Ronnie Penque is not a cliché kind of guy, but it’s easy to apply a few well-worn phrases to his life so far.
For instance: one could say that Ronnie Penque was “born to be a musician” or that “music was in his blood” without digging too deep. His uncle Romeo Penque was a master of the woodwinds, sought out by folks such as Miles Davis, Nat Adderly, and Charles Mingus. At the same time, his dad Ron Sr. had a long career as a session bass player – and taught young Ronnie his way around the fat 4-string at the age of 12.
“Living his dream” is another one. Penque remembers, “I went to my first New Riders of the Purple Sage show when I was 14 or 15 years old. My guitar-playing buddy and I were watching them through binoculars – we went there to learn, man!” Since 2005, Penque’s been playing the bass and singing with the New Riders for real – no binoculars needed.
The popular “man of many hats” applies to Penque’s world these days. Along with the New Riders’ busy schedule, he’s managed to play some live shows and record an album with his own Ronnie Penque Band. Their newly-released Only Road Home combines well-crafted tunes with Dead-like vibes – an inescapable result of graduating from “the Grateful Dead College,” as Penque himself says.
Penque graciously made time in his schedule recently to talk with Jambands.com about the musical road he’s traveled and the making of his band’s new album. The clichés are about to end; as you’ll soon discover, Ronnie Penque is an original soul, for sure.
BR: Ronnie, we need to start somewhere, so how about we get the big one out of the way first?
RP: (laughs) Cool – go for it.
BR: Well, I’ve read your last name and written it many times, but … how do you pronounce it?
RP: Oh, man – (laughs) – that is a good question.
BR: Seeing as how it’s in the name of the band …
RP: Yeah, really; I should put something in the press releases. (laughs) Here’s the best way to think of it: you start with the word “pen” and then the second syllable is “kwee”. “Pen-kwee.” You can help me spread the word by putting this in the interview. (laughter)
BR: I had to be honest – I’ve never heard it said out loud.
RP: (laughs) No, that’s cool – I’m glad you brought it up. I actually thought you were going to ask about the nickname.
BR: I saw that in the liner notes: ‘Pinkley’?
RP: Yeah. At first, it wasn’t a good thing for me personally, but over time I’ve learned to accept it … (laughter)
BR: Yeah, I’d say you have, seeing’s how you put it on the album cover. (laughter)
RP: Well, here’s the deal: when I started with the New Riders, I was the baby. I was definitely the greenhorn. The guys wanted to make sure that any snot-nose I had in me was rubbed off clean, right? They were teaching me what needed to be taught and running me through the ropes.
So, the first couple of tours were kind of tough on me; after a while, I reached the point where I’d had enough of the ribbing and the teasing and the lessons and all the blah blah blah. I mean, they were having fun with it and we’re all really, really good friends – we’re like family, we’re one really tight band. But at that point in time, I’d had it with the ribbing.
I can’t remember where we were, but it’s like two in the morning and we’ve just gotten back to the hotel after a show. Cage and Nelson were riding in a rental car together and they pull into the parking lot just hysterical with laughter. Really – they’re pointing at this piece of paper they have and just crying they’re laughing so hard. And they’re trying to flag me down: “Ronnie! Come here! Come here!”
And me, I’m shoulders-down, moping over, figuring, “Here we go again.” So I get to their car and say, “Okay – what is it, gentlemen?” And they’re laughing so hard they can’t speak – they just point to the hotel rooming list that they’re holding.
There’s everybody’s name, okay? There’s Toast, the road manager … Buddy Cage … David Nelson … Johnny Markowski … Michael Falzarano … and then there’s “Ronnie Pinkley.” (laughter) P-I-N-K-L-E-Y. (laughter) The hotel had misspelled my name.
I was like, “Okay, yeah, whatever – good night.” And they’re going, “No, no – this is great. You are Pinkley! That’s your new nickname!” (laughter)
And I mean, who wants a nickname like “Pinkley”, right? If you’re going to have a nickname, you want it to be something like “Rock” or “Johnny Black” or whatever – who knows. Not “Pinkley.” But no – they wouldn’t let it go.
So this goes on for weeks and now everybody in the band and the crew is calling me that; everywhere I go, I’m “Pinkley” and I’m just not digging it.
