9-30-11 Somerville, MA



Audio: by Andy D / by d3gourds (pending)
Photos: by Cassandra Ladino
Video: Money Honey / Piss & Moan Blues (pending)

The Gourds
Johnny D's Uptown Restaurant & Music Club
17 Holland Street
Davis Square
Somerville, MA
9-30-11

01. You Must Not Know
02. Peppermint City
03. Marginalized
04. Haunted
05. Money Honey
06. Melchert
07. Tearbox
08. I Want it So Bad
09. Two Sparrows
10. Don't Run Wild tease (Dan Zanes)
11. More Than a Feeling tease (Tom Scholz) > Illegal Oyster
12. Pickles
13. Ink and Grief
14. Burn the Honeysuckle
15. Your Benefit
16. Piss & Moan Blues
17. Waxy's Dargle (trad.)
E:
18. Gin and Juice (Calvin Broadus, et al.) > Roadrunner (Jonathan Richman) > Dirty Water (Ed Cobb)


© Bridget Jourgensen

Special thanks to Cassandra Ladino, Andy D, and Bridget Jourgensen for the field reports. If anyone has audio/video/photos from this show, please email TheGourdsNews.

Washington Post: No Matter How Much You Polish A Rhinestone, It Will Never Become A Diamond



THE GOURDS
Album review: "Old Mad Joy"
By Goeffrey Himes
Sept 30, 2011

The Gourds have never sounded better than they do on "Old Mad Joy," the new album they recorded with Larry Campbell as producer. Campbell, who was Bob Dylan's music director, achieves the perfect sonic balance between the Texas quintet's Americana craftsmanship and garage-rock spontaneity and even adds some tasty steel guitar.

But no matter how much you polish a rhinestone, it will never become a diamond. The Gourds' two lead singers, Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith, have limited voices and yet belt out these songs as if they were Van Morrison and Thom Yorke, leading to unsubtle blaring that the instrumental tracks, no matter how sparkling, can't camouflage.

Russell and Smith's lyrics are quite colorful but lead more often to arbitrary non sequiturs than to coherent stories. Juxtaposing odd references (Bugler tobacco, non-adhesive tape and Suzi Quatro) in successive lines, as Smith does on "Drop the Charges," doesn't necessarily produce meaning. And reshuffling gospel cliches, as Russell does on "Eyes of a Child," doesn't necessarily produce enlightenment.

© 1996-2011 The Washington Post

Gotham: A Joyride Of Great Music



Gotham Interview with Kevin Russell
By Chuck
Sept 30, 2011


I’ve always been a big fan of The Gourds. The first song I ever heard was the opening track of Cow Fish Fowl or Pig, and I was immediately hooked.

Oh, how to describe the sound of The Gourds…A sort of folky, twangy, alternative country-esque, rockin’ and rollin’ trailer park orchestra. Yeah, I think that sums it up. If you’re not familiar with them, get ready for an experience unlike anything you’ve laid your ears on.

The Gourds are fun. Their music keeps your attention, and without even knowing it, you’ll be clapping your hands and stomping your feet to the rhythm of their unique sound.

This is definitely the case with their latest album – their 11th studio album – Old Mad Joy. From front to back, beginning to end, this album is a joyride of great music.

—–

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to chat with Kevin Russell of The Gourds about his new album and the band’s latest tour (coming through New York City on Saturday October 1st at Sullivan Hall in the West Village). They’ll be rolling through Asbury Park the following night.

You opened the tour in August in Austin, Texas. You end the tour in December in Austin, Texas. Sprinkled throughout are stops in California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas and Colorado (just to name a few of the Lower 48s). What’s it like going from a place like Lincoln, Nebraska to the West Village in New York City?

It’s like boiling rocks that look like eggs; things are similar but possess different attributes and qualities. People look the same, but act different. We are a nation at once physically homogenous, but culturally less informed by a universal moral compass. It’s like shaving with a butter knife. Our toolkit sometimes is missing what we need for a given situation. Confusion is often our companion, fragmentation our philosophical foil. ‘The map is not the territory,’ said Korzybski. In searching for that quote, Gurdjieff also said, ‘It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour.’ In addition to changing my font, that quote also signals me to embrace the cosmic shuffle inherent in this lifestyle. The variety, depth and speed of changes can be dramatic.

Your 11th studio album, Old Mad Joy, was recorded at Levon Helm’s Barn in Woodstock. What was it like recording in his studios?

That was the most enjoyable, inspiring, challenging, gripping recording experience thus far. I would liken it to being aboard Noah’s Ark in those fateful days after the flood; before the crow came back with mud on its feet. Or maybe it was like the early stages of the Mayan pyramids. From the basic burial mounds to the ornate, inscription laden temples of deities, with each song, each layer we created something sacred to all of us. This kind of collaborative creative cabal is valued on a human scale. Regardless what any review suggests or any scantron sales report indicates, this is a grand success that can never be repeated or imitated. The men involved, the air, the color of the sky, the moments captured like ghosts, the dirt on the floor, the fireplace, the food…all of it converged into this recording: unique and everlasting.

This is your first record that you brought in an outside producer. Did having Larry Campbell as your producer change your normal routine in the record-making/song-writing process?

He certainly changed the way we think about making recordings and yes, writing and arranging songs. His influence on the songs were after they had been written. But, watching his way of deconstructing them and sticking them back together will have a lasting influence on us. I write differently now. I am more thoughtful in some way. I want to take ideas further. He is like our James T. Kirk, to boldly go where no Gourds have gone before. Haha. I was just wondering what it would have been like if Joseph Campbell or Earl Campbell had produced this record.

Is Old Mad Joy your best album?

I have to say, yes, it is our best. But it has some stiff competition. Dem’s Good Beeble and Blood Of The Ram specifically.

There’s something about the opening tracks to The Gourds’ albums. From “I Want It So Bad” to “Country Love” to “Decline-O-Meter” to “Lower 48″ to my personal favorite “My Name is Jorge,” your albums always kick off with a foot tapping, hand clapping, rockin’ tune. The bar is set high from the get go, and somehow you maintain it – or even exceed it! – throughout the entire album. Is it just me, or do you intentionally pick these types of songs to open your albums?

We put a lot of thought into the sequence of our records. I am not sure if this is antiquated or not? We were raised on albums. So, that is hard wired into the way we think and act in regards to our records. If you sit down and listen to them in one sitting, you might glean something more from the relation of musical and lyrical juxtaposition. Or you might find just how A.D.D .we really are. If it starts to make sense you may be a Gourds savant, which can qualify you for a generous discount on a t-shirt.

The music industry is changing every single day, specifically the distribution of music. It seems the mp3 file has affected the way people listen to their music: from Napster to iTunes to iPods to Spotify…Has the advent of things like “the cloud” affected the way you make music?

Not yet. I think about it and experience it a lot, though. I have lots of ideas that will eventually serve the needs or wants of this a la carte, candy machine market. One thought is that eventually musicians will make song cycles that last 15 minutes, give or take, or even longer. It’ll have to be really damn good to keep the attention of the listener. Imagine a mini opera by Li’l Wayne. Though he could never do in 15 minutes what Roy Orbison did in three…who among us can?

