{"id":8322,"date":"2014-01-15T16:41:32","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T16:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=8322"},"modified":"2014-01-15T16:41:32","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T16:41:32","slug":"hillbilly-highway-fred-eaglesmith-charting-his-own-course-taking-no-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2014\/01\/15\/hillbilly-highway-fred-eaglesmith-charting-his-own-course-taking-no-prisoners\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillbilly Highway – Fred Eaglesmith, charting his own course & taking no prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fred20133\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Sheldon Birnie<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prolific. Tireless. Uncompromising. Cantankerous. These and many more words could, and have, been used to describe Fred Eaglesmith, one of Canada’s finest songwriters and bluntly honest performing musicians alive today. For over thirty years now, Eaglesmith has been charting his own course in the Music Business. Fiercely independent and uncompromising in his artistic and commercial vision, Eaglesmith’s name is revered by songwriters and folk music fans, and simultaneously “cussed” by many in the Business. From his genre defining albums\u00a0<\/em>Things is Changing, Drive-In Movies,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Lipstick, Lies, & Gasoline to experiments in style like\u00a0<\/em>Dusty, Tinderbox, and\u00a0<\/em>Cha Cha Cha,\u00a0Eaglesmith’s writing is always finely honed, throwing a light on the heartaches that fester behind small town diner counters, in dark corners of collapsing barns, and on the backroads, freeways, and Interstates of North America.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s no secret that Eaglesmith is held in high regard<\/a> here on Hillbilly Highway, not just by myself, but among many of the artists I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with on my own travels. From Todd Snider to Andrew Neville, Hayes Carll to the Reverend Rambler, Eaglesmith’s reputation as an artist is held in the highest esteem. And now, as he prepares yet another tour, in a cycle of seemingly endless touring, to promote his latest album,\u00a0<\/em>Tambourine,\u00a0Fred took some time out to speak with us here at\u00a0<\/em>Stylus about charting his own course in the Business. He takes no prisoners. While we\u00a0<\/em>in Winnipeg\u00a0<\/em>might have to wait a while yet before his next appearance, he provides us here, and on\u00a0<\/em>Tambourine\u00a0<\/span>especially, with plenty to chew on and ponder until then.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Stylus: I heard a couple tracks off your new album,\u00a0Tambourine,<\/em> when you played here in Winnipeg last summer. How are folks taking to the new record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fred Eaglesmith:<\/strong>\u00a0The people are good. The record is barely out. We sort of put it out before Christmas, which is not The Business thing to do. But it\u2019s a real nice thing to do for your fans, right. We really liked doing that, which is the first time we\u2019ve done it. Nobody picked it up in the business, but the fans were really into it. And now the reviews are starting to roll in, and people seem to be pretty happy with it. Which is good. You never know, you know?<\/p>\n

Stylus: I\u2019ve noticed that the last few records you\u2019ve put out have had this sort of, I don\u2019t want to say \u201cretro,\u201d but there\u2019s certainly a throwback sound to the production. Is this something that you\u2019ve been doing intentionally, or is it just the product of the way the songs and the band have come together?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong>\u00a0You know, in the past I\u2019ve been pretty current, and sometimes I was ahead of the game, or right on the game. Because the vibe was in the air. But, I was just talking to a friend of mine this morning. I was saying that since 9\/11, it\u2019s like, everybody\u2019s hinting at some kind of vibe, but there really hasn\u2019t been anything in the air. It\u2019s like we\u2019re all confused or something. I\u2019ve sort of just found that place, where I feel like in the 60s, with this album here, I sort of feel like we were on to something there in the 60s. Maybe it got circumvented by The Business. The hippies went home. I think disco really screwed it up in the early 70s, and sorta I think that we weren\u2019t really finished with that. That\u2019s how I feel about it. We weren\u2019t finished with what was available to us there. They were so experimental in those days, compared to now.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Like, willing to more risks?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong> Yeah, well, it\u2019s lucky for me to be here in 2014 and to have an overview of 1966. I have better recording options, better gear. And at the same time, I can tap into that sort of vibe.<\/p>\n

Stylus: How much does playing with the band you have now influence the way you write your records?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE<\/strong>: Oh, always. When I had Willie [P. Bennet] and Ralph [Schipper], I made records for Willie and Ralph. You know, this is the way, this is what Robbie Robertson did with The Band, even though they got pissed off about it later. He wrote for The Band. It\u2019s good to think about the band that\u2019s with you, or the show you\u2019re doing, when you\u2019ve got a band that\u2019s got a vibe. My band, over the last five years, has really got this vibe, which is based around the guitar player, who\u2019s a great guitar player. Even Kori\u2019s style of drumming is unique. You write the stuff, and when you bring it out, they totally get it right away to play it.<\/p>\n

