RR: Speaking of “Songbeard,” “Borrowed Feet” has a pretty smokin’ jam, too.
RG: It does. The thing that is cool about that one is that it’s a totally different feel and groove that we wound up putting on [ Some Assembly Required as a bonus track featuring John Scofield]. The studio album version had a gritty, deep groove to it, and this is more, almost like, gosh, certainly less gritty, and almost Grant Greenesque.
RR: “Cabin John” is also a thing of beauty, a veritable ‘whisper-to-a-scream’ song, and there’s definitely a freshness about this performance of that particular tune.
RG: Absolutely. We approach it, again, with a different feel, and it’s been a staple of our live performances forever. And it’s cool because there will be people that it’s brand new to, and there will be people who will see it as a renewed interpretation. It’s really funny. I don’t know exactly what the breakdown is. Of course, a lot of people stuck with me through the Strangefolk years, and, then, there are others who discovered the band subsequently, and it’s hilarious that they’ll ask if some ancient song is new. They’ll go to a show, and maybe there were a higher proportion of Strangefolk songs than we normally did, and they’ll say, “Wow, you played a lot of new tunes tonight.” (laughter)
RR: To me, that’s beautiful, too, because when you talk about receiving feedback, if some fan thinks that song is new, doesn’t that keep you from phoning in your performance, so, instead, you are playing the song as if it is new in the moment?
RG: Sure, I think there’s some of that. Some of it’s that there are certain people that only know the songs that are on the AOD records. And, so, material beyond that is new to them, and that’s cool.
RR: As much as I’ve been drawn into your songcraft, lyrics and music over the years, you’ve also got a major influence on the last track on Found Sound with AOD’s cover of “Lady Madonna.”
RG: You can’t really play rock music anywhere in the world and not claim to be influenced by the Beatles. I’ve always heavily focused on original material because, for me, I don’t know, that’s sort of the magic of it, right? Creating something, having inspiration, or some thought process and sharing it with people and getting feedback—that whole loop is really at the core of what gets me off. But, there is a certain place for cover songs because a) they’re just fun and they’re fun for the audience, and b) if you’re dissecting the band, it’s cool to check out the covers they do because it says a little something about who they are and what informs their art. I felt good about this one. We certainly didn’t take any great liberties with it, but at the same time, it sounds like us playing a Beatles tune, rather than us trying to sound like the Beatles. It’s a fine line.
RR: Found Sound was recorded on New Year’s Eve 2007 at the Colonial Theatre, and AOD will return to that historic venue this Friday on New Year’s Eve. What are your thoughts about that venue, and why is it special to you?
RG: It’s really special to me. It’s sort of in a class of special venues, a collection of small theatres all around the country, and, often, in small towns around the country. Well, certainly, Boulder and Lexington, Kentucky and Ithaca, New York have theatres that were built at the turn of the last century, and they have withstood the test of time, so there is something historic about these places to begin with, and the performances for me, whether they were personal ones or by other bands—I’ve heard of the Colonial Theatre from Phish playing there. It has its mythical sound—Colonial Theatre, right?—the name, itself, and the fact it’s been blessed by Phish in their early years. It’s always held a special place for me.
I feel this album really features Adam Terrell’s guitar playing in a way that it hasn’t been. He’s featured every night as a soloist, and takes up a large part of the show, a large component of the show, but extended jams have not been a part of our recording process. Not even for The Honest Hour, which was much more of a contrived, or contained, anyhow, live recording. So, this is cool. It takes the lid off of Pandora’s Box a little bit.
RR: Let’s talk about the 2010 New Year’s Run. Jason Crosby will be with AOD?
RG: Yeah, Jason’s playing with us all three nights. He’s played with us the last dozen gigs or so. I’ve been enjoying getting to know him. Yeah, he brings a lot. Personally, he’s a great guy and, musically, he brings a lot to the table. He’s definitely coming from a similar head space, musically, and he’s got a lot of weapons in his arsenal both in terms of his musical vocabulary and the instruments that he plays. He plays guitar, piano, violin, trumpet—just a gifted guy.
RR: What about some of the specifics about the New Year’s Eve show itself?
RG: We’re not going to be flying around on a hot dog or anything. (laughter) But, we spent a few days in the studio rehearsing, which, believe it or not, is novel for us. Jason will be playing with us and he’s been bring a lot of freshness and enthusiasm to the performance. We’ll definitely bust out a new cover or two. We’re trying to do some songs that are deep, deep into the repertoire; we’ve been working on a couple of those. It’ll RAWK, New Hampshire style.
RR: And into 2011?
RG: We’ll keep pounding out gigs, and hopefully, try and make it to some of the corners of the country that we haven’t been to in a year or more. It’s fun to watch the incoming e-mail and Facebook messages to see where the loudest, squeakiest wheels are, so I’m sure we’ll address that by going to Colorado, or the Northwest, or down south at some point in the spring. Then, we are going to start making another studio recording, so we are planning and writing for that.
RR: Helps to have a new live album to come out of nowhere, too.
RG: Yeah. I don’t know how it’s all going to play out, but my hope is that it will be an ongoing thing like Volume 1, like a Dick’s Picks collection.
RR: Jack’s Picks.
RG: Jack’s Tracks. (laughter)
RR: There you go—patent pending.
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