And then one day David Nelson got serious. He grabs me in front of everybody and says, “Look: Ronnie. Pinkley. Listen to me.
“I was there the day Marmaduke got his name.” And he tells me the whole story about how John Dawson ended up being called Marmaduke. Nelson has a great, great memory and he tells such great stories. He was part of it and he remembers it all, man.
And then he says, “I was there the day Pig Pen got his name.” And Nelson tells the story about some girl calling Ron McKernan “Pig Pen” out of the blue. Nelson can tell you where they were standing, who was there – everything.
And he goes, “You’re Pinkley. That’s it. You’re Pinkley.” (laughter) How can you say no when a guy like that tells you what your name is going to be? He’s the Mt. Rushmore of nicknames, right? So that was the turning point; that’s when I decided to go with it. (laughter)
BR: Oh, man – great story. Before we dive into the new album, how about a little background on how the Ronnie Penque (laughter) Band came to be?
RP: I was the bassist in a Grateful Dead cover band called Ripple for 25 years – that was my main focus. After Ripple broke up in 2003, I wound up with Melvin Seals & JGB as lead singer and vocalist for three years.
At that point, I was starting to play a little with Stir Fried and hanging out a lot with my younger brother Chris who also lives here in Barnegat, NJ. He’d come over every night; we’d hang and break out the guitars – kind of like the Hot Tuna thing, you know? Jack and Jorma. We’d just play whatever was fun – just play, play, play. After a while, I said, “You know, we ought to book a gig around here, just for kicks and giggles.” We did; and that led to some more gigs around the local clubs. We called ourselves Neon Gods, after the Simon & Garfunkel song we used to cover … oh man, it’s right on the tip of my tongue … (sings) “And the neon gods they made …”
BR: “Sounds of Silence”?
RP: Right – you got it. We used to do the harmonies and the whole bit. Anyway, that went on for a while with just the two of us. It was fun, but it was hard to go as far as you wanted to go, you know? It was limited. That’s when we started thinking about adding another guitarist and a drummer.
I got introduced to Jeff and Katie Pearlman, a very talented husband and wife team – he plays keys, she’s a drummer, and they both sing – and we all began playing together. In the meantime, there were a bunch of guitarists that came and went through the revolving door until I met Andy Trister. The first time I played with Andy I said, “This is the guy.”
BR: What did it for you with Andy? How did you know he was the one?
RP: Just a great player who interpreted our music quite quickly and quite well. Plus, I loved his personality – just a really nice guy. Now the problem was, we had the makings of great band with no time to practice together.
BR: Because?
RP: Well, in the meantime, all this other stuff was happening. When I was with Melvin and JGB, Johnny Markowski was the drummer. When I left, Johnny kind of followed me out the door. That was a low point for me, actually. I was like, “I’m going to sell my equipment; I’m all done with music …” That was going to be it.
That was when Chris and I started playing together, plus Johnny grabbed me and said, “Come on – I’m getting the band Stir Fried back together and I want you on bass.” So I ended up playing with them for awhile, along with Buddy Cage.
BR: You know, I don’t think I knew that you were with Stir Fried back then. Would that have been around the time of their Electrifried album?
RP: You know, I kind of fell between the cracks. I’m not on any of the records that are out there, although we worked on a studio album called Stretch that’s never been released.
BR: So that’s in the vault.
RP: Yeah it’s just one of those things – personnel changes and whatever. At the same time, there was the now-famous golf game with Cage and Markowski when they came up with the idea to get the New Riders back together. I guess at that point, I was a shoe-in on bass. (laughs) So all that was happening at the same time: just as the Neon Gods started to come together, the New Riders happened and I hit the ground running with them – and it’s been hot and heavy ever since.
BR: The New Riders are averaging, what – a hundred shows a year or more, right?
RP: Yeah, it’s so fun. It’s amazing to be playing with those guys – it really is.
In the meantime – between the cracks in my schedule with the New Riders – the Neon Gods got more serious about things and became the Ronnie Penque Band.
The thing is, when I get home off the road and have a chance to relax, these new ideas just start coming into my head, you know? The writing just seems to happen. So whenever I got off tour, that’s what I would do – write songs and work them up with the band.
BR: And, of course, in the meantime, the other players in your band have their own things going on …
RP: Exactly – so that sometimes makes it difficult for us to book studio time or schedule live gigs or whatever. We’ve all done what we had to do to make it work.
