The Nautilus Studio M31 Files interview singer-songwriter Willie perrit (part 2)

Studio owners Yves LF Giraud (Studio M31) and Mr Bill (Nautilus Studio) interview singer-songwriter Willie Perrit (part 2)

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Situations like that.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Tell me about that. Is there one that you can remember in your life that was uh that you uh your your favorite maybe uh musical moment?

SPEAKER_01 0:37

You know, there's uh there's there's been a there's there's been a lot. Um I think what what what would probably be the m uh most memorable for different reasons was uh when we released our Soy Hero album. Uh which was yeah, we we d we just we sat in a circle uh with um uh we had uh three microphones, we had a vocal mic and then stereo uh pairs on each of the instruments, so you know, two guitars, mandolin. And uh and and it came out the the the work that was done on that album was really good. Um we we had the final mastering done by a guy named uh Bill McElroy who used to work with uh you know I come from a bluegrass background and he he used to work with my heroes, he worked with um uh The Seldom Seen, The Country Gentleman. Uh he did a little work with uh Emmy Lou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and uh so the guys got the and you know we had a we had a friend do the the roughs uh and then we sent it up to Bill McElroy and he just he made it um it's just a really wet recording. It's a really good uh recording.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Now is that that one song I heard uh that you had made to from that uh I thought it was a crowd. Am I wrong? Was there one that was on stage?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

There was uh one called R uh Ruth Ann. Yeah um that was part of another project called the Song Kitchen. And uh it was uh with the guy that that uh Christian is playing with, has played with for a long time, Chris Howdy Shell. Okay. He had a band at the time called Red River Roller Coaster, and he invited all these people into uh a local bar one night, but we shut the bar down. And so it was a bunch of people who agreed to sing backup harmonies, so we had a choir and uh a another situation like that, big circle of microphones, and a lot of pickers. And uh uh Christian and I were there representing So Wahro, so we did the song uh Ruth Ann uh in that in that context. Um so yeah, we've sort of tacked that one on that I think two from that session.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Okay, okay, not the actual. Not the C D, but yeah. We so we did we had a CD release party. It was quite a night. Um my dad was near the end of his life, and one of the songs we recorded was uh was taken from his poems and he was so excited about that. He was he was so happy uh to hear that um you know finally because he tried to uh to get me to collaborate with him, you know. And he he he had this this one little poem written on the back of a uh a drink coaster from a bar that had closed down. It was his favorite bar, it was Tantillas in Richmond, Virginia, and they used to have bands like Benny Goodman, you know, and these big uh orchestras that would come in and they featured dancing under the stars. They had a roof that would roll back. Uh and he he was there for the last night, and he just wrote this little sing-song-y sort of four-line thing on the back of a uh a coaster, and he said, See if you can do something with this. And uh I thought, I don't even know where to start. And then I f he had given me some old poems that he'd written. He had this other poem that was like a a Ginsburg Howl sort of beatnik thing that just went on and on and on, and that's where the verse material came from. You know, so that night was just we had so many good friends there, had family, you know, especially in hindsight to look back and think, well, that my dad was near the end at that point. Uh and uh with prostate cancer, check your PSA number. Um and uh uh it it it it was, you know, it was a good crowd, you know, had had good sound support that night. So yeah, it was a good one. Yeah. And w when was that? That was 1999. Oh, okay. Yeah. Look, it's so many. Oh, okay, all right. There's another favorite night. How could I forget? Stinky and Stabby night. Okay. So so this this is going back to Virginia. Uh the uh the psychedelic band I was in was with my brother. Uh and I I played bass in that band. And uh my brother uh he was he was doing the lead vocals and he he was playing a uh uh Fender Jaguar that he still has. Um and he ran you'll you'll love this setup. He ran the uh he ran the guitar into a small crate practice amp and then ran a line out of the back of that into a 1957 Leslie cabinet from a B3 organ.

