Quick Q and A with Pat Wictor
 by Kathy S-B  ·  17 March 2013

Pat Wictor is an extraordinarily gifted musician. He is an absolute master on the acoustic lap slide guitar. His songwriting is thought provoking and unique. (“Heaven is So High . . . and I’m So Far Down” is a perfect example of his songwriting as far as I’m concerned.) His graceful and gentlemanly stage presence on stage completes the package.

Pat writes a dynamite blog on his website and you can also check out information about his solo recordings and his work with Brother Sun.

How has Brother Sun changed your life?

Brother Sun has changed my life quite radically. The group has expanded my sense of musical possibility, and given me creative outlets that I didn’t have as a solo artist. I get to be surprised all the time by the musical ideas we’re working with, which is pure joy for me. There are certain musical skills — harmonizing, accompanying others, arranging – that you can only develop by working with other musicians. We’ve all learned from each other’s musical strengths, and it’s made us all better musicians.

In late 2009 and early 2010, when the three of us began exploring how to work together, I was actually taking steps to return to a day job, because I wasn’t able to pay my bills as a solo artist. That’s all changed, and for now I’m back to making a living making music, all because of the amazing audience response to Brother Sun.

What was the genesis of this group? Who had the brainstorm of combining forces and did it feel right from the very start?

Yes, it felt right from the first note. We are all part of a summer institute in Virginia in 2009, and I invited Joe and Greg to join me onstage in a concert I was doing there. We rehearsed for an hour, got onstage, and the sound of our voices together was one of the most powerful musical experiences of my life. (It still is, each and every time we sing together.) Lots of audience members and musicians in attendance all said we should form a group. I probably did the most prodding and instigating early on, but it didn’t require any persuasion, and the momentum of the group soon carried all of us. We all knew there was something special in how our voices blended, and we wanted to see if there was more where that came from.

How would you compare the debut Brother Sun album with the new recording?

To my mind, the first Brother Sun album made the statement that we are great harmony singers. At the time, that was new information for many folks who knew all of us as solo artists. The first album also said, “We can do this live” – it included no extra instruments or voices, just what we would do in a live show. This new CD, Some Part of the Truth, shows us as complete musicians. I see this new album as more atmospheric, textural, colorful, moody, evocative, and emotionally rich. Thanks to our producer, Ben Wisch, we added a wider range of instruments, and they fit together in a beautiful ebb and flow that lets the listener get transported, lost in the music.

Way back you were involved with music outside the acoustic realm, including rock, heavy metal and jazz. Do you ever meet up with friends and fellow musicians from those days? Can they identify with how your musical world has turned to this rather under the radar kind of music?

I don’t stay much in touch with musicians from my earlier phases of musical development, with only a couple exceptions. To the extent that I have, people have been generous in acknowledging the musicality of my current work. I think for good musicians, there are only two kinds of music — the good stuff, and everything else, regardless of genre. I’ve always associated with musicians with omnivorous tastes, Greg and Joe included. Most of the musicians I knew from those earlier worlds were themselves obscure and under the radar, so moving into acoustic music didn’t feel like much of a shift for me, except that it’s a friendlier neighborhood in which to make music.

You’ve played at venues all over the place. Do any performances, however big or small, stand out in your mind as favorites?

I don’t want to cop out completely, but I actually love them all. Each show has its own character, energy, and distinctiveness, and they’re all fun. We did a show in New Haven where the acoustics were perfect, and the harmonies were spine-chilling that night. The big shows can definitely be exciting. Singing at the Sanders Theatre in only our 6th show together was a big thrill, and doing a show with Red Molly at the Troy Savings Bank Hall last year was a real joy. It’s special playing at Falcon Ridge, Kerrville, and Philadelphia Folk Festivals because I sat in the audience of those festivals for years before ever getting onstage there.

Do you have any musical aspirations that you still hope to achieve?

