Country Music People March 2017 | Page 3

14 cmp - MARCH 2017

Douglas McPherson finds out why C2C star Darius Rucker will never leave his hometown of Charleston , South Carolina .

he light atop the iconic the mixing desk , with a Rat Pack-ish Capitol Records building tumbler of scotch by his wrist . “ So flashes like a lighthouse when my friend Jim , the director , came beacon , spelling up with the idea of shooting the video

‘ Hollywood ’ in Morse at Capitol Studios , I just loved the idea . Code in the Los Angeles night sky . Far I loved being there .” below , a black limousine purrs along The darkly silky , slow burning ballad Hollywood Boulevard . Alone on the finds the singer full of self-doubt , pale leather rear seat , Darius Rucker wondering whether his intended gazes out at the lights of theatres , clubs partner would still love him if she and restaurants without really seeing knew about the mistakes he made in them ; his mind elsewhere . his youth . And as Rucker begins to

The town car pulls up outside the pour out his heart , the words sound famed Capitol Records building . The more like a confessional than a love singer steps out in a sharp , tight-fitting song . Lines about the two-room house suit and open-necked shirt . He lets he grew up in and the father he barely himself through the glass doors into knew sound like pure autobiography . a deserted , illuminated lobby that

So it comes as quite a shock to learn seems to have been frozen in a retrocool past , like a scene from Mad Men . It was in fact penned by a couple of

that Rucker never wrote the song .

Restlessly , he pulls off his jacket as he Nashville ’ s most prolific and successful walks through the narrow , darkened tunesmiths : Ross Copperman , who corridors towards the famed Studio A also produced the song and Rucker ’ s where Frank Sinatra , Nat King Cole and forthcoming new album ; and Shane the Beach Boys recorded some of their McAnally . most beloved music .

“ Nobody was more surprised than

So begins the slickly cinematic black me !” Darius laughs heartily . “ When and white video for Rucker ’ s new I heard that song I was like , ‘ This is single , If I Told You . my life . This is who I am .’ I saw Shane

“ I ’ m a really huge Sinatra fan ,”

McAnally a few days later and said , Darius says of the atmospheric clip ‘ Man , I can ’ t believe you didn ’ t call me that sees him emoting moodily behind into that writing session .’ the microphone in the shadowy

“ Because that song is so me ,” Rucker studio , and sitting , contemplating , at continues . “ Even when I sing it now ,

22 cmp - MARCH 2017

30 cmp - MARCH 2017 look back on the early 90s so fondly ? There was a whole raft of young singers graduating with honours from the school of Lefty and Merle . They were singing melodious yet still hardcore country songs , it was a great time , and one of the most notable releases from that period that has become an alltime favourite was a release by Billy Hardwick Jr . called Too Country . In the title track he suggests that you “ can get too loud , you can get too proud , you can get to church on Sunday , you can get too blue , it can get to you , but you just can ’ t get too country .” Pretty much , these are words which have summed up my feelings ever since I heard Storms Of Life , and listening to Hardwick ’ s 1992 album now it ’ s evident that he believed in the sentiment . Fast forward 25 years and Hardwick has returned with a new album , The Day Merle Haggard Died . In that intervening time he would appear not to have changed his views about being too country and seems to be just as taken by Frizzell and Haggard as he ever was . So whatever happened to Billy Hardwick Jr .? Did life get in the way ?

When I compliment him on his new record he laughs and says , “ Oh , thank by Duncan Warwick

“ To you guys I ’ m this exotic thing - this cowboy guitar player guy and I couldn ’ t be further from exotic in America .”

that enviable quality that appeals to a male and female audience alike . He is also a bit of an Anglophile , embracing everything from Monty Python to Top Gear .

“ Hah ! A very important country Usually , when an artist delays the music person .” release of a new album what it really “ I don ’ t know about that . I belong to means is that the record company has the club but …” failed to chart the first single from “ You ’ re like the Grand Poobah of the it and they are about to hand over club .” the masters to some hip hop or rock “ I put the poo in Grand Poobah .” producer to cover it in the pixie dust of So begins my conversation with whatever ’ s big in the charts right now .

Brad Paisley who is calling from

However , with the recent fundamental California ahead of flying to London changes in world politics , when Brad for his appearances at this year ’ s C2C , Paisley says , “ I don ’ t want to feel like it and the brief exchange is indicative doesn ’ t reflect necessarily what ’ s going of the personality of one of country on in our world because I turned it in music ’ s most endearing , and enduring before everything sort of happened . performers .

