I remember the first time that I saw Barnstar on stage at Club Passim. A whirlwind of sound, all played by more than competent musicians that excelled not just as their instruments, but also singing and harmonies. It was one of the most fun shows I have ever been to. I was continuously struck by that guitar player’s voice. There is something so incredibly likable about Mark Erelli. A great musician, a great songwriter, and a heck of a nice dude.
Mark has a show coming up in my neck of the woods on September 19th down in Weymouth at Sanctuary Hall…it is literally right down the street. All you South Shore folks should make an extreme effort to get on out to this show. Mark is a fantastic performer and songwriter. I caught up with him to talk about his accclaimed latest release ‘Milltowns’, community, and life as a musician. Check it out.
RLR: So Milltowns has had some time to settle in (and has settled incredibly well with many folks). Tell us about that record. What was the process like for you in developing songs for this album? How does it differ from any previous works?
Mark Erelli: Milltowns is a musical thank you note to my songwriting hero Bill Morrissey, who passed away in 2011. I have always considered Bill’s music to be inseparable from New England, like how Robert Frost might have sounded with a sense of humor and fingerpicked guitar. When I was younger I thought all the ‘real’ troubadours were in Texas, and that I’d have to go somewhere I’d never been, write about things I didn’t know and become someone else. It was Bill’s songs that gave me the confidence to believe that New England was valid geography for “roots music” too. Songs of his like “Birches” and “Handsome Molly” were critical to my decision to stay in the place that has always been my home, write about what had been around me all my life, and just be myself.
When I started Milltowns, I didn’t know I was making a new album. I thought that I was just practicing my recording techniques down in my basement studio, and for some random reason I got on a roll and recorded 12 Bill Morrissey songs in a row. I was really obsessed with how good they felt, and I would hear little parts that either paid tribute to the original arrangements of the songs, or new textures and instruments that took my covers in a completely different direction than Bill. I worked on fleshing these recordings out for maybe a month before it dawned on me: I was making my next record. I never did add any more Bill Morrissey songs to the initial session, but I did circle back to include the title track, an original that I had written the day I learned he had died.
Though I ended up bringing in some very talented musical friends to help me flesh it out in the home stretch, it was for 4 or 5 months a very solitary and secret endeavor. Normally when I start a new project, I like to let folks know I’m hard at work, share the excitement. But I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing with Milltowns, it was just so personal. I didn’t want anyone else’s notion of Bill or his music to color what it meant to me. As the first album-length tribute to Bill’s music, I felt a huge responsibility to get it right. For me, ‘right’ meant not doing versions of the songs that sounded like Bill, but approaching them with a spirit of reverential reinvention. I know I didn’t write them, but I wanted them to feel like my songs when I sang them, and they do.
RLR: A big part of what Red Line Roots stands for is collaboration, community and bringing folks together and fostering an environment where artists help each other. How do you feel about that preservation of unity and family sentiment in the folk music community around your own town or city? How does it play into your own music and where you come from?
Mark Erelli: I live in Melrose now, and just in this town we have one of my best songwriter friends Alastair Moock, a wonderful blues interpreter Bill McQuaid goes to my church, Johnny Sciascia, who played on my Hillbilly Pilgrim record lives here, as does my friend Tim Moynihan, who plays with Patrick Coman and with whom I also grew up in Reading playing in rock n’ roll bands. So that’s an impressive community in just one suburb of the greater Boston area, and of course I feel like I came out of the Boston (read: Cambridge) scene that centers around Club Passim. Passim is very important to me. I kissed the woman who later became my wife for the first time around the corner on Church Street. I met Kris Delmhorst, Lori McKenna, Jake Armerding, Zack Hickman and so many other talented friends who have played such a huge role in my life. I have lots of memories there, and I literally can’t imagine what my life would look like if not for Passim and the guidance of people like Matt Smith and former director Betsy Siggins. It’s made me very proud, and the way many Bostonians get about the Red Sox or the Pats, that’s how I feel about our music scene and the wonderful artists and people in it. They are a constant source of inspiration and camaraderie.
RLR: If you could collaborate with anyone (dead or alive) musically, who would it be?
Mark Erelli: I could probably answer this a bazillion different ways, but the first person that popped into my head was Daniel Lanois. I’m so in awe of his whole deal, and having him produce a record of mine would be a dream come true.
RLR: What is 1 record that shaped you when you first started playing and also, who is 1 ‘lesser known’/independent artist or an album that youare listening to now that you think folks really need to hear about?
Mark Erelli: I guess the early Jackson Browne records were big influences, particularly For Everyman, which I first listened to hoping to impress a girlfriend who was a big fan, but I ended up being the one totally consumed by it. For a teenager trying to articulate matters of the heart, there was a lot about Browne’s approach that resonated with me.
As far as something folks need to check out, I think Dietrich Strause’s next record (produced by Zack Hickman) is going to be killer. I’ve heard some rough mixes and was really blown away. Not sure when it’s coming out, but people are going to need to listen to that one.
RLR: Aside from music, do you find any other passions or pastimes? What would you want people to know about you aside from your musical endeavors?
Mark Erelli: I’ve had lots of pastimes in my life, and for the first 10-12 years of my musical career, they all took a backseat to music. I was a nationally ranked tennis player in high school and college, I have a lot experience in drawing and biological illustration in particular, I have a masters degree in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from UMASS Amherst, and I’ve published research papers in entomology (bug) journals. I’m also a father of two boys, and as they get older, I find that I am coming back in touch with the sports, art, and bugs as a way to engage them. They are always impressed when they catch a bug and come show it to me and I know what it is and a little about its life cycle. I get texts about the same thing from other musicians asking me bug questions. Getting a picture of a moth from Jeffrey Foucault at 1 am is not an uncommon thing for me.
RLR: Anything else you want to plug?
Mark Erelli: I’m hard at work on my yet-to-be-titled 10th album, for release this spring. I’m coming down the home stretch of the recording process, so folks can be on the lookout for a new Kickstarter campaign to help me get the record out and spread the word.