Another Visit with the Versatile Violinist Scarlet Rivera

On Saturday July 23, Scarlet Rivera will be returning to the Northland to perform in a Rolling Thunder Reunion benefit concert at Weber Auditorium, sharing a spotlight with headliner Eric Andersen. The two first performed together in the kickoff of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue at Gerde's Folk City back in 1975. Eric and Scarlet will be accompanied by Steve Addabbo and Cheryl Prashker among others. Lonnie Knight is slated to warm up the evening for the headliners.

My first visit with Scarlet was in 2112 as she prepared for a fund-raising concert for the Duluth Armory. She'd been here the year before and has returned annually since, almost making Duluth a home away from home. When she's amongst us we certainly strive to make her feel like family. She one of the world’s most prominent, active and versatile violinists. She is known for her contributions to the recordings and performances of some of the most influential artists of our time including Bob Dylan, Indigo Girls, Tracy Chapman, Keb ‘Mo, David Johansen and Sylvia Tyson (Ian and Sylvia). In addition to her contributions on others' records she's also recorded fifteen albums of her own.

EN: Do you recall your first time meeting Eric? How were you introduced?

Scarlet Rivera: Eric and I met when I lived in upstate New York and previously lived in NYC for years. We were both invited to the same wedding party of a Viet Nam vet, we don’t remember who, and he and I hit it off, talking for some time and jamming a bit together. It is surprising that we didn’t continue on doing anything together after that, as it was a perfect fit musically, both then as it is now.

EN: The Rolling Thunder Revue launched at Gerde's Folk City. What was that first performance like? You were rubbing shoulders (or elbows) with some rather famous names. It must have been a heady experience.

Scarlet: Gerde’s Folk City launch… I wouldn’t call it a launch at all…but a teaser for what was to come in Rolling Thunder Revue (RTR). I say it was more a teaser than a launch also because it didn’t represent the full spectrum of artists, musicians that would embody RTR, but a handful of special and chosen people who would become part of RTR. It was there that I met Allen Ginsberg and I sat in with Kinky Friedman, who I would later sit in with on a regular basis at the Lone Star Cafe. That is another place that was quite a scene unto itself….

EN: What have you been working on since you were last with us here in the Northland?

Scarlet: I have been working in a Bluegrass band in LA, called Appalachia West, and on a CD soon to be released called Magic Music…also the name of the band, a member and co-writer in Voices of Van Gogh, and sing now in all the groups I’m in! Finally I’m singing with a thumbs up from all the musicians and audiences. Better late than never. Why did I wait so long to use my God given voice? That’s a long story.

EN: I can't recall if I asked you, what was your biggest takeaway from performing with Duke Ellington? That is, what was your biggest lesson... or memory?

Inventive charmer.

Scarlet: My time as a soloist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, conducted by his son Mercer Ellington, was another simple twist of fate... that I would be brought to meet Mercer for a private audition by his daughter who I met at a party the night before, and she had to bring me. After talking and playing some improv for Mercer, he looked at his calendar and offered me a date… I said I was free. The date would be at Carnegie Hall!

And performing Black, Brown and Beige Suite, which had not been performed in 40 years. It represented Duke’s hope of peaceful integration… but it was not well received at the time…racist then…and still here we are confronting the same things that disturbed Duke Ellington about the U.S. Rhapsody in Blue, by Gershwin was released the same year and got all the praise…while Black, Brown & Beige was passed over…

Another unforgettable thing was to go to Venice Italy with the entire Duke Ellington Orchestra plus a Gospel Choir to perform the Carnivale of Venice.

* * * *
This will be an exceptional concert and it is my earnest hope that some of you reading this will join us. Concert and Ticket Information HERE

Photos of Eric with Scarlet in L.A. taken by Carol Rothman.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Get into it.

A Visit with Lonnie Knight, Opening Act for the Rolling Thunder Reunion

Saturday July 23 the Rolling Thunder Reunion will be rolling into town with a show featuring Eric Andersen and Scarlet Rivera, accompanied by Steve Addabbo and Cheryl Prashker. Lonnie Knight is on the docket to get the evening rolling as the opening act.

