Jonathan Edwards
Many musicians spend a career hoping for that “signature song,” a crossover hit with which they will be forever associated.
When that elusive moment does arrive some artists react in ways that might seem baffling – after “Heart of Gold” topped the charts Neil Young famously didn’t play it on his subsequent tour – while others are grateful for their success. It is, after all, part of what every musician hopes for. Jonathan Edwards didn’t have to wait long.
Shortly after leaving the Boston based band Sugar Creek, who had attained some modest regional success, Edwards began working on his solo debut. Finding himself short a song (one of the finished tracks was mistakenly erased) Edwards, in an act of both desperation and illumination, dusted off an existing fragment and quickly composed the genial “Sunshine.” When released the following year as a single the song struck a chord with the masses; its sharp opening line (“Sunshine go away today, I don’t feel much like dancing.”), rollicking arrangement, and unforgettable chorus is likely one you’ve sung to a hundred times.
Edwards was born July 28, 1946, in Aitkin, Minnesota, and grew up in Virginia. While attending military school, he became enamored with the burgeoning folk scene and the AM radio hits of The Byrds, Dylan, Phil Ochs, and others. Like many of his day Edwards began playing guitar and composing his own songs.
After moving to Ohio – initially to study art – he became a fixture at local clubs and coffeehouses, playing with a variety of rock, folk, and blues outfits, often in tandem with fellow students Malcolm McKinney and Joe Dolce. In 1967, the three relocated to Boston, where they permanently changed their name to Sugar Creek and became a full-time blues act, issuing the 1969 LP Please Tell a Friend. Wanting to return to acoustic performing, Edwards left the group to record a solo album. It was from those sessions that “Sunshine” emerged, quickly becoming a Top Five pop hit and cementing his reputation.
With the release of Honky-Tonk Stardust Cowboy (1972) Edwards’ music began gravitating toward straight-ahead country; while the album sold well, largely based on his previous achievements, his label was at a loss as to how to market it. Over the course of two more albums, 1973’s Have a Good Time for Me and the following year’s live Lucky Day, his sales and star power sharply declined. But by then Edwards had already tired of the business side of music (he’d signed a very unfavorable contract) and the label expectation that each new record replicate the last.
In a move he has never come to regret Edwards largely dropped out of music, bought a farm in Nova Scotia, and embraced a new and more relaxed routine of farming, composing, and occasionally playing a gig with friends.
One of those friends was Emmylou Harris. In 1976, she enlisted him to sing backup on her sophomore record, Elite Hotel; that cameo reignited the record labels interest in Edwards and his music. It resulted in a new record deal – one more profitable to Edwards – and the LP Rockin’ Chair, recorded with Harris’ Hot Band. Sail Boat, cut with most of the same personnel, appeared a year later but Edwards was unwilling to commit to lengthy tours and industry demands. He was always a reluctant star and, after all, had a farm and family to take care of. He again disappeared, resurfacing in 1982 with a live record on his own label. In fact Edwards was among the first successful musicians to take his career into his own hands. Still, the creative urge could not be completely disregarded.
After touring the nation with a production of the musical Pumping Boys and Dinettes, Edwards joined the bluegrass group the Seldom Scene for the 1983 LP Blue Ridge. After a 1987 solo children’s record, Edwards moved to Nashville; his 1989 album The Natural Thing generated his biggest country hit, “We Need to Be Locked Away.” Since then he’s maintained a more manageable pace, recording four studio albums, including the recently released Tomorrow’s Child, and a pair of live recordings.
Tomorrow’s Child (Rising Records) may be his best since the mid 1970’s. It’s a strong mix of original songs, traditional covers, and material written by others (including Asheville songwriter Malcolm Holcombe). Among its featured guests are Joe Walsh, Shawn Colvin, Vince Gill, John Cowan, Jerry Douglas, and Alison Krauss. Clearly when one’s standing in the music world is as exceptional as is that of Jonathan Edwards you get to play with such talents!
Last year’s sold out solo performance at The Altamont aptly demonstrated that Edwards’ hasn’t lost a bit of the gift, voice, and mastery of stage that made him a star. He’s built a career on doing things his way, preferring artistry to huge commercial success, and is all the better for it. For those who remember Jonathan Edwards, or have sung along to “Sunshine” or any of his other hits, Friday, August 7, 2015 at The Altamont Theatre will be the place to be.
