How many instruments do you have?
I think I have about 25 different guitars of all kinds. Electric, acoustic, all kinds. But I don’t collect them, I pretty much use everything that I have. I know a lot of people into collecting, which is great, but I think it’s sad to have something just sit in a case unused. There’s certain instruments I might only use a couple of times a year for recording, but it’s there. You can’t have too many…
And they keep improving things. I know a lot of people like vintage instruments, and I do too, but if you’re on the road taking a vintage instrument out is risky, especially if you’re flying. And attention is being paid to making things stronger, lighter…that’s important when you’re travelling, not to have excess baggage charges, or overweight charges. And if have to carry them yourself.
It’s always interesting to see what people are doing. Something like a steel guitar leg, the vintage steels, the Fenders, the legs of those things were made from microphone stands. They weighed a pound apiece, so I would have to put the legs of my old vintage Fender in my suitcase, put the Fender steel in the road case and it would just hit 50 pounds, so I wouldn’t be charged excess baggage. Less clothes in the suitcase, but I’d have the steel legs in there. And then Herb Remington, who lives in Houston, built me a steel guitar that was really lightweight.
So what’s changed about Woodstock?
I think it’s ever changing. Depends on how far back you want to go. I actually think what’s changed most recently, is it seems the music scene has come back again. Which is great. There was a lull for a long time.
But it’s amazing, unbelievable, the ongoing music at the Barn, Levon’s venue, and Harmony, and Catskill Mountain Pizza, and venues outside of town like the Falcon, the new Towne Crier, Darryl’s House, Rosendale Café, BSP…there seems to be more going on. For my part, it’s a willingness to drive further to go see live music.
You know, growing up here you’d just get so spoiled, you just go into town and there would be so many clubs to go see and play music in. Now you have to drive a little further. I’m pinning my hopes on the Colony Cafe, like everyone else here, waiting with baited breath, to kind of hook it all together.
But what’s exciting about Woodstock, the positive of the music scene, is with people I have known for a long time that are still playing music, and a lot of people I’m meeting, much younger people now.
Other than that, thankfully, there are still good restaurants, and not much else has changed. I think it’ll always look the same, that’s what’s nice about it. It’s still beautiful, and all of us that either grew up here, or were here for, what I call, back in the day…Joyous Lake and Deanie’s, I think we all miss that.
Maybe the Colony will be the catalyst that will spur other music venues to say, hey, we’re not going to die, we’re going to open.
Still for all, Woodstock always seems to survive the ups and downs of places opening and closing. It’s such a beautiful place to live, such a nice community, that people find creative outlets. I notice the Glenford Church is having music, the Empire State Railway Museum in Phoenicia…
Ever think about going out just as Cindy Cashdollar?
There are two different people that quite frequently tell me I need to have my own band. I like being a sideperson, I think it’s what I do best. I’m very happy to be sitting on the side of the stage and just playing and not have to worry about anything else. I cannot imagine having the responsibilities that come with having your own band.
Even though I have a manager who would be more than happy to book the shows and take care of all that stuff, when it comes down to it, it’s your name and you’re responsible for so much, for the logistics of everything, for people’s livelihood, the financial aspect of it…and even though you have people doing the work for you, when it comes down to it, it would be what you wanted to do, and you’d have to do the important work, picking the material, picking the musicians…I’ve done it before a few times for festivals, put together a band, but wow, I so much like it better when someone calls and says, can you be here next Saturday, here’s your plane ticket, here’s who’s picking you up at the airport.
But you know, I’ve done a lot of things I said I would never do, or thought I could never possibly do. So this could end up being a byproduct of moving here…With anything that begets change, like a major move, other things change, too, and a door opens. But right now I can’t imagine it.
What do you like to listen to?