Stylus: As far as songwriting goes, from your perspective, is there anything that\u2019s kind of changed over the years as to how you approach the craft? Like, do you songs come to you? How does that work for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong> When I started out, I was very careful, very careful. I had to watch it, because I didn\u2019t know what I was doing. But now, I\u2019ve been doing it for over 40 years, I think it\u2019s been 45 years now I\u2019ve been writing songs. So, when you\u2019ve written songs that long, you tend to know how to write a song. So what I do a lot of times, now, is I explore. On this album, there [are some songs] that are sort of like jingles. Those are deceptively hard to write. It\u2019s taken me this long to learn how to write those sorts of songs, that sound so simple. In other words, I can write a complicated song very well. I can write one that people understand. But to write a simple song, like the Beatles did, or the Monkees writers, or Elvis\u2019s writers did, that\u2019s hard to do. It takes a lot of experience.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Are there any in particular on Tambourine<\/i> that were difficult for you to write? Any that stand out in that way?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong> There\u2019s \u201cNobody Gets Everything.\u201d<\/a> When I wrote it, I didn\u2019t even like it, I didn\u2019t understand it when I wrote it. And there\u2019s that one, \u201cYou Can\u2019t Dance\u201d and \u201cNobody\u2019s Friend.\u201d Those were written around riffs, which is not what I\u2019ve done too much in the past.<\/p>\n

Stylus: A lot of your older stuff is definitely more rooted in a narrative style than some of the songs here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong> Yeah, and some people will be disappointed when I don\u2019t write those narrative songs. But that\u2019s okay with me. I always notice that their heads are bobbing when they hear the new stuff.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Do you remember the first song that you ever wrote?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong> Sort of. The first song I ever wrote, I was 11 or 12 years old. It was like \u201cI love you, I love you, I love you,\u201d right? I saw Elvis on television with all these girls around him, and I was like, \u201cI\u2019m gonna do that!\u201d I didn\u2019t realize he didn\u2019t write his own songs! So I started to write songs that night, and I\u2019ve never quit. But they were just little baby songs. The first song that I wrote that anyone ever took any notice of, I wrote a song about my parents sitting on the back porch, and a neighbour kid had drowned. Like that sort of narrative thing that eventually became my style. And I was about 14 or 15.<\/p>\n

\"Fred<\/a><\/p>\n

Stylus: Taking a look at your tour dates, I see you guys are on a Blues Cruise here. What\u2019s up with that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong> I\u2019m always on the Blues Cruise. My friend Delbert McClinton has this Blues Cruise, it\u2019s sort of like we play three times on a seven day cruise, the band gets time off and a little chocolate on their pillow. It\u2019s like a holiday in the sunshine for us, but we have to play a few shows. So it\u2019s a bit of a break.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Oh cool. I was curious about some of these things, like the Highway 66 tour you did last year, those sorts of things. It seems you always have some different way, some innovative way of engaging with your fans. Is that something you\u2019re pushing for, or how do those come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong> You know, I just keep trying to stay out of the Music Business. By doing that, I have to go around these sort of pretend promoters. There\u2019s such a thing going on these days, the Folk Alliance, Americana, these conferences, you know? These sort of, these guys who form these tours for musicians, but take their merch money. I\u2019m really down on that, it really pisses me off. These school teachers and doctors and lawyers, pot-smoking hippies who\u2019ve decided they\u2019re music promoters. What I do is try to get as far away from that as I can. So what I do is arrange trips. One year we went from Winnipeg to Churchill, which is one of the best trips anyone ever had in their lives. In fact, two or three people quit drinking after that, because they said it was never gonna be better than that! [laughter] And, you know, we\u2019ve done these wild trips, like last year\u2019s Route 66 trip was just amazing. Route 66 is really decimated, there\u2019s nothing going on. That was kind of the theme of the trip. We were playing Elks Lodges on Route 66, in abandoned restaurants and stuff like that. It was so great, so far away from that organized thing.<\/p>\n

Stylus: I\u2019ve noticed you play a lot in southern Ontario, as well as remote northern Ontario towns, playing the Legions and stuff like that. Is that part of the same thing? Or is it just about getting to the audience, wherever that may be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong> I was about 18 or 19 years old and I saw David Wiffen. Are you familiar with David Wiffen?<\/p>\n

Stylus: No, I don\u2019t think so\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong> Ok, he\u2019s an old songwriter from Canada, and one of the best. He only made a couple albums, but they\u2019re fantastic. He wrote that famous song, \u201cI feel like an old engine, that\u2019s lost my driving wheel.\u201d<\/a> He wrote that song, and another one, \u201cWould you believe this happens more often than not?\u201d<\/a> You\u2019ve probably heard his songs. Anyway, he had some stability issues, maybe bipolar or something. And he drank. Willie P, he used to be in my band, he used to drink. It used to be what they did. People would say, \u201cWell, they\u2019re poets. They have a right to do this.\u201d So I saw him one time, I saw Wiffen on stage, and the promoter was standing right beside me. Wiffen was drunk, fall down drunk, but he was still brilliant! And I heard the promoter say, \u201cHe\u2019ll never work in this town again.\u201d He probably never did. The promoter was a failed minister. I remember being just a kid, but thinking, \u201cHow did you get any power?\u201d You know? And now they have all<\/i> the power, those guys. They don\u2019t have it with me, but consequently the Globe & Mail<\/em>\u00a0 said last year that I was one of the most cussed musicians in Canada.<\/a> I\u2019m not by the fans, but I am cussed by The Business. And I\u2019m happy to be cussed by those guys. I\u2019m happy to be cussed by those guys who are working off government grants. To me, this is the wreck of rock n roll, this sort of prop up thing. Consequently, it\u2019s allowed a lot of musicians to be in The Business who shouldn\u2019t be. And a lot of promoters who have no business being in the Music Business.<\/p>\n

