Country Music Pride

Christine McDonald’s interview with Eric Church for Country Music Pride’s podcast episode #4 Eric Church & Christine McDonald

Christine McDonald’s interview with Casey James for Country Music Pride’s podcast episode #3 More Casey James: Official Website Casey James Twitter

Christine McDonald’s interview with Jake Owen for Country Music Pride’s podcast episode #2

Christine McDonald’s interview with the Eli Young Band for Country Music Pride’s podcast episode #1

This is part two of CMP’s interview with indy country star Colt Ford. One thing that keeps surfacing is CF’s frustration with getting his music out to his fans through conventional channels, i.e. traditional radio. The interview heats up when we discuss song messages and what music acts or songs get pushed by the industry establishment… CMP:  Do you think the lack of radio support is because you are on an indy label vs. the industry clout of a major label? CF:  I don’t know. I couldn’t give you an answer. Jason Aldean’s on an independent label. … I know I don’t sound like George Strait…but you know, the great thing is we already have a George Strait. Who is maybe the greatest of all time. So, we don’t need another one. And that’s what the industry needs to quit doing. Stop trying to find another guy that sounds like Luke Bryan or sounds like Jason Aldean, or Tim McGraw…we already have those guys. Find an original guy… I just don’t understand that philosophy…I don’t know…all I can do is make the best songs that I can make and [radio] is gonna play it or not. I can’t control it. CMP:  All the collaborations with featured singers on “Every Chance I Get” are great. I saw on your website that you’ve already shot a video for your Nappy Roots collaboration, track #3 “Waste Some Time.” CF:  Yeah, I was just looking at the rough cut right before I called you. It’s pretty cool. CMP:  So, that’s probably going to be the next single? CF:  No, actually it’s not. People just loved that song immediately. And that video is shot really more for MTV. It’s not for CMT. That’s not really made for country radio which is fine. That’s my issue with a lot of it… when you go back and think about albums that you loved, there are probably lots of songs that you loved on the album that weren’t singles. That may have been your favorite song. That doesn’t mean it’s not a great song, just because it’s not a single. And Nashville gets caught up with ’if it’s not a single [then] it’s not a good song,’ and that’s just bullsh*t to be honest with you. That’s a decision being made by somebody who don’t know sh*t about music…Excuse my language…That’s just somebody…who’s never wrote a song or never done anything… sitting up there [in an office] trying to tell people what to do. And they don’t go out and live in that world and really know what’s going on at these [live] shows… Just because it’s not a single doesn’t mean it’s not a great song. You should have songs on your record that are not made to be singles, but they can still be great, great songs. And, so we shot this video really more for MTV. The new single off the record is going to be the ballad I wrote about my daughter called “She Likes to Ride in Trucks.” CMP:  That’s a great song. CF:  Thanks. That’s gonna be the new single. And honestly, not to sound like I’m at the end of my rope, but if they don’t wanna play that song at country radio I’m not sure that I can ever give them anything that they will. CMP:  I don’t think radio is important to your fans. It doesn’t seem to be where your fans learn about you and where they follow you. It would help broaden your fan base but… CF:  No, it’s not. But, at the same time it affects my livelihood not being able to be heard on the radio…it affects me not being able to play at some places without being heard a little bit.  And it affects me being able to feed my family. And it hurts me for the guys who I write these songs with. If you look at the songwriter’s on my record, it’s the biggest and the best in Nashville. These are guys that are all friends of mine that I write with. And they write with me because they love what I do and they love what we write. But, I wanna be able to get them a song on the chart where it helps them out as well. I feel like we’re all in it together…just like anyone else I’d love to be more successful and for more people to hear it.  Why wouldn’t you? CF:  You are an artist that also has a hand in the business side of your career. How do you think the industry has changed in the last 5 years and what do you see coming in the next 5 years? CF:  I think what’s happened in the last 5 years is…it’s gotten very much “hey, let’s create something” instead of find something that’s already there, [manufacturing it] and figuring out a way of giving it to the people. They’d fallen into this role of…look at this song we’ve got and its number one on the charts. And you go see [the act] live and there’s only 50 people there to see it and you’re selling 200 singles a week. So, that doesn’t’ make any sense. That singles chart is not real…Those songs that are the top of the charts should also be the top sellers and that’s not always the case.  