DIY acoustic icon Ani DiFranco reveals how her new Magnatone tremolo addiction, Americana legend Pete Seeger, and her newfound ability to relax inspired the album of her career
Photo by Rosa Paolicelli
Though some may not subscribe to the frequently heavy and political lyrical themes in her songsāsheās an avid commentator on political ironies/hypocrisies and issues ranging from racism to poverty and sexual equalityāfew could fault her stalwart refusal to let any corporation dictate what, when, where, why, how, and with whom she records. And no matter what you think of DiFrancoās worldviews, only the crustiest of curmudgeons could slight her instrumental verve and inventiveness. Though she mostly plays acoustic and insists, āI donāt really have what it takes to get off on hard rock or amped-up music,ā her driving acoustic work is mind-bogglingly intricateāespecially for someone who also handles vocal duties. Famous for its alternate-tuning adventurousness and a percussive attack thatās influenced as much by funk bass playing as it is folk, world music, and jazz, DiFrancoās playing is rife with hammer-ons, pull-offs, snaps, and popsāall amplified through a multi-signal rig that includes pro-audio outboard gear, a wah pedal, a Rivera combo, and, more recently, a ā60s Magnatone Twilighter tube amp that her husband and producer, Mike Napolitano, got her hooked on.
We recently spoke to DiFranco about her inner guitar nerd and how playing at protest legend Pete Seegerās 90th birthday in 2009 impacted her upcoming release, ĀæWhich Side Are You On? (in stores January 17)āthe first album she truly feels is an accurate reflection of who she is as a guitarist and songwriter.
Youāre a hero to a lot of musicians and everyday people because of your courage to stand up not only for yourself but also for big causesāyouāre kind of a thorn in the side of The Man, really. But we thought itād be fun to mostly set aside that stuff and talk to Ani DiFranco the guitar nerd. How is your inner guitar nerd these days?
[Laughs.] Pretty good, pretty good. I have some new guitars in my stable these days. I have a new baritone that Iām playing onstage. Iām not touring with the other new instruments Iāve gotābut Iāve been recording with them. Iāve been playing Alvarez guitars pretty much my whole career, and theyāve served me really well. The company has been a great friend to me and has designed guitars for me along the way, including this new baritone that Iāve been playing and really lovingāand I think a lot of my stage sound is very related to those instruments and their strengths. I evolved my stage sound very much in relation to the Alvarez guitars that Iāve been playing. But more recently itās been very exciting, because Iāve gotten into other instruments, too. I got an old Martin D-28 and an old Gibson.
Is that the dark-sunburst archtop youāve been playing in some videos that are online?
No, thatās a tenor guitar. I have several 4-string Gibson tenors from the ā60s that I play onstage, and on āZooā and āĀæWhich Side Are You On?ā from the new album.
Which songs did you use the Martin D-28 on?
I used that on āMariachiā and āUnworry.ā I also got a little handmade parlor guitarāitās got no discernible manufacturer, and weāre not sure how old it is. Itās simply got a name carved in the face of it: āTed.ā So I call it Ted [laughs]. Itās just this little, beat-up thing that my husband found for me years ago when we were first dating. It needed a lot of work, and finally a few years back we brought it to a luthier and got it up and running. Itās just a beautiful sound. When I play it, I suddenly feel Brazilian or somethingāthereās just something rich and organic about it. It takes a lighter touch, though. Onstage, I tend to beat guitars to a pulp, but in the studio I take the opportunity to be more subtle.
āAniās new baritone guitar is a custom Alvarez made after several consultations between her, myself, and Chrys Johnson, who was an artist rep for Alvarez at the time. It has their System 600 preamp and has all solid woodsāa cedar top, mahogany back and sides, and an ebony fretboard. It has a Masterworks [Alvarezās top-of-the-line series] mini jumbo body, and is 25.5" scale but is set up as a baritone. Its voice is superior to any of the other baritones she hasāitās very rich and requires very little EQ onstage.ā
Iād been searching for an acoustic baritone that I could play onstage to get a huge, warm sound without feedback. And not only big and warm on the bottom, but yāknow, magnetic pickups are not the loveliest, so itās also an absence of that magnetic-y, high-end sound. But the new baritone has a longer neck and a somewhat bigger body than my standard 6-strings.
What other new gear discoveries have you made?
Playing is 90 percent your fingers, but a nice amp makes a big difference from a shitty amp [laughs], and the same goes for a nice guitar and a shitty guitarāeven just on the level that itās more inspiring to work with. My husband turned me on to Magnatone Twilighter amplifiers from the ā60s. I donāt know when they stopped manufacturing these things, but onstage and in the studio I tend to mic the acoustic guitar, take a direct signal, and also put it through sometimes two amplifiersāone for crunchier distortion and one for a cleaner and often tremoloād sound. Then I mix them all together in various amounts to get the sound that Iām looking for in each song.
What is it about the Twilighter that youāre liking so much?
It has what you would call genuine vibrato. Yāknow, when you see vibrato on a guitar amp, itās usually just volume fluctuation, but the Twilighter actually bends pitch.
Is that whatās making the rotary-speaker-type sound on āSplinterā and āAlbacoreā?
Yeah. In fact, youāre hearing it really on most of the guitars on most of the songs [laughs]āand then also on many other instruments. Many things got plugged into the Magnatone on this record.
What other amps did you use besides the Magnatone?
Rivera gave me an amp many years ago, and Iāve been playing it live and in the studio often. It breaks up really wellāespecially for live purposes. I really drive it hard on the front end, because I mix it in just a little bit with the direct sound. I need just a little crunchy flavor in there.
