Interview: Marty Wendell Talks About 60 Years in The Music Biz!

Interview: Marty Wendell
By: Rob Smittix

RRX: How are you doing?

MW: Good. Thank you. Can’t complain at all.

RRX: Well, that’s good. So, this is your 60th anniversary tour this year in 2024?

MW: Yes. Quite amazing.

RRX: It is. It doesn’t even seem possible. You probably started playing when you were, I don’t know, five years old?

MW: Right. But honestly, 1964, doesn’t really seem that long ago in many ways, you know? Other ways it does. But… just to think of the time span that encompasses it. It is pretty amazing now.

RRX: It is and I am sure you have a ton of stories. I didn’t know if there was any one story in particular over the last 60 years that really stuck with you and maybe it was the reason that kept you going.

MW: Well, I guess I’ve been so fortunate to have so many amazing things happen. I really worked with some of the artists that I greatly admired for so long and then to have the opportunity to kind of be in their sphere. That certainly was something I could have never expected. Another highlight, I think… we talked about this before, I actually recorded in Sun Studios. Most scholars credit that as being the place where rock and roll was born. I guess you can argue whichever way you wish. But certainly it’s one of the most significant places in the history of contemporary music.

RRX: Yeah. So many of us only wish that we could say that we recorded in Sun Studios. I recorded in my basement, you know? Yeah. And I remember you told me a story about Johnny Cash wanting me to play him a song and there was a 12 string involved. I’m kind of trying to remember?

MW: Yeah. Yeah. That was the, very first time I met him. A talent agent arranged for me to do that. Johnny pulls out of a case with a Gibson B-25, which I actually have one now. But at that point I had never ever touched a 12 string guitar. He said play me one of your songs, Son, you know.
I muffed my way through something which again… I wish I could remember what I played for him but I think the nervousness or whatever it was… but he was very kind. He said he liked it and then he took the guitar and played me some songs he had recorded that hadn’t been released. And that was pretty neat too.

RRX: No, I mean… that’s you in a room with one of the greatest music legends of all time. That’s insane. I’ve gotten to meet some of my heroes in music myself but not many of them would be.. I’d say the same caliber, the same ranking or have the same notoriety worldwide, you know? More of a niche, crowd. But I mean, that must have felt really, cool.

MW: Absolutely. And then five years later to actually be an opening act. I mean, that took the whole thing a great step forward, I guess you might say, that was certainly an awesome experience.

RRX: Well, I would definitely have to say in your 60 years those stories would definitely be at the top of my list too. So, I’m sure they’re at the top of yours.

MW: In more recent times, I’m still putting music out there.

RRX: You’ve been putting out albums and stuff for years. How many albums do you have? Or do you even know?

MW: Yeah, I think it’s somewhere around 16 or 17, somewhere in that area.

RRX: That’s quite a bit. That’s more than many of the big bands out there have put out.
You worked through many different times when the music industry had changed. You were in the music industry when video killed the radio star and then you were still in the music industry when the internet killed the video star. How has it changed for you or how has it affected the way that, that you do things?

MW: Well, I think the only major change really has been the transition to digital recording. What you can do now in the studio is just light years ahead of what we could do in the old days. We used to record with a couple of Ampex is in the studio. My very first session was done on a two track but the way they did it, there was no separation. Where… say the bass player hit a bad note. You’d have to do the song over. You had to do it, for a take where everybody was on target for that take.
Where now, if somebody had a little muff like that they would just punch in the bad note and fix that on the track, you wouldn’t go through the whole song again. So, a lot of things that you can do now and I don’t mean just auto tune to fake your singing or something but to actually enhance it. The ability to equalize and compress and there’s so many things that can just add sparkle to the sound that you’re trying to get. The old days were great but honestly, you couldn’t do many of those things.

RRX: No, that’s true that, that really changes things. I was growing up in a time where I did learn how to splice on reel to reel. I was pretty impressed with those skills I obtained but I never really needed it in this modern age but at least I got to experience it for myself. I was really more in the old Tascam four to eight track recorder days, where you use the, cassette.

MW: Oh, we did that too. I was told that In the later fifties when you had the teen idol phase, that some of them did a lot of splicing because they weren’t the best singers. But the girls would swoon over them. Then when they went on American Bandstand they lip synced anyway. So, they were able to push these artists forward. Even though maybe their vocal skills weren’t optimum.

RRX: Yeah, I mean, they had their little tricks back the but like you said, it’s much easier nowadays. Unfortunately, popular music is bombarded with a lack of talent and you brought up auto tune which… that’s really cheating. Come on people.

MW: Oh, yeah. But again, I think a lot of the labels have focused a lot on the appearance of the artist over the talent. I had a good friend that had a contract with Warner Brothers and after the first three years, they had six singles that performed very well on the top 100. A good selling album. And when they went back to renew their contract, Warner told them we’re not renewing. They were kind of shocked and asked what did we do wrong? The guy says, oh, you didn’t do anything wrong but here we like new faces. They had their 10 minutes of fame and they were on to somebody else.
They’re not interested in developing what would be legendary artists. I think there’ll be a time when the legends will be people that we knew but you won’t have a whole new group of people that will be regarded as legends; because many of them won’t have a career that long. And that’s just the way of the business but it’s not necessarily that there aren’t people that would deserve to be.