Knight has been playing professionally since high school. His first bands included the Castaways, the the Rave-Ons (with Dick and Larry Wiegand and Harry Nehls), then Jokers Wild. He was attending the University of Minnesota when the folk boom caught him and he began performing in coffee houses and college clubs around Minnesota, eventually joining up with the Bitter End circuit out of New York City and traveled the country for a few years. When that scene dried up Knight went back to electric guitar, working with City Mouse, the Neilsen-White Band, the Hoopsnakes, and his own band Big Shoes. He was also on staff at Sound 80 Recording Studio as a session guitarist and producer, gaining some serious cred in the Minnesota music scene along the way.

The past several years he's been active with the Guitars for Vets free concerts in the Twin Cities as well as the fund raising concerts for the Duluth Armory. As it turns out, when it was mentioned to Knight that Eric was coming to perform here in Duluth this summer he said "Eric's Blue River album in 1972 was a huge influence on me." He also said he will have died and gone to heaven if he could open for Eric Andersen. On July 23 that is about to happen.

EN: Your early groups, especially Joker's Wild.... when you look back on the "look" with the psychedelic clothes, what do you think now? Also, where did you and Clapton and the rest BUY those threads?

Lonnie Knight: I really wish I still had some of that stuff. It fit with the times... the only outfits that make me laugh are those sequined wizard suits. Impossible to play in, extremely hot, etc. I couldn't stand them back then, but I got outvoted.

EN: You did recording with record labels. They assumed the risk, correct? I mean, they covered the costs. Nowadays it is totally different. Everyone rents studio space and makes albums. How did this change occur and what's your take on all that?

LK: I think we paid some of the studio time on the Rave-Ons and Jokers stuff. Label paid all other costs (recoupable).

My solo albums, "Family in the Wind" and "Song for a City Mouse" were paid for by Symposium Records. I'm pretty sure that major labels still pay for everything, but they get it all back before the artist sees dime one.

Protools and the digital revolution made it much more affordable for anyone to record without financial backing. That has provided great opportunities for many artists to get their stuff out in front of people. But it's still a one-in-a-million shot at getting anywhere... and big money still talks in terms of achieving big success. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

EN: I once heard someone say they felt Townes Van Zandt was the greatest musician of our generation. I see that you worked with Townes. What made him so special?

LK: I think that Townes was one of the best songwriters of our generation. He was at the forefront of the Texas songwriter explosion, which included Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, and later, Lyle Lovett, etc. Townes and I did a week at a place called the Rubaiyat in Dallas, TX in 1973.We were both pretty heavy drinkers at the time. I remember him as pretty quiet, but pretty open. We sat up until dawn one night and he taught me "Pancho and Lefty."

EN: You performed in the Armory in 1969. What was the band you were with and what was that experience like?

LK: I know I played the Armory with Jokers Wild, and I think with the Rave-ons as well. I loved the Armory gigs. All that natural echo...

EN: What are your interests outside of music. Clapton had cars, for example.

LK: Photography has always interested me. I can spend days lost in Photoshop...

EN: We've experienced a lot of change in our culture over a lifetime. In what ways has the information age and Internet transformed music, live performance and the industry over all? 

LK: Well, it's all good and bad. I think the major impact has been in recording and distribution. Music has become too easy to access, and as a result has lost a lot of its mystique and a lot of its value. Sales of hard copy (CDs, etc.) have diminished, virtually everything that's ever been recorded is available on iTunes for ten bucks a month.

* * * *

Learn more about Lonnie at his website, www.lonnieknight.com.
The concert will be at Weber Hall on July 23. Tickets can be purchased here at Eventbrite.com.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Engage it.

One More Time Around: More Dylan Talk with Gene Lafond

This Friday, May 18, the Armory Arts and Music Center is hosting a benefit concert to raise money and awareness for the renovation of the Duluth Armory. Scarlet Rivera, who recorded with Dylan in 1975 and traversed the land with the Rolling Thunder Revue, will be on stage with Gene LaFond and the Wild Unknown.

May 7 I posted part one of a very warm conversation I had with Geno, as his friends call him, on the topic of all things Dylan. Here is another portion of that conversation.

