GRAHAM PARKER’S COUNTRY COMFORTS

By Tom Semioli

This feature appeared in Amplifier Magazine,  January 2004

"A sort of mercenary feeling crept in" confides Graham Parker from his American home in upstate New York. Ruminating on the current state of pop culture, Parker has developed his own acerbic theory as to why things are the way they are: novelty has become more important than substance. "So why not do myself a favor?" he shouts.  "I'll surprise the media. They'll probably figure 'oh look, he's gone country! We'd better write about him! We'd better have him on our show!" In keeping with his legend, Parker lowers his voice and adopts a decidedly cynical posture. "How can I fool all those bastards?"

The good news is Graham Parker isn't really intending to fool anyone. He certainly has not abandoned his iconoclastic pop sensibilities. And he's in very good spirits these days. Parker's latest release, Your Country, is a deliberate foray into roots music with a rock 'n' roll heart. The East London born recording artist and author continues his impressive thirty year streak of stinging social commentary, melodic craft, confessional word-play, and passionate performances with healthy dose of piss and vinegar.

Typecast as an "angry young man" at the onset of the 1970s punk explosion, Parker's early records with The Rumour, the UK's premier pub-rock ensemble, produced a stunning series of  R&B meets power-pop classics  Howlin' Wind (1975), Heat Treatment (1976), Stick To Me (1977) and his most recognizable effort Squeezing Out Sparks (1979). Mid-career gems such as Another Grey Area (1982) and The Mona Lisa's Sister (1988) solidified Parker's reputation as a pop music force possessing the lyrical brilliance of Bob Dylan meshed with the unkempt rock 'n' roll swagger of the Rolling Stones. By the 1990s Parker emerged as a respected elder statesman via mature works including Human Soul (1990), Struck By Lightening (1991) and Deep Cut To Nowhere (2001), exploring domestic life and mortality.

The organic impetus of Your Country, titled in part as homage to the Beatles' White Album track "Yer Blues" is a no-brainer. "The country influence has always been there in my music," emphasizes Parker. "I was going to call it Yer Country but Americans would probably miss the British slang…though I can't stand the thought of a DJ announcing "Yourrrrrr Country."

It is a natural progression for Parker as well. "I much prefer acoustic music to play and listen to. My voice is suited to these kinds of songs. I can still rock with the best of them, but I cannot sing in that upper mid-range that I used to. Besides, that's something a younger man should be doing." Parker does not rule out making another rock album in the foreseeable future. "I could have done these songs in the typical GP format: a mish-mash of rock, folk, reggae, and soul. And then you'd have people saying 'ho hum, he's done another one."

Your Country could not have appeared without the collaboration of fellow singer song-writer, bassist, and multi-instrumentalist Tom Freund, whom Parker describes as the best musician on the planet without a record deal. Freund, who garnered acclaim as a solo recording artist and as a member of the Silos, led Parker to a tiny sixteen track studio in Venice, California and enlisted former Lone Justice drummer Don Heffington to round out a trio. With four hours of rehearsals and a little over a week in the pits, Parker and company cut at a rapid pace, nailing five songs on the first day of recording. Parker brags "we did every song no more than twice.  Ever since I started producing myself on Mona Lisa I've been trying to get my vocals recorded live. All these producers that were costing me 50K were doing the wrong thing with my voice, forcing rough scratch vocals, and then asking me to come back two months later to give them a final take. That's totally unnatural." Your Country is Parker's finest hour as a singer. "I ordered the engineer to leave the vocals dry, which is a gutsy move for me."

Enter Lucinda Williams. The reigning queen of alternative country opened on Parker's 1992 tour as her Sweet Old World album was breaking into the mainstream. While composing the tune "Cruel Lips" Parker envisioned a duet with Williams, but dismissed the idea due to logistics. During a session break Huffington mentioned that he'd played on Williams' recent Essence tour and kept her number. Williams was in town and gladly agreed to come to the studio to help an old friend.  "Her voice is kind of naughty. My knees turned to jelly whenever she sang the word 'lips.' I couldn't take it. I had to walk out of the room." But Parker kept poking around the hallway. "I'd come back in to just make a comment, and Lucinda would admonish me 'no Graham! We're not in that part of the song.' Ok sorry, I'll leave it to you then. Fucking great!" Parker loathes the idea of inviting guests to boost his commercial visibility. "That pleases the record company, and that's the last thing I want to do. I'd rather piss 'em off than make them happy." After a pregnant pause, Parker calms down "I did it because it was the real thing to do."

The cool reading of the Jerry Garcia classic "Sugaree" emanates from Parker's numerous solo acoustic shows over the past two decades. When he first heard the Grateful Dead in the psychedelic era, he dismissed the band as "lame country," though Parker did find merit in Garcia's solo debut. "I loved 'The Wheel,' 'Deal,' and 'Sugaree.' I crudely taped those three tracks from a Deadhead friend. The cassette was at my parents' house until a few years ago. Whenever I visit, I pull something out of the drawer in my old room and shut it quick so there's always a surprise when I come back. I found the tape and instinctively knew what was on it." That tape consequently fell to pieces after Parker learned the tune.

