Name: Tom Catmull

Birthplace: Atlanta, GA

Currently residing: Missoula, MT

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: I grew up in Southeast TX, listening to and learning the songs of Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and Lyle Lovett and now I can’t seem to stop writing, recording and performing my own brand of folk, country, pop and “what have you” by my lonesome, in little groovy combos and with a full four piece machine of pain and destruction because, quite frankly, it is still worth the fallout, I tell you!

Website: tomcatmull.com

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Tom Waits
Rhett Miller
The Shins
Townes Van Zandt
John Hiatt
The Avett Brothers

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

“If I had a bullet, I’d put in this gun.  I’d catch that old dog nappin’. I’d shoot him before he runs.  Cause he ain’t much good for nothin’, except staring at the dust.  Lord, I wonder what he’s looking at, sneakin’ up on us.”

John Hiatt Dust on a Country Road

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

tough question.
HUGE excessive breakfast with my two boys.
time enough after for songwriting and guitar.
Ski the early afternoon.
play an early show, preferably a listening room/theater.
walk away from someone else’s sound equipment and go have a beer with good friends while listening to musicians who are better than me rock a club and all its inhabitants.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

humility, I think.  Not to brag, but I am the most humble son of a bitch in this blessed country!  Honestly though, i don’t think there’s anything one person can do that someone else cannot do better.  And I also think that is what makes everything awesome!

5. What is your most valued material possession?

This is totally boring, but I’m going with my guitar.  I’m not including health, family and mental faculties, anything like that as material possessions.  My guitar allows me the freedom to write and sing and play.  It’s important, dangit!

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Tom Waits, in a dark alley.

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Paradise Valley on a Saturday morning between a weekend of shows at Chico Hot Springs having a long breakfast with friends.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

EVERYTHING! I would like to write more(music and whatever). Learn to paint. Travel! I miss travelling (out of the country that is). I would like to understand a lot of basic scientific principles a little better than I currently do.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

I would like to be allowed to do more of the things I love and less of the things I don’t. I only really want “success” as much as it affords me more time to spend with family and friends, more time to write and record, and less time self-promoting and hauling/running sound equipment.  It’s the same with any job, I suppose. But I LOVE learning about different things, people and places(this is starting to sound like an internet dating ad). I want more of that, dangit!  I have no big 10 year business plan.  More shows, more songs, better money, less bogus gigs, more golden venues and golden shows, I tell you!  World domination through Americana,…the usual.

Time: Friday February 24, 2012 at 2:26 pm

Name: Grace Decker

Birthplace: Boston, MA

Currently residing: Chez Decker, Missoula, MT

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: They always said, “You’re a very….STRONG…player”….but I never really understood what they meant until I was in college and had pretty much quit playing classical music and started fiddling oldtime music and then accompanying singer-songwriter Larry Hirshberg and I realized I like to play along, and I kinda like to play hard, and so six or eight years of playing along turned into a bunch of weird, and a lot of the time wonderful, duo gigs as th’ Spectacles, all over western Montana (playing everything from Tom Waits to the Ramones to Lucinda Williams and a lot of Larry originals)… and then, long about 1999, Wham, I jumped headlong in crazy musical honkytonkin’ musical grab-ass with Cash for Junkers, my musical home port and band of brothers…then just as C4J broke apart when multi-instrumemtalist extraordinaire John Rosett returned to South Caroline…I had the amazing luck to be invited into a fantabulous couple years with bluegrass crazies and wide-hearted friends Broken Valley Road Show…and just as THAT was slowing down (a bit)…who’d’a thunk–C4J returned, as fun as ever (and playing better than ever in my humble opinion).. I keep shaking my head at my great good fortune to be on such a great musical ride…plus some side projects and fun recording gigs and other musical communities along the way….and when I catch my breath and look around I’ve been gigging and giggling in western Montana for almost 20 years.

Website: www.cashforjunkersmusic

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Birth – Age 8: Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lawrence Welk

Age 8 – 12: Vivaldi

Age 12 – 16: A bunch of crap mostly, but I still have a soft spot for Michael Jackson, Tears for Fears, and The Cure.

Age 16 – 22: The Dead.

