CJW: Out of curiosity – and I may not quote you on it because I don’t want to necessarily put down other people – but what were you listening to before?
TLC: CCM. Exclusively, pretty much. That was when I liked Jennifer Knapp – and I still think she’s great, phenomenal – I love all her albums, day one, and I love them all still. But I listened to a lot of stuff that I completely don’t listen to now. I listened to some top 40 stuff, too, but never anything that wasn’t mainstream, whether it be like top 40 radio stuff or Christian music. It was always the stuff that you would hear on the radio. I went to play a show at Brevard College (“I Wonder” starts to play in the other room) in Brevard, NC. It was Nov. 1, 2000, I think. I met this guy at the show – his name is Oliver. Oliver, that night, played David Wilcox for me. I’d never heard of him. I was like, “Are you kidding me? What is this?” The first song I ever heard by David Wilcox was “Eye of the Hurricane.” I was like, “You have to tell me everything else you listen to, because if you know about this guy – tell me where you’re hiding, everything, where can I hear these artists?” He just opened up this whole library of new music to me. It was incredible. It was one of those pivotal moments in your life where everything changes direction. I went from going, “Okay – radio is all that’s out there” to going “I don’t even listen to the radio hardly at all.” It was great. I am forever indebted to Oliver Lollis for that show. He also helped me co-write two songs on the Home Sweet Road album – “Winter’s Ending” and “All My Songs.”
CJW: Oh, two of my favorite ones on that one. I like him too! How was the recording process different from the first CD to the second – the actual recording?
TLC: I produced the second one and I had a lot of musicians that I wanted to use for that second album – people who are on the road a lot.
CJW: All-star cast on that one.
TLC: Yeah, exactly. So I couldn’t sequester them in the studio for a month. I hated the studio the first time – it was a miserable experience for me. I probably shouldn’t say that, but I didn’t like it at all. Maybe it was just because it was new and I didn’t know anyone that I was recording with. I went to Canada and did it – didn’t know the producer, never met him. Didn’t know any of the musicians. The second time, I was like, I want to use people that I like and I want to get what I want out of this. So I produced it and I called in these guys and I said, “I know you only have like a week to spare, so let’s go lock ourselves in a lake house for a week, practice and we’ll go do a live show.” So that way I could avoid the studio, I could get the musicians that I wanted, I could have the feel that you have when you have an audience, which just has this life to it. So that’s what we did the second time, and it was a blast. For this album, I did not want to come back in the studio. I was just like, “Nooooo!” But I decided that the best happy medium would be to do it in a place that I feel at home with guys that I love. It has been so much fun. Like we have a week left of recording, a week of mixing and a week of mastering and I’m just like, “Noooo! I don’t want it to end!” It’s been so much fun. I’m here all day, every day, pretty much.
CJW: It looks fun to me! It’s kind of a funny experience. I feel like, after I listen to someone play a song live, you’re supposed to clap. But oh wait, we don’t do that here!
TLC (laughs): You get your lighter out. Yeah! Are you taking requests?
CJW: So it’s a different experience. On both recordings, this one and that one, it’s a testosterone heavy group. What’s it like, working with all these guys?
TLC: They’re smart, and they’re good at what they do, and they’ve been doing it for a long time, so they make me sound really good. I’m very comfortable with guys. I have three brothers that I spend a lot of time with. Most of the artists that I tend to listen to are males. I have a couple girls, and when I like a girl musician, I really like her. I love Sheryl Crow, I love Patty Griffin, I love Jennifer Knapp. So it takes a lot for a girl to catch my ear, but usually when she does, I’m sold. I never got into a lot of artists… never really got into the Indigo Girls.
CJW: I have one of their CDs, but I’m not really attached to it.
TLC: I have one of their CDs that I really like. Never got into Jonatha Brooke – there’s just a lot of artists out there that are like folk people… but yeah, I tend to prefer male musicians, I tend to prefer male voices. (“I Wonder” begins to play again.)
CJW: I don’t know why, but I’m the same way. I have a heavily male collection, but then I do have some girls. But honestly, they don’t get as much play time. Even the ones that I have tend to hang out in the case more. Like, I have Gillian Welch – I like her. She’s good. I don’t listen to her that much. Dar Williams – I like her. Don’t listen to her that much. Same way. I don’t know why.
TLC: There are a couple of exceptions to the rule, but for the most part…
CJW: Now Patty? She’s on all the time. Constantly.
TLC: I think that the thing I like about Patty is that she’s diverse. Whereas most girls have one style of song and they play that song over and over and over. It’s hard to tell the difference between songs. I was playing Patty for Paul today, and he’d never heard her stuff. I put in 1000 Kisses first and played a couple songs. I was like, “Okay, this is my favorite,” and I put in Flaming Red. He’s like, “Is this the same person?” It’s like, very different style but she can do that – everything from the raging “Flaming Red” to sort of like the middle-of-the-road, you’ve got “Tony” or “One Big Love” to everything really quiet down to “Mary” or “Making Pies.” That keeps my ear interested.
CJW: She blows me away. She’s one that, the first day her CD is out, I’ll run off and buy it, immediately, without ever hearing anything on it. You can trust her.
TLC: I’m the same way.
CJW: There aren’t too many people that I’ll say that about…
TLC: That you’ll go buy the album the first day?
CJW: They exist, but… and I get a lot of crap from my roommate – I’m definitely not like that with Caedmon’s, for example. No. I won’t do it. I’m not going to buy their new CD, probably, because I already have the other CDs. And I do have all of their CDs. But I’m not as big a Caedmon’s fan as a lot of my friends and I get in trouble for that. (laughs) And then I start pushing Patty on people. But there are artists that I feel that way about.
TLC: Nickel Creek?
CJW: Yeah, I’ll do it for Nickel Creek. I have most everything they’ve ever recorded except for the ones that are really hard to get, because I’m not going to spend like $170 on a CD that they recorded when they were like 18.
TLC: I wouldn’t do that either.