Klaus - Please tell us about you and your professional music life.
Spencer Bohren - My name is Spencer Bohren. I am born and raised in a place called Casper, Wyoming, in the 4th largest state in America but the state with the fewest people. I am one of a very few people who “escape” Wyoming. I live in New Orleans, Louisiana, now. The reason is because it is the most musical place I have ever been and it continues to be that. I have been a professional musician since 1964, which is over 50 years now. My music is mostly inspired by folk music, American non-commercial music: blues music, gospel music, country music, old-timey music. And then I write songs from my own perspective using musical roots that have happened before. I started making records in 1984, having been a professional musician for 20 years. I was raised in a gospel-singing family, so music was always part of my life. I never thought of becoming a professional musician. I just always thought that I was a musician. So it’s not something I decided to do. Even when I was young, when I would hear artists on the radio or I would hear songs, it was never something that confused me. I knew I could sing and play like that, so I just started doing that. I started playing professional gigs when I was fourteen years old so that’s been a long time, a lot of records, a long career. I’ve played over 130 tours in Europe and tours over in Japan and endless tours in America. It’s been a life in motion, you might say. I definitely have some
miles on me.
As far as inspiration, which artists I was inspired by, I would have to say it’s hard to pin down single inspirations from the world of folk music. But I loved country blues, primitive blues by people like Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake. And then eventually the electric blues of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf. That stuff just knocked me out. I love older country music. Hank Williams is a particular favorite of mine but there are others: Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter family. The old country music is so deep. America’s stories are in those songs and I love those stories. Largely, though, I was inspired by people. I might see someone that played something on the guitar, and I’d ask them how they did it and they would show me. The same with bands that I really liked. In the days when I was first learning to play, a lot of my friends were carrying guitars around. If they learned something, I learned it from them. If I learned something, then they would learn it from me. So a lot of the early inspiration was just the community. Of course, as an artist, you never really know exactly what all the inspirations are. I mean, I was there when Elvis Presley was on the radio, I was listening to Hank Williams when I was very young. I was 14 when the Beatles came to America. You couldn’t miss that. All the music that happened after that: Jimi Hendrix, the Jefferson Airplane ~ I was part of all that. And out of all of those influences, you end up with a sound, hopefully a sound that is your own. And I think that is exactly what has happened.
Klaus - Which moments in your career were most important? Do you have some turning moments?
Spencer Bohren - Turning moments, turning points for me musically ~ I suppose the first one was
when I discovered there was music that was not in the church. I was pretty young. But I heard music on the radio which was not about Jesus, which was all that we sang about at home. That would be a turning point. Another turning point was when I joined my first band. Making my first album would be a turning point. But again, in a career that is more than 50 years, you’ve got a lot of turning points, you know. I have made so many albums and they are all a turning point of sorts because each one makes a statement of where you are at that time. And then you move on. My first European tour would be a huge turning point. Meeting Reinhard Finke would be a turning point because I don’t think Reinhard Finke or I ould expect to become friends like we did and that’s a real gift. But mostly, you dedicate your life to your career and you try to be as excellent as you can at
every level. That’s the deal.
Klaus - You have your new album for sale, Makin’ it Home to You. Please tell me more about the idea for the album and the more about the text of the lyrics.
Spencer Bohren - Makin’ it Home to You is a song that was written about me and my wife Marilyn. And it’s a song that I never actually recorded. I didn’t really sing it but when I started to play with these younger musicians, the Whippersnappers, I remembered this song. And when they play it, it’s just exciting! The arrangement they came up with is very cool. So that was the beginning of the band recordings, the recordings with other musicians. The record was started in Germany with Reinhard from Valve Records, and we recorded four solo songs, three of which are on the album. The other solo song will probably be one of the songs on the next record. The songs on the album Makin’ it Home to You are about half original, and some of them I borrowed from friends of mine. There are a couple of songs that I found that I fell in love with. One of them is called “Lost Forever in Your Kiss.” It’s a very syrupy kind of song but I really do like playing it on the lapsteel, which is an instrument I am well-known for. I play the lapsteel in a completely unique way, so it’s like something no one has really ever heard before. As far as the other songs, I wrote one called “Thief in the Night.” I wrote one called “The River’s Risin’.” There is a political one called “In the Absence of the Sacred” in which I talk about the politics in America, the dysfunctional, sad, depressing politics in America right now. There are a lot of different styles of roots music on the record, and I am really happy about it.
Klaus - The new album Makin’ it Home to You has been released by the German label Valve Records. Tell us more about this corporation.
Spencer Bohren - My relationship with Valve Records started pretty close to 20 years ago, I suppose, and in the ensuing 20 years Reinhard Finke, whose label it is and who has a studio called the Tube Temple in Solingen, has been the engineer and the producer and a collaborator on 11 albums that I’ve made. So this is merely the latest one. Many of them Reinhard and I made in Solingen, just the two of us. Some of the records were made in other places, say, New Orleans, and then Valve Records put the album out in Europe, while I put it out in America. But mostly Valve Records was an idea that we both tried and it worked out really well. I intend to keep making records with Valve Records as long as it works.
Klaus - What do you know about Germany and do you know someone from the German music industry?
Spencer Bohren - Everything I know about Germany either comes from all the regular stuff that everybody thinks they know about Germany or comes from my being in Germany and meeting with friends. So I actually probably know quite a bit about Germany. I have traveled extensively in Germany. I have played lots of concerts in lots of different kinds of venues from the north to the south. I have done a little bit in the east. I feel like I know quite a bit about Germany and I definitely know people from the German record industry. There are the record label people but I know a lot of German musicians. Every time I come over I meet more people who are involved in touring or music or publishing or whatever. So, yeah, I feel like I am a part of a subculture of German music fans and German musicians.
https://www.spencerbohren.com
