By JIM REED
Connect - While this album instantly recalls your earlier records in many respects, it is also a tremendous departure from your last CD, which featured two other musicians, and had much more tonal and instrumental variation. Did you always intend to move away from your Trio format after one record, or was the notion of doing this dobro project just an organic shift without much premeditation?
RLJ - The impetus for this recording was based on the response I had to my neighbor sharing with me an old guitar with a name etched in it. It was a very spontaneous reaction to an instrument the mystery of it's origin and the remarkable sounds that it produced.
The trio format was my first "band" experience and a big shift for me. It was a very rewarding experience and I was extremely pleased with the results, but nothing for me is set in stone.
Connect - What (in particular) attracted you most to this particular guitar? Its sound, its feel, its mysterious provenance?
RLJ - All of the above. I have owned a guitar like this and they are used primarily for blues music( which I don't play and have no particular skills or knowledge of). The fact that it was presented to me and not something that I searched out on my own was a point of interest also.
Connect - Had you not been given this instrument and wound up along this creative path, what would your next album likely have sounded like, and what role(s) would you have played in its execution
RLJ - Who knows. My "new life" spending more time at home, lends itself to many other possibilities. Life on the road can be both lonely and redundant. I have been re-discovering my love of the guitar for the past 5 years, set a recording studio in my house and letting things evolve in a more relaxed fashion. More Interview>>>