Given how you use so many different signals live and in the studio, is it hard to dial in your sound?
Onstage and in the studio, I do a lot of EQ-ing. A lot of it is taking away all the high endābecause that magnetic-pickup high end isnāt a nice sound. So, pretty much above 6 kHz, I start sloping my guitars quite radically. On the bottom end, I push 63 Hz, 80 Hz, and 100 Hz, if I can get away with it. Thatās where I like my guitars to live, because thatās what I think of when I think of an acoustic guitar sound, whereas some people do the opposite.
Do you use acoustic EQ-ing gear or pro-audio outboard gear?
Outboard gear, yeah. I have a graphic EQ inserted on each guitar. So I travel with a monitor rig that includes a case thatās all graphic EQs. I rotate six guitars onstage, and each of them has their own multiband EQ.
Photo: Patti Perret
No. For a bunch of years now, Iāve been doing the same thing, which is using really thick fake nails. Thereās one brand called Nailene thatās ridiculously thickāso thick that I donāt see how any woman would use them as fashion nails. Theyāre twice or three times the thickness of a regular human nail, so theyāre just these wedges of plastic that you super-glue on. I also use electrical tape down to my second knuckle to give added reinforcement to the nail. If it pops off, live, at least it wonāt go flying and I can glue it real quick between songsāwe have this super-fast-setting super glueāand the tape also protects my skin.
What kind of glue do you use?
It varies. Iāll use the Nailene glue or just straight-up super glue or whateverās available.
Letās move on to playing and songwriting. Whatās the biggest mistake made by guitar junkies whoāre also singer-songwriters?
I started out very much as a songwriter with stuff I wanted to say, and the guitar was the vehicle to say it with, as opposed to the other way around. So I became a guitar player second. But there are many ways to skin a cat. For any artistāand any person, reallyāitās more about knowing yourself and accepting your strengths and weaknesses and working with them instead of trying to work against them or trying to be something youāre not.
Even though you started out as a songwriter, you pursued more esoteric guitar directions than most singer-songwriters do: You play nonstandard tunings and use a lot of hammer-ons and tapping techniques. Why do you think that is?
Well, freedom was a big factor for me in a lot of waysāand one of the ways is just freedom from knowledge [laughs]. Yāknow, ignorance is liberating. I took some guitar lessons when I was very young, and that gave me a pretty cool basis, I think, but I didnāt take it very far. So most of the way that I play just comes from my own sense of invention and expression. I think if Iād known a few more of the rules along the way, then maybe I wouldāve been caught between whether to follow them or not. Somebody showed me DADGAD when I was a young girl, but that was sort of the one tiny little introduction I had to open tunings, and from there I just invented them all by myself. When you spend so much time with an instrument, the curiosity of turning the pegs is inescapable. It was like, āIf this is your palette of colors, what kinds of shapes does your hand make and what kinds of voicings and chord flavors naturally happen?ā Open tunings were just something I pursued out of my own creative drive. And the sort of percussive attack with which I play just came out of years of playing in bars and being my own rhythm section.
What excited you most about recording your new album, ĀæWhich Side Are You On?
I guess taking my time, which is a new thing for me. I mean, Iāve made 20-some recordsāand most of them very quickly. Iāve been in a big hurry my whole lifeāit was always, āGet it out there, and keep going, and make a new record, and change, and reinvent yourself ā¦.ā Thatās just sort of my personalityāto plow forth. About five years ago, I had a baby, and thatāand, I guess, just getting older in generalāchanged the whole pace of my life. I donāt move at quite the clip that I used to. So this new record I spent over two years working on, and I think it shows. In the past, Iāve been too willing to just hit record and move on. Now I make a recording and then, six months or a year later, I might say, āThatās too slowā or too this or too that. My husband is very helpful for me in that area, because he doesnāt settle. A lot of what I do these days is, Iāll take my usual guitar and plug it into my usual amps and stand there and go, āOkay, Iām ready.ā But heāll say, āMmm, yeah, thatās not the best sound.ā He slows me down and helps me pursue better sounds, better performances, and better production. So itās been really cool at this point in my life to have hit a whole new stride in the studio, where Iām making better representations of my songs for posterity. Which makes me feel good, because Iāve always loved my songs along the wayātheyāve always been this incredibly powerful presence in my life that has connected me to so many peopleābut Iāve always hated my recordings, because they were always haphazard and not enough of them were successful representations. So I feel like Iām upping my average of successful recordings, and that feels good.
It sounds like you used standard tuning quite a bit more this time around?
Yeah, thatās been happening. The economic recession is affecting all of us in our own way, so Iāve been doing a lot of downscaling with my touring operation. Iāve been travelling solo for the last year, actually, with a crew of four peopleāwhereas at one point I mightāve had 12 people. So that makes me instinctually want to be self-sufficient, in case I have to be. Maybe someday Iām going to be touring alone again, or with one person, or no guitar tech. So the tactical side of my nature that has guided me through my whole career has been steering me back toward standard tuning, just in case Iām also my own guitar tech again someday. I had a little exercise last year. I got a local gig at this bar in New Orleans, where I live, every couple of weeks for a few months. It was something I hadnāt done in a long time, and it got me back to basics. It was just me and my husband showing up for the gig. I was huffing my stuff in, doing shows with three guitars. I was tuning my guitars and setting my stuff upājust to prove to myself that I can still do it. So my drifting back toward standard tuning is all about self-sufficiencyāor making sure thatās possible again, at least.
