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GRAMMYs

Charley Crockett

Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

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A Walk Through 'The Valley' With Charley Crockett charley-crocketts-walk-through-valley-thats-what-artists-do-newport-folk-2019

Charley Crockett's Walk Through 'The Valley': "That's What Artists Do" | Newport Folk 2019

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"I think everybody in life has to walk through the valley, and a lot of times, we got to do it by ourself. That's part of the struggle and the beauty of being a human being," the country troubador told us at Newport Folk Fest
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 27, 2019 - 3:00 pm

Some voices are unmistakable. True modern troubadour Charley Crockett has one such voice, and he knows how to use it. Street-trained and road-worn, Crockett's musical journey has bounced him around the globe, from his homeland of Texas, to New Orleans, Barcelona, Paris and more. At every stop in his journey, he's sharpened his skills as a singer of storytelling songs. But his latest twist in the road might also be his most cathartic.

Charley Crockett On His Walk Through 'The Valley'

On Sept. 20, he will release The Valley, his fourth album in three years, which he recorded in the weeks leading up to what would be a life-saving heart surgery. Sung by a man who's made a global voyage with the uncertainty of his own return, these songs read as the next chapter of his chronicles. According to Crocket, channelling his life experiences, no matter how dire, comes with the territory.

"It's what artists do," he says, when asked the complicated question of how such intense uncertainty shaped the songs and performances of his new album.

Just after Crockett's first-ever performance at Newport Folk Festival, we sat down with the sharp-dressed man to hear about his forthcoming project, the journey it took to make it and how singing songs on subways and in train stations taught him everything he knows about making music.

This is your Newport Folk debut - what makes this festival special to you?

Oh, it has to be the heritage. It has to be the history, my man, it really does. And I've been looking out over this harbor since we got here this morning, it's just a real special place. So I'm thinking about some of those greats like Lightnin' Hopkins and a lot of the Bob Dylan and the folk artists, and the just the roots music artists that transformed America through this festival and that decade and that era, that lives with me. That's what I know about the festival… and I was shocked to get invited. So thanks to whoever made that happen.

Yesterday, you announced your new album The Valley is coming out on Sept. 20. What can your fans that have been following your career expect from this album?

I think everybody in life has to walk through the valley, and a lot of times, we got to do it by ourself. That's part of the struggle and the beauty of being a human being. And I've recently just been through some things in my life, and lots of people are going through stuff, but I had some life-saving heart surgeries that ultimately, to be honest with you, it just kind of transformed the way I see my life and the wold around me. Well, I recorded these songs about a week before those operations, just really uncertain about where I was going. If I was going to stay here, go up to the house, or just the quality of life. So, I made those recordings and I urged the people around me to put it out.

Hey, you can pre-order my upcoming album “The Valley” now: https://t.co/T5OVussdu6
Pre-save on @Spotify and hear “Borrowed Time” and “The Valley” today: https://t.co/wZXq5pm77H pic.twitter.com/pSDZIRKKmt

— Charley Crockett (@CharleyCrockett) July 26, 2019

How do you think that intense uncertainty manifested musically for you on this album?

That's what artists do, and it's our responsibility to reflect our times. That's what artists are here for, I think, or whatever you want to call it. So, that's all I'm doing. I'm just painting pictures of the life that I'm seeing, and I have learned from my journey to pull from tradition to find myself. But I am a man of my times, so I have to project this time too. That's all I can do, is reflect living now. And a lot of the spirituals that I've learned over the years playing in the street and traveling like I have, refer to life as the valley. A lot of the Carter Family stuff that I've really gotten into. Just that spirituality, it's a universal thing when you talk about something like the valley, or that mountain to climb. And we don't want the mountain to disappear, we want the strength to climb it.

Wow, that's an incredible answer. You've lived and played music all over the world. What's your approach to playing to a festival crowd where you've got some people who know you very well and are singing along, and you've got some people hearing you for the very first time?

