Thanks for posting that Marie. Here's a clip from the Bottlerockets
interview that ties in with some of what's been discussed here lately, I
think. <g>
Jim
WM: You don't like roots rock I take it.
BH: Oh, I love roots rock, it cracks me
up. The whole idea
of singling it out and naming it
something to insure it never
gets on the radio cracks me up.
WM: So you are a lot like Jay and the
other artists ... you
don't want to be pigeonholed.
BH: It was a really good name to kill
everything. Ok lets call
it alternative country. Look at that.
Look at the breadth of
the stuff that's in there. So if you
happen to be an alternative
country band with a rock song such as...
Like I told you the
other night, if Exile on Main Street were
to be made today,
it would be considered alternative
country. So it ain't gonna
get on the radio. It will never happen.
They'll never listen to it
cause it'll be brought to them as
alternative country and it
wont go. Not on big radio. Big radio
sucks.
WM: So, you don't think that you guys and
Wilco and Son
Volt will ever become radio friendly to
the point of stardom,
wealth, etc?
BH: Well, Son Volt, Wilco, Uncle Tupelo
have been working
at it for over 10 years now.
WM: Consciously, do you think?
BH: Not consciously, but still you know,
they have been
drifting around as the icons, the upper
echelon. And they've
been doing it since 88. Maybe its time to
reevaluate. It's
been 11 fucking years and no one's had
the big breakout hit
yet.
Tom Parr: Played a lot of college frat
parties. All the roots
rockers.. it took them years to get
deals.
BH: We're doing this new album, it's
gonna be called alt
country, I guarantee it. Then you have
bands like the
Derailers.
WM: Do you like their music?
BH: Yeah, I like the Derailers. That's
great, but it's a
confusing single label to put on the
whole thing.
WM: What do you think of the Academy of
Recording Arts
and Sciences having a category called
Contemporary Folk
for their Grammy awards, and then
nominating Lucinda
Williams, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett,
Wilco/Bragg EmmyLou
Harris in that category?
BH: So they're Contemporary Folk now
(laughs). What
that's gonna do is place these artists
way in the back of
record stores. I know that cause I went
looking for the
Lucinda album. I asked the guy at the
store, where is it?
Well, you go back there, turn left, it's
in the back of the
store.
WM: Ok, so you don't want to be labeled.
How would you
describe your music to someone who
doesn't know you?
BH: I would just say, it's a straight up
rock band with a guy
that unfortunately has a bit of a country
accent singing. So
that's it.
