Linda Ronstadt Still Using Her Voice to Entertain, Encourage, and Inspire

Parkinson’s disease may have stolen Linda Ronstadt’s beautiful singing voice but it hasn’t taken away her ability to entertain audiences. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Grammy Award-winning singer, author, and 2013 National Medal of Arts and Humanities recipient has continued to tour the country, speaking about her legendary career in music and her courageous spirit as she fights her illness.

In September 2013, Ronstadt’s autobiography “Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir” was released, becoming a New York Times Best Seller and prompting Ronstadt on a book tour of the East and West Coasts. Ronstadt recently spoke at the Seawell Grand Ballroom in Denver, Colorado April 13, and at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware, as part of the "Smart Talk Woman Series" on May 13.

Known as the “Queen of Rock” in the 1970s, Ronstadt, 68, once possessed one of the greatest singing voices in music history, performing in a myriad of styles, including folk, country, rock, pop, American standards, Mexican, Latin, jazz, and Cajun. In 2009, Ronstadt officially retired from performing and since a diagnosis in 2013, has been battling Parkinson’s disease.

Although she can no longer sing, the Tucson, Arizona native now performs with a voice that entertains and educates with knowledge, honesty, humor, wit, modesty, and professionalism – the same qualities that have made her one of the most beloved artists for generations of fans. Now happily residing in the heart of San Francisco, Ronstadt recently spoke about her career in music, living with Parkinson’s, and what the future holds for her.

CDT: In August 2013, it was reported that you had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and could no longer sing. Since then you have written your memoir and toured the country, promoting the book and speaking to audiences about your musical journey over an amazing four-decade career. How different has this experience been for you as a public speaker, now that you are no longer able to sing for audiences?

Ronstadt: It’s the weirdest thing. I can still sing in my brain. There are a few songs that I’ve heard that I missed back in the day, and I can hear exactly what I would do with them. But I can’t do it. But speaking feels really comfortable. Oddly, I spoke so little the whole time I was singing. It feels very natural because I know how the story goes. If I’m being interviewed I know the answers generally. I don’t worry that I’ll forget, but I worry that people will ask me why I’m not singing. But I can’t.

CDT: When did you first start to notice the symptoms of Parkinson’s, how did it affect your singing, and what did you do to adapt to the changes in your voice?

Ronstadt: I actually started noticing in the year 2000. It turns out that it shows up in your voice before anything. They have a new way they can diagnose it; the earliest place it shows up is in your voice. I remember when things started to be different. I was making an album with Emmylou Harris and I noticed when I was in the studio that when I’d go to do certain things that it wouldn’t happen. I’d start to sing a note and my vocal cords would just clench up. If I would’ve known more about Parkinson’s disease I probably would’ve figured it out. From then on it was just every day. Then I’d start tripping and falling down, and I couldn’t understand why. I also had terrible fatigue.

I only made one solo album after that in 2004. My voice was very limited and I knew it was. I just had these songs that I had to get out of my system. I had a great band and an offer from Verve to do the record, so I took this shot. Like a painter, I just thought I’d have to think of myself as singing with a limited palette. I just have these colors and I’m going to paint with those. It was frustrating because some of that is pitch control. I had to really work on pitch. But I had these stories and I just thought I was going to have to tell these stories the best way that I could. It wasn’t until I developed a tremor in my left hand that I got a diagnosis. It took a year to confirm the diagnosis.

CDT: It turns out your maternal grandmother had Parkinson’s disease. What do you remember about her and how are you coping with your illness on a daily basis?

Ronstadt: I saw my grandmother with end stage Parkinson’s disease. I knew her when I was three years old when she was in the last stages of it, but I couldn’t really understand it very well. But my great aunt on my father’s side had it also, so it looks like it’s on both sides of my family.

Brushing my teeth, washing my hair, and getting dressed in the morning is such a journey for me. It used to be something that I never thought about. I don’t drive anymore. I feel like I’m solving a really tough problem in arithmetic. Parkinson’s isn’t always the same with everybody. The only hope is that it treats you kindly. I just figure I have today. I can still talk and walk, but not very far, and I can still do things for myself. I just feel like I have to be grateful for that and tomorrow will have to take care of itself.

CDT: How involved have you become in educating yourself about Parkinson’s and what types of treatments have you sought out or experimented with?

Ronstadt: There are pharmaceuticals which have horrible side effects, so I’m trying to avoid as much of that as I can and for as long as I can. I can’t get along without it, so I’m trying to take the mildest and easiest ones. For some reason a low carbohydrate diet is very helpful. I don’t like meat so that makes it hard. I’m mostly a vegetarian. So I’ve learned how to adjust my diet so it doesn’t set off the shaking as badly. Sugars make it so much worse – sugars and dairy are not good. I keep reading that coffee is good for Parkinson’s, and tea also. I’m a long time tea drinker and I’ve never liked coffee. A lot of Parkinson’s sufferers have said to me that they like marijuana and that it helps them a lot. It doesn’t help me, it just makes it worse. It just makes me kind of nervous.

CDT: Throughout your career in music you never wrote much of your own material, but you chose songs from some great songwriters – songs that described what may have been going on in your life at the time, and songs that you could relate to and that you felt you could do authentically.

Ronstadt: If everybody tends to write their own songs and sing them you wind up with a lot of mediocre songwriters, because there are only a few really good ones. It’s like it used to be in the old days with the standards, where you would get a great singer like Ella Fitzgerald singing a song that was written by George Gershwin – that’s a pretty good combination there. Then Sarah Vaughan comes along and sings a Gershwin song and sings it in a totally different way. Then Billie Holiday sings it probably better than anybody. Then Frank Sinatra comes along and does it too. So you get a lot of incredible interpretations of very good songwriting. And then there are the singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne and Randy Newman, and a lot of great girl singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Wendy Waldman. I knew so many good writers.   