Do you miss playing in all the altered tunings?
Yeah, I love altered tunings. But they really do set you up for failure onstage. Youāve got to be good at tuning, and youāve got to be quick if you want to do it without a guitar tech. And being able to talk and tune at the same time is helpfulāthatās more difficult than it should be, because I have lots of tunings. Iāll discover a tuning I like, and then Iāll write a handful of songs either in that tuning or in that tuning familyāwith slight variations on this string or that stringāso itās hard to even remember what the hell they are, especially when youāre alone onstage and confronted with an audience. So itās a bit of a brain twister that Iām sure people without guitar techs could do without.
Have you had to drastically modify your set list around that, or have you tried to adapt some of your songs to standard tuning?
Well, the set list evolves organically. I always want to play the new stuff, because thatās where my heart and spleen are these days, and then I sprinkle in the old stuffāwhich could be two years old or 20 years old. At this point, Iāve been writing since I was 19, and Iām 41. So I know that if I just generate more songs in standard tuning, then the set list will be steered in that direction, and then itāll be less wrenching the guitars around all night long. But when I play live with my guitar tech these days, Iām still all over the place.
Tell me about having Pete Seeger in the studio for āĀæWhich Side Are You On?ā
That was a song I learned to play for his 90th birthday celebration, which was this big party/benefit at Madison Square Garden a few years back. So I got the job of playing āĀæWhich Side Are You On?ā with Bruce Cockburn, and āThereās a Hole in the Bucketā with Kris Kristofferson. On [the new version of] āĀæWhich Side,ā I couldnāt help but update the verses a littleāor a lot, as it were, because thatās the folk process, and Iām a folk singer. Ever since that event, Iāve been including that song in my shows. Since I essentially rewrote the song, itās become sort of my standard rabble-rousing show closer of late. Over the years of making this record, it just kind of sifted its way to the top and became the title because it evolved into a very political record. Itās a very poignant political time that weāre living in, and thatās just the direction this record went in. Having Pete join me on the recording was kind of a full-circle experience for my relationship with this song.
How did you approach him about it?
I called him up and said, āPete, Iām recording this song that you recorded, yāknow, back in 1953. Would you please join me on it?ā He immediately says, āHang on,ā and he puts the phone down and jumps up and goes and grabs his banjo. He comes back to the phone and heās so full of energy and passion, and heās like, āSo are you doing the this version or that version ⦠ā and heās sending me various versions of the lyrics and this and that, and really getting involved as only Pete will do. Anyway, we ended up rendezvousing in Hudson, New York, at the Beacon Sloop Club there on the Hudson River, which is sort of the gathering place of the Clearwater [environmental advocacy] organization. We rode up one afternoon with some remote recording gear, and he rode up alone in his carāheās 91 or 92 at this point. He drives up, pulls his banjo out of the backāāNo, thank you, donāt need help carrying itāno one touches my banjo!āāstrolls on in, and, basically, in about two takes, recorded the intro to the song. Itās pretty similar to his 1953 recording. We got him playing and singing all the way through, and we had about five or 10 minutes to do this session before an unannounced childrenās singing group that does progressive folk songs comes in to do their rehearsals. So, next thing you know, thatās happening and Pete is joining in with them and leading them. We ended up recording all the kids on the chorus, as well, and then we were out of there.
Session Guitarist Adam Levy on Tracking ĀæWhich Side Are You On?
āI first played with Ani in 2009 at Town Hall in New York City. Weād met before through mutual friends, but never jammed together. My pal Gaby Morenoāwho was opening for Ani thenāasked me to play with her that night. Hanging out backstage after Gabyās soundcheck, Ani asked if Iād sit in on āĀæWhich Side Are You On?ā She didnāt say exactly what she wanted me to do, but she has a way of instilling a sense of trustāas if to say, āI know youāre going to kick ass, and I am, too. Here we go!ā
āA few months later, Ani asked me to play on her ĀæWhich Side Are You On? sessionsāand I was thrilled. She sent me several demos so I could learn the songs. Again, she didnāt tell me exactly what she wanted. I figured weād sort it out when I to got to New Orleans with my Gibson ES-335, and we did. Iād tune into her vocal and react to that, or her guitar part. Sometimes Iād try to weave in between. The things I played and the tones I gotāit was all spontaneous and raw, someplace between jazz and rock ānā roll.ā
Adam is such a great player, and heās a friend of many friends of mine in New York, so Iāve known him for years. I think it was about two years ago that I was playing at Town Hall in New York, and he was in town so I invited him down to sit in for a few songs. He sat in on āĀæWhich Side Are You On?ā and another song, and he just slayed it, so I just had the idea that itād be nice to have an electric guitar and a different approach to play off of my type of guitar playing. So I invited him down to my home studio in New Orleans for two days, and we just pulled up basically everything on the record and had him have a go at the whole record to see what stuck.
Did you give him artistic free rein or did you give him some direction?
If Iād had my druthers, I wouldāve just hit record and he wouldāve just played from his spleen like we did onstage. But in the studio, he was looking to me for more direction. My instinct, especially as I get older, is that I prefer to work with talented, mature musicians, and tell them next to nothing. Tell them as little as I can, and just try to have everybody bring their full selves to the table. Because, often, if Iām trying to make somebody play what I hear, thereās a compromise that happens, rather than somebodyās full vision be at evidence. I try to tell Adam and everyone on the record as little as possible.
Speaking of electric, you played electric on āIf YR Not,ā but you donāt play it much. Why?
