By Barry Gilbert

Michael “Supe” Granda, St. Louis native and bassist for the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, has added a new series of gigs to his parallel solo career: “Supe’s On: An Evening of Songs, Stories & Serious Silliness.” The show, which debuts this weekend in St. Louis, features Supe singing songs from his Daredevils and solo catalogues, and telling stories drawn from his book on the band.

We had a very enjoyable chat last week, and my story from that interview appears in this week’s Go! magazine in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Also, here are some links to some earlier Supe/Daredevils stories

–A review of Supe Granda’s bandography, “It Shined: The Saga of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils”

– A review of the Daredevils’ CD “Rhythm and Joy: The 1980 Reunion Concert”

– A story from 2004, “Old stunts are new again”

– A story from 2009, “Band keeps on strummin’ ”

For fans of the Daredevils, Supe and the Sandwiches, Supe de Jour and the Garbonzos, here’s the interview Q&A, edited a bit for length and clarity.

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BG: I see by your area code that you’re still down in Nashville.

Supe: I’ve been in Nashville 19 years. Almost as long as I lived in Springfield. I love it down here. I got access to the greatest musicians in the world. For a musician and writer, it’s like being a kid in a candy store.

BG: Are you doing any side work? Any session work?

Supe: Yeah. I do a lot of it. Of course, I do my own, I’m still doing Supe and the Sandwiches records. Lately I’ve been working with Burrito Deluxe, which is a derivative of the Flying Burrito Brothers. Plus, I get hired to do these odd gigs. They’ll call me and say, ‘What you doing next Tuesday?’ and they’ll bring a person in from out of town, a songwriter who just wants to make a record with some Nashville cats. And I’ll get introduced to the guy and we’ll just write charts to his songs and play songs. Everybody here is so good, we can get an album done in a couple of days. So I do a lot of work.

BG: Are you in Nashville, or in East Nashville with Todd Snider and that crowd?

Supe: No but I’m close (laughs). I know all those guys.

BG: So now you’re embarking on this whole new thing — Garrison Keillor of the Ozarks!

Supe: (Laughs) Well, it’s so cool, man, I’m having such a good time. It started about a year ago when I put the book out ["Let It Shine: The Saga of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils"], and I started doing these book signings. And I started getting introduced to people in the literary world. I started to bring my guitar along and, right where there’s a lull in the action, I get my guitar out and just start playing it. Just start playing my songs, and all of a sudden a crowd gathers, and I said, “Hey, wait a minute.”

So then I play some songs, and then I would read one of the stories from the book, and people came to really enjoy it. So I said, “Wait a minute, let me think about this, maybe I can turn this into an entity.” So I did it a couple times, and it went over like gangbusters.

So I started getting invited to these folk festivals and these acoustic series, where it’s just me and my guitar, and halfway through the show I pick up the book and read a couple of passages and went, “Wow!”

It only took me 60 years to figure out that I didn’t have to carry a bunch of equipment around and the drummer and all his drums and my big-ass basic amp. So I’ve been doing this lately, I just walk in with my acoustic guitar and sing silly songs. And people laugh and they dance, and at the end of the night I don’t have to haul a bunch of equipment in the rain.

BG: What do you classify as silly songs?

Supe: The songs I write. You know, I’ve got my songs covered on the Dr. Demento show, so that’s where my songs have ended up. I don’t think Toby Keith is going to be cutting any of my songs — or Taylor Swift (laughs).

BG: Well, thank God for that! Well, maybe you don’t think that way — that would be a good payday.

Supe: Well, that would be a great payday. But did you watch that show the other night [country music awards]? 0hhhhh, good Lord…

BG: I saw a list of the nominees and decided I would do something else.

Supe: Yeah, it was just … terrible. But thankfully, I don’t have to depend on [contemporary, establishment Nashville and radio] to make my living.