CDT: When you assembled the band that would become the Eagles, you must have seen the potential that they had. So when they decided they wanted to go out on their own you gave them your blessing. They had incredible talent, but to this day they still give you much credit and praise for their success. 

Ronstadt: It started with Glenn Frey, who was the former singing partner of my boyfriend at the time, who was J.D. Souther. I knew Glenn through J.D. and was very fond of him. He was a really good guitar player, but I didn’t realize what a good writer he was. I asked him to go on the road with me because Bernie Leadon was in the Flying Burrito Brothers and he couldn’t go with me on this tour. Glenn had never been on the road before. Then I met this drummer Don Henley at the Troubadour. I heard him play a song with his band Shiloh that I had recorded. He already knew the arrangement, so we offered him the job and he said yes. So when the two of them met each other that was the start of it – it was their talent combined. Each realized the other was a really good songwriter, and Glenn found out what a good singer Don was. He used to call him the secret weapon because he was always sitting behind the drums. When they said they wanted to form a band, John Boylan and I suggested the other two members. I suggested Bernie and he suggested Randy Meisner. So between the two of us, we had something to do with forming the band, but it was their talent and the pieces that came together that consolidated into what the Eagles became. And all of their subsequent musical developments and the different people that they added and brought in made the band better and better.

But music is a cooperative endeavor. There’s no room for competition really. You should compete with your own self and try to do your best. Competing with others never gets you anywhere, and trying to hold others back doesn’t either. I always thought they should have their dream, and whatever they were trying to do, I wasn’t going to hold them back from that. But I could benefit from it because that meant I got to have a band for about a year while they were getting themselves together, and they got to do what they did. So it worked out.  

CDT: The 1970s brought you tremendous success, as you became the best-selling female artist of the decade. Your hit records included “You’re No Good,” “When Will I Be Loved,” “It’s So Easy,” “Blue Bayou,” and “Ooh Baby Baby.” You introduced a new generation to 1950s and ‘60s rock and roll, with songs by artists such as the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, and Smokey Robinson. Do you think you made a great contribution to pop music in that way?

Ronstadt: It’s a good thing, but I was happiest when I got to work on the standards because I finally had something to do with my voice. I felt like I was holding myself in a strange limbo when I was trying to sing rock and roll because I never felt fully invested in the attitude. When I started working with Nelson Riddle I felt like I could really find who I was and find a real unlimited expression for my voice.

CDT: When you starred in Joseph Papp’s production of “The Pirates of Penzance” in 1980, how did that experience prepare you for your later work, particularly the American standards you recorded with Nelson Riddle, and the albums of traditional Mexican songs?

Ronstadt: It gave me a fuller, richer voice because I started working in my upper register which I had sorely neglected trying to belt rock and roll. I had that upper register, and working on that exclusively for a year then gave me the ability to sort of pull it down and marry it to my chest voice, and it gave me a complete voice for standards. It was so liberating because I finally felt like I had gotten out of a box that I was in my whole musical life and could finally get out of it.

And Nelson Riddle had no clue who I was. That was great; I thought that was fine. That meant that he didn’t have any preconceived ideas either. We met as fresh individuals to each other, and we could see where we fit together emotionally, socially, culturally, and artistically. It was just a good fit, and we became good friends and confidants.  

CDT: Since you are no longer able to sing, what have you done to keep yourself involved in the music world?

Ronstadt: There’s a cultural center here that I’ve been very involved with for about 20 years called Los Cenzontles. It’s a Mexican cultural center in a little strip mall over in a really hard scrabble neighborhood in the East Bay in Richmond, California. They do brilliant work, as good as any place I’ve ever seen in terms of arts education. They teach singing, dancing, instruments, and visual art, and they just do a fabulous job with these kids that have been dislocated from their own cultures in Mexico. They come up here and they’re dealing with all the rigors and strains and sorrows of immigration, trying to fit their families in and trying to fit their culture in. They give them an incredible grounding in their own culture and a way to validate where they came from and who they are to start with. They really teach them to sing, play and dance, but they don’t have to do it for performing necessarily. They grow up to be much more confident, much better-rounded people, they have a much better chance of staying in school, and there are fewer high school dropouts and fewer teenage pregnancies. They learn how to use art to express their sorrows and their joys and to socialize. They can get together and dance, and they can do these folk dances that have really complex rhythms that come out of indigenous traditions in Mexico. They can really sing and dance and play so they can communicate with each other. It’s my other musical family besides my own. 

CDT: Your modesty throughout your career has been well-documented. For you it has always been about the music, and awards and praises have always been secondary. But being recognized for your achievements and the outpouring of love from fans that you received after your diagnosis has to make you feel appreciated and respected.

Ronstadt: I know the range of ability and what people did out there. I think I was a pretty good singer, but I don’t consider myself among the greatest. There’s always going to be somebody better than you, but it’s just fine. You just keep doing what you’re doing.

But people have generous hearts and it’s always nice to see that. The best thing is I have really good family support and really good support from my friends, and that’s what gets you through in the end.

CDT: In April 2014, the CD “Duets” was released, a compilation of duets you have done with many different artists throughout your career, including Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, J.D. Souther, James Taylor, James Ingram, Aaron Neville, and Ann Savoy. Do you have any future plans to release any more compilations of your work or perhaps any previously unreleased tracks?

Ronstadt: Different record companies always come up with something. There is something in the works, but I’m not quite sure what it is exactly. I’m sure they’ll be squeezing things out of the bottom of the toothpaste tube as the years go by (laughs). I’d like to put out a collection of just Jimmy Webb songs. I think he’s one of the most important songwriters in pop music of the 20th century. His songs always make me cry. He knows how to voice chords so they just stab you right in the heart. That’s the mark of a great songwriter. The voicings of the intro are always so beautiful. He’s so not limited, he’s so extraordinary, and he has such range and ability. 

