By Jeb
Wright
Firehouse
is known for hard rock anthems ala “Don’t Treat Me Bad” and
power ballads such as “Love of a Lifetime.” Bill Leverty is
known for his ability to play a killer solo, whether the song be
fast or slow. But is there more to his musical vocabulary than
metal or slow jams? One would never expect a member of Firehouse
to be a serious student of 19th and early 20th
century music, however, that is precisely what has happened.
Leverty,
hungry to make his third solo album, was searching for something
different. He had tackled rock on his first solo effort and
experimented with instrumental rock on his second. This time
around, he sought to stretch his own musical boundaries. His
search began by looking backwards at what were his influences
influences. He discovered an entire genre of music that he had
never before listened to. The more he listened, the more he
appreciated what the music was saying to him. He fell in love
with the music of the Deep South and decided this was the music
he wanted to pay homage to on his third solo outing.
Months
of research led to Bill selecting the songs, writing his own
arrangements of the tunes and then recording them. The result
is an album that is part Lynyrd Skynyrd, part O Brother Where
Art Thou and part Bill Leverty. Be sure to check out his
website at
www.leverty.com and learn how you can get your hands on an
truly eclectic piece of music that celebrates America’s musical
past by mixing traditional tunes with music of the modern day.
This is a unique album that will be treasured by all who seek
out the music that changed Bill Leverty’s musical identity.
Jeb:
I want to talk about Deep South. This is a very cool
album. Where did this Americana influence come from?
Bill: It
was kind of unintentional. I wanted to make a cover record this
winter because I knew that Firehouse was not going to make a
record at that time. The last solo album I did was all
instrumental. It took forever to do that. I wanted to get
something out much quicker. My initial thought was to do
Aerosmith, Van Halen and ZZ Top songs. As I started thinking
about it, I realized that had already been done many times. I
decided to go back to those bands influences. It seemed that all
their influences eventually went back to Elvis. So, I went back
to Elvis' influences, which were gospel, bluegrass and blues.
Eight out of the ten songs on this album I had never heard
before I did this album. I was asking my brother, and close
friends, for suggestions. I dug around on my own on this website
called PlayingByEar.com. The website has someone play all these
old songs on guitar and sing the melody. I actually learned a
couple of the songs on that website.
I began
getting into the whole history of where rock n' roll began. A
lot of it came from the Southern part of the United States. I
started looking for a title for the album and nothing was
hitting me. I walked up the stairs of my studio and there was an
old piece of artwork that my Grandfather had created that was
called Deep South. That was it; I had the artwork. It was
like him speaking to me. He died in 1973, so it was kind of cool
to use his artwork. His name was also Bill Leverty. It was
paying homage to the music of the late 1800's and early 1900's
and my grandfather. I remember, when I was a small child,
watching him roll ink onto a piece of wood he had been working
on and pulling back a piece of paper to reveal a picture.
Jeb:
The Grateful Dead remade “Sampson and Delilah.” I love that
song.
Bill: My
brother told me that. I didn't follow the Dead so I didn't know
that. He told me to check into that song. I loved it and I
thought the story was really cool. I couldn't believe that I had
not heard that before.
Jeb:
As a music fan, what did you learn going back over a hundred
years and discovering this music?
Bill: I
learned that a lot of the issues that people were singing about
then are still relevant today. A lot of the feelings of
hardships we are feeling today are much the same as what they
felt about the family farm and the boll weevil. Our boll weevil
might be the auto industry but we both have feelings about what
is going on, economically.
I am
Irish and a lot of the immigrants that came over brought a
fiddle and an acoustic guitar. Over the course of a couple of
hundred years, that became what we call bluegrass. I hear a lot
of the same chord inversions and harmonies. A lot of bluegrass
is an Irish music that has been rewritten and changed around. I
think blues spawned off of that, as well as gospel. I was not
familiar with much of that at all, but I have a great
appreciation now.
Jeb:
What hooked you? The lyrics or the music?
