You were signed when you were a senior in high school, but then decided to go on to the New England Conservatory. You already had a music career happening. Why did you think it was important to go to music college?
The biggest reason was that in my teens I had started attending different music camps and festivals around the country in the summers. I was able to meet other kids my age who were into this new acoustic, folk, bluegrass – whatever you want to call it – music. Up until then in Wimberley [Texas], I was largely playing with people who were much, much older than me. It was this fun realization to be, "Oh, there are other people my age who are into this music." When I was turning 17 and deciding what was going to happen next – because I had already signed that contract with Sugar Hill [Records] – it was becoming clear that a lot of those friends I had made were moving to Boston. There was this mass migration of young, new, acoustic folks going to either Berklee [College of Music] or New England Conservatory. It was to follow that scene, which I had become so a part of, and it was the exciting place to be musically at that time. Both of my parents are teachers, and there was always an importance placed on going to college. I realized what a crazy thing it was to have signed a record contract at 16; it seems even crazier now, looking back. I wanted to preserve a little bit of myself by not becoming a road dog at 18! I was touring pretty nonstop, regardless, in college; but it psychologically carved out this four-year space for me.
How did touring work with school? Were teachers aware that this was happening?
Yes, they were definitely aware. I almost don't even know how it all happened at the same time. It was definitely some of the busiest years of my life, because I wound up not missing a whole lot of school for it. NEC was pretty adamant about not letting me be gone all the time. Berklee was a little more lenient, in that regard. The most consecutive time I missed was a week, when I went and did the Transatlantic Sessions, which Jerry Douglas and Aly Bain put together. It's over in Scotland; a television show on the BBC. I made the albums Follow Me Down and Build Me Up from Bones while I was in college. I had to be super strategic. I was gone every weekend playing gigs, and any breaks from school were spent either touring or flying down to Nashville and recording with Gary Paczosa [Tape Op #108].
How much studio experience did you have prior to making your debut, Song Up in Her Head?
Basically, none. Maybe the odd overdub session here or there in Austin [Texas] growing up, but really it was my first experience in the studio. It was so incredible. What a gift to be able to work with Gary right out of the gate, especially on that first record. I signed with Sugar Hill when I was 16, and we didn't start making the record until probably a full year later. I had so many guests; so many heroes came in and played on that record. Being my first time in the studio, it was an incredible gift of a way to do it. To see these people come in, track, observe them, and be like, "Oh, this is how you do it!"
You were in the studio with some of the best musicians, like Bela Fleck and Jerry Douglas.
I didn't know studio technique, or culture even. Largely the way we would do it, especially on those early records, was record my instrument and then I'd overdub my vocal on that. It was almost like Gary would say, "What's your dream list of who you want on these songs?" He'd call them up, and a few hours later they were over there and overdubbing their part. It wasn't everyone in the same room tracking all together. It was piecemeal-ing of tracks together on those early records. It was special to get to have someone like Chris Thile come over; to watch him and how he sits at the mic. Say he had a solo on one of the songs – watching his brain work, and how he would work through building a solo over the course of four or five takes – I had never experienced that before. Also watching Tim O'Brien coming in and singing harmony; watching him sing, and tweaking it take to take was such a gift. I learned so much.
How did you come to meet Gary and work with him?
I met Gary in 2007 at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I had been attending the Planet Bluegrass festivals. I started with their RockyGrass festival, outside of Boulder in Lyons, Colorado. I started going to that when I was 11; they have a camp or an academy every year in the week leading up to the weekend festival. A lot of the people playing at the weekend festival would teach during the week. My dad found out about it initially because I was so obsessed with Nickel Creek when I was 10, and he noticed that they had taught at RockyGrass. We drove up from Texas to Colorado, and it became this special thing musically, but also for my family. A couple of years later we started going to Telluride every summer. Craig Ferguson, who runs those festivals, offered me a set at Telluride that summer in 2007; a huge opportunity. I wound up having Mike Marshall and Ben Sollee play with me for that set. It was magical. Gary was there; he told me later that he was leaving the festival grounds but he heard my voice and had to come back. He approached me after the set and invited me to Nashville the next month to see his studio and record some demos. It all started there.
There's something to be said for being prepared!
For sure. It is even easy for me to look back on that memory and feel that that was the beginning, but I had spent the previous five years straight practicing and playing gigs around central Texas non-stop. When that hard work meets an opportunity, that can scare you. The things that scare you a little bit are good. Trying to put yourself in those situations that challenge you and kick you up to that next notch; those are the special moments. That's where transitions and growth happens.
Your songwriting has developed in a way where I hear little bits of pop music or a non-traditional harmony. There's even a tune on the new record that sounds like Alice In Chains!
Amazing. I've gotten some Nirvana comments as well. Maybe the chords on the chorus of "Johnny" have reminded some people of Nirvana. That's the greatest compliment anyone could ever say.
What music are you listening to?
I always check out bluegrass records occasionally, but I would say I mostly listen to non-bluegrass. In high school I was getting into Wilco [Tape Op #132] and The Decemberists, and obviously the heavy-hitters like Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, and Bob Dylan. But even now I find myself largely listening to Billy Joel and Marc Cohn, and definitely not bluegrass musicians. Maybe my songs have reflected what I'm listening to at the moment. I definitely feel that first record of mine was very rooted in the bluegrass tradition. That is the tradition I grew up in. I was attending a weekly Friday night bluegrass jam in Wimberley, and the festivals I was going to every summer were – I wouldn't say they were traditional bluegrass festivals – but they were bluegrass festivals. That certainly molded me as a musician early-on, and it comes through. It's always going to be a part of me, and it comes through in my voice. Even from the second record [Follow Me Down] on, I haven't felt I've been making bluegrass music, really; but it's funny how the term gets thrown around. What does it actually mean as a word and a tradition? Having studied the tradition, I definitely don't feel I've been making that kind of music for a long time. I feel so thankful that I came up in that world, because it's such a great launching pad. Even the format of a bluegrass song, because there is an improvised element of the tradition that allows so many people to take it to different places. Then that's where the word becomes obscured. Think of Punch Brothers or New Grass Revival or Hot Rize; these bands that are in that world, but outside of it as well.
Your songbook has such a wistfulness and longing to the music and the recordings. The way that the music is captured is perfect.
