On her new solo record, Laura Jane Grace goes back to her two most trusted partners in crime: her voice and her acoustic guitar.
On her new solo record Hole in My Head, the folk-punk singer and Against Me! founder gets back to basics: her voice and her guitar against the world.
Laura Jane Graceās schedule from last December through the first month of the new year was, to put it gently, busy. She performed with Dinosaur Jr. at Brooklynās Music Hall of Williamsburg, then spent some time in the studio working on a top-secret cover project. She got married in Las Vegas, and flew to Mississippi for a week of recording with Drive-By Truckersā Matt Patton. She hopped up to Memphis for Lucero Family Christmas, then played solo dates in St. Louis, Denver, Omaha, Minneapolis, and Lawrence, Kansas. In early January, she performed at a star-studded fundraiser in Wisconsin before jetting to Greece for a string of solo shows. Grace doesnāt take the intensity for granted. Over her 25 years as a professional musician, sheās learned the value of momentum.
āWhen things are moving, just keep moving,ā she says. āIām not trying to jinx anything, but Iām really looking forward to this year, and the future.
āGrace, who is best known for fronting iconic punk band Against Me!, has spent a good piece of the past four years trying to get her momentum backāthe sort of energy that feels like a trademark for the singer and guitarist. Since she was a teen, her life has revolved around the seasons of music work: writing, recording, promoting, touring, repeat. Against Me! was three shows into a tour leg when the Covid pandemic slammed the brakes on that 20-year routine, and emotionally, Grace went flying through the windshield.
āMy world was just completely turned upside down and shaken around,ā she says. Since 2012, she had built her off-the-road life in an apartment in Chicago, but a shift in her personal life meant she had to split her time between there and St. Louis. There were some benefits: Grace couldnāt crank her amps in her apartment, and finding spare private space to play and record would be cheaper in St. Louis than Chicago. She found a studio there called Native Sound, which used to belong to Son Voltās Jay Farrar, nested above a bar in downtown St. Louis. āI was like, āShit, if Jay can make that work, so can I,āā says Grace.
Laura Jane Grace - "Birds Talk Too"
āWhen things are moving, just keep moving. Iām not trying to jinx anything, but Iām really looking forward to this year, and the future.ā
That studio is where Grace recorded Hole in My Head, her third solo record, which was released on February 16. Itās a lean, uncomplicated folk-punk joyride. Though the opening, title track jolts the LP to life with a full-band punk-rock crush of melody, harmony, and abandon, the rest of the album is primarily about Graceās vocal cords and her acoustic guitar. āIām Not a Cop,ā a fuzzy, crust-punk, doo-wop ditty, mashes together Modern Loversā off-kilter tone with a ā50s rock ānā roll shuffle. Then, āDysphoria Hoodieā pares it back to just Grace and her acoustic for an ode to a baggy Adidas sweaterāher greatest protector on days when she doesnāt want the world sussing her gender. Drums and a gritty electric check in again on the short, sweet firecracker āBirds Talk Too,ā but otherwise, itās all acoustic, propped up by a handful of bass lines and some good old handclaps, a tambourine, and shakers for percussion. Why did Grace pull back from years of full-band chaos?
āI mean this in the best way possible, but this recordās coming from a place of fear,ā Grace explains. āFear challenges you and makes you grow, and takes you out of your comfort zone. I think artists are most prolific and do their best work when theyāre coming from a place of survival.ā
Hole in My Headās cover art, captured by Dave Decker and illustrated by Annie Walter, shows Grace behind the State Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida. The recognizable cobblestones remind Grace of being a teen, doing ādeviant shitā in that very alley with friends.
Entering her 40s in 2020, Grace was back in survival mode, a familiar place for her as a teen in Gainesville, Florida. Longtime fans will know this story well: After moving around the world with her family, Grace landed in the inland college town, a military brat turned anarchist punk. Between benders and doing ādeviant shitā with friends, she started performing solo as Against Me!, with just an acoustic and her powerful, pitch-perfect roar. She played alone in dives up and down the panhandle before Against Me! solidified into a band. (Even then, their first recordings were as DIY as you can get: Original drummer Kevin McMahon played a bucket drum on the first two Against Me! EPs, and youād be forgiven for thinking it makes an appearance on their first full-length, the now-iconic Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose.)
