“It’s a place that’s kind of our second home at this point.” That’s what pianist Joel Cummins says about Charleston, SC, the location of a new music festival, the Woodlands Festival. The event is being put together by Joel’s band, Umphrey’s McGee themselves, for its inagural run this November 7th, 8th and 9th. He says the location looks to be on a beautiful 6000-acre nature preserve, and, says talent will abound with a lineup that has the likes of Big Something, The Empire Strikes Brass, Zach Deputy, and of course, Umphrey’s McGee. You can still find tickets, including single-day passes here.
Joel is clearly passionate about Charleston and the Woodlands festival as you’ll hear in the interview. He also discusses his love of Claude Debussy piano pieces (as well as Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin), which he often features on his solo piano shows. “I think it’s just so important to pass that on to listeners,” he says. Joel also discusses how Impressionist music like Debussy’s that fits into the what the Umphrey’s sound is. Umphrey’s even quotes Mozart and Grieg in their songs “Der Bluten Kat” and “Thin Air” respectively as discussed below.
Credit umphreys.com
/
Joel’s a pretty cool guy.
Joel also talks about his new book, The Realist’s Guide to a Successful Music Career, which is about… a realist’s guide to a successful music career. It features discussions with some of the greats of music: Huey Lewis, Susan Tedeschi, Victor Wooten, Ivan Neville, Taylor Hicks, Chuck Leavell (music director for the Rolling Stones), and more. You can purchase a copy online here. He’s also a pretty cool guy, so check out the interview below…
“We want to always have this doomed artist cliche that doesn’t exist, but there’s always these other individuals as a part of the story as well.”
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 critically-acclaimed author from Beckley and his unique take on a cult favorite musician from New Cumberland. This… is Scott McClanahan.
I think I experienced it, but it was culture that’s different than what people think of as culture. We have an idea of culture in this state like dulcimers and banjos or progressive ideas about music, and I think the culture I grew up with was gas stations or [the band] Alabama. So, that was like my culture. We saw the Statler Brothers at the state fair five times. What’s wonderful about this place is people play music in the evenings or tell stories in the evenings to keep it alive as opposed to doing it for some profession or to record an album, which always sort of taints it in some way. I had no access to culture, in some ways.
We have the greatest myth in John Henry, and we have the best ghost story in the Greenbrier Ghost. There was a musician my dad always listened to called Mel Street who was from Bluefield, he did some independent releases or maybe stuff for MCA, but he committed suicide. Little Jimmy Dickens, there’s a certain West Virginia connection there. I never looked at it as geographical in that way; my father’s music was classic country, and that was amazing and maybe speaks for the place even though the individuals aren’t from there.
On why he has stayed in West Virginia:
It would be ridiculous if William Faulkner moved to Minnesota. That’d be kind of silly. Not that I would never want to live in Minnesota, “Land of a Thousand Lakes.” I have an Uncle Doug in Minnesota.
But I’m kind of a regional person. I lived in Huntington for a time. I lived in Morgantown for a time, and that doesn’t seem like West Virginia to me. Huntington feels like parts-Kentucky, Ohio and urban West Virginia, and Morgantown is just a college town.
I love cities. I love New York. I love L.A. But I just luckily wound up with a job that lets me stay here. I probably could’ve been like every other person my age that’s taken off, but it’s always been important for me to stay. I’m still close to my parents. I’m sure I’ll have to leave eventually, but there’s a great Terry Bradshaw story where he got drafted to the Steelers and his agent said, “But it’s in Pittsburgh,” and he said, “Where ever I’m at, it’s going to be amazing.” So I’ve sort of had that idea about any place that I’ve lived in.
Credit Roberto Cavolo / Two Dollar Radio
/
Page from The Incantations of Daniel Johnston
On the mythology of Daniel Johnston:
He’s this Church of Christ kid, raised in West Virginia and he’s really into the Beatles, which is important. He moved to Texas to live with his brother and started doing these home recordings by himself, which doesn’t seem weird today since it’s the sound of bedroom pop Pitchfork-y type stuff. The stuff he’s doing is even more interesting than the DIY punk stuff of the same era. And he’s playing a chord organ which is that bad musical instrument in every 8th grade music class, and he’s writing these songs.