I may be way behind on this one, but I’ve got to ask: What’s the future of Kev Russell’s Junker?

Well, I morphed that into Shinyribs. I released a great little record last year called Well After Awhile on Nine Mile Records out of the ATX. In fact I am label mates with Patrick Sweaney. It’s a great band that leans more toward my side of the musical spectrum of Ye Olde Gourds. Check it out. That band rarely plays outside of Texas.

Are there any new bands out there you’re excited about? What are you listening to?

Jimbo Mathus, Confederate Buddah; Ramsay Midwood, Larry Buys A Lighter; Patrick Sweaney, That Ol’ Southern Drag; Eagle Eye Williamson, Shakey Graves, The Babies…Robert Ellis has the saddest song of the the year: “Bamboo” makes me cry every time, go listen to it.

Before I let you go, what can your New York fans expect from the show this weekend at Sullivan Hall?

A Johansen Thunders kind of amalgamation the likes of which the city has never seen. Yeah right. It’ll be a lot of the new stuff, stories and shenanigans.

—–

It was a pleasure chatting with Kev Russell. He’s a deep guy with a lot to say. I can’t wait to see what The Gourds bring to the show at Sullivan Hall.

It’s going to be a hoot. And a lot of fun.

9-29-11 Burlington, VT


© Cassandra Ladino

Audio: by d3gourds
Photos: by Cassandra Ladino
Video: Web Before You Walk into It / Jenny Brown / Two Sparrows / All the Labor (pending)

The Gourds
Higher Ground
1214 Williston Road
South Burlington, VT
9-29-11

01. You Must Not Know
02. Peppermint City
03. Marginalized
04. Haunted
05. Web Before You Walk into It
06. Jenny Brown
07. Caledonia
08. I Want it So Bad
09. Two Sparrows
10. Big Santiago Bust
11. Pickles
12. The Tinys Variety Hour (Claude Bernard/Matt Cook/Travis Garaffa)
13. Best of Me
14. Burn the Honeysuckle
15. Sweet Li'l
16. Drop the Charges
17. Drop What I'm Doing
18. Lower 48 *
19. All the Labor
E:
20. Pill Bug Blues
21. Mister Betty
22. At the Crossroads (Doug Sahm)
23. All in the Pack > I Can't Stand It (Lou Reed) > All in the Pack

*Richmond Ditch version

Soundcheck: Grapes on the Vine (Tony Rice), Angel Flying too Close to the Ground (Willie Nelson), Rocks Off (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards), Polk Salad Annie (Tony Joe White), Sympathy for the Devil (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards), Sweet Li'l



Special thanks to Andrew Maroko, Peter Backes, and Cassandra Ladino for the field reports. If anyone has audio/video/photos from this show, please email TheGourdsNews.

Review 9-28-11 Albany, NY


© Bill Patterson


The Gourds at The Linda, 9/28/11

By Michael Eck
Special to The Times Union
Sept 29, 2011

ALBANY – Keep Austin Weird. That’s what the t-shirts and bumper stickers say. But no one ever needs to remind Austin’s finest export, The Gourds, to keep it weird.

They do that just fine on their own.

The Gourds are often compared to The Band, and with the quintet’s new album, “Old Mad Joy,” those allegations take on an even truer hue, if only because the album was recorded at Levon Helm’s studio in Woodstock.

Neither Helm or album producer Larry Campbell were at The Linda, WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, Wednesday for The Gourds’ tour stop behind “Old Mad Joy,” but shaggy-bearded Kevin Russell gave them a shout-out nonetheless.

Russell and bassist Jimmy Smith are the principal songwriters in The Gourds, but shows are not just a matter of the duo bouncing a ball back and forth.

Multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston got a few tunes in (including “Old Mad Joy’s” “Haunted”) and keyboardist Claude Bernard (who was fighting a broken accordion key) contributed his take of Nils Lofgren’s “Everybody’s Missing The Sun” from the band’s “Shinebox” album.

For the most part Russell — alternating between mandolin and electric guitar — and Smith focused their selections on the new album.

That didn’t stop them from doling out classics like the romping “Lower 48,” “Caledonia” or “Pickles.”

Smith sang “Jenny Brown,” from the combo’s 1996 “Dem’s Good Beeble,” twice, just to make up for a speedy but shaky first shot.

“We’ve been spending all our time working on the new stuff,” he said.

“Old Mad Joy” leans a little harder on electricity than some earlier releases.

Russell’s “Peppermint City,” for example, charged out of the gate with the singer’s Okie voice ringing. Russell spiked the tune with first of a few killer solos, saving his best for the long coda of “Ink and Grief” later in the set.

Smith kicked off the set with “You Must Not Know,” following it later with “Marginalized” and the rocking “Drop the Charges.”

Russell took top honors of the night with the Southern gospel swoon of “Two Sparrows.” The tune is stately on the album, but it just shimmered onstage, with three part harmonies and fiddle bringing the sentiment home.

Nashville’s Patrick Sweany opened the show for The Gourds with a half-hour of hot shot picking and sturdy songwriting. Sweany, his foot stomping on a tambourine, didn’t need a band. His library of six-string rockabilly licks ably abetted tunes like “Chelsea Swing” and “Everybody Wants The Same Thing.”

THE GOURDS
with Patrick Sweany
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Where: The Linda, WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, 339 Central Ave, Albany
Length: Sweany, 30 minutes; The Gourds, 2 hours
Highlights: Kevin Russell’s bittersweet “Two Sparrows”
The Crowd: Just as shaggy and weird as the band.
Upcoming: Solid Smoke is at The Linda on Friday.

© 2011 Hearst Communications Inc.

9-28-11 Albany, NY

© Bill Patterson

Audio: by d3gourds
Video: Jenny Brown (pending) / Jenny brown (pending) / Big Santiago Bust (pending)

The Gourds
The Linda
339 Central Avenue
Albany, NY
9-28-11

01. You Must Not Know
02. Peppermint City
03. Marginalized
04. Haunted
05. Web Before You Walk into It
06. Jenny Brown *
07. Jenny Brown *
08. Caledonia
09. Ink and Grief
10. Two Sparrows
11. Big Santiago Bust
12. Pickles
13. Everybody's Missing the Sun (Nils Lofgren)
14. Best of Me
15. Eyes of a Child
16. (the new way of) Grievin' & Smokin'
17. All the Labor
18. Drop the Charges
19. Lower 48 **
20. Drop What I'm Doing
E:
21. Burn the Honeysuckle > Black Water tease (Patrick Simmons) > Burn the Honeysuckle


© Bill Patterson

*Complete version
**Richmond Ditch version




Special thanks to Peter Backes, Bill Patterson, Kristin Barone, Paul Rieder, and Rebecca Pilny for the field reports. If anyone has audio/video/photos from this show, please email TheGourdsNews.

