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I traveled from Cedar Crest, New Mexico to hear them at the wonderful Old Settlers Inn in Moundridge, Kansas, run to perfection by Mr. Miner Seymour. It was six weeks after the World Trade Center disaster. Q: Dave, Tracy. What has changed for you since September 11th? Tracy Grammer : I can tell you that right after the 11th, attendances were down a little bit, and I'm told by lots of presenters that there was a 30-40% decrease in concert attendance. So we're seeing that people are stunned, or just in a different mood, or that people don't feel like going out and celebrating nearly as much, or maybe they just have other things on their mind. Maybe everybody's priorities have been knocked into place now that this has happened. So we had a couple shows immediately after, on the 12th and 13th and 14th, and they were small, and they were somewhat somber. The people who came needed to be entertained, and they needed to connect with human beings. They needed to get away from their TVs and out of the isolation of their homes or their cars, where they've been driving with their radio on, just like me and Dave. And they needed to be with people. The folk community already has a very familial feel to it. People come, there's lots of hugging, and we're becoming better and better friends with a lot of our fans just because we're seeing them so much. But now everyone has this sense of just how precious every experience is, and we especially feel that at our concerts. We're more grateful than ever that people are there, and they seem more grateful that ever that we're there to sing them songs. Certain songs, like "Gentle Arms of Eden" seem to carry more weight now. Everybody hears things in a different color, since the 11th. So I think there's a basic depth that wasn't there before. That's not to say that all our fans were shallow before (laughs), because they certainly were not. It's a different depth.
Dave Carter: We were in Nebraska, I believe. We were
checking out of the hotel, Tracy was in the van, I went into
the motel lobby, it was just a little motel, and they had the
TV on. And I saw these pictures of these planes crashing, and
I really thought it was a movie. I didn't think it was
real. But the desk clerk was looking kind of stunned, so I said
I walked out and got into the car, and Tracy said, "What's wrong?" And I said, "You're not gonna believe this..." And I told her what happened, and Tracy: He said, "Baby, I think we're going to war." And I could just envision ten or a dozen hijacked planes, going to crash in places all over the country I didn't know about the World Trade Center at first. Dave: They tried to do that. That was the plan. Q: Your lyrics have so much imagery of flame and smoke and ash, and out of those lyrics always come some sort of redemption, the Phoenix myth. But since the 11th, people have an entirely different vision of what those images might mean. Do you feel any different when you sing those songs now? Dave: I do, and I've thought about the material a lot. We had a show scheduled on September 12th, and we thought they would cancel it. We called them and said, "It's so soon after this happened, and if you feel it's appropriate to cancel this show, we don't have any problem with that." And they said, "No, we decided that we really want you to come and do it." And that was on the way to the east coast, it was Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We got there, and we were trying to figure out, how are we gonna be able to get up there and do a show, now? During those hours we spent driving on to Cedar Rapids, I really had to re-evaluate all of our work. There's this Utopian strain in the culture of the U.S. Always has been, people come here with the idea that they're going to found a new society, or a new civilization, and all over the country there are people looking for this better life. People come here still half-believing that this is some kind of utopia. And that strain is always in conflict with the war-time consciousness strain that's been so strong, especially since WWII. I think in the 1960's, we saw that Utopian strain coming back, it was like "it's not war anymore, we can build the shining city on the hill right here in the U.S." I've always been that person, I've always been the sort of person that says "let freedom ring, let everybody find their own way, let's all find a way to work beautifully together." And I still feel that way, and that comes out in my songs, always. But then to accomplish that, the writing, one needs a place of relative safety. And when we saw those tragedies, I recognized that it does change the way I look at things. So I had to try a way to remain Utopian, hopeful, but still understand that things really aren't the same as they were. I mean, there really are people out there who have the will and means to inflict damage on innocent people, and they really will do it. It's very unfortunate. I'm glad that when I wrote these songs, they had a lot to do with rising from the ashes of catastrophe. I'm glad that in all of the songs, I did have the `rising out of it', so I am able to go back to our work and see that, in new ways, the songs are all still valid. Something doesn't have to be entirely innocent to be valid.
Q: Do you argue over arrangements? Tracy: In the studio we argue. When it comes time to actually put them on tape, often there will be a serendipity, a synchronicity or whatever you want to call it, where it just jells without us even talking about it. And at other times, we'll have these sticking points, where we don't want to budge from the way something is sung, like "No, that's not the way that character should sound." It goes back and forth. But you know, it's the creative process, ultimately the best thing springs from any argument that we have. There's usually some middle ground that is perfect. Q: Tracy, have you ever said to Dave, "I just don't like this song, it just doesn't work for me"? D & T NO! Never. Dave: Songwriting is really my life. I love performing, but in that `perfect world' it would be "The Tracy Grammer Band" and my main job would be to just write songs. Tracy: People are covering our songs now. "Hey, Conductor", a lot of people cover that. Darrell Purpose does "River Where She Sleeps". Someone making a film about the recovery of New York is going to use "Gentle Arms of Eden" as the theme song. And now Joan Baez is going to record a few of the songs, we're so happy about that. And I understand that a lot of people buy our songbook, and take it somewhere to an Open Mic! Q: Your music is so hard to explain. Where do you want to take it from here? Tracy: There's so many levels to talk about. One goal would be to play to audiences of such a size that we would not have to work five nights a week to make a living. Dave: We love to play, but if it was three nights a week, we could rest our voices. We would very much like to have one or two other people playing with us. We'd very much like a variety of hand drums. We don't really want a trap drummer, though we work with one once in a while, and in the studio. Possibly a bass player, or a multi-instrumentalist, somebody who could do accordion, second violins and guitars, things like that, because we would like to be able to do all the stuff we put on the CDs. We've always wanted to get the music out to more people. I'm not talking just about worldly success. But it would be really, really good if we had a road manager. And more people to split up the driving. And a tour bus. Tracy is a very, very creative person, and she has started about 30 of the best songs I've ever heard, and I would like it if she could have a chance to pursue those, and finish some of them. Tracy: Right now, we're touring so intensively, that Dave doesn't have time to write. In a perfect world, we would tour for half of the year, and the other half could be R&D, Dave goes into hiding and does his writing and dreaming and the other stuff that cultivates the music. It would satisfy his soul. Both of us have other creative outlets that we cannot exercise on the road. So ideally, in the future, we'll be able to make time for both. This is my home. Contact Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer at Their CDs include: DRUM HAT BUDDHA TANGLEWOOD TREE WHEN I GO |
Though they reside in Portland,
Oregon, musicians Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer spend the majority
of their time on the road . Carter writes the songs and plays
guitar and banjo. Grammer plays violin and mandolin. Classically
trained, the duo have a beautiful blend of all things musical.
Their most recent CD, "drum hat buddha", along with
its predecessor, "Tanglewood Tree", have been reviewed
in glowing terms.
Q: Where were you?
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