Itās just a very different beastāespecially the way I have my acoustic guitars set up. All the guitar players I know, when they come to my house and pick up my acoustics, theyāre, like, āArg! What the hellāI canāt play this!ā I have the highest action ever.
Because you play really hard?
Yeah. I detune the strings a lot with these open tunings, and then I just play really hard. So, with a normal level of action, you get a lot of buzzing and you canāt play as aggressively as I do. So an electric guitar takes a much lighter touch, and thatās just sort of the antithesis of the way I play. Over the years of playing and going deeper into that sort of high-action, very aggressive, pulling-and-snapping acoustic technique, I just get further and further from being able to even tolerate an electric guitar.
Do you remember which electric you played on that song [āIf YR Notā]?
It was one of our old [hollowbody] Gibsons, but I canāt remember the exact model. That one was tricky to record. Mike, my husband, was at the helm, and again and again, heād say, āMmmmā¦thatās not a cool enough sound.ā Originally, I tracked it with my acoustic running through amps, and heās like, āMeh ā¦.ā Eventually, we arrived at the take thatās on the recording, and that seemed to satisfy him in terms of cool guitar tones. I think what I used was a tape ampālike, a little reel-to-reel tape recorder that he uses to get a really badass distorted sound. I donāt even understand it ⦠itās like, you go into this tape recorder and come back out of it, and it amplifies your guitar sound ā¦
Thatās supposedly how the Stones got that cool acoustic sound on āStreet Fighting Manā ā¦
Thatās right. Mike has had one of those things around for a while, and he pulls it out when he needs that badass crunch from the bad old days.
What album might fans of yours be surprised to know you own?
I donāt know if it would surprise anybody, but when I listen to music at home, itās by and large jazz, world music, or super hardcore folk and roots musicāoh, and funk. Thereās so much great music in New Orleans, and Iām in love with it all. I generally donāt get into pop music, and I guess I donāt really have what it takes to get off on hard rock or amped-up music. Iām more chill, I guess.
Looking ahead, is there any area in which youād really like to improve as a musician?
Yeah. X is singing, and Y is guitar [laughs]. I mean, I would love to get better at a lot of things. I would love to really learn how to play piano, which Iāve wanted to do my whole lifeāand I still talk about taking lessons. But, in the meantime, the fact that Iāve done this thingāplaying acoustic guitar and singingāfor so many years, itās kind of become second nature to me. And thatās something Iām so grateful forāthe fact that Iāve gotten so deep with one instrument that itās an extension of my body. And that means that Iām less lonely when Iām lonely, Iām less sad when Iām sad, because I have this tool to release all of that from my body. My relationship with my guitarāand also with my voiceāis really sacred to me. I feel like it has an infinite depth to it. Like, Iāve been doing this for 20 years, and I feel like Iāve only begun to learn how to play and sing. More recently, especially after becoming a parent and having lots of shifts go on in my personal lifeāgetting older, getting humblerāI feel like Iām evolving in my playing and singing because of that. I feel like thereās a depth that Iām able to achieve onstage these days that I wasnāt able to achieve even three or five years ago. And I sort of feel like that will probably never end. So, really, I just want to keep going down these roads and see how deep I can go.
For years, youāve sort of been the poster girl for DIY musicians. Having done this for a while, what would you say are the most important things for indie musicians to keep in mindāand has your approach changed over the years?
Well, I think the most important thing that I would say to keep in mind is whyāwhy do you make music? Especially in todayās world, where weāve had so many generations of young people whoāve been steered into making money as an end in itself, or āsuccessā being an end in itselfāto sell millions of records and be rich and famous. That may or may not happen to a musician. Probably not. But still, you can have a great, lifelong career in music without that. Iām probably an example of that. Maybe Iām more rich and famous than most [musicians are likely to be], but all around me in the folk and roots world are long and fruitful careers that donāt really end up in fame but are just playing music as a jobāwhich I think is a great, great privilege.
My music has brought me all over the world, itās brought me incredible adventures, itās brought me incredible friends and connections with other musicians. Itās brought me to places like Burma, on the other side of the world, where I went with a political delegation and some other musicians. We went deep into the jungle, where these people were hiding from a very violent and oppressive regime, fighting for democracyāand risking their lives to do so. They were living in these brutal conditions. Theyād fled their villages and homeland. There was a lot of ethnic cleansing going on. And we go, and weāre these rich, white Americans, coming from the complete, opposite world. We show up in this place to learn and observe, and you can imagine the distance, the chasm between those people and us, which existed for many good reasons. And then we would sit down and, through a translator, we would have a conversation with the village leaders. And then their children would stand up and sing. As soon as the children started singing, the atmosphere loosened. And then we pulled out the guitar that we brought with us, and passed it around. It was me and Damien Rice, the Irish singer-songwriter, and the minute he and I started singing, we were all family. I could cry just telling you about it: There was suddenly no difference between the rich, white, privileged people and these incredibly oppressed, third-world, you-couldnāt-understand-our-suffering-if-you-tried people. The minute we made music together and we opened up our mouths and sang, that distance disappeared entirely. It was such a powerful example to me of why we play musicāto connect with each other, to make family with people we donāt even know. And as long as you can continue to be inspired by that process, by the real meaning of art, then the fame and fortune will or will not work itself out. Itās insignificant compared to what youāre doing and why.