Twangville: Things Aren't Always What They Seem



Editor's note: The following review was taken from a playlist of 10 recent recordings. Click here to read the rest of that article.

The Gourds / Old Mad Joy
By Mayer Danzig
Sept 28, 2011


The Gourds latest is a bit deceiving. The band has built a reputation as a bluegrass and backporch country band, but things aren’t always what they seem.

The album open as one would expect. “I Want You So Bad” is built around an accordion and a bouncing beat. “We all know that life ain’t fair,” the band sings, “but we forget it when desire becomes despair,” with the latter line sung in rich multi-part harmony.

But then things start to change. The guitars emerge and the traditional sound fades into the background. “Haunted,” the fifth track on the album, opens up into what could easily become an extended jam. Electric guitars, particularly a steel guitar, glisten as they wander around a classic southern rock riff. A steel guitar and a Southern drawl stand mostly alone as the connections to the band’s roots base.

“Ink and Grief” is a gem, a ballad both tender and bittersweet. Steel guitar and fiddle intertwine beautifully as Kevin Russell plaintively counsels, “when love is gone, carry on.”

“Your Benefit,” the closing track, reaches a pinnacle of the jam-band sound. The song has an angular chorus that is complimented by some great harmonies. The song has, dare I say it, a Grateful Dead feel. Given Jerry Garcia’s penchant for bluegrass, I suspect that the Gourds – and certainly this release – would have had his seal of approval.

Copyright © 2005-11, Hobos & Huevos, LLC. All rights reserved.

9-24-11 Dallas, TX



Audio: by Patric Shurden
Photos: by pointblankgirl
Video: Shake the Chandelier / Hellhounds / Hellhounds (alt. view) / Haunted / Wagon of Destruction / Your Benefit / Burn the Honeysuckle / All the Labor / Gin and Juice (alt. view) > Shotgun > Theme from the Dukes of Hazzard (Good Ol' Boys) > Slow Ride > All You Need Is Love > The Wild Rover > Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me) > Gin and Juice

The Gourds
The Kessler Theater
1230 West Davis Street
Dallas, TX
9-24-11

01. You Must Not Know
02. Peppermint City
03. Marginalized
04. Drop the Charges
05. Ink and Grief
06. Shake the Chandelier
07. Melchert
08. Hellhounds
09. Haunted
10. Wagon of Destruction (Claude Bernard/Matt Cook/Travis Garaffa)
11. Two Sparrows
12. Eyes of a Child
13. Bridgett
14. Drop What I'm Doing
15. I Want it So Bad
16. Lower 48 *
17. On Time
18. Your Benefit
19. Burn the Honeysuckle
E:
20. All the Labor
21. Gin and Juice (Calvin Broadus, et al.) ** > Shotgun (Autry DeWalt) > Theme from the Dukes of Hazzard (Good Ol' Boys) (Waylon Jennings) > Slow Ride (David Peverett) > All You Need Is Love (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) > The Wild Rover (trad.) > Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me) (Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong) > Gin and Juice


© Sara Bowersock

*Richmond Ditch version
**Patrick Sweany and Miles Zuniga both joined the band on guitar for the remainder of the show, with the former adding vocals on Shotgun and Just My Imagination

Note: Related article/review can be found here.



Special thanks to Patric S
hurden, Chris Dulaney, Sara Bowersock, realpeoplerealshit, and TheKessler2010 for the field reports. If anyone has audio/video/photos from this show, please email TheGourdsNews.

Review 9-23-11 Austin, TX


© Charlie Llewellin

Threadgill's Last Night

By Tomski

There was plenty of Old and Mad at Threadgill's last night, but Joy won by a country mile.

As stellar as the new album is, with its extra cleanliness and attention to detail, I was wondering how the new songs would sound live.

Any worries about the new crop of tunes not fitting in onstage were dispelled immediately, and we didn't have to wait more than 30 seconds to learn that. The Gourds got all up in it, kicking off with a six-pack of new songs from Old Mad Joy. The opener, the extra fun You Must Not Know, is the quirkiest and perhaps least Gourds-sounding song on the record. On stage, it immediately showed it belonged with its brethren.

I don't think anyone who saw their first Gourds show last night would be able to tell which songs were new and which were nearly 20 years old.

One of the best things about the new crop of songs is the abundance of backup singing and shared vocals. It's long been said that the Gourds are greater than the sum of their parts, but I don't think anything proves that to be true more than when they complementing each other vocally. Seeing and hearing all five Gourds singing that gospel-like break in Eyes of Child, or the Motown-esque a cappella part of Peppermint City shows just had tight this band can be. They've always been close-knit musically, but there is something about them displaying a unified front, with all members singing, that just gives them a happy, 'nobody can top us' vibe.

And there seems to be more dedication to showing off the backup singing on the older songs as well. As he does on the album, Claude especially shines.

Having a new crop of songs, and maybe even playing in front of a bunch of fans and friends hungry for new tunes, seemed to really energize the band. Keith and Jimmy seemed to be extra locked in providing the rhythm, Max seemed to be playing extra soulfully and Kev's versatility really stood out as he bounced back and forth on guitar between his beautiful ballads and providing the spark on Jimmy's great batch of new rockers.

At least up front, the bigger-than-usual crowd was WAY into it, even the new songs. Marginalized, Haunted and Eyes of a Child were as great live as they are on record. The new tunes seemed effortless. None seemed like they had only been played only a handful of times, though Jimmy did quip "It'll grow on you" after Melchert.

Apart from the Old Mad Joy songs, the rest of the set list was stellar, as they seemed to reach deep into their catalog. The newer arrangement of Cold Bed (more rock than country) was another that benefited from the renewed emphasis on backup singing. And an encore of Plaid Coat, Ringing Dark & True and Jorge is just about as good as it gets.

Maybe it was being huddled together in the Barn at Woodstock, maybe it's just the joy of having a bunch of great new tunes to show, or maybe it was just me, but the Gourds seemed as energized and focused and playful as I've seem them in a long time.

And the really good news is that a film crew of three or four or five were on stage and in the front row documenting the entire show. They picked a great show to put down for posterity.


© Travis Morse

9-23-11 Austin, TX



Photos: by Charlie Llewellin

The Gourds
Threadgill's World Headquarters
301 West Riverside Drive
Austin, TX
9-23-11

Introduction by Dan Nugent

01. You Must Not Know
02. Drop the Charges
03. Ink and Grief
04. Heading Out to the Highway tease (Rob Halford/K.K. Downing/Glenn Tipton) > Peppermint City
05. Marginalized
06. Your Benefit
07. Cold Bed * > Take the Money and Run (Steve Miller)
08. Pill Bug Blues
09. Melchert
10. Pickles
11. Yakety Yak tease (Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller)
12. Haunted
13. Wagon Of Destruction (Claude Bernard/Matt Cook/Travis Garaffa)
14. Two Sparrows
15. Eyes of a Child
16. Trampled by the Sun
17. Drop What I'm Doing
18. Jesus Christ with Signs Following
19. I Want it So Bad > Jive Talkin' (Barry Gibb/Robin Gibb/Maurice Gibb)
20. Burn the Honeysuckle
E:
21. Plaid Coat
22. Ringing Dark & True
23. Getting To Know You tease (Oscar Hammerstein II/Richard Rodgers)
24. Aqualung tease (Ian Anderson/Jennie Anderson)
25. War Pigs (Tony Iommi/Ozzy Osbourne/Gezzer Butler/Bill Ward)
26. My Name Is Jorge

*Hard Rain version

Note: Tonight was the first time all 12 songs from Old Mad Joy were played during a single show. Additionally, the entire show was filmed with multiple cameras for an upcoming documentary on The Gourds by Doug Hawes-Davis.