I suspect most of them are hearing me for the first time, and it's why somebody like me, I might have a lot of anticipation coming to this place. I learned how to do this in public, like actually. A lot of people might be afraid to get out in public and play on a street corner or in a subway platform or inside a subway car. I have traveled around the world and just counting on people to lend you a hand, and when you come at music from that direction, people aren't asking you to be there. So, when people interact with you, that's a very real exchange that I can feel and see and understand.

I guess the short way to answer that question for you is, I've spent my whole life learning to stand behind my guitar, and the reality is half of what we do is the people listening. Literally, half of it. I'm only doing half of it because that's the whole thing. It wouldn't be an art if there wasn't somebody listening to it. And once somebody hears it, it honestly belongs to them as much as it does to you. If it means something to somebody, I'm lucky enough to have that going on.

"It wouldn't be an art if there wasn't somebody listening to it. And once somebody hears it, it honestly belongs to them as much as it does to you. If it means something to somebody, I'm lucky enough to have that going on."

What was the selection process like for your 2018 covers album, Lil G.L.'s Blue Bonanza? Are these songs you've been playing your whole life?

Yeah. To be honest with you, what it is mostly is songs I've known for years, and that's why I play so much stuff that comes from anywhere from gospel to country to blues to soul music or traditional jazz or whatever you want to call it. It's mostly songs that I've just been picking up over the years that I just always thought were so good, and look, I write a lot of songs. I write a whole lot of songs, but I just don't think I'm worth anything if I'm not learning the great songs from before me, for myself personally.

And a lot of the giants, the people that I see as maybe my mentors or heroes were anybody from even a Dolly Parton or a Etta James or Hank Williams or somebody like that, Willie Nelson, these people are amazing songwriters. But if you look at their catalog, half the stuff they ever recorded they didn't write, and there is something to be said for when a great artist knows when a song is so great it has to be sung. Because sometimes the song is best sung by somebody that didn't write it, and sometimes the only person that can sing it well is the writer.

You know of some kind that I can see that's growing, I just figure that each time I put out a record, it's doing better than the last one, and that's a real blessing. So I'm going to do what I've been doing, which is I live on the highway and I play really hard. I been doing that ever since my mama got me a guitar at a pawn shop, going toward the valley nonstop. I'm going to Europe in a few days. I got to get home to my lady for a few days and tell her I love her, and then I bet before we know it again it'll be Newport next year.

We look forward to seeing you there and good luck on everything.

Thanks a lot, I appreciate y'all taking the time to speak with me and I'll be twice as good next time.

Backstage At Newpork Folk Festival's 60th Anniversary

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Molly Tuttle

Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

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Bluegrass Heroine Molly Tuttle On Her Debut LP molly-tuttle-when-youre-ready-her-modern-nashville-bluegrass-classic-newport-folk-2019

Molly Tuttle On 'When You're Ready,' Her Modern Nashville Bluegrass Classic | Newport Folk 2019

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Hot off four nominations for this year's International Bluegrass Music Awards, Tuttle took time to talk with the Recording Academy at Newport Folk Fest about her groundbreaking debut album & more
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 27, 2019 - 5:47 pm

Bluegrass master Molly Tuttle continues to accumulate accolades. Last year she was named Guitar Player of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Awards, the first female ever to receive the honor, and just this week she received four nominations for this year's IBMAs, including Female Vocalist, Guitar Player and Song of the Year, all before clearing her first quarter-century. But what's striking about Tuttle, beyond her staggering talents, is her authenticity as an artist and a human being.

Molly Tuttle On Newport, "Million Miles," More

Born into a bluegrass family band in Northern California, Tuttle relocated to Nashville not long ago, where she'd write all the songs for her debut LP, When You're Ready. The album blossoms from her deep bluegrass roots and blooms into a sound all her own, with sweet dashes of pop, weeping streaks of Americana and the simple sincererity of country.

Backstage at this year's Newport Folk Festival, we caught up with Tuttle to talk about When You're Ready, working with GRAMMY-winning producer/engineer Ryan Hewitt, what it means to be a strong female role model and much more.

