Concert review + setlist: Marah, Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3 and the Baseball Project close out Twangfest 15 at the Duck Room, Saturday, June 11

The Baseball Project at Twangfest 15

Tom Lampe

Marah guitarist and singer, David Bielanko summed up a great deal with his mid-set statement from the microphone: “Life sucks, let’s have a fucking good time tonight,” and a good time was had, despite the drainage issues at the Duck Room wreaking havoc with the Twangfest schedule.

The Great Flood of Twangfest 15 continued Saturday night as water again seeped into subterranean depths of the Duck Room located in the basement of St. Louis landmark Blueberry Hill. The cleanup effort, valiantly undertaken by the staff, set back the start time by 45 minutes. Last night, at least, the venue didn’t smell like shit as much as it smelled like the pool when you go work out at the YMCA.

Hitting the stage to a backing orchestration track, the Philadelphia-based quartet Marah came out fighting opening its hour-long set with the “Theme From Rocky.” Bielanko proclaimed his appreciation for local fans: “St. Louis doesn’t seem tiring to come back to.” With a “little bit more folky” set, Marah certainly didn’t let down the Twangfest fans who filled the floor to see the band’s performance mixing folk, rock and country elements. Each band last night received an encore, including opener Marah, who inspired with the song “Angels on a Passing Train.”

Scheduled for the middle slot, New York City-based Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3 brought the heat performing an hour plus blistering set of fuzzed out rock and pop tunes fully capturing the audience’s attention. Wynn and guitarist Jason Victor put on a guitar clinic with their Fender Jazzmasters that was described by my friend watching the show as “guitar porn.” Wynn and Victor played off each other effortlessly mixing solos that were reminiscent of Kevin Shields’ work with My Bloody Valentine or Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd of Television.

Consisting of both of solo material by Wynn as well as Dream Syndicate classics, the set never waned and constantly built energy. A stunning version of Dream Syndicate’s “John Coltrane Stereo Blues” highlighted any fret board freak’s night as Wynn and Victor’s playing became existential, taking the crowd for an extended ride to paisley pop paradise.

Performing what drummer Linda Pitmon later told me was its third set of the day, the Baseball Project took the stage at 20 minutes to midnight for the last show of its tour. A less crowded Duck Room was no less enthusiastic to hear the band’s baseball-themed songs. Pinch hitting for regular bassist Peter Buck, his long time R.E.M. bandmate Mike Mills filled in effortlessly for part of the tour, laying down bass lines on his Rickenbacker and adding backing vocal harmonies.

Leading off with a chorus of “Take Me Out To the Ball Game” the band performed a fun, slightly loose mix of songs from its two studio albums as Wynn and McCaughey traded vocals. While the vocals of guest star and Hold Steady front man Craig Finn were missed as Wynn led the band through “Don’t Call Them Twinkies,” McCaughey stepped up with a great version of “Fair Weather Fans.”

Before starting “Gratitude (For Curt Flood)” Wynn weaved a tale relating to St. Louis baseball lore. He advised that his stepmother grew up in East St. Louis and met Cardinals outfielder Curt Flood on the town. Unaware of the player’s occupation, she gave him her number after he requested it. Wynn continued, “Flood later called and spoke to her father who answered the call. When asked who was calling Flood replied and the father, a big baseball fan, asked Flood, “Aren’t you married?” Flood replied, “Yes.” The father advised the ballplayer to “never call my daughter again!”

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Posted by | June 12, 2011 | Concerts | Comment 

Concert review: At Twangfest 15 Chatham County Line and Robbie Fulks stomp through the swamp, Friday, June 10

Robbie Fulks at Twangfest 15

Tom Lampe

Mother Nature was raging outside Friday night, but inside the Duck Room, fans were treated to a storm of a different type as night three of Twangfest 15 stirred up a squall of mighty fine roots-based music.

Local boys Cumberland Gap opened the show with a tight set that brought some high lonesome sounds to the Loop. Along with great originals like “212 Degrees” which showcased some fiery mandolin and banjo licks, the band played a rootsy version of The Stones’ “Connection,” and veered into honky tonk territory with a cover of George Jones’ “An Empty Bottle And A Broken Heart.”

