WUMB In-Studio Interview/Performance; Tom Rush

Song Called long time friend and we also heard from Joni Mitchell. And a tune called you turn me on I'm a radio. We begin things with this theme music. Trio. And they're called schooner fair. Twenty eight minutes ahead of six o'clock you're in tune with listener funded ninety one point nine FM in Boston. And in the studio with me is Mr. Tom Rush. Welcome. Thank you. Great to be here. You have a concert coming up. On April the 9th. Two performances 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. and it's a place that you hadn't performed before. I haven't and in fact most musicians haven't because the Colonial Theater has not been doing music they have been doing stage glitches since since the world began and they're one of the premiere

stage stage organizations in Boston. They've just decided to start getting into music which I think is great. I just got the tour of the. Place and it's it's a gorgeous theater. It's right on Boylston next to the come on. Near the corner tram Mont a very grand old lady of a theater and has a great feel to it. I'm really looking forward to it and I wish them well in their musical endeavors. And the good news is while not very good but the good news to folks up there is that there are still seething bailable for both shows. How it's fine with me. I don't want to turn anybody away. So are you. You're on and currently on a tour right now. Is that no it's actually not true. It's not you I don't really do. I don't really do

tours anymore I do what I refer to as tour loads toilets me on tours and many tours OK. I've given up my. Aspirations to spend my life living in a bus I did that for the road for entirely too long. So now I'm in a very fortunate position I can sort of pick and choose do the shows I like to do and. I do some very small ones some teeny tiny ones which are a lot of fun and some big ones and they're also fun. It keeps me happy. It's still possible to see Tom Rush in a teeny tiny place once in a while. I've started last year I was celebrating 25 years in music and I decided I'd go back to my roots and. Go play some little coffeehouses all by myself. No bands no nothing. No road manager. Do it like I did. Back in the

60s and. Had a great time. For the most part some of them reminded me forcibly why I wanted to be a concert artist instead of a club or just. But a lot of them were and were a great deal of fun. There's a club down on the cape called the first encounter. That I had a great. Time and I just went back there in fact to try out some new songs in preparation for the Colonial Theatre on the 9th. I went down there to try out my new songs. In a. Slightly less formal surroundings shall we say. And it's wonderful. Do you prefer that way of trying out new songs versus a concert. I would prefer not to try something for the first time ever in front of. The Globe a thousand in the whole world you know. New songs are kind of funny you work them up at home and they sound great and then you get them in

front of an audience and you find out whether they're great or not you find out maybe that the third verse really isn't necessary that you know the song is too long or needs to be longer or it needs something to happen. In a different place. But audiences will tell you right away. What works and what doesn't. And so until you get a tune in front of audiences. Several times mean enough time so that it you feel it consistently works. You don't really. Know the tune well enough to do it in a in a major concert. The. Year spending. More time at home then instead of on the road which you prefer is that more conducive to songwriting and you know in fact I'm finding that I have to play hooky. My office is my company's called Maple Hill. I.

Heard of this company about. Eight years ago to try to stimulate the marketplace for folk music. We now manage some other artists we manage Paddy and we manage Christine Lavin we work a lot with Paddy Larkin but we don't manager. We've managed busking to beto and myself and we package big shows under the name club 47. Shows that have a lot of different artists on them. And it's great and it's very successful but success can kill. And. I'm finding that it's the business side of things is taking up so much of my time that I'm getting impatient. To get back to playing the guitar some more so I've been playing hooky from the office. The office is extremely well run by Mrs. Cathy Moran and. I think she probably gets. To get more stuff done when I'm away than when I'm there.

So I've been going down to Connecticut borrowing a house down there and woodshedding working on some new material and loving it. So I don't actually get more stuff done around the house than on the road. I have to get out of the house and back to get any writing done. Do you ever sit down to write tunes with with other musicians or is it something that you prefer to do alone. I haven't written with somebody else for quite a while I used to write with Trevor Veach who was my sidekick guitar player for years. And. The process there was that I would write words in music and then he would rewrite the music. The changes were. Always for the better. So then recently I've written on my own so he would kind of fine tune them in those days. Those scenes you would put down basic ideas

and chords and so forth and and. And he'd rewrite the music and then I'd usually have to re rewrite the words to fit the new music so it would go back and forth and back and forth but I think we came up with some good some good songs between us. More recently Well actually most recently I haven't been doing much writing at all because of this problem of being spending too much time in the office. But the songs ever written I've written on my own. I'd be curious to go back. Again and try collaborating. I know some some writers I like a whole lot Buskin and on particular you know I think great. Yeah. He's twenty two minutes ahead of six o'clock you're in tune with listener funded public radio at ninety one point nine. Tom Rush is in the studio with us this evening. Here's a concert coming up on Saturday April the 9th. And I will

talk a little bit more about that at the Colonial Theatre and a new experience for the colonial music. And. This is Tom Rush it Symphony Hall what year one record is it. There are a couple that we recorded a couple different years I think which one of your calls late night radio. This is I don't know you know 1981 the first of a long series of. Symphony Hall shows great sounding out a live album. Thank you. This is called driving wheel. Rush Tom Rush and drivin wheel. That was recorded in Symphony Hall right here in Boston.