CDT: Talk a little about the process of writing your memoir. Having not written very many songs yourself, and never seeing yourself as a writer, taking on such a task had to be a very unique and rather daunting experience for you.

Ronstadt: I never considered myself a writer and I never kept a journal or anything like that. I just wrote the occasional thank you note (laughs). It was kind of a challenge, but I just started writing it and it just came out. I was surprised that it did. When I turned it in, I didn’t know if they would try to change it or not. They hardly touched my manuscript, so I was really happy about that. The publisher Simon and Schuster gave me the best deal. They were interested in a book about the music, and that was the only thing that piqued my interest.

CDT: How much do you follow music today, and who are some of your favorite artists?

Ronstadt: I like Sam Smith. When I heard him sing I thought ‘well that guy really knows what he’s doing.’ He’s got a really unusual vocal technique, a lot like Joni Mitchell in certain ways. The way he uses his falsetto and bounces back down into his chest. He does some things that I’ve never heard before and I thought that was good. There are a lot of talented people out there. I don’t always resonate to it because I’m from a different generation. But I liked what I heard from him. I also loved Amy Winehouse; I thought she was wonderful until she fell apart. What a voice she had; and her musicianship was really impressive until that came apart too. I thought she was the one that got away.

CDT: In a February 2013 interview, you spoke about the power of music, and how essential it is in our daily lives. Talk about the different ways in which music is so beneficial to us and how important it has been for you personally.

Ronstadt: It’s been everything for me. I was so obsessed with music from the time I was two. It was just all I thought about really. We’re so focused on celebrity in our culture that we assign all musicians to performance and then expect them to be celebrities. But that’s just a tiny part of the story of what music does. I think music has tremendous healing value. Even just different sounds. I think the Greeks know a lot about it. They have different scales that get you into different moods and different worlds. I think we’ve lost the ability and I think we’ve lost touch with a lot of it. 

CDT: What advice would you give for anyone who wants to have a career in music or just participate in music in one way or another? 

Ronstadt: I wouldn’t know where to start because I really don’t know the business anymore. What we get on the radio today is such a narrow view of it. There’s a lot of music that’s just for solitude, and for working out your problems all by yourself. There’s a lot of music that you can do that you can share with other people, and there’s music like choral singing. I think the only thing you can do is to just get on stage and get in front of people. All I ever tell anybody is just plant your feet and tell the truth. That’s what you can do in music, that’s what you can do in visual art, and that’s what you can do in dancing. The most important thing about art is ‘What are you saying? What is it you’re trying to say? Can you make it clear?’ Sometimes you can and sometimes you can’t. But you have to do it with whatever tools you have available.

“In the Mood” Celebrating Timeless Melodies and Simpler Times

A brassy, upbeat celebration of America’s greatest generation is touring the country through the music and dance of the 1940s. “In the Mood,” featuring the String of Pearls Big Band Orchestra and the “In the Mood” singers and dancers, is celebrating 21 years on tour. The brassy, all-singing, all-dancing, all-American 1940s musical revue delights fans of the American Big Bands and the Big Band era. “In the Mood” has sold out performances across the United States, Canada and England, and thrilled audiences in Australia and New Zealand with a 16-city tour during August and September of 2013. 

Led by creator, producer and Juilliard-trained pianist and conductor Bud Forrest, the 19-member company performs songs made famous by Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Erskine Hawkins, the Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra and other idols of the Swing era. The late Vic Schoen, the show’s primary arranger, created the arrangements for the legendary Andrews Sisters.

“In the Mood” has recreated the Swing era with amazing choreography, nostalgic costumes and unforgettable songs, such as “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (of Company B),” “In the Mood,” “Moonlight Serenade,” “Tuxedo Junction,” “Sing, Sing, Sing” and many more.

Originally from Long Island, New York, Forrest started playing piano when he was eight years old, and basically hasn’t stopped since. “I had good piano teachers, and I had a faculty member from Juilliard come to my house for five years,” he said.

After attending Ithaca College in upstate New York, Forrest auditioned for and became the pianist for the Singing Sergeants, the official chorus of the United States Air Force in Washington, D.C. While he was in the Air Force, Forrest worked on his Master’s degree.

“In 1988, I decided to put together a singing group, when I focused on the music of the Andrews Sisters,” he said. “I got three young ladies and we just started performing around town. We had the ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,’ but we didn’t have a trumpet player. So the next thing I know I had a nine-piece band.”

In 1988, Forrest was thinking about forming a vocal group, and he latched on to the music of the Andrews Sisters because he felt they had the most energy and the most style. “I wanted to try and replicate that – but of course nobody can be the Andrews Sisters,” he said. “But I just felt that the whole big band era was very special in the history of American music.”  

“In the Mood” evolved over a five-year period, and has kept growing and growing every year since. In 1993, the band was asked to perform on the steps of the National Archives, as part of their commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of World War II. At that point, Forrest had a 17-piece band and four singers.

“We had 5,000 people show up that night,” he said. “The audience and some of the folks from the headquarters of the USO came to us and said, ‘Let’s do more shows like this and work together.’ So in 1994 I started touring, never thinking that in 2015 I’d still be doing this.”

Being in Washington, D.C., Forrest had access to all the military musicians, some of which have since retired and are still with him today. All other musicians are recommendations from different states across the country, including Michigan, Virginia, and Washington.

“I audition the singers in New York every year,” Forrest said. “I travel with the show, conduct the orchestra, and play the piano, which is unusual for the producer of the show to be in the show. But I try to keep everything in order as best as I can.”

The best way to describe “In the Mood” is as a variety show. There is no story to “In the Mood” but the music is what the story becomes. Forrest picks out songs that say something, as the lyrics basically do the talking.

“Each year I change the show about 30 percent based upon the quality of the musicians,” he said. “I feature a trumpet player or a trombone player, and the singers, with a tenor or baritone. I have to do ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,’ ‘Tuxedo Junction,’ and of course ‘In the Mood.’ It’s a show that’s patriotic, nostalgic, romantic, and it’s jazzy and brassy – which is how we advertise it. It’s all happening at the same time.”

