TOO FAR APART: LAURIE AND JOHN STIRRATT CLOSE THE GAP WITH 'ARABELLA'
 

The last time Laurie and John Stirratt played together professionally was essentially in the early '90s. That was as part of the Oxford, Mississippi-based band, the Hilltops, the alt-country initiators perhaps best known nowadays as the outfit that mutated into Blue Mountain. It was also the first time and only time until the arrival of the siblings' duo debut, Arabella (from John's own Broadmoor Records), that the New Orleans-born pair collaborated on such a level.

A lot happened in between. Laurie helped guide Blue Mountain to the top of the alt-country heap, married -- and later divorced -- that band's frontman, Cary Hudson, watched the band's demise, and contemplated leaving the business. John, meanwhile, parlayed a guitar-tech gig for Uncle Tupelo into a bass-playing role on that band's last album, Anodyne, and then joined Jeff Tweedy in his new outfit Wilco in 1995. While remaining for the entirety of Wilco's acclaimed six-album run -- a feat no other founding member can claim -- Stirratt has also found time to mine his '60s-pop Jones in Autumn Defense as well as other Wilco-related offshoots.

Now, finally, comes the recording project known as "Laurie & John Stirratt." Recorded in Chicago -- where both now reside -- and featuring cameos from members of Wilco and Autumn Defense, Arabella is a small, beautiful record, a simultaneously sweet and saddened journey through folk, country and rock. A intimate composite of life experiences, include the death of their mother a decade ago, the effort serves as a sort of aural marker for the pair as they work their way through their '30s.  

"We were just happy to spend time together," John Says. "This was just after her divorce and we did a road trip and we wrote a lot in the car."

"It was time to start over," Laurie says.

-- Neal Weiss, September 24, 2004
 

MoMZine: John, when Laurie joined the Hilltops, what was that like -- your sister coming to play in your band?

John Stirratt: I asked her, which made it very easy. She had played guitar longer than I had but no bass, so I remember -- this kind of dates the situation too -- I bought her a Fender Jazz bass at the local pawn shop, which now you could never do, and I brought it to her with all the tunes, and she woodshed in New Orleans before she came up and joined. And she took to it immediately. I didn't have any trepidation at all; she was looking for a gig and we had an opening. Then they went on from there.

Laurie Stirratt: That was the first time we had a band and were touring around, recording. It was great. We were a lot younger then, in our early-20s, so we tended to argue more. We just disagreed, sort of like young kids in their first band. You can imagine the disagreements that you'd have, due to immaturity more than anything. But there was never any kind of lack of respect. I mean, sometimes the sibling thing can get weird and competitive but we really never have that problem.

MoMZine: Share some memories about how music made an impact on you growing up.

Laurie: I remember buying my first LP at eight years old. From them on it was just a huge part of my life. I got a record player for my birthday and went out and bought four records -- Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Paul McCartney's Band On The Run, Captain & Tennille, and John Denver. It just sort of went from there. I remember hearing David Bowie for the first time and being really blown away, and then getting into more underground or more obscure stuff as time passed. I just always made it a point to keep discovering new things.

John: It was just this incredibly fertile, funky New Orleans radio in the '70s. It was very free. It was just kind of a funny juxtaposition to listen to the Meters on the radio and then have my dad with a banjo group around the den playing "Five Foot Two" and things like that, Tin Pan Alley or whatever traditional sort of jazz. The gulf between those things seemed so huge but it kind of instilled in my a sense of wonder about music and about how I'd like to explore something in between. You can insert the MOR thing right there [laughs]. But I remember hearing Meters and Wings right next to each other on the radio and thinking that's what everyone listened to. But the thing that my dad did with those songs -- those are the first songs I ever learned and that seems bizarre to me, just the incredible whiteness of it. Exotic in its whiteness.

MoMZine: John, the first album that you purchased?

John: Band On The Run. I bought it when it came out and I still have it. That's insane. I was a little kid, seven or eight years old. I love the title track. That's a great record.