Stylus: The last few times you were in Winnipeg, one thing you\u2019ve mentioned that I find really interesting is you\u2019re always kind of poking fun at the big, corporate festivals — the Winnpeg Folk Fest and the Dauphin Countryfest. You don\u2019t really play those festivals anymore\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

FB:<\/strong> Those guys tend to insult me. They want to kind of \u201csunset\u201d me as an Old Guy. I mean, I am an old guy. I\u2019m 57 years old this year. But I\u2019m not living like an Old Guy. I have some pretty good markers in there, I have some friends who will tell me if I start to get bad. If I can\u2019t put on a show, I think I\u2019ll be able to tell if that happens. But these [festivals], they want to sunset me because I\u2019ve pissed them off so many times. I\u2019ve always said the wrong thing. I\u2019ve always done the wrong thing.\u00a0 I remember being at the Winnipeg Folk Festival years and years ago, getting a standing ovation at every workshop we played. I was young and new and nobody had ever heard of me. Guys told me, \u201cYou\u2019ve just fallen into this festival, and we\u2019ll never forget you.\u201d It was like that, and that\u2019s what they tend to do. I don\u2019t mind. But my poor peers in this business who are struggling, they just abuse them. I don\u2019t know how they have the power. Who gave them the power? My word to them, and I say this all the time: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you go fuck yourself. You have no business being in my world. I\u2019m an artist. I was born an artist. I felt the calling when I was 11 years old. Who are you?\u201d You know?<\/p>\n

Stylus: Your attitude, your style, is very DIY. Your bus runs on grease, you put out your own records. How important is that attitude, for an emerging artist, to take control of what they\u2019re doing in every aspect? Is that an approach you would recommend?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong> In my opinion, it\u2019s the only hope they have. The douchebags used to be record companies. And now, believe it or not, the record companies aren\u2019t that bad. You can actually deal with them to a certain degree. The douchebags, again, are the guys in between. The ones holding all these house concerts. Rock n roll has no business in people\u2019s living rooms. When I say \u201crock n roll,\u201d I mean \u201cpop culture.\u201d It has no business in people\u2019s living rooms. It\u2019s supposed to be in a club. It\u2019s supposed to be where you can get a beer and dance a little bit. But this thing, they have watered it down so bad that now they\u2019re playing in people\u2019s houses. This is what they\u2019ve done to it. The only way you can get around them is to do everything yourself, and it\u2019s a hard road. It\u2019s a hard road. Now you\u2019re driving through Brandon, Manitoba and you can\u2019t get a gig because you\u2019ve pissed everybody off. You know? That\u2019s my story! But I can go play in some backwater in Saskatchewan that nobody\u2019s ever heard of, and I can draw 150 people, and I can do it year after year and have no problem. But I\u2019m not going to get to play the big hall in Winnipeg, because they won\u2019t return my calls. You know? That\u2019s what you live with. And what does that cost? It\u2019s cost me millions of dollars. Literally, it\u2019s cost me millions of dollars, this attitude. But, I\u2019m 56 and I have a really vibrant career. We\u2019re too busy, even. Our staff at the offices are too busy. We actually just slowed it down again. We\u2019re all working too hard! And that\u2019s amazing, at my age. That\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Especially if you\u2019re the one making the calls as to what you want to do and what you don\u2019t want to do.<\/strong><\/p>\n

FE:<\/strong> Yeah. You wouldn\u2019t believe what I\u2019ve turned down in my life. You wouldn\u2019t believe! And, conversely, you wouldn\u2019t believe what they\u2019ve tried to do to me [chuckles]. And not only am I really busy, but I\u2019m not bitter. I\u2019m really sort of like, \u201cOk guys, that\u2019s your business, and you\u2019re welcome to it. But that\u2019s not my business.\u201d They, however, are pissed off because I won\u2019t participate. An agent once told me, \u201cIf you would only play the game, we could make so much money.\u201d Money isn\u2019t the thing. The thing is to be 60 years old and not be bitter. I\u2019ve had this great life, this great career. I still have fans, I\u2019m still doing it. That\u2019s what I feel like. Like, \u201cWow. I\u2019m still excited to play a show most nights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sheldon Birnie Prolific. Tireless. Uncompromising. Cantankerous. These and many more words could, and have, been used to describe Fred Eaglesmith, one of Canada’s finest songwriters and bluntly honest performing musicians alive today. For over thirty years now, Eaglesmith has been charting his own course in the Music Business. Fiercely independent and uncompromising in his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[370,432],"class_list":["post-8322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","tag-fred-eaglesmith","tag-hillbilly-highway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}