SPEAKER_03 6:35

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Had the foot this huge foot controller that controlled the speed of the rotating speakers. This thing would sit there and just kind of go you know, uh it was like it was like a car idling. And uh you know, between songs, and then when the speakers would speed up, it would start to steady itself. Uh we had a good, powerful drummer in the band and a uh uh a rhythm guitarist. Um so we we wouldn't practice at all with this band. That was the rule that I told you about this band. That we were we were like, no, practice is for sissies. We're not doing that. We're just gonna show up with the gear and start playing. And we we played this little club down in uh uh in downtown Harrisonburg, and I mean it was probably twice as big as this room, and they would move the furniture outside when we come to play, you know, because the crowd started picking up. And if we were playing there, the place would be packed. And I don't know why. Uh people would dance like it was the end of the world. Uh we played a show one night. We were kind of a jam band, and I could tell by this metric. So we did a show one night, played forever. I think we did four hours of actual set time, and we played eleven songs. Uh so Stinky and Stabby Night, there was a guy who used to wander in there occasionally who was who was out of his mind. Some people who are out of their mind you can talk to, you know.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

You couldn't talk to him or you could.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

And no, this guy. You he'd he'd he'd look right, he'd look right through you. Uh he was really scary. And um he had uh how should I say, he failed to make it to the bathroom uh and just didn't care. And then he'd thrown up on himself, and he kept getting close to us and just screaming about being uh Jerry Lee Lewis. He believed he was Jerry Lee Lewis at that point, uh, and um and the the rhythm guitar player Steve uh was the one he decided to focus on, and Steve was trying not to throw up, and he kept trying to move away from the guy. Then there was this other guy who was a super fan named Claudio, and Claudio showed up that night on a uh combination of uh crack and a lot of alcohol. And we're in the middle of a doors cover, we're doing backdoor man, he walks in the room and just loses his mind. He just goes crazy in a good way. He's really happy, and then he comes up and he decides to start bothering the drummer. And uh and mind you, this is was another time, but this guy would come up on stage and just bite my brother. Just bite him. This was the kind of bite? Yeah, bite him, just he'd feel something nibble in his shoulder and look over and it's Claudio going, ah so as the evening wore on, Claudio got more and more um uh excited happy uh uh unpredictable. Okay. Because we're we're playing at one point into the second part of the evening, and look out, we're you know, we're right by the window, and there's Main Street. We look out there and Claudio has taken has gotten a hold of a park bench and has it in the middle of the street and is stopping traffic.

unknown 10:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

So some of the you know, some of the crew from the the bar ran out there and they got him back in. Got the got the park bench out of the road and got Claudio back in there, and then uh the evening ended with him in the parking lot standing off a circle of people with a knife.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

And uh he So that's not the the guy that threw up on himself. That this is another guy that was cracking.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

That was Stinky. This was Stabby.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Okay, so Stabby now has a knife.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Stabby escaped down a creek bed and was caught about three o'clock the mor in the morning uh the next day. And uh for all the things he did that night, uh he got a few years in the joint. Really? Uh yeah. But we recorded the show that night and it was it was on fire. It was and but it that that was that would explain all the chaos in the room. It it just uh yeah, it was uh does this recording still exist? It still exists on uh cassette.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Really?

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

Don't lose that. We want to hear that.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Yeah. Something that uh your interview with Jody from the Zoo gallery uh was so good. Um and Jody expressed a lot of things I think that we all share out here as a musical community. Because what I keep telling people is, well, you know, there's this band and there's this band, you know, there's uh the Blackwell brothers, there's Horizon, there's Little Brother, there's uh, you know, there's Goathead, there's Last Nickel, and fine. And then you start to realize, oh, it's all just one band. It's just one big rollicking band. And what we do from the one band is say, okay, tonight we're gonna pick four people that's gonna be the band, the rest of us will be over here having fun. And it's it's really kind of cool because you've got these great local venues, and uh uh they they know that if they book a local band, like the lawn chair kings, that they will have a good day a good night. You book an out-of-town band, and Jody was brought up a point that I thought was kind of kind of cool. She said, you know, the out-of-town bands, if I book them, they they're great, but uh they're not gonna spend money locally. They're not part of the economy here. Right. Not really.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

