INsite Atlanta July 2020 Issue

JULY 2020

8 YEARS! 2 G N I T RA CELEB

INSITEATLANTA.COM

VOL. 28, NO. 8 FREE

Summer BBQ & Burgers!

s i a t n a Atl

N E P O ! k c a B e m o c l e W Museum Openings, Outdoor Concerts & More!

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CONTENTS • JULY 2020 • VOLUME 28, NO. 8

4484 Peachtree Rd, NE Atlanta, GA 30319

We’re Open!

New Evening Hours

06 Best Burgers 07 ATL’s Best BBQ

COLUMNS

11

03 Atlanta on a Dime 04 Movie Reviews 05 Station Streaming 07 Albums

14

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EXPERIENCE NATURE’S THRILL RIDE Buy Tickets at FernbankMuseum.org

STAFF LISTING Publisher Steve Miller steve@insiteatlanta.com Art Director / Web Design Nick Tipton nick@insiteatlanta.com Managing Editor Lee Valentine Smith lee@insiteatlanta.com Local Events Editor Marci Miller marci@insiteatlanta.com Movie Editor Steve Warren s.warren@insiteatlanta.com Music Editor John Moore john@insiteatlanta.com

A WORLD OF WOW

Atlanta’s Science and Nature Experience

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Contributing Writers / Interns: Alex. S. Morrison, Dave Cohen, Benjamin Carr, Demarco Williams Advertising Sales Steve Miller (404) 308-5119 • ads@insiteatlanta.com MAILING ADDRESS P.O. Box 76483 Atlanta, GA 30358 WEBSITE • insiteatlanta.com Editorial content of INsite is the opinion of each writer and is not necessarily the opinion of INsite, its staff, or its advertisers. INsite does not knowingly accept false or misleading advertising or editorial content, nor do the publisher or editors of INsite assume responsibility should such advertising or editorial Summ er BBQ & Burge rs! appear. No content, i.e., articles, graphics, designs and information (any and all) in this publication may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from publisher.

JULY 2020

VOL. 28, NO. 8 FREE

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Please see ou BBQ Guide Guide on page 7!

PG 2 • July 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

INSITEATLANTA.COM

S! TING 28 YEAR CELEBRA

PEN O Welcome Back!

Museu m Openi ngs, Outdo or Conce rts & More!

Thursday - Sunday, August 6 - 9

Saturday, August 8

Castleberry Rd; Cumming Fairgrounds; Adults $7, Kids 10 & under Free 2020ShrineCircus.com

Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheatre Amphitheater.org 877.725.8849

YAARAB SHRINE CIRCUS

EVENTS HAPPENING FOR SMALL CHANGE IN ATLANTA

Know of a low cost event happening? Event@AtlantaOnADime.com

By Marci Miller

Now Open Daily

Saturday, July 18

767 Clifton Rd. 404.929.6300 Fernbankmuseum.org

1280 Peachtree St.Woodruff Arts Centre 404.733.4400; High.org

FERNBANK MUSEUM

Known as Atlanta’s home to dinosaurs, where guests have felt the excitement in their bones since 1992, Fernbank is much more than an indoor museum. With 75acres of woodlands and outdoor adventures, experience nature’s thrillride at Fernbank Museum, including 300-yearold trees and hundreds of species of wildlife in Fernbank Forest. Found in the heart of Atlanta, this old-growth, preserved forest is a highlight of why Atlanta is known as the “city in the forest.” As visitors explore the great outdoors just behind the museum, winding paths, a canopy walk, boardwalks, immersive trails and outdoor exhibits take you from WildWoods, down into Fernbank Forest where over two miles of walking paths await exploration. ere are endless possibilities to discover that the greatest show is Earth at Fernbank, from fossils to nature to science and more. Visit during Fernbank’s evening hours for families and adults (craft beer and canned cocktails available for purchase). Get tickets at Fernbank.org.

HIGH MUSEUM OF ART

e High will reopen to the public on Saturday, July 18, with special priority access granted to members and frontline workers from Tuesday, July 7 through Friday, July 17. Exhibitions on view will include e Plot ickens: Storytelling in European Print Series through Sunday, July 19 and Paa Joe: Gates of No Return through Sunday, August 16, both of which have been extended from their original run. Additionally, the ongoing exhibition Pioneers, Influencers, and Rising Voices: Women in the Collection will be on view.

New visitor guidelines are in place for everyone’s health and safety. Visitors will be required to reserve and purchase all timed-tickets online, which Guest Relations staff will scan upon arrival. Guests over the age of two will be required to wear a face covering. Elevators inside the museum will be limited to a single family unit, and give preference to individuals with accessibility challenges. Summer Museum Hours run through Monday, August 31. Visit High.org for full list of guidelines.

e largest Shrine circus in North America is back for its 78th year with new dates and location. Ringmaster Tim Tegge hosts an unforgettable array of talent, including the Flying Poemas, e Hanneford Circus rendition of Arabian Nights, complete with horses and camels and the Pages Lions and Tigers trained and presented by Jungle Princess Miss Vincenta. Also a Magical Transformation by the Bilea Duo, “Who Let the Dogs Out?” poodles with Miss Gabriella, 3-ring foot juggling dexterity at its finest, Motorcycle Mayhem in the Globe of Death, and the animal antics of “Chief Bear Paw” with David Donnert.

Indulge in circus fare foods and browse the flea market for handmade items including furniture, books and pottery.

DOUGHTRY AT THE FRED

Come rock at the Fred on Saturday, August 8 as Daughtry performs at Peachtree City’s popular venue for the first time.

As the frontman for the band bearing his name, Daughtry has become one of the most visible and consistent rock & roll torchbearers of the 21st Century. Since rising to prominence in the fifth season of American Idol, Daughtry has released five albums, which have achieved a combined sales of over 8 million copies in the U.S. Daughtry's self-titled debut was the bestselling album of 2007 and contained four Top Twenty hit singles, including the Grammy-nominated smash "It's Not Over." Daughtry and his band have performed to sold out shows for over a decade. Tickets available on the Fred website and at ticketalternative.com.

WILD WOODS OUTDOOR EXHIBIT

Fernbank Museum Open Daily FernbankMuseum.org

RECEIVE UPDATED EVENTS WEEKLY. SIGN UP BY EMAILING SUBSCRIPTIONS@ATLANTAONADIME.COM ENTER ON THE SUBJECT LINE: SIGN ME UP INSITE!

My Place My Place for for Inspiration Inspiration My Place for Inspiration Come see what makes it yours.

Come see what makes it yours.

The High Museum of Art will reopen to the public on Saturday, July 18, with new health and safety in place.

Visitors Come seeprocedures what makes it yours. will be required to reserve and purchase all timed-tickets online.

@castecreative

@castecreative

Please visit High.org for detailed visitor information.

high.org Anne Legardere Clay (American, 1745–1821), Quilt, ca. 1800–1820, cotton, gift of Helen Stiles Rose, 1979.10

high.org Anne Legardere Clay (American, 1745–1821), Quilt, ca. 1800–1820, cotton, gift of Helen Stiles Rose, 1979.1000.19.

Atlanta Insite_March2020_Shirt.indd 1

@castecreative

Atlanta Insite_March2020_Shirt.indd 1

Atlanta Insite_March2020_Shirt.indd 1

2/24/2

2/24/20 7:20 PM

high.org Anne Legardere Clay (American, 1745–1821), Quilt, ca. 1800–1820, cotton, gift of Helen Stiles Rose, 1979.1000.19.

insiteatlanta.com • July 2020 • PG 3 2/24/20 7:20 PM

MOVIES

Movie Reviews

BY STEVE WARREN

W

ITH THINGS BEING AS THEY are, we can really use some light entertainment right now.

Unfortunately, most of the films being released (or rereleased, in hopes of gaining more traction than they did the first time around) in theaters and/or on VOD, DVD and streaming services, are anything but light. There are documentaries about racial turmoil and a mass shooting, and dramas about war and all manner of relationship problems. Even what may be the funniest film of the year is keenly aware of election-year political issues, and the biography of a great singer reminds us how she suffered because of her race. There’s some relief but the overall picture is grim. Read on.

IRRESISTIBLE (R)

 Fans who have missed Jon Stewart since he left The Daily Show five years ago will be glad to see he’s back bigtime. Not his face, but his wit and perceptive take on American politics as writer and director of this election year comedy. While the central character, Gary Zimmer (Steve Carell), is a Democrat, he’s not a very likable Democrat.

This film is about what’s wrong with the system, not one party or another. A video makes Gary, a political consultant in DC, aware of retired Marine Col. Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper), who lives on a farm in Deerlaken, a dying small town in the swing state of Wisconsin (played by Rockmart, Georgia). Jack upset the town council when they were about to pass a law restricting voting rights, by preaching Democratic principles, even if he doesn’t know from parties.

Gary sees an opportunity to make Jack, who “looks conservative, sounds progressive,” the face of the party in the heartland by running him for mayor, and heads for Deerlaken to trigger some fish-out-of-water, city slicker-among-the-rubes comedy. But Stewart has bigger fish to fry. As the campaign gets attention, including holding a fundraiser in New York, Gary’s Republican counterpart, Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne), arrives to support Jack’s incumbent opponent. You’ll never guess where things are headed. The ending is as surprising as it is – well, irresistible. I hope it means Stewart intends to give us, perhaps The Annual Show in the form of feature films. He’s been away too long.

MY SPY (PG-13) (Amazon)

1/2 I’m pretty sure it’s in the Constitution that every action movie star has to make at least one stupid comedy involving them with one or more children. Calling Dave Bautista a star may be an exaggeration, but he has top billing – I think for the first time – in My Spy, which fills his kid komedy kwota. He plays CIAgent

IRRESISTIBLE

PG 4 • July 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

JJ, a former Special Forces soldier who’s great at kicking – or shooting – ass but useless at the subtleties of collecting intel. So they pair him with techie Bobbi (Kristen Schaal) as the brawn to her brains. They take a Chicago apartment to spy on neighbor Kate (Parisa Fitz-Henley), whose husband was killed by his brother a year ago because he wouldn’t be involved in dealing nuclear weapons. Kate has a nine-year-old daughter, Sophie (Chloe Coleman), a precocious Francophile who’s not fitting in at her new school. Sophie, whose ambition is to be a spy, blows her new neighbors’ cover and threatens to expose them if JJ doesn’t give her spy lessons and do everything else she wants. What she really wants is to fix him up with her mother, and the gay couple next door helps by giving him a Queer Eye makeover. The average nine-yearold, lacking Sophie’s super brainpower, would have no trouble pointing out the plot’s ridiculous elements – practically all of them – and no selfrespecting film critic would admit to enjoying this movie (“Oh, maybe it has its moments...”), although that doesn’t mean you won’t. Besides, didn’t I say we need some light entertainment?