If we were looking at it from a different angle, you know the mental health issue is brought up which adds a certain element to the music. There’s this insane sort of story where he’s flying home from SXSW, and his father is a pilot and he was having this episode and he crashed his father’s plane. So there’s story after story after story with Johnston like that.
This would’ve been like ’99 probably, someone burned me a bunch of Daniel Johnston songs from Napster, the songs that mean something to me. The traditional greatest hits are not nearly as amazing as the tracks that are hidden, and people don’t know as well or there’s not that kind of childlike sort of wonder gimmick that he has that runs through those early recordings. I’m a music head, and I owned a couple of those tapes on CD.
Music featured in this #WVmusic chat:
Daniel Johnston- “Love will Find You in the End”
Daniel Johnston- “Honey, I Sure Miss You”
Daniel Johnston- “The Story of an Artist”
Support for 30 Days of #WVmusic is provided by Made in WV, a specialty apparel company made by and for proud West Virginians. Online at madeinwv.com.
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.
“Every community is bound to bare some sort of sound and champion that, but it’s not as definite as it used to be.”
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 Huntington alt-rock band inspired by the glamour, grit and guitars of the New York music scene. This… is Shenanagram.
How did the band/act start playing music (when, where, why, etc.)?
We started this band in 2012. We all had been in varying bands together prior to forming this group, but as none of those ended up panning out, this project came together. We’re all from the Huntington/Barboursville area and have been friends with each other for some time, so it was a pretty natural formation.
Credit Tyler Cooper
/
Shenanagram at Charleston’s The Empty Glass.
What bands have the Shenanagram-ers been in previously?
Orchard Avenue, Lights Out Lucy, Blank Pages and Huntington’s Scroungehound.
And where does the name Shenanagram come from?
A few of us were having drinks when one of us just blurted out the word, and I can’t even remember the context specifically. We liked it a lot more than our old name, so we were pretty eager to suggest the name change. It’s also nice having a name that’s not really a word. We’re easy to search on the internet and brand ourselves, so that’s convenient when trying to spread the word.
How has the band’s sound changed over time (if at all)?
It’s changed pretty drastically over the years. When we first started, we were much more in the vein of bands like Foo Fighters and The Black Keys. We sound incredibly different now. We are very influenced by a lot of New York bands like The Strokes, Television and other CBGB’s stuff. We’re also considering experimenting with electronic instruments in some of the newer material we’ve been working on, which is something we would’ve swore off when we started. I think the changes are exciting, and we’ve become a lot more open to the possibility of change as we’ve expanded our tastes.
Where has the band played in and around West Virginia?
We play mostly in Huntington, as two of us are in school and don’t really have the time to go out and venture much. We’ve played The V-Club, Press Club, Huntington Ale House, Bittersweet Coffeehouse, Blue Parrot, Empty Glass, Muncheez and a local house venue called the Cricket Cave.
Credit Veronica Quezada
/
Shenanagram
What’s been the highlight of the band’s musical journey?
I think just having our first official release last year was a big step for us. Actually going into a studio and going through a more legitimate process than just recording stuff at our houses felt like we were doing something more than what we had been doing prior. I think it’s put us into the mindset that we can do something more with this.
Any advice for musicians just starting out?
Write constantly, be prepared to be fluid with changes and don’t fight them. Just get out there and enjoy yourselves.
What’s it like making music in West Virginia?
I don’t feel it has as big of an impact as in the pre-internet era. I think every community is bound to bare some sort of sound and champion that, but it’s not as definite as it used to be. Everyone has access to whatever music they’re keen on, so you’re not bound to the sound of your area. As far as the community itself goes, I think there are plenty of people who support the arts in the area, and I think that community is slowly growing as well, which is exciting.
Credit Sean Seaman
/
Shenanagram
Do you feel held back by being in West Virginia? Or does it feel like a musically-supportive place?
I think the area is bound to foster certain sounds and really support the acts the fall within that. I don’t feel that we are necessarily aligned with that sound locally, but I don’t think it hinders us in any sort of major way as well. But we might fare a little better in the Morgantown/Pittsburgh area, where the alternative scene is a little more prominent.
What, in your opinion, needs to happen in the West Virginia music scene for it to move forward?
I think breaking down the barriers of localized scenes would help a lot. When I think of Morgantown, I think of alternative music. When I think of Huntington, I think of Americana/folk. So on and so forth. We live in the digital age where boundaries no longer exist in the fashion that they used to, so making the changes to reflect that would be beneficial to all varieties of arts across the state.
