Quick Q and A with Jonathan Edwards
 by Kathy S-B  ·  28 July 2012

Jonathan Edwards career is a long, illustrious one. His big “crossover” hit, “Sunshine,” is one of those classic songs that can be found on numerous musical anthologies of the 1970s. It’s one of those songs that everybody knows the words to because it’s just so darn catchy. But Edwards’ career encompasses so much more. His albums cover a broad range of folk, country and even children’s music. It’s obvious that he’s very much at home on the stage whether it be solo or with any number of talented side musicians. He’ll be playing with a trio at his show at the me&thee on September 7, 2012.

Catch some Jonathan Edwards fever and check out this video to whet your musical appetite. For more information about Jonathan Edwards, visit his website.

I was an English major and I know my early American writers. So, I have to ask: Any relation? And if so, “Shanty” sure is quite different from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (although both are great in their own unique ways.)

No relation at all of any kind. Quite sure there are NO Televangelists in my bloodline OR my adopted line either for that matter, although my adoptive mom was a Presbyterian minister’s daughter. . . . The epitaphs coming out of that woman’s mouth from time to time throughout my childhood I guess were designed to either show me “The Way” or get my attention, I don’t know.

Is it accurate to say that your musical career really began and started to take off when you were living in the Boston area? What was the music scene like at that time?

I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was about 14 in military school. Then College in Athens, Ohio where I started playing in bands as diverse as folk trios right on into hard core blues and jam rock. THEN came Boston and the whole Cambridge Common and Boston Common “concerts” in the summers of ’68 and ’69. For me personally it was the coffee house circuit and playing with people like Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, Tom Rush, Jackson Browne, Loudon Wainwright, etc., There were a lot of us learning our craft and writing songs about it all at the time.

Tell us about your days with Capricorn Records and what it was like to open for the Allman Brothers.

Capricorn records was almost a family atmosphere. There were lots of bills that I played on that were JUST Capricorn artists. It had its own identifiable “brand” of artists and a certain integrity that went with it. Touring with “The Brothers” had a powerful effect on me commensurate with the powerful sound they were putting out on stage. I would show up with just my bass player and do 45 minutes or an hour and STILL get an encore! So I was thrilled to have the chance to rock the house even before they came out to finish the job!

Your self-titled album is a classic album. I feel like the songs are part of my DNA from having heard them so often back in the days of classic folk radio.

That album was really ideally placed at a time that seemed to need it. It meant a lot to a lot of people . . . certainly me. Spontaneity ruled the day. “Sure, try it” was our attitude and it reflects that kind of innocent, new, experimentation that I still try and capture on my more recent recordings.

Your next couple of albums had a more country feel to them. Did your fan base change a bit at that time? Did you capture a new kind of audience?

I have pretty deep bluegrass roots and the natural outgrowth of these acoustic musical values pointed me toward a more country-rock kind of feel. I was also doing a lot of shows with The Eagles and Poco and The Flying Burrito Brothers and Cowboy and I love that sort of amplified bluegrass with drums and an electric guitar here and there. And I was living in the country and it all just seemed like a natural progression.

What about your work with Seldom Scene. For us music fans, that was a magical collaboration. Was it as much fun as it sounds on the record?

Working with John Duffy and The Seldom Scene was one of the most valuable experiences of my career and I loved every minute of it. I had known John’s work with The Country Gentlemen and I had Mike Auldridge play dobro on my Warner Brothers records in the 70’s and I was always sitting in with them every chance I got. It was a natural evolution to spend a few days in the studio and see what we could come up with. I remember saying to the group something like, “We’re coming in tomorrow to fix some of the details, right?” And John says, “Nope, that’s the way those songs sound today and that’s the way we want to leave it”. Certainly an interesting approach to the art of recording and, for me, a really informative option. And yes, we had a BLAST making that record and I miss John dearly.

Can you imagine doing anything else for a living? What are you most proud of?

Yes, I’ve got tons of other interests and avocations but, the creating and performing of music is my #1 love. My high school guidance counselor, after taking a look at my aptitude test results, asked me if I had thought about welding as a career. I guess, like most proud parents, I’m most proud of my two amazing daughters and their accom­plishments. My younger daughter, Grace, has just released her 2nd album where she lives in France on Mercury/Universal Records called “Made For Change” which, like her, is STUNNING! It can be downloaded from itunes; oh and don’t forget the artwork that goes with it. My older daughter lives in L.A. and has two AMAZING daughters of her own. I’m also a bit proud of the body of work that I’ve managed to accumulate over these 40 something years and of the effect I’m told that my music has had on all my friends and fans and I’m eagerly looking forward to the next 40 something years and I’ll see you at the next show!

Photo by Stephen Ide

Great new Carter Family documentary in the works
 by Cliff Garber  ·  20 May 2012

Hey, Americana fans! There’s a wonderful documentary about the Carter family in post-production now that you’ll want to check out.

Quick Q and A with Kat Quinn
 by Kathy S-B  ·  25 February 2012

I knew Kat Quinn before she had a stage name.

I met Kat when she was in my son’s kindergarten class. She was Katharine Feeley then but college and a musical career have taken hold of this young woman from Marblehead and we couldn’t be happier for her! Kat participated in our annual Beatles benefit last summer and we couldn’t wait to find the perfect slot for her to come back and sing her own tunes.

Kat has just released a new EP called Exhale which was produced by Peter Calo, a long-time musical partner of Carly Simon’s. To learn more about Kat, check out her website. Here’s a little video that Kat has up on her new YouTube channel. And to give you an idea of what she’s like in front an audience, how about “a little help from my friends”?

I happen to know that you were very involved with the arts when you were attending school here in Marblehead. Did you ever in your wildest dreams ever think that you’d be pursuing a career as a musician?

Never! In high school, the drums were my main instrument. And I loved playing, but it was always more of a hobby than a potential career. I also did a lot of musical theater, but never a main role or anything. Singing in front of people used to terrify me! It never even crossed my mind to study music in college. My plan was to focus on International Studies and pursue a career in foreign service.

Do you recall any special turning point in which you began to view music differently? Have you always gravitated to acoustic music or was this a new passion that you discovered during college?

The summer after I graduated high school, was the first time I really got into playing the guitar. I would look up chords online and learn all my favorite songs. So college is really where I began exploring acoustic music. The turning point came about half way through my sophomore year when I sent the first few songs I had written to a recording artist/producer in LA who saw some potential in me. That was the first time I realized that this thing I loved doing so much, could maybe be more than just a hobby. It might actually be a career.

Tell us about your move to Nashville and then to New York. Did you have any contacts in the music worlds in either of those big cities or did you just plunge right in and see what it was like.

I was very lucky to have had music contacts lined up for me in both cities. I moved to Nashville to follow up on a series of meetings that had taken place on my behalf before I arrived. New York was a similar situation, but at the same time I was plunging in on my own. I was going to open mics and meeting people, and that’s really what gets things going in a more immediate way.

How would you describe your style to someone who did not know your music?

I have to do this all the time, and I still don’t have a very good answer. I usually call it acoustic, indie-pop. With a few exceptions, most of my music is pretty well-suited for a coffee shop setting (or a Coffee House!).

Do you have any current favorite musicians?

Hmmm . . . so many. I’m currently listening on repeat to Patty Griffin, Mariah McManus, Ingrid Michelson, and Andrew Belle.

What would your dream gig be like?

My songs are pretty lyric-based, so I really love playing intimate venues where you can actually hear the words. It would be in a cozy place like that. And since I’m dreaming. James Taylor would be singing backup.

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