Frontier Ruckus, from the Detroit area, brought a decidedly alt-country horse to the race, showcasing interesting instrumentation and poetic lyrics in originals like “Rosemont.” The atmospheric set was punctuated with interesting time changes, and multi-instrumentalist Zachary Nichols’ turns on a variety of unconventional axes, including a harmonium and a singing saw, lent a dense, evocative counterpoint to singer/guitarist Matthew Milia’s plaintive vocals. Nichols’ trumpet also brought more than a touch of Mexacali to the mix. The band (mostly) unplugged and left the stage and finished their set among audience.

North Carolina’s Chatham County Line hunkered around a single microphone old-timey style and ripped through a set that saw them navigate through bluegrass, country and singer/songwriter territory. An audience member’s request — and a shot of whiskey sent to singer/guitarist Dave Wilson — brought a soaring version of the band’s “Chip of a Star.” Despite a backed-up drain that leaked into the audience and cleared out the crowd at the front of the stage, the band played on, mixing in covers of The Traveling Willbury’s “Handle Me With Care” and John Hartford’s “Tear Down The Grand Ole Opry.”

By the time headliners Robbie Fulks and Nora O’Connor took the stage, the staff was still busy cleaning up the aftermath of the mini-flood, and the efforts would inspire Fulks to improvise a couple of odes to the sound of wet vacs during the set, and commend the audience for its commitment to country music “by standing in shit all night.” Fulks and his band opened the set and O’Connor took the stage after two songs to join in for “Parallel Bars.” Fulks and O’Connor have worked together before, and the way their voices perfectly intertwined on “Georgia Hard” and a cover of the Everly Brothers classic “Love Hurts” left fans hoping that this collaboration becomes a more permanent partnership.

Fulks and O’Connor finished the set with a rip-roaring “Let’s Kill Saturday Night,” came back out once for an equally vicious take on “She Took A Bunch Of Pills and Died,” then took the stage one more time for “Tears Only Run One Way” before the house lights went up.

The fans filed out into the night, the remnants of one storm splashing underfoot, and the remains of another ringing in their ears.

duck-room-twangfest-swamp-475

Tom Lampe

Posted by | June 11, 2011 | Concerts | Comment 

Concert review: Twangfest shines intimate light on Americana heroines, Thursday, June 9

Jill Andrews at Twangfest 15

Nate Burrell

Night two of Twangfest 15 went down at Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room and began with St. Louis’ own Cassie Morgan and the Lonely Pine. The folk duo, which included Beth Bombara was without a doubt the most resourceful act of the night.

Morgan delicately strummed her guitar while Bombara’s harmonies and a smorgasbord of thrift-store percussion augmented the soft vocals. I was impressed with how well Bombara was able to do double duty as backup singer and the band’s rhythm section. On the song “Break My Heart” she played a floor tom and the tambourine, while alternating her free hand between the xylophone and a shaker — all the while harmonizing with Morgan.

The set was mostly somber in mood, and at times Morgan’s gentle croon was hard to hear against a chatty audience. But the performance was creative in style and fun to watch. It recalled the days in folk/country music when a band did as much as they could with the tools they had—and with just two members, Cassie Morgan and the Lonely Pine proved they were a special addition to this year’s Twangfest roster.

Veteran country-folk singer, Jill Andrews‘ latest album, The Mirror, was released two days prior to Twangfest, and she showed that a batch of fresh songs equals a fresh performance. Accompanied by pianist/guitarist Josh Oliver, Andrews’ voice echoed like a morning bell over the bar clamor. Her charming stage presence and enthusiasm for her new material entirely altered the environment at the Duck Room (elated men with cell phones trying to get a picture of Andrews often obstructed my view during the performance).

But the subject matter of Andrews’ songs kept the show at just the right level of intimacy. “Wake Up Nico” was a tender ode to her son, while “Lift Up Your Head” featured a painful, wailing guitar solo by Oliver. Throughout her set, Andrews’ energy ran high and demanded the audience’s attention. Even when she played a “downer” song, “Cut and Run,” Andrews swayed happily to the rhythm of her strum. The peak of her performance came during the song “Worth Keeping” when I thought her jugular might pop out of her neck when she ordered, “Take your hands out of your pockets and hold me!” She got my attention.

