Traditional, Hank Williams-type instrumentation of lap steel, pedal steel, acoustic guitar, snare and bass, along with some banjo, mandolin and accordion, provide the backdrop for Seattle's Terhune.
The lyrics are purely American stories. This is the first in a series of seven CD releases this year (they can't stop writing songs, and have logged in well over 1,500). If you're interested in any of the other CDs, contact: Gibson7an8grande@cs.com
If you like: John Prine, Steve Forbert, Elliott Murphy, Ryan Adams, Whiskeytown, Son Volt, Wilco, Jayhawks, America, The Eagles, Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, or anyone sounding like anyone just listed, you'll love Terhune.
Note: This is a DIY CD made by the band. Each CD is digitally copied directly from the hard drive from which it is recorded onto using Pro Tools.
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Check out Terhune's prior releases:
Southern Breeze
Corn
Fairmount
Kentucky Pearls
Drives You
Forward Motion
Jacob's Ladder
and the newest, a double CD: High Ground/Buckeye
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Interview with Al Terhune by Peter Willis of Nu Music Express, Seattle, WA.
Peter: Here we are again. Three albums in five months? Do you guys think you're Elvis Costello?
Al: Some of the greatest albums of our time were recorded in a matter of days or a couple of weeks.
P: Yeah, but how many have recorded three albums in five months?
A: I don't know. I don't care - it doesn't matter. Just because you record a lot doesn't mean the albums are good. But these are.
P: You know, I have to agree. An interviewer really should be like an unbiased reporter, but I have to agree with you. You guys have some really great stuff.
A: Why, thank you, Peter. You've not revealed this side of you before.
P: The group actually got, I thought, a lot more ambitious with this set of tunes. The production is more full.
A: I know what you mean, but if you listen to "No I Don't" from "Corn," the production is really similar. We just did it on a couple of songs on "Corn."
P: Whatever. "Fairmount" is definitely a lot more ambitious. You start off with an MOR type song, "Wrong Turn," which brings back the pedal steel into your stuff.
A: We use it on a few tunes here. But I don't want to focus on steel guitars - or any kind of instrument. You seem to be stuck on what type of steel guitar we're using.
P: I'm just observing.
A: "Wrong Turn" is another Cotton Bend tune that wasn't recorded.
P: A true story? I mean, is "Wrong Turn" true?
A: Not literally. But what inspired me to write it was when my good friend divorced his wife. A girl he had been seeing since they were in grade school. It's just sad to lose things like that.
P: "Don't Get Lost" is a nice, catchy tune with some nice background vocals.
A: I wrote that for a friend who moved to New York City recently. It was one of those songs that took every bit of five minutes to write. It's really a meaningless song, with the exception that it's just a big-brother type thing from me to my friend. Nothin' more.
P: "Feed Her" is a weird song. I don't get it. What's it about?
A: You know, Peter, some songs are just meant to be that way. I want this song to mean whatever it might to whomever hears it. It is rather cryptic...just another vehicle for some music and melody.
P: You feature a song on here by former Seattleite Amelia White [search on CDBaby for Amelia White].
A: Amelia's a dear friend of mine. She's just the sweetest. I don't really care for that many female singers, and she is one of a handful that I adore.
P: You recorded on one of her CDs, didn't you?
A: Yes, her "Comes and Goes" feature a couple of tunes with some pedal steel.
P: How did you come to want to record "Sun and Moon?"
A: Amelia is one of those songwriters - much like myself, who has too many songs to record. I've played live with her many times - as a duo and with a full band. I've got a stack of cassettes that she's sent me over the past few years in which she's given me songs to learn. I swear that 90% of those songs she might only perform for that one show! She's that prolific. This tune is one that stuck with me. I thought it was just great. I even based a song from "Southern Breeze" on the movement of this tune.
P: Which song was that?
A: Uh, what's it called? Mmmm..."Mountain Rage?" No, "Mountain Isolation." It doesn't sound like "Sun and Moon," but it dips down into that A minor like her song does.
P: And you got her to sing on this track, too.
A: We were winding down a west-coast tour that began in California, and I drug her into Chinaberry Studios to sing on it. How could I not? She came in and whacked it out in one take.
P: She's got some unusual backup vocals on that.
A: Yeah, no shit! I was blown away. She really didn't know what to do when I said "put some oooh's in here." So before I know it, she's going off on this yodeling type shit that was just great.
P: What's this song about?
A: Well...(long pause)...I didn't know it until after I was done, but it's about bisexuality.
P: Interesting topic.
