JPG: So, I was listening to that album, and based on the sound and the instrumentation, both From Good Homes and Railroad Earth have a line of similarity. What intrigues you with that mix of instruments coming together? What is it that you like so much rather than doing something vastly different from one band to the other?
TS: Yeah, there’s a similarity but it’s still different. For me it was and I didn’t really notice at the time. It was a natural progression. It was kind of a growth of my music. And Railroad Earth ended up being a good fit. At first what happened, I went to the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. Ran into John Skehan and this was when From Good Homes was breaking up. I guess, that’s the proper way to say it. One of the last songs we did in From Good Homes, was a Hazel Dickens song that I latched on to. “Sing For Me” I think is the proper name it’s a bluegrass song [“Won’t You Come and Sing For Me”]. I just got interested in playing bluegrass, just digging a little deeper into the roots of American music and the kind of music that I’ve always played. Interesting, but I’ve never dug that deep into it before. That’s what I got interested in after From Good Homes.
There were some great local musicians who I knew through the local music community and we just started having some get-togethers, playing some bluegrass music. I fell into it naturally. It became a very natural place for my songwriting to end up. It’s a wide range of places I can go with it. It suits a lot of my material. I’ve adapted a lot of my old material so it fits with the band, where this conversation started, you know. I still do those other things.
Ten years ago when Railroad Earth started, it was just a very natural place for me to go as a musician and a songwriter. The instrumentation is where this question started. Really, the song dictates it. With this group of guys and even with From Good Homes, in the beginning I had a vision and an idea in my head on how I wanted my music to sound, my songs to be presented. I used to be forceful with telling people, in some instances, what to play. ‘Here’s how I want it to sound. This is what I’m going for.’ I think my sound has established through these two bands, and I think people know now (slight laugh). I don’t even have to say much, and I really don’t. Both bands that I play with and people I play with in other contexts, they’re great players. I let people pick the instruments they feel like they can be the most expressive on or they’re hearing on their own what they might bring to the song, largely switching instruments for someone like Andy [Goessling] in Railroad Earth. The song dictates. On “119” the banjo just seemed like the right thing for him to pick up. Basically, we started as a bluegrass string band and we’ve kept that though the band is exploring different things. We’re bringing more rock elements to the mix these days but we still are essentially a string band — Tim on the fiddle and John on the mandolin or bouzouki and then there’s Andy who basically picks up whatever fits the song.
JPG: That’s always a nice thing for you and for Andy. Not meaning to bring Springsteen up again but I recall footage of him in the studio with the E Street Band, and it showed him going up to each musician telling them exactly what he wanted, whether it was the feeling or the melody, and then at the end he goes up to Clarence Clemons and just looked at him and says to come in when you wants to come in and play whatever he wants to play and then walked away. That’s what it sounds like with Andy.
TS: Oh yeah, it always is. There’s always…he has a deeper understanding of what he can do on a particular instrument than I do. It’s absolutely worth starting with whatever he might want to try out.
JPG: I imagine for you, as a songwriter, it may be more relaxing as well because it’s like, ‘Here’s my song and I know that you guys are going to treat it correctly and I’m not going to be stressed out with every little thing and maybe you’ll do something that I’m not thinking about or I didn’t think about…’
TS: The part of it is where this discussion started today, I do the songs in many different ways. I play “The Hunting Song” with From Good Homes and it’s completely different than when I play it with Railroad Earth. That’s completely different when I play it solo. Different, and the song still works. It can work a million different ways. If it’s a strong enough song it will hold up in any of those contexts.
If we’re making a Railroad Earth album, the band has a sound. It has a very distinctive feeling to it because of what the band brings to it. If I’m bringing it into that world, I’m bringing it there and saying, ‘Here it is. Let’s make it a Railroad Earth song now.’ It could go a bunch of different ways. The song can be recorded with any kind of instrumentation but if it’s going to be a Railroad Earth record than I offer it up and there you go.
JPG: Speaking of bringing things in, Andrew Altman came in earlier in the year as Railroad Earth’s third bassist. I noted here, one more and you may be going into Spinal Tap territory, although in your case they’re all alive.
TS: None of them has spontaneously combusted. (laughs)
JPG: For a group that has such a tight knit sound and is on the road a lot, how is the transition of bringing someone into that? Is it so much hanging out and seeing if personalities mesh and discovering that you just may be able to be with this person on a tour bus…?
TS: Well, you never know that until you do it, and luckily Andrew has been a great fit. Musically, we had auditions. It was kind of humbling in a way, the amount of people who came out of the woodwork that were interested in auditioning. It was a great response we got and we were kind of surprised by it. So, we were fortunate that some great players came out. We had a solid week of auditions at our friend Don Sternecker’s Mix-o-Lydian studio. We just set up and ran the auditions. It was not an easy decision, but we’re very, very happy with Andrew. I think it’s been a great addition to the band. I think everybody feels that.
JPG: That’s another interesting thing about the new album. You recorded Amen Corner at your home but you were back in a recording studio for this one. Why the change of locale? I would think that other than paying the electricity bill, it would be real advantageous to do it at your home.
TS: Producer, Angelo Montrone. Amen Corner was self-produced basically. So, this time we went with Angelo. After getting together with the label (One Haven) and deciding the way that we wanted to approach the record, we picked a producer and we did it in his studio, the studio he’s real comfortable with, where he liked to work, where he knows how to get the sounds that he’s looking for. So that’s why we did it there.
JPG: I really like the Forecast page on the Railroad Earth website. Who comes up with the content that goes on there?
TS: There’s a woman named Christiana Conser. She’s from California who has become a good friend. Real sweetheart and she does that. I’m glad you’re enjoying that and if you don’t mind, let her know because sometimes she wonders, ‘Is anybody even reading this?’
On Amen Corner we had this song, “The Forecast,” that led to…I had this idea to expand on that, maybe try in some small way to lend some sort of help to the environmental cause. Christiana is wonderful. She does a great job with it. We were lucky to have met her, and she offered to do it.
JPG: I see you’re doing solo dates in February. In terms of Railroad Earth what are your plans for 2011?
TS: I hope to make another record in some form or other. As always, it’s finding the time. I would always like to have a little more time in the studio, making new recordings and I hope to do that. We might do a little more with the Homes this coming year. We most likely will try and return to the Wellmont Theatre. The December shows have turned into an annual event. It’s been really fantastic. I think we’ll probably be doing that again. Certainly not in stone yet, but I would guess that would happen again.
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