It is one of our big concerns. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And she she's right about it. She thinks like uh you know, she has a business and and she thinks for all the other businesses, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Well we have a I I think what we have now is a self-sustaining musical community. There's more music going on out here in Fort Cornea than I've I've I've seen. I I haven't been part of a scene like that. I've been part of an urban scene like that.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

It's kind of uh surprising almost, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yeah, but it it and it works so well for everybody because the the breweries, the bars, they know, well, you know, if I uh if I book the Blackwell brothers, I'm gonna have a good night. Because number one, kick ass band. And two, they've got lots of friends who are gonna show up and and have fun.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

And people do come out here, which is another part of the the puzzle for me. Yeah. It's one thing to have people on the play and venue someone at the bands, but the crowd makes it happen because at the end of the day, as you said, the venue has to make money instead of drinking. And the band also has to make money. So all that is supported by actually people coming to the which is fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

It's a great culture, and uh the best dancers and the ones who are on the floor first are always the one the the the people in their 80s.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

That's so funny, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:31

The the 80s-something group out here has more energy than esprit decor than if I'm saying that right.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

I would love for you to play a song. Will you do that for listening? Okay. Okay. Oh, I want to be here.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Yes, we don't want my dear sweet home Alabama.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

So this is a song we we talked about earlier uh that um that I wrote when I was with Soy Hero, uh based off a couple of poems that my dad wrote, you know, going back to Tantillas and uh his his years uh on the Chesapeake Bay. And it it sort of uh sort of looks into you know where his ha uh head was at uh at that time in his life. And um uh so uh yeah, so I I put together the uh uh some of the excerpts from his poems uh into a chord progression, and uh there it was. And I I I play the song a lot. It's gotten to be sort of uh uh almost takes on a uh hymn uh status to me uh with when when we play the song, especially playing it with the old band uh back in Virginia. It uh it dredges up memories and uh feel like it carries his voice beyond uh the time you know when he he passed away. Just keeps it out there. So anyway. Passing Days of a Drinker. Just a little sip, a sip of heaven to pass down, pass down my dreams, put away my soul for another time, put away my love for another night, put away eternity to stay like this, exactly like this, a few drinks, a few cheers, a few smiles, a few tears, gone, gone with the golden years, away in the dew, so gently I lie away from it all after all that noise. Lay perfectly still in the summer dark, lay perfectly still, and the day won't come.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Lay perfectly still, the pop of a cork, and the bay of a hound, the fall of a butt, another round gone, gone with the golden ears. With the salt in the sun, drink it up with the stars in the sky. Let me never stop till the money runs out.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

The wheels fall off and the friends disappear. But for God's sake, hold back today. Hold back today.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

I see your life as I live my own. Leave you now to be alone. For the golden years, gone, gone for the golden years, gone, gone for the golden years.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Beautiful song. Well, man, thank you so much for being here, brother. Unless uh Mr. Bill, do you have any question that you've maybe you've been able to ask with that? I'm not on the Epstein list.

SPEAKER_03 21:14

No, it's great to see and hear more about your uh your story there, Willie.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

Yeah, and uh I love your playing and I always enjoy listening to you in uh uh your originals and in your uh uh Vincent Black Lightning has always been one of my favorite songs, you know. Fairport convention guy. Yeah, Richard Thompson. Richard Thompson, yeah. Yeah, so keep it up and um we'll have to get together on one of the big local four corners jam things here sometime. Uh man.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Thanks so much. Yeah, I'm so glad we finally got you. Um because we've been trying to get you for like what, six, seven years.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

I know your agent will not give us.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Yeah, she really is. And uh yeah, you know, she's she's all all about the cash.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

All about a cash.