Ani DiFrancoās Gear
Guitars
Two Alvarez-Yairi WY1 Bob Weir signature acoustics with Alvarez System 500 preamps, Alvarez-Yairi DY62C with Alvarez System 600 preamp, Alvarez MSD1 short-scale dreadnought, custom Alvarez baritone, vintage Martin D-28, 1930s Gibson-made Cromwell tenor guitar with Fishman archtop pickup, vintage Epiphone Zenith tenor guitar, āTedā parlor guitar of unknown make
Outboard Gear
Klark Teknik DN360 rackmount analog graphic EQs for each guitar (live)
Amps
1960s Magnatone Twilighter 260 2x12 combo, Rivera Sedona 15 combo
Strings
DāAddario EJ16 and EJ17 sets, DāAddario phosphor-bronze sets (.070, .056, .042, .032, .024, .016) for C-to-C-tuned baritone
YouTube It
At a 2007 gig, DiFranco rouses an enthusiastic crowd with a wah pedal and snapping and popping techniques so ferocious theyād wow Victor Wooten.
Backed by a stellar pianist and horn section, DiFranco gets infectiously funky at a 2000 House of Blues gig in Orlando, Florida.
At this April 2011 date in London, DiFranco thumps one of her new Alvarez baritone guitars through a Vox AC30 and what appears to be a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier half-stack.
In challenging times, sometimes elemental music, like the late Jessie Mae Hemphillās raucous Mississippi hill country blues, is the best salve. It reminds us of whatās truly essentialāāmusically, culturally, and emotionally. And provides a restorative and safe place, where we can open up, listen, and experience without judgement. And smile.
Iāve been prowling the backroads, juke joints, urban canyons, and VFW halls for more than 40 years, in search of the rawest, most powerful and authentic American music. And among the many things Iāve learned is that whatās more interesting than the music itself is the people who make it.
One of the most interesting people Iāve met is the late Jessie Mae Hemphill. By the time my wife, Laurie Hoffma, and I met Jessie Mae, on a visit to her trailer in Senatobia, Mississippi, sheād had a stroke and retired from performing, but weād been fortunate to see her years before at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival, where she brought a blues style that was like quiet thunder, rumbling with portent and joy and ache, and all the other stuff that makes us human, sung to her own droning, rocking accompaniment on an old Gibson ES-120T.
To say she was from a musical family is an understatement. Her grandfather, Sid, was twice recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. While Sid played fiddle, banjo, guitar, harmonica, keyboards, and more, he was best known as the leader of a fife-and-drum band that made music that spilled directly from Africaās main artery. Sid was Jessie Maeās teacher, and she learned well. In fact, you can see her leading her own fife-and-drum group in Robert Muggeās wonderful documentary Deep Blues(with the late musician and journalist Robert Palmer as on-screen narrator), where she also performs a mournful-but-hypnotic song about betrayalāsolo, on guitarāin Junior Kimbroughās juke joint.
That movie, a 1982 episode of Mr. Rogersā Neighborhood (on YouTube) where she appears as part of Othar Turnerās Gravel Springs fife-and-drum band, and worldwide festival appearances are as close as Jessie Mae ever got to fame, although that was enough to make her important and influential to Bonnie Raitt, Cat Power, and others. And she made two exceptional albums during her lifetime: 1981ās She-Wolf and 1990ās Feelinā Good. If youāre unfamiliar with North Mississippi blues, their sound will be a revelation. The style, as Jessie Mae essayed it, is a droning, hypnotic joy that bumps along like a freight train full of happily rattling box cars populated by carefree hobos. Often the songs ride on one chord, but that chord is the only one thatās needed to put the musicās joy and conviction across. Feelinā Good, in particular, is essential Jessie Mae. Even the songs about heartbreak, like āGo Back To Your Used To Beā and āShame on You,ā have a propulsion dappled with little bends and other 6-string inflections that wrap the listener in a hypnotic web. Listening to Feelinā Good, itās easy to disappear in the music and to have all your troubles vanish as wellāfor at least as long as its 14 songs last.āShe made it clear that she had a gunāa .44 with a pearl handle that took up the entire length of her handbag.ā
The challenge Iāve long issued to people unfamiliar with Jessie Maeās music is: āListen to Feelinā Good and then tell me if youāre not feeling happier, more cheerful, and relaxed.ā It truly does, as the old clichĆ© would have it, make your backbone slip and your troubles along with it. Especially uptempo songs like the scrappy title track and the charging āStreamline Train.ā Thereās also an appealing live 1984 performance of the latter on YouTube, with Jessie Mae decked out in leopard-print pants and vest, playing a tambourine wedged onto her left high-heel shoeāāone of her stylish signatures.
Jessie Mae was a complex person, caught between the old-school dilemma of playing āthe Devilās musicā and yearning for a spiritual life, sweet as pecan pie with extra molasses but quick to turn mean at any perceived slight. She also spent much of her later years in poverty, in a small trailer with a hole in the floor where mice and other critters got in. And she was as mistrustful of strangers as she was warm once she accepted you into her heart. But watch your step before she did. On our first visit to her home, she made it clear that she had a gunāa .44 with a pearl handle that took up the entire length of her handbag and would make Dirty Harry envious.
Happily, she took us into her heart and we took her into ours, helping as much as we could and talking often. She was inspiring, and I wrote a song about her, and even got to perform it for her in her trailer, which was just a little terrifying, since I knew she would not hold back her criticism if she didn't like it. Instead, she giggled like a kid and blushed, and asked if Iād write one more verse about the artifacts sheād gathered while touring around the world.
Jessie Mae died in 2006, at age 82, and, as happens when every great folk artist dies, we lost many songs and stories, and the wisdom of her experience. But you can still get a whiff of all thatāāif you listen to Feelinā Good.
This legendary vintage rack unit will inspire you to think about effects with a new perspective.
