“It’s fun to see how we can use the [WVU School of Music] techniques we spent so many years perfecting for something completely different. It’s interesting to show people what you can do with classical music.”
From West Virginia Public Broadcasting and A Change of Tune, this is 30 Days of #WVmusic, the interview series celebrating the folks who make the West Virginia music scene wild and wonderful.
And today’s interview is with a dreamy sister folk duo with rich roots in the Mountain State. This… is Whiskey Victor.
Anna-Kate Bean: We’ve always just played around, but our cousin started a cystic fibrosis charity concert last year and needed people to play for it, so we formed the band so that we would have an official thing to play for. And we needed an official name, so that was the first time we give ourselves a name. But we’ve played together forever.
Shannon Bean: We both started classically. Anna started in elementary school playing the viola and, of course being her younger sister, I followed in her path. So she started with the viola and started studying voice, and I did the exact same thing when I was old enough. We’ve kind of gone down the same path, but she’s gone into a guitar singer-songwriter thing, and I’m still being classically trained.
On the music of their youth:
Shannon: We kind of just listened to whatever our parents listened to. We listened to a lot of Cake and Gillian Welch, stuff like that.
Anna-Kate: There’s a variety of different things. Our family is from central West Virginia, so they’re more bluegrass-oriented. When we had family reunions during the summer, we would all get together and have a big bluegrass jam session.
On recording music with Morgantown legend Mark Poole:
Anna-Kate: Mark Poole played in 63 Eyes in Morgantown, and my dad was in a band called Granny’s 12 Gauge, and they used to play shows together around town at 123 Pleasant Street. When I told my dad I wanted to record, he reached out to Mark.
Credit Courtesy of the artist
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Whiskey Victor’s favorite show occurred at Jerry Run Summer Theater in Cleveland, WV.
On playing in the #WVmusic scene:
Anna-Kate: My favorite part has been the community around the music scene. Everyone wants to help everyone out, and everyone is super supportive. We play at Jerry Run Summer Theater in Cleveland, West Virginia. It’s beautiful. It’s my favorite place. And Dusty and Renee who run it are the nicest people, and it’s really cool to see the community they’ve made there because it isn’t a big town, but people come out to support it.
Starting in Morgantown as a small band, the only place you can really get booked are restaurants, and that can make it difficult to start off. An easier system to help out smaller bands would be useful.
Credit Courtesy of the artist
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Anna-Kate Bean graduated from WVU School of Music in 2017. Oh, and did we mention Bill Withers was there?
Shannon: I think not only our education, but the community of WVU School of Music has really helped because we have very supportive professors and friends who are trying to help us get out there and make a name for ourselves.
On their creative process:
Anna-Kate: I like to say I draw the picture, and Shannon colors it in. I’ll write the lyrics and the basic chord progression and kind of hand it off to Shannon to fill it in because she plays so many instruments, and I can’t figure out what goes with it. She can always say, “I don’t know if it’s working out.”
On advice to newer artists:
Anna-Kate: Market yourself, keep active social media, keep sending e-mails. Make sure your friends tell people. It’s all about networking and marketing. The more people that hear about you, the more shows you’ll get, the more people will spread the word.
Music featured in this #WVmusic chat:
Whiskey Victor- “The Answer”
Whiskey Victor- “Hello Brother”
Whiskey Victor- “Oslo”
Whiskey Victor- “Everything is Free” (Gillian Welch cover)
Support for 30 Days of #WVmusic is provided by Kin Ship Goods, proud supporter of DIY music and the arts. Locally shipped worldwide at kinshipgoods.com.
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with West Virginia-by-way-of-Florida folk troubadour Tim Lancaster. If his name sounds familiar, that’s because he was just announced as Harpers Ferry National Park’s Artist-In-Residence for Summer 2016 (which is kind of a big deal). We spoke with Lancaster about that prestigious gig, as well as his experiences making music in both big cities (i.e. Orlando) and up-and-coming towns (i.e. Huntington).
Tim Lancaster’s newest release is My Times with You. Keep up with the young singer-songwriter on his website and through social media. Hear more #WVmusic on A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic.
