Country Fried Rock 1223: The dB's Peter Holsapple on Reunions and New Records

Speaker A: 00:00:00

Welcome to Country Fried Rock where we talk with musicians to find out what inspires their creativity.

Speaker A: 00:00:06

Country Fried Rock music uncovered.

Speaker A: 00:00:09

My guest today on Country Fried Rock is Peter Holzappel of many different bands over the years, including the Deebees with a brand new record with their original lineup out on air.

Speaker A: 00:00:17

Thanks so much for being with us.

Speaker B: 00:00:18

You're very welcome.

Speaker A: 00:00:19

So I know a little bit about the Deebees only because I was one of the fans back in the day.

Speaker A: 00:00:23

But you all originally got together at a very young age.

Speaker B: 00:00:27

Well, we all grew up together in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Speaker B: 00:00:30

So we've known each other since we were like eight or nine.

Speaker B: 00:00:32

You know, we had a very, very active band scene down there, so we, we all played together in various groups.

Speaker B: 00:00:38

to play with Alex Chilton in: 1977

Speaker A: 00:00:46

Over the years, as you all have formed and reformed as the dbs, what has led to where you are moving forward creatively?

Speaker B: 00:00:56

Time passes and people change so naturally.

Speaker B: 00:00:59

Hopefully if one starts as a creative person, one will continue on and change as life changes.

Speaker B: 00:01:05

The different influences of marriages, divorces, hurricanes, children, abuse problems, things like that.

Speaker B: 00:01:12

They all contribute, certainly.

Speaker B: 00:01:13

You know, every record I've ever listened to has changed me.

Speaker A: 00:01:16

Let's back up chronologically a little bit.

Speaker A: 00:01:18

As you all were first coming together in the original foursome, what led to you all deciding to form the DB's?

Speaker B: 00:01:24

Specifically, Chris really wanted to start a band.

Speaker B: 00:01:27

So Chris got in touch with Will and then Gene, who was living in Philadelphia at the time.

Speaker B: 00:01:33

Will, I believe, was still in Chapel Hill and said, you should come up and play.

Speaker B: 00:01:36

And so they started a band up there.

Speaker B: 00:01:38

And then about four months later, three months later, I had been living in Memphis and doing a little bit of recording there and they said, why don't you come up?

Speaker B: 00:01:46

We need a keyboard player.

Speaker B: 00:01:47

Do you want to audition?

Speaker B: 00:01:48

So I auditioned and I'm still assuming that I passed the audition.

Speaker B: 00:01:53

plug on it eventually, about: 1988

Speaker B: 00:02:01

But we had a good 10 year run with the band for sure.

Speaker A: 00:02:04

Where did you go with your music after that?

Speaker B: 00:02:06

Well, the first thing, I got contacted by REM to go out and work as their extra hand out there playing guitar and bass and keyboards and accordion.

Speaker B: 00:02:16

So I did that for about a year and a half and then living in Los Angeles and got together with some friends out there with a band.

Speaker B: 00:02:23

Called the Continental Drifters.

Speaker B: 00:02:25

w Orleans and it went through: 2002

Speaker B: 00:02:32

And meanwhile, I was also playing with Hootie and the Blowfish.

Speaker B: 00:02:35

I got a call from their A and R person at Atlantic and said, would you be interested?

Speaker B: 00:02:40

So that's sort of where I went.

Speaker B: 00:02:41

And then eventually, you know, we did a couple of DB shows and Chris and I had done a couple of duet records, right.

Speaker B: 00:02:48

There were some songs that seemed like they would really be very well served if they had Will and Jean playing on them.

Speaker B: 00:02:53

So we asked them and they said, sure.

Speaker A: 00:02:55

You were in New Orleans during the hurric, weren't you?

Speaker B: 00:02:57

I lived there and my family was there.

Speaker B: 00:02:59

I was on the road with Hooting the Blowfish.

Speaker A: 00:03:01

Okay, how did that end up coming through with what you were writing on.

Speaker B: 00:03:05

This record in particular, there's a song called she Won't Drive in the Rain Anymore.

Speaker B: 00:03:09

And that's a co write with a man named Christian Bush who's got a band called Sugar Land.

Speaker B: 00:03:14

He encouraged me to kind of get that stuff out of my system and I told him I had some pieces of it.

Speaker B: 00:03:21

So we got it sort of in a form to get started and I flushed it out.

Speaker B: 00:03:26

And I mean, there are a couple of songs that I've written that are sort of Katrina centric, I guess you would say.

Speaker B: 00:03:34

You know, the biggest thing about that really wasn't losing stuff.

Speaker B: 00:03:38

I lost a lot of stuff.

Speaker B: 00:03:39

We lost everything in our house, our car computers.

Speaker B: 00:03:44

I lost a hard drive full of songs I'd been working on all summer.

Speaker B: 00:03:48

But the thing that put it really into perspective was the fact that my former brother in law, Barry Cowsel, died in the flood.

Speaker B: 00:03:55

And I'm not.

Speaker B: 00:03:56

We don't.

