CALICO the Band: Redefining Americana (INTERVIEW)

It wasn’t all that surprising when CALICO the Band had a small New York City crowd literally howling halfway through their set at Rockwood Music Hall Wednesday evening.

Considering how frequently the crowd shouted compliments and other words of encouragement between songs, the howling seemed inevitable as co-leader Kirsten Proffit introduced fiddler Kaitlin “Wolfie” Wolfberg. Wolfberg immediately joined in.

The Los Angeles-based Americana group was making a rare East Coast appearance in support of their new album Under Blue Skies. The album is a harmony-driven West Coast country creation that’s usually tender and occasionally trippy. “The 405” and “Roll Away the Stone,” both track off the new album, seemed to draw the most approval from the crowd.

Other highlights from the album include “The Leaving Kind,” a lament from the perspective of a woman in a relationship with a man known for taking off, and “Cold Cold Love,” a deliciously twisted love story with more of a Western feel.

The three-part harmonies have always been the best part of listening to a CALICO song. Co-lead Manda Mosher provides excellent low vocals on tracks like “Into the Unknown,” a reflection on an upsetting roadway experience. Her voice sounded strong at Rockwood and that, combined with the more sparse sound that the touring trio were able to make live, made that take sound better than the one on the album. That’s not to say CALICO is by any means bogged down by higher production values or a larger band. Their cover of “California Dreamin’” relies on a chorus of voices and instruments and is particularly memorable.

Glide’s Tevor Christian spoke with Proffit and Mosher before their show on WUSB to talk about Under Blue Skies and some of the tracks keeping them company on their East Coast road trip.

The track that I wanted to start this conversation on is one called “California Dreamin,’” which has quite a surreal soundscape. How did you how did you come up with adding those interesting arrangements and combinations?

Kisten: Well we really took the lead from the original The Mamas & The Papas version and we just wanted to pay homage to what they had already done. CALICO’s signature sound is always a harmony. We always have three part harmonies and Manda and I both trade off lead vocals or we’ll do a duet. So we thought it would be a really nice thing to do to take this song, which is definitely a solo vocal and do it as a duet vocal with the harmony going on the whole time. We were lucky enough to have a great band in there recording the song with us and we asked them all if they would just jump in as a big choir and do that backing part Everybody just jumped in and there must have been about 10 of us probably. The whole session came together all in one day and it was produced by Jim Scott. Jim is this really fantastic producer and engineer and mixer. He mixed our record and then the idea to do California Dreaming actually came after we thought we had the record done. But then that idea came up and we decided to have Jim produce since he really has a great grasp on that type of late 60s early 70s kinds of sounds.

Let’s flag forward to a more a more modern romance track on your album called “The 405.” Here on the East Coast, you have bluegrass or ‘mountain music’ and it’s just so tied up in the land. And I just found it really interesting that you approached this crowded freeway sort of the same way a river might be approached musically in an East Coast bluegrass or folk song.

Kirsten: We’ve got the dry and the L.A. River basin. And then we have the 405 freeway. So yeah, that’s definitely it. It makes a good character, that’s for sure. We have a good friend and he lived over here on the Westside, where I am now. He was moving to the valley on the other side of the 405. It’s nine miles away and he threw a going away party. So, that sums it up. You get on and sometimes you can get by in half an hour. But sometimes it’s going to take you two or two and a half hours. The whole traffic thing becomes part of your life. You’re discussing it constantly and it’s just a funny thing you think of somebody being way over on the other side of town and how big a task that is just to be able to get to see them. How it can just stop your whole progress of your relationship. So it was a sort of a funny thing. It was a good analogy for the one thing that can be blocking that amazing love that you have for somebody.

The last track I want to talk to you about is called “Into the Unknown.” It’s about something that happened to you guys that, well, it’s not exactly what you signed up for when you chose a life of music. There are there are hardships that go along with being traveling musicians and they’re certainly well documented in many an album but this particular event is one that you just don’t see coming. I’m going to let you explain what happened.

Manda: Well we were on tour doing a West Coast run as we often do from Los Angeles up through Oregon and Washington and we were on our way to Mt. Hood if I remember correctly. I was driving and we had an RV. So we were we are all in the RV and it’s beautiful. Up there you’ve got these winding country roads. Often you come down to two lanes or four lanes and I just remember it being a really sunny pretty day driving along we pulled to a scene where there were some flares that had been put out and we realized that we had just come up upon a motorcycle accident that had just happened. Like the police weren’t there yet. The ambulances weren’t there yet. There were a couple of people who were there sussing out the situations and obviously put the road flares out. It was a fatality but we weren’t sure yet, we just pulled up and rolled the window down. This one woman ran up to us and we asked ‘is there anything we can do to help?’ And it was obvious to us at that point and she said no there’s, nothing you can do. He was deceased and we were just we were caught in a moment of someone’s departure. There was a heaviness to it, and a concern, and it just it was one of those things that just got you really thinking about how fragile life is and how quickly it can go. For this man who is out on a beautiful ride through the country on his motorcycle, it was just something as simple as that. That was his last moment in time. So we were there and present for that and it just it stuck with us.

Did you ever learn anything about him?

Manda: No. No. We didn’t. But we feel that in a way that we can you know honor him by that song. For those who believe things that are spiritual it almost feels like there’s a connection and a way to honor him and everyone who loses their life in that kind of way.

Which tracks are you listening to lately?

Kirsten: “Asking for Flowers” by Kathleen Edwards. This is a song that was also produced by Jim Scott, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to work with him so bad. It’s the title track off her Asking for Flowers record. I love that record so much. And then another tune by an artist who I’m falling in love with. I hear her all the time on the radio. She’s a girl from L.A. named Phoebe Bridgers and the song’s called “Motion Sickness.”

Manda: I wanted to dive into some of the more rockin’ male artists that we really love to listen to. One of them is Sturgill Simpson. He kind of exploded onto the scene, but he retains this authentic old-school country voice that I really like. He has this attitude and he bucks the system and he’s also really funny when he does that. I think the latest thing he did was at the CMA Awards, he was busking outside because he wasn’t invited to participate. He’s sitting out there with his Country Album of the Year Grammy in his guitar case. I just think he’s hilarious and awesome. I wanted to choose his a song off his 2014 release called “Life of Sin.”

 

Photo by Kelly Elaine Garthwaite

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