It can be tempting to take a quick look around at the musical landscape of today and blurt out a cynical “rock and roll is dead” but one listen to JD McPherson can reassure even the toughest critic.
Since releasing his debut banger Signs & Signifiers in 2010, McPherson has made a name for himself with his signature guitar playing and depth of sound with one foot in the glory days of early rock and roll and another in the present.
He will perform at The Heights Theater on Friday, April 4 on the heels of his current release Nite Owls, a project that took some serious sweat to make but ultimately drove home the importance of having fun to McPherson.
“I don’t know if you can have musical PTSD but still at this point, it immediately makes me laugh when somebody says they like it,” says McPherson of people’s appreciation for his first release in seven years. “It was just such a difficult birth,” he chuckles.
Like so many, McPherson and his longtime band were forced to hit pause during the pandemic. As this break led to shifting of priorities and new opportunities for band members, McPherson almost believed he was done with making his own records.
Then in 2022, a magnificent opportunity presented itself to work with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss leading McPherson to eventually serve not only as the opener for their shows but joining their band as a guitarist.
“Honestly, I probably would have just stopped,” says McPherson of the time prior to joining Plant and Krauss. “Those are the people you want around to rejuvenate you because they’ve seen it all. Mr. Plant is one of the most full of life characters I’ve ever seen. He really really loves playing music and having fun and he kinda slapped some sense into me a little bit so it was the best possible salve that I could have had.”
The lesson was strong, have fun and make great music. “It was seriously some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing music. I joke that I am like a rubber mallet in a drawer full of scalpels. Everyone on that stage is like the very, very best at what they do and I’m just scronking away on Link Wray chords. It took me a little bit to come to terms with that but sometimes, you really need a rubber mallet.”
It was around this time McPherson also found comfort and joy in stepping back into the studio with old friends and collaborators Alex Hall and Beau Sample to record their EP Warm Covers, a wonderful collection of finely selected cover songs.
“It was the first time I really had nothing but fun in the studio,” says McPherson who really learned that a good time depends on where you are and who you’re with, a concept further embedded into his soul from his experience filming his series Time Well Spent With People Worth Knowing and moving back home to Oklahoma with his family.
“No stress, just fun and that was the first time not only that I thought that I wanted to continue to do it but learning a way that it should be done, and I should have been doing it all along, which was just to be having a good time.”
With the shift in mentality, McPherson is quick and direct in addressing his change in lineup from his long time previous band, even giving them a shoutout in the liner notes of Nite Owls. Currently, McPherson will tour with Doug Corcoron, John Perrin, Josh Williams and Chris Gelb, a very exciting lineup of uber talented and versatile players.
“Things were always fun on stage, the old gang was killer on stage. That was when everything was good,” says McPherson adding that he has “nothing but gratitude” for the original players. “We did a lot of miles together and of course Jimmy Sutton, had it not been for Jimmy I would not have a music career.”
With his refreshing outlook and time to work on songs, Nite Owls was born. McPherson describes how during the long writing process he was delving into the world of Spotify algorithms for the first time.
As he listened to bossanova, Spotify would sneak in other things he might enjoy like The Beach Boys. McPherson began to think about how living near water affects our love for certain sounds and musical vibes.
“So I started just playing with the idea of playing with surf sounds or reverbs and that turned into the idea of the big reverb guitar like Duane Eddy or a lot of surf guitarists or any Morricone soundtrack or even Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore.”
He reflected on and found inspiration in the commonality between all those artists and combined it with his natural knack for being himself, “the rubber mallet” focusing on one big guitar sound not dependent on genres.
Nite Owls sees McPherson strong in his identifiable guitar heavy sound while pushing into some new territory with more dark wave sounds as in the title track from the album.
McPherson dedicated the album to guitar legend Duane Eddy who had asked him to save him a solo on his next album before passing away in April of last year.
“I had the song “Shining Like Gold” I had written with him in mind. Unfortunately, we lost him and I just did my best impression. He was a really cool guy and a real gentleman. There’s nobody cooler than Duane, always wearing black, stoic, friendly but just a badass. He’s from the desert and his music sounds like the desert at night.”
McPherson has also spent some time on the other side of the sound board serving as producer for many acts including most recently, and surprisingly Jessica Simpson. Simpson recently released her EP Nashville Canyon where the artist was able to step into the studio and work on her own songs with a live band for the first time in her career.
McPherson describes the freedom and fun Simpson experienced for the first time ever. “That was sort of what I mainly had to offer was I’ve been there, not on the scale that she was, but we can have fun. Let’s put a bunch of fuzz guitars on it because it’s Jessica Simpson and nobody expects that.”
McPherson enjoys the element of surprise, collaboration and blending musical tastes when working with others in the studio describing the excitement behind learning new music he didn’t even know existed.
“I love the experiment and I definitely get moved by sounds from the past but also wanting to not recreate them, but to keep them moving forward. I just love early rock and roll and there’s so many cool, weird records that aren’t hits that have these really forward thinking ideas on them but rock and roll moved so fast that it started to change immediately.”
He wisely wonders why everyone didn’t stop and take the time to think about Earl Palmer’s drumming before moving right along into the next stage of rock and why didn’t everyone hold on a bit longer to the original swing that made it all boom to begin with.
“It’s funny because blues, jazz, bluegrass and all of these other American music forms people have no problem with trying to keep on the traditional side with those things but to me there’s this untapped joie de vivre that kinda got moved on from very quickly.”
JD McPherson will perform with J. Isaiah Evans and the Boss Tweed on Friday, April 4 at The Heights Theater, 339 W 19th. Doors at 7 p.m. $32.
