My interview with Allen Terhune

Hi, Joey here. This is my first interview. My dad wrote a nice thing to tell you about Allen Terhune. Here it is. "Allen Terhune has enjoyed a long career as a musician extraordinaire. He's toured with Cherry Vanilla, did a stint in Gerald Collier's band, played live with the Supersuckers and shared the stage with Willie Nelson. You can hear his talent on CD’s by Clay Bartlett, Euclid, Gerald Collier, the Supersuckers, Deadwood and, of course, his own self-released projects. He’s a prodigious talent who remains fiercely independent recording his own music on his own terms. For Allen, it's always been about his music and vision without having it filtered through other musician's interpretations."

I e-mailed my questions to Allen and here are the answers I got.

What do you remember about music when you were 7 years old?

"When I was seven, it was 1967. The Beatles were huge among me and my friends -- well, among the whole world. The Monkee's had a hit with "I'm A Believer." There was "Windy" by the Association, "Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum. Radio and music was my life! My family would go to a place in Marion, Indiana every Friday called "Shoppers' Fair," which predated K-Marts by a couple of years, and my Dad would let me buy a 45 record each time, which is how I started building my record collection. I would bring home these records and play them over, and over, and over. I would say about this time, two of my friends and I decided to put on a "concert" for the neighborhood. This entailed taking my sister's Barbie game boxes, cutting them into the shape of guitars, and singing "Hanky Panky" to a small group of kids, most of them older than us. When didn't think anyone was going to show up, and finally about half a dozen bikes zipped into my back yard, and I then experienced my first case of stage fright. We mumbled our way through the first chorus before we exposed ourselves as total imposters. What made things worse, was my sister sold lemonade for a nickle a glass and ran off with the money without giving anyone any juice. They were an angry bunch. Although I remember that first "concert" -- at around age seven, it wasn't until I turned 17 that I bought my first guitar and even entertained the idea of wanting to write songs and perform."

What inspires you to play music?

"Oh, Joey. That's a tough question -- I think. What inspires me now to write/play music, is the excitement I feel and sense of accomplishment I get after recording a newly-written song in my studio, and listening back to it through really nice speakers. That's really been the inspiration to learning different instruments, too. I started playing guitar, of course, and when I bought my first four-track cassette, which was top of the line in 1989 at $1,000, I ventured into buying a cheap bass, so along with a keyboard that had some pretty cool drum sounds, I was recording music that sounded, I reckon, like a full band. It wasn't until ten years later, when listening to Uncle Tupelo, that I heard the pedal steel guitar, and knew I wanted that sound in my music, so I learned that. Then the lap steel, then mandolin, and banjo, and the accordian, and fiddle, among other things. I played the snare drum in junior high, so recording the snare and kick drum comes easily. I play many instruments, but none of them truly professionally."

What’s your favorite instrument to play and why?

"This is hard to answer without hurting any of my instruments feelings... The acoustic guitar is always a good friend, because it's what I've written most of my songs on, although the past couple of years, I've written many, many songs on a few baritone ukuleles I have around. As far as creativity, the lap steel is probably what I'm best at. I played with some Hawaiians doing their music a few years ago, and I spent hundreds of hours getting intimate with my lap. For a while, I was on a professional level without a doubt. Now, I only play things like lap and pedal steel when I need to record them (actually most of my instruments), and it's a matter of being creative as opposed to being fast and acrobatic with them. I've recorded pedal steel in the studio with a number of groups here in Seattle, but lately I just tell people I'm too old to be dragging that clunky thing, plus a 60-pound amp, around town to studios."

How did you get started writing songs?

"When I first bought my guitar at 17, it was because I was dating a girl in high school who played guitar. We'd been dating for a couple of months, and one day, at her house, she said, "I want to show you something." She pulled out an old Gibson guitar, and sang a song -- that she wrote herself! And she was only 15 or 16 at the time. I remember saying "Why didn't you tell me you could do this!" A big lightbulb went off in my head, and the following week I bought a right-handed guitar, switched the strings over to lefty, and immediately set off to composing songs. So, Susie Duncan, whereever you are, thank you for inspiring me to write in the first place."

What song/band made you want to play music? What is your favorite song? What is your favorite Terhune song?

"Well, Susie Duncan made me want to play music, but being a Steve Forbert fan, then reading about his trip to Greenwich Village in New York City, is what made me want to try to make a living at it.