Tons of them, more than one could hope to fulfill in one lifetime. With Brother Sun, we’ve got tremendous possibilities, driven by the sum of our musical interests. Maybe we’ll dive into old-style gospel music, drawing on both black and white church traditions? Maybe classically-influenced art songs? Modern Jazz? Gregorian chant? Old-school Funk? Most likely, we’ll come up with surprising and genre-defying blends of all (or none!) of the above, and many other elements. Though I’m putting less energy into solo work for now, sometime soon (over the next few years) I’d like to release a CD with several Phil Ochs songs, and a bare-bones blues album (just me and my guitar). There are tons of musicians I’d love to work with, both with Brother Sun and solo. It’s a lifelong calling to have new adventures and move past my limitations, to become a better instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, improviser, and entertainer.

Quick Q and A with Greg Greenway
 by Kathy S-B  ·  17 March 2013

Greg Greenway is a fixture here in New England. Despite his “southern” roots down Richmond, Virginia way, he’s now a true New Englander with all the passion and zest for life that comes from living life with his eyes on the prize and his heart open to all things righteous and just. Greg has a way with words and thus with lyrics….and some top notch music to go along with them.

Greg’s discography includes at least seven solo CDs and his latest recordings are as part of Brother Sun (along with Joe Jencks and Pat Wictor). Greg’s music is as inspiring as it is honest. It’s soulful and affirming. Take a listen to “In the Name of Love“ and see what I mean.

You’ve been a solo musician for a long time. Was the concept of recording and traveling as part of a band a welcome departure for you?

Believe it or not, even after all these years, I felt that my solo career was rising when we formed Brother Sun. So, I certainly wasn’t tired or fallow. But, I’d been thinking about some kind of trio for a long time. I looked at how Christine Lavin had brought a wave of Folk artists to larger audiences by organizing group shows and then finally the Bitchin Babes, and I realized that you have to be creative in ways far beyond songwriting to keep growing. I was so lucky to find two really fabulous men who share a commitment to so many things I value. Brother Sun goes far beyond what you see on stage. It’s been an incredible learning experience in every way. I’ve been in groups before, but never like this. I’ve grown so much as a musician and a person. So, it was a calculated risk that paid off so far beyond anything I had imagined.

Have the majority of people who have experienced you as part of Brother Sun also known about your solo work or have you each received new fans due to the merging of talents into this trio?

It’s been a mixture of both. We each have areas of strength as far as parts of the country where we’re known, or where we are well received. Combining them has brought new listeners to each of us. Certainly, I’ve learned what an international language harmony is. Undoubtedly, Brother Sun has a wider appeal than I have as a solo act. You should see what happens when Pat plays that slide in parts of the South. On some nights, Joe and I are just the noise between slide solos. On other nights in the midwest, Pat and I are the guys who preempt Joe. But, we set out to make Brother Sun greater than the sum of its parts. I believe we have succeeded.

Your bio states something that is oh-so-true about you. It says that your “central appeal is that it comes through the singular lens of your humanity and your easy affinity for the audience.” I’ve always admired that about you — your rapport and the caring and considerate way you treat your audience is very genuine. Is that something that you had to work at over the years or were you lucky enough to be born with innate ability to communicate in a way that looks so effortless to those of us in the audience?

Thank you for saying that. It’s something I’ve always aspired to. I’m a “listen to this” kind of performer — as opposed to “look at me.” My ability to stand in front of an audience is directly related to what I have to say. It’s taken me a long time to be able to achieve that. It’s really the same with anyone. When you believe you have something important to convey, you are infinitely more confident, direct, and even open. The most powerful thing is the truth, and it’s taken me years to be able to believe that I have something valuable to say. But, I took my cue from Arlo Guthrie. He has always treated the audience as equals, as friends. I took it in my own direction when I realized that my lyrics are not for the faint of heart and I need to give an audience every reason in the world to want to hear what I worked so hard to create. If you want someone to cry with you, they have to laugh with you first. You have to respect that you’re engaged in a conversation, you have to respect who you’re talking to.

I also have to say that I am my father’s son. I’m just a formalized version of him. He was a funny, funny man, who loved to talk to people. It was always dangerous to leave the house with him. We never came home on time.

Please share some of your songwriting secrets with us. Are you a disciplined writer? Do you have a daily or weekly practice of writing? Do you journal? Or do ideas percolate inside you for a while before you actually “compose” the song?

