Friday night somehow is the Tampa debut for Oklahoma-born, Nashville-livin’ songwriter JD McPherson (who also spent some time during high school in the Port Charlotte and Fort Myers area visiting family). The 41-year-old boasts an array of influences and is as steeped in R&B as he is in classic rockabilly, garage rock and soul. Socks, his 2018 Christmas album even ended up on numerous year-end best-of lists (yes, a Christmas album — it’s that good).
CL caught up with McPherson ahead of his upcoming Skipper’s Smokehouse gig, which may be the last time we see him in a venue this small. Read highlights below and our full Q&A via cltampa.com/music.
And yes, he’d like a Cuban sandwich, please.
JD McPherson w/Lindsay Beaver/Little Sheba and the Shamans. Fri. Feb. 22, 8 p.m. $20-$25. Skipper’s Smokehouse, 910 Skipper Rd., Tampa. wmnf.org.
I know Christmas has passed but I have to ask you about Socks, your fantastic 2018 holiday album. I’m just so curious to know the inspiration was for creating an album of this kind. It’s such a great fantastic album and it seemed to be kind of bold — it turned out to be a great move.
I hadn’t really wanted to make one… it was just one of those things. Wasn’t anything against Christmas music, it was just that I really didn’t feel that there was much that we could do to offer to this much attempted, but maligned, sort of genre-specific album. It actually just kind of started with having moved to Tennessee. We’re sort of on our own, but my family is here, so we don’t have to drive to three or four houses throughout the course of the day. We actually just have a really nice time at Christmas and I was like, “You know what?,” and I had this kind a goofy grin on my face. I thought maybe I could try to come up with some Christmas songs.
The main thing was to try to figure out how to do it in a way, first of all, that felt right. We also set out to not do many of the things that are often done in the making of a Christmas record. We started to just make it a rock and roll record without the kind of traditional kind of dressing that might be put on a Christmas album, like recording “Jingle Bells” and just trying to put across a warm fuzzy feeling. We thought, “Let’s try to just dig in and be a little kinder about disappointing feelings that one might feel especially when you’re a kid.” Once some of those parameters were set, it all really came quickly.
It was some of the most fun we’ve ever had at the studio because, to me, the best Christmas music, my favorite Christmas music is the ‘40s to mid-’60s stuff, I guess, which is the stuff everybody really wants to hear anyway for the most part. There’s been a few really bright, shining examples of Christmas songs since, but for the most part, that’s what I like the best, so it made a lot of sense to kind of go back to my band’s roots. I just kind of play rhythm and blues and early rock and roll in that style again and that was first.
But what’s interesting is the way that you approached the subject matter and the theme of the album. It’s obviously geared towards Christmas but it doesn’t feel like a Christmas album; it feels like something you can listen to it all year long. I’m still listening to mine.
I have heard that a few times since Christmas, that there are some people who are still listening to it and that was a total big mission accomplished.
I think that’s a first. I can’t think of anything else that falls into that category where it’s a seasonal album but it sounds great all year long.
Thank you so much.
You did a tour late last year in support of Socks; how did that go? Was it mostly made up of material from the album?
It was great. We did the whole album. We had to kind of drop the duet with Lucie Silvas for most of the shows because she’s obviously a very busy performer and she was out in the U.K. promoting her own record but we did get her to fly home in order for her to do a show with us in New York City and then in Nashville where we both live. But, for the most part, we played the whole record and then we dipped into our other albums; we didn’t really go in the way too much of covers. It really went well and I think it’s something we’re going to try to do every year. After the tour was over, we kind of learned a lot about how to make the tour more like the album in its approach. It’s something we’re gonna be looking forward to every year I think.
For this current tour that you’re on, that’s going to hit our area soon, do you do any songs from Socks during these shows?
No, out of respect for the New Year, will have to wait until next year, till after Thanksgiving. That gives people something to look forward to at that time of year.
Talking about the previous records, which are all fantastic by the way, there are so many different styles that you cover and so many different genres on those albums. Was that something that you intentionally wanted to do when you started recording, or is that just a natural representation of your tastes coming out? How did that work?
