Roots Music Report speaks with MOTU: The Blues For The Beach Interview

RMR caught up with blues rock guitarist, songwriter and band leader, MOTU and he was more than happy to go track-by-track on the 2020 MOTU album Blues For The Beach. MOTU, who's real name is Dr. Richard Michelson, describes Blues For The Beach as an album that "was all written with an intent to be an American Roots album." Complete with a hard driving band of top-notch musicians, Blues For The Beach is an worthy follow up album to the 2019 MOTU album Suitcase Full Of Sorrow And Another Filled With Dreams. Music fans looking for a musical experience that features a wide cross section of blues, rock and roots music must give a listen to this instant future blues classic. As Blues For The Beach demonstrates, MOTU is not only one of the top blues-rock bands in New York, but also in the world today. Carrying on the time-honored tradition of blues-rock into the 21st century, MOTU talks about Blues For The Beach.

Roots Music Report: How’s things on Long Island? How are you and Dee coping during this crazy pandemic time? I know you hinted at the current political unrest in 2019 on the Suitcase song “Not Part Of Their Game” but who knew just a single year later there would be all this craziness and confusion? Have you turned more to song writing during this time and what other coping mechanisms are helping you at this time?

MOTU: Long Island, being part of New York, was obviously hit very hard. There were supply line interruptions and an overwhelmed health care system at the onset of this pandemic. We have several people close to us that have either lost their battle with this disease or are still suffering from it. However, there have been marked improvements since and I am hopeful that we all will make the necessary intelligent adjustments for our future and not forget the pain. Musicians and artists have always viewed the world in a very different way than the general public, which is part of why we are such a dysfunctional lot. Pain is almost a normal state of being with artists. This is why we may be more sensitive to the suffering of our brothers & sisters and certainly why we are unforgiving to any abuse our leaders create as a result of their selfishness, incompetence, or lack of compassion. It is a strange time indeed. Obviously it was not my plan to release this milestone 20th album in the middle of all this, but I also didn’t want our fans to lose out by holding off the release. Originally, the plan was to use our scheduled performances at this year’s Montauk Music Festival as sort of a CD release forum but that festival was canceled. Instead, the end result is this is just an album release without any fanfare. As far as political divide goes, that is a subject that would take up all our time during this interview so, although my position on this subject is well documented, I’m going to try my best today to not go down that rabbit hole. During this time Dee and I are still very busy working on various projects and using a variety of video conferencing software instead of doing this in-person. In many ways this is more efficient anyway.

Roots Music Report: The 2020 album by MOTU Blues For The Beach sounds like a great companion album to the 2019 MOTU album Suitcase Full Of Sorrow And Another Filled With Dreams. Even the cover art looks somewhat similar. How would you say the two albums differ and in what ways are they similar? I thought the Suitcase album was a little more pop / country sounding. Would Blues For The Beach be more of a pure blues album and what did you set out to achieve on the Blues For The Beach album?

MOTU: That is certainly observant of you. I agree with your general overview of these two albums. Writing takes on a direction, and life, of its own and sometimes I just feel like the vehicle to communicate it. However, the newest Blues For The Beach album was all written with an intent to be an American Roots album. Fortunately, it ended up in the direction I intended, which isn’t always the case. Both albums do have cover photos that were taken around a mile apart from each other on Long Island where I live. Both albums have the same identical personnel performing on them. In the early days my band members changed pretty often but this stabilized group has now been with me for a number of years. The band personnel in order of longevity is: Dee “Chetta” Michelson on vocals (she has been part of my music projects for 14 of my 20 albums), Ed Modzel on drums (he has been on 13 of my 20 albums), Mark Loebl on bass (been on 10 of my 20 albums), Bob Rush on harmonica and keyboards (been on 5 of my 20 albums), Rich Fry on guitar (also on 5 of my 20 albums), and of course myself (MOTU) on vocals, mandolin, slide guitar, electric / acoustic guitars, banjo, and pedal steel guitar. Since this band has now been with me for some time there is a kind of stabilization, and growth, as a single unit which has developed into its own unique personality in sound. In these last two albums there are some similar styles in both which are country, blues, and Americana. These are all subsets of American Roots music. However, anyone can hear whatever genre they feel is best represented in this music. Which is one of the interesting things about art, in that it allows everyone to see what they want to see or hear what they want to hear.