Age 22 – now… this is the “heavy rotation” list…

Gillian Welch, Tom Waits, Uncle Tupelo, The Jayhawks, Candye Kane, Khaled, Tom Catmull, Bob Wills, Tarkio

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Hammond Song, by the Roches. One of those songs I can’t just “have on”- I have to give it my full attention. I dream of covering it but I think it’s too big to cover.

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

I’d be woken up by my 4 year old snuggling in, and then we all get another hour of sleep, cuddled together. There’d be plenty of time for a long rambling walk in the hills, after a breakfast sandwich with avocado in it. There’d be baking of bread. There’d be time to read. There’d be lots of laughs. There’d be one of those gigs when I can’t tell who’s having more fun– the band or the dancers.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

I hope they would appreciate my love of good times and my wearing of my heart on my sleeve. I hope they also forgive me those things.

5. What is your most valued material possession?

For my 40th birthday, last year, my amazing husband organized friends and family to contribute toward a new fiddle for me… their generosity still leaves me stunned and kinda freaked out at times. I chose a fiddle I love to play, a fiddle that I’m still growing into. And I never play it without thinking of Josh and all the people I know who want me to make music.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I imagine I’ll be nervous to meet the parents of the girl or boy Alden decides to marry someday. I get all ook, ack, eek around everyone at times, famous or not. One of the nice things about being a musician is that you often get to be the life of the party–AND a fly on the wall– at the same time.

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

West Fork Butte Lookout Cabin, on a crisp fall morning, a cup of strong coffee at my side.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Learn to do and make more things with my hands. After the apocolypse, I imagine everyone will need fiddlers– but they might need people who know how to make things even more.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Feeling glad about having richly lived every minute of the previous ten years, and excited about the next ten.

Name: norman dahlor

Birthplace: missouri

Currently residing: kansas city

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: 44 years non stop playing in bands, a couple you’ve heard of most you haven’t, currently in the elders a 14 yr old irishamericana folk rock band, gonna be sitting down in my next, you know like playin’ pedal steel or somethin’… i think

Website: theelders.com

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

the beatles, the band, rolling stones, bruce springsteen, solas, richard thompson, paul simon, earl scruggs, bill monroe, bob dylan, trad irish music from a variety of performers like slide ie, cape breton style music from a variety of performers like bara mcneills or macmaster, bacharach, sinatra, grateful dead, clash… lots, i think i could fill this box up

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

yes many, ‘pair of brown eyes’ by the pogues popped first in my mind

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

i’d like to walk on a nice warm sandy beach with both my children.. i haven’t done it yet but it sounds perfect right now

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

good guy to have in a band

5. What is your most valued material possession?

probably my 1964 fender p bass

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

i don’t know really, maybe one of the victoria’s secret models

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

kinsale, ireland

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

i love traveling and i’ve really enjoyed what little time playing/traveling through europe i’ve been fortunate enough to do.  I’d like to do more …

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

i think i’d like to be on that same beach with my kids, walkin, talkin’ laughin, cryin and lookin for shells

Name: Morgan Childs

Birthplace: Vancouver, BC

Currently residing: Toronto, ON

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: Born in Vancouver in 1981, grew up in Invermere BC, in the Columbia Valley. Attended the Okanagan Summer School for the Arts in Penticton BC, with influential faculty members like Ross Taggart, Blaine Wikjord, and Campbell Ryga. Moved to Vancouver at age 17 to attend the music program at Capilano College. Graduated with a degree in music performance. Attended Banff Centre International Jazz Workshop in 2002 and 2003. Workshopped with and studied with many of the influential musicians of the past 10 years; Chris Potter, Jim Black, Dave Douglas, Ari Hoenig, Clarence Penn, Django Bates, Kenny Werner, among many others. Have studied drums privately with Byron Landham and Gregory Hutchinson. After 10 years on the music scene in Vancouver, working with many internationally renowned musicians, including Brad Turner, Mike Allen, Bill Coon, Ingrid Jensen, Laila Biali, Phil Dwyer, Bruno Hubert, André Lachance, and the Amanda Tosoff Quartet (winners of the 2007 Galaxie Rising Star Award at the Vancouver Jazz Festival, and the 2009 GM Grand Prix du Jazz at the Montreal Jazz Festival), I moved to Toronto. Maintain a busy gigging schedule in southern Ontario and accross Canada with such fine musicians as Richard Whiteman, Kelly Jefferson, David Restivo, Adrean Farrugia, Richard Underhill and many others. Happy to be working!