Speaker B: 00:03:57

You know, the.

Speaker B: 00:03:57

The specifics of his death are not terribly clear.

Speaker B: 00:04:01

But he, you know, when you lose an actual person that you have a friendship with and that exists, you know, I mean, I can buy other stuff, but I can't buy another Barry.

Speaker B: 00:04:14

So that put everything in perspective and I had to be sort of circumspect about the whole thing.

Speaker B: 00:04:19

But there's another song on that duet record that Chris and I did called Here and Now.

Speaker B: 00:04:23

The song is called Begin Again and Branford Marcellus played sax on it.

Speaker B: 00:04:28

That was a lot about kind of visualizing New Orleans after the flood and, you know, the diaspora of the people and how the infrastructure had changed so greatly.

Speaker B: 00:04:40

So, yeah, so there's, it's, it's.

Speaker B: 00:04:42

It's popped up in a Few songs.

Speaker B: 00:04:44

Hi, this is Peter Holzappel from the dbs, and you're listening to Country Fried Rock.

Speaker A: 00:04:48

How do you know when it's something that's going to be a duo for you all or something that would be a Deebees song?

Speaker B: 00:04:54

Hard to say.

Speaker B: 00:04:54

I mean, all through the DB's, I'm sure Chris and I both.

Speaker B: 00:04:58

At least I know I was writing that just didn't really strike me as having DB's qualifications.

Speaker B: 00:05:03

I mean, for me, a DB song should be kind of punchy.

Speaker B: 00:05:06

Even if it's a ballad, it should have.

Speaker B: 00:05:08

It needs something that the bass and drums are going to be able to put their thumbprints on.

Speaker B: 00:05:12

It's great to have dual vocals, you know, but that's going to be the same thing with me and Chris.

Speaker B: 00:05:15

I think we tend to err on the side of slightly.

Speaker B: 00:05:19

Not that you would call the DB's heavy by any stretch of the imagination, but the.

Speaker B: 00:05:23

The approach that we take is slightly heavier acoustic stuff that we do.

Speaker B: 00:05:27

And maybe that's just because of electric guitars pounding drums and stuff.

Speaker B: 00:05:31

But I guess early, you know, it's one of those things where, you know, it is and you don't know if it isn't.

Speaker B: 00:05:36

And it's really hard to.

Speaker B: 00:05:37

It's like.

Speaker B: 00:05:37

It's like why I don't teach guitar.

Speaker B: 00:05:38

I don't.

Speaker B: 00:05:39

I don't know why I can play what I play.

Speaker B: 00:05:42

I just can.

Speaker B: 00:05:43

But I couldn't explain it to a neophyte.

Speaker A: 00:05:45

So, as you all have had comings and goings and kind of moving apart and coming back together in different forms over the years, what was the timeline on this most recent record of all new songs?

Speaker B: 00:05:56

of us got together was about: 1987

Speaker B: 00:06:03

And as per usual, in that sort of parallel world of the DBs, where everything that can go wrong.

Speaker B: 00:06:09

Well, we got middle of the encore.

Speaker A: 00:06:11

Oh, my goodness.

Speaker B: 00:06:12

And there's actual footage of that on YouTube, of course, for those who enjoy the schadenfreude of it all.

Speaker B: 00:06:17

But suddenly there were a couple of songs that just sort of stuck out as Wouldn't this be a good idea?

Speaker B: 00:06:22

So then we also got a call from some folks in Chicago about a couple of gigs up there with the original band.

Speaker B: 00:06:29

And we just sort of ran it by Will and Gene.

Speaker B: 00:06:31

And, you know, Will was playing.

Speaker B: 00:06:33

Will's been playing with Steve Earle for many years, and Gene, up until recently, has had a mastering lab in Hoboken.

Speaker B: 00:06:39

So it was a question of just trying to make sure that he was available for it.

Speaker B: 00:06:43

We got together and it was a little bit like getting back on the bicycle.

Speaker B: 00:06:46

You know, everybody sort of knew what to do and we did it.

Speaker B: 00:06:49

And so that was very handy.

Speaker B: 00:06:50

So we did that.

Speaker B: 00:06:51

And then there was some talk.

Speaker B: 00:06:53

We're just trying to figure out thing else or if we just wanted to do some singles and, you know, if there was a.

Speaker B: 00:06:57

If there was even a need or desire for it among people.

Speaker B: 00:07:00

So we all felt good about it.

Speaker B: 00:07:02

And then seven years later, we got the record finished.

Speaker B: 00:07:06

But we did.

Speaker B: 00:07:07

One of the.

Speaker B: 00:07:07

One of the more pressing things that we did was we did a cover of what Becomes of the Brokenhearted for a charity that was established for musicians in New Orleans by DB's bassist, Jeff Benonado, who joined the band about five years after Chris had left.

Speaker B: 00:07:28

Just a fine, fine person and as good a friend as you could hope to have and a really dedicated bass player.

Speaker B: 00:07:34

And he and his wife, Karen Dalton Bananato, started this thing called the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund.