The songs performed by “In the Mood” were written by some of the greatest songwriters of our time, such as Hoagy Carmichael, Frank Loesser, Oscar Hammerstein, and Harold Arlen. They are classic timeless melodies blended with lyrics – saying something that touches people’s lives.

“When you add the big band to it, you get the energy of the trumpets and the trombones and the saxophones and the rhythm section, and then you have something that’s very unique,” Forrest said. “You can argue that the 1940s was the most significant decade of the 20th century, because of World War II certainly, but just what it meant to Americans. The times were simpler, and the ‘Greatest Generation’ got its name for a reason.”

Older audience members who attend “In the Mood” have not heard these songs in years and it brings back many pleasant memories for them, touching them in many different ways. Almost everyone remembers a person or a place by a song, and this show is certain to trigger memories for a lot of people.

“What’s really nice about it is we get lots of generations coming – we get the grandmother to the baby-boomers and their grandchildren all coming to the show together,” Forrest said. “And then they go home and they talk about it.”

Because they travel all around the country, the band sees a lot of regional differences. Like politicians, they have a great snapshot of America, and see true American spirit everywhere they go.

“We spread a good feeling about our country, and we also honor all veterans in our show, from World War II to today’s veterans,” Forrest said. “So we encourage audiences to come out and say thank you to those that served our country. It’s a very important part of our show.”

After every performance, Forrest greets people in the lobby and constantly takes suggestions from patrons of songs they would like to hear in the show. To be able to experience different people and different cultures and get up on the stage and have fun with the music has been an absolute thrill for him.

It’s a family show – I always tell everybody it’s for kids 8-98,” he said. “We get people crying, especially the World War II generation. But for even their kids, the baby-boomers, we evoke lots of emotions from this music. I think it’s universally accepted that they just are thrilled to see the quality of this show.”

Singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin Grateful for Musical Gift

Singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin is perhaps best known for her Grammy-winning 1997 single "Sunny Came Home." One of the leaders of the so-called “new folk movement” that began in the late 1980s, Colvin, like many female artists of the time, grew out of the somewhat limited “woman with a guitar” school. Deciding to keep her music fresh and original with a more diverse approach, Colvin went against the grain of the genre’s clichéd sentiments and all-too-often formulaic arrangements in favor of a more personal, pop-influenced style.

In an era where female singer-songwriters are more than abundant, Colvin stands out as a singular and enduring talent. She is a gifted storyteller, with lyrics that are both keen and warm-hearted, and she possesses a voice that exudes both tenderness and toughness. In the 25 years since the release of her debut album, Colvin has won three Grammy Awards, released 10 albums, written a critically acclaimed memoir, maintained a non-stop national and international touring schedule, appeared on countless television and radio programs, had her songs featured in major motion pictures, and created an impressive body of work.

 

Originally from Vermillion, South Dakota, Colvin lived in southern Illinois during her high school years, then made quick jumps to Texas and California. She later moved to New York in 1980, remaining there until 1994. From there, she eventually moved back to California before returning to Texas where she now resides.

Growing up, Colvin’s life was always surrounded by music. Her parents listened to show tunes and musicals such as “Porgy and Bess” and “The Sound of Music.” She began singing in the junior choir in church, but initially, it was her parents’ record collection that caught her interest.

“My dad listened to the Kingston Trio and Pete Seeger a lot,” she said. “In fact he played the guitar, and played with some of the other fellows in the neighborhood and taught me my first chords when I was about 10. So it kind of went from there.”

Early on, Colvin was heavily influenced by the music of Bob Dylan, but what really took a hold of her were the singer-songwriters of the late ‘60s and early ’70; artists like Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Paul Simon. These legends and many others always personified the honesty in their music that captured Colvin’s imagination.

“I’ve just always been an honest person,” she said. “I can tell when people are faking it, and it’s just always driven me crazy. So I think it’s about having the ability to go to the heart of the matter without flinching. I was certainly schooled in that by the people that I listened to.”

 

As much as her influences were obvious to her, Colvin explored a diverse number of musical styles in her late teens and early twenties, performing country dance, country swing dance, pop, and bluegrass. Colvin struggled at first and was afraid to write songs, but eventually she was able to pull it together.

“It had taken a long time for me to kind of find my voice – I just didn’t know what to do,” she said. “It’s obvious where your roots are, so you just have to write songs. That was a really scary thing for me. So when I turned the corner and was able to begin to write from my heart and in my own voice, that was a big accomplishment for me.”

 

It was only after meeting producer, guitarist, and co-writer John Leventhal that Colvin was inspired to find that voice as a songwriter. She began honing her skill, and was soon signed to Columbia Records. Her first album, “Steady On,” won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording in 1991.

“That record might have been the most gratifying because I was 30 when I made it,” she said. “When that first record came out, that Grammy was really encouraging to say the least.”

In 1996, Colvin released her platinum album “A Few Small Repairs” and in 1997, the success of her single “Sunny Came Home” firmly catapulted her into the mainstream after spending four weeks at the number one spot on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album won the 1998 Grammy Awards for both Song and Record of the Year.

Since 2000, Colvin has collaborated with a variety of artists and has made vocal contributions to songs by James Taylor, Bela Fleck, Edwin McCain and Shawn Mullins. She also collaborated with Sting on the Disney theme song, “One Day She’ll Love Me.”

Over the years, Colvin has shared the stage with such legendary artists as Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby, Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt, Don Henley, Richard Thompson and Lyle Lovett.

Released in 2012, Colvin’s eighth studio album, “All Fall Down,” was produced by country singer-songwriter, musician and long-time friend Buddy Miller at his home in Nashville. The album features guest appearances by Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Jakob Dylan, Bill Frisell and Stuart Duncan.

