Discover Artists Submitting to 10th IMAs: Woody Russell

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Blues artist Woody Russell has joined The 10th Independent Music Awards. Check out his interview here!

Woody Russell was interviewed by Connie Strong of the Bugle Boy, one of our venue partners.  Strong is also a contributing writer for TexasLIVE Magazine, & Texas Animal Imprints.

HOMEBASE: Austin, TX
GENRE: Blues/ Rock
CATEGORY ENTERED:  Blues Album
ALBUM SUBMITTED: Up Against It
LABEL: self released (CUTS Music Group)

SALT WAS NOMINATED FOR THE IMAS 2006 ALBUM OF THE YEAR CATEGORY, COMPARE UP AGAINST IT TO YOUR PREVIOUS ALBUM.
Salt did very well for me professionally; I feel that it’s a great record, personally, and it helped me wrap up a creative statement as a songwriter that I needed to make. I explored some blues, jazz and even some country-leaning tunes, as well as gospel-styled backing vocals and horn arrangements. The IMA nomination was just the icing on the cake. In many ways that nomination confirmed what I felt about the album, which was that it was a highly creative, quality release. It was also the first record I made after relocating to Austin, so it helped close the door – in a positive way – on a long run I had in Seattle as a performing songwriter and recording artist prior to moving to Texas.

Up Against It is an album I wish I’d made long ago. The blues has always been a major force in my music and maybe because I hold it in such high regard I didn’t think I was ready to say to the world “here are the blues, the way I play them,” you know. But I knew if I was going to release another album after “Salt,” it could not be another singer-songwriter thing, I was done with that scene artistically.

YOUR LINER NOTES STATE THAT UP AGAINST IT BEGAN AS YOUR ‘ONLY WAY FORWARD,’ EXPLAIN.
This is a record I needed to make to survive. I remember thinking, ‘if I’m gonna make another record, I’m gonna make the kind of record that I want to make and I’m gonna perform on that record the way I want to perform –without self-censorship.’ It really was the only way forward for me personally. It has been an incredibly positive creative and professional move in that regard. I feel liberated, as ridiculous as that must sound.

WHO INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE A BLUES ALBUM?
I’m a blues and jazz fan, really. I dig great records in just about any genre, but I live and breathe blues and jazz music. When my daughter was born all I had the energy for during those first exhausting months was making coffee and listening to “scratch” recordings I had made; these one minute snippets of ideas. Nearly all of them were jazz and blues oriented. So I started documenting each one and charting them– hundreds of them. I was almost forced to consider the fact that I’d been casually avoiding the importance of that music in my life as a recording artist. The blues has been something that remains so vital to my creative life that it was kind of a ‘no-brainer.’ I was either going to get serious about recording the blues, or call it a day. I couldn’t see moving forward professionally in any other way.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO SUBMIT UP AGAINST IT TO THE 10TH IMAS?
I submitted my previous album, Salt, to The IMAs and it was subsequently nominated in the album category in ’06. I’ve benefited from that publicity, in a number of what would be the most obvious ways. More importantly, however, I feel The IMAs are simply the most respected awards program within the independent music business/community. I don’t participate in any other “contests” because I don’t believe, honestly, that a majority of them prove to be very scrupulous organizations. Among my colleagues in the professional independent music community The IMAs are respected and the organization associated with the contest offers a product, the Atlas, which is of the highest value as a professional resource. Only a handful of the hundreds (if not thousands) of available contests, resources and websites that I’m aware of – those that reportedly “serve” the needs of professional independent musicians – can boast such a notable panel of judges, a top-shelf resource (the Atlas) and such a high “face-value” reputation. I have an IMA Nominee badge at my site storefront next to the “Salt” CD listing for the benefit of potential customers. I feel that it adds marketable value. As an artist I am proud of that nomination because I respect the organization, the quality of the judges and the quality of the competition. Additionally, I would like to note that I mention the nomination still, four years downrange, at gigs when referencing that particular album from the stage. It may as well be a Grammy; I value it that much both as an artist and an independent businessman.

WHAT IS YOUR MUSICAL HISTORY?
I grew up in Montana, which at the time seemed like a cultural void, but I was lucky enough to have a guitar and access to music, be it my parents’ record collection or the radio – when FM radio was fairly adventurous stuff – and I always had records of my own, or my sister’s. The household had pretty varied musical tastes. I was also fortunate enough, in my teens, to be around a gifted, struggling songwriter, Kostas. He eventually went to Nashville and wrote some huge hits in the great classic country style for artists who became big stars; Patty Loveless, Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill, etc. He also had a massive record and guitar collection. I still use an amp he gave me, a ’64 Fender Vibrochamp. By the time he hit gold I was living in Seattle; however, on occasion I’d get back to Montana and catch up with him. So, I performed and recorded all through the grunge scene in Seattle, though I never really felt like I fit in. I was playing blues and jazz-rock stuff. I recorded my first singer-songwriter oriented album and played a thousand shows. I met my wife and we eventually left for Austin when we got the chance. Austin was always on my radar.

