Quick Q and A with Robby Hecht
 by Kathy S-B  ·  10 November 2012

Robby Hecht’s music is the real deal. His lyrics deal with everyday issues and his gentle voice makes you feel like ‘everything’s gonna be all right’ as they say. Honest songwriting isn’t as common as one would think but Robby has got it down. Sing Out compares Robby’s music to “comfort food.” I can see that comparison. His music is warm and it’s comfortable and it fills your heart and soul til they’re overflowing.

To learn more about Robby, visit his website.

Your music has been compared to the singer-songwriter style of the 1970s. Would you agree?

I think I would agree with that. The music we listened to as a family when I was growing up mainly consisted of singer/songwriters like Paul Simon, Jim Croce and Joni Mitchell . . . that sort of thing. I think my writing style probably stems largely from a combination of those artists and the music that I listened to during the singer/songwriter revival of the ’90s — artists like David Gray, Marc Cohn and Sarah McLachlan to name a few.

Who would you cite as your biggest influences in terms of songwriting and playing?

If I have to pick only a few, I’d say my biggest songwriter heroes over the years in terms of lasting influence have probably been Paul Simon and Tom Waits. It’s hard to say though . . . so many immaculate songs have been written by a broad range of writers; it’s really the songs themselves I think that have had the biggest influence on me as a writer.

What prompted you to move to Nashville after college? There are lots of music scenes in the country. Why Nashville?

I first tried out San Francisco after college, and while I will forever love that city, I found out two things relatively quickly. The first was that I wanted to live in a city with a major music scene, and the second was that I wanted to live in a place with a far less consuming cost of living. Nashville fits both of those requirements, and it’s less than three hours from my family and hometown of Knoxville. It’s also the land of the best songwriting in the world as far as I’m concerned.

You’ve garnered a nice collection of songwriting awards like Kerrville and Telluride. Do you have any special memories from any of those festival contests?

The best rewards that I ever got from those festivals are the amazing people I got to meet and built lasting friendships with. It’s wonderful to be recognized for my work, but those relationships are what keep me inspired as a songwriter.

How much of the year do you spend traveling to gigs?

I’ve been playing around 80–100 shows a year over the past couple of years.

What’s up next for you?

Hopefully I’ll be making a new album soon. I’ve got a ton of new material and I can’t wait to get it out there!

Quick Q and A with Garnet Rogers
 by Kathy S-B  ·  1 November 2012

Garnet Rogers asked me to edit this to make him more human and likable. Whoa! This man is one of the most human and likable musician I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet and I told him that there was no need for editing.

Garnet Rogers is a presence. He’s a skyscraper of a man; his baritone voice is a mighty instrument and his guitar playing is impeccably pure. He sings and plays with conviction. It’s impossible not to be moved by his music. Give it a listen.

We understand that you’re writing a book about your life as a musician. Can we assume that there’s a large portion of your book that is devoted to “on the road” tales of you and your brother, Stan?

Yeah, the book is largely about life as we knew it on the road back in the 70’s and 80’s . . . how naive and stupid we were, trying to play folk music — as we understood the term — in places where it was never played and for people who didn’t want to hear it . . . the only thing that saved us was the fact that we were both large and were able to beat up on members of the audience who objected. We were young and scared and foolish . . . bad business model.

Are there any similarities between writing non-fiction narrative and songwriting?

There are differences and similarities between the two forms of writing. All writing needs to have a rhythm which is part of the reason I have been reading bits of the book out loud. It helps with the editing process, and allows me to determine if the thing has what an Irish friend of mine calls “skip and flit.”

As Mark Twain said, the only difference between fiction and history is that fiction has to be believable. My memoir, I think is hard to believe sometimes but it is all true.

Stan’s songs were more traditional Canadian Maritime type songs. Did you make a deliberate attempt not to copy his style? Or did you just naturally gravitate to a more soulful bluesy rock and roll style?