Roots Music Report: As you say, your band is the same on both Blues For The Beach and the Suitcase album to they were both recorded in the same studio right? Would you say that you’re going through a prolific period in your song writing with two albums released in a year period?

MOTU: Yes, I recognize that doing two studio albums of all original material in such a short time period is a lot. I’m very driven to write when I’m unhappy with things going on in the world around me… and anyone would recognize that there is a lot going these days that should have a spotlight shined on it. A lot of societal issues that need to be fixed if we want to continue to call ourselves “civilized.” Blues is a good vehicle for expression of the ills of the world. So it may appear that I’m prolific but I’m really just pissed off.

Roots Music Report: Do you have some personal favorite track on Blues For The Beach? What inspired the first track, which has a rather long title “Kentucky Bourbon Warms Me More Than You Do”? That song has a kind of... caustic set of lyrics. Is it about anyone in particular?

MOTU: The song, “Kentucky Bourbon Warms Me More Than You Do”, is the opening track of the album. It features Dee on vocals, me on lead guitar and pedal steel guitar, Bob Rush on piano and harmonica, Ed Modzel on drums, and Mark Loebl on bass. It is your classic blues song about a bad relationship with a smoke filled bar room feel. Not about anyone in particular. I just thought it was a great way to start a Roots-Blues album and set the mood for the rest of the songs to follow. My own personal favorite track on this album is the title song, “Blues For The Beach”. It is minimalistic with just Dee and me singing and just Rich Fry and me backing it up on acoustic instruments. I also dubbed in a pedal steel guitar. The message in the lyrics is also basic. It is a simple statement about mortality as one gets older and looks back on their life. I meant for it to have a sadness, roughness, and beauty, which I think we accomplished.

Roots Music Report: The opening track is followed by “Want To Be Your Man” and “Going Back Home”, which both have different old-school blues flavors. I noticed a pedal steel guitar featured on the second track.

MOTU: “Want To Be Your Man” is with the full band and it was a first take live in the studio, which is what gives it that old-school early blues sound. It is rough and unpolished by design because good blues songs should not be polished. It is also the “live video” that we have on You Tube as a promo for the album. The second tune, “Going Back Home,” goes back further in time with an old Memphis roots style. The slide dobro guitar and pedal steel guitar that I play both stylistically add to that. By the end of this third song on the album I want the listener to feel like they are on an American Roots musical journey through stages of the blues.

Roots Music Report: The band really kicks in on “No Safe Solution”, which I kind of compared to Canned Head but it sounds like John Mayall too. So it’s about the pandemic? Wow, so when was “No Safe Solution” recorded? The pandemic started coming to light in late January. There’s some sizzling sounding guitar work on that track.

MOTU: I wrote the “No Safe Solution” lyrics around the time China was having issues as well as problems beginning in Europe. It hadn’t blown up yet in the USA but it was obvious that the government was at odds with the CDC and the medical/scientific community. It was not my intent to prophesize, and I certainly had no idea at the time that this would become a major pandemic, but there you have it.

The song does have a ‘70s blues-rock feel kinda like Steve Miller Band or Santana. The ‘sizzling sounding guitar work’ you refer to in this song is as follows: The first lead is me on pedal steel guitar (with a distorted wah-wah effect), then Bob Rush does some classic B3 sounding keyboard rips on organ and then he adds harmonica, both at the same time…very cool, the next lead is me again but switching onto electric slide guitar on my Les Paul and at the end joined for a short lead by Rich Fry on a PRS guitar before the vocals refrain, then finally the last lead is me again doing a Hendrix type wah-wah high energy lead on my Les Paul again. This was a first take in the studio and most of the song is a repeating riff creating the backbone which Mark and Ed hold together keeping it interesting. Dee did a great job finding that special harmony that made it work.