āI think artists are most prolific and do their best work when theyāre coming from a place of survival.ā
Against Me! went on to sign with a major label and release two hi-fi punk-rock records, both produced by Butch Vig: 2007ās New Wave spawned their biggest hit with āThrash Unreal,ā and 2010ās White Crosses dipped further into arena-rock waters, an anarcho-Springsteen hybrid. This era famously cost Against Me! a good chunk of their earliest supporters, who felt burned by the bandās āselling out.ā Their vanās tires were slashed on tour, and Grace was cussed out on plenty of occasions. But the band cut things off with corporate and went independent again for 2014ās scrappy Transgendered Dysphoria Blues, the first Against Me! record that explicitly detailed Graceās experience as a trans woman.
That was 10 years ago. Itās as if Grace hit some uncanny peak with the major-label signing, and has since been slowly retracing her steps back to her crust-punk origins: After two solo records accompanied by her backing band, the Devouring Mothers, sheās back to just a voice and a guitar.
Laura Jane Grace's Gear
With Against Me!, Grace ascended from crust-punk streetnik to major-label star. But after two corporate records, the band went rogue again.
Photo by Tim Bugbee
Strings & Picks
- Ernie Ball Everlast Coated Acoustic (.010ā.050)
- Ernie Ball Regular Slinky (.010ā.046)
- Dunlop Tortex Standard .66 mm picks
Other similarities appeared over the last few years, as if some cosmic clock had been reset and she were back at square one. As a kid, she had spent summers and winters going up to Missouri, where her father lived. She always hated it, and this current era, where that state came back into her life, offered a chance to reconcile with the past. She decided to start working on music again on her own to minimize the risk of greater financial lossesāif one week of solo shows got canceled, it would just mean she personally was put out, rather than four band members and five crew. But after decades of touring with a group, going back to just six strings and a voiceāsomething sheād not done on a regular basis since her teensātook some finessing. āYou feel afraid in the same ways, but again, a healthy fear,ā she says.
āIf the whole house burns down, if I can make it out with my acoustic guitar, worst-case scenario Iāll be busking on a street corner and hoping people throw change into the guitar caseābut I can feed myself.ā
āItās an exercise in self-reliance,ā she continues, āand itās a comfort to always have that there. Thatās what I think is beautiful about the acoustic guitar, is that youāre stripping it down to the bare minimum, and I know, āOkay, as long as I have that, Iām okay. If the whole fuckinā house burns down, if I can make it out with my acoustic guitar, worst-case scenario Iāll be busking on a street corner and hoping people throw change in to the guitar caseābut I can feed myself. Thatās a comforting feeling. Those barebones tools as an artist; thatās self-reliance and that gives you self-confidence and self-esteem, and then you build from there.
āPlus, just like the modest recordings of early classic rock ānā roll songs, Hole in My Head never feels wanting in its simplicity. Grace notes that we donāt listen to Buddy Holly or Dionās āThe Wandererā and wish there were more modern flourishes or a more discernible kick drum. The aesthetic works, and since she was going it mostly alone, itās what Grace chased.
When it comes to acoustics, Grace prizes one criterion above all: Does it break strings?
Photo by Travis Shinn
Her coconspirator on the record wound up being Matt Patton, mentioned earlier, who provided bass and backing vocals for six songs. Grace had never met Patton before when he drove from Mississippi up to St. Louis in February 2023 for the sessionsāX, then Twitter, brought them together in a moment of ātotal kismet,ā says Grace. The two became fast friends, and Grace says the connection with Patton is her most cherished part of the album. āHe took a total chance coming to St. Louis,ā she says. āHis contribution is immeasurable.ā Patton returned the favor last December, hosting Grace for some sessions at his Water Valley, Mississippi studio.
