DAVE'S DIARY - 23 SEPTEMBER 2019 - JIM LAUDERDALE FEATURE
JIM LAUDERDALE EXPLORES SECRETS OF THE PYRAMIDS
“The secrets of the pyramids are lost to history/ buried beneath the sands of time beyond memory/ winding through the runes of your heart/ searching for treasures unseen/ behind the walls of your ancient heart lives a mystery/ the secrets of the pyramids/ don't have nothing on you/ I need the answers that you hold, holding in your truth.” - The Secrets Of The Pyramids - Jim Lauderdale-Logan Ledger.
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North Carolina born singer-songwriter-radio and TV host Jim Lauderdale has plenty of music to promote when he headlines the sixth Out On The Weekend festival on Saturday October 12. The Presbyterian minister's son, now 62, joins bluegrass belle Molly Tuttle, Felice Brothers , Pokey LaFarge, Johnny Fritz and Josh Hedley at Seaworks in Williamstown. The vast cast includes Sierra Ferrell, country rock veteran Brian Cadd and New Zealand export Tami Neilson. Dual Grammy winner Lauderdale is touring to showcase his 32nd album From Another World . His new video for Listen and previous single The Secrets Of The Pyramids were directed by Jeremy Dylan - son of our late benefactor Rob Potts. The Secrets Of The Pyramids video depicts Lauderdale poring over texts in a library and capturing the eye of co-star and singer-songwriter Elizabeth Cook. Ledger also has a cameo in the video that was intended as a tribute to Toto's Africa. “Having my co-writer Logan Ledger and the great Elizabeth Cook in the video made this song extra special for me,” Lauderdale revealed. “Jeremy Dylan did a terrific job directing it. Logan and I had written a few songs together over the years and I love his writing and singing. One day when we were going to start writing, he said, ‘I've got this title: The Secrets of the Pyramids , and that knocked me over as one of the best titles I'd ever heard. I said, ‘Please let me write that with you!'” |
Jeremy manages Jim, whose mum was once church organist in Troutman , North Carolina .
Dylan operates CMC Rocks Queensland festivals - featuring Jim - and national tours with Michael Chugg who shared his home state of Tasmania with Rob.
From Another World is Lauderdale's third release since joining Yep Roc Records.
He released Jim Lauderdale And Roland White - bluegrass classics recorded in Earl and Louise Scruggs' Nashville home basement in 1979 when Jim was 19.
Lauderdale also launched Time Flies - a collection of new originals - in 2018.
From Another World reunites Lauderdale with Times Flies producer Jay Weaver and engineer David Leonard, and includes songs written with Buddy Cannon and Melba Montgomery.
LISTEN TO BUDDY CANNON
“You think you know everything/ but you don't know lots of things/ I know because one time I was just like you/ if the words come out before you think/ you don't know of what you speak/ then you come off sounding like a fool/ listen, listen, listen/ try not to talk for a while/ listen, listen, listen/ even though that's really not your style.” - Listen - Buddy Cannon-Jim Lauderdale.
Lauderdale's new album kicks off with riveting original Some Horses Run Free, sibling equine song The Graceland Horses and ends with the laconic levity of Are You Going To Make A Song Out Of Us - one of two songs he penned with Sara Douga.
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“I believe the leftovers from Time Flies are the first song called Some Horses Run Free and then a song towards the end called Slow Turn In The Road ,” Lauderdale revealed. “I really wanted to put those on Time Flies and there just wasn't room - and I wanted to kick off Time Flies with Some Horses Run Free because I just felt like it was a good opener. Time Flies didn't really seem to need them, and so this record, they worked well with these other songs. But the other stuff, I kind of went. A continuation of that sound from Time Flies with Chris Scruggs and Jay Weaver and Dave Racine - and just kind of wanted to progress. And I'm even working on some more stuff in Nashville right now that I feel is even on this trajectory from Time Flies . I feel like there's a sound that I'm coming into that I wanna build on.” |
Jim's music embraces country, bluegrass, soul, R&B and Americana on a journey that includes releasing as many as three records every year since 1998.
He explores empathy, love, forgiveness and humility on the album where people find freedom through togetherness and struggle to change for the better.
“A long time ago, I decided that with each record, I would ignore the categories people tried to put me into and just make the music that was in my heart,” Jim explained.
“This album is about the search for connection, love and understanding between people, about finding empathy in a world where it feels like folks are more and more at loggerheads. When the world outside your window feels too tough to hear I hope you'll step into the world we've created here.”
So what about his latest single Listen penned with Buddy Cannon?
“We are on overload with information and news,” says Lauderdale who shares song themes with Lukas Nelson's fifth album title track Turn Off The News, Build A Garden.
“Everybody does have to be informed, really. That's our duty, to know what's going on. And that's another part of listening. Listen to several sources and then come up with your own conclusions, see what the other person is thinking or saying as well. Because we are in this together. Buddy Cannon, I believe, was the one that started off with, “You think you know everything.” And we changed it from “you don't know anything” to “you don't know lots of things.” It's like “Am I talking about myself here? Am I saying this to myself or saying it to somebody else and going, ‘Look, you don't listen but I understand because I don't either.' So, it could kind of be interpreted both ways. It's the times we're living. Other people we might hear from a lot kind of think they know everything. We've got to listen to each other.”
GRACELAND HORSES
“I think it's time, I think it's now/ don't ask me why, I just know somehow/ there's a star in the sky/ shining bright, tells me I gotta leave the garden/ in my dreams at night I ride/ I am free and side by side/ with the key on the Graceland horses.” - The Graceland Horses - Mark Nevin-Jim Lauderdale-Honey Mooncie.
