Variety Mix; Lonesome Bob (recorded 2002-07-16)

On 90.3, KEXP, that's the old 97's up, too far to care, streets of no name. On 90.3, KEXP, and my name's Jack, in for Amanda Wilde today, which means I have the pleasure and privilege of being joined here in the studio by Lonesa Bob, and thanks for stopping by, KEXP. Oh, my pleasure. It was easy to get to. Yeah, because you're staying like really far away. Yeah. Yeah, in the motel. We're going to have in the motel district here. I like that. Yeah. Works out well for getting musicians in here. You're on tour right now. How long are you out on the road? Well, it's been basically I've been out for about anywhere from three to five days a week since the beginning of May. Okay. And we're kind of winding it down right now. We've got this run, we're doing here, and then Portland tomorrow night, and then Santa Rosa the next day, and then next week, we're in Texas for three dates, and then we're

pretty much done until I go to Europe in October. And tonight at the tractor with Kristy McWillson opening and music starts around 9.30. Okay. I'll take your word for that. Okay. I feel like the tour manager here, here's your date. You know more than I do, basically. Okay. Well, I could give you directions too. We'll talk a little bit more in a bit, but right now, can we hear a song? Sure. Okay. Let me start off with this song, it's called Heather is all bummed out, it's about life in the cubicle, it's sort of a cheery sounding number about unfair choices in the death of a spirit and a young woman. She's got her cubicle decorated with pictures of Harrison Ford right next to her fiance. Sometimes a girl gets bored, she drives a brand new Volvo with all the optional stuff.

It takes her everywhere she goes, but it never seems to take her far enough, Heather's all bummed out. She doesn't know what to do, there's something missing inside, and today it's making her blue. She's got an upscale hotel pastel landscape life in a tasteful frame, and it's not anything she can explain, but Heather's all bummed out today. She's smart and she's pretty, and she's got a good heart and a good imagination, and that's where her problem starts, because she's pushing 35, and we all know what that

means. So she's settling down and setting some goals at the expense of her dreams, and there's all bummed out. She doesn't know what to do, there's something missing inside, and today it's making her blue. She's starving for excitement, but she's running out of time, and adventures getting harder to find, and it's weighing on her mind. So tonight she'll meet a man from the internet mail. She doesn't know it yet, but he just got out of jail, so survived the encounter, but she'll build another wall, and spend another year making sense of it all, Heather's

all bummed out. And she doesn't know why, there's something missing from her life, and today it's making her cry, and she'll never take another chance, and that's the crying shame. It's just your everyday ball and shame, and if you have to ask her to explain, you wouldn't understand any way, why Heather's all bummed out today. Won't some Bob right here on 90.3, K-E-X-P, and a song called Heather's All Bum Down, and it's also on the new album Things Change.

That was my favorite song off the bat, off that album, and I just sort of like how it seems like you sort of poke fun at the character, but also sympathize. That's exactly right, yeah. My initial thought was to just poke fun, and then I thought, you know, it's not fair. And you know, yeah, it took a little time to develop, but that's exactly the point of the song is that this person's pain is real, and there's a lot of people going through it. Yeah, absolutely. Can you give us the Cliff Snotes version of how you got started in music like whereabouts? Sure. Well, 19 years old in New Jersey, I mean, I'm leaving out all the influences, like growing up in Philadelphia, listening to AM radio and all the rest of that stuff, and just having all those influences at that time, I didn't pick up a guitar till I was about 19, and a couple of my friends, Ben Vaughn was one of those.

We were in bands together for the next good Lord until about 1983, and then Ben started the Ben Vaughn combo, which was, which basically he called me up and said, I have a gig in New York, I need somebody to play snare drum with brushes, and so we went and we played this little gig, and the next day there was an article in The New York Times by John Pirellis about us, and all of a sudden we had a career, and I don't get things jump start. Yeah, really well. And then I lived up in New York for 10 years, and people kept saying, you play country music, you know, you ought to be in Nashville, so I went down to Nashville in 94, and they weren't really playing country music down there either, but there was a whole group of us who went there around the same time for the same reason, and ended up with the same disillusioned response, and we're all still there, and we're all still doing what we do anyway. Yeah, is it a tough town to be a musician in, I mean, music city?

