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A Conversation with
Chris Stapleton (continued)
PM: I know [banjoist] Richard Bailey pretty well from around town; I've played with him a little, and we've used him on a lot of our demos. That's a really amazing guy and a rare musician. What do you think about him?
CS: I mean it as the highest compliment, I'm not necessarily a fan of the banjo as an instrument--
PM: [laughs]
CS: --but I like his banjo playing.
PM: Oh, that's funny that a bluegrass guy would say that.
CS: Well, don't quote me on that.
[laughter]
PM: But it's too funny not to quote you.
CS: A lot of the bluegrass music I liked was like Tony Rice Unit kind of stuff.
PM: Right.
CS: And I'm a huge Tim O'Brien fan and Darrell Scott, and kind of the new acoustic music of the world.
PM: Sure.
CS: But yeah, Richard--and I mean it as a compliment, I never thought I'd be in a band with a banjo player. But I'm glad that I am, because I've never met a banjo player that I think is as tasteful and as tonally just so nice.
PM: He's just got such a round sound, and such a musical approach to that sometimes really annoying instrument.
[laughter]
CS: Well, I'm not going to say it's annoying. I'm not going to go that far.
PM: And I play the banjo some, and I like the banjo, but it can be damn annoying.
CS: Well, yes, at times, you know--it's loud.
[laughter]
CS: And Richard is not a loud banjo player.
PM: No, it's very soft. You got to push him up to the mic half the time.
CS: He can play any music on a banjo and it doesn't bug you.
PM: Yeah.
CS: And I think that's the mark of somebody who's really a great musician. And that's the kind of musician that Richard Bailey is.
PM: Yep.
We've talked a lot about Henderson because it's hard to avoid. But it occurs to me to add that when I first got to town in '89 or so, I saw him--well, I saw him as often as I could, but I saw him on stage one time playing solo mandolin and singing, like Ry Cooder.
CS: Yeah.
PM: It was one of the best things I've ever seen anybody do. And I wish he'd do a little more of that kind of thing. I wonder if you guys do or ever would feature him on stage just getting up there with the mandolin and singing a song. I mean, it was awesome when he did that.
CS: Just him by himself with a mandolin?
PM: Yup.
CS: I'm sure that we would all be glad to let him do that. He's a strange character, in that he likes to sing as little as possible. [laughs]
PM: Really?
CS: At least in this setting. He'll sing a couple songs, but it's really just to him an excuse to give me a break, I think. But he's one of my favorites, so like I said, I can't say enough of how much I love him as an individual and as an artist.
PM: He's just scary. Have you seen his blues thing a whole bunch of times?
CS: I've seen it quite a bit. I really watched him more when I was first getting to know him. I would go out on Monday nights, which he still does.
PM: Yeah. If a friend comes to town, I say, well, one of the must-see things is you got to see Henderson on Monday night.
CS: Yeah. I tell people it's kind of a religious experience if you've never seen anything like that before--not that there is anything like that, I don't--I've never--
PM: [laughs] Exactly.
CS: It's a spiritual thing, for sure, to watch him play the blues, because I've never seen anybody play 'em the way that he does.
PM: No. It's extraordinary. I mean, since all the great old blues guys died, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy, and the like, I mean, you can't see that kind of blues anymore. And like when he takes the bullet mic and he puts it on his throat?
CS: Yeah.
PM: That's a helluva sound.
CS: Yeah, he can do it, for sure.
PM: Although I know Jeff King some, I don't know [fiddler] Tammy, either. Would you tell us something about Tammy Rogers, what she's like to play with, and what kind of musician she is?
CS: She grew up in bluegrass, I guess. She could probably tell you better than I could, all the things that she's done. She's played with everybody from Patty Loveless to Emmylou. And she just recently kind of went off tour with Reba McEntire, and has decided not to go back out with her so she could do some of this SteelDrivers stuff. Some people might think that sounds crazy, I don't know.
PM: Not to me.
CS: But she really kind of came up in bluegrass, and then got into being more of a session player.
PM: And she did the Dead Reckoning thing [a very musical collective that also included Mike Henderson, Harry Stinson, Kevin Welch, and others at different times].
CS: Yes. She's a very interesting fiddle player. When I try to tell people how she plays fiddle, it's almost got a Gypsy quality to it that to me is a little different than normal kind of bluegrass.
PM: Wow, that's an interesting observation. Yeah, she's also a real firecracker on stage. She's a lot of fun.