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.
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 the Huntington drummer with the best seat in the house, keeping time for William Matheny and Tyler Childers. This… is Rod Elkins.
I’ve been into music pretty much my entire life. My dad has a band, The Elkins Brothers Band, and ever since I was a little kid, I’d go and watch him play. Mostly at the Milton Fire House or various VFWs, and I would just sit there, swinging my legs. It’s always been around, and I can never think of a time it wasn’t. I started playing drums in the 6th grade, enrolled in band at school and started playing in his band.
I always thought the drums were the coolest instrument on the planet. Every drummer my dad had, they were just cool dudes. I loved to be around them and loved watching them, and I thought it was the best instrument in the band. My dad’s a guitar player, kind of picked that up naturally. He would put one in my hand, teach me a few things, I would download songs off Napster when I came home from school and learn them.
He was really nurturing. I used to teach at Route 60 Music and people would tell me how they bought their kids electronic drum sets because they didn’t want to hear it. I always thought about how my mom and dad gave me a couple of hours to make as much noise as I wanted, but at like 8pm, if it wasn’t done… [laughing]!
On what he listened to growing up:
The classic country, outlaw stuff. My dad is a huge Waylon Jennings fan. I always thought he sounded like him when he sang.
I had a Fisher-Price record player, and I remember as a kid, I was just crawling across the floor, maybe 4- or 5-years-old, I took the Fisher-Price record off and waddled over to a stack of my dad’s records and pulled it out, and it was Creedence Clearwater Revival, one of the greatest hits records, “Down on the Corner,” was the first song. I was pretty hooked after that.
Credit Courtesy of the artist
/
Rod Elkins as a Marshall University drummer.
On his jazz studies at Marshall University inform his Americana/rock drumming:
I always wanted to do music in college. I wanted to go to college because not many people in my family went to college. Me and my sisters did. My dad didn’t go; my mom went to beauty school. Staying in town just made sense.
I got really bored with just doing classical performance with symphonic band and percussion ensembles. Not that I don’t like the music or anything, but at the time, I was just really out of it and not really enjoying it. I think I was the only drum set major at the time in jazz studies. I took a little break and came back in 2012 and finished three years ago this December.
It helped playing with different groups, playing something you just got a week ago. Reading, making charts. Sometimes if we want to play a song now, the fastest way for me to learn it is if I jot it down on a piece of paper and chart it out. I got to see a lot of great drummers being in school. We had great faculty, and they would always bring great people in. It was really inspirational seeing them play.
On his favorite drummers:
Levon [Helm], for sure. I’ll never forget… me and Craig Burletic. I was in the music library, and I was supposed to be doing something but I wasn’t actively doing anything, and [Craig] comes in and says, “Dude, you got to stop what you’re doing and listen to this.” And I think it was the Rock of Ages video of The Band doing “Don’t Do It.” It was lifechanging, the way he played, the nuances and the sound he got out of the drums. That and Steve Gadd. I always wanted to play like Steve Gadd ‘cause that guy’s perfect.
Credit Melissa Stillwell
/
Rod Elkins performing at The V-Club in Huntington, WV.
On what it means to be a drummer in the band:
Drummer is the bus, that’s what I always thought, and the bass player drives that bus. It’s a team effort, something to lean on. A good drummer doesn’t get in the way of the song. It’s a nice blanket for soloists or singers to lean on and to stay out of the way. That’s always a goal in my head when I play. I feel like I’m naturally strong, and I have to work hard at the drums to stay out of the way. I constantly worry that I’m too loud.
On his first bands playing in the #WVmusic scene:
I was playing in a VFW band called 60 East. I played guitar and sang. It was pretty good, right out of high school. James [Barker] and Craig Burletic had a rock band and a drummer who was moving away. I was late for a math class, and I didn’t go because I was late, I was getting coffee and [Craig] said, “You have to play in my band. I talked to James, and we don’t want anyone else. We want you.” I just wanted to do this original music. That was the first thing with Huntington music… Deadbeats & Barkers.