Well, it's not a tough town to be a musician, and it's a tough town to make a living as a musician in. There's a lot of great people out there, paint and houses, and, you know, answering phones, and playing, you know, the odd gig here and there, and then maybe going out and getting to go out on tour for a couple of days here and there, but there's not really a live music audience in Nashville, you know, it's like all the people who play in the, you know, there's a group of side guys, and then there's a group of songwriters, and everybody plays with everybody, and everybody goes to each other's shows, and it's like the same 15 or 20 people at each show, it just depends on who's on stage, you know, you subtract those from the people in the audience, and rotating cast a character. Exactly. Were you writing all the way along, like, I mean, you said you got the guitar at 19 or picked it up and pretty soon thereafter? Yeah, I, my guitar playing ability pretty much stopped as soon as I could change chords fast enough to write songs, and it's still that way.

And yeah, that was all I was really interested in doing. I really good guitar playing as somebody else's job. I'm bringing a specialist for that, right? Sure. Talking to lots of Bob here on KEXB, how about another tune? Okay. I do one for my first record, it's called My Mother's Husband. My mother's husband is a pretty good guy, well, they were lovers since before my daddy died, but part of me sees him and feels betrayed, but most of me knows it's not my decision to make, well, I don't want to know what they'd do at night, but I know he loves it or any treats are right, my mother's husband is a pretty good guy, I know this woman,

she got no home, sometimes I give her money, sometimes I don't. When I do it's when I'm feeling good about myself, when I don't I figure she can hit up somebody else, she ain't bad, she's just down on her luck, sometimes when I'm real drunk, I give her 20 bucks, I know this woman, she got no home, I know this woman, too.

See what I mean about my guitar playing. I've got a girlfriend, but we're not in love. We don't lift each other up to heaven above We like each other and we don't like pain We try to keep each other sane Well it's not some complex psychological dynamic It's just that loneliness is so much more problematic I got a girlfriend but we're not in love We're not in love No, we're not in love

No, we're not in love No, we're not in love No, we're not in love Now, now, now we're not in love. I want some Bob right here in the studios of K-E-X-P, also playing live tonight at the tractor, and joined by a few other folks tonight. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I have a band with me. Tim Carroll's going to be playing guitar. Sure. And Mark Horn, X of the derailleurs, is playing drums, and Aaron Snyder is playing bass. And he'll be a rockin' little combo.

Excellent. So that's getting going around 9-30 tonight, Christy McWilsen, opening. And that song, my mother's husband, on the first album, Things Fall Apart, which came out in 97, the new one. Things changed, just came out. What sort of reaction are you getting to the new material? Well, if people don't like it, they're not telling me, or at least the people who don't like it aren't telling me. So my reaction, my response that I'm getting is great. Excellent. Well, that's considered of anybody that didn't like it. Yes, not say so. What's your approach to songwriting? Are you somebody that would rather work alone? I know you do collaborate on some songs. Very, very rarely will I collaborate. I'm not very quick on my feet in terms of songwriting, or much else. And so I tend to sit in a room and play the same line over and over again. I've written, it's taken me three years to write one song, it took me 20 minutes to write another song. There's no right and wrong way to do it, it's just whatever works, but I feel most comfortable working alone.

Lyric's first, at the same time. At the same time, really. Do you see any difference in your approach to songwriting from the first album to the second? No, it was the same process. Just hammered out. Sometimes, I mean, not everything I write makes it to the records. And I'm going to try to sell those to the country singers in Nashville. The ones that don't make it to the record. Sounds like a good side business, yeah. Well, there were some stuff out before your first album, right? There was on the Nashville other side of the alley. That's right. To Carol had a song on there. That's right. Yeah, that was sort of a defining moment for the Nashville underground. We all got to say hello to the world through that. It's around 95. I guess. Yeah, it was right around there. That's the DJ thing, it's always, you know, come up with a date. Probably ancient history, right?

