A Conversation with Jeff Black (continued)

PM: So how did that first Arista record happen? Who was responsible? Who scouted you for that and picked you up?

JB: Well, I used to play down at 12th & Porter all the time.

PM: Sure.

JB: And I started getting this great little following down there. It turned out that some of the people that were fans happened to work at Arista. A woman named Deb Markland used to come down there. She turned a lot of folks at Arista on to my music. They used to come down there and hear me play. I'm always kind of in my own little world, so I didn't really even realize what was going on. Then I started getting phone calls from a guy named Cameron Randall that worked there. I was starting to feel kind of suspicious and thought, "Well, I don't know what's going on. Something seems to be going on." And I had gotten a couple of cuts.

PM: "That's Just About Right," that went #1 for Blackhawk, for instance.

JB: Yeah, and that sort of thing. And things started happening. One night they were doing a show for all the people from BMG when Arista still had their offices in town. I was just down there because it was before I'd actually gotten any money, and the idea of those guys inviting me down and getting to know some of those people was exciting, and also the allure of free beer was always wonderful at some of those music business functions.

PM: Yeah, a real draw.

JB: Yeah, man. I went down there to a show that night, and a bunch of acts were playing. And somebody was late or they couldn't show up. I remember Tim DuBois and Mike Dungan said, "Let's get Jeff up to play a couple of songs while we're waiting on those guys."

PM: Great.

JB: And I said, "Well, sure, man. If you guys got a guitar and pick and capo, I'll get up there and play a little bit. And I played a few songs and got a standing ovation. Tim DuBois walked out on stage and said, "If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to find a place for this guy on a record label."

PM: That must have blown your mind.

JB: You bet it did. I remember going back to the apartment and jumping on my coffee table and saying, "Goddamn, I think got me a frickin' record deal."

PM: What a night!

JB: It was out of this world. It's that fairy tale story. And since then, I've just been chipping away at it, man, the best that I can.

PM: How do you look back on that Arista record now? Did they do a good job with that? I don't know that record, I'm sorry to say.

JB: We actually started it with a guy named Don Smith out in California. And I thought, "Man, this is my first record, I want it to sound good, I want it to be the best it can be." And it had all the guys on it, Jim Keltner, and Tommy Stinson from the Replacements--

PM: Yo.

JB: --and Davey Faragher, and guys that played with John Hiatt and Counting Crows. Benmont Tench came out and played. But it wasn't what I had envisioned it to be.

PM: It wasn't you.

JB: It wasn't me. It wasn't all those guys. I remember calling Cameron Randall. I said, "Man, I don't know, buddy, I just don't think this is working." And so we regrouped, and I got a hold of Susan Rogers. And I knew that I was going to work with her about the first ten minutes I talked to her on the telephone.

PM: Really?

JB: My friend Ken Coomer lived in Nashville, who was part of Wilco at the time.

PM: Yeah.

JB: I said, "Hey, man, let's get together." They wanted to do a show for BMG folks who were coming to town. So I got all the guys from Wilco to come to back me up, and we went down to Texas and made that record. It really turned out to be the best thing I could ever do, and became this thing I felt very proud of. I don't know if it was the kind of record those guys thought I was going to make, but I learned so much from Susan that I think it enabled me to gain a little more confidence.

PM: In fact, I've heard some of your really early demos here at Silvertone, or Super 88, whatever it may have been called then, Jack Irwin's place.

JB: Yeah. And we did some stuff down at Sound Emporium early in the day. And Dave Pomeroy helped me immensely. We worked on this thing together which I hope someday we can kind of re-release and get out. So from Birmingham Road, it was one of those things where I was part of the big machine, and everything was really fun. I just thought, "Man, here we go. I don't know what's going to happen, but I sure am having a good time." We took a little band out on a tour. And then it was just barely about a year and they closed the Nashville office. That's when I started my venture down the indie road.

PM: Right.

JB: After that I made a record called Honey and Salt, which actually came out on Blue Rose Records over in Europe. Edgar Heckman was a fan and said, "Yeah, I'll put that record out. I'd love to." At about that same time came B-sides and Confessions. I pretty much recorded it over a weekend, in Nashville. I had some shows coming up, and I didn't have a new record, so we went down there and made that record.

PM: That was a hell of a good record for being knocked out in a weekend.

JB: I think the sense of urgency about it is something that made it happen.

PM: So did having a Blue Rose record mean that you did a lot of playing in Europe?

JB: No, sir. I've never been over there except for one little stint in London for a couple weeks. And I've gone to Italy for a show. That was about it. I'm working on a tour to go over there this spring, in March and April, over to the UK.

PM: Right. Because the UK seems like a good home for you.

JB: Yeah, I'd love to get over there and play.

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