DUKE BARDWELL
– 20 QUESTIONS
Twenty
questions ain't much when you're dealing with
somebody with a past like Duke Bardwell's. Duke seems
to have been present behind some of the seminal
musical figures of our time. Now with the release of
his first disc it's time to push this modest man into
the Flyin'Shoes spotlight...take it away Duke!
Born in Baton
Rouge – what variety of musical sounds did you
grow up listening to?
My first musical awareness was
the big band era.......Dad was a trombone
player....fed himself while in college by playing in
the cafeteria at LSU (Louisiana State U.) where they
got one meal a day......all they could eat. Dad got
the best part of that deal.........he was a big man.
He always had music playing in the house..mostly big
band jazz and swing. I played mostly country songs on
a guitar up until age 9 when I added trumpet in the
school band. Early rock and roll and New Orleans R
and B is what really got my attention, and by age 14
I was in my first garage band. By the time I was 17 I
was traveling with a local group that had a regional
hit, and was playing guitar, bass and
trumpet.......that would have been 1960.
On the sleeve
of 'Angels Wings' you pay tribute to your family
– how important have they been during the trials
and tribulations of your career?
They have always been
supportive......I didn't understand at the time why
my parents let me off on the road like they did, but
I was not interested in school and not doing well
socially or scholastically and I believe they figured
I should be doing what I was interested in now and
would come to my senses later.....they were still
waiting when they passed on..
You seem to
have started playing musical instruments as soon as
you could walk! This led to a crop of local bands
including The Greek Fountains and later The Basement
Wall. The Fountains supported British Beat groups
-did you cover their songs? Was 'The Basement Wall' a
late sixties 'progressive' band by any chance?
The "Fountains" were
a college party band that mixed popular English songs
with traditional R and B and Soul.......our ability
to mix it up is what led to the groups popularity.
The Basement Wall was a straightahead English copy
band.....the clothes.....the Vox amps....the
Rickenbackers.......the drummer was the group's
spokesperson and talked with a fake English
accent..........I played with them for about 6 months
and am embarrassed to this day.......
You headed
Northeast after those early bands - why?
A pal from the
"Fountains" that left the band early and
moved to New York to "do the big time"
ended up associated with Tom Rush and got me the bass
playing job when it came up. I hadn't played bass for
years but I wanted out of town.....that was my
ticket.....just simply time to go......
Then you linked
up with Tom Rush – how big an influence has he
been on your subsequent ideas about the craft of
song-writing?
I had not yet begun writing by
the time I got with Tom (1968)....what I found myself
into was so far removed from the South Louisiana club
scene, that I had no choice but to put all
pre-conceived notions aside and learn how to play
bass again in an entirely different environment....no
longer the "front man" but a "side
man", and now doing music that nobody was
dancing to...but listening to.......sitting there and
listening to.... with such intensity that I found it
unnerving at first.....but then slowly grew to depend
upon it...but that's another part of the
story.........The whole approach to performing that I
experienced with Tom had a dramatic effect on
everything I would do from that time on.......
Your stint with
Tom Rush – indeed you played on some of his
albums –then led to other big name employers
–notably Elvis, but also Gene Clark, Jose
Feliciano & Emmylou Harris. Did the quality of
the people you worked with and the nature of the work
divert you from your own singer-song-writing career?
The Tom Rush experience
involving the entire Folk Scene, and the tremendous
array of creative imagemakers of that day that I
would have never been exposed to otherwise, set the
groundwork for everything else that happened to me
musically. I was fortunate to play on one Tom Rush
album....his first on Columbia Records, after many
years with Elektra.....entitled "Tom Rush",
produced by Ed Freeman. To this day, one of my
favorite albums ever for "songwriters" ,
and absolutely one of my favorites I have ever played
on. My song writing had now begun it's infancy (not
that it has ever grown up either). The time spent
involved with other artists, again as backup, really
didn't do anything to deter my singer-songwriter
career as I can't really say that I had one.
----Still just knocking around out in L.A. trying to
find a place for myself but not really knowing who I
was........not a really fun place to be
in....particularly when the babies started being
born........
I mentioned
Elvis –was he a regular guy to work with despite
the cloud of myth-making that surrounds him ? Seems
like he had a genuine love of southern musical styles
that shines through the later and darker years. You
played on the 'Elvis Today' LP and others?
I will relate to anyone that
Elvis, left alone with his instincts and heart and
soul, was a very regular guy. Unfortunately, that
particular situation did not seem to happen very
often........he was always the object of the
attention of so many.......and their expectations of
him.......I don't think it was really possible to be
anything that even resembled regular in the sense
that we could relate to.I played on the "Live in
Memphis" album.......and was on the album you
mentioned....but was later replaced by another bass
player after my "de-frocking". Now there
are many CD's being released from '74 and '75 live
shows that are bootleg soundboard recordings.....poor
quality usually, but there, none the less.
Jose Feliciano
actually signed you as a singer-songwriter – did
you record Spanish Language material with him
–did that ever influence your own sense of
melody?