I think it’s more the latter. The first record was a record I always wanted to make in terms of sonic profile you know, how the record sounds and how it was recorded and the type of songs. By the third album, I was more interested in kind of moving beyond that a little bit… being a little more free with what comes in. Early rock and roll is like the love of my life so that’s gonna always sort of be lurking in the background a little bit, but I found a fuzz pedal for this new album, so things got a little bit wild and woolly.
Each record has gotten subsequently better than the last which is really hard to top. Undivided Heart & Soul, from 2017, is just a great record. I play that one over and over and it just flies by.
We’re sort of still featuring that as a part of the tour. We took a brief respite for the Christmas record, but we’ve got a couple more videos to put out from the new album so we’re kind of still considering this year, the first part of the year anyway, to be kind of wrapping up some parts of the country we haven’t visited yet with this record.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever played in Florida before; have you been to this area before?
We have never played Tampa. We’ve been to Orlando, but there are a few spots on this tour that we’ve never hit before — I’m really looking forward to it. I spent a lot of time in Florida in high school because I had family out there in Punta Gorda and in the Port Charlotte and Fort Myers areas, kind of down in the western Peninsula, so I’m looking forward to getting back down there. I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m probably going to run into a bunch of relatives that I haven’t seen in a while.
I knew you grew up in Oklahoma. How did that feed into your musical passion or your upbringing? What was significant about that state as far as your musical tastes?
As I became more of an active music listener and listening to what was around, the best thing from where I grew up was the isolation because I grew up in a really rural area, went to an extremely small school and was like two miles from the nearest neighbor, that type of thing. So, if you’re into something you can really dive in. It sort of allowed me to follow my own kind of influence I guess. I wasn’t really hanging out with anybody who said, “Oh you should listen to this, you should be listening to that,” or, like, “If you’re into punk rock, you shouldn’t be listening to Madonna,” so I was able to listen to all the type of stuff that I liked and have a pretty broad range of taste in music. And, of course, Oklahoma has a very rich musical history. As I got a little bit older, and I got out to the city a little more, I was becoming a little more aware of the musical heritage there.
Your voice is just outstanding. Do you have any specific vocal inspirations? Are there any specific male or female singers that kind of inspired your style or your approach?
I really love the rock and roll singers, and I would say I’ve been thinking about this a little bit lately because it came up in conversation… I really do have a lot of female singers that I’m really big on. I probably have more female influences in some ways. Irma Thomas is one of my favorite singers, but I just love that the more you listen to something, the more you kind of osmose a little bit. Like Little Richard’s singing or Clyde McPhatter’s. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I’m a really big ballads fan, so whenever I open my mouth, it’s loud, so it’s kind of hard for me to get ballads happening, but I can I have this loud voice that I have to contend with.
The broad pallet shows because of all the different styles that you’re able to cover, so it doesn’t surprise me to hear you say that, as far as vocal influences. Speaking of covers, I know you’ve done a fantastic Nick Lowe cover of the B-side and one of your singles. I know you’re more geared towards doing original material but how do you decide what to cover?
Early on, around the first record, we did a lot of covers because you just don’t have an album’s worth of material to try to fill up a set time. Most of it was pretty obscure records or choices. Most of it was kind of based on having a cool groove or a cool vibe, and we kind of wanted to do that. But these days, when we do a cover, it’s usually a little outside the box. We’ve been known to do The Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Head On,” so I don’t know, it’s just one of those things where it’s something that fits in with what we’re doing at the time. Sometimes it’s to get some exposure for something that people may not have already been familiar with.
Maybe like you’re shedding some light on this particular song you’re covering, but sometimes you’re sort of looking to make a connection with somebody who might know it. If you choose a song from someone’s early years and if you’re about the same age, chances are they’re probably going to be really stoked and say, “I remember that,” but we’ll be presenting it in a different way. When you launch into the Jesus and Mary Chain song, people get super stoked because they remember it as kind a part of their time, so I think it’s kind of both ways; you want to be like you know, “This is a really cool song,” “Check this out, you might not have had a chance to hear this one,” or “Let’s be high schoolers for a minute.”
