|
Interview with Corinne West
By: Patrick Steven Patterson
 Americana is a broad
generalization.
We writers are incessantly pigeonholing musicians, yet often
using the term "Americana" as a crutch when attempting to
describe artists who transverse the wealth of genres and
sub-genres of traditional-leaning American music. This, of
course, includes musicians inspired by traditional bluegrass
and Appalachian music, Country, Western, Blues, Roots and
Folk, among many.
Simply stated, though, Americana is about
storytelling.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking, at length, with a
definitive Americana artist ~ Corinne West ~ who is likely to
be this genre's 'Next Big Thing'. In town for the Americana
Music Association's annual conference in Nashville, we spoke
about The Posse, The Doobie Brothers,
bi-planes...oh...and
her new record.
Corinne is not a Bluegrass or Roots Rock artist, nor a
jam-band phenom. She is a storyteller who flirts with all of
the aforementioned genres to impart her
narratives.
"I'm not interested in putting out records that are diaries.
I'm interested in putting out records that other people can
relate to...and not just an insight into me. More universal
stories are more interesting."
"Who doesn't love a story? I mean, you get around a bunch
of kids and what do they want? They either want a song or a
story...or they want to roll down the hill or whatever.... But
the point is, we're wired for stories. It's ancient."
Corinne will end up playing roughly 170 dates in
2006, to anywhere from 15 to 5,000 people a night. Not
surprisingly, her planned week in Nashville was brusquely
severed as she was asked to open for Dwight Yoakam in
California. She has also recently acquired a European
booking agent that will put her all over the continent in the
spring of 2007.
In 2005, Corinne opened an arena show for rock legends
The Doobie Brothers and Steppenwolf. Understanding that a
large percentage of the show's audience didn't own her
record - "Maybe none," she says - she wasn't
fazed.
"I just came out and did my thing!
"I come out the gate with a lot of energy. I'm not sitting up
there playing arpeggios. It's not very delicate.... It's
edgy."
A fascinating aspect of Corinne's live performances is her
"Posse." She does not tour with a band. Alternately, she has
recruited musicians around the US that have learned her
songs, and when she plays dates in their region, the
musicians join her on stage for a duo, a trio or
more.
Understand that The Posse is not comprised of backyard
pickers and garage hackers. Corinne rolls into town and is
joined by Americana legends as well as strong newcomers.
To date, Barry Sless, (Phil Lesh Band), Pete Wernick (Hot
Rize), Jim Lewin, Dave Mayfield, James Nash & Joe Kyle Jr.
(The Waybacks), Boo Reiners, Trevor Mills, Country Dave
Harmonson, Joel Tepp, Joshua Zucker, Aaron Phillips,
Preston Dunlap, Rockin' Paul Diffin, Robert Shafer, Johnny
Staats, Walter Strauss and Jonathan Byrd, among others,
have been deputized.
Corinne fronts her performances on lead vocals and
self-taught, rhythm guitar. The Posse takes it from there -
with artistic freedom to fill and lead. The song becomes the
star.
"I'm a rhythm player. When I get around
heavy-theory
cats...I...get very quiet!" There are so many great lead
players. Why would I want to do that? I'd rather write some
lyrics.
"In my songs, there's a massive amount of space for leads,
always. The songs are written for a dialog between a vocal
and a lead. There's two stories happening, but one of them
doesn't have words. If I can lay down a rhythm bed to give
someone a platform to tell that story, that's more exciting
for me than to figure out the lead.
"And the cool thing about playing with so many lead players
- barring the stuff that's really difficult about it - I get to hear
different leads to those stories, depending on who I'm
playing with and what instrument they're playing."
With the ability to play her tunes weekly, sometimes nightly
with a different cast of characters, Corinne is able to see the
dynamics of each song transform, and is able to hone each
song to it's finest point.
"It changes things, all the time. It's very cool. It's
maddening and it's rich. You get someone like Pete playing
banjo on it...and I play with a guy, David Mayfield - who's an
amazing mandolin player, and you get his angle on it.... I
think playing with that many different flavors, you start to
really refine what it is that the song would be saying. It kind
of refines itself.
"The song just says, 'This is actually [where I'm at], and I'm
just going to weave through all these players and do all
these different things, and then I'm going to crystallize.' And
you go, 'Holy smokes, phew. Thank You!' It's a little
ethereal, but..."
Corinne self-released her debut record, Bound For The
Living in 2004. She now has another full-length, "In
the can."
"The new one was recorded in California and in Nashville. It
was produced by Mike Marshall - a crazy-good, insane
mandolin player. The lineup is...Tony Furtado on banjo, Jerry
Douglas on Dobro, Mike on mandolin, Darol Anger on
fiddle...it's got a really stellar Americana cast."
So why does Corinne do this day-in and day-out? Working
sixteen-hour days wearing all of the hats that a
self-promoted artist wears?
"It's one of those things...there's not a choice. I've tried so
many things. I've done fine art, I've done sculpture, I've
done theater. I've done a lot of things in the Arts in the short
term. But then I've also restored bi-plane wings on antique
planes. Everything was for five months though! But I did try
a lot of stuff!
"[It came to], I'm either I'm going to do two things, watered
down, or I'm going to do one thing and give it everything I
have. I had to make a choice between two mediums. And
music is older in me."
|
|
|
|
|
|
