by KUBOA
Creole Myers: Whose paintings in the room off the den? Lorelei’s?
Buddy Gardner: Lor’s. Lor’s the painter.
CM: They’re good.
BG: Oh, they’re better than good. They’re remarkable. I keep telling her to use the contacts she’s made in the art community, but she thinks she’ll be trading on my name. Different worlds, really, but that’s Lorelei. I’m not sure she’s knows how good she is. How good she can be.
CM: The tall one, the figure.
BG: Yeah, that’s the newest. With all the floating objects around it?
CM: Yeah.
BG: That’s new. You know, Lor studied with this old artist in New York, this Brazilian named Oyvind Fahlstrőm. Really, that was his name. I think he’s still alive. Lor, have you heard from him, from Oy? She took a lot from him. Though I think she’s gone off in her own direction. There’s a cartoonist’s simplicity there, those lines, that is both childlike and very sophisticated.
CM: Does she show her stuff?
BG: Shit, I’m lucky if she shows me. Once I told her she was like Twombly but with a better sense of humor. She sulked for a week. Don’t really know why. So, I just tell her, man, I love this. You know, artists—
CM: Here she is now. Good morning.
Lorelei Enos: Good morning. Did you make coffee?
BG: It’s on the sideboard.
CM: Join us?
LE: Be right there.
CM: Should I compliment her work?
BG: Take a shot. It’s your ass. (laughs)
CM: Uh, gimme your three top influences.
BG: We did that, didn’t we? Influences? Uh, Hoagy Carmichael, Tristan Tzara and Soupy Sales.
CM: Um.
BG: Print that.
CM: Ok. So, there’s a rumor that you’re working on an album of covers. Want to give us a hint of what we can expect?
BG: Yeah, I am doing that. Giving a nod to my influences, to use your word, to make you happy, Creole, though some of the stuff, you know, will be fairly obscure. Will seem new. You grok? Let’s see, I’ve already cut “Your Mama’s on the Bottom, Papa’s on Top, Sister’s in the Kitchen Hollerin’ When They Goin’ to Stop” with the L. A. Session. That cooks. “Flying Saucer Rock and Roll.” “Shimmy She Wobble.” “Diddly Bow Blues,” the Seven Finger Tucker standard. Um, I cover Neil’s “Last Train to Tulsa.” That’s probably the most recent thing on there. Miles’ “Birth of the Cool Theme.”
CM: An instrumental?
BG: Yeah, I pick it out on the Gibson. It’s sweet, man. Dylan’s “Get Your Rocks Off.” Memphis Minnie’s “Bumble Bee.” I’ve got more stuff than I can fit on an LP. Maybe it’ll be a double. Nice gatefold with a picture of Sadie’s Garden. “Vertiginous Waves of Murmuring Need.” “Negro Thursdays.” “Bad Eye,” with John Sebastian’s band. “Pachuko Hop.” The Airplane’s “Plastic Fantastic Lover.” “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria.” (laughs) I’m doing “Elusive Butterfly” with the Stone Canyon Band. Um, a Mike Nesmith song—I can’t remember the name of it. Maybe “To Sir with Love.” “Bearcat.”
CM: You do “Bearcat?”
BG: Just me and the National. Sounds pretty good. Lor likes it.
LE: His voice. He really reached down for some voice on that one.
BG: (singing)
“Shake it to the east
Shake it to the west
Shake it to the one that you love the best…”
CM: That’s not “Bearcat.”
BG: No shit.
LE: The song by Mike is “Tengo Amore.”
CM: Right, right. Great song. Have you heard his version? He’s a kickass songwriter, if people were really paying attention. His Monkees stuff is first class. I mean, even on the first album, “Sweet Young Thing”—that’s a kicking song. I dig that song. Maybe I should cover that—show everyone I can still rock out. (laughs)
CM: Do you have a name for this project yet?
BG: I’m thinking of calling it In Cold Blood. Or maybe Sadie’s Garden.
CM: Uh..
BG: “Where Do I Go” from Hair.
CM: Have you seen Hair?
BG: No, well, sort of. Keith Kennedy, in the theater department at Memphis State is a friend of mine, and Keith was mounting the show, as I was, well, breaking down. We had talked about my playing Berger. But, it didn’t happen, so…
CM: You were gonna be in Hair?
