INTERVIEW:13 Questions with Blue Merle's Lucas Reynolds

Blue Merle is a band on the cusp of breaking into the mainstream. Yet they're far from being a "mainstream" band, at least in the way they blend bluegrass sounds into conventional alt-pop, in the vein of Dave Matthews Band or Coldplay. They're becoming increasingly well-known for their energetic live performances, and their first single "Burning in the Sun" may be poised to take over the pop airwaves. We here at 72 Hours took the chance to speak with lead singer Lucas Reynolds as the band prepares to take the midwest by storm.

Your music covers so much ground in such a short playing time. Can you give us some insight on how you developed the bluegrass-meets-pop hybrid? The sound came about in an organic way. We formed a common sound as bandmates, and our appreciation for being in a group that focuses on good songs helped us to create something unique. We want to do things no one's done before, by drawing on our rich background of influences and just make great music.

Have you ever played a venue where the crowd wasn't "getting" the Blue Merle sound? Actually, we've never had that problem! I think it's partly because we play honest music, and the emotions translate. People come around and get it after listening for a while. Of course some may never enjoy the music, and it's all a matter of taste. But we've never had an openly hostile crowd.

Do comparisons to established acts like Coldplay and the Dave Matthews Band bother you? No! If anything, we're glad to be compared to bands that have made that kind of impact on the scene. They're good bands because they write great songs and have an energy about them, and if people want to see us in the same light, we'll take it!

I can picture "Burning In The Sun" becoming a pop hit, with "Part of Your History" making a good entry to the country charts. How do you balance that, to get the music out to fans of every genre? We're not trying to appeal to just one genre, you know what I'm saying? Music lovers are music lovers, not genre lovers. In all honesty, acknowledging our influences, we're able to draw on a lot of styles that bring variety to every song we write. My parents would pull me out of school when I was a kid, and take me to concerts where I learned to appreciate great music. So now I have this appreciation for all the sources for musical inspiration.

Opening for artists like Alanis Morisette and Graham Colton, how do you handle the "opener's curse", the idea that most people paid to see the "big act" and want you to play a few songs and move on? Really you just have to play honestly, and make them realize you love being on stage. That you actually want to be there, to give them something they can't get anywhere else. We're so amped every time we play a show, it is just impossible not to take that joy on stage. And the crowds sense that. The bottom line is that if you're not humble, people know it right away. Plus we just love to make music, I love it so much it hurts.

I noticed you have a live show available on your band website. Do you think this helps accustom people to your live sound even before they see a show? To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I would think that it would, especially for someone like me. I'm really picky about what I listen to, what music I love … so I listen to bands, research them, trying to be involved from every angle. If putting a live show on the website helps one of our fans to do that, that's cool, and I'm all for it.

Getting that sudden offer from Sony, did that open up a lot of doors "to write your own ticket" when you finally chose Island as your label? It did and it didn't. In fact it could have killed us, turning down that kind of sudden offer, knowing that there might not be others. On the good side, it meant we weren't committed in case something that fit us better as a band came along. But it was a risk to turn down Sony, could have been the touch of death.

What affect did working with producer Stephen Harris have on the recording of the album? He was amazing! He's our best f------ friend, we love him. He's produced U2, Dave Matthews Band, he's just brilliant the quality of music he helps put out. It was a wonderful experience to work with someone like Harris, we were free and open to make the album we needed to make. He could have given us less attention, we're a young band, unknown. But he gave us a lot of attention, and helped make the album what it is. Amazing.

Do you have a preference for either studio recording or live performances? Those are both different animals, how could one really exist without the other? A studio environment is very unique, you get the chance to create a permanent copy of exactly what is in your head. Then you turn around and play the music live, in an environment where you're feeding off the audience's energy, or when you're hanging out in the crowd to see the way the fans hear your music. How could you choose one over the other? You'd lose them both!

Do you get the same criticism from purists that Nickel Creek received, for over-expanding the definition of what bluegrass is? We all enjoy bluegrass, but we're not a bluegrass band. So we hear it, sure … because bluegrass is songwriting that can appeal to blue collar America, it becomes something pure fans don't ever want to see changed. So Nickel Creek, and they're a great band, has to deal with that head-on as they are a bluegrass band. We, on the other hand, just value it as one genre that fits in well with the sound we produce.

If you could have one performer join your band for a live performance, who would you choose? We'd all love to tour with Neil Young, all of us are huge fans, and Beau [Stapleton, the band's mandolin player] would be beside himself! I'd love to tour with Muddy Waters, if we could find a way to reincarnate him, and put Herbie Hancock on keyboards.

