Paul. -- Christy McWilson's CD produced by Dave Alvin, will be out in June on HighTone records. Dave: "It's called The Lucky One. I think it's one of the best things I've produced, and I even get in a couple of good guitar solos, including my first ever wah-wah guitar solo." - In June,  Candye Kane's new Rounder record is due out. Dave played guitar on a rockabilly song and a blues. Dave: "I did my best Johnny Guitar Watson." - Time Bomb records will release a live Hootenany CD which will include a live version of Dave's OUT IN CALIFORNIA from last years' Hootenany set. - Rick Shea released his second full-length CD called Shaky Ground on Wagon Wheel records. The CD includes all of Rick's 1991 (and out-of-print) album Outside of Nashville, along with five recently recorded tracks. The CD is a limited release, and is available by mail-order by sending $16 post paid to Rick Shea, PO Box 294, Covina, CA 91723 - Rick Shea reports: "I'm working on an album of new songs now with Cody Bryant's label, Wagon Wheel. Hopefully, it will be out soon.  All new songs.  Brantley will be singing and playing and Dave will do a guest appearance." -- Chris Gaffney's  Live And Then Some 2-CD set is available directly from Tres Pescadores records by sending $20 postpaid to: Tres Pescadores Records PO Box 4 Anaheim CA 92815-0004 For more info on the web --   http://www.primenet.com/~thewett -- James Intveld has recorded a radio commercial for Corona Beer, in which he speaks and sings his song LOVE CALLS. - Bobby Lloyd Hicks has been playing with a new band called the Kelley Hunt band. Bobby Lloyd reports, "Kelley is a "Chick"singer/songwriter/pianist doing original r&b/blues stuff.  The guitarist, Miles Joseph, from Studio City, has played with Aretha, Dylan and others.  We just did a live album last weekend, taping at the Grand Emporium in Kansas City and Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas. It's a rockin little record!  Should be out in June...about the time I join back up with the Steve Forbert tour."  -Am

James Intveld--singer, songwriter, player of all instruments and former Blasters guitar player--has a new solo album out called Somewhere Down The Road on his own record company called Molenaart. James released his first solo album in 1995 called Introducing… (See American Music # 9 for song-by-song coverage of that.) In this interview conducted in May 2000, James talks about how his musical growth has been  fueled by songwriting collaborator John Coinman and lead guitarist and producer Mike Turner. These two men have formed individual partnerships with James that have really shined through on this album. James himself will now take us song-by-song through the songwriting and recording.

Last year, I started to collect all my tunes that were written or half-written. We set a date and figured we had three weeks to make a record. They put me on a time limit, which is good for me. We cut 16 songs and used 12. We formed our own record label called  MOLENAART RECORDS. I was looking for a name that was original. I was talking to my folks, and we came up with the wind mill keeper. That's a Molenaar in Dutch.
The first album for Bear Family was geared towards Europe, and I think in my subconscious, I used my material that I thought would be really good for that market. For this one, I felt I had a lot more to say than I did then. The first record had a lot of sad songs on it. This is more evenly distributed as far as the feelings. I got Michael Turner to co-produce. He's coming from a different place, so that was a good influence for me. I had someone to bounce ideas off of. I thought Somewhere Down The Road was a great title, because it had a theme and it was going somewhere. That's kind of like where I'm in my life now. I'm thinking pretty positive about my future. I feel good about everything. I bought a house, and I've been working on my self in a lot of ways. For the future, we are looking to hook up with a label that wants to promote the record. If it doesn't happen, we'll keep it on our own label and keep playing. We want to hit the road and get the most exposure to the record.
SOMEWHERE DOWN THE ROAD - I haven't done that song in years. I wrote that many years ago, when it represented 'hope for me in the future.' I did it for the Town South Of Bakersfield compilation (Restless Re

