Ted: “We were brothers in California, learning how to play music at a pretty young age. Our mentors gave us this advice: ‘listen to the music that the people you like listen to.’ Our parents were baby boomers, so we grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles. Those guys were listening to Mississippi Blues–we became obsessed with that music when we were in high school.”
John: “What made the Rolling Stones so popular? Where did that come from? Our questions led us to Clarksdale, MS to understand the roots.”
Ted: “Our parents were curious about what we were into and took us to Clarksdale when we were teenagers. I was 15 and John was 12. It was mind-bending going from California to Clarksdale.
We started going back to Clarksdale about five years later. After one of our visits, we sent bluesman Watermelon Slim a letter asking if we could hang out with him the next time we were in town. He said we could be his backing band for his gig at Red’s juke joint. We learned his songs and backed him up a couple of times.
Slim came to LA on tour, and we rallied a big crowd of musicians to see him. I still get excited about our connection to Mississippi. The statistics put Mississippi at the bottom, but if you remove Mississippi music, then American music would collapse. Our greatest art came from there. When things are tough, people turn it into art.”
Ted: “One night, a guy asked us if we knew about Parchman, the prison in the Delta. We knew about the music history, but weren’t completely aware that it was still open. This guy’s nephew was doing a life sentence at Parchman, and he wanted to see him. He knew the warden and got us in there to play at Parchman as a way to see his nephew.”
John: “We have played at Parchman twice and did two shows when we were there: one for death row inmates and another for the general population. Death row is more intense. The guys are let out of their cells and gather around as we play. It’s more intimate talking and hanging out.”
Ted: “It’s an unusual place to play. The prisoners have been locked up on the death row block for so long that they are socially strange. One of the guards told us, ‘You might not understand how important this is. When you’re playing for these guys for just a minute, they’re not prisoners anymore. They’re just regular people.’
We played at Parchman again this year. It feels like we’ve spent our whole lives taking from Mississippi, so we want to give back to this place that’s given us so much. Music that we love not just came from there, but was recorded in Parchman with the Alan Lomax field recordings when bluesman Bukka White was a prisoner there.”
John: “We connected with the music of the South, but a fire brought us here permanently. We lost our family home and our recording studio that we loved in a California wildfire. It forced us to make changes and rise up from the ashes.”
Ted: “We wanted to move closer to Nashville and found Leipers Fork. We’re unbelievably lucky to be here, and it’s been good for our music. There are four major recording studios nearby; Winona Judd, Chris Stapleton, and Jason Isabel live here.”
Ted: “Our new album Give It All Up to You came out in September. It’s the first full record we’ve made since moving here. It’s our best one.”
John: “This album is very different from our earlier music. We’ve had a lot of personal and music changes, and then working with producer Mark Neal was a big change as well. This record is very southern–it’s the influences of where it was recorded.”
Ted: “One of the new songs is Tupelo Trace. As the sun set on the Natchez Trace it was beautiful and scenic, but also kind of spooky. The song popped out as I thought about the history and the people who traveled this road. I wanted it to be like a Skip James tune. Our producer taught me new ways to reach into myself for a good vocal performance. Put everything on the table emotionally and bring them into the song. It’s taking the tough things in life and transforming them into something others can relate to. Celebrating sadness and the resilience that gets people through it–that’s the blues.”
The Deltaz
Here’s A Little Bit Longer from the Juke Joint Festilval in Clarksdale
Here’s “Take Me Down to Tulsa” from the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale
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