Let's start with Newport Folk Festival. It's your second time here. What do you think makes this festival special?

This festival is so historically incredible. I grew up listening to folk and bluegrass, and so many of my heroes have played on the stages here and have had really historic musical moments. I remember seeing footage of Bob Dylan going electric here for the first time and Pete Seeger, of course, playing here and Joan Baez, and also bluegrass people like Ralph Stanley. So I think the legacy of this festival, it's always been pushing the boundaries and it's always been really inclusive to tons of different styles, which is why I think the audiences here are so incredible, because they get exposed to so many different styles of music. And it just feels like a really welcoming and really special event.

Is there anybody on the bill that you're excited to see?

Today I'm really excited to see Kacey Musgraves. And I just watched part of I'm With Her earlier, they're always incredible. I think Maggie Rogers is playing this weekend; I've never seen her before, so I'm really stoked for her. I haven't downloaded the app yet, I need to do that and really plan out my schedule.

More: Backstage At Newpork Folk Festival's 60th Anniversary

Let's talk about When You're Ready. It's officially your debut album, but as your career and life have been centered around music, and I'm curious how you feel about it now that it's out. Also, what do you think you accomplished with this project?

I think I've just taken my music a step further in the direction of really having it feel genuine to who I am, including all my different influences. I grew up playing bluegrass, but I've always listened to so many different styles of music, and with this record I really just wanted to follow my muse wherever it took me with songwriting and then build the album around the songs. To not try to stay in one particular style of music or keep with one kind of instrumentation, but really just follow what the songs wanted and what I thought would be best. I think I achieved that. I think it's a lot different than all the music I've made in the past, and it's been fun playing the songs on the road with a totally different band, it feels really reenergizing to me.

What was it like working with Ryan Hewitt on the album? He's new to Nashville, and he's done all sorts of rock projects.

It was amazing working with Ryan, we instantly connected. We met at one of my shows in Nashville and talked for only a couple of minutes, and he was telling me about all these bands he'd produced, engineered and mixed. He'd worked with [GRAMMY-winning super-producer] Rick Rubin a lot, with Blink-182 and Red Hot Chili Peppers, also the Avett Brothers. And it felt like he was just naming all these bands that I listened to at different ages of my life, and I was totally fangirling about all of it, like, that's amazing. But beyond that, when we kept talking further, we really just connected about different things we loved about music and about our favorite bands and favorite records. It really flowed well with and we work together really well.

Is there a song on the album, maybe "Million Miles," that you want to talk a bit about how you wrote it?

"Million Miles" is the first track on the record, and that one came about through my friend Steve Poltz, who's a great singer/songwriter and lives in Nashville as well. We were writing together a bunch one summer, the other song we wrote on the album together was "Don't Let Go."

One day we had finished writing a couple of songs, and I had known Steve had written a bunch of incredible songs with Jewel back in the '90s; they wrote "You Were Meant For Me" and a bunch of other really incredible songs that ended up on her records. So we'd finished up the writing session for the day, and he said, "Hey, I just remembered the song that I started writing with Jewel over 20 years ago, and we never finished it." They had a verse and a chorus, and he played that for me, and I recorded it on my phone and he was like, "Maybe you would want to take this and finish it."

So I did. A couple months later I sat down, and the song was kind of haunting me because I instantly really loved the song, and I was a little intimidated to try to write another verse. But I sat down and finished the song and sent it back to him, and he said he really liked it, and I knew I really wanted to record it on the album. I had to get Jewel's permission somehow, but I didn't really know how to get in touch with her, so I asked Steve if he could send my version of the song to her.

He did, and I didn't hear back. She wasn't really responding back to the song. I found out later she had been on a meditation retreat for the whole time we were trying to get in touch with her, so she wasn't checking her phone. Steve actually just decided to tell me it was okay with her, which I found out a year later. He had never heard back, but then months later, she eventually heard it and really liked it. Luckily, it was totally fine with me recording it and we got to play it. The three of us played it at a festival earlier this summer at Telluride Bluegrass Festival. That was really cool and really special.

