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Home , American Classic, Don Was, Grady Martin, Moment of Forever, Trigger (guitar)

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JAKOB DYLAN DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS SHARON JONES PETER FRAMPTON CONTENTS MARCH/APRIL 2010

WILLIE NELSON A wandering spirit finds his way home

SLASH Going it alone WARREN HAYNES Gov’t Mule’s new kick COVER STORY KAKI KING SLASH heroine 36 An American legend talks about how his 44 The guitar giant who fired up Guns N’ Roses and + new helped him rediscover his roots. Velvet Revolver steps to center stage. KAKI KING DON BROADWAY 24 The innovative young guitarist follows inspiration 48 One of the music world’s most respected ROCKS wherever it leads. producers knows it’s all about the song.

MARCH/APRIL 2010 VOLUME 01, ISSUE 02 PETER FRAMPTON WARREN HAYNES PERIODICAL $6.99 U.S. / $7.99 CANADIAN SOCIAL 34 A veteran guitar slinger discusses his new music 62 Why Gov’t Mule’s frontman is always ready and NETWORKING and the perils of superstardom. eager for a new musical challenge.

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t’s Thursday afternoon in Evansville, Ind., and Willie Nelson composition “Man With the ,” Nelson and friends ramble is—as always—on the road. He played a show last night, he’ll through songs like Ernest Tubb’s “Seaman’s Blues” and Merle I play a show tomorrow night, another the night after that, and Travis’ “Dark as a Dungeon” on their way to the traditional blues another the night after that, stretching out ahead for most of the moan “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” a number Nelson only recently coming year. “It’s just what I like to do, what I’ve done all along,” he discovered via legend Nina Simone’s version. Nelson displays says with a shrug. “As far back as I can remember I always either his skills as an interpretive singer throughout, just as he did on the wanted to do this or I was doing it.” album that remains his best seller ever, 1978’s quintuple-platinum Every night he takes the stage with his longtime backing group, pop-standards showcase Stardust. the Family, and hits the ground running with his umpteenth romp Nelson says the concept of the album came Tsai Yu through 1979’s “Whiskey River.” After that, he spins out a constantly from Burnett, and Burnett says it was Nelson’s idea. In any event, varying set list of his own songs, covers, traditional tunes—whatever Burnett handpicked a group of players that included members comes to mind. Every night an audience drawn from all walks of life of the core string-band outfit that he has worked with since his showers him with the kind of affection that is reserved for national multiplatinum soundtrack for the 2000 movie O Brother, Where treasures and old friends, both bills Nelson fits perfectly. “The first Art Thou? To that lineup he added electric guitarist Buddy Miller time I looked out and saw an audience, there were people my age, and steel guitarist Russ Paul, creating a group that Burnett calls people a lot younger and people a lot older,” says the 76-year-old. “a combination of a ’20s string band and an old honky-tonk band “It’s still that way.” from the ’30s.” A hand injury in January forced him to cancel one date, but Nelson, Burnett and the players convened at Nashville’s Sound he says he’s fine now. Surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome in 2004 Emporium studio, and within a few days had captured about two temporarily kept him from playing his beloved trademark guitar, the dozen songs on tape. (Fifteen wound up on the finished album.) ‘If it was a good song a weathered 1969 Martin N-20 he calls “,” but luckily it hasn’t “The musicians knew most of these songs, and they were quick come to that this time. “I’m not having that much problems with it learners,” Nelson says. “Most good producers get the right people anymore,” he reports. “It’s doing well.” and the right songs into the studio, then step back and watch it hundred years ago, it’s The relentless restlessness that keeps him on the road remains happen. And that’s what T Bone does.” with him in the studio. The past decade alone has seen him try Country Music is the latest in Nelson’s series of genre-shifting still a good song today.’ his hand at reggae, jazz, , blues, children’s songs, album-length collaborations with a roster of producers that in recent glossy mainstream country, spry instrumentals and more. He has years includes singer-songwriter Ryan Adams (Songbird, 2006), been recording since 1962, and with each new release his vision country star (, 2008), rock has almost always expanded into some new direction. “He is free,” megaproducer Don Was (Countryman, 2005) and pop legend says producer . “It’s a wonderful thing for a man his Tommy LiPuma (, 2009). An album recorded with Music Row veteran James Stroud is awaiting release sometime in the them. It was the same way with Stardust—a lot of the young people When you sing a song like that now, do you feel like the near future. “I’m eager for it to come had not heard those songs before. same person you were when you wrote it? out, because there’s a lot of good I am the same guy. (laughs) It’s not a huge stretch of the imagination. things on there,” Nelson says. You don’t like to do more than a handful of takes. Why? Fifty years went by pretty quick. It’s not hard to relate to that song This year Nelson has already First of all, you don’t turn on the recording switch until you and at all. returned to the studio with his road everybody around you knows the song. Then it shouldn’t take you band to lay down some songs with but a couple of times to get it. If you have to do it more than three What about Al Dexter’s “Pistol Packin’ Mama”? yet another intriguing producer at times, you should move on. I relate to that one too! (laughs) That’s a great song. Al was married the helm: himself. The new tracks, to Rosie Dexter, and she had a club in Ft. Worth called Rosie’s Barn. including a take on Irving Berlin’s How did you settle on the songs? We played there a lot back when I was playing nightclubs around “What’ll I Do?” and new versions I let T Bone pick the songs. I brought one song to the session, which there. Al was one of our old favorites. of his own “December Day” and was “Nobody’s Fault But Mine.” I ran into that song a few months ago, “Valentine,” are slated for an album and started singing and playing it. We’re doing it live on the show, You play a lot of guitar solos on the record. How did you the singer will release on his own and it’s just one I wanted to record. The rest are T Bone’s ideas. I’d develop your solo style? newly formed record label. He says heard all the songs before except for “Satan Your Kingdom Must I don’t know. How did you develop your style of interviewing? his own approach as a producer is Come Down,” and one obscure Bob Wills song that we did, “You’ve (laughs) It’s something you do. You play something off the top of simple: “I just go in with good songs, Gotta Walk Alone.” I thought I knew all of Bob your head and hope you know what you’re doing. good musicians and good engineers, Wills’ songs, but I didn’t remember that one. Who were the big infl uences on your and I hope I can sing that day.” All the songs were just good country music. playing? Nelson took time out of his always Why did you decide to revisit “Man Nelson and jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis onstage in New York City, January 2007 busy schedule to discuss the latest Django Reinhardt, , Grady Martin— With the Blues”? turn in a musical path that stretches those guys were the best at what they did. I like out behind him for a half century I wrote that over 50 years ago, so it’s been to think I learned from all of them. age to have freedom. And he seems to be getting more freedom now—and shows no sign of ending. laying around for a while. Ronnie McCoury, one You played bass behind your friend Ray the further he goes.” of the pickers we worked with, said his father Price early on. How were you at it? After all that wandering, his new album finds Nelson returning You’ve said you see a similarity between the new record [bluegrass singer Del McCoury] had recorded that song and asked me if I would put it on the I was a guitar player trying to play bass, so you home to the kind of music he grew up loving as a young man in and Stardust. How so? session. Otherwise I wouldn’t have thought can imagine. (laughs) It was a job, I was making Abbott, Texas. On the Burnett-produced Country Music, Nelson These are songs that are well-known in versions by the people who about doing it. good money and I got to wear those pretty suits. forgoes experimentation for a moment to dig into a set of decades- first recorded them years ago. They’re standards, and they’re still old songs that he now essays with an authority and familiarity good. If it was a good song a hundred years ago, it’s still a good MARCH/APRIL 2010 39 that perhaps he alone can tap. Kicking off with his own song today. A lot of people just haven’t had the chance to hear

