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Ricky Skaggs: A Bluegrass Musician Returns To Roots

Skaggs started performing as a child and was considered a musical prodigy. After a string of country hits in the 1980s, he returned to bluegrass, performing folk renditions of his own country hits. In 2003, Skaggs spoke to Fresh Air host Terry Gross about growing up in the music industry and playing with Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs.

11:12

Other segments from the episode on September 2, 2010

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, September 2, 2010: Interview with John Doe; Interview with Ricky Skaggs; Interview with Charlie Louvin.

Transcript

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John Doe, The Sadies Rock The 'Country Club'

TERRY GROSS, host:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.

Our country music week continues with a concert of classic country songs
by John Doe. As the co-founder of the L.A.-based band X, John Doe was
one of the leading voices and songwriters of punk rock in the '70s and
'80s.

As our rock critic Ken Tucker has said, quote, “when John Doe started
the band X in the '70s, his voice always stood out for its tunefulness,
a high, lonesome tenor that could sing country and pop, as well as the
harsher punk rock he and his then-wife Exene were producing,” unquote.

Last year, John Doe recorded an album called "Country Club," featuring
his versions of country music classics written by Johnny Cash, Merle
Haggard, Willie Nelson, Roger Miller and others, along with a few
originals.

When the album was released, he performed some of those songs on our
show, backed up by two members of the band The Sadies: guitarist Travis
Good and bass player Sean Dean, who are also featured on the album.
We're going to listen back to that performance and interview.

Well, welcome to FRESH AIR. It's great to have you here. I'd like to
start by asking you to play a song, and I have a request: "(Now and
Then) There's A Fool Such as I." And do you want to say a few words
about the song, John, before we hear it?

Mr. JOHN DOE (Musician): I heard it as a kid, for sure, and then
somewhere in my mind there was a version - I mean, that was Hank Snow's
version. Somewhere in my mind, Bob Dylan did a slower version of it, and
I tried to find it, and all he did was the Elvis version, which is sort
of rock 'n' rolly, not good. And someday I'll find the Bob Dylan version
of "A Fool Such as I."

GROSS: Unless you invented it, and that version doesn't really exist.

Mr. DOE: I think maybe I did. Maybe I just blended the two or something.
I don't know.

GROSS: Well let's hear your version.

(Soundbite of song, "(Now and Then) There's A Fool Such as I")

Mr. DOE: (Singing) Pardon me if I'm sentimental when we say goodbye.
Don't be angry with me should I cry. When you're gone, yeah, I'll dream
a little dream as years go by. Now and then, there's a fool such as I.

Now and then, there's a fool such as I am over you. You taught me how to
love, and now you say that we are through. I'm a fool, but I'll love
you, dear, until the day I die. Now and then, there's a fool such as I.

Now and then, there's a fool such as I am over you. You taught me how to
live, and now you say that we are through. I'm a fool, but I'll love you
dear, until the day I die. Now and then, there's a fool such as I. Now
and then, there's a fool such as I.

GROSS: That sounds great. Thank you for doing that, and that's John Doe
singing and playing guitar, Travis Good on lead guitar, Sean Dean on
Bass, and that's a song called "Country Club."

John, how did you decide to do a country album?

Mr. DOE: Well, for the last 20 years, maybe, people would say, oh, you
should do a country record. And it always seemed like a snooze to me.

GROSS: Because?

Mr. DOE: Well, because my voice is a pleasant voice, not really crazy.
You can't identify it like Janis Joplin or Bob Dylan or something. It's
not this signature Macy Gray, like, wow, that's a crazy voice, or even,
you know, modern Neko Case or something. So with that and the Nashville
sort of smooth backing, it was like...

(Soundbite of snoring sound)

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. DOE: So - and the Sadies and I played together, a festival in
Canada, and it was like, this is what it should be.

GROSS: Okay, here's my take on you singing country.

Mr. DOE: Yeah.

GROSS: A lot of country is a kind of weepy singing because some of the
songs are so sad about, like, tragic love, being an alcoholic, like all
the horrible things that can happen to you. And I don't think you do
weepy, but you have this kind of, like, desolate sound when you're
singing some of these songs that really works.