Favorite song: I have many favorite songs, but for the sake of giving you one, I'll say "Hey Jude," but it could easily be "Holly Holy" by Neil Diamond, too. That's tough! The Bee Gee's "Lonely Days" is also up there. Ah, too many. What's interesting -- and only to me, is that when I listen to songs like "Holly Holy," I realize, that as a young boy, I really didn't memorize the words; I memorized the music and instruments. Each bass note, the drums, the way the cadence changes -- all these things I memorized like the back of my hand. Not the words, but the production. George Harrison's guitar solo in "Let It Be," I've known note for note, since I was ten years old. I've never tried to play it on guitar, but when I hear it on the radio, I know where he's going with each note. I don't think I could write down all the words, or even their correct order. The music, passion, and production always meant more to me than words.

Favorite Terhune song: Oh, I'm so good, I just...oh, it's sooo hard. I wrote a song when I was a senior in high school about my dog, whom I'd had since I was eleven. Maybe that's my favorite song. I've never recorded, but I think I can remember it...I'll bet your Dad heard it when we roommates in college. My dog's name was Tigger."

Who is your favorite singer of all time? Why?

"Early Jonathan Edwards -- oh, such a great voice. John Prine -- a very humble voice, yet such character. As for songwriter...again, John Prine -- he writes, nice, simple, easy to understand songs. No hidden meanings. For the common man -- like myself. I think he even had an album called "Common Man." I might be lying, though."

How do you write songs? Do you write the words first or the music first?

"When I first bought a guitar, I think I wrote words first. Shortly thereafter, though, I started, and continue to do so, writing the melody first by plunky around in a certain key, then coming up with words to fit the music. See? Music first, words second. That's just me. Unless I really try, which I didn't for 20+ years, my words are usually common and corny because they were simply a tool to fit around my melodies, a means to complete a song. When I began selling my CDs on the internet, though, I became a little more conscious of writing something that wouldn't be laughed at for being so common and not worth while. Doesn't mean people might still not get a good laugh at some of my words, but I think the past few years they've been fairly good and creative, even though most of my songs are usually only about two things...someone's leaving or someone's getting hurt. Gee, I just blew the lid on myself."

What was it like the first time you heard yourself on the radio?

"The first time I heard myself on the radio was playing pedal steel on Gerald Collier's "Long Distance (Nashville Calling)." I was still playing with Gerald, and was actually just pulling up in my truck to the rehearsal space for one of our three-times-a-week rehearsals. It's such a great song, and because of that, the feeling I had hearing it on the radio was almost sureal -- quite emotional. My playing was very minimal on that song, so it wasn't like "wow, I'm playing great," it was just warming to be a part of a classic recording."

My Dad says it’s been a long trip from “Following Deer”…how many songs have you written? Have you ever wanted to re-do any of your old songs?

"Exhibit A: "Following Deer." Uh, a perfect example of very juvenile lyrics, and the sad thing, is that I was genuinely serious about writing songs like that, and thought of myself as quite the "artiste." As a friend of mine said at the time, a fellow by the name of Ron Payne, and although he was being perfectly honest when he said it, and it hurt my feelings, he said that particular song sounded like a "horrible John Denver" song. Boy, he was really right. Anyway, yes, I've come a long way since then, and I'd say I've written over two thousand songs. I've thought about redoing some of the older songs, but, gee, like I've mentioned, most of them had lyrics that could have been written by someone younger than youself -- and I don't mean to insult you."

What’s your favorite fruit and why? How about ice cream?

"Favorite fruit: apple sauce. Just love it. Have it with almost every meal. Can I call apple sauce a fruit? Well, if you need a nonaltered fruit, I'd say...perfectly-ripe, seedless, green grapes.

Favorite ice cream (concoction): Chocolate ice cream with a looot of chocolate syrup. It's making my mouth water. I'm partial to ice cream sandwiches, too."

My Dad says you have a special love of dogs…what do dogs mean to you?

"Dogs are the epitome of unconditional love. They'll show you love even if you accidentally yell at them. I could come home ten times in a day, and each time I walk through the door, my dogs act like they haven't seen me in years! It's such a wonderful feeling to be greeted that way. It makes me feel quite popular. I think we, humans, like to live vicariously through our dogs...go take a crap in the yard, lay around and watch the birds, come back in, get lots of food without having to cook it or clean up plates, lay on the couch and be petted and scratched all night long...I mean, man! Who wouldn't want to live a life like that?"

Thank you Allen!
"Thanks, Joey. You make me feel like a rock star. You're a rock star!"

You can listen to Terhune on www.cdbaby.com There's more cool interviews with him on the site.