Joan Shelley - Roots and Leaves of American Folk

You have to believe that being born in the "Bluegrass State," Kentucky, means something in itself, because not everyone today devotes their career to carrying on traditional American folk music. Joan Shelley does it with the ease of someone who's part of it — she grew up where Americana is chewed on, walked over, taken to bed. And she sings with a voice as warm and fragrant as sunlight on wheat.

So, let me talk to you about this new album. I loved your debut, but I think that with “Over And Even” you achieved that timelessness which is probably the key to folk music in general. Do you think something has changed, over these years, in your relationship with music and songwriting, and how?

I just tried to write more, to show more of myself, instead of doing what I've always done, letting the songs come to me while I was busy doing something else. I listened more to the lyricists and artists I admire: Will Oldham, Elephant Micah, Bill Callahan, Dolly Parton, The Weather Station, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell. What they all seemed to share was a sharpness of observation, an intimacy of interpretation. A kind of directness. I tried to be more direct on this record, and to keep things as pared-down as possible, both for the song and for the listener.

This new album came together quickly — as soon as Nathan Salsburg and I recorded the song “Electric Ursa” (the title track of the previous record), we knew we had something good there. I wanted to go straight into another recording session riding that same wave. I'd written a few songs in the spring, after “Electric Ursa” came out, while traveling alone before a tour. I brought them home to Kentucky and Nathan and I worked on the arrangements, then recorded them. The idea was to include only what was necessary, and nothing more.

While Nathan and I produced “Over And Even”, Daniel played a crucial role on this record, he was an incredible engineer. He figured out how to place the right mics for the guitar and my voice, and he was a trusted ear for knowing which take was the right one. He was so generous and patient with me and Nathan, letting us record the album in his living room.

We met during a tour he was doing with Ben Sollee, when they invited my old trio, Maiden Radio, to open for them at a theater in town. We stayed in touch and now Daniel is my neighbor. We've toured together so much and spent so many hours recording together. We know each other so well. He's like a brother.

What's his specific contribution to this record and to your music in general?

Daniel has been a huge help to me, he encouraged me to follow this path, supporting my early efforts, like “Ginko”. He's a champion of traditional music from this part of the world through Maiden Radio. He has a small but mighty label, Ol Kentuck, which he uses to put out stuff he knows is good but that no major label will give a chance to. That's how I was able to release “Ginko” and the Maiden Radio records. He's one of those musical superheroes out there.

Again, this comes down to the idea of directness. The less there was between the songs and the listeners, the better it would be for this record. We built the album starting from the performance of the songs, rather than from the rhythm section like we did for “Electric Ursa”. The skeleton was the songs the way Nathan and I played them live.

All the songs on the record (except “My Only Trouble” – he was in the kitchen when we recorded it without warning) were recorded with the two of us sitting across from each other. There's bleed into every microphone, you can't separate the parts. His guitar, his harmonies, the rhythm, the iridescent tone, it's really a fundamental part of the whole sound. The essence of this record comes from both of us equally.

“Over And Even” also features a collaboration with Will Oldham, a legend of contemporary folk. You're touring with Doug Paisley and Elephant Micah, two more of my favorite contemporary folk artists. From the outside, it seems like today's Americana scene is quite tight-knit, with collaborations and labels springing up freely here and there. Is this also thanks to today's digital connections (funny how important they are in such a traditional genre), or is there a physical place where it all originates?

You're right, it's a funny thing where the digital age meets traditional music. I think we're living through something that will be very interesting to look back on in a while. I feel like there's a special kind of magic in being able to call someone like James Elkington in Chicago to record some tracks in between his tours with Steve Gunn and Jeff Tweedy, or Rachel Grimes to record something on her piano at home, in her own town, and still end up with a record that sounds like it comes from one specific place, to me. I prefer live takes, I love old recording and mic techniques, but, I mean, we have a special tool in our hands with things being digital, so portable. People like Elephant Micah, Will Oldham and Doug Paisley show you how to use that to make a powerful record – on the other hand, it's something dangerously close to irrelevance, precisely because of that same digital technology.

I've never been to a folk show in the United States, but there's certainly a kind of disconnect here between what's supposed to be “popular” music (meaning “for the people”, of course) and the people themselves. Sometimes it seems like a deliberate choice on the artist's part, though certainly not on yours. Is that the situation on your side of the ocean too? What's your relationship with playing live, and are you trying to recover that primal sense of making folk music?

I think I understand what you're saying – pop artists who seem designed to appear non-human, superhuman, or “perfect”, so that the songs and the people come across as affected, or fake, out of our reach. I think there's a thin line that musicians have to walk. You might want to put on a mask, during an Event. The benefit of wearing a mask is that it's an experience that helps people transcend the limits they feel as individuals, while you try to create a shared experience. It's something that's done all over the world, in many cultures. But sadly I think pop offers an unrealistic and incomplete portrayal of what it means to be human. What's refreshing about folk is that the masks are less constructed, more transparent and vulnerable, maybe darker and uglier sometimes. It's a side that needs more time, more air, a side that's better shown than hidden.

We're working on a tour for March, and yes, there are some penciled-in dates that we hope could be in Italy, it would be my first time there, so I hope it works out.

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