BR: So when did the recording process for Only Road Home actually begin?
RP: We went in about a year ago – October of ’09. After about six months of getting together when we could, we had most of the album done. Almost all of the tracks were recorded live with only a few overdubs here and there. I’m pleased with the result for my first attempt at producing – but I had a great teacher.
BR: I noticed the “special thanks” in the liner notes to Michael Falzarano, your New Riders bandmate.
RP: Yeah – exactly. Michael’s produced I don’t know how many records by other artists and he’s good at it. He’s one of the best.
Michael was very busy when I was getting serious about doing this record – he just didn’t have the time to come in and produce it himself. But the great thing was, he allowed me to pick his brain along the way. “Hey, Michael, I’m at this point and doing this and that; what do you recommend?” And he’d say, “Try this” or “try that.” “Go here.” “Go there.”
Michael really helped me deal with any problems I ran into during the production of the album. He’s a great teacher – and I like to learn. I’m the one who’s always leaning over the console when someone else is working it, pushing buttons and asking “What’s this do?” (laughs)
BR: So before we talk about specific tracks in the album, I need to tell you something … and I hope you’re going to be okay with it.
RP: (laughs) Yeah?
BR: Well, as I often do, the first time I really listened to the new album, I was driving and making little notes on a pad on my knee, okay? And song after song, I kept coming up with these Dead comparisons – not in a sound-alike way, but totally a Dead vibe throughout the songs.
RP: Ahh – that. (laughs) Yeah, we had to come face-to-face with that. (laughs)
Look, everybody in the band has all come from the Grateful Dead College. It’s in our blood; it’s in our veins; it’s who we are. It would be much more difficult to fight with it, you know? And it’s not something I feel we need to apologize for … I’m actually proud of it. I hope people know that I’m just being me; we’re all being ourselves.
BR: Cool. The album gets rolling with “Thunder & Lightning”; Jeff’s keyboards caught my ear right off the bat with those classic Melvin-like swells. It makes a big soft bed for the rest of you to bounce on, but at the same time he never overplays.
RP: Absolutely – very tasty. I love the guy and he’s a great player. The whole album was done with a really nice sounding old B-3 organ that was in the studio at Forge Recording; we put a bunch of microphones on it and used that.
BR: I’m betting there’s a story behind “Thunder & Lightning”.
RP: Oh, yeah. (laughs) When I first started touring with Melvin, it seemed like we would go to Colorado all the time. And I was really having a problem with the altitude – it didn’t agree with me at all – dizzy and all that stuff. I was singing every song and playing the bass all night through three-hour shows, loading the equipment with the other guys, driving the van, you know – the whole deal. And I actually passed out one night while I was singing.
BR: Oh, man …
RP: Oh, yeah – Colorado just kicked my ass, you know? (laughter) But at the same time, I love the place – the people, the mountains, everything.
So, “Thunder & Lightning” is Johnny Markowski and his positive vibe. It was Johnny who got me in Melvin’s band; it was Johnny who got me to play bass with Stir Fried; it was Johnny who got the New Riders back together … he’s this powerful entity who brings people together, you know? In the third verse where I say, “The Orb’s on his new horizon, rolling thunder down your street,” that’s Johnny throwing some more good vibes out there. I call him “The Orb”: rub his head and good things will happen. (laughter)
And the next line, “I’m here in Adams County kicking ass at ten thousand feet,” – that’s the first time that Stir Fried and the David Nelson Band played together back in May of 2005 – it was called “May Daze”. That’s where we all met and hung out together; and that’s what put the seed in Johnny’s mind to call Nelson a couple months later and get the New Riders started back up.
BR: It just begs for a sing-along at the end.
RP: Oh, yeah – we definitely rock the end of that a lot longer live, but I didn’t go there on the record.
BR: It’s a neat segue into the next song, “Circles”. That’s such a great bass sound on the intro – a real biting attack. It almost sounds like you’re playing with a pick at that point.
RP: It’s actually all fingers with really nasty calluses. (laughter) But it’s cool that you picked up on it, man. A lot of producers and artists will roll the treble off the bass completely and get that real muddy sound – what I call – “reggae tone.” I specifically went for that “pick tone” with the fingers … that’s what you’re hearing.
