Elwood
Smith: Will Work For Beer
a
chat with Ross Rice from Rolly
Peter Aaron
Another
thing we learn about Elwood: If you like the looks of his sandwich
at lunch, get him talking about music, and an hour later, that sandwich
is YOURS, baby. “Well, I can play a little Western Swing,
and I can flatpick bluegrass guitar and plunk a little mandolin.
. . when my chops are up I can get a sort of Norman Blake thing
going.” Elwood’s interest in music began in the 40s,
while listening to WATZ, the only radio station in his hometown,
Alpena, Michigan. The station played all styles of popular music
- swing, bluegrass and country music, and Elwood soaked up the music
of Hank Williams, Bob Wills and Benny Goodman. Later on, in the
late 50s, inspired by guitarists Les Paul and George Barnes, Elwood
took a few guitar lessons with Cootch & Mabel Couture and started
adance band with pals. They knew all of 6 songs for their first
gig at the DAV hall. Ignorance was bliss.
Elwood
discovered classical music while attending art school in Chicago
and it is still his favorite musical form. “I listened to
some rock ‘n’ roll in the 50s but it never really grabbed
me. In the late 60s, when my friends were digging rock, I was obsessed
with music of the Renaissance. I built a clavichord from a kit,
which I couldn’t really play, but I could pick some John Dowland
on my 7-course lute.” Several years ago, however, an interest
in a more pop style of songwriting emerged and he took a songwriter’s
workshop with Rosanne Cash at Omega Institute. Musical help came
in the form of John Platania, (guitarist extraordinaire for Van
Morrison) whom Elwood had met through his friend, bassist Steve
Bartles. When they were recording a soundtrack for a five minutevideo
that featured Elwood’s artwork, Platania happened to be doing
some work at Paul Antonell’s Clubhouse (in Germantown at the
time, now in Rhinebeck), and he generously offered to sit in on
Elwood’s gig just for fun... Continue...
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