Guardians of the Galaxy fans may wonder if it’s a coincidence or a joke that Bautista’s stunt double is named Rob de Groot.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA (PG-13) (Netflix)

 In our quest for light entertainment, if Will Ferrell can’t provide inspired silliness, who can?

Not all the silliness here is inspired, or even intentional. We’re supposed to think Ferrell, who co-wrote the script, is so funny we’ll overlook any distraction. It begins in 1974 with Erick (Pierce Brosnan) and his young son Lars watching the Eurovision Song Contest with friends from their Icelandic village. The boy is so inspired

by ABBA he vows to win the contest himself someday. Also inspired is Sigrit, a girl about his age. Cut to the present day, when the kids should be 50-ish. Lars (Ferrell) looks it; Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) doesn’t. She’s had a crush on him all this time. He thinks she may be his sister because Erick “fathered half the village,” but he’s never asked. They’re presumably both virgins. They’ve also been singing together as Fire Saga for years. She’s the practical one, but believes in elves. This year, thanks to a couple of flukes, they become Iceland’s entry in Eurovision.

They go to the contest in Edinburgh, woefully unprepared. A Greek woman throws herself at Lars and a Russian man (Dan Stevens) goes after Sigrit. (The Russian’s act is so gay it would never have been allowed to represent his homophobic country.) Things progress as you’d think they would, with some flashy musical numbers and a few – but not nearly enough – good laughs.

In the climax the contest manages to supply a

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA backing track for a song no one has ever heard before. An epilogue features an element that’s not impossible (or unexpected), but difficult to believe. I like Ferrell in the right vehicle, but I’m not enough of a Ferrellnatic to swallow this one.

JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE (PG)

 Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) has been a hero of mine for many decades. We’ve marched together (with many thousands of people between us) on a few occasions. So I’m inclined to like a documentary about him, as long as they don’t screw it up.

Director Dawn Porter hasn’t screwed this one up.

She follows the congressman from his Troy, AL boyhood, raising chickens and picking cotton, through what serves as a mini-history of the Civil Rights movement, because he was in the middle of most of it: Nashville lunch counter sit-ins, the Freedom Riders, helping plan the 1963 March on Washington as the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) representative, the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery; through 2018 election campaigns, including Stacey Abrams’; and the ongoing struggle for voting rights. “There are forces today trying to take us back to another time, another dark period,” he warns in the film’s opening remarks.

Speaking of equality goals he adds, “We’re not there yet,” not knowing how sadly relevant his words would be by the time the film was released.

Perhaps best known to the younger generation for his viral “Happy Dance” videos, the now-80year-old remains lively, funny and dedicated. “As long as I have breath in my body I will do what I can,” he says. Long may he breathe.

RELIC (NR) (Drive-ins July 3; elsewhere July 10)

 I wish it was 50 years ago so I could get away with saying “Girls can’t do horror” as a capsule review of this movie. Even substituting “women” for “girls” would leave me at risk of public castration. Relic is the first feature for director and co-writer Natalie Erika James. The good news is that the only people with more than one or two brief scenes are three very interesting actresses (excuse me, female actors) - Emily Mortimer, Bella Heathcote, and Robyn Nevin – I’d love to see in almost anything else. Actually I have seen them in several movies, but not in roles that caught my attention. Here they play three generations of women in one family. When (grandma) Edna (Nevin) isn’t seen for some time, (mom) Kay (Mortimer) and (daughter) Sam (Heathcote) drive from Melbourne to Edna’s remote country house to look for her. It takes a third of the film to find her, the time devoted to the usual horror tropes. The camera pans, tracks or follows someone – s-l-o-w-l-y – until it finds...nothing, in most cases. The octogenarian returns, explaining when pushed, “I suppose I went out.” Most of her strange actions, including

leaving Post-its everywhere, can be attributed to garden-variety dementia; but we’re supposed to believe there’s an evil force in the house that has somehow possessed her, despite precious little evidence. Some horror movies keep you awake at night after you see them, but a few are more likely to put you to sleep while you watch them.

Relic is one of the latter.

THE TRUTH (LA VÉRITÉ) (PG)

 On one hand The Truth is a soapy drama about the love-hate relationship between a mother and daughter and will attract appropriate viewers.

On the other hand it will appeal to tabloidreading movie fans who love to find out what

MY SPY bitches their favorite divas are and what goes on behind the scenes on movie sets. If you’re in both groups you’ve hit the jackpot! Legendary French actress Fabienne Dangeville (Catherine Deneuve) has just published her autobiography, and her distant-if-not-estranged daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche) has come to Paris from New York to mark the occasion and read the book.

With her are her husband Hank (Ethan Hawke), an actor struggling with alcoholism and his career, and their young daughter. Fabienne is working on a science-fiction film, playing the 73-year-old daughter of a woman (Manon Clavel) who lives in space to avoid aging and dying of a fatal disease, making a brief visit to Earth every seven years. It reminds Lumir of her youth, when her mother had little time for her. That isn’t mentioned in the memoir, which is called “La Vérité” (“The Truth”) but is largely fiction, the past as Fabienne remembers – or wants to remember – it. While this film is in French and English, it was written and directed by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose Shoplifters was an Oscar nominee last year. It’s reminiscent of last year’s multinational effort, Frankie, which starred Isabelle Huppert as an actress hosting a family reunion; but The Truth is much better.

And that’s The Truth.

See the rest of our movie reviews at insiteatlanta.com/movies.asp

TV

Be st Of At lan ta

Station Streaming

IN THE NEED OF A LOVE STORY The Boys Love Life

BY BENJAMIN CARR

S

OMETIMES A GOOD, OLD-FASHIONED love story is all we need to remind us that there is hope in the world. Art should mirror the times and stories should fill its viewers not just with hope but with a reflection of the world as it is. In today’s turbulent world, romance is possible and the people who fight for it are heroes. Pandemic-era TV shows have taken different, weird approaches to age-old love stories, and these are some of the most satisfying new shows.

LOVE LIFE (HBO MAX)

Love Life, one of the first Max Originals on the new HBO streaming service, centers on Darby, played by Oscar nominee and movie star Anna Kendrick. Darby’s beautiful, neurotic, artistic and ambitious. And she wants to find love with The One. Over the course of the first season of this show the viewers are promised through cleverly arch narration from Lesley Manville, watching over Darby like a scientist, that she will find her person. But the show investigates her trial-anderror dating life one relationship per episode.

For the most part, this method works, even though viewers might take a moment to warm to the character and the gimmick, which seems more invested in keeping the show on the air than in its main character finding love. But, over the episodes, Love Life’s main theme emerges, which shows us that Darby’s life improves as she begins to better understand and love herself.

The show is not percent perfect as some parts of it are tedious and drag. As Darcy’s younger relationships are explored, occasionally she can be downright frustrating. One scene at a funeral is particularly painful.

But Kendrick does solid work here. And her supporting cast and the show writing are strong, traveling in occasionally non-linear ways to reach its end. And the array of boyfriends who show up, including Scoot McNairy, Jin Ha, John Gallagher and Nick Thune are each pretty damn charming.

The best episodes all divert from the main story and go a little crazy. It’s worth seeing.

UPLOAD (Amazon)

The craziest, most bizarre romance of the year is this sci-fi dystopian sitcom and it is also one of the best. The leads Robbie Amell and Andy Allo Upload

and the complications that keep them apart are novel, good storytelling.

The premise is nuts though. In the not-toodistant future, society has designed a way for the afterlife to become a phone app. And app designer Nathan (Amell) had found a way to make the afterlife affordable to everyone, which leads to his suspicious death in a car accident.

His selfish, terrible girlfriend allows him into a kitschy resort version of an afterlife, where his family can visit him but he has very few options or joys. So he begins to investigate his death with the help of his virtual assistant, Nora (Allo).

Nora and Nathan understand each other in a crazy, weird romantic way. And they’d be perfect together, except he’s dead.

It’s a really fun show.

(20 01 -2 01 9)

NOW OPEN FOR DINE-IN!

We have taken measures to ensure your dining experience is safe and enjoyable as always.

See list of new guidelines websit on our website.

LOVE, VICTOR (Hulu)

This sequel series to the movie “Love, Simon” which followed a very sweet, romantic high-school coming-out story about a boy in suburban Atlanta, follows a far more diverse and complicated story about Victor, a Latino boy who moves from Texas to Georgia with his Catholic family. Victor, reaching out to Simon through social media, tries to navigate who he likes and how to live authentically. The show has all the flavor of the film, which itself was based upon a book by Atlanta author Becky Albertalli.

Michael Cimino stars as Victor, Salazar an attractive and warm character who is immediately appealing. The great Ana Ortiz and James Martinez, veterans of shows like Ugly Betty and One Day at a Time, play Victor’s parents, whose marriage is complicated and full of difficult secrets. Victor’s love interests are played by Rachel Hilson and George Sear, whom Victor cannot decide between. Anthony Turpel and Bebe Wood steal scenes as Victor’s nerdy friends. And Nick Robinson, the star of the movie, provides voiceover and an occasional appearance on the show to provide the new character with a sense of guidance.

Coming out is a complicated difficult process, often very messy and emotionally confusing to not just the person but the surrounding community. But the end result can lead to honest, truthful love. Love, Victor understands that. It handles it with grace and hope.

It’s a love story that you can root for.

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FOOD

MUSIC

Best Burgers in the ATL! Farm Burger

REVIEWS BY JOHN B. MOORE

Six metro area locations Peachtree Corners reopening July 7 farmburger.com

In 2020, Farm Burger celebrates 10 years serving locally and ethically sourced food to multiple diverse neighborhoods!

Founded in Atlanta by farmer and rancher Jason Mann and restaurateur George Frangos, Farm Burger offers 100 percent grassfed, grass-finished beef burgers, as well as other thoughtfully sourced menu items including chicken burgers, vegan offerings, farm-fresh salads and more.

Since 2010, the Farm Burger team has focused on bringing communities together through seasonal, chef-driven menus.

As the connection between consumers and farmers, Farm Burger is committed to leading the fast-casual industry in forging a sustainable food future through meaningful restaurant experiences. Its signature FB Burger ranks among Food & Wine’s Best Burgers in the U.S. In 2018 and 2019, Farm Burger earned a spot on the Good Food 100 Restaurants™ List for its work to promote good food and sustainable food systems. Currently, the brand operates 12 locations across the Southeast.

