Music Preview: Roger McGuinn still flying solo with folk den, vintage tunes
-
Roger McGuinn has flexed his folk wings since his days with the Byrds.
Share with others:
In January 1965, Roger McGuinn and an engineer at Columbia plugged a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar directly into the board and then compressed it, creating a jangly, ringing sound for the opening riff to the Byrds hit "Mr. Tambourine Man."
It was one of the defining moments in the birth of folk-rock, sparked by the singer-guitarist, who had the concept of bridging Dylan and Lennon. McGuinn was less a rocker than a seasoned folk artist from Chicago who was writing for Bobby Darin at the famed Brill Building in New York.
Over the past decade, the 65-year-old McGuinn has circled back to those roots with a preservation project called Folk Den. In addition to a monthly song available for free on his Web site (mcguinn.com), McGuinn has released two folk compilations: 2002's Grammy-nominated "Treasures From the Folk Den," with the likes of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Odetta, and 2006's "The Folk Den Project."
- With: Anne Feeney.
- Where: Calliope concert at Carnegie Lecture Hall, Oakland.
- When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
- Tickets: $35 advance; $40 at the door; $25 student rush; 412-394-3353.
These days, McGuinn flies solo, playing shows that mix folk classics with solo material and beloved songs from the Byrds, a band that enjoyed a groundbreaking and tumultuous run from 1964-73. The Byrds scored No. 1 hits with "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!," but more importantly, in that short time, the band created a handful of classic albums and helped open the doors for folk rock, psychedelic rock and country rock, inspiring scores of bands to follow.
The Byrds, featuring the core of McGuinn, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Gene Clark, Michael Clarke and, later, Gram Parsons, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. Although there has been interest from surviving members Hillman and Crosby to work again, McGuinn has repeatedly said he doesn't want to be the old guy in the rock band.
Last week, in advance of his show at Carnegie Lecture Hall Saturday night, he talked to us by phone from his home in Orlando, Fla., in voice that still sounds youthful and sweet.
The Folk Den is interesting because you're really going full circle back to your folk roots. What prompted you to do it?
I've always had a love for folk music. And back in '95 I detected a neglect for the traditional side of folk in favor the singer-songwriters. There were a lot of people writing their own songs, but they weren't doing the old songs anymore.
Dylan actually did it around the same time [actually, before, in 1992 with "Good As I Been to You"].
Yeah, but I wasn't influenced by that. In fact, I didn't even know. He's an old folkie, too, and he probably picked up on the same thing. We go in parallel paths. Like when he was doing his "Basement Tapes" we were getting into country, and we each didn't know we were doing that at the time. We were out of touch but picking up on the same things. Something in the air.
Anyway, my idea was to broadcast folk around the world and get people back into it, so I started putting one folk song up on the Internet every month and have been doing that without fail since November of 1995.
How do you research the songs you want to do?
I know a lot of them. I went to a school for folk music called the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago and I learned hundreds of folk songs. The ones I didn't know I found on the Internet. There's a wonderful site called the Mudcat Cafe. It has thousands of folks songs on there.
When you perform your solo shows, how do you balance the folk material with the Byrds stuff people want to hear?
I do the Byrds stuff and songs from my solo records and a couple folk songs. I don't do a whole program of folk. That would be a little boring.
You've been doing solo shows for a long time. Do you miss going out there playing electric with a band?
No, I don't really miss that. I bring my Rickenbacker and I get the audience singing along and it's pretty full sounding. Certainly, it's a lot easier to travel without the trucks and all that stuff.
And every year or so the Rock Bottom Remainders invite me to go out with them. That's Stephen King, Ridley Pearson, Dave Barry, Amy Tan -- all best-selling authors -- and I get to go out and tour with them. That fulfills my desire to play with a band.
Obligatory question: When you recorded "Eight Miles High" [a landmark song], were you thinking in terms of making a psychedelic rock song?
It was an airplane song, about going to England. It dealt with the cultural shock we felt when we went there, and the rejection from the press and the acceptance from the little girls who were screaming.
In terms of the musicianship, I know you were thinking of Coltrane, but were there any rock songs you had in mind that were similar?
I think The Zombies had a jazz kind of break in the middle of "She's Not There." That was a clue that I could get away with a jazz part in there.
Do you think the Byrds were part of Dylan's inspiration to go electric?
Yeah, to some extent, although his initial inspiration was the Animals, when he heard "House of the Rising Sun" done the same way he'd done it. He stole it from Dave Van Ronk, and the Animals got it from him and did it about a year before the Byrds [did "Mr. Tambourine Man"]. So, they were the first ones to do something like that. They were first to get a pop hit with a folk song. I think what the Byrds did is they made Dylan realize he could do that himself. He could be a rock star. Before that, I think he was content to be a folk singer.
You almost recorded with Dylan [in 1970]. Do you regret that not happening?
That was a miscommunication about when the studio time was. The guys in my band wanted to go back to California, so we blew it. I should have been a little stronger and said, "We have to do this record with Dylan, cause it's real important," but I had mutiny on my hands. It was very vague what we were going to do. Clive Davis was supposed to tell us when the studio time was, but he never got back to me. The guys in the Byrds then were all hired musicians. I was the only Byrd left.
Your biggest legacy is probably that guitar sound. Can you talk about how it happened?
I got the Rickenbacker back in '64 after watching "A Hard Day's Night." Saw George Harrison; he had one in the movie. I recognized it was a 12-string even though it looks like a six-string. I traded in my Gibson 12-string, a five-string banjo and a few dollars to get a Rickenbacker. My approach to it was like a banjo. I did a lot of rolling, three-fingered picking, so that's what gives it that unique sound.
A lot of people who play it either strum it or flat-pick it, but I did a folkie kind of thing with it. Then we put it through the board. When I first heard the playback of "Mr. Tambourine Man," I was floored. I couldn't believe we'd done it.
I was listening to that the other day, and it almost sounds like at the end of the verse you were about to break into a laugh.
I don't think so. I wasn't in that kind of mood. The song is a prayer to me. I don't know what Dylan thought. I think it was an acid trip in New Orleans. He was singing about Bruce Langhorne's big tambourine. But I considered it a prayer, like Mr. Tambourine Man was god, and the magic swirling ship was the Earth. We only did the one verse because radio wouldn't play anything over 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I love the whole song. I do all the verses in concert sometimes.
The Byrds inspired so many jangle bands ...
So I've been told ...
Do you have any favorite disciples?
I guess Jeff Tweedy and Peter Buck come to mind. R.E.M. was a breath of fresh air, and Buck was very public about saying he was inspired by the Byrds. Mike Campbell from the Heartbreakers, he can do my breaks really well.
Do you maintain any kind of relationship with Crosby?
It's cordial. I wished him happy birthday in August. I don't really communicate with him all that much. I communicate with Hillman a little bit, mostly by e-mail.
I guess they've wanted to do a Byrds reunion.
I'm happy just to be a solo artist. I don't really want to do a band.
Do you have a favorite Byrds record?
I know Dylan's was "Lay Down Your Weary Tune." He took me aside and said, "I used to think you were just imitating, but you really had something with that." My favorite album is probably "Notorious Byrd Brothers." It's got more dimension to it.
It's incredible to go through a Byrds bio and read first you created folk rock, then psychedelic rock, then country rock.
We were driven by not wanting to be labeled as one thing or another. You don't want to be pigeon-holed. It's a standard concern of musicians in general. Hollywood typecasts people like crazy. Like you're always a gangster or you're always a good guy. It can be stifling to an artist.
First Published March 27, 2008 12:00 am
