5 Minutes with David Bromberg: We talk to The Legendary Artist coming to Bethel Woods 9/23
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with legendary ‘roots’ (he prefers ‘roots’ over ‘folk’) music artist/session player David Bromberg. David will be coming to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on Friday, September 23rd.
It was exciting to talk to David, he’s performed or collaborated with names like Levon Helm, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Linda Ronstadt, George Harrison, and more. His music is an eclectic mix of jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, and some rock mixed in. David, who attended Woodstock is excited to return to the Catskills:
Nick Piatek LibertyIndy (NPLI): “Hey David, it’s an honor to be able to talk to you. We’re looking forward to seeing you on the 23rd”
David Bromberg (DB): “I look forward to it myself, I have friends up that way”
NPLI: “Can you tell us a little bit about your new (collaborative) Album ‘Use Me’?”
DB: “It was a lot of fun. Most of the collaborators selected or wrote the songs and produced them which is the big deal. That’s a lot to ask of anybody… They knew how to use me — that’s why I called the Album ‘Use Me’.
I asked them to pick a song or write a song for most of them, and then produce me doing it — ‘Use Me’”
NPLI: “I see you have collaborations with Widespread Panic and Los Lobos. That’s a little different!”
DB: “Yeah it is. With Panic a friend of mine told me ‘you know they do one of your tunes’. And I discovered that they do perform Sharon pretty frequently. So I figured what the hell, lets see if they want to give me one to do. So I called and the whole band was into it. I flew down to Denver where they were all getting together again, they’ve been apart for a little while and then we had a recording session. Then we had 2 nights at the Pepsi center in Denver – sold out crowds, it was big fun!”
NPLI: “Are you excited to come to up to Bethel Woods?”
DB: “Oh Yeah!”
NPLI: “Were you at Woodstock?”
DB: “As a matter-in-fact, little pieces of me are in some of the video! Somebody was video taping a singer named Rosalie Sorrels – I was playing Dobro and Garcia was playing guitar. They mis-identified Rosalie as Mimi Farina, which is a heck of a mis-identification. I don’t know if they identified me at all – well on youtube they identified me, but they still mis-identified Rosalie even though I wrote them and told them.”
NPLI: “So David, what do you think of the music scene today and how things have changed? Especially for a folk artist?”
DB: “I never quite fit into folk artist category although that’s where a lot of people put me, but I guess I don’t fit anywhere else either. What I play is pretty much ‘roots’ music. But it’s very hard for anybody new to get their head up above the crowd. Getting out there today is very difficult – it’s easier for me (laughter).”
NPLI: “What are your future plans?”
DB: “I really enjoyed talking to Larry Campbell who produced the tracks with Levon [Helms] (on use me). Levon at the time couldn’t speak, he had a benign growth removed from his vocal cords. But I love working with Larry – he’s an old friend, and we’re going to do another album together – the whole album will be with Larry.”
NPLI: “Thanks for your time David. Hope to see you at Bethel Woods!”
DB: “I’m looking forward to it!”
David Bromberg is performing at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on Friday, September 23rd. Tickets are still available:
His new album ‘Use Me’ is available on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Use-Me/dp/B0058XAGF8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316202420&sr=8-1