Who would you choose to join you if you were to leave on a "headlining" tour today? I'd love to co-headline with Ray LaMontagne, we're good friends with him and would love a chance to record with him … or maybe Rachel Yamagata, she's an amazing songwriting talent.

How would you describe the state of today's music scene, and how does a band like Blue Merle fit into it? Our place in the scene is that we're trying to make a subtle but meaningful contribution by honoring our respective influences. In ten or twenty years, people will see our generation in the same way as any other. The music you make may not be at the front of the arena, may not make the radio, or sell a lot of copies, but all the music is there. All these bands that are ready to break out, you just need to find them. And if we can contribute something to that atmosphere today, we're doing what we need to be doing.

Upcoming Performances:
2/22 - Indianapolis IN (The Patio)
2/23 - Cleveland OH (The Odeon Concert Club)
2/25 - Cincinnati OH (Top Cats)
2/26 - Milwaukee WI (The Eagle's Club)
2/27 - Madison WI (Luther's Blues)
3/1 - Minneapolis MN (Fine Line Music Café)
3/3 - Urbana IL (Canopy Club)
3/4 - Chicago IL (House of Blues)
3/5 - Ferndale MI (Magic Bag)

Keller Williams - "Stage"(Sci Fidelity, 2004) - * *

Keller Williams - "Stage" (Sci Fidelity, 2004) - * *
Had this been a single album, it might have scored higher from me, because I would have heard a little less of the meandering of Keller Williams' eclectic stage shows. When he's at his best, Williams is a devilish one-man band with energy to burn. Songs like "Blazeabago" and his impressive covers of "Moondance" (Van Morrison) and "Under Pressure" (David Bowie) showcase Williams' ability to bring an audience under his sell as he loops any number of instruments through sound devices to create the illusion of a full band. When it works, and he's at his best, Williams brings up comparisons to inventive artists such as Bobby McFerrin. When he's at his sophomoric worst (on tracks like "Gate Crashers Suck", which contains lyrics I can't print here, and the insipid "Boob Job") he made me cringe and wish the album had been cut in half. It may be better to check out one of his impressive studio albums, such as "Home", instead.

Keller Williams - "Under Pressure"
Keller Williams - "Moondance"

The Soul Rebels - "Rebelution"(Barn Burner, 2005) - * * * * 1/2

The Soul Rebels - "Rebelution" (Barn Burner, 2005) * * * * 1/2
This is a group you're going to hear a lot about in the next year or two, because there are only a handful of groups out there with the balls to put out an ingenious album like "Rebelution". Blending hip hop with funk and jazz traditions, The Soul Rebels have created an album that is so creative it's off the charts! Complete with a full horn section, including trumpets and a tuba, this six man ensemble blazes their way through addictive gems like the latin-infused "Work It Out". And "It's High Time", which features Wordsworth and Rasheed on the mic, has serious potential to finally bring creative rap back onto the airwaves. Here's to hoping these guys keep on making "music by any means necessary", because the music world needs them.

Soul Rebels - "Let It Roll"

Kyle Hollingsworth - "Never Odd Or Even"(Sci Fidelity, 2004) - * * *

Kyle Hollingsworth - "Never Odd Or Even" (Sci Fidelity, 2004) * * *
It didn't take long for this jazz record by String Cheese Incident keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth to make an impression on me. While I'm not a huge fan of jam bands, and never really appreciated groups like Phish for the geniuses their fans make them into, it is clear that Hollingsworth is in his element here, especially on extended jams like "Seventh Step", which reminds me of some of Jethro Tull's more avant-garde material. And "Bam!" which features the brilliant Joshua Redman on saxophone, is a great example of how to blend the jam band musical ethos with jazz experimentation. This one's definitely worth checking out.

Kyle Hollingsworth - "Seventh Step"

Blue Merle - "Burning in the Sun"(Island, 2005) - * * * *

This may very well be the best album to come out so far this year. Rarely does a band manage to take so many differing styles and combine them in a way that is both commercially viable and pleasing to the ear. Blue Merle is so good that when vocalist Lucas Reynolds and bassist Jason Oettel were laying down a demo recording in Nashville, the president of Sony Publishing dropped in, heard their music, and offered them a contract on the spot. They turned it down. Now the band is signed to Island, and along with Beau Stapleton, a Neil Young disciple who happens to play mandolin, and William Ellis, a classically trained session drummer, they've completed an amazing album, one you've got to hear to believe. A lot of credit has to go to Stephen Harris, who has produced amazing albums by U2, Dave Matthews Band and Kula Shaker. His subtle touch allowed the band to go their own direction with the music, while keeping the impressive orchestrations from drowning in bombast. The album has potential to produce hits on both Country radio ("Part of Your History") and Top 40 radio ("Burning in the Sun"). It seems Blue Merle knows how to please just about everyone without batting an eye, drawing comparisons to Coldplay and Ray LaMontagne. Give Blue Merle's debut a listen. It is an immediate lesson in what it takes to craft a listenable album that experiments broadly without drowning in pretension.

