Jones Street Station Stops to Smell the Bluegrass
Special to Seattlest: Matt Whiting of the music blog Back Beat Seattle.
Catch Jones Street Station at Chop Suey tonight with headliner Ben Kweller; tickets: $18 adv/ $20 dos, all ages.
It’s not often that we find ourselves listening to music that prominently features fiddles, mandolins and other instruments that you are much more likely to hear on old bluegrass records than see at most of our favorite venues. When we do have a need to scratch that itch for country or country-tinged tunes, however, we are likely to keep it local by putting on the latest from the likes of The Moondoggies, The Maldives, or The Dutchess and The Duke, among others.
Our predilection for local county/folk songsmiths aside, our interest was piqued when we heard that a Brooklyn band that has received praise for playing melodies in roughly the same vein would be hitting Chop Suey tonight in support of Ben Kweller. In advance of their first trip to Seattle, we were able to catch up with mandolinist and singer Danny Erker of Jones Street Station to talk about exploring “the great American genres,” and reconciling playing traditionally rural music in urban settings, among other topics.
Mandolins, harmonicas, pitch perfect harmonies and other elements that some are calling “bluegrass-infused Americana” aren’t typical sounds that you expect to hear coming from Brooklynites. How did you all settle on this particular type of music?
Any bluegrass traditionalist who hears us would tell you flat-out that we don't make bluegrass music. And we'd agree. None of us grew up playing bluegrass. We come from musical backgrounds that really run the gamut: blues, gospel, jazz, dance-pop, classical, you name it. Really, bluegrass was a social vehicle for Jonny and Danny to meet. They each were regulars at bluegrass sessions in NYC where they went not necessarily for the bluegrass itself, but to play and meet people. Along the way they learned how traditional bluegrass works and actually helped found their own (now no-more) traditional band. As Jones Street Station came into its own, bluegrass music was a medium for exchanging ideas and passing them through the other guys' musical filters to create our sound. So, while everybody is comfortable doing traditional bluegrass numbers (on our non-traditional bluegrass instruments, i.e., drums, keys, harp, and electric mandolin for starters) it's just one of the great American genres that we do our best to draw from.
You sing a lot about the joys of the outdoor world. How do you reconcile living in Brooklyn with the yearning for nature that you express in your songs?
Why, whatever could you mean? Brooklyn is a veritable Eden... Honestly it really it is, it has tons of great parks and an abundance of beautiful old trees, plus, people often forget, NYC is surrounded by water and really easy to get to beaches (and not just Coney Island)... But, we see your point. We live in a giant noisy dirty city. So, we all try to get away as much as we can: We recorded a lot of our upcoming record In Verses in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania which was gorgeous, and we're writing these answers from a van in the middle of nowhere Ohio which is also gorgeous, but passing by very quickly. Plus, we're gonna do some camping on our days off during our tour with Ben.
"Tall Buildings" is a great song that tells the story of growing up and giving in to the fact that you will spend the best years of their life breathing recycled rather than fresh air. What inspired you all to write that song?
First off, we didn't write that tune. It's a John Hartford composition--who, if you're unfamiliar with him, is one of the great unsung American songwriters. A great fiddle player and unconventional banjo player with an amazing wit and terrific sense of humor. Second, you're right, "Tall Buildings" is a great tune. Third, there are really two reasons why we decided to put it into our set. The first is that even though none of us are what you'd call office-types, we've all done our fair share of work in giant skyscrapers. We also each have a great affinity for the quiet and open green places of the world. So, we can really get into the spirit of the tune. Secondly, it's a wonderful vehicle for one of the things we love to do, which is sing in multiple-part harmony. We typically close shows with this song and strip down the arrangement to guitar, harmonica, and voices. No amplification. Almost always, the room gets quiet (and we've done this in some pretty big and rowdy rooms) and people listen to us sing what is a simple, beautiful, and sincere tune about loss and growing up.
What current Seattle artists do you count among your favorites and why?
It's hard enough listening to even half of what's coming out of NYC, but we are immense fans of Seattle's Reggie Watts--who, incidentally, we see around Brooklyn and who was just part of a monthly dance party our keys player JB throws with some of his DJ-ing pals. As for why, well, please YouTube the guy. Plus, we love to sing, so we naturally dig what the Fleet Foxes do.
Are there any sites or activities that you hope to see or do while in Seattle?
This is gonna be everybody's first time to Seattle, and we're really looking forward to soaking up as much of the city as we can. This is probably terribly cliched, but we're really looking forward to enjoying the air and trees and the light and the rain. We're probably not going to have too much time for much else unfortunately.
What else do you have planned for 2009?
Well, our new record In Verses is coming out soon and we can't wait to hear what people think. (Plus we've already started writing songs for the next album.) Also, we'll be hosting our monthly concert series at a spot in Manhattan's Soho called Housing Works. They're a non-profit that fights AIDS and homelessness in NYC. We host a show with a different great band each month and all of the cash goes to the organization. Last but not least, we're working on the score of a film that will be released on 2010 (we didn't do the movie, just the music!) Most of all, we're looking forward to playing our music for people live, so there'll definitely be more touring in the works.