Website

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Past: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billy Strayhorn, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Cannonball Adderly, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham, Frank Sinatra, Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Ahmad Jamal, Jimi Hendrix, Ella Fitzgerald, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, The Band, Joni Mitchell, Dimitri Shostakovich, JS Bach, Alexander Scriabin, Maurice Ravel, Frederic Chopin. My favourite composers from the Great American Songbook are George Gershwin, Richard Rogers and Cole Porter.

Present: Branford Marsalis, Brad Mehldau, Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Bill Frissell, David Sanchez, Miguel Zenon, Mark Turner, Chris Potter, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Gregory Hutchinson, Christian McBride, too many others to list… some Canadian composers in the jazz realm I really admire include Brad Turner, Phil Dwyer, Amanda Tosoff, Christine Jensen, Joel Miller and Kelly Jefferson. There are so many people doing so many interesting things around me though that I never want for good music.

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Anything Rick Danko sang lead on with The Band. “When You Awake” or “It Makes No Difference” or “The Unfaithful Servant.” That last one, in particular, with it’s dirge-like tempo and arresting, slightly-out-of-tune mournful country circus horn parts kind of kill me every time. Or how about Mahalia Jackson singing “Come Sunday” with Duke Ellington? Yeah, that’s pretty great too.

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

Get up reasonably early and make some strong coffee and a frittata with spinach and mushrooms for breakfast. Drink my coffee, read some emails and facebook for a bit. Have a nice hot shower and a shave. Around noon, maybe some cats come over for a session and we play tunes for a couple of hours just for fun. Lots of laughs, then a light lunch and a long walk… I’m talking 10+ km around the city, through the parks, up and down the streets. Stop somewhere for a really good espresso. Window shop. People-watch. Read a newspaper. Smoke one (and only one) perfect cigarette. There’s two or three ways the evening could shape up to be my version of perfect:

1) A great gig with close friends where we’re all feeling moved to push ourselves to new heights of personal expression, after which we would maybe truck off to a good, unpretentious bar and hang like dogs. Something like how my 30th birthday went down on Halloween night!

2) A dinner out, somewhere nice, with some good wine and good company. Delicious but un-fussy food would be my favourite. A half-dozen oysters on the half shell. Lobster bisque. Steak frites with peppercorn sauce. Creme anglaise with fresh berries for dessert.

3) A glass of Talisker, and the Miles Davis album “Milestones”. On repeat. All night. By myself. Any truly perfect day must involve that record.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

I think most of my friends would say that I am basically kind, loving, passionate, loyal and funny. At least I would hope that’s what they would say. I’m trying, guys, hang in there while I get it together.

5. What is your most valued material possession?

I guess over the past 10 years I’ve put together a solid collection of very nice vintage cymbals. They are precious to me because I use them to create.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I’ve been lucky to meet a number of my musical idols, particular standouts would be Roy Haynes, Ed Thigpen, Dave Holland, Victor Lewis, Henry Grimes and Cedar Walton. For some reason I felt too nervous to walk up to Paul Motian at the Vanguard a couple of years ago. He was just standing there, alone, in the back near the washrooms, and I could have easily managed a meeting. I suppose I felt like I didn’t want to bother him right before he went on to play. I certainly regret not saying something to him now that he’s gone though. Lesson learned. I don’t know if I’d be “nervous” per say, to meet Sonny Rollins, however I think I might burst into tears if I ever get the chance. I just think it would spark some kind of intense feelings I wouldn’t be able to express any other way.

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Can I have more than one? Can I pick one for each season?

Village Vanguard, Greenwich Village, New York City, autumn.

Top of Panorama Mountain, Invermere BC, winter.

The Main restaurant, Plateau Mont-Royal, Montreal, QC, spring.

My aunt Diana’s deck, with our whole family there having a big BBQ, Ladysmith BC, summer.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

I love to travel, so I’d say hitting a few continents that I’ve never been to would be pretty great. Europe, Africa, Asia.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Find myself? The joy is in the search… I don’t ever want to find myself.