Paul Bufton of 'Blues Matters!' talks to Kevin Brown.
Further to the release of his new album, Kevin Brown continues his discussion with Paul Bufton about his early albums.
Blues Matters: Prior to your recording of Mojave Dust, you made 4 albums: - Road Dreams, Rust, Sunny Side Up and Time Marches On. What were your feelings and aspirations when you initially started on your road to a musical career - or should I say your 'Road Dream'?
Kevin Brown: My road dream was and always will be, sharing the thing that I love to do most of all with people that are close to me and also with those who are new to my work. To create a song from thin air, record it, and witness the pleasure it brings, creates a sense of satisfaction that helps keep you going when things get a little tough.
'Road Dreams' became my trademark and it holds values and aspirations that I still retain to this day. I try to make records that you put on and leave on. They were designed that way and that is the way they are meant to be heard. They know no barriers and have allowed me the freedom to explore freely my musical interests without ever being hampered by record company protocol. That is why I think the records sound so interesting I was always given total control.
Blues Matters: Your debut album 'Road Dreams' is a 10 track album with a blues/soft rock feel to it. All bar two of the numbers are K.B. with subtle and melodic slide guitar underlying the score more or less throughout the album. The inclusion of Annie Huchrack on some of the numbers really works well and gives another dimension to your compositions, especially on 'I still love you.' There were 11 other musicians on Road Dreams. (When was this recorded?)
Kevin Brown: Road Dreams was recorded from 1982 -1984. Every single person on that record was hand picked from my circle of friends at the time, some had known me for years and we all wanted to feel proud of it, to have the record go out with my name on it was the best start anyone could wish for. Annie Hutchrack I discovered singing in a bar shortly after arriving in Bath in 79. She had the purity that I needed to get that transparent type of harmony that could lift a song. I still see her and we often chat about it.
Blues Matters: The opening bottleneck guitar on Road Dreams is haunting and almost eerie, nice, and the acoustic track ';put a smile on your face' demonstrates your love for slide guitar. The album closes with the traditional acoustic instrumental 'Farther along' arranged by yourself with both traditional and acoustic bottleneck guitars. This is a superb debut album. What do you feel now looking back at 'Road Dreams'?
Kevin Brown: The slide guitar that opens the album was done on location in a valley outside Bath which is where I also wrote just a valley away. I had a battery powered amp and recorder plus a telecaster. That is where I spent many days writing 'Road Dreams' literally in a field beneath a fine old oak tree. At the end of each day I would listen to the sound sketches and found this piece of wailing noises, Tony Cousins at the Townhouse insisted we use it as he was cutting the record.
My feelings now are of complete contentment and pride towards Road Dreams. It was actually recorded twice but I stuck true to the demos, it meant losing my deal with Ensign but I knew those recordings had captured my spirit, how I was ever persuaded to record it again with pro musicians I shall never know, luckily it was only the demos that saw light of day. They were 2' 16 track recordings plus one 4 track (Diamond Ring) I had a very fine engineer David Lord and Glenn Tommy plus Andy Allen. I produced the album using the same method I have done ever since. That is every thing down together with voice and guitar totally isolated, so we could patch up later if necessary.
Blues Matters: Your next album 'Rust' which you recorded over a 4 year period 1987-1990 is pure wall to wall blues. An excellent 2nd album, which you recorded with various backing musicians; 11 tracks all self penned. Again your slide work is superb, but I have to say that on 5 of the tracks your electric lead guitar work is very nice indeed- reminiscent of Freddie King/ early Peter Green.
Kevin Brown: Some songs were driven by that clean guitar style that Peter had slaughtered us all with, plus I had a working band out at the time. Dale Marshall and Jerry Soffe, drum and bass plus Richard Dutton on Hammond. Many songs on Rust were honed on the road and these players just made them sound fabulous. Again I went back to the 2' 16 track in Bath and used totally local players for the studio cuts, Bible, Southern Streets etc. Adrian Utley who went on to help create Portishead played a major part in that album and helped instil a raw freshness to the sound. 'Don't Qui', plus 'If I had my way' and 'Meltdown' were done at the Dungeon in Oxford.
Blues Matters: I notice that all bar one of the tracks were recorded in England, except for the slow blues 'You don't have to tell me' with a superb harp solo, which was recorded in Italy.
Kevin Brown: 'You don't have to tell me' was written during the train journeys of an Italian tour I did in '87. One night I opened up for this wild trio, Hammond, drums and harmonica.
We became friends and had a lot of respect for each other. When I finished the tour I returned to Milan and cut that in the middle of the night. It has a devastating intro and Sals harmonica solo is breathtaking. I learnt a valuable lesson that night. The blues cares not about colour, age or nationality, it is there for the taking but you have to treat it with respect. Do that and it will reward you a thousand times, those Italian musicians changed my outlook on who can and who supposedly cannot 'play the blues'
Blues Matters: On the superbly rocking track 'Hey Joe Louis,' you duet on guitar and vocal with the highly respected Sanfranciscan blues man Joe Louis Walker. How did this collaboration with him come about?