Speaker B: 00:07:39

So we wanted to ante up on that, so we did our version of that.

Speaker B: 00:07:43

It turned out really good.

Speaker B: 00:07:44

And so once again, as befits the story of the dbs, a lot of it was sort of birthed out of recording and feeling like, well, this is good.

Speaker B: 00:07:54

We've got some stuff that's gonna sound good.

Speaker B: 00:07:56

We had to do a lot of thought and a lot of scratching of heads and pulling of hair to figure out what the record was supposed to sound like.

Speaker B: 00:08:03

Because, you know, Chris was around for the first two records and then he wasn't for the last two.

Speaker B: 00:08:08

And then we had all these lives and bands and families and divorces and what have you in between the time.

Speaker B: 00:08:15

And we just were trying to make something that really made sense, I think.

Speaker B: 00:08:18

So I think we ended up doing that.

Speaker B: 00:08:20

We winnowed down the 30 songs that we recorded and turned something that seems contiguous and it seems effortless.

Speaker B: 00:08:26

And it does that thing where it makes it sound like we went in and played it.

Speaker B: 00:08:30

And it doesn't show all the, you know, false starts and the bum notes and the vocals that we had to repair and things like that.

Speaker B: 00:08:37

So I think we pulled that off.

Speaker B: 00:08:38

I think the record really sounds like it belongs in this world as a DB's record.

Speaker A: 00:08:43

For me, when I put it in, as a fan, I hear a DB's record, but I hear a new DB's record.

Speaker A: 00:08:48

I don't hear retro in any way.

Speaker B: 00:08:51

Good, then we have accomplished what we were Trying to do.

Speaker B: 00:08:54

I got a wonderful compliment from my 18 year old daughter the evening of her graduation from high school a couple of weeks ago and we put on the record and she said gee dad, for a bunch of old geezers you rock pretty hard.

Speaker B: 00:09:04

So I take that as the highest form of compliment right there.

Speaker A: 00:09:07

Absolutely.

Speaker A: 00:09:08

Well, you mentioned that there's all these other songs that didn't make the record and you briefly said something about eps.

Speaker A: 00:09:13

Is there any talk of life for some of these other songs?

Speaker B: 00:09:16

Oh, possibly, you never can tell.

Speaker B: 00:09:17

I mean we've put a couple of things on.

Speaker B: 00:09:19

We did a video for a song called Revolution of the Mind.

Speaker B: 00:09:21

We did that a couple months ago with the Occupy Wall street people.

Speaker B: 00:09:25

And then for Record Store day last year we did a 45 of the B side is right back which is on the album that Will wrote.

Speaker B: 00:09:32

And the A side is a song called Picture Sleeve.

Speaker B: 00:09:34

Sort of one of the rare co writes between Peter and Chris but.

Speaker B: 00:09:38

And then you know, like I said, there's a ton more songs in there but I just don't know, you know, I mean my initial thought is well we pulled the good ones and the rest of them were okay, but they're not gonna, you know, blow anybody's dress up particularly.

Speaker B: 00:09:49

But then again, you know, who knows, I mean maybe it just takes the right mix.

Speaker B: 00:09:52

So it's hard to say what, you know, I mean they're, they're there, they're in a sort of a, you know, relatively ready to go state.

Speaker B: 00:09:58

So that's good.

Speaker B: 00:09:59

You know, time will tell.

Speaker B: 00:10:01

If this record gets roundly ignored then there probably isn't a big reason to do that.

Speaker B: 00:10:05

Now if this record goes through the roof then of course they're going to want to, you know, we'll be selling those DB's, licensed body bags and latrine shovels and things like that with our name on it.

Speaker B: 00:10:18

And of course we'll need other stuff so that may work out.

Speaker A: 00:10:20

The business structure of music is certainly not the same as it even five years ago.

Speaker B: 00:10:25

Dear Lord no.

Speaker A: 00:10:26

And if you can figure that out, please tell me.

Speaker A: 00:10:28

But now it's like being on the road is where the dollars are coming from for a lot of bands.

Speaker A: 00:10:34

Life has other logistics for you all it sounds like right now, without a doubt.

Speaker B: 00:10:38

How are we going to make this work?

Speaker A: 00:10:40

Well, not so much that, but more is there any plan to take any of it on the road on in any way?

Speaker B: 00:10:46

We are going to do select gigs.

Speaker B: 00:10:48

I mean the largest issue of course as you point out, is that we all have our respective lives.

Speaker B: 00:10:53

Will is out on the road right now.

Speaker B: 00:10:55

I believe we're getting ready to go out on the road.

Speaker B: 00:10:58

I've got this fine job that I really like a lot.

Speaker B: 00:11:00

Chris is over in, I guess he just finished working in England doing the big star third at the Barbican and now he's heading over to Spain for another performance with that.

Speaker B: 00:11:08

So he's got a lot of irons in the fire Gene also.

Speaker B: 00:11:11

And you know, all of us are parents and we all have little girls and some of us are lucky to have little boys as well.