āThose places that people refer to as āshitholeā cities, or the places where no one wants to be, I have this natural urge inside of meā¦. Iām like, āI dunno, maybe I want to go there.āā
Grace and Patton worked with engineer David Buzzbee at Native Sound, and Grace brought along four guitars to get the job done. Her all-black Yamaha LJ16 wasāand still isāher acoustic of choice, a guitar with which she says she shares āa total soul connection. When it comes down to acoustic guitars, the thing that Iām most concerned about onstage is, āDoes it stay in tune and does it break strings?āā she says. āThat thing does not break strings, so I fucking love that guitar.ā
Her 1963 Fender Jaguar and ā70s silver-panel Twin Reverbāboth of which she bought off of original Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynchāwere in regular rotation, as was a handpainted Gretsch gifted to Grace from her longtime tattoo artist. Her signature blackout Rickenbacker 370 can be heard on the record, too. But no pedals at all were used, and the low-rent grit of āHole in My Headā was coaxed not from Graceās Twin, but from a Rickenbacker TR7, a dinky solid-state 1x10 amp. Grace remarks that sheās obsessed with making records with tiny amplifiers these days. āMaybe itās cause the studio was upstairs, and Iām like, āFuck, I donāt wanna carry a big amp upstairs,āā she chuckles.
Grace loves her new part-time homebase of St. Louis, Missouri, even though itās not exactly a prime destination. Thatās part of the appeal.
Photo by Tim Bugbee
Over a year on from her introduction to the city, Grace now feels a fairly legitimate affection for St. Louis. Unlike Chicago, which always overwhelmed her, St. Louis is manageable: You can get just about anywhere you need to be in 15 minutes, and rents havenāt spiked to unlivable levels the way they have in other cities. Grace fell in love with the city by bar-hopping, starting with the Whiskey Ring, right under Native Sound. Grace is sober, but that made bar-hopping all the more doable. She could slug nonalcoholic beers, then drive to check out another corner of town.
St. Louis is an underdog city, which endears it to Grace. āThose places that people refer to as āshitholeā cities, or the places where no one wants to be, I have this natural urge inside of me that if I hear someone talking about a place like that, Iām like, āI dunno, maybe I want to go there,āā she says. āMaybe itās just a rebellion against the opposite of, that place that everyone else wants to go, I donāt want to go.ā
YouTube It
Grace leads a rip-roaring acoustic set last summer in Southern California, captured here in stereo audio by a dedicated fan.
R.I.P. Robbie Robertson: The visionary main songwriter and guitarist for the Band, Robbie Robertson, died Wednesday at age 80 in his Los Angeles home, following a long illness.
Robertsonās ascent paralleled that of the ā60s singer-songwriter-based rock 'n' roll movement, beginning in the band of roadhouse wildman Ronnie Hawkins, then supporting Bob Dylan as a member of the Band during Dylan's rise from folk hero to rock icon, and then at the helm of the Band itself, which released its debut album, Music from Big Pink, in 1968 and became a musical powerhouse, revered in its own right.
Many of the songs he wrote for the Bandāincluding āUp on Cripple Creek,ā āThe Weight,ā and āThe Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,ā full of rich language that evoked an earlier era of life in the United States, and particularly in the Southābecome the foundation for a genre that would eventually become known as Americana. Ironically, Robertson was born in Canada and grew up on the Six Nations Reserve southwest of Toronto. But his first musical attractions were to blues and primal rock 'n' roll.
While touring with Hawkins, and under the influence of incendiary guitarist Roy Buchanan, who was briefly a bandmate, Robertson developed a terse, muscular style, with solos and accents marked by squealing bent notes, intense vibrato, and repeated notes that called attention to lyric themes. He was a perfect accompanist for any singer.
Robertsonās swan song with the Band was 1976ās The Last Waltz, one of the most notable concerts in the history of rock, which he arranged and brought to film with his friend, the director Martin Scorsese. The event included appearances by Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and other icons, and is considered one of the most important music documentaries, enshrined by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Over subsequent decades, Robinson made a handful of solo albums, including 1987ās Robbie Robertson and 1991ās Storyville, but turned the bulk of his ambitions toward film music. He created 14 soundtracksāthe most recent for Scorseseās Killer of the Flower Moon, which will be released in October. He also produced films, including 1980ās Carny, in which he starred.