Actually, Jose F. did not sign
me to anything.......his wife at the time, Jana, had
taken over the management of Jose and his affairs
herself. They had just built a brand new recording
studio in Orange California (south of L.A. by Disney
Land) and a good friend of mine was the engineer for
the house. I had been traveling as an opening act for
Loggins and Messina with the same guy that got me
involved with Tom Rush......his act ( a duo) not
mine. His name is Casey Kelly and was on Elektra
records....and we opened the show for Kenny and
Jimmy. After that played out, I was invited down to
play for the Felicianos, and was signed as a
writer/performer in the rough, to be groomed for some
kind of stable of artists they were intending to
develop.....Mrs.F. was intending to
develop.......Jose was just doing his thing. Although
I did quite a bit of recording and TV work with him,
I was never involved with any Spanish language
material. However.....it was my association with Jose
that got me introduced to Elvis's drummer, Ron Tutt,
who got me the job with EP.
Gene Clark has
passed into myth but left an outstanding set of
songs. Did you play acoustically only with him or
were there band sets and did you ever record
together?
The time spent with Gene Clark
was occuring at basically the tail end of my
association with Elvis. Our act was basically a
trio........Gene on acoustic and harmonica....Roger
White on lead electric....and myself on electric bass
and occasional banjo. Towards the end of our two year
associaton we were going out with the addition of
drums and keyboard and his management group was
trying to put together a record deal for him. I have
some interesting demos from that time....and there
was an album done and released ,produced by Thomas
Jefferson Kay ( or something like that).... Roger and
I starting playing on it but were removed for being
too opinionated and set in our ways regarding his
material. We were seriously pissed at the
time........but looking back....I know they were
right. We had put in two very difficult years of low
budget traveling and performing with a drunk that
gave both of us some of our most embarrassing moments
ever on stage (yes, even more than the "Basement
Wall") and we wanted to be on that album. To
this day I would have to say that I will never forget
watching genius and insanity go hand in hand like
they did with Gene Clark. I absolutely love the songs
that man wrote......I'm glad to have been
there........I hope he has found peace.........
Another legend
is Emmylou –there you are on two tracks
–one each on 'Pieces of the Sky' and 'Blue
Kentucky Girl'. What do you remember of those
sessions? Finally did you record other songs that got
left on the cutting room floor?
I was already in love with
Emmylou from listening to her with Gram
Parsons........you can't follow the star around like
a love struck puppy dog.......particularly if the
producer is her new boy friend and she is carrying
his child.......and you don't know about any of
it.........dumb....real dumb.....I don't know what
all of mine ended up on the cutting room
floor........you mean besides my heart?? ....One of
my favorite all time musical memories........despite
the fool I made of myself...
Your 'roots'
finally pulled you back home – a chance to
side-step the bright lights of L.A. perhaps – or
a financial decision? You ended up managing
restaurants I understand.
I came back to Louisiana for
the same reason I kept coming back to
Louisiana.......there was no longer any reason to be
anywhere else......particulary L.A. We had had two
children in the seven years we had been out
there.........I had had my shot.......I couldn't
justify exposing the family to the rigors of the L.A.
basin any longer. My beloved brother-in-law and I
were playing in a bar band together and we just
decided to take the band back home. We were doing
some originals, Little Feat, early Delbert McClinton
and various other funky stuff........and hit
Louisiana right in the middle of the Satuday Night
Fever disco madness and the Willie Nelson and Waylon
Jennings era.........we died a very slow and painful
death......so did my marriage......she moved to
Florida with the children. Several years later, ('85)
I was married to a wonderful girl who was willing to
relocate with me and we moved to Florida and both
went into the restaurant business with some friends
of ours......time to get a real job. I stayed in the
business for 12 yrs, developed cronic ulcers, got out
, and have been having a ball ever since.
Back home,the
batteries recharged via local music-making leading to
the new record and an enthusiasm for music for its
own sake – are you pleased with the way 'Angels
Wings' turned out?
I stopped playing for five
years when I moved to Florida......that is, until I
met "Washboard Jackson and his Action
Contraption".......340 pounds of pure joy and
funk, and our band "Hubba Hubba" has been
playing ever since. The opportunity to record Angel's
Wing's was a chance to reach back into the old
material that was of a more introspective nature, and
do something nice for the children and grandchildren.
It was never conceived to be a commercial
venture.........just a legacy recording for the
family. With that in mind, what occurred surprised
everyone...particularly me. Yes....in a word....I'm
very pleased with the way it turned out.
How does the
new version of Bayou Country compare to the original?
Is it straight autobiography?
