By: Dr. Matt Warnock
In 1985, with the departure of long-time guitarist Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm was faced with a tough decision on who would replace Robertson in the legendary group, The Band. While The Band could have easily gone the way of other groups and dissolved, Helm decided to bring on board someone he knew would not only fill the guitar chair in the group admirably, but also make a lasting contribution to the group as a whole. The man Helm chose for the job was none other than Jim Weider.
Weider, who is often referred to as a master of the Telecaster, stayed with The Band until bassist Rick Danko passed away and the group decided to dissolve in 2000. Though The Band is no longer working together as a group, Weider has kept close ties with Levon Helm and has become a permanent member of The Levon Helm Band, taking over from guitarist Jimmy Vivino in 2009. Alongside his many accomplishments with The Band and the Levon Helm Group, Weider has also performed and recorded with such musical luminaries as Scotty Moore, Keith Richards, Dr. John and Bob Weir, just to name a few.
While his sideman credits are numerous, and prestigious, he has also made a name for himself as a bandleader, recording four albums under his own name and with his Project Percolator. His latest release, Pulse, is an instrumental album featuring the groove-orientated rock style that Weider has been exploring more and more, especially since his third release Percolator. Featuring some of the best musicians in the business, including guitarist Mitch Stein, bassist Steve Lucas and drummer Rodney Holmes, the band is cookin’ on every track, playing together like only a well-rehearsed and road-experienced band can.
Weider is at his absolute best on Pulse. The album is an emotionally charged, musical thrill-ride that reaches out and captivates the guitarist, the musician, and the music lover in the audience all at the same time. Weider’s playing is intellectually stimulating without loosing the emotional connection to his audience. Filled with strong melodies, hard-driving grooves and intense guitar work, Pulse is one of best guitar instrumental albums of 2009.
While he continues to work as a sideman, most notably with Helm’s group, Weider is keeping his focus on developing Project Percolator and moving forward with his work as a bandleader. With four strong releases already behind him the future looks bright for this master of the Telecaster.
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Matt Warnock: Your latest CD Pulse is an instrumental record. What was the inspiration behind doing an album in this manner, rather than a record with a vocalist?
Jim Weider: If you go back a little bit, the very first album I did, Bigfoot, was part instrumental and part vocal. The second album was the same thing, but leaned a bit more towards the jam stuff, and the album I did before Pulse, called Percolator, was all instrumental and groove based songs.
When I started doing my own thing I wanted to try and write myself out of that classic rock corner, that blues-classic rock corner that I was kind of in. I really wanted to get into groove orientated music. I used electronic loops to write the songs, then I had Rodney Holmes overdub the drums and Tony Levin and John Medeski also played on it. So I kind of changed my direction with the Percolator album, it’s all groove oriented music but with my blues-rock guitar style floating over the top.
Then I started touring with Tony Levin, Jesse Gress and then Mitch Stein joined up from the Steve Kimock group. He brought in a few New York musicians, because Rodney was busy at the time, but later his schedule freed up and he was able to join us. So after that tour I sat down and wrote some new music, getting ready for another record. This meant that we had been out on the road touring as Jim Weider’s Project Percolator for about three years before recording this last album.
Since we had been on the road so much, about eight of the eleven songs, or even nine of them, we had been playing live, which was really cool. We’d been touring in Europe and the U.S. and we felt really comfortable with the material. Percolator was a studio album in the way it was recorded, but Pulse is basically a live album recorded in the studio.
We went in, laid down our stage set up with our pedals and everything, then we just started tracking songs. We ended up laying down three to four takes of each song and then choose the best take. So it felt really comfortable and we ended up doing it in three days, and if people are interested, there are some videos online of that recording session that they can check out.
We really wanted to capture the vibe we had as a live band and translate that onto the recording for Pulse. When you record live in the studio, especially with the solos, you get this really great vibe going on. It’s more of a performance than an overdub. It’s time consuming to do an overdub, and then we have to get back into the vibe of the song after its done. It’s never the same as being in the same room and making music at the same time as the other guys in the band.
Matt: You mentioned the term “jam” earlier, referring to the jam band genre of music. I’m wondering how you feel about that term being used to describe your music. Some artists don’t like that term for various reasons, while others think it’s a good thing for their music. Which side of the fence do you fall on with the term jam band?
Jim: I don’t mind using that term because I think the jam band scene, there’s good and bad in every genre of music, but the jam band scene to me is one of the last vestiges of people supporting live music out there. And the fans are just avid if they latch onto you.
In the jam band scene there’s guys like Bella Fleck, who’s been doing it before it was called jam band music, and other guys that are really stretching things out. I kind of think of my music as groove-orientated rock, and some of it fits into that scene. When we play live we really stretch things out.
Matt: How different is your live show from the studio recordings as far as the length of solos and experimentation is concerned?
Jim: It’s not that much different because we recorded the tracks live in the studio. We just shortened the solo sections so that they would fit on the album, from maybe thirty-two bars live to sixteen or eight in the studio so we would leave room for enough songs on the album.
When we play live we do stretch things out, like on the tune “Man Cry” we might start things really slowly with my solo, then the drummer will come down with me, before we build things up over the length of the solo. The whole key to playing great live music is listening, especially in the jam band genre. If we’re all listening to each other on stage things work out great, so that’s what we’re always aiming to do.
Matt: You also mentioned earlier that you consider your music to be groove based, and groove-oriented rock. There are a ton of great grooves on the new record, songs like “Squirrels in Paris” are a great example. When you’re writing these types of tunes do you come up with a melody first and then add the groove or vice-versa?