Irby’s Tavern

Buckhead - 322 East Paces Ferry Rd. 404.254.1333 irbystavern.com

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit Reunions (Southeastern Records)

can be heard on the back stage while the crowd varies with the bands. Bar regulars love to wash Earl burgers down with their PBR tall boys. With a casual atmosphere and eclectic mix of patrons, you can’t go wrong with a visit to The Earl.

Twin Peaks Restaurant Buckhead - 3365 Piedmont Rd.

(404) 961-8946 twinpeaksrestaurant.com

Twin Peaks Restaurant is a rugged mountain lodge known for its man cave setting and beautiful Twin Peaks Girls. They have the best kitchen in sports and serve up highquality comfort food with a wide array of sandwiches and salads to choose from. Every burger is smashed and seared to order for maximum flavor. These delicious burgers are served up on buttery challahinspired buns with caramelized onions, a choice of five cheeses, and fresh veggies like lettuce and tomatoes. Twin Peaks has an extensive selection of 29-degree draft beers from 32 taps served into huge icecold, frosted mugs. There are private rooms available for bookings and a lively rooftop patio with great views of the city.

Flatiron

Atlanta’s hometown sports bar, Irby’s Tavern is a celebration of our fair city’s sports and culture. This Buckhead establishment is a sanctuary for all those who are proud to call Atlanta home. Irby’s menu consists of great burgers, wings, sandwiches and salads. Irby’s has six mouthwatering burgers that all come with their famous house-cut fries. The patio is now open while offering curbside pick-up and delivery to the Buckhead area. Irby’s has plenty of popular drafts on tap, wine and house cocktails. Enjoy $4 drafts on Wednesday and Thursdays. Trivia is back on their patio Wednesdays at 8pm. Follow them on Instagram for events plus weekly and daily specials @irbystavern.

The Earl

East Atlanta - 488 Flat Shoals Ave. (404) 522-3950 badearl.com Located in the heart of the East Atlanta Village, The Earl is the kind of place you can hang out at all day. It is a great combination of restaurant, bar and concert hall.

Their burgers are well known and have received numerous awards including the EARL Burger, made with 100% Black Angus Beef. The open front offers cafe’ seating with a great view of the East Atlanta scene. At night anything and everything PG 6 • July 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

Album Reviews

Jason Isbell has long outgrown the designation “that guy who used to be in Drive-By Truckers” and evolved into one of the best songwriters to come out of the past couple of decades.

And nowhere is that more obvious than on Isbell’s seventh LP, Reunions, his most expansive yet. The sound is simply massive at times, and shockingly intimate elsewhere.

And while the music is certainly impressive thanks to The 400 Unit, like every record before it, it’s Isbell’s lyrics that make the album impossible to forget. Whether he’s singing about his sobriety (“It Gets Easier”) or being a father (“Letting You Go”), there’s a deeply confessional connection Isbell makes with his listeners that is nearly impossible replicate (god knows, many have tried and failed).

The album opens with the nearly seven-minute long slow build “What Have I Done to Help,” a lament about our willingness to simply shake our heads in disbelief and then turn our attention elsewhere to a slew of social tragedies (“Climb to safety, you and me and the baby/Send our thoughts and prayers to loved ones on the ground/And as the days went by we just stopped looking down…”); disturbingly relatable.

Isbell and his band once again brought in Dave Cobb to produce, their fifth collaboration, and as a result Reunions fits seamlessly into the band’s growing catalogue, easily one of the most consistently solid musical track records to come along in a while. Thirteen years ago, Isbell split from Drive-By Truckers and discovered his own voice. He’s clearly showing no signs of letting up, as Reunions is possibly his best album yet.

East Atlanta - 520 Flat Shoals Ave. (404) 688-8864 flatironatl.com

Sammy Brue

The Flatiron is located in the historic flatiron building on the corner of Flat Shoals and Glenwood in the heart of East Atlanta Village. It is a favorite hangout among residents and those visiting the area. Open since 1997, their friendly and professional staff and great bartenders keep their customers coming back. Flatiron was a first place winner in Creative Loafing’s Burger Week contest in 2017 beating out over 50 Atlanta restaurants and bars. They placed second in 2016. Build your own 1/2 Pound Angus Beef burger using their variety of toppings or try one of their originals like the Flatiron Burger. This tasty treat is topped with bacon, grilled peppers, blue cheese crumbles, American cheese and crispy onion rings. In addition to their award winning burgers, the vegan friendly menu offers a variety of sandwiches, soups, salads, quesadillas and other appetizers.

The Flatiron offers non-smoking inside and dog friendly patio. Upstairs is the Trophy Room with second bar, pool table and dart room. 21 and up establishment.

Sammy Brue’s 2017 debut drew a lot of attention – in part – because the Utah-based folk/Americana musician was just 15. And while it would have almost been journalistic malpractice not to cite his age in covering that release, it did overshadow the fact that it was a pretty solid musical outing. Now that Brue is back, this time with Crash Test Kid, and now old enough to avoid the “holy shit, this kid is so young” headlines, the focus is back on the music; and it’s even more impressive than its predecessor.

Crammed with 11 tracks, still anchored to the world of folk and Americana, Brue brings in more straight-forward rock and some blues influences as well to fill out the record. “Skatepark Domesday Blues” even finds Brue exercising his noise punk demons. The record’s opening track “Gravity,” still rooted in modern Americana, is a nice transition from his debut and 2018 EP to his latest collection of songs. But just the second song in, “Die Before You Live” he moves to a more rollicking, energetic sound. By the time he gets to the fast-tempo bluesslathered “Teenage Mayhem,” a quick build that leads to an explosion of guitar distortion, it’s clear the Brue is not content to simply make the same record over again.

There are still enough songs here tethered to Americana to feel like a natural evolution rather than simply an attempt to drastically reinvent himself musically. The measured, smartly written “True Believer,” for example sounds like it could have easily been a part of that 2017 debut and also manages to be one of Brue’s best songs to date. With Crash Test Kid, he’s able to both change directions a bit without losing any of the charm of his initial effort that won over so many converts.

Crash Test Kid (New West Records)

Glenn Danzig – Danzig Sings Elvis

(Cleopatra Records) Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is.

As odd as it seems, Glenn Danzig is big Elvis Presley fan and for a very long time he’s talked about recording an album dedicated solely to music of The King. The result, Danzig Sings Elvis is exactly as promised. And while it certainly isn’t for everyone, or even most, there is something oddly earnest about how the founder of the Misfits and Samhain treats Presley’s music, devoting an odd reverence to the music coming across as sincere.

In a 2015 interview, Danzig talked about his Presley musical influence. “Elvis is actually kind of how I got into music,” Danzig said. “When I was a kid, I was cutting school pretending I was sick and I would lie at home watching old movies, and Jailhouse Rock came on with Elvis. I was like, ‘I want to do this. This is great.’ And that’s how I veered to music.”

Across 14 tracks, with sparse musical backing, Danzig’s booming baritone pays respect to the long departed rock and roller covering a mix of hits and deep cuts. Among the more well-known songs here like the oft-covered “Fever” and an impressively eerie “Always On My Mind,” there are a slew of lesser known songs. The oddest moment among the dozen or so though is the inclusion of “Baby Let’s Play House” the mid- ‘50s track that sounds ridiculously dated coming through the Danzig filter.

But there are moments here that certainly impress, like the starkly emotional “One Night.” It’s at that moment, early on in the record sequencing that it’s clear this is not simply an odd curiosity or a novelty record, but a sincere show of appreciation

by Danzig to one of his musical heroes.

Ancient Whales

Vestiges Of Tails Appear In All Of Us

(Weiner Records) Buried inside the stacks of Ancient Whales’ record collection, you’re bound to find everything from Husker Du and My Bloody Valentine to Marc Boland and Bowie. On their latest, Vestiges Of Tails Appear In All Of Us, the band leaves no influence behind.

The sloppy, frenetic, sometimes catchy LP is a love note to garage rock, punk, the occasional hook and noise – sweet, distorted, cracking noise.

Across a baker’s dozen of new songs, the band doesn’t evolve their sound much, but that’s hardly a deterrent to fans of the underground group. The group’s most accessible song here is the opening track “Stick and Poke,” an infectious riff-heavy song, with innocuous lyrics that almost boarders on pop – albeit very loud, dirty pop. The same can almost be said for the collection of songs that follow, “To Be” and “Everything.”

Elsewhere, the band dives deeper into their punk influences, bringing in snatches of The Stooges and early Meat Puppets, complete with the occasional psychedelic flourishes. In the span of just about 30 minutes, Ancient Whales manage to cycle through a slew of great noise bands from the ’70s up to the late ‘90s, for a record that seems steeped in nostalgia and still someone manages to be contemporary. Though it’s hard to dismiss the moments of repetitiveness throughout the record where songs almost bleed into each other with little distinction. Certainly not for everyone, Ancient Whales have still managed to put out a solidly strong effort that’s bound to find its audience.

Pig-N-Chik

pignchik.net 4920 Roswell Rd. 404.255.6368 5071 Peachtree Ind. Blvd. 770.451.1112 1815 Briarcliff Rd. 404.474.9444

Fat Matt’s Rib Shack

1811 Piedmont Rd. 404.607.1622 fatmattsribshack.com

Since 1990, award winning Fat Matt's Rib Shack has been one of Atlanta's favorite hot-spots. They are known for their great BBQ, live blues nightly and a casual setting for the whole family to enjoy. Not limited to the North Carolina or Kentucky styles, Fat Matt's uses their own seasoning and cooking technique. These ribs are smoked to perfection and literally falling off the bone.

The ribs can be ordered as a whole, half slab, or on a sandwich. They also serve great barbecue chicken and pork. The signature side is their Rum Baked Beans, but they also have delicious Brunswick Stew, Mac & Cheese, Potato Salad, and Cole Slaw. Fat Matt's serves nine beers on tap and more in bottles. There is outdoor patio seating but that is currently on hold along with their live music due to Covid. At press time serving take-out only. Check Fat Matt’s website and their Facebook page for updates. Call ahead for July 4th catering at their hotline 678-521-5607.

Lovies BBQ

3420 Piedmont Rd. NE (Buckhead) Loviesbbq.com 404.254.2848 In the hustle and bustle of Buckhead, Lovies is an unexpected, down to earth comfort food spot that celebrates content-

Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q

1238 Dekalb Ave NE 404.577.4030 Catering 404.414.0826 foxbrosbbq.com

Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q made a huge splash upon opening in 2007. This award-winning barbecue restaurant is known for their unique Southern-style barbecue with Texas flair, serving up whole hog, smoked brisket, and wings with original side dishes to the hungry masses. To complement their que, the Fox brothers developed a sauce that mixes the flavors of Texas with the heat of the South. Today Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q has become a staple for Atlanta natives and visitors alike, and has earned top spots on barbecue rankings from top publications like Eater, USA Today Travel, Southern Living, and Maxim Magazine. The restaurant has been featured on national news channels including The Weather Channel, TLC, Fox News, and The Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives”. Fox Bros.