Another classic, Parker's own "Crawling From The Wreckage," a huge hit for Dave Edmunds, returns on this collection as a hillbilly rave-up. "Nation Of Shopkeepers" affords Parker yet another chance to pine autobiographical. "I think the title came from Churchill. The song captures that small-time lack of ambition that we British are known for. I come from a nation where we're supposed to be satisfied with our lot in life, and not do what I did."

From the man who railed against the machinations of a homogenized rock music industry with such vitriolic diatribes as his 1979 FM radio hit "Mercury Poisoning," a parting shot at his old label, Parker has no plans to pen a blow by blow account of his ups and downs in the business. His comedic novel, The Other Life Of Brian, a fictional romp detailing a year in the life of a musician who tours obscure places such as the Arctic Circle and Tasmania, boarders on reality. "I can deal the most sharp observations on paper by writing in fictional terms" he laughs. "It allows me more latitude." On GrahamParker.Net, Parker fields questions about life in music and why it's incomprehensible and completely unaffordable to reunite the Rumour, even for a one off gig. "I love to bust myths and explain to people in great detail about how much the music business sucks! I think that's a lot of fun."

Parker admits that he's not up to snuff on new music, nor does he feel out of step. His nineteen year old daughter recently wrote a college thesis as to why rock music is not as good as it used to be. She also asked dad to buy her a copy of Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks and is currently mesmerized by David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. "I saw the latest issue of Amplifier online with Air on the cover. I thought 'wow,' what's going on in the world? People are actually giving credit to French musicians!' I must be well out of touch!"

PRETTY FLY FOR THREE JAZZ GUYS

By Tom Semioli  

This feature appeared in Amplifier Magazine, February 2004

"I could smell Elvin Jones in the curtains," chuckles drummer Jeff Ballard after a sold-out three-night stand at the legendary Village Vanguard in lower Manhattan. Ballard, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, and bassist Larry Grenadier comprise Fly, the hottest new entity on the post-bop modern-creative jazz scene. Their self-titled debut on the resuscitated Savoy Jazz imprint runs the voodoo down from free style improvisations to structured compositions with melody and purpose.

Ballard and Grenadier first came together as teenagers, cutting their teeth on bandstands throughout Northern California, then heading to the East Coast where they met Turner. Years later the threesome became part of a Chick Corea recording project aptly dubbed "Origination," an open forum which allowed individual band members to contribute original material. Thus Fly was born. "Chick gave me money to make a record" recalls Ballard fondly. "Mark and I didn’t want to be the leaders.  And Larry is the consummate sideman. Our music does not lend itself to a 'leader.' A leader hires you for yourself, and you play yourself, but you're still playing his thing. This is 'our' thing."

And this is not your father's jazz trio either. In Fly's world, the usual modus operandi of endless theme and variation or round-robin riffing have given way to an intimate three-way dialogue. The spark between the musicians is not only borne of friendship, but a shared goal. The result is an expansive, illuminating palate of harmonies, tones, and expressive counterpoint emanating from just three players sans the traditional rhythm section with piano and/or guitar comprising the creative canvass.

"Collaboration is the killing-est thing jazz has to offer," emphasizes Ballard. "Larry is a modern cat, who can cover a lot of ground. He's an outliner, a real meat-and-potatoes guy. We're not just laying a carpet for Mark to solo over." Turner, who has recorded extensively under his own name and alongside fellow tenor-sax star Joshua Redman and bassist John Pattitucci, among others, is quick to note that the recording dates for the disc, which only took two days, "were the smoothest sessions I've ever done. We were chilled out and there was no high-strung musical neurosis going on!"

Self produced and recorded live in the studio with few overdubs Fly not only breaks new ground but also pays homage to musical predecessors outside the jazz realm. "JJ," a Grenadier composition, is a funky paean to the legendary soul / R & B electric bassist Jerry Jemmott which features dexterous grooves most upright bassists would find impossible to navigate. Ballard brought in a BBC live recording of the Jimi Hendrix Experience Axis Bold As Love gem "Spanish Castle Magic" which the band tackles with poise. "It's a totally dangerous song to cover," says Ballard, who is still somewhat surprised that Fly was able to pull it off. "Sometimes it's kind of weak, sometimes it's super great. You need to really throw it all down on that tune, because if you don't it becomes a poor representation, and then it's downright embarrassing!" Motifs that would not be out of place on a Steely Dan tune emerge from Turner's "Stark," a fusion of three separate movements with contrasting arrangements and time signatures. The band's most personal offering is "Fly Mr. Freak-jar" written the studio by all three members and the final track recorded. Nailed in one take, the tune embodies what Ballard refers to as "filling the spaces, and not filling the spaces. It's about what's inferred, what's in the air. I find more truth in taking risks than in playing it safe," a credo which carries over to Fly's concert performances. "The other night at the Vanguard, Mark said to Larry and I that 'last night was nice, but we weren't as close to the edge of the cliff as we could be. Let's push it out and look over."