That’s exactly how I would’ve reacted had I heard “Head On” at one of your shows. It just would’ve floored me, so that’s a really smart move. You mentioned you haven’t played here before, so there are going to be a lot of us who have never had the chance to see you live before. What would you say to the folks who are going to read this piece who’ve never seen you live? What are your shows like? What can we expect?
Well, I have to give a shout out to my band. I believe I have one of the very best live bands working. They’re just really incredible. The energy is really high. It’s a total, 100-percent physical commitment, and it’s a lot of fun. We’re just really truly enjoy playing on stage. We try to make sure everyone has a really good night. Unless there’s a horrible, horrible mistake or accident, the music never really stops. There’s really never any dead air; there’s always something kind of happening even in between songs so it’s just trying to find those ways to keep the energy kind of happening all the time. We’ve kind of been off for a little bit, so we are excited to play again.
The performance you all did on the CBS This Morning Saturday program last year is probably one of the best ones I’ve ever seen. It was outstanding. I think you won over a lot of new people with that performance.
That was a really good day. We had a really good day, and we were so happy we could get Lucie. We got the first song with her on the air but people were able to see the other on the internet. It was a lot of fun. It’s fun to be in New York; you could be running around in the morning and go try to find breakfast and run back into the CBS morning news. That’s a good time. We were having a really good day that day.
I’m kind of curious because this has come back into my consciousness recently. It seems that a lot of new artists are being recommended through word-of-mouth. Although we have so many outlets with social media, streaming services and blogs, but it seems like we’re kind of back to the days of a friend coming over and saying, “Hey, you should really listen to this record I think you’ll like it.” What are your thoughts on that?
That is absolutely the best way. Anytime you’re around like-minded people musically, or just last night, this happened. I was producing a record in Memphis for a friend of mine from Oklahoma, Travis Linden. There were three of us, my drummer Jason Smay and Dominic Davis from Jack White’s band playing bass. So last night, we’re driving back from Memphis, it’s a three- hour drive, and we basically just took turns playing songs on the van radio. I mean that’s just the best way to learn about new things, and then I had like 20 things to add to my playlist that I had hadn’t heard, so it’s a way to get super excited about things.
If you know somebody who has good musical taste, that’s a gold mine. We have so many modern conveniences, but that to me is still the best that’s the way. When I grew up, the only thing I could do was to go buy rock music magazines like Spin, or Creem or Rolling Stone. That was the only way I could find out about music because it was pretty hard in Buffalo Valley, Oklahoma. I mean, they might just now be getting internet (laughs). I had to really dig hard but I remember going to the record store in Tulsa and asking. I’d find the weirdest looking employee there and say, “Hhey, I really like this Pixies record. Is there anything you could recommend?,” and they could tell they were about to help a really impressionable young kid, and they turned me onto some really cool stuff. It’s always cool asking someone who knows. It’s the best way for sure.
That’s great to hear you say that because I was that guy for a long time. I managed a local record store for a long time and I kind of was that guy for a lot of people, I think. I still have guys coming up to me saying, “Man, I’m so happy you turned me onto the Replacements all those years ago!,” and, actually, the friends who turned me onto you and your music came over to my house for dinner; they brought me a copy of Socks on vinyl and said, “We’re giving this to you; you have to hear this!”
Oh that’s great!
Coming to Florida, and to this part of the state particularly, is there anything you’re looking forward to doing or something that you’re hoping to see you while you’re here?
I’m hoping to track down a Cuban sandwich. I mean, I’m in rock and roll for the food. I love to be in cities I’ve never been to. I love to travel, I love to see cities I’ve never seen before, so that’s a really good time when we land in the city that we’ve never been in. And we’ve had some surprising moments. I hate to say it, but we just hadn’t been routed down to Florida much and the last time we played Orlando, it was a packed house and it was like, “Wow! Why didn’t we before!,” so I hope to have a couple of those moments this time and meet new folks.
This article appears in Feb 21-28, 2019.
