Brand New Country - broadcast Friday 4 November 2005
Presented by Colin Somerville

CS:  I caught up with Jeff after he played, with Sally van Meter, a quite extraordinary show.

> Postcard from Topeka <

CS:  Well, Jeff Finlin, it’s too long since you’ve been in Scotland.   A different kind of tour this time…
JF:   Yes, just a little acoustic tour, with my friend, Sally van Meter.

CS:  And that differs a lot, having that kind of instrumentation, if you like, it gives the songs a different complexion. 
JF:  Yeah.   I always look at records and live as two completely different things, and I like it that way.   Sometimes the songs are different every night - sometimes she’ll play dobro on something one night, the next night she’ll play lap steel or whatever.   But we’re just trying to make it work, sometimes it takes a while, but…

CS:  It does make things sound very different – American Dream, for example, when you hear it in that context rather than the… not twee, but the pseudo-poppy thing.
JF:  Yeah, but I think it works.   It’s just kind of the same little story.   And It’s nice to get ‘em down to the bare bones, see if they still work that way, because sometimes you put all this stuff on them, and it’s like ‘Where did that song go that I wrote?’   It’s always nice to strip ‘em down.

>  American Dream #109 <

CS:  You intro that as saying… figuring out how it is to be an American in the world today.  It’s a very cynical view of American life in America.
JF:  It’s hard because I’d like to take all the borders away from everywhere, if I had my druthers.  Because as soon as you identify yourself as something or somebody, as an American or a catholic or a republican, or whatever, you automatically separate yourself on some level, and that’s where all the problems in the world…  We’re all just human beings.

CS:  I suppose there’s a further irony that you sometimes feel Americana as a musical genre is more fought for in Europe than it is in America.
JF: Oh yeah, definitely, yeah.  It’s very true.  It’s nice to be appreciated over here, come over and play for people. They really love American music.

CS:  What’s firing you up?  Because Epinonymous has essentially been out and available through your web site and through distribution in America since the start of the year…  It seems to be getting more comfortable the more you live with it, judging by the way the songs sounded tonight.
JF:   Yeah, it takes a while, you know.   Usually when I make a record, by the time I’ve done with it, I have no idea what I have.   I have to go to people and go, ‘is this any good?  What is this?’    After some time I go play the songs and see how they like ‘em.   it’s very comfortable to me now, so I’d love to be playing them all.  But so many songs, so little time.

CS:  It’s almost… I mean, your songwriting style, some people might say has Dylanesque qualities to it, but you seem to precis where Bob may ramble these days.  You’re far more succinct. 
JF:  I love the craft of songwriting.  Bob just does whatever he wants.   He’s super.   I always try to figure out ‘Who’s Jeff Finlin?’   ‘What has he got to say?’  And how’s he going to say it in the shortest amount of time.  You’re always trying to hone yourself down…

CS:  You talk onstage of fleeing Nashville.   You were doing this 2, 3 years ago, it’s not a recent thing.  But it seems to me that, there you are playing with Sally van Meter on this tour,  Pat Buchanan , your good friend – there seems to be a great collective of musicians.   If you’re based in Colorado or wherever, it doesn’t make any difference, you all seem to pick up and find each other.
JF:  Yeah, it’s been amazing.  Just meeting her has been great.   I try to think of it as not moving out of Nashville but just widening my borders.  Because I still go back and was produce stuff.  I was producing this girl, Emma Foxall…

 > clip from Temptation…Emma Foxall <

CS:  Talking about producing, which you’ve been doing over the last couple of months and have done before for somebody else’s work. But inasmuch as you’re a multi-instrumentalist, not just solely a songwriter/guitar player, and obviously a drummer, because last time you were over here before the Steve Earle support, you had a drum kit with you.  Does that alter the way you set about producing somebody?
JF:   Well, I just kind of look at the song, and the artist.   Players are like colours and I’ve been able to play with some really great players in my lifetime.  So you just kind of paint this picture with these people you have.  You’ve got to let them do what it is they do, and it’s nice to know what they do from working with them for so long.   I got to work with Doug Lancio, he plays with Patty Griffin, and Dave Jacques played on this thing, who plays with John Prine.   It’s a lot of fun, just going in there, and getting over the fear of what might happen and just let it happen.  I love doing that stuff.