Talk about a full circle moment.

Yeah, it was cool.

I want to ask you about the IBMAs. First of all, congratulations on the nominations.

Thank you.

And last year you became the first female to win Guitar Player Of The Year. We talk about gender issues a lot within the music industry. I'm curious how it feels for you to have that distinction as the first female guitar player to win that award.

Yeah, it felt really, really important to me. That was probably one of the biggest things that has happened to me in, I guess, my musical life or career. It felt really special to win that award because I've been a part of the bluegrass community and have grown up in that world. So to feel the whole community lifting me up in that way was really special, and it was just really meaningful to me to be a woman playing lead guitar. Sometimes it doesn't really dawn on me that there aren't a lot of other women playing lead guitar. It's always just felt really natural to me to play guitar. It's something that's really important to me to hopefully get more girls playing guitar. I studied guitar in college and I was always the only female in my classes.

I think it's kind of a combo of women who play guitar historically haven't really been recognized in the way that men have, their legacies have kind of been erased in a way. But I also think that there are fewer women playing guitar because we're not encouraging it as much as we encourage boys to pick up a guitar, maybe. I really hope that changes in the coming years and hopefully, if a girl sees me or sees other women playing guitar and being recognized, that'll encourage them to pick up a guitar too.

Thank you so much @intlbluegrass for nominating me for Female Vocalist, Guitar Player, and Song of the Year (Take the Journey), and Collaborative Recording of the Year with Roland White, @hiltnerj, @jonweisberger and @patmcavinue!! see y’all in Raleigh!! pic.twitter.com/EyjURmxsOI

— Molly Tuttle (@molly_tuttle) July 25, 2019

Back to the album; the songs were all written in Nashville, right? What about that city do you think added a specific touch of spice to this record?

Yeah, I think Nashville is just so full of songwriters, and it was fun in the first few years that I lived there. I just would reach out to anyone I knew, really, who I loved their songs or I knew they wrote a bunch of songs, and it was fun getting to meet so many new people through writing songs together. I think I wrote in ways that I wouldn't naturally have written on my own. And it was cool to see how other people worked with songwriting.

Nashville is such a collaborative city. The music community is just so intertwined, and everyone's kind of working with each other and supporting each other, which I felt right away when I moved there, that was really cool. I think this album kind of represents that because I had a lot of friends that I wrote with for it and I brought in a lot of friends living in Nashville to play on it. So yeah, the city definitely influenced the record a lot.

This is an optional question, but I was really touched by your article on No Depression, especially about your history with alopecia.

Oh, thank you. Yeah.

I just really want to point people to that interview, and I would love to know how it felt for you to share that story?

It felt really great. I loved writing about my journey with alopecia and playing at the conference that I went to. It was a conference for all people with alopecia, which is an autoimmune hair loss disease, and it's just something that's been a really big part of my whole life. But I haven't always been open about it with others and with the public and my fans. So it feels really freeing and great to be at a point where I can just share openly with people about it. And it feels like I've let the world see this other part of myself that I used to keep hidden, that I would only share with people I knew really well. But now it feels cool to get to share that with everyone.

That's great. I'm sure it'll inspire a lot of people to be themselves.

Yeah, I hope so.

I want to ask you about a big issue in music and entertainment; mental health. A lot of artists are under a lot of pressure, which can be difficult to cope with. I'm curious what you do to stay grounded and what your processes is for staying mentally healthy.

That's a good question. I think that's something I'm still learning, because it is challenging when you're traveling and you have all the pressure. I felt it a lot with having my first record come out, I was putting all this pressure on myself. But then, as you develop a team of people, you're feeling outside pressure as well. I found that seeing a therapist regularly when I'm off the road is really helpful, and there's a few different groups. There's MusiCares, which helps musicians afford mental health services, and there's other groups that do similar things. I've done meditation, which always helps me stay grounded on the road, if I can make myself get in the routine of doing it, which isn't always easy. Those two things have been big for me.