Mr. DOE: Inside I'm weeping.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: Now I love "A Fool Such as I," and I sometimes think when I hear
it how different would the song be if it was a fool just like me. It
just doesn't quite work the same.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. DOE: Well that's the beauty of country music is it has this weird
colloquial but sort of statesman prosaic. Like, I was thinking about -
we do this song live "There Stands the Glass."

GROSS: I love that song. Oh, okay, now you've got to do a few bars of
it. I was going to ask you to do it, but I figured well, they don't
necessarily know it.

Mr. DOE: Okay. All right, but anyway, this is like "There Stands the
Glass." That's a really weird sentence. It makes total sense, but it's
like, aloft, the glass is before me.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. DOE: Drinketh me down the glass of beer.

GROSS: Okay, do a few bars.

Mr. DOE: Okay.

(Soundbite of song, "There Stands the Glass")

Mr. DOE: (Singing) There stands the glass that'll ease all my pain,
that'll settle my brain. It's my first one today. There stands the glass
that'll hide all my fears, that'll drown all my tears. Brother, I'm on
my way.

I'm wondering where you are tonight. I'm wondering if you are all right.
I'm wondering do you think of me in my misery. There stands the glass.
Fill it up to the brim 'til all my troubles grow dim. It's my first one
today.

Mr. DOE: The short version.

GROSS: It's amazing about how a song about such misery can make me so
happy.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: I loved hearing you. That's a great performance. I love what you
did with the there. That was really so big, it was so great.

Mr. DOE: Well, Webb Pierce did a great version. I used to do it in a
higher key. I had to accept that. And then Ted Hawkins did a great
version of that.

GROSS: Oh, I know that version, too, that's a great version.

(Soundbite of bellowing)

Mr. DOE: And there would be like a five-minute there.

GROSS: Yeah, he was this, like, homeless singer in California or
someplace.

Mr. DOE: Yeah.

GROSS: Okay, so when did you start listening to country music and liking
it? I mean, did you ever just, like, write it off as something that you
weren't about?

Mr. DOE: No, because I'm a white man, and white men listen to country
music.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. DOE: Well, over a long period of time, right, I heard country music
early on as a kid. Folk music was, like, for kids back in the '60s and
stuff. And then we all drew a line in, like, '74 of, like, everything
that was before that, we put away, and then some time in '81, we started
getting George Jones records for 50 cents at thrift stores, right, and
then had a long period of idolizing that and feeling as though that was
more valid than what we did.

GROSS: Really?

Mr. DOE: Sure.

GROSS: Because why?

Mr. DOE: Because it has a history, because, you know, it's just bigger.
It's bigger than rock music. It's bigger than punk rock for sure. And so
it took me a long time to realize that I was just fooling myself.

And I wasn’t - you know, I had no connection to Johnny Cash or George
Jones. I was just this, you know, kid from Maryland and whatever, and
I'd learned how to play music and punk rock and stuff like that.

And then I eventually got sick of it, sick of country music. You can't
listen to the same songs over and over and over and then just recently
felt like, well, this is different. This is more like a Bakersfield
sound. It's harder, and these guys do know bluegrass really well. And so
it was a good combination.

GROSS: We'll get back to our concert and interview with John Doe after a
break. This is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of music)

GROSS: Let's get back to John Doe's 2009 FRESH AIR concert of classic
country songs, recorded after the release of his album "Country Club."
John Doe co-founded the punk band X in the '70s.

Let's do another song. By let's, I mean you, do another song.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. DOE: You can join in.

GROSS: No, thank you.

Mr. DOE: Okay.

GROSS: From the new CD, and I have another request, and this is "Stop
the World (And Let Me Off).” Do you want to say a couple words about why
you chose it?

Mr. DOE: Actually, James Intveld, who's a singer in Los Angeles, has
done this song for years, and I would see him do it once in a while.
There's a festival called the Hootenanny. I saw him do it there, and
it's just such a great song, so let's get the tempo here.

(Soundbite of song, "Stop the World (And Let Me Off)")

Mr. DOE: Stop the world and let me off. I'm tired of goin' 'round and
'round. I played the game of love and loss. So stop the world and let me
off.