Speaker B: 00:11:17

So we, you know, it's a, it's trying to work through all that stuff.

Speaker B: 00:11:20

I don't anticipate six weeks in a stinky van playing third on the bill on Tuesday nights.

Speaker B: 00:11:26

And you know, know where's Hill for $25?

Speaker B: 00:11:29

Because that just isn't going to cut it anymore.

Speaker B: 00:11:31

We have some personal requirements that really need to be dealt with.

Speaker B: 00:11:36

So we're going to do that.

Speaker B: 00:11:38

We try to hit as many of the major markets as we possibly can.

Speaker B: 00:11:42

I mean there are great pockets of DB's fans like in Chicago and Minneapolis that are.

Speaker B: 00:11:48

That's not always the easiest way to get to, you know, New York, not a problem.

Speaker B: 00:11:52

Atlanta, not a problem, L.A. possible problem.

Speaker B: 00:11:55

But we'll, you know, we played in Austin for South by Southwest and it was incredibly positive.

Speaker B: 00:12:01

So I think we.

Speaker B: 00:12:02

The desire is there to get out.

Speaker B: 00:12:04

The actual practicality of it all may be a different question.

Speaker B: 00:12:08

So.

Speaker B: 00:12:08

But we're going to give it a try.

Speaker B: 00:12:09

Hi, this is Peter Holzap of the dbs.

Speaker B: 00:12:11

We got a brand new record out called Falling off the sky on Bar None Records.

Speaker B: 00:12:15

You can pick it up@thedbs.com and you can always hear it here on Country Fried Rock.

Speaker A: 00:12:21

What have you found interesting in a positive way with the role of social media and indie music for you all?

Speaker B: 00:12:27

I find that it's easy to.

Speaker B: 00:12:29

I mean, it's interesting to be able to connect with a lot of people that have been fans of ours and fans of mine for years and to hear what they have to say.

Speaker B: 00:12:37

I mean, the connectivity certainly is the biggest bonus of it all.

Speaker B: 00:12:42

This sort of startling lack of privacy can be the downside of that, but that's not a huge issue for me.

Speaker B: 00:12:49

My life has been sort of an open book anyway.

Speaker B: 00:12:53

I don't know, I mean, we're encouraging people to go out and buy the new record the day it comes out so that it might actually have have some sort of impact on a chart somewhere.

Speaker B: 00:13:01

Whether that Works, I don't know.

Speaker B: 00:13:02

It was just kind of a crazy idea of mine.

Speaker B: 00:13:05

So we'll see how some of my crazy ideas work.

Speaker B: 00:13:08

Some of them are maybe not so much.

Speaker B: 00:13:11

So it's hard to say.

Speaker B: 00:13:13

I did the MySpace page for a long time.

Speaker B: 00:13:16

We've got a Facebook page.

Speaker B: 00:13:20

I can't be sure if more people are going to it or not.

Speaker B: 00:13:24

Hopefully.

Speaker B: 00:13:25

I think still the biggest deal is word of mouth.

Speaker B: 00:13:29

You know, if George Clooney decided that this was an awesome record and wanted to tell everybody about it, Hell, if George Wendt decided it was a cool record, you know, I mean, any of these people would be, you know, if they told people, you know, I mean, the way we tell people, the way our friends, the people that have heard the record.

Speaker B: 00:13:49

And you know, to me, the encouraging thing is that people like some of the folks I work with here and my wife, who is very, very picky listener, really likes a certain.

Speaker B: 00:14:01

A bunch of certain things specifically, but not much more.

Speaker B: 00:14:05

Honestly, I think that when people like that, like it, it's an easier sell because they can.

Speaker B: 00:14:09

They can bring it to people.

Speaker B: 00:14:10

And they both also have said this bears repeated listening.

Speaker B: 00:14:14

And that's.

Speaker B: 00:14:15

That was our part of the bark.

Speaker B: 00:14:16

And we needed to make something that was.

Speaker B: 00:14:18

Was not just a fly by night record, but something that had substance, that had teeth and hair and bones and could walk on its hind legs, which I think this does very nicely.

Speaker B: 00:14:28

And like I say, it fits in.

Speaker B: 00:14:29

For people who have heard the DBS before, they're gonna like it.

Speaker B: 00:14:32

For people who've never heard the DBS before, I think they're still gonna like it quite a lot, even if they don't know what they're buying.

Speaker A: 00:14:37

I heard a rumor about vinyl, perhaps.

Speaker B: 00:14:39

Yep.

Speaker A: 00:14:39

Aha.

Speaker B: 00:14:40

Contact your local retailer.

Speaker B: 00:14:42

In fact, I gotta remember to contact my local retailer for the day that it's released to make sure that they've got the vinyl there.

Speaker B: 00:14:48

Durham, where I live, we have Offbeat Records and we have Chaz's Bull City Records and there's probably a couple others that I'm not remembering really well.

Speaker B: 00:14:56

But Offbeat is the one that we go to.

Speaker B: 00:14:57

I mean, if you go to my Facebook page, family and I take Record Store Day very seriously.