Interview Highlights
On his musical origins:
My father plays a little bit when he’s off from work. He was always around playing “Dust in the Wind,” and I thought it was the prettiest song I ever heard. I figured if I could learn how to play it, I’d be happy, and of course I finally learned to play it, and then I wanted to learn more.
But then I got into high school and started wrestling, and with wrestling you don’t have time to do anything else, at least how I approached it. So I put all of myself into wrestling and took a break from the guitar. By senior year, I had enough of starving myself and decided to pick up the guitar again.
Credit Melissa Stilwell Photography
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Tim Lancaster doing what he does best: playing music and telling stories.
On becoming a folk musician:
I wouldn’t say I’m a professional or anything, but I really got into that style of playing a guitar in 2008. I went to Wilkesboro, North Carolina with a buddy to go to Merlefest, which is a festival put on by Doc Watson in honor of his son Merle who passed away in a tractor accident. I went just because my friend was going, and I was into that music, but the first time I heard Doc Watson play he was twenty feet away from me. It struck me like a bolt of lightning, not to be cliché, but it was really something. Just how honest and pure it was. When I started listening and trying to do my own thing with it, that’s when I feel I finally found what I was supposed to do with my instrument.
Up until that point, I was all over the place. In high school, you want to be in a band that sounds exactly like Radiohead or Led Zeppelin, but it wasn’t until I found this style of music that I was able to be happy with the way that I sounded, and I wasn’t trying to sound like anybody else. Granted I was taking from a lot of inspirations, but I was able to morph in into my own voice.
On finding West Virginia:
I first moved from Florida when I was 19 or 20, and I had a friend who had a friend in Huntington who had some recording gear. I wanted to record some songs that I had, which ended up being my first album which I called A Finer Line. I started recording in this room called The Record Room with Shayne Barker, who is good friends with Max Nolte. During that same weekend I was here, Max also recorded me, and those are the recording we ended up using for that collection. The rest is history.
After that, I’ve always felt that Huntington was my second home because whether I was living in New York City or northeastern Vermont, I was always coming back to check in on my Huntington bubbies. It’s always on my mind. Here I am. I was just in California last summer, and now I’m back here. It’s been a weird home base, and some people think I’m crazy for it, but there is something special here. Every place is different; it’s just what kind of different you like.
Credit Melissa Stilwell Photography
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Tim Lancaster and one of his best “bubbies:” his guitar.
On deciding to permanently move to West Virginia:
I’d been living in Vermont for three years, and I loved it there. I loved it there so much, and it was really hard to leave. But we’re too young to be set in my ways, and I hadn’t lived here permanently. So I decided to check it out, got a place here, lived here, really liked it, and made a lot of new friends. Those are the same friends that brought me back here. I lived here for ten months, got the itch, went out west through the fall and early winter.
But when I was out there, every time something crazy would happen, I kept finding myself calling my bubbies in Huntington, wanting to tell them what wild thing happened or to check up on how they were doing. Then one day I thought, “What the hell. There are a lot of good things going on in Huntington. Let’s give it another shot.” And I’ve been very happy since I made the decision. The people here are great. What I like about it is there’s a great balance between having a good time, and the amount of productivity that happens here, which is an important thing. It’s important to have a good time and get down with your friends, but then also to get something done that’s meaningful is even more important than that. Both of those things are happening here, which I enjoy.
On recording his first record in West Virginia:
I recorded it a couple days before I moved from West Virginia last year with Max. Max Nolte will probably be the one to record everything I will ever do, at least if I have anything to say about it [laughing]. He’s my bubbie. He’s a comfortable person to be around. He’s improving, and I’m improving. With each time we do something, it’s interesting watching each other grow, and it’s nice to not have any real pressure. With My Times with You, I knew I was moving, and I wanted to record something because I had been living here for 10 months and I hadn’t recorded anything, so I was just able to get up in The Loft with Max and record a few songs. In a couple hours, they were all done with a first take. They were all done in the first take, and here we are putting it out.
A couple things have changed [since My Times with You’s Bandcamp release in July of 2015]. It has a new cover, which is a photograph of me in a birch tree in Maine, a silhouette image, which was taken by my friend Shane Tulp when I was living in the Northeast. Picture was taken in the last couple of weeks of me living in Vermont. I think the image really captured what the album was about: half of the songs were written in my last year living in Vermont, and the other half are a reflection of that time in my life.