Do you have any dream co-write collaborators out there? Are there any artists that you'd really like to get in a room with?

Oh, yeah, there's a lot. I grew up just obsessed with Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, so both of them are huge songwriting inspirations to me. So they would be probably my biggest dream collab.

I've been working on the crosspicking that he does recently.

I love his playing. That really influenced me as well.

What is next for you? You've got the debut that you're touring on, what else are you looking at down the road?

We have some festivals, we're doing Pilgrimage Festival later this Summer. We're doing a little run in Colorado and we have a couple of festivals and tours in the works for this Fall. Going to IBMA, of course, for the award show, and then I'm playing there [in Raleigh] that weekend. We'll be doing the AmericanaFest, which happens in Nashville every year. it's gonna be a busy Fall full of tours and festivals and different events, but it'll be a lot of fun.

Charley Crockett's Walk Through 'The Valley': "That's What Artists Do" | Newport Folk 2019​

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Adia Victoria

Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

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Adia Victoria On Writing "Different Kind Of Love" adia-victoria-making-silences-pain-love-behind-different-kind-love

Adia Victoria On Making 'Silences' & The Pain & Love Behind "Different Kind Of Love"

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We sat down with the Nashville-based singer/songwriter backstage at Newport Folk to dig into her highly acclaimed sophomore LP and find out how art can imitate heartache
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Aug 1, 2019 - 5:02 pm

An artist's job is to speak her truth. That's exactly what Adia Victoria does on Silences, the stunning follow-up to her 2016 full-length debut Beyond The Bloodhouds.

Adia Victoria On Writing "Different Kind Of Love"

"The time that I spent writing and recording this album was the time that I felt the greatest monumental shift in my life after the first record, and you're no longer just a private person  You've got a career," Victoria said. "And so there's a lot of internal changes that happen, and for me, I felt like one of the greatest [changes] was I lost my connection with myself. I didn't trust my internal voice. I was so worried about what other people would think, and so for me, this album represents my determination to speak the unspeakable, to push past the doubts and the anxiety of being out in the public and learning to speak my truth again."

The standout track "Different Kind Of Love" which she wrote while she was, "grappling with being dumped, to put it plainly," give a glimpse into her delicate darkness. According to Victoria, the big questions this album and this song ask are as much about an internal struggle than a relationship on the surface.

"At the end of the song, when I'm asking, 'between the end of the world/what will it be/who do you love,' I'm actually asking myself There's nothing like a little heartache to inspire some incredible art," she said with a self-depricating laugh.

If you missed her intense and evokative set at Newport Folk, you can catch Victoria select dates this fall. She's also gearing up to head out on the road with Tank And The Bangas, so stay tuned!

Maren Morris, Natalie Hemby & Amanda Shires Of The Highwomen Are "Redesigning Women" | Newport Folk 2019

 

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Dolly Parton At Newport Folk 2019

Photo: Douglas Mason/WireImage

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Newport Folk 2019: Relive The Music & Camaraderie newport-folk-2019-relive-all-surprises-highlights-exclusives

Newport Folk 2019: Relive All The Surprises, Highlights & Exclusives

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From Dolly's big surprise to Brandi's big weekend, join us at the 60th Anniversary Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, as we round up the moments you may have missed, plus peek in on our exclusive backstage access
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 29, 2019 - 5:35 pm

It’s hard to believe the first-ever Newport Folk Festival took place 60 years ago, mainly because the vibe at this year's fest feels so future-facing, so switched-on, and so decidedly in-the-now. But in truth, Newport Folk has been a breeding ground for revolutionary change since the beginning. On-the-ground and by-the-sea at Fort Adams, you can't get far without talking to someone about Bob Dylan going electric here in 1965, or Mississippi John Hurt bringing Delta blues to a whole new audience three years earlier in 1963, or Judy Collins introducing two young songwriters to the Newport crowd a few years later who just happened to be Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, or... or...

