Whether it's about a socialite with an expensive drug habit, a movie star crashing his car on the Santa Monica freeway, a woman who commits suicide by jumping off a bridge or a man finding his gal in bed with his best friend, there is no doubt that singer/songwriter Jackie Greene has a penchant for the unlucky, the disenchanted.
Greene's new album “American Myth” released last month on the Verve Forecast label is the latest installment from a musician who has began to make quite a name for himself as a true American troubadour.
“These songs are all intended to paint a picture of America, in sort of a nonspecific way,” said Greene.
Not only does Greene write lyrics that feature many different walks of life but he also expands upon his many influences to create songs with interesting and melodic hooks that have a taste for the blues, rock and country.
“I try and incorporate all of what I like into my songs, I don't try to censor myself,” said Greene on his wide range of influences that sneak into his work. “I only can make the record I am happy with. I do what I can to try and keep it coherent, but I'm not killing myself over it.”
Greene grew up in Cameron Park, a small town 30 miles outside Sacramento where he taught himself music on the piano in the house. Greene then transitioned over to the guitar, one his father left after his parents split.
As a boy, Greene first took notice to bands like Metallica, Nirvana and Pearl Jam but then turned a corner the summer prior to his freshman year in high school when he discovered his parents' LPs of rock, country, blues and R&B like Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Leadbelly and Muddy Waters.
Greene's recent work “American Myth” constitutes his second album with the label and displays a shift in the recording process in that the record has a live, first-take ambiance as opposed to the overdubbed yet still just as superb “Sweet Somewhere Bound” released in 2005.
“The last album, it just wasn't possible for me to play everything at once, and it was a little bit more meticulous,” said Green about “Sweet Somewhere Bound.” “I had to lay down the guitar parts and drum parts and so on. This new album was recorded better in that we had a much bigger budget so we had better musicians, a lot better gear. At this point in my life, I enjoy playing with a group. There is a whole aspect when you have other people in the room playing with you, it's not just one brain, it's four brains working on one song. They bring to the table all these different elements that you wouldn't get by doing yourself.”
For “American Myth,” Greene recorded with a stellar cast of players including Elvis Costello's borrowed rhythm section bassist Davey Faragher and drummer Pete Thomas, along with Val McCallum, who Green said is one of the “best guitar players” he's ever heard “in his life.”
“A lot of the songs, at least half of them if not more, are live vocals, I had this thing about sitting in a room and recording with a band, a lot of my favorite records are done that way,” said Greene. “It's a way to tap into that burst of discovery and energy, and somehow you lose that when you keep going over things. There are benefits to both methods now that I've done it both ways.”
Both albums are packed with soulful renditions of Greene's original compositions in which the lyrics not only focus on the downtrodden but also a discontentment in life, lost love and regret, the kind of issues common to all people from a mayor to a drag queen to a waitress or a sailor - a few of the characters in “American Myth.”
“You can find those kind of people anywhere, but in particular like places like Hollywood it seems like they are a little more abundant there, maybe,” said Greene about his song “Hollywood.” “That is just the way it seems to me. I'm not from there so I don't know but as far as down-and-out people, and whatnot, it's more that everybody has a void, and they deserve to be in songs too, I guess.”
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