As such, it takes the better part of a half hour to get his almost-undivided attention, for which he apologizes sincerely. It is under these circumstances that we chat about his new album and upcoming tour, his departure from his beloved Weissenborn hollow-neck guitar, life outside the rock mainstream and the perils of charging too much for goods at Woodstock.
Ben: Thank you.
One of the things I really appreciate about it is that so many artists just are feeling this incredible need today to utterly reinvent themselves on every record and go 180 degrees opposite of where they were, and with you, it seems like more of an extension of a direction rather than a reversal.
Thank you. I'm hoping that's the case.
Did you find it easier to write this one than the others, or does it get harder as it goes?
You know, no albums are easy to write, and no songs are easy to write, so it's a matter of -- some songs come in an instant, some come over time and in crafting. Some songs feel natural, and it's just a natural writing process, and some songs you have to piece together, word for word. It wasn't easier, it wasn't necessarily harder, but it was more evolved.
Were you influenced on this one by any particular musicians out now or any particular social events happening?
You know, anything can work its way into influence and inspiration. I mean, there are plenty of groups I like who are out now, and there are plenty of things that are going on around me that can work their way into songs. I wouldn't want to pinpoint one particular thing; I don't think there's one thing that I could, really.
I hear ya. So I enjoyed hearing the -- is it pronounced WISEenborn? Or WHEEZEenborn?
Yeah, but you know, there's no Weissenborn on this record!
Hmm, I thought I was picking up the sound of it on a few of the tracks!
No, nope, there's a guitar. I had taken the Weissenborn, tonally and sonically, as far as it could go without exploding, really, 'cause that's the instrument. So I had a guitar built for me by Billy Asher, who's in Santa Monica [Calif.], and he's crossed a hollow-body, hollow-neck Weissenborn consciousness with a Les Paul, and it made a wonderful guitar.
So is this a one-of-a-kind model?
No, he makes them; he's now making them in production, just, you know, by hand, one at a time. You know, if you wanted one, you could get one.
Have any other musicians started using them?
Yeah, there's one player; he's one of the best. He's an incredible slide-guitar player named Greg Leisz.
OK, I haven't heard of him.
Yeah, he's played with everyone from k.d. lang to -- oh, what's her name? Lucinda Williams?
Oh, OK! On Car Wheels on a Gravel Road?
Yes. So he's played with a lot of people.
What kind of other stuff are you listening to these days? Any new CDs?
Sure. I listen to the Verve a lot. I love the Verve, Beth Orton …
Oh, yeah. The Beth Orton record's fantastic.
Yeah. Government Mule …
OK, I've heard of them, but I haven't actually heard their stuff. I hear them referred to in the same context as Wilco and the Jayhawks and a lot of that "Americana rock," for lack of a better descriptor.
Sure, I mean -- but it's even beyond that. You've got Warren Haynes, the guitar player from the Allman Brothers, just one of the best guitar players I have ever witnessed, and he -- I'm singing and playing on their new record that's coming out, actually. I played with those guys.
Outstanding. I'll look forward to that one. So, I got a kick out of -- in doing the research for this interview -- just reading through all of the Web sites that are devoted to you and your music. Do you keep up on those?
Um, from time to time.
It's just amazing. Some of the sites, both for you and for other musicians, are just so intensive, it seems like the fans know more about the musicians' lives than the musicians themselves. Everything from, like, a list of all the set lists from beginning of career to present to the upcoming itineraries and so forth. So, I was pulling up your upcoming stuff: You're gonna be in France for a while, at the end of the month, appearing on things like their version of the Today show.
Yeah. It's gonna be fun. It'll be a blast.
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