Indie 5–0: 5 Q’s with Nell & Jim Band
Nell & Jim Band bring together genre-busting artists and joyful music infused with folk, bluegrass, americana, roots, swing, jazz, and blues. Alt-Roots, Folkbilly – whatever you call it – it’s original, well done, and a pleasure to hear. Featuring Nell Robinson on flute & vocals, Jim Nunally on guitar & vocals, Jim Kerwin on bass fiddle, Alex Aspinall on percussion, and Rob Reich on accordion & keyboards, this is truly an all-star band.
1. What is the inspiration behind your latest single, “Travelin’ The Road West”? Did you draw the piece from a personal place?
Jim: “I wrote this song after reading Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck. My family was from Arkansas and migrated to California during the dustbowl, a story like that of the book. My father told me how hard it was picking cotton, how hard it was on his back. Those family stories and the relativity to the book is what inspired the song. I wrote a couple songs inspired by that book.”
2. When writing new songs, how long does it take to accomplish from start to finish?
Nell: “It depends…Some songs, like ‘By Stars and Sunrise’, get started with a verse or chorus and then stall out for awhile. That one started with a great melody from our co-writer Chris Wadsworth and a feel that really inspired the story. I wrote the chorus then after a couple of months the verses started coming together when Jim and I sat down to focus on it. Other songs come out fully formed, that happens mostly with Jim’s originals."
Jim: "Sometimes the lyrics and music come out simultaneously almost like a rap song, where you are improvising and rhyming and it comes out sort of fully formed. That might be three minutes! 'Travelin’ the Road West’ came out almost done and then I went back and revised the verses.”
Nell: “I wrote Limonaia as a story poem and it was fairly easy to lay out as I had been thinking about it for weeks. We were staying in a limonaia outside Florence, Italy, where the true story took place and I was very captivated by it. I brought the poem to Jim who had a pretty melody and it took a little editing to make it all work.”
3. At what age did you realize that music is a career you wanted to pursue; what was your ‘ah-ha’ moment?
Jim: “I had played my first paid gig when I was 15 years old. At that time I thought, 'Wow, I just made $75 for two hours.’ At the time, minimum wage was about $1 per hour in 1975. I kept playing music and it paid my way to trade school where I learned welding. I began working fulltime as a welder for Kaiser Steel Corporation as a journeyman welder in the Boiler Makers union here in California. At one point, when I was playing in a very good band, usually about 3 or 4 gigs a week and welding full time I began to feel burned out. I invited a welding instructor I had in tech school to a performance, this was about 1983, I told him after the show I was feeling torn between music and welding, I needed to cut back on one or the other. I totally respected this person, he looked at me and said 'do this’. There you have it, I simply needed someone to push me in that direction who I thought really knew his business.
My mother tried to sway me in that direction when I was 18 and thinking of going to trade school, she said, 'Jimmy, you’re a good guitar player, have you thought about going to music school.’ I told her I need to make a living. I am glad I took the route I did. I have had the great pleasure of playing with the absolute best musicians in the field of music I pursued, which was primarily Bluegrass, even though my father, who taught me how to play, played and sang country music.”
Nell: “I had a whole career in political organizing, nonprofit management and fundraising before I just sort of burnt out on it. My last real job was as the Chief Philanthropy Officer at Mother Jones magazine based in San Francisco. At that time, my daughter was also hitting her teen years and I was realizing that this force that had been central to my days and my life was soon going to leave home and be on her own. Honestly, I was heartbroken at the time, it was a hard transition though of course it is natural and the way things are supposed to go. But it became clear to me that it was important for me to think about this next phase of my life. It was sort of my mid-life crisis! So I looked into my heart and there was this quiet but powerful wish to sing that had been there all my life. I had been a musician and singer as a young person from elementary school through early college years. And I used to sing in my car all the time, my pick-up truck had no radio. I found a vocal coach for lessons and met people in the local and welcoming bluegrass community. After a couple of years of performing locally and in California festivals, one of the highlights of my life was being asked to perform a song I had written on A Prairie Home Companion. I sang it in a duet with Garrison Keillor. I held a photograph of my father throughout that show as my father was in hospice. Everyone was so kind to me and sympathetic. The feeling of community, the thrill of being on that 'big stage’ with that brilliant story-teller, singing a song that came from my own experience - that was my ah ha moment and there was no going back.”
4. Who are your musical inspirations? What artists inspired you to start your career and find your musical passion?
Jim: “My father is the first and the most important influence. He was a good guitar player and wonderful singer. He taught me how to play guitar. After him I would say Pat Dorn, Bob Smith, Tony Rice, Buck Owens, Chet Atkins were among my influences. Importantly, beyond my early influences, comes a string of big influences that come from playing with great musicians. That is a wonderful part of the art of music, when you get to play in great bands, like the David Grisman Bluegrass Experience or John Reischman and Jaybirds, you are playing with some of the best musicians in the world, I have been lucky that way. Plus people like John Blasquez, Rob Ickes, Dix Bruce, these are some of the people I have been in bands with, amazing players, you learn from them by playing with them. Now I am in a band with super talented people and you learn tons every time you play music with them. Working with Nell I am learning to be a collaborative song writer, she is just open and honest about her songwriting and that is inspiring and influential. It is a deep topic.”
Nell: “Dolly Parton is a hero for me. Her incredible songwriting, emotional presence in her voice, that vibrato, and what seems to be her authenticity and genuine warmth. I remember my family listening to 'A Coat of Many Colors’ and relating to that song - my mother grew up in rural Alabama. She said she didn’t realize she was poor until she left home! Dolly’s music speaks to my family roots and we love her.”
5. What other treats do you have in store for us this year? Can you tell us about your new album Western Sun?
Jim: “'Traveling The Road West’, 'Sequoia Gold’, 'By Stars And Sunrise’ and a couple other original songs are about western migration in the US, others celebrate the music of people who have immigrated here over the centuries. During the recording of the songs our producer Lowell 'Banana’ Levinger came into the studio one morning and said 'I have the album title - Western Sun’, it fits it perfectly. This new album came together mainly out of new material we had worked up in the band, not necessarily with a specific theme in mind. We happened to be hired for a gig in Seattle at a Polish Festival, we figured we had better learn some Polish music, it was a total blast to play so we decided to keep doing them in our regular shows. We created an interesting arrangement of 'Clinch Mountain Backstep’ that pays tribute to the African and Scots-irish influence on american music and we had worked up some English and Irish tunes as well. Turns out this is an amazing album of songs, and features an amazing band.“
Nell: "We are never short on ideas. Along with releasing the new album, we are working with some artists and videographers on special thematic mini-films with the new songs. Keep an eye out for those! Since our tours were cancelled, we are creating a live Nell & Jim Variety Show with special guests. Plus our Banjo Boy Coffee is sponsoring some online performances by other musicians. Whippoorwill Arts is the name of our production company and we give out annual Artist Awards and sponsor a festival that will happen in August. Our other activist projects like the Music Home Project work all year round. We are especially driven to help musicians in our Bay Area roots community as they see their income streams dry up. There are some innovative organizations popping up and we will partner with them to keep the music alive.”