There’s a whole strata of artists down here, like Todd Snider and Tom Mason and Peter Cooper and those kind of guys. We make our living. We don’t have to rely on getting a Brad Paisley or a Brooks and Dunn [to cut one of our songs] to pay my rent. I pay my rent with what I do. Thank God.

BG: Did you think it would come to this? Traveling with the Daredevils and, all these years later, you’re doing a Hal Holbrook thing or maybe it’s the Ray Davies thing? [References are to Holbrook's famous "Mark Twain Tonight" and Ray (the Kinks) Davies' "Storyteller" one-man shows.]

Supe: Did I think it would come to this? No, I didn’t. But I didn’t think it would come to me living in Nashville, either. I’ve gotten to the point that whatever happens won’t surprise me. What happens tomorrow, no matter how crazy or harebrained it may sound, it won’t surprise me. [But]this little project ["Supe's On!"] has pleasantly surprised me.

BG: This show at the Ivory Theatre will be the first formal one, other than the book tour. What does the Ivory hold?

Supe: It’s only a couple of hundred people.

BG: Well that’s nice and intimate.

Supe: Yeah. If I get 100 people, it looks great. I get 100 people on the Fox, it looks horrible (laughs).

BG: So why did you pick the Ivory?

Supe: I don’t know. I heard about the theater and in talking with [St. Louis writer Terry Perkins] and asked him about it. He said it’s a cool little place. And I told him about what what I was doing, and he said it would be perfect for what I’m trying to do. Then I went and met with the people, and they were very, very cool, they were very very open to my ideas. We sat down one afternoon and talked about it, boom there you have it.

BG: What will you be doing at the show? I assume a few Dardevils songs.

Supe: Yeah, a small handful. I would say two or three, and then the show basically will be my catalog along with the stories I’ve written.

BG: Any chicken clucking likely to break out? [A reference to his work on the Daredevils' "Chicken Train Stomp"]

Supe: I’ve been known to (laughs).

BG: What’s the status of the Daredevils at this point?

Supe: We’re still playing. It seems that with the Daredevils, we always seem … we won’t go away. But we do take large chunks of time off, and I’m talking six months to a year. But this year we kind of put together yet another incarnation and, in 2010, we look to get out and play some more.

I’ll be bringing this site up to date as quickly as possible, and trying to solve any technical glitches. The design might change, as well.

Look for a new story later this week, and a Q&A interview with Michael “Supe” Granda of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

David Egan
“You Don’t Know Your Mind”
Out of the Past/Rhonda Sue Records
**** (out of five)

By Barry Gilbert

Pianist David Egan, who stepped out of the songwriter/sidemen shadows four years ago at the age of 54, is back with his sophomore release, a tasty stew of New Orleans sounds called “You Don’t Know Your Mind.”

Egan conjures up the likes of Doctor John, Professor Longhair and Huey “Piano” Smith over 11 tracks of blues, R&B, rock and roll, zydeco and even some cool 1 a.m. lounge music. He is once again aided by producer/guitarist Joe McMahan, a St. Louis favorite after visits with, among others, Kevin Gordon, who also gives Egan a hand.

Standout tracks include the sultry “If It Is What It Is (It’s Love)” with Jennifer Nicely; “Proud Dog,” in which Egan writes a manifesto for survivors (“well the cat gets nine and you only got one/so you better just have a little doggone fun”); and the funny and touching “Small Fry,” in which Egan sings a love song to his “darling son” — and “blue-eyed beast.”

Egan paid his dues, writing for Joe Cocker and Percy Sledge, and playing in bands such as Lil’ Band o’ Gold with Cajun guitarist C.C. Adcock. Now it’s Egan’s time, and he’s making the most of it.

The following post is an unedited version of my report for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which ran in a shorter form on Monday, June 9, 2008.

