RR: Right. I’m old school. I want an album experience, instead of having to cherry pick songs off a record, so the variety on By a Thread, and its consistent quality falls in line with my own philosophy. For example, I love how “Railroad Bay” segues into my favorite track on the album, “Monday Mourning Meltdown.” I can’t imagine what it must have been like to hear that latter song on playback at full volume.

WH: It was really fun recording that because I had just written that song right before we started recording it. I had some preconceived notions about how it should be, but we tried a few different approaches, and wound up with the one that’s on the CD, which I love, that goes on this journey. We also did an alternative version with Danny playing a trumpet solo in the middle, and a different guitar solo, which is available out there. There’s that, and an alternate version out there of “Broke Down on the Brazos” with Karl

Denson playing a sax solo. And there’s obviously three versions of “Inside Outside Woman Blues.” We did three versions, and we liked all three. Since it was completely a live performance, which includes the vocal—we didn’t overdub anything on that track—we thought we should make all three of them available to whoever might want them. Number 3 is included on the CD. Number 1 will be on the vinyl, and number 2 is coming out one way or another so anybody that wants all three will be able to obtain them.

RR: When I first heard “Gordon James,” I thought of “Wharf Rat” and all those great Jerry Garcia ballads. What do you believe you tapped into on that song?

WH: Well, you know, there are certain songs that are musically driven, be it driven by a groove, or by a riff, and there are other songs, which are driven by the lyric, or melody. “Gordon James” is one of those lyric-driven songs that’s a story. The story’s about a war profiteer. What we were trying to do is to tell that story and somehow create some background, some backdrop that enhanced the story as opposed to taking away from it. When we got in the studio, adding the strings and Jorgen’s crazy volume-swirled bass stuff, and all the weird keyboard stuff that Danny did, it kind of turned into, not so much like Pink Floyd, maybe more like a David Gilmour solo record or something.

I think what you’re feeling is the Celtic influence, that folk song influence where the melody is a variation of something that’s been around for hundreds of years, and utilized to tell a story that really is the most important aspect of the song. I’ve always maintained that it’s music first. Someone who doesn’t understand the lyrics should still enjoy it. Certain songs are meant to sell the story, and that was our mission with that song. When you listen to it, there’s still a pleasing factor that comes from just hearing the music itself. I think that’s one of those songs that some fans will have to hear 5 or 6 or 10 times for it to really grow on them.

RR: One that grew on me right away was the new reading of “Forevermore.”

WH: Well, thank you. “Forevermore,” That’s the only song that goes back several years. I wrote that quite a while back. I actually did a version, which wound up on my Live at Bonnaroo CD, which was solo acoustic. So some fans were already familiar with the song. I had never thought of doing it as a full band. To me, it was always like a folk ballad. But Gordie Johnson came up with the idea of arranging it from a band standpoint. I was open and I said, “Yeah, let’s see what happens.”

Once everybody started interpreting it, and adding the input, I was like “wow—this is going to a whole new place.” It’s fun to see something grow like that in a way that you never envisioned but I was totally happy with it the acoustic way, but now that we’ve turned it into an electric song, it is kind of both worlds. It starts acoustic, goes electric, and winds up acoustic. Again, it’s one of those songs that takes a journey. I’m really happy with the way it turned out. It’s what I call one of those departure songs. I think every record that I grew up loving had two or three songs on it that you didn’t expect. I think “Forevermore” is one of them.

RR: Another striking moment on By a Thread occurs on the opening track, “Broke Down On the Brazo” with a guitar duet featuring you and Billy Gibbons.

WH: That was the last song we wrote during the sessions. It was written out of a jam that started between Jorgen and Matt [Abts, drummer], and then Danny and I got involved, then eventually, it turned into an actual piece of music. I disappeared and wrote some lyrics, came back, we recorded it, and it came together really quickly.

When we listened back to it, my first reaction was “wow, it sounds like some old school ZZ Top song that nobody’s ever heard.” And so I’ve been friends with Billy Gibbons for a long time. I thought I’m going to call him and see if he’s interested in being part of it. I called him, we sent him the track, and he called back and said, “Yeah, let’s do it.” A few days later, we were face-to-face trading guitar licks. It all came together really quickly. We spent about 30 minutes, and then we were done.

His contribution just elevated the song to a whole other level. I’m a big fan for a long, long time, but now I don’t even want to think of that song pre-Billy.

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