BR: There’s a cool guitar weave going on between Chris and Andy on “Circles”, too.
RP: Absolutely. That song is actually getting the best feedback right now and is probably going to be the first “single” off the album. People have called me up cursing: “I’ve got that damn song in my head!” (laughs)
BR: There are worse problems, man.
RP: Oh, I know – I know. (Laughter)
BR: It’s a totally upbeat and catchy melody, as you say; you don’t realize how hard the singer is having it until you really listen to the words.
RP: It’s true. I like to write cryptic lyrics that can have different meanings for different people. I’m not going to say too much about that one; I’ll let the listeners decide for themselves. Of course, the gist is there: the singer’s been going ‘round in circles, right? “You want to do it in the rain, but I begged to differ.” (laughter)
BR: Next is “Olivia Rose”. I thought the version on the New Riders’ Where I Come From was lovely, but this one has an added dimension of sweetness. To me, Jimmy Fleming’s mandolin has a lot to do with that. Tell us a little about Jimmy, who also plays some fiddle on the album.
RP: Jimmy’s a friend of the common circle here in the New York area. He has his own band, The Electrics, out on Long Island; he’s sat in with Michael Falzarano and the New Riders; a real talented local cat. I always wanted a mandolin on “Olivia Rose” – we actually cut a take of it with mando for the Stir Fried album that never got released. That’s what we were after – that strumming mando; the REM tonality. I thought it would sweeten it up, just like you said.
BR: Ivan Funk is the other guest on the album. On “Olivia Rose” there’s a cool moment during his pedal steel break where he and Jeff begin to weave and suddenly you realize Jeff has taken over the lead on the keys – it’s a cool and seamless transition.
RP: Isn’t that sweet? Yeah, I’ve known Ivan for a while, too. Back in my days with Ripple, I’d sit in with all the New York and Philadelphia area Dead bands. I was kind of like the bass player of choice. Splintered Sunlight was one of the bands I used to play with three or four nights a week in those days and Ivan Funk was actually one of the drummers with them back then. He was just an awesome musician.
BR: But a drummer – not a picker?
RP: Yeah, well, that’s the thing: years later, I find out that Ivan’s associated with Forge Recording, where we were going to record the album. And he’d taken up pedal steel – actually took lessons from Buddy Cage and they’d become good friends.
When it came time to go in the studio, I wanted to put some pedal on the album – but I also wanted to keep things small; hold it to our band and maybe a couple of local guys. I talked with Buddy about what I had in mind and he thought it was a great idea, plus he wanted to see Ivan get on a record playing pedal steel. And Buddy is certainly the first person you’d think of to bring in on pedal, but that’s the way he is: he’s so supportive.
BR: I think that’s a side of Buddy that a lot of people aren’t aware of: they know the legend as far as the music and they know the, uh … outspoken side.
RP: (laughs) You could say that, yeah.
BR: But they don’t know that the man has a really big heart.
RP: Oh, man – Buddy’s a great guy. Like I say, he was really behind getting Ivan on this album. And Ivan did a wonderful job.
BR: And was there a conscious effort on his part to stay away from the, we’ll say, “Buddy licks” on the New Riders’ version?
RP: We didn’t actually talk about that, but I knew before we even went in the studio that Ivan had his own thing going on. Ivan is Ivan, you know? If anything, I thought Ivan’s tonality and attack were more like what Garcia might’ve played on pedal – that “Teach Your Children” kind of thing.
BR: And, the question I’ve wanted to ask since I first heard the song – who is Olivia Rose?
RP: Oh, boy – that’s a tough one.
BR: And we don’t have to talk about it …
RP: I think that’s another one best left open to interpretation.
“Olivia Rose” is meant to be a celebration of someone who touched the hearts and changed the lives of so many people – a sweet, sweet girl. It had to be written, and it needed to be said: “Do you know Olivia Rose? Do you know the way the story goes? Good things come to those who know.” And it’s true.
At last count, there are 90 people with ladybug tattoos in honor of Olivia Rose – including my mother and my 80-year-old mother-in-law, who recently passed away.
It’s a happy, bubbly tune because of who she was but at the same time, there’s a sadness because the singer wants her to come back.
*BR: Enough said. We’ll let folks take that in and explore it further on their own. The next tune is “Gonna Roll”. Man, talk about your mental images: you managed to combine a classic rocking-down-the-highway-all-night-truck-driver thing with the Wizard of Oz. (laughter) I mean this in the nicest of ways, but you can’t get much weirder than that.