Variety published this statement from Robertsonās longtime manager, Jared Levine: āRobbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphineās partner Kenny. He is also survived by his grandchildren Angelica, Donovan, Dominic, Gabriel and Seraphina. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support a new Woodland Cultural Center.ā
Crosbyās impish smile and twinkling eyes, once described by Joni Mitchell as āstar sapphires,ā perfectly captured his playful spirit.
The music of the folk-rock icon, who passed away on January 18 after battling a long illness, was an integral part of an echo that can still be heard in the work of todayās artists.
Singer-songwriter and guitarist David Crosby, known as a piloting force behind the folk-rock movement of the 1960s and ā70s, has died at the age of 81. Details on the cause of his death, which occurred on Wednesday, January 18, have not been disclosed to the media, but his wife Jan Dance has stated that he had been battling a ālong illness.ā Heās survived by Dance, their son Django, and his children of previous relationships: son James Raymond, and daughters Erika and Donovan Crosby. (He was also the biological father of Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypherās two children, Beckett Cypher, who passed in 2020, and Bailey Jean Cypher.)
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Almost Cut My Hair
Crosby, a founding member of the Byrds and supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, was defined by his unmistakable, timelessāand preternaturally physically enduringāvoice, which, combined with his songwriting, shone through the throngs of his talented contemporaries to make him an icon. Often pictured with a coy, impish smile, he was characterized by his incorrigibility, perseverance, and brazen outspokenness on politics as well as his personal opinions. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twiceāas a member of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash (the groupās original iteration)āhe helped mold his eraās musical zeitgeist into something that demanded longevity, and in doing so contributed to forging the grammar that continues to be spoken by todayās folk artists.
As a child, Crosby had a reputation for being a bit of a rebellious loner with a distrust of authority. At 16, his older brother Ethan gave him his first guitar. Ethan also shared with him a love for ā50s jazz, and Crosby became enraptured by artists like Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, and Erroll Garner. Indifferent to the ubiquitous strains of Elvis and nascent rock ānā roll, he was drawn instead to the music of the Everly Brothers, whose āAll I Have to Do Is Dreamā was one of the first pop tunes to leave a lasting impression on him. Later in his youth, after dropping out of his drama studies at Santa Barbara City College, he moved to New York Cityās Greenwich Villageāthe beating heart of the early-ā60s folk sceneāwhere he soon became connected to Jim McGuinn (who later changed his name to Roger).
The Byrds formed in 1964, with a sound driven by McGuinnās jangly 12-string guitar and Crosbyās harmonies and rhythm playing. They released their seminal cover of Bob Dylanās āMr. Tambourine Manā on their debut album of the same name in ā65. By the following year, their cover of Pete Seegerās āTurn! Turn! Turn!ā was among the three biggest singles on the charts (the others were the Rolling Stonesā āSatisfactionā and the Beatlesā āYesterdayā). On their third album, Fifth Dimension, Crosby's writing contributionsāincluding his personal composition, āWhatās Happening?!?!,ā and co-writing credits on songs such as āEight Miles Highāāpointed the group in a psychedelic direction (along with the McGuinn-penned title track).
The acoustic guitarist was inimitable in his songwriting, which blended innately with the voices of Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young.
Photo by Frank White
But as Crosby comments in the 2019 documentary, David Crosby: Remember My Name, āItās not always a positive thing when you win early and win young.ā Tension between McGuinn and Crosby had been intensifying over the years, and by the time of their performance at the inaugural Monterey Pop Festival in ā67, McGuinn had grown to see Crosby as insufferable. ā[I was] not easy. Big ego. No brains,ā Crosby admits. His vocal endorsement of political conspiracies on stage during their performance only fanned the flames between the two men, and later that year McGuinn and bassist Chris Hillman fired Crosby from the band.
That year still proved to be a busy one for Crosby. He helped Joni Mitchell get signed to a record label and produced her first record. He also joined Buffalo Springfield for a brief stint before they broke up in ā68. Crosby and Buffalo Springfieldās Stephen Stills suddenly both found themselves unemployed and began jamming together. They were joined shortly thereafter by Graham Nash of English pop group the Hollies.
