Reed Turchi Shares Memphis Soul Tune “Keep On Keepin’ On,” Talks New Albums ‘I’ve Chosen Love’ and ‘Creosote Flats’ (INTERVIEW/SONG PREMIERE)

Can you talk about the inspiration behind ‘I’ve Chosen Love’ both in terms of music and lyrics?

“I’ve Chosen Love” was written on Art Edmaiston’s floor during my last few weeks in Memphis, which were a bit of an explosion in my personal and “professional” (is the music biz every truly professional?) life. I want to mention that because both the music and lyrics are distinctly Memphian – the chord progression came out of nowhere (which probably means it was soaked up deep in my unconscious from living in the land of STAX), and the lyrics, consciously, began with a series of Martin Luther King Jr. quotes. His assassination at the Lorraine is fundamentally tied to the end of the STAX golden era (for instance, many of the songwriting sessions took place at the motel), so I wanted to try and summon those ghosts and see if they could dance together.

As a songwriter, is it a challenge to capture our current moment in time – for better or worse – in the scope of a song?

Ironically none of these songs were written during or about the present moment – they all began around five years ago, and have slowly evolved ever since. One thing I’ve tried to avoid is writing in direct response to something in the news in a way that becomes purely propaganda, or reactionary. It’s a difficult balance, as on one hand so many “of the moment” pieces age poorly or degrade their own artistic merit by being too directed at “the moment,” but on the other hand you have some of the universally powerful songs of the Staples Singers, and Pops Staples is quoted as saying “I want all my lyrics to come from the headlines.” Maybe you can tell this is something I’m still figuring out how to address, but, let’s say I go out on a walk now, trip on the curb, and mess up my knee. No one really wants to hear a song about that, it’s mundane, it’s unremarkable, but if I could write a song about what that moment is in a larger sense, in a universal sense (but staying with specifics), maybe I could make that story something that you could relate to — that we all could relate to — and then it becomes powerful as a piece of art, because it is communicating something from my life to your life. It resonates. You feel it. For example, to reference another song I’ve spent an obsessive amount of time with, think of Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927” — a song full of specifics, a one-hundred-year-old story, and yet that chorus “they’re trying to wash us away…” speaks far and wide, anyone can relate to that feeling in their life, whether they have firsthand experience with floodwaters or not. This is the challenge of the artist — to write about something in a way that resonates, that communicates, that is accessible to the listener without oversimplification or dumbing down. Sure, we all like candy, but we have to eat our vegetables too or our teeth will rot out of our skull.

Give us a little bit of background on the singer you worked with on this tune and the process for recording.

Heather Moulder has been a long-time bandmate and collaborator of mine, and it is always a joy to work with her. She’s played keyboards and sang on pretty much all of my records since we started working together in 2015. For this song, “I’ve Chosen Love,” I knew her voice would be a perfect fit. I helped produce an album of hers (Goodluckola — Bring ‘Em on Home), and there’s a song called “Hangin’ on to the Rooftops” with a somewhat similar vocal approach, and I had that in my head as a reference for how “I’ve Chosen Love” could sound.

Now, I have to admit to my horrible sin here, so forgive me: Because the overdubs were done in the Covid Era, Heather recorded her vocals remotely and sent them to me for mixing. I thought they were fantastic, mixed them in, and was fired up about the track “print it, let’s send it to manufacturing!” Then, sending the track to Heather for her to hear…I learned I had totally messed up the timing of her overdubs. I don’t know if she’ll ever forgive me, but I do know that it turned out to be a happy accident — the shifted vocals sit in a behind-the-beat spot that really contributes to the song’s atmosphere and vibe.

You have said that the release of ‘I’ve Chosen Love’ and ‘Creosote Flats’ is Part 1 of a larger project and vision with three stages. Can you elaborate on this project and how you hatched the idea?

“Creosote Flats” especially is part of a trilogy of desert-inspired work that will take place over the next two years. I’ve gone out to Tucson regularly most of my life, and have worked for a long time to try and figure out how to write songs that reflect that landscape, and the sensation of spaciousness that you can experience out there in the Sonoran desert. So, the release of “Creosote Flats” is step one, and touring through the Southwest performing in various outdoor spaces and national parks (and documenting that tour) is phase two. The third phase is the follow up album, which I’ll be working on during a month long trip through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River next May.

What made you want to release two new albums at once?

Both “I’ve Chosen Love” and “Creosote Flats” have been in the works for a long time, and reflect two different realms of artistic expression. If this Covid Era has granted me any graces, it’s been more time to finish some of these projects, and it’s a real pleasure to get to put on the little finishing touches and overdubs that make them whole. I believe it’s always the responsibility of the artist to keep seeking new work and new sources of inspiration, and so as much as I have enjoyed working on these two albums, it is time to send them out into the world and clear the desk for a new series of songs and ideas.

Each of these new albums you have coming out is very different in terms of where you are drawing from. Starting with ‘I’ve Chosen Love’, what is your connection to the Memphis soul and rock sound?