I ’ d like to make sure that I have the

Paisley is the consummate country opportunity should I write something artist . In a career nearing 20 years this week or next week or whatever it he has written 20 of his 23 # 1s , he is may be , then it ’ s on there ,” I , for one , am recognised as a truly great musician , inclined to believe him . he has been a proud member of the “ And you only get one chance at that ,” Grand Ol ’ Opry since 2001 and is more adds Paisley . “ I wasn ’ t quite done with aware of country music ’ s history , and a couple of the things that are already respectful to it , than just about any on there either . I ’ m always tweaking other artist you can name . Additionally , and I ’ m a little bit too picky about his sometimes wacky personality and these things because probably nobody ability to deliver a line with perfect notices but me , but I really want it comic timing have made him a hit to be right . It ’ s easy to be interested presenter of the CMA Awards for in politics this year whatever your several years , he embraces technology interest is . They ’ ve covered all kinds and geeky things , and perhaps most of ground . I ’ m not political but this importantly of all Paisley is able to has been the most interesting thing to write about the modern everyday in watch . I reserve judgement . I ’ m going a way that nobody else seems able . to wait and see , y ’ know . I have two Oh , he also sings pretty well too and small children and I ’ m hoping for the knows how to please a live audience best . whether in an intimate guitar-pull

“ This is an album called Love And War setting or a major stadium . All that , and and there are some pretty cool things

MARCH 2017 - cmp 15

MARCH 2017 - cmp 23 you . It took 25 years to make !” pioneers of traditional country music

It is rather too long between then I will consider that success .” albums , but Hardwick ’ s devotion

Another great song , and one proving to the cause is as unwavering as it a favourite with fans , is Warm Tortilla , always was , and as well as the title in which a guy compares the love of track paying homage to Haggard , the his life to a ‘ Warm Tortilla ,’ as well as album opens with him asking , Doesn ’ t other things one might be served in Anybody Like Country Music Anymore ? a Tex-Mex eatery . It works on record

The song was inspired by Blake much better than it sounds on paper Shelton ’ s controversial comments I can assure you , and the song has a about traditional country music a slight Bellamy Brothers feel about it . few years ago and formed part of the The writing of the song elicits a laugh springboard for Hardwick ’ s return to from Hardwick . “ We have a running recording . joke , my wife and I , because when I

“ I thought , ‘ If it weren ’ t for those visit the bathroom I ’ ll come out and old farts paving the way for people I ’ ll say , ‘ I ’ ve got a new song idea .’ And like you , you would be working at so we think that porcelain may be Walmart .’ And so that ’ s kind of … I some kind of antenna for song ideas . wanted to kind of pay homage to

“ With regard to Warm Tortilla in all of the people who influenced my particular , which seems to be one career because I cut my teeth on those of the favourites on the record of a people . My dad was a country music lot of people that have listened to guy and he was a huge Merle Haggard it . That was a bathroom song . My fan and so I just wish that he had lived wife was upstairs getting ready - we to hear this new record , but he passed were gonna go out to eat - and I came away back in 2014 . I think he would upstairs excited . I said , ‘ Listen to the have really appreciated the whole idea that I ’ ve got for my new song ’ and Merle Haggard concept and especially all I had was the chorus , ‘ you ’ re softer the title track .” than a warm tortilla ’ and I played that

Somewhat modestly Hardwick adds , little piece for her and I said , ‘ What do “ I hope that somebody that listens you think ?’ And she kind of looked at to this record in particular , if it does me funny , y ’ know . ‘ Gee , that ’ s not your nothing else but to maybe prompt best work ’.” them to investigate some of the early Unperturbed , Hardwick continued

MARCH 2017 - cmp 31 he desert can be an eerie place . and I was just totally fascinated by all talked to Mike Campbell [ the album ’ s is clearly based on an enduring love ,

With its vast , arid landscape that , because I ’ d never seen it before . producer , best known for working with both of music and each other , and is full of weird plants that survive “ Well , I loved it . I thought it was Tom Petty ] about working with us on rooted in the deep Christian faith that against the odds , and isolated beautiful . I grew up watching all those this record . He had agreed to it and he they share . It ’ s easy to forget that , as a people with strange habits , who do the shows on television that came out of liked the concept , so all of a sudden , young musician on the road and , in his same . California , cowboy shows like Have it was beginning to come together in

1990s period as a mainstream chart

But Marty Stuart loves it . And he Gun Will Travel and the rest , and it was my mind . After we left California , I topper , Marty was somewhat wild . He honours it . His latest album , Way almost like the land was the same as think we had to go up to Idaho . It was a reminds us of this in that title track .

