Aquatic Hitchhiker is Leftover Salmon’s first studio album in eight years, and it follows on the heels of several reunion gigs which have welcomed old and new fans alike. The album is a refreshingly potent yet relaxed work, which features all original compositions, a Salmon first in their career. The album also includes some of founding members Vince Herman and Drew Emmitt’s most engaging work in quite some time, while capturing a very unified band without a hint of the fractured quality that often haunts a veteran outfit who have seen too many battles in a musical war long since abandoned. Such is not the case with Salmon as they continue to write vital new material, while playing some of their best gigs in recent memory.
Jambands.com spoke with Drew Emmitt at the tail (and tale, for that matter) end of their latest tour leg before the festival season kicks into high gear. The musician is direct, humble, and astute, without being overly detailed and exaggerated—a sublime trait that has also suited his music for years. To be sure, Emmitt has some fiery moments on the new record, as well as some sweet and soulful vocals. We are catching Emmitt at a good point in his career, and he is observant enough to realize that crucial fact as he also juggles his own solo band and the work with the always fascinating Emmitt-Nershi Band.
RR: How is the tour going?
DE: Oh, yes, it’s been quite a tour so far. It’s been really great. All the shows have been great, really great crowds, it’s been really fun playing music, and the band is really sounding great and better than ever. We’re having a great time, and it’s going really well.
RR: I am sure the Salmon tours are a dream come true for a lot of longtime fans, and the band members, too. Are you seeing some new faces out there, too?
DE: Absolutely. I was just thinking about how I’ve been meeting a lot of people who have never seen us before. They’ve heard our music for years, or they’ve heard about us, and they are seeing us for the first time, so there is definitely a lot of that happening, which is really cool.
RR: Before we continue with our conversation about your work, I wanted to ask you about your personal impressions after the recent passing of Levon Helm.
DE: I really only got to meet him one time, and that was in Washington D.C. Little Feat had a gig celebrating the anniversary of the Waiting for Columbus record. I got to meet him, and play with him there. He was such a great person, a sweet guy. He borrowed my mandolin, and we did “Rag Mama Rag.” He didn’t have a mandolin, and he said, “Can I borrow your mandolin?” And, I said, “Of course,” it was such an honor to have him play my mandolin, and we played that together. Sam Bush and I played fiddle on that with him. He and Richie Hayward both played drums, which was really, really cool. He was really a great guy, and we definitely got to hang with him, and he was very, very cool.
RR: “Bayou Town” off the new Leftover Salmon record, Aquatic Hitchhiker made me think of Levon Helm’s music, as well. Let’s talk about that work. When were the thoughts put into play about getting new Salmon material together? Was it around the time that the band was slowly venturing out onto the road?
DE: We didn’t think we were going to make a new record. After we had gotten back together and done these reunions, we were taking it a step at a time. We finally started talking about it, I guess, last spring and summer. We finally made the plans, and we booked the studio and time. We really didn’t have any of these songs; it wasn’t anything we’d been playing, so we got together last fall. We had little bits and pieces here and there, and we got together as a band and collaborated and with the help of Steve Berlin, he came out and, actually, really helped the songwriting process.
RR: How did you get Steve Berlin to produce the new record?
DE: We got him through our booking agent, who also books Los Lobos—Josh from Monterey. He ran it by Steve Berlin, and Steve was definitely way into the idea. He was very excited about it. We had heard he was a great producer. He produced one of String Cheese’s records, and Billy [Nershi] told me he was great to work with. He was very, very involved from the beginning. He came out early, and was really into the songwriting process with us, he was in on the whole session and putting the songs together, and he was really helpful with all of that. He was just a joy to work with, and he was a great mediator for the band, as far as really bringing everyone together, and he had great ideas.
RR: Speaking of great ideas, Andy Thorn is the newest member since 2010. What does that do to the dynamics within Salmon to have Andy as a member?
DE: It really brought back a lot of excitement and a lot of cohesion that we were missing after Mark [Vann]’s passing. We had other banjo players that were great, but they never really quite fit what we were doing. Andy just really fits our sound, and he fits our whole vibe. He’s got great stage presence. He’s just been a breath of fresh air for all of us. It really kind of feels like the old days in a lot of ways. It really feels like a band again. He’s a big reason why we are out here on the road doing this again and making it happen.