āWhatever sound Crosby, Stills & Nash has was born in 40 seconds,ā Nash said in 2013. Their self-titled debut was released in 1969, and featured Crosbyās āGuinnevere,ā as well as the first song he wrote with Stills, āWooden Ships.ā Its introduction of the three singer-songwriter-guitaristsā converging talents, gilded by their gently interwoven harmonies and Crosbyās alternate tunings, emblazoned a new face onto the already flourishing folk landscape. On Crosbyās invitation, Neil Youngāanother former member of Buffalo Springfield, who had two solo records to his nameāwas soon after added to the trio, and CSN became CSNY. Their second-ever performance was at Woodstock later that year, where a candid Stills told the audience, āWeāre scared shitless.ā
[Crosby, Stills & Nashās] introduction of the three singer-songwriter-guitaristsā converging talents, gilded by their gently interwoven harmonies and Crosbyās alternate tunings, emblazoned a new face onto the already flourishing folk landscape.
Their first album as a quartet, DĆ©jĆ Vu, shot to the top of the charts (to date, it has sold over 7 million copies). Itās rounded out by two of Crosbyās compositions, the counterculture anthem āAlmost Cut My Hairā and the jazz-imbued title track.
I have memories of where Iāve been when listening to many of the albums that have left as indelible an imprint on me as DĆ©jĆ Vu, but unlike almost any other one I can think of, I remember exactly when and where I was when I first heard it. (I then quickly set āCarry Onā to be my morning alarm, and was thusly woken up to the lyrics, āOne morning, I woke up.ā¦ā for at least a year.) As a former music teacher, Iāve also had the privilege of witnessing the awe on young studentsā faces when Iāve shared with them āAlmost Cut My Hair,ā where Crosby leads with a restrained yet angry rawness to his voice, sans harmonies.
But in late 1969, the death of Crosbyās longtime girlfriend Christine Hinton sent him spiraling into cocaine and heroin addiction, the former of which had been developing throughout his career. A little over a year later, Crosby released his debut solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name, to mixed reviews, Meanwhile, CSNY didnāt record another studio album together until 1977. Then, in the early ā80s, he was convicted of bringing cocaine and a loaded pistol into a Dallas nightclub. He ran from the law for two years before serving five months in prisonāfour of them in solitary confinement.
His time spent in prison, which sobered him up from hard drugs, renewed Crosbyās resolve as a songwriter. He released two more solo records, 1989ās Oh Yes I Can and 1993ās Thousand Roads, and in the ā90s, was united with his son, pianist James Raymondāwho had been given up for adoption 30 years priorāand guitarist Jeff Pevar to form the tongue-in-cheek-named CPR. CSNY became CSN again for a few more releases, then reformed as a quartet with 1999ās Looking Forward. They continued to perform until their disbandment in 2015, but, by then, their relationships had become fraught, and the split felt long overdue.
Early on his career, Crosby developed a reputation not just for his vocal harmonies, but for his adventurous alternate tunings.
Photo by Steve Kalinsky
In 2014, Crosby returned for what became the most prolific period of his solo career with Croz, which, as his first work in this vein in 21 years, made the Top 40. He put out four more albums over the next seven years. 2018ās Here If You Listen was recorded with Michael League, Becca Stevens, and Michelle Willis, and his final release, 2021ās For Free, was named after his cover of Mitchellās song, āReal Good for Free.ā
I have memories of where Iāve been when listening to many of the albums that have left as indelible an imprint on me as DĆ©jĆ Vu, but unlike almost any other one I can think of, I remember exactly when and where I was when I first heard it.
Following the announcement of Crosbyās death, Nash posted a statement on social media, saying ā[Crosbyās] harmonic sensibilities were nothing short of genius. The glue that held us together as our vocals soared, like Icarus, towards the sun. I am deeply saddened at his passing and shall miss him beyond measure.ā
Young, from whom Crosby had become estranged in 2014, commented, āCrosby was a very supportive friend in my early life, as we bit off big pieces of our experience together. David was the catalyst of many things.ā¦ I remember the best times!ā
When asked by producer Cameron Crowe in Remember My Name if, given the choice, he would take the gift of a (more) fulfilling family life but have to sacrifice his music, Crosby at first paused. He then answered, āThatās no world for me. Itās the only thing I can contribute, the only place I can help.ā That, hopefully, is how he will be remembered.