I still like to listen to old jazz, Chet Baker, and Bill Evans, one of my favorite jazz piano players. That kind of stuff. Brazilian music, bossa nova, all that kind of stuff that has nothing to do with what I do. I don’t know what it is, I think it’s just because it’s music that I rarely get to do and I love it. And I also find that listening to other instruments is really refreshing, getting totally away from yourself and what you do. Listening to Chet Baker, so talented, so melodic, and sometimes that creeps into what you are trying to do, playing something with the same tonality or same phrasing as what you like to listen to when you relax. So it’s kinda nice. Certainly I know a lot of players who play the same type of slide guitar that I do, and a lot of them will only listen to what they do, all the time.
And I also listen to old blues music, love it…Muddy Waters box set, could do that all day. I love rural blues, Chicago blues, all of it. Or putting on a recording by The Band is good any time day or night. You can’t go wrong there.
Who are the steel players you like?
A lot. I love Herb Remington, who made my steel. He played with Bob Wills and Texas Playboys. He’s very innovative. Like most of the non-pedal steel players, way back when, playing western swing, they really were jazz musicians. I always felt Western Swing was jazz played on country instruments, and Herbie just had this incredible way of playing so many innovative little lines or intros to a song; Noel Boggs, because he was more a chordal steel player…Vance Terry…John Ely, who’s place I took in Asleep at the Wheel, played steel very beautifully and played all the Hawaiian music, too. Those were the guys I listened to, to further educate myself about Western Swing music. And they became my favorites. Of course, Buddy Emmons, and the pedal steel greats, there are so many modern day pedal steel players…I love what Daniel Lanois does on pedal steel, atmospheric steel guitar, he has this incredible free form approach that takes thinking…pedal steel is a lot different from non-pedal steel, it’s got a lot of moving parts to it.
I think Robert Randolph is amazing, he’s taken the pedal steel to another place, not only recording but performing, another level of sound and style. The sacred steel people are amazing.
And Larry Campbell is a favorite on Dobro and steel…he plays beautifully and lush, on everything…
Oh, Mike Auldridge, I miss him so much, he was a great friend and inspiration. He was my favorite Dobro player, and Josh Graves, who took the Dobro and put the blues in the bluegrass side of things when he played with Flatt and Scruggs. And Jerry Douglas and Rob Ickes, who are the contemporaries of Dobro. And of course my teacher Charlie Ferrara (of West Saugerties) who I always thought was, and still is, an incredible player. But I haven’t seen him. Charlie, come back…!
I remember practicing a lot. My practicing now is just learning people’s set lists. And your ears get accustomed to it.
For a while with Asleep, I was trying to learn music and theory, and you have to use it all the time. Even just reading a chart, there’s all different kinds of charts. I did those few years with Prairie Home Companion, and you’d show up at rehearsal and they’d dole out the music charts, and it was written music as well as a chordal chart, and a lot of times I’d make my own charts, just kind of dummy it down, make it easier to read. I saved a couple of those charts, they were beautifully written, they’re just nice to take out and look at every once in a while, works of art.
I started out when I was 12 and my dad found Billy Faier. He had a little ad tacked up somewhere, and he’d come out to the house once a week and teach me and my brother Russell how to play guitar. I know a lot of people know him as a banjo player, but he was a great teacher.
And then, I heard Ronnie Sutton playing Dobro at Rosa’s Cantina when I was waitressing there, and thought that was it, that’s the sound, that’s what I want to learn. So I put down the guitar…I wish I had kept up guitar actually. It’s always good to be able to play a couple of different instruments, but I’ve got no calluses left. I acquired a nice little guitar in the late 90s, maybe I’ll take it out again.
Future plans?
Oh, I guess just keep on. I don’t know what else to do…get the CD finished and keep on playing music.
Cindy Cashdollar will be performing with the Woodstock Lonestars — Marcia Ball, Cindy Cashdollar, Amy Helm, Shelley King and Carolyn Wonderland, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 20 at Levon Helm Studios. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Ticket information is available at levonhelm.com, 679-2744.
She will also be at Swing and Shine, 5 p.m.-9:30 p.m. at the Ashokan Center, 477 Beaverkill Rd, Olivebridge. See www.ashokancenter.org/swing-shine-2016/ or call 917-519-8945 for more information.
