The Carolyn Sills Combo is an all-around attention getter with their flawless brand of Americana meets Folk-Country. The group have been charming the masses, and lately, their recent record “Dime Stories Vol 2” has been gathering quite a bit of attention. Recently we had the honor of sharing their new video for “Big Canoe,” which intrigued us to dive in to the story behind The Carolyn Sills Combo…and lucky for us they were game! I had the pleasure of catching up with Carolyn and Gerard from the band, for an in-depth look inside of the much-buzzed about band, for a very insightful interview, which you will find below.
With a charming Americana meets Country sound, what was the overall inspiration when starting the band?
Carolyn: Based on our instruments and influences, we gravitated towards a classic country, Americana roots sound… but for us it was all about crafting great songs, and showing folks one helluva time when they come out and see us live.
Gerard: We love a lot of older music from the 40s/50s like Bob Wills, Merle Travis and Patsy Cline but we also are musicians who grew up listening to modern radio, MTV, etc. So while part of us wanted to play music from the golden age of western swing, we couldn’t ignore the other types of music that have influenced us over the years. When you think about what the original western swing groups of the 40s/50s were playing, they were really diverse. They listened to and were influenced by everything: country, blues, fiddle breakdowns, sophisticated jazz numbers, old cowboy tunes, novelty songs… They filtered all those influences through their music, creating a deep mix of styles that as a whole became the western swing sound. This
‘melting pot’ approach is really inspirational to us, as it allows us to play a bunch of different styles that make up The Carolyn Sills Combo sound.
What comes first when writing, the music or the lyrics? Why so?
Carolyn: We have the most success when we start with the lyrics. The lyrics set the tone, the flow of the song… in ‘Even Villains Once Were Babies,’ the lyrics came out pretty quickly on a plane ride when I gave myself the assignment of writing a Marty Robbins song from the female perspective. Once the lyrics were in place, it was obvious that it would have a western feel, and a minor key would be most appropriate for the mood. In our baseball tune ‘Tinker to Evers to
Chance,’ the lyrics inspired more of a swing feel (hey battah battah), more lighthearted.. we wanted the melody to make you feel like you were at a day game at Wrigley, eating fiddlefaddle in the bleachers.
When it comes to songwriting, Carolyn, are you the main writer, or does everyone in the band bring in their own additions as well?
Carolyn: I write all the lyrics. Gerard and I work on the music together. Being the bass player, it’s more natural for me to get the meat of the song written, and then Gerard takes it from the butcher table to the dining room. We play with such a talented group of folks – Sunshine Jackson, Jim Norris and Charlie Wallace – that we rarely dictate what we want them and their instruments to bring to the song… they all get us, and bring their own, excellent personality in, and we’re always so thrilled with the final product.
Gerard: Often times we’ll give ourselves assignments for songwriting, like “we don’t have a song with this kind of beat or chord progression.” Sometimes I’ll challenge Carolyn to write a song about a particular subject. She loves that kind of homework and I really admire her dedication to creative lyrics. Guitar-wise, sometimes I’ll come up with something that’s just fun to play and we’ll work up a song from that. Many of the guitar solos on our records were written for the song. I like solos that you can sing back, that are a real compliment to the song and not simply an indulgence.
What is the theme and concept behind the new record? What has been
inspiring you to write these recent batch of songs?
Carolyn: We decided to title our new record ‘Dime Stories Vol 2’ after all the songs were written… once we took a step back and looked at collection of tunes we had come up with, it reminded us of one of those old western magazines that we often buy at antique shops.. a
random collection of stories about the great outdoors, villainous babies, Buffalo Bill, vintage baseball, island adventures… it all made sense under the ‘Dime Stories’ umbrella, a collection of
fictitious, pulp magazine kind of tales.
Your music and vocals have a very Southern-charm feel to them. What are your aspirations as well as influences, when it comes to crafting The Carolyn Sills Combo sound?
Carolyn: My main aspiration when it comes to our sound is to stay true to ourselves. I’ve always felt that as long as what you do is genuine, it can’t be wrong. Lyrics are very personal for me, and a big part of our sound… I can tell a story about someone else, but I would never make up a story about myself. Lyrically, I’m influenced by poems that have stuck with me since I was kid, such as E.E. Cummings (we used his words on our track ‘Buffalo Bill’s Defunct’).. and I’m just a big fan of words in general. I’m a sucker for alliterations, I’m very protective of my rhymes… I had a blast coming up with original analogies for our song Rotary Phone Blues. One day I want to do something with an anagram, but I’m struggling to find a good melody for ‘No sir, away, A papaya war is on.’
Gerard: My aspiration as a guitar player is to keep pushing myself to get better, to execute the ideas in my head as fluently as possible.So I try to pick up ideas from all sorts of musicians: Merle Travis, Duane Eddy, Johnny Smith, Red Norvo, Hubert Sumlin. I love instrumental music too, from The Ventures to Ennio Morricone’s soundtracks in the Clint Eastwood ‘Dollars’ Trilogy. Ry Cooder’s ‘Mambo Sinuendo’ album is a desert island record for sure. Everything
from the playing, the songs, the production. As for the band as a whole, I hope to keep writing fun, engaging music that entertains people, gets them up to dance. We put a lot of thought into the graphic design of the record too. I’m still one of those music fans who loves to stare at the cover of the album I’m listening to, devouring the liner notes. It’s a big part of the listening experience for me.
What kind of instruments do you use on the new record?
Carolyn: I exclusively played my Harmony H-22 bass… I got it in 2013 from the fine folks at Retrofret in Brooklyn. Before that I had played a Fender Jazz bass for years, but I wanted something with more of a hollowbody sound, to lend itself better to our old timey style.
Gerard: I’ve been hooked on my ’50 Gibson ES-150 archtop guitar that I play through a tape echo unit into a little tube amp. It’s a cool western swing type of rig but I can get all kinds of sounds out of it. I work full time building acoustic guitars at Santa Cruz Guitar Company. On the record I also used a dreadnought I built with a Merle Travis/Paul Bigsby neck on it. Those two guys are such inspirations. When I got the job at SCGC I knew I had to make a guitar like Merle’s famous Martin. Charlie plays a 1954 triple neck Fender non-pedal steel guitar through a Fender Princeton. Jimmy plays and 1960’s Gretsch drum set and shares a variety of kitchen utensils with Sunshine as percussion instruments.
Did you record the new record on your end, or did you use an outside
producer? What was the recording process like?
Gerard: We decided to record the new record with Andy Zenczak here at Gadgetbox Studios in our hometown of Santa Cruz. They have a great facility that allowed us to record the way we wanted: all playing live at the same time but with amps isolated. That gave us a lot of
options in the mix. Carolyn and I have several records that we brought into Gadgetbox to give them an idea of the sound we were after. We brought Marty Robbins’ “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs,” JD McPhereson’s ‘Let the Good Times Roll’, Ry Cooder’s “Mambo Sinuendo” and Nick Curran’s “Reform School Girl.” It was a good reference point to start with. We have a pretty clear vision of what we want in terms of production. I’d love to work with Mark Neil and
Rick Rubin one day… that’d be a dream come true.
Where do you see the Carolyn Sills Combo, 10 years from now?
Carolyn: Well let’s see… ten years from now, Jimmy and Charlie will be in their mid-seventies, so I would guess we’ll either be on yet another US tour in a fancy bus that we don’t have to drive, our we’ll have a residency in a small farming town in California, playing taco Tuesdays and tequila Thursdays. One can dream.
