 Courtesy: Missing Piece Group Michigan quintet Greensky Bluegrass' new album, Shouted, Written Down & Quoted - deemed "their best work to date" by Denver Magazine - was released on September 23rd and quickly made its debut at #3 on the Billboard Bluegrass Albums chart, as well as bowing #13 on the Top Americana/Folk Albums chart. Released via the band's own Big Blue Zoo Records/Thirty Tigers, the album is a wide-ranging collection demonstrating the band's musical diversity and proficiency on eleven tracks that range from those with an intense energy to more subdued ballads. While on the road, banjoist Mike Bont took some time to talk about the album and more. There's such a blending of musical textures on the album; five studio albums in, did you do anything differently this time around? I feel like this record is a continuation of the last two that we released. Over the course of those records, we figured out our sound and this record is a good example of stuff that’s very, very us. The record was recorded at two different studios, Echo Mountain and Mountain House, which is something that isn't seen too often. Recording that way was time-based, really. We had a certain amount of time to record the first session and we didn’t want to rush to complete the album, so we gave ourselves a second window to finish off what we started. That space between sessions gave the music a little bit of time to breathe. Did the songs change between the sessions? No, not really. It was really just more layering. The first session we laid out the tracks and some vocals and the second was just vocal work.  Being that there are five of you, how does the songwriting process work? Does someone do the bulk of the songwriting and then bring it to the band to be fleshed out?
That’s pretty much it. Dave, Paul, and Mike wrote for the record and by the time they brought it to the band, the lyrical content was there. Sometimes they have ideas for melodies and song structure - and sometimes they don’t. We all give input, but ultimately leave it up to the songwriter to say yay or nay to the input that’s given and we go from there. We just try to make the songs shine and have them be as good as they can be. This record has a lot of songs that deal with some heavy issues which resulted in some really amazing, deep lyrical content that speaks to a lot of people. What’s the significance of the title, Shouted, Written Down and Quoted, and the album artwork? The title is pulled from the lyrics of one of the songs and the artwork we came across by accident. It’s a public domain war photo from the 1940's that fit the title neatly. We think it turned out pretty nice. Was there any significance to bookending the album the way you did with "Miss September" and "Take Cover"? It’s really a hard thing to decide song order. People might think it’s easy, but it’s not because you want the album to flow in a certain way, like a piece of art almost. For this album, there wasn’t any specific meaning to it, we tracked it the way we felt the songs flowed best because we wanted an album that you could listen to all the way through - not one where you feel like you have to turn it off after a couple songs because those are the only good ones. We put music under the microscope for a record and look at it under a different light as opposed to a live show where musical ideas are like a flash in pan – they’re gone and you’re done [playing] before you even know it. Our live shows contain a lot of improv and extended jam sessions that you can’t necessarily fit onto an album. Speaking of live shows, now that 2016 is coming to a close, what are your touring plans for the remainder of the year? When we're on the road, we tend to be on the road, because once we’re in that state of mind, it’s better to stay in it rather than play three days and then have two off. We tend to tour in a chunk of time so we can spend another chunk at home with family. To finish up this year, we’re wrapping up an East coast tour, then have ten days off before the West coast tour and the Strings and Sol festival in Mexico. We’ll have some time off for the holidays then end the year with some New Year’s shows in Michigan. To keep up to date with Greensky Bluegrass visit their official website Find them on Facebook and Twitter Purchase Shouted, Written Down & Quoted here Listen on Spotify
1 Comment
JEFFREY HEDRICK
5/20/2019 12:50:01 pm
that photo is not form the 1940s, it is from 1918. it is douglas fairbanks, actor giving a specech in NYC Leave a Reply. |