I think it should be more real than that. I think its coming back to…we just want the best songs. The song always wins. Great songs are great songs. [It] doesn’t matter who records it. Doesn’t matter if you’re a 300 lb. boy like me with a cowboy hat on or a guy that looks like a supermodel like my buddy Luke Bryan. It’s ok. They just get caught up in the stuff that’s not real. I mean, I love Carrie Underwood. I think she’s one of the best singers I’ve ever heard in my life. But if you start talking about messages in songs, she’s had some of the most incredible messages of hope and faith and God in songs. And then, she’s had one that I’m ashamed to let my daughter hear. That’s just the truth of the matter. CMP:  Which Carrie Underwood song are you ashamed to let your daughter hear? CF: I’m ashamed for my daughter to think she should go and tear up a guy’s truck if he cheats on her. Do you think that’s a positive message for a young girl to hear? People don’t think about those songs that way, but…every girl’s been cheated on. Do I want my sixteen year old, when her boyfriend cheats on her, to go out there and destroy his truck? Because first of all, that makes her a criminal, and second of all, you do it to the wrong guy and he could really hurt you.  That’s not a good message…”Before He Cheats” is not a positive message in a song. Neither is the Vegas song, “My Last Name.” You’re hammered, you hook up with a guy and then you end up sleeping with a guy and getting married to him and you don’t even know his last name. Is that a positive message for any girl or any single woman? CMP:  No. Well, I have to ask – I understand and hear your passion. I don’t have any children so I… CF:   Well, even a woman in general; it’s just not a good message. You don’t have to have kids to know that’s not a positive message. If your boyfriend cheated on you, you go out there and destroy his truck. The wrong guy could kill you. CMP:  I want the opportunity to ask you then, about one of the tracks off of ‘Every Chance I Get,’ that wasn’t my favorite, “Titty’s Beer.” We’re talking about the message in songs, so let’s talk about that one. CF:  Ok. “Titty’s Beer” is a complete play on words. I’m not talking about a woman. I’m talking about the name of the song…its comedy. That’s not a serious song and I understand that [it’s not your favorite], but that’s probably the most popular song on the record so far…but again, if you really break that song down as to what it is, it’s just a play on words. When I was a kid they used to do that cheer, ‘ra ra ree, kick em in the knee, ra ra rass, kick em in the other knee.’  It’s the same kind of thing as that. In response to comparing that [song] to the Carrie songs, I don’t even think they’re in the same ballpark. That’s just my opinion, that don’t make it right. I’m not saying that I’m right and someone else is wrong. Again, I don’t want it misunderstood, I love Carrie Underwood. I’m just saying that’s just what the songs are. I love Sugarland, I think they’re amazing. But, the song ‘Stay’ is about you being the other woman and you’re mad cause he won’t leave his wife. That’s what the song’s about. I didn’t write it, I’m just telling you what it is. CMP: Do you think of yourself as a sex symbol? CF:  [laughing] No man, I don’t. It’s funny…Jason Aldean, whenever I’d open for him, he always says I’m the sexiest guy in country music, which is funny to me.  I’m pretty good looking for a 300 lb. boy.  I’ll be honest with you. But, it’s all relative. Sex symbol and all that kinda thing is not just looks to me. It’s a personality thing…There’s a lot more factors in it than ‘hey, you’re extremely good looking.’ I’ve seen a lot of really good looking people that I didn’t think were sexy or attractive at all once they open their mouth. But, it is funny because radio’s target demographic is 25 – 40 year old women, and they think 25 – 40 year old women don’t like what I do. If they’d ever been to [one of my shows] they would know that they are wrong because there are tons of them there. CMP:  Well, you’ve got a beautiful wife and a great family and I really liked that you put their photos in your CD artwork. Because your family is a big part of what you do and I would think their support is important in being able to pursue your career goals. CF:  Absolutely, I’ve been truly blessed. I do have an amazing family. My wife is my hero. She’s struggled with being sick the last 5 or 6 years with a pretty terrible disease and she still gets up and does it every day when I’m out on the road.  And the kind of courage and faith that takes is almost beyond my comprehension to be honest…it’s pretty amazing what she does and what she’s capable of doing. It certainly makes my life pretty special.