RR: Why do you think that is? Do you think he instilled some spirit or something that had perhaps been missing? Did he bring something new to the table? Or, is it because when you all play together, it feels so right?
DE: I think it’s all those things. He’s got really great energy. He brings new ideas and he really fits in well, and he’s really excited about it. He saw this band when he was 14 in North Carolina. It was definitely a dream of his to play in this band.
RR: One of my favorite albums in recent years, which I reviewed for the site, was your solo band’s 2010 Long Road. I am curious that with that band going on, and your incredible work with Billy Nershi happening, as well, how do you choose material for Salmon, and what is the writing process like for that entity?
DE: It’s kind of like putting on a different hat in that, I think, when we make a Salmon record, we try to write in different styles, and try to bring those different elements into the whole process. I really wanted to write a Cajun-y song, so I came up with “Bayou Town.” I really wanted to bring in a little bit of rock ‘n’ roll and bluegrass, and, so, everyone brought in something different. That’s really how this band operates. That’s what is fun about it, too. There are no boundaries. It is whatever you feel. (laughs) That is really what has made Salmon great over the years—we don’t pigeonhole our sound; it’s pretty much wide open. There’s definitely styles we like to focus on like Calypso, Cajun, bluegrass, especially, and a little bit of rock ‘n’ roll. I think, once again, we’re really able to bring those elements together for this record.
RR: You are talking of different elements that also contain similar attributes, and it makes me think of “Light Behind the Rain,” which was written by Andy and Benny Galloway—great hook, great atmosphere, and a tremendous guitar solo, too.
DE: That’s me. (laughs) Thank you. I appreciate that. That’s our rock epic on the record. It was kind of interesting that the banjo player was the one that brought that tune. (laughs) It’s pretty cool how that worked out.
RR: And I think that perfectly underlines what you just said about the various sounds being brought into Salmon. “Gulf of Mexico” is the opening track on the album, which you wrote. Tell me about its origins.
DE: I came up with that idea first about a year ago. I was on tour with Billy, and we were down in the gulf, way down in, I guess, Biloxi, Mississippi. We had a couple of days off, and we just hung on the beach. It just kind of came to me. It was a basic idea. I wanted to have a swamp-y feel to it. That developed from there. [Salmon] recorded that really late at night, so it has that nice, laidback feel.
RR: I noticed that. Do you plan those late night recording sessions for tracks like that, or was it just a happy accident?
DE: It was a happy accident. We’d had a long day in the studio, we’d had a few beers, and we were feelin’ loose, feelin’ real good, and it just happened at that time of night. It really helped the whole vibe—we were a little tired, a little relaxed, and feeling good and comfortable, and it definitely lent itself well to that track.
RR: The record does have a loose yet focused spirit. Is that something you spoke about as a band before you recorded the album—a loose spirit with an emphasis on songcraft, as well?
DE: You know I think so. We really wanted this to be a different project. A lot of times when you get into the studio, it’s easy to get too focused, too into the project, and lose the side of just having fun and playing music together. I think our overall goal was to have fun, and just let it flow. And, at the same time, really craft some songs, but do it in a fun way. There have been times when we’ve been in the studio with this band, and it has not been as much fun as it should have been. I think after all these years, after the other projects we’ve been doing, we had the experience and the wherewithal to go in and have a good time with it and make a good record. And I think that is how we approached it.
RR: Along that line, you’ve got something like “Stop All Your Worrying.”
DE: Yeah, that’s the only song [on Aquatic Hitchhiker ] that comes from before. That’s the song that I wrote years ago with the Left Hand String Band. We just started playing it again, and Steve Berlin really liked it, and he suggested that we put that on there. It’s a little bit of a remake. We changed it up a little bit, but, yeah, it just seemed to fit.
RR: I love the way the album closes with its final four tracks—“Walking Shoes” and “Kentucky Skies,” both written by Vince, and then you’ve got “Gone for Long” by Greg, before Aquatic Hitchhiker ends with your own “Here Comes the Night.”
DE: That was a late comer. I had started it and wasn’t quite finished, and I brought it with me to Portland. I just kind of got it out and started playing it, and thought, “Well, this might be good.” I brought it in the next morning, and played it for everybody and everybody really liked it. Then, we messed with the arrangement a little bit, changed chords around here and there a little bit, and went in and recorded it. I think that was our first take. We just played it all the way through, and it felt really great. Everything on that is pretty much live, except for the overdubbed vocals—all the solos are live; the guitar and banjo solos went down completely live. It just kind of laid itself out: “Well, O.K., there you go.” It had a really good feel to it.
