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| Photo: Stan Lewis |
Trippin' Out with Dex Romweber
By Matt Chrystal
"It’s not a concept album at all."
That is what Dex Romweber tells me about his new album, Carrboro. But I don’t quite believe him. I am not saying that he is lying to me. Maybe it was done subconsciously. Maybe Carrboro reflects something in his personal life.
Or maybe he really did just happen to "piece together an album that might work."
Carrboro (named after his hometown in North Carolina) finds the former singer of the Flat Duo Jets and Dex Romweber Duo gone solo and tearing through a mix of original tunes and obscure cover songs.
The sequencing of the album forms a cohesive narrative about love gone wrong and love lost.
The opening "I Had A Dream" has Dex sounding almost ethereal as he lays out his vision on the possibilities of love. A cover of "Lonesome Train" moves the album… well, moves it down that lonesome track, as she went away and left him… but hey, she done told him that she’d be gone.
A rag-time take on Jerry Lee Lewis's "Tomorrow's Taking My Baby Away" does not mask the sense of indignation played out in the lyrics ("while she's living her new life so well, I'll be walking the backstreets of hell"). A haunting groove is put to both Mahalia Jackson's "Trouble of the World" and the Dex original, "Where Do You Roam." Each word, each inflection, each note seems to carry a noticeable weight along with it. These tunes, in particular, include all the ingredients that would have fit perfectly on an episode of HBO's True Blood: part evil, part sexy and part grandiose.
The weird and obscure continues with a version of "I Don't Know," taken from the Jeff Bridges and Ryan Bingham contribution to the movie Crazyheart, and Charlie Chaplin’s "Smile" acts as a self affirmation or in Dex's own words, "a reminder to move on." "Knock, Knock (Who's That Knockin' On My Coffin Lid Door)" sounds as perhaps the affirmations are paying off, and Dex sounds akin to a latter-day Dylan croaking along to a sparse arrangement.
The instrumental "Out of the Way" sees the storm break, and a sense of calmness rolls in as we ease into the album’s coda, "Tell Me Why." Here, Dex emotes confidence as he croons about the realization and acceptance that she could never be satisfied (with anyone) and ends with a demand rather than a question: "as tears subside, I loved you true… tell me why I do."
Surf rock instrumental interludes move the album along like the soundtrack to a Tarantino film.
Only this isn’t the soundtrack to a Tarantino film.
This is Carrboro by Dex Romweber.
And it is Not a concept album.
CoolMatt: When I listen to Carrboro, I am hearing the story of love gone wrong and love lost.
Is this a concept album or did you just happen to stumble on the perfect flow?
Dex Romweber: I just got the flow that I was able to get. It's not a concept album at all. I was just taking songs I liked and it just happened like that. The music is not like the Rolling Stones at all but the album reminds me of something that they might have put out in the 1970's. It just flows like that. You know? …kinda weird.
CoolMatt: Ok, so it's not a concept album. But many tracks do revolve around relationship issues.
Can the album be considered autobiographical or is each track told through the eyes of a character?
DR: I think all albums are autobiographical because they show where you are at that time. I always marvel at how different each albums sounds. Even when I listen to other artists, each album is different. It's a weird phenomenon but it's just because they happen in totally different times in our lives. This album is a representation of where I am, and who knows what the next chapter will sound like?
CoolMatt: Speaking of "different"…the covers on this album are pretty obscure choices. There are tracks taken from Charlie Chaplin, The Dude and Mahalia Jackson to name a few… How did you go about selecting them? Where they brought to you to use or did you just hear them and know that's what you needed?
DR: I just heard them and wanted to record them. "Trouble of the World" by Mahalia Jackson is something I heard some time ago and I have actually been playing it for a couple of years. I used to play "Smile" (by Charlie Chaplin) in some early gigs. I am talking in the 1980s. And, hey, we all go through romantic breakups… I had had mine in the past two years and "Smile" just came back into my brain. I don’t want to get too personal but I found myself singing Smile in the mornings. It was a reminder to move on… reminding myself that this may be something that is over but that I can still smile.
CoolMatt: You said you did not want to get too personal, but… I watched an interesting interview with you on YouTube from a few years back where the host is admittedly quoting stats straight off of your Wikipedia page. You catch her off guard and go some place deep with a line to the effect of, "Life is hard but music comes easy."
I get the feeling that quote can be applied to the vibe of the new album and was wondering if you still feel that way about life and music?
