Mar 29, 2019
A Conversation With Tim Bluhm
by Kasey Anderson
It would be easy to characterize Tim Bluhm’s new solo album, Sorta Surviving, as a “departure” from the California Soul and jam-band-adjacent aesthetic of Bluhm’s work with Mother Hips, and I suppose that characterization would be accurate enough but, at this point in his career, Bluhm has woven together a wide enough variety of styles, and meandered down a wide enough variety of musical paths, that to try and pinpoint anything as a departure from Bluhm’s “signature sound” is reductive. Sorta Surviving differs from a Mother Hips record in that the band is different, the instrumentation is different, and the presentation is different, but it’s a record that anyone with an appreciation for what Bluhm has done -- and continues to do -- as a frontman and songwriter should be able to sink their teeth into.
Sorta Surviving was recorded at Cash Cabin, the legendary property where Johnny Cash recorded the American Recordings series that re-re-resurrected his career. Bluhm described Cash Cabin as, “more like a living room than a studio; full of Pendleton blankets, old rusty stoves, memorabilia,” while talking to me from his own home studio in Northern California.
“It was sort of coming full circle,” Bluhm said, describing the sessions, noting that Rick Rubin had signed Mother Hips to his label, American Recordings around the same time the first album in Cash’s American Recordings series was released. “I listened to that Cash American Recordings album so much, back then and getting ready to go into the studio for this record.”
For Bluhm, Cash Cabin was appealing beyond its history because it sits secluded in rural Tennessee, removed from the trappings and distractions that tend to worm their way into everyone’s lives, no matter what else is at hand. “I spend a lot of time in recording studios,” Bluhm said, “I watch what people do, see their behavior patterns, and the tendency in all of us is to get distracted by our phones, our responsibilities outside of the studio, all of that stuff. You start thinking about what time you have to go feed the parking meter, what you’re going to have for dinner when you get home, little day-to-day stuff like that and it can impact the vibe in the studio, it can impact the performances and the songs. It was important for me to get away from all of that.”
At Cash Cabin, Bluhm assembled an all-star band including Jesse Aycock (guitar, vocals), Jason Crosby (piano, violin, organ), and Nashville session legends Gene Chrisman (drums) and David Roe (bass), and handed the production reins to Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools. The result is an album that draws heavily on traditional country structures and arrangements and brings to the forefront another hallmark of some of Bluhm’s favorite Classic Country songs: humor.
Perhaps the album’s centerpiece, “Jimmy West and John Dunn the Bully” exemplifies Bluhm’s wry humor as it follows the schoolyard conflict between the two title characters, Jimmy West facing down the hulking Dunn in a battle to defend the honor (and prized belt buckle) of the song’s narrator. Those with political leanings could probably find easy allegory in the David and Goliath tale but Bluhm says the song, like everything on Sorta Surviving, is grounded in one
guiding principle: “forget genre, forget everything else, just tell a good story.”
It’s a simple enough formula, and it works. It’s the stories that will keep you coming back to Sorta Surviving, and to Tim Bluhm, in whatever incarnation he chooses to present himself and his songs next.
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Sorta Surviving is available today on Tim's site, Amazon, etc.
Willie Nelson to Record Duets Album With You
by Trailer - Originally posted on Country California, February 13, 2009
Willie Nelson has announced that his next studio album will be a collection of duets with you. He plans to show up at your house around 6ish this evening to begin work on the project. Singing lessons will be unnecessary as Nelson believes you have an "earthy everyman/woman vibe" that will translate well to his 376th official release.
The songs will include several traditional standards such as "Wayfaring Stranger," a couple tracks by top Nashville songwriters, and a few as-yet-nonexistent cowrites with you. When asked what the album might sound like, Nelson mentioned "an organic and freewheeling set of unpolished but exciting country songs."
You will go on a short full-band tour with the country legend, including stop-offs in Austin and L.A., as well as an acoustic radio tour for release week. There will also be a taped GAC special called "Willie and (your nickname)."
You will join a celebrated throng of artists who have shared recorded media with the well-loved Texan troubadour, including Merle Haggard, Snoop Dogg, Johnny Cash, Julio Iglesias, Ray Charles, Lucinda Williams, that guy from Matchbox 20, Sheryl Crow, Wynton Marsalis, Toby Keith, Ray Price, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Dave Matthews, your aunt Ruthie, Ryan Adams, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, his second bus driver, Mel Tillis, Lacy J. Dalton, Carlos Santana, Asleep at the Wheel, Leon Russell, Dyan Cannon, Elvis, Kenny Chesney, Lee Ann Womack, Kris Kristofferson, Pat Green, B.B. King, Patsy Cline, Kid Rock, Brian McKnight, Bonnie Raitt, ZZ Top, Eric Clapton, his supplier, Norah Jones, Paul Simon, Shania Twain, Wyclef Jean, Diana Krall, Lyle Lovett, Shelby Lynne, some drunk guy he met at a party, John Mellencamp, Steven Tyler and a few hundred others.
After a quick final "session" on his bus, you will resume your normal life, while Willie will return to the studio to begin work on his follow-up album, a collaboration with T-Pain titled Willie n' Pain due out later this year.
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