That transformed into like 68 consecutive Sundays at Shamrocks. [Shamrocks owner Ian Thornton] gave us a shot, and I think [Deadbeats & Barkers] already had the Sunday gig when they asked me to play. We dove right in, and it was great. That period… I understand why they call it the good old days. I met Bud Carroll for the first time, Doug Woodward, The Demon Beat. Anybody and everybody would come on Sundays. Sometimes it would be so special. We’d play a set, take a break and then anybody who’d want to jam could jam. I think I quit my job at Amazon because of Sundays because I had to be at work on 8 on Monday morning.
On joining up with Tyler Childers:
It was kind of a joke at first. Jack Browning, a good buddy of ours who lives in L.A. now, thought, “Y’all should play together and be the Food Stamps.” Tyler Childers opened for us at Shoops, and he sang and it was beautiful, everybody was shocked. I’ll never forget after the show I said, “Man, you’re great, you’ve got great songs. You want to party?” His response was, “Man, I’m 18 and 45 minutes from home, I think I need to go.”
We kept crossing paths, and then the joke came back around, and it was one of our friend’s birthday parties where we finally did it. A little bit later, we were goofing around playing covers, and I took the initiative to put our name in the hat for a music festival in Cincinnati. We went to Bud’s and cut some demos. We got in, and it was the first time we played Tyler’s songs, and we’ve been doing it ever since.
Credit Josh Saul
/
Bud Carroll, Rod Elkins, William Matheny, Adam Meisterhans and Ian Thornton backstage before their June 2016 Mountain Stage.
Nothing short of magical. I love that guy to death. It’s kind of hard to place when I first met William because once I did, it’s like he’s been in my life forever, it’s like he’s always been there. He probably knows better than I do. I filled in for Bud [since] Bud was playing drums. I can’t remember why he couldn’t play, but I learned the songs, and after those strings of dates it was like, “Would you like to be in this band? We can put Bud back on guitar.” [Billy’s] songs are great, he’s a great person, a true bandleader. I’m fortunate enough to play with the two best songwriters in West Virginia. It’s been nothing short of great, I don’t know how I did it. I’ve been really fortunate to hang in there with some of the best.
Music featured in this #WVmusic chat:
Rod Elkins- “DonDon”
Tyler Childers and The Foodstamps- “Feathered Indians”
Rod Elkins- “PanGan-Anini”
William Matheny & the Strange Constellations- “Living Half to Death”
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.
People ask, “It’s a rock school. How do they graduate from this?” And I always say, “We win (and they graduate) when they go make music, play in bands and go out into the community on their own. That’s when everyone wins.”
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 for the young rockers and the young rockers-at-heart. In the words of Jack Black, “you are not hardcore, unless you live hardcore,” and this School of Rock-esque facility is definitely hardcore. From Morgantown, West Virginia, this… is PopShopWV.
PopShopWV is currently in session. You can rock enroll and learn about the classes and summer camps on their website and social media. Hear more #WVmusic on A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Connect with A Change of Tune on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic and subscribe to our RSS / podcast feeds.
Credit Emily Sarkees
/
PopShopWV during their Springfest 2017 in Morgantown.
Interview Highlights
On what PopShopWV is:
PopShop is a non-profit arts academy located in Morgantown. We take students in the area that want to learn music. Specifically, our vehicle to teaching them music and the musical instruments is popular music, country music, rock music, metal, hip-hop and blues. The goal of PopShop is to not only teach them how to play their instruments, but the underlying goal is to bring students in the area (age eight to adult) and put them in groups together and let them work together.
The major thing that a lot of these students are doing in school is playing in large ensembles, and they can kind of hide behind something if they don’t know their part as much. We stress that it’s a small group, and everybody has their own part; if that part is not there, then the final song does not sound the same, so it’s important to be courageous in how you play it, whether it’s singing or playing a solo or even just supporting the band and sitting in the background to do your part.
I’m a product of the public school system in music, and it was a little bit of the folk stuff every now and then. You got some James Taylor every now and then, but it switched around middle and high school to classical music. I love that stuff and love listening to [classical], but what kept me in music and what brings me back are the Billy Joel’s, the Elton John’s, the Beatles. And a lot of these kids are finding the same things from their parents. We’re teaching them artists, and they’re teaching us about new artists. It’s a great thing for everyone.
Credit Emily Sarkees
/
PopShop’s SpringFest 2017 in Morgantown.