Colvin first met Miller in 1976 when they both moved to Austin. When Miller started a country band, he needed another singer, so he offered Colvin the job. She then moved to New York City and joined the Buddy Miller Band in 1980. Miller eventually left the group, and the name was changed to the Shawn Colvin Band.

 

“I’ve known Buddy for a good long time, so it was great to finally collaborate with him on a project,” she said. “We did it in Nashville at his house, and there is just a plethora of amazing musicians in Nashville. It’s always a revolving door policy and it’s very loose. I’m friends with Alison and Emmylou, so it was very casual and very sweet with the players that contributed.”

Also in 2012, Colvin published her book of memoirs, “Diamond in the Rough.” With the same wit, lyricism, and empathy that have characterized her performances and inspired audiences worldwide, Colvin chronicles her struggles and survival from anorexia, clinical depression, alcoholism, motherhood, career crises, and relationships with men.

Colvin has always loved performing, and the longevity of her career is something she is so grateful for. “Music is my soul – it’s the healing force,” she said. “I was given a gift, and I’m extremely fortunate that I can make a living at it. I’m 59 years old and I’ve been doing this for nearly 30 years, and I’m so grateful that people still want to buy a ticket and come to see me play.”

Country Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash Revisits Roots of Father and Childhood with “The River & the Thread”

The music and spirit of the American South will make an impression on the State College area as country music star Rosanne Cash will perform at Penn State’s Eisenhower Auditorium April 9. The beloved singer-songwriter has recorded 15 albums over an amazing career that has lasted nearly four decades, winning the hearts of fans nationwide.

Now, the 59 year-old from Memphis, Tennessee has captured the attention of both fans and music critics with a record that revisits some of the most important places in Cash’s family history, including those of her legendary father, Johnny Cash. Released in 2014, the critically-acclaimed “The River & the Thread” includes 11 original songs by Cash and her long-time collaborator, and husband, John Leventhal.

 

“The River & the Thread” evokes the American South’s rich, historic landscape – physically, but also musically, and in turn emotionally as well. The songs portray a multigenerational cast of characters – from a Civil War soldier off to fight in Virginia, to a New Deal-era farmer in Arkansas, to a present-day couple in Alabama. The album's unique sound, which draws from country, blues, gospel, and rock, reflects the soulful blend of music that traces its history to the region. 

In February, the album won Cash three Grammy Awards, sweeping the categories it was nominated for: “Best Americana Album,” “Best American Roots Song,” “Best American Roots Performance” for the song “A Feather’s Not a Bird.”  

A legendary artist in her own right, Cash recently spoke with the Centre Daily Times about her new album, her family’s roots, and her other endeavors as well.

CDT: You’re making your Center for the Performing Arts debut here at Penn State. What can audiences expect to hear in concert?

Cash: I am performing all of “The River and The Thread,” and choosing songs from my older catalog to add to the show. I always perform “Seven Year Ache.” I went years without performing “Blue Moon with Heartache” and now I’m performing it again. I do some songs from “The List,” because people want to hear them. The other songs – I switch up.

CDT: What artists left an early impression on you and influenced your music, whether listening to the radio or seeing live performances?

Cash: When I was young I studied lyrics by Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury, Joni Mitchell, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell and, of course, my dad. In my 20s, I put myself around great songwriters and listened to them talk about their principles, work ethic, mechanics of songwriting, and their love for the form, and it was tremendously inspiring.

CDT: Throughout your career you’ve collaborated with a number of other country legends, including Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, and Kris Kristofferson, and rock artists like Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello. Do you have a favorite memory from those experiences, and is there anyone you would like to work with that you haven’t?

Cash: For this record we wanted all the guests to be from the South or connected to the South, given the theme of the record. Most of the guests were already friends – Kris Kristofferson is like my older brother. Of course we also tried to match artists with the right song. John Paul White’s haunting voice was just perfect for “Etta’s Tune.”

CDT: With a recording career that has lasted nearly four decades you have achieved many accolades, including 21 top forty country singles, eleven of which reached number one, multiple Grammy Awards and nominations, and gold records. What has been the most satisfying for you and what do you think is the defining element to your career?

Cash: I don’t look at it that way. I feel very satisfied with this record and excited about doing good work. But it’s just as important to keep working, keep learning and keep things new to myself.

CDT: Aside from being a musician and songwriter you have also added the status of author to your impressive resume, writing short stories and penning two books, including your autobiography “Composed: A Memoir” in 2010. What has that process been like for you as compared to songwriting?

Cash: It’s all from the same pool. Writing prose is, I admit, more taxing, but it lets me expand on themes, let go of rhyme, find subtler ‘melodies’, and use language in a different way. I do think I’ve become a better lyricist by writing prose. But I don’t separate the two. I’m a writer, period.

CDT: Released in 2014, your recent album “The River & the Thread” is a collaboration with your husband John Leventhal, who produced, arranged and played guitar on the record. It’s a collection of songs that take a journey through the American South and visit your father’s childhood home in Dyess, Arkansas, as well as your own early childhood home in Memphis, Tennessee. How did it feel to go back to your roots and revisit those very special places in your family’s history? 

Cash: Going down south so many times in the last few years for various reasons opened my eyes – and heart – to the understanding that home and geography and connection to the people in your past are very big concepts, not just a string of facts. These were life-changing experiences. And they felt deeply familiar and resonant. I realized I carried a bit of Memphis with me all the time. Both my parents are Southerners, and my musical connections also tie me there. But I've never considered myself southern because I grew up in a very different ‘South’ – Southern California. 

CDT: As a musician, what has recording music and performing for an audience done for you personally and professionally? What goals do you still hope to achieve?

Cash: This has been a great year for me. I feel I wrote my best songs, made my best record, and it has been received in a way that has been deeply satisfying. The shows have been special for me. On a personal front, my daughter Carrie got married this past year and it was one of the greatest days of my life! Looking ahead, I am collaborating on writing with different people, singing as a guest on some records, and I wrote a piece for National Geographic about the Sunken Lands, which should be out later this year. 

