Interviews

Dominick Brady, who's been doing some wonderful Atlanta music scene podcasts as of late, recently interviewed Atlanta underground hip-hop head Dres tha Beatnik for an upcoming story in Art Noveau magazine. Here's an excerpt Brady posted on his blog, DominickBrady.com, in which Dres reveals the defining -- and most embarrassing -- moment of his career:

For today's interview we call out Dan Scanlan of Zoroaster.

Who are you?
Dan Scanlan, drummer, noise maker for Zoroaster.

Describe yourself in three words.
Pretty Fucking Awesome.

Who -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
Dick Wolf, Creator/ Executive Producer of Law and Order. I'd like to thank him for giving me a reason to spend every second of my spare time on the couch!!

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Michael Vick.

What song do you wish you had written?
Happy Together by The Turtles....quite possibly the best song ever!

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Presley!!

LP, CD or MP3?
LP, but really I like 8-tracks, I'm waiting for their resurrection someday.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
Canceling American Idol... Does that count? Well it should!!

It's one thing to sing in your car, bedroom or even in a recording studio, but it's another to go on stage to sing for hundreds or thousands. Getting "butterflies in your stomach" would be expected, but becoming frozen with fear -- to the point of crying and going on stage late may not be that much of a surprise either.

The second scenario was the case for singer/songwriter Colbie Caillat. The platinum-selling artist had been on stage "maybe 10 times" before she went on tour with The Goo Goo Dolls.

"Oh my gosh! Yes, there were times when, honestly, I would have to go on stage like 15 minutes late because I would be so nervous that I would start crying," Caillat says by phone from her California home. "It was really hard for me at the beginning. Luckily, I've adjusted and now I'm excited about it, but for a while there it was really tough."

Caillat -- rhymes with ballet -- has always enjoyed singing, but the thought of being a full-time performing artist never really crossed her mind, but her friends saw otherwise.

For today's interivew we call out Larkin Grimm.

Who are you?
Larkin Grimm.

Describe yourself in three words.
decadent, compassionate, reptilian.

Who -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
The Prophet Muhammed.  I'd ask him to play drums on a musical tour of the modern Islamic world with me and I'd ask him how it all compares to his original dream.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
A young Marlene Dietrich.  But first I would tie her to the bench in Marilyn Monroe's crypt, lying in a bed of Joe DiMaggio's roses.

For today's interview we call out Leticia Arioli of Batata Doce.

Who are you?
I am working on finding that one out.

Describe yourself in three words.
Sweet & Sour mix.

Who -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
Bono, ever since I read the book Killing Bono. Its a love and hate thing. But the guy can engage an entire stadium, you gotta commend him for it.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Any disrespectful, condescending men. Seriously, respect the ladies. They are pretty, cherish them, don't abuse them.

What song do you wish you had written?
Just about every song I love. One of them would be "When Doves Cry" by Prince.

John Legend is known for making music that goes straight to your heart -- or the heart of the one you love. It's got a sense of passion in it that makes you drop what you're doing and want to start making out like time's standing still. He hasn't lost that feeling, but he's expanding his horizons on his latest release, Evolver.

The title tells the story -- Legend is evolving the sound of his music to create something broader, something to round out a live setlist and pack arenas. That's not to say he's lost the sex-appeal -- "Before you get into the shower/ Before you worry about your hair/ Baby give me one more hour/ I want you to stay right there" he sings on "Good Morning."

Outside of those ballads, Evolver introduces another side of Legend that includes a bit of reggae -- "No Other Love" -- and funk -- "Green Light." He says the ballads are usually the easy part when he's writing. "It's pretty easy for me to go in that direction, so I don't have to force myself to do that," Legend says by phone during a day off in Detroit. "It happens pretty naturally when the time is right. We definitely have some beautiful ballads on this album, so people won't miss that side of me."

Legend says he always puts pressure on himself to create the best album that he can, but the success of previous albums doesn't add to that. His debut CD, Get Lifted, earned him three Grammys -- Best New Artist, Best R&B Album and Best R&B Vocal Performance. His sophomore effort, Once Again, earned him a second Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance.