The intimacy set by the previous two acts was smashed once country rock purists Eileen Rose and the Holy Wreck took the stage. Eileen Rose boisterously commanded her band of seasoned country musicians, which included the “Legendary” Rich Gilbert (who has played with everyone from Human Sexual Response to Tanya Donelly and Frank Black). Rose gave him plenty of room to perform serious electric and slide guitar surgery, with each song containing a minimum of two guitar solos. As an entertainer Rose was a crowd pleaser—her banter in between songs was just as entertaining as her music. The most memorable ad lib was about the recent Country Music Awards: “You know what CMA stands for to real country singers like me? Country, My Ass!”

When it came to the music, Rose bounced around and aggressively strummed at her acoustic guitar’s neck, while her band fed off her energy. The highlight of her set was a Tammy Wynette cover of “Stand By Your Man,” which Rose belted like an opera singer at a dive bar. Near the end of her set, Rose sang the last part of a song in a tender acapella sans microphone. For the first time during the night the audience was totally quiet, a sure sign of appreciation and respect for an excellent performance. After all, getting respect as a singer in Nashville, where Rose is currently a stay-in, is no joke, and Rose proved she is as good as they get.

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Posted by | June 11, 2011 | Concerts | Comment 

“Something to fight for” An interview with David Bielanko of Marah

Marah

facebook.com/pages/Marah/136615318920 / Sarah Saxon

Rock & roll can be a monotonous beast sometimes. The tour, write, record, tour cycle can wear thin on a band when money’s coming in small spurts and there are several mouths to feed.

It often leads to burn out, band implosions, drug and alcohol addiction and creative droughts. Just ask David Bielanko, singer and songwriter of the E-Street-inspired Americana rock act, Marah, who has had to deal with all the not-so-glamorous aspects of band life. But as quick as he is to acknowledge his falls throughout his career, he’s even more excited about getting back up and forging ahead. In anticipation of its upcoming Twangfest set on June 11 at the Duck Room, I interviewed Bielanko via e-mail about starting from scratch to record the band’s newest, and appropriately titled, full length, Life is a Problem.

Michael Dauphin: What do you hope to achieve with Life is a Problem that you have yet to capture in the past?

Dave Bielanko: LIFE IS A PROBLEM — good question, the answer is honestly nothing…little things perhaps; release a couple very traditional, nearly country songs, make a record on some very old broke down instruments in a country house. Write some good songs, get back on the road, run away from the past. To me this record has more of a sadness and possibly beauty to it then any other Marah record and it is certainly as decidedly raw and unpolished as anything we’d done. It doesn’t feel like a repeat of anything in my past in any way. 

You recorded the album in an old farm house in rural Pennsylvania. What was that experience like? Where there any recording nuances that you captured that you didn’t necessarily anticipate?

COUNTRY HOUSE — if you get a chance I wrote a pretty cool story about this record on our website there is a page called Life is a Problem that could illuminate certain things….when the recording process began we had very little, really just me and Christine, a rusty old electric bass we trash picked, an old tack piano that was being given away by a little local church, flea market drums…that sort of thing. We let that dictate the tone, we had to I guess. 

If I’m not mistaken, Life is a Problem is the first Marah album you’ve made without your brother Serge around. What was that like?

BROTHERS — I miss my brother, he is a very talented rock n roller. In fact, he’s about as unique a motherfucker as I’ve ever known…some nights I hear him singing with me very clearly, it’s spooky. He had a baby girl called Violet and while we were making our record he was a thousand miles away with entirely different priorities. We came from a pretty broken home and “the Surge” was not at all interested in being anything but a superb parent at the time. We remain very proud of him, but he should get his fucking guitar out one of these days, I mean c’mon. 

What was it like to have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and essentially start from scratch after much of the band quit on you a couple years back? Is there a sense of excitement that comes with trying to re-establish yourself?

BOOTSTRAPS — honestly, I’ve been up and down of a fucking roller coaster so many times I’m starting to not notice/care. I do recall seriosly considering changing the band name, not for my sake so much as for the others in the band, give them their own identity, something to fight for…but, in the end I simply couldn’t walk away from the music, the songs are my life’s work, a legacy that I just could not turn my back on. Sentimental I guess. 

Do you consider yourself difficult to work with? If so, in what way?

DIFFICULT — yes, I’m very difficult because I keep going, I wanna play music, it’s all there is for me…I stay up super late playing records…I wanna tour and write and rehearse… the band can become all consuming and exhausting, I’m sure the many members who have passed through it would say the same, but none of them continue to make music for a living, they fell off to have babies or get jobs with health insurance or whatever the fuck? They stay home now and diddle around on Facebook I assume. 