On rereleasing My Times with You on physical format:
Credit Courtesy of Tim Lancaster
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Tim Lancaster’s latest release will have a new and improved look later this month when it becomes available in physical formats.
I guess I’m tired of having the same albums on the merch table [laughing]. But when you release something on a physical format, it gives a certain level of legitimacy to that collection of songs. And these are songs that I think are great songs, I don’t want them to be written off as something I can just throw on the internet. I want them to be something that somebody can be hold in their hands and hopefully in their hearts.
Bandcamp makes it really quick and easy for people to access your music. I just found that it’s harder for me to sell my songs because not a lot of people know who I am. But maybe if they see me perform and like what they hear, they’ll be more attuned to buy the album from me right there as opposed to, “Oh, well I have this thing on Bandcamp that you can log onto later when you are hungover if you remember talking to me at all.” [Laughing] So it’s much easier to get the album to them at that moment than have them think about it later. But maybe I should be performing better to make it stay in their [potentially hungover] minds.
On the story behind My Times with You:
I’m trying to think of how I can phrase it without embarrassing myself [laughing]. It was kind of about my first experience with love, which I found in Vermont. And then we decided to do different things with our lives, and I moved to West Virginia. So the other half of the record is me reflecting on that time that I spent up there. And I’m fortunate to be able to incorporate her. The liner notes of the record are a poem of hers, which I think is very, very cool to have that on there.
You always have to be positive with everything. Things change; that’s just how it is. You have to be fine from it and take from it in a positive way. You can’t let it get you down, because you can learn something from any situation. And that’s just going to make you grow. You’re always going to be constantly changing.
You know, I’m not sure [if the ex-girlfriend gives the record five stars]. [Laughing] I remember after she listened to it, she said that I played the songs a little differently than I would when we were in the cabin. But I think she’s cool with [the record].
<a data-cke-saved-href=”http://timlancaster.bandcamp.com/album/my-times-with-you” href=”http://timlancaster.bandcamp.com/album/my-times-with-you”>My Times with You by Tim Lancaster</a>
On the highlight of his musical journey:
Playing music has given me this cool vagabond troubadour persona, which has given me the confidence to go places. That’s probably my favorite part of it. It’s almost an excuse for being young and making music decisions to be able to be like, “Hey, let’s catch a ride to New York City and live there. Hey, let’s go work for rent in Vermont for three years. Hey, let’s go to California.” [Laughing] It’s nice to have that in my back pocket to use like, “Oh yeah, sure, I’m doing this because I’m trying to be a responsible musician.”
Credit Melissa Stilwell Photography
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What’s next for Tim Lancaster? Wait and find out…
On that one time Tim Lancaster wasn’t Tim Lancaster:
When I was playing music in Florida, I went by Tim Holden. You’re in your teens, and you want to be anyone but yourself. No name can be possibly good enough for you [laughing], so I called myself Tim Holden because the name of the band I had at the time was called The Holden Boys. I would get mail which would be addressed to Tim Holden, so my mom would be like, “Who is this? What are you doing?” Looking back, it was pretty silly of me. I mean the most important thing I can be is myself. And Lancaster doesn’t sound that band when I think about it. I think it works.
This Valentine’s Day weekend, let Mountain Stage be the Abigail Washburn to your Bela Fleck and the Julie Miller to your Buddy Miller. Broadcast from 1am-5am Saturday and Sunday mornings here on West Virginia Public Broadcasting, “Mountain Stage After Midnight” takes the best episodes from the show’s 31 year history and shares their memories and songs with our late-night listeners.
Hear some musically-minded couples this Saturday February 14 and Sunday February 15 on “Mountain Stage After Midnight.”
First up is a 2013 show, recorded in Sunny Buckhannon, West Virginia. It includes sets from folksy roots group The Stray Birds, Tennessee bluegrass band The SteelDrivers, alternative country outfit Houndmouth, Toad the Wet Sprocket singer/songwriter Glenn Phillips and “husband-and-wife banjo adventurers” Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn.
Credit Mountain Stage
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Americana roots duo Buddy and Julie Miller on Mountain Stage in 2001.