Jim: For “Squirrels in Paris,” the loop that starts the tune is a percussive loop that really inspired me to come up with the chords and then the melody come later on. My producer, and co-writer John Holbrook wrote that loop and it just really inspired me to take that song further, which ended up being a track we used on the album.
Matt: Is that something that happens often in your songwriting, where the groove will inspire a chord progression or melodic line?
Jim: Sometimes. It goes two different ways when I’m writing instrumentals. I’ll hear a cool groove and then write a guitar riff to accompany it. But, for tunes like “Motivator” I came up with the riff first and then added the chords and grooves later on.
Another tune, “Release Yourself,” had a cool riff based on an A, root-fifth-root, hammer on kind of thing that I really dug. Then I went in and added the groove later on once the riff was worked out.
Matt: Speaking of your tune “Motivator,” it has a heavy funk influence to it, has funk music been a big influence in your playing over the years?
Jim: Oh yeah. Granted, I played in The Band for fifteen years and am into the roots oriented stuff, roots-rock music, rockabilly and all of that, I grew up with that music. But even when I was in The Band, and we were off the road, I would go out and play R’n'B and funk gigs.
I’m really into that Steve Cropper vibe and the Meters funk stuff, so I was doing gigs in those genres when I wasn’t out with The Band. Over the years I’ve kind of combined those funk and R’n'B influences with the Telecaster stuff that I do.
Matt: When you got into the guitar instrumental thing did you ever check out guys like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, the guys with a more hard-rock, metal thing going on?
Jim: I never really liked those guys, though I appreciated players like Eric Johnson. I listened more to guys like Lonnie Mack, and Roy Buchannan had a huge Telecaster influence on me. I come from that school of playing, playing instrumentals with the guitar.
I come from the older school of instrumentalists, and even with The Band, Levon would have me do an instrumental during the set. So I’ve always done at least some instrumentals during my live shows and recordings.
Matt: You mentioned earlier that you’ve been working with guitarist Mitch Stein for a little while now. How do you find that the two guitar line-up works in an instrumental setting, especially in the jam band genre?
Jim: We really fit together nicely. Mitch is a great player, his solos are killin’ and his rhythm playing is solid. He has a jazz background and he uses it very effectively in his playing, he’s really able to build a solo.
He’s also got a Strat so it’s a different sound than my Tele, and I think our two sounds really mesh well. I really love having two guitars in a band, especially when they play as well as Mitch can.
Matt: There are fans out that who know you from your time with The Band and the Levon Helm Band, which is one style of playing, and then there are others that know you from your instrumental projects, which is a different style of playing. Do you find that you’ve reached a point where your fans know what to expect when they see you with Levon as opposed to seeing you with your own group?
Jim: I think Percolator really broke the ice in that regard. When I put out that album, all of a sudden all of The Band and blues fans weren’t hearing that blues influenced music like they were used to. I always give the audience a Band tune, like “The Wait” which we jam out on, which I think they really enjoy hearing.
I still play my old Tele and still play my style of music. It’s still me no matter what band I’m playing in. The band is going to sound like me no matter what genre I’m playing in, it’s just that each one has its own unique twist that makes them all a bit different from each other.
Matt: You’ve become known over the years for being a Tele player, with your main axe being a ‘52 Tele. Recently some players like James Burton have started playing newer model Tele’s and putting down the older, vintage models they have used in the past. Have you ever thought of switching to a newer model instead of the ‘52?
Jim: Funny you should ask because Fender just sent me a Road-Worn Tele, and I’m using it on stage now with my group and with Levon. I like it. It’s the first new Fender guitar that I didn’t have to refret, because it comes with big frets, and there’s no finish on the neck so it feels great. I really like that guitar and so I’m taking it on the road with me these days.
Matt: There seems to be some controversy with the Road Worn series that Fender recently released, because some people don’t like the idea of having a manufactured “vintage” instrument. What are your thoughts on that idea?
Jim: Well, it doesn’t look like a real vintage guitar, they took too much finish off the neck. They kind of went overboard with that stuff, but I like it because I always tell people who buy a new Fender to take the finish off the neck and put in big frets.
It’s also great for travelling. When I go to Europe I can bring that guitar and not worry about it in transit, just get to the gig, plug it in and go. I think they might become the workhorses of the guitar industry, kind of like the Fender Blues Deville’s are for amps.
Matt: Now that you’ve moved towards doing totally instrumental music is this where you see your creative output heading in the near future?
Jim: Right now I’d like to keep exploring it and maybe expand it sonically at some point with keyboards, and really open things up more, which is what the keyboards will do. Will I add vocals, I might. We’ll have to see where my inspiration takes me when I sit down to write the next album.
Matt: Even though jam band music is sort of meant to be experienced live, because of the creative nature of the music, it seems to be suffering along with other styles because of the rise of the internet and competition from other electronic media. Do you feel that live music can survive in the new digital age in the same way it has for hundreds of years?
Jim: I think it’s a struggle these days. I think the younger musicians are just trying to find doors that will open for them, because there aren’t a lot of live venues left. The younger musicians who want to go out and play live music are having a hard time, so I feel for them.
I’m grateful for the clubs that are still supporting live music at least a few nights a week. But guys with one album, and guys with twenty albums, are all fighting for the same gigs, let alone fighting the competition that comes from the Internet and TV.
I just hope it comes around again, because there’s nothing like going to see live music and really connecting with a happening band in a way that can’t be done on an IPod.
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Links
Pulse on Amazon
Fender Road Worn ’50s Telecaster Electric Guitar 2 Tone Sunburst