RR: I’m impressed with how well Steve Berlin captured that feel on the entire record. Obviously, the band was bringing in a lot of positive and really warm baggage, but, at the same time, he nailed that feel. It’s almost one of those situations where he had to occasionally stay out of the way of himself.
DE: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. He was a really good objective ear, too. He really had good suggestions, and he could tell when we really weren’t hitting it like we could. But, yeah, I think he was really good at facilitating that and helping us relax and have a good time. I think the album definitely has that feel to it. It has a very organic, rootsy feel.
RR: Leftover Salmon is out on the road for an extended period of time with a deep focus on festivals. What were the discussions like when you were planning a tour? Did you want to cover America, hitting certain spots and festivals where you knew you’d get some new fans, while also seeing some old friends?
DE: Yeah. I think right now our goal is just to cover the whole country. We’ve come close to doing that now. There are just a couple of regions left. By the end of the year, we’ll have definitely covered everything. We’re going to try to do that again next year, and, then, we might think about pulling back a little bit. Right now, I think the goal is just to cover the whole country, get in front of new audiences, as well as getting in front of our longtime fans, as well. So far, it’s been working out really well. We’ve been to the Northeast, we’ve been out West, we’ve been up through the ski towns, up into Montana, into Idaho, and, now, we’re in the Southeast, which is one of our hotbeds, for sure. It’s been really fun hitting all these regions again because people have been waiting. We’ve been doing just festivals here and there the last few years, and a lot of people around the country have been really anxious to see the band, so we are really finally fulfilling that by getting in front of those audiences again.
RR: When all the members get together after all of these years, and you look across the room at each other, is the new material the key to staying fresh?
DE: A big thing that is helping is playing these new songs. Not only is it fun to have a new album coming out, but it’s really fun to have these songs to play. We are also really digging into the repertoire, and we’re digging up songs we haven’t played for years. The more we play out, the more we realize that we’ve got (laughs) a huge pile of songs to choose from. It’s just really fun to bring out some of those old songs, and bring them out live again, and give them some new energy. I’m think just, in general, the band just has a whole new energy. It doesn’t feel like the same old thing that we did for years. Everything—even the older stuff—feels like it’s got a new tint to it. But, the main thing, like I said, is that it’s just really fun to have these new tunes to play. I think it has really inspired everybody, and really made us want to write a whole other pile of new tunes.
RR: I love the new media outlets that are available for bands in the modern era, too. The band has a five-episode documentary coming out about the making of Aquatic Hitchhiker called Salmonlandia. Are you trying to reach a broader audience with that project, or does it give fans a closer view into the band’s inner workings?
DE: Yes, I think it is all of those things. I think it is reaching the newer fans, but it’s also giving longtime fans something to check out, and giving people a little bit of an insight into what it takes to make a record, and what the band is like off the stage. I think it is fun for people to check that out, and get kind of an inner look at what Leftover Salmon’s about, and what we are like as people. And, yeah, it’s great to have that kind of outlet these days. Years and years ago, when we started doing this, of course, there was nothing like that, even remotely. The way that media has changed the record industry and the touring industry is a double-edged sword. It has made it that it is very difficult to sell records anymore because of all the downloading and all that, but, at the same time, I think that you can use it to your advantage, and I think that is really what we are trying to do with the lemons being thrown at us, we’re trying to make lemonade out of it. (laughter) But, yes, it’s challenging, especially growing up in a world where albums really meant something and were the most important thing, and, now, they are not so important anymore. They are still important, but not like they were. So, now, it’s just all about the Internet, and using the media, and we’re just trying to get up to speed with all of that and use it as much as possible to help the band and help our fans enjoy the band.
RR: Leftover Salmon was one of the founding fathers of the do-it-yourself movement. It is difficult to teach a band how to be independent these days. I would think that it helps that, over your long career, the band has had to do some of that work themselves.