Blue Merle - "Burning in the Sun"
Blue Merle - Part of Your History"

OUT OF THE VAULT:Richard Marx - "Rush Street"(EMI, 1991) * * * 1/2

Maybe it's the American Idol fan in me, but I just love a big bombastic song, one of those that has all the studio arrangement to back it up, and the kind of lead singer who can turn the final chorus into a raging pot of boiling rock stew. And that, my friends, is exactly what Richard Marx has in his new single, "Ready To Fly", a raging cliche that makes me want to stand up and belt out a loud refrain in the middle of a crowded bus.

Proof positive that even an indie music critic can be lame. I'm damned proud of it.

But there was another byproduct of hearing "Ready To Fly" on WLBC this afternoon. In trying to figure out if it was indeed Richard Marx (and that voice should have been a dead giveaway) I wandered through Napster's catalog, trying to find the new song. I also stumbled on a great acoustic version of what may be the catchiest bombastic pop song of the last fifteen years.

Anyone else here remember the song "Hazard?" It would have to be the most bizarre song to be a hit, and its video has developed a cult following as to who killed the main character's girlfriend Mary. I'll stay out of that debate, I'm not quite that far gone yet. But the second chorus, the pleading way Richard's protagonist begs the town to believe he isn't a murderer, to believe he left Mary by the river and someone else did it, all while that damned calliope line plays in the background (I can't think of a better way to describe it!) still brings chills to my spine:

Man with a badge came knocking next morning
Here was I, surrounded by a thousand fingers suddenly
Pointed right at me
I swear I left her by the river
I swear I left her safe and sound!
Oh, I need to make it to the river
And leave this old Nebraska town!

I remember first hearing that song, then buying the album it came on, Rush Street, and completely reveling in my find. Even though I could tell this was a guy who would be happy singing just about anything as long as it had that level of range that would let him really belt the words out (had I heard Bon Jovi at the time, I might have thought of that comparison first), I also could appreciate the way the songs all caught the ear, from the drawling "lets ... get busy" intro to "Playing With Fire" to the raging chorus of another classic, "Take This Heart" ("Baby / This time / Ain't nothing gonna take this heart way!"), the album just has a ring to it. Even cheesy attempts at metal ("Streets of Pain"), which may be the most derivative song ever crapped out, can't kill the mood of the album!

Either way, I'd urge you all to check out this album ... it is, at the very least, a great flashback to the early nineties, before Marx became a full "adult contemporary" artist. I think Rush Street holds up well as an album not quite eighties or nineties. Instead, it's a triple platinum album that I think most fans of the genre overlook.

Missy Higgins - "The Sound of White"(Reprise, 2004) * * * *

This album may be the best thing to come out of Australia's music scene in this decade.

I don't want to sound like I'm overstating things. Australia's been making a big move in building a musical reputation. They've been breaking solidly backed indie folk artists into the mainstream for years; long gone are the days where the island nation-slash-continent was known musically just for AC/DC and INXS. A year ago I reviewed Kasey Chambers, who had made a name for herself as Australia's first true "country" artist. Her music had blown me away, I called her a must-hear artist who was going to turn the American idea of country music on its ear.

Missy Higgins isn't happy fitting the mold of what Australian folk country artists are producing, however. While still in high school, she won the Triple J "Unearthed" demo competition, and her song "All For Believing" became that station's most requested song. A little more than three years later, she's released an album in the US that puts the alternative back in pop.

Her voice stands out, one of those rare voices you'd know anywhere from the first time you hear it. On songs like "Scar" and "Ten Days", she blends piano pop with acoustic folk with a subtlety that belies her age, all with that heavy Australian accent rolling over the notes like caramel. It's a sound I could get used to very quickly, and by the speed at which she's been accepted into the Australian consciousness, it's only a matter of time before she takes America by storm.

As a whole, "The Sound of White" stands out as an accomplished debut by a young woman who will be making a major name for herself. It is a complete album, a work that blends genres to create a sound worthy of attention. Any self-respecting fan of alt-country, alt-pop, or jazzy country should add this album to their collection.