Kevin Brown: 'Hey Joe Louis' was the last track I cut for the album. We had just toured together and he did it as a favour. I wrote the song during the tour and he liked it enough to help me out. To have him and his road band on a cut was the icing on the cake for the album.
Blues Matters: Rust closes with the bright instrumental number 'Sunny side up' viz the title track from your next album, a purely slide instrumental album. What inspired you to do an instrumental album? The title really embraces the ambience of the album, i.e. a bright and sunny array of 10 numbers 9 penned by your good self and your arrangement of the traditional number 'Ghazel'.
Kevin Brown: 'Sunny Side Up' had been in the pipeline ever since Joe Boyd of Hannibal records heard a Hawaiian Band I had called '5 Guys named Mo'.
After giving him 'Road Dreams' and 'Rust' he then suggested we put out a collection of my original slide guitar pieces that were lying around. It reflected my range of musical interests and enabled me to stretch out on some untried territory for slide.
Unfortunately the week I delivered the album; Hannibal/Rykodisc was bought by Chris Blackwell who immediately put a stop to such uncommercial nonsense!
Blues Matters: Has any of your instrumentals been used for film scores, T.V. commercials etc?
Kevin Brown: Yes I was fortunate enough to make some music specifically for broadcast which has been used constantly ever since, it features many slide styles and creates great excitement in the house when we hear it on a programme we might be watching!!
Blues Matters: 1999 sees the launch of your next album 'Time marches on' on the Taxim label. On this album you work with a multitude of talented musicians, viz. Paul Carrack, Clem Clempson, Mo Foster, Alvin Lee, Rabbit, Pete Thomas, Adrian Utley and others! 'Time marches on' is yet another musical illustration of the K.B. package. Original and varied compositions with superb guitar work, soulful vocals and lyrics to the accompaniment of quality musicianship. Of the 11 tracks, 5 you wrote yourself, 2 you co-wrote with Roger Cook, 2 co-wrote with Alvin Lee and 2 co-wrote with Phil Crowther. It must have been fantastic working with these guys?
Kevin Brown: Time Marches On' was to be my first release on a major label and had a lot of money thrown at it. Being with a major (Chrysalis) meant I had to create a slightly more commercial product but at the same time retain the spontaneity and organic nature of 'Rust' and 'Road Dreams'. I think it works really well, having Paul Carrack and all the other guys around just lifted me, plus I had some old friends from the first albums there too. I was literally exhausted after writing and recording my first 'pressure'; album. Sadly history repeated itself and as the record was delivered Chrysalis were bought by EMI who did not really understand these more rootsy recordings. The album was shelved. Five long hard years later they released it to me and Taxim put it out in Europe and the UK.
Blues Matters: Again you embrace the blues and its associated genre.
Kevin Brown: It's all I know, I can't do anything else, its what I have spent my whole life being true too. The blues and its related genres are my life, the time I spend with my family allows me to look at my work from a distance and live a normal life. Within that every day normality I have to somehow find inspiration for ideas, its all tangled up together really I just have to try and create a living from it all.
Blues Matters: One of the numbers you co-wrote with Alvin Lee 'Only just a matter of time' was recorded in Alvin Lee's house.
Kevin Brown: Alvin was introduced to me by his publisher at Warner's. We worked for three days in his 16 track Studer equipped studio. We jammed along with a drum box until we got bored. Then in the evenings we would listen through and pick out sections of interest, those sections became the foundations of 'Dallas' and 'Only just a matter of time'.
Blues Matters: The album closes with the moving love song 'You're the one', with soulful slide and vocals. The passion really comes across on this gem of a number.
Kevin Brown: I love playing slide when Paul Carrack is close by singing. 'You're the one' wraps up the album and kind of says 'there you go, done and dusted!! The passion in the delivery from the whole band reflects the general feel good factor about the album, which is again a record that makes me feel very proud.
Blues Matters: Do you include in your live gigs nowadays any of the numbers from your previous albums?
Kevin Brown: Not yet, I am still getting Mojave Dust of my chest but as more people become aware of my back catalogue I am starting to get requests from my past works.
Blues Matters: Are there any new albums, collaborations etc. in the pipelines Kevin that we can look forward too?
Kevin Brown: My project with the Senegalese Kora player 'Moussa Kouyate' is in the can and scheduled for September release. We are touring extensively during that time so keep tuned to the website [www.thekevinbrown.com]. Plus I have been invited to be a guest slide player alongside Jimmy Vaughan and Duke Robbillard on David Maxwel' s new album. (Piano player, Freddy King, Roomful of blues etc.)
Meanwhile I am writing the follow up to Mojave Dust and looking forward to taking that giant leap to stereo having worked in mono for the last three years, very exciting!!
Blues Matters: Thank you once again for supporting Blues Matters. We all wish you well for the future and we look forward to hearing your new projects...........
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