Quick Q and A with Kym Warner (The Greencards)
 by Kathy S-B  ·  13 October 2012

I like what it says about The Greencards in their biography: It says that they have a multi-dimensional Americana vision. Some may say that it’s rather odd that two Australians, Carol Young and Kym Warner, have been able to tap into a new sound that incorporates so many different influences from around this country and have totally mesmerized everyone who hears them. This Q and A discusses the music they listened to “back home” and how the band came into existence as well as some tidbits about their memorable tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.

To learn even more about The Greencards, please visit them at their website.

Can you tell us how the band came to be?

Carol and I moved to the U.S in 2001 with the specific plan in mind. To be a part of the acoustic music that is so prevalent in the US. We fell in love with the city of Austin, Texas from the moment we landed and recognized it as a really vibrant musical town. The Greencards came about from us wanting to start playing live and as regularly as possible. We started with a Sunday brunch show at Mother Egan’s Irish Pub, basically playing for tips. Eventually that became five or six regular shows a week until we started touring in the Summer of 2002.

How did you learn about American music when you were growing up?

Music was a big part of my upbringing. There was always a lot of music played in my parents’ house both on records and live jamming. Everything from Elvis to The Everly Brothers, Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs to Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, Buddy Holly, Julie London to New Grass Revival. I’m thankful for being exposed to such a broad spectrum of musical styles whilst growing up. My Dad is a multi-instrumentalist and great singer still performing to this day.

It’s been said that you had a love of an eclectic mix of musicians — Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Fairport Convention. That’s quite an interesting mix of influences . . . and to think that they helped to mold your unique “Americana” sound. Care to explain?

Very true. I / We listen to many styles of music constantly, and get something different form each of them. Bob Dylan and Tom Petty for instance are amazing lyricists, and have so many great and interesting songs and records and have always had incredible bands playing with them. I love the riffs in hard rock / heavy metal stuff like AC/DC and Iron Maiden ... the energy is undeniable in those bands. We love Pink Floyd and David Gilmour for the sheer brilliance and class, The Beatles for everything (especially George Harrison), The Stones for being the rambunctious beauty that they are, and then you’ve got the heart and soul of Americana songs from the likes of Rodney Crowell, Robert Earl Keen, Guy Clark, and Bruce Springsteen. Then there’s Emmy Lou Harris, Joni Mitchell, Alison Krauss and Bonnie Raitt. And The Greencards just wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Sam Bush and New Grass Revival.

Your music also has many “world” music touches interweaved throughout: gypsy music and Latin grooves immediately come to mind. Have hardcore bluegrass fans scratched their heads in wonder or have they embraced these new sounds?

I’m happy to say that Greencards fans don’t fall under the category of hard core bluegrass and they have been willing and accepting of all the little curves we’ve thrown at them over the past 10 years. Coming from Australia, and traveling as much as we do, you get exposed to many different cultures and music is a big part of those cultures. We get a lot out of those experiences and so much of the creative inspiration for songs comes out of that.

The Greencards are known as a “newgrass” band. How do you compare newgrass to regular old bluegrass?

Bluegrass music has a distinct sound, and I believe the “rolling” 5-string banjo is the most integral part of that. Newgrass music has very few limitations and a far broader horizon in which to exist musically. I have never really considered The Greencards to be a bluegrass band.

Tell us what it was like to tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. Was that the tour that went to various baseball parks around the country?

To answer the second part of your question first, Yes, it was. Minor league baseball stadiums . . . in the middle of summer!

That tour and that experience is still one of the greatest moments in the bands existence. To be a part of a huge tour like that, to get to see and hear two of the greatest ever American artists (and two of our heroes) perform for seven weeks straight was everything you could imagine it to be.

It was also a huge learning curve for the band to get to understand how to put on a show in a big outdoor setting, and how to structure and pace such a show. It definitely took us three or four shows to get our heads around that.

Do you have any new recording plans in the near future?

First thing is we need to get the songs. We’ve found a little time to write over the past few months but we have some time set aside at the end of 2012 to really knuckle down and see what we can come up with. We tend to work better when we have a schedule in mind. From there we’ll see what we can put together as far as the recording side of things go.