My world is shattered, don't you see? You no longer care for me. I miss
the wonder of your kiss. How could you leave me here like this?

Stop the world and let me off. I'm tired of goin' 'round and 'round. I
played the game of love and loss. So stop the world and let me off.

Stop the world and let me off. I'm tired of goin' 'round and 'round. I
played the game of love and loss. Oh, stop the world and let me off.

GROSS: That's great. That's "Stop the World" by John Doe and the Sadies,
and they're here performing live in the studio. We have John Doe on
vocals and guitar, Travis Good on lead guitar and Sean Dean on bass, and
their CD, "Country Club," is an album of country classics and originals.
I'm really grateful that they're here performing live for us today.

John, have you met any of the great country songwriters, either ones
whose work you do on the CD - I know some of them are dead but not all
of them - or other great ones over the years?

Mr. DOE: Yeah, I've met several singers. I met Johnny Cash at the first
Farm Aid, and I've met Merle Haggard a few times. He's such a nut.

GROSS: Really? In what sense?

Mr. DOE: He just goes off on these tangents and he just, you know, holds
forth, and he's just - but he's really good about it. You know, he's
nice about it. There's a little bit of the, like, you know, jailhouse,
like, I'm going to tell you a story and you're going to listen, you
know, which is great.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: Well, he spent enough time in jail to justify that.

Mr. DOE: Well a little bit, you know, and there's plenty, of course,
that you wish you would have met. I wish I would’ve met Roger Miller.

GROSS: Oh yeah, I'm glad you brought him up because you do a Roger
Miller song I really love on the CD, "Husbands and Wives." And I'll
confess, it took me a long time to come around to Roger Miller.

I'd always meet songwriters who admired Roger Miller, and all I knew
were hits from the '60s that I really hated like "King of the Road,"
"Dang Me" and "England Swing Like A Pendulum Do," and I thought, what
exactly do you like, you know? But it turns out he's really a great
songwriter. He has great ballads.

Mr. DOE: Well, it was hard to find a song that we felt we could pull
across because a lot of them are really sort of jokey. And it was sort
of a great melody on all of them and great wordplay, but I think it was
kind of common knowledge they were all taking amphetamines to beat The
Band, and so...

GROSS: Was that right?

Mr. DOE: Oh, I think so. I don't think I'm blowing anybody's cover. I
mean, Waylon Jennings talks about it all the time in his book. Anyway,
that's sort of, I think, where some of it came from. And that's where
the jokey, like, I'm really not taking this seriously, you know, but...

The one thing about country music, to go back to another question...

GROSS: Yeah.

Mr. DOE: ...about why I wouldn't - people would say you have such a
great voice, you should do this sort of record, and I thought well, if I
do that, and it has this smooth Nashville background, it's going to be
exactly what people hate about country music, which is too soft and too
weepy and too, you know, all these negative things about country,
whereas with the Sadies, it's really rough. Not - rough like rough and
tumble, you know. It's got a serious edge, and even as much as we tried
to smooth it out, you can't smooth that. You can't smooth these guys
out.

GROSS: Yeah, I understand what you're saying. I want you to do "Husbands
and Wives," the Roger Miller song. And I mean, yeah, he does have some
great ballads, including "More and More I Miss You Less and Less." Why
did you choose this one? You said you were looking for a ballad, didn't
want to do one of the jokey songs, thank goodness.

Mr. DOE: I think it was - well, we thought about doing "Engine Engine
Number 9," but that also has this sort of funny thing. I was hoping I
could sing "Baltimore," and you know, bring back the hometown. But I
think just people splitting up, you know, or the other people you admire
who stay together, you know, and it's just a beautiful song.

GROSS: It is. Why don't you do it for us.

(Soundbite of song, "Husbands and Wives")

Mr. DOE: (Singing) Two lonely hearts, broken, looking like houses where
nobody lives. Two people each having so much pride inside neither side
forgives.

The angry words spoken in haste, such a waste of two lives. It's my
belief pride's the chief cause in the decline in the number of husbands
and wives. A woman and a man, a man and a woman. Some can, some can't,
and some can.