On the formation of PopShopWV:
PopShop is the product of a band I was in from the late ‘90s called The Argument. We were all teaching music whether in schools or privately, and as we were touring, we had days off. So we decided, “What if we contact the schools and see if we can teach what we know using popular music?” Like vocal blending, the business of music and maybe the students and teachers would want to hear it. That started in 2003. In 2004, the Appalachian Education Initiative helped us find a grant through the Justin Timberlake Foundation that opened some doors and helped us find some of the hardest hit arts schools in West Virginia and allowed us to go to these schools, put on concerts and teach them about popular music.
In 2010, after the band had broken up, I started the actual school itself. It was a small affair. We had 11 kids, all homeschooled. It’s grown to this day, almost seven years later, with over 90 students of all ages and 20 groups. We’ve had a lot of students in-and-out [over the last seven years]. What’s cool about that is some of them teach with us now. From students to now teachers, they’ve been a great asset to our program.
On how PopShopWV operates:
PopShop is for students of all ages. We take students that have no experience or years-and-years of experience. We expect for them to come in and want to play with us, to learn, to want to play with other people and use it as a group effort to make something great. They might not be great players after a six-week session, but we’ll want them to want to know more, maybe pursue lessons.
Most of the younger students have their eyes set on an instrument [before they start], but we give them an opportunity to try anything. We have a very young group called The Blackouts, some seven-year-old’s in the band, and they are happy playing anything you put in their hands. They’re actually becoming a good little band; every time I see them, they blow me away.
Credit Emily Sarkees
/
PopShop’s Springfest 2017 in Morgantown.
We have students that come as far as away as Buckannon. We have students from Fairmont, Maryland, Pennsylvania and a lot of students in Morgantown (of course), but we’re always blown away when a student finds us from a little further away and wants to drive to let us teach them music.
Our instructors are not necessarily schooled musicians, but they have a lot of performance experience so they can actually relay that to students that things might not always go right; sometimes, you have to find a way around things. As a performing musician, that’s one of the important things you can do: overcoming problems, not using shortcuts to being a good musician, but learning how to handle when things aren’t exactly as they should be. They also do a good job of introducing music to these groups, and we all come from different musical backgrounds. Brian Spragg is one of our music technology instructors, as well as Walt Sarkees. Those guys couldn’t be from more different musical backgrounds, and I love hearing them talk about their passions for music.
Credit Jesse Wright
/
Recognize the musical faces inside PopShopWV HQ?
On PopShopWV’s relationship with #WVmusic:
We have never done a series or session on just West Virginia musicians, but we have used Bill Withers’ music. He’s one of our favorites. Our students really, really relate to songs like “Lean On Me” and “Ain’t No Sunshine.” It’s been great to use him as a model and also have some time with him. We actually got to Skype with him in December 2015, and we all were really blown away. He talked about perseverance and working through everything and wanting to make it happen. A lot of students needed to hear that.
Credit Jesse Wright
/
PopShop students Hazel Iafrate and Zorrah Lawson.
The thing we strive for here in West Virginia (and whenever we Skype with musicians around the world), we get to ask them the question, “How were you shaped by where you grew up musically and as a person?” And we always get really great answers from that because a lot of students in West Virginia may think, “Well, I’m just from West Virginia, and I can’t do anything because I’m from here.” And Bill Withers might be the perfect example of what you can do as a West Virginian. We want to produce musicians (and people) who think that they can do anything and be from anywhere and work hard enough to do [what they want].
Credit Jesse Wright
/
PopShop student Sydney Wiley.
Young rock’n voices featured in this #WVmusic chat:
Sydney Wiley (15-years-old)
Zorrah Lawson (8-years-old)
Hazel Iafrate (8-years-old)
Support for 30 Days of #WVmusic is provided by Made in WV, a specialty apparel company made by and for proud West Virginians. Online at madeinwv.com.
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.
Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from Tyler Childers to Ona, Bud Carroll to Coyotes in Boxes and beyond.
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day was this month (and with A Change of Tune’s second birthday on the horizon), 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 for our final #WVmusic chat, we are chatting with Kanawha-by-way-of-Logan County multi-instrumentalist Jeff Ellis. After playing in a number of local bands over the years (including Harvest and Guinness Clarke’s Wine) and releasing more than a few solo records, Jeff is ready to show the world his new band and his new sound, but not before giving us an idea of the number of #WVmusic people who have helped him along the way.