June 15, 2008

By Barry Gilbert

The Waco Brothers, an irreverent band of post-punk, country-leaning Brits from Chicago, and Ha Ha Tonka, young tradition-minded rockers from the Ozarks, closed out the four-night Twangfest 12 in style Saturday [June 7, 2008] at Off Broadway.

St. Louis’ not-for-profit, roots music festival came full circle with the Wacos, who inaugurated the series at Off Broadway in 1997.

– Review of Day 1: Chuck Prophet, Centro-Matic, the Butchers and the Builders
– Review of Day 2: The Gourds, the Dynamites featuring Charles Walker, the Deadstring Brothers
– Review of Day 3: The Old 97’s, Hayes Carll, Miles of Wire, I Love Math
– Review of Day 4: The Waco Brothers, Ha Ha Tonka, the everybodyfields, Caleb Travers

Clad in a variety of black Western shirts, the Wacos played for an hour and 45 minutes and tore through 20 songs, a set list that would have been longer if not for the Wacos’ nonstop onstage banter that ranged from British sexual practices to U.S. politics, with numerous checkpoints in between.

Jon Langford, a graduate of the roots-punk Mekons and a mainstay of Chicago’s country music movement since he settled there 16 years ago, led the Wacos through punk-fueled songs about President George W. Bush (“Cowboy in Flames”), Hiroshima and history (“Hell’s Roof”) the “Death of Country Music,” and the blue-collar ethic (“Plenty Tough Union Made”).

Ha Ha Tonka’s 45-minute set was remarkable in its range. Front man Brian Roberts, bassist Lucas Long, keyboardist-guitarist Brett Anderson and drummer Lennon Bone played loud, and they played tough. But they were equally adept at playing soft and with nuance – plus, they can all sing.

The big Off Broadway crowd exploded after they stepped up for an a capella version of the traditional folk ballad “Hangman,” their solid four-part harmonies filling the bar.

Opening was the Everybodyfields from Johnson City, Tenn., and St. Louis Country singer Caleb Travers.

Twangfest 12 also scored earlier in the week with its other headliners:

Chuck Prophet, Wednesday at the Tap Room: The San Francisco singer-songwriter and his Mission Express played a solid set of soul-tinged rock and power pop. His interplay with second guitarist James Deprato was a highlight of the set.

The Gourds and the Dynamites, Thursday at Blueberry Hill: Veteran soul singer Charles Walker, backed by Nashville’s Dynamites, took Twangfest off the front porch and uptown for an exciting set of funk, blues and soul. Texas’ Gourds closed the night with a laid-back stew of folk, country and Cajun rhythms.

The Old 97’s, Friday at the Pageant: This was the big show of the week, and the Dallas rockers delivered an electric two-hour set featuring the inexhaustible charm of front man Rhett Miller. Houston country singer Hayes Carll gave the festival a much-needed injection of twang in his supporting role.

Elsewhere in the Twangfest notebook:

Missing in action: The women. As the festival has broadened its definition of twang, the ranks of female artists has dwindled. Last year’s lineup included Elizabeth Cook, Carrie Rodriguez, and strong front women in Blue Mountain, Dolly Varden and Wussy. This year: only Masha Marjieh of the Deadstring Brothers and Jill Andrews of the Everybodyfields, plus sax player Hope Clayburn of the Dynamites. What’s up with that?

Missing in action, part 2: Traditional country music and bluegrass. From a majority of country acts, this year’s festival boasted only Carll and Travers, the Everybodyfields, perhaps the Gourds, and the Builders and the Butchers. The closest Twangfest 12 came to traditional country was George Jones piped over the PA before the Old 97’s set at the Pageant.

Diversity: Charles Walker. Say it again: Charles Walker. The veteran soul man thrilled Thursday at the Duck Room, providing a solid link to the blues side of roots music. If Twangfest is to continue to be a big tent, it needs more of the vital contributions made by African-Americans to American music.