Three Dog Night “Celebrates” Legacy and Honors Late Friend and Bandmate

Three Dog Night, one of rock and roll’s most successful groups of the late 1960s and early 1970s, is still bringing their classic blend of rock and blue-eyed soul to the stage each and every night.

Originally formed in Los Angeles in 1968, the legendary music icons are known for their creative arrangements and interpretations, with numerous hit songs like “One,” “Easy to Be Hard,” “Mama Told Me (Not to Come),” “Joy to the World,” “Black and White,” “An Old Fashioned Love Song,” “Shambala,” and many more.


Led by lead vocalists, Danny Hutton, Cory Wells, and Chuck Negron, the band registered 21 consecutive Billboard Top 40 hits between 1969 and 1975, a record that still stands today. Three of those hits made it to the number one spot. The group earned 12 gold albums, sold over 40 million records, and also helped to introduce mainstream audiences to the work of many songwriters, including Paul Williams, Hoyt Axton, Laura Nyro, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, and Leo Sayer.

Born in Buncrana, Donegal, Ireland in 1942, Hutton came over to the United States at the age of four. After living in Boston for several years, Hutton and his family relocated to Los Angeles when he was twelve. Beginning his childhood in Ireland gave Hutton the early exposure that would prove beneficial to developing his craft and eventual career in music.

“Everybody creates their own music in Ireland; it’s kind of the national spirit there,” he said. “All of my aunts and uncles played and sang, and my mother sang and played mandolin. We’d have these family gatherings and everybody would get up and sing or recite a poem or play an instrument. So I’ve been around it all my life.”

Hutton, 72, eventually began his musical career as a producer and writer for Hanna-Barbera Records in 1964. His job was to get all the happening acts he could find on the street. When he couldn’t find an act, Hutton would go into the studio and write a song, sing the lead on it, and then sing the three-part harmonies. Hutton soon became a singer and songwriter and scored a modest national hit in 1965 with “Roses and Rainbows,” a song that was featured in an episode of the The Flintstones, with Hutton cast in the cartoon singing on television.

In time, the pieces for Three Dog Night began to come together in 1967, as Hutton met Wells and auditioned Negron – forming a vocal trio named Redwood, produced by the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson.


L-R: Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton in 1969.
 

“Eventually our manager helped us get the guys to form the group, so we became more of a band instead of a vocal trio,” Hutton said. “People don’t realize that at the time it was very different to have three lead singers – nobody had done that. And the guys in the band were such good musicians, and they all could sing too. When we did the vocals for the choruses, it was a pretty mighty sound.”

Released in 1969, “Celebrate,” one of Three Dog Night’s signature songs, prominently features all three singers taking turns on lead vocals.


Hutton, Negron, and Wells in 1975.

Keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon, bassist Joe Schermie, drummer Floyd Sneed, and guitarist Michael Allsup rounded out the original band. Today, along with Allsup, and founding members Hutton and Wells, bassist Paul Kingery and drummer Pat Bautz complete the band’s current lineup.

On March 11, Greenspoon passed away at the age of 67 after a brief but valiant battle with cancer. Greenspoon took a medical leave of absence from the band last October to pursue treatment for metastatic melanoma.

“I will be forever shattered by his death,” said Cory Wells, in an official statement from the band. “Jimmy cared so much about excellence in the music and always made sure we had what we needed on stage and in the recording studio. I will miss my fellow Aquarian brother and will keep him in my heart forever.”

“He was like a brother to me, I knew him since he was just a teenager and he was my oldest friend in the band,” states Hutton. “Also, Jimmy was a critical part of our early history, bringing a sound to the band that helped develop our style. He left an indelible mark.”

 

The band plans to continue their 2015 touring schedule and honor their late friend and long-time bandmate. Eddie Reasoner, who came on board during Greenspoon’s leave, now takes over on keyboards.

With two of the three original lead singers remaining in the band, that one aspect alone is vital to keeping the original sound of Three Dog Night intact. “Cory has this incredible blues voice that’s really hard to duplicate,” Hutton said. “But we pretty much could have sung each of the other guy’s songs. We have a bass player who is also a great guitar player, and he does high harmony parts on a lot of the songs. You get the personality of the original records from our voices. We haven’t changed the keys in the songs, so we sound like the records.”

Though they didn’t typically write their own songs, Three Dog Night didn’t cover other artists’ hits either; rather they selected the more obscure songs and arranged them in their own way that suited the band and their three lead voices. They championed songwriters by taking their songs and essentially making them their own. They all knew that when they heard something it had potential, and they were all on the same wavelength.   

“I don’t think we ever covered anybody – I always called it resurrecting,” Hutton said. “Being a great songwriter doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with being a good arranger. Sometimes we would get songs that weren’t hits and we’d resurrect them and get the arrangements right and turn them into hits. So that’s what I feel we did. We would get a song and it wouldn’t be personal to us, so we would cut out words, change the verses and move it around. We would do all the things that most people would never do.”

L-R: Cory Wells, Paul Kingery, Michael Allsup, Danny Hutton, Pat Bautz, and the late Jimmy Greenspoon.

Whether recording in the studio or performing live on stage, Three Dog Night were and still are all real musicians and singers, crafting songs that continue to stand the test of time. “They have good melodies, good choruses, and the lyrics in general are about emotions – emotions never get dated,” Hutton said. “We weren’t political, and that usually puts a real date on your songs. We had big choruses, performed well; and even if you’re singing in a different language and people don’t know what you’re saying, they know good singing and they know good harmonies – and we had that.”

After nearly 50 years in the music business, Hutton considers himself very lucky to just be in good health and doing what he loves to do. “What it does and what it’s done is given me a wonderful life,” he said. “I just feel like we come on a good night and we are the party in that town. With the kind of show that we do – at the end of the night, people usually leave and they’re smiling and singing, and they’re happy. It’s wonderful to have that magic.”