Two lonely hearts, broken, looking like houses where nobody lives. Two
people each having so much pride inside neither side forgives.

The angry words spoken in haste, such a waste of two lives. It's my
belief pride's the chief cause in the decline in the number of husbands
and wives. A woman and a man, a man and a woman. Some can, some can't,
and some can.

GROSS: That's great. That's John Doe singing and playing guitar in our
studio with Travis Good featured on lead guitar and Sean Dean on bass.

Well, it has just been great to have you all here. I'm so grateful to
you for performing for us. I really, really enjoyed it. Thank you so
much.

Mr. DOE: It's an honor. It's an honor, you know.

GROSS: Our concert and interview with John Doe was recorded last year,
after the release of his album "Country Club." Here's a track from it.
The song "I Still Miss Someone" was written by Johnny Cash. I'm Terry
Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of song, "I Still Miss Someone")

Mr. DOE: (Singing) At my door the leaves are falling. The cold hard wind
will come. Sweethearts walk by together, and I still miss someone.

I go out on a party and look for a little fun, but I find a darkened
corner 'cause I still miss someone.

I never got over those blues eyes. I see them everywhere. I miss those
arms that held me when all the love was there.

I wonder if she's sorry for leavin' what we'd begun. There's someone for
me somewhere, and I still miss someone.

Oh, I never got over those blues eyes. I see them everywhere. I miss
those arms that held me when all the love was there.
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Ricky Skaggs: A Bluegrass Musician Returns To Roots

TERRY GROSS, host:

(Soundbite of song, "If I Could Only Win Your Love")

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross. Our Country Music Week continues
with mandolin player and singer Ricky Skaggs. In 1970, when he was 15,
he joined Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys. He later joined The
Country Gentlemen and J.D. Crowe & The New South, then formed his own
band, Boone Creek. He left the band to back up singer Emmylou Harris.

In the early 1980s he changed direction and became one of the most
successful of the new traditional country artists, recording 10 number
one hits between 1982 and '86. He won the Country Music Association's
Entertainer of the Year Award in 1985. In 1997 he returned to bluegrass,
becoming a leader of its revival.

Here’s a track from his 2008 album, "The High Notes."

(Soundbite of song, "Uncle Pen")

Mr. RICKY SKAGGS (Musician): Oh, the people would come from far away, to
dance all night to the break of day. When the caller would holler: Do Si
Do, they knew Uncle Pen was ready to go. Late in the evening, about
sundown, high on the hill, and above the town, Uncle Pen played the
fiddle, Lord, how it rang, you could hear it talk, you'd hear it sing.

GROSS: That's Ricky Skaggs performing the Bill Monroe song "Uncle Pen."

I spoke with Skaggs in 2003. He started performing on stage as a child.
When he was six he found himself on stage with Bill Monroe's band. I
asked him how that happened.

Mr. SKAGGS: Well, he came to Martha, Kentucky, which is a little small
town close to Blaine, Kentucky, where I was raised, and they played the
high school and we, my mom and dad and I, my brothers and sister went to
see him. And we watched him unload, and oh man, that was the coolest
thing to see him get out of this big stretch limousine that they were
riding in, and it looked like they just walked out of the dry cleaners;
there wasn’t a wrinkle anywhere, you know.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. SKAGGS: And they looked so stinking cool and they got the bass
fiddle off, you know, off the rooftop and they set up a little sound
system and we went in and sat down and listen to him play. And about 20
or 30 minutes into the show, some of the neighbors in the hood started,
you know, requesting, let little Ricky Skaggs get up and sing, you know,
and I see it in my own life now, you know, where people start, you know,
making those kind of requests, you know, when I'm out on the road
playing now.

But after, you know, 10 or 15 minutes of that, why, finally Mr. Monroe
said, well, where’s he at? You know, and he didn’t have any idea who
little Ricky Skaggs was. And so I come walking up to the front of the
stage and he reaches down and picks me up and sets me on stage and says,
what do you play, boy? And I said, well, I play the mandolin, sir. And
so he took his mandolin off of his shoulder and wrapped it around the,
you know, made the strap fit me, you know, and I stood there and sang a
Bob and Sonny Osborne song called "Ruby, Are You Mad At Your Man."

