Bonnie on singing other people's songs... (mp3, 1.5 MB)

Q: In the days in your twenties, you combined the road work with partying. Now, you combine road work with charitable concerns. In a nutshell, just tell me a little bit about Charity Folks and their involvement with your tour.

A: Well, there's a really great system in place through which we can actually sell a certain number of tickets where people either make a donation -- you know, they take the ticket price and up it, you know, $100 bucks or people do whatever donation they want. And then we have a list of organizations that we funnel that money through. Some of the people get to come back and say hi, other people just get better seats. And especially on this theater tour, we're planning to average 2500 seaters, when, in fact, we could probably play to 5,000 people in that city. We know we're going to come back in the summer, so we don't want to blow our wad, as they say, early on in the tour. So the tickets, you know, a lot of the fans want to see up close. So those early tickets, those front-row tickets and the good seats get taken quickly. So this is a way for me to be able to combine my wish to support great grassroots groups -- working on issues of the environment and Native American justice and, you know, anything from stopping nuclear power and proliferation to supporting the saving of the redwoods. There's a lot of different issues that I -- that I espouse and want to support. And this is a great way for the audience to get a good show and contribute. So the Charity Folks are coordinating all that with us.

Q: You also have an eco-partnership on the forthcoming tour with Green Highway. That’s an organization that promotes alternative energy solutions. And yet, with all the good deeds you do, you’re still not wearing your crown straight.

A: There you go. That’s my favorite song on the record (Crooked Crown). It was a first take. I played the guys Maia’s version, which is totally different, and we said, let’s just give it a whirl. Let’s not think about it. And we ended up using the rehearsal take. And I just love the fact that we try to keep all those balls up on the air. But the minute you look down, you drop one of them. So that metaphor of crooked crown for the diva up here who looks like I’ve got everything going -- I’ve got news for you, you’ve got to watch your step.

Q: The song Crooked Crown, it’s edgy, the song structure is a bit unconventional. Did you and your co-producer, Tchad Blake, talk about stretching out sound-wise with this album??

A: I actually had picked the songs and knew that I wanted to stretch in some different directions before I hooked up with Tchad. Tchad is more -- helped me in the studio and a fresh set of ears, but I really had the range of the songs and the direction with the band that I wanted to go. And, for me, I knew that I didn’t want to retread any blues. And some of the reasons I did these particular set of tunes is because I thought Deep Water and Crooked Crown, in particular, stretched into some new directions, lyrically and musically, especially, that were very exciting and kind of leading me into directions that I want to investigate a little bit more.

Q: Atmospheres and textures are so much a part of Souls Alike. The spoke word on Trinkets is really fun, too.

A: You know, that guy who wrote that is just a terrific artist I can’t tout enough. His name is Emory Joseph. And he made a terrific album called Labor and Spirits. He’s a St. Louis guy, but lives out in Berkeley. And, you know, I miss Little Feat I mean, Little Feat’s still around, but I miss Lowell. And there’s times when I’ve always wondered -- and Jackson (Browne) and I talk about this, are we ever going to hear anybody with that voice that can sing like that? And Emory’s got some chops that are so similar that when I heard -- my bass player, Hutch, came up to me and said, “Wait till you hear this song, Trinkets, off this album.” And sure enough, I love the whole thrust of that song. I love the way my guys play it. It’s just like stepping into a really comfortable groove. And the spoken part in the lyrics of that song are so unique that that really is another way that -- it’s a new direction for me to actually speak on a record.

Q: What about the use of the electronic loops on Deep Water?

A: Deep Water probably is the biggest stretch for those folks out there that are used to a certain range of music, which can be eclectic, but not that eclectic. But I do a lot of listening to electronic music that’s mixed with ethnic. Some of the stuff, like R.L. Burnside. There’s a great version of interesting loops put onto the Alan Lomax field recordings, at the Smithsonian, called Tangleye. It’s one of my favorite records. I don’t know if you heard St. Germaine do that John Lee Hooker (collaboration). I mean, that stuff just was taking me out. You know, John Porter did that R.L. Burnside one. And that’s what really aimed me in that direction. And then out of the blue, two of my favorite songwriters from Canada, Marc Jordan and John Capeck, who had already sent a bunch of songs I got close to recording. All of a sudden, tucked in there was this song, Deep Water, which when I heard, I couldn’t get out of my head. So we actually -- I sang with Jon Cleary, doubling my vocal on the chorus. I sang to their track while we played to it. So that was another one of those ones where the band said, “Are you sure this is what you want to do?” And I said, “You got it.” And by the time they heard what I wanted to do with it, we all loved it.