Quick Q and A with Jimmy Ryan
 by Kathy S-B  ·  13 October 2012

If you know anything about the Boston music scene, you have undoubtedly heard Jimmy Ryan’s name mentioned. He’s one of the most in-demand session players in town and plays a mandolin like there’s no tomorrow. His song “John Brown” is often covered by Session Americana and Pesky J. Nixon. It’s a show-stopper of a song. Anyone who can write a song about a nineteenth century abolitionist and give it so much soul is someone who earns my respect.

Jimmy has recorded with Warren Zevon, Morphine, Catie Curtis, Brooks Williams, Girls, Guns and Glory, Sarah Borges and many others. Anyone who loves a groovin’ mandolin, will love Jimmy Ryan.

To learn more about Jimmy Ryan, check out his website.

When did you first pick up a musical instrument?

I started playing 1 string guitar when I was 8 years.old.

Your biography says that you grew up attending bluegrass festivals and whatnot. Did you immediately feel drawn in by that kind of music?

All my buddies were huge music fans growing up. Into all kinds of music. The local college radio station in Binghamton,NY was incredible and in the late 60’s and early 70’s there was sooo much good music. They had folk shows. Country blues was big there. I went and saw Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, Balfa Bros, Clifton Chenier. Chuck Berry, Pharaoh Sanders, Victoria Spivey. It was a great place — SUNY Binghamton for the local kids to discover other worlds thru music etc. I used to follow Utah Phillips around the place.

I had some friends who had a pile of guitars and banjos that we’d all whack away on.I picked mandolin because nobody else wanted to play it and I’m always for the underdog. It was then my Mom told me about Bluegrass and Bill Monroe (she was from the Allegheny Mtns). I always enjoy putting mandolin into unexpected musical contexts. I enjoyed David Grisman’s contribution’s to the Grateful Dead’s early stuff, but would not consider myself a Deadhead. All my rock loving pals enjoyed Bluegrass as well. There wasn’t as much gentrification of music then. There was music you liked and music you didn’t but you didn’t much care what people called it.

Tell us about some of your early bands like the Blood Oranges, Beacon Hillbillies and Wooden Leg. Is that where you perfected your mandolin chops?

Blood Oranges was totally me trying to get a Bluegrass/Rock hybrid thing to varying degrees of success. Cheri Knight played bass and sang and wrote some incredible songs. She later recorded a record with Steve Earle producing that we all played on. Mark Spencer played guitar. Ron Ward played drums. I guess if we were around now we’d be considered Americana..Back then our record label didn’t know what to do with us. It’s that genre thing again..Record stores couldn’t find a category for us in the bins. The same day we got a 4 star review in Rolling Stone we cleared a club in Atlanta for being weird, I reckon.

Beacon Hillbillies was a band with the late great John McGann and Jim Whitney and a variety of pickers, like Tony Trishka, Stacey Phillips, Evan Stover, Gordon Stone, Matt Glaser.We only toured in Japan and Singapore.

Wooden Leg was another Bluegrass Rock experiment with Joe Kessler on Fiddle, Brian Dunton on bass,Mickey Bones on drums. We did some touring opening shows for Morphine that were quite fun.

My chops are pretty average, as far as I’m concerned. I love playing Mandolin but I’ve never tried to get into being the best at it. I don’t enjoy competitive approaches in music. It’s about joy not power, to me.

We’d love to hear some stories about your work with Mark Sandman. What are your favorite memories associated with Mark?

Mark Sandman was a true musical adventurer and I really responded to that. He recorded constantly and you never knew when you’d end up on one of his records..We had a great time hanging out talking about music, art, food, the ladies. He was a lot of fun.

You’re an in-demand side musician. Do you feel a lot of pressure when you get hired to do these gigs with musicians who you may not know? Or do you just dive in and let your musical instincts take over?

Sideman gigs are always interesting — you are there to serve the song and the singer. It’s not about you. I spent 6 years working as a sideman with Catie Curtis and I enjoyed the living beejeezus out it. She is one of the best.

I’m glad I chose the “music thing” — I don’t know how to do anything else.

Quick Q and A with Buskin and Batteau
 by Kathy S-B  ·  9 October 2012

David Buskin and Robin Batteau are two of the most talented musicians I know. But you need to know this about them — they are seldom very serious when interviewed. They get their sillies on so bear in mind that tongues are stuck firmly in cheeks here.