Special thanks to Tomski, Charlie Llewellin, Ducktaper, Grace McKelvy, Richard Spencer Benton, and Michael T. Barnes for the field reports. If anyone has audio/video/photos from this show, please email TheGourdsNews.

9-23-11 Austin, TX



The Gourds
Waterloo Records (In-Store)
600 North Lamar Boulevard
Austin, TX
9-23-11

01. I Want it So Bad
02. Two Sparrows
03. Haunted
04. Drop What I'm Doing
05. Your Benefit

Special thanks to Ducktaper, Richard Spencer Benton, and High Plains Films for the field reports. If anyone has audio/video/photos from this show, please email TheGourdsNews.

Austin Chronicle: Dog Years - The Gourds' Family Values


© Charlie Llewellin

Dog Years - The Gourds' family values
By Margaret Moser
Fri., Sept. 23, 2011

In 17 years together, the Gourds have fielded everything the greater music business has thrown its way, short of that coveted million-seller or a Grammy. Then again, the local quintet of oddball personalities is little interested in the effort it takes to work a massive hit. If life's a tuxedo, the Gourds wear brown shoes.

"Brown shoes don't make it," claimed Frank Zappa, but he didn't live to meet the Gourds. Had he, Zappa might have glimpsed the same Big Pink potential Larry Campbell did. Produced by the onetime Bob Dylan sideman at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, New York, the Gourds' 10th studio album, Old Mad Joy, reflects both Campbell's belief in the band and that of its new label, respected roots indie Vanguard Records.

It's a good fit all around given that, as the Gourds roll toward the end of their second decade, they're ranked among Austin's perennial must-sees. With a documentary currently in the works, their legacy remains the living, breathing, old, weird Americana populated by hapless misfits and the ever-hopeful. Considering the landscape that cultivated this knotty hodgepodge of South­ern gothic musical everymen, loners, and survivors, the Gourds are rightfully branded as mavericks in a genre that demands authenticity and plainspoken truth.

Listen to the Band

The Gourds share their birth year, 1994, with a notable class of Austinites: Storyville, Don Walser's Pure Texas Band, Sincola, Ian Moore, Bad Livers, Pariah, and a young trio called Spoon. The original foursome of Kevin Russell, Jimmy Smith, Claude Ber­nard, and drummer Charlie Llewellin released its celebrated, Band-like debut, Dem's Good Beeble, three years later. Stadium Blitzer in 1998 served as a sophomore continuance, its non sequitur lyricism and gospel truths already claiming growing numbers of believers.

Both discs hooked the alt.country and roots-rock world, making the Gourds poster children for the post-Uncle Tupelo No Depression set. Keith Langford replaced Llewellin after Blitzer, having been amiably fired by the Gourds' sister band the Damna­tions. Max Johnston worked with Uncle Tupelo and Wilco and made the Gourds a quintet by 1999's Ghosts of Hallelujah, his array of instruments girding and enriching the band's sound. Just prior to that, sometime in 1998, came live EP Gogitchyer­shine­box, in which the group cracked open an off-the-cuff, kingdom-come version of Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice" that went viral before there was such a thing.

It was a particularly canny and oh-so-Gourdian thing for Russell to do, deconstructing Snoop Dogg's sexist, pro-drug rap into a nasal, mandolin-driven lope. It makes singing about dope-smoking and bitches as nonchalant as a dude riding in his "Escalade" or the retarded girl in "El Paso," a phrase that provoked ire from a local DJ who refused to play that opening cut from 2000's Sugar Hill Records debut, Bolsa de Agua.

The unintended popularity of "Gin and Juice" opened the Gourds to wider appreciation from an audience that valued literacy with a good beat. After their first label, doomed Austin indie Watermelon Records, went under amid legal squabbles, Bolsa de Aqua began a cozy relationship with Sugar Hill that lasted through 2002 with Cow Fish Fowl or Pig. Two LPs for Eleven Thirty Records (2004's Blood of the Ram and Heavy Ornamentals two years later) and a pair for Yep Roc (2007's Noble Creatures and 2009's Haymaker!) left the band with loads of indie label baggage, an endless repertoire of beloved material, and in dire need of a different production force.

Enter Larry Campbell, musical director of Levon Helm's Midnight Rambles Sessions, and Vanguard Records, as prestigious a label a neo-folk band could want. This spring produced the 12 tracks that became Old Mad Joy. For the band's rabid fans, it was the dream realized: Austin's version of the Band recording on the real Band's stomping grounds. Langford recalls snickering in the car with his sister at the sound of Rick Danko's singing.

"It's amazing how your parents' music can really sink in with you and emerge later," he chuckles. "A lot of our similarities are happenstance though, like the acoustic instruments, Jimmy's melodic bass, our Southern sound. I play traditional grip like Levon, et cetera.

"There are a lot of similarities, and I don't think anyone in our band doesn't like the Band, though Jimmy says he doesn't like 'Rag Mama Rag' too much.

"Has he lost his marbles?"

If the notion of recording in a barn sharing a common wall with the house of the Band's drummer and iconic vocalist Levon Helm seems like a cinematic moment, the meeting itself was anticlimatic.

"He wasn't too interested in the music," shrugs Russell. "But he did come around a couple times and say hi to everybody. Sweet old fella."

Helm didn't buy billboards declaring the Gourds the next big Band, and that's as it should be. The Gourds, after all, already boasted Doug Sahm as mentor before and after his 1999 death. That's the vibe more inherent to the Gourds, whose version of "Nuevo Laredo" stole the show on 2009 Sahm tribute Keep Your Soul. That Campbell was briefly a member of Sahm's Sir Douglas Quintet means the mojo was righteous for Old Mad Joy.

B-Sides & Deep Cuts

Whatever story its prolific studio output maintains, the Gourds are a different entity live. This is the arena where the artist-fan dynamic is deliriously successful, the lightning that can't be trapped in a bottle. The Gourds are a five-headed, shape-shifting beast awakened, roaring to life electric, proud, and armed and ready to display its chameleon colors and skin. The stage is home, where it thrives, fed and maintained by a remarkably devoted fan base (see "Life, Death, and Shoofly Pie," Sept. 13, 2002).

Amid suffocating August heat, the Gourds followed an afternoon sound check at the Nutty Brown Cafe, working over Jimmy Smith's "Tumblin' Dice"-like "Drop What I'm Doing" by ambling into the bar for a discussion on whether band years are equivalent to dog years. No question about it, came the consensus.