Speaker B: 00:15:01

Take that as seriously as the way some people take the fourth of July.

Speaker B: 00:15:04

We believe in that and we like to support it.

Speaker B: 00:15:07

So we always go up to Offbeat and have a budget and buy a bunch of records that day.

Speaker B: 00:15:11

So that's a great store, really nice.

Speaker B: 00:15:13

People that run it.

Speaker B: 00:15:13

That's sort of in the neighborhood.

Speaker A: 00:15:15

That's fantastic.

Speaker A: 00:15:16

You know, a record store historically, for me, has been critical in.

Speaker A: 00:15:20

In discovering music and in supporting music and just really helping connect that family tree kind of thing of, you know, so and so played with so and so.

Speaker A: 00:15:27

And this is the connection to over here.

Speaker B: 00:15:29

And.

Speaker A: 00:15:29

And this is how, you know.

Speaker B: 00:15:30

Yep.

Speaker B: 00:15:31

Could have been one of my customers.

Speaker B: 00:15:32

Over the years I worked until there really weren't a lot of record stores.

Speaker B: 00:15:35

I worked pretty much consistently at record stores from the time I was about 15 years old.

Speaker B: 00:15:40

Granted, my brain operates that way.

Speaker B: 00:15:42

I could never be a city planner or a mortician or anything like that, or a vintner.

Speaker B: 00:15:47

But I can tell you who was in Savoy Brown for the first five records.

Speaker B: 00:15:50

You know, I can do a declination of everybody that played bass for Uriah Heap if you need that.

Speaker B: 00:15:55

You know, I'm very good for late night.

Speaker B: 00:15:57

You know, a round of drinks is banking on this kind of phone calls, which I still get, you know, and that and a quarter gets Mama phone call.

Speaker B: 00:16:05

Right.

Speaker B: 00:16:05

But I agree with you.

Speaker B: 00:16:08

I think that the salon aspect of record stores is sorely missing these days.

Speaker B: 00:16:12

Most of the great stuff that I learned about, I learned from Good Guy Radio in Winston Salem, WToB, back when playlists were deep and wide and completely understandable.

Speaker B: 00:16:24

And then I also had a record store across the highway from me that I would go to call Resnick's work.

Speaker B: 00:16:29

Ended up working.

Speaker B: 00:16:30

But I remember that the older guys, who were probably four or five years older than me, but at that point, four or five years might have been 20 for all I knew.

Speaker B: 00:16:37

But they.

Speaker B: 00:16:38

They would do things like I would pick up a copy of Fire and Rain by James Taylor, and they'd say, well, that's a good record, but maybe you want to try this?

Speaker B: 00:16:46

And then they'd hand me Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart or Heart Food by Judy Sill.

Speaker B: 00:16:51

And I'd go into the little booth and I'd put that on, and I'd have, you know, consequently had my mind utterly blown.

Speaker B: 00:16:57

And I was like, yeah, you're right.

Speaker B: 00:16:59

James Taylor can wait.

Speaker B: 00:17:00

That's fin.

Speaker B: 00:17:02

Can I take this Judy Sill record home?

Speaker B: 00:17:03

Yeah, I'd like to get that.

Speaker B: 00:17:04

rds that I've had, like Paris: 1919

Speaker B: 00:17:09

And up until Katrina, I still had the original copy that I had.

Speaker B: 00:17:12

You know, that and good rock writing, you know, good magazines like Cream and Phonograph, Record magazine.

Speaker B: 00:17:19

And the way Rolling Stone sort of was early on when it was more about music.

Speaker B: 00:17:23

You know, all those things were very, very handy.

Speaker B: 00:17:26

People like Lester Bangs and Greg Shaw that just kind of helped guide, you know, the neophyte.

Speaker B: 00:17:34

Because you really weren't hearing it after Good Guy Radio.

Speaker B: 00:17:36

You weren't really hearing it on the radio.

Speaker B: 00:17:38

So you had to find the other source.

Speaker B: 00:17:39

And of course, you know, up in your left hand corner of your dial in Winston Salem was Deacon Light, which was the wfdd Wake Forest rock stuff that would go on very late at night.

Speaker B: 00:17:48

I think believe that's where Chris may have heard Big Star for the first time.

Speaker B: 00:17:52

You know, of course, that was the most compelling argument for being a rock and roll guy.

Speaker B: 00:17:57

Still is, really.

Speaker A: 00:17:58

What were your favorite bootlegs?

Speaker A: 00:18:00

You got access to bootlegs?

Speaker B: 00:18:01

We didn't really deal with bootlegs, really.

Speaker B: 00:18:03

My brother, who was 11 years older than me, had things like the Great White Wonder.

Speaker B: 00:18:08

And we had a store in town called Misty Mountain Rock that dealt with, I believe what they refer to them was concert albums.

Speaker A: 00:18:15

Oh, interesting.

Speaker B: 00:18:17

But I, you know, I was fine with that.

Speaker B: 00:18:19

Bootlegs.