Out West , is a sacrifice to the Spirit of the people .” travel day , and I had a little guitar in the

The narrative of the song is punctuated the Desert , offering up six intriguing But the desert can be menacing too . front of the bus . These words started by pill popping , as the protagonist original songs , two covers , four The title track from the album conveys coming on the paper . And they looked takes a green , then a ‘ pretty blue ’, then haunting instrumentals and his own a sense of glowering threat , and the ridiculous , and I just thought they were a ‘ mean black ’ pill . He has his high version of a Native American prayer , the video . just released to go alongside it , is funny ; I didn ’ t know what they were moments , getting ‘ all whooped up in an original of which opens the album . a brilliant evocation of a disconcerting , meaning or where they were headed indigo haze ’; is beset by hallucinations

Marty ’ s reverence for the desert disconnected environment . Marty and or what they were saying . I just kept and is convinced there are ‘ poisonous began in childhood . But unlike the The Superlatives wander and drive writing , I stayed with it , kept writing , ants all over my skin ’; comes down to rest of us , he didn ’ t have to confine across a prickly , rocky landscape , and it kind of amused me a little bit . regrets – ‘ shoulda got a room in Texas ’ his fascination with the Wild West to punctuated by isolated churches . “ I just kind of dropped off to sleep ,

- and on top of all that , every time a imagination . By the age of fourteen , he In much the same way , the song and when I woke up , I looked at the chorus comes around , ‘ the world goes had already been discovered as a selftaught mandolin and guitar prodigy by tales of characters whose context is made sense . And I wrote another verse , and round and round .’ lurches through seemingly unrelated words again , and all of a sudden , they a-spinning round and round and round master of the mandolin Roland White , unexplained . We meet , or glimpse in the and that stuff I didn ’ t plan , it simply fell The song is played with great then playing with the great Lester Flatt . distance , perhaps in a mirage , Diamond out of the sky and became a song .” sensitivity by the Superlatives , with

He was invited to join Flatt ’ s band Bill Coulder and Hurricane Kate . And Both song and video also have a

Kenny Vaughn ’ s evocative guitar and and the remainder of his education Big Bill Chisolm who ‘ saw Johnny Cash trippy feel that we don ’ t associate Marty ’ s narration supported by the was entrusted to White , a range of at Folsom Prison ’ and escaped while with Marty , a stalwart of the Grand band ’ s perfect background vocals . correspondence courses - and the road . people were distracted , during the Ole Opry , married for two decades to Despite its psychedelic feel , the song

He soon had his first encounter with the encore . In a style of spoken narration fellow Opry star Connie Smith . The ends with a piece of advice that Marty desert . reminiscent of Porter Wagoner that story of their meeting is well-rehearsed . told me was serious : ‘ If you go out

“ Lester played in a town called Norco , Marty keeps alive single-handedly As a child , he was taken to one of her West … don ’ t matter how you get there ,

California ,’ he recalled when we spoke these days , he tells us enigmatically that shows by his mother and afterwards just don ’ t take pills .’ recently . ‘ It was about a three-day “ I know more , but I won ’ t tell .” Well , as vowed that he would one day marry the

“ There ’ s a lot of truth in that song ,” trip from Nashville to that part of the it turns out , that might be because he glamorous star . Fast forward several he explained . “ There ’ s probably a country . I remember the closer we got doesn ’ t in fact know any more . decades and a brief marriage to Johnny time in my life when I was just as lost to California , seeing a cactus for the “ We ’ d been in California doing some Cash ’ s daughter Cindy , and the adult as a goose , and totally out of control , first time ! And the landscape started shows maybe two years ago , and I Marty met and fell for Connie all over you know , and the world did look at changing , and the way the sky looked , was inspired , just writing . I had just again . Their cross-generational union that way to me ; it doesn ’ t any more ,

52 cmp - MARCH 2017 MARCH 2017 - cmp 53

Jack Watkins meets the New York-based Texan who recorded his latest album in Eastbourne .

he black and white image of Jarrod Dickenson on the cover of his new album Ready The Horses is faintly reminiscent of a 19th century daguerreotype . The darkness of the exposure matches the bearded , hat-wearing Texas born singersongwriter ’ s serious profile . And the retro aura makes it a smart choice of imagery . Because while Jarrod is very much one of a new breed of artists who defies easy categorization , there ’ s something reassuringly old school in his musical ethos , as if reaching back to another time .