In a way, Johnston is the luckiest dog in the pack, able to do tricks with his instrument of choice. The son of "Dollar" Bill Johnston and brother of Michelle Shocked, Johnston's freewheeling solos light the band from within. Brimstone and ash spew from his fiddle and mandolin or whichever strings feel right, because the Gourds' instrumental makeup defines the band as much as the human personalities.

"[The instrument] I enjoy playing the most is different night to night," admits Johnston. "It depends on what I can hear the best in any given situation. If I can hear it, I can play it a lot better, which – surprise – makes it a lot more fun. If I had to pick one, it might be the banjo, but I can rarely hear that very well."

Bernard, who's played accordion with the Gourds since their inception when he's not keeping rhythm on acoustic guitar, also finds the choice of instruments worthy of discussion.

Accordion is "a very rewarding instrument to play because of its physicality. You squeeze notes out of it. My accordions get these big holes in the corners of the bellows, and that almost makes it more fun, though not really, because the air runs out faster and you have to squeeze it and pull it faster until the damn thing is pretty much shot.

"I think the more physically difficult an instrument is to play, the more I enjoy it."

As the five bandmates later make their way onstage to a sparse crowd, Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" booms from the P.A. "Oooo, for the red, white, and blue," drawls Russell, leaning into the microphone to join Fogerty with his soulful East Texas twang. As the song fades out, Russell leads the band into "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean" then "I Want It So Bad," the first track on Old Mad Joy. That's the organic spontaneity that's kept the Gourds so beloved to their longtime fans while cultivating new ones.

"Old ones know how to read the show," explains Russell afterward. "They know the various modes and tones to look for. New fans are bubble-eyed with anticipation, thinking we will play everything they ever wanted and just like the record, maybe. Old ones wait for the seconds that define and spark. New ones can't wait. I think we take care of both."

Smith agrees, calling the old-timers "geezourds" hoping for "B-sides and deep cuts, while a newbie might want that Snoop cover thrill, hoping they didn't arrive to the ball too late."

At this end-of-summer show, only a few dozen diehards are out in force. Local Gourds appearances are legend, a roiling sea of sweaty humanity. If their usual performances are what Russell describes as a cross between "a revival, a house party, a pep rally, and a pow wow," tonight is what Langford flatly terms, "a dud gig."

For Smith, an off-gig is a chance "to flex some of the muscle I forget I have, like the way I feel after bowling. Most times, I come away from a gimpy gig with higher morale and some new moves, riffs, phrasing, because there was less inhibition and pressure to really stick it."

"If you're doing it right, nobody wants to leave to go to the bathroom," Langford jokes. "I think we do that on a good night. That's what Old Mad Joy means to me. Those nights where nobody wants to go to the bathroom, including me."

Through the Eyes of a Child

Seventeen years represents a substantial amount of time in any life – dog or human. In 1994, the Gourds were young and single. Now, all five are married and count 12 children among their respective broods, a change in life reflected in Russell's "Eyes of a Child" on Old Mad Joy. Whatever they've learned as a band, nothing beats the family values of parenting to keep adults in line.

"My wife and I cuss like sailors," acknowledges Smith. "It's easy to find yourself saying, 'Pick up the fucking toys' or 'Put the goddamn Star Wars game away.'"

The maturity of Old Mad Joy doesn't substantially surpass the previous recordings; it simply underscores the Stones-solid feel of bandmates who grew up together when they thought they were already grown. Russell's "Eyes of a Child" is in good company with his Band-worthy ballad "Two Sparrows" and Jimmy Smith's word whimsy in "Melchert" or "Drop the Charges." Johnston's "Haunted" features Campbell's pedal driving the song so beautifully it could be an instrumental. If anything, Old Mad Joy reinforces the separate-but-equal status between Russell and Smith, who do not write together.

Crucial to the Gourds' infrastructure is the way that having families handed the band a matrix for how to work together – a massive challenge for any group, but especially for one with dual frontmen. It's not exactly oil and water, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, but different universes may be close.

"There's so much between us that we're like a mountain and a river," emails Russell. "In the beginning, before the Gourds, we were more like student and teacher. Then once we became presented as equals something broke. It was slowly and subtly peeled back, quietly filed down until the connection split apart. This was necessary. There was a period of grief and anger, which gave way to a silent truce, but now I think we are coming into a more mature partnership that benefits from each of our perspectives. And from time to time, like a volcano, we have a blowout that sort of renews the terrain between us.

"It's frustrating and challenging for all of us to live and work within a group of equals. I can't decide if this is a democracy or an anarchy. A little of both, I guess. One thing's for sure: It has taught us the value of compromise."

Smith is typically arcane in his assessment of not writing with Russell.

"I think there has to be a need for a co-write. With us, we always pulled enough tone, rhythm, melody, and enjoyment out of the walk-in individually. Then through the prep kitchen, lift it up to the line, hand it over to the front of the house, put it on the table with its legs sticking up, and measure it by the gratuity."

In other words, the two remain river deep, mountain high. Langford mediates with a Charlie Watts-like flourish.

"We don't disagree about creative stuff much," states the drummer. "We like to leave it nice and open-ended. If you push it too much, it squishes something equally as good or better that only happens in a free atmosphere. Most friction is over the external complexities of the band biz. Like, 'What gigs are we doing and when?,' 'Who's doing an interview?,' and, 'Do we go have dinner with some fans before the show?.' Real difficult stuff."

Or as Smith pithily observes, "All the real estate in betwixt is a musical experience that plays for keeps."

The Gourds throw a wingding for Old Mad Joy Friday, Sept. 23, at Threadgill's World Headquarters.

Copyright © 1981-2011 Austin Chronicle Corp. All rights reserved.

Austin Chronicle: OMJ Barely Drops A Beat



Record Review

By Raoul Hernandez
Fri., Sept. 23, 2011

The Gourds / Old Mad Joy (Vanguard)

****

Of the dozen tracks on the Gourds' 10th studio LP, Kevin Russell wrote five, Jimmy Smith hallucinated six, and ace detailer Max Johnston snuck in "Haunted," an Athens, Ga.-style bar bruiser powered by Old Mad Joy producer Larry Campbell's steel-rail string bending. Smith's absurdist rockers, "Drop the Charges" ("Suzi Quatro flankin' tres well, that's who's down in my palais") and Stones/Faces nutter "Drop What I'm Doing," bring the Mad to OMJ. In "Melchert," he maps the song equivalent to no less than Richard Linklater's Slacker, and any Caleb Followill fans left could jump ship to "Marginalized." Serious Joy jigs in Russell's Cajun-fried pub wisdom ("I Want It So Bad") and magnolia ballad "Two Sparrows," a gorgeous into-the-mystic moment. "Ink and Grief" never takes for granted his hammock hook, while rejoinder "Peppermint City" births a chorus suitable for the Stax catalog. That goes double for mandolin-gilded march "Eyes of a Child," only inverted into stone soul gospel. Multi-instrumentalist-turned-steward Campbell puts hospital corners on sound and songs, every instrument heard perfectly in the larger mosaic – Johnston's mandolin here, violin there. Sequenced hopscotch-style between the two principle composers, Old Mad Joy barely drops a beat ("You Must Not Know"). Old hands.