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. SKAGGS: For a six-year-old to be singing a song like that, you know.
But it was the biggest thing that had ever happened, you know, to me in
my life at that time, being six years old and getting to play with the
father of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe.

GROSS: Is there a certain harmony that's like wired into your head from
when you were really young - a certain like interval that you always
sang?

Mr. SKAGGS: Right. I always heard the third, you know, that's the tenor
line, is what we call it. If the lead was the one and the tenor would be
the third and the baritone would be the fifth, usually the fifth would
come below, you know, the one - the lead, until the Stanley Brothers
moved it up above the third, which is really cool. But that's the part
that I always heard.

My mother said, you know, she would be working, doing her chores at
home, cooking or whatever, and I would be in the other room playing with
my toys. And she'd be singing in the kitchen and she could hear me
harmonizing with her in the other room at a young age. It was just -
here again, it was just a gift that I could hear that part, you know,
because - I guess because she would sing that part with my dad when my
dad was home. He worked out of town a lot because he was a welder and he
had to travel a lot to wherever the best jobs were. And so I would hear
them sing and that was the part that made sense to me, was the third.

GROSS: Well, while we're talking about harmony, why don’t we play a
track from the CD, "Three Pickers." And you’re harmonizing on this with
Doc Watson. And the song is "What Would You Give." Are you singing a
third higher than Doc Watson on this?

Mr. SKAGGS: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I love this song.

GROSS: Yeah. It's and it's a great performance. So here you are with Doc
Watson and Earl Scruggs from the CD "Three Pickers."

(Soundbite of song, "What Would You Give In Exchange For Your Soul")

RICKY SKAGGS, DOC WATSON, EARL SCRUGGS: (Singing) Brother afar from the
Savior today. Risking your soul for the things that decay. Oh, if today
God should call you away, what would you give in exchange for your soul?

What would you give, in exchange. What would you give, in exchange. What
would you give in exchange for your soul? Oh, if today God should call
you away, what would you give in exchange for your soul?

GROSS: Ricky Skaggs singing with Doc Watson. Earl Scruggs on banjo from
the new CD, "Three Pickers."

You had some classic '80s haircuts. I think that should not go
unremarked.

Mr. SKAGGS: Oh, you noticed those?

GROSS: Yeah.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. SKAGGS: Yeah. Yeah, Mac mullet. I had a few of those mullet hairdos.
My kids look back at them now and they say, Dad, I can't believe that
you had that. And I said, well, hey, it was the style then.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: They made me do it.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. SKAGGS: They made me do it. Yeah.

GROSS: You know, I'm just thinking, there's so many things that so many
performers in country music do because that's what you’re supposed to do
in country music and at some point you wonder why, like why does it go
on like that? You know, why...

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: Some of those costumes and...

Mr. SKAGGS: In guess that - I guess really in the '50s, late '40s, early
'50s, through the early '60s, you know, the nudie suits, the big flashy,
all that, you know.

GROSS: Yeah. Yeah.

Mr. SKAGGS: I think there was a lot of artists that really felt that,
you know, when a hardworking mom and dad came to the Grand Ole Opry and
paid their money to come and see you, you know, you need to treat them
the best you can treat them. You know, you don’t need to be dressed just
like they are.

GROSS: Right.

Mr. SKAGGS: You know, they expect better. They’ve paid money. They don’t
want to see you dressed like they are, because if they do, then you’re,
you don’t look any different. You know, even though you may sing like,
you know, the person they come to see, they want to see you dressed to
the nines, you know? And so I really think a lot of that was for show.
You know, it was before videos. It was before, you know, the big wide
screens. And, you know, if you were sitting 40 or 50 rows back, you
know, one of those red flashy suits, you could see it all the way, you
know, 80 rows back, you know.

GROSS: 1996 was a really life-changing year for you. Your father died.
Bill Monroe died. And you left country music and returned to bluegrass.
Did the death of your father and the death of Bill Monroe connect at all
with your returning to bluegrass?

