Five Records With… Matt Hillyer
Posted on | January 15, 2010 | 1 Comment
Matt Hillyer is the frontman for Dallas-based honky-tonkers Eleven Hundred Springs. I interviewed his bandmate Steve Berg here. Eleven Hundred Springs’ new record This Crazy Life comes out February 2nd. Five Records is an occasional feature of artists talking about the music that inspires them. Read more of these posts here.
“This is really hard to find nowadays, I found it at a local record store. I remember seeing the cover and wanting to do what they did — there’s only three guys, and it doesn’t seem like rocket science, but its pretty intricate and interesting. “
“He made no apologies for not being commercial enough. His dedication to his songwriting and his show are what I always admired. I was lucky enough to be right there, he was like my uncle, and a professional on his own terms. He knew when to say no, when it made sense.”
“I listened to this record while we were making This Crazy Life — he had a sound that spanned a whole lot of genres, being able to blend his influences into something all his own. I never like to limit myself to western swing or honky tonk, I like to mess around with all of it. Doug showed that people are supposed to have their own sound, their own voice.”
“I wish I had written “True Love Ways” — that song is just really hard to beat. He wrote it when he was 22, and brought strings into rock music. By today’s standards, he might be considered a nerd, but he is definitely one of the fathers of rock and roll.“
“At times I don’t even know what to think about him — he used to open our shows with just an acoustic guitar. It seems like his contemporaries are moving in one direction, and he just throws something out that no one expected.”
Eleven Hundred Springs – Every Time I Get Close To You
Five Records With… Adam Carroll
Posted on | January 8, 2010 | 1 Comment
I recently spoke with Adam Carroll, a singer/songwriter from Lockhart, TX. He and Michael O’Connor are about to release Hard Times, which I covered here. Five Records is an occasional feature of artists talking about the music that inspires them. Read more of these posts here.
“ When I was 19, I listened to this thing forever, before I started playing guitar. If there was anyone that made me want to get into music, it was Neil.“
“Doug Sahm — He makes San Antonio really cool, which it is. He plays blues, Tejano, just that old style. I really admire that he did what he wanted to. A lot of musicians talk about him, but I dont think he gets enough credit.”
“Michael and I were trying to write honky tonk songs while making Hard Times. If you want to call yourself a honky tonk singer, you had better listen to Ernest. He’s not the best singer in the world, but he’s the best at what he does, which is good news for me.”
“Theres a song called “One For the Money” that he wrote for Sam Peckinpah, that I wish I had written. Also, from the same record, “The Lights of Magdala” is about as good as it gets.“
Canadian Amplifier – Bootleg Series Vol. 1
“He does stuff with sound, and this little bitty guitar, that is cooler than anyone I’m hearing. He can do more interesting things with beat up old equipment that new gear can’t recreate. Also a great writer.”
Throwback Thursday – Steve Earle – “What’s A Simple Man To Do?”
Posted on | December 3, 2009 | 1 Comment
1. Steve Earle hails from Schertz, Texas, just down the road from San Antonio, the home of one Doug Sahm. It is understandable, then, that some of Sahm’s influence might trickle down into Steve’s music. However, Earle chose to pay the man direct tribute on “What’s A Simple Man To Do”, from his 1996 record Jerusalem, which wears Sahm’s influence on its sleeve.
2. The song reveals itself in the form of a letter, read over a pumping Vox organ that would make Augie Meyers double take. A man who has transgressed on his promise to “never cross the border” tries to explain why he finds himself in America. After losing his job in the border factory, he explains that he met a man in Tijuana who gave him a job selling “red balloons”. Though he never meant to stay, he now reveals a little more about his location, saying he “never even saw the police comin’”. At the end of it all, he has few excuses other than being a “simple man” with few options in life, choosing to chase an opportunity.
3. Earle makes a statement (which is not at all unusual) about immigration, surrounding it with Sahm’s unmistakeable Tex-Mex sound. He gets in and out of the song in under two and a half minutes, but the song leaves a musical mark, if not bringing attention to a larger issue. Hard to speak for the man, but I imagine Doug would be proud.
Steve Earle – What’s A Simple Man To Do
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