Boult from the blue! An interview with UK lap steel impresario M.G. Boulter

Southend on Sea’s Matthew (M.G.) Boulter talks about ‘Americana’, Essex, cabin fever, Bob Brozman and the perils of playing lap steel guitar for Simone Felice.

He looks a little like Ray LaMontagne, dapper in a smart waistcoat, bright white shirt and heavily bearded, just prior to a gig at the Shakespeare in Sheffield. Smiling, gentle and polite, he’s an engaging figure, as he talks enthusiastically about a musical journey that has taken him from Essex to the Catskill Mountains and beyond via the medium of lap steel guitar. Perhaps not a name familiar to many, he has spent many a year plying his trade out of the spotlight, as a lynchpin backing come session musician and vocalist for acts like Deer Park and Simone Felice. But behind his gentle facade, there’s a determined, talented front man, bursting to get out. As lead singer for Essex’s very own Lucky Strikes and with an emerging career as a solo singer as the Whispering Pines and more recently M.G. Boulter, this is performer with a distinctive voice that you are sure to hear more of.

I asked Boulter about his hometown and his band. He was immediately open and quick to respond. “Tonight, I am playing with the Lucky Strikes, we’ve been together since 2006. We are from Southend on Sea, right on the mouth of the Thames, where the river goes out into the Channel. It’s a nice place, a classical seaside town and that environment links directly to the songs I write. There are a lot of marshlands, in winter it can be very dark and misty…. and that evokes a lot of thoughts and ideas for songs. But in the summer it completely changes, you get lots of folks from East London coming down for their holidays, almost like the English Riviera and that influences me quite a lot. The songs I write for the Lucky Strikes are a kind of swampy country rock, which has its origins right here where we live. There is a bit folk scene down here too, so we incorporate fiddles and accordions into that sound which gives that folky rock aesthetic. Dr Feelgood and Eddie & The Hot Rods originated in Essex and you’ve still got that influence around the place a sort of bluesy rock feel so I guess we are a real mix of sounds.”

I explained that I had been struck by the song ‘Night water’ from the new solo album THE WATER OR THE WAVE … where there was mention of a ‘Medway Queen’.

Once again he’s animated in his response. “Oh yes! That came from doing some research in a local newspaper archive in Southend, and what struck me was that there where a lot of ex-carnival queens who were turning 100 or 101 and they were all in the local papers talking about the old parades …it got me thinking about the days gone by and how the sands of time change a life…. So I wanted to capture a little of the history of the local area.”

I wanted to know how he managed to straddle the English/American thing? This was something he’d clearly considered before. “I personally don’t like the term ‘Americana’. I prefer the term roots, ‘cos Americana obviously makes you think of The USA, but America is many things, and Rap for instance isn’t Americana… I think what people really mean by it, are banjo’s, fiddles etc. and that’s something we do. So I guess we have been given that label… but at the end of the day, we are English and we do what we do, albeit with a particular flavour. I suppose many of our influences are in American music… For instance we love The Band and American garage rock, yet our drummer and bass player are into punk, which of course had its origins in the UK. So I suppose the band and the sound is the sum of all its parts. But I think you have to wonder where the cross-pollination begins or ends, but people like their labels so that they can look for things that they think they might like…. But we are from Essex so I guess this is Americana influenced Anglicana.” He said, with a laugh.

I was interested to know more about his many projects and collaborations. “Oh, I do an awful lot” He said, laughing out loud. “I divide my time between a whole host of projects, I have the job as front man, singer and writer for the Lucky Strikes, I then have my solo projects where I go under the name more recently of M.G. Boulter (previously Whispering Pines), where I like to do more stripped back acoustic country music. The third aspect, he said, pausing for a moment. “….is because I play pedal and lap steel guitar, I get lots of gigs and sessions for other people. So most notably, I’ve done a lot of work, both recording and touring with Simone Felice (formerly of The Felice Brothers) and in the UK with Neil McSweeney, Dead Flowers, Cusack, Deer Park all sorts of country and American outfits who like a little twang in their records or live sets.” Laughing he continues. “…and I’ve just been asked to put some country twang onto, believe it or not, a medical educational song about the cranial nerves by a Nottingham band called DH Lawrence & The Vaudeville Skiffle Show.”