Around the dial: It was said many times from the stage, but most if not all of this year’s performers can be heard on St. Louis radio in only one place: KDHX (88.1 FM). The not-for-profit, volunteer Twangfest is sponsored by that treasure of a station, and all proceeds after paying for the musicians go to keeping it on the air.

See photos from the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Marty Stuart’s “Sparkle & Twang: An American Musical Odyssey”
By Barry Gilbert

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Sept. 1, 2007) – “May the bird of paradise fly up your nose.”And welcome to the Grand Ole Opry, theme-park version. Little Jimmy Dickens was the host for the first segment of Saturday’s late show at Opryland USA, and his crossover novelty hit from 1966 set the tone for the night.

What was the tone? Kind of laid-back. Folks laughed politely at the moldy, cornpone jokes, and Dickens seemed to get a bigger hand for being 86 years old than for anything else.

Loudest cheers of the night went to the exciting gospel quartet Legacy 5 — No. 5 plays the piano — but they cheated, bringing in a busload of fans.

Perhaps I’m feeling ambivalent about this experience because it came only a few hours after I toured the “church of country music” and the Opry’s original home, the Ryman Auditorium. And perhaps no first-time trip to the Opry can meet expectations fueled by years of reading stories and books about it, seeing it on TV and hearing it, ableit rarely, on the radio. Because it is a radio show, broadcast still over WSM in Nashville, complete with live scripted ads for Martha White Flour.

Then there’s this whole Opryland USA thing, this monster created in the middle of nowhere 20 minutes out of downtown Nashville by Gaylord Entertainment, which saved the Ryman from the wrecking ball 20 years ago and rehabbed the old church, but not before moving the show out of downtown.

The Opryland hotel and conference center is a huge, sprawling complex that includes a meandering “river” and fountains and geysers, complete with boat tours. It looks a lot like the Riverwalk in San Antonio, except that the Riverwalk is, like, real and outdoors.The Grand Ole Opry is a 10 minute walk from the conference center, located adjacent to, what else, a mammoth shopping mall called Opry Mills. Yeeeha!Back to the show: Each half-hour segment has a host who is an opry old-timer and country music legend. Saturday’s roster was Dickens and the great Porter Wagoner, whose voices have been touched by time; and Jimmy C. “Diggy Diggy Lo” Newman and Jeannie Seely, who more than held their own.The good news about the Opry is that you get to see a number of acts, in this case 14 over two hours. The bad news is that if an act is one of your favorites, all you get is one or two tunes.

We were excited to see sassy Elizabeth Cook, a hit at Twangfest 11 in St. Louis in June, on the bill, but disappointed that she sang but one song, the touching “Mama’s Prayers.” Oddly, Newman went out of his way to promote her new CD, but neither he nor she mentioned its title, “Balls” — taken from the great track “Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be a Woman.” Some traditional Opry conservatism, perhaps?

Other highlights included Suzy Boggus (Ian Tyson’s “Someday Soon,” a Judy Collins hit back in the ’60s); Eddy Raven, an energetic run through his hits “I Got Mexico” and “Bayou Boys”; young singers Ashley Monroe and Alecia Nugent; and the Whites family band.

Seeing the Grand Ole Opry was fun, but I don’t feel any compelling need to go back. Unless it’s back in time to the ’50s, when fans arrived early at the Ryman, the line streching down Fifth Avenue, wrapping around the block on Broadway and then back up Fourth.

If that happens, I’ll know to pack a hand fan and a picnic lunch.

For the past 10 years, I have worked as a copy editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, writing about music for the Everyday, Get Out and A&E sections: CD and concert reviews, concert previews, artist profiles, and Best Bets and Critic’s Picks. A link to those stories can be found on the Story Library page of this blog, or here.

Future posts will consist of original stories and reviews, as well as stories published by the Post-Dispatch, with links to the newspaper’s website, STLtoday.com.

I’ll also pass on links to other websites, blogs and music-releated places that catch my eye.

What are you listening to?

– Barry Gilbert