Vince Herman – 25 Years of Leftover Salmon (INTERVIEW)

Leftover Salmon have always been the quintessential all-encompassing jam band, and that is meant as a compliment. It is impossible to pin them down to any one genre, and throughout their twenty-four years as a band they have refused to fall into the rut of doing the same thing over and over, or worse, becoming one of those nostalgia acts. It may be easiest to say the Colorado band is grounded in bluegrass, but a typical set from Leftover Salmon can go anywhere, from Cajun and zydeco to guitar shredding and twenty minute improvisational jams, to fun, re-envisioned cover tunes way out of left field. In the end what you have is a band intent on providing their audience with the best time possible.

As Leftover Salmon heads into their 25th year with the help of a new member or two, there are no signs of slowing down. The band has at least one new album on the way, High Country, and more projects in the pipeline. These days they have also found a kindred musical spirit in keyboardist and a founding member of legendary rock band Little Feat, Bill Payne, who has injected a fresh boogie into the band’s live shows. As Leftover Salmon prepare to hit the road for the rest of their summer tour, which includes a stop at the Phases of the Moon Festival in September followed by a special show at the Ryman Auditorium to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their landmark album the Nashville Sessions, the band’s ever-jubilant front man Vince Herman took the time to shed light on the state of Leftover Salmon as we know it.

How’s everything going with the band these days?

We’re not taking it too rough these days, just kind of taking a little bit of time to relax. Next year is our 25th year and we’re gonna kind of go a little bigger, but we’re keeping going, that’s for sure. I’m all fired up about it.

Have there been any musical highlights in your mind from this past summer?

Playing with Bill Payne has been ridiculously fun and every show with him just feels like my favorite. He just brings such an incredible vocabulary of style and taste; it’s really kind of changed the way the band interacts musically. Telluride was real good, we just had a great time at Gathering of the Vibes, and we’ve just been out there having a good time all the way.

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How did you connect with Bill Payne? Looking at your tour schedule, he’s kind of in it for the long run.

Little Feat was taking break for a little while and he just happened to become available. Bill had produced a record for us and sat in a bunch. I go down to Jamaica every year to do the Feat Fan Fest thing, so it felt real natural. We’re real lucky he’s available, and certainly any time he’s available we want to have him [laughs]. We just love how he interacts musically with us.

Is there something about the Little Feat catalog that resonates with you?

Oh yeah, we’ve been Little Feat fans for years and years. Back when I was a member of the Left Hand String Band we were doing Little Feat tunes. But it’s also playing with Bill, there’s just another level of playing once Bill contributes to things.

On the collaboration note, you’re going to be doing a special show to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Nashville Sessions. Why do you think that’s so special when it comes to the history of the band?

15 years ago we had done a couple H.O.R.D.E. tours and had been together about ten years, and we really had a stride going. We were lucky enough to team up with Hollywood Records, which gave us the resources to kind of ask ourselves what kind of record would it be really fun to make? I managed to get Randy Scruggs and one thing led to another and we were pretty much able to put together a fantasy island of musical adventure. It was just a great time and a huge honor to be able to play with some of the folks we did, and have a permanent record of it. [Those were] pretty special times for the band and 15 years on we’ve lost Mark Vann our banjo player, Earl Scruggs, Waylon Jennings is no longer with us. It just makes you think god, we have to celebrate what time we have with people.

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What can fans expect from the Ryman show; is it going to be a Last Waltz type of deal where tons of guests come out?

Exactly that kind of feeling; we’re gonna play the record and some more. We’re just gonna have a lot of people laughing and playing music together. We’re pretty psyched to facilitate some memorable musical medleys there.

Do you ever see the planets aligning again and allowing you guys to do another project like the Nashville Sessions?

I don’t know. We’re coming up on our 25th anniversary and we got a studio record we’re putting out and we’ll put a live one out in the spring. Then I think we’re going to go to New Orleans to make a record. After that, I don’t know what’s gonna come next. I’d certainly love to do it again, maybe on our 30th anniversary as a band or something we’ll go do something…or maybe our 50th.

You just mentioned that you’re going to New Orleans to do a record. It’s been a couple years since the last one. Can you talk about it?

The new record actually is going to be coming out around Thanksgiving, Black Friday. It’s gonna be called High Country, I think. Then in the spring we’re going to release a live record. Then probably next fall we’re going to head to New Orleans and [aim] for a spring release in….what year would that be? Probably 2047 or something like that [laughs]. Too early to talk about the New Orleans thing other than to let you know what’s stirring in our minds. You gotta keep a long term picture of what it is you want to do and what kind of fun you want to have, and we have a great manager who somehow makes it all happen.

Will the New Orleans musical culture be a part of what you’re thinking of, as opposed to recording it somewhere else?

Oh yeah, it’s definitely going to be a New Orleans record. We’re thinking more New Orleans than a Cajun or zydeco record with New Orleans rhythm and blues kind of stuff, second line and brass bands, and all that good stuff I love deeply, maybe some Mardi Gras Indian chants. We’re starting to talk to some friends there about maybe co-writing and stuff like that.

With the new record, is the name High Country a reference to the recent legalization of marijuana in Colorado?

[Laughs] Yeah, Colorado’s the high country and it’s getting higher every day! It’s up to interpretation; we love country music, we love high…country music. We love to get high.

Have you played the new songs live yet?

Yeah, we’ve done a several live. We’re keeping lots of irons in the fire.

Speaking of Colorado, You guys have a sold out run of shows at the Stanley Hotel coming up next year. Was it always a dream to play at the location of The Shining?

It’s a really stylish hotel, and I lived twenty miles from there for 25 years, so I know the place well. I’ve actually cleaned the exhaust systems in the kitchen in a previous life – I cleaned restaurant exhaust systems, so I know the place really well. It’s just a hotel that has a feel unlike anything, and we’ll get a bunch of our Colorado friends to have a big old party for the weekend and not have to go anywhere for a few days. You don’t have to bring your sleeping bags, so we kind of like the idea.

Will you play outside or inside? I remember a big ballroom that was kind cool looking.

There are two big ballrooms that hold I think 1,000 people each. We’re gonna have some other bands and go back and forth all day. We’re gonna play all over that place – acoustic in the hallways, the bar in the morning, there’s gonna be a lot of music going on. It’s gonna be a festival with room service!

You’ve done Leftover Salmon for a good while long and went through lineup changes as well. Do you think the sound has evolved into something different over the years?

There were periods of time when the band had a Cajun accordion player with us, then we got another different kind of accordion player, then we had a keyboard player, different banjo players, bass players, drummers. We could probably have a pretty full deck of trading cards of folks who’ve been in this thing called Leftover Salmon over the years. Each incarnation brings different things to it.

 Is there anything else you want to mention?

FESTIVALLLLLLL!

 

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