Feature

Atomic legend speaks

Charlie Louvin

Date: Saturday, Nov. 1, 3:30 p.m.

Venue:20th Annual Alabama Pecan Festival

(5055 Carol Plantation Rd.)

www.alabamapecanfestival.com

Tickets: Free

Country music legend Charlie Louvin has served as an iconic inspiration for scores of musicians. Artists from across the genres have covered both his songs as well as the harmonic quality of his arrangements both as a solo artist and with his late brother Ira. Johnny Cash has reflected upon Louvin as one of his role-models, and his song “The Great Atomic Power” has been covered by everyone from Uncle Tupelo to Southern Culture on the Skids.

Even at 81, Louvin is not slowing down one bit and has toured extensively over the past few years with everyone from Cake to the Old 97s as well as recording with a who’s who of musicians ranging from Elvis Costello to some of the members of Bright Eyes. I had the honor and privilege of chatting with this legend about his new albums, his musical style and his take on today’s country.

SC: You’ve been in the country music scene for a very long time and had the chance to watch it evolve into what it is today. What do you think about the modern country scene?

CL: Well, I like the country if they actually do country. There’s not a whole lot of it out there, but my music is the same as it was in ‘64 when I started recording as a solo artist.

SC: Speaking of that, your music has always focused on the traditional gospel sounds with its theme and harmonies. What is it about that style that always brings you back to it?

CL: We were born and raised in Northeast Alabama, which has a great infestation of ’”Sacred Harp” music. They do it without even a piano player, and it’s still being done in this part of the world. That’s where we got our harmonies from the Scared Harp music from long ago. That’s why the Louvin Brothers weren’t different from folks in other parts of the world.

SC: I know a crowd favorite and one of the first songs I heard by you is “Great Atomic Power,” and it’s been covered by scores of bands for decades. What do you think it is about this song that has made it so attractive to musicians over the years?

CL: You know, I don’t that, but I don’t do a show that we don’t get a request or demands that we do “The Great Atomic Power.” They’ll beg me to death for “The Knoxville Girl” too, and that’s a very gruesome song, but the people like it. That’s why we’re not sitting in Nashville hoping we can do something, but when do get something, we try to please the audience that laid down their money for it.

SC: You’ve toured quite a bit over the past couple of years. What do you think about touring now in comparison to when the Louvin Brothers were coming up?

CL: We toured in those days with Ernest Tubb or Webb Pierce or Red Foley and like that. There’s not any kind of tours like that now unless you want to talk about Vince Gill and Alan Jackson, but they don’t do package shows. They hire a cheap opening act that don’t cost them much money and just go with that, but that don’t help artists like me. I just got off of a twelve-day thing with the Old 97’s, which is a rock group out of Dallas, Tx. Last year, I toured with Lucinda Williams, who’s an Americana artist, they say. She does a lot of rock. Before that, I was out with Cake and Cheap Trick and The Detroit Cobras. So, for three years in a row, I’ve managed to get out with a rock act or an Americana act. The people at the shows, they know who I am and what I’m supposed to do, because of people like you. Usually, there’ll be a newspaper article or something on the radio that I’m gonna be there. So, I don’t go in as a stranger and prove myself that way. They know what to expect.

SC: Your latest release is “Steps to Heaven.” It’s a gospel album, and you chose to lay down the tracks live with a gospel ensemble. I know it can be challenging recording live with a basic band, so what made you decide to take this route with this one?

CL: Derrick Lee (Bobby Jones/New Life) is so good and filling. This is what he does. You don’t need much for us, but I recorded with piano and three back-up vocals. They added on a couple of songs the bass fiddle, and another place they used a guitar. It definitely couldn’t be classified as a string band behind gospel music.

SC: You’ve got another album coming in December that’s kind of on the opposite side of “Steps to Heaven,” and it’s called “Charlie Louvin Sings Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs.” Could you tell me a little about it?

CL: (Laughing) Well, it’s got some bad songs on it, that’s for sure. I rerecorded the Roy Acuff song “Wreck on the Highway.” That’s the most gruesome song of all of them. Then, I recorded “Wreck of the Old 97,” and I even recorded a song about the great Titanic. They called it “that great canoe’” and that it was sad when that “great canoe” went down. They were all familiar songs if you were into that kind of music back in the ‘20s and ‘30s. I even recorded the song “Little Mary Fagan,” which happened one year before I was born. That would have been 1926. She was killed, and they tried the person who done it and marched him straight from the judge’s chamber to the oak tree in the front yard and hung him. There’s a lot of truth in those songs. You know, the villains today get 21 appeals and be in court for 20 years for murdering somebody. I just think that’s terrible.

SC: With this new album and your songs like “Great Atomic Power,” I have to wonder if you’ve been inspired to write new songs with the state of affairs in the world today.

CL: I do have one that I did on a label called ‘Country Country’ that says “Why Can’t We All Just Get Along.’” It’s just like some of the music we had after World War II or right before it was over. I did mention the fact that the sun rises and sets on many nations. There’s things that’s definite in this world, and one of the definite things that we ought to do to be able to get along or be able to disagree and still get along together. It’s hard to imagine the world thinking alike, but that’s what we need.

Stephen Centanni is Lagniappe music editor. Contact him at scentanni@lagniappemobile.com.

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