Singer-songwriter J.D. Souther is jazzed to be back with 'If the World Was You'
by John Soeder / Plain Dealer Pop Music Critic
Thursday November 13, 2008, 2:00 PM
PREVIEW
J.D. Souther
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19.
Where: Nighttown, 12387 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights.
Tickets: $25. Call 216-795-0550.
ONLINE AUDIO: J.D. SOUTHER
J.D. Souther (who spent part of his childhood years in Shaker Heights) has penned songs for the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, among others. Now Souther, 63, is back with his first solo album in nearly 25 years, the jazz-tinged "If the World Was You." He gave us a call recently from his farm outside Nashville, Tenn.
Q: What lured you into making another solo album?
A: The same thing that lured me in the first place . . . just the love of music.
Q: Your songs have been recorded by a lot of other artists. Let me ask in an impolite way: Are the songs on your new album the ones that nobody else wanted?
A: I saved the best for myself. I never shopped any of these songs, not a single one.
Q: Has your approach to songwriting changed? Or is it essentially the same as it was back when you wrote "Best of My Love" and "New Kid in Town"?
A: There's a certain adjustment in technique when you're working with other people. I'm not a great team songwriter. I just happened to have a great team.
My graduating class, I always call us, of songwriters was Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Don [Henley] and Glenn [Frey]. And me. . . . That team allowed each guy to contribute the best thing you could possibly contribute.
My approach to writing alone, which is how I write 95 percent of my songs, is not to have an approach.
The poet William Stafford got up every morning at 5, sat on his couch with a pen and pad and just looked out the window. Poetry came up when it could.
I'm pretty much the same way with songwriting. I'm always lost and looking for a way to explain things.
Q: You're playing a jazz club in Cleveland, which seems perfect given the jazzy bent of your new material. Besides rock 'n' roll and country music, was jazz a big part of your upbringing?
A: Yes. But music was a big part of my upbringing. I very much subscribe to the Duke Ellington response: There's only two kinds of music -- good music and bad music. Duke went on to say, "Of the two, I prefer good music." I feel the same way.
I grew up playing combo jazz. I was a drummer for 15 years of my musical life. The records I lived and died by where Miles Davis records and [John] Coltrane records and Dave Brubeck's "Time Out" and "Time Futher Out" albums -- totally blew my mind.
This album . . . really is made like a jazz record.
If somebody takes a solo, usually it's what they used to call in jazz a full chorus. It's 32 bars. And they get a chance for that solo to mature and to speak.
I wanted the storm to be understated enough that when someone spoke, it could be heard and it would be supported by everyone.
It was, by everybody's estimation here, a bit of a risk. In fact, they call it "the science project" at the studio where I cut it. . . . Six guys with a vocalist live in one little room -- it was pretty scary.
Q: At least this is one science project that didn't blow up in your face.
A: Oh, man -- thank you for saying so.