Mr. SKAGGS: Well, I think it did. Those two men were very, very strong
pillars in my life and I knew both of those men really wanted me to be
playing bluegrass again. And country music in '96 was really starting to
- I don’t know, it was starting to really, really change. And I don’t
know, I just, I just saw the writing on the wall. I mean I was not new
country anymore. The kind of country music that I was wanting to record
was really what I had recorded since '81, you know, and pretty much
traditional country music. You know, trying to find really great songs
that said something, songs that had a meaning and love songs, and that
just didn’t seem to be what was selling on the radio.

And so I really felt, you know, too in my spirit that there was a real
paradigm shift about to change, about to take place. And I felt like
that, at Mr. Monroe's death, that there was really going to be a change
in this music, and I just felt like that when he passed away, that there
was going to be, you know, a - I don’t know, just a new audience for the
music. And I just - I wanted to go back - there was no way that anyone
could take Bill Monroe's place and I didn’t I, you know, I certainly
didn’t come back to take his place. But I wanted to come back and take
Ricky Skaggs's place, because I really felt like that I had a place in
bluegrass.

And so in '96, it was a bittersweet time. I mean, like, you know, like
you mentioned, my father passed away, Mr. Monroe passed away. But there
was a, even with that death there was a new birth and a new life that
came from that. And I think it was a turning point in my career. A lot
of people says, man, that's, you’re the smartest guy in the world, you
know? And but - it was just one of those things that I felt in my heart
that I really needed to do, and it was the right thing.

GROSS: Well, Ricky Skaggs, thank you so much for talking with us.

Mr. SKAGGS: Oh, it was great being with you today, Terry. Thank you.

GROSS: Ricky Skaggs, recorded in 2003. His new album, "Mosaic," features
Christian songs. Here’s a track from that.

(Soundbite of song)

Mr. SKAGGS: (Singing) Naked, alone, cold cobblestone, they beat him
until the blood ran. They brought him to die on a cross up on high, with
spikes through his feet and his hands. You can use him, abuse him, mock
and accuse him, sell him out for 30 pieces. Betray him, slay him, do the
devil's mayhem. But you can't shake Jesus.
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Charlie Louvin: A Louvin Brother Carries On

TERRY GROSS, host:

Elvis opened for them. The Everly Brothers were inspired by their
harmonies. The Byrds and Emmylou Harris recorded their songs.

The Louvin Brothers are considered one of the great vocal harmony duos
of country music. They were popular at the Grand Ole Opry and well-
represented on the country music charts from the late '50s until the
mid-'60s, when the act broke up.

Brother Ira was killed in a car accident soon after. Charlie Louvin kept
performing at the Opry and has continued to record. He has a new album
coming out in November.

Charlie Louvin turned 83 in July. Shortly before that he was diagnosed
with stage two pancreatic cancer. We send him our best wishes.

We're going to listen back to an interview we recorded in 1996, after
the release of his CD "The Longest Train," featuring songs that he first
recorded with his brother.

(Soundbite of song, "When I Stop Dreaming")

Mr. CHARLIE LOUVIN, BARRY AND HOLLY TASHIAN (Country Music Singers):
(Singing) When I stop dreaming, that's when I'll stop loving you. The
worst that I've ever been hurt in my life, the first time I ever have
wanted to die, was the night when you told me, you loved someone else
and you asked me if I could forget. When I stop dreaming that's when
I'll stop loving you.

GROSS: Charlie Louvin, with harmonies by Barry and Holly Tashian.

I asked Louvin if it was difficult to sing without his brother's
harmonies after his brother died.

Mr. LOUVIN: I had always believed that any songs worth singing is worth
putting harmony on, and of course I had grown use to that for the 23
years that my brother and I had worked together. And even today, 34
years after he's gone, I - when it comes time for the harmonies to come
in, I will move to my left because my brother and I always used to use
one microphone and so you had to share the mic. And even today I will
move over to the left to give the harmony room, knowing in my mind that
there's no harmony standing on my right. But it's just old habits are
hard to break.