Bar-B-Q is the Official BBQ of the Atlanta Falcons and will serve up their famous ‘que to hungry Falcons Fans at Mercedes Benz Stadium this fall. When baseball resumes, find them at the Terrapin Taproom and in Section 153 at SunTrust Park. For Fox Bros. on the go, visit the Que’osk, located at 120 Ottley Drive in Armour Yards. Now open for dine-in, pick-up and delivery. For more information call (404) 577-4030 or visit foxbrosbbq.com.

Best Blues!

Best Ribs!

CATERING HOTLINE (678) 521-5607 (404) 607-1622 • 1811 Piedmont Ave. NE fatmattsribshack.net WE DELIVER • WE DELIVER • WE DELIVER • WE DELIVER • WE DELIVER

Atlanta’s Favorite Family Style BBQ

BEST BBQ!

WE CATER!

7 YEARS IN A ROW!

CALL TODAY!

PigNChik.net Sandy Springs / Buckhead 4920 Roswell Rd • 404-255-6368 Chamblee / Brookhaven 5071 Peachtree Industrial Blvd. • 770-451-1112 Emory Area 1815 Briarcliff Rd. • 404-474-9444 WE DELIVER • WE DELIVER • WE DELIVER • WE DELIVER • WE DELIVER

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Pig-N-Chik is one among the top Barbecue restaurants on Facebook and on first taste you can see why. The ribs come St. Louis cut and are cooked until they show a pink smoke ring. All the meats here are served naked without sauce so the true flavor of the meat comes through. Their homemade BBQ sauces are found on the tables and their barbecue is served accompanied with a slice of thick white bread to mop it up. AJC food critic John Kessler writes, “It is glorious stuff, as every barbecue should be but rarely is.” Pig-N-Chik is a family friendly, community oriented barbecue restaurant that offers something that everyone will like; all at affordable prices.

From barbecue ribs and barbecue pork to turkey, beef brisket, chicken wings, smoked salmon and a variety of salads, they’ve got a menu filled with irresistible dishes. Your children will love their kid's menu, featuring a tasty selection of chicken fingers, corndogs, beef and pork sandwiches and pork ribs. For dessert they have great homemade pudding in iconic Moon Pies.

Pig-N-Chik has a full scale catering operation. They will be bustling on 4th of July so make sure to place your order a few days before. All three locations open for Dinein, Take-out, Delivery and Catering.

ment, convenience and co m mu n i t y.

With roots firmly planted in Atlanta, Lovies is a dream come true for friends Nate, Drew, and Kay who now provide the greater Atlanta community with the same great food, friends and family had come to expect. When you visit Lovies, you’ll first be greeted by the irresistible smell of slow cooked meat just before you’re given a heartfelt welcome upon entering.

Everyone can feel at home in the casual atmosphere that’s brimming with Atlanta pride – complete with a row of seats salvaged from the 1996 Olympics stadium.

Custom-built twin Stump’s smokers ensure their food is smoked to perfection. Lovies is built on simple ingredients, tried and true traditions, and a commitment to serving smoked comfort food with a big serving of hospitality.

CALL FOR CATERING!

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Summer Barbecue!

Your Neighborhood Pizzeria!

More BBQ Restaurants Moe’s Original BBQ 14th Street NW 404.249.0707 moesoriginal.bbq.com D.B.A. Barbecue 1190 N. Highland Ave 404.249.5000 dbabarbecue.com Slopes BBQ 200 Johnson Ferry Road 404.252.3220 slopesbbq.com Community Q BBQ 1361 Clairmont Rd 404.633.2080 communityqbbq.com Greater Good BBQ 4441 Roswell Rd. 404.303.8525 greatergoodbbq.com Williamson Bros. 1425 Roswell Rd. 770.971.3201 williamsonbros.com

Atlanta’s Favorite Pizza!

Multiple Atlanta Locations: JohnnysPizza.com insiteatlanta.com • July 2020 • PG 7

MUSIC

POSITIVELY COUNTRY

Whitney Rose Continues to Define Americana as She Flattens the Curve

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

S

HE’S A VITAL PART OF THE constantly expanding Austin music scene but Whitney Rose, a native of Canada’s Maritimes, has arrived at a decidedly creative crossroads of traditional country and modern Americana. Her latest album, We Still Go To Rodeos was produced by Paul Kolderie, a crafty collaborator known for production credits on projects with Radiohead, The Pixies, Hole and Morphine.

Their surprisingly harmonious blend has resulted in a new collection of tunes with precise instrumental backing from a stellar batch of musicians including the alwaysreliable guitarist and producer Gurf Morlix.

Deftly combining elements of story-driven traditional country and radio-friendly ‘70s singer-songwriter pop, the twelve-song album was released last week on Rose’s own artistmanagement-run label MCG - right in the middle of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

With her album release tour cancelled for the foreseeable future, the talented artist is sheltering in place in Texas, while making the most of her unsolicited free time. INsite spoke with Rose by phone from her home near Austin about the record and her unique methods of coping with the shutdown.

While you’re at home flattening the curve, are you glad to have some extra downtime to work on new projects? How are you handling it?

It’s strange. When all of this started, I had a lot of tourdates booked around the release of the new record. Seeing them all cancelled or postponed was pretty disheartening. But I thought I’d make the best of it and write and really get some things done. I thought I’d just write a new record and then as soon as I’m allowed to be in a room with more than five

I DO LIKE TELLING A GOOD STORY. I PREFER WRITING IN FIRST PERSON BUT QUITE OFTEN I’M TELLING SOMEONE ELSE’S STORY FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE.

people, I can record it, just trying to keep things positive, you know? But so far, I’ve not written as much as I thought I would. The creative process is something you just can’t force. If you do try to force it, it’s just not as real. So in that respect, I haven’t really done much. I’ve kinda disappointed myself in that respect - and it might change tomorrow. I hope it does. I’m just waiting on a creatively sunny day.

So how are you spending the time?

I’ve been reading a lot and exercising. This is funny - and it’s as much for entertainment as it is for exercise - I’ve been visiting a lot of old Jane Fonda workout videos from the ‘80s.

The outfits are just hilarious and as much as it’s actually good for me, it’s also really, really fun. So I’ve been doing that and also studying French for an hour or two a day with an online course. I had a basic understanding of it but if they ever let me go back to France again, I’ll be pretty bilingual by then. I’ve been enjoying that.

I’ve also, and don’t laugh, I’ve been doing a daily test to see how long it takes me to fill in a full map of North America, state-by-state for the United States and providence by providence in Canada. Just weird little things like that, stuff that you’d learn in grade school. Hey, I’m just doing my best over here.

Sounds like you’ve definitely mastered Time Management 101.

Well this isn’t the first time I’ve had time by myself. I don’t do anything else other than music so in-between releases or tours, if I’m not on the road this is pretty much what my life looks like - except now I can’t really go anywhere or see anybody or try a new restaurant! I do miss that. But I know I’m certainly not alone in this; we’re definitely all in it together. Not even just here, I mean universally.

I hope this era passes fairly quickly because I’m already tired of seeing everyone’s bookcases and record shelves on all these athome internet broadcasts.

(Laughs) Yes! I’m still looking at some new ideas of how to promote the album from here.

It seems like everybody is doing solo shows from home. But I’d really rather play with my band because I’m not a picker, I’m more of a strummer. It’s just a hard time for everybody and we’re still kinda early in it. I think people are still trying to find their footing and what their lives are going to look like for the next little bit. That’s why I guess I’m fine with what I’m doing. I’m not even apologetic that I’m not really able to write much yet. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this new situation.

I’m also trying not to be depressed about all of the changes and all the shows I’m not going to be doing that I was really looking forward to playing. The day my record came out, I was scheduled to play the Stagecoach Festival in California and then go to Scandinavia in July.

That’s not likely to happen at this point. I was really looking forward to all of that, but again, everyone is disappointed they can’t get back to their regular schedules. Honestly, these days I think I’m happiest when I’m honing my French and learning new things. I know Gwyneth Paltrow got a lot of slack for saying it’s a good idea to learn a foreign language, but I love it. I use a program called Babbel and it’s actually a lot of fun.

Maybe you can do an album in French while you’re shut in.

I’m gettin’ close, man! I’ve really been working on my accent which is so important to the language.

It’s very melodic, especially compared to English or German.

It really is. English can be very harsh and direct but French and Italian are so romantic.

You can say, ‘I’m going to the restroom’ and it sounds so beautiful. I think my French fans will be happy with my improvement. Here’s a funny story. One of the first times I was ever in France I was touring, of course. I had perfected how I was going to say, ‘Good evening. I’m Whitney Rose and I’m so excited to be here this evening.’ But what I ended up saying into the microphone was, ‘I am aroused to be here this evening.’ Excited from English to French is just …um, not the same! I noticed that it got a laugh and I just thought it was because my French was so terrible. I didn’t really think anything of it until after the show, I came out and was signing records and stuff. Someone very kindly and gently told me what I’d said. They’d already written down the correct thing to say, so that’s what I said the next night.

Let’s talk about something a lot happier than dealing with a pandemic. The new album is your best yet and I’m so glad to finally have a physical copy of it. Before you even play it, the cover has a very cool ‘70s feel to it - which is a high compliment coming from me. It looks like the first Carly Simon album.

Oh, I’ll definitely take that compliment. I had a very specific idea of what I wanted the cover to look like. It’s the first time I haven’t used a professional photographer. I was just out one day with my fella and he actually took that picture. I wanted it to be really simple and not too flashy.

It really works with the music inside, too.

PG 8 • July 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

I’m glad you think so, I wanted that feeling.

It’s very cool to end the record with the title track instead of leading off with it. It makes it seem more like the closing theme of a film than a first single.

I really didn’t know where else to put that song because it’s a bit of a departure from the other songs on the record. I really liked that tune. I hope someday I’ll have the opportunity to perform it live for people. But yeah, that song had a different title at first. Then when I was trying to name the record, I listened to every single song, line for line, to find one certain line that I could call the entire record. When I got to ‘We still go to rodeos,’ in my mind it meant so many different things, so I reamed the song that. To me, that line means that basically, even when things aren’t perfect, there’re still things that are good.

It’s not as ‘traditional country’ as some of your other records.

It’s not and that’s another reason I think I used that title. It’s got a country feel and I wanted people to know that I’m still a country artist. And it’s got a positive feeling to it, too.