SINNER'S PRAYER - That was written accapella. Originally, there was a possibility that we were gonna get Johnny Cash to sing on a track on this record. Eddie Morris (James' manager), called the Cash people, and they said, "It would be cool." In fact, we talked to his son, and he said he would talk to his father about it. John Carter said, "I think it would be great because we really like Jimmy." I had done a bunch of different gigs opening for Johnny Cash. In fact, they asked me to open solo acoustic for June Carter, when she did her show at the Troubadour (ed. - June put out a fine solo album in 1999 called Press On (Risk records). She played only two cities; L.A. at the Troubadour and New York's Bottom Line.) and I knew their family. I sent the song to Johnny in Jamaica (his second home), and they told us they would play it for him.  Later, we got a call from the manager, who said John was sick, and had an obligation he was yet to fulfill to record 13 songs for American records. So, he hadn't even done his own album yet. So we had to get the record out and went with our own version. So, one night I came up with this song. I have a group of friends that we call 'The Sinners." It's a group of all my buddies over the years. It's kind of a club. The song was basically about my friends, and how I view life sometimes. You know, we're all here and we're all getting older. Some things we're sorry for, and you now start thinking about these things. I thought about Johnny Cash, and then I thought about a guy on death row, who had a private talk with God. I saw this guy sitting in a jail cell, strumming a mandolin, or singing it accapella. I used a mandolin, so it would be very sparse. That's how I wrote KERMIT VALE (from Introducing James Intveld on Bear Family records). The album was done when I wrote the song SINNERS PRAYER.
The good thing is that the song got written, and I'm happy about that. It reminded me of the Carter family. It was the first real spiritual song I had ever written, and I kind of needed to write one.
REMEMBER ME - John and I wrote that for the Kevin Costner movie. This is about; that desperate feeling when you lose somebody. Whether they die, or they just leave your life, you love them so much, you still want to have a connection to them. So, you're reaching out, and putting a message to them in the universe, hoping it reaches them. It's a prayer, a dream, and a wish. John Coinman had a version of this on his own album. He had taken it in another direction. Sometimes, we write a song together and then we each take it, and make it more personal.
IF TEARS COULD TALK (unreleased song) - When we sequenced the album we couldn't find a spot for it. We used strings on that, but were saving that for the next record. I think that was kind of written on mandolin. When John and I would get together to write, I would play mandolin and he would play acoustic guitar. It would give a different flavor to stuff. Using a different instrument makes you think and write differently.  (ed. - James plays this song often in his acoustic live performances.)

Somewhere Down The Road is available at James' website. WWW.JAMESINTVELD.COM or it can be mail-