Seth Walker
On Sunday, August 9, 2015, two days later, North Carolina native Seth Walker, who has recently relocated to New Orleans, will also give a concert at Altamont Theatre.
Walker considers his move to the Crescent City as the completion of his “rounds of the Holy Trinity of southern American music cities” one that began in Austin, shifted to Nashville, and eventually landed him in his new home. It’s that influence, with its “funky melting-pot swagger of gospel-soaked fervor and gritty guitar” that forms the essence of Sky Still Blue, his recently released latest album.
Produced by Oliver Wood of The Wood Brothers the eleven-song album (look for a review in next month’s Rapid River Magazine) is the culmination of his recent travels, and Walker is thrilled with the end product. “All the moves I’ve made have been so that I can be around new influences centered on music,” Walker says. “I’ve always loved New Orleans, and it definitely brought back a bit of the rough edge that got a little spit-shined on the albums that I made in Nashville. This one’s got some gristle on it, some push and pull, some funky stuff, and some of that Caribbean influence that New Orleans has.”
The seeds for the album were planted with five songs co-written with Oliver Wood while Walker was on tour with the Wood Brothers. The two hit it off on both a musical and personal level. Sky Still Blue was recorded at the Wood Brothers’ home base in Nashville, and fellow Brothers Chris Wood (also of Medeski Martin & Wood) and Jano Rix, made crucial contributions. Also on hand were Walker’s longtime band-mates, bassist Steve Mackey and drummer Derrek Phillips. “It was essentially the six of us musically roping this thing,” Walker says. “We all worked real well together, and the next thing you knew, we had a record.”
Walker didn’t have much opportunity to be lonesome as a child, growing up on a two-family commune in rural North Carolina. His parents were both classical musicians, and his first instrument was the cello, not the guitar. The tastes of the commune’s other residents ran more to Texas country music, so his youth was filled with the sounds of Mozart and Beethoven coexisting with Jerry Jeff Walker and Willie Nelson. He discovered the guitar in college and never looked back. “I was eaten up with it” he says, his enthusiasm still evident. “Just crazy for it, immediately gravitating to the blues, but as I played I started to lean towards the uptown side, the jazzier side, and I think that probably has something to do with my classical training.”
His uncle, Landon Walker, was a jazz bassist and blues DJ on Jacksonville, Florida radio station WJCT, and would mail tapes to his nephew on a regular basis.
“It covered the whole gamut of blues,” Walker recalls, “from the Piedmont stuff – Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Willie McTell and Blind Blake – to the Chicago stuff – Muddy Waters and Robert Nighthawk – and a lot of Texas stuff – Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Hopkins.”
“But the guys in my dorm room were listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, so that blues-rock sound definitely got my attention. It seemed a lot more interesting than going to school, so there went my education” he says with a laugh.
Walker set out for Jacksonville with dreams of stardom (“I ended up playing in a Grateful Dead cover band,” he says ruefully), but before long realized that he needed to relocate to a more music-rich hub. It was then he landed in Austin and the rest, if not history, is at least history in the making.
The albums he’s made since then have consistently vaulted him into the Top 20 of the Americana charts and gleaned praise from NPR, American Songwriter, No Depression and Blues Revue, among others. He’s toured the world as a headliner as well as opening for The Mavericks, The Wood Brothers, Raul Malo, Paul Thorn and Ruthie Foster, among others. But Walker is quick to note that while he’s made it a point to absorb all those influences he’s still very much his own voice. And it’s that voice he brings to The Altamont, one well worth listening to.
If You Go: Jonathan Edwards, Friday, August 7, 2015. Doors open at 7 p.m. for this 8 p.m., all ages, general admission show. Tickets are $25 and are certain to sell out.
Seth Walker and band, Sunday, August 9, 2015. Doors open at 6 p.m., music starts at 7 p.m., tickets are $12.
The Altamont Theatre, 18 Church St., Asheville. For tickets and show times call (828) 270-7747 or visit www.myAltamont.com.