Creedence Clearwater Revisited Still Carrying On the Music and Defining Generations

In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, a band named Creedence Clearwater Revival flooded the radio airwaves and entertained audiences worldwide, cranking out hit after hit with their unique blend of rock, country, and rhythm and blues.

CCR broke up in 1972, but the classic sound of that legendary group has been reborn through a reincarnation also known as CCR, now renamed Creedence Clearwater Revisited.

The band features the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rhythm section from the original CCR, Stu Cook on bass and Doug “Cosmo” Clifford on drums.



Creedence Clearwater Revisited L-R: Kurt Griffey, John Tristao, Stu Cook, Doug Clifford, and Steve Gunner. 

Creedence Clearwater Revival are best known for their classic hit songs “Proud Mary,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Green River,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?,” among many others.

Originally formed in Northern California in 1967, CCR featured lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford. Despite their San Francisco Bay Area origins, CCR portrayed a Southern rock style, with songs containing lyrics about bayous, catfish, the Mississippi River, and other popular elements of Southern American life. Since the group disbanded more than 40 years ago, CCR has remained a staple of American classic rock radio.     

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Cook’s early musical influences included artists like Ray Charles, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Ricky Nelson – all the early pioneers of rock and roll. San Francisco eventually became famous for the “Summer of Love” in the 1960s, but in the 1950s, the Bay Area had a very diverse culture and a great radio scene, where you could hear country music at night and rhythm and blues all day long.

“We had a lot of opportunities to explore out of pop radio,” Cook said. “Back in the ‘50s, there were small local labels that represented a lot of rhythm and blues artists, and a lot of small venues for people to experience the music live. It was a great place to get my musical education.”

That musical education led to the formation of a diverse band that incorporated a number of different styles into its repertoire. CCR’s influence can still be heard in many genres today, including southern rock, grunge, roots rock, and blues. “It’s just basic American music,” Cook said. “It’s blues-flavored but you have some country in there, and even a little Caribbean-flavored. We touched a lot of different bases with the Creedence sound.”

Many bands today still carry on the sound and influence of the original CCR in one genre or another, but it’s not really something that Cook or his bandmates consciously think about. “I’m not really listening for it, because the music of CCR to me is really the music of Chuck Berry, and all the people that we grew up listening to – with some Merle Haggard and some Buck Owens thrown in,” he said. “It’s drawn from all kinds of American music that came before us.”



Creedence Clearwater Revival L-R: Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and John Fogerty in 1968.

Creedence Clearwater Revival had tremendous success in a very short period of time. From 1969 to 1971, CCR had five Top Ten albums, and nine Top Ten singles, including five singles that reached No. 2 without ever scoring a No. 1 single, a record for an artist. They seemed to be one of those bands that was in the right place at the right time. America was in the midst of the Vietnam War and people needed music that defined that true American spirit. This among other things contributed to the band’s growing popularity, something that perhaps only fans from that era can attest to.

“I can’t really say for sure because I’m on the inside – that question is better asked of people on the outside,” Cook said. “I’m sure you’d get a thousand different answers; but for me the music was straight ahead, simple and honest. You could feel that it was from the heart rather than constructed. Fogerty wrote some great songs for the band, plus we had a ton of support from radio. AM radio, and then later FM radio took up the slack and got the music out to the audience and soon they became fans.”

Interestingly enough, many younger people may not realize that Creedence Clearwater Revival performed at the Woodstock Music Festival in August 1969. The band was to headline on Saturday night but did not get on stage until early Sunday morning. CCR was the first act to sign up for the concert, but unfortunately the band was not included in the documentary film that was made about the three-day music festival. John Fogerty was not happy with the band’s performance and did not want them included.

“I’ve listened to the recordings and the performances are quite good,” Cook said. “Not being in the movie was a big mistake because we were riding high at the time and it couldn’t have done anything but helped our career. But there is 15 minutes of audio and video on a bonus DVD for the 40^th anniversary reissue of Woodstock.”  

After CCR broke up in 1972, the members went their separate ways, as John Fogerty pursued a solo career and had success with his hit album “Centerfield” in 1985. Cook and Clifford then played in various bands, most notably the group Southern Pacific in the 1980s, where Cook was joined by Doobie Brothers John McFee and Keith Knudsen. Founding member Tom Fogerty, John’s older brother, passed away in 1990 at the age of 48.

The music of CCR seemed to be in the past, until the band’s classic sound was resurrected one day in 1995. Cook and Clifford were hanging out, living in a small Sierra Nevada town and found themselves with too much time on their hands, so they decided to put a band together.

“It just kind of came out of wanting to get back in the business,” Cook said. “We didn’t have an album, and we didn’t have a plan. We just sort of threw it out there and wanted to see if anybody cared.”

After they formed the band, Creedence Clearwater Revisited began touring, performing the old CCR songs for audiences worldwide. The band’s current lineup consists of Cook on bass and backing vocals, Clifford on drums and percussion, John Tristao on lead vocals, Steve Gunner on keyboards, guitar and backing vocals, and Kurt Griffey on lead guitar.

When Cook and the band first started playing live, they were quite surprised at how young the audience had become. Now 20 years later, there are more Creedence fans than ever – even more than when the original band was enjoying their brief successful run of hits back in the late 1960s.

“We’ve got three solid generations of fans now, and we’re working on a fourth,” Cook said. “It’s thrilling to see that so many young people enjoy listening to the music. When radio got broken up into different formats, the creation of classic rock really helped focus for the fans where to find the music. So that worked out great for us.”

Cook sees Creedence Clearwater Revisited for the most part as a live performance project and says the band really has no interest in going into the studio and adding to the great catalogue that is Creedence. “We’re trying to stick to our original premise, which is to take the music to the fans again and have some fun,” he said. “We just want to go out and play the music, have some fun, have successful concerts, a good time with our fans, and go to the next town and do it again.”