GOIN BACK TO SAN ANTONE continued the mood of SXSW 2000 in tribute to the recently departed Doug Sahm. Gaffney mixed some of his original songs with some country cover songs with the unique Gaffney stamp on them.  A perfect one sung by him was Webb Pierce's THERE STANDS THE GLASS.  Then we heard another song that would recur with the California bands at SXSW -- RING OF FIRE. And in some obvious way of connecting all these bands, it's interesting to note that later, (Johnny Cash's piano player) Earle Poole Ball would show up here at Ego's. Gaffney's RING OF FIRE didn't have the trumpet sound but was padded with the extra instrumentation. Chris really dug down low to sing it and did a great song justice.
Another high point was the song,  TOWN THAT I LIVE IN, which  Chris explained about singer Little Willie G.:  "He is one of my all time favorite singers. This is a song he used to sing with Thee Midnighters." It was a slow ballad. Chris threw in lyrics from TEARS ON MY PILLOW.
Rick Shea sang an Ernest Tubb song called THANKS A LOT. Then Gaffney finished off the set with  THEY CALL ME ROCKIN'. The second set confirmed the week-long rumor that Dave Alvin might drop by Ego's. Dave stepped up to play a full set with Gaffney. HONKY TONK started it and a few songs later, Dave took the vocal on a Jimmy Liggins cover song called DRUNK. Dave rarely performs this song, and if so, only in encores. Gaffney did his song LIFT UP YOUR LEG and then called up Greg Leisz to play on the next couple of songs. (Rick took a break from pedal steel for Leisz.) The first was PEOPLE GET READY. Bass player Sarah Brown took the vocal on the old blues standard BLUES BEFORE SUNRISE and Ted Roddy came up to play harmonica on LONELY LONELY NIGHTS. They finished the second set with an outro-instrumental. It was something new I never heard Dave play before.  The third set started with Dave Alvin still on stage. Fantastic! Chris started with a Waylon Jennings song called RAINY DAY WOMAN, then a Billy Joe Shaver song called LET THE WORLD CALL ME A FOOL.
Next Bill Kirchen and Johnny Castle (Kirchen's bass player) came up on stage to add another guitar to the jam. Dave joked to Gaffney, "I can sing with the band?" Then Dave and Chris sang together on SIX NIGHTS A WEEK.  The band was definitely improvising on some songs. Dave cued the band to play, "a medium tempo blues shuffle," saying "We'll fake it." Gaffney sang the lyrics to what sounded like the MILKCOW BLUES BOOGIE, another recurring song at SXSW. Remember Gaffney had been in the audience when Shaun Young sang it with Intveld at Ginny's on SXSW day 2. I enjoy these tie-ins of songs. Everybody seems to have a similar music vibe going on this year in Austin, and its cool. There is a certain symmetry going on especially with the California bands. Yeah, Dave sure did fake it; he played a cool blues solo in the middle and the band fell in as if it were a set mainstay. Chris handed over the mike to Rick Shea and he said, "And another guitar." There now numbered five guitarists out there: Rick, Gaffney, Dave, Chris Miller and Bill Kirchen. I've heard Rick do LONG BLACK VEIL before, but this one seemed to be a little faster tempo, almost rockabilly. Five electric guitars may have had something to do with that, too. Gaffney took the mike back and said, "I give you Rick Shea. Buy a CD from him; he has them for sale. While you're at it, buy one of mine because I'm broke" (laughs).
To finish the set the band played easy into COWBOYS TO GIRLS as Gaffney thanked the audience and his fellow musicians for a great evening of music. The band brought the song to a rising finish, leaving the crowd demanding more. For the encore, Chris sang a Jimmie Dale Gilmore song called DALLAS. It's on Chris's new album, Live And Then Some. In the middle of the song Dave spotted Earl Poole Ball in the crowd and started yelling, "Earl! Earl!" Dave pointed to Joe Terry's keyboard. Joe courteously stepped down in time to let Earl take a solo on the song.  As the song finished, Gaff said "Thank You, Texas."  After the show as the band broke down their equipment, James Intveld and his band showed up to say hello to their fellow Californians,  just after leaving  the Continental stage for their showcase.
SXSW Day 5    Sunday, March, 19, 2000   
The James Intveld band at Stubb's Bar-B-Q. This is a rustic looking old building that has become an Austin landmark. It was known first for its excellent Bar-B-Q food. Its name was taken from C.B Stubblefield, who opened the place in the 70's. Over the years, it has become legendary for its musical performers. It's said that lots of famous bluesman like Muddy Waters, performed here for meals. The band was very excited to play the historic place. James was playing on the inside stage and started with his most famous written song; CRYIN OVER YOU.

Next was a few songs from the new CD. James announced he wanted to bring some friends up on the stage. At the Continental Club record release party the previous week, James dedicated a song to a band called the Texas Renegades who were in the audience. Tonight James brought the whole Dutch band up on stage, so they  could say, "We played Austin, Texas! James explained, "I met these guys in the parking lot of the Motel 6 and they're here just to hang out. Let's let them do a few songs." The Intveld band stepped down as the Texas Renegades played what I would call "Modern Country." They played an original and then Dale Watson's NASHVILLE RASH. The band has a real good deep voiced singer who invited James back on stage to duet on Merle Haggard's SING ME BACK HOME. The Intveld band returned and played few more songs, one of which was unusual: Johnny Paycheck's YOU'RE STILL ON MY MIND (AN EMPTY BOTTLE, A BROKEN HEART.)
Another guest invited up was Johnny Dilks. He took lead vocal on IT WASN'T GOD WHO MADE HONKY TONK ANGELS with James on bass. Next, Dilks' guitarist Chance came up and took over guitar duties and Dilks sang his signature yodeling song LOSE THAT WOMAN BLUES from his new HighTone album Acres of Heartache. James and Johnny traded vocals on the Hank Williams classic I'M SO LONESOME I COULD CRY. Chance and James then switched guitars, and James was now on lead guitar. The last time I saw James on lead guitar was when he was in the Blasters. They played the Carl Perkins song GONE GONE GONE. James took a few leads and I could hear some of the old Blasters licks going on there. James hasn't lost it.
The closing song was RING OF FIRE. It's crazy how things mysteriously happen: Who should walk in the door, when the Cash song is playing, but Earl Poole Ball?  Unfortunately, there was no piano on stage for Earl to play. But he was there - once again for RING OF FIRE. South By South West 2000 is now history. Did I like it? As Mr. Stubblefield used to say, "Yesiree." This is only a taste of the excellent music at the SXSW music fest every March. I strongly recommend everybody take a shot at SXSW, I think you'll have a great time.  ~~AM