Ray Wylie Hubbard – Interview
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Maze – Nottingham 25th May 2010
Interview by Alan J Taylor
Maverick’s (UK) Alan J Taylor caught up with veteran Texas troubadour Ray Wylie Hubbard, just before his superbly entertaining live performance at the Maze in Nottingham. Looking every inch the ‘maverick’ himself wearing pumps and a beanie hat, perhaps more favoured by the teenagers in the ‘hood’ than on your average greying 64 year old, he seemed in a pretty good mood.
I was interested to know exactly where he felt he fitted in musically? He was quick on the draw, “Americana and Alt-Country is where I fit, that’s what I do. The term Americana came along, my whole foundation is based on folk & blues & roots rock, hillbilly country and the like. I like the term Americana; it’s a lot cooler than some of the other labels I could be in” he said with a barely suppressible laugh.
Picking up on the new album the unusually titled, A. ENLIGHTENMENT B. ENDARKENMENT (Hint, there is no C.) the sound has a very edgy feel to it with lots of shaking and stomping, I was keen to know quite how drummer Rick Richards, had contributed to that feel?
“Well I have been very fortunate to have Rick Richards, playing on my last four or five records, in fact we have played together for ten years or more. He played on my favourite records, Slaid Cleaves, Gurf Morlix , Mary Gauthier, Tom Russell – he’s just one of those ‘go to’ guys , when you want one of those cool, in the groove, in the pocket drum sounds that are not conventional drums. He can play straight kit, but he just brings an imagination to the music. Its like ‘hey lets try this two bricks and a board and let’s stomp on it,’ . . . he comes out with some cool creative ideas. I like edgy stuff.”
It was clear from the sleeve notes that Gurf Morlix had also had some input, I asked him to tell us about that. “Gurf started out on the album, but then he took off on his own song writing project, so George Reiff (New York Mud – Chris Robinson’s side project; now playing with the Court Yard Hounds) took over. He plays base guitar with me, but we went to his studio and he has such a great recording mind and makes things sound low down and greasy. We recorded some of the tracks straight ahead and live, to give it that real feeling, to get the vibe across. I think people are thirsty for this real kind of sound.” I also noticed and drew his attention to the sleeve note crediting Hayes Carll on the excellent Drunken Poets Dream. “Yeah, I have know Hayes for six years, he was playing at a club. He opened for me he’s a great kid and a great songwriter. I walked into his house one day and he said, ‘I got this idea for a song Ray – I got a woman as wild as Rome’ – and I replied, ‘and she to likes be naked and gazed upon’, and we just went from there. I feel very fortunate to live in Austin; you can call upon so many awesome writers and players.”
With some notable lines in the songs such as ‘I can say that Muddy Waters is deeper than William Blake’, I was interested to know what sort of literary influences had influenced his writing? “One of my favourite quotes is by Flannery O’ Conner ‘Never second-guess inspiration’ I think whenever you get the inspiration for a song or the ‘aha moment’, never doubt it. For instance, I walked on to the back porch and saw a wasp’s nest and wrote a song, I read Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven and thought well, what would happen if this bird landed at the foot of my bed? What would it say? What would this drunken mad poet say? I went into the kitchen and my kid was beating on pots and pans and I wrote Pots and Pans.
The ‘Enlightenment/Endarkenment’ thing is an intriguing concept, I asked him to tell us where the idea came from . . . “Well I was reading a lot, I do that a lot, I read the biography of Chet Baker and all that heroin stuff, I wrote the song Opium and Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse. I’ve got songs about dead call girls, drunken poets and anything that comes into my head and sometimes that is dark.” In addition to the unusual title, the new CD cover features a picture of Ray Wylie Hubbard with his head severed and held in his left hand in what turns out to be very distinctive cover, I asked whether that was the idea? Laughing at the image on the cover, he answered, “I was looking at reviews in newspapers and magazines and realised the album cover ends up being a tiny little image in the corner. So I took a piece of paper and drew a stick figure, then I took off the head and put it in the left hand, it’s a little dark and weird but it’s distinctive and seems to draw people in.”