WHAT CONNECTION DO YOU HAVE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE & LISTENERS?
Playing music is an experience best shared with an audience, in nearly all respects; especially the blues. I sense, particularly in today’s economic climate and with the internet offering a virtual role in everyone’s social life, that live music is once again the most important part of my career. People, for whatever reason, need that experience, that connection to something which is in the here and now, not on YouTube, not of Facebook. They still appreciate face to face contact with the magic and mystery that only live music can offer. Unfortunately blues clubs are nearly extinct, so you have to take it wherever people will listen. The other night at an outdoor gig I was reminded of the importance of this music. A homeless guy didn’t have any money to get in to the show, but he was hollering over the fence after we’d just played Freddie King’s “Love Her With A Feeling,” shouting “yeah, that’s how you play the blues, with soul… let me in, let me in!” And I said let the man in, you know, ‘cause he needs this music. He need’s that face time with the musicians and we need it too. It’s a 360 degree thing. I throw it out, it comes back, I throw it out again, and it comes back stronger.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF MUSICALLY.
I was a guitarist first. And when I think of myself as a musician, I think guitarist and I think soul singer. When I think of Ray Charles, I say ‘that’s a complete musician: a great instrumentalist, composer and singer.’ He was also an incredible interpreter of songs. That’s the kind of musician I want to be. I guess I’m a blue-eyed soul singer and a guitar freak. And though I’ve written all of my own recorded songs, I have come to appreciate the interpretation of songs, especially within the blues, as a prerequisite to understanding this music on a deeper level. But, underneath it all I just love that guitar first and foremost.

Woody Russell performing “That’s Just The Way My Wheels Roll” at IMAs Music Venue Partner, The Bugle Boy.

WHAT SETS BLUES APART FROM OTHER MUSICAL GENRES?
Being part of the blues tribe is like a religion. Once you get it, it doesn’t go away. Some call it the ‘blues bug.’ I realized what greater purpose playing this kind of music serves. If you’re not doing it for the right reasons and with respect, you might want to rethink it. Blues and Jazz are American classical music. Muddy Waters is Bach in America. The blues was born in Africa but raised in America. It’s America’s musical roots.

WHO HAS MADE THE BIGGEST MUSICAL IMPACT ON YOU?
There simply isn’t just one artist. Miles Davis, Ronnie Earl, BB King, Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan, Ray Charles… my list is expansive. Contemporary jazz guitarists like Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, too. But one who really had an intense impact early on was Santana. His music came into my life in my very early 20s. I was lucky enough to meet him. His playing sparked the guitar player in me to listen to what was being said, the communication, the poetry, the soulfulness of what any instrumentalist can offer. Miles and Coltrane, too. Santana was my primary link between rock, blues, jazz and soul.

YOU STARTED A PROJECT TO GIVE YOUR FANS INSIGHTS INTO YOUR RECORDING PROCESS, CAN YOU EXPLAIN ‘THE IN SESSION PROJECT’?
‘The In Session Project’ was accessible through my website as a means to connect with fans who were interested in a detailed look at the recording process behind my new album. I had tried other online sites that offered fan-funded schemes but they were hugely negative experiences for a variety of reasons. So, in response I designed my own, highly personalized, fan-funding model that was more than just a donation box, which I was fundamentally uncomfortable with. It was important to me that they receive a product, beyond the CD itself, for their advanced investment in my music. It was a lot more work at my end producing the extra In Session materials in conjunction with the album itself, but it was really a positive experience that I look forward to sharing again. I aim to do it better and better with each session.

HOW YOU KNOW WHEN A SONG YOU HAVE WRITTEN WILL MAKE IT ONTO THE NEXT ALBUM?
I don’t know that there is a single defining moment when a song just jumps up and says to me that it should be part of the album or not. If I’ve written something that I dig performing, that is one measure of its value. If I’ve written a song that is fighting me in the studio, it’s probably not going to work out. I have no tricks for getting the big emotional impact, or manufacturing the major “payoff,” as so many producers think they can tap. I believe if it’s honest, it’ll work as a composition and inspire an emotionally fueled performance both on stage and in the studio. Beyond that, it’s not rocket science, it’s a song.

