Country-influenced Rock: Jeff Black in Conversation About A Guy Named Jeff Black

“I never expect people to know me,” says singer/songwriter Jeff Black recently in Nashville.

These are humble words from someone who can also note that Sam Bush is an “unsolicited ambassador,” plugging Jeff Black records during interviews. These are humble words for someone who penned the #1 hit, “That’s Just About Right,” for the country band Blackhawk. Yet, as we met for breakfast (he drank water), it’s a humility that is deeply genuine.

Genuineness runs deep through Black’s new album, Tin Lily, songs that come from country roots but range widely beyond to touch on folk, rock, blues, and jazz-influenced rock. Black often refers to Jerry Jeff Walker as inspiration for his musical career. For other influences, you don’t need to look any farther than the incredible lineup on the current album: Dave Roe on bass (Johnny Cash), Craig Wright on drums (Steve Earle), Will Kimbrough and Kenny Vaughn on guitars (both of whom have laid their work on many incredible albums), and of course, Sam Bush on mandolin/fiddle.

The sound that emerges picks up on all of those elements, but you can hear others touchpoints as well. “Nineteen” has folk singer/songwriter Peter Mayer’s approach to a hopeful-mournful ballad. “Hollow of Your Hand” has the jazz-influenced piano rock of Marc Cohn. “All Days Shine” has that slow build up like Springsteen’s “Born to Run” which breaks into bombastic accompaniment, but a very natural, intimate vocal.

While the music is a man with a guitar at its core, Black wanted a “timeless band set up, a rock ‘n’ roll set up” for his album. Black self-produced the album, but he gives his band a lot of credit for the sound of Tin Lily. Black says that in the studio artists like Sam Bush are “very intuitive,” knowing how to record and get on tape what Black wants. “They bring an objectivity to the songs that I don’t normally have. I come from more of the emotional place rather than a technical place. They are really able to interpret the feeling I’m trying to bring across.”

Reflecting on what happens when musicians get together, Black says, “It’s a combination of a human collective that creates music. That’s why we like music. We like to watch other humans doing things.” If you’ve ever stood (or sat) ignoring whatever else is going on in a club during a concert, instead focusing on the way the musicians are coming together, playing off one another, seeing the music form in their faces, you’ll know what Black is talking about. Making music is this incredible process that is amazing to watch. The music has Jeff Black’s name on it, gives him the production title, but in his humility, Black still points to how it is the product of people working together.

How Black came to be a performer and songwriter goes back to being a bouncer in a bar that featured amateur nights. Eventually, they told him they had an open slot, sent the bouncer home to get his guitar, and Black played for the crowd that night—perhaps with one eye on the door as a bouncer but also as he began to see a future in music. Black became the Kansas City man, playing everywhere and opening for traveling acts. Then friend Iris DeMent moved to try and make it in Nashville. She encouraged Black to move, but when he did, he had to start over again. He took odd jobs while slowly trying to build the same reputation in Nashville, playing everywhere, getting his songs heard.

For someone who paid the bills for awhile by working as a forklift operator for the General Board of Discipleship for the United Methodist Church in Nashville, it perhaps shouldn’t be surprise that some spiritual themes would surface in his music. When Black turned down a permanent position with the denomination to pursue his first publishing deal, they probably didn’t think of it as this way, but they were sending someone into the world to speak words of hope. Black shares those themes from the little purple bus, not in some explicit, hit-you-over-the-head way, but more throughout the way the music reaches your soul with something that’s more than the pursuit of pleasures, “Far away from this disrepair/Where the folly is forgotten/Will you meet me there” (“Closer”).

“These Days” is a song which has themes of providence, grace, and hope, spiritual connections to a Gospel that Black said he learned by getting on a little purple bus to go to Sunday School at Calvary Baptist Church while growing up in Liberty, Missouri. When asked about those spiritual themes, Black said, “In my music, I take those fundamental Bible stories and apply them to the search and what is happening in the world. If I’m gonna write, I always want to base it on something that connects to the soul, to the questions, and maybe even answer some questions.”

Tin Lily is out now on Dualtone. Jeff Black’s haunting version of Merle Travis’ mining song, “Dark as a Dungeon,” can be found on The Appalachians: Companion to the Public Television Series. The CD is a great collection of songs from those old mountains of the East. Catch Jeff Black’s Podcasts every week on “Black Tuesdays,” live recordings and other treats for your MP3 listening pleasure. Also, watch for Black on the Tracks, unique tours aboard a train this fall giving you the chance to travel with Black, catch some shows, and enjoy the rails. All aboard!

Thanks to Jeff Black, Dualtone, and Lotos Nile Media for the interview arrangements and review CD.