It Takes The Village: Interviews with Shelby Lynne, Rickie Lee Jones, Michael Timmins, John Oates, Amos Lee, Rachael Yamagata & Steve Berlin – HuffPost 10.30.09

It’s a little surprising that until now, no one has put together the definitive tribute album to folk’s fertile days in New York’s Greenwich Village. 429 Records’ new collection titled The Village–A Celebration Of The Music Of Greenwich Villagespotlights the historical significance of the neighborhood’s folk music scene with passionate contributions by thirteen artists including Rickie Lee Jones, Los Lobos, Bruce Hornsby, Amos Lee, Shelby Lynne, Cowboy Junkies, John Oates, Lucinda Williams, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rachael Yamagata, and others.

In her glowing liner notes, Suze Rotolo (featured on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album cover) accurately states, “The songs on The Village aren’t confined to any particular era any more than the musicians performing them are…every tune is something transformed from something I knew into something I didn’t.” The music of Tim Buckley, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Fred Neil, John Sebastian, Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, Eric Andersen, and Bob Dylan helped create a Greenwich Village golden era full of memorable classics, many of which are relevant today. The artists who contributed their works to The Village celebrated some of that period’s anthems by giving them renewed significance through their loving reinterpretations.
Mike Ragogna: When was the last time you were in Greenwich Village?

Amos Lee: Just a few weeks ago; whenever I’m in New York, I’m in the Village. A lot of my friends live there and I love hanging out and hearing music.

Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin: When we last played in NYC in July. I have good friends who live there, so anytime I’m in NYC, I am there.

John Oates: Three days ago, I was in New York to promote the (Hall & Oates) box set. I went down for dinner, and I always stop at Matt Umanov’s Guitar Center on Bleecker Street. It’s my little pilgrimage, you know.

Rachael Yamagata: I was just in the village for the recent CMJ festival checking out some bands.

Shelby Lynne: Just last week, my sister lives there with her husband. I went to The White Horse, and I always like to go to the Village because the shopping’s great, there are some cool little record stores there. I’m into vinyl, so I always try to go check it out.
MR: Did you frequent the clubs and cafes when you were younger?

SB: When I was 14-15, my friends and I would make regular pilgrimages to The Village Vanguard and The Blue Note, taking the train up from Philadelphia after school and then taking the last train back. It was amazing, exhilarating and exhausting, but always fun. How my parents let me do it, I have no earthly idea. My favorite trip was much later when I was in NYC with Los Super Seven in 1995. Most of the band had never been to NYC, so it was fun to see the city and especially Greenwich Village through their eyes. But the best part was Joe Ely, who was there in the sixties as a teenager, happened to be in that band. So as we walked through the Village, club owners and fans came running out to greet him and drag us in for libations and stories.

AL: Yes, of course. The first gig I ever played in New York City, probably like a lot of other people, was The Bitter End. The first I had heard about The Bitter End was from a Donnie Hathaway record because he had recorded half of it at The Bitter End and the rest at The Troubador. Stevie Wonder played the place for a week, I can’t tell you how much I would have paid to hear him sing and play in a place that seats 200 people….imagine that every night for a week.

RY: I didn’t until college, but then I became addicted to coffee and cigarettes while reading a good book or doing some writing. It certainly became a daily ritual. Over time I’d learn the vibe of different clubs and begin to trust that whatever music they were booking might be something I’d like. It was social pastime becoming a way of life.

Cowboy Junkies’ Michael Timmins: When we lived in Toronto, we used to all pile into a station wagon and take these trips down to New York, try and rent a cheap room at whatever hotel you could get in, and then go back the next day, maybe go to show. One of the reasons we went was to go to Greenwich Village. That was the whole idea. It had this weird, mystical attraction to us because we’d heard so much about it, especially through Dylan’s life. We’d go to The Turning Point and all the little clubs just to see what they looked like. Not that there was a “scene” around those clubs at that point, but like any venue, if you grew up listening to music that came out of it, it was just always amazing.

MR: Who were your favorite acts that performed in the Village?

SB: We were total jazz snobs then so that was it for us, in particular McCoy
Tyner, Gato Barbieri, and the Jazz Messengers.

MT: Dylan’s the one. When Dylan came, he changed the whole landscape, there was that whole new generation of singer-songwriters that arrived. I really liked Fred Neil a lot, I really liked his voice, and he obviously had a huge impact on Tim Buckley as well. Leonard Cohen also was influenced by that era.

JO: My favorite artists at the time were Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, Phil Ochs, John Hammond Jr., Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee… There were so many, and every act was real special.

RY: Growing up, I loved the great storytellers.

SL: Of course, we had Woody Guthrie, and it was all wonderful and so real. The power in what they gave to us is undeniable, and it’s so strong. We’re talking about real writers, we’re talking about real musicians. We’re talking about people sitting down with a guitar singing their music. We’re talking about no Pro Tools, about owning two pairs of boots, two pairs of jeans, and not being a society of excess…and it does matter in the music.