After years of partying and whatnot, you’re now sober, correct?  What kind of impact, if any, would you say being sober has had on your songwriting?

SOBER — no, I’m no longer sober, was for about 2 years there though…I also quit taking anti-depressants because quite frankly I’m tired of watching people take every fucking pill some yahoo doctor prescribes today. I’m tired of pill commercials when I’m trying to watch my River Monsters…so I self medicate, sorry. Songs come when they come. Drunk, High, in church, it don’t matter. 

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Posted by | June 10, 2011 | Interviews, Music | Comment 

Concert review + setlist: Hayes Carll, Elizabeth Cook and Kentucky Knife Fight get Twangfest off to epic start at the Pageant, Wednesday, June 8

Hayes Carll at Twangfest 15 at the Pageant

Kate McDaniel

A few songs into his headlining set opening the first night of Twangfest 15, Texan Hayes Carll, fully understanding the effects of the recession, thanked the audience “for spending money to come out to see us.”

He continued, “You could have bought a case of Pabst, rented some porn and stayed at home,” a decision that would have been a disastrous mistake.

Carll with his talented four-piece backing band performed a moving show mixing a 23-song, nearly two-hour set of intimate, soulful country gems to boot-stomping country rock perfectly. Playing the majority of his latest album KMAG YOYO (& Other American Stories), Carll had the crowd singing and dancing along with his wry lyrics and bluesy country sound.

A roaring version of the album’s title track with its mix of Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”-style lyrics and “Highway 61 Revisited” blues set the tone early that Twangfest was in for a great night. Further, Carll generously included a hilarious new song “One Bed, Two Girls, Three Bottles of Wine” which goes down as one of the best country titles ever — and a great song to boot.

Before performing a solo version of “Another Like You” complete with an explanation of how he planned to sing the duet style lyrics by himself, Carll explained the divisive nature of American politics that gave rise to the song remarking, “Nothing can’t be overcome with a little physical attraction and some alcohol.”

Later, the country weeper “Willing to Love Again” fit perfectly with beautiful country soul of “Chances Are,” while great picking from guitarist Scott Davis highlighted “The Loving Cup” in between. The driving country rock of “Little Rock” and sauntering of “Stomp and Holler,” ended the main set on high note eliciting an eruption of applause from the crowd. The encore epitomized the show in two songs as Carll started with a gorgeous version of “Long Way Home” and ended with the stomping “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart.”

Florida native, Elizabeth Cook marked her third Twangfest appearance squeezing 14 songs into her 45-minute performance backed by guitar and stand-up bass a la Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two. Getting her popular songs “El Camino” out early and leaving the witty “Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman” for the end, Cook’s deep gigging experience allowed her to weave stories effortlessly between her soulful country songs. In a graceful move evocative of her style, Cook even handed the microphone to guitarist/songwriter Tim Carroll for a couple of numbers.

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Posted by | June 9, 2011 | Concerts | Comment 

“That space really needs to be there” An interview with Kelly Willis

Kelly Willis

facebook.com/KellyWillisRobison

It is physically impossible to be sad or bummed out when listening to Kelly Willis. Her voice, so gracefully soft, smooth and simply lovely, radiates an energy that immediately puts the soul at ease.

Willis began her musical career when she was only 16 years old, singing in a rockabilly band with then boyfriend Mas Palermo. Several years later in 1989, Willis signed with MCA Records and began her solo career. Since then, this charming countrypolitan has done it all. She has performed all over the country, released nine albums, changed record labels, married fellow country singer-songwriter Bruce Robison and gave birth to four beautiful children, just for starters.

In 2008 Willis took a break from traveling and performing on the road to focus on her family, but she never stopped working on her music. Now as a duo, Willis and Robison have taken to the road once again and will perform together at Twangfest 15 on June 9 at the Blueberry Hill Duck Room.

On Memorial Day, Willis was nice enough to take some time out to talk with me on the phone and get some insight on her life, her family and her future.

Jessica Lackey: I understand that your musical interests started at a fairly young age and I was wondering what was the driving force that first got you interested?

