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OUT OF STATE PLATES
Released September 5, 1999
After Creeperweed, Eric and I were drifting a little bit, looking for a band.
We had no permanent drummer, and Chris Barrineau's interest in playing music
seemed to be waning. We weren't playing many shows, and even Eric and I weren't
getting together to play and write too often. Then we met Zac Weil.
The first time I met Zac was in Nashville, where he lived
at the time. We were playing a show there, with Peter Jackson filling in on
drums. Peter introduced me to Zac, who asked if I wanted to go smoke a joint
in the van. So we went out there, smoked a joint, and talked about music for
about an hour. But it only took me five minutes to realize two things: This
guy and I were going to work together, and, This guy and I were going to be
great friends. He had a great encyclopedic knowledge of rock n roll and blues,
and he had a powerful love for music. It just wafted off him. It was
immediately apparent that our musical tastes were pretty similar; that first
night in the van we touched base about the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young,
Aretha Franklin, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, The Pretenders, Doctor John,
The Allman Brothers, Cowboy, Derek and the Dominoes, John Lee Hooker, Charlie
Parker, John Coltrane, J.J. Cale...etc. etc. Zac also was heavily into art and
photography; about a year later he would invite me along to see the Picasso
exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta. He told me, "If we miss this exhibit,
we're cultural morons." He quickly turned into a kind of big brother figure
to me. Anyway, it was Zac who kicked our asses into gear and
inspired us to write the next chapter.
y Wilson drop by to lend a hand.
I even called up ex-Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker to come in and do
a backing vocal on "Lifer". I had Probably the most important thing that happened during
this project was the beginning of our partnership with David Barbe. We brought
him onboard to produce, and he quickly became another full-fledged member of
the team. He has since produced every studio project I've done, Bloodkin and
solo, and he usually plays a variety of instruments on the tracks as well. He
gets the best out of us, and in particular he's the only producer we've worked
with who really understands Eric's work habits, and who can really deal. Eric
kinda speaks his own language in the studio; on occasion he's hard to understand,
sometimes literally, verbally, hard to understand, but David Barbe just seems
to take it in stride, and they communicate very well indeed. Eric will say,
"Hey man you know that guitar sound on Led Zeppelin's 'In The Evening'...?",
and David will say, "Yeah man, I got it," and dial it right in.
David's good with me too. He knows when I've peaked and I trust him, so when he says I'm done, I'm usually done. Of course there will be differences of opinion sometimes, but that's the whole point: we can discuss and debate without anyone getting their feelings hurt. It's not about who's right or wrong, it's about what's gonna make the song come to life. Working with David Barbe is a true collaboration, and I've gotten to the point where it would be hard to make a record without him.
Some of the songs that are staples in live performance made their way onto this CD: "Wet Trombone Blues" (which is the earliest song Eric and I ever wrote together that's still in the catalogue), "Who Do You Belong To?" (which I wrote all in a burst back in 1990, on the same day I wrote "Makes Sense To Me" and "Success Yourself"...that was a good day), "Yeah" (the lyrics of which once received Allen Ginsberg's seal of approval), and "Transfusion (the magic show)" (which is one of our alltime favorite buzzsaw-to-the-bone rockers onstage).
Guest appearances by Michael Houser, Todd Nance, John Hermann, David Blackmon, and Moe Tucker!
"Play this CD loud!"
After we finished recording, Zac got us on the road by hiring Bentley Rhodes on drums and Paul "Crumpy" Edwards on bass (Chris Barrineau had resigned by this point, deciding that he didn't want to tour), and booking us a six week tour out in Colorado. So off we went.
-DH, April 12, 2005