WHAT IS YOUR SONG “BETWEEN NOWHERE AND GOODBYE” ABOUT?
That song is a very personal piece. It’s an unadorned song; solo acoustic, basically. It speaks to the struggle of being a creative professional who also happens to have a family, another world not so far from the business, that needs to be nourished. As a vocalist – throughout the album – I was reaching for that intangible energy I hear in the classic R&B recordings I love. There is a sense of emotional urgency inherent in that particular lyric. The producer in me was pushing the artist in me to go somewhere with that song which literally had me jumping one moment and doubled over the next getting to the vocal performance that you hear on the track. I feel it makes a perfect closing statement on the album.

WHAT ARTISTS DO YOU LISTENING TO?
I listen to a lot of music and I look for musicians that speak to the soul. Again, my favorites tend to be blues, R&B and jazz artists. Some classic country, too, because – at its best – it is also soul music. Currently, I’m listening a lot to a great guitarist I discovered back in the late 90s, Ronnie Earl. He is an extraordinary musician. Robert Cray, too, is so deeply gifted. He has maintained such a high standard of musicianship throughout his career. I really dig Louisiana based bluesman, Tab Benoit. Soul and R&B man, OV Wright – great stuff. Also, Marvin Gaye. I’ve always loved Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, Freddie King. Miles Davis is a definite desert island artist for me. I couldn’t take only five albums to my desert island; that would kill me.

HOW MANY GUITARS DO YOU OWN?
Oh, I have a few, six or seven. I don’t believe in having guitars around just to collect them. I recently played a vintage Strat in Seattle that had a $35,000 price tag hanging on it. To me, that’s ridiculous. My custom Resolectric and my Grosh Electratone are the primary instruments on Up Against It and for my live shows. I’m a Grosh Artist, so I can’t recommend Don Grosh’s work enough. He is an extraordinary guitar builder. At any rate, I believe in owning guitars that I’m going to play, not just for the sake of collecting them.

WHAT ARE YOUR LONG TERM GOALS AS A MUSICIAN?
My long-term goal is to keep making music that is honest. My biggest career achievements have been happening over the last five years or so, but I’ve been a professional musician for over two decades. The quest for creating the music that I want to hear from myself as a recording artist has been all consuming. It is a life long goal, to be a better and better musician every year. I may be old-school, but I believe that quality musicianship is the key to longevity.

COMPLETE THIS SENTENCE: MY DEFINITION OF MUSICAL SUCCESS IS…
If I can listen to my own albums 10 years downrange from their release, then I will know I’ve done work that stands the test of time by my own definition. I’ve also come to understand that performing music professionally isn’t just a self-serving gig. It’s about community. Carlos Santana said that “we are in the business of touching people’s hearts.” I have tried to carry that notion forward in my professional life. The music business is suffering, like many businesses are, but this uprooting of the industry was inevitable in many ways. I don’t see it as a total positive or a complete negative. I see the internet for what it is; a promotional tool, but it is not the savior of the independent music business. What will survive is the human need that an audience, the music fan, has for the music which nourishes their souls. What will survive in me, as an artist, is exactly the same thing. I need to keep playing music and digging deeper into my definition of success within my chosen profession. It is a business and I, for one, intend to offer the best product I can – in both live and recorded settings. Getting it to the public in more high profile settings is something I’m doing based on, I believe, the hard earned skill that I’ve developed as a musician over the course of my career. Artist development is what record labels used to be proponents of, when they cared about artistry. Some certainly still engage in that process, I’m sure. But, in my professional life, it has been up to me to navigate that development as a self-produced artist up to this point. I think only recently, since the release of “Salt” and now certainly with “Up Against It,” have I begun to hit my stride. I’m cool with that and I feel like I’ve genuinely earned the skills that I have. I’ll never have to question it, as I know I did when I was younger. The doubts I used to have will never again be reflected in my recordings or on stage. You can’t get that out of a box, you got to work it from the stage and in the studio. There is no substitute for time with respect to developing artistry.

WHERE CAN YOUR FANS FIND YOU AND YOUR MUSIC?
My website has it all: www.woodyrussell.com. I have a secure storefront where you can buy albums, downloads and merch without a middle man taking a substantial cut. That is the key that consumers need to understand. If you buy directly from an artist you are putting food right on that artist’s table. Of course, I’m everywhere else on the web, too. I’m looking into touring Europe for the first time and we’re really looking forward to a performance at the Smithville Music Festival this November with Jimmie Vaughan. I hear that the legendary bluesman, Sonny Rhodes, will be honored, too.

If you are an artist submitting to The 10th IMA program and interested in being featured in an Artist Spotlight please contact Tory@IndependentMusicAwards.com

RELATED POST: Music Venue Partner Spotlight: The Bugle Boy

UPDATE: Jimmy Vaughan to Headline Event, Woody Russell to Open the Festival Stage at Smithville