If I were an American , I ’ d be celebrating Jarrod as a young talent belonging to a long line of folk poets , but it turns out the prime appreciation for his work since he started touring over half a dozen years ago has come from audiences in the UK and on the continent . He ’ s supported Bonnie Raitt , The Waterboys and David Ford , and even The Stylistics . And this month , he is back with his own band , appearing at the Country to Country festival , before heading out for dates across Britain .

Why are audiences here more

60 cmp - MARCH 2017 switched on to him ? “ I just think , reflecting back nostalgically on what in the UK at least , mainstream he ’ s lost in the city ? radio doesn ’ t have the same hold

“ Well , to take your point about on people ,” muses this articulate , distances , I remember when I did my understated artist . “ In the US if it ’ s first tour , which was in California , I not in the top 40 , or doesn ’ t have started off from Waco at the start of millions of dollars of marketing the day , drove 11 hours , and when behind it , you ’ re just not going to hear I stopped off for the night , I was it . On top of that , a tall guy wearing a still in Texas ! That was a reason for big , funny hat with a Texan accent is leaving and moving to Nashville for something that seems to be exciting a while , because I thought , if I I ’ m to people in the UK , whereas in the US going to play dates , I ’ m always going you ’ re just another guy with a guitar .” to be driving for a day before I get

My favourite track on Ready The there . But as to the country aspect , Horses , which is Jarrod ’ s third album , when you grow up in Texas you are is A Cowboy & The Moon . The most around country music non-stop . So overtly country number , it taps into a it was always something too close familiar theme of a solitary , loveless and familiar , and therefore , not very Texas cowboy under a big western interesting to me . As a kid I actually sky . Anyone who ’ s spent time in Texas grew up listening to my Dad ’ s rock will have appreciated its wide-open records , the British ‘ 60s bands like spaces and stretched communities . the Beatles , the Stones , The Who and The opportunity to “ see you dah ’ n the Derek and the Dominoes . Not until chip shop ” just isn ’ t there . You can I left Texas , partially when I was in travel for hours and not even pass Nashville , but mainly since I ’ ve been the state border . But although Jarrod in New York , did the nostalgia finally was born in Waco , Texas , he ’ s lived kick in . I finally got Willie Nelson , Guy in New York since 2012 . So is this Clark and Townes Van Zandt . So when song drawing on his knowledge of the people ask how New York shaped my Texas landscape and his roots , or is songwriting , actually it ’ s sent it back it simply him as a displaced townie to a more Southern feel .”

MARCH 2017 - cmp 61

contents

March 2017 cmp

Features

14 Brad Paisley

C2C headliner , Anglophile and the Grand Poobah of country music speaks to Duncan Warwick .

22 Darius Rucker

Douglas McPherson meets the singer who returns to the UK for C2C and remains a Southern Man .

26 AMA UK Conference and Awards

AMA week comes to the UK and Michael Hingston and Duncan Warwick report from the Conference and Awards .

30 Billy Hardwick Jr .

He was Too Country in the 90s and he ’ s even more so now . The staunch

traditionalist talks to Duncan Warwick .

52 Marty Stuart

Janet Aspley meets the singer who has gone Way Out West for his latest album and plays at C2C .

60 Jarrod Dickenson

Jack Watkins meets the New York-based Texan who cut his latest album in Eastbourne .

The Grand Poobah of Country Music

DARIUS RUCKER

Southern Man

T

BRAD

PAISLEY

ello , Country Music People .”

“ This is a country

“ Hmusic person calling

you .”

Page 14

Page 22

BILLY HARDWICK JR . You can never be Too Country

Billy Hardwick Jr .’ s latest , The Day Merle Haggard Died , has been twenty-five years in the making . Duncan Warwick finds out why .

Reviews

34 CD Reviews 50 Live Reviews

Regulars

4 News 8 Tour Guide 11 The David Allan Page 20 Nice To Meet Y ’ all - Southern Halo 28 Nice To Meet Y ’ all - Scott Southworth 51 Americana Roundup 56 Nice To Meet Y ’ all - Martha L Healy 58 Nice To Meet Y ’ all - Ponderosa Aces

Charts

64 Americana & UK Country Charts 65 Billboard Country Charts

T

MARTY

STUART

Marty Stuart has gone Way Out West for his latest release and tells Janet Aspley all about it .

T

JARROD

DICKENSON s it really any wonder that I

I

Page 30

“ This record , more than anything , it ’ s definitely a love letter to all the things that knock us out about the West and the culture and the music that came from there .”

Page 52

Page 60