When you were in the sequencing stage and looking for the title, did you see the album as an interconnected story? Or do the songs exist as separate little vignettes?

Usually when I start a record, I have a pretty big masterlist of songs I haven’t recorded. But for this one, most of the tunes were written within a two or three-month period. When I’m writing, current sentiments usually kind of seep their way in there somewhere. So there is a little bit of a thematic thing going on, but it’s not a concept record. Although that would be fun to try sometime, too.

Are you one of those songwriters who put yourself directly into the song or do the narrators exist in their own fictional worlds?

I think it’s about half and half. I do like telling a good story. I prefer writing in first person but quite often I’m telling someone else’s story from their perspective. As I get better on the guitar, I introduce new strumming patterns and that can really dictate the direction of the song. Every song on Rodeos, I wrote by myself.

There are no covers and no co-writes. These are all from me - from my own little world here in South Austin.

We Still Go To Rodeos is available from most audio retailers and directly from the artist at whitneyrosemusic.com.

MUSIC

FINDING HER VOICE

After Decades of Instrumental Collaborations, Scarlet Rivera has a Lot to Say

your have an incredible control of it.

It’s definitely bluesy and the obvious HE’S BEST KNOWN AS BOB influences aren’t lost in the delivery.

DYLAN’S right-hand player during Well as we said, I have been around it my the iconic singer-songwriter’s whole life. I understand phrasing upside Rolling Thunder Revue in the mid’70s down and backwards as an instrumentalist. and was a featured instrumentalist on his I know how to pull a phrase or anticipate a influential Desire and Hard Rain albums. beat. To know when to pull back and when But internationally known violinist Scarlet to really let go, it’s all a part of who I am.

Rivera has finally released an album where So I found it was an easy transition to use her own unique vocals tell the story. those same tools with my On the two Dylan records WELL YEAH. I’VE DONE voice. Finally. and her throughout her own canon of stylistically EVERYTHING FROM There’s a definite diverse albums, Rivera has ORNETTE COLEMAN Dylan vibe to some of been content with letting her TO THE DYLAN TOUR your phrases. instrument speak. Beginning TO A 13-PIECE CUBAN It’s funny you say that. I with her self-titled debut BAND. AFTER ALL THIS co-wrote the song “Sacred in 1977, her penchant CRAZINESS, MAYBE IN Wheel” with [Americana for mesmerizing musical THE FALL, I’LL HAVE A singer-songwriter] John excursions has taken her CELTIC RECORD COMING Cate. Before I did it for this around the world - for solo album, we did a version of it OUT. IT’S ALL JUST compositions and a myriad on his record and he asked of collaborations with some MUSIC TO ME. me to sing a verse. When I of the hippest artists on the went back into the control planet. room for the playback, I said, ‘If you don’t On All Of Me, her 12th official release, like my part, you can erase it.’ Everybody she finally steps up to the microphone for started laughing and he said, ‘Not only are an all-too-brief selection of raw, rustic we not gonna erase it, we think you sound and rocking tunes that reveal her voice like a cross between Bob Dylan and a to be a surprising blend of unique and female Johnny Cash!’ familiar phrasing. It’s a bluesy churn of Joni Mitchell meets Kris Kristofferson He’s right and what an incredible that has been described by her peers as a compliment. heady blend of “Bob Dylan and a female Yeah, I was like, ‘Whoa! Well I guess I’d Johnny Cash.” better keep singing.’

Released this month on indie Bright Sun Records just as the world began sheltering When your first album came out in 1977, in place, the six-song collection is simply the industry was different, the audience too good to be missed and is already was different, attitudes toward female in this writer’s Top Ten of 2020. She’s artists were different - and every song on planned a few virtual performances to your record was different. Now you can herald the release but for maximum effect call your own shots and release an EP or just download the tracks, turn it up and even singles if you want because you’re hit repeat. It’s an enthralling trip through finally the boss. the human condition, multi-layered with Yeah that first one was on Warner insightful social and political commentary.

Brothers and I had no idea that I was INsite recently spoke with the soft-spoken actually the power behind the record. I and charmingly self-effacing musician by kinda did but I still let the producer control phone from her home in California. everything. “Now little girl, I know you don’t know much about how this all works.

It’s great to hear you singing on this You know, you don’t have to hire your own album. What took you so long? attorney, you can just use mine.’

Well it’s a long story. There’s been some repression on that subject that goes all the Oh boy. way back to my childhood, really. There’ve So I signed away 100 percent of my been a few times in my life when I actually publishing for my first two albums. But I did sing, but I’d always go, ‘No, it’s just not really loved my first one. I thought it was good.’ I’ve kept it to myself for the most really good. I had a very original band at part, but Bob Dylan actually heard me sing the time. I think Bob was very proud that once. That was interesting.

I had my own band and that it was very progressive, too.

Even though you’re friends and colleagues, was it daunting to sing in his presence?

Especially for the time. Jazz fusion was Well, he came to see me play in a tiny hip and mostly a boys club. club in Minneapolis in the early ‘80s. He It was and then by the second album, the was there with a childhood friend of his. producer took over and I don’t really relate He wasn’t touring or anything and since we to it all that much because it wasn’t what I were all in the same town at the same time, was wanting to say. on the afternoon before the show we hung out. He heard me practice “I Believe In That’s a shame because you were coming You” and I was terrified about singing it. from some very high-profile performances and exposure with the Revue and those What was his reaction? two Dylan records.

He said, ‘You got anything you need It still blows my mind that around the harmonica on?’ He was being nice, but he world, people will show up with that first sat in the back of this little club and he did album for me to sign. So it did endure, hear me sing that night.

I guess.

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

S

Your voice serves the songs well and

Even before your work with Bob, you were working in some very ambitious circles.

It’s hard for me to stick with one particular thing. I think they had a hard time filing my music. ‘It is rock, is it jazz, what is it?’ It was rock, but it was just all over the place.

It was like the very best records because it was a more of a musical journey than what the label probably expected from you. It certainly wasn’t Desire 2, which is probably what they were really wanting.

Yeah, I think if I had been calculating, I would have had a manager who pushed me to do some sort of Dylan-type spinoff, right then. That probably would have been a pretty smart thing to do, business-wise.

But I didn’t want to do that kind of record because that’s not who I was.

I’d expect nothing less from someone who has worked with everyone from Orenette Coleman to the Indigo Girls.

Well yeah. I’ve done everything from Ornette Coleman to the Dylan tour to a 13-piece Cuban band. After all this craziness, maybe in the fall, I’ll have a Celtic record coming out. It’s all just music to me.

For more information about the CD, vinyl and digital release of All Of Me, visit ScarletRiveraMusic.com.

music at

THE fred 2020 concert season presented by:

DAUGHTRY AUGUST 8 POP 2000 – Hosted by Lance Bass of *NSYNC and featuring O-Town, Ryan Cabrera & LFO AUGUST 14 38 SPECIAL with special guest Shyanne august 21 The Georgia Players Guild presents “Georgia Rhythm: a revue of GA music history” August 22 Rumours – A Fleetwood Mac Tribute august 29 DEPARTURE: The Journey Tribute Band september 12 BLACK JACKET SYMPHONY - MUSIC OF THE EAGLES september 19 little river band september 25 Gone West october 2 ratt & cinderella’s tom keifer october 10 tickets on sale now at amphitheater.org

But your style has always been a fusion. insiteatlanta.com • July 2020 • PG 9

MUSIC

WILLIE NILE’S GUIDE TO NEW YORK

Celebrating 40 Years of Recording, the NY Rocker Toasts His Favorite City

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

N

EXT MONTH GRAHAM PARKER, Nils Lofgren, Richard Barone, Lucy Kaplansky and James Maddock lead an all-star tribute to singer-songwriterguitarist Willie Nile as he celebrates four decades of recording. Willie Nile Uncovered (Celebrating 40 Years of Music), a two-CD, 26-track tribute album, will be released on Aug. 21.

As he influences others, Nile continues to be moved by the famous “city that never sleeps.”

Released in May, his New York At Night is not a concept album but a collection of songs that play like a loud love letter to the place he’s called home since the early ‘70s. The venerable locale has served as muse for artists, poets and dreamers for years, and for his thirteenth studio album, the Buffalo-born Nile takes his civic commitment to a new level of passion and appreciation.

INsite spoke with the prolific musician from his apartment in Greenwich Village, during the peak of the recent coronavirus shutdown.

It’s great that you went ahead and released the album in spite of the pandemic.

Yeah, I thought about waiting to release it.

Right now, you can’t really tour and promote it on the road. But you know what? It’s a positive thing so I’d rather just put it out there. If it can help to be any kind of healing, then I’m fine.

Let’s put some good news out there and fight the darkness with a little bit of light.

It’s a strong release but your entire catalog is equally impressive. In forty years of recording, there’s not a single album from your catalog that people should avoid - and that’s quite rare. Even Bob Dylan has a few, shall we say, non-essential releases.

(Laughs) Well, thank you for saying that.

Some are better than others, surely. But I won’t go into a studio or on a stage unless I have something to say. I didn’t get into this to be some kinda American Idol - that doesn’t interest me in the least. Makin’ a living and being successful at it, that’s what you have to do. I love doing shows and writing songs - but when it comes to making a record, for me there’s no such thing as filler.

As times and tastes have changed over the years, your output still manages to sound fresh.

It’s funny because as you know, it’s usually the other way around. Rock’n’roll is a young man’s game sometimes. As we get older, the

flame dims a bit and things just aren’t as inspiring as they used to be. But in my case, it seems to be ass-backwards. I’m writing more than ever now. Just before you called, I was mumbling some lyrics into my phone because I woke up with a song in my head. I’m excited about this third part of my chapters. There’s still some good music on the way.

It’s unusual to not be jaded and tired after 40 years of consistent output.

I think I’ve finally figured out what makes a good song. I know what makes me laugh or cry or what could be a good fight song, a good rave or even a good knock-down-the-wallson-Saturday-night kinda thing. People say, ‘How are you holdin’ up in times like these?

Are you climbing the walls?’ I say, ‘No, not at all.’ I’m pretty well occupied because there’s so many things goin’ on in my brain. At this point, the thing about the craft is knowing which ideas to pursue. It’s like, ‘That one’s ok, but if it won’t be great, why bother?’

Right, with age comes the wisdom to know the difference between a pretty good song idea and one you might want to sing every night for the next twenty years.

Exactly. For me, life is still real. I can still sing my early songs with the same kind of passion that I had when I first came to town.