Speaker B: 00:18:20

I mean, Great White Wonder was nice to hear, but it really didn't.

Speaker B: 00:18:23

I mean, I was sort of into.

Speaker B: 00:18:24

I wasn't as into Dylan then as I am now.

Speaker B: 00:18:28

I saw him as a great singles artist, you know, And I didn't really pay much attention to the album tracks.

Speaker B: 00:18:32

ething, you know, like a live: 1968

Speaker B: 00:18:46

That might have been interesting.

Speaker B: 00:18:47

I remember who ZOO was a sort of a favorite just for the graphics on the COVID But I really didn't, you know, we didn't really handle bootlegs at all.

Speaker B: 00:18:55

We left that to Misty Mountain Rock.

Speaker B: 00:18:57

Misty Mountain Rock was good, though.

Speaker B: 00:18:59

They also were able to order Henry the Human Fly, the first Richard Thompson solo record for me.

Speaker B: 00:19:04

And I got that from England the week that it came out.

Speaker B: 00:19:07

So I had that well before most people.

Speaker A: 00:19:10

Yeah, I just saw that they're re releasing that Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny.

Speaker B: 00:19:15

You hit on two other touchstones of my life.

Speaker B: 00:19:17

Really beautiful stuff.

Speaker B: 00:19:19

There's a Sandy Denny tribute tour going around England right now with like PP Arnold and Thea Gilmore, who did a record of her so that she finished up and sort of in a Billy Bragg Wilco sort of way with Woody Guthrie.

Speaker B: 00:19:31

But I guess there was some Sandy Danny poetry that was calling out to have some music written to It.

Speaker B: 00:19:35

So that was very cool.

Speaker B: 00:19:36

Hi, this is Peter Holzap with the dbs.

Speaker B: 00:19:38

Did you know we have a Facebook page under our name, T H E D B Apostasia.

Speaker B: 00:19:43

See you on Facebook.

Speaker B: 00:19:44

And thanks for listening to Country Fried Rock.

Speaker A: 00:19:46

Kind of jumping around a little bit.

Speaker A: 00:19:47

But it relates to this whole discussion of vinyl and that you all are going to do this on vinyl.

Speaker A: 00:19:51

Track selection for album versus CD is quite different, both in ordering but also in the time of how you order those things.

Speaker A: 00:19:59

Who was involved in the process of making that sort of decision?

Speaker B: 00:20:03

Some of us are more audiophile than others and so we understand the concept that you can only have X amount of time on a side of a vinyl album before it starts sounding terrible.

Speaker B: 00:20:12

And we wanted to try to get it mastered to sound the best that it possibly could.

Speaker B: 00:20:16

So we did have to drop two songs off the vinyl.

Speaker B: 00:20:18

But along with the vinyl, you do get a CD copy.

Speaker B: 00:20:21

And then there's, I believe, a download card also.

Speaker B: 00:20:24

So, you know, we did have to lose she Won't Drive in the Rain and I can't remember what the other one is that went off.

Speaker B: 00:20:29

But they were long and we, you know, like I say, you know, fidelity is really the most important thing to us and we love our vinyl.

Speaker B: 00:20:37

And we are still on the fence about MP3 sound quality because it just isn't very good.

Speaker B: 00:20:42

But it's completely understandable that people want immediate gratification.

Speaker B: 00:20:46

You try to make it sound the best that you possibly can.

Speaker B: 00:20:50

You try to implore people to get the best quality sound that they can come up with.

Speaker B: 00:20:55

But you know, if they're listening over a pair of, you know, two inch computer speakers, it's sort of debatable whether that's really an issue.

Speaker B: 00:21:02

It's always an issue for the artist because you want to, like I say, you really want to try to make it as worthwhile as you possibly can.

Speaker A: 00:21:09

Right.

Speaker B: 00:21:10

But you know, once it leaves the record store or, you know, once it leaves Amazon, it's out of your hands.

Speaker A: 00:21:15

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:21:15

To quote Dwight Welle, do you get.

Speaker A: 00:21:17

Out and listen to live music at all?

Speaker B: 00:21:18

I don't very much at this point.

Speaker B: 00:21:21

I try to.

Speaker B: 00:21:22

I'm gonna go see Steve Martin and the Steve Canyon Rangers this weekend where I work.

Speaker B: 00:21:28

I believe Glen Campbell is coming to Cary sometime this summer.

Speaker B: 00:21:31

That.

Speaker B: 00:21:32

That is a must because I just love Glen Campbell and I'm very, I don't know, I'm thrilled that he would decide to play out his last years doing this.

Speaker B: 00:21:45

You know, I mean, that takes a certain kind of Bravery that I don't think a lot of people have.

Speaker B: 00:21:51

And it takes a.

Speaker B: 00:21:52

Takes a devotion to your craft and your art to be able to set yourself up there and, you know, maybe find yourself screwing stuff up.

Speaker B: 00:22:00

I mean, from what I understand, his muscle memory is largely amazing and honorable.

Speaker A: 00:22:06

How well Glenn is doing, which is just fantastic.