“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” — Groucho Marx. Despite what Groucho said, this is one club you want to be a part of. The Radio Free Song Club is a group of ten veteran songwriters with a monthly deadline: ready or not, write a new song every month for host Nicholas Hill to play in a regular podcast. Some of the songs are raw and barely finished, while others are beautifully polished. It’s a balancing act and you never know what you’ll get — the surprises are half the fun. Kate Jacobs created the series, which debuted in January 2010, and it’s reminiscent of the old Brill Building days of songwriters like Carole King and Neil Diamond cranking out songs on deadline. Recorded at Gary’s Chop Shop in SoHo (NYC) overlooking “the beaufitul skyline” of Hoboken, NJ, Session Number Two (the latest) features in-studio performances by Kate Jacobs (“On My Monitor”) and Freedy Johnston (“A Little Bit of Something Wrong”), as well as phone conversations with Victoria Williams and Laura Cantrell. Listen to the program or check out the featured songs. Especially nice is Laura Cantrell’s “Kitty Wells’ Dresses” written by Laura with Amy Allison, and performed by Laura and Mark Spencer. Laura, a Nashville native, considered herself Kitty Wells’ number one fan for years, having grown up in a family of Grand Ole Opry fans. The broadcasts offer a unique glimpse into the creative process involved in songwriting. There is a delightful intimacy, as if you’re sitting around a comfy livingroom chatting with talented and intelligent musicians. The latest show ends with Hill (not known for his singing prowess) and Dave Schramm paying tribute to the late Vic Chesnutt in a moving live performance. Mr. Hill probably states it best. “This show is a balancing act. An album of sorts. A radio program with no FM modulation. ?A broadcast that you will seek out. You will find it right here monthly, where it lays in wait for you.” Well said. Radio Free Song Club is a gem.

by Jeremy Climer Friday, August 22 While browsing iTunes on day in the spring, I came across a song called, “I Could Kick Your Ass”. I gave it a quick listen, liked it and decided it was worth my $0.99. The more I listened to the song, the more I liked it and I eagerly awaited the chance to see Justin Moore live. Before I got the chance, he released “Back That Thang Up” as a single and while it was catchy, it was pure novelty and I was hoping this was a record company ploy more than anything (especially after viewing the YouTube home video of his beautiful song, “Grandpa”). My wife and I took our friends and went to Joe’s expecting a killer show, but what we got was pure shtick. This night Justin was opening for a local cover band called Rock Candy and when he came out on stage, I was surprised to see the guy who sang, “I Could Kick Your Ass” was about 5’4” from the bottom of his boots to the top of his Stetson. When he sings, “You’re a little too small to be calling me names”, I wanted to know who the hell he was talking about. He proceeded to play his rap-country blend of music for 40 minutes, with his lyrics consisting of nothing but tired country clichés, such as his song, “Hank It”. Halfway through the set he had lost our attention, and the attention of all but a few young women in the front (there were only about fifty people in attendance). Make no mistake, despite his size; Justin Moore has a huge voice. In real life, he’s the real deal: small town, Arkansas country boy. Unfortunately, whether through the fault of himself, his label or a combination thereof, he attempts to re-invent the Big & Rich wheel with little success. Listen: Justin Moore – Back That Thing Up Justin Moore

by Jesse Hill On September 23rd, Old Crow Medicine Show will release their third album Tennessee Pusher, a beautifully cinematic and empathetic album about a people and from a people, the American people, the people from which this musical tradition is sprung. After going into the lost alleys and forgotten trailer parks to find the real Americans, the lost Americans, the Old Crows stand up here as their representatives. And they sing! They sing for the people. They sing because that is what they do. It is their lifeblood. The album was produced by the legendary Don Was (Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan) at the famed A&M Studios (now called Henson Sound Studios) in Los Angeles. Members Ketch Secor (fiddle, harmonica, banjo, vocals), Willie Watson (guitar, banjo, vocals), Kevin Hayes (guit-jo, vocals), Morgan Jahnig (upright bass), and