Seth Walker recently released Sky Still Blue through The Royal Potato Family music label, which is celebrating its 5-year anniversary. The 11-track album was produced by Oliver Wood, one half of the Wood Brothers, and recorded at Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Studios in Nash-ville.
Jambands.com spoke with Walker about the new LP, working with Oliver, and dropping out of college to learn blues guitar. Walker, who has lived in rural North Carolina, Austin, and Nashville, resides in New Orleans.
How did you connect with The Royal Potato Family?
Kevin Calabro who runs the label, used to be the publicist for Hyena Records. In 2006 or 2007, I signed a record deal with Hyena records. Kevin actually discovered my record and they licensed it. We started working then and through the years, we continued to work together in some capacity, and now he’s my manager and label owner.
How is this new album different than your previous records?
The songs themselves dictate a lot of it, but I think it’s a combination of the songs and the fact that I moved to New Orleans. A stylistic element of New Orleans crept in. The unpolished gristle and push pull that the New Orleans’s vibe has, crept in. And the return to my blues guitar – that’s kind of how I got started— and it made for an interesting album. And of course Oliver Wood.
Before I get to Oliver, was your return to blues guitar a conscious decision or something that just kind of happened?
Not necessarily conscious. It just kind of organically happened. Things come around in circles and I just returned to something that was the return of the root for all of this for me. This is my eighth album – it was kind of a return as well as something new at the same time.
Let me ask you about Oliver. I find it interesting that the two of you had co-written 5 songs on the road together before you even entered the studio.
I originally met Ollie and Chris (Wood) on the road randomly enough in Ames, Iowa. Just one of those random gigs where I opened up for them in 2007. I Immediately became a fan and they had a lot of similarities musically and we also had a mutual dear friend, the late Sean Costello. That’s how we got connected and we kind of stayed in touch through the years. And I started opening up for them and we would be on the road and songs would start to spill out and the next thing you knew, we were in the studio.
What role did Oliver take as producer?
He has this way of organically producing. He doesn’t produce with an iron fist. He’s one of us – he’s one of the musicians but he knows when to lay off and when to put his foot down about a vibe, direction, sound or arrangement. He was awesome to work with and he also encouraged me to embrace the abstract side of music. To embrace the beautiful mistakes – he encouraged me to leave it raw. It’s music, you don’t want it to be sterile.
What is it about Oliver that makes it so easy to write songs with?
He’s one of my really good friends. We have a great chemistry and a common musical language. We speak some of the same language but we’re different enough to make a good collaboration.
How do you feel your songwriting has progressed over time?
It’s always evolving – you try to push the boundaries. When I was in Austin around 2005 or 2006, I always had been a songwriter from the beginning but I didn’t know how songs were put together. There was a guy I worked with by the name of Mark Hays and he introduced me to writers like Nick Lowe, Guy Clarke and John Hiatt, and I started to pay attention to the power of the song and the lyrics and that’s why I ultimately went to Nashville to dig more into that. So, I started wiring with a bunch of people and writing a bunch of songs. And I think just through that process, I learned what I wanted to say through the lyrics. A lot of bad songs were written through the process, but that’s the way you learn. It is an elusive thing songwriting. The great ones, I think Tom Waits said, “It’s kind of like fishing. You have to be real quiet to catch the big ones.”
During the recording sessions, you were joined by Oliver’s brother, Chris, as well as drummer Jano Rix. What did each musician add to the sessions?
Chris Wood needs no introduction to what he can add. He’s such a wonderful player and
and has command of tone and groove and Jano’s the same way. He’s the drummer for the Wood Brothers, and he’s also an incredible piano player and played all the keys on the record. Jano was kind of a wildcard honestly in the group – he was a jack of all trades. I think both those guys brought a fresh element to it.
My guys Steve Mackey and Derek Phillips were there too. They’re bad ass and great musicians. So we already had a chemistry and then when we added Chris and Jano – it perked it us all up and all of a sudden, it clicked.
What can you tell me about Derek and Steve?
They both live in Nashville. Derek toured a lot with Charlie Hunter and countless others. He’s a great jazz drummer and all-around soul drummer and Mackey understands grooving and under-stands songs.
I know a lot of artists have been going to Southern Ground studios to record, what makes that setting so conducive to making albums?
It’s Unbelievable. That whole Southern Ground family is exactly that. You go in there and you feel like you’re part of it. It’s laid-back but on point. Oliver’s wife Rebecca, an amazing woman, she works in Southern Ground studio but she also cooks all the food. They have a kitchen downstairs and they ask you what kind of food you want – organic, fish, whatever. She cooks a home cooked meal. It’s just an awesome experience. And of course, the sound in that place is killer. It’s one of the best studios in Nashville. I also wanted to mention Mike Poole – he engineered the Wood Brothers’ latest record. He was instrumental in the sound of this record.
What kind of guitar do you play?
I play a 1952 Gibson ES 150. It’s a large top guitar. It’s basically a jazz blues box. On the early BB King records, he was playing the same guitar. It’s a very unique guitar in that it’s completely hollow. It’s really alive and it will take off on you and it will wrestle back. It makes me work for it.
Your parents were classical musicians and your uncle was a jazz bassist. Can you talk about the impact that had on you growing up in North Carolina.
My mother was a violinist and my father was a cellist. They taught the Suzuki method of classical music. I was playing the cello when I was about 5 years old. I did the whole Suzuki program with them. My fingers have always been on strings and it helped my ear. The Suzuki method is an ear training method. You don’t learn by notation, and I think a lot of blues musicians don’t know how to read music, it’s more of a feel. I think that has helped me. Also growing up, I lived in a commune of sorts. My parents and another couple built this house to-gether out in rural North Carolina and the other family listened to a lot of Texas music: Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Ray Wylie Hubbard. Willie Nelson – I vividly remember leaving a mark on me. I think of those records and remember how vulnerable he sounded. I think the classical music mixed with some of that, kind of spun me and then when I went off to college I discovered blues guitar.
Where do you go to college?
I went to East Carolina – two glorious years. That’s where I discovered electric guitar. Guys in my dorm room were playing Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hendrix and Clapton._ Electric guitar? What the heck is that?_ I ended up buying my first electric strat guitar with my book money that I was supposed to spend on textbooks. And then I just sat in my room and tried to pick out blues lead, listening to blues records.
I guess you didn’t get those books.
That version of education went out the window and a new education began.
