GB: Young Ani. Well, I'm going to go out and play with her on April 6th at Carnegie Hall. She asked me to come open that show. It's just gonna be each of us solo.

PM: Is that your first show at Carnegie Hall?

GB: Yeah, first and last, I'm sure. [both laughing] I'm just going because she invited me. I love her so much. I think she's a great role model for some of the stuff we were talking about, about the independent spirit.

PM: Big time.

GB: She's a really intriguing musician. Always trying out new stuff, and she knows her chops. She's a brave writer, and a very compelling singer. And sweet as the day is long.

PM: She is?

GB: Yeah, such a sweet soul.

PM: All those business chops, and she held on to that. I wonder if I can get next to her for the magazine. She's an important artist, people need to hear what she's saying.

GB: I'll bet if you just call Righteous Babe Records and tell them what you're up to, it wouldn't be that hard. Ani's ears perk up when it's something outside the mainstream.

PM: You seem to be more groove oriented than a lot of singer songwriters I've heard. Were you in rock and roll and blues bands growing up?

GB: Yeah, I was. And straight on through, really. In high school, of course, I had rock and roll bands. When I was living around here in my twenties, I had a rhythm and blues band. And there's a lot of good players I know around here, every once in a while we'll get together and do some band gigs. I love to play dance music. I think when music gets too far away from dancing, something ain't right.

PM: So, what are you listening to, and what are you reading?

GB: I've been reading Faulkner again. I just love him.

PM: Which work?

GB: I've been reading Sanctuary. You know, that book's as bleak as four m*********s, but it's truly great. But since my hiatus began, I think I've been taking a break.

PM: Turned off the CD player.

GB: A little bit, yeah. I've been listening a little to my friend Rainer

Ptacek. He's a guy that nobody in the States much knows of. He died about four years ago from a brain tumor. An amazing musician, he recorded for Demon Records in England.

PM: Was he Czech?

GB: He was a Czech by birth, and raised in the States since he was about three. He loved Robert Johnson and all country blues, but that Central European music was also in his blood. I know there are a couple of web sites dedicated to him. He died when he was 46, I think. [several of those sites are listed on the links page of this issue] I listen to his music a lot. I think you can order it right off the Net. At the end of his life, when he was dying, one of the Led Zeppelin guys [Robert Plant] organized a fund raising CD to help with his medical bills. Rainer lived in Tucson and was friends with the guys in Giant Sand, but mostly played in Europe.

PM: Are you having a good time, is your life enjoyable?

GB: Yeah, I am having a good time. [both laughing] You know, I worry about some of the things we've talked about, and I try to keep my shoulder to the wheel, but life's pretty good.

PM: You got a good woman?

GB: Yeah.

PM: That's a big part of the deal.

GB: It is a big part.

PM: You have any special spiritual practice or affiliation?

GB: No, I don't. I grew up Pentecostal, my father was an open bible preacher from southern Missouri.

PM: Oh my.

GB: About as close as I get to religion are those old hymns. Good gospel quartet music will still make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. That's my religion, I would say.

PM: Apart from religion, is there any spiritual angle you pursue?

GB: No, but it's interesting that you mention it. I'm becoming interested in and have decided to pursue Tai Chi. I don't know how spiritual a practice it is, but in terms of centering, I think it will be beneficial.

PM: Sounds like the perfect thing for a hiatus.

GB: People in the country are already going to think I'm crazy when they see the house I'm building. But when they see me doing those Tai Chi moves on the porch, I don't think anybody will bother me at all.

PM: Do you have a whacked house in mind?

GB: It's pretty goofy, yeah. I started off with a single shed roof cabin, finished last summer. This time, I'm adding on a three story tower on the side and an octagonal room in the front, so it's going to be pretty goofy looking.

PM: Are you good at all that stuff, building?

GB: No, but I've got a young friend, Dean, who's very good at it. He's put a good crew together, and I help out some. I've learned a lot just watching him, and I'm trying to drive my nails straight.

PM: Concerning guitar, do you still practice as such, are you still trying to get better on your instrument?

GB: The way guitar works for me these days, I still play a lot, because I love to play. As far as learning goes, one thing I've been doing lately is learning to play other people's songs. That way, you end up doing all kind of moves and chords you wouldn't normally. Also, when I'm writing, I frequently hear something in my head that I have to figure out how to play. I learn like that, too.

PM: Are you much of an altered tuning guy?

GB: I was for a while, particularly in The Poet Game period, just because the songs I was writing seemed to call for it, that was the tonality I wanted to hear. I never had used altered tuning much until that time. On The Poet Game, I used quite a bit of open G and both E's down to D. Lately I've been using a tuning everybody seemed to know except me.

PM: DADGAD.

GB: Yeah. I thought I invented it, then people told me everybody uses it...but I like the drony sound of it, otherwise I stick to standard tuning. Kelley Joe Phelps, hell, I don't know how he tunes his guitar, it's got something to do with C, and Ani's got 12 guitars on stage tuned differently from each other.

PM: I don't know how people keep track.

GB: Me neither. Joni Mitchell, I hear she uses a guitar where she just looks at it right, and it goes into the right tuning, or something.

PM: Oh, that Roland thing, the VG-8. It does it all for you.

GB: That's it.

[We talked here about Rap for a bit, and the groove, and volume.]

GB: You know, Bo told me this beautiful story, When he was a very young man, he went into Chicago. He went to a little club to see Howlin Wolf play. Bo and his buddy were the only white people in the club. Wolf walked over to their table and shook their hand, in a gesture of endorsement, like "these guys are cool." And then Howlin Wolf started playing. Bo said it was the most amazing thing, because the band was just cookin, the place was electric. And yet, you could hear the sound of people's shoes on the dance floor.

PM: It was no louder than that.

GB: No louder than that. And the band was on fire. That, to me, is the story of how real energy is not at all a matter of volume.

PM: You could hear their shoes, that's spooky.

GB: Isn't it?

PM: A friend who's visiting just passed me a note. He's here working on a book about Townes Van Zandt. [Multi-instrumentalist John Kruth, author of a lauded book on Rahsaan Roland Kirk, published by Welcome Rain Press, NYC.] He wants to know if you've got anything to say about Townes. Was he a friend of yours?

GB: You know, I only met Townes once or twice, and just had very brief conversations with him. He seemed like the sweetest soul to me. The first time I met him was at the Strawberry Festival out in CA. Musicians stayed in these little cabins, and there was this restaurant/bar, kind of grocery store place. So I went down there to get a cup of coffee, maybe it was one o'clock in the afternoon. Townes was sitting at the bar, and I walked in and sat down. We introduced ourselves, and chatted a little bit. He said, "I'd like to introduce you to Guy Clark, but he already passed out." But he really did seem like an unusually sweet character.

PM: Do you do anything special to stay in some kind of shape or good health?

GB: Well, you know, not on purpose. I did a lot of work outside the last couple of days, that kind of thing. I love to fish, and do a lot of hiking and fishing. I'm just outdoors a lot, moving around all the time. That seems to counterbalance playing in smoky bars and drinking Jack Daniels.

PM: Kind of a corny question, but I like to ask it: what unrealized goals lay ahead?

GB: I'd like to be involved with an independent film of some kind. I don't know if I want to write the script and the music, or what. But that's something in the back of my mind that I've always wanted to do, is try and do a little film.

PM: It sure was nice talking with you.

GB: Yeah, you too. You should call up Bo sometime, that guy's got some good stories. [He gives me his number.]

PM: Thanks a lot, Greg, see you around campus.

GB: You bet, thanks.

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