CS: Oh, yeah, she's great. She's a lot of fun. That's another thing, all these guys are really fun on stage as well as off stage. But to be on stage with them, I mean, we're trying to play as good as we can play, but it's never so serious that we're getting mad at each other when somebody messes up. We'd probably just laugh at them and get a kick out of it later.
[laughter]
CS: So that makes it a really nice experience in a band.
PM: I used to see Mike Fleming play years ago with Dave Olney, and always enjoyed his musicality. What kind of a guy is he to play with and work with?
CS: Oh, Fleming, once again, he's probably one of the nicest guys on the planet. And if there was ever a guy who I would say he's almost like the elder statesman of the band--I've never seen anybody who is so personable and is so good with people. He's definitely a people person. And he can strike up a conversation and within 15 seconds have somebody feel like they know him.
PM: Wow.
CS: And that's in addition to being a great bass player and a great old-time frailing banjo player.
PM: Oh, is he? He's a frailer?
CS: Yeah, he's a frailer. Well, Mike Henderson likes to call him a "recovering banjo player."
PM: [laughs] That is really a Hendersonian piece of humor there.
CS: Yes, yes.
PM: We were talking about bluegrass being kind of not age specific or any of that. I was thinking that at this very downturned time for the music business where it's shedding its skin and becoming some other creature, bluegrass seems almost unaffected by that whole deal.
CS: Well, that's because we've never--and I say "we" but I'm just kind of a visitor in the bluegrass community. They let me hang out, I guess.
PM: A very credible visitor, by this time, by the way.
CS: Well, I guess. But yeah, live music--while all the industry--the larger industry, major labels and such--are really clamoring to figure out how they're going to survive in this digital age, I think it's been nothing but a shot in the arm for some other genres of music, and bluegrass happens to be one of those. Because never in the history of music has music been so accessible to everybody, even if we're not figuring out how to get paid off of the use of it yet.
PM: Right.
CS: But it's making all kinds of music accessible to people, and it kind of levels the playing field a little bit, the digital age for music.
PM: Yeah.
CS: So hopefully that means that the best music wins.
PM: Yeah.
CS: And when the best music wins, everybody wins, because that's good for music, and it's good for the people who want music, and it's good for musicians. And the list goes on and on.
PM: Yeah.
CS: While there's going to be some growing pains for sure, and a lot of industry changes, I think while the sales of CDs are down significantly, I've read statistics that attendance of live music is up significantly. So people still want music, and they still need music. The business model has just changed, and that will all kind of come to an equilibrium at some point. So I'm not worried about music going away.
PM: Yeah, if the business has got to change, music is not going to go away, I agree. Lastly, I'll ask you: So where do you think this train with the SteelDrivers is headed this year and into the future? Do guys as successful as yourselves really want to tour nationally, or abroad behind it, or--
CS: That's just like everything with the SteelDrivers has been: it's kind of, well, what door opens and what door do we need to walk through? That's just kind of a "we'll-see" thing. The whole life of the band has been that way. It started with, "You want to get together at Henderson's house and play a few tunes that everybody knows?" And then it evolved into, "Well, we've got these songs that will work bluegrass."
[laughter]
CS: And then it was like, "Well, maybe we should go play out a little bit." And then we did that a little bit. And then, "Well, people are showing up, maybe we'll go play down at the IBMAs a little bit if we can sneak in there."
PM: [laughs]
CS: So it's just very no-pressure.
PM: Organic.
CS: It's no-pressure in that I don't think anybody in the band is going to try to force anything to happen. But if something good does happen and we get to go travel a little bit and play, we're all willing to do that. And we have fun doing it, so why not?
PM: Yeah, a step at a time. Well, I'm going to come out to the release party out at ASCAP on the 15th, and then the Station Inn the 19th, and hopefully shoot a little video at both locations if ASCAP will let me. I think the Station will. And we'll run a little video with the interview. And I look forward to meeting you in person, and seeing the latest incarnation with the SteelDrivers. It's really nice talking to you, Chris. You're a hell of a nice guy, as I imagined you would be.
CS: Well, thank you. I appreciate it. It's a pleasure talking to you. And thank you for taking the time to call us and help us out.
And here is some guerilla video from The SteelDrivers' ASCAP record release party, 1/15/08:
1. Blue Side Of The Mountain
2. Drinkin' Dark Whiskey
3. If It Hadn't Been For Love
4. Heaven Sent
listen to clips print interview (pdf) steeldrivers.net
mikehenderson.com tammyrogers.com
richard bailey's myspace chris stapleton's myspace
the steeldrivers' myspace photo thanks: davidmcclister.com