Newport Folk 2019: Recording Academy "On The Road"

History aside, the first force of nature you notice about this year’s Newport Folk is the powerful and dynamic female-driven lineup, highlighted by Friday’s headlining debut of the Highwomen, a new supergroup featuring Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires. Saturday’s surprise headlining slot, mysteriously marked on the schedule as four female symbols, turned out to be the first all-female collaboration in the festival’s history. Also, remarkable performances by Sheryl Crow, Kacey Musgraves, Jade Bird, Maggie Rodgers, I’m With Her, Lucy Dacus and more. 

But the surprise of the year—and each year at Newport there are many—was the Saturday night “Collaboration” when none other than Dolly Parton, joined by her frequent collaborator Linda Perry, jumped up on stage with Crow, Carlile, Collins and more, providing Newport ’19’s most memorable moment. 

yeah… no big deal…..#LEGENDS https://t.co/Gca5VY6H7b

— Newport Folk Fest (@Newportfolkfest) July 28, 2019

Not to be outdone, Sunday was magical in its own way, highlighted by Hozier’s soulful set with special guest Mavis Staples and Lake Street Dive’s Rachel Price. But the most chill-producing musical moment Sunday beloved to Carlile, the same way the entire arc of Newport ’19 seemed to belong to the incredibly warm, gracious and talented GRAMMY winner. She joined Hozier on-stage for a rendition of her GRAMMY-winning song “The Joke,” trading verses with Hozier, then silencing the crowd with her vocal delivery of the songs climax before an uproar of applause. 

Brandi Carlile On Forgiveness & "The Joke"

Festivalgoers had plenty to cheer for at this year’s Newport Folk, but what they didn’t see was the action backstage. It’s not uncommon to see impromptu rehearsals, joyous reunions and excited first meetings between artists while walking through the all-access areas of the festival. The Recording Academy setup shop to speak with some of Newport’s brightest stars, one-on-one, for exclusive interviews.

For instance, we caught up with Friday’s main event, The Highwomen, to hear about their new singles and forthcoming album. We spoke with well-traveled Texas country breakout artist Charley Crockett, who also came well-dressed in a brand-new bright-red suit. We sat down with rising star and Queen of Country Soul, Yola, who ended up making guest appearances everywhere during the weekend, winning over new fans in droves.

Yola On Being The Queen Of Country Soul

We were also honored to talk with Judy Collins about her rich history at Newport dating back to the days of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. We even got to talk with Our Native Daughters, the powerful new group featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell to hear about their moving debut album and performance.

For all of this coverage and much, much more, including interviews with Amy Ray, Molly Tuttle, Lukas Nelson and many more, visit our exclusive photo gallery and see who else stopped by to say hello and snap some pics in our portrait studio.

.@molly_tuttle, @iamyola, @lukasnelson, @adiavictoria, and many more artists came through to discuss music, life, culture what makes @Newportfolkfest feel like home. https://t.co/48X4Pm5ghW

— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) July 28, 2019

At the end of the day, Newport is about the music and the people, and backstage in a beautiful side room of the Fort, artist after artist tells us how attentive the audiences are and how well the staff treat everyone. This is the spirit behind the festival that — 60 years after it’s inception — continues to bring the music community together, push the boundaries of artistic conventions, give a voice to artists to fight for what they believe and build lasting friendships and connections with all those who make the journey to Newport. See you next year!

Backstage At Newport Folk Festival's 60th Anniversary

GRAMMYs

Yola

Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

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Meet The Queen Of Country Soul: Yola yola-ascends-walk-through-fire-become-queen-country-soul-newport-folk-2019

Yola Ascends To 'Walk Through Fire' & Become The Queen Of Country Soul | Newport Folk 2019

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Backstage at her Newport Folk Festival debut, Yola talks her new Dan Auerbach-produced album, transcending genre, her love for Elton John and more
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 28, 2019 - 1:09 pm

The spirit and soul of Yola's breakout album Walk Through Fire was nothing if not well-earned. Even the title came from overcoming hardship, as her kitchen literally caught fire before the project, a symbol of the adversity the Bristol-born singer/songwriter faced—and overcame to create her own masterpiece. 