RP: Yeah, well, there’s a lot of weird things about that song. (laughter) “Gonna roll” – you going to roll what? Roll some joints? Going to go out? Rock and roll? I figured let’s put all those rolls into one – “The house is gonna rock, the house is gonna roll” – and the Wizard of Oz thing just kind of worked its way in. The really weird thing was when we finished the song, I looked at the time meter to see how long the take was and it came out exactly 4:20, so … (laughter)
BR: Mission accomplished.
RP: Exactly. (laughter)
BR: Chris does a nice job of chugging that thing along.
RP: Yeah, he’s got so many different styles that are all his own.
BR: Ah – let me run this by you. Here’s what I scribbled down the first time I listened to “One More For Me”: “Robert Hunter writes one for the Byrds.”
RP: Oh, cool – I’ll take it. (laughs) When the New Riders were up at Turkey Trot Acres woodshedding for _Where I Come From _ – and before the Hunter tunes started pouring in like a faucet – “One More For Me” was on the table. It was going to be a New Riders song, but all of a sudden, here comes a bunch of Hunter lyrics and – whoa – we put on the brakes and went in that direction, of course.
The day I wrote “One More For Me”, I was lacking on ideas about what to write about, but I liked the tonality of the melody and just went with it. I basically wrote about having nothing to write about and writing to a songwriter: “Hey – how about writing me a song, man?” But who it’s written to, I’m not answering. (laughs)
BR: That’s a nice example of what Katie brings to the band as a vocalist.
RP: Oh, man – she’s amazing as both a singer and a drummer. That particular song could’ve easily been arranged as a real traditional bluegrass harmony, but it would’ve meant bringing in more singers and structuring things a little differently. Instead, we worked with what we had; it sounds like the way that we’d do it in a live setting.
BR: That’s another one of the tunes that Jimmy Fleming sits in on, this time playing fiddle.
RP: That’s right; great job.
BR: And Andy plays some really nice acoustic guitar on that cut.
RP: I remember him coming in the studio and saying, “You know, I really don’t play a lot of acoustic.” I told him, “Just play your guitar, Andy.” (laughs) “Let it roll.” And there we all were at the console with our jaws dropped … he nailed it.
BR: And then he really shines on electric on the next cut, “Santa Ana Wind”. My early notes on that one read “Happy, bouncy ‘Deal’ vibe.”
RP: Yeah – you know, I never thought of it that way, but yeah. That’s an older song, actually: I wrote that maybe 15 or 20 years ago and we did it a couple times back when I was in Ripple. The thing about that song was it was chordy – there are a lot of chords in it and they come by you really quickly. It was a lot of work to play it live back then; people would forget it from week to week, you know? So I kind of put it in a box for a while and brought it back out with this band.
BR: You’ve got to tell the story behind the next song, “Mallory”.
RP: Ah – the “Mallory” story. (laughs)
Well, the New Riders were playing a festival in Milford, PA. We’d started our set and were firing on all cylinders, you know? I remember we were on our third song – somewhere in the middle of the jam on “Garden of Eden” – when all hell breaks loose on the stage. There are cops everywhere, people rushing the stage – it’s a riot. I go to grab my amp stack that’s getting knocked over; people are trying to protect the mics; it was a mess.
On the album cover, there’s a photo that someone took of the stage full of people. If you look in the lower left corner, you’ll see a little face with dark glass in the middle of all the craziness – that’s Nelson. (laughs)
What happened was this little 5-year-old girl was reported lost and they wanted us to stop playing so that this crowd of 5,000 people could go look for her, right? We say, “Sure – what can we do to help?” And then there’s another faction that’s telling us, “No – keep playing; keep playing. We’ll look for her – just keep playing.”
So we count the song off and start back into the jam on “Garden of Eden” again. That’s when riot #2 breaks out. “They can’t play music! No! No!” People were on the stage, grabbing mics and shouting: “Stop! Stop!”
BR: Oh, man – what did you do?
RP: Well, that happened three times. Finally, the stage was just loaded with cops and it was, “Okay. That’s it. You’re done.” And they shut down the festival. We spent the next couple hours – the crowd, the band, everybody – searching. “Mallory! Mallory!”
