A Conversation with Happy Traum (continued)

PM: So I really liked, too, your latest record, I Walk the Road Again.

HT: Oh, thanks.

PM: Had it been some time between records?

HT: Yes, it had been a really long time between solo records, records that I'd just done on my own. Probably around 20 years.

PM: Whoa!

HT: Yeah, really a long time. There was a reissue of a couple things I did in the '70s and the late '80s, around '88.

PM: So it was a major occasion to get out and do a record.

HT: Yeah, it was, just to get out and put some ideas down. I haven't done that in a long time. Get some friends together.

PM: I was happy to see your son Adam appears.

HT: Yeah. He's a good player, too.

PM: And he lives out in Sonoma County?

HT: That's right, yeah.

PM: My old stompin' ground. I sure like it out there.

HT: Oh, yeah.

PM: And of course, a number of your talented friends from the Woodstock community and beyond appear as well. One of my oldest friends, Leslie Ritter, is paired with her old partner, Amy Fradon--

HT: Yeah, that's right.

PM: --and with her current partner, Scott Petito, on several cuts. I grew up with Leslie. She's become quite a great singer. And it's always a pleasure, of course, to hear Jay Ungar and Molly Mason. And Cindy Cashdollar, wow.

HT: Absolutely.

PM: Who's the drummer, Russ Cashdollar?

HT: That's Cindy's brother.

PM: Wow. And always, Larry Campbell brings a lot to any record, and he did to yours as well.

HT: Always. Yeah, Larry is a very, very close friend.

PM: So only on a couple of cuts, though, does your brother and producer Artie show up, and play some of his incredible stuff. We know each other a little bit. How is Artie doing?

HT: He's doing well. I just talked to him about fifteen minutes before you called.

PM: Yeah, a fantastic guy.

HT: Yeah, we're going to Japan together next week.

PM: Wow. To do...?

HT: We're going to do five gigs over there. A Japanese company just put out a CD of old tapes found from concerts that we did in the '70s and early '80s, so it's live stuff, almost like bootleg sounding kind of stuff. But they packaged it nicely with photographs. They're putting that out, so we're going over there to help support that.

PM: The Japanese are just amazing like that. They're such incredible culture vultures.

HT: Yep.

PM: It’s a rare pleasure, these days, to hear somebody cut a Paul Siebel song.

HT: Oh, yeah. That was fun.

PM: And you did a great job on "Pinto Pony."

HT: Thanks.

PM: My Nashville friend, Tom Mitchell, from the Woodstock '60s, tells me Paul Siebel stories sometimes.

HT: Oh, does Tom live in Nashville?

PM: He does, yeah, for many years. We're very good friends.

HT: I haven't seen him in years.

PM: But if I may, I'll tell him you said hey.

HT: Please do, absolutely.

PM: I used to see Paul Siebel at the Main Point, myself, in Bryn Mawr, around 1970. I mean, it's just unthinkable to me that guys like that cannot be seen on the road, not at all.

HT: Right. No, he doesn't tour anymore.

PM: Just long retired, or--

HT: Yeah, he's just plays occasionally. In fact, he came to Woodstock last year. And Eric Anderson was here, we did a little show. I just played a few songs with them. It was actually Eric Anderson's show, but Paul came to visit, so Paul did some songs.

PM: Wow.

HT: It was really fun, yeah.

[designer aside: I recently happened upon a live Paul Seibel album recorded in 1978. It's listed under "David Bromberg" at iTunes--Bromberg is accompanying Siebel. Here are clips of "If I Could Stay" and "Pinto Pony" live. But if you don't have those legendary first two studio albums of Siebel's, Woodsmoke & Oranges and Jack-Knife Gypsy, that's where the real gold is to be found. They've been re-mastered and issued as a compilation CD.]

PM: How is Eric Anderson, and how does he sound these days?

HT: He sounds like his old self.

PM: Somebody told me, oh, yeah, he's the king of Norway, or something.

[laughter]

HT: Yeah.

PM: And he's got a blossoming career out there, is that true, or--

HT: In Europe?

PM: Yeah.

HT: Yeah, he works in Europe a lot.

PM: Does he live in Scandinavia?

HT: Well, he did. I think he's spending a lot more time in Holland now. But he shows up--in fact, he just played in this area, at The Town Crier. I didn't get to it.

PM: I sure liked what John Sebastian did on your record, a lot of good stuff.

HT: Oh, John is great, yeah.

PM: On top of his signature harp playing, the idea of him fingerpicking it seemed like electric baritone underneath your acoustic was a great idea.

HT: That's right. He does that a lot, yeah.

PM: I'm not sure I'd ever heard that idea before. But I'm going to swipe that idea, that's a lot of fun.

HT: Great. Yeah, he's really good at it, too.   continue

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