"You want to rise to the challenge every album," Legend says. "I felt pressure on the first album. I felt it on the second one. I feel it on this one. It's a matter of me having higher expectations for myself and wanting to make the best music I can possibly make. Each album, I approach it as a challenge. No album is any easier to make."

For today's interview we call out U.K. songstress, Billy Childish cohort, former Thee Headcotees' singer/guitarist and recent Atlanta transplant Holly Golightly.

Who are you?
Holly Golightly.

Describe yourself in three words.
English, white, female.

Who -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
My great grandmother.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Myself.

What song do you wish you had written?
"Happy Birthday."

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Elvis Costello.

LP, CD or MP3?
LP.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
One where being in a band is not compulsory.

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
'80s fashion comeback.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
Lawyer Dave.

I've done hundreds and hundreds of interviews during my career in music journalism, and I can say without equivocation that my recent conversation with Phoebe Snow was about as intimate and confessional as I've ever experienced.

Snow, a singer/songwriter whose first single, the transcendent ballad "Poetry Man" peaked at No. 5 in 1975, had a shot at major stardom. But in December of that year, she gave birth to a daughter, Valerie, who was severely brain-damaged. Snow effectively shelved her career to care for her daughter, refusing to have her institutionalized.

Valerie died suddenly three years ago at age 31. This has left Snow emotionally ravaged. During our hour-long conversation, she made no effort to conceal her grief and dire emotional turmoil. Yet she was also funny and charming and good with an anecdote.

Snow, 56, has returned to performing more or less full-time, and she's conflicted about it. Her voice is still a marvel, a full, expressive contralto that oozes soul and sensitivity, but can also blow down walls. Her current album, Live (Verve), recorded in performance at a studio in Woodstock, N.Y., shows her full range of brilliance, from the bluster of "Standing on Shaky Ground" to the sublime introspection of "Poetry Man."

What follows is an edited version of our conversation... 

For today's Roll Call we call out Cage from Nine Inch Neils.

Who are you?
Cage of the Nine Inch Neils - Neil Diamond Tribute Band

Describe yourself in three words.
So good... So good... So good.  Hmmmm, that's six.  Don't hate... Participate.

Who -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
Neil Diamond while hangin' with David Duchovny... Without getting a "bro"ner

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Morning people.

What song do you wish you had written?
"Picture" by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow - then I could have torn it up and thrown it away before anyone sang it.

The Memphis area is a region of musical families. The (Sam) Phillipses, the (Rufus) Thomases, and the (Jim) Dickinsons are just the leading names in a long list of multigeneration music clans that help give the local music scene such a tight-knit personality. Another royal name in Mid-South music is Burnside. The late R.L. Burnside rivaled Junior Kimbrough as the chief purveyor of north Mississippi hill-country blues when both men were making the scene at Kimbrough's Holly Springs juke joint and winning converts across the globe via albums for Mississippi indie label Fat Possum.

R.L. Burnside may be gone, having passed away in 2005, but he's left a living legacy, most prominently in the form of sons Garry and DuWayne and grandson Cedric.

Cedric, who started playing drums behind his grandfather when he was barely in his teens, has backed up Kenny Brown and played alongside his uncle Garry in the Burnside Exploration since his "Big Daddy" passed away, but of late he's stepping into the blues limelight even more as one half of the "juke joint duo" alongside singer-guitarist Steve "Lightnin'" Malcolm.

After a self-released debut album, Burnside & Malcolm are making their real-deal debut this fall with 2 Man Wrecking Crew, a terrific update on the hill-country tradition released by blues label Delta Groove.

For the most part, Burnside plays drums and Malcolm guitar, but the duo trades instruments on three of the album's 14 songs and they share writing and singing duties, with Burnside taking a slight lead. Vocally, they provide a nice contrast, with Malcolm's rough bellow something of a blue-eyed Howlin' Wolf while Burnside has a sweeter, lighter, more musical voice that edges into soul on standout tracks like "My Sweetheart" and "That's My Girl."