When guitarists think of effects, we usually jump straight to stompboxesātheyāre part of the culture! And besides, footswitches have real benefits when your hands are otherwise occupied. But real-time toggling isnāt always important. In the recording studio, where weāre often crafting sounds for each section of a song individually, thereās little reason to avoid rack gear and its possibilities. Enter the iconic Eventide H3000 (and its massive creative potential).
When it debuted in 1987, the H3000 was marketed as an āintelligent pitch-changerā that could generate stereo harmonies in a user-specified key. This was heady stuff in the ā80s! But while diatonic harmonizing grabbed the headlines, subtler uses of this pitch-shifter cemented its legacy. Patch 231 MICROPITCHSHIFT, for example, is a big reason the H3000 persists in racks everywhere. Itās essentially a pair of very short, single-repeat delays: The left side is pitched slightly up while the right side is pitched slightly down (default is ±9 cents). The resulting tripling/thickening effect has long been a mix-engineer staple for pop vocals, and itās also my first call when I want a stereo chorus for guitar.
The second-gen H3000S, introduced the following year, cemented the deviceās guitar bona fides. Early-adopter Steve Vai was such a proponent of the first edition that Eventide asked him to contribute 48 signature sounds for the new model (patches 700-747). Still-later revisions like the H3000B and H3000D/SE added even more functionality, but these days itās not too important which model you have. Comprehensive EPROM chips containing every patch from all generations of H3000 (plus the later H3500) are readily available for a modest cost, and are a fairly straightforward install.
In addition to pitch-shifting, there are excellent modulation effects and reverbs (like patch 211 CANYON), plus presets inspired by other classic Eventide boxes, like the patch 513 INSTANT PHASER. A comprehensive accounting of the H3000ās capabilities would be tedious, but suffice to say that even the stock presets get deliciously far afield. There are pitch-shifting reverbs that sound like fever-dream ancestors of Strymonās āshimmerā effect. There are backwards-guitar simulators, multiple extraterrestrial voices, peculiar foreshadows of the EarthQuaker Devices Arpanoid and Rainbow Machine (check out patch 208 BIZARRMONIZER), and even button-triggered Foley effects that require no input signal (including a siren, helicopter, tank, submarine, ocean waves, thunder, and wind). If youāre ever without your deck of Oblique Strategies cards, the H3000ās singular knob makes a pretty good substitute. (Spin the big wheel and find out what youāve won!)
āIf youāre ever without your deck of Oblique Strategies cards, the H3000ās singular knob makes a pretty good substitute.ā
But thereās another, more pedestrian reason I tend to reach for the H3000 and its rackmount relatives in the studio: I like to do certain types of processing after the mic. Itās easy to overlook, but guitar speakers are signal processors in their own right. They roll off high and low end, they distort when pushed, and the cabinets in which theyāre mounted introduce resonances. While this type of de facto processing often flatters the guitar itself, it isnāt always advantageous for effects.
Effects loops allow time-based effects to be placed after preamp distortion, but I like to go one further. By miking the amp first and then sending signal to effects in parallel, I can get full bandwidth from the airy reverbs and radical pitched-up effects the H3000 can offerāand I can get it in stereo, printed to its own track, allowing the wet/dry balance to be revisited later, if needed. If a sound needs to be reproduced live, thatās a problem for later. (Something evocative enough can usually be extracted from a pedal-form descendant like the Eventide H90.)
Like most vintage gear, the H3000 has some endearing quirks. Even as it knowingly preserves glitches from earlier Eventide harmonizers (patch 217 DUAL H910s), it betrays its age with a few idiosyncrasies of its own. Extreme pitch-shifting exhibits a lot of aliasing (think: bit-crusher sounds), and the analog Murata filter modules impart a hint of warmth that many plug-in versions donāt quite capture. (They also have a habit of leaking black goo all over the motherboard!) Itās all part of the charm of the unit, beloved by its adherents. (Well, maybe not the leaking goo!)
In 2025, many guitarists wonāt be eager to care for what is essentially an expensive, cranky, decades-old computer. Even the excitement of occasional tantalum capacitor explosions is unlikely to win them over! Fortunately, some great software emulations existāEventideās own plugin even models the behavior of the Murata filters. But hardware offers the full hands-on experience, so next time you spot an old H3000 in a rack somewhereāand youāve got the timeāfire it up, wait for the distinctive āclickā of its relays, spin the knob, and start digging.
A live editor and browser for customizing Tone Models and presets.
IK Multimedia is pleased to release the TONEX Editor, a free update for TONEX Pedal and TONEX ONE users, available today through the IK Product Manager. This standalone application organizes the hardware library and enables real-time edits to Tone Models and presets with a connected TONEX pedal.
You can access your complete TONEX library, including Tone Models, presets and ToneNET, quickly load favorites to audition, and save to a designated hardware slot on IK hardware pedals. This easy-to-use application simplifies workflow, providing a streamlined experience for preparing TONEX pedals for the stage.
Fine-tune and organize your pedal presets in real time for playing live. Fully compatible with all your previous TONEX library settings and presets. Complete control over all pedal preset parameters, including Global setups. Access all Tone Models/IRs in the hardware memory, computer library, and ToneNET Export/Import entire libraries at once to back up and prepare for gigs Redesigned GUI with adaptive resize saves time and screen space Instantly audition any computer Tone Model or preset through the pedal.