Bill: It
was more the music but the lyrics were what really sold me on
them. I liked the songs that were written in the minor keys from
that era. A lot of the songs back then were ragtime and that
does not translate into my style. They were also doing a lot of
parade songs and wartime songs that didn't fit well for what I
thought I could pull off. I searched for the minor keys and they
were few and far between, but they struck me lyrically and
melodically. I tried to take the lyric and the melody and then
start over with my own guitar riff and then build it up from
there.
Jeb:
Most of these songs were not written by accomplished musicians.
A lot was written in rural areas in the deep south. Did you gain
any respect for their songwriting?
Bill:
Lyrically, they were brilliant. These lyrics are still cool over
a hundred years later. That to me, in itself, is a miracle. Most
lyrics are time stamped from what was going on at the time when
they were written, but these are not that way. I don't know if
they knew they were doing that or if it just worked out that
way. Melodically, these songs are the foundation of blues,
country and rock. The intervals between the root, the third and
the fifth are timeless. I had never heard anything like that
before.
"Man of
Constant Sorry" I heard when my brother gave a version done with
Alison Krauss’ guitar player. I had not heard of him a year ago
and now he is one of my favorites. I wanted to do that song, so
I cleaned the guitar tone up that I usually do, and came up with
my own riff. I finished it and I didn't let anyone know what I
was going to do. I played it for a friend of mine and he told me
that it was a big hit in that movie O Brother Where Art Thou.
I had never seen the movie. I decided that I needed to be more
careful of the songs I chose. It also told me that I needed to
listen to the radio and watch TV so I would know what was going
on. I was living in a shell just playing guitar.
Jeb:
How do you get this music out to the people?
Bill: I
have no idea. I put the art first and the marketing second. I am
coming to realize that I am really not very good at marketing. I
will say that I am still listening to this album. I love every
song on it as if they were my own and I didn't write any of it.
That is a first for me. It was a great learning experience to
learn from other writers. I was able to get out of my own
comfort zone and that helped me grow as an artist. I have no
idea how to market this music. It is rock music with the flavors
of other kinds of music. I am just thankful that Classic Rock
Revisited is talking to me about it. Everybody that has heard it
really loves it. Not one person has said that they really didn't
care for it. What do you think I should do?
Jeb:
It is for the diehard music fan. I think a lot of the jam band
crowd would like this as well as the rock fan.
Bill: To
me, it is classic rock sounding and I really want people to hear
it.
Jeb:
Did you have to work to keep this true to your vision? Did you
find yourself playing the in the hard rock style?
Bill: I
tried to do what the song called for. If the song didn't call
for me to crank the amp up and get the distortion that I love,
then I didn't do it. If the song called for all acoustic
instruments, then that is all I used. I stuck with that.
Thankfully, in keeping to that decision, I learned what it is
like to mix a dobro, a 12-string acoustic, a mandolin and a
Fender Telecaster together. It was very different than a bunch
of Marshall amps, with a loud bass, pounding drums and a
screaming vocal. I still love that stuff but I just want to
learn more. Instead of getting a diploma, I got a CD. I just
hope other people want to check it out.
Jeb:
I would have guessed that there was some place in your past that
you loved this kind of music. I think the fact that you didn't,
and you searched it out, makes this story even cooler.
Bill: I
love "Curtis Lowe" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I get goose bumps when I
listen to that song because it is so genuine and real. I love "Workin'
For the MCA" too. I would love to be an artist like that. I
would love to do a broader range of stuff. I am known for a more
narrow focus. By opening my heart, mind and ears to some other
people, it has helped me to learn so much more about music.
Jeb:
I told someone that it was like Lynyrd Skynyrd playing the
soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou.
Bill:
That is the nicest thing that you could have said. I would love
to use that as a quote. I would love to say that but it would
sound like I was bragging.
Jeb:
My last one is this: Are there plans to play this live?
Bill: I
don't have any plans to play this live. Firehouse is not only my
livelihood, it is also my best friends' livelihood. My best
friends are my band and crew. We all make a living by doing
Firehouse full time. It would be really selfish of me to play
this live, instead of Firehouse. It would be a lot of work to
put a band together and rehearse this to the point where we
could take it out and play it live and do it justice. My side
projects are just that; side projects. I just do them for fun. I
have played a couple of gigs as a solo artist but they have all
been for charity for a local children’s hospital. I played to
backing tracks on my iPod, that I ran through the PA and I
helped them raise some money that way. It didn't interfere as
Firehouse at all.