I am a quirky generalist who drives a lot. Songwriting, for me, is a state of mind. It has to be achieved. The more you experience life with the awareness, the intention of writing, the more songs life hands you. My lyrics are almost always distillations of a larger body of thought. It’s like writing a paper where the library is the planet Earth. We all have incredible stories inside us, some make us uncomfortable, maybe they don’t portray you in the best light. But, the unpolished truth is the single most powerful device a writer has.

Typically, I start with a word or a phrase that seems to encapsulate an emotion or an idea. If it’s powerful, it contains everything you need, including the music. Lately, my songs have come from poems. Poems allow for more space, more freedom. They help me crystallize my thoughts. But, I really resist writing things down as long as possible because things on a page are different than words sung into the air.

That’s where the long drives come in. I sing my thoughts over and over until the unconscious meaning of the sounds and the cognitive meaning of the words heel up like a sailboat.

I did a lot of driving in 2012 and I wrote a lot of songs.

Do you compose on the piano or the guitar or both?

Both. Years ago, I tuned my guitar to C9 tuning to break out of the mindset of standard tuning. I’d also starting learning to play piano and unconsciously they merged. It has all become music. It has really set me free. I’m very proud of the songs I wrote for “Some Part of the Truth” because they represent that effort, that freedom. Some are pretty standard 1-4-5-minor2-minor6 songs. Some are really uniquely harmonized around their melody. Pat and Joe have incredible musical minds and it was amazing to watch them work out parts over some of these chord changes. It was humbling. I have so far to go. But, I’m still a loyal beginner on the piano. I hear so much that I can’t perform yet. So, there’s an eternal carrot hanging out there in front of my face. I’m always trying to unwind mentally the things my ear has done in blissful ignorance on the guitar for years.

You’ve always been a musical mouthpiece for equal rights. With all the changes in the past couple years and more and more states recognizing same sex marriages, what do you think is the next big issue we all need to be cognizant of and to which we should lend our support? Will our work ever be done?

From the way the question is worded, I can tell you’ve been in Massachusetts a lot. There’s a very big, diverse country out there that is nowhere near Massachusetts on this issue. But, I believe, marriage equality is an inevitability. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” (Theodore Parker via MLK). However, just as in the Civil Rights movement, the changing of the laws won’t change the mindset. Some people will go to their graves with these engrained attitudes. It our job to make them feel that they’ belong in a natural history museum exhibit. (here everyone who isn’t bothered by profanity should go to YouTube and search “Lewis Black Old Testament”). But, the clock is ticking, there is an entire generation rising that could care less about sexual orientation.

But, will our work ever be done? No. New ways to divide humans are being invented every second. Those who have want to keep what they have, and a lot of them own TV stations.

For more information about Greg Greenway, visit his website. Check out Brother Sun too.

Quick Q and A with Joe Jencks (Brother Sun)
 by Kathy S-B  ·  17 March 2013

Joe Jencks’ biography describes his background — all the wonderful places he’s played, albums he’s recorded and awards he has won but perhaps the one sentence that rung the most true for me: “Jencks weaves a diverse web of stories with brilliant musical skill, ensnaring even the most rigid of hearts, inviting them to open.” Joe sings about what matters most to him and to a world struggling to make sense of the injustices that occur day in and day out. It’s important music. It’s honest music.

Check out Joe’s powerful voice and inspirational lyrics on YouTube.

The last couple of years have been extremely busy between your own solo career and recording and touring with Brother Sun. Do you have any particular highlights from your recent past that you’d like to share with us?

It has been a really busy few years. And there have been a lot of highlights so choosing a favorite is hard, but here are a few. I spent a week performing at Carnegie Hall in December, working with a Cuban quartet, and a Greek/Argentine world music group. Getting to perform 10 shows in 5 days with that kind of ensemble in that kind of hall? Well, it’s incredible! An honor. And a song that I wrote with the children of migrant laborers in Washington State a few years back was one of the focal points of the program and the accompanying curriculum that the children study, before they come to Carnegie to see the show. The song is called “Adonde Pertenezco (Where Do I Belong),” and looks at the life of fruit pickers from the standpoint of the children. We were all representing different cultural idioms, and for the second time in three years, I got to represent folk music of the United States. But we all played together. And when we sang “This Land Is Your Land,” I felt like Woody would be really proud. A group of musicians from all over the world, singing at Carnegie Hall for kids from all over the world, and every one of us owning the idea that WE have a share in the dream, that this land was made for you and me. Wow.