Tom Rush is in the studio with us that came from an LP by the way called the New Year. And if you're interested. In seeing Tom Rush perform live he will be at the Colonial Theater on April the 9th. And will be a Saturday evening. And they'll be two performances in early wanted seven and a later one at 10pm and behind him will be his five man acoustic band. That's true. Some of these musicians from the acoustic band guys that you've known. Or is this more or less a band that's been put together recently. You know this is this is old friends Marshall Rosenburg on percussion. Paul goes on days. Eric Lui Quist and Dean Adrian on vocals and guitars and a brand new piano player who I have not yet met. He will be rehearsing with him in New York next week.

Before the show he's rehearsing now but will get it all together next week. He's supposed to be hot stuff he plays piano and sax Greenly not at the same time. With these ambi dextrous and plays with his feet. And if you're interested. Tom does have a couple of phone numbers if you're interested in getting some further information about tickets. Actually I have that same information should be given the tele Tron number order ticket trying to ticket charge or whatever then it's up to you the last number on that list is the theater itself and they can give you whatever information you need. That would seem to be the best one and the Colonial Theater number is area code 6 1 7. Now the number is 4 2 6 9 3 6 6. That number again 4 2 6 9

3 6 6 for further information concerning antón Rush's concert coming up on April the 9th at the Colonial Theatre at 7 and at 10 pm. And all the tickets are on outlets so I can help you out as. Tom as you know there's been a quite a resurgence in acoustic music in folk music in general although you seem to have weathered the storm in the in the yet in that interim pretty well but have you even you have you felt the resurgence of many in the interest of. The folk and acoustic music or read something that you're signing autographs from from young younger people than you ever expected to late leaving these days. Well I think it's an interesting phenomenon. We started doing shows at Symphony Hall in Boston in 1981.

We meaning maple Hill it's not the royal we. It's the corporate we have because we felt that there was an audience for for music. Everybody said I was not safe. You know how can you possibly going to symphony all twenty five hundred seats an experience I'll sell it. And I wasn't sure week we would but in fact it sold out 10 days in advance. And the success of that event and the ones that followed it going next year turned into a two two night event and three nights from then on. And we sold him out and I think the success of those that series of shows and others we were doing at Carnegie Hall the Kennedy Center in Washington some other high profile concert halls. The success of those emboldened other people to try this and that and you know and gave everybody a little bit of a hole. And in fact

maybe there was a crowd out there that it would like to hear the music. And it's great to see. It's great to see it all coming together. I'm see in somewhat of a younger crowd but I'm also seeing my old what I regard as my old friends from the from the 60s and 70s as well. You know. We we survey the crowds a lot to find out who people are Who's coming to the shows and we're finding the age group which started at a fairly narrow. 25 to 35. Hour slot. There are six or seven years ago has now grown to be 20 to 55 and that is what we find in radio are always concerned with age groups and in the people who are interested in certain programming and to hear from all different ages. Believe me there isn't a specific you

know narrow little age group for their units that's nice to see. Yeah it certainly is. Did you want to do one of the plans come up to record that album and Symphony Hall did. Was it always the plan or is it something that came up kind of at the last moment not at the last minute but you know it will you know come up at the last minute. We plan to record that pretty much from the time we decided to do this show. As I recall. The question was how were we going to release it and I ended up starting my own record label to release it on because it seemed like the best way to go. Had I known then. What starting up a record label and sales I'm not so sure I'd have that have I learned much more about vinyl than I ever cared to know. It's it's been very it's been a very successful run and a lot of

fun but a lot more work than I ever dreamed. All right. What about CDs of those in the future for you are the one I think so. I mean I think it's the wave of the future. I mean yeah. I don't even know how to use the CD player yet and I'm now Barris I'm the only one here that doesn't know you know. Well I think more and more new product is going to be. Bought on CDs and it's a very convenient format and I think to the extent that labels re-issue. Back catalog on CD right they'll have a good time zone of providing they do it right. There been some apparently some pretty sloppy jobs agree mastering for CD. But done right they do sound great. But you've definitely got your eye on that as yonder of the industry I think. I think