The original of Bayou Country
was done by our band "Cold Gritz and the
Black-eyed Peas." ( five white guys and three
black girl singers.) This band occurred right after
the Tom Rush days, was signed to Lou Adler and Ode
records in L.A., and self-destructed before it
finished anything and gave Lou a chance to get his
money back. He was seriously pissed. His last project
was Carole Kings "Tapestry", and he was not
expecting to be humiliated by a group of unknowns
from the bayou country that couldn't stop smoking
dope long enough to make a decision. I had written
all but two songs on the record and Lou wasn't the
only one pissed. Bayou Country was written by Trevor
Veitch and myself and was released as a teaser single
while we were finishing the record......oh
welllll........ Trevor was the guitar player from
Vancouver, B.C. that took Casey Kelly's place with
Tom. It was autobiographical only in the sense that
we wanted to represent a feeling for the Acadian
culture but show a certain political awareness as
well.........though my mother was " a dark-eyed
Cajun woman".....my father was not "a
trapper from Napoleonville."
It includes a
lot of great lines including a then topical reference
to Detroit burning? Did you feel politicised by the
late sixties at all coming from a strongly
working-class background?
We wrote the song stranded in a
funky hotel room in New York, waiting to go back out
with Tom, while we watched them land on the moon for
the first time. I had shown Trevor a map of
Louisiana, and he thought the names of the towns and
bayous were pretty. He wrote the political
references.........I , the others. I particularly
like this arrangement of the song........it's been
recorded six or seven times by other artists.....our
co-producer, Merel Bregante, came up with the new
street-beat feel for it........
There are some
covers on the record including a Leadbelly song
–how come you chose these specific songs?
I had been performing my
re-write of the Leadbelly song for many years and
really got off on what happened in the studio with
it. The other songs are my tribute to other close
friends of mine that have a big place in my heart and
have influenced me strongly by their music and
encouragement. Even the album cover was done by one
of my closest friends........a dream image I had in
Austin while recording ( sleeping actually)........he
had actually painted what I described to him years
before and recreated it for the cover.......it's
title was also "Angel's
Wings"..........spooked both of us pretty good..
Your own songs
dominate the disc – who are your major
influences?
Once I really started listening
to and being dominated by the song lyrics, (thanks
again to Tom and his cronies.......Jackson Browne,
James Taylor, Murray McLaughlin from Toronto, etc.)
Jessie Winchester was the first to really knock me on
my ass......followed by John Prine. For the part of
me that shakes the booty.......I still have to go
with James Brown, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Aretha
Franklin, etc. For the part of me that "shits
and gits", it would have to be George Jones,
Merle Haggard and Doc Watson.
You profess a
love of the work of Jesse Winchester –could you
relate your experience of his work – I
understand it was literally handed to you one day...
The album was handed to me by
Albert Grossman, who at the time was managing Dylan,
the Band and Joplin........it blew him away.......it
destroyed me.
Some musicians
you have played with are no longer with us whilst
others like Emmylou are still touring. Would you go
back on the road now to promote this record?
I would love to go back on the
road to promote this album.........I just don't want
to do it in vehicals of questionable mechanical
character....... in places with chicken wire
stretched around the stage.....trying to be
responsible for the livelyhood of other players and
their families while something is hoping to
break......any day now...... If it can be
helped........
The British
singer song-writer Terry Clarke who also records at
Merel Bregante's studio has acknowledged the big
influence that Tom Rush had on his own development.
Do you think there's a link there – you both
operate in a melodic/literary area of song-writing ?
It doesn't really surprise me
that Terry would know about Tom Rush......the great
story tellers usually seem to know about one
another... I consider myself to be an egg compared to
Terry Clarke and his ability to be literate.....what
a jewel you people have over there in that man and
his music......
There are hints
of 'swamp-rock', ballads and country ( Up On A Hill)
–where do you think your sound comes from
–the landscape or the people you met along the
way?
Every one of my songs is
something personal........whether it's the tempo and
the groove that just makes me feel good to play
it.......or it's one of my own experiences......or
somebody that I know ....(like "Up on a
Hill"). The guy in the song was a friend of mine
named Homer Wills......played harp in rodeo
bands.......it happened to him. I really do think I'd
be able to write more if I could just get outside of
everything instead of always coming from the inside.
Sometimes I envy the people that just think up a hook
and go from there..........mostimes not........ I
feel very fortunate to have been born and raised in
South Louisiana because of all the different styles
of music we grew up with............you can't put a
label on it....or even put your finger on it......
it's what makes gumbo, gumbo..........you just have
to be able to "pinch the tail....and suck the
head".....and you'll know what I mean.
If you could
pick up your acoustic guitar and play one song to me
now ...which one would it be?
------can't do it...........it
would have to be two of them.........first.....the
Beatles "In My Life".......then right
behind it before you got a chance to get up and
leave.....my "Anything to Keep >From Standing
Still"....because the truth about it all is
still there.. On the album, it would have to be
"Angel's Wings"......how often will a man
get to sing a song he wrote for his children....with
one of those children.......my youngest son , TK sang
the high part............. Life is so good....
Many thanks to
Duke for participating in the first transatlantic flyin
shoes e-mail interview.
Duke Bardwell's
'Angel's Wings is out on Club Louisianne Records
(CDCL 1999)
In the next
edition of Flyin Shoes
we'll be talking to Jesse Winchester