The thing was, when I saw the mother of this little girl, I just knew she wasn’t telling the truth. She had a look in her eyes that made me think, “I’m not believing this lady at all.” Being a father and having little kids, I just could tell and it just made me sick to my stomach. I thought, “For some demented reason, you’ve shut down this beautiful concert with this lie about your own child,” you know?
And it all came out a few hours later: they got her to admit that she made up the whole story. Little Mallory was safe and sound at home, sleeping in her bed.
BR: And why …?
RP: Who knows? We never found out. I think I may have written the song that night.
BR: The last verse mentions “The Grey Ghost is riding out of Milford today …”
RP: (laughs) The old Grey Ghost! That’s the New Riders’ touring van that we use whenever we’re not doing a bus tour. You’ll see it – this funky old grey van that we all pile into.
BR: Sweet. Jeff’s keyboards on that one sound like he’s channeling Merle Saunders.
RP: Aw, he’ll be happy to hear that – he loves Merle’s stuff.
BR: It really is something that he and Katie are husband and wife – that’s a talented team. Her drumming on “Mallory” is so tasteful; there are a bunch of times she could have really worked in clusters of rolls and cymbal crashes, but she’s fastened on that groove.
RP: And that’s what I love about her playing and playing with her. Me, I’m a crazy bass player – I might show you where the 1 is; I’ll prove to you that I know it’s there – and then I’ll say goodbye. (laughs) I like to dance around it and pop back in when need be, you know. If you have a drummer that follows you off to Never-Never Land, it can get messy and ugly – the structure gets totally lost. Katie tends to stay right in the pocket; she’s perfect for a bass player like me.
One of the things about the band as a whole is the ability to get together when we can, run through a new song once or twice – and everybody just gets it. We haven’t had the luxury of holing up for months and working out a bunch of tunes.
BR: “Cool November” makes you want to zip up your jacket and turn you collar up against what’s coming, but it feels hopeful at the same time.
RP: Exactly. I wrote that one for my wife after a tough time the family was going through. We’d lost a very close loved one and when it happened, it knocked the family for a loop – it really did.
The “coat of pearls” in the song was a black mink coat with white pearls, ladybugs, Grateful Dead-type roses, and peace signs on it – hanging in a store window. It should’ve had my wife’s name on it. This was when she was really at her lowest point, and this coat was so her – and so unaffordable, but so needed at the same time. I just did whatever it took to get it for her.
When I wrote the song, I was just getting into the New Riders; I was just about to have the coolest November of my life; and at the same time it’s a very sad time of the year for the family. So the song is very Siamese in that it acknowledges both things – the sadness and the positive, as well. One door closes, another one opens.
BR: That’s a cool thing to give people; they can interpret it however they need to.
RP: Exactly.
BR: And if you want to go back to the “College of the Grateful Dead” theory, people have been applying those songs to their own situations for years now – to make themselves feel better, to get through things, to better understand something. We’ve all done it.
RP: It’s the Golden Rule; it really is, man.
BR: You have a cool bass tone throughout the album; was there one standard rig that you played through? And did you do something different on “Cool November”?
RP: Wow – you’ve got some good ears. (laughs) Most of my tone comes from my Olympic pre-amp that I just love – I’ve had that for 20-something years. That and using a Fender Precision. I have a ’57 pre-CBS Precision that my dad gave me when I was 13 or 14 and he was teaching me how to play.
When I met the Riders and things were getting going with them, Falzarano said to me, “Are you going to tour the country with that family-heirloom-can’t-replace-it bass that you love?” And I said, “Well … yeah.” And Michael was like, “You’re nuts.”
So I went out and bought a copy, which is the one I’ve been playing live. It was an expensive copy, but it’s a great guitar and I love it. But to answer your question, I played the copy on everything on the album, except “Cool November” – that was with my dad’s bass.
BR: Ahhh …
RP: Yeah – you caught it. (laughter)
BR: “Little Soul” – when a seven-minute song feels like it ended early, that’s sign of something to me.
RP: Yeah, that’s one of my favorites on the album.
BR: It has the makings of a big “Lovelight” rave-up at the end.
RP: (laughs) We’re having a lot of fun with it live, just letting it rock out. It definitely lends itself to that sort of thing.
