A Conversation with Jim Lauderdale  (continued)

PM: Yeah, when I was up in Portland a month or two back, I saw you were opening up for Billy Joe Shaver.

JL: Yeah, I love Billy Joe. Then a couple of weeks after that, I went out with Lucinda. But Carter Wood, she's got it, she's got the whole deal. I think she's gonna do real well, too.

PM: Although she writes way outside the box when she chooses to, I don't see why she couldn't land a major deal if she showed them the right tunes, right? Have you heard that 4 or 5 song CD of hers that's going around?

JL: That's one of my favorite records.

PM: I'm fascinated by your long standing writing relationship with Robert Hunter, one of my favorite lyricists. [career long songwriting partner of Jerry Garcia and co-author of a trunkload of Grateful Dead classics] Tell us how that came about, and something of your friendship.

JL: A couple of years ago, Ralph Stanley agreed to do this duet record with me. I wanted to write the bulk of it, and do a few older Stanley Brothers songs. A buddy of mine on the West Coast named Rob Bleetstein...

PM: Oh sure, I remember him. He was working with Lucky Dog Records, and with Gavin.

JL: Right. He kinda started that Americana chart at Gavin. Rob suggested I get somebody to email Robert Hunter. I still don't have a computer, though [speaks directly into the microphone for emphasis] I'm going to get one before this piece appears. So he emailed him, and Robert faxed me some lyrics. I'd heard that Robert was a big Stanley Brothers fan.

He sent me a couple of things, and a melody came right out, which is a really good test for me. I know I can cowrite with somebody if their poetry sets off a melody for me. So I was really happy about that. When I was in the studio with Ralph, I said [to Hunter] "Do you have anything else? This afternoon is my last day to do this, and I gotta come up with something..." And he faxed me another one, and it was called "Trust Guiding Star" And I said, "You know, I think this one is better for an electric record." He was okay with that. "How about I keep this one for my RCA record?" So he was cool about that. We ended up having two on that Ralph Stanley record.

He kept saying he was going to come to Nashville sometime. One day he called me and said, "I'm here." So I went right over to his hotel, and started laying down some melodies, and things would just kinda come out. We'd tape them, and he'd just start writing lyrics. The next day, or whatever, he'd have it all done. He was here about eight weeks, and we wrote about thirty-four tunes.

PM: Sweet Jesus.

JL: Yeah, I want to whittle them down... He's a huge Gillian Welch fan, so there are a couple of songs I'd like for her and Dave to play on. I want to get Buddy Miller on it, whom he also likes a lot. And Donna the Buffalo, too, I don't know if you're acquainted with them.

PM: I've heard about them, but I'm not familiar with their music yet.

JL: They're from upstate NY. They're kind of a Cajun Country Rock band, from around Ithaca. They're also what you might call a "jam band" [like Phish, Widespread Panic, etc.].

PM: Hipster country, nothing wrong with that.

JL: So there's a cut I'd like to get them on, and they're coming through the week after next, so I'm gonna get them on something. They're really sharp, couple of good guitarists, a fiddle player. They're becoming a real mainstay on the festival circuit. Like Merlefest, and Harvest Fest outside Atlanta, Magnolia Fest in Florida. There seems to be a kinship between them and Peter Rowan, for instance. They're going to be at Telluride. It's interesting that at many of the festivals, there's frequently a mixture of Bluegrass, jam bands, acoustic stuff, it's almost like a World Music thing going on. There are still a number of straight ahead Bluegrass festivals, too, of course. But there's a lot of this World Music thing going on, which is neat.

PM: It's amazing, that those things intermingled. Who would have thought that the Country or Bluegrass scenes would welcome in the notion of jam bands. But acts like Newgrass Revival, David Grisman, Tony Rice, they paved the way by jamming themselves.

JL: Exactly, sure. So with this Robert Hunter stuff, the only problem for me is the timing of releases. I want to do that, but in February I also want to put out this record The Hummingbirds are Coming Back that I was talking about [with Sam Bush, Tony Rice, and Donna the Buffalo, also Emmy Lou Harris and Julie Miller sing on a song]. I've got the second Ralph Stanley record...

PM: Will Hummingbirds also be a Dualtone record?

JL: Probably.

PM: I was surprised when I talked with Buddy Miller [see last month's interview] that he was a big [Jerry] Garcia guy, a big fan of the San Francisco rock scene. Were you a fan of the Dead at any point?

JL: Definitely, in high school. Especially Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, I listened to them over and over.

PM: I still won't take any long trip in the car without those two.

JL: And the Live in Europe record that had "I Know You Rider" on it. 'Cause I was also into The Seldom Scene [D.C. Bluegrass sensations with dobro giant Mike Auldridge] and they had that song "Rider." I used to go to a lot of Bluegrass festivals in high school.

PM: So you were introduced to Robert Hunter through Rob Bleetstein, and hadn't been previously acquainted with him or Garcia, then.

JL: Right, I was just a fan of Robert's but had never met him. He hasn't played out in a while, though I think he's looking to do it again. He's got a big following of his own, when he just goes out and does his solo act. He used to do stuff with the Jerry Garcia Band and has had different combos, but my impression is that his latest tours have been solo.

PM: Along those lines, the Deadheads are an amazingly loyal bunch. Has any outreach to that crowd been attempted?

JL: Not many people know about it yet, but occasionally people will ask if the "R. Hunter" in a certain song credit means Robert Hunter, and seem interested by the connection. A given reviewer may mention our association in passing, that kind of thing. Again, I may feel the urgency to get my stuff out there, but there's not a huge demand for it, so I don't want to step on a record that's still getting worked.

PM: There's almost no way that demand could keep up with the rate you write songs. Even when you're touring, you're a prolific cat by any standards.

JL: There was a lady named Marilyn Arthur in publicity at RCA when I was there, and I was telling her about all this stuff I wanted to put out there, and she said, "You're like a Jazz artist. You want to put out a lot of stuff." It's normal to put out a record a year, or eighteen months. I'd like to put out two or three every year, but there's not a big enough audience to support that. I've toyed with the idea of putting the Robert Hunter record out on the Internet, but I don't know if that is up and running enough, or if it works.

PM: Well, it's normal for me to post some notices about the new Puremusic in the appropriate discussion groups. So, with this issue, for instance, I'd drop in to some Grateful Dead discussion groups and mention our new interview with Jim Lauderdale, who collaborates a lot with Robert Hunter. We'll develop a feel for how many people are coming to check that out, and that might give you some indication about whether the Internet would be a viable avenue for the Hunter record. After all, Dualtone is only going to release one record per year, given the budget and the agenda, and you already have two you want to do. There are certainly a lot of people that would like to see multiple Lauderdale releases annually, the more you do that, the more there will be. Especially because they'd be different kinds of records: Hard Country, Bluegrass, Alternative Country, songs with Robert Hunter, et cetera.

JL: Two a year, or maybe two at once, you know.

PM: You had some previous experience in musical theater before landing your recent role as George Jones in the stage production of The Tammy Wynette Story. Let's cover that.  continue

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