Yeah. It was around there. That was a great little project that they put together. Bill Friskis Warren, he's a writer in Nashville and Eric Babcock. I think we're the driving force behind that. And they really made a good selection of folks, I thought. Yeah, absolutely. I think that was real big for us here. How about another tune? Okay. All right. That's Bob here, K-X-P. When I was a young man, I was busting at seams. I moved the young man's mountains and I dreamed the young man's dreams. I wanted to be good. I wanted to be kind. I wanted to be brave and wise and I wanted to be loved.

If I could find the time, forever is an abstract, painted on a lie. We said when we marry, we said when we die. It provides a line between desperation and belief. A horizon in the distance always out of reach. But in the time that I have left, I will love. In the time that I have left, I will love. In the time that I have left, I will love you. Every day, every day, every day, every day.

So blindly I pushed forward, stuck my head into the trap. Built myself a house of cards and watched as it collapsed. I wanted no regrets about the things I might have done. But now I'm finding something wanting in the man that I become. But in the time that I have left, I will love. In the time that I have left, I will love. In the time that I have left, I will love you.

Every day, every day, every day. The sun stands in a winter sky, bright but cold stone. The battles I have fought have left me alive. But alone. But in the time that I have left, I will love. In the time that I have left, I will love. In the time that I have left, I will love you. Every day, every day, every day, every day, every day. Every day, every day, every day, every day, every day, every day, every day, every day.

Live in the studios of K-E-X-P, that is Lonesome Bob, also appearing tonight at the tractor, along with Christine Wilson, starting around 9th, 30. Do you like performing live? I had to turn myself. No, no, no, actually I turned it off. In the middle of that song I went, oh my god, I hope my cell phone doesn't ring. So, I'm sorry. You could just start it over there, you know. That's why they call it live radio. That's right, exactly, exactly. No, it's just saying do you enjoy performing live playing out?

Oh god, I love it. Yeah. It's really fun. You sit in your house and you bang out songs and you don't really know if there are any good until you play them in front of people. At least that's what I like to do to judge them. And then you sit in a studio and you record them, you know, and it goes out there and people are really the ultimate judge as to whether you're doing anything worthwhile or not. And it's been great so far. We've been having a ball. Sort of gratifying to see, actually see it like in people's faces. Yeah. Yeah. And you actually get people who know the words, that what a weird thing that is. I bet. Since you wrote them, yeah. Yeah. Let's be odd. I understand last year you played on the, played the grand old opera with Allison Moore. How was that? That was great. Really a lot of fun. I don't get intimidated by much anymore. Not that I'm, you know, a great season, the veteran or anything. But you know, I've been on a few stages, but walking out onto that stage is a whole other world.

Yeah. The funny little story, we did a televised portion of the opera and it was a duet and Allison sings her part first. And we did everything was fine at sound check, you know, and she sings her part first and everything. And that's great. And then I walk up and I sing my first line and they'd forgotten to turn my monitor on. And you don't hear anything on that stage unless that monitor's on. And so the entire whoever nation or whoever was watching at the time got to see this look of absolute panic on my face when I sang the first line and I looked over at the guy and he went, he lived, put it up and pointed, pushed, turned my monitor on and everything was fine. So we had a good laugh. Just what you need. You know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Um, speaking of performance, other people are working with other folks like Allison Moore, I noticed you, you sort of make a credit on your, your new album just as, as far as how much it, it helps to have other folks involved in, in the project sounds like that really helps, helps you, uh, get it going.

Yeah. I don't think, I don't think enough people give those guys, you know, those, those musicians, you know, whose voices don't get heard, um, enough, I don't think they give them enough credit because it's different music with everybody who plays. And if you hire those, those five guys who play on every record out of Nashville, then your record sounds the same as every record out of Nashville. And if you, if you hire other players who are great, then your record sounds different and it makes all the difference in the world. You know, I love playing with the, I don't have a band so much as a talent pool. Uh, there's, you know, a few drummers and a few guitar players and a few bass players that I work with regularly and they're all great and they all really work hard when they come in the studio to contribute and, and not just, you know, not, they're not, none of them is going through the motions and it's great. That's, that is great. Um, so the other thing that I noticed on, it looks like on both albums is this kind of this, like, cautionary note to people that, you know, don't sort of don't try this