On the current state of jazz in the marketplace, Ballard ruminates over where the music is headed. "In jazz, and in most music, I think there is a fear of not succeeding, of not being a big seller. If you look back as recently as the 1970s, that was not the case. Weather Report came together because Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul wanted to continue what Miles (Davis) started, not because they expected it to be as popular was it was. The same goes for Chick Corea in Return to Forever and John McLaughlin in the Mahavishnu Orchestra." Fly intends to continue their flight throughout 2004 and beyond, recording and converting the masses at large jazz festivals and small clubs in the United States, Mexico, and Europe.

With a rapidly expanding fan base and critical acclaim, Ballard can afford a bit of self-effacing humor "I never do interviews and today I have three! Times must be changing, things must rough if I'm becoming a celebrity."

REDEMPTION FOR THE DANDY WARHOLS

By Tom Semioli

This feature appeared in Amplifier Magazine, October 2009

"There are no second acts in American lives…" opined the great F. Scott Fitzgerald. Apparently he never met the Dandy Warhols.

In 2003 Amplifier Magazine readers may recall the fervor surrounding the Dandy's highly anticipated fourth album Welcome To The Monkey House.  It was slated for release on a big label (Capitol) with big expectations (Radiohead was currently #1 on the same imprint), and co-produced by a big rock star (Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran). Then, something went terribly awry…in a big way.

According to industry rumors, on the eve of release the band demanded that Capitol stop the presses and put out a different version of the album - mixed by Grammy Award winning engineer Russell Elavedo - known for his soulful work on D'Angelo's Brown Sugar, The Roots' The Roots Come Alive, Common's Like Water For Chocolate, and Alicia Key's Songs in A Minor.

Rhodes' mixes were "too clubby" for Courtney Taylor-Taylor and the Dandys. Their last-minute request received an angry thumbs down from the Capitol brain-trust. Record company president Andy Slater retorted "who's gonna play this on the radio? It's not black...it's not white. What the ****  is it?"

Taylor-Taylor recalls his equally frenetic state of mind. "As a young man there is nothing worse than being disregarded and disrespected by old men who are years past being relevant - but they somehow have bumbled into having power over you."

Fortunately Taylor-Taylor did not exercise his other options. "I thought of walking in there with a gun! I thought of planting a bomb!  I thought of pounding those fuckers in the face! I had to get up out of bed and go for late, dark walks around the block. It was, without a doubt, the worst time of my life." He continues…"it would have been fairly possible to have them disposed of…I'm very glad I didn't…although I did make one phone call to a friend who knows those kinds of people just to test the waters and gut check whether or not I really wanted to get that ball rolling..."

Fast forward to a kinder, gentler 2009 - the Dandy Warhols are in business for themselves with their own label (Beat The World Records) and can do as they damn well please. Hence the release of The Dandy Warhols ARE Sound : the version of Monkey House that should have come out back in the day. Disposing with the original high-tech production, the organic ARE Sound is far more stripped down and emotional. "Brent (drummer Brent DeBoer) and I had obsessed on D'Angelo's Voodoo album,” Taylor-Taylor recalls. “We started noticing this same mixer's name was on a lot of the stuff that was blowing our minds. We had to work with him."

Fate intervened. "One night, in a cab, we drove past Electric Ladyland Studios. I had remembered that Voodoo was mixed there so I 411'd the place and asked about this dude. They gave me his manager's digits,  so I immediately left him a message and got that thing in motion."

Taylor-Taylor emphasizes that ARE Sound has a "sneakier profile." "It seems very lo-fi and earthy, but the fact is, it's extremely precise." Fans will take note that six years later cuts such as "I Am Sound" and "Scientist" emerge as introspective and thought-provoking as opposed to the original renditions. The cinematic slow build on "Plan A" is far different than the original, thumping version, which had virtually no change in dynamics.

Sadly Elavedo is out of the Warhol's orbit nowadays. "I don't know how he feels because we are not on speaking terms" laments Taylor-Taylor. "With how horribly our art was being fucked with, I was reluctant to include him in the mess of the next record. I think he took this wrong, and we haven't spoken since. He is one of the greatest mixers in history, I don't blame him."

For the record, Taylor-Taylor and the Dandy Warhols have no plans to alter any other previous releases. "Of course not! They're perfectly what they are. What else could they possibly be?

The Dandy Warhols ARE Sound is out now on Beat The World Records.