Like many artists, he seems keen to give his family a break and I noticed that his young son Lucas had contributed to the album on guitar, I asked how that worked practically? “Yeah, he’s 17 years old and he’s my full time guitar player, when he is available and not grounded by Mother Hubbard. He has an endorsement from Gibson Guitars, plus he’s had the good fortune to have Gurf Morlix, Seth James and Billy Cassis as teachers. He really listens to the songs and he is a great player. He says he will play the music for free but, ‘wants paying to ride in the van with a bunch of old guys’.” He said with some amusement.
Writing the screenplay to the blood spattered film The Last Rites of Ransom Pride (released in 2009) I guessed, must have been an exiting project, I asked him to elaborate. “Yes, it’s a screenplay I worked on with Tiller Russell, it’s an action-packed Western about a band of badass Texas outlaws. Basically, a bunch of despicable people in 1912, cussing and killing and generally causing mayhem. ‘Nomadic Pictures’ in Canada signed up Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam, Scott Speedman and Jason Priestley for the film. It was a treat, but there’s good news and bad news. I wrote the screenplay and got it filmed, but they decided they wanted to do the film score. I guess they stumped up 5 to 6 million dollars so its up to them, so they took over the control and did their own thing, but it was a hell of an adventure writing it and getting it done.”
Clearly not one for letting the grass grow under his feet, I noted that he had also been busy presenting an Americana slot on a radio show, I asked him to give us the low down on that. “Mmmm . . . I do a show for a station called KNBT, it’s a New Braunfels Americana station. The young program director asked me to start this little show called ‘Roots and Branches of Americana’. There is such an abundance of talent the main criteria is that you have to write your own songs, so I’ve had people like, Billy Joe Shaver, James McMurtry, Justin Towns Earle for example it’s a really popular show. I asked the questions to get the guys to open up, it’s a great musical community and you can imagine, we get to hear some great things.”
There is no question that the new album has a dark apocalyptic feel to it – Four Horsemen in particular is immense song and I suggested that it sounds like something Ralph Stanley would do, in one of his deepest religious moments. “Oh yes, Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, is a well-known story, I feel fortunate that I can put on the glasses of someone without trying to judge them. It would be great if Ralph Stanley did that song. I would be intrigued how someone from the Appalachians would interpret the song, how would they get the message across? Whoop and Holler on the other hand is a straight gospel song, I don’t really know where that Idea came from, I just picked up the phrase ‘Gods empyrean heaven’, I didn’t know the word empyrean so I looked it up and I just had to lever it into a song. I majored in English literature when I went to college. I love to read, Edgar Allan Poe and Dylan Thomas, I love to get into the mind of the reader so I tried to imagine someone reading the Book of Revelation, trying to capture the pure reality of the reader.”
On the song Pots and Pans we hear the classic line ‘I holler, my baby moans, it’s one hellacious sound’ – I was intrigued again to know where a line like that that came from. He leant back in his chair and laughed till his shoulders finally settled, this time he gave me a friendly pat on the back, as still chuckling he explained. “Thank you for your language (English) it’s a fantastic thing. I love words and how they work together. I love slang and being able to do all that stuff. Maggie Walters did the moaning, she was working at George Reiff’s studio. I’m really into the south and that whole rural idea, the kind of Tennessee Williams place, you know the torn t-shirt, rural hillbilly scene. Then I just came up with this family band playing bare foot and knocking and banging on pots and pans. I just got Maggie to do the moaning and she really played the part well and I think you can feel that in the song . . . beautiful . . . just beautiful!” Yeah, he was in a good mood . . . and the show that followed was as entertaining as anything I’ve ever seen at the Maze, music and story telling from a guy right on top of his act . . . in fact he was virtually smoking as he deftly delivered those sugar coated country blues! AJT