Words and Music: Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

JPR news has moved

2011-06-13T07:52:00.002-04:00

This blog is no longer being maintained. For news about concerts, workshops, interviews, and more, please see my news page or Facebook.

Video lesson on Ani DiFranco's guitar style

2010-10-20T15:39:00.003-04:00

My lesson on Ani DiFranco's guitar style appears in the Dec. 2010 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine and is available online with notation and video.

Jason Mraz on performing lessons of the coffeehouse, 2010

2010-08-25T12:45:00.001-04:00

"I remember going to coffee shops and open mics and songwriter nights, and admittedly there’d be a good number of songwriters where I’d just be bored. I felt like a lot of people were trying to write the perfect song or a hit song, and there’s nothing wrong with that—I’m not making anyone wrong for me being bored. But there’d be a wall between me and that person. I decided, when I do this, my goal, the first thing, is to try not to be boring—whatever it takes....

"If you find that the song you just played didn’t really do it and everyone’s yakking, then make up for it somehow in the story you’re going to tell, and just basically create a relationship with your audience that isn’t all about 'look at me.' It’s all about 'look at us': we’re all here in this moment, and it’s never going to happen this way again. So it was always a matter of staying present and having a sense of relatedness. I used humor and the awkward and embarrassing moments of my life to create that safe place for an audience to be comfortable and participate in these songs."

From my Jason Mraz cover story for the October 2010 issue of Acoustic Guitar. Read the full story here.

New DVD: Learn Seven Grateful Dead Classics for Acoustic Guitar

2010-08-12T16:44:00.002-04:00

My first guitar DVD is out now from Homespun Tapes! The video includes complete transcriptions and detailed instruction for seven songs: “Friend of the Devil,” “Black Peter,” “Brokedown Palace,” “Stella Blue,” “Fire on the Mountain,” “New Speedway Boogie,” and “Cassidy.”

It's a thrill, to say the least, to join a teaching roster that includes Tony Rice, Pete Seeger, David Grisman, Tony Trishka, John Sebastian, Richard Thompson, Chris Thile, and on and on.

The DVD is available now on DVD or for direct download.

"New Speedway Boogie" on The Grateful Dead Hour

2010-08-01T08:26:00.003-04:00

My solo acoustic version of "New Speedway Boogie" (from the album Dead to the Core) boogies on: it was transcribed in the August 2010 issue of Acoustic Guitar, and David Gans played it on the latest show in his nationally syndicated Grateful Dead Hour program.

I also teach how to play this arrangement of "Boogie," plus six other classic Dead songs ("Friend of the Devil," "Black Peter," "Brokedown Palace," "Fire on the Mountain," "Cassidy," and "Stella Blue") on the DVD Learn Seven Classic Grateful Dead Songs for Acoustic Guitar, out this month from Homespun Tapes.

More about all the above at www.deadtothecore.com.

Buddy Miller on analog vs. digital recording, 2009

2010-07-16T20:05:00.002-04:00

"I had a Studer A80 two-inch machine, but it started to be too much of a pain in the neck. It would slow down or speed up at the end of a reel, and I’d always have to be making adjustments. So I did switch over to digital, and you know it’s a trade-off. It’s kind of like making soup without heat. Everything sounds so sharp—it’s clean but in not a great way. You can find a way to make it mix together, to turn it into delicious soup, but it’s a lot more work. The analog tape had something that made it easier to do that. They’re making plug-ins now to simulate [the tape sound], but they don’t quite get there."

From my Buddy Miller interview in the September 2010 issue of Acoustic Guitar. Read the full story here.

"New Speedway Boogie" in Acoustic Guitar magazine

2010-06-14T17:32:00.002-04:00

My solo guitar/voice arrangement of the Grateful Dead's "New Speedway Boogie" is featured in the August 2010 issue of Acoustic Guitar, in the Songbook department. (I also did the cover story for this issue--an interview with Jakob Dylan.)

The studio version, from the digital album Dead to the Core, just hit iTunes and CD Baby and can be heard on my site.

"New Speedway Boogie" will also be featured on the DVD Learn to Play the Songs of the Grateful Dead, coming summer 2010 from Homespun Tapes.

Jakob Dylan on confessional songwriting, 2010

2010-06-13T08:50:00.002-04:00

"I’ve never written confessional music, and actually for the most part that kind of music turns me off. With other artists, when I hear their songs, it wouldn’t occur to me that they might be singing about themselves. And I don’t think being honest or direct or having rough, raw emotions has anything to do with making music any better. That’s always gone right over my head. I don’t think you ask if actors making films are being honest; I don’t think you ask it of the guy working at the market.