MR: How did the music of Greenwich Village affect your own?

SB: It was the first place much of America first heard the Latin music influence, which is why we picked “Guantanmera” for this project.

JO: The music that came out of that era, especially out of the Village and that emerging folk scene in the sixties, was very, very important to me and my guitar playing, and a lot of the musical things I was doing before I met Daryl. So it really does touch me personally, and I feel very comfortable in that place.
MR: How did you come on board for The Village?

Bruce Hornsby: They asked me if I was interested in being a part of it, and I always loved the John Sebastian song, “Darlin’, Be Home Soon.” So I asked them if it was okay if I submitted that, they said yes, and I said, “Okay, I’m in.”

MR: How did you decide on the song you chose?

Rickie Lee Jones: I guess they just asked me to do a Bob Dylan song from that period, and “Subterranean Homesick Blues” was the one that came to mind first. It seemed like it would be fun to do, not too serious. You know, I learned that song when I was a kid. My big sister bought Bob Dylan records, and I would lock myself in her closet and listen to her playing Dylan. It’s one of the ones that’s been with me all my life.

SL: I’m a Dylan fan…big time! When I got the opportunity to sing something for this record, I immediately went to Dylan. I just felt that Bob Dylan was a driving force of that period, and it gave me an excuse to sing one of his songs.

MT: We’re big Tim Buckley fans, and there are so many songs to choose from that era, but our manger, Mark Spector, suggested “Once I Was.” I felt it would fall perfectly into what we can do. I got into Tim in the early eighties, and I would find a record here and there, a lot of his records were out of print. Right around that time, This Mortal Coil did a Tim Buckley song and had a big hit, so his music percolated into the underground culture again. It comes in and out all the time…he’s just one of those guys who I think is timeless. When you listen to his music, he could have easily been doing it today.

BH: Although I was a big Lovin’ Spoonful fan, I came to love “Darlin’, Be Home Soon” because of Joe Cocker’s version from his second record, Joe Cocker!. My rendition started from his version of it, and then gradually evolved through the years into something that is more personal…more of my own take on it.

SB: “Guantanamera” is a song we’ve basically played from the first day of our existence as a band, and we continue to play it to this day. It’s a classic that has been recorded by just about everyone, yet it still retains a freshness that many of the chestnut songs of that era have lost.

JO: “He Was A Friend Of Mine” is a really emotional song. When I was asked to do it, I definitely jumped on board. It’s a ballad, and I wanted it to be a blend of Mississippi John Hurt meets Dave Van Ronk. I’m actually quite proud of that track ’cause it’s a different interpretation than what Dave Van Ronk did. I asked Drew Emmitt–who used to be in the group Leftover Salmon–to play mandolin on it. He’s a Colorado guy, a great bluegrass player. We cut it live in one take. But I also think a lot of the interpretations on the album are really cool, like Amos Lee’s and The Duhks’…

RY: I chose “Both Sides Now” for a few reasons. It’s such a classic, and I’d always loved and known it from Judy Collin’s version. Her vocals are so angelic, and when I thought of myself covering it, I thought I could offer a darker twist on the song as something different. The lyrics had such a sad quality that I wanted to explore. My good friend Kevin Salem produced, and we worked in Woodstock, which, of course, had it’s own symbolism as well.

AL: When I was approached about The Village album, I talked to some friends. One of them lived in the Village in the sixties, and he suggested Fred Neil. I remembered his name from when I worked in a record store when I was a kid. Fred was someone I was always interested in. I remember his song “The Dolphins,” mostly because it was covered by a lot of people, most notably by Tim Buckley and Richie Havens. Fred Neil was dedicated to the cause of trying to save dolphins from people who were trying to destroy them and worked very hard to get that message out. So I went back to Bleecker & MacDougal (Fred Neil’s album), and fell in love with his song “Little Bit of Rain.” I brought my band into the studio and I love the way we cut it.

MR: John, if Daryl Hall had participated in this project, what song do you think he might have contributed?

JO: (laughs) Well, he made a joke the other day that he would have done Dave Van Ronk’s “Cocaine.” When he heard what song I did, he said, “Why didn’t you do ‘Cocaine?’ and he laughed, so maybe that’s the one.

MR: Art Alexakis of Everclear, what song would have been your contribution to The Village?

Art Alexakis: If I had my druthers? “Tangled Up In Blue” is one of my all-time favorite songs by anybody. And we have a super good cover of “This Land Is Your Land” that came out on our album last year…

MR: Has recording a track for The Village swayed how you might approach a future project?

JO: When the guy at the record company heard my track, he actually asked me to do a solo album in that style. So I think my next solo album will be in a very traditional folk blues and guitar style.

