Barbe with the Truckers on Letterman

BR: So how do you approach an album of tunes? How much time do you spend listening to demos or song ideas before you actually start rolling tape?

DB: Not too much. I mean, I’ll listen to anything they send me. Patterson will e-mail me a long way in advance with what he’s got going on and we’ll spend a little time working with the demos … but the Truckers really like to capture that moment where everybody almost knows what to do – which is a pretty special moment.

It’s usually the take where somebody says, “Okay – that feels good; let’s record it.” You probably should’ve recorded the one before that, because that’s the one where they’re not as self-conscious. The Truckers understand that and they really value it; so we’ll jump into recording early on.

Some people have a real hard time understanding that part of what takes so long is the band wanting to capture what happens early on. We don’t go half-assed into things and then try to make a record out of it; we basically set it up so that everything counts – all the time. You never know what you’re going to get.

There are things like “Do It Yourself” – that’s the practice take; the learning take of that song. About halfway through, I was about to adjust the mic level and I caught myself – “This is pretty good.” They had to punch in the bass and the guitar on the bridge; everything else is as it went down on the practice take of that song. “Pin Hits The Shell” is a scratch vocal. “Lisa’s Birthday” – that’s everybody live on one of the first passes. The song “Go-Go Boots” is a real early run-through of that.

There are other ones – like “Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife”, which was built off of a demo we did at the studio with Patterson standing there, playing guitar. We do a lot of things where the quick demo we make of a song is so cool that it’s like, “Let’s see what we can do with this.”

“I Hear You Hummin’” was recorded with one microphone in the room. We just work in a different way than everybody else does.

BR: Any time in particular that sticks in your mind where an arrangement ended up being totally different than what Patterson or Cooley brought to the table?

DB: Oh, yeah – “Buford Stuck” is the perfect example. We had the weirdest thing where the reverb return or something was way up from the studio, so I couldn’t really hear Patterson playing. “Buford Stick” was more like a two-step country song when he was playing it, but I heard it wrong – all I was hearing was the reverb or something and it was completely different. I ran out of the control room: “Hey – check this out!” I played it for Patterson the way I had heard him playing for me, okay? And Patterson’s reaction was, “Hey – that’s cool. Let’s play it like that.”

Another one was “Aftermath USA” – we were in North Carolina working on A Blessing and A Curse and that wasn’t even a song. The band came in to work on something else and just jammed for maybe a couple of minutes. I came in the next morning to listen to what we’d done the day before, heard this little 40-second jam come up, and thought, “Hey – that’s pretty cool!” So I spent maybe 30 minutes putting this thing together and rearranging it a little bit. I played it for the band, when they came in and they said, (long pause) “That’s great … what is it?” (laughter)

And I said, “It’s you guys, yesterday afternoon.”

And they were like, “When did we do that? ”

“It was just a little jam you did – but I’m telling you: write some words, come up with a bridge, and you’ve got a song.” And, of course Patterson did – and there you go.

But, yeah – they’re pretty open to my ideas.

BR: You have also contributed musically – everything from jumping in on bass when Shonna was going to take a vocal to beating out a rhythm on a mic stand. Who has made the decisions in the past for you to get involved on that side of the glass, as well?

DB: Everybody. It’s just one of those things: sometimes it’ll be somebody else’s idea; or I’m at the point where I’m perfectly comfortable with saying, “Hey, here’s an idea, how about if I …”

But usually it’s at their request. For instance, on Shonna’s song “Dancin’ Ricky”, she was going to play the piano, so she said, “Well, maybe you should just play the bass on this.” And, of course, I love to play the bass, so you won’t have to twist my arm … (laughter)

BR: You also play a pretty mean six-string, as well. One of the band’s highlights for 2011 was their appearance on David Letterman’s show with you sitting in on guitar for “Everybody Needs Love”. Watching the video, it sure looked to me like Letterman’s request for the Truckers to do an encore at the end took you all by surprise.

DB: Oh, for sure – we weren’t expecting that. Plus, Patterson couldn’t hear Letterman coming out of the monitors very well, so he wasn’t sure just what was going on.

The way that appearance came about was, Letterman heard “Everybody Needs Love” on the radio and called into his office: “We need to get these guys back on the show – this song is great.” It was his request that they come on the show and play that song. I was going to come along just to watch and tape, but Patterson said, “Hey, as long as you’re coming up here, why don’t you play guitar with us, too?”

But, yeah – that was genuine moment for Letterman to ask us to do an encore; we didn’t discuss it in advance or anything. We were very much surprised and flattered that he asked us to do it.

BR: On the clip I’ve seen, Patterson looks like he’s just been hit in the head with a 2×4 when he realizes what Letterman’s asking. Cooley leans over to you and it looks like the two of you were trying to figure out what to do – in a second and half. (laughter) And then Patterson launches into the chorus a cappella and the song takes back off into a beautiful jam.

DB: I don’t remember exactly what was said, but it was probably something like, “What are we doing?” “Well, we’ll figure it out …” (laughter)

It’s one of those things that I like about working with the Truckers – they’re pretty good on their feet. Patterson started singing and we just knew what to do.

BR: David, I think I know what you’re going to say, but I’m going to ask you regardless: do you have a favorite Trucker project out of all you’ve done together so far?

DB: Honestly, it’s whatever I’m working on with them at the time, man. I love ‘em like I can’t tell you.

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