I basically just write whatever comes along. I listened to a lot more varied music than Stan did I think. He was not a big fan of electric music but the Maritime traditional sound we developed was a response to partly the market and partly simply due to the commissions we were given by the CBC. We did a lot of soundtrack work for radio dramas and a lot of it was in Halifax. It just got out of control.

After the first record came out we were largely pigeonholed into being Maritme artists and that was not what we sounded like before the first album. We were a lot closer to Elton John and Dan Fogelberg, if you can believe it. . . .

Stan really wanted to explore different styles. Had he lived, I think he would have gone in a very different direction with his writing.

Is it true that after Stan’s passing, that you were unable to come to the United State to tour and that Odetta came to your aid? Tell us how that all came about.

Yeah, Odetta did help. Bless her. She was approached by Widdie Hall at the Folkway when my visa was turned down, and she stepped in to add gravitas to the petition. God help the State Department official who tried to say no to Odetta. She was a force of nature.

Do you have any favorite new musicians you’ve discovered lately?

I haven’t heard much lately that made me sit up and take notice and swoon. I find within the folk world a lot of stuff gets recycled every six to ten years and I have been around a long time I have kind of heard it all before.

I’m always impressed by anything which sounds like it would exist whether people are listening or not and not being made with an eye to the market. Some stuff sounds a wee bit on the calculated side to me sometimes . . . but that’s just me There are lots of people whose music just kills me, but they have largely been around for at least a couple years — Susan Werner consistently makes me swoon. I love Natalia Zukerman, Chris Smither, Greg Brow, Ani, and others but they have been around for a bit. There is a lovely trio from Newfoundland called The Once. I like them a lot — beautiful harmonies and arrangements. But again, they have been doing it for a while. I like Dave Gunning a lot — both musically and personally. He is the real deal on every level.

Any plans for a new recording any time soon?

No plans for a new record beyond perhaps a book CD interspersed with music. I have been getting requests for that. But that is a long way away . . . maybe 2014.

I continue to write songs but time has been in short supply of late. The last two years have been largely taken up with helping my parents. It is only been in the last couple of months that things have loosened up and I am exhausted. I hope to get back to it on a more regular basis soon..

Quick Q and A with Linda Sharar
 by Kathy S-B  ·  1 November 2012

Linda Sharar is a talented musician whose lyrics resound with emotional honesty and whose guitar playing is reminiscent of the best folk-rock sounds you’ll ever heard. Linda’s lovely alto voice wraps itself around all the poetic images in her words and makes one sit still and listen.

To hear some of Linda’s tunes, visit her MySpace page.

Your bio states that you started playing guitar and writing songs when you were a teenager and started playing open mikes during college. Looking back, what do you think of your songwriting back then?

In my teen years my songwriting was very predictable lyrically but had emotional truth and a strong feeling musically. My older sisters were all musically talented and encouraged me as a writer, which made me feel confident enough to keep at it. But I was a very shy about my songs and did not promote myself as a songwriter with any real effort until I graduated from college.

When you moved to New York City, was your intention to make your living as a musician?

I was exploring several different options, including possibly going to law school. I worked for a year as a legal assistant in a large firm in Manhattan, then switched to a job in Business Affairs/Legal at Sony Music, where I stayed for 5 years. At that time I knew I couldn’t afford to live off of being a musician, but was exploring all the possibilities of my various skillsets. Eventually I realized I could probably work as a software engineer/IT professional (something I picked up at the Sony job), and play music at the same time. I made that career change in 1996 when I moved to Boston.

How did you hook up with the Fast Folk songwriters and what did you learn at Jack Hardy’s songwriting sessions?

