The Brand New Opry Show, presented by Bryan Burnett 
Broadcast Friday 18 October 2002

BB:  My next guest is Jeff Finlin.   He’ll be telling us about his experiences and about his music, which has been compared to everyone from Bob Dylan to Ryan Adams.

- I Am The King -

BB:  That was the opening track from Somewhere South of Wonder, the brand new CD from Jeff Finlin, who’s back in the UK.  Jeff, welcome to the Brand New Opry again.
JF:  Hey, thanks, how are you?

BB:  Great.   And yourself?
JF:  Very good.

BB:  We really like the new album.  It’s something I’ve been listening to a lot, certainly over the past week or so since it arrived.  I Am The King, there.  A little irony to kick off the album perhaps?
JF:  I guess.  A little irony, a little truth, you know.   However you want to see it, you know.

BB:  What’s the story behind that song? 
JF:  I don’t know… I just started thinking about America.  It’s kind of a statement about spirituality, democracy, and an everyman journey all wrapped into one.

BB:  It’s a very American record.  As I was listening to it, I was thinking  that’s got me in the southern states, an  Alabama sound, there’s something else, there’s a little bit Louisiana…  and there’s stuff that’s obviously quite urban there aswell.   How much to you think where you are influences the music you make?
JF:  I think a lot.  It’s where I live, I’ve lived in Nashville for a long time, you just can’t escape it.  I can’t imagine… I’m surrounded by barbecue joints, and Mississippi’s real close.  The influences in that part of the country are just - they all come out of blues and bluegrass, so there’s a huge mix of those kind of influences.   You go to New York and the underbelly influence is Tin Pan Alley but down there in the south it’s a magical mix of all these different American musical influences.

BB:  The last album you recorded in New York  – Original Fin. 
JF:  Yes.

BB:  What are the differences between recording in New York and recording in Nashville for this one?
JF:  I don’t know, I just wanted to make a record… we recorded a lot of it in my living room… I wanted to use my piano, and get kind of a home-made, earthy feel on it.  Plus that’s where I’m from, and a lot of the players I use are real good friends of mine, and I trust them and they’re coming from the right musical sources - not to say that the folks on the other album weren’t, but I just wanted to make it a little closer to home.

BB:  That’s what seems the wonderful thing about making music in Nashville:  that people have their friends on the record - you can call them up and get someone to drive 10 minutes up the road and lay down a guitar part for you, or whatever.
JF:  Yes.   In my neighbourhood… I was talking to someone yesterday,  we were talking about Matthew Ryan, he lives a block away and he recorded his record two blocks away.   Dave Jacques plays on the record, he plays with John Prine.    Doug Lancio plays on the record, he produced the latest Patti Griffin record.  Those are all my friends I’ve known for 15 years.  It’s just a wealth of … it’s home, you know.

BB: Does the mainstream country scene in Nashville have much to do with Jeff Finlin?
JF:  No, not really at all.   I can honestly say that I’m pretty much out of that route completely.

BB:  There are lots of people who do straddle both camps…
JF:  Yeah, because there’s work there, you know.   Pat Buchanan, the guy I play with, he does a lot of work, does a lot of session work there - it’s just kind of a musical centre, you know.  But that camp has always been a little bit separated from… there’s kind of an underbelly of real creative people doing real inventive things there.  That’s always not really been accepted by the Music Row crowd.

- Alchemy -

BB:  Jeff Finlin is my guest on this week’s Brand New Opry.  We’re talking about his new record Somewhere South of Wonder, and that track, Alchemy…  I’m hearing Tom Waits all the way through that.
JF:  Are you? 

BB:  Yeah.
JF:  No it’s me. (laughs)

BB:  (laughs)
JF:  That one just kind of came out.  That’s been kicking around for a few years now.   I cut that piano track in New York and just brought it to Nashville, put the horns on it and all that stuff..  That’s one song that’s been kind of  a staple song of this record since I started working on it, thinking about it.

BB:  That’s a great song, I love it. 
JF:  Thank you. 

BB:  And is Tom Waits an influence?
JF:  Sure.  I’ve always loved what he’s done.  But I really concentrate on trying to find my own voice, that’s the most important thing for me.  Who am I, and what am I trying to say that’s unique, and in what way… that’s the main focus for me. 

BB:  Other than let the music do the talking, if you were going to say “Who Am I?”, if you were going to answer that question, what would you say?
JF:  I don’t know, it’s kind of a cross between literature and rhythm, and history.   I think great art always… there’s a trail with great art that leads back to other things.  Like you could see when Picasso was painting and doing ceramics you could see the Egyptians in his ceramics, and, you know, he was paying attention, he was looking at those myths and those influences that came up and identified him as part of the past, I guess – to say in a lot of words.    I think we’ve lost a lot of our mythology and as a result, our identity, as a result of losing that… culture and society.

BB:  You are quoted talking about the record ‘it’s about joy and discovery through pain, love and despair’.   Do you think we have to go through that to get to real joy?  Do you have to endure the pain and despair?
JF:  I don‘t think everybody does, but I did.  (laughs)   I never take the easy road, I always tend to stumble along the lower path.  But that’s what it was for me, you know, you get to a certain point in your life and you realise you’re just not going to be around that long.  So the less important things tend to fall away and the more important things kind of float to the top.  That’s kind of what that’s about.

BB:  Do you have to go through that when you’re making a record aswell?
JF:  No.   I used to think you did.  I don’t really have to go through that any more.   I just have to get quiet, kind of open myself up and see what comes in.  And as long as something comes in I’ll keep doing it.  If it stops coming in, then I won’t do it any more.

BB:  Does it ever kind of frighten you… do you think ‘its not there, the inspiration’s left me’?
JF:  It used to terrify me, but now it doesn’t.  It’s not really up to me - when it’s there, it’s there.  If you try to force it, it’s futile - you always come up with something that’s less than true.  So when it’s not there, you’ve got to go do something else, build the fuel again, or build your experience again, until you’ve got a new perspective, you have something else to say.

BB:  We’re going to finish off with one more track from the record.  Miracle Along The Way is another song that I’ve really been enjoying listening to.   Tell me about that and about the writing of that track.

JF:  That kind of went down as we were recording it.   I wrote that with Pat Buchanan, and I had about half the first verse, and I just started kind of mumbling into the mic and the second half of the first verse just popped out and we looked at each other like ‘did you hear what I just said?’   It’s just about a turning point in your life.  There are certain places when I was younger… I never thought I would be here right now, doing this, saying this, or thinking this, but things happen, it’s funny that way.   Some people just wake up and they’re all alone and realise… ‘what am I going to do to turn it around?’.   This is kind of a story about turning your life around, and finding something new..

BB:  Well maybe it will act as an inspiration to anyone who’s out there right now and wants to do that with their life.  It’s turning out good for you at the moment.    Long may it continue  You’re currently touring round the UK.  I will ask one more question.  It must be a thrill when people in a different land, people across the ocean, like your music…
JF:  Oh yes, its magic.  To go into a pub and have a full pub of people and have them listen to a long story song and know they’re really sucked into that, it’s great, you know.  I’m a lucky man.

BB:  We dig it.   Jeff Finlin, thanks very much. 
JF:  Thank you very much.

BB:  We’re going to play the song now:   Miracle Along The Way, from the album Somewhere South of Wonder.  Thanks for joining us.
JF:  Thanks very much.

- Miracle Along The Way -

BB:  That was cracking, that, wasn’t it!    Miracle Along the Way was that track.   You can find all those songs on his new record called Something South of Wonder.

The Brand New Opry, Fridays, 19:15-21:00, repeated Sundays 20:05-21:00 

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