CS:  It also struck me on Epinonymous you were dabbling in low-fi electronica.
JF:  Yeah, I know, I like that.   The whole thing’s low-fi.   I basically built it up in my basement and then took it to Nashville and kind of finished it up it there.   I like that low-fi thing, I like trying to make something work with what you’ve been given, rather than go out and get what you want, and make it work.  What’s in the room, make something work, I like that approach.

CS:  For the new year, is there another album that’s been welling up, or are you just keen to consolidate?   Because obviously you have ‘Sugar Blue’ on the Cameron Crowe film, which must be a big thing, no matter how modest…
JF:   Oh yeah.   I’m trying to get my ducks in a row for that, I’m getting Somewhere South of Wonder released in the States through my distributor there, figuring out how to approach that.  There’s always another record brewing, but it just comes down to ‘Am I going to do it now and take the time?’   I’ll probably be back in the UK in April, and kind of take it from there.  Maybe I’ll have a new record, maybe not.

>  Sugar Blue  <

CS:  Being on that soundtrack in the exalted company, some would say, of Elton John, and so on and so forth, and also the fact that Springsteen used the song as part of his walk-in music, which to the uninitiated who don’t walk-in in this country, wouldn’t pay very much attention…  You know, that’s a big deal. You seem so sanguine about it. 
JF:  Well, I don’t know, I don’t get excited about a lot of things.   I used to get excited about a lot of things.   I think I’m just more grateful than anything.  It’s just like, 'that’s really great, that makes me feel really good, let’s get on with it, what else is there?'

CS:  You’re a difficult artist to peg, in the sense that most people would have seen you last time out supporting, or opening, for Steve Earle.  There is a country music icon.  He’s beyond that.   He’s well beyond that.  You’re not a natural fit, yet it’s completely logical.
JF:  Yeah.   It works.  We love good songs.   I love good songs that mean something, and what more is there?    I like good songs, he likes good songs, and it just kind of worked.

CS:  There is a political observational side to what you do, not as overt as what Steve Earle does, but you are an observer, and you are a storyteller.   You refer to one song as being inspired by Johnny Cash and you have to pay attention because of the story.   But even the way you… not the actual closing song of the set, ‘Good Time’ which is as stark a way of sending people out into the street as you can imagine!
JF: I like that.  I like building up a lot of layers in a song, and run people through a lot of different emotions in one song, even if it’s not necessarily healthy emotions.  I don’t know, I just like doing that.

CS:  As you say, you miss your family when you’re away, but it’s a necessary evil.  How do you reconcile it?
JF:  I love getting out and going on the road.  I think it’s healthy.  My son said ‘Oh, I’m gonna miss you, dad’.  I said   ‘It’s good to miss somebody.   It makes you appreciate somebody when you miss them.  That’s not bad.'  You have to look at the dark as well as the light.  That rounds you in some way.  It does me.  I love it.

CS:  Do you write on the road?
JF:  No, I never write unless I’m recording, really.   I used to write a lot, all the time.  Now, if I sit down to do a  project, there’s got to be a means to an end to it, rather than just piling up 50 songs.   I’ve already got 50 songs in my basement, I don’t need any more. (laughs)

CS:  As a writer, you love colour, there are lots and lots of colours in there, but overall, what colour would best describe what you do?
JF:  Oh, I would say maybe grey.  Picasso grey.  (laughs).

CS:  (laughs) Jeff, that’s the best that I can think of.   Thank you.
JF:  Thanks Colin.

> Good Time  <

CS:  That’s from the CD EP ‘Live From Nowhere’.  Jeff Finlin.  And the Brand New Country team are fairly certain that was Pat Buchanan playing guitar.  I certainly wouldn’t disagree.   You also heard, from Jeff,  Postcard from Topeka, American Dream #109, Sugar Blue, which is in the new Elizabethtown movie directed by Cameron Crowe, which stars Orlando Bloom and also Kirsten Dunst.  The reviews so far seem to suggest the soundtrack is slightly better than the movie.   But don’t let that stand in the way, as I’m sure that’s going to be a perfect date, especially if you’re Finlin fans and want to hear him actually, or potentially, reach a wider audience.