Music:
Missy Higgins - "All For Believing"
Missy Higgins - "Scar"
Missy Higgins - "Nightminds"

Dan Dyer - "...Of What Lies Beneath"(Roxie Records, 2004) - * * *

Dan Dyer doesn't seem to want to talk much about his history as a musician. On his website he sums it up something like this: he played in a band in Austin for four years, toured constantly and became bored with it. By luck, he met Lenny Kravitz. He got lucky again when Kravitz created Roxie Records, as part of Warner's Reprise label. Having heard a record Dyer recorded in the past, Kravitz signed Dyer to Roxie Records, and produced this new album. Talk about a ton of luck, almost too much to believe.

It's also hard to believe how good "… Of What Lies Beneath" is. That's what I thought, anyway, until I read the liner notes, and found that Lenny Kravitz wrote or co-wrote ninety percent of the album. He also played ninety percent of the music on the album. So what could I make of an artist like Dyer, who claimed to have built his reputation on years of playing and touring, when his "big break" album is essentially Kravitz's tenth solo record?

The thing is, the album stands up well. And while Kravitz did have his hand in about fifty cookie jars here, Dyer's got his stamp on the album as well. The tunes are all catchy, and Dyer has a smooth voice that really gels with the psychedelic guitar sounds that make up the album as a whole. Songs like "Space Alien" are absolutely surreal, while others like "Great Ocean" and the title track are catchy enough to be overplayed by radio stations across the country.

After several repeat listens, I started wondering how much of an impact working with Dyer had on Kravitz's album "Baptism". Because the parallels are evident, particularly in the risks taken in putting hooks over substance, which works for the most part. None of these songs have lyrics that caught my ear on their own accord. But I keep finding myself humming "And If I" and "Stereosonic", songs that are almost as mind-bendingly catchy as Kravitz's "Why Are We Running?"

I'd urge you to log onto Napster and download a couple tracks to hear for yourself. I'm not sure what to make of Dyer, he's clearly talented, the album's a solid effort. But I think if he wants to avoid the sophomore slump, he'll need to break away from Kravitz and show that he's more than lucky. Whether he'll have a career beyond this album is the question. I'm afraid we might only remember him five years from now as Kravitz's attempt at developing a groove rock protégé.

Music:
Dan Dyer - "Great Ocean"
Dan Dyer - "Of What Lies Beneath"
Dan Dyer - "And If I"

Various Artists - "Music From The OC: Mix 1"(Warner, 2004) - * * * *

Sex, lies, soapy dramatic tension and teen angst, a breakup and reconciliation, followed by a little more sex for good measure.

That's the general recipe for a typical episode of Fox's latest ratings darling "The OC". But what you might have missed if you haven't taken the time to watch the show is the way the episodes rely on an absolutely brilliant soundtrack of indie artists in order to truly impact the audience. Where shows like "Scrubs" and "Dawson's Creek" have gone before, the producers of the OC have gotten it right for once. This soundtrack actually succeeds as an album.

True care has been taken to put this collection together. It is almost like the music director was a fan of "High Fidelity", because the flow of this album is what really impresses. It isn't a slap-dash mix slammed together randomly from songs on the show … rather, each song leads into the next, building until the album's conclusion, when fans get their taste of the full version of Phantom Planet's "California" (the show's theme, which is perhaps the only song that feels out of place here). When the album ended, I couldn't help but hit repeat again and again. An album I picked up expecting little turned into one I simply can't put down.

The reasons are many. Where else could you hear "Honey and The Moon", a lush and sophisticated piece by acclaimed indie artist Joseph Arthur, followed by the punchy alt pop confection "The Way We Get By", by Spoon? Both songs are favorites of mine, but I never would have thought to put them on the same disc. Later on the album, the wrenching melody of Turin Brakes' stunner "Rain City" leads into "We Used To Be Friends" by the Dandy Warhols, which takes the album out of its emotional overdrive and into more upbeat territory.

Other songs brought up other unexpected associations for my TV addicted self … from the opening track, South's "Paint The Silence", which is frequently used in TNT "sappy movie of the month" ads, to the stunning song "Orange Sky" by Alexi Murdoch, that will be forever etched in my head thanks to a damned car commercial. Everyhing comes together, songs you've heard before and those you haven't, to create a whole you'd never expect from a cheesy prime time soap.

That's the key when you're putting together a great mix tape, making sure the evocative moments are balanced out by more upbeat tracks, to keep a listener interested. You're not creating new music as a soundtrack producer, you're telling a story with others' music, so you have to do a good job of letting the songs speak for themselves. "Music From The OC: Mix 1" works because the producers put the music up front in order to tell a story of their own. This is proven by the bonus content of the CD, through which you can watch each scene play out complete with the music.

Bottom line? Buy this album, sit back, and throw your expectations out the window. You're in for a real treat.