Interview: John Wesley Harding Brings his New Album and Variety Show to Largo this Saturday

Kind of a reunion of sorts?

Well, yeah, except they are people that I am never away from very long.

You have been known to call your music 'gangsta folk'. Would you still use that description today?

Well you know, probably not, it was a rather off-the-cuff joke that I made in about 1994. But that said, yeah, it's pop music. First and foremost it's pop music, but I did like the idea of putting together gangster rap and folk music. I thought that it was a good idea. Recently the Flight of the Concords had the same good idea. Some time ago some emails started coming through saying, 'hey Flight of the Concords have a song about gangster folk'.

The new album is... there is a great liner note on a Jonathan Richmond album from way back when that said, 'Every now and then an album comes along that means you have to completely rethink an artist and his work. It's fair to say this is not that album." Which is a brilliant classic piece of Jonathan Richmond humor. In a sense, I would say the same thing about this album. I do the thing that I have been doing for ages, which is trying to write lyrics that haven't been written before and trying to put them with melodies in a tuneful way. That is a rather old fashioned virtue or sin nowadays. It's the thing I have always been trying to do. I got lucky with this album because the album is well produced, the players are excellent, and I am very pleased it's been getting such a fantastic reaction. It definitely sound like people who like making music. Like all my music, it's a fan letter to music, to all the different kinds of music I like.

John Wesley Harding and Eugene Mirman. Photo by Matt Grady

For this tour, you have created a show with Eugene Mirman called Wes and Eugene's Cabinet of Wonders. How did you come up with this concept?

I was thinking of a fun way to do some shows in New York around the release of my album. I thought, I'll get together lots of my friends to come and do a kind of variety show and I'll play songs during it. I have done two of the shows already and we have had Rosanne Cash, Graham Parker, Joshua Ritter, lots of great writers Rick Moody, Jonathan Ames, all these great people. That was called John Wesley Harding's Cabinet of Wonders. I invited Eugene Mirman, I love his work. I invited him to be at all three of those shows. The first one went very well. And he said, "Well we should go and do this on the road." I though yeah that's a great idea that's what I'll do. then I thought, if I am going on the road it should be Wes and Eugene's show. Plus I know a lot of musical people and I know a lot of writers, but I don't necessarily know a lot of comedians. The idea is to put everything under the same roof.

The Cabinet of Wonders is coming to Largo on April 4. What wonders do you and Eugene have up your sleeves for the LA audience?

The show has a format. I shant give a lot of things away. Eugene and I will introduce the show. We introduce all of the artists. The show ends with a large finale. In the middle, Eugene leaves his comfort area to do a bit of music and I leave my comfort area to enter Eugene's world. One of the things that is awesome about the show for us is that in every town the show is completely different. In LA, we have an incredible amount of talent on display. We have songwriting genius Mike Viola. We have comedian Patton Oswalt. We have Jill Sobule, who I have made music with. We have folk rock legend Al Stewart. We have Matthew Specktor, who is a writer that I have just done some collaboration with. It is really going to be a very interesting show.

In each town, the show takes on the attributes of that place somehow. Like in Seattle, there is a lot of music on the bill and it's in a rock club. It is going to be very different form the show we just did in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was in a 300 seat cinema with a proscenium arch. I am sure the LA show will reflect LA. From our point of view it is really invigorating, a really fun thing to do. There is a lot of collaboration, a lot of email rehearsals. Everyone is going to be in the finale. We have written poems about everybody. The idea at this show is to string it all together. It's got a flow. We spent quite a lot of time over a whiskey beforehand planning how it's going to be the best it can possibly be.

How often do you visit LA?

Pretty often. I have made a number of albums there. My regular stop would be to play at McCabe's. And Largo, though I have not been to the new Largo. I have only played the old space.

Do you have favorite places to visit here?

The Museum of Jurassic Technology is one of my favorite places in the world. The place is absolutely fantastic. I am always recommending it to people. I love it. And because of By George and all that stuff, I am very attached to The Magic Castle as well. That's a great place to go. It's a great place to dress up. The sense of occasion there is very good and I like to go there whenever I can.

Let's talk instruments. What guitar are you playing now?

A Takimine.

How many do your have in your collection?

Sadly only one of these. I have been playing it since 1988. I have used it for probably pretty much 95% of my professional engagements.

You are very loyal.

Yes, very loyal because the guitar has been very loyal to me.

You once covered Madonna's "Like a Prayer". What makes putting the singer songwriter spin of these top 40 pop songs so entertaining and fun?

Part of the thing that made it so entertaining and fun is that back then- nobody did it. A very good example of that before me was Aztec Camera's cover of "Jump". It was kind of an awesome version of the song. It made me think twice about that song. I just thought "Like a Prayer" was a really beautiful song. I thought with the video and all the controversy about it and all the orchestration and the big disco beat and the church choir, if all that was stripped away, it would be seen as a beautiful song. Then because irony came in around then, people can't quite work out whether you are joking or not and think it's some kind of a game. But I think very few people cover songs that they don't like, just to make fun of them. I mean I would have given my right arm to write that song. At the time Madonna was on fire. I was asked me to do a couple of songs for an EP that predated my first album. This is really ancient history. It's like 20 year ago. So I recorded "Talking Goodwill Christmas Blues" and an acoustic version of "Like a Prayer". The mileage I got out of those two songs is incredible.

You have worked with one of our favorite drummers, Pete Thomas.

Pete is one of my favorite people. He is a drummer that if I lived in the same city, I would work with all the time. I don't think there are too many better drummers making music nowadays.

Have you seen his band Jackshit?

I have seen Jackshit. When he was in London when I first knew him he was in a band called The Tex Pistols. The Tex Pistols did country songs and I used to go along and they liked having guest vocalists. I used to go along and play old country songs.

You have written two acclaimed books, Misfortune which based on one of your songs and By George. What's next- another novel or an album?

Well actually the next novel is finished. I recorded the backing tracks to Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead over a year ago. I have a family in New York, two small children. I like to hang around with them. Being a writer is great because it means you are home the entire time. Where as being a musician is a bit more difficult because you have to be on tour. My eldest daughter is just about to be three and my son is five months old. So I have been at home a lot.

When will it be published?

I don't know: the book business is very slow. With any luck spring next year I would say. It is possible I could make produce and release an album before the book would come out.

What is the book about?

It is about a classical composer who murders his wife and his wife's lover.

Until we get a chance to read By George and wait for John Wesley Harding's new novel next year (Misfortune is a must read!), we will head to Largo to experience Wes and Eugene's Cabinet of Wonders and find out what is hiding up his sleeve. Saturday night, the show will feature John Wesley Harding & the Radical Gentlemen, Eugene Mirman, Patton Oswalt, Mike Viola, Jill Sobule, Al Stewart, and Matthew Specktor, and Ron Lynch. Any guesses which song everyone will do for the finale?