Kelly Willis: Music was always a part of my life because my mother was always singing and in musicals. I think maybe falling in love with the whole early rock and roll, you know, like the Buddy Holly sound, that kind of simplistic music and it really just drove me.

It was kind of outside of what my friends were listening to and it also seemed doable, it seemed learnable (laughs) because it was so rudimentary. I found it really exciting and when I first got the opportunity to sing in a band it was just like a light bulb went off, and even though I was incredibly shy and really ill-suited to be on stage it was like, I don’t know, just finding a passion or finding a hobby or something that you knew you could spend hours and hours and hours doing, I just wanted to dive into it.

What was the first band you played in?

It was called Kelly and the Fireballs and it was a rockabilly band.

And that was when you were about 16 or so?

Umm-hmm, I was in high school and the guys in the band had just graduated so I was just a senior and…that was my first band.

What was the first album you ever bought?

The first album I ever bought was a Ventures record and then the second, unfortunately, was Kajagoogoo (laughs).

That’s awesome.

I know I was at the record store and I had no idea. It was between either that and Bananarama, because I liked the titles, and I don’t know why but I went with the Kajagoogoo (more laughs).

How did you meet your husband, Bruce?

We were both here in Austin. Austin was kind of smaller back then, it was the late ’80s and just the music scene, if you were playing in any band at all, then you kind of were aware of each other, so we were just kind of around each other.

But I was married and he had a girlfriend and it wasn’t really something that ever really crossed our minds, but then a little while later when I was separated and he wasn’t dating this girl anymore, we both got really drunk one night and he grabbed me and kissed me and the rest is history (laughs). Yeah, he grabbed me and put me in a poison ivy bush, unfortunately, so we were both covered in poison ivy for two weeks.

Oh my goodness.

I know, it was a lovely start.

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Posted by | June 7, 2011 | Interviews, Music | Comment 

“The purest statement” An interview with Elizabeth Cook

Elizabeth Cook at KDHX

Sara Finke

Elizabeth Cook is performing on June 8 at Twangfest 15, her third appearance at the festival. Her music can be witty, contemplative and everything in between. That sentiment is true for all of four of her albums, the most recent of which is 2010′s Welder. She’s received quite a bit of press and accolades for that record. That’s just one of a few topics she and I talked about on the phone as she traveled down California’s I-5 freeway this past Memorial Day.

Nick Cowan: How’s it going?

Elizabeth Cook: It’s going fine we’re driving down the I-5 in California, so, I can’t really be sure about my phone.

I’m glad your’re taking a few minutes out and helping us get the word out about Twangfest. You were recently nominated for a number of Americana Music Association Awards. Welder got a nomination for Album of the year, “El Camino” song of the year, and you for Artist of the year. That’s pretty cool.

Yes!

This is a clichéd question but how does it feel to be recognized on the same playing field as Robert Plant and Lucinda Williams?

I feel kinda dwarfed by giants but I’m glad that I made a record that people thought was in the game.

And a lot of that record, too, was inspired by your relationship with your dad, right?

Yes, his life, over probably the years since the Balls album. Just life.

You performed here at KDHX last year; one song in particular, is “El Camino.” And I was wondering, there’s gotta be a story behind it.

Well, no, not really. I’m sure metaphorically it speaks to my reality. But, no I just made it up. Just sitting’ on the tailgate of a truck, daydreaming, zoning out. I wasn’t really trying to write a song or, just had a pen and paper, and wrote that out. It seemed entertaining to me, and just put a one-chord riff on it, and there’s the song.

Awesome. Do a lot of your songs come like that, or do you find yourself struggling sometimes to find a bridge section, or how to end the song. Is that an easy process for you?

No, it’s not. I don’t have the patience for that battle. You know, I wish I did — I’d be a more disciplined writer.

Are songs like “El Camino,” that or more upbeat, flow out, or do you spend more time with ones that might be more somber. I’m thinking of “Heroin Addict Sister” from Welder.

You know, it depends. I wrote that one pretty fast. It doesn’t seem to be that’s one that’s somber and one that’s not. It’s how fast the lyric comes out, how easily it’s unfolding. That song is just conversational prose, kind of, and we spend most of the time arranging it, going back through it after, just sort of making it a little tidier. House cleaning.

I’ve heard other writers say that it might take 10 minutes to write something and then 4 hours changing it.

That’s true for me.