The live shows are still fun. I mean, the last live show we did was February 29. We played this nice theater in New Jersey. Check this out - our bass player Johnny Pisano, drummer Jon Weber, lead guitar player Jimi Bones and my dear friend James Maddock joined us that night. And every one of ‘em got the virus!

They all went through it and they all came out alright. For some reason, I didn’t get it. Maybe the virus looked at me and went, ‘Nah, I don’t wanna go near that guy.’

You live in the heart of the Village. How’s life for you at the moment?

I try to get out every day but if I don’t leave, I have a piano and a guitar here so I’m just writin’ away. But when I do leave - like at night, it’s gettin’ spooky on the streets. Last week, I went out at about ten o’clock. I was on Bleecker Street and it was already like a ghost town.

Eerie.

It is, but it’s also hauntingly beautiful. If you would’ve told me they could do a “Day The Earth Stood Still” kinda thing in New York City, I’d have thought, no way. Maybe on The Twilight Zone but not in reality. But man

WE STICK TOGETHER AND STEP UP. THESE ARE HARD TIMES, BIGTIME. BUT WE’VE STEPPED UP BEFORE AND WE’RE GONNA MAKE IT THIS TIME, TOO.

it’s like, just buildings. There’s an incredible, silent beauty to it all. At seven o’clock they do this thing where all of a sudden, there’s a big racket. People start applauding, banging pans and whoopin.’ They’re applauding the folks on the front lines and that’s pretty righteous.

When fiercely independent people come together to make a joyfully loud noise as a tribute, it really says a lot about humanity.

Yeah man! We’re tough. We stick together and step up. These are hard times, bigtime.

But we’ve stepped up before and we’re gonna make it this time, too. I believe in this city and I believe in the people who live here.

It seems there’s an incredible resilience to NYC in general.

Absolutely. There’s a sense of camaraderie and community. In the stores, you see that for the most part people are polite and exercising social distancing. I love New York for that.

Here in the Village, there’s a combination of regular people, locals, tourists, hipsters, the homeless, the rich, the poor. And all the languages! It still amazes me. If you and I stood at the corner at MacDougal and Bleecker for ten minutes, we’d hear three of four different languages from all the people walking by.

That’s beautiful.

Very cosmopolitan. I love that about the city as well. The way people are treating each other is so inspiring. As a songwriter, I’m influenced because my job is to shed some light and offer a backbeat to the whole thing. There’s an incredible energy here. I’ve got enough stuff in my head to write about anywhere or anything, but I’m always inspired the most by New York.

Tell us about the title track of the new album.

It’s a true story. Last summer, I’d been to the Iridium, Les Paul’s club, to see some show. I

PG 10 • July 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

can’t even remember what it was. I came out at about 10:30 by myself, just walking through Times Square to take the subway down West 4th Street to go home. It was a regular Friday night, mildly crowded. I see the train there with the door open and I start to walk toward it. But then I noticed a tall can of whipped cream sitting by somebody’s foot. And you know, I’m thinkin,’ ‘What the hell?!’ As I got closer, I could see that that this guy’s feet were completely covered with it, up his leg and to his thighs. As I entered the car, I just looked to my left. I was really curious to look to the right to see who this was, but I didn’t. I went to the other end of the car and couldn’t see what was going on from there. I just thought to myself, ‘Damn, that’s a real New York moment for ya.’

Inspiration hit at that point?

When I got out of the car and came up the stairs, it was a Friday night in the Village, just teeming with humanity. Tourists, college kids, revelers. There were homeless people with their hands out. From the rich to the poor, you know? That’s when it hit me. I was like, ‘Wow, this is New York at night.’ The minute I said those four words, I knew it was a song.

As I walked the two blocks to my home, I was writing it. I went upstairs, picked up the guitar and boom. Forty-five minutes later, I was done. I knew that was the perfect title track to this album. I had the bulk of the album ready but I knew that was the title because all the songs are inspired by the city. So it’s rockin,’ it’s real and it’s universal. It’s kinda like seeing the whole world through the keyhole of New York City.

New York At Night is available from all major music retailers and via link from willienile.com. A portion of the proceeds from Willie Nile Uncovered will benefit the Rock Can Roll hunger relief organization. For information, visit paradiddlerecords.com.

MUSIC

FINDING THE FEELING

The Latest from Pam Tillis Blends the Best of the ‘70s with a ‘90s Country Mindset

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

Daniels was playing the big rock concerts.

EXT YEAR MARKS THE 40TH anniversary of Pam Tillis’ recording career. In 1981, she signed to Warner Brothers and began releasing a sundry string of singles showcasing her unique approach to performance and songwriting. Her LP debut Above and Beyond The Doll of Cutey wasn’t a massive commercial success but critics were kind to the decidedly pop-oriented production.

The title alone should seal its place as one of the coolest album concepts of the ‘80s.

As the ‘90s began she was a certified hitmaker, an in-demand writer and one of the brightest stars in the burgeoning roster of “new country” artists. Charting with the fiercely independent spirit of “Don’t Tell Me What to Do,” the album Put Yourself in My Place firmly established her as one of the new guard of Nashville-based performers. Subsequent albums Homeward Looking Angel, Sweetheart’s Dance and Greatest Hits were all certified platinumsellers. Her only official number one on the country charts was 1995’s “Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life),” but she had at least a dozen other singles hit the Top Ten - including the enduring “Maybe It Was Memphis,” “Shake The Sugar Tree,” and “Let That Pony Run.” The 2000’s were an even more diverse and creatively challenging time with the release of It’s All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis, a brilliant reimaging of her father Mel’s songs, as well as the edgy RhineStoned and even a Christmas album, both issued on her own label in 2007.

Last month, Tillis’ Stellar Cat brand released Looking For A Feeling, a typically varied exploration of her diverse roots and inspirations. Reviews have likened it to the best of Joni Mitchell - combined with an appropriately solid Neil Young influence throughout the twelve-song set. It comfortably fits into the parameters of modern Americana but why bother to label it, just press play and enjoy.

The singer-songwriter recently spoke with INsite by phone from her home in East Nashville.

There’s a definite ‘70s vibe to the new album.

That’s high praise as far as I’m concerned.

Thank you! There was a review where the writer said how ‘Joni-esque’ it was and that it was a sort of homage. For me, that’s about as much high praise as you can get.

N

Since we’re all touched by it in some way, how are you handling life during these crazy times?

Well as long as I stay in a fetal position, I’m fine. No, it’s really just a day-by-day thing. I feel blessed that I’m not living paycheck-topaycheck like so many people in America do.

So I can coast for a while. But it’s been a really abrupt time for me because I’m just used to goin.’ It’s nothing for me to travel a thousand miles in a week. But now, to just be in a standstill all of a sudden it’s kind of a shock to the system.

With the newly imposed free time, are working on any new projects? Many of the artists I’ve talked with during this time actually welcome an open-ended period for creation.

Yeah, all those over-achievers just drive me crazy. I do think it’s wonderful to have some time to work, but I also think that our culture is obsessed with being busy. I think you can really buy into that cult of busy-ness. This is a really good time to just sit and think about what’s really going on and how to be adaptable in it. So I’ve been gardening and just being here.

Some people are saying now is a great time to release a new record because listeners have the luxury of time to absorb a full album – perhaps for the first time in years.

Yeah, that’s what they’re saying and it’s

You mentioned the blending of styles and influences. Nashville is even more of a melting pot these days than when you were growing up.

Well everything circles back around and that’s really happened here.

Did your recent move to East Nashville influence your style or process?

Yeah on this side of town, I guess they call ‘em the hipsters. Everybody’s got the hats and beards and the girls dress like Margo Price.

But what’s interesting to me is the music I’m drawing from, a lot of the ‘70s era, has been a huge part of Americana. That sound, you know?

So now a couple of generations later, all these young artists are pulling from the same well.

It’s new to them. So for me, I feel like my own influences are really valid right now.

definitely one way to look at it. For this record, we sort of set the wheels in motion a while back and unless you’re someone like Lady Gaga, you can’t really stop it once it’s going. So you’ve just gotta go with it. The people who need your music will get it and you just have to put it out there for them. The way we market music now, a lot of the old rules don’t apply anyway. I feel like I can basically be promoting this record all year. There doesn’t have to be a big push and then it’s over. I think I’ll just continue to talk about it for the next year or two if necessary and just let the chips fall where they may. We all have to start thinking of new ways to do our business and think outside the box for new records, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

It doesn’t hurt that you have a solid album to promote.

Well thank you. These days, you never know what will happen with a record. For some reason, something from it can catch fire and get the public’s attention but you just never know until it’s out there.

When you started this project did you have a

conceptual idea in mind or is this a collection of stand-alone tracks?

I had a few things in the can so to speak, and I was trying to imagine what kind of a setting I could hear them in. I’m a huge Neil Young fan and I love so many different things from the ‘70s. That’s when I grew up and those were my formative years. As a teen, you’re obsessed with music and that era has stayed a big part of me.

So there’s a little bit more of a mix of styles than people might think, especially from growing up in Nashville as the daughter of a country singer.

As an impressionable listener in the ‘70s, you had an incredible palate of potential ainfluences.

That’s right. My friends and I were listening to the Stones, Led Zeppelin, the James Gang and the Allman Brothers. Rock music was huge and Nashville was a real melting pot for all of it.

It was the place where rock and country met.

It’s funny when I think back because back then even Don Williams was considered edgy. He wore a hat and a turtleneck and people thought he was kind of “out there.” But we also had the Outlaws with Willie and Waylon and Charlie

Good music is timeless.

Yeah and that being said, with all these influences, I always try to do records that you really can’t tell what decade they were made in.

I kinda like skirting that box of labels.

That’s the best way to do it. As you know, you can put the needle on a record from the early ‘80s for example and not only know what year it was, but probably what month it was released.

(Laughs) Yeah, ‘Oh that was the month Madonna’s record came out.’

But your own early ‘80s releases still sound fairly current.

I will say some of the mixes can sound a little dated. Like, sometimes “Maybe It Was Memphis” comes on and I’ll think, ‘Oh my God, that was a lot of reverb!’ Or there was a particular kind of drum sound that we thought was fantastic at the time, but now it’s like, ‘Uggh.’

You have the luxury of re-cutting some of these songs if you feel like it revisiting them.

And we did! We did a record in 2012 called Recollection. I had lived with those songs for so long, I kinda smoothed out some of the edges.

We didn’t stray too far from the originals but to tell you the truth, I like some of the vocals on that record better than the originals.

Let’s talk about some of your favorites from the new album. The title track should be a hit single.

I love that one. It’s got a little bit of a different sound. We thought that might be a little headsup that the album is a little different sort of release from me.