Roots Music Report: Did you have a specific go-to guitar for the Blues For The Beach sessions? I know you have a number of guitars, so for “No Safe Solution” could you say something else about the guitars on the new album? Which tracks on Blues For The Beach feature the most guitar tracks and how much overdubbing was done on the album?

MOTU: Out of my 100+ guitars, I always like to use my Gibson Les Paul models and ES models because I love their fat sound and the clean way they record. Great for leads. On one tune I use a PRS King Crimson custom SE. I also picked up a James Burton Custom Telecaster toward the end of 2019 and I use that guitar for some lead work, like on the opening track “Kentucky Bourbon Warms Me More Than You Do” as well as some others. The acoustic slide dobro is a National Resolectric. The pedal steel is a 10 string Sho-Bud and the acoustic guitars I use are a Gibson Hummingbird, a Carlo Robelli Slim-Line, and a Taylor T-5. I also use a Gretsch White Falcon on one tune. Rich Fry uses a Taylor k24ce V Class acoustic, a PRS Custom 24 Piezo, and a Gibson Silverburst Custom Shop LP. Mark Loebl uses a 6-string Ibanez BTB 1806E Bass with Aguilar pickups and 3 band active EQ and also a 4 string Alembic Epic Bass with 2 band active EQ. The only instrument overdubs were some pedal steel guitar and mandolin. I also overdubbed a second guitar into “Loose Change” and “Variations In 1, 4, 5” because Rich Fry was not available the day we recorded those. For the most part this album was recorded live with most members present for each of the sessions.

Roots Music Report: Is “Got No Reason To Complain” a straight ahead blues track that you wrote for Dee? She does a great job on that track. The pedal steel also sounds great. It reminds me a bit of George Harrison’s guitar sound. How does the pedal steel weave with Rich Fry’s guitars? Also the harmonica solo by Bob Rush is great. Does he play harmonica and piano at the same time?

MOTU: A lot of “yes” answers to your questions. Dee always does a great job and she is a pleasure to write for. I agree that the pedal steel guitar adds an awesome dimension to the blues either as a backup instrument or as a lead. It really works well on “Got No Reason To Complain”. Bob Rush does indeed play harmonica with one hand while playing keyboards with the other. Rich Fry plays lead guitar on this tune.

Roots Music Report: “Ain’t Gonna Wait No More” is a straight ahead blues track with you and Dee on lead vocals. Do you like to share the vocals with Dee and what is the message of the song?

MOTU: Dee and I singing vocals is what started us working together as a team many years ago. I was a recording artist for many years on the scene and I was actually thinking of hanging it all up. Then one day, again many years ago, I was performing a song solo and she walked over, sat down, and started singing the harmony. My jaw dropped. It was magic. I learned later that she was a seasoned gospel singer with a wealth of knowledge relative to vocal training. The rest is history. I guess you can say that she is responsible for re-energizing my desire to continue to create music.

Roots Music Report: “Loose Change” is a rare, humorous moment on Blues For The Beach. There’s some great piano work on that track. You even have a second verse that you omitted from the album version yet you include it in the live shows? The guitar work on that track is stellar sounding. Is that one of your favorite MOTU songs to play live and is it the longest track on the album?

MOTU: I’m glad you caught the humor in “Loose Change” as that was my intent and yes it is a long one. It would have been even longer if I hadn’t decided to cut a verse for this studio album version! Like you said, that verse can still be included live in concert since audiences will let you get away with doing a very long, jamming tune “live”. This song was recorded during that same session where Rich Fry couldn’t make it so I play all the guitars on this song. I also tried to do a pedal steel guitar lead similar to the style Jerry Garcia used when he played pedal steel guitar on “Dirty Business” which is on the first New Riders of the Purple Sage album. I think it worked well for this tune. Bob Rush once again does some excellent piano and harmonica work. Mark Loebl and Ed Modzel as always hold it all together and Dee makes me sound better than I am.

