Quick Q and A with Joe Iadanza
 by Kathy S-B  ·  14 May 2010

When I first met Joe he was wearing a black hat. I got used to seeing him at folk conferences and shows with that same black hat. Then I ran into him at Falcon Ridge and he didn’t have the black hat on. Oh, don’t get me wrong. He had a hat on . . . it just wasn’t black and I almost didn’t recognize him. But I digress. . . . Joe is more than just a man with a hat. He’s a talented songwriter with a unique vocal style and presentation. Yes, the Bruce Springsteen comparison is apparent. Like Bruce, he’s a master of the same kind of story-song.

Learn more about about Joe on his website. Here’s a video of Joe singing the title tune of his debut CD, “Traveling Salesman.”

Your bio states that you didn’t become serious about songwriting and performing until after the birth of your daughter. What do you think triggered this decision?

My daughter wasn’t the absolute reason that I started to write. But, it was the cherry-on-the-cake. I was a sideman/guitarist in my teens and twenties. After many years of playing in fun, yet unsuccessful, hard rock bands, I walked away from music, got married and “grew up,” so to speak. Music was the only thing I ever really wanted to do since I was a kid. But, I couldn’t see how being a musician fit alongside “family” and “income.”

I stopped making music when I was twenty-five and didn’t pick up the guitar again until after my daughter was born. That was almost eight years of not making music. Why did I start again? Tension was building inside of me. Deep down I still desperately wanted to make music. I was just quashing the desire. When my daughter was born I saw a beautiful little girl with a world of possibilities ahead of her. But, when I looked in the mirror I saw a father that had given up on all of his dreams. The stress of that realization was almost too much to bear. Something had to change.

I started to hear music again. Eventually I felt confident enough to write them down and deliver them. The songs weren’t pretty at first, but I’ve been writing ever since.

How would you compare your two CDs—“Traveling Salesman” and “All in Good Time?”

They couldn’t be more different. “Traveling Salesman” is about stepping out into to the world and saying, “Here I am! Look at me!” It’s starry eyed and excited. It’s got drums, and lots of tracks, and a lot of twists and turns. “All in Good Time” is the voice of the traveling salesman after he’s knocked on quite a few doors, and now he’s realized that it’s not all that easy out there. It’s still hopeful, but it’s also very quiet and deliberate and moody.

I had no expectations when I produced “Traveling Salesman.” It was made from pure excitement. The whole process was very collaborative between me and my band mates. The result was unique and quirky and hard to pigeonhole.

With “All in Good Time,” I wanted to expand on of the full-band sound of “Traveling Salesman.” Evan Brubaker (Jenee Halstead / Edie Carey) liked what I was writing and agreed to produce. He was very patient with me and my ideas about how the record should sound.

Fortunately for the record, things didn’t go as I planned. After three days of recording, we realized that my full-band “vision” was getting in the way of where the record really wanted to go. Evan encouraged me to give up control. Ultimately, we scrapped the sessions and sent the band home. Then we concentrated on a different group of songs and I recorded them solo and very quietly. Violins, bass, piano and accordion were added later. No drums. I’m grateful to Evan, because I don’t think we would have crafted something as special and undisguised had we done it my way.

Tell us a little about your own songwriting process. How do you approach the task of writing a song?

I don’t write constantly. But, I do write often and enjoy it very much. I sit and listen. Sometimes I can see the song out there, just begging to be pulled in. It’s like fishing! I sit with my hands on the guitar, and a pad on the table. Maybe I get a nibble – a musical idea. Then comes a distant melody, and maybe a structure and some faint words. I keep listening like that; reeling it in until the song is finished. My life experiences and my daydreams color the songs a lot. But, I try to stay out of the song’s way so it can be what it wants to be.

You’ve been favorably compared to Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, and Cat Stevens — three important voices in the music scene. If you had to choose one representative song from each of these artists that particularly resonates with you, what would they be?

I love Bruce Springsteen. Honestly, it’s become an obsession over the last two years and has totally changed the way I think about writing and delivering music. If I had to pick one song . . . I’d go with “Thunder Road.” But, I could easily pick ten songs. Springsteen bridges the worlds of gods and men with his music. I get chills just thinking about what he’s accomplished as a writer and performer. It’s incredible.