Gill Landry (slide guitar, banjo, vocals) along with major session men Jim Keltner (John Lennon, Neil Young) and Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) recorded 13 tracks about this America, using Tennessee as their canvas. I had a chance to speak with founding Crow, vocalist and musician Ketch Secor. This man’s speech reveals the way his mind and heart work, and to witness it is truly a beautiful thing. He cares about us all. Despite the clinical agenda of the interview, we had a relatively organic conversation, and though it would be more typical to lay down the press info I got from their publicist and some brief highlights of our interview, I don’t think I do this man, this band, this album or the people justice unless I just print the interview in its entirety. Country Music Pride: Hey, Ketch, my name’s Jesse Hill and I write for Country Music Goodness. Ketch Secor: Well, hey Jesse thanks for your call. I apologize. My other interview went really late. So, I know you’ve been waiting to get through so I appreciate your patience. CMP: Not a problem. How you doing? KS: I’m doing great. Where you calling from this morning? CMP: I’m calling from Austin, Texas. KS: Right on. CMP: How ’bout you? Where you at right now? KS: I’m in Nashville. Wish I was in Austin. CMP: Well you ain’t coming through here anytime soon, are you? KS: No. It doesn’t look like the Texas tour has been put together yet. It might be in the spring for us. I know it’s way over due. We keep getting e-mails from places all over the Lone Star State. Getting ‘ancy. When are you gonna come back to Dallas? When are you gonna come back to Pflugerville? CMP: Yeah, y’all played Pflugerville before? KS: No, I made that part up. Nobody ever wrote that. But meanwhile I got my own thoughts thinking, ‘When are you gonna take that plunge in Barton Springs? When are you gonna dance the two-step with that girl down in Victoria that you want to? When are you gonna get back to Port Aransas and go for a slurry dip? CMP: I was just in Port A two weeks ago. Got swimmer’s ear. KS: Well, that’s a good place to catch it man. CMP: Well, I listened to Tennessee Pusher yesterday. Three times. It’s great, man. It’s really fucking great. I really love it. Best album I heard all year. KS: Hot damn! Hey, thanks. That’s what we’re hoping for. CMP: You hear it all in there. Hanks crying, Dock Boggs sly grinnin’. Trickster cool and humble hearts. I really dig it. KS: Cool. Well, I can tell you do and I can tell you got out of it what I put into it. CMP: Now I’m not going to ask your influences because I think what’s obvious is that they come from this American music tradition. And anything you could have possibly come in contact with is basically a part of this tradition. Do you feel like you are now a part of this tradition? Do you feel like you’re contributing to it? KS: Oh, I definitely feel a part of it. I mean it’s all around. Everything that this band does is very related to everything that’s been done before. I feel, I’ve often spoken about this great thing that Pete Seeger once said about making folk music back in the late 50’s. Pete talked about us all being links in a chain and that chain going way, way back. And that all of us are fused together in the forge. So, I read that when I was 14, and thought, ‘Wow! You mean I could be like Leadbelly? I could be like Bob?” So, I’ve spent the last 15 or so years since I was first dreaming of those things trying to make them happen, trying to, well, trying to build up my repertoire. I like to fancy that we could go into any barroom in America and be their hometown band. That we could be the boys that they looked upon fondly. The band that the old ladies felt wistful towards and that the old men wanted to throw their daughters at. And in our travels we’ve found that to be true. It’s a little different now in the climate controlled comfort of the tour bus, but when you get into the studio, particularly a band like us, I think it’s just fun to be evocative, to evoke, I’m always talking about who my influences are and I say that they’re just old dead men and women and old dead men singing about old dead women. And that’s really true, but I like being able to, I like the controlled atmosphere of the studio because you get to say it exactly how you want to. CMP: You’re the hometown. And this music comes out of the American people. I know you cite Nashville’s inhabitants as definite inspiration for the album. How do you stay in touch with the people? How do you relate with them when you are riding