Studio to Stage
Edit any onboard Tone Model or preset while hearing changes instantly through the pedal. Save new settings directly to the pedal, including global setup and performance modes (TONEX ONE), making it easy to fine-tune and customize your sound. The updated editor features a new floating window design for better screen organization and seamless browsing of Tone Models, amps, cabs, custom IRs and VIR. You can directly access Tone Models and IRs stored in the hardware memory and computer library, streamlining workflow.
A straightforward drop-down menu provides quick access to hardware-stored Tone Models conveniently sorted by type and character. Additionally, the editor offers complete control over all key parameters, including FX, Tone Model Amps, Tone Model Cabs/IR/VIR, and tempo and global setup options, delivering comprehensive, real-time control over all settings.
A Seamless Ecosystem of Tones
TONEX Editor automatically syncs with the entire TONEX user library within the Librarian tab. It provides quick access to all Tone Models, presets and ToneNET, with advanced filtering and folder organization for easy navigation. At the same time, a dedicated auto-load button lets you preview any Tone Model or preset in a designated hardware slot before committing changes.This streamlined workflow ensures quick edits, precise adjustments and the ultimate flexibility in sculpting your tone.
Get Started Today
TONEX Editor is included with TONEX 1.9.0, which was released today. Download or update the TONEX Mac/PC software from the IK Product Manager to install it. Then, launch TONEX Editor from your applications folder or Explorer.
For more information and videos about TONEX Editor, TONEX Pedal, TONEX ONE, and TONEX Cab, visit:
www.ikmultimedia.com/tonexeditor
Valerie Juneās songs, thanks to her distinctive vocal timbre and phrasing, and the cosmology of her lyrics, are part of her desire to āco-create a beautiful lifeā with the world at large.
The world-traveling cosmic roots rocker calls herself a homebody, but her open-hearted singing and songwritingāāin rich display on her new album Owls, Omens, and Oraclesāāwelcomes and embraces inspiration from everything ⦠including the muskrat in her yard.
I donāt think Iāve ever had as much fun in an interview as I did speaking with roots-rock artist Valerie June about her new release, Owls, Omens, and Oracles. At the end of our conversation, after going over schedule by about 15 minutes, her publicist curbed us with a gentle reminder. In fairness, maybe we did spend a bit too much time talking about non-musical things, such as Seinfeld, spirituality, and the fauna around her home in Humboldt, Tennessee.
Ā YouTube
If youāre familiar with Juneās sound, you know how effortlessly she stands out from the singer-songwriter pack. Her equal-parts warm, reedy, softly Macy Gray-tinged singing voice imprints on her as many facets as a radiant-cut emeraldāand it possesses the trademark sincerity heard in the most distinctive of singer/songwriters. Her music, overall, brilliantly shines with a spirited, contagiously uplifting glow.
Owls, Omens, and Oracles opens with āJoy, Joy!ā with producer M. Ward rocking lead guitar over strings (June plays acoustic on nearly all of the tracks and banjo on one). It then recurringly dips into ā50s doo-wop chord changes, blends chugging, at times funky rock rhythms with saxophones and horns, bursts with New Orleans-style brass on āChangedā (which features gospel legends the Blind Boys of Alabama), and explores a slow soul groove with electronic guest DJ Cavem Moetavation on āSuperpower.ā Bright Eyesā multi-instrumentalist Nate Walcott helmed the arrangements with guidance from Ward and June, and frequently appears on piano and Hammond organ, while Norah Jones supports with backing vocals on the folk lullaby āSweet Things Just for You.ā The entire album was recorded live to tape, which was a new experience for June.
June shares her perspective on the album and her work, overall. āItās not ever complete or finished, your study of art,ā she offers. āItās an adventure, and it keeps getting prettier as you walk through the meadow of creating or learning new things. Every artist that you bring in has a different way of performing with you, or the audience might be really talkative or super quiet. And all of that shapes the artāso itās ever-expansive. Itās pretty infinite [laughs], where art can take you and where it goes.... I kinda got lost there a little bit,ā she muses, laughing.Juneās favored acoustic guitar is this Martin 000-15M, with mahogany top, back, and sides.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
June didnāt connect with guitar in the beginning, but discovered her passion for it later, when the instrument became a vehicle for her self-empowerment. She took lessons as a teenager but was a distracted student, preferring to listen to her teacher share the history of blues guitarists like Big Bill Broonzy and Mississippi John Hurt. āI didnāt pick it up again until I was in my early 20s, and my band that I was in with my ex fell apart,ā she says. āI still was singing and I still was hearing these beautiful voices sing me these songs, and I didnāt want to never be able to perform them. It was a terrible feeling, to be ⦠musically stranded.
āAnd I was like, āNow, I could go get a new band and get some more accompaniment, but how ābout I get my tail in there and keep my promise to my granddad who gave me that first guitar and actually learn how to play it, so Iāll never feel like this again.ā The goal was that I would never be musically stranded again.ā
She became a solo performer, learning lap steel and banjo along with guitar, and called her style āorganic moonshine roots music.ā Today, she eschews picks for fingers, even when strumming chords, and is a vital blues-and-folk based stylist when she lays into her playingāespecially in a live,solo setting. After two self-released albums, 2006ās The Way of the Weeping Willow and 2008ās Mountain of Rose Quartz, she connected with the Black Keysā Dan Auerbach, who recorded and produced her 2013 album, Pushinā Against Stone, at Nashvilleās Easy Eye Sound, which helped launch her now-flourishing career.