GROSS: The harmonies that you created with your brother I think were
based on the Sacred Harp singing that you used to do in church. Would
describe those kinds of harmonies that come out of Sacred Harp singing
or what's also known as shape-note singing?

Mr. LOUVIN: I'm not sure, Terry, that I can describe them or explain
them where they'd be understood. It's just something - I don’t have any
musical...

(Soundbite of clearing throat)

Mr. LOUVIN: ...learning. What I know and what we did is - it just came
natural for us because we was raised in a family that went to these
Sacred Harp singings with regularity.

There's things that I can't explain to it. There's actually – they’re
doing five-part harmonies and most people today thinks that four is the
limit when a quartet sings, that they’ve got all the parts but the
Sacred Harp or shape-note singing people use the five harmonies and some
of them are extremely high with the ladies parts and none of them is low
as the quartets practice today. It would be like a mid-range bass part.

GROSS: Your early recordings were gospel tunes. Many of them were
originals. In fact, why don’t we hear one of those originals that you
co-wrote with your brother, Ira. This was made in 1952 and the song is
called "The Family Who Prays."

(Soundbite of song, "The Family Who Prays")

LOUVIN BROTHERS: (Singing) The family who prays will never be parted.
Their circle in Heaven unbroken shall stand. God will say enter my good
faithful servant. The family who prays never shall part.

Satan has parted fathers and mothers. Filling their hearts with his envy
and hate. Aiding their pathway down to destruction, leaving their
children like orphans to stray. The family who prays will never be
parted.

GROSS: The Louvin Brothers from 1952. Chet Atkins featured on electric
guitar?

Mr. LOUVIN: Yes. Chet recorded our first Capitol record with us, and
Chet is a big part of the Louvin Brothers' sound from "The Family Who
Prays," right on through to the end of the Louvin Brother career.

GROSS: You were singing a lot of gospel songs early in your career. But
I know your brother Ira had the reputation of being a heavy drinker and
of having quite a temper. Did you share the same religious convictions?
Did you live with the same kind of values or was there a big difference
there?

Mr. LOUVIN: No. When, you know, a lot of us know better but we don’t do
better. He knew better. He is extremely well-versed on the Good Book, as
far as knowing what was right or wrong. He just - he just wasn’t able to
conquer the devil, I guess.

But we didn’t have any major problems with the drinking until I'd say
end of 1958. The Louvin Brother records, the sales slowed down as all
other country artists did in 1958, because the music was changing. And
so, our producer told my brother, I believe that it's the mandolin
that's keeping the Louvin Brother records from selling, which had always
been a featured part, my brother worked hard to become proficient on the
mandolin.

And when this producer, namely, Ken Nelson, said this to my brother, and
my brother feeling that Mr. Nelson was a close friend and a trusted
friend, he believed him. And so he would never play his mandolin again
on a recording after that statement. If it would come up, somebody would
say, oh, I think this would sound good with the mandolin, my brother
would say, no, let the piano do it or let the guitar do it, anybody but
I'm not doing it. And it caused him to drink extremely heavy and he went
between then and the time he passed away, went through three wives and
just lots and lots of problems that he never could whip.

GROSS: Did you start losing dates too? Did he get a reputation for
drinking a lot?

Mr. LOUVIN: Unfortunately, Terry, if you’re half of a duet, one person
in that duet don’t ever get a bad name. It's just the Louvin Brothers
did this.

GROSS: Mm-hmm.

Mr. LOUVIN: The Louvin Brothers did that. Anything he did, good, bad or
indifferent, I was in the minds of the promoters and the radio stations
and what have you, I was as guilty as he and no way that I could change
it. The only way I could change it would be for us to not to be
together.

And that finally happened in August 18th 1963. I just - we had gone from
a pretty good career. Well, from early, the '50s, the song, "The Family
Who Prays," right on up through our recordings we had done quite well
and we found ourself in 1963 on the bottom of the totem pole. And that's
what happened to the Louvin Brothers' career.

GROSS: I want to play another original gospel song that you recorded
called "I Like the Christian Life." This is really a beautiful song.
Gram Parsons loved this song and used it on The Byrds album "Sweetheart
of the Rodeo." Do you remember writing this?