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the studio to his specifi cations. He was my partner down here at the time, and he did an incredible job. SOUND VALUESVALUES TRIGGER’S PULL Have you changed it much over the Veteran producer T Bone Burnett helped to bring Willie The story behind one of music’s most years? distinctive and distinguished instruments A bit. I don’t stay on top of the technical Nelson’s Country Music to life stuff that much. When I get ready to use Willie Nelson sent his busted to Nashville guitarist the studio I know the equipment’s going to Willie Nelson and Country Music producer and Shot Jackson for repair in 1969. Jackson told him over the be the latest and best—and I never have to T Bone Burnett fi rst met sometime in the phone that the guitar was beyond help, and Nelson asked if he had worry about that. early 1970s—Burnett isn’t sure whether any other instruments lying around that would make a suitable replacement. At Jackson’s recommendation Nelson they were in Colorado or Hawaii, but he bought, sight unseen, a $750 Martin N-20 classical model made from Brazilian Rosewood. Jackson installed a recalls being present. Baldwin three-cord stereo pickup at Nelson’s request and sent the guitar off to its new owner—who immediately In any event, the two Texas natives hit it recognized he had his hands on something special. Nelson named his new axe “Trigger,” after Roy Rogers’ horse. off well but never worked together before The nylon-stringed instrument helped to infl uence the development of Nelson’s distinctive soloing style, now. We caught up with the extremely busy an intuitive approach that draws more on jazz tradition than country or pop. “I’ve been to some of his shows Burnett, who has also produced recent and I noticed that whenever he plays a solo people go crazy,” says producer T Bone Burnett. “There’s a by Elvis Costello, Jakob Dylan, reason for that. He has a tremendous depth of experience. He knows he’s at this note and he’s got to get John Mellencamp, B.B. King and many to that note, and he’s got this much time. He knows a lot of ways to get from here to there.” others (and won an Oscar for co-writing Thanks to its lack of a pick guard, Nelson has slowly chipped away at it strum by strum. (Classical “The Weary Kind,” from the movie Crazy are built to be fi ngerpicked.) Still, he says, “I just like the sound of Trigger. I think it’s gotten better Heart), to discuss his work with Nelson. with age, really.” Another aspect of Trigger’s distinctive appearance is the more than 100 autographs on its body, left there by Nelson’s friends and collaborators over the years—including Gene Autry, Johnny How did you know which songs Cash and Roger Miller. Trigger remains Nelson’s primary guitar both on stage and in the studio. “I’ve would work for Willie? got an electric hanging around if I ever feel like I want to play it,” he says. “But most of the time I can Willie has a very distinctive voice, so I do everything on Trigger.” would simply imagine Willie singing that song. Every once in a while one would come along that sounds like Willie wrote When you write now, what’s another one. It doesn’t have to be a new song coming out, it can it, like “Seaman’s Blues” by Ernest Tubb. the process like? be a song I just haven’t sung in a while. Most of the tunes you could immediately There’s no set way. Some days you’ll hear Willie singing. get an idea and you’ll write it, some Your kids Paula, Lukas, Jacob and Amy have gotten into days you’ll get an idea and not write the music business. What’s that like to see? How was the recording experience? it. (laughs) It just depends. I’m a lazy writer, so most of the time I’ll It’s very gratifying. I’m the normal proud parent when I see them all It was the easiest thing in the world, releasing high-resolution digital sound get an idea but I won’t write it. out there doing well. because we had all these incredible for 10 or 12 years now, while CDs have musicians and Willie was in fi ne voice continued to put out low-resolution digital How different is touring now from, say, 30 years ago? Did you encourage them or discourage them from doing and fi ne spirits the whole time. We went in sound. It’s insane. It’s no wonder people We’re traveling a little more. The buses are better than the station that? and cut about 25 songs in three days. We aren’t buying records—you’re selling them wagons. We get a little more money than we did, maybe the crowds Neither. I was doing it, and they could watch me and decide whether were working so fast we weren’t going 20-year-old, outdated technology. One of are a little larger. But nothing has changed that much. The music is they wanted to do it or not. I did leave some drums and guitars and carefully through each tune. When we the ways I want to spend the rest of my what’s kept us out here and kept lying around, and from there got home we found a couple we wanted life is doing everything I can to improve people coming to hear us. on it was up to them. to redo, so we went in again about six sound quality and raise the issue of sound. weeks later and recorded two or three It’s one of the fi ve senses, and one that How do you keep yourself in ‘I’m the same guy I was 50 years Are there any producers left more things. should be taken very seriously. shape? that you’d like to work with? I do more physically than people ago. It went by pretty quick.’ I think I’ve worked with them all. Do you have a preference between Why did you decide to work at What did you take away from think. I do a lot of biking and (laughs) I’m all right in the studio, analog and digital? Sound Emporium in Nashville? the experience of recording with running and martial arts. I’ve got a but when the studio work is done I’ve heard the pros and cons—how digital That’s the room I use for acoustic music, Willie? punching bag in the back of the bus. Muhammad Ali came in one you need someone like that who can take it from there and make a is cold and analog is warm—and that’s mostly. It’s the greatest room in the world I learned a lot. I learned a lot about time and hit my bag a couple of times. fi nished product of it. probably true. It still has to be a good song, to record acoustic music and string-band phrasing and guitar playing. And I learned good musicians and good acoustics. Once music. a lot about an approach to music: how to How do you plan set lists? Are you comfortable giving up that much responsibility? you get past that it’s just a matter of opinion. think of it, how seriously to take it, how I don’t have one. I just play it off the top of my head. We’ll normally I’m sure in my own way I micromanage it, even though I turn it over to Did you record analog or digital? much to love it, how hard to try, how start out with “Whiskey River,” and then we’ll see where it goes from someone else. If I didn’t like what I heard I would suggest a change. Do you have a goal in mind for We record everything analog. We’re an simple to make it. I learned that Willie there. We’ve got 40 or 50 songs that I can put anywhere within the yourself at this point? analog team. I believe digital is a sidetrack Nelson is Willie Nelson for a damn good You have your own studio in Luck, Texas. How did you go show. If I get a new one, like “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” we’ll put Not really. All I hope is that we all stay as far as audio goes. Analog is the future reason. He’s peaceful, he has an overview, about building that? it in there somewhere. healthy and well, where we can do what of music. All performers are analog, you he knows how to wait. He’s not anxious. I asked people who knew what to do. I knew studios those people we have set out to do. So far we’ve been know. (laughs) Digital sound is not good He’s an extraordinarily great man. Willie is How often do you introduce a new song into the set? had built and turned it over to them and got lucky. I got a good studio lucky, and we’re still out here. I couldn’t ask for you. Now, high-resolution digital … if he’s not a holy man, he’s very much Whenever I’m tired of doing an old one and ready to start singing out of it. [Producer] Chips Moman was one of the guys who built for anything else. M sound is OK. Movies and TV have been like a holy man.

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