a blazing soloist instrument but really more of an orchestral sort of arranging instrument. He uses it that way really kind of brilliantly and we sit there and we mess with parts and we mess with arrangements so it does become part of the sound but it’s on purpose, you know, it just fills up so much that we love it.” Due to the category defying nature MAY 2017 - cmp 53 Page 52 Charts “I love pop music but I want my country music to be country music.” LITTLE BANDIT’S MUSIC MAY BE STEEPED IN COUNTRY TRADITION BUT FRONTMAN ALEX CARESS IS CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES. HE SPEAKS TO DUNCAN WARWICK. 64 Americana & UK Country Charts 65 Billboard Country Charts Courtesy of Billboard Inc. W atch just about any country music video by a male artist and you can practically see the testosterone churned up by the tyres of a Dodge Ram along with the mud, so to suggest that the video for Little Bandit’s current single - Bed Of Bad Luck - is challenging country music stereotypes is to put it mildly. In it, the love interest of Little Bandit’s frontman and driving force, Alex Caress, is his real-life boyfriend. Yes folks, Alex Caress is openly gay in a genre not known for its acceptance of such things, even in 2017. The record, and indeed Little Bandit’s album, Breakfast Alone, is a triumph of country music, well, the kind that is often to be found emanating from East Nashville anyway. One that recognises its roots, drawing on honky tonk and classic country influences and adding a touch of the dramatic for a stunning example of what is probably best categorised as Americana. Almost certainly destined to be completely shunned by the mainstream country outlets, Breakfast Alone has received praise from Rolling Stone magazine as well as in these very pages. “I was definitely trying to put myself out there and make sure that it was heard,” says Caress of the coverage the album has received, “but I never would expect anything like that so it’s always a really nice surprise and a really humbling thing to get that kind of attention.” The keyboard-playing singer and songwriter accepts that the Bed Of Bad Luck video might be considered controversial in certain quarters but has actually helped publicise the release, he asserts that, “For some people it [the video] might initially grab their 60 cmp - MAY 2017 attention, but I hope the music is the main thing.” As well as Bed Of Bad Luck, which, with its Bakersfield inspired Telecaster licks and dripping steel, would be as equally at home in the catalogue of Patsy Cline as it would an edgy East Nashville-based country singer in Trumpland 2017, Alex Caress, who moved to Nashville to study voice and composition at Belmont University and adds his Gospel-tinged piano to many of his songs also impresses with Scattered And Smothered, a dark tale of murder that also lends some of its lyrics to the album title. In the song our protagonist is nonchalantly enjoying a solitary breakfast in a diner while the body of his former love interest is in the boot of his car. As dark as anything Eddie Noak ever recorded, the song is a triumphant return to the death song in country music, and the dark visions of Caress’ creative mind rear their head elsewhere on his superb release. ‘I got really into listening to those old murder ballads,” Caress confesses, “and just how gruesome they could be and at the same time I was watching a lot of crime television like, there’s a show over here called Forensic File and another show called Law And Order SVU. And just sort like delving into this sort of gruesome murder ballad territory. But it was also kind of an attempt to take that old songwriting trope and throw it back into the genre’s face with a new 21st century twist on it.” Little Bandit are able to seemingly flip-flop be tween influences like Gram Parsons, Buck Owens and George Jones to something altogether more modern, from this side of the Atlantic, and on an indie label, as demonstrated on the song ironically titled ‘Nashville’. MAY 2017 - cmp 61 Page 60