"That being said, I’m in the [songs] somewhere because I wrote them, and these things all occurred to me. I’m the one who chose to put these specific lines together and tell a story that I find compelling.

"I think songwriters are always looking. Most of us, we’re telling the same stories as the next guy—there are only so many stories to tell. That’s the nature of songwriting—you’re telling something most people have already heard, but what will make it more interesting and have more longevity is if your take on it is slightly different. Those are the tools that I work with."

From my Jakob Dylan cover story in Acoustic Guitar August 2010. Read the full interview here.

New book/CD: Teach Yourself Guitar Basics

2010-06-04T10:54:00.003-04:00

This is a book I wrote and edited, just out from the publishers of Acoustic Guitar magazine. The book includes 35 questions and answers originally published in the Beginning Guitarist's Handbook, about which Pete Seeger had this to say:

So you have in your hands this piece of crafted wood with six strings and wonder how to get started making those beautiful sounds you've heard? Get this book.

For more details on the book, click here.

"Sycamore Tree" live video

2010-03-29T08:48:00.005-04:00

Here's a new video of my song "Sycamore Tree," performed with Josh Dekaney on percussion and Tim Burns on harmony vocals at the Words and Music Songwriter Showcase on 1/23/10.

The studio version of "Sycamore Tree" is now available on the CD Stop, Drop, and Roll (details here), available at iTunes, Amazon MP3, and CD Baby.

Brandi Carlile on writing the songs for Give Up the Ghost, 2009

2010-03-19T21:24:00.002-04:00

"I’ve been made aware of the fact that it takes a band their whole lives to write their first record, and then they’ve got a matter of months to write their second. Nothing happens between the time they put their first record out and the time they put their second record out, and it’s boring. On your first record you have so many life experiences to draw from—coming of age and love and loss and heartache and all of these firsts—and it’s really hard to write an album of seconds. So I wanted to transcend what is happening right now in the moment, on our tour bus, on the road, and not make an album full of highway songs, because I just think there are enough of them in the world.

"So we did a lot of songwriting exercises where we took a good hard look at things in our past that we hadn’t made peace with and ventured into the vastness of the future. We kept dream journals and wrote from a place of consciousness."

From an interview with Brandi Carlile published in Acoustic Guitar, May 2010. Read the full article here.

Rick Moody on music and prose, 2009

2010-01-22T17:21:00.004-05:00

“I would say that music making and prose writing are very analogous, allied activities. Prose, after all, has a musical dimension because it’s made out of sound. I think that great prose writers often have some kind of attachment to music--look at James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. Playing music emphatically makes me a better writer. It makes me listen better and think more clearly about how prose sounds.”

From an interview with novelist Rick Moody (The Ice Storm) on his band the Wingdale Community Singers. Read the full story in Brown Alumni Magazine here. Listen to the band here.

Note to John Lennon Songwriting Contest voters

2010-01-19T08:13:00.002-05:00

Many of you were kind enough to vote, early and often, in the online vote that made my song "Fly" the Lennon Award winner for the top country song of last year. You may have noticed lately that Fretwire and other music marketing emails are showing up in your inbox--this is because of submitting your email address during the contest vote. FYI, at the bottom of these emails there is a small "Manage your subscription" link that allows you to unsubscribe with a couple of clicks. I just wanted to make sure you see there is a way to opt out...

Thanks again, everyone, for the support, and happy 2010.
JPR

Alternate Tunings: A Reader's Guide

2009-12-16T10:32:00.004-05:00

The 20th anniversary of Acoustic Guitar is stirring up some fond memories of arcane little stories that we editors put together to amuse ourselves (and, we hoped, readers). Including this one from the December 1997 issue:

Have you ever noticed that some guitarists refer to specific open tunings as if they were words—talking, for instance, about D A D G A D as dadgad and D A D E A D as daddy-ad? Those unfamiliar with the way the guitar is tuned may have heard such lingo-infested conversation and wondered, “What is dadgad music anyway? Is it from one of those new countries in the former Soviet bloc? Maybe the guitarist’s last name is Gadd and it’s a piece dedicated to his father.” Here in the Acoustic Guitar office, a little joke about Mike Marshall’s tuning C F C F C F (see below) inspired this list of tunings for specific people, places, or events. As for the musicality of these tunings . . . well, you’re on your own.