Next up is a 2011 show featuring Boston-based guitarist Patty Larkin, American folk duo Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer, bluegrass companions Jim Hurst & Missy Raines, alt-country legend Lucinda Williams and Americana husband-wife team Buddy & Julie Miller.
If you find yourself in the mood for more magical, musical goodness, Mountain Stage is but a click away. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram, carry us on your favorite device with The Mountain Stage Podcast on iTunes and be in the audience for our next live show.
This past winter has been a hectic one for Carolina Chocolate Drops frontwoman Rhiannon Giddens. Between recording Dylan covers with Marcus Mumford and Elvis Costello under the moniker The New Basement Tapes and dueting with Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam on NBC’s Parenthood series finale, she’s somehow found time to release her solo recording debut, Tomorrow is My Turn. If you’re a fan of spellbinding interpretations of Americana classics, this interview and music are recommended for you.
Rhiannon Giddens new record, Tomorrow is My Turn, comes out February 14. For more emerging artist news (and even some ticket giveaways), follow ‘A Change of Tune’ on Facebook, Twitter and Insta. Hear new music from Rhiannon Giddens on ‘A Change of Tune’ this Saturday at 10pm EST on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
It’s taken two years for Canadian singer-songwriter Andy Shauf’s The Bearer of Bad News to reach the States, but now we can finally hear why this Saskatchewan crooner is being hailed as “the next Nick Drake.” Without a doubt, Shauf’s folk is the kind of folk that makes you pause. If you’re a fan of lush, contemplative songwriting, this interview and music are recommended for you.
Joni: So congrats on your new record [The Bearer of Bad News]! Or should I say “new-ish,” since it was actually released a couple years ago. I guess it is a re-release, since it was originally released in 2012?
Andy: [Laughing] “New-ish” is right. Yeah, it’s a re-release. The reason we decided to do that was because we didn’t officially release it in the States. I guess we really didn’t officially release it anywhere. We did the ol’ iTunes shuffle.
How did you start getting into music? Was it a 6-year-old Andy Shauf thing where your parents were playing Bob Dylan and Neil Young vinyls, or was it something were you didn’t want to become a musician but eventually go into it?
Yeah, my parents were really musical, or are really musical, I should say. I was always singing in church and doing all that stuff, but I never really liked to sing. I was kind of forced to sing, so I kind of started not liking it when I was a teenager. But then I got interested in girls and started writing songs on the guitar, using my great knowledge of the guitar and power chords.
Did you all ever consider making a family band out of it, like The Partridge Family or Brady Bunch kind of thing?
[Laughing] I think there’s an alternate universe where that actually happened.
So you started getting into music to meet girls. Did that work out for you? Did music help you get the girls?
[Laughing] No. No, it didn’t.
Is it working for you now?
[Laughing] No.
So what do you need to do to get females knocking on your door?
I think I need to add stability to my life. [Laughing]
<a data-cke-saved-href=”http://andyshauf.bandcamp.com/album/the-bearer-of-bad-news” href=”http://andyshauf.bandcamp.com/album/the-bearer-of-bad-news”>The Bearer of Bad News by Andy Shauf</a>
Tell me about The Bearer of Bad News. How did it come about?
The Bearer of Bad News is a collection of songs that I wrote over a period of four or five years, and then I recorded them in my parent’s basement over a period of about a year. So it was probably the longest time I’ve ever taken on one single project. Some of the songs are story songs, which are mostly pretty dark. Some of them are personal songs, and they’re not so dark, although they might seem like pretty sad songs. I actually wrote that record from a pretty happy place.
Is there a reason why you chose to record in your parent’s basement? Was it because of simplicity, was it cheap, was it because of good acoustic vibes?
I did that because I ran out of money and moved back in with my parents. And they let me do it. [Laughing] They let me move back into their basement, so that’s what I did. It was out of necessity, really.
I assume in the liner notes it’ll say, “Thanks Ma’ and Pa’?”
I think they got a shout-out. They definitely got a shout-out on the old pressing, but I hope they got a shout-out on the new pressing. I can write their names on the new records, just Sharpie them in. [Laughing] Actually, if you listen to the record super closely, you might hear them walking around upstairs. I had one song way back where my dad had to sneeze, so his sneeze was caught on my song.
