Quick Q and A with Claire Lynch
 by Kathy S-B  ·  19 March 2010

The Claire Lynch Band’s latest recording “Whatcha Gonna Do” has been described as “bluegrass heaven.” This CD has risen high in the ranks of various music charts and continues to make “Best of 2009 and 2010 lists.”

Learn more about Claire and listen to some of her tunes on her website. Check out this video of Claire and the band playing at the Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival. And if you happen to be in Massachusetts on Friday, March 26, you won’t want to miss Claire and the band live at the me&thee!

According to your biography, the first part of your childhood was spent in New York State. Do you think you would have discovered bluegrass if you hadn’t moved down south?

It’s possible I would have discovered bluegrass, as I was into folk music (as much as an 11-year-old can be) before leaving New York State. But I feel certain I would not have embraced it along with the culture that surrounds it and had the understanding that comes with living among the type of people who helped emerge it onto the music scene. There’s a mixture of pride, kindness and even poverty and humility that is part of the “high, lonesome” sound. Sometimes I achieve that, sometimes not. But the understanding is there.

If you weren’t in the music business, what career do you think you would have pursued?

Probably business administration . . . maybe something creative. My parents begged me to leave Alabama with them when I was 19 — said they’d send me to Cornell, as they were moving back to upstate NY. I couldn’t bring myself to leave my friends and what I had found to be “home” by then. Soon after that, my musical opportunities availed themselves.

What’s the shortest amount of a time you’ve written a song? And on the other side of the coin, have you had songs that percolated for a long time before they were finally written?

I wrote “Death Angel” in a couple of hours… you’ve heard of people saying “the song wrote itself.” Such was the case with that song. On the other hand, my most recent accomplishment, “Woods of Sipsey” took me over two years. I just couldn’t settle. So I laid it down hundreds of times to “sleep on it.”

You’ve received kudos from some pretty big names like Emmy Lou Harris and Mary Chapin Carpenter. Are there other musicians whom you are in awe of?

Sure! Lots of them! I was always fascinated with Dolly Parton and with Nanci Griffith. I love Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra. The bluegrass voice which most inspired me was Ricky Skaggs. . . but I was a Jimmy Martin fan, too. Players — Sam Bush, Jimmy Mills, Stuart Duncan.

Are there musicians whom you’d like to collaborate with in the future?

Yes. Many. Michael Buble, Kenny Loggins, Ricky Skaggs, Marc Cohn, Bruce Hornsby, Tim O’Brien. . . . Madeline Peyroux — Nellie McKay, Josh Groban, tons more. Why not make a wish list?

Desert Island question (assuming you had a CD player with lots of batteries): What three CDs would you choose to listen to until you were rescued by Gilligan and the Skipper?

No, no. Don’t do this to me! haha . . .
Barbra Streisand “My Name is Barbra”
Joni Mitchell “Court and Spark”
Tony Rice “Manzanita”

Search