MoMZine: The album has some very sweet, even bittersweet, tones. Where does that sensibility come from?

Laurie: I think it's just life experience. You get a little older and you don't have the blind confidence that you did when you were in your 20s. You tend to use a little more reflection about yourself, self-doubt, and you've experienced more pleasure and heartache. So I think being in your 30s, going through a divorce, the loss of a parent and other really great things too, those kinds of things shape your personality.

John: I guess my mother, being from Mississippi… she brought in these records, they're like the discovery records for this genre, like the Emmylou Harris records from the '70s: like Luxury Liner, with covers of Louvin Brothers, Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, and traditional stuff, and Roses In The Snow, Quarter Moon In A Ten Cent Town. I think my mom got my dad more into country through those records. They were discovery records and later on after getting into punk rock and rock I started listening to more country I kinda went back to those records. Early on with the Hilltops, on the first record we were more like a Husker Du-influenced band and then we saw Uncle Tupelo, we heard them before their first record, and kinda realized that they were doing it such a cool way that it just sounded like mid-period Byrds or something, and then we went more in that direction.

MoMZine: That path is so common, punk rock to country.

John: It was all about the personalities and you won't find anyone as decadent as Spade Cooley or someone like that. I don't care if it's Sid Vicious. And you looked up to the decadence. There's none of that in our music [laughs], but I think a lot of those songs, like "It's Just That Simple," and these 6/8 and 3/4 style tunes are really influenced so much my Rick Danko and other sort of country-influenced rock people.

MoMZine: The album comprises songs that you've written over the years. As you assembled it, did you discover any prevailing theme to it?

Laurie: That's hard to say. Yeah, I think there's a little bit of a theme… your life changes, you lose things -- I think the record kind of embodies [the ideas of] change, loss, things like that.

John: Gathering on the lyrics and listening to how the songs worked together, I just seemed like the mood of it was like a cool, bleak folk record. Lyrically introspective and pretty bleak in its own way too.

MoMZine: Tell us one thing that the other has taught you about the art of making music.

Laurie: I think just to sort of believe in my own writing. I've written for a long time but it's a different thing to write and then put it away and then writing and making a record out of it. John's given me a lot of confidence to go with my instincts. I hope I've taught him something too.

John: Enjoy yourself while doing it [laughs]. It's novel, frankly, especially now. There is a sort of release after you spend two years making a record like Ghost Is Born; we [Wilco] have a great time playing music but there's a certain amount of seriousness to it when you get these artists into a room together. And I think this record [L&J] was a little bit of a release, maybe.

MoMZine: How about something that the other has taught you about the business of making music.

Laurie: I think mainly it's just playing, sticking to your guns creatively, not trying to change anything to make it sell more or to please your record company or anything like that.

John: You should do self-made records now, release records on your own. With her experience in Blue Mountain, they successfully released some records and did really well with them, that's kind of what I've learned. I've worked with some nice independent label people but you can keep everything under your own umbrella.

MoMZine: What was the biggest challenge in making an album with your sibling?

Laurie: The time factor with John being on the road so much with Wilco. It was hard to get together and we had to really hustle when he was home. So we always felt we were under a little bit of a time factor when he was home. He really busted his ass. He was on the road with Wilco and doing Autumn Defense shows and then he'd come home and we would do this recording together. He didn't have much of a vacation for a year.

John: In our case we had a history that was a little uneven at best. The Hilltops kind of broke up and they sort of left me in the lurch a little bit there. She and Cary moved to Los Angeles and that was right before I joined Uncle Tupelo. It was a weird, pivotal thing in my life. They broke the band up, moved to L.A. and I was in New Orleans wondering what the fuck I was gonna do. And those guys [Uncle Tupelo] called me to go fucking guitar tech in Europe in '92 and I'd never been to Europe so I jumped at it. The next year I was playing on the Anodyne record. But it was definitely long-forgiven and forgotten. I think maybe the main concern was that we would hate the record, that it wouldn't work at all, and if that were the case I wouldn't be talking to you now.