Copyright © 1981-2011 Austin Chronicle Corp. All rights reserved.

9-22-11 Beaumont, TX



The Gourds
Courville's
1744 Rose Lane Ste 90
Beaumont, TX
9-22-11

01. You Must Not Know
02. Bridgett
03. Peppermint City
04. Two Sparrows
05. Pair of Goats
06. Melchert
07. I Want it So Bad
08. Cranky Mulatto
09. Haunted
10. Marginalized *
11. Your Benefit
12. Pickles
13. Raining in Port Arthur
14. Pine Island Bayou
15. Eyes of a Child
16. Burn the Honeysuckle
17. All the Labor
E:
18. El Paso
19. My Name is Jorge
20. Hallelujah Shine >
21. Old Man Will Your Dog Catch a Rabbit (Lead Belly)

*Original set list had "Claude [song]" b/t Haunted and Marginalized



Special thanks to Dane DeRouen and Cat5 for the field reports. If anyone has audio/video/photos from this show, please email TheGourdsNews.

Texas Monthly: Putting Their Shoulders To The Wheel



Old Mad Joy by the Gourds, published by Vanguard
by Jeff McCord
October 2011


For well over a decade, the Gourds have made a career out of confounding expectations. Their backwoods appearance and down-and-dirty roots grooves suggest just another redneck party band, but beer-drinking and hell-raising don’t begin to cover all they do. Fronted by oil-and-vinegar singer-songwriters Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith, the band churns out songs of surprising variety, some hyperliterate, others maddeningly obtuse, and, yes, a few that qualify as beer-drinkers and hell-raisers. The dichotomy suits their hometown Austin fans, but others have had a hard time wrapping their heads around the group. It hasn’t helped that many Gourds albums have been slapped out between gigs. Not this time. Old Mad Joy (Vanguard) is the sound of the Gourds putting their shoulders to the wheel. With no personnel changes since 1999, the five members of the group have always been tightly attuned to one another, but producer Larry Campbell (who recorded the album in the Woodstock studio of former Band drummer Levon Helm) has brought their cohesion to a razor-sharp point. Songs are tighter, the singing is sharper, the arrangements more distinct; there are intros and key changes, and Smith’s serpentine melodies have been reeled in. Yet Campbell does all this without compromising the Gourds’ energy or quirkiness. It’s ironic that the band’s most fussed-over studio recording is the one that comes closest to re-creating its onstage exuberance. But when have these guys ever been predictable?

Copyright © 1973-2011 Emmis Publishing LP dba Texas Monthly. All rights reserved.

Dallas Morning News: An Intoxicating Amalgam



Editor's note: The following review was taken from a more extensive spotlight on Texas artists. Click here to read the rest of that article.

Spotlight on Texas Artists: The Gourds, St. Vincent and Mon Julien
Mario Tarradell /Music Critic
mtarradell@dallasnews.com
Sept 21, 2011

Organic soulfulness immediately blasts out of the speakers. Old Mad Joy, the 10th studio effort from Austin’s the Gourds, is an intoxicating amalgam of roadhouse R&B, classic rock and roots country-folk. The five-man group has been deservedly compared to legends the Band. But I think the Gourds have become even more soulful. “I Want It So Bad” and “Peppermint City,” to name a couple, are made for unabashed jamming.

The Gourds have come a long way since 1996’s debut Dem’s Good Beeble. Principals such as Kevin Russell, Jimmy Smith and Max Johnston have successfully expanded their sound by strengthening the collaborative binds. Old Mad Joy plays like a complete group project, and it sounds like they all are having a grand time.

While still very much entrenched in the Texas music scene, the group has nevertheless found itself in the midst of national recognition. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Annie Proulx mentioned the Gourds in her 2011 autobiography, Bird Cloud . The group is touring high-profile venues in Los Angeles and New York City and has streaming support from tastemakers AOL Music.

Still, the Gourds belong to us. Catch them Saturday night at the Kessler Theater with opening acts Miles Zuniga from Austin, best known as the Fastball singer-songwriter, and Nashville’s Patrick Sweany.

Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis St., Dallas. $23.75 for general admission, $40.50 for the reserved gallery. www.thekessler.org.

©2011, The Dallas Morning News, Inc. All Rights Reserved

No Depression Blog: Cali Wrap


Sunset in Rear View © thenotoriousmark

Cali Wrap or Who Eats This Shit Anyway?
By Kevin Russell
September 21, 2011


Gig by gig loose poetry reviews of the shows, the cities, the hotels, the aftermath in opposite order:

9-17 Lobero Theater Santa Barbara
Bert Lahr- grievin' & smokin', Vincent Price- Haunted
Robert Mitchum- Eyes Of A Child, Segovia-Marginalized
Lynn Redgrave-Ink and Grief
The silence between the applause
sounded like deep breathing
We're always too loud.

9-16 San Francisco Slims
The sailors made it home in time
McMurtry: "you own that ford or rent?"
The few on the other shoot.
Speechless and warm.
Parsons took them to Thailand.
White Rabbit out of Jimmy's hat?
Age of hands was palpable.
Turkey thru the Wastelands
an onk for a compass.

9-15 Winters CA, Palms Playhouse
Trying to not vomit while singing
I Want It So Bad was difficult-Rolaids
Precious hates quaint more than Gotham hates Shangri La.
I shoulda got the fig jam and gorgonzola pizza.
Another 6!?
Alone at last you cryptic SOB
CSPAN ALL NIGHT!!!

9-14 Santa Cruz Moe's Alley
"That's four fifty."
"Band tab?"
"Credit Card."
"I'll be here all night, you will have our money."
"Credit Card."
Greedy hippies get their's
Post-legalization parenting
Meanwhile McMurtry does his Don Quixote.
The dead squirrel in the room
was unacceptable. But
The closet space, wow.

9-13 Los Angeles Echo
Yo Bentley, what up Bizarro?
DJ's name? Oscar wired it good.
Predatory purveyor's of opportunity
in hipsters clothing
"There goes another love song."
Sunset 8, lonely balcony
waiting for a light.

Thanks California for the golden bears and medicine. And for banning smoking when you did. You saved my life. I don't give you all collective clemency from the utter devastation you have wrought upon the planet though. I blame you for passing on the right. But I also give you credit stopping for pedestrians. I blame you for strip malls, urban sprawl as city planning and unethical speculative real estate investment. But I credit you for being so beautiful and mellow. Eh, it's a wash. Haha. None of that happens in Texas.

Congratulations to The Texas Longhorns for destroying the Bruins as we marched into Santa Barbara, The Dallas Cowboys for breaking the 49er hearts as we flew out over the lonely, violent west and James McMurtry for allowing us to witness him laying waste to the souls of the last frontier. It was a blast folks. Now hit the showers!