A: Yeah, but now that I know what it's about, it's really a great set of lyrics for it.
P: Are you bisexual?
A: Peter, I'm a happily-married man.
P: That's one way to answer it.
A: Let's stick to music, Peter. Politics, religion - sex - those aren't topics for this forum. By the way, I've had a few friends listen to this CD, and a couple - both girls - have commented on "Sun and Moon," and I'm like, "Hey, it's the only song I didn't write!"
P: Ouch.
A: Well, yeah, I love Amelia, but I might not put any more covers on Terhune CDs. That's not true. I've gotten her blessing to do another song that will probably never find it's way on one of her CDs.
P: "Grounded" is really one of my favorites here.
A: One of mine, too. An interesting lyric and a nice movement and instrumentation. Another Cotton Bend tune that never reached the band. I think we broke up before I played it for them.
P: In "Indianapolis," you sound like a dirty old man on the street looking for girls to take home?
A: Yeah, it does sound like that. But, again, most of these songs are fictional. Hey, we all know assholes and people who prey on people. And although this is about one of those types of guys, I have to throw in a little bit of hope in that maybe he really will care for whomever he takes home.
P: I've heard some of your older songs, and some of them get pretty ugly.
A: I've got a true fascination for the ugliness out there. I think Springsteen's "Nebraska" made a big impression on me. "Sir, there's just a meanness in this world." That frank statement says it all.
P: You're quoting from "Nebraska."
A: Yes. I've got a few tunes from the past that might end up on future Terhune CDs. Some pretty dark ones. They just don't sit well with these stupid nothing songs that are vehicles for us right now. I mean, "Indianapolis" is just a nothing song. It's all about production. You know, like Hank's "Hey, Good Lookin'." I mean, that's just a stupid little song. That's what pop radio is all about. And then you've got "Ramblin' Man" [Hank Williams] that is dark and truthful of men.
P: But "Indianapolis" is true. It hits home with me, because we know that many girls are taken off the streets and who knows what happens.
A: Well, you know. It happens. I just report. Like you.
P: People will think you're a Romeo when they hear "Stealin' A Heart."
A: Well, yeah, let them think that. It couldn't be further from the truth, but I've known many a Romeo, and this is written for them. Actually, there's a CD Terhune did - our very first one as Terhune, called "Jacob's Ladder" - that we might re-record, because we did it on a little four track for friends last year, and it's got a song about a Romeo who just can't help having girls fall for him. That ain't me - but I can write about guys like that.
P: Is "Just Fine" about anyone?
A: It's about my wife. Or about me and my wife. She's great. She's just really supportive of the music thing, as long as I'm not out there on the road. She's not my biggest fan, though. She openly admits that she likes "a few of the songs" on our CDs. Not all of them. "I don't like all of them," she says. That still rings in my ears.
P: This sounds like a John Prine song, if any of them do.
A: I have to say I agree. Well, maybe not like a John Prine song, but I think I subconsciously tried to sing like him a bit. I love John Prine.
P: And "Fell to Clouds" is really a country template, isn't it?
A: Do you mean it sounds like other stuff? A typical country song?
P: Well, yeah. Don't you think?
A: Yeah, it does. I think every so often I try to actually write a song that sounds familiar. However, all the other times, I try to write original stuff with traditional instrumentation.
P: That's one thing people have said about Terhune. That you're not in the same rut as the rest of the Alt Country bands or roots groups. They say you're "fresh."
A: Ah, the "fresh" label. Actually, I totally agree. We're really fresh, man.
P: In the last interview, you said the title track is from the Cotton Bend days, too.
A: It's a song that actually is like "Black Cats" from "Corn." It's all true. I did know a girl who, when she was a kid, one of her friend's father's did shit to her and some other girls.
P: What did he do to them?
A: This is just not the right forum. But it was sexual. But the point of the song is that when I was growing up in Fairmount, I thought the world revolved around this little town of three thousand people that was surrounded by cornfields and country roads that seemed to just disappear into the horizon. We felt safe there. The only bad things that happened were on TV. But, the truth known as you get older, the same shit happened in Fairmount as it did on TV.. Child molestation, being one.
P: You're still pining for the farmers here.
A: Yeah, but this was written before "Corn," too.
P: So when's the next CD?
A: It's almost done.
P: What's new? Aren't you scared your over saturating yourself?
A: Listen, Peter. We aren't trying to accomplish anything here but to record music and put it out as much as we're inspired to do. Nothin' more, nothin' less.
P: To be continued.
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