For fathers of small kids: D A D D E E

For an abusive father: B A D D A D

For the world’s greatest father: F A B D A D

For a hip-hop father: D E F D A D

For a tough New Yorker: B A G C A B

For a talkative taxi driver: C A B G A B

For a Grateful Dead fan: D E A D E D

For C.F. Martin III: C F C F C F

For a caffeine addict from Boston: C A F F E E

For a former caffeine addict: A D E C A F

For a police officer: B A D G E D

For a file clerk: A B C D E F

For a dominatrix: B E D G A G

For Old McDonald: B A A B A A

For anti-government types: B A D F E D

For a big guy: B E E F E E

For a guitar named Lucille: B E E B E E

For the Gibb brothers: B E E G E E

For a chatterbox roommate: G A B G A B

For your old mattress: B A D B E D

For a hippie: B E A D E D

For an Irish musician: C A B A G E

For a guitar magazine that doesn’t know when to stop: A G D E A D

Indian rock revisited

2009-12-14T08:33:00.004-05:00

Interesting to see that my story on the Bangalore-based rock band Thermal and a Quarter, which aired on NPR's All Things Considered in 2005, is still reverberating. This article just published in the Times of India talks about how Thermal and a Quarter and other Indian rock bands are using the Net to promote their music...

Derek Sivers on promoting music online, 2009

2009-11-18T08:21:00.002-05:00

A lot of musicians these days think that networking online is going to break their music, yet real-world gigs and interactions with people haven’t become obsolete. In some ways maybe they’ve become more important.

SIVERS I’d say more important. The more valuable thing is always going to be the more scarce thing. So when everybody’s lives are led online, then having a great live performance is going to help you stand out from the pack so much more than being one of the one million musicians with a great Web presence a click away.

I think about that stuff a lot: What is the road less traveled? What is the thing that most people are doing, and therefore what is the thing that few people are doing? Whatever few people are doing is where the greater value lies. If a whole new generation of musicians is spending much more time clicking around MySpace to add new friends than they are practicing their scales and arpeggios, then if you are one of the few who puts in an hour or two a night to practice your scales and arpeggios and chord voicings or whatever, it’s going to make you that much more of a standout.

From "CD or No CD," an interview with CD Baby founder Derek Sivers published in Acoustic Guitar, January 2010. Read the full article here. More about Sivers and his current projects here.

John Fogerty on songwriting, 2009

2009-11-14T09:31:00.003-05:00

In past interviews you’ve described many nights in the ’60s working on your songs until 4 am. Yet the songs themselves don’t sound labored over at all.

FOGERTY It’s an interesting dichotomy. The best songs are effortless—“Midnight Special” or “Cotton Fields” or “Down in the Valley” or “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was quite remarkable in its time. It was completely out of the normal rock ’n’ roll box. The way I think back on that was, the Beatles had been very heavily influenced by Buddy Holly, particularly songs like “Peggy Sue” and “Everyday.” Buddy would go through these circles of fourths or fifths and follow the chord to the next progression. The instrumental chops weren’t necessarily earth shattering, so he’d do it with mental power, you might say.

Well, America kind of forgot all that and went on with its own vision of rock ’n’ roll, whereas the Beatles kept cooking with that in their development. It came out in things like “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which had strange ways of changing key and going to the bridge, that kind of thing. But it still ends up sounding effortless.

The thing is, when you’re writing a song, let’s say you’ve got a good verse going and your next move is the bridge or the second verse or whatever. That’s when you have to want it to be a good song—not a throwaway song or in-a-hurry song. So that’s when the labor begins. That’s when you don’t settle for the first thing that occurred to you. You stick with it until it really fits. Sometimes that comes to you in an instant, and other times it doesn’t occur to you. And then one day you’re riding along in the car and you step out into the parking lot in the mall, or maybe you’re brushing your teeth . . . and suddenly that thing you’ve been thinking about for a long time just goes through your brain at a different angle, and you go—of course! And then it’s clear as a bell.

From my John Fogerty feature in Acoustic Guitar's January 2010 issue. Read the full story here.

Daniel Lanois interview

2009-11-09T10:01:00.003-05:00

Enjoyed this interview with Daniel Lanois about producing and collaborating with U2, Dylan, Eno...

http://blog.discmakers.com/2009/10/Nothing-Is-Sacred/

I love Lanois' own records, especially Acadie. Such an emotionally rich atmosphere.

Jill Sobule on fan financing, 2009

2009-10-19T16:58:00.002-04:00

“I feel good personally, because I never really made a cent on a record ever before. You know, people can use this model whether they have 100 fans or 100,000 fans. You don’t have to have a gold- or platinum-selling album to be successful, because you don’t have to worry about the record company selling so much. The first record I sell, that first $10 I sell at a show or online, it’s mine.”

