John Prine and Mac Wiseman Visit the Great American Standard Songs
By Andy Ellis
© 2007 CMA Close Up News Service / Country Music Association, Inc.
At Nashville's Station Inn, the mood was festive. A crowd had filled the legendary bluegrass club to help John Prine and Mac Wiseman celebrate the release of their album, Standard Songs for Average People, on Oh Boy Records. But as the sounds of revelry rose in the bar, the objects of this festivity joked and chatted on their own in the dressing room.
"Mac," said Prine, taking a swig of bottled water, "I've never attended a release party. Do you know what we're supposed to do?"
"Well, I haven't either," replied Wiseman. "But I think we just mingle with folks as they listen to the record. It appears they're gathering some sort of steam out there. I'm thinking about taking up a collection shortly."
As the album pulsed through the sound system, Wiseman's sweet tenor and Prine's gravelly baritone intertwined through classics written by Tom T. Hall, Kris Kristofferson, Ernest Tubb, Bob Wills and other Country Music giants. Against this backdrop of timeless tunes and exuberant party guests, the two legendary writer/performers revealed how their ambitious collaboration came about.
PRINE: "It all started a good seven years ago - and these days, when I say seven it's probably 10 or 12 - when I stopped in to see Cowboy Jack Clement. He said, 'Mac Wiseman was over the other day. Do you know Mac?' I said, 'Well, I'm a big fan, but I don't know him.' And Cowboy said, 'I mentioned your name and Mac likes your music. You guys ought to get together and record some songs.' I was amazed Mac even knew I existed, but when Cowboy says something, he's not just talking off the top of his hat. Then a couple of years ago, Fergy [David Ferguson, who engineered and co-produced Standard Songs for Average People] started up talking about it. He kept working at us both, until we got it together."
HOW DID YOU SELECT THE SONGS?
WISEMAN: "We each agreed to draw up a list of 15 songs and then get together to make the final selection. Well, John came over to my house, and seven out of the 15 on our lists were duplicates. That seemed like an omen, you know? It meant we were on the same wavelength."
WHAT WERE SOME OF THE DUPLICATES?
WISEMAN: "'Death of Floyd Collins' was one, 'Pistol Packin' Mama' and maybe some Ernest Tubb songs, like 'Don't Be Ashamed of Your Age.'"
PRINE: "Yeah, that was one we'd both picked out. A couple of songs on both our lists didn't make the record; I think 'Old Flames' was one. When we tried it, for some reason it didn't work out. Sometimes you have to find a couple of wrong songs to find the right one."
WISEMAN: "'Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine' was on both our lists, and that did make it. I was intimidated by it, I don't mind telling you. It is such a perfect record, both in arrangement and feel, I didn't know if I could add anything."
PRINE: "Tom T. Hall's version is so set in stone, I don't think most people would even try to do it. But I knew if we both got into telling the story, it would work. Part of the song is narration, and part of it's like you're a character in it, which works great for two voices."
DESCRIBE THE SESSIONS.
WISEMAN: "John and I sat across a table from each other, and we'd sing through the songs on our list. We'd find out pretty quickly if one was going to work, and if it did, we'd cut the song with just four pieces to start with. It was Jamie Hartford on lead guitar - he was excellent with these songs - and the rhythm section [often including bassist Dave Jacques and drummer Kenny Malone]. That was it. We got a lot of first takes, which is always extra good. I didn't even play guitar, and John only played guitar on a couple of songs." [Guitarist Pat McLaughlin and pedal steel legend Lloyd Green also contributed].
DID YOU WORK OUT THE ARRANGEMENTS AHEAD OF TIME?
WISEMAN: "No, we'd just try out a song right there with the band."
PRINE: "They were sitting all around us, and everybody could see each other's eyes. The stuff the guys played pretty much determined the arrangements, plus Fergy had a few ideas to go this way or that. The band would start playing with me and Mac singing, and everybody just kind of ."
WISEMAN: ". fell into it. I was amazed because many of these songs aren't easy to play."
PRINE: "It's a good thing I didn't have to play them; I'd still be learning the chords to 'Old Cape Cod.' The song has nothing but diminished chords and those ones you hold five fingers on. For me, the Carol Lee Singers really made that song with their background vocals. It was a good version up until then, but when they got on it, man, it sounded like a record."
WISEMAN: "They come from the old school, with that classic Nashville sound. We used to do songs with vocal groups here, like the Jordanaires and the Anita Kerr Singers, and Carol Lee has taken that style and developed it to such a degree. Being the daughter of Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, she heard this music from the day she was born."
PRINE: "She comes up with a vocal arrangement so quickly, and she'll give you three or four different choices of sounds. She'll say, 'Do you want us singing the words, or do you want more of these oohs in there?' And then they'll all sing to illustrate the different ideas. For me, it was like having a full orchestra at our disposal all day long. We'd order in ribs and listen as they'd sing anything and everything we wanted to hear."
THE MUSIC HAS MORE OF A RELAXED, OPEN AND TIMELESS QUALITY THAN YOU HEAR ON MOST MODERN ALBUMS.
WISEMAN: "I'm glad to hear you say that, because really that was the feeling John and I had when we cut these songs."
PRINE: "For a while we were calling ourselves 'the old Cape codgers.'"
HOW DID YOU DIVVY UP THE VERSES AND CHORUSES IN EACH SONG?
PRINE: "Trial and error, mostly, although the words are so good in some songs that one of us would want to jump in and claim a section. I knew what I wanted to sing on 'Saginaw Michigan' before we even got into it. When we did 'Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine,' Mac got to sing, 'I was sittin' in Miami.' Man, I would have loved to have that line, but even more, I wanted to hear Mac sing it."
WISEMAN: "Speaking of 'Saginaw Michigan,' we had fun with the modulations. John started off low, then I took it up to sing my lines, then we went back down for John to do an additional verse, and then back up a second time for me. You often hear modulations go up a step, but seldom down. Yet we did that twice, which is almost unheard of."
AS A SONGWRITER, JOHN, DO YOU FIND IT HARDER TO RECORD COVERS THAN YOUR OWN SONGS?
PRINE: "Oh, no, for me it's more gratifying to sing covers. See, I'm basically a big fan, and I love being in the studio when I'm enjoying myself, when it's not work. And it's not work at all when I'm singing covers. When it's something I've written, I worry the thing right up to the point where I finally get a recording I'm satisfied with. And even then sometimes I don't know whether it's done or not. But going in and singing your favorite songs, especially with Mac Wiseman, that is nothing but pleasure. If I could make records like that all the time, I'd be in the studio five days a week."
WISEMAN: "This was a labor of love, except there wasn't any labor in it."
On the Web: http://www.johnprine.net/, http://www.ohboy.com/, http://www.groovegrass.com/
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