RRX: Yeah, it’s very unfortunate but it’s so true. I mean, think about Milli Vanilli, I mean, the whole reason, that these two good looking guys were singing the songs but not really singing the songs was apparently because the guys that really sung those songs just didn’t really have that mass appeal look that they were looking for. I don’t know, that’s gotta change but probably won’t.

MW: I saw a cartoon that really was funny. It’s Milli Vanilli and they’re saying, now we could have got a million hits on tiktok.

RRX: Oh, yeah. It’s so true. It is extremely true. It’s definitely a different playing field than it was before. It just kind of rolling with the times but glad that you could still be doing this after 60 years. I wonder if you would have started your career today, if 60 years from now… you would have still been able to do it the same way… things have changed that much.

MW: No, I would be pretty doubtful of that. It’s just, again, the way things are but I think underneath it all, there’s some good movements. I think the Americana artists… they’re not filling arenas but people are really digging the music and there’s much more of what would you say? An appetite maybe for some good original music. I do think that audience is out there and not people that just wanna hear the same 20 songs that are the top on the billboard, you know?

RRX: Oh, I do! Believe me, I go to concerts and shows for free. It’s part of what I do and I’ve been doing it for years even before I was here at RadioRadioX and Xperience and God’s honest truth… I’ve only been to SPAC once since 2001 and I’ve only seen a concert at the MVP Arena one time in the last 20 years and that’s because these arena acts, these big draws, the ones that are being pushed out there. I mean, I like a lot of them but honestly I’d rather go see a smaller intimate show with somebody playing original tunes in the neighborhood.

MW: Yeah, I’m glad that at least that kind of thing is more alive and well than it was maybe 10-15 years ago. I think we’re seeing… especially in the greater Capital District, the emergence of a lot of talent. I think that really speaks well, that there’s people out there that really love music and they want to develop themselves as artists and writers. I’ve been doing some of these songwriter nights and geez, some of the young talent. I laugh, I think of me on stage with them and which one is not like the other, they’re very, young artists but see… they’re writing fantastic music and it really is encouraging to me and great to be part of it.

RRX: Yeah, we’re glad to have you a part of it as well. So for those that haven’t seen you or haven’t seen you in recent times because, I know we got a lot of shows coming up for the remainder of the summer. What would someone expect from seeing Marty Wendell in 2024?

MW: Well, this year we’re going to try to take a trip through the decades and kinda get some material from all the different decades. A little more Americana. Some will be more, rockabilly, some of the stuff from the albums… a real variety and then we’ve got three very special shows which are the 60th anniversary shows.
One is coming up this month on the 13th and will be at Caffe Lena and we’ll have special guest artists. Both the Bluebillies and Greg Bucking. And being that we’re at Caffe Lena, Greg and I are gonna do a Bob Dylan tribute.

You probably know Lena was one of the first places that Bob played. And so we thought it would be a nice connection to do a little bit of his music and it also dovetails with my latest single which is a Dylan Song “Girl from the North Country” with Christian Parker. So, that’s one of the things we’re gonna do on the 13th but we also will have some other shows, several others.
But the other 60th anniversary shows are The Linda, that’ll be on August 10th with Jim Gaudet and The Railroad Boys plus Carolyn Shapiro and then August 18th will be at the Strand Theater with Heather Richards and the Bluebillies will join us again. Those will be some very special nights and, we’ll be doing songs together and just having a really good time. But all the other songs we’ll do, I think will be some of the ones that hopefully people will be looking forward to having us do.

RRX: Well, first of all, those gigs are at some really cool venues. Very excited about that. I love all of those venues, definitely looking forward to it.

MW: Well, there’s quite a few and for anybody listening you can see where will be if you go to martywendell.com and all those shows will be listed there. We hope for this special year that more people will just come out, spend some time with us because I think as we talked about before, it’s been great doing this 60 years but it won’t be forever. So, I think this is a great year to come out and be part of it because we don’t know if there’ll be another 10, that’s for sure.

RRX: Well, I’m sure hoping so and I think so. But you’re right, you’re right. You don’t know what you’re gonna get and how long you’re gonna get it. So go ahead and get it!

MW: I may not be able to keep up with Willie Nelson or Keith Richards, you know?

RRX: Yeah, I don’t know man, those guys have some special kind of something going on, I guess when you can afford that kind of medical coverage, I guess.

SUMMER SCHEDULE
July 13 – 8:00PM: Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs, NY
(60th Anniversary Show, Special Guests: The Bluebillies & Greg Bucking with Bob Dylan Tribute)
July 25 – 7:00PM: Charles Jenner Bandstand, Johnstown, NY
(Special Guest: Stevie Tombstone)

July 31st – The Little Theater, Fort Edward, NY
August 3 – 6:00PM: The Barn, Corinth, NY
August 10 – 8:00PM: The Linda, Albany, NY
(60th Anniversary Show – Special Guest: Jim Gaudet & The Railroad Boys)
August 14 – 7:00PM: Rec Field Pavilion, Warrensburg, NY
August 17 – (Time TBA): Hillview Sounds Festival, Greenwich, NY
August 18 – 7:00PM: The Strand Theater, Hudson Falls, NY
(60th Anniversary Show with Special Guests: Heather Richards, The Bluebillies)
August 27 – 7:00PM: Rogers memorial Park, Bolton Landing, NY