(Photo by Matt Naquin)
This week we’re kicking off our Artists on Trial series with several bands playing Crossroads Music Fest this weekend. We’re starting with John Velghe & The Prodigal Sons, a group filled with Kansas City superstars (from bands like The Hearts of Darkness, Diverse and The New Riddim). Velghe, one of the area’s most prolific and heartfelt songwriters, takes a few moments to tell us a bit about the group.
The Deli: Gun to your head, 1 sentence to describe your music. What is it?
John Velghe: Rock n roll troubadour; music with brains and guts.
The Deli: Tell us about your latest release or upcoming shows. What can we expect?
John: We’ve been demoing for the new record which is sounding great. We’ll be debuting new material at CMF. We just got done with a tour to the East coast where we started opening up some new cities to our music and bookers in cities like Cleveland, New York and Chicago are asking us to come back. So, we’re hoping we can get back there next Spring after SXSW.
The Deli: What does "supporting local music" mean to you?
John: It means participating in it—that doesn’t require you being a musician either. I’m going to just go ahead and call people in KC out: too many of them honestly do not realize or appreciate how much better hearing music in a crowd makes you feel. In two decades of playing here I’ve played to no one and I’ve played to packed rooms. The quality of the show and the music is proportional to the number of people in the crowd and their participation in the show. We play cities like Austin, Cleveland, New York and people engage in music with such regularity that they know how important it is to their enjoyment of life. They understand that it’s hot, sweaty, communal and doesn’t sound like listening to an MP3 on their laptop through a set of earbuds—that’s the point of it. And that whole experience makes the music better too. Bands—good bands—learn how to make their music better from their experiences at performances.
When you go to see a show, you help enable the next one to be even better and the next record will reflect a little of you in it.
The Deli: Who are your favorite "local" musicians right now?
John: I got a sneak listen to the new Pedaljets record yesterday. It’s great. The songs are so good—very well thought out—and the playing is killer. I saw Deco Auto a few times and they have great songs.
The Deli: Who are your favorite not-so-local musicians right now?
John: Well, I’ve been preaching the gospel of Alejandro Escovedo for a long time and it seems like that kid is finally going places. His whole band is truly great people. I’ve also been into a lot of New Orleans artists lately: Glen David Andrews, John Boutte, Irma Thomas. Shoes just put out a new record. I have some of their records from the ’70s and they’re great songwriters.
The Deli: What bands are you most excited to see at Crossroads Music Fest this year?
John: Starhaven Rounders for sure. I’ve been meaning to see them for a while.
The Deli: What is your ultimate fantasy bill to play on?
John: Bruce Springsteen, Alejandro Escovedo, Trombone Shorty, and us. Al could open.
The Deli: Would you rather spend the rest of your life on stage or in the recording studio?
John: On tour. Something happens on tour that nothing else is a substitute for. The band improves, the travel informs my songs, the people we meet are all unique and true music fans. The new locations give me a better experience of humanity and a higher threshold for discomfort.
The Deli: A music-themed Mount Rushmore. What four faces are you putting up there and why?
John: I put these faces up there because I consider them the founding fathers of American music:
Duke Ellington: He perfected the American musical idiom. He’s a brilliant arranger, orchestrator, and he moved asses. His success is why we have a lot of the music we have today.
Chuck Berry: He had the imagination to combine the blues and country and turn them into rock n roll. He inspired bands like The Beatles, The Stones and countless others.
Some amalgam of the faces of the members of R.E.M.: To me, they invented what became alternative music. They maintained a collectivist mindset for a long time, even with their massive success. That four-as-one ethos was the foundation of what became indie music until it was turned into more of a pose than an operative principle. There may not be an "indie" genre without them.
Chuck D: He was one of the inventors of rap and hip hop. In that era, Chuck gave music a license to be political again. I think he inspired a lot of the people making music today in all kinds of genres.
The Deli: All right, give us the rundown. Where all on this big crazy web can you be found?
John: www.facebook.com/johnvelghe
www.JohnVelghe.com
www.twitter.com/johnvelghe
JohnVelghe.bandcamp.com
www.lakeshore-records.com/
The Deli: Always go out on a high note. Any last words of wisdom for The Deli audience?
John: The best thing to happen to you is not Google fucking Fiber. If you’re a musician, act like people engaging in your music is the most important thing on earth to you, because your songs are more compelling when they do. If you’re not a musician, get out of your living room, get off your ass, go engage in music. You’ll lose weight, your skin will clear up, you’ll have better sex, kids will think you are cool and your parents will be proud of you.
You can catch John with The Prodigal Sons at Crossroads Music Fest on Saturday, September 8 at Czar. They’ll be taking the stage at 9:30 pm. Get out of your living room, get off your ass, and go engage in some great local music.
–Michelle Bacon
| Michelle is editor-in-chief of The Deli – Kansas City. She also has a weekly column with The Kansas City Star and reviews music for Ink. She plays with Deco Auto, Drew Black and Dirty Electric, and Dolls on Fire. She really, really wants to wear cool hats. |