at home. I mean, there's a lot of things in the songs that, that make it kind of like, uh, grizzly or whatever. And yeah, you know, I mean, it's like, I mean, there's a couple of suicide songs. There's one on this record. There was one or two on the other one and ever since that Aussie Osborn incident, yeah, I sure remember that in the 80s. Yeah. You know, I've been a little nervous about that. So, you know, and, and, you know, I mean, it's partially tongue in cheek and it's partially serious. That's pretty much described to what I do is partially tongue in cheek and partially serious. Right. Do you think a song could have that effect on somebody, though? I've always been, I've never known if it, you know, if it could really drive someone to that, or do they? I don't think there's anybody that big a fan of mine, um, and, and, Aussie maybe, but not once on top. Oh, yeah. We attracted different crowd. Right. Uh, I don't know, you know, I really, I honestly don't know whether there's somebody

out there who's, you know, who's got, I don't know, pictures of Aussie on their wall. And, you know, when Aussie says, do they do. And, you know, in just in case there's that person out there with my picture on their wall, you know, I just want to let them know, look, dude, it's just a song, you know. Right. It's probably, probably better safe than Sari. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Got time for one more song? Yeah, I think so. Lonesome Bob here, KXP. Okay. Bringing the protest song back in an obscure way. Well, it's a necessary evil, it's an a worn out cliche, it's two hundred six million people getting in each other's way. Well, it's a forty percent mandate. It's an answer clear as mud.

It's a billion dollar band-aid on a system gushing blood. It's not enough money in our pockets for all the things we wish we had. It'd be sad if it weren't so funny, it'd be funny if it weren't so sad. Well, it's a second low rate mortgage, it's maxed out credit cards, it's a useless fitness gadget, it's a get rich, quick seminar, well, it's another psychic high hotline. It's the evidence they missed. It's a work in woman claiming that she's not a feminist, well, it's a way they tried to turn that word into something bad.

It'd be sad if it weren't so funny, it'd be funny if it weren't so sad. And if you come out to the show tonight, you'll hear it loud screaming guitar solo at this point. It's people sending all their money to a preacher on TV, cause he makes them feel so righteous that they don't have HIV. It's right wing religious leaders trying to run our lives, well, it's scandal after scandal till we're all desensitized, well, it's a lose in every shred of faith that we ever had, it'd be sad if it weren't so funny, it'd be funny if it weren't so sad, it'd be sad if it weren't so funny, it'd be funny if it weren't so sad.

On 90.3, K-E-X-B, lonesome bob live here in the studios of K-E-X-B also appearing tonight at the tractor, Christine Wilson opening up that one and I guess that song, you can't laugh about it, you're going to cry about it. There you go. I was going to watch some TV tonight, but I sort of feel like it's covered now. Yeah, that's pretty much where that came from, it's just this endless barrage of images. Want to ask you anything in your plans for 2002, you talked about the tour wrapping up and anything else on the horizon? I can't see past those in my face. Fair enough. I mean, yeah, I mean, very vague plans are to write and record and release another record and then go out and tour behind it, but that's as close as I've come to making any kind of plan.

Yeah, well, the new one just came out, so you guys will enjoy that one here. Lonesome bob, again, tonight at the tractor tavern, along with a full band and that gets going around 9.30. Thanks so much for taking the time. Oh, thank you. This was really fun. Excellent. Going to go back to the studio here on 90.3, K-E-X-B Seattle. Oh, that was great. That's the closest I've been to just losing in the lap. All right, I'm going to go on the air here in a few minutes, but we'll see you later on tonight. All right, man. All right. I'm assuming you're the legal advisor to yourself. This is our standard release. It just looks like a whole bond and really way not to do the, uh, if you like this, uh, this is what it is to do, what it is to do. K-E-X-P-C-A-T-O.

Okay. Hey, I'm Lonesome Bob and this is swinging doors on K-E-X-P-C-A-T-O. I'm Lonesome Bob and this is Stevie Zoom on 90.3, K-E-X-P-C-A-T-O. This is Lonesome Bob and you're listening to K-E-X-P-C-A-T-O where the music matters. All right. Thank you. You

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