Valerie Juneās Gear
Guitars
Amps
- Fender Deluxe Reverb
Effects
- TC Electronic Hall of Fame
- MXR X Third Man Hardware Double Down booster
- J. Rockett Audio Archer boost/overdrive
Strings
- DāAddario XL Nickel Regular Light (.010ā.046)
- Martin Marquis Silked Phosphor Bronze (.012ā.054
Photo by Travys Owen
As we talk about art being a shared experience, June says she can be a bit of a hermit at times, but āwhen itās time to share the art, then there you are. Even if youāre a painter and you just put your painting on a wall and walk away, thatās an interaction that brings you out of your studio or your bedroom to understand this whole act of co-creatingāwhich to me is a spiritual act anyway. Thatās why weāre here, to really understand those rules and layers to life. How do we co-create together?
āAnd I think itās soĀ fun,ā she enthuses. āI enjoy learning, even when itās hard. Iām like, āOkay, this chord is killing me right now, or this phrase.... but Iāma stick with it. And then that likens to something that I might face when I go out into the world. Iām like, āAll right, I can get through this.āā
I suggest, āWhen you say āco-creating,ā it sounds like you mean something bigger.ā
āBoth in the creation of our art, but also in the creation of a life,ā June replies. āāCause how can a life be something this artistic? You get to the end of it and youāre like, āWow, look at what I co-created! With all these other people, with animals, with nature, with sound thatās all around....ā All of my life has been a piece of art or a collective creation. I imagine them like books: different lives on a shelf. And you go pick oneāāWhoa! I created a pretty fun one there!ā or, āOh, man, I had no hand in that....ā Close the book, next one!ā she concludes, laughing as she illustrates the metaphor with her hands.
āSo does that make all of your inspirations your co-creators?ā I ask.
Valerie June at one of her several Newport Folk Festival appearances, with her trusty Gold Tone banjo
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
āYeah! Even if theyāve gone before,ā says June. āI was listening to some beautiful classical music the other day, and I was like, āMan, I donāt know who any of these artists are; theyāre all dead and gone, but Iām just enjoying it and itās putting me in a zone that I need to be in right now.ā So, weāre always leaving these little seeds for even those who are coming after us to be inspired by.ā
Some of her current non-musical co-creators are poets and authors, such as the poet Hafez, the philosopher Audre Lorde, poet Mary Oliver, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist whose works include Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses.
āItās not ever complete or finished, your study of art. Itās an adventure, and it keeps getting prettier as you walk through the meadow of creating or learning new things.ā
āThese books are so beautiful and show the relationship of humanity with nature and the way trees speak with each other; the way moss communicates to itself,ā June explains. āThose ways of being can help humans, who always think we know so much, to learn how to work together better.ā
As sheās sharing, I see her glance out her window. āRight now, I just saw a muskrat go across the pond,ā she continues. āItās about this big [holds hands about three feet apart] and it digs holes in the yard. Itās having such a great time and Iām just like, āOkay, you are huge, and Iām walking through the yard and falling in holes because of you [laughs]. Iām just watching you live your best life!ā And then there was a blue heron that came yesterday, and I watched it eat fish.... Theyāre my friends!ā she exclaims, with more laughter.
Valerie June believes in the power of flowersāand all living thingāas her creative collaborators.
It might seem like weāre getting a bit off subject, but itās residents of nature like these who are important in her creative process.
I share how, in my own approach to art, I feel as though we can always access creativity and our ideals, as long as we stay receptive to experiencing and sharing in them. June agrees, but comments that sometimes her best self only wants to sit and focus: āNo more information; no more downloads, please.ā
An encounter with Memphis-based blues guitarist Robert Belfour, who June frequently saw perform, expanded that perspective for her. She shares about a time she went up to him after a show: āI was like, āHey, I would love to work with you on some music and maybe we could co-write a song or something.ā He was like, āNope! I donāt wanna do it.ā And I said, āWhaaat?ā And heās like, āNo. I do what I do, and I do not do what anybody else does; I just do what I do.āā
Sometimes, she says, āI think thatās just as much of an outlook to have with creating as anything. Itās like, āOkay, Iām there, Iām where I wanna be. I donāt want to be anywhere else.āā
āThatās why weāre here, to really understand those rules and layers to life. How do we co-create together?ā
Part of whatās so enjoyable about speaking with June is realizing that she truly exists on her own plane. She has no pretense, and in that, doesnāt hide some of the fears that weigh on her mind at times. But she doesnāt let those define her. Itās her easy, exuberant optimism that sparks a feeling of friendship between us, without having known each other before that afternoon. What are some of her guiding principles as an artist, I wonder?
āI sit with the idea of, āWho am I creating this for?āā she says, āand returning to the fact that Iām doing this for me, and, as Gillian Welch said, āIām gonna do it anyway even if it doesnāt pay.ā This is what I wanna do. And reflecting on that and letting that kind of be my guiding force. Itās just something that I enjoy, that I really wanna do.ā
YouTube It
From there, the conversation meanders in other directions, and June even generously asks me a few questions about my own artistic beliefs. We share about trusting your gut instinct, and walking away from situations and people who donāt serve us. This reminds her of a bigger feeling.
āWith everything that these times hold for us as humans,ā she shares, āfrom the inequality that we face to the environmental change, the political climate, and all the things that could lead us to fear or negativity.... I started to think about it, and Iām like, āOkay, well, maybe we are fucked! Maybe the planet is going to eject us and all of the other things are gonna come true! Well, if thatās whatās gonna happen, who do I wanna be?ā
āI want to go out in a way thatās sweet or kind to other people, enjoying this experience, these last moments, and building togetherness through music. I want to co-create a beautiful life even in the face of all of that. Thatās what I want to do.ā