MR: There seem to be a lot of young artists now who get what the music of that era was about, and their songwriting seems to exhibit what was great about it.

JO: There’s an incredible emergence of singer-songwriters and songwriting venues in New York City which is tremendous. I’m very well entrenched in the singer-songwriter movement. There’s something magical about seeing someone on a stage with a guitar just singing their songs. One of the great organizations in New York is The New York Songwriters’ Circle of which I’ve been a part. In fact, on November 19, they’re having their final songwriting contests and I’m one of the judges.

MR: What do you like best about the folk genre?

JO: It’s a very pure, authentic style of not only music, but performance. I think people who can do it really should do it because it’s a showcase for their playing and their ability to perform. When I was nine or ten years old, I started to play this kind of music, so for me, it’s very comfortable. When I play solo shows, I always throw in a Doc Watson song or something like that. In its purest form, it’s really something special.

MR: What do you think is the most significant contribution Greenwich Village gave to culture?

AL: The significance of it is that it’s a great place for people to congregate to get further along as artists, that what it comes down to. You can walk through the place and feel the history and its place of culture in the United States.

SB: Like L.A. in the eighties and San Francisco in the late sixties, Greenwich Village was a laboratory for experimenting with song forms and styles that still echo through the music of many old and new bands. I think the music of The Decemberists or Death Cab would be quite different should the Greenich Village scene not emerged.

RLJ: The contribution will be understood over time. Maybe it’s significance was that it existed. It allowed Bohemian people to have cheap rent and places to gather, who then went out and affected the culture we live in now. Or maybe it was a specific club that people played at. Or it’s accidental, you know? Maybe somebody moves there, somebody lives there, and then people begin to congregate, and that place and time is golden. And when you’re part of any place and time that’s remembered by history–the Village or Haight-Ashbury, The Troubadour in 1978–it’s a really golden time. People today, because of television, the internet, there’s not a lot pulling them out to have to congregate and live together.

JO: I think it reintroduced Americans of that era–especially college and high school students–to the great legacy of traditional American music that is so unique to our country, and has made its mark on the world. It mutated and evolved into so many styles of music, like rock, blues, and various other commercial music. It was a rediscovery of people like Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, “Bukka” White, Doc Watson, and all the great traditional musicians who were rediscovered there and showcased at places like the Philadelphia Folk Festival and the Newport Folk Festival. This was an important moment, I think, because it really provided young people with a chance to see the true roots of American music.

RY: The artists. All of the people “living their passion and creativity” and constantly challenging, turning upside down, inspiring, interpreting and communicating ideas of life. Their work in turn enriches life itself.

MT: From my point of view, the whole idea of a song saying something–not necessarily a political statement–but it having a point, reaching deeper than three-and-a-half minutes of a good melody, bridge, and chorus. That’s where, to me, it began, with people actually sitting down and listening. It’s that cross of poetry and song that inspired so much, where a song could have meaning.

MR: Marshall Crenshaw, what do you think?

Marshall Crenshaw: I can’t say why, but it’s one of those places where lots of geniuses have found themselves and emerged from, a hotbed of thought and creativity. You definitely feel something when you walk around down there…

MR: John, if Greenwich Village had never existed, would “Past Times Behind” have ever existed?

JO: (laughs) Maybe not! That’s one of the few moments in my Hall & Oates career where my folky roots really did show through. “Past Times Behind” was a song I wrote before I met Daryl, and the songs on the Whole Oats album, in general, were all a hodgepodge of songs that we contributed individually and not really collectively. So that’s where those folky roots shine through, and from there, our music kind of goes to another place.

MR: It seems that the spirit of Bleecker Street, at least the intelligent, counter-culture nature of it, has faded.

MT: I think part of that is that there are so many different ways of expressing that spirit. Back then, it was an early time, before the music business became the machine it did for pop and rock, so the clubs are where you expressed it, and that was a real central point. You couldn’t post your new video on YouTube or on your MySpace page. Now there are so many ways of getting music out there, but back then, really, it was just a stage. You got up and played, and that was your statement. So it was easier to create that kind of movement because it was focused, it was automatically centralized due to the lack of outlets.

SL: We have to go back to the singer and the songs. The most important thing is that this young record company (429) is interested in putting out a record of things from the past that matter, and that’s the only way that the great stuff can stay alive, you know? It’s a fight, but it’s worth it, and I’m glad to be a part of it.

MR: Could another musical renaissance like Greenwich Village’s ever occur again?

RLJ: It’s going to be harder. I mean, what would the Village of 2012 be? An internet site? Probably, huh?

JO: Yeah, it’s happening right now. It’s called the internet. Really, it’s a global village that’s not restricted to a neighborhood. The concept of a neighborhood is really just too small for the scope of what’s going on in the world. I think the new Village is a virtual one.