DE: Absolutely. Absolutely. It makes more sense now for bands to do it themselves. Major record labels are not necessarily the be-all end-all anymore like they used to be. More and more bands are discovering that it makes a lot more sense to do it on your own. Our friends in the String Cheese Incident figured that out a long time ago, and started their own record label, SCI Fidelity. I always thought that was really smart. At the same time, we were going after the major label deals because it seemed to make sense at the time, and I think it did. I think that the major label deal that we got really helped us for a little while, and helped us make a couple of records that, otherwise, we probably couldn’t have made— National Sessions and Euphoria —on our own at the time. It was a great thing to have, but nowadays, it makes a lot more sense if you can get it together yourself, and have your own backing to go without a major label. I think a lot of bands are discovering that. It’s just the way that everything has changed. Once again, it’s a product of the Internet and all the new technology. I think it must be tough to be on a major label these days. There are definitely still bands that benefit from that and the label still benefits from, but I think, by and large, it makes much more sense to do it yourself now.
RR: You brought up a great point because Salmon has straddled both worlds, whereas, some bands haven’t really done that—your own major label experience, the “key exception” I referenced, and in a world where touring was also critical.
DE: Right. I am glad we got to experience that because every band dreams of getting a major label record deal and it was exciting for us. We got courted by several different labels. Gosh, it was Capricorn and Atlantic and Island and Sony before settling on Hollywood Records, and the whole process was pretty fascinating. It was very exciting for us. It was good to have experienced that, and come back around to doing it ourselves again, which, ultimately, is what I think we should be doing, and probably what we should have been doing all along. But, I have no regrets. I’m really glad we got to experience the whole major label thing.
RR: The charisma of the band is immediately apparent in the documentary, too, not only because of the various band members, but the Salmon sound, as well. I can see how veteran band members may get very jaded by being around each other so much, but do you also stop and think that you were pretty lucky to be a part of a band that has had an impact over time, while being able to continue doing it?
DE: Absolutely. Oh, yeah. This band was really a happy accident. I think that we’ve all been lucky to be on this ride. It’s been quite a journey, and it continues. I feel very fortunate that we can continue now. We still have that chemistry, even though we lost a major component with Mark Vann passing, but to be able to get this back, and to have this feeling again is really great. It’s like home. I love the other projects I get to do, as well, but this band, gosh, there’s so much history and there’s definitely a comfort level both on and off the stage that I don’t feel with other bands. Yeah, I feel very fortunate.
RR: I wanted to finish our conversation by asking about those other projects. You just played with Billy and the Emmitt-Nershi Band at the Suwanee Springfest.
DE: Oh, it was great. That band is really fun, and what I love about it is that it’s just four of us playing acoustic and the four of us can travel around in a van, and it’s just really easy, and that’s a great chemistry, too. Andy, of course, is also in that band, which is kind of a nice thing and really where that started. We had Andy in the Emmitt-Nershi Band first, and he found his way into Salmon, so that’s a nice continuity factor there. Playing with Billy is great. I’m really having a good time with him. He’s a good friend. That band is really doing well. We’ve got Johnny Grubb on the upright bass from Railroad Earth, and he’s been a great addition, and our tours with that band have really started to blow up. We’re starting to sell out some bigger places and we’re getting quite an audience for that band, as well. We’re planning on making a new record in August, and that’s definitely something I want to keep going, as well. This is fun and it’s easy and I really need that bluegrass outlet, too—that pure acoustic outlet—and that’s been really great.
RR: Well, as a writer and a fan, I need the outlet of the Drew Emmitt Band, too.
DE: Thank you. We’re doing FloydFest and we’re also doing a festival that I host in Crested Butte, Colorado called Bluegrass in Paradise. We are basically the house band, and we have people sit in with us. So, yes, I have both of those two things going, but, right now, I’m putting it on hold a little bit because Salmon is getting busy and the thing with Billy has gotten busier, so, unfortunately, I don’t really have the time right now to fit that band in. I’m holding off a little bit, but it doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it again. I’m waiting for the right time. Right now, one more project is almost too much. It’s always there. I can always revive that whenever I want to, but I’ve made the choice to put more effort into Salmon and the Emmitt-Nershi Band. At some point, maybe, I’ll do another tour with that band. We’ll see what happens.
RR: I love when I reach this point. You used the word “unfortunate” to describe being so busy, and I am thinking that has to be a good problem for a musician to have—many solid projects floating around up in the air while moving forward.
DE: It really is. It’s awesome. I definitely feel like I’m in a very good place in my career right now. It’s nice to have choices. It feels good to have different outlets. So, yeah, it’s definitely a good problem to have.