Jeb:
Would you consider playing some of these solo with an acoustic
and open for Firehouse?
Bill: I
don't know how many of these songs would sound good enough for
me to do just with an acoustic guitar and a vocal. Maybe "Rain
and Snow" but it is such a slow song that I might put people to
sleep. I had never heard that song before either but I love it
now. I would want to do the song justice and without the harmony
it wouldn't work. My wife sings harmony on it.
I have
to tell you about "Hit the Road Jack." I needed a harmony vocal
on that song while I was rehearsing it. I said to my wife,
"Honey, come down here and put a scratch vocal here where the
female voice goes 'hit the road Jack.'" After she sang it, I
lifted up my eyebrow and said, "I didn't know you could sing
like that." I had a few female vocalists in the studio but my
wife was better. I know I am biased, but she knocked it out of
the park. I played the song for my brother and he asked me, "Did
you just lift the female vocals off the record?" I told him that
was my wife. He said he was for sure I had sampled it. "Rain and
Snow" features a high harmony that was too high for me to do
without straining, so I asked her to sing that one too and she
knocked it out of the park. But that is to my point that I
couldn’t do this live with just a solo vocal and guitar and do
it any justice. I just couldn't do that.
Jeb:
I hate to see good music not played live.
Bill: I
would love to one day, but as of now, there are no plans to do
it live. If anything happens with Firehouse then I will have a
body of work outside of Firehouse that I can put together and
perform. My first solo album is more rock and the second one is
instrumental and is very much influenced by Jeff Beck, who I
think is the greatest rock guitarist alive.
Jeb:
What are the plans for Firehouse?
Bill: We
plan on writing and recording a record this winter. This summer
we are out on the road. We fly out on the weekends, play, and
then come home during the week. We are weekend warriors and then
we are back with our families during the week.
Jeb:
That is very different than the old days.
Bill:
Instead of the bus company making all of the money, the airlines
are making all of the money. Oddly enough, it is not as
expensive to travel by air as it is to travel by bus. I have to
catch a six o'clock in the morning flight, which means that I
have to get up at three-thirty in the morning. If I were on the
bus then I wouldn’t be going to bed until three-thirty. We are
dead tired by the time we hit the stage but you wouldn't know
it. The adrenalin kicks in and you feel great. After the show,
however, you feel like a piece of lead.
Jeb:
Are you still managing Firehouse?
Bill:
Our last manager did nothing but collect his commission. I told
the band that I would do it and I told them what I would do it
for, which was nothing. I was the tour manager and I booked our
flights and everything. It was nonstop work during the week and
then we were flying out on the weekends. They don't make the
flight schedules around the rock n' roll lifestyle.
One
weekend, we were playing with Skynyrd and Peter Frampton and I
couldn't get any flights out other than 5:40am. You don't hear
about it at the time because you are booking your tickets six
weeks in advance so you can get the cheap prices. The day
before, however, I tell the guys that we have to be at the
airport at 4:30 in the morning, so we have to leave the hotel by
4:00. They all go, "You are not doing right by us. Why did you
book that flight." It was always the same complaint.
We are
checking into our flight and in walks Lynyrd Skynyrd. I tell the
guys, "See, their travel agent is no better than yours." Just as
I said that, in walks Peter Frampton. We were all on the same
flight. I said, "Can I at least get a pat on the back for being
as good as Peter Frampton and Lynyrd Skynyrd." They shut up for
a while, until the next early flight, and then I heard the same
thing. It is just like a broken record. I resigned from that
duty a year and a half ago. I can't do it anymore. I wanted to
see my family and my wife. We hired a guy who is our tour
manager and our travel agent. I do the accounting. I have a good
balance going on in my life now.
CHECK OUT DEEP SOUTH AT WWW.LEVERTY.COM