Another highlight was with Brother Sun up in Ripton, VT, just last month. The Ripton Community Coffeehouse is a classic folk circuit sort of gig — done perfectly. I met Beth Duquette and Richard Ruane who produce the concerts, at my first NERFA 10 or 11 years ago. And I have been hoping to make it to Ripton, for most of the intervening time. It isn’t a destination for everyone, but because I had known them for so long, it became sort of epic in my mind. The concerts are held in an old-school town hall. White pillars out front. It was snowing, and the aroma of wood smoke in the air. From the moment we arrived, they made us feel welcome… and there was excitement in the air. It was what folk music is about, starting with a pretty high level open mic, and then moving into the concert. It was about community, the snack bar was full of incredible home-baked goodies. And the people were as enthusiastic and supportive as you could ever want. And Brother Sun gave a fantastic performance for a standing room only crowd. It was a really great night. We gave them a great show, but they literally set the stage. It was a perfect folk evening!

Tell us about the new Brother Sun recording. Did you, Greg, and Pat co-write any of the songs on this recording? Or did you work on songs, present them to the group, and then record. What process works best for a band like yours that is separated by many miles.

We are just beginning to look at our first co-write. It is a commission piece from one of our fans and supporters. But as far as the new CD goes, there are no co-writes per se. We all choose material either our own or covers, and bring it to rehearsals. Then we try it on, so to speak. We can usually tell pretty quickly whether or not a song is working for us. If it is, then we dig into the vocal and instrumental arrangements with a certain methodical zeal. We arrange the song for our voices, each of us taking turns singing high and low parts. Unlike some ensembles where each voice always sings in the same range, we all cover a lot of ground to account for the fact that we are all, also lead singers.

So once we hit the studio, we usually have a pretty good handle on the arrangements. But on this record, there were some serious surprises. Ben Wisch, our producer, has a very unique process. He records a lot of music, and then begins to whittle away at the arrangement in the mixing process, like a stone carver slowly revealing a sculpture. What emerges is a sonic work of art that has all of the elements of the original arrangement, but also has more space, and focus, and direction. I think we have a marvelous new record, and Ben deserves a good bit of the credit for that. He was a fourth Brother Sun for the duration, and hung in there with us bringing his own unique creativity to the process while honoring all of our thoughts and ideas. That is a delicate balance to hold, and he did it well.

Every record is different, in part because we are always evolving and changing as people and musicians. We learn new skills, pick up new instruments, refine styles, and keep absorbing new musical ideas from the larger world. So the making of each record is unique. As far as how we manage the distances between Chicago, NYC, and Boston, it’s just a matter of logistics and some very supportive and understanding sweethearts. We spend a lot of time together, and we try to take advantage of down days on the road to rehearse, record, and do our collective business. It’s amazing to see that we are now well into our third year. I hope we can keep doing this for a while. We’re making good music. Music I am proud to be a part of.

You’ve long been involved with social justice. What prompted you to devote your time and energy to causes?

Well, my mother was a very liberal and fiery Irish Catholic. The messages of social justice in Christian scripture were definitely emphasized in the home of my childhood. She fostered in all seven of us kids, an acute awareness of Irish history and the suffering that is caused by profound economic and political hardship. She also encouraged us to look at US culture through the same lens. And my dad, while much more conservative than my mom, was also deeply committed to work of service. He never preached his faith, but he lived it with immense consistency and integrity.

As a teenager under a Reagan and Bush administrations, I began to get politically active, because I felt like I had no choice. It was a moral obligation for me to help bring some balance to what seemed like very conservatively skewed perspectives. And when you grow up in a rust-belt town, issues of labor and workplace dignity are obvious places to dig in.

But it was really music of social justice that led me to activism in a more direct sense. From Irish Revolutionary songs, to the US Civil Rights movement, from the Weavers to Holly Near, it was the musicians who were committed to matters of justice, to civil and human rights, who most affected me. And I still look to their music and their lives for guidance. Emma’s Revolution, John McCutcheon, Charlie King & Karen Brandow, Holly Near, Si Kahn, Maria Dunn, Anne Feeney, and so many others keep the traditions and carry them forward. I am proud to call them my tribe!

