30 Days Out Exclusive Interview: Jesse Winchester

My first recollection of Jesse Winchester was seeing his picture on the back of a Billboard magazine in the 1970s.  I had not thought about him since until seeing him last month on Spectacle: Elvis Costello with … on Sundance Channel.  My loss.  He brought the house down (and tears to eyes of Neko Case) with “Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding,” a track from his latest release, Love Filling Station.

Winchester was born in Louisiana in 1944 and 22 years later, upon his graduation from college, he received his draft notice.   He decided the Vietnam War was not for him and he split to Canada.  As he explained it to Costello, “he hung around hippies and played coffee houses where you had to write your own songs to fit in.”  In 1970, his music caught the ear of The Band’s Robbie Robertson and he produced Winchester’s critically acclaimed first record.  He went on to release a number of records in the early 70s, and is best known for the tunes “Yankee Lady” and “Brand New Tennessee Waltz.”    When Bob Dylan was asked who he thought, other than himself, was the greatest living songwriter, he said Jesse Winchester.

Songs by Jesse Winchester covered by other artists would fill a good-sized songbook.  “Rhumba Man” was covered by Jimmy Buffett on his new album, and Winchester’s tunes have also been covered by Patti Page, Elvis Costello, Joan Baez, Anne Murray and Reba McEntire.  On Love Filling Station, Jesse reclaims “Oh What A Thrill,” which was a hit for the Mavericks.

Winchester was nice enough to answer a few questions for us about his past, his present and his future:

30DaysOut: Tell us how you got your start in music?  Were you influenced by the Memphis scene and its musicians?

JW: I seem to have been a musician from birth. I was very much influenced by Memphis music – gospel, blues, country. I loved the great radio station, WDIA, and also Dewey Phillips, the best disc jockey ever.

Review: Woodstock 40 Years On – Back To Yasgur’s Farm

We are going to move on from Woodstock, and this is the last stop.  I slapped this on the other day and it pretty much stopped me in my tracks.  More than a few times during the Woodstock 40th anniversary weekend I read where the music itself at the 1969 festival wasn’t that great.  Woodstock 40 Years On – Back To Yasgur’s Farm, a new six-CD set revisiting the music from the great festival, makes a strong case that the music in that moment of time was terrific.  Yeah, I know – this is a bit of overkill in this summer of Woodstock Exploitation and if you have any of the other retrospectives from Woodstock, maybe it is a bit redundant.

But look – and listen- a little closer, and you’ll find cleaner sound and some welcome stuff from the vaults that help disprove the myth of sloppy sets.  The Grateful Dead for years complained that their set was horrible, for example: the version here of “Dark Star” is sublime, and even after 19 minutes it still fades out before its ending.  Joan Baez turns in nice versions of a couple of Gram Parsons tunes, “Hickory Wind” and “Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man”; Creedence Clearwater Revival kicks it with three of their best-known tunes and the mostly acoustic Disc 1 puts a spotlight on the tragically forgotten Bert Sommer, as well as the bottom-billed Sweetwater.

Review: “Yes We Can,” Maria Muldaur

“Give Peace a Chance,” “Bring ‘Em Home,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” and the list goes on and on.  None of them brought an end to war or violence, but they did make the artists a pretty penny.  What is the point of these records?  Do the artists really think they are going to make a difference?  Some probably do … just ask Maria Muldaur.

(More Than) 30 Years Out: Night Of The Hurricane, 1976

 

I hate to advocate drugs or alcohol at a rock concert for everyone, but they’ve always worked for me.  Perhaps one thing more dangerous than paraphrasing the late, great Hunter S. Thompson is getting trashed before you go to a rock concert.

That’s the disclaimer for this concert memory and cautionary tale, going way back to January 1976 when Bob Dylan brought his Rolling Thunder Revue to the Houston Astrodome for “The Night of the Hurricane II.”  I mean: I know I went, I remember some of it, but everything else is a bit hazy.  One thing I’m sure of is that my concert companion that night was beer – a lot of it.