Mr. LOUVIN: No, I don’t. Things went and come in the Louvin Brothers'
career. Sometimes my brother would be a totally good man. He could've
been a preacher if he wanted to. He was that knowledgeable of the Good
Book and he had the gift. But my brother was the gifted songwriter. I
came up with the ideas. If I could give him a title and a few words of
the story, he could write it in five minutes. So this is the way we
worked.

I don’t specifically remember the day that that song was wrote. But I
remembered that my brother was attempting with all of his might to live
a Christian life, so at that time. And the statement was made, I like
the Christian life. He thought that might make a song, so what you’re
about to play is what he got just from that title.

GROSS: Let's hear it. And this is from Charlie Louvin's new album called
"The Longest Train."

(Soundbite of song, "I Like the Christian Life")

Mr. LOUVIN: (Singing) My buddies tell me that I should have waited. They
say I'm missing a whole world of fun. But I am happy and I sing with
pride. I like the Christian life. I won't lose a friend by heeding...

GROSS: That's the 1996 version of Charlie Louvin singing the Louvin
Brothers' song "I Like the Christian Life."

We'll hear more of our 1996 interview with Charlie Louvin after a break.
This is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of music)

GROSS: Let's get back to our 1996 interview with Charlie Louvin. In the
'50s and '60s he performed with his brother Ira under the name the
Louvin Brothers. They became known as one of the great country vocal
harmony duos.

You and your brother broke up the Louvin Brothers and went your separate
ways in 1963. And it was I think just about a year later that your
brother and his wife were killed in head-on road collision. And I think
it was the driver in the other car that was drinking and that was
responsible for the crash. Is that right?

Mr. LOUVIN: Yes, that's true. It happened in Missouri, halfway mark
between Kansas City and St. Louis. My brother was coming home from an
engagement...

(Soundbite of clearing throat)

Mr. LOUVIN: ...that they had been on in Kansas City and the other two
people was going from St. Louis to Kansas City to celebrate Father's
Day. They just started celebrating it too early, that's all. They didn’t
wait till they got out of that car.

GROSS: How did it change your life when your brother was killed?

Mr. LOUVIN: Well, I had already become a solo artist, so to speak,
Terry, and I had released or Capitol Record people had released "I Don’t
Love You Anymore," which went to the number one spot. And I believe the
second song was "Think I Go Somewhere to Cry Myself to Sleep." And it
was doing good at the time.

And my brother kind of felt that somebody had done him wrong, but I
hadn't. I - that's the - music is the only thing I knew and so
naturally, I would try to stay in the business, and because he had sworn
to me that he was getting out of the business.

However, he was making attempts to get back in the business, had a
couple of records released for Capitol Records. Neither one of them had
done anything, but I'm sure that if he would've been given time he’d
have figured out what the public wanted and that's what he would've gave
them.

GROSS: You still performing with the Opry?

Mr. LOUVIN: Yes, ma'am.

GROSS: How long has it been?

Mr. LOUVIN: I'm almost finished with my 42nd year.

GROSS: Wow.

Mr. LOUVIN: In February next, will be my 42nd anniversary and I start
into my 43rd year with the Opry. And I'm really hoping that it'll work
into something regular here soon.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: Yeah, right.

Charlie Louvin, recorded in 1996. He last performed at the Opry in July,
which is the month he turned 83. It was quite a month. He also underwent
surgery for stage two pancreatic cancer. We wish him well.

We'll close with 1958 Louvin Brothers' recording of one of their best
known songs, a song that Emmylou Harris covered, "If I Could Only Win
Your Love."

You'll find links to all the interviews in our country music series on
the website, nprmusic.org. I'm Terry Gross.

(Soundbite of song, "If I Could Only Win Your Love")

LOUVIN BROTHERS: (Singing) If I could only win your love, I'd make the
most of everything. I'd proudly wear your wedding ring. My heart would
never stray when you're away.

If I could only win your love, I'd give my all to make it live. You'll
never know how much I give. If I could only win your love.
..COST:
$00.00
..INDX:
129578565

Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.

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