Geno: I’ve been trying to learn several new songs for this gig and man, it’s a lot of work. I need a teleprompter. Scarlet’s excited. There’s a couple from Desire, one from Oh Mercy that we’re going to do. I think we’re going to do "Man with a Long Black Coat."

EN: "Most of the Time" is one my favorites.

GL: Oh, I forgot about that. I love that song.  I love singing it. It’s not just his lyrics which are incredible, but the way he can put music to it. He’s not just cranking out another blues song or whatever. It all fits so well.

I don’t know how he does it. I’m lucky if I get one or two a year. He probably writes one or two a day.

We’d be walking down the street and I’d see him pull out a little piece of paper that’s just jammed with words, and he’d start writing something down and put it back in his pocket.

It’s an honor to have been able to do that. But I have to credit to Larry. I wouldn’t have been able to be part of all that if it weren’t for Larry. He and Bob were very close friends. Larry broke his neck when he was sixteen and he was in the hospital for a long time. Bob would visit and bang on the piano. Then one day he said, “I’m going to New York” and Larry said, “You’re crazy. You’ve got to get a job. You’re flunking out of school.” And Bob said, “No, I’m going to New York to make music. That’s what I was born to do.”

EN: If it’s O.K. I’d like to hear your impressions of some of his albums. Let’s start with the first one.

GL: I remember hearing it when I was fifteen or sixteen at the time. I remember my parents had an old console record player and I remember laying on the floor with my ear to the speaker and saying, “Holy mackerel, who is this guy?” I remember having the feeling, “This is the brother I never had.”  That’s a fabulous album.

EN: Second album: Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan…

GL: He was really on fire at that time. Those albums… it’s just amazing.

EN: Times They Are A-Changin’

GL: How do you write something like that, I just don’t know. He was certainly on fire, no question about it.

EN: Another Side of Bob Dylan

GL: I think what has impressed me most is his total confidence, the way he sings a song with total confidence…. And it just makes it come alive. He’s not about to let things go.  I’ve been told that there are lots of songs in the vault that never got recorded.  Who knows how much there is, but when he passes there will probably be a lot of new stuff coming out.

EN: Bringing It All Back Home / Highway 61 Revisited / Blonde on Blonde

GL: I can remember being into folk music when I was young and I remember thinking, “Oh man, what’s he doing playing electric guitar?” It took me about two or three times of listening before I said, “Oh yeah.” That’s what he’s doing.”

That’s happened to me several times where I’ve listened to an album once and say gee, I don’t know. It takes a while to sink in.

EN: How about the bands he played with over the years?

GL: They were professionals. He hired the best there is.

EN: You were also with him during his Gospel period and then Infidels.

GL: We went into the studio in New York with him at that time and hung out while he was mixing the album. I remember he brought us into the studio and played a song called “Angels Flying Too Close to the Ground.” I’d never heard it before, and I think it had only been released in Europe and I said, “Oh Bob, that’s the best thing you’ve ever written.” He looks at me with this scowl and says, “I didn’t write that. That was Willie Nelson.”  I laugh about it now but I was embarrassed as hell.

EN: There’s still so much great material coming out in later years. Time Out of Mind won a grammy. Love and Theft, Modern Times, Together Through Life…

GL: You wonder why he keeps pushing himself like that, but he says, “It’s a business. I’ve got a lot of people who depend on me.”

I say, “You’ve got such stamina.”

He says, “No, stamina is guys like you who get up every day at six and go to the same job day after day. Me, I’ve got this beautiful bus and they take care of me and they feed me and I go from town to town and play my songs and they give me a bucket of money. That doesn’t take stamina.”

Gene Lafond and the Wild Unknown with Scarlet Rivera at the Cabooze

I hope you'll join us when Gene Lafond and the Wild Unknown perform here with Scarlet Rivera at Weber Hall, UMD on Friday evening. It’s a truly great venue and an opportunity to contribute to the restoration of the historic Armory here. Tickets for the concert, if still available by the time you read this, can be found at Ticketworks.com. And if the show is sold out, let me know. I still might be able to get you one.