After refusing to relive the music of his past for many years, original lead singer John Fogerty began to perform the songs live that he had written for the band as well in 1997. Many times there are rifts in rock and roll bands and CCR is certainly no exception. A reunion is not likely to happen, but the various members have come to accept what they cannot change and are now looking to the future.

“Nobody has ever stopped John from singing the songs, and I’m still not stopping him – he can sing what he wants to sing,” Cook said. “What we’re trying to do is honor and celebrate the music of the band, and that means we have to go out there and play great every night. We hold ourselves to pretty high standards, so it’s up to us to do the job.”

Grammy-winning artist Amy Grant Grateful and Blessed for Life in Music

American singer-songwriter Amy Grant is perhaps best known for performing Christian music, gaining fame in the 1980s with hits such as “Father’s Eyes,” “El-Shaddai,” and “Angels.” Grant later found success in mainstream pop music as well, releasing the 5x platinum album “Heart in Motion” in 1991, which yielded the hits “Baby, Baby,” “Every Heartbeat,” and “I Will Remember You.” Grant has collaborated and recorded with numerous well-known artists, including fellow Christian singer-songwriter and friend Michael W. Smith. She remains the best-selling contemporary Christian music singer ever, having sold over 30 million records worldwide.

 

Born in Augusta, Georgia, the Nashville resident grew up loving everything that was on the radio and was constantly sneaking her older sisters’ records out of their room and into hers. She loved Joni Mitchell, Carole King, James Taylor, the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, and Elvis Presley. “Everything was new then,” Grant said. “Pop music was totally unexplored, and then there was the British invasion with the Beatles, and also Blood, Sweat and Tears.”

Recently, Grant and her husband, country singer-songwriter Vince Gill, were going through their LP collection and listened to one of Blood, Sweat and Tears’ early records. She hadn’t realized that the record was produced by James William Guercio, who owned Caribou Ranch, a recording studio near Nederland, Colorado that was heavily damaged by a fire and shut down in March 1985. Many famous artists had recorded at the studio, including the jazz-rock group Chicago, which recorded five albums there in the 1970s.

In the fall of 1981, Grant recorded her first album at Caribou Ranch, “Age to Age,” which was released in the spring of 1982. Guercio, the former Chicago manager/producer, stopped in the studio while Grant was recording the gospel album. “I remember Jim coming into the studio, and he said, ‘this record is going to sell a million copies,’” she said. “And I hadn’t even done more than 25 percent of it. I said ‘you’re off your rocker.’” But the album did sell a million copies and became one of the fastest-selling Christian albums ever released. Featuring the single “El-Shaddai,” the album became certified platinum and was named Gospel Album of the 1980s by Billboard magazine. Grant would record three more albums at Caribou and was set to record a fifth album there the day the studio was destroyed.

In 1985, Grant released “Unguarded,” an album that surprised fans with its very mainstream sound. The hit single “Find a Way,” became the first non-Christmas Christian song to hit the Billboard Top 40 list, also reaching No. 7 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album gave Grant more exposure and the music world began to take notice of her talents as a pop singer as well.

Ironically, one year later in 1986, Grant was visiting a college friend in Atlanta, when she got a phone call from a record producer whom she had met before, Michael Omartian. Omartian was producing a solo album for former Chicago lead singer and bassist Peter Cetera. Grant had never worked with Omartian before, but he asked her if she would do a song with Cetera. “Chicago was at the top of their game, and Peter, he was doing some solo work and I remember thinking, ‘Why did he call me?’” she said. “I was completely knocked sideways. I thought, ‘How in the world did I get invited to this party?’ I just said ok. I just couldn’t believe it.”

“The Next Time I Fall” was released from Cetera’s album “Solitude/Solitaire,” and the duet became a No. 1 hit in the fall of 1986. It was Grant’s first foray into the secular music field, after scoring several No. 1 singles in Contemporary Christian music previously. This eventually led Grant to change direction and crossover into pop music, and in the process, widening her fan base and making her a household name.

Throughout the 1990s, Grant continued her success in pop music, with the albums “Heart in Motion” (1991), featuring Grant’s second No. 1 hit “Baby, Baby,” “House of Love” (1994), and “Behind the Eyes” (1997). In 2002, Grant returned to her roots, releasing an album of hymns titled “Legacy…Hymns and Faith.”

In 2013, Grant released her first full-length album of all new material in 10 years, “How Mercy Looks from Here.” The album was inspired by a conversation Grant had with her mother just a couple months before she died in April 2011. Though her mother was suffering from dementia, her advice to her daughter to sing songs that mattered compelled Grant to do an album of songs where each one tells a different story. “I had songs that I had written years earlier, and I got to just sort of cherry-pick what I thought were the best things from the five or six years prior to that,” she said. “But I just feel like the history behind each of the songs mattered. I’ve had great response to the record.”

Whether recording gospel or pop albums, performing duets or singing solo, Grant feels truly blessed to have the success she’s had, and all of the people with whom she’s worked with who have made it all possible. “I guess it’s fair to say that I love making music, but I’ve never felt like I was steering my career,” she said. “I felt like I just sort of happily wound up in some really magical places.”

At 53, Grant feels she has had her run and she has loved every minute of it. But what gets her heart racing more than anything is knowing that it’s her turn to lift up the people coming after her. In the same way that she applied her creativity to making music, Grant is just trying to open up her mind and look at the resources that she has.

“My life and especially my recording career, has been so impacted by people who let me dream and supported those dreams,” Grant said. “And I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but what I look forward to the most is pouring my energy into the dreams of artists coming after me. And all of that possibility is thrilling for me.”

As it does in music, Grant believes that nothing happens with anything in life unless you start talking about it, say it, and open yourself up for direction. “I guess that’s what I’m really anticipating most,” she said. “I want to give back and pour encouragement into young artists.”