in the climate controlled comfort of the tour bus these days? KS: Well, you know, you get off at the truck stop. You go to the pay shower and it’s right there in front of you, staring you down with a soap bar in its hand. Me and Critter had this song once about these bad signs everywhere. We said, “If you don’t see the signs, then you must be blind.” If you can’t see the wasteland, you must be wasted. Cause it’s all around. It’s in everything. It’s in all avenues of American life. Whether they’re looking for love or a fix (which is their love), whatever their love is, whatever their fix is, they’re always on the hunt, on the prowl for it. That’s just the way that the world goes round, especially now. So, there’s no membrane impenetrable enough, there’s no wall that can be built between folk music, all music, if you got your feet in the ground or on the ground, then there’s nothing to keep you from singing the songs of the people. What are the people up to? The people are hungry. The people are sleepy. The people are tired. The people wanna fuck. The people wanna lay down and die. All these different emotions are represented in song. So, here are a handful of songs that thematically go for a certain range of them. I needed to write something convenient for the press; so, I said Nashville, but it’s not really true. Tennessee’s a good example. We go from Mountain City to Memphis. We start up in the Southern Islands. We start in this place that the Cherokee got pushed away. Well, some of them stayed and it really has effected the bloodline. You can still talk to women with Indian features there, and more so than that you can feel the reverberation from after the Buffalos thundered through. What’s the sound that follows? Well, I think that sound is what’s happening all over the country. The Buffalos jumped off the cliff, and there’s a sound that follows the emptying out of the American landscape. And you can still here that. And Tennessee is a good canvas to work with. It’s easier than trying to tackle the whole thing. But I feel my influences in writing this record have been much more across the continent. CMP: And under a climate that’s been developing since the Buffalo jumped off the cliff, do we Americans have a heavy, black curtain on us? KS: No, it’s not heavy and black. It’s light and airy and mystical and magical. And if you can tap into it, you can know something much greater about where you are. And it’s had a great effect on folk music. It’s the reason why there’ve been songs that, whether they’re topical or not, have been, it’s the reason for the universal theme. You can’t really have the universal theme without the landscape having a role in it. I mean the history of America has so much to do with what we’re working over. What we’ve plowed and at this point, what we’ve paved. Underneath all that, well, if you wanna know what the story is, don’t go asking a dude. Dude’s story is down at the bus station. He’s hungry, he’s thirsty, he wants to fuck, and he wants to sleep. Dude’s got a lot on his mind right now. A lot of nothing. But underneath dude’s feet is what makes dude. And that’s where you go asking those five journalistic questions. That’s where you go looking to get to the bottom of it all. Is at the bottom. CMP: And do you feel comfortable there? KS: Oh yeah. I got to be there. I’d go crazy. And I do go crazy every time I got to come up for air and see the things that you see, that we all see like the Bush regime and the fucking Iron Curtain. If I pick up the newspaper and read about Saakashvili and Putin squaring off in Georgia and Daddy Cheney on the way and I think about, ‘Oh, what if it was Sarah Palin instead,’ that kind of stuff makes me just crazy. Just thinking about it. You know I saw Greenland for the first time coming home from England. I saw it from the plane, from 35,000 feet. You know it’s there, you see it on a map, but to see it with your eyes is everything. It wasn’t real before. But now I know that’s there and I could go to it. I saw an ice sheet that stretches for 800 miles, maybe more, and at the very end of it, it’s green. It’s just like any other rock in the ocean. There’s life. CMP: Was the European tour a good deal this go round? KS: Man, this was a great trip. It was real low key. It was a lot easier than the last one. But it was just a short thing that had to do with generating press in the UK for our new album. CMP: And do you get a chance to connect with people their too? KS: Yeah, you know. Really everywhere that we get a chance to play, I’m always on my eternal quest for truth. And there’s always something different about all of the towns and I’m always trying to get to the bottom of it. I’m always trying to understand, ‘Why is it this way?’ I like to ride a lot of public transportation. I like riding public transportation in England especially, well in the British Isles, because of just how pleasant it is. But I like riding it in America because of how unpleasant it is. But in England, it is so different. Where here in America social order has been completely bulldozed on our buses, it is still very much in place on the buses in England. It’s breathtaking to see. CMP: Well, I can’t wait to get the chance to experience that one day when I can get out of Texas. I recently read a Jakob Dylan quote where he says, “There’s a reason why imagery that sounds like it’s been dragged right up from the middle of the earth keeps getting re-spun every year—’cause it’s the best. Yeah, I work within those parameters, and I see those images, and I hear music that way. [My dad’s] stuff is the high water mark for anybody doing what I do so there is no way to avoid it, not just for me but for any songwriter. If your goal is to not be referenced to his career, there are not a lot of options.” This quote is certainly applicable to your music as well. Can you rap on that a bit? KS: Well, I think that we’re all in debt and we all need to know the gratitude of the era of music that comes after all of the great artists. To talk about Tennessee Pusher being a great record is a bit superfluous when you imagine that somebody got an advanced copy of Sergeant Pepper’s and was the first to hear it for five hundred mile and got on the phone with Paul McCartney and said, ‘Your record’s really good, man.’ So, for a long time, I really felt like I had a foot full of concrete over that. That somehow being in the shadow was a bad place. But as I got older…well, you know, you just have different eras and times of creative thought. You have a Renaissance and then you have another time that comes after it. I think that anybody who heard those Dyaln records when they were a kid wanted Dylan to be there father too. I always like this quote that Pedro Martinez said. He said, “Maybe the Yankees are my daddy.” Anyway, we all wanted that man to be our old man cause he’s been such a huge influence. He really taught Us a new sense of beauty. Or re-taught us. Because what Bob did was to recount what’s been said before, and that’s all that anybody can ever do. Because it’s all been said before. I’m looking at floor to ceiling shelves of books in which it’s been said since the Age of Bronze. They’ve been saying the same ultimate truths about the world. You can read the mystic writings of poet Rumi and know that Bob read them. Or you can read William Blake’s A Little Boy Lost. You find the trailings of Dylanisms throughout all the literature of the world. He really read the greats. And he listened to American music. And that was his medium. He needed to find a way to be William Blake and Robert Frost and Dickinson with guitar. He needed to be Hart Crane with a harmonica. So, what better way to do that than sing Black American music? To wear the mask, you know, minstrelsy. Well, Jews have been wearing that mask a long time. Look at Al Jolson. I grew up in the world where Black and White is now so blurred. And those signs for whites and ‘coloreds’ have been painted over a dozen times. But they’re still there underneath the paint. And it’s all a part of the social fabric. So, the themes may have been totally diluted by the mall, and seventh grade lunchroom politics, but underneath it all, it’s still the quintessential Mark Twain America that you hear referenced to when you listen to Bob Dylan. CMP: You ever read John Leland’s book Hip: The History? KS: No, but it sounds like a good one. CMP: Well, it does a really good job tracing the history of the masks and getting to that point where the delineation gets blurry. I actually read it right after I read Greil Marcus’ Old, Weird America, which by chance was the book that got me into you Old Crow Medicine Show. I was reading it and somebody thought I was reading a book on you, and I said, ‘No. Who’s Old Crow Medicine Show?’ And they gave me O.C.M.S. KS: Well, man, I take that as a real compliment. I don’t really have this memorized, and I wish I did, but my band was given a quote by Greil Marcus that’s…negative. And it’s fucking the money. I want to see it reprinted bad. (Greil Marcus’s quote, “Old Crow Medicine Show. Why people hate folk music.”) CMP: What’s the gist of it? KS: That we’re junk. CMP: He’s probably just jealous that you share a songwriting credit with Dylan. KS: You know I heard some great Dylan stories working on this album with these guys (Don Was, Jim Keltner, Benmont Tench.) Especially from Don. But I heard this one story. They were in England in the mid-sixties and someone asked Dylan, ‘What do you think about the Rolling Stones?’ And Dylan said, ‘Oh, you mean that cover band?’ CMP: And for Dylan of all people to call someone out on that? KS: Right. CMP: How was working with [legendary producer] Don Was? KS: Man, that was great. To work with someone who’s had a hand in stirring up so many great artists. To help them reach their great potential. It made me listen to those records differently knowing that Don said to dig a little deeper here or play a little colder there. He’s made scores and scores of albums, and so many of them have been Grammy award records and so many seminal records of the eighties and nineties. I was always surprised to hear just whom he worked with as we were rapping. I like to get down to it with folks. And I tried to get down to it with Don, this Detroit born, Beverly Hills cat with his dreadlocks and his jewelry and his Cadillac SUV that he got from like a sponsorship. All those things make up Don. There are a lot of masks to Don too, but they’re only on the surface. Don is really real. In the studio, Don listens to music. The best thing I can say about the way Don is how he listens to music. When he’s in the studio and he’s supposedly producing, he’s just listening. He’s listening with his whole body; it’s like he’s breathing in the music. His whole face is listening, and his hands are listening, and his hair is listening, and his feet are listening. And it’s like he’s breathing it in like a vapor. CMP: And he’s doing this under all these Beverly Hills masks? KS: Right. CMP: Werner Herzog said something along the lines of, ‘Beneath the glitz and glamour, Los Angeles is the city with the most cultural substance in America.’ Well, I totally disagree. Maybe when he said it was in a time of classic America where I think that certainly that thing happened, but it’s come and gone. L.A.’s great. I like L.A., but if you’re trying to find the most culturally fascinating place in America, I just wouldn’t go looking at the place with the longest lines and the thickest traffic and the loudest horns. I think that what’s fascinating about America is all old news. What’s fascinating about America is rubbish, stuff in somebody’s old garage. It’s junk. Just like Greil says, ‘its just junk.’ What’s fascinating about it all is the evidence that remains of what was once fascinating. The homogeneity has done more to destroy America’s sense of itself than any neutron bomb ever could have. The sameness and the cultural sterility and the spiritual decay disguised as consumer advocacy. I don’t know where I would go looking for something truly American. Maybe Mexico. CMP: Your sense of hope is obvious in your music. How do you maintain it? KS: They sang when the great ship went down. (Long pause…) And it’s going down baby. It’s going down to the icy depths. But it ain’t gonna stop me from singing. We might be in the dark shadow cast from the great arch. We might be in the time of the great undoing of our nation. And we might face a dark and lean time, but you gotta sing! I was taught to sing. I was taught to sing and play and make that joyful noise. So, regardless of what it is around me, inside me I feel like singing. CMP: Is fortune really just a painted stone? KS: Yeah. I guess so. Frog-skins. Green frog-skins. There’s a great old time tune called “Fortune.” (Sings…) “Once I found a fortune; locked it in a trunk. Lost it all in a poker game one night when I got drunk.” That’s the kind of fortune I’m up for. I like an easy fortune, the kind that’ll make you king for a day. CMP: Spend it if you got it? KS: Yeah. It ain’t worth holding onto. CMP: Yeah, I’m living in a dog kennel right now. KS: Well, you’re in Austin, man. That’s perfect. CMP: Pretty forgiving town to the broke folks. KS: You got a good bus system, the Dillos. You Texans, man. You Texans you see what you can do. CMP: I appreciate it, Ketch. It’s been a real pleasure. KS: Yeah, man. I appreciate it to. CMP: Take care. KS: Bye. It’s going down folks, but the Old Crow Medicine Show is singing. Listen! Old Crow Medicine Show – Caroline (Lead Single from Tennessee Pusher) Old Crow Medicine Show - Tennessee Pusher - Released on September 23, 2008