Jack (and Wendy Beckerman) lived diagonally across from me in New York. I had a little apartment on MacDougal St off 6th Ave below Houston, and they were on the north east side of that large intersection. Some of my friends including Chris Bauman, Gregg Cagno, and Catie Curtis were involved with Fast Folk and so eventually through one of them, I met Wendy, and then joined the regular meetings at Jack’s. It was a wonderful community to join at that time because they had just gotten the Fast Folk Cafe going and there were not only great songs to hear but gigs to be had. My first Fast Folk gig was opening for Cliff Eberhardt, then Paul Geremia, and I played there several times over the years. I also was recorded performing my song “Nathan” on the “New Voices NYC” CD in 1996, and had a song covered, “Carriage Horse” at a Fast Folk show at the Bottom Line. Also at the same time there were songwriting meetings held over at David Seitz’s apartment (Prime CD) and just tons of great songwriters were revolving between those two meetings. I was extremely grateful for the regular nights of shared meals and creative community, which is not always easy to find in a sprawling city like New York.

Tell us about Camp Hoboken. That musical collective was a big part of your life for a few years. What was your biggest joy during that time?

It’s hard to tell the tale of Camp Hoboken in a short answer, but my sisters were involved... one of my best friends Gregg Cagno, his best friend Chris Bauman, and I were initiators of it. We would meet in the front room at Maxwells in Hoboken, and plot how we could improve our music careers. Don Brody booked the front room and started singing with my sister Connie in a rebirth of his well-known duo, the Marys. Out of some late night imaginings we decided to create a sort of a traveling variety show with several different members, the goal being to make self-promotion, traveling and conferences easier to manage (and bear). Our first real engagement was the 1995 National Folk Alliance Conference in DC, and we made a compilation tape of all of our music, setting up several showcases as a group where we played songs in the round and together. People came to see us and said, “can we book you as a group?” We also had our own campsites at Falcon Ridge and other festivals. Don (who also worked at Razor & Tie) was in many ways our fearless leader and guru. We lost him to a heart attack in 1997. That was devastating to all of us but made us closer. Read Chris Bauman’s book “In Hoboken” to really get a feel for what our lives were about. I’d say the great joy for me in being a part of Camp Hoboken was all the incredible fun we had, anywhere we went. We focused on the fun first, and always treated each other like family. Too many wonderful stories to tell here really, but a highlight for me was a tour I did with Gregg and Chris through Atlanta, Dallas and back. We met Woody Guthrie’s daughter, were attacked by ticks, ate too many ribs and almost crashed my car but that doesn’t really capture it at all much...

You were deeply involved with the Respond compilation which was a benefit CD for domestic abuse causes. That collection caught the attention of many people and the songs were powerful. Tell us about the genesis of that project.

I had moved up to the Boston area in 1996 and started playing open mikes and gigs almost immediately. Charan Devereax was hosting the open mike at Club Passim on Tuesday nights and she invited me to a pancake breakfast at her house with some of the other women playing the open mikes, including Colleen Sexton, Kris Delmhorst, Jess Klien, Pamela Means, Lori McKenna, Mary Gauthier etc. Charan spearheaded the project but got several of us on board as co-producers as well as artists. We brainstormed together at a few meetings and came up with a list of other better known artists we also wanted to involve, as well as producers, promoters etc, and once we found the Somerville organization “Respond” to be the recipient of the fundraising, lots of people jumped on board. I feel very lucky to have been a part of it. What a group of women and what an amazing compilation we made!

You’ve released three solo records and have taken a bit of a break to raise your children. Have you been able to grab some time now and again to write some new songs so we’ll get a new addition to your discography?

I have been writing recently, I think mostly inspired by the passing of Jack Hardy. His loss really hit me in a deep way and I started to hear his voice urging me to get off my soapbox and start writing again. I also can thank Esther Friedman and Chris LaVancher who host a songwriting meeting I attend, as well as Timmy Riordan who hosts an online “Fearless Songwriting” challenge regularly. I am lucky to have so many talented musicians, engineers, promoters, DJs, etc in my life who I truly appreciate just as people. The quality of the music is enhanced by these relationships, and so I hope my musical compositions/recordings also reflect that.

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