DR: I guess. I'm not really sure what I meant by saying that. When I stand to improve in any facet of music, I have to practice, I have to learn more, I have to take freakin' lessons. Even Chopin when he was already accomplished, was advised to learn more… meaning that you can always take lessons from other people. At heart, I always wanted to be a dancer, so rhythm and how music affects me has always come pretty natural. Even when I was quite young I could flow into a rhythm and move my body. Dancing, now that was something that was not hard for me. The truth is I'm 50 now, so I'm not planning on tearing up the dance floor like I once did and I'm not even able to anymore.
As for my music, the music on this album, and rockabilly music in general, is not that difficult to play. It's all three chords and based in folk and the blues. Something that is difficult to learn is how to play music with spirit and feeling.
I think of Jerry Lee Lewis. He plays with such gusto. That's not something you can learn. The other night, I was in a nightclub and they were playing one of his songs. This was a recording form the 1950s. He sounded so raucous and into it. I was astounded. It wasn't like he was a virtuoso playing classical music. It was just three chords and a lot of gusto.
So anyways, I think music does come easy to me. But what I’m saying is this man; I can still learn a helluva lot more!
CoolMatt: You cut your teeth with the Flat Duo Jets and have spent recent years touring as a duo with your sister on drums. Yet, for this album you decided to go solo and you also play the majority of the instruments on each track. Why was this something that was important for you to do?
DR: If I can remember it all, I play organ, piano, bass and guitar on the record. I had a few friends help me out with drums and upright bass. I have the New Romans playing on the album too. At times it was important to me to have eight other guys playing with me and at other times it was important to me to be solo on the piano. I just did what came naturally to me and just played the songs how I felt they came to me.
On "Smile," I heard it in my head on piano. On "My Funny Valentine," I heard the piece in my head on organ and bass and just thought that's how it should be.
If I can be honest, I was also pressed for time. The sessions were coming up quick. I was trying to think of how I could make a full length album using songs that I liked from different eras. I was just trying to piece together an album that might work.
CoolMatt: You are currently on tour with Bloodshot Records label-mate, J.D. Wilkes of the Legendary Shack Shakers. How did this pairing come about? Can we look forward to any collaboration during either set?
DR: We don't plan on playing together and I'm really not sure how it came together. Somehow, someone (probably my manager) thought the type of music that I make and that J.D. makes would go together. And it actually has gone together really well so far. His music is something I really dig and not something I get to hear a whole lot of back where I live. I get to trip out to it each night of the tour. He puts on a great set and I get to sit back and enjoy it. It's like hillbilly music or maybe backwoods Kentuckian music. I am very happy to be touring with him. He makes music I like and I think our styles really complement each other.
CoolMatt: The name Dexter Romweber seems to be synonymous with the words: "underground" "legend" and "highly influential." There was a documentary about you (Two Headed Cow) where your peers and contemporaries sang your praises and a slew of modern artists such as Jack White cited you as an inspiration. You recorded a 7-inch with Jack White back in 2009 but is there some part of you that wants to call up Jack or Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys or any of these artists to make a full record and get your due respect from the mainstream?
DR: I don’t know. I don’t know because my lifestyle is so freakin' weird. And where I live is just so isolated from the music industry and the rest of humanity for that matter. A lot goes on that I don't know much about and I'm just trying to make a living. I don't expect much beyond that.
Some people say I'm an inspiration or whatever they say, and I have my own inspirations that I've drawn from. It’s just the story of history. People draw inspiration from other people. There are so many artists that have come before me that I look to as inspirations, like Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis… and they had their own inspirations. So if anyone looks to me, all I can say is hey, check these other artists out. There are some really trippy recordings that you can find in any era and I'm sure there's some being made now by people we don't even know about yet.
When I go, someone will pick up where I left off. It's a cycle of people coming and going and trying to be creative. Maybe someone will say hey what was Dex listening to? And that will lead them to some old recordings which will lead them to discover someone else and hopefully lead them places that I didn't even get to go. It’s a completely infinite trek.
The new album Carrboro is out Now on Bloodshot Records.
Dex Romweber will be playing with J.D. Wilkes will be part of a triple bill, along with J.D Wilkes and King Sickabilly at Roxy & Dukes Roadhouse in Dunellen, NJ TONIGHT, 9/15/16.
For more info visit Bloodshot Records.
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