A Conversation with Amy LaVere (continued)

AL: Well, musically, the band was obviously starting to really veer away from what I was interested in. And there was a little bit of jealousy between Gabe and I, because he was always the front man of the Gabe and Amy show. And I would have my four or five songs I would sing. But I would sing a song, and people would love it, because it was novel for the whole show for me to finally sing one. And I think that kind of pissed him off. And also, musically speaking, Gabe was a lot more knowledgeable and technically skilled than I was. And he was more of writer. He was really just more of a leader of the band. And it really, after a while, got to bother him that people weren't interested.

PM: You were starting to get more attention.

AL: I was starting to get a lot more attention, yeah. And that was really wearing on him, because truthfully, for a good period of time, I was the one working and paying the bills, and Gabe was the one sitting at home writing and practicing, and getting to really work up his craft. And then I would sing a Merle Haggard song and bring the house down. So it always kind of pissed him off, and rightly so, in a way.

PM: Well, you can understand, at least. But hey, it happens.

AL: And for a long period of time, Gabe had me convinced that I really was just a novelty, and it was just the fact that I was cute and playing a big upright bass why anyone gave a damn. But I get hired for too much session work now for me to buy into that anymore.

PM: Right.

AL: But it was pretty bad. Gabe was more of a real artist than I was, and with it came all of the drinking and the depression. He was a very talented, eccentric guy. He had a lot of rules. We weren't allowed to use computers. He had this incredible artistic integrity.

PM: Oh, the Rockabilly ethic.

AL: Yeah, maybe so.

PM: Well, I certainly have musician friends that think computers are the devil.

AL: He really believes things like that. He wouldn't answer the phone--he just had a lot of rules. And he also made a vow of poverty, so to speak.

PM: Ah.

AL: And it was just really hard, because as much as I wanted to understand what he called artistic integrity, for me it was a cop out in a lot of ways. And so we just started thinking differently. He would kind of sabotage our opportunities under the guise of artistic integrity.

PM: Right.

AL: In the end, the reason I absolutely loved him was the same reason that I just couldn't stay with him. We knew each other three weeks when we got married.

PM: Oh, wow!

AL: And hell, I think we did pretty damn good. We were together over five years, so it worked, I guess. I mean, it was really incredible. And we both are still very cordial to each other. And if we saw each other, we'd probably tear up and hug.

PM: So what's he doing now?

AL: He's living in Oxford, Mississippi. And he is playing electric bass right now with one of the Kimbroughs. [The late Junior Kimbrough is profiled in the book and DVD of the same name, "Deep Blues", both available at amazon.com]

PM: Oh, really? Which one, do we know?

AL: I think it was Kevin Kimbrough, but I can't be sure.

PM: Okay.

AL: Someone told me that the other day, that that's what he's been doing. And he works at a bar on the square. Apparently he's getting his residency, because he had a degree in sculpture. He had an Ivy League degree in sculpture.

PM: Oh, wow.

AL: He's getting his residency there to get his masters in sculpture. Gabe is extremely talented. He really will do something great.

PM: Yeah. So what happened first? You and Gabe split up, or the band split up?

AL: It happened all at once.

PM: And then how did you start to make your way? Were you back at a gig the next week with a different bunch of guys, or it took a while, or--

AL: Well, actually, the gigs kept coming. And I was always kind of the go-to person. There was probably about a three-month period that I didn't play while I was getting another band together. But at the same time I was still getting offers to play gigs with other bands locally. So I never quit playing.

And I started writing, really, which wasn't new to me. But I had this surge of energy about it. I just started to pour it out, I guess. And [drummer] Paul Buchignani kept playing with me. And I moved into this apartment above a record store called Last Chance Records. And while I was living up there, the roommate across the hall was this French guy named Fabian, who was a harmonica player. And they would be playing next door, just harmonica and guitar with this guy named Jason Freeman, who fronted as a band called the Bluff City Backsliders, and a snare player named Jeff Pope. And it was just totally perfect. I couldn't have moved in to a better place. It was incredible.

PM: Unbelievable.

AL: I had a ready-made band right next door. So I just started playing with Jason Freeman. We got to know each other, and we would just kind of have these jams upstairs where I would feed the wayward boys. [laughs] I would make a pot of something to coax them over, and we would just jam in my kitchen.

PM: That's amazing.

AL: And Jason and I got to be very close. He's just a wonderful guy. He's got a great girl, and I just love them both. And we've been playing together ever since. For the last two years we've been each other's bread and butter.

PM: And he's your guitar player now.

AL: He is my guitar player.

PM: And does he sing in the band, too?

AL: Yeah, he does. And he deserves his own record deal. But I can't tell him that too much.

PM: Yeah, right.

AL: He's a great songwriter. Now, he's got a much more old traditional blues style, blues aesthetic. And he's a quirky guitar player. He's got a real kind of quirky, kind of primitive, but definitely unique, real jazzy old blues style of playing. And it's funny, because some people, when they see us, say, "You would be better with a different guitar player." And then there are other people that think he makes the whole thing happen.

PM: So how and when did you run into Jimbo Mathus and Jim Dickinson? They do great things on your record.

AL: Well, [multi-instrumentalist] Paul Taylor and I were friends, and I moved back into my old house, where I had lived with Gabe. I have two huge dogs, so I really needed the yard. And after a period of time, I realized I kind of needed a roommate, because it was a little bit beyond my means. Paul had been living in Coldwater with Jim Dickinson. Paul grew up playing with Luther and Cody [Pianist/Producer Jim Dickinson's sons, now famous for their band, The North Mississippi Allstars]. He was "T" in their early band, DDT. [See our interview with Luther and Cody.]

PM: Right.

AL: Paul had been living out in a trailer in Coldwater, on Jim's property, and he wanted to get back into town--it was getting to be winter and he didn't like driving back and forth. He was in a band that would often borrow my PA. And we were more acquaintances than we were friends. So he came over to borrow my PA one time, and he mentioned that he was looking to move back into the neighborhood. And I said, "Well, I've got a spare bedroom." And so, strangely enough, we became roommates. And it was very awkward for a good period of time, because Paul is a hard guy to know. He's a sweetheart, but just a hard guy to get to know. About six months later in a drunken Scrabble game, we started kind of seeing each other.

PM: Do you remember what the last word formed was before something happened?

AL: I think it was the word "wearings."

PM: "Wearings"?

[laughter]

PM: So he had lived at Jim Dickinson's place.

AL: Right. But he was touring. He was touring as Jimbo Mathus's bass player in a band called The Knockdown Society.

PM: Ah, yeah, right. I was looking at that record on line this morning.

AL: And Paul had always been my sub-drummer. So that's really how I knew him, because I think I called him cold and got him to play some casino gigs with me. I'd known him around town, casually, but never really had much of a conversation with him. But I'd called him to play some casino gigs with me.

PM: Right. But we're still getting to the part where you meet Jim Dickinson and Jimbo Mathus.   continue

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