Speaking of songwriting, I like the humor in your tunes. Kind of tongue in cheek, a little sarcastic, still nice. Do you sit down and think, “I want to crack people up,” or does it develop naturally?

I don’t ever sit down with that objective. I usually have to have the idea that makes me laugh, one that I think is funny, so I might sit down and might write it out and run it by people around me, see if it’s got steam or not. Then it goes from there…or not. I always like to laugh and kid around, my daddy is that way.

Do you think that helps draw people into your music?

There’s more dimension to my experience. I feel lucky to be able to have that much color in what I see and write about.

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Posted by | June 6, 2011 | Interviews, Music | Comment 

“It still feels pretty damn good” An interview with Dave Wilson of Chatham County Line

Chatham County Line at Off Broadway

Kate McDaniel

Chatham County Line might be the only group you’ll hear claim to “wear out ties.” After over ten years of touring, the Raleigh, North Carolina natives have consistently approached their style of country/folk/bluegrass music with as much charisma and, more importantly, professionalism, as possible. Their work ethic and passion for their profession has earned them respect from their peers and fans worldwide. The band comes to St. Louis for a performance at Twangfest 15 on June 10 in support of its latest album Wildwood.

Kenji Yoshinobu: When I was researching the band I came across a community newspaper in North Carolina that shared the band’s name. I was wondering if this is the origin of the band’s name.

Dave Wilson: No, actually they are copycats. They are based in the county of Chatham. But I don’t have a battle against them. They are a good old community paper. We actually got our name from Chandler [Holt], our banjo player, who used to live on the Orange Chatham County line. John [Teer] and I always used to get lost on our way to see him. Chandler was, you know, that third brown mailbox past the big oak tree, and we would always miss that mailbox, so we would cross into Chatham County. That’s where the name came from.

What got you into playing your style of music?

I was really into the country rock scene while I was in college. [Grateful Dead’s] Workingman’s Dead. Gram Parsons. The Byrds. All that stuff. That kind of led me to writing songs on the mandolin. Then there was this great Steve Earle record called Train A Comin’ and it really blew my mind how he surrounded these great stories and words with great sounds of acoustic instruments. I was writing a lot of songs and I met these guys who were in other bands and we just started hanging out and playing some songs together. One thing led to another and we started doing this. And I saw a Del McCoury show where they were wearing suits and playing into a single microphone and I thought that was the bees knees. So that was kind of our first attack. We’ve always played around a single mic and we’ve always dressed the part. It just felt right when we first started doing it and ten years later it still feels pretty damn good.

I noticed while watching some videos of you guys performing that you all looked so energized and comfortable playing together. Has that chemistry always been there?

Definitely. Like I said, we really palled around before we played music together. We knew each other from playing in different bands and sharing stages. Before there was a music side, there was definitely a kinship there. We’ve crossed paths with other bands on the road and I thank the stars everyday that I ended up in a group of four guys that can ride around the world in a Honda Odyssey mini van and still laugh a lot.

You guys got your start in ’99. What keeps you guys going?

I think it is a big fat sack of American dollar bills. We slowly but surely got to a point where this is how we were going to make our living. There was a minute when Chandler quit his job — he was working at this plumbing supply place — and he said the minute that he quit his job he knew that we were doing this for the long hall. But once the bills started getting paid and we’re in tune on stage doing what we love to do we never looked back.

How many times have you been to Europe?

I’m about to send in my passport off to get more pages put in so they can have a place to stamp it. It’s crazy. Certain things took off overseas. It has been like 14 or 15 times now. At some point we finally realized that we should keep up with the frequent flyer miles.

I tend to associate your music with the American crowd. I know folk music has roots in Scotland and Ireland, but I was wondering if you saw a difference between your American audiences and your European audiences?

The European audiences are definitely more reserved than the American crowds. It depends on where you are. Britain is wild, but the Netherlands and Belgium are really reserved. It is a great experience for us because I look at American folk music and bluegrass and jazz with Europe sent all these people off to America, by choice or not, and they took all the music that they had learned from their European heritage and they created this whole new stew in America. I liken it to sending your kids off to school and they learn all this stuff that you didn’t tell them and you’re surprised and interested in it. So I think when we take our music back to Europe they get to see the stew that America is every time we play.

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Posted by | June 3, 2011 | Interviews, Music | Comment 

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