BM: In what ways did you approach Even with the Odds differently than Scratchin’ the Surface and Touch and Go?

GS: Scratchin’ the Surface was so long ago, but when I did Touch and Go, Stacy and Jamie were playing with me as a trio. But even when we were a trio, we’d show up with six people. Mike (Gordon) would be sitting in and all these people would come down and play and get the band up to six pieces. So there were so many other musicians I was playing with at the time, and I was playing material that I wanted to include everybody on in the recording. With all the guys on Touch and Go, it got up to an octet. Even though we were not a full band playing out, it was a fun thing to do in the studio. So Touch and Go was very much a studio project using all the resources that I had at my disposal at the time.

Even with the Odds is the way the band sounds live now. We’ve kept as much live stuff as we could. We fixed a few clams and did some overdubs, but there weren’t any extra parts laid down except for the banjo and pedal steel I do on Tiramisu. It’s mostly live.

BM: How is what you’ve been doing on your own different from what you did with Breakaway?

GS: Breakaway is a contemporary bluegrass band but not progressive. I was trying to push them in a more progressive realm, but they didn’t want to go there. I got too busy and couldn’t commit to what they wanted to do timewise, but I do like playing bluegrass a lot. I wouldn’t mind getting involved in a more traditional setting, but the opportunity hasn’t presented itself.

BM: So tell me about Mud Season.

GS: It’s an independent film made by Hob Nail Pictures from Los Angeles. My part is done. I wrote the parts and brought them to the studio up in Vermont (last month). It will be released in the spring, the next mud season. It was pretty interesting, very much of a team effort. I had ideas written out. The director and producer came in from L.A. and we went into the studio together. We recorded for a couple of days before they got there. They went in and started saying, ‘No, this doesn’t work. Get rid of this. Keep this. That works great.’ While we were there recording, they could give the thumbs up or down on what we were doing. A lot of it is improvisational, like sequencing a scene and deciding what instrument goes where. We’d try out the pedal steel, try out the banjo. It was a lot of fun to work that way, not just scoring out parts but also improvising to the movie as it was going.

A long time before I had a band, I was a backup player. As a session player, I still do that kind of work where I’ll sit in with a vocalist. That’s one of my strengths, being a supportive player rather than a soloist, an out-front sort of thing. So doing the movie thing worked out well too. I’d listen to the dialogue work and stay out of the way of the words, the same as I would with a vocalist. I would stay out of the way of the action so that when you’re watching the movie, you’re not distracted by the music. I sneak the stuff in. It’s subtle playing, the same way when you’re supporting a soloist or vocalist. You make them sound good, the same as you make the picture look good rather than have people notice what you’re playing.

BM: How did you hook up with the movie?

GS: They were shopping for a Vermont composer since it’s a Vermont picture. The website helped a lot with that. It occasionally pays off.

BM: Like you, it seems that Josh, Russ and (former bassist) Andy Cotton all have a connection to Phish in some way or other. Andy has recorded with (Phish keyboardist) Page McConnell and toured with Michael Ray & the Cosmic Krewe, which is one of Trey Anastasio’s favorite bands. Josh has studied with Trey’s composition-piano teacher Ernie Stires. Russ has played with Trey’s Eight Foot Fluorescent Tubes. Did that connection to Phish have anything to do with hooking up with them?

GS: That just goes on a lot in the Burlington music scene. It’s always a friend of a friend in the Burlington music scene.

BM: You seem to have such strong roots in Burlington. Why did you recently move away?

GS: My wife is going to Smith down here in Central, Mass., so it’s more convenient. It’s pretty nice down here. And I’m not far from Burlington, three hours. But it puts me a lot closer to New York and Boston.

BM: You’ve known Bela Fleck for 20 years. Any plans to work with him?

GS: I don’t know him that well. I jammed with him a long time ago, but we don’t keep in close contact. We’re familiar with what each other is doing, and we’ve talked on the phone a few times. I go see him and say hey. That would be fun, but we have no plans. I certainly would be open to it. His teacher is Tony Trischka. I know Tony. We did a couple of shows at the Knitting Factory. He and Tony do a banjo duo where they have four hands on one banjo. Bill Keith and the two of them have gotten together. It’s one of those right-time, right-place kind of things.

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