Nashville trio the Howlin’ Brothers have built a reputation with their lively performances and quality tunes that criss cross Southern musical styles. With a new album coming out and another massive tour the Brothers have plenty to be proud about.
You could try and put the Howlin’ Brothers into a category like bluegrass or old timey music, but why would you want to go and do a silly thing like that? The fact is, this Nashville trio makes music that incorporates so many influences and styles that trying to lock them down to any one genre would be downright dumb. A better way to look at the Howlin’ Brothers is to think of every genre associated with the American South; bluegrass, country, Cajun, blues, gospel, rockabilly, you name it. Like a batch of gumbo, you add a hint of this and a touch of that and you have yourself a taste unlike anything else that’s thoroughly enjoyable. This is the recipe for the Howlin’ Brothers, and clearly it is a good one considering the attention the band got in 2013 with the release of their first full-length album, Howl (Readymade Records), which attracted the attention of legends like Ricky Scaggs and Warren Haynes, the latter of whom even played on one song.
Even as they begin to settle down into marriage and having children, the Brothers show no signs of slowing down in 2014 as they get back on the road touring behind their new album, Trouble (Readymade Records). Working once again with Brendan Benson of the Raconteurs as producer, the Brothers have taken their Southern mélange of a sound and refined it even more so to create an album with no two songs sounding the same, yet a piece of music that works all together. Recently, I caught up with the band’s fiddle player, banjoist, and occasional kick-drummer Ian Craft, who shared stories about what inspired Trouble and what draws the Howlin’ Brothers to Southern music.
Neil Ferguson: The new album is awash in influences and genres (country, honky tonk, reggae, Cajun). Can you discuss how you laid it out and how you knew it would work the way it does?
Ian Craft: We didn’t [laughs], because that’s how it happens. We just came together with our tunes that we had come up with over the last year and Brendan Benson did his magic producing. We’re all really super happy with how it came out. As we were doing it we were like, ‘does this work? Do these tunes all work together?’ Like you said, there are such different genres, but that’s kind of how we like to do our live show too. We like to keep mixing it up and not do like five bluegrass tunes in a row or anything, and just keep people dancing. I think the album portrays that pretty [well]. It’s got some Cajun, some country, some of that old time music. We hope it works well! We didn’t plan it out in terms of genres of styles or anything like that, we just kind of put it into a pot and let it simmer.
Is there a feeling that the album as a long form piece of art doesn’t really have as much value now and there’s a sense to just do whatever you want?
That could be so, but we love old school albums. We definitely love making a full album and not trying to do one song at a time – it’s more like a theme. I feel like a good album has a theme, like travel or heartache. I agree with you – in an era where it’s one song for 99 cents, but I think there’s still something beautiful about albums and I think musicians can agree that an album is like a full statement, it’s not just like one song that you are trying to pop out, it takes you on a journey. We love that; I listen to some of my favorite albums, hit play and listen to the entire thing.
There is a Cajun element on songs like “Monroe.” Were there particular experiences that inspired this song?
We have some good friends in Austin [who are in] the band Wood & Wire, our buddies Tony [Kamel] and Dom [Fisher], and every time we’re down there we crash with them. One of their good buddies, his folks live in Monroe, [Louisiana], and we were on our way to Austin one time and [Tony and Dom] were like, ‘just stop there, it’s like a bluegrass hotel and they love musicians.’ So sure enough we rolled in after midnight and were like, ‘oh man we’re gonna wake them up.’ Not only did we not wake them up, but they had gumbo going and were jamming bluegrass music and we got in and played and they fed us. We all passed out and woke up in the morning and she was making crawfish pies. It was hilarious, and we were just so happy and recharged from that little visit that it kind of stuck with us. That’s the awesome thing about the road; more and more we’ll be in a city and someone will call and say their good friend said come by and we’ll go and crash with people we’ve never met that make us dinner and breakfast. It’s just an amazing thing, the kindness of people’s hearts. It’s easy to forget about it, but when you’re out there traveling you get to see it a lot firsthand.
That’s interesting that you say that. I read that a lot of the songs on the new album were influenced by people you met and struggles you had on the road. Can you talk about some of these experiences and how they affected your songwriting?
Struggles of the heart, you know what I mean, struggles of girls. Not so much the struggles of fighting with people or things like that, more just like heartache struggles. It’s mainly about relationships. That’s the troubles we’re talking about.
Brendan Benson produced the new record as well as the last. Did you know for sure you wanted to work with him again and what did he bring to the table creatively this time around?
We definitely knew we wanted to work with him. He’s just an amazing producer to work with. It’s not like he tries to step in or anything, but we’ll be going along and he’ll just throw out some awesome idea that usually makes sense for the song or ties together the arrangement much stronger than it was. He’s just got such awesome ears. Having him there listening to each take is so inspiring because he’s super honest, and we’ve become best friends. If we sucked he’d be like, ‘that sucked!’ There’s no fear in hurting anybody’s feelings, you know, it’s a very honest relationship we have together. I feel like we always come away with great stuff with Brendan because of that.
When you were young what drew you to Southern music?
It’s funny because ten years ago none of us were doing this kind of thing. I was a drummer, and Ben [Plasse] and Jared [Green] both played electric guitar in rock bands, so it was very different. I grew up playing a lot of drums in bars and playing really loud electric music. I think one of the things particularly that drew me to Southern styles and folk music is the volume. I just love being able to play a quieter show and still have 100 people dancing and rocking just as hard as if we were playing with twin amps and two drum sets. It’s a completely different vibe when you can rock just as hard. I love that about Southern music, it’s subtle. It doesn’t have to be like loud thrasher rock ‘n’ roll. That stuff’s cool too, but I think we’ve just kind of developed an appreciation for the subtleties as we’ve grown up. Folks like Doc Watson and John Hartford just changed our world as far as we see music. There’s just so much beauty in simple acoustic music.
2013 was major for the band. Is there a feeling of pressure after so much success that you may not be able to top that?
I feel like it could but I don’t think we’ve taken the time to worry. We’re just rolling along and gaining speed. I don’t think we stress about that at all; we just kind of keep building our live show and making it more fun and engaging, and so far so good.
–Neil Ferguson
This article was originally published on The Horn, an online publication based out of Austin, Texas.
Feel free to read Neil’s posts on No Depression or browse through his more than 200 published articles at readthehorn.com. To follow Neil’s work please check out Neil’s TWITTER!