When I started writing “Little Soul”, it took a little bit for it to become what it is, which is this sort of “Might As Well” party thing, only we’re on a boat – a riverboat, right? And the whole story in my mind was just this fictional thing – all the characters and everything, including the name of the boat: “Delta Queen”. It wasn’t until I was already in the process of writing the song that I came across this story about the real Delta Queen – an old riverboat that’s supposedly haunted by the ghost of Ma Green, who was one of the captains. It’s a great story itself. I found more than enough material to write about my own party on the Delta Queen. (laughs) And she’s got soul.
BR: So does Ivan’s steel solo on that one.
RP: Any time a solo just pulls at your heartstrings … I’ll take that any day over a bunch of notes crammed into a little space, you know? The intro on “Little Soul” was originally going to be this big thing with horns; that’s what I was hearing in my head. But then I thought, “Well, Ivan’s here anyway – let’s see what he comes up with on this.” I sing what I was hearing into his ear and three minutes later the tape was rolling – we didn’t need horns. (laughs)
BR: I totally agree, man. “Only Road Home” – once more, I’ll read my first-blush notes to you: “Same vibe as ‘Black Muddy River’ or ‘So Many Roads’ or ‘Brokedown Palace’.” I hope you’re okay with that.
RP: (laughs) When we do “Only Road Home” live, I have to announce, “I wrote it – I swear I wrote it.” (laughs) But as I told you earlier, that influence is just sort of leaking out of my pores and I don’t try to deny it.
Overall, that song is about living in the now, not in the past. It’s about my musical roots and moving forward at the same time. Don’t be stuck in the past – the good times are here and now.
BR: On top of everything else, Chris’ guitar work on that accentuates the Dead vibe; he’s got that Weir-ish lead/rhythm hybrid thing going on.
RP: Totally – the spaces were there in the song for him to do that. But that’s part of his style. You hire him for a session and that’s one of the things he just naturally does.
BR: And the closer – the big jam – “American Junkie”. I should begin by saying the song stands on its own; it’s a good story. The sun rises and sets on a day in the life of this gal … she’s on the backside of her glory days, but there’s still this level of cool around her – like an Edie Sedgwick character.
RP: That’s it, man – you got it. She was “the queen of high society,” right? Now she’s curled up in her one-room apartment talking to her dealer on the phone. That one’s kind of cut-and-dried and in-your-face compared to some of the other songs. (laughs)
BR: And then there’s the jam. It’s stealthy. (laughter) I mean, the way it makes its way from major- to minor-flavored passages … you don’t even realize what’s happened until you’re there.
RP: Ha! I love it.
BR: So how much of that just happened and who led the way?
RP: When we started doing that song live, I could definitely tell there was going to be a jam there. At first, we hung around the major; maybe the second time that we were going to play it live, I turned to the band about two minutes before we went on stage: “When we do the jam on ‘American Junkie’, we’ll let it modulate slowly down to the VII chord – and then morph into the relative minor of the VII – that’s B minor in this case. We’ll fool around there for a little while and then drop it back to the I, okay?” (laughs)
So I hit them with this 20-second musical theory lesson; they all look at me petrified; we go out on stage – and it worked so well, it blew their minds. (laughter)
But I knew it would work. They’re all such great musicians – and if you give musicians too much time to think about something, they are going to think about it, right? I’ve learned from guys like Nelson and Cage that you just play it.
So, yeah – those chord modulations are the ground rules, but beyond that it’s a blank canvas every time.
BR: What is it Phil Lesh says? Something like, “We all know where the islands are – it’s the getting from one to the next that we’ll figure out as we go”? I’m paraphrasing, but –
RP: Exactly. And the take on the album was all live and just the way it went down. It could’ve been longer, but it wouldn’t have fit on the record. (laughs)
BR: So now you have this album to get out there, along with two or three hats to wear …
RP: Yeah, there’s plenty to do, but I’m loving it. We have some Ronnie Penque Band shows lined up for January, plus we’ll be going back into the studio soon to start work on another album.
In the meantime, the New Riders are touring, along with working on a new album, as well.
BR: Cool … we’ll be looking forward to it.
RP: Yeah, that should be out by spring. So that’s the plan, man: touring and recording with the New Riders – and when there’s a space, we’ll plug in some Ronnie Penque Band. (laughs) We’ll have some fun with it.