Speaker B: 00:22:08

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:22:09

Isn't that amazing?

Speaker A: 00:22:10

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:22:10

So that's very, very cool.

Speaker B: 00:22:11

So I'm gonna try to see that.

Speaker B: 00:22:12

I'd like to take my wife to that.

Speaker B: 00:22:14

And we have Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson doing their duo show.

Speaker B: 00:22:18

But, you know, as far as going out and seeing bands goes, I don't do that a lot.

Speaker B: 00:22:21

It's just.

Speaker B: 00:22:22

It's.

Speaker B: 00:22:23

It's harder for me because, A, I don't drink anymore.

Speaker B: 00:22:27

And so just being in a situation where I'm around a lot of people drinking A of lot, it's not a comfort zone for me.

Speaker B: 00:22:34

B, people like to talk really loud in my ear while I'm listening to a band and ask me questions and stuff.

Speaker B: 00:22:41

And I don't mean to be a drag about it, but it is.

Speaker B: 00:22:43

Does kind of.

Speaker B: 00:22:44

That's how it kind of queers the entertainment for me a little bit.

Speaker B: 00:22:47

And I guess I just.

Speaker B: 00:22:49

There's just not a lot that will get me out, you know, and, you know, I mean, it's sad.

Speaker B: 00:22:53

I'm a little embarrassed because friends will come through that are touring, and I don't really get out to do it.

Speaker B: 00:22:58

So, I mean, I hope they don't hate me, but I'm just.

Speaker B: 00:23:01

I'm shy and I'm a little agoraphobic product of age.

Speaker B: 00:23:05

It's like a gay marriage.

Speaker B: 00:23:07

If you don't want to marry a gay person, don't do it.

Speaker B: 00:23:10

But, I mean, if it's like, with drinking, if you're.

Speaker B: 00:23:12

If you want to drink, I'm not going to stop you, but I also am not going to stand there and have you stick your finger in my.

Speaker B: 00:23:18

Where I failed and, you know, all that sort of stuff that when the loosened tongue starts wagging out of control, I can't.

Speaker B: 00:23:24

You know, I don't like to set myself up for that.

Speaker A: 00:23:27

Right.

Speaker A: 00:23:28

It's interesting to see where this will head, but particularly where it's literally going to head for you.

Speaker A: 00:23:33

All this whole select cities thing has me intrigued.

Speaker A: 00:23:36

Do you have an ideal situation?

Speaker A: 00:23:39

Sound could be at its best.

Speaker A: 00:23:40

What would it be you?

Speaker B: 00:23:42

Oh, we just play CBGB's over and over.

Speaker B: 00:23:44

That really had the best sound of any club in New York for many, many years.

Speaker A: 00:23:46

Really?

Speaker B: 00:23:47

Oh, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:23:47

They, you know, for as haggard a looking place as it was, they really put the money that they could with the sound reinforcement system.

Speaker B: 00:23:54

So everybody sounded great at CBGB's.

Speaker B: 00:23:56

We're playing LA Poisson Rouge in New York.

Speaker B: 00:23:59

And we're playing at the Iota, which I've played at with the Drifters and with Chris before, the Day Before.

Speaker B: 00:24:06

You know, we're just, you know, not to paraphrase J and H Productions, but in a place where people can tap their feet to the music and dance if they want to.

Speaker B: 00:24:12

And want to feel like enough people can come.

Speaker A: 00:24:15

And so not like listening rooms, you.

Speaker B: 00:24:18

Know, what do tables and chairs really have to do with rock and roll?

Speaker B: 00:24:22

I mean, you could ask that of the people at Chastain park, certainly, but I don't think those are going anywhere anytime soon.

Speaker B: 00:24:28

I'm just trying to picture the people sitting there with their dinners listening to cream and 67 or 60, but, you know, I don't know.

Speaker B: 00:24:35

That's a good question.

Speaker B: 00:24:36

There are situations that would be good like that, but I mean.

Speaker B: 00:24:39

And again, in a situation like that, maybe we're better off doing World Cafe.

Speaker B: 00:24:44

Get to a larger audience that way.

Speaker B: 00:24:46

Rather than trotting out to the Stephen Talk House and Amagansett, you know, because again, the nature of this beast is that it's more rock and roll and more guitar oriented.

Speaker B: 00:24:57

More.

Speaker B: 00:24:58

You know, there's something that's slightly more aggressive, but I don't know that it's necessarily so.

Speaker B: 00:25:03

Really, at this point.

Speaker B: 00:25:04

It's about volume both in terms of the people coming and the amps.

Speaker B: 00:25:09

Hi, this is Peter Holzappel from the dbs.

Speaker B: 00:25:11

And you're listening to Country Fried Rock.

Speaker A: 00:25:13

For a band with several notable songs in the past, is there any need to keep those in a set list?

Speaker B: 00:25:20

Hard to say.

Speaker B: 00:25:22

It brings to mind people like Lou Reed or David Bowie or Iggy or somebody like that that's been around and consistently putting out records year.

