A Conversation with Cindy Cashdollar (continued)

PM: After so many years in the band, it had to be a radical turning point in your life to leave Asleep at the Wheel, right?

CC: It was. It was a horribly scary decision to make, because after almost nine years, I just thought, well, now what? After being in that kind of a cocoon--and I reached up out of that cocoon once in a while to do projects, but it was just a decision that definitely the time had come. It was kind of the urge to do something different, and also to get back to playing what I used to play before the Wheel, more acoustic-based stuff. The steel to me was just a hobby that kind of got out of control.

PM: [laughs]

CC: It was a little thing that I was doing on the side, and then the opportunity to audition for the Wheel came along. And it was just like it became a monster. It was a fun monster for a long time. That was western swing boot camp, for sure.

PM: Right.

CC: And Ray Benson, to his credit, when I joined, he said, "Now, you got six months to get up to speed on this instrument." Because it was no secret that I had just kind of started dabbling in it. And so it really was like an education. And musically, what a great experience.

PM: Oh, unbelievable.

CC: To leave was--I just didn't know what was going to happen. But I left on good terms. I remember walking into Ray's office and saying, "I'm burned out." That's what I said, "I'm burned out." What he said was, "I can't believe it took you this long."

[laughter]

CC: That's the first thing he said. Because generally the life span of the musicians who came and went in that band was about six years. I mean, there are still some there that have been there for eighteen, twenty years now. But for the steel players or fiddle players, the lifespan seemed to be like six, seven years.

PM: Right.

CC: And here I was going on nine. So I left on good terms, and left and thought, "What am I going to do?" And I remember going home and just sitting down with my address book and calling everybody I knew, and just said, "I'm available."

PM: Right. Those two beautiful words you want to hear from every woman.

[laughter]

CC: I didn't think about that.

[laughter]

CC: Yeah, I went to every bathroom stall--

PM: "For a good time..."

CC: Right.

[laughter]

CC: I never thought of it like that. But as it turned out, I toured BeauSoleil that year, because that was their 25th Anniversary Tour. And things started happening, but it just took a while. It definitely took a while. And it took a while to get out of the western swing head, too.

PM: No doubt, and back into like simpler music, and acoustic-based music. I mean, that's a real shifting of gears, no doubt.

CC: It was a shift. But I'm glad that all that musical stuff from playing western swing--because it really is jazz on country--

PM: Harmonically it's definitely jazz.

CC: Harmonically, it's pretty much the same. So it all seemed to work. And I still work with Ray once in a while, and we get together and commiserate. So I'm glad that connection is still there. But it all worked out. And it's scary being in the freelance world, for sure.

PM: And how has it been these years, freelance? Some years lean, some fat, or pretty steady all through?

CC: It goes up and down. And it will get to certain times where you go, "Oh, my God, what am I going do?" and then the phone will ring. But that's what you accept in any job that you have, where you're self-employed.

PM: Right.

CC: You just have to have faith that something will come along. And if you are having a down time, you have to utilize it wisely. And that's the time that you use to maybe just work on new stuff, or work on things that you've never tried before. Because when you're freelancing, you're usually in the position of constantly learning other people's tunes, and you're jumping from one gig to another. And you're just always kind of--first of all, you're playing other people's music, and you're always kind of thinking fast on your feet.

PM: So in down time, do you still practice, at this point in your career?

CC: I try to. Just the other day I thought, "God"--I was actually sitting down practicing, which can mean two different things. That means actually working on something that you're having problems with, maybe some style that you want to learn, or it can mean just sitting there playing whatever pops in your head. And that's what I was doing, I was just sitting there kind of noodling around, thinking, "God, when was the last time I did this?" It had been a long time. So it was kind of nice, actually.

PM: Well, yeah, in Nashville, I have some friends that when they're home, they're off the road, they don't even pick up their guitar, it sits in the corner. And they say, "Nah, I'm tired of playing that thing, man. I play it all the time."

[laughter]

CC: I know. And I've got my times like that, too, for sure. But it's nice to just put on a CD where I'm not sitting there charting it out, or trying to absorb it while I'm sitting. I'm just like, "Oh, here's Stan Getz, great. I'll put this on." That kind of thing.

PM: Yeah, right.

CC: People always think that when I'm home I must listen to like roots music all the time. But when I'm home I usually listen to a lot of old jazz stuff or--

PM: That's an album I'll go back to to the grave.

CC: Stan Getz?

PM: Oh, yeah. Back all the time to that. "Corcavado" and all those tunes.

CC: Oh, God, it's just something about Red and Ira's teasing each other about, "Hey, did you learn 'Desafinado' last week?" I've heard that joke for a year--

PM: [laughs]

CC: --because I still maintain that guitar and steel doing bossa nova would be a great thing.

PM: Oh, yeah. I mean, I love to write bossa nova.

CC: Oh, you do?

PM: And my friends that I co-write with a lot here, they said, "Frank, forget that bossa nova stuff. We got to get cut." [laughs] And so I've really buckled down this last year and a half, and we're just writing for the market. But whenever I'm sitting by myself, it's like, "I want to write that."

CC: Oh, wow. See, I've never talked to anybody who actually wrote bossa nova.

PM: Oh, I've got several friends here that write it very well, and just love those voicings. [laughs] But they kind of--they shut up about it because they're trying to be pop writers or country writers, or whatever. But I mean, it's an irresistible style to play and write, and it's so romantic.

CC: It is. It's just a beautiful, happy kind of--it always makes you feel like you're at the beach. That's what it reminds me of, the beach. [laughs]

PM: Yeah, the first couple of cuts I get, I'm buying a house on some Mexican beach and parking my ace under a palm tree and writing the new bossa nova.

CC: I don't blame you. I think it's great music. And boy, you talk about jazz chords--I mean, there are some chords in there.

PM: And somebody invented that style in the garage in Cuba in a certain year. It didn't exist before that time. That's the curious thing about bossa nova, it's really traceable down to two or three guys.

CC: Oh, I didn't know that.

PM: There's even a book on it. [See our book review from a few years back.] And Jobim is one of the guys, and Joao Gilberto--

CC: Oh!

PM: --they just kind of came up with it. They were trying to come up with something new, and that's the rhythm that happened.     

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