Duke Ellington said there was only two kinds of music, “good and bad,” and that he liked “both kinds.” Townes Van Zandt said that there were only two kinds of music, “the blues and Zip-a-dee-do-dah.” When I’m asked what kind of music I play, I usually just say, “American.” What I mean is that I’m just as likely to write and play “Jazz” and “Blues” music as I am “Country” or “Folk” music. That I’m just as likely to record a beat I’ve learned that came from the Ninth Ward of New Orleans as one from the South Side of Chicago or the hills of Appalachia, and that I have no problem whatsoever saying that the music of Professor Longhair, The Barkays, and Thelonius Monk is just as “Americana” as that of Bill Monroe, John Hartford, and The Carter Family.
My first album, Labor & Spirits (2003), brought a whole bunch of these roots sounds together. It also got me introduced to, and my songs recorded by, my friend Bonnie Raitt – another artist who records in a nice, wide range of flavors. My new album, Fennario – Songs by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, could be the second installment in the “Emory Joseph’s American Music” series. What Fennario definitely is is a long overdue love letter to Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter for having written songs that have inspired, amazed, and informed me since I was 12 years old.
Jerry Garcia’s and Robert Hunter’s work together is as good as any done by any American songwriting team, ever. The diversity in styles and subjects they wrote in and about, and their ability to be absolutely traditional as often as they were breaking new ground, makes them, especially in light of how prolific they were, a one-of-kind-team. Their songs have beautiful melodies and deceptively sophisticated chord changes.
They primarily wrote their songs for the Grateful Dead to perform, and perform them they did, to the most loyal fans in rock and roll. The Dead, at the time Jerry Garcia died, were the highest-grossing touring act in the world. Their fans have always known about the songs of Garcia and Hunter, but there’s a great many people who love and live for great music who never really “got” the Grateful Dead. With this in mind, I produced Fennario to be something that Deadheads and non-Deadheads alike could love. I wanted it to be a real tribute to a beautiful working partnership, and something that would maybe help to explain to the world why so many
people dedicated (no pun intended) so many years of their years of their youth to enjoying these songs.
So, in the Spring of 2005, Larry Campbell (who currently plays with Phil Lesh), Jon Carroll, Duke Levine, Dennis McDermott, T-Bone Wolk, Soozie Tyrell, L.A. engineer Chris Brooke, and I set up shop in a big beautiful recording studio in New York City (Legacy Recording) to record Emory Joseph – Fennario – Songs by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. We did it old school style, live with very little overdubbing and with me cutting vocals as the music went to tape. We had two guests on the album: bassist Lincoln Schleiffer and mandolinist David Grisman.
Working with this group, there naturally ended up being hot picking done all over the place on these tracks, and tasty little bits that mixing engineer Dave Sinko (Nashville) and I created in the mixes; but I made laser sure that the most important, front-and-center things you’ll hear on Fennario are the words and melodies of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. These are amazing songs; this is wonderful music; and all of it, from the sweet country soul of “It Must Have Been The Roses” to the funky bump and grind of “New Speedway Boogie,” is as “Americana” as anything has ever been.
Garcia and Hunter wrote songs that are playful and catchy, as well as epic songs that are mysterious and profound. The words to their songs seem to magically fit in your mouth when you are 15 and yet still and again when you are 60. But perhaps the most unusual and impressive thing I’ve come to know about their songs is how they’re often anthemic … without ever being dogmatic. They inspire you to learn them and to sing them out, loudly and all together, but they don’t ever ask you to join or believe anything, to choose sides, or ultimately, to put an expiration date on your personal experience with them. I don’t know of another catalogue like theirs. I’m sure that there isn’t one.
Peace, Love and Wavy Gravy forever,
Emory Joseph
NYC – April 2008
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