Take a listen to B&B’s new CD, Love Remembered, Love Forgot. Despite what the musicians say below, trust me. It’s a darn good CD. Plenty of guest musicians are involved in this recording: Tom Rush, Jonathan Brooke, Krista Detor, Pat Wictor, Trina Hamlin, Eric Schwartz, Yani Batteau and Sophie Buskin. Add a fabulous rhythm section of B&B percussionist extraordinaire, Marshal Rosenberg as well as Jeff St. Pierre on bass, Kevin Barry on various guitars and Corey Schreppel on drums and you’ve got so much talent pressed into those grooves that it’s insane!

For more information about Buskin and Batteau, check out their website.

You’ve just released a brand new CD, Love Remembered, Love Forgot. Any comparisons to your last CD, Red Shoes and Golden Hearts?

David: It’s much better, since it’s mostly Robin’s stuff.

Robin: Right. All the mistakes.

It was fun to watch and hear about the progress of this CD via producer Neale Eckstein’s exquisite photos, videos, and brilliant witticisms on Facebook. It sounds like it was a lot of fun — especially bringing old friend, Tom Rush, in to sing on “One Month Crazier Than You.”

Robin: Tom kept bugging us for years about being allowed to appear on an album. We finally caved, just to get him to quit it, and because Neale - plus Annie Wenz - wrote such a great song, Tom didn’t completely ruin the record for once.

David: Neale? Brilliant witticisms? Once he said something mildly amusing, and he’s been coasting on it every since.

Also because of the wonders of Facebook, your fans were all pretty tickled with the song by song critique by another friend of yours, Christine Lavin. Care to tell everyone about that tale from Kerrville through the CD getting popped into Christine’s CD player. ;-)

Robin: Neale gave it to Chris at Kerrville, and she said “Huh,” or something equally witty. Popped it in her bag and thought nothing more of it, nor did she even know what it was, until she put it on at random after a bunch of other Kerrville detritus. The rest is Facebook history.

David: True.

The New York Times has called you “the most musically sophisticated act in folk.” That’s some compliment. So did you duke it out as to who was the most sophisticated in the band and did Marshal come in as number 1? And do you suppose they’ve heard “Jews Don’t Camp?” ;-)

Robin: Unaccustomed as I am to responding to intimations via the hoi polloi, I feel it is nonetheless incumbent upon me to defer to Immanuel Kant, who once said to Werner Heisenberg, “I didn’t park the car, (expletive deleted), you parked the car.”

David: Marshal? Sophisticated? I mean it’s okay to eat with your hands sometimes, but soup?

You’ve got a radio show on WPKN in Bridgeport, CT. It’s fun listening to you because you never know what you’ll play or what you’ll say next but what I like the most is that you make a real concerted effort to recognize the folk community — musicians, presenters, and fans. We’re all in this together. Do you find doing this show a rewarding experience?

Robin: There’s a reward?

David: You betcha. It’s like being a kid coming home from the record store and getting your friends to listen to what you bought. “You gotta hear this!”

You’ve both had your songs covered by a crazy, wild eclectic group of musicians like Judy Collins, Whitney Houston, Johnny Mathis, Astrud Gilberto, Peter, Paul & Mary, Pat Benatar and even Paul Newman. Wow! You have some impressive bullet points on your resumes, that’s for sure. But have you both shared one of those “wow . . . this is too great for words” moments together?

Robin: Watching Whitney Houston and Pat Benatar mud wrestle over who would get to sing “Here Comes Mr. Chicken” pretty much made our careers. And then the two of them trading licks on lines like “Ain’t no cocky dude’ll do ya like this cocky dude’ll do heaven.”

David: It’s pretty cool when someone else sings your song, but it’s really cool backing up other singers. Playing with Stevie Goodman on “City of New Orleans” or Jennifer Warnes on “Bernadette” or Krista Detor on “Clock of the World” were wow moments. Singing the Dave Lambert part on “Come On Home” with Jon Hendricks and his daughter was up there too. Not to mention singing to Carole King, “But Will You Pay Us Tomorrow?”

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