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FolkWax Sittin' In With
SHAWN MULLINS
Bob Gersztyn, senior contributing editor - FolkWax
Shawn Mullins' performance at Portland, Ore.'s Aladdin Theater was in
support of his new release Honeydew. The album paints pictures, through
storytelling, in accordance with the Folk tradition. Mullins'
performance mirrored that tradition in every way, from his Woody
Guthrie-esque appearance to his solo acoustic delivery. The
self-produced album was recorded at drummer Gary Hansen's home that
doubles as Creekside Station, a recording studio. Other artists featured
on the album are Patrick Blanchard, Kasey Chambers, Kip Conner, Clay
Cook, Gary Hansen, Marty Kearns, Peter Stroud and Francine Reed.
After a successful week at South x Southwest in Austin, Texas, Mullins
was primed for the sold-out venue's enthusiastic audience. Loni Rose, a
local singer-songwriter, opened the show with her powerful ballads.
Mullins came out a few minutes after 9 p.m. and opened the show by
singing: "I met him on the cliffs of Twin Rocks, Oregon." When someone
in the crowd shouted that there was no such place as Twin Rocks, Ore.,
Mullin's told them, "I know."
He performed a number of songs off Honeydew along some familiar Top 40
hits like "Lullaby" (off his 1998 platinum album Soul's Core), "Shimmer"
and "Beautiful Wreck." The covers that he performed were as meticulously
executed as his own compositions. From "Sunday Morning Coming Down" by
Kris Kristoferson to the traditional Folk ballad "House of the Rising
Sun," Mullins made them his own. In between performances, Bob Gersztyn,
FolkWax sr. contributing editor, sat down at his computer and conducted
this email interview with Mullins about his new album and life in
general. Additional information about Shawn Mullins and his music can be
found at <www.shawnmullins.com>.
Bob Gersztyn for FolkWax: What was your early life like?
Shawn Mullins: My mom was always singing, but not professionally. Her
dad, my grandfather, was a huge influence on me, not only as a person,
but also as a musician. He was a bass man, upright, electric, and horns.
Pappy was an amazing man and thanks to him I wasn't a completely
hopeless kid. I was a poor student and didn't test well; his musical
influence got me through. He bought me my first set of drums at ten and
my brother showed me some guitar chords around age eleven.
FW: How did you get involved with the army and how did you like it?
SM: My experience in the army started in 1987 as an ROTC cadet in the
reserves. Most of my time was spent training: officer basic and
airborne. I never had to experience true combat, but a lot of my friends
did. I just couldn't wait to get out and try my hand as a musician.
FW: Have you ever read From Here To Eternity by James Jones? It looks at
life in the army from a Woody Guthrie point of view in 1941. The main
character escaped from a Kentucky mining town, paralleling "Leaving All
Your Troubles Behind." Is the song autobiographical?
SM: Yes, love the book! "Leaving All Your Troubles" is a character just
like that one, a teenage girl in this case. Joining the military is an
out for young people in some small towns across America. This song isn't
so much autobiographical, but more of an observation of what has changed
and what hasn't.
FW: Methamphetamines are a plague today, which you touch on in "Leaving
All Your Troubles Behind." One day back in 1970, while I was on an LSD
trip, I concluded that if I continued using speed to get through college
I'd be dead by graduation, so I quit school, until I got my life
together. Then I went back and finished. Maybe we need more LSD
self-therapy. What do you think and why?
SM: I don't know. I have never taken LSD. I had occasionally eaten
mushrooms and smoked weed in my younger days. My guess is that anything
that I wrote or recorded could have been done the same without.
FW: Country Joe McDonald told me the same thing. What part has religion
or spirituality played in your life?
SM: I'm not a religious person, but I do approach songwriting from a
spiritual place. I feel like "God" is music and art and everything else.
FW: Melissa Hadley, a woman who died from ovarian cancer in your song
"Home" was sucker punched in the prime of her life. How do you
personally deal with situations like this?
SM: I don't know anything that helps us through losing a family member
or a friend. I guess that I write and sing songs to help me deal with it
a little. This album was born out of losing my mom to cancer; music
helps, but there is no real cure for that kind of loss.
FW: What does your 93-year-old grandmother think of your success as a
recording star and the state of the world in the 21st century?
SM: She's pretty proud of all her grand children; we all have done
things that have impressed her in different ways. She watches the news a
lot and we try to tell her that it's mostly negative output. She's
sometimes attracted to bad news and when you live alone the television
is your only company.
FW: How much time did you spend in L.A. and what did you think of it? I
lived there for eleven years.
SM: I have never lived there. I started playing shows out that way
sometime around 1994. I think that it's a crazy place. I have a
love/hate relationship with that area. There are some real people out
there, but there is so much bullshit out there. I am just over the whole
fake pretence that some people seem to possess.
FW: Why did you decide to do an album about the South?
SM: Most of my projects are set in one geographical area, like a play. I
guess it was time to write about the South.
FW: What kind of lineup will you have with you on tour?
SM: I typically play solo; it's a matter of finance. I can't make any
money on the road with a full band, plus I really enjoy playing by myself.
FW: What are some of your favorite cities to play in and why?
SM: Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Boulder. I
think that some places get what I do more than others. Blue-collar
cities seem to get my music
FW: Who are some of your favorite Gospel artists and why?
SM: Mavis Staples, Doc Watson, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and Elvis, these
artists just didn't do Gospel, but when they did it sounded natural.
FW: The hippie counterculture revolution of the 1960s and the Summer of
Love took place over 40 years ago, what impact do you think that it has
today, in the 21st century?
SM: Well, I think that it broadened our thinking, but there are still a
lot of people that are resisting change. That's why I love Kristofferson
and Steve Earle, the older they get the more political they get. Most
folks start closing the doors to the face of change as they get older.
Those guys are still, even more so now, in the counterculture.
FW: What potential does music have for uniting humanity?
SM: The best music does exactly that; like Lennon's "Imagine." I think
that the very best songwriters do that. They make us think and once we
have listened we can take the ideas to the rest of the world.
FW: The song "Fraction of a Man" speaks about following your bliss. How
can a middle-aged man, with a wife and kids, with a job that he hates
but needs to survive, follow his bliss?
SM: I guess it depends on the individual, but I meet people all the time
that are taking the leap. Sometimes you have to keep your crappy job and
find your bliss elsewhere. I like to think that you can find bliss in
your family.
FW: What was your favorite story out of Dylan's Chronicles? I liked the
motorcycle ride on the Louisiana Bayou and the backroom scenes in the
Village.
SM: I loved the backroom scenes too, all of the beat poets, songwriters
and beat poets. Guys like Fred Neal and Van Ronk. I also loved how he
lied his way through the Columbia Records publicists interview with
things like how he got to New York. His answer was by freight train and
couldn't have been farther from the truth, priceless.
FW: Have you ever moved from your hometown? Why did you do it, to grow
as a musician or to escape?
SM: I've never really moved away from Atlanta, except for my college
years, one hour north. I grew as a musician and songwriter by traveling
and studying those that I love. Life experience is the key to good art.
FW: Who were some of your early musical influences?
SM: Pappy was my first influence, but later Kristofferson, Harry Chapin,
Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Prince, Otis Redding.
FW: Who are some your favorite musical artists that you listen to today?
SM: James McMurtry, Buddy Miller, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, John
Hiatt, Kristofferson, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch & David
Rollings, Levon Helm, Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler, Staxx Records, and
Motown from the '60s and '70s.
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Bob Gersztyn is a senior contributing editor at FolkWax. You may contact
Bob at folkwax@visnat.com
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