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A Conversation with Kris Delmhorst (continued)
PM: It's cool, the whole hurricane metaphor that the songs are wound around. That's a beautiful construct. And that the hurricane metaphor itself really seems to be about a certain relationship--or is it about relationships in general, or...?
KD: Well, it's kind of hard to say, because the way I write is very--it's sort of like collage. A lot of the things that sound literal are actually gleaned. They're like quilts, with pieces taken from different real and imagined situations.
Where I come from in reality is all over the map. But I think the record is designed to at least feel like it's about one thing, like it's about one relationship.
PM: Right. It's wound together very cohesively, and very tight. It's obvious that you've been very good with words even long before you put your first vocal on a record.
KD: Thanks.
PM: It seems like you've been doing that for a long time.
KD: Yeah, that's always been going on.
PM: Speaking of words, then, what are you reading at the moment?
KD: At the moment, I'm deep into a Teddy Roosevelt biography that is great.
PM: Wow. Good artists frequently have a very surprising answer to that question.
[laughter]
KD: And I've also been reading a book that has such beautiful language, one of those ones that I just don't want to end, called The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Erlich. She's amazing. She was sort of an urban film-maker, and she had to go to Wyoming to do a film about sheep herders out there, and then right at that time her partner was diagnosed with a fatal condition, he was around thirty. And so she just ended up staying out there, and she has lived there ever since, as a sheep herder, and a ranch worker. But she's the most beautiful writer, and the way she describes that landscape and those people out there is like just delicious.
PM: Wow. We'll be getting on that.
KD: Yeah.
PM: And what are you listening to?
KD: Let's see. Do you know Paul Curreri?
PM: I've run into him on other people's records, but I don't think I know him from his own records. [Actually we ran into him on his girlfriend Devon Sproule's latest record. We're now considering reviewing both of them next issue.]
KD: He's amazing. He's a Charlottesville, Virginia based artist. I was introduced to his work just recently, and he has two records. His last one was produced by Kelly Joe Phelps [see our interview with KJP]. But the one I've been listening to is his first one, I think it's called Long Gone to Hawkmoth--quite a title. But I probably listened to that like thirty times in the last week. I also just got turned on to Cheri Knight's record, which I had always wanted to hear and never had, and that was amazing, so I'm listening to that a lot.
PM: Who's she, please?
KD: Cheri Knight, she is the bass player and one of the writers in the Blood Oranges with my good friend Jimmy Ryan. And they haven't made a record in a while, although they're working on one now. But she put out one solo record, produced by Steve Earle [see our interview with Steve]. It's called The Northeast Kingdom, and it's fantastic. It's real rootsy rock, I think it's awesome.
PM: Thanks. continue