I’d love to know more about your Cultural Ambassador tour the Caribbean in 2010. How did that come about and what was the mission of bringing your music to those nations?

Well that was a serious career highlight! Wow. I performed on radio and television, libraries, schools and concert halls for 12 straight days, in Antigua-Barbuda, Dominica, Barbados, and Grenada. And it was one of the finest experiences I have ever had as a musician and citizen of this country.

You see, once you leave US soil, people care a great deal less about your political affiliations or parties. You become a representative a whole nation. And people will love you and challenge you based on a bigger picture than we see here sometimes. It was a little bit like the astronauts who first saw the Earth from space, and were taken with how small and precious it looked from out there. I too saw our nation through a new lens, by looking from “out there.” And I felt patriotic, maybe for the first time in my life. I started to understand more clearly the difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism is good. Nationalism starts wars and genocides. Not good.

A man who was a big fan of my music, and a former security officer with the State Department introduced me to the cultural programming people there at State. We began a nearly year-long conversation about what I had to offer and where it could be useful. They chose the Caribbean, and specifically asked me to blend US folklore and contemporary music, alongside content that was reflective of my own interest in social justice and civil rights. So I sang old and new songs ranging from jazz standards to labor anthems, civil rights hymns to rock n’ roll. But a lot of the music had themes of social awareness.

The Minister of Culture for Grenada was interviewing me on live national television one morning, and asked the Charge d’Affaires accompanying me why the US Government would send an artist like myself, who was obviously patriotic but also potentially controversial, as a representative of US Culture? The Charge, in true diplomatic form said, “Minister, that is an excellent question! I would like to let Mr. Jencks answer that.” Nice!

So I opened my mouth and prayed for the right words to emerge. And I said this, “The United States has a very troubled and complicated and beautiful history. And we have learned that for democracy to flourish there must be room for dissenting opinions to be heard. True democracy must give space for the minority to voice their ideas. And in the civil (or not so civil) discourse between divergent opinions, sometimes new solutions are fashioned. The music and art that comes from the various people’s movements in the United States upholds and supports the idea that the country indeed belongs to her people, and that they have not only a right but rather an obligation to speak up and sing out in the face of injustice.”

Every once in a while I open my mouth, and the right words come out. I am always delighted when that happens.

You’ve had occasion to do some preaching at Sunday services at various churches across the country. What kind of insights do you share with congregants? Do you enjoy this type of music ministry?

Indeed, in the last 12 years, I have sung in and preached at over 200 congregations in our fine Unitarian tradition, from all over the US, to Canada and Ireland. And I am always honored to be welcomed into people’s houses of worship. And I love ministry so much that I even started seminary at Meadeville-Lombard in Chicago, a few years back. I realized that I could manage the road and school at the same time. Lots of people manage careers and continuing education. But then we formed this trio, and I couldn’t manage all of that with the trio. It was going to have to be one or the other… for now. And I chose the band. I don’t regret that choice at all. But if for no other reason than personal development, I would like to continue my studies someday.

Ministry is a powerful kind of work. And for me, music is already ministry. It is a ministry devoid of dogma, but one that just reaches the heart in healing and powerful ways. And harmonies take that to a new level. Good harmonies are the foundation for a lot of the music I most love. As a conservatory trained musician and vocalist, I respect a broad variety of musical styles. But the ones that speak to me most are always the ones that have great harmonic traditions. There is something inherently ministerial and healing and uplifting about people singing together.

As for ideas, I have been on a bent lately about the differences between a pursuit of excellence rather than perfection. Excellence breathes. Excellence makes room for compassion and humanity, and the fact that even if it is different from day to day, our best is our best. And our job, in whatever we pursue is to give it our best. Perfection is an unattainable goal, and a ruinous pursuit. Excellence is about giving the best we have to give. And whether on stage, in the pulpit, in the practice room or in my relationships, I strive to give my best. The journey with Brother Sun keeps teaching me more about how to do that.

Photo by Reggie Barrett

For more information about Joe, visit his website.

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