I was intrigued to know how he came to collaborate with Simone Felice, who is becoming quite a big hitter on the Americana scene these days. “Well, I was playing with Deer Park in Cardiff and we were supporting Simone, and as soon as I walked in with the case he said, ‘what have you got in the case dude’, I laughed and said, ‘oh, just a lap steel guitar,’ and his face lit up immediately. He said, ‘Do you know Helpless by Neil Young?’ I said of course (Neil Young is one of my favourite artists) … He responded, ‘That’s cool dude, maybe you could play that with me tonight.’ It ended up, me playing three songs with him totally unrehearsed, just guessing the keys as we went along and then after that he just kept inviting me to gigs and it has really developed.” I have learnt that Simone has a knack for changing the script right there on stage… And you have to be very aware of sudden or unexpected chord changes … It certainly keeps you on your toes as a player,….when you are playing lap steel and pedal and when you are playing sessions with lots of people… You are kind of used to not really knowing what is going on (laughs) and having to make the best of it”

I asked him to expand on his journey with the lap steel guitar. “Yeah the lap steel is more of an American instrument … It’s not really very English. I think it is originally from Hawaii and I suppose looking back, when I was young I liked quite a lot of country music generally, I must have got it from listening to my Mum’s records, she was really into John Denver, then things progressed and I learned guitar. I was living in Sheffield at the time and I went to a workshop with a brilliant American guitarist named Bob Brozman, who sadly passed away on 23 April 2013, he was a kind of calypso slide guitar player and he really got me into that slide thing. Then as I developed I found out that he played Hawaiian lap steel and that was it I went on from there… I taught myself how to play it and loved it, playing where ever and when ever I could. Then I eventually drifted into pedal steel and that was pretty much the trajectory. For the guitar geeks, … Iplay a Gold Tone Lap Steel through a Fender 65, the Pedal Steel is a 1982 10 string double neck Sho-Bud, which is signed on the undercarriage by Buddy Eammons and Lloyd Green.

I was intrigued to know if there were many lap steel that he was aware of in the UK? “Strangely no!” He said, without hesitation.” I play a lot in Americana circles in London and up and down the country, and there are just a handful of folks who seem willing and able to play. I was actually taught pedal steel by a guy called Vic Collins who used to be in a band called the Kursaal Flyers . He and BJ Cole are the old school who play in and around these parts. But in terms of young up and coming pedal steel players I’m only aware of one or two and even then they are not big into gigging, so maybe we are a dying breed. But I guess that keeps me in work.” He said, with a broad moustachioed smile.

I asked him to tell me a little about his recent trips to Woodstock and the Catskill Mountains. “Wow!….When ever I say I’m going to, or have been to Woodstock. Everyone always says ‘oh what’s it like?’ … I think you have to throw your pre-conceptions completely out of the window. I visited recently for some tour dates with Simone, it was fantastic I got to sleep in a barn and I learnt how to make a fire … Which is quite something for an Essex man”. He said with a broad and wry smile. He went on, “when we arrived it was unseasonally hot, then it went really cold and I managed to catch this terrible fever… I could hardy move my body for two days even my eyes could barely move and I slept for two days solid … It was like one of those ghastly movie scenes… With the sweating dying man… you know?” He continued, “….then we had to do this session for Bob Harris on the day we got back… and I could barely say my own name, let alone play the lap steel and of course Simone changed all the keys again.” He said, laughing at the memory. “…but we got through it somehow. The Catskills are a strange place with a weird mix of woodsman, carpenters, earthy farmer types and musicians, some of whom are very famous and some not so. Then you’ve got a whole bunch of ex or current hippies and ex servicemen …frankly I saw it all in the Catskills … A weird but interesting place.”

I asked about his immediate and future plans. “Well” he said, thinking for a moment. “The solo album is to be released in June, on a label called ‘Harbour Song Records’ and we hope to release the new Lucky Strikes record in September time, we will be touring again in November to support that release. Then festival wise we are playing the Leigh Folk Festival and …pauses… I think I am playing the Hop Farm Festival with Simone in Kent and lots of gigs all around the place, lots of short tours thrown in”. America? I asked. His eyes lit up as he responded with relish. “We would love to! We have had interest from Canada in particular, there are a few Festivals that have asked us to play, and in the US a label called Alive Records have shown some interest… So we are looking at the options.”

The new M.G. Boulter album is launched in June on Harbour Song Records and it is a beautiful collection of heart-felt ‘Anglicana songs’, some of which are as deep and blue as the Essex sea! I sense M.G Boulter’s journey has only just begun. Alan J Taylor

http://www.mgboulter.co.uk
www.harboursongrecords.co.uk
http://matthewboulter.wordpress.com/
http://theluckystrikesband.wordpress.com/