Far less ambiguous is the venomous “Bend With The Wind”. Blue Mountain first recorded this song for an unfinished album, and Hudson asserts that the composition is not about his ex-wife. “My primary feeling about Laurie is that I just wish her the best, and I’m really proud of the work we did together. And, regardless of what that song sounds like, I would never bad-mouth her.”
The disc closes on a gentle note, with the lilting “August Afternoon”, a country-blues tune influenced by the likes of Dock Boggs and Jimmie Rodgers. The lyrics echo those of many traditional songs: “Give me cornbread when I’m hungry/Corn whiskey when I’m dry/Sweet Mary Jane to ease my pain/Keep my spirits high.”
The work of brilliant songwriters has made Hudson more comfortable with the notion of “borrowing” lines from old folk and blues songs. “It was this process of seeing guys like Bob Dylan and John Prine do that,” he explains. “Also, being a blues fan, hearing how a song like ‘Shake ‘Em On Down’ gets redone and redone made me realize, ‘Hey, that kind of stuff is OK.’
“People have different approaches to it. Someone will say, ‘Hey, you stole this line.’ I [respond], ‘No, I just used it.’ When I was researching Roots [Blue Mountain’s traditional covers disc], I found whole lines of songs that Dylan had lifted, like that line ‘I was riding in a little buggy with Miss Mary Jane, she’s got a house down in Baltimore.’ That’s straight out of some old song. I found an instance of John Prine totally lifting the melody and the concept with that really great song that goes, ‘Daddy, won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County.’ That whole tune, he lifted.”
Hudson isn’t belittling Dylan’s “Tryin’ To Get To Heaven” or Prine’s “Paradise”, but rather illustrating that a good songwriter recognizes gold when he finds it.
While Hudson is excited about sharing his new material with fans, he hasn’t abandoned the Blue Mountain catalog. Regarding his upcoming tour, which takes him to Germany in May, he says, “When I go on the road now, I play about 18 to 21 songs a night. I’m doing all the songs off the new record, but that’s still only nine tunes. I’ll do two or three covers, but that still leaves [about eight more songs]. I have to play some old songs. I’m looking forward to playing less and less Blue Mountain tunes, but I’m still proud of a lot of those songs, and a lot of people want to hear them. I’m glad somebody wants to hear them.”
For fans who crave more Blue Mountain, the sonic swan song will arrive soon. Hudson and Stirratt have made arrangements with Digital Club Network to put out a live album, which should hit stores later this year. Primarily known for its concert Webcasts, DCN has recently started to release live albums, including discs by the Meat Puppets and Ralph Stanley. The Blue Mountain live tracks will be culled from shows at the Bottleneck (Lawrence, Kansas), Maxwell’s (Hoboken, New Jersey), and Schubas (Chicago, Illinois).
Hudson says he and Stirratt would also like to assemble a best-of compilation chronicling their Roadrunner years, but the label hasn’t shown any interest yet. “That company is owned by this one Dutch guy — who’s had this company going for about 30 years — and he’s got his biggest record ever, with Nickelback,” Hudson says, referring to the Canadian rock band’s Silver Side Up. “He’s got this record that just sold four million copies, so I think the Blue Mountain compilation is not at the top of his ‘To Do’ list at this point. And it’s not at the top of mine, either, but I would love to see it happen.”
For now, Hudson is focused on promoting The Phoenix, which contains references to geese, butterflies, fireflies, and other variations on the flight motif. When asked about all this imagery, Hudson offers no in-depth analysis of his lyrics. He simply replies, “There does seem to be some kind of theme like that, but it was definitely subconscious. I think that’s a good thing. I hope it is.”