Jeff Ellis and 40 Days’ new release is Modern Time Blues. 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.
Credit Melissa Stilwell Photography
/
Jeff Ellis and 40 Days perform at The V Club in 2016.
Interview Highlights
On his love for music:
I always wanted to be a musician, since I was probably 11- or 12-years-old. I’ve played music, I’ve written songs, and I’ve always strived to be better. Ultimately, I would love to do that for a living and make enough to support a family on that. But as Ian Thornton and Todd Burge have said in earlier interviews, if music is the only thing you’re doing, you’re going to have a hard life. You’ll have a good time, but it might be short-lived and very stressful.
I made a decision early on, at 17 as a matter of fact, that I was going to have a dual career. It’s actually the only reason why I joined the Army Reserve instead of Active Duty. Army Reserve, I can do my one weekend enough, go do some Active Duty time, make enough money to where I could still make music, and still work a part-time job. And that worked out for a while. Time went by and, 18 years later, here I am.
On balancing his life with the Army and his career in music:
I’ve got to spend a year in Austin, Texas. I’ve got to spend a year in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I’ve spent too many years in Iraq and Kuwait and places like that. But each time I go do this, I’m able to save up a fairly good amount of money so when I come back, all the songs I’ve written during that time period, I’m able to go into a studio, I can fund it myself, and I can hire and pay the musicians. And it gives me a chance to play in those areas that I normally wouldn’t get to. So in that regard, it’s worked well. But there have been a lot of sacrifices.
In 2002, for example, I had a chance to go out and do a demo with Raine Maida from the band Our Lady Peace. I was stationed at Fort Bragg at the time, and I met him in Columbus, Ohio, and slipped him a demo a couple weeks before. The stars aligned, the dude calls me, and he was supportive of the songwriting. Then he shoots me an email and asks if I would want to go to California for a weekend and record a demo. So I go to my command at Fort Bragg and they’re like, “Our Lady who? No, we’re not going to give you a four-day pass to go out and make a demo with a rock star.” That sucked real bad [laughing].
On Active Duty, it was almost impossible to have a dual career. I would book these shows, but then at the last minute, they would tell me I couldn’t go.
Credit Melissa Stilwell Photography
/
Bud Carroll and Jeff Ellis have known each other for quite some time.
On Jeff Ellis and 40 Days’ band name:
I didn’t want it to be The Jeff Ellis Band because we had done that before with different people, so I wanted this to be distinct. I told the band to come up with a band, and everyone started putting names in the hat. Someone threw in 40 Days, which is actually a song I had written years before. I was raised in a Baptist Church, and 40 Days is significant for times of trial and temptation throughout the Bible. That was always the one I tried to shoot down just because it had been the song title, and I didn’t want it to be the band name. I was thinking about The Heartbreakers, but that was already taken [laughing]. But everyone voted on their favorite band name, and I was outvoted.
Credit Jimbo Valentine
/
Huntington-based artist Jimbo Valentine designed Jeff Ellis and 40 Days’ new album artwork.
On his new release Modern Time Blues:
A lot of the songs were written in a police cruiser, I’ll start with that [laughing]. I try to write songs that I think are interesting, and usually those come from real people who I’ve met that get turned into characters and real events that get somewhat fictionalized. A lot of the stuff on this record are real events, real people that I’ve come into contact through police work or military work that I just had to write about. Writing time is hard to find, by the way, when you have two kids, which is why I do most of it in a police cruiser [laughing]. I had a bunch of songs and took them to Bud Carroll. Thematically and sonically, this is probably the strongest record we have done.
On his music career goals:
Two of my goals in life were to play Mountain Stage and to meet Bruce Springsteen, and I’ve knocked those two out. He has no idea that he met me, but he shook my hand at a concert, and I was like, “I’m not washing this hand for a week.” But I was fortunate enough to do Mountain Stage, and then I got to do it again, which was phenomenal. If I got to meet Tom Petty now, the trifecta would be complete.
Music featured in this #WVmusic chat:
Jeff Ellis and 40 Days- “On the Right Road Now”
Jeff Ellis and 40 Days- “Poor Penny”
Jeff Ellis and 40 Days- “Never Enough”
Jeff Ellis and 40 Days- “So. Charleston City Beat Blues”
