RR: There is a distinct difference between Moonalice’s debut album and the live show. What were the origins of the record, T Bone Burnett’s involvement as the producer, and how does that contrast with the live presentation?

GES: Well, I knew T Bone, casually, from way back in the late 80s, early 90s when I played with Bob Dylan. Obviously, they had been friends for a real long time. T Bone would occasionally turn up on the road to say hello. Then, Roger knew him from somewhere. Through a long period of time, starting with the previous band, which was called The Flying Other Brothers, it grew into this thing that “O.K., we are going to record these songs in Los Angeles, and T Bone’s going to produce them.” I said, “Great. That’s good. Let’s do that.” We did that, and, of course, by the time the record had gone through its various processes, and T Bone had done his work on it, then we had been playing the songs for another year, live. So, of course, the songs had changed into something else.

This isn’t a band that goes out and plays a song the same way every night. There’s a few that are like that, but most of our stuff is pretty loose. We go out, and we start, and somebody feels like playing something, they play it. Sometimes, it works; sometimes, it doesn’t, but it’s nice to have the option.

RR: Let’s talk about the songs you brought to the album—covers and otherwise. “Eileen Aroon” is a powerful adventure, a journey of an old favorite song.

GES: That’s an old Irish song. I learned it from hearing Bob Dylan sing it. We played it live, and me and him used to do it with just two acoustic guitars. I loved the song, and I asked him to tell me the words so he told me the words. Then, I made up a little arrangement for it. We were in Ireland, again with Bob, and he’s friends with Liam Clancy of the Clancy Brothers, and I gathered—I don’t know this 100%; I know this 98%—that Bob had originally learned this song from Liam.

RR: “I Ain’t Satisfied” and “Dusty Streets of Cairo.”

GES: It’s just a great Steve Earle song. I love that song. (laughs) He opened a bunch of shows for Bob, and I used to hear him singing it. I’d go out and sit on the side of the stage and watch him. Finally, I just started joining his band to play it. So, I got that one right from the source. I wrote “Dusty Streets of Cairo.” It’s just a combination of a bunch of ideas—gospel ideas, Dylanesque ideas. Obviously, Bob is a big influence on me.

RR: Do you want to talk about your years playing with Bob? I don’t mind.

GES: Yeah. I mean…I kind of have been. (laughter) I still now…let me see—I haven’t played with him since ’92 or somethin’, and I still will be playing a gig and get an idea and go: “Yeah, that’s kind of like when Bob played this, or Bob said that.” For me—he was a tremendous…like going to graduate school in American music. Four years playing with him—that’s my quote. It’s like going to graduate school in American music. (laughter) It was.

He knows the songs. There was a little bit, a few months with him, where we were talking about Civil War songs. And every night, me and him would go out and do an acoustic set, just me and him, and he would do a different Civil War song. We’d do one, and he’d say, “Yeah.Yeah.You like that one? That’s about the two brothers. There’s another version, and we’ll do it tomorrow night. And tomorrow night, we’ll do the other version, and then a third version where one brother gets killed, instead of both of them.”

So [Dylan] is fantastic for stuff like that. That was a great opportunity for me to be there, and I enjoyed it.

RR: I saw Dylan in 1986 with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers in Sacramento, and the next time, I saw him was in 1989 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles when you were the guitarist in the band. What I noticed was that your version of the band had a much stronger live presence. The whole group appeared to be moving forward in the moment; whereas, with Petty, it seemed more scripted.

GES: This was a much smaller band you saw in ’89. Think about it. When you’ve got more guys, you’ve got to script it a little more. It’s inevitable. Even a great band like Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers could step into any situation and cover it, but you still have to have some signposts. With that small band that we had, Bob would just start anything that he wanted, and we’d just, you know, go with it.

RR: Yes, that’s true, but I also noticed that—and this extends back to when I saw you play with Hall & Oates in the early 80s—you have a warm and charismatic vibe on stage. I liked that tone as a dichotomy between you and Dylan. I mean, for all intents and purposes, Dylan was the Legend on Stage in the Flesh.

GES: (laughter) Right. Yes, I guess neither one of us can help who we are.

Pages:« Previous Page Next Page »