I like Cat Stevens — I get that comparison a lot — and I’m very grateful for it. I’d say the same for Leonard Cohen. These are legends of music and I respect them immensely; though I don’t listen to them with the ferocity that I do Springsteen. Cat’s “Peace Train” is an unbelievable song and so is Cohen’s, “Hallelujah.” I love the classics. Where do those songs come from?! I just have to keep working and listening better.

What are your plans for the immediate future as well as farther into your career?

I’ll follow this road as far as it takes me so that I can play for as many people as I can. But, I’m trying to be smart about it. Finding a balance between the road and my family is important to me. I have incredible respect for artists like Randall Williams and Rebecca Loebe. They seem to live on the road. But, I can’t do that just yet. I’m trying my best to take an approach similar to that of Joe Crookston or Red Molly. They develop fans a region at a time and then move further out when it becomes feasible to do so.

I’ve got a long way to go, but don’t think that I’m just sitting around waiting for things to happen. That’s not the case. I’m just back from my first tour of The Netherlands. That was a great experience. People really love folk and roots over there and I hope to make that an annual trip. Right now, we’re promoting the new album and planning CD release shows for the northeast. Folks are noticing and I’d like to let them all know that I’m here to stay. Hopefully, I will continue to develop my songwriting and expand my reach long into the future.

Quick Q and A with Josh Lamkin (The Brilliant Inventions)
 by Kathy S-B  ·  14 May 2010

The Brilliant Inventions are one of my most favorite musical discoveries of the past year. Josh Lamkin and Eliot Bronson are the two talented musicians who call themselves The Brilliant Inventions. Their music is fresh and new but oddly familiar at the same time — their harmonies and distinctive guitar work are beyond memorable. As one reviewer said of them: “It’s no small thing to write songs of intelligence and depth or to deliver them in such a way that audiences are amused one minute and moved the next.” And that’s exactly right!

Check out the Brilliant Inventions’ website. Here’s a video link to The Brilliant Inventions singing “Better than a Heartbreak.”

You may be one of the first bands whom I’ve interviewed who does not have any kind of bio in their press kit. So, are the Brilliant Inventions just a figment of my imagination? Or are you both in the witness protection program and you’re really not Josh and Eliot?

Do we not have a bio?? There’s no good reason other than that we’re amazing businessmen.

Seriously though, I came to know you and your music when we met at last summer’s Falcon Ridge Festival. For me, it was a no-brainer that you’d win and get chosen as one of the Emerging Artists. Did you travel up to New York with any kind of anticipation or trepidation? It was your first “northeast” fest, wasn’t it?

Yeah it was our first northeast fest — we hadn’t really been up north much at all. But ya know, we believe in ourselves and what we do so we had really positive attitudes about Falcon Ridge and the Emerging Artist Battle To The Death. It ended up being way more than we thought it would be. Other than the festival itself being an overwhelming experience and meeting so many new people and everyone being so nice to us, we still are getting invitations to come play at great places up north because of Falcon Ridge. Who knew all you had to do was trudge around in mud for 4 days and you’d kickstart your career.

You both were solo performers before you joined forces, did you know right away that your voices would blend so harmoniously?

We’d sung and played and hung out before when we were solo and always liked each other’s music. But there was one time when we sat down before a long tour we were co-billing when we said we were going to try to act like a duo the whole time. We sat down to play a song and it was just magic instantly. A very memorable experience.

Have you studied other successful duos like the Everly Brothers? (Actually, to my ear, you share some similarities with Glenn Tillbrook and Chris Difford from Squeeze. Must be the folk-pop sound or something.)

We’re massing Everly Brothers and Squeeze fans for sure. We get the Squeeze comparison a good bit — they’re so awesome. We’re big fans of all the great duos — Simon & Garfunkel, Hall & Oates, Indigo Girls, even the Jayhawks and The Beatles have their duo-y aspects.

Tell us about your songwriting process. Are you kind of like a Lennon-McCartney team or do you still essentially write alone and then present it to each other or both?