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Lauderdale has hosted Sirius FM radio and TV shows in Nashville with Buddy Miller since becoming the second most recorded writer for Texan troubadour and rancher George Strait . Strait now 67, recently recorded his 15th Lauderdale tune Two More Wishes for his 30 TH album Honky Tonk Time Machine - his 27th chart topping disc - in April. George markets his own Tequila brand under the name Codigo that was promoted by a video on Nu Country TV on August 17. |
He wrote eight songs on the disc and received Nashville International Songwriter Keystone Award on September 17 at the Ryman Auditorium.
Jim has also written hits for fellow Texans Mark Chesnutt, The Dixie Chicks , the late George Jones and Kentucky coal-miner's daughter Patty Loveless.
Lauderdale's multi-instrumental and vocal prowess also adorned albums by the late Dr. Ralph Stanley, North Mississippi Allstars, Donna the Buffalo , Elvis Costello, and Buddy Miller.
Other collaborations include albums recorded with members of Elvis Presley and Gram Parson's bands - the Dream Players - and six collections co-written with legendary Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.
FOR KEEPS – MELBA MONTGOMERY
“When love's so good, it's bound to stay and hang around/ it's understood it never should let you down/ and when you trust someone that much, it's all you'll ever need/ your heart will let you know when it's for keeps.” - For Keeps - Logan Ledger-Melba Montgomery-Jim Lauderdale.
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Lauderdale's disc features evocative highlights When You Can't Have What Your Heart Wants , penned with Odie Blackmon, I'll Forgive You If You Don't and Ever Loving Day - one of three tunes including the title track - penned with Mando Saenz.
Lauderdale wrote For Keeps with Ledger and legendary country singer Melba Montgomery.
Melba is famed for her classic duets with George Jones like We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds that she wrote.
The melding of minds between three generations of great tunesmiths produced a song that honours the history of country music with a deeply personal core.
“Logan and I are both huge fans of Melba, and I've been lucky enough to write with her over the years,” Jim recalled.
“When we all got together for the first time, the magic just flowed. Melba was talking about her late husband Jack and how when she met him, they had this special thing and she just knew that is was for keeps. When she said that, I instantly knew it was a great hook for a real traditional country love song. I wanted to write a song that we could've pitched to George Jones. I really want to keep that real country sound alive.”
The track is drenched in classic country sounds Lauderdale honoured through his career.
It features harmonies from Third Man Records star Lillie Mae and brother Frank Rische, who played the 2018 Out On The Weekend festival, and pedal steel licks from the great Russ Pahl.
ROLAND WHITE FROM ANOTHER ERA
“Different deck of cards/ a different pair of hearts/ the way you light a room is going off the charts/ from a different place, I see it on your face/ it makes me wanna smile/ are we in outer space?/ You're like people from another world and that's good.” - Like People From Another World - Mando Saenz-Jim Lauderdale.
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Lauderdale believes his title track is a not so cryptic conduit to his supporters.
“For me, it's a gratitude song to people that you have come to your shows, they like your music, or just people that are kind, good people.” Lauderdale revealed.
“It's like, “You're like somebody from another world!” They stand out because of their character. I wrote it with Mando Saenz. We did that and One Away . And then Ever Living Loving Day just spilled out, too. I love writing with Mando. I was very fortunate to have those co-writers. I wanted to kind of fluctuate between writing most of an album myself or co-writing, and this just all fit.”
His other recent album - Jim Lauderdale and Roland White - was cut in 1979 in Earl Scruggs' basement when Lauderdale arrived in Nashville at just 19.
"I wasn't able to get a deal for it at the time with my efforts. Several years later I thought the time was right and called Roland to get the masters," Lauderdale said.
“Roland said, 'I thought you had them.' We couldn't find them anywhere. A few months ago, as Roland was leaving the stage after sitting in with me at the Station Inn , he said, 'I think my wife found our tape at the bottom of a box.'"
The classic bluegrass collection recorded in Earl and Louise Scruggs' Nashville home in the summer of 1979 was lost for nearly four decades.
Lauderdale was new to town when he recorded with Roland.
White was already a true bluegrass legend, known for mastery of mandolin and foundation of iconic groups The Kentucky Colonels and Country Gazette.
On this tour there will be no lost tapes and no end to the evolution of Americana .
“As long as Nashville is here, there's never going to be a shortage of great new stuff coming down the pike,” Lauderdale explained.
“I feel like, at least inside, that I'm like one of those new guys coming along, and I'm still going for my break. And for trying to write that next song that is going to make a difference. And so when I meet somebody that's new - or that's maybe been here doing this, but I hadn't met them before - I really feel like, ‘Hey, we're the same.'”
Lauderdale might also showcase songs from his new bluegrass album.
“I actually have recorded a bluegrass record that I hope to have out at least by March,” Lauderdale revealed.
“I'd prefer it to come out in February. I did that up in North Carolina and had a theme of using North Carolina bluegrass bands and musicians and co-writers like the Steep Canyon Rangers and Town Mountain and Balsam Range , and then just some individual pickers and some lesser-known bands. That's called When Carolina Comes Home Again . Ironically, I made it into a bluegrass song, but it's a tune I wrote with John Oates of Hall & Oates . He grew up in folk music and this song is a minor key thing. It could be like an old folk song but works great for bluegrass. It's like that song that Jimmy Martin and J.D. Crowe and the New South did. I mean, the song is not like it, but one of their big songs was Free Born Man, and that song actually was co-written by Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders , that group that was big back in the '60s. Sometimes even these pop superstars can write a good bluegrass song!
Lauderdale and his band open their tour at the Lansdowne Hotel in Sydney on October 11 before the Out On The Weekend Festival and The Tivoli in Brisbane on October 17.