Lately, when I play American Music live, people in the audience who’ve never heard me come up after the set and tell me how much they love the song. I’ve been playing it for a long time, so why now? Perhaps it has something to do with life in the good ol’ USA these past ten years. A majority of us are not terribly proud to be Americans.
So, here are some thoughts.
Interestingly, I wrote the song in the wake of 9/11. We had just moved into our new studio on 13th Street in the West Village, two miles north of the World Trade Center. The weeks that followed were an emotional roller coaster. I was horrified, enraged and deeply saddened. Over time, I began feeling patriotic but not in a jingoistic way. My response was to write a song inspired by music born in the heartland, then spread from coast to coast picking up new ideas, rhythms and regional sounds along the way. This was the music made by blacks and whites, hillbillies and city folk, preachers and sinners. Essentially, it was working-class people who built our nation and also developed music unlike anything else heard before on this planet: American Music.
I recall walking around our studio playing a Telecaster, unplugged. Chords appeared under my left hand; a familiar rhythm animated in my right, and the song took shape. Quietly, I sang the first line: “I like a fiddle and a squeeze box when they play a Cajun waltz.” Then, a little louder “and I like the sound of a gospel choir when the preacher calls.” Picking up the tempo: “I like BB King, when he sings and plays on the neck of Lucille” NO! “When he tickles the neck of Lucille.” That’s it! (BB named his Gibson guitar “Lucille” after a woman who caused a bar fight while he was on stage which burned down the club!)
I scratched out the words I just sang to myself on a pad. Then I continued: “Give me Loretta, Hank or Willie ’cause they know how to make it real.” I knew the story had to embrace more than one time and place. So, I followed with: “I hear it coming down from the mountain, I hear it coming up from the street. I hear it coming from those computer kids up in the bedroom making beats.” Then into the heart of America: “cause everybody’s got a story, and they tell it in their own way. some will criticize or analyze but I just want to play it.” Boom! Into the chorus: “I LOVE AMERICAN MUSIC!”
I think these are the words my audience reacts to so joyfully. I wish you could see what I see from the stage, all those smiles lighting up the aisles.
I’ve been playing this song for a long time but only just released it this year as the title cut of my latest collection. Perhaps this was the right time send it out into the world.
As the great music producer Sam Phillips said: “Kids all over the world love this music because it sounds like freedom”.
Take a listen… and sing along!