Wicked Local: They're The Whole Package



ALBUM REVIEW: The Gourds, ‘Old Mad Joy’

By Peter Chianca / pchianca@wickedlocal.com
Wicked Local North of Boston
Sept 20, 2011

I’ve always considered the label “alt country” to mean modern country music that’s, well … good. (No offense to Toby Keith and all those other country artists who aren’t “alt.”)

That said, I’m not sure if it’s fair to label The Gourds anything-country, despite their Texas roots — on “Old Mad Joy” (Vanguard Records), there’s just as much New Orleans stomp, roots rock and southern boogie to their sound as there is country twang. And here’s the important part: The styles merge perfectly, and they do one just as well as the next. They’re the whole package.

On wild shouters like “Drop The Charges,” the band even manages a convincingly down-home punky vibe — it’s like John Mellencamp meets The Clash. Throw in some Stones shuffle on songs like the guitar-driven “Drop What I’m Doing” and bluesy Fabulous Thunderbirds-style rumble on “Peppermint City,” and you’ve got a perfect amalgam of influences for an album more compelling, raucous and just downright fun than almost anything you’ll find on the radio — country or otherwise.

Whatever you want to call their style, Kevin “Shinyribs” Russell and Jimmy Smith and company have been honing it since 1996 through a relentless tour schedule and 10 studio albums, none of which you’re likely to have heard. “Old Mad Joy” deserves to be the first one that you do.

The Gourds play Johnny D’s in Somerville, Mass., Sept. 30.

Copyright 2011 North of Boston. Some rights reserved.

No Depression Blog: Texacali Juggernaut


Claude Bernard, Pacific Ocean © thenotoriousmark

Texacali Juggernaut or the way it comes to you when you let it
By Kevin Russell
September 19, 2011

As a Marginalized marvel we do most everything ourselves. It keeps expenses down and satisfies our want to control our own destiny. Sometimes though the information overload is too much and things go haywire. This was the case when our beloved Tour Manager, Kiki, got conflicting info about a supposed "video shoot" in LA on our Monday off. In our estimation it was going to be more advantageous for us to traverse the Mojave by day and penetrate into the bloody heart of Hollywood in the dark of night. Walter Salas-Humara advised us to stay on the plateau until sundown and then make the trek down into the valley. A day before the record came out we figured there'd be cameras and groupies and other hangers-on set up outside the super 8 on Sunset. Mark [Creaney] brought up google earth to discuss what our "entrance strategy" might be. Two doors in the front of the lobby were all that stood between us and the sanctuary of our rooms.

"We would be forced to enter the front from the passenger side door of the limo. The hotel has agreed to pay for modest security for the first hour. I am not sure how we would get our gear in though." He explained.

Luckily the throngs had all given up and gone home by the time Keith and I arrived. There were just a few chatty Germans hanging out by the bottled water machines. As we lugged the gear around the terrace their "slizy" Germanic language scraped the beautiful night air. There was some debate that they might be Dutch. But, German is a very distinctive language. More than one of us upon passing each other spoke in a playful germanic accent just to ease the drudgery of humping gear. We spent the rest of the evening perched upon the balcony gazing out among the post-industrial Aztec ruins, letting the cool night lightly caress our cheeks.

A late night taco hunt took some of us into a weirdo world only hinted at by the decaying infrastructure of the city. As Claude chewed on his taco lingua, EagleEye observed a tattooed ghost sitting against a wall stirring a drink round and round, over and over for the better part of two hours. When Eagle went to the WC the ghost drink stirrer followed him. He said he thought he was gonna meet his maker. But, nada. Whilst Eagle peed, peripheral vision in a heightened state, Claude started on his second tongue taco and Mark was outside smoking. He said he witnessed two men eating hotdogs and head butting each other. It seemed an unlikely pairing to him.

One of my last observations from the balcony that night was that LA is like London in the middle of Mexico where people create images to either make themselves poison to predators or attractive to predators and the predators are highly skilled, camouflaged vampires.

Next morning Keith discovered that we did not, in fact, have a video shoot. Suddenly we had a day off. We decided to go out to Santa Monica to meet the Vanguard staff. They were all there with refreshments and good vibes. They had just decorated the walls of their new digs with great old album covers from their archives; Charlie Musslewhite, Doc Watson, Odetta, Cisco Houston just to name a few. Talked a little shop, some stories, colorful anecdotes, then poof we were gone. We had to get out of there before Rodney Crowell and Mary Carr arrived for their briefing of the staff on their new project together. (We shoulda had a staff briefing)

From there we had a good old fashioned Gourds break down between those who wanted to go to the beach and those who wanted to go to the hotel. One thing about traveling with 6 or 7 men is that we often have differing ideas about what we want to be doing when we are not doing what we came out to do. For instance, when contemplating going to the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff on our day off, there were those who did not want to and those that did. Another contingent thought we should get to LA in a day if we had that blasted video shoot. And yet another who just wanted to eat. The Beach v Hotel debate was conducted on two sides of the streets in two different groups of Gourds. Two guys in the van were steadfast in their readiness to return to the base of operations. The rest of us were trying to weigh the options of going to the beach, watching football and visiting a friend of EagleEye's, Ryan. Once we had it figured out then we had to discuss which vehicle each group would take. Room had to be be made in the rental car. The Jeep Liberty, though apropos for 9-11 week, was a lame ride nonetheless. Kind of like if you combined a hummer 3 and PT Cruiser, blek. We unloaded merch and some gear into the van anyway and went out separate ways.

We hit the beach at Santa Monica pier. Having not prepared to go to a beach I rolled up my jeans and headed for the waves. We wandered thru a dizzying array of lean, leathery and limber beach exploiters intent on their various contortion exhibitions and body tweaking routines. I felt a little like an encyclopedia salesman at the Googleplex. Once my toes touched the pacific ocean though I was transformed into one of them. I felt like Mike Love, (gross!) maybe I felt like Harvey Sid Fisher. We knew we were in California when seagulls walked up and stole Mark's rolling papers. He was like, "Dude? Seagull? You don't have to steal man. We can work something out." He was able to chase down the thieving bird and get his zig zags back. I went a bit too far out and came back with wet knees. So I made my way up onto the sandy shore and plopped down right there; no towel, nothing, but me, my wet pants and the sand. I used my sandals for a pillow and my hat for shade. I cannot remember a time recently when I was anymore happy than laying there. The impulses and sparks of responsibility occasionally poked at my guilty conscience. Could it be that I had absolutely nothing to do? Beauty that...beauty that, I thought.

Eventually I was shaken and peeled off of the ground there. A warm indention of me was all that was left of my 15 minutes of refrain. We trudged back to the showers and the excellent physical specimens in full toned regalia. They are like walking anatomy illustrations. Claude had unfortunately stepped in some kind of oil blob. It darkened a spot in the arch of his foot like a brown storm on a pale planet. (that is a bad metaphor there) haha. But it's accurate. Like bird rescuers in the early days of the BP oil spill, we were unsure of the best way to clean it off. What was that soap, palm olive? He resorted to scraping with a guitar pick, then a hotel key card and finally some newspaper EagleEye fished out of a trash can.

