A Conversation with Paul Burch (continued)

PM: I've heard Tim O'Brien on lots of great records, but here he just sounds like he's having a fantastically good time.

PB: It does. He was having a really good time. At the end of one of the songs he said [laughs]--I wish I--it's on tape, but it didn't make the record--at the end of one of the songs he said, "Calexico, eat our dust!"

[laughter]

PB: And then he said, "Calexico, eat our angel dust."

[laughter]

PB: He's such a funny guy. He's like the ninja something or other, the secret super hero walking down the street. He is one bad dude. He just kicks anybody's ass. And a couple of times I've seen him where he starts off a show really, really nice, and it's impeccably played and sung. And then he'll just quietly put it into another gear, and he'll just lay waste. Because if you're a real musician you'll just think this guy is really good. And then he'll hit you harder, and you'll realize what a heavyweight he really is. He did a show when Bill Monroe passed away, they did a tribute show at the Ryman. And before he came on, Mark O'Connor came on. And Mark was very dignified and very classically-music, and said, "Now I'm going to play 'Kentucky Waltz' by Bill Monroe."

PM: [laughs]

PB: And he did it. And it was just really, really good. I didn't care for it that much, but I mean, Mark O'Connor is--

PM: A virtuoso, sure.

PB: He's a heavy duty guy.

PM: Yeah.

PB: And Tim O'Brien comes out, and he just comes out with just a fiddle and plays "Working On A Building" and completely steals the show, and makes Mark O'Connor look like he had no connection to country music--which isn't true, of course, because he grew up playing Texas fiddle music, and he's got deep, deep roots. But anyway, Tim is just amazing. I was very honored to have him, and he's a really, really funky guy. The solos on that stuff are just really great.

PM: I mean, how he'd make the bouzouki sound like a mandolin on one song and a twelve-string guitar on the next song...

PB: I know. And he's very funny, too. The first time I met him I was so shy. This was years and years ago. I said, "Hi, Tim. I used to play one of your songs, 'One-Way Street.'" And he goes, "Why'd you stop?"

[laughter]

PB: Those were the first words he ever said to me.

PM: I interviewed Chris Smither yesterday, and Tim was all over his record, too.

PB: Oh, really? I love Chris Smither. He's great.

PM: I forget which song it's on, but there's one that right before a double-time section at the end, Tim starts bending the hell out of the notes on the bouzouki. I mean, you can't pay for that stuff. He's just the greatest. [see our interview with Tim]

And I love [keyboardist] Jen Gunderman.

PB: Yeah, she's great, isn't she?

PM: It's hard to find Wurlitzer players like that. She really knows how to work that particular rig.

PB: She does. And it's not a sound you hear very much, so I think it fits in really well to the kind of--the little bit of wobble that's always in the sound.

PM: Sometimes she reminded me of Banana in the Youngbloods, one of the great Wurlitzer guys, who certainly knows his way around old-timey and country music.

PB: Oh, yeah! God, I forgot all about him.

[Banana is still gigging, his schedule is here, and he has a business called Players Vintage Instruments in Inverness, CA.]

PM: He was really good at that, and good at banjo and guitar and all kinds of things. But yeah, she really reminded me of him sometimes. I don't know her personally, but she seems, when I've been in her company, she seems like a real special person.

PB: She does. She's actually teaching a rock 'n' roll class at Vanderbilt, and plays and does sessions. And her husband is an excellent guitar player, too. He's actually one tour with the Dixie Chicks now.

PM: Yeah. Audley Freed. And he also does the Keith Richards type playing extremely well. Your friend Kelly Hogan is superlative on vocals on East To West.

PB: Yeah, she is. She's another person who lays waste to most of the other people who could come up and sing. Have you heard her solo records that she's done for Bloodshot and Long Play?

PM: I've heard her here and there, and I've heard her with Neko Case. But I don't really know her solo records.

PB: She is really incredible. We're working on this project of songs that Margaret Ann Rich wrote for Charlie Rich, her husband.

PM: Wow.

PB: And I think she has Margaret's blessing and support. I've tried to talk her into coming down here to do it. [Hogan lives in the Chicago area.] But wherever she does it, it'll be great, because she's--

PM: Oh, she's got to come down here and cut that.

PB: I know. Well, she should come down, because she has a lot to say. She would be a good person for your webzine.

PM: She and I talked a little on a Neko interview once. They were both in a car heading to a gig. And Neko said, "Well, she's sitting right here. You talk to her." And so we talked about her playing make out music at this regular gig in Chicago.  continue

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