Q: Bonnie, you can really hear your band jelling on this album like never before. We need to give some credit where credit is due. You’ve been mentioning the guys. They all contribute so much to this album. Jon and George both wrote songs. And you are still playing with a real live Rutle --

A: Well, the longest-running member is Hutch Hutchinson, my bass player, since I found him when he was playing with the Neville Brothers. And basically there was an opening coming up in my band. And he was free to take it. And we’ve been together since ’82. And he is our musical historian. He’s like so incredibly versatile. He knows everything about New Orleans funk, about Latin music. He’s lived in Central America. Plays everything from Celtic -- you know, that’s where I get all my musical ideas, from his record collection. He’s got thousands and thousands of things that he brings a long on his hard drive on the tour. So he’s our musical historian and historical ranger when we drive around the country. So Hutch Hutchinson on the bass.

A: ORicky Fataar from Durbn, South Africa, where he started with his brothers in a band -- for those of you who are trivia nuts -- had a famous band made up of kids where Ricky was the drummer at 12 years old, called The Flame. And then he was in the Beach Boys for a while during the Holland album, with Blondie Chaplin, who was also in that band with him in South Africa. And I met him back in ’81 and he recorded with me when I met him with Ian McLagan’s Bump Band. And so we did the Green Lights album with Rob Fraboni producing in ’81. And then he moved to Australia and came back right around the time when I was going to record Nick of Time. I asked him to come back and play on the album. So I really feel that that rhythm section has made a huge difference in the way that my music sounds and that there really -- it’s one of the most amazing units of people to be able to play all these different things from Zimbabwean music to effortless blues of every kind of groove, and rock and pop and Stones stuff and ballads. And their taste is as versatile as mine.

A: George Marinelli on guitar. Boy, every lead guitar player needs a cohort. And Keith and Ronnie, I got George. George was initially playing with Bruce Hornsby and The Range. He’s a great solo artist, as well, has a couple of great solo albums out and produces records where he lives down in Nashville. And he’s the sense of humor of the band. He’s the ringleader and practical joker. Great singer as well. I mean, he does the the other vocal with me on Two Lights in the Nighttime and on my last album on Silver Lining. He’s just one of those one-take wonders. But some of the most inventive and beautiful and funky guitar playing.

A: And last, but certainly not least, my resident solo artist star, who moonlights with me when he’s not touring with his own band making records, is Jon Cleary, who is -- I like to call him the eighth wonder of the world, because I’ve never seen anybody, let alone a white guy, play like that. So he’s initially from Kent County in -- County Kent, they call it, in England. And he moved to New Orleans when he was 17. Soaked up every lick of James Booker and The Meters and all that whole wealth of New Orleans music, Latin music, Cuban music, the hotbed of American funk and soul, and has created something absolutely new. One of the greatest singers and songwriters I’ve run into. Terrific guy. Like the rest of the band, they all read. They’re very well-versed in theater and books and movies and -- so being on the road with those guys is a real -- it’s just a pleasure and an inspiration. And Cleary, to have somebody of his caliber who’s a legendary solo artist, in my band every night, playing those songs differently every -- he plays I Can’t Make You Love Me different every single night. So I can’t say enough about him.

Q: Well, and they’re all great guys. But don’t you ever wish you had a woman musician on the road with you or do you like being one of the guys in the band?

A: Well, I don’t look at it in terms of that one of them could be -- I mean, I just happen to be the guys that I met that I like the playing of. If one of them was a woman, it would be great, too. And we have a woman on the road, our assistant tour manager, Kerry Stephens. And Debra Dobkin was our percussionist and other singer for a long time. And she’s out on the road with Richard Thompson now. But a few years ago, after Road Tested, I wanted to strip it down to four. I had Rick Vito in the band. He’s a great solo artist, as well. But when George clicked back in, and spent some time raising his kid, this band is just the one, I think that has, for me, jelled into something that’s really more than the sum of our parts.