I spent the better part of four years working in Memphis, when I was also Label Director at Ardent Studios (Greyhounds and Low Cut Connie are two bands that I was lucky enough to work with there). It’s impossible to live in Memphis without it getting stuck between your toes, but it’s taken a while to figure out how to write material that honors that inspiration without being a straight “retro-revivalist” act, which may belong more in a museum than on a stage. Adam Hill (engineer / producer) and Art Edmaiston (saxophone) are two of my closest friends, and they’ve helped me figure out how to approach some of these sounds and songs, which is a real pleasure. Every time we work together I learn from them, and gain a few pounds from BBQ and naner puddin.

Is there a central theme that links the songs on this album together?

“I’ve Chosen Love” is an album with a distinct A Side and B Side. The A side is all the Memphis-inspired soul tunes we’ve been talking about, studio-style, recorded in a more traditional “hit song” kind of production mentality. The B Side is the polar opposite, and draws on more of my field recording and North Mississippi Hill Country background, as all the songs were recorded in my backyard during Covid, playing Junior Kimbrough and RL Burnside inspired tunes with Wallace Lester (Como Mama’s, Reverend John Wilkins) on drums and ole Mississippi Lee McAlilly on bass. Those two have a particular groove together, and I’m also lucky to count them both as neighbors.

For ‘Creosote Flats’, what drew you to the desert blues sound?

In 2014 Adriano Viterbini introduced me to Saharan Desert Blues while we were on tour together in Italy promoting our collaborative album “Scrapyard.” Among other acts, he performs with Bombino and Rokia Troure, and his father has been going to Niger for decades for work, and bringing back cassette tapes. Needless to say, I was infatuated. The next step, which took years, was to find a way to write songs that were personal and original to me, but that reflected and drew on that style. I feel like I am repeating myself a little, and realize that’s because both “Creosote Flats” and “I’ve Chosen Love” are celebrations of places, and my life in those places, and maybe that is what draws them together, and why they are being released together. I’m not from Memphis, I’m not from Tucson (and certainly not the Sahara), but both of those places have been significant in my life, and the only way I know to portray what they mean to me, and hopefully communicate what that means, is through music, with people I love. These albums are the result. No “hired guns,” just friends, chasing and exploring new sounds and ways of playing together. This mentality is probably why I don’t have a Top 40 Radio Hit, but this mentality is what keeps me sane and what keeps me in love with making music.

As a guitarist, do you have to approach the musical styles on each album from a different creative space?

Unfortunately, I don’t think of myself as much of a guitarist. That isn’t a secret “humble brag,” either. What I mean is when I think of a guitarist I think of a master of the instrument — someone who can play anything, and who is fully versed in theory, scales, chord structure, etc. I have none of that. I’ve never taken a guitar lesson. The closest I came was shoveling beagle shit for Kenny Brown in exchange for some very informal slide guitar “lessons.”

When I think about these albums, or begin any album, I think of a particular sound, or feeling, which is more of a culmination of textures or an aesthetic sensibility than a “writing music on guitar” approach. “Creosote Flats” is about trying to emulate the feelings of the desert, “I’ve Chosen Love” is about Memphis-soul feel, and backyard Hill Country blues feel. If you look at my previous albums, the same mentality holds — “Kudzu Orkestra at Soulshine,” “Angel’s Share,” “Tallahatchie,” “Just a Little More Faith,” etc. All of those albums are rooted in the feeling of a place, and of the music resonating within that space. Maybe what I’m trying to say is that I think of it in the inverse — instead of saying “okay, here’s some guitar technique I learned, let’s build an album around it,” I’m more likely to think “okay, here’s a space and a feeling that inspires me, how can we create an album that gives a sense of that space, and then what kind of guitar sound and technique should I aim for that fits in that world.”

Thinking in that sense, the song “I’ve Chosen Love” is a great example. There are three guitar parts, each doing a different job. First, there’s the rhythm section, chord-progression guitar, with a Memphis sound — guitar slightly-driven, plugged straight into amp, trying to stick the guitar between the drummers (Lemuel Hayes and Johnny Radelat) and bass player (Anthony Farrell). The purpose of that guitar is to reinforce the groove, and keep it pushing forward. Second there is the slide guitar solo, which is meant to be dramatic, and a statement — much of my career has been spent playing slide guitar, and in this break in the song I wanted to express myself through that medium, and also expand the sonic space of the song by adding the heavy dose of plate reverb. The listener’s perspective of the song should change in this moment, we have taken the roof off the building. Third and finally is the outro guitar solo, which is a nod to the “desert blues” style. The playing is much more percussive, staccato, and builds tiny circular riffs to keep the tag-jam dynamic and moving. During mixing, I also rode (as in, kept a hand on and in real-time manipulated) the reverb for the guitar and its volume, pulling it closer, making it louder, pushing it back, drowning it out, etc., etc.

All three of those guitars are me, trying to say something different, and in a different way. But the song was never conceptualized around those elements — in fact, they were some of the last things added once everything else had been brought together and mixed to its respective place. It was only once the feeling of the song and its environment had been achieved that I knew what the guitar’s job, or in this case multiple jobs, would be.