so. We were a few years ago nobody wanted them and now we're getting a lot of requests for CDs. At some point we'll master up and put them out. Beginning only classical music was on CD and then jazz and now country and folk and rock and so forth. It is eight minutes ahead of six o'clock Tom Rush is in the studio. To discuss a little bit about his music and his concert coming up on April the 9th at the Colonial Theater at 7:00 and 10:00 p.m.. How about another tune. Listen to what we do did I pick another one. You know you picked it out. You mean OK. That's right. Is there anything we should know about this tune who would play it all that Slade had a girlfriend back then her name was Jill Lumpkin and we were at a party one night and John Sebastian was there and John was in the

anagrams taking the letters of your name and scrambling around to make words and for joy want and he came up with mink tulip. With two l's left over which I figured was sort of like a title Well lady of leisure. Time Rush came out Mr. shout. And so incorporated those names into this you know this song. And there you have it mink julep. Tom Rush. Mink and you up in the name of that tune Tom Rush show he is in the studio with us this evening by the way. Thanks for coming in and sharing your time with us I know you're probably a very busy guy these days. That speaks to the way the station's grown and the audience has grown.

Yes we're very happy to see that as well. You're going to be doing some new tunes at this show. Yep yep this woodshedding you know that I've been doing over the past. Month or so is paid off and I've got some. At least one new tune of my own I might have more by showtime. OK I've got several in the works and several by other people. As well. And particular John Prine song that I think deserves wider recognition and it's gotten. It's called Let's Talk Dirty you know why and which is quintessential John Prine really funny song and a couple of ballads and a. Couple of funny ones. When you were discussing your only of these what you call torture lets many tours I think you know that many tours Yes someone might misunderstand the other

phrase. Do you have any of those planned in the future or are you just kind of I'm doing right now I'm just doing scattered shit one nighters here and there and that's just fine with me. I don't want to get I don't really enjoy living on the road as much as a. I don't know but I ever enjoyed living on the road. Actually I did it because it never occurred to me not to. I don't know that I've ever interviewed anyone that enjoyed Geist as buses why. Were closing in on 6 o'clock you're listening to listener funded public radio at ninety one point nine FM we are something pleasantly different w you and the radio. Tom Rush is here with us and. Let me remind the listeners that once again where you'll be and when you'll be because it's it'll be here before everyone knows it. Saturday evening April the

ninth time rush will be here in Boston at the Colonial Theater. At 7:00 and 10:00 p.m.. How did you come to. Arrange this gig at the Colonial you mention that the called me up and hired me. It was great. I'm not I don't have to promote the show or anything this time around at the at some of the other shows have been around Boston I believe that. You know the cook and bottle washer and everything and there's everything like you take tickets and I just get to saying it's terrific. GREENE But. As I mentioned earlier they're starting to get into music. And if the folks out there haven't seen that colonial It's a beautiful place. You might have seen it on the channel two special teams Tator just broadcast a show out of the Colonial. Very pretty hot and it's very accessible

it's red but it T-stop lots of parking. Come on down. One thing I wanted to ask you obviously when you're doing a small coffee house kind of a thing a lights on a major issue what you want when you're in a big place like the colonial lights obviously are an issue. Do you have a light person or do they provide the lay person who who choreographs the landings and billing for our shows is provided by Bruce Wallace of theatricals. He does a very good job. Klondike sound takes care of that. Sound side of things and Pediatrics does the way we're always worried about lighting here and radio. I know it's critical. OK. We're going to go out with. What did we decide. We're going out with a beam me up Scotty beam me up Scotty and you'll be beaming out in a few seconds and let me give out that number one more time

if you like to call the Colonial Theater and ask about tickets pertaining to the Tom Rush concert. Coming up on April the 9th the number once again six 170 area code and the number 4 2 6 9 3 6 6 that number again 4 2 6 9 3 6 6. Promises to be a great show he'll have a five man acoustic band behind him and as he mentioned earlier six including him and I went to crack shots and it's a week from Saturday and all the ticket Tron outlets are on tickets as well as the Box Office of the theater. Get them before you call up and find out there are none left. Good idea. Thanks again for coming by. Thanks for illustrating and I know the listeners up there appreciate it very much too. Let's do it again someday. Beam Me Up Scotty. From an album of the same name. Tom Rush.

Circle Game. And we also heard something called Beam Me Up Scotty. It is nine minutes past six o'clock you're in tune with acoustic images on listener funded ninety one point nine FM in Boston. My name is Dan drink want to be with you until 8:00 o'clock tonight listening to acoustic music we also have some information for you at 6:40 tonight. In about a half hour we call it community calendar. It's where we tell you what's happening where and when. Musical and otherwise send also taking a look at some news during this hour as well on. The skate gardener. It's called the ramie rule.