From an Acoustic Guitar magazine story on Jill Sobule's record California Years, which she funded entirely with direct contributions from her fans via Jill's Next Record site. Read the full article here.

Tom Waits performs "Frank's Wild Years" on Letterman, 1983

2009-09-23T09:49:00.003-04:00

Wow. Lately I've been revisiting Tom Waits' 1980s albums Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs, which forever changed my sense of what songwriting and instrumentation could be. I discovered Waits in an unlikely place: on David Letterman. And thanks to YouTube, today I quickly found the precise episode from 1983 that left me speechless and making a beeline for the record store to pick up Swordfishtrombones. Here it is:

Stephen Fearing on commercial songwriting, 2003

2009-07-31T08:32:00.006-04:00

"The most interesting sorts of commercial music are the ones that find an emotion and put it out there. It might not be that subtly done; it might be kind of crude. But when a commercial writer finds an emotion and is able to articulate it in such a way that it’s really clear, then everybody gets it and everybody wants to hear it. I think in the singer-songwriter genre, sometimes the intellect takes over a little too much and everybody gets a little too clever. I’m trying to find music that is simple but not simplistic. There’s a skill, but it’s in the background—it’s not the first thing you hear. The first thing you hear is the emotion. That’s what really interests me right now."

From The Complete Singer-Songwriter. The quote comes from an interview with Fearing originally published in Acoustic Guitar July 2003. More on Fearing here.

Here's a really nice video of Fearing with Colin Linden on slide...

Levon Helm rocks "Tennessee Jed"

2009-07-21T10:05:00.002-04:00

I'm loving Levon Helm's new version of "Tennessee Jed"... Here's a recent performance on Letterman--a weaker vocal than on the Electric Dirt record (it's a miracle Helm can sing at all post throat cancer), but it still rocks.

Elvis Costello on writing songs for posterity, 2009

2009-06-25T08:57:00.002-04:00

JPR Do you aspire for your songs to have a life beyond your performance of them?

COSTELLO Not in every case, because sometimes songs are very particular to your own experience, and it’s hard to imagine even somebody else understanding them. That doesn’t make it wrong to write them, because you hope to place within them something that people recognize. But somebody who has the ambition to make songs universal uses language which is universal, and I don’t. There’s a very, very thin line between universal and cliché, as well, so you try to avoid that.

I write for other people sometimes. But my first thought is not, “Will this song go down into history?” anymore than I care a damn what posterity says about me. I have no concern for my reputation when I’m gone from this place. I mean if they’ll sing my songs and think fondly of me that I did anything good in this world, that’s fine, but I’m not writing to be remembered. I’m writing because I want to write, and I play because that’s what I do. If people get pleasure from it or anything from it at all, then I suppose I must have done something correctly in following my instincts or curiosity or even, as much to say, talents. But I’m not thinking about people kind of gabbing around and giving a brass plaque. That would be a wrong thing to do when you are writing.

From a cover story for Acoustic Guitar, August 2009. Read the full article, plus bonus interview material that didn't appear in the print edition, here.

Bruce Cockburn on his solo guitar style, 2009

2009-05-21T13:31:00.003-04:00

"You can make the guitar work really well if all you do is strum chords. It's a good effect, but what I do instead is try to find things for the guitar that complement what's being sung or that help support it. Sometimes it's playing the melody along with myself; at other times it's more of a moving background part. It gives the song a color that it wouldn't otherwise have. If you're playing with a band, the tendency is to let the keyboard or the horns or the lead guitar do stuff like that. But because I write these songs to play them in any context, solo or with any combination of instruments, I tend to hog all the space, play all the parts, and then anybody who plays with me has to fit around that or join me in playing those parts."

From my feature lesson with Bruce Cockburn in the July 2009 issue of Acoustic Guitar. The entire article, including guitar tab examples and several video clips from the interview, is available here. I met up with Cockburn at the offices of Universal Music in NYC in February.

JPR's "Fly" wins the Lennon Award in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest

2009-05-01T12:13:00.001-04:00

Amazing news today: My song "Fly" won the annual Lennon Award in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest! This follows the grand prize that I won back in the fall, and it puts "Fly" in the running for Song of the Year... Check it out:

http://jlsc.com/winners/2008b/lennon_awards.php

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who patiently voted day after day and made this happen.

Yeeha!
JPR