JPG: I heard a stream on archive.org of the July 17th Horning’s Hideout show where you’re singing “Not Fade Away.” What else are you singing?
DK: Quite a few. I love doing “So Many Roads,” “Ship of Fools,” stuff like that. What’s really nice is Keller [Williams] is doing some of the bluesy stuff, too; try and change things up. Keller’s used to the bluegrass thing more than I am but stuff like “Cumberland Blues,” we’re splitting down the middle, “Sittin’ on Top of the World,” I think I’m singing that one. He’s doing stuff like “Easy Wind,” which is really cool to hear him sing that, and “New Speedway Boogie.”
JPG: Well, you know, Keller’s a Deadhead so he’ll already knew all the lyrics…
DK: Oh, absolutely. He’s been great. He’s been able to teach.
JPG: Now, you’re working with Keller on this leg of the tour and then with Tim Bluhm of Mother Hips on the second leg. For someone who normally leads his own band how do you adapt to sharing vocal duties as well as what else is going on?
DK: The hardest thing for me is definitely harmonies. I’ve never sung harmonies before, ever, because I’ve always been the only singer in the band or not singing at all. I can cope, sharing the vocals is great. It’s wonderful. I can sit back and play guitar and really concentrate and knuckle down on that without having to tap my head and rub my belly. With harmonies I’ve never had to do it before so this is, again, another wonderful learning curve. Keller has been great in teaching me that as has Tim. So, that’s one thing I’m still feeling my way around. I’m sure there are some really terrible moments at that Horning’s Hideout show, harmony-wise, probably everything-wise on my part (slight laugh). But, it’s definitely a huge learning curve.
JPG: This is related to another thing I wanted to bring up. When you’re with your own band you can tear it up live, but here in this situation you have to be more aware of what’s going on.
DK: It’s definitely something that I’m going to take back and apply with my band. The wonderful thing that I’ve learned is that jamming something out doesn’t necessarily mean soloing (laughs). That was how I first took it. And Mickey and Bill and Keller and Sikiru [Adepoju] too, they’ve all helped me with that and the fact that you can play parts or solo or play guitar and stretch something out without it being just one gigantic solo. You can all play together and that’s a wonderful thing when that happens. On a good night everyone is playing together and it really feels right. That is a really great thing. I’ll be taking that back with me.
Also, tonally this is very different from my band. Normally, I’ve gone ahead with a straight overdriven amp, not a lot of pedals but with this you’ve got a chance to branch out and try different sounds, try different things to make it more interesting. And again, that’s something that I’m going to take back and apply with the band. And I’m having such a great time doing it.
JPG: In that sense do you need to pay more attention to Mickey or Keller or everybody?
DK: You have to be on your toes and you have to listen and watch and be attentive or get lost and left behind. It’s such an interactive thing you can’t be on your own.
JPG: For 2010 the Rhythm Devils tour runs through mid-September, what happens to you after that. Back to Back Door Slam?
DK: After this run I’m going to go out and do a quick European thing. I think we have a gig in Amsterdam with Joe Satriani and we’re going to put some dates around that. I’d love to start recording another album soon. Got lots of new material poking about, so it would be nice to do that. But I’m addicted to the road. I love touring. Absolutely love it. I’d like to get back out there as soon as possible.
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