Gill Landry has been hanging around the music business for nearly 20 years, most of those years spent with the influential and wildly popular Americana group Old Crow Medicine Show, which started in the heart of Virginia. The multi-instrumentalist quickly became a stand-out at Old Crow shows, and with the start of his solo career in 2007, he’s shown that his deep appreciation and understanding of the folk genre makes him able to write new music in the genre that’s just as intricate and exceptional as the genre was forty years ago.
Gill Landry has been hanging around the music business for nearly 20 years, most of those years spent with the influential and wildly popular Americana group Old Crow Medicine Show, which started in the heart of Virginia. The multi-instrumentalist quickly became a stand-out at Old Crow shows, and with the start of his solo career in 2007, he’s shown that his deep appreciation and understanding of the folk genre makes him able to write new music in the genre that’s just as intricate and exceptional as the genre was forty years ago.
On March 3rd, Landry will release his third solo record, a self-titled one on ATO Records. This Wednesday night, almost a week before the album’s release, Landry, alongside country staple Justin Townes Earle, will be hitting the Modlin Center for a great night of sweet Americana. Landry sat down with us and talked in-depth about the feeling behind his new album and his take on influence at this stage of the game.
I’m sure you’ve been in Richmond too many times to count, but do you have any fun memories of the city?
I can’t remember where I was, but we went to go find some records and we ended up in this really weird luncheon place that was also a bingo hall where a bunch of old men were just sitting around playing. I don’t even know who had the bright idea to stop there. Oddly enough, it felt like we were getting a full experience of the time and place. Other than that, I’ve been at Pocahontas State Park and it’s beautiful, but as hot as can be there.
On your new record, I’ve heard you describe it as a different take on a broken love song. How did you go about this approach?
If you listen to my last record, there was a lot of accusatory statements there. “You did this” and “why are you this way?” There was some grace in it, and I really like those songs – they’re of a different character. I liked writing them and I liked that perspective. But this new album is from the other side. It came just naturally, through the changing of my life. It gave way to more of an open-mindedness as to where the pain is coming from and who is to blame. I don’t think that blame is real. I know you can get hung up on it and I have in the past, but I don’t think there is anyone to blame, really. You blame people for certain things, like if they kick you in the shins, but these tragicomedies we play out with each other, I feel like it’s much more complicated than the “he said, she said” aspect. That came through a little much clearer in these songs.
Was that clarity something you were striving for?
It was just genuine feeling. It was conscious in that I was conscious when I was writing, but not in the sense of trying to write this subject matter. It’s what I was feeling at the time as well as coming to understand. For the first time in my life, there were songs I wanted to sing that I didn’t have songs for, and that was really great. By this point, every subject has been written about, to a degree. I remember Dylan saying that he wrote songs that nobody else wanted to talk about. A lot of my previous work has been through the love of the craft of writing songs. I have tons of influence and I know where all of my indications come from, but this is the first time I wrote songs that I felt like I hadn’t touched down on yet. When I get up each night to play them, I’m so thankful they came to me. You just put yourself in the process of being receptive to these different ideas and all the skills you have gathered help you hammer them out. I feel satisfied with this record and all of the songs in every way.
After all of these years in the business, who do you draw your influence from?
Over the last handful of years, it’s a lot of peers influencing me. I always say Dylan, Young, and Cohen, but when I first got to meet The Felice Brothers and get to know Ian Felice, they turned out to be a big influence. Influence is weird though. I wouldn’t call it lifting, but maybe borrowing. Seeing new possibilities in songs in ways that they’re being presented. Even in the English wave of folk stuff that’s coming out – not just our association with the Mumford guys, but like, Laura Marling and Ben Howard. I don’t sound like them of course, but knowing their music and getting to know them personally, it’s influence. I think if you’re paying attention, we’re subject to influence from everything we encounter. It’s not just the musicians – it’s the people that you love. Your friends that you meet, your own personal challenges, being okay with your life, and moving forward. All of those things come into play as opposed to just one song that struck you right. I loved the music of Townes Van Zandt that sort of inspired how the balladry of a song came about, so I had to meet the girl who inspired those songs and it opened up a lot. I often find many songs, they start about one person, but it reveals itself as it’s being written to be about many people that you’ve met. It’s only my view of those many people and how they felt in those situations. It’s grabbing little pieces of time and trying to get an emotion to hold for three minutes. I love it. It’s so fun, especially when you get it right – and this new album got it right.
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Gill Landry performs at The Modlin Center For The Arts this Wednesday, February 25th, opening the night for Justin Townes Earle. For more information on the show and where to buy tickets, click here.