Yola On Being The Queen Of Country Soul

Yola graced us with her infectious energy backstage at Newport Folk Fest after her show-stopping set and opened up about her breakout album, working with The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and what it means to be the Queen of Country Soul.

Love love love @TheHighwomen https://t.co/l6GfrUvbOm

— Yola (@iamyola) July 27, 2019

More: Backstage At Newpork Folk Festival's 60th Anniversary

Congratulations on your album, Walk Through Fire. What are you most proud of in how this album came out?

I think how people are connecting with it. One of my specialist subjects is that connecting to what I'm saying. And I hope by doing that then that helps people connect as well with what I mean. And that gives us a relationship across airwaves, across oceans, across an arena.

And so, that's the most important thing, for people to be connecting and for things to be going crazy. We're not into six months yet and things are going super crazy.

But that's not just a hype machine situation. It's so down to people connecting in a real way and I think it's very easy for that to not happen. For people to get swept away with hype.

What can you say about the collaboration with Dan Auerbach? It sounds like you guys wrote a ton of songs together.

Yes, we did.

How was it working with Dan on this album?

He's just a machine. I always thought I was kind of a quick writer once I got into my flow, my flow state, if you will. Yeah, he's a machine and his sonic palette, his kind of delicacy in the mix is unrivaled, it's unbelievable what he can do.

I was actually a fan of his album that came out, his solo album that came out, "Waiting on a Song." When I listened to just all the layers and I was like, "I love this, wouldn't it be amazing if I could do an album like this with him?"

Anyway, that's what Dan and his people bump into me in '17. I must've just put that into the Ether or something, that was serendipitous at the very least.

He's a complete machine and the upside, especially when it comes to things like production means, I could be hands-off. I don't have to be concerned and idea of what you going to come across is going to be turned into something other than something utterly beautiful and so yeah... It's the most relaxing production experience I've ever had because you deliver your vocal and you know everything is going to sound beautiful.

It's in good hands. 

Very, very, very capable hands indeed.

"Faraway Look," I think that was the first song that I heard of yours. Can you tell me about how that came together in the studio with Dan?

When we were writing, Dan and I would be in the room and we'd invite a third party, if you will. And that third party would be the spice, so me and Dan had talked about our common ground musically. The things that we loved, even the things that we loathed. So, then that would form the kind of people he would invite.

And Pat McLaughlin is a dreamy kind of guy and so yeah, it became... we had, obviously Pat came in with this song and that we had Dan Penn and Joe Allen and Roger Cook. So, really kind of stellar writers and so the idea was to kind of bring in the spice would occur. And allow me to explore the range of things that I'm into like classic pop music, classic country, classic soul music.

And so, the way that lyrics tend to come with me... and thankfully with both Dan and Pat is, what I like to call the mumble write. Where you're kind of dowsing for the vibe and I think most of the songs came like this.

In this case, maybe Pat is strumming something and going [mumbling] and starting to mumble something and so then out of the mumble... and then you carry on, you pick up that mumble [mumbling], making no sense at all. But trying to decipher a more elegant meaning out of their aesthetic, out of the shapes that are coming to you. And really they're actually batting around the idea in the back of your mind.

And there's some deep meaning there that you're trying to discern through the fog and that's how much the songs came together, it was Dan or Pat strumming of the 30 songs and in some cases, me strumming. And just feeling out what we were doing. And then obviously something salient-like comes forward.

So, in this case it was the chorus melody, that was the first thing to come. And then we're starting to try to figure out where that goes but this whole process was like we were trying to unveil it, more than going in with a preconceived idea of the genre that we are going to have a look at that day or what the whole album was going to be. It was like we were going to write a whole bunch of songs and then we're going to figure out what the hell we'd done.