We almost always write solo and bring to the other for finalization. We pretty much both can’t feel like a song is done until the other hears it and gives his blessing.

Quick Q and A with John Gorka
 by Kathy S-B  ·  8 May 2010

John Gorka has been a staple on the coffeehouse scene for quite a while. His gentle self-deprecating humor and wise and thoughtful lyrics have endeared him to acoustic music fans far and wide.

John has a website chock full of all kinds of interesting tid-bits. This trailer for John’s DVD “The Gypsy Life” gives a glimpse into John — the musician, the performer, the storyteller.

Your name is almost synonymous with Godfrey Daniels — the legendary listening room and coffeehouse in downtown Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Do you remember the first time you walked in there and tell us about your history with the place.

My friend Doug Anderson from The Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band took me there on a weekday in late 1976. He was dropping off a record for his friend George Gritzbach to get him a booking there. People were sitting around the front room passing around a guitar. It came to me and I played a song. I thought it was what Greenwich Village must have been like in the early 60’s. It was a little slice of Bohemia right there on the Southside of Bethlehem, PA.

I suspect your transition to the New York City folk scene of the 1980s was a pretty big one for you. Was getting involved with that whole Fast Folk crowd at Jack Hardy’s a real turning point in your career?

Jack was the first person I opened for at Godfrey Daniels in June, 1979 — my friend Russ Rentler and I were billed as the “Razzy Dazzy Brothers”. Jack H. was the first person I ever met who wrote songs on a schedule. At the time he was finishing an average of a song per week. He did 90 minutes of original music, most of which he had written in the previous 18 months. I was amazed anyone could come up with that much original material in that short a time. His songs, his approach and his personality were a great inspiration to me. I was sort of the house opening act for singer-songwriters coming through Godfrey Daniels in the early ’80s and a lot of the people I opened shows for opened doors for me in other parts of the country. One of the next times I opened for Jack he said when I come to NYC next I should do something for the Fast Folk Musical Magazine. Jack encouraged me when I needed that encouragement most. So, yes it was a turning point.

I remember buying your first album (yes, the vinyl), “I Know” after seeing you open for Nanci Griffith at Club Passim. I still remember being knocked out by “Heart on Demand” and “Love is Our Cross to Bear.” One would have to be made out of stone to not be affected by these songs. The early touring days must have been . . . for lack of a better word . . . interesting. I’d like to think that the positive feedback that you got about your songs kept you going even when the financial rewards may not have been what you’d like them to be.

The “I Know” record didn’t sell a million copies but it did get me work and it also got air play. Eventually word spread and people started coming to shows to hear the songs from that record. It was a time of sleeping on people’s floors and couches and eating at many drive-up windows. My first cross-country tour in the spring of ‘88 was not a success to say the least. Things started to turn around the next month in May when I did a show in Jamaica Plain, MA and the place was full of enthusiastic people and I started to get the feeling that I might be able to do this for a while. . . .

Have you traveled much abroad? Does your humor translate to those who live off-shore?

I travelled to Europe and the UK quite a bit in the first half of the 90s. I’m starting to make trips that way again, with a couple shows in Italy next month, The Netherlands in September and maybe the UK in October.

The humor often does not translate well in its original form to non-NA audiences.

I’ve got to ask this — what was the inspiration behind “Prom Night in Pigtown”? That’s a classic “only John Gorka could get away with this kind of song!”

I didn’t go to my high school prom but I did go to my 10 year reunion. And I had recently been to a party of musician types where Eric Von Schmidt played a song called “Frogs Go to the Movies” and I said I’d written a song called “Promnight in Pigtown” but it was not about pigs. Eric said I should make it about pigs . . . and so I did.

And, by the way, thanks for the pierogi recipe on your website. I’m of half-Polish descent and I’ve got to say . . . I’ve never had a pierogi with bacon and sauerkraut! Sounds and smells (virtually) intoxicating! Do you cook for your family when you’re around?

I am better as an eater than as a cook. I do make a few things now and then. I can make pancakes and breakfast things and pierogi and I also am not afraid of doing the dishes. Actually, I have professional dishwashing experience. . . .

Search