The AV Club had this to say about you: “Andy Shauf is really cute, but that’s not what makes him such a captivating performer. Think of him as Canada’s modern answer to Nick Drake.” Kudos on being called cute, but how does it feel to be named “Canada’s next Nick Drake?”
Um, that’s nice. [Laughing] That’s a nice thing. That’s quite the compliment. I’m not going to claim I was a huge fan of his in high school, but I listened to the Pink Moon album a little bit, and he’s pretty good. [Laughing]
What are you listening to right now?
I’ve really been into the band Alvvays, with that “Archie, Marry Me” song. That’s been stuck in my head recently. Also give a little shout-out to Zachary Lucky. He’s a country guy from Saskatchewan.
What about the Canadian music scene? What’s one good thing and one bad thing about it?
It’s small, and everybody really knows it each. We’re all kind of pals. Playing Canadian festivals is kind of like a high school reunion or something. You see all your buds. I don’t know what I would change about it, but I guess there is a pretty big gap in Canada, just geographically, from the West side to the East side. There’s not a lot of people in the middle, so those are the main groups that bands get associated with, I guess. That’s kind of a bummer, since I don’t know as many people in the East as I do in the West. I’m working to change that for myself.
You just released a new music video for one of the record’s tracks, “I’m Not Falling Asleep,” and the video features old stock footage of Canada in the 1920’s. Where did that inspiration come from?
My manager lives in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, which has archives, and he suggested we look into film archives based on Saskatchewan. I thought it was a pretty interesting idea, so we went through tons of footage and picked some of the more interesting parts of the history of Saskatchewan. It was a little bit of farming, some Ukrainian history of Saskatchewan and its tuberculosis institute, which is abandoned now and supposedly haunted.
What’s next for you?
I’ve been rehearsing with the band to get ready for the tour. What’s next immediately on my schedule is sleeping ‘cause I’m exhausted. [Laughing] But yeah, the tour starts now and goes until South by Southwest. There’s a new record in the works, and it’s almost done.
What’s something that people might not know about you or your music?
I own all ten seasons of Friends on DVD, and Netflix just added all of those, so it made my DVD’s useless. You can’t even sell them! [Laughing]
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Andy Shauf’s “new-ish” record, The Bearer of Bad News, comes out February 3. For more emerging artist news (and even some ticket giveaways), follow ‘A Change of Tune’ on Facebook, Twitter and Insta. Hear new music from Andy Shauf on ‘A Change of Tune’ this Saturday at 10pm EST on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
A pinch of folk, a dash of soul and a good dollop of bluegrass. Mix it all together and what do you get? This week’s “Mountain Stage After Midnight!” Broadcast from 1am-5am Saturday and Sunday mornings here on West Virginia Public Broadcasting, “Mountain Stage After Midnight” takes the best episodes from the show’s 31 year history and shares their memories and songs with our late-night listeners. Each week we’ll hand-pick two of our favorite episodes that’ll alternate order each night.
Tune in this Saturday January 24 and Sunday January 25 for a good ol’ time on “Mountain Stage After Midnight.”
First up is a January 2006 that features performances from old-time Appalachian band The Biscuit Burners, country singer-songwriter Jon Randall, Americana crooner Alecia Nugent, bluegrass player Shawn Camp and “the new Queen of Bluegrass” Rhonda Vincent & the Rage.
Credit Brian Blauser / Mountain Stage
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The finale song for January 29, 2006 (pictured: Susie Suh, Derek Trucks Band, James Hunter and Bettye LaVette).
We’ll also hear another January 2006 from the Creative Arts Center in Morgantown, West Virginia, which includes such talents as acoustic rocker Good Brother Earl, English soul singer James Hunter, alt-folk crooner Susie Suh, American soul legend Bettye LaVette and jamm’n blues group Derek Trucks Band.
Next week is Listener’s Choice! Go to Mountain Stage’s Facebook to decide which performances will air overnight weekends during West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Chocolate Challenge. For more Mountain Stage news and music, make sure to follow the show on Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram and subscribe to The Mountain Stage Podcast on iTunes. Still haven’t seen Mountain Stage in person? Head to our new website to find out how when and where we’re playing next.