And see whether there was a sense of continuity through it, which there was. And so, that was the kind of saving grace with the writing of that song. I think of this record it was very open because people have been describing this as a country soul record. But then you listen to "Faraway Look" and it's not country or soul. It's classic pop.

While I think Queen of County Soul is really a perfect moniker for you, it captures a lot of what you do, but there's always so much more. How do you feel about genre today?

It's like you're trying to help people understand something they just need to listen to. And it's feels like we are dissecting to understand like we're in Biology and we're doing the frog dissection. And in that dissecting of the thing where it separating out, all of everything. Putting that over there, that over there, that over there. And they didn't start that way. They all started together.

And we're separating it out to be able understand the constituent parts and so that feels like the opposite of what I'm trying to do with music. I'm trying to find the common ground. I'm trying to bring all those constituent parts and show how they were linked to all the tissue all the fascia. And, so that's what I'm passionate about in music, is that gray area, that's why I love the band, that's why I love Little Feat, that's why I love staple singers, that's why I love Aretha. They didn't stick... that's why I love Elton John. C'mon, right?

There constantly listen to Honky Chateau, right? It's got this and then it's got this. Everyone I love, Bee Gees- Man, that early Bee Gee stuff, that "Run to Me." That's a bowl of soul. And I was thinking disco and I'm like, "Boo, there's more." "Run to Me" is a massive tune.

For sure. So, how does it feel to experience this type of accelerated rise to success, and did you ever think that was possible when you were going through some of the harder times in your life, dealing with homelessness and loss of your mother.

Well when I was four I saw this [passion for music]. I was like, "Yep. This is entirely feasible. Sure, why not? I feel ready. Let's do this." And so I'm kind of my 4-year-old self right now and I went kind of... I grew up and moved away from that person, which was a mistake. 4-year-old me was on point.

Yeah, instincts like that are usually correct.

Yeah. I nailed it, and I just got talked out of being that person. You should be ashamed of your dark skin, you should me ashamed of your natural hair. You should try and sing more R&B. You should drop some weight. All the kind of things that are shaming and the number of times that I get pulled up by women of color, certainly people darker than Oprah kind of, which is the line in the sand.

"Thank you, thank you for being upfront, thank you for not being in the back, thank you for just being, not being apologetic about it or shrinking in some way." And yeah, that's been a journey, that's been a long road to get it to that point.

So, in that process of being talked out of this willingness to just be myself, I went through bad company. And that bad company pushes you into that realm and when I was in that moment of homelessness, the thing that was making me sad was that, the bad company. Was that sense of lack of connection with the people around me, the people I was working with. People that I was social with who were also people I was working with. That's always been the thing, that has been the heartbreaker, as much as the loss of my mother.

That whole sense and period of neglect, so this period is very much been about that rise to accepting yourself and that's been reflected in how quickly this has risen that's what people want to see. They want to see love, love and connection, to people, to the people you're working with, to yourself.

Maybe it took the 30s to get to that, but yeah. It's been unreal and all the sparkly stuff aside, which there's lots of sparkly things. I didn't think I would be playing Bridgestone or Ryman multiple times or whatever. All of this stuff is mind blowing to me but the connection has always been top, that the most self-actualization.

You mention the Bridgestone, Kacey Musgraves, Maggie Rogers gig. Can you talk a little bit about preparing for that big of a show and playing an arena?

When I was early 20s, late teens, I had a little bit of arena experience but as kind of fronting other peoples' outfits. So, I was that fronting gun for hire. And so you'd have to learn to prowl the stage and all your gestures had to be super massive because people might not see you. If you're just doing this, no one is seeing that ten rows back kind of thing.

So, yeah that was one massive thing that I had to pick up that I'm going to be able to draw back on for this show and yeah and we got the full band, so we should be ready to kick booty.

Charley Crockett's Walk Through 'The Valley': "That's What Artists Do" | Newport Folk 2019​

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