Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
I tour mostly as a duo with Jan, and our ride is a 2019 Volvo V90 wagon. So far no mishaps or breakdowns but we’re only 31K miles in. The Volvo replaced a 2007 Prius and its big rechargeable battery which was giving us trouble. We fold half the back seat down because the guitar in a hard case won’t fit sideways, and we use a bar between the rear seat windows for a clothes rack. About half the time we fly somewhere and rent a car, but when we use our car we bring a cooler.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
The way things go on tour, you often eat when you’re not really hungry (and often finally have time for sleep when you’re not tired). Now I’m way up in my 60’s so I eat a lot lighter. One trick is to bring some of the backstage food to our hotel room. That banana and bunch of grapes make a decent breakfast, or at least the start of one, with the in-room coffee. We’ll look for a non-chain restaurant somewhere between the hotel and load in, then we often split a meal, because the promoter’s likely to have a full spread for us backstage before showtime.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I’m a lucky D’Addario artist, meaning I get strings for free. I change guitar strings every other gig which pretty much insures I won’t break a string. If I do, it might be because of a rough edge on the bridge top, and less often from a sharp edge on the hole in the tuner’s shaft. I’m very friendly with all the guys at Joe Glaser instruments here in Nashville – they keep my touring instruments in good working order. The only kind of strings I still buy are fiddle strings. They’re expensive – $35 a set for Prims – but I only change them every three or four months.
Where do you rehearse?
Our house has a big room with a high ceiling that was originally a two car garage, and for a while after that it was a small church! That’s our rehearsal room. I have my cd collection, instruments, and recording gear in there, so that’s the place. I’ve made whole records in there but there’s no door between it and the kitchen, which makes it a much better idea to rent a real studio for tracking. Crazy experiences in there? Nothing I can tell you about, but I did sneak a whole Dixieland band in there as a surprise for Jan’s 60th birthday.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
I was about 13, still playing my first guitar, a $30 Harmony flat top, when I strummed an E minor chord and then a C chord and sang “Sweet Pauline”. The C chord hits on the second syllable of “Pauline”. I don’t know anyone by that name, but maybe I should finish that song…
Describe your first gig.
My sister and I were hired to sing at our former babysitter’s wedding. I was probably 14 and Mollie was 16. We probably sang a couple Peter Paul and Mary songs from the choir loft at our local Catholic church. I don’t know if we were paid, but we each got beer mugs with the wedding date and names engraved on them. They were a kind of mug that was popular then – with a glass bottom so you can look through it as you raise it to your lips. Don’t think I ever drank beer from it.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
When I was 19, I worked in Teeter’s tree nursery in Wheeling, WV long enough to earn enough to buy a car, and that was really my last “real” job. Being a musician, you perform at night but during the day you practice, or write, work on travel, or maybe you’re driving or flying somewhere. So that’s my day job. I used to teach a lot of lessons at music stores and at home. That’s the work part, whereas I do the playing part for free.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
I have a bunch of little royalty streams that ebb and flow. A new record will get some airplay and sales money for a year and then it tapers off, so I save enough money to make a new one. When I started almost 50 years ago, I took whatever gig I could get, and royalty income started to trickle in after about 10 years. Selling a few songs in Nashville a few years later gave me a license to be more selective and to launch a solo career. Royalties eventually came to represent about 25% of my income, but touring drives those royalty streams and is still the main source of income. 10 years from now, I hope to be living on a tropical beach, my songs having been covered by an artist formerly known as somebody.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
Keep a bent elbow while driving, don’t lock your arm on the steering wheel because it makes your arm shorter. Also when forced to choose between A sharp and B flat, always go with B flat – it sounds the same and there are fewer accidentals.