Beginning with 1992’s Austin Skyline, LaFave released six albums on Bohemia Beat, each of which garnered stronger sales than its immediate predecessor. An artistic high point was Trail, a 1999 two-disc collection of soundboard recordings, outtakes, and radio shows. Among its mix of original material and covers were twelve interpretations of Bob Dylan songs.
“My first memory of a Dylan song was hearing ‘Positively 4th Street’ on AM radio,” says LaFave. “And then I got those Greatest Hits albums, with the blue covers. I think Dylan, along with Woody, probably influenced me more than anyone. I learned a lot about how to play guitar from trying to play along to Dylan records. And I think Dylan is one of the greatest vocalists ever. His phrasing is as good as Frank Sinatra; he’s a master.
“I also think people tend to overlook some of the melodies he’s written. Arlo Guthrie had a great comment about Dylan. He said, ‘Songwriters are fishing in a stream of songs, but every one of us is basically fishing downstream from Bob Dylan.’ I think he’s the guy who, 200 years from now, when you open a history book, you’ll find his name, where you won’t find a lot of the so-called stars.”
While LaFave readily acknowledges Dylan’s influence, he’s just as quick to counter the notion that his admiration constitutes an obsession. In the case of Woody Guthrie, however, his mission to uplift the troubadour’s legacy — and to enlighten those who have misconceptions about that legacy — approaches the messianic. LaFave’s involvement with the annual Woody Guthrie Festival in Okemah runs deep (he serves on Oklahoma’s Woody Guthrie Coalition), and his devotion to restoring Guthrie’s reputation as a great American is boundless.
For the past two years, he and fellow singer-songwriters Slaid Cleaves and Eliza Gilkyson have formed the core of a traveling Woody Guthrie tribute show that has visited approximately 50 cities. Dubbed “Ribbon Of Highway — Endless Skyway”, the show includes covers of Guthrie songs interspersed with ever-changing narrations inspired by, or culled from, Guthrie’s writings. The cast of guest participants has included Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Ronny Cox.
“He’s so much more than just this Dust Bowl character that people thought he was,” LaFave says of Guthrie. “He was almost like a prophet. I have a friend who researches Huntington’s [chorea], and he’s in the archives right now trying to write a book for Huntington’s patients, of Woody’s thoughts about the disease that took his life. Some people think that’s his greatest legacy, that he brought attention to Huntington’s disease.
“My friend said he stumbled across this play Woody had written, called My Forsaken Bible, that has sort of stream-of-consciousness, Kerouac-style writing. He wrote plays, and of course he wrote a couple of novels, and he wrote all those children’s songs. If you really start delving into Woody, you find he’s almost beyond a Renaissance Man. He’s like this complete, savant genius. I don’t know how he did all the stuff he did. It was like he was beamed in from another galaxy.”
On 2001’s Texoma, LaFave’s last release for Bohemia Beat, he included an outright homage titled, simply, “Woody Guthrie.” The album, a half-and-half mix of original songs and covers, also featured an interpretation of Dylan’s “Emotionally Yours”.
For Blue Nightfall, due out March 8 on Red House, LaFave decided to modify the template a bit. In addition to featuring just one cover song (a soulful interpretation of Gretchen Peters’ “Revival”), the album boasts a tighter focus.
That cohesion is derived partly from his decision to pare the album down to twelve songs (Texoma featured sixteen), and partly from the manner in which it was recorded. Though rambunctious in spots, the arrangements on Blue Nightfall are built on an acoustic foundation, something the folks at Red House had suggested to LaFave. Among the contributing players are longtime LaFave backers Will Landin and Larry Wilson, as well as Gurf Morlix and keyboardist/accordion player Radoslav Lorkovic, who’s a veteran backer of Greg Brown.
“I think, traveling around the past few years, and not having a record out in four years, I was a little more relaxed about this record,” LaFave says. “I was like, ‘I’m really not going to worry about things as much.’ I just wanted to concentrate on making the songs sound the way I wanted them to sound.