MoMZine: Laurie, there's been some downtime since Blue Mountain broke up and now. Was there every a time when you thought perhaps you were done making music professionally?

Laurie: For a very short period of time, yes. I was just tired out after ten years, going through a divorce, for about two months it was like, "I think I'm gonna hang it up." But then I knew that that wasn't gonna be possible for me. I wouldn't be very happy if I gave up.

MoMZine: What did you learn from Blue Mountain that you can apply moving forward?

Laurie: It's kind of interesting. The industry's changed so much even since then, and it hasn't been that long. I've kind of had to re-learn some stuff about the industry. When we started that band all you had to do was tour your ass off and play good shows and people would respond. But people aren't responding to touring like they used to, they aren't going out to hear as many live shows, there's a lot more bands out there… a lot of factors. I think I've learned mainly from that band that we had a record contract nightmare, and now I know not to give up anything business-wise. I definitely learned from that.

MoMZine: Does that mean you're satisfied with the business level of this project?

Laurie: I am. I don't have any interest in being on a label ever again, to be honest. I think that I can do as good or better job at putting out our own music. I like to know exactly what's going on all the time and I like to have control over everything. So if it's on a smaller scale, I'm fine with that as long as I feel like I'm doing the best I can getting it out there and promoting it. I don't think you need a label any more to do that. Plus bigger labels aren't interested in you anyway if you're not selling a couple hundred-thousand records. I'm satisfied.

MoMZine: John, How about in Wilco , what have you learned?

John: Well, just working in the studio as much as we've been, making seven records, I was bound to learn something in all that time, and I did. I invested in a cool home studio, it's not like a big-time studio, and I learned how to record basically all through Wilco from people who did it themselves, like Jay Bennett, who would just dive in. When you spend that much time in the studio you should be able to engineer.

MoMZine: John, what happens when people who know you from Wilco hear the music you do with Laurie or Autumn Defense?

John: It's quite mixed. I think some people are taken aback by the overly traditional aspect to Autumn Defense. I have to kind of explain the fact that, due to Wilco, it's not like I'm spending six months in the studio on these things. But with Autumn Defense as well as with Laurie, there tends to be a natural kind of response to not make a Wilco record, something that's very thought out in a way, but instead something a little more free and more of a session, if you will. It's amazing, as we found out on tour with Autumn Defense last year, that when people do hear it a lot of people like it. I think this one [Laurie & John] has the possibility of doing better because the people that were into Laurie and her band.

MoMZine: Do your side-projects allow you to get back to any sort of creative core?

John: I don't know if I would go that far. It's funny, because, granted, even though I can see the vision of a song from the beginning until the end, it's still a collaboration very much like Wilco can be a collaboration. I'm not making a solo record, and there are similarities between Wilco and these other things. But in terms of getting to the truth or doing something that I'd really like to do, with Wilco on this record, there is a very nice climate of collaboration, like it's an extended family.

MoMZine: So, what's your thought on the new, expanded lineup Wilco?

John: This is the best live version of the band, by far. Ten years down the line we're finally getting it right. No, it's just really exciting. Having Nels [Cline], I wasn't sure he was gonna be such a great ensemble player, but he's just a great part player, and of course when we lets loose it's just like, forget it. And I knew Pat Sansone would be a great fit because he just understands playing pop in a pop ensemble. He's done it enough. We could visualize what he would bring to the band. And it's more fun than it's literally ever been. I'm having the time of my life. To revitalize like that, it's very exciting.

MoMZine: So, what's your secret to longevity in Wilco when so many other players have fallen by the wayside?

John: The time that I had in a more intense relationship with Jeff [Tweedy], that period was years ago, during Uncle Tupelo. So I think since then there's just been a large amount of respect and appreciation for kind of what we have. Frankly, I still want to be in Wilco. That's probably the reason I'm here. It's my decision, albeit it hasn't been that way all the time. But, you know, bass players can not get in the way [laughs].