We got over to a great little bar not far from there called Speakeasy. It had a wood paneled, club house feel. The first Monday night football game was on, Pats and Fish. I had a gin n tonic, the day was dying, life was good.

9-17-11 Santa Barbara, CA


© thenotoriousmark

The Gourds
Lobero Theatre
33 East Canon Perdido Street
Santa Barbara, CA
9-17-11

01. All the Labor
02. Web Before You Walk into It
03. I Want it So Bad
04. Marginalized
05. Luddite Juice
06. Two Sparrows
07. Ink and Grief
08. Mister Betty
09. You Must Not Know
10. Haunted
11. Everybody's Missing the Sun (Nils Lofgren)
12. Caledonia
13. Eyes of a Child
14. (the new way of) Grievin' & Smokin'
15. Maria
16. Drop the Charges
17. Burn the Honeysuckle
18. Lower 48 *
E:
19. Your Benefit
20. Do 4 U


© Catarina Sigerfoos

*Richmond Ditch version



Special thanks to Catarina & Donovan Sigerfoos and thenotoriousmark for the field reports. If anyone has audio/video/photos from this show, please email TheGourdsNews.

Austin360.com: The Gourds Discover New Joy



By Peter Mongillo
AMERICAN-STATESMAN MUSIC WRITER
Sept. 17, 2011


Songwriters Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith of Austin band the Gourds weren't on the same page when they started talking about recording a new album.

Russell wanted to leave Texas — and all the distractions of everyday life — and work with an outside producer.

"I felt we kept making the same record," Russell says of the band's self-produced efforts. "It wasn't a bad record, the songs were good, it was just starting to feel a little old to me."

His solution: Leave Austin for the frosty confines of Woodstock, N.Y., where they could record in former Band drummer Levon Helm's studio with musician and producer Larry Campbell, who made his mark with Bob Dylan during his "Love and Theft" period.

"When we make a record here, we make the record in between our lives, it's hard to really focus on it," Russell says.

Life was exactly what was happening with Smith, however. His wife was pregnant and he wasn't crazy about leaving town. "I just didn't feel the urgency to leave my wife in Texas when we could have used any studio in Austin and I could have stayed at home," Smith says.

In the end, the lure of working with the sought-after — and non-Gourd — Campbell changed Smith's mind. "Without a producer, not a lot of people want to sit there and be told what to do by other band members," Smith says.

Seven months later, the result is the Gourds' 10th studio album, "Old Mad Joy," out now on Vanguard Records. Though it might sound a bit more like a rock album than usual, it's still the Gourds, a mix of Russell's warm, rootsy tendencies with Smith's more fiery fare (multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston wrote one song as well).

Russell was a fan of Campbell's work from Helm's Grammy-winning albums "Dirt Farmer" and "Electric Dirt," but getting the producer seemed like a long shot. The Gourds' manager, Joe Priesnitz, had less-than-encouraging news after he called Campbell: "Well, Larry's never heard of you, but he's going to ask around."

"I guess Larry ran a rock 'n' roll background check," Russell says, "I don't know who he talked to, but whoever it was told him that we're a band he should be working with."

He was drawn to the Gourds' eclectic sensibility, Campbell says. "It was different from anything I've ever heard," he says. "I heard elements of country music, folk music, rock 'n' roll, punk music, those raw elements in what they were doing, and combining stuff like that has always been attractive to me."

He agreed to produce the album at Helm's studio, where he also works as the musical director for Helm's weekly Midnight Ramble concert series, an intimate studio performance that features special guests (Hayes Carll sat in with Helm's band earlier this year). But his services and the studio were available for only a small window after South by Southwest in March. A queue of musicians, including Hot Tuna and Mavis Staples, were already lined up to work there. Early spring is prime touring time for the Gourds, and recording meant putting a string of tour dates on hold.

"That's like our Christmas," Russell says. "It was painful because that's the last thing we want to do is cancel a gig."

The pain paid off. Past attempts at producing on their own required different band members to take on a more authoritative role, which didn't always exactly boost band morale. Russell and Smith went through and got over a few noncommunicative periods over the band's nearly 20-year history, but even on good terms, producing an album with the "fraternity of curmudgeons," as Russell has referred to the band, could be a stressful experience.

"We have so much between us, when we make a record it's like every man for himself," Russell says. At Helm's studio, a three-story, wooden barn attached to his house, they were free to focus on being a band.

"Recording on our own, it's tricky because we still look like ourselves when we step into those dictator shoes, but it was nice to not have to do that," Russell says. "We could just relax, play and be part of the band, and it came through in the performances."

The once-hesitant Smith was won over, too. "I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know Larry that well, but once we got over that hump of first-day jitters and found out what a wizard that Larry Campbell and (engineer) Justin Guip were, it became one of the best creative experiences that any of us had been a part of," Smith says.

Because of the time constraints, the recording sessions lasted for hours at a time, much of which was spent with the band sitting in silence in the large studio as Campbell picked apart the music.

"Larry would sit there and squint, and then wave his arms, sort of like a preacher, and then he would look at the ground, touch his head and then point at someone, and say 'Do this!'" Russell says. "He was really actively directing us."

Campbell says that band was exceptional when it came to working in the studio. "On a musical level it was a joy, because they were very willing to let me in, to make suggestions," Campbell says. "They trusted the fact that I sort of understood the essence of who they were, and that I was just trying to represent that as well as we all wanted."

On a nonmusical level, the trip ended up bringing the band closer than they had been in some time.

A rented house in Woodstock served as a communal living space for the duration of their stay. Sound engineer Mark Creaney cooked for the group, and each night for two weeks, the band gathered around the dinner table and discussed the day's work.

"The camaraderie and morale was pretty high," Smith says. "It was really just a positive vibe going on throughout the whole process."

The result is an album devoid of any throwaway moments, a record of of different voices in conversation with one another. Russell's emotional loss-of -innocence ballad "Two Sparrows" sets a mournful tone, while Smith's "Drop What I'm Doing" has a barroom swagger, a howling snark bolstered by classic rock guitar.

Smith's output, Russell says, is some of his best yet. "He wrote some really incredible stuff. His delivery, his phrasing, I feel like Jimmy has really taken it to another level," he says.

Both Russell and Smith say they would repeat the experience without question, but the experiment also seems to have succeeded in its original intent of injecting some energy into something that was starting to feel stale.

"We learned so much from him that on the next outing, even if we don't have a producer, we could walk away from it high-fiving each other," Smith says.

pmongillo@statesman.com

CD release
The Gourds will celebrate the release of ‘Old Mad Joy.'
When: 9 p.m. Friday, with opener Patrick Sweany
Where: Threadgill's South, 301 W. Riverside Drive
Cost: $15

Copyright © Sat Sep 17 10:39:45 EDT 2011 All rights reserved.