BG: Well, I don’t know, we were just talking. I don’t think he’d quite settled yet, on his approach, the whole tribal thing. I mean, it was a student thing, mostly, and he did these intense tribal unity things before he ever started rehearsing the play. It was beautiful. I was part of some of the early planning. Mostly it was just talk. I’d sit in, we’d all be in a room and we’d just chant for an hour or so. It was ritualistic. But, those songs…beautiful stuff. Be interesting to see what Rado and Ragni and whatever the hell the other guy’s name is, do next. It’ll blow our minds, I’m betting.
CM: Hm. Hair. Ok.
BG: (sings)
“We starve look at one another…”
CM: Yeah.
BG: “Facing a dying nation…” Funny, now, eh? Dying nation. What almost killed me. What did Hemingway say, what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger?
CM: I don’t think that was Hemingway.
BG: I think it was.
CM: Ok.
BG: Right.
CM: What about the road? Are you going back out? Do you enjoy touring?
BG: Touring is the dark outside the circle of the light of creativity. You dig? I mean, it’s corrupt. If I didn’t have to do it, I wouldn’t. Not anymore. I mean, I did it, you know. Five nights a week, 300 gigs a year. I did it. It’ll kill you. Look who it killed. But, yeah, I mean, when the new LP comes out they’ve got me touring. Shit. I’ll do it. I mean, I love the fans, ok? But, I’d rather be here with Lorelei, that seems fairly obvious right? I’ll probably agree to the big ten tour. That’s what they give the aging guys like me.
CM: You’re only---
BG: Yeah, yeah, but I’ll do the top ten, you know. I mean, I’d rather do Little Rock. I’d rather do Wichita Falls. But, if you’re gonna only do a handful, they insist on Boston, New York, L. A., etc. Big venues, maybe two, three nights. I’d rather do clubs, truth be told. McCartney told me he was gonna do that. Sneak into clubs, unannounced, and do quick gigs with a pickup band. That sounds cool, man. I could do that. That I could do. But, I‘ll do the top ten and be done with it, Do the interviews, the meet and greet afterwards, the back stage shit where they set you up with local celebs and the press and, you know, the auditorium owner’s daughter. Guy could laid every night on the road. Partly, that’s why it’s not for me anymore, you know. Got my woman, got my nest. Rather bed down and just write. The business stuff, well, it’s shit, isn’t it?
CM: Um--
BG: What’s next, Creole, my old friend?
CM: Maybe we should talk about who’s producing your newer stuff? In Memphis you had these gurus, these guys to sort of steer your stuff—
BG: That’s a pretty good metaphor, yeah. Jim, kept the Black Lung stuff from becoming just this hopelessly over-the-top crap, these pointless solos—well, for the time, really, they’re pretty restrained. But, out here, well, it’s me. I’ve been producing. Or I give Lor credit. She helps sometimes. Which, I know, leads to more of the self-indulgent slams—I’ve heard it said that I need someone to keep me from the sideroads of self-pity, self-consciousness. Listen, they’re saying the same things about McCartney, about Paul Simon.
CM: Well, but—
BG: I don’t wanna hear it, man. I liked McCartney. I liked Ram, ok? And my new stuff, I like it, I like it done my way, I don’t need some label hack in there telling me, uh, we need an oboe here, dig? It’ll be like Blue, right? Amazing piece of work that Joni just ble
d onto tape—and it’s so simple, so austere. Sure, she credits someone with producing—who was it? Crosby? It didn’t matter—that’s Joni, raw, honest, real. That’s the sound I want.
CM: Let’s do something hip here. Let’s go song by song.
BG: Song by…
CM: Through your catalog.
BG: Shee. Fun. If you call ‘em out, I’ll try to comment. Don’t expect me to remember everything..
CM: Let’s do Rain and Other Distractions first.
BG: Right.
CM: “Train Tracks and Other Tracks.”
BG: We’ve done this one. Let’s skip ahead. I don’t want to do the drug talk again. I’m clean, that’s all we need to know right now.
CM: “Aphids on the Heliotrope.”
BG: That was for Lor’s mom. She’s a big gardener, got this incredible spread of flowers in her back yard. She’s taught me a lot about simple pleasures, flowers, feathers, sun. She’s practically a Native American shaman—she, oh, never mind….
CM: “Nature breathing heavy/trying to keep up with her.’