The Bluebillies – Interview – Thanks for Asking!

The Bluebillies – Interview – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

We connected with Melody Guarino of the band The Bluebillies, and she answers the probing questions of the day.

RRX: Stereotypes are a bitch. I mean, aside from the really bad ones, you have cultural stereotypes about everything, including music. Would do you think is the stereotype for the music you play, and how far are you away from it?

MG: Well, though I tend to think of my band The Bluebillies as a sort of American folk music band, most people think of us a country music band (we do love us some Hank Williams!) and there are a bunch of negative stereotypes of country music for sure. Such as folks thinking it’s dumb, drunken Confederate flag waving misogynist shallow boy music, which it certainly mostly is not (though occasionally it is) and some folks tend to lump us in there with that yeehaw, yahoo mindset. In reality we’re pretty bright, well read lefties, and though we do take a drink now and then we’re a very mellow crew. I must admit though that we ARE suckers for a good song about mothers, or dogs, or trains.

RRX: Artists, musicians, we immortalize. We set it in stone. Is there anyone who has passed that you feel you have immortalized in your work? If so, can you tell us a little about them?”

MG: My Mom. I wrote a song about her (with my husband Mark’s collaboration) called Run Daddy Run, Momma’s Got A Gun. Her name was Bonnie Mae Bathurst and she was a hell of a good singer and pianist. She started out in my grandfather’s family band in Sioux City, Iowa when she was five years old, the youngest of six performing siblings called The Bathurst Family Singers. She was so good that she soon became the lead singer. I read an old newspaper clipping from when the family was on the road during the depression where a reviewer wrote of her “…and when Miss Bonnie Mae, with the voice of an angel, ended the show by singing the Lord’s Prayer, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house”. She was a pistol! She quit the family band at 15, quit school, and hit the road as a solo act. She married my Dad who was also a musician, but sadly when I was very young Dad died. Mom and I traveled the old Mississippi Valley circuit together and we finally ended up in Chicago where she started a very successful run as a singer in the best “supper clubs” as they used to call them back in the day. Unfortunately for her, and me, she remarried and her new husband was very abusive and controlling and he forced Mom away from her career and to the brink of madness. Hence, the true story song, Run Daddy Run, Momma’s Got A Gun. It’s an outlaw song starring my Momma.

RRX: Would you rather have one of your songs blow up and make you a one-hit wonder and household name, or would you rather have all your songs be solidly received, but no chart-climbers? (You have to pick one or the other here.)

MG: One-hit wonder all the way man! Not so much for the “household name” thing because that doesn’t interest me, but one-hit wonders can make a big pile of money real fast and THAT would be sweet! Plus, a one-hitter is sort of set up for life for gigs because hey, who wouldn’t want to go and see Lou Bega sing Mambo No. 5, or Natalie Imbruglia sing Torn? And then the nostalgia band tours start! Forever gigs!

RRX: We let it out differently when we play music. The happy, sad, good and bad; it can all be put out musically. Overall, do you feel better when you sing about the better times, or the worser times? Is there a difference you can describe?

MG: When I sing I try my very best to completely inhabit any song that I’m singing, to fully become the person I’m singing about in that moment, and to feel what they are feeling so that I can give the listener the most emotionally honest take on what I think the song is about. And that person I am singing about is often myself as I tend to write in a semi-autobiographical way. So I most definitely prefer singing about good times and happy things because if I inhabit a happy idea I feel great! When I think about the sad times, the hard times, and put myself into that moment again I can end up feeling insecure, unhappy, lost, and that’s not a good place to be emotionally while onstage where one needs a ton of self-confidence. It can make for a really good performance of the song, but for me personally, after going to that darker place it can take me several songs to get back into the happy and confident version of me. Funny thing about this though is that one of my very favorite songs to cover is Linda Thompson’s song called Give Me A Sad Song where she writes these great lines:

“So I’ll have a drink or two,
I’ll sing my songs although my heart is aching.
I’ll play my guitar,
Anything to keep my hands from shaking.
I’m not a winner,
Everything I touch turns to stone.
But give me a sad song,
I’m in a class of my own”

RRX: What instrument would you add to the band if you could? Is there anything you are trying to do musically that would be helped with one or more additional players?

MG: I do dream about finding a tasteful, laid-back drummer to give our sound a little more push. We tend to write or cover very rhythmic songs, but our configuration is more of a bluegrass/acoustic band set up what with bass, guitar, fiddle, occasional dobro. I want to rock (just a little) and be a little freer stylistically when I write and I think a drummer who “gets” us could add that.

RRX: Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Or so they say. Whether you’re off the wagon, on it, or never been, there’s something you got a thirst for. What are some of your basically harmless vices?

MG: Not so sure how harmless it is as it can be considered borderline hoarding, but I can’t stop buying old plates and bowls and such. Every yard sale beckons to me with its siren call. The glassware is really piling up! Oh, and I like oysters. If I could I would eat them every day.

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