Speaker B: 00:25:32

Everybody wants to hear Walk on the Wild side or Changes or Lust for Life.

Speaker B: 00:25:37

It's a delicate balance, but it's an imperative thing to do because you do want people to understand that there is something new and there is something worthwhile and that you should listen to it.

Speaker B: 00:25:45

So.

Speaker B: 00:25:45

So why not?

Speaker B: 00:25:47

You know, I mean, so we'll keep, you know, there's some old stuff that'll be in there, but maybe we'll be able to rotate it around.

Speaker B: 00:25:52

We do want to try to get as much of the new stuff in.

Speaker A: 00:25:54

As we can because there's been these the stops and starts of.

Speaker A: 00:25:57

In different formations for you all do songs, older songs in particular, do they get any kind of.

Speaker A: 00:26:02

Of reinterpretation when they are brought into a set list?

Speaker B: 00:26:06

Sometimes.

Speaker B: 00:26:06

I mean, we had talked about doing a medley and things like that, but I mean, the main consideration is if we can hit the high notes.

Speaker B: 00:26:12

So that really is the biggest deal of it.

Speaker B: 00:26:14

And then sometimes thematically, things like Bad Reputation, where I feel a little.

Speaker B: 00:26:18

A little sheepish singing about a new girl in school at the tender age of 56, you know, I mean, it might as well be my granddaughter at this point.

Speaker A: 00:26:27

But I did have someone ask me a question recently that I have never asked before.

Speaker A: 00:26:30

And they wanted to know what vehicle y' all drove on your first cross country road trip.

Speaker B: 00:26:37

First touring was done in a gray and black GMC van.

Speaker B: 00:26:42

I believe that was either a rental or something belonging to our early management company.

Speaker B: 00:26:48

It was like a 15 passenger.

Speaker B: 00:26:50

And we took out the back seats and put the gear in there and we stayed at cheap hotels.

Speaker B: 00:26:54

But it was pretty good.

Speaker B: 00:26:56

It was very interesting because we went out and the guy that eventually became our manager was our road manager and he was from New Orleans.

Speaker B: 00:27:04

And so riding along and I'm being my usual sort of shy guy self.

Speaker B: 00:27:10

And I looked over at him and said, so you're from New Orleans.

Speaker B: 00:27:13

You ever heard of the Meters?

Speaker B: 00:27:15

And it was.

Speaker B: 00:27:15

I might as well have just said, just tell me your life story.

Speaker B: 00:27:20

Because he was friends with Zig and he knew everybody in there and just talking.

Speaker B: 00:27:25

And he had one of Zig's drum kits at his house.

Speaker A: 00:27:27

Oh, cool.

Speaker B: 00:27:28

It was all very, very entertaining.

Speaker B: 00:27:30

But we used to listen to a lot of music in those vans.

Speaker B: 00:27:33

Everything from the Bulgarian Voices to George Jones, I don't know, to the Shags to anything that we could listen to.

Speaker B: 00:27:41

We used to have a couple of radio games too, where we would.

Speaker B: 00:27:44

If you turn the radio on and Sea of Love, Robert Plant was on, you had to put a quarter in the jar.

Speaker B: 00:27:50

We had a full jar of quarters for that summer.

Speaker B: 00:27:53

And then what was the other one?

Speaker B: 00:27:54

Oh, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:27:55

And then you would win.

Speaker B: 00:27:56

If you found Journey to the center of the Mind by the Amboy Dukes on the radio, you would be the winner.

Speaker B: 00:28:01

That also rarely happened, but it was, you know, it's one way to keep things interesting.

Speaker B: 00:28:05

We rattle it.

Speaker B: 00:28:06

The game used to be called Find Journey on the radio until, unfortunately, you could start Finding Journey, the band on the radio.

Speaker B: 00:28:12

So we sort of had to come up with something different.

Speaker A: 00:28:15

I'll take the Amboy Dukes any day over that.

Speaker B: 00:28:17

Amen.

Speaker A: 00:28:18

Very cool.

Speaker A: 00:28:18

Very cool.

Speaker A: 00:28:19

Well, I really appreciate your time.

Speaker A: 00:28:20

Thank you so, so much for being here.

Speaker B: 00:28:21

My pleasure, Sloan.

Speaker B: 00:28:22

And don't stop believing.

Speaker A: 00:28:24

Scary.

Speaker A: 00:28:25

Take it easy.

Speaker B: 00:28:27

Bye.

Speaker A: 00:28:27

Bye.

Speaker A: 00:28:28

Country Fried Rock.

Speaker A: 00:28:29

Find the full playlist from this episode on countryfriedrock.org check us out on itunes.

Speaker A: 00:28:34

No music, music.

Speaker A: 00:28:35

Just talk.

Speaker A: 00:28:36

Our theme music is from the full tones.

Speaker A: 00:28:39

Our country fried rock stinger is from Steve Soto in the twisted hearts.

Speaker A: 00:28:43

Country fried rock.

Speaker A: 00:28:44

Copyright: 2012

Speaker A: 00:28:48

All rights reserved.