With so many possible singles from this record, you’re blessed with an abundance of songs you’ll have to live with for a while.

I usually start with a big bag of songs for every record and by the time they make it to the record, there’s a definite reason why they’re there. You won’t hear the ones that end up in the reject pile, usually for a good reason!

Looking For A Feeling is available from all the usual suspects or via the links at pamtillis.com. insiteatlanta.com • July 2020 • PG 11

MUSIC

THE QUARTET HAS A THREESOME

Former Members of Jellyfish Reunite for a Challenging New Project

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

Y

ES, THE MEMBERS OF THE LICKERISH Quartet were in Jellyfish. But make no mistake, the new trio is an entirely different project. Formed in Los Angeles in 2017 by keyboardist Roger Joseph Manning, Jr, guitarist Eric Dover and bassist Tim Smith, the group issued their debut EP Threesome Vol. 1 in May. Two more four-song bundles are planned for later in the year.

On their first batch of tunes, the journeyman musicians’ love of psychedelia and progressive rock is in full effect.

Manning (Beck, Air, Cheap Trick, Imperial Drag), Dover (Imperial Drag, Slash’s Snakepit, Alice Cooper) and Smith (Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Finn Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Umajets) bring their varied tastes and experience to the disc, with able backing by drummer Jeremy Stacey of recent King Crimson line-ups.

Bookended by the quirky and sly “Fadoodle” and the marathon pop of “Lighthouse Spaceship,” the short package should please fans of prog and traditional, classic rock.

Insite recently spoke with Atlantan-resident Smith by phone from his home in Decatur.

Individually and collectively is the Lickerish Quartet able to create music in the midst of the shutdown and such?

Yeah, we’ve been doing a few things for the record, shooting some crazy little videos, comical commercials and stuff. For some reason, like so many other people I’ve decided to bake sourdough bread. I don’t know why, really.

If you’ve got hours to kill - why not, right? I’ve also decided to stain the fence in my backyard, which is about twenty gallons of paint and a much bigger job than I thought it would be.

Was the Lickerish Quartet a bigger project than you’d originally imagined?

Well we recorded most of it over the past two or three years and none of what’s going on now was happening.

But it’s funny, the first track we released, “Lighthouse Spaceship,” when we put it out in March, it really resonated with some folks about what we’re living through today.

Tell us about the decision to release several EPs instead of one full-length album.

We thought people might digest what we’re doing in smaller chunks, maybe. It also gives us time to complete everything. We still have to mix the second and third EPs, so this is a good way to generate interest and some money to pay for those things.

time since any of you had worked together.

We got together in Eric’s studio and started throwing some song ideas around. Then it started to stick, then we tried to get together more frequently. I’d fly out there for two weeks, then four or five months would go by while Roger did another Beck tour. That’s kinda why it took so long.

Those sessions were the first time you’d all worked together since, what was it, 1995?

Right, those two came to Atlanta to work with me on the Umajets album. Gosh, that was so long ago.

You know what they say about reunions, it can either go great or horribly wrong. 1995 was a lifetime ago and we’re all aging and changing by the minute.

Well yeah, like you said, we’re all older and everybody’s kinda taken on different political bents than they’d had twenty years ago or whatever. But when we talk about music, we’re all such fans that IT’S ALL IN FLUX would we’re able to talk about it in a way that gets very AT THIS POINT. specific. Even about specific sounds. Part of that WHEN IT ALL GETS is because we’ve all been hired as session guys TOO MUCH FOR ME, or sidemen for so many different artists that I JUST GO OUT AND you have to have that flexibility.

Good plan. I knew the combined productivity of this band could at least fill an LP or two.

Oh yeah, we have twelve songs already.

Roger released an EP last year and connected it to PledgeMusic, back when that was still a thing. He did really well with it and it sort of became our model for what we wanted to do with these PAINT MY songs. So we’re doing a hybrid version of what he did. We’re planning to offer some fun experiences that fans can get - to help us with the collaboration things or, whenever we can all be together again - to go record shopping and hang out. Just ways to stay connected and fund the project at the same time.

Let’s go back to the origins of the Quartet. Obviously, the three of you have an extended history, but this alignment has been a long time coming.

Yeah, Roger called me after he’d done a tour with Beck. He still tours with him, but this was around January of 2017. I’d finished playing with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, I’d been doing that for about five years. I was home from that and we just reconnected. It had been quite a long time since we’d worked together on anything of any significance. So he reached to see if I wanted to get together. I flew out to Los Angeles. Eric Dover lives out there. They’d worked together on Imperial Drag.

How’d the first meeting go? As you said, it had been a long PG 12 • July 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

FENCE.

It’s important to note that it’s not Jellyfish or Umajets or even a Roger Manning solo record.

This is a completely separate, stand-alone thing.

Right, we didn’t do this with any intention to recreate anything we’d done before. It’s a bit of a story that we were in Jellyfish, but it’s been twenty years since I’ve seen or talked to Andy [Sturmer], for example. He’s got his own life as does Jason [Falkner]. He’s working on another solo record. Roger obviously sees him and works with him because he’s also in Beck’s band. I’m sure Jason’s stuff will be great. He does the whole one-man-in-a-box thing.

Every good band has a break-up moment.

At the end of Jellyfish, part of why - it wasn’t sour for us but it was sad that it ended - and there was never gonna be an opportunity for me or for Eric to be a part of writing in that group. Roger acknowledged that. I think that was something he’d always wished he could have pursued. So there was a little bit of a thing that, well we weren’t able to do that then so let’s try and do it now.

Jellyfish came along at an odd time for pop music.

I think we were sort of out of our time even then. So many people have pointed out that had we arrived at a different time, what would happened. But we were there at the era of grunge, with Nirvana and Soundgarden and all of that kind of thing. We didn’t quite fit into any of that stuff. So yeah, it was an odd time for a band doing what we were trying to do. We were up against other bands, even on our label, and it was like, ‘Why are they getting all this attention and we’re not?’ It wasn’t because we thought we were better, it was just what was the popular thing at that moment. It was a big leap for people to try and accept what we were trying to do at that time. And maybe even for what we’re trying to do today.

To focus on your music requires a bit of work from the listener.

It’s not super common these days, in the sort of throwaway culture of listening on your iPhone. What we spent all this time and energy on becomes sort of background music.

We’re trying to create sonic mixes in stereo that sound a certain way. It’s an old school requirement of asking to the listener to actively listen.

That’s a tall order from any band at this point.

It is. For us, our first song was six and a half minutes long.

The folks that really listened to it, loved it. The length didn’t bother them. That’s who we are playing music for; if just getting on the radio was a goal, then we certainly picked the wrong song. That wasn’t our intention anyway.

For sonic purists, there’s also a vinyl edition of the EPs as well.

We just put the vinyl order in. Because it’s an EP of four songs, we had the added luxury of sequencing it in a unique way. We finally decided to put instrumental mixes of the same songs on the B-side. Without the vocals, the songs just offer a whole new level of things that I think are really interesting to hear. That’ll be the only place those tracks are available. Why waste the wax when we can put something interesting on there? When they’re ready, they’ll be available on our website. But past that, who knows? We could send them to a distributor but people can’t get out to record stores right now. It’s all in flux at this point. When it all gets too much for me, I just go out and paint my fence.

For more information and to order the EP and assorted merchandise, visit thelickerishquartet.com.

MUSIC

THE BOOK AND THE BEAT

Kathy Valentine’s Rock’n’Roll Memoir Details an Incredible Journey

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

N

EXT YEAR, BEAUTY AND THE Beat, the Go-Go’s debut album will be forty years old and the Hollywoodborn band is currently enjoying a wave of new activity.

In addition to Head Over Heels, the recent Broadway musical, a feature-length documentary by filmmaker Allison Ellwood premiered at Sundance in January and airs on Showtime in August. A new single from the movie is forthcoming and their summer tour has now been rescheduled for 2021.

Bassist Kathy Valentine’s Textones version of the Go-Go’s summer anthem “Vacation” is the theme to the controversial new Starz series Hightown.

Sidelined by the pandemic, Valentine’s spring book tour for her new memoir All I Ever Wanted was presented virtually via the internet. Sheltering at home, she garnered rave reviews in a slew of major publications and appeared on a number of innovative podcasts to discuss the book. Rock and roll books are plentiful but Valentine’s project is uniquely presented with a stand-alone album that plays as an emotional soundtrack to the passionate events depicted in the book.

Recently INsite spoke with the prolific musician and author by phone from her home in Austin.

How are you dealing with the crazy times?

I was sad to miss my book tour yeah but that would have been hard, too. Looking back I would have been on the go a lot - coming back, leaving down, coming back. And a lot of flying, which wears you down. It’s also hard with my daughter, even though she’s 17. Her dad lives in L.A. so when I’m gone it’s like. OK where is everybody? So I think as much as I didn’t like not being able to do it, there were some positives. And for a first-time author, I did pretty good for press and all that.

Definitely. Even during the pandemic, yeah you were all over the place. Every major outlet ran a review or interviewed you.

Even Marc Maron’s WTF and Bob Lefsetz podcasts, so congratulations.

Well thank you a lot of good came out of those podcasts. Howard Stern read the book because of it and talked about it.

During the shutdown, have you worked on anything besides promoting the book? Or have you had time?

For a while that was pretty much it, but I’ve been trying to do some more writing. I really wanna start getting some pieces ready for publication so I don’t just disappear while I try to write another book. It took three years to write this one.

Well, you had to live it first.

That’s true and a couple of agents had suggested that if I tried to pitch a memoir, publishers would want a tell-all. That was discouraging because that’s definitely not what I wanted to do. But I got an actual book deal and they said I could just write whatever I wanted. Having the deal gave me to freedom to write it and the motivation.

Sometimes I can sit down at the computer intending to write three pages. But then I’ll get bored and go write a song. So the book and the soundtrack took up a lot of my time for a while.

Both are major accomplishments.

They are. I think there’s something that h appens when you turn 60, it might even happen sooner than that. I feel like I don’t have all the time in the world and I try not to waste any of it. I want to use the time I have left and I really don’t know how much that is.

Best case scenario, we’re looking at maybe 30 years. It does go by fast, not to be all doom and gloom. I try to keep it in mind more as an incentive not to be lazy.

WELL YEAH, I FELT LIKE I WAS ALWAYS THE PROTAGONIST – AND SOMETIMES THE ANTAGONIST.

It definitely takes discipline to turn out a book and an accompanying album. What was your technique?

I’m really big into research. I read a lot of tips from other writers about writing. Some were helpful and some weren’t. One thing I liked was the idea that you need to carve out a space to write. I realized my favorite place to work was in my kitchen, so I just got rid of the breakfast table and put my desk in there.

That’s where I wrote the book, right there in my kitchen. But I wasn’t good at treating it like a job with regular hours. My life is very unstructured and it has been for a very long time because I’m a musician. Around me is disorder and chaos but inside my head it’s very organized. Sometimes I’d give myself like twenty minutes to go write at least a couple of lines. Then when I wasn’t working on the book itself, I did a lot of research and documenting.

I made timelines and playlists of all the music that was going on at the time. Since the book covers a lot of the Go-Go’s hey-day, I did lists of our shows and what we played from my itineraries. I wrote in a linear, chronological way so when I’m writing about say, 1979, I had a playlist of music compiled with all the songs that were kind of In the ether at the time.

So you built your own backstory for your character.

Well yeah, I felt like I was always the protagonist – and sometimes the antagonist.

I remember when you did those tweets that were little bits of Go-Go’s history.

Oh yeah, that was the infamous Twitter memoir that I took down because it pissed off the band. I looked back at it and I could see how I might have crossed the line and stuff. But with that platform, you just write and press send and think nothing about it.

Whereas with the book, I’d write and revise carefully as I went along. But it’s my story and I wasn’t trying to tell anyone else’s side. It was never my intention to do a book of dirt on the band. But the Twitter stuff showed me that there was an interest in my point of view and that maybe my voice resonated with readers.

All I Ever Wanted is an incredible book.

Harrowing at times, funny at times and ultimately triumphant. You obviously had to relive a lot of painful and incredible emotions and events.

I felt that it wouldn’t be a compelling story if I didn’t do that. And I’m conscious that I’m not the big star of the band. I’m the bass player, people make jokes about the bass player and you’re never the main focus of attention unless you’re like Sting. I wasn’t going to do a tell-all, so the only thing I could do was to make it an honest story that would resonate with people.

By getting those feeling on the page, I realized that you didn’t really have to be a fan of the band or of me to enjoy the story. I had to share a lot of the hard stuff to give enough context so the reader could understand why the band

meant so much to me and achieving everything I’ve done was so meaningful.

It’s an incredible journey.

I think everybody has felt ostracized at some point or not cared-for or had a dream and fought hard to achieve it. The themes are things that probably everyone can relate to.

There’s a part in the book - where after the Go-Go’s had broken up the first time, I started to doubt if I had any talent at all. Maybe I was just in the right place at the right time and maybe that was my only talent. I’ve had so many people say, ‘Oh my God, I’ve felt that way about my job or my life.’ That’s what was important to me about telling the story and it made me feel that I could do a good job with it.

Creative people, especially, tend to feel that way about their life and art. I feel that way on a daily basis.

Yeah, me too. Now I’m struggling with,

‘Wait, was I one-book wonder? Do I have a voice about anything else, other than writing about myself?’ It happens even when you’re creating. I’d look back at what I’d written and be like, ‘Oh my God this is the best memoir ever. I’m a genius!’ Then the next day, I’d be like, ‘Oh this is so lame, so amateur.’ So yeah, you’re all over the place with self-doubt. But I think finally you end up with doing the best job you can do.

But for this project you had to take some of those same painful and triumphant memories and write a song about them for the soundtrack.

Yeah, the soundtrack opened up even deeper levels of grieving and mourning. It’s funny that the music did it in a way that writing about it couldn’t even touch. But now that I’ve finished this one, I can’t wait to do the next book.

All I Ever Wanted is now available from most major and indie booksellers. insiteatlanta.com • July 2020 • PG 13

MUSIC

COSMO’S VAULT REVISITED

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Doug Clifford Finally Issues His Second Solo Album

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

I

T’S ONLY TAKEN DOUG “COSMO” Clifford thirty-five years to release Magic Window. But cut the guy some slack, he was busy as a journeyman musician while preserving the legacy of his former band, Creedence Clearwater Revival. He’s best-known for his role as the drummer in the infamously acrimonious band, co-founded with John and Tom Fogerty and bassist Stu Cook. During a career that lasted less than four years, CCR produced an impressive string of now-classic tunes, many written or woodshedded in an old warehouse in Berkeley, California nicknamed “Cosmo’s Factory” - immortalized on the cover of their 1970 record of the same name.

Fast-forward to 2020. Now that his twentyfive-year stint with the Creedence Clearwater Revisited tribute group is also complete, he has more free time to scour his stockpile of analog tapes and revive a few vintage goodies for the digital age. The first release from his collection is Magic Window, an ambitious set initially created in 1985 as a demo to pitch to labels. Often in demand for sessions, tours and community activism, Clifford was soon called away for other jobs. Time passed while he was busy working with a number of prominent players including Doug Sahm, Greg Kihn and Bobby Whitlock and the original masters were eventually filed away and forgotten.

Recently remastered for modern clarity, the ten songs are intriguing new chapters in the musician’s history. Unlike Cosmo, his R&Btinged debut effort from 1972, it’s definitely a product of the times. The deliciously retro feel borrows from his past and places it in a bright, MTV-era pop soundscape. There are even some synth flourishes in the mix. Sparse and clever arrangements remind the listener that this is indeed the same guy from Creedence who jammed through an 11-minute version of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” and the led sinewy groove on “Run Through The Jungle.”

Co-produced with longtime collaborator Russell DaShiell (best-known for his work with Norman Greenbaum) and self-released on his recent 75th birthday, Window swings wide-open with a rootsy new wave edge. Stylistically, Creedence fans can file it between the swan song strut of CCR’s final days and just before John Fogerty’s 1985 comeback Centerfield.

Sure, not many people can issue their second album three and a half decades after it was recorded but Clifford remains an integral part of a timeless musical legacy. INsite spoke with the affable Hall of Famer by phone while he was sheltering in place with his wife at their Arizona home.

The last time we talked, you mentioned that you’d gone back into your tape vault and found over 100 unreleased tracks.

That’s correct.

It sounds like the batch on Magic Window is just a fraction of what you’ve been sorting through.

Yeah, I found all these tapes that actually ended up being in pretty good shape. When you realize that some are forty years old, it’s pretty amazing.

It’s a publishing thing, too. I have all these songs that I’ve either written for myself or collaborated on, usually just with one other writer. I don’t really like to work with more than one other writer at a time because I’ve never liked songs that were sort of done by committee. You always end up going, ‘Well I wrote this or I should have written that,’ you know? Then you start to worry PG 14 • July 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

about the split. So when I work with another person, it’s like, ‘Ok it’s 50-50. Now let’s get to work.’

Eddie Money used to say, ‘Who knew?!’ But it endured because people love the Creedence songs. We were the rhythm section on all those records and that’s the feel. Rock’n’roll is always about feel so that was our job.

Most of the album sounds like it comes from one single era.

That’s right. I had a studio in How does it feel to look back on all my house at Lake Tahoe which of it now?

A SHOT OF made it pretty easy to work on Well it’s nice to not be running ROCK’N’ROLL MIGHT through airports trying to make things whenever I had time to NOT COMPLETELY the flights or driving down bumpy deal with it. With these, the part I worked the hardest on was my CURE YOU, BUT IT roads trying to get to the show. The singing voice. The drums I had SURE CAN MAKE YOU travelling is what kills you and that’s in the bag because that’s what what you’re doing most of the time FEEL BETTER. I do. I play drums every day so you’re out there. The playing was that’s just part of my workout great. You start playing and you get routine. Singing needed a lot of work and I put that adrenaline going. That takes care of any pain the work in. Plus I had what I thought were good in your road-weary body. songs. You can dream of doing things but if that’s all you do is dream, that’s all you’ll get. So you The Revisited tribute lasted substantially have to work at it if you really want it. Whether longer than the original band. it’s with Creedence or doing Revisited with my Oh yeah. Creedence itself was not quite four old buddy Stu Cook, we always worked at it. And years, really. But in that short period, we put out we just finished twenty-five years with Revisited. a lot of music. We were lucky in that the legacy is a rare one. It’ll be around long after I go. We Right, Creedence Clearwater Revisited was have generations of fans and people are still originally planned as a five-year, tribute-style listening to the music. It’s even in video games. project, correct?

Younger people will go, ‘Hey who’s that? I like Yeah and then it turned into twenty-five! The it!’ And the fanbase keeps growing. Even as our five-year-plan times five. Like our old buddy generation sort of diminishes, there are new

groups of young people taking the spot - so it’s been a terrific career. The Revisited band was just a bonus for us. So after twenty-five years of doing it, we figured it was a good time to get out. We could still play but we didn’t want people to say, ‘Those guys should have retired two years ago.’ So we retired this year.

But with your massive tape file to sort through as well as the general legacy of the music, you’re far from retired.

I don’t even like the word ‘retired’ really. It sounds like you’re not doing anything. I’ve just shifted back into the creative side, which I did for years, between the two bands. That’s where this comes from - that period after Creedence and well before Revisited. I’d recorded with a number of different people because I’ve always had my hand in music. I’m just a firm believer in it. If you’re up and having a good time partying, music is gonna make you party better. If you’re down with things like what’s going on now, it can really help your soul. A shot of rock’n’roll might not completely cure you, but it sure can make you feel better.

Cosmo, though far from a commercial success, sounds like a modern Americana album. If it had been released in 2020 instead of 48 years ago, Brandi Carlile might be calling to work with you right now.

(Laughs) Well thank you. I don’t get a lot of compliments on that one.

On the other hand, Magic Window is a very ‘80s experience.

I’m just amazed the music has made it through the test of time.

When you found the tapes, did you put them through the creative wringer? Did you want to redo any of it?

Well first I baked them. Once you do that, you can get them over to digital. I made it clear as we were working on it, ‘If you hear anything that needs to be done, my door is open.’ But I wasn’t cracking a whip, we just went in to have fun and make the best record we could.

So there’s more to come?

Yeah but first we want people to listen to this one and give it a chance. I think there’s a lot of really good things on it.

Is there a “single” to be released from it?

Yeah, “Born On The South Side” and “Just Another Girl” are both first single choices. I think “Don’t Leave Me Alone Tonight” could be a good single, too. We just have to some luck and hard work. It’ll be interesting to see the response.

“Born On The South Side” seems like a bit of an after-thought to the other tracks on the album. With a decidedly late-‘60s vibe, it’s obviously Creedence-inspired.

The whole storyline hints at Creedence. I was in that band from day one until we broke up. I do think there are a lot of Creedence fans who’ll say it feels like one of our tunes. And it does. I think it’s because of the drum groove. I had to do it because it was a reference to what I did for so long and what I still love. It never hurts to throw it out there so people can understand who did what. Basically, in this one the names have just been changed to protect the innocent.

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