Roots Music Report: How many all instrumental albums has MOTU released? I ask because the Blues For The Beach track “Variations In 1, 4, 5” is a great instrumental track and I thought it had a kind of Arlo Guthrie meets Pete Seeger sound. Did you hear Arlo’s version of Pete Seeger’s “Living In The Country” song from his 1969 album? I guess both tracks are upbeat and quite peaceful sounding. Short but sweet and what can you tell us about the song title?

MOTU: I have released three instrumental albums over my recording career; two of which are still available and one that is out of print. The most recent instrumental album that I released was just a few years ago in 2017. It is a jazz guitar album titled, Distant Guitar Whispers in the Wind. I play all of the instruments on that album and it has sold very well. Much better than I had expected for this sort of jazz type recording. So I am a seasoned veteran to the craft of creating and recording instrumental tunes. The instrumental track on this new album titled, “Variations in 1, 4, 5”, refers to the standard blues progression which is a sequence of three chords based on a progression of notes that are the first, fourth, and fifth notes of an eight note scale. Although this tune sounds like a sweet complex instrumental in reality it is just based off of this standard blues progression. It probably sounds “sweet” and “peaceful” because I used more major chords then the typical seventh chords normally used in this type of progression. That would also explain why a listener may draw a similarity to some 1960’s folk music songs because much of that music was based on this simple blues progression. In my opinion I think this tune has a Hot Tuna feel to it because the backbone is organ, bass, and drums with the main improvisational instrument being an old-school finger picked lead on acoustic guitar. This is the formula Jorma Kaukonen uses for most of the Hot Tuna songs he has written. Anyway, even though it doesn’t sound like the blues, it is based off the most universal blues formula which is why it fits into this album of multi-style American Roots blues.

Roots Music Report: What kind of statement did you want to make on “What The Heart Wants”? I guess everyone wants an ideal kind of relationship but some never find it. The song kind of hits a nerve.

MOTU: “What The Heart Wants” is about loneliness. I appreciate that I have been very fortunate to have such a wonderful person to share my life with and that appreciation reminds me of many years of my life where I was alone or was in a bad relationship where I still felt like I was alone. Much of the world is alone and being alone is a universal subject that everyone at some point in their life must deal with. Furthermore, those times certainly can be very dark. So I felt that this subject was still worth writing about and certainly something that many can relate to.

Roots Music Report: The new album ends with the title track “Blues For The Beach”. Is it an optimistic song? In the song are you saying music is your saving grace?

MOTU: It is really just about the awareness of one’s own mortality. I’m 66 years old so after twenty albums, and a lifetime of doing music, the awareness of having more summers behind me than ahead of me leads to self-reflection and creates more questions than answers. The lyrics of this last song “Blues For The Beach” have a simple message that does not require a lot to read into. That message is that I hope I can stick around a little longer and continue to make music. Of course the song’s lyrics state it in a much more poetic fashion but that is what it boils down to.

Roots Music Report: Is Blues For The Beach the 20th MOTU album? That’s a lot of music to make over a career. Would you consider a retrospective or compilation to put your recorded output into perspective? As far as writing, recording and possible live concerts, are you considering any post-pandemic activities for MOTU and are you hopeful that things will ever return to normal again?

MOTU: Blues For The Beach is my 20th official release. As far as a retrospective is concerned… I’m not ready to look backwards or try to put my past work into some sort of retrospective since I’m still looking forward to my next project. I’m open to anything and I know that it is foolish to expect, or predict, what is ahead. Life is change and nothing ever returns to what it was before. The human condition is a dynamic one and to survive we all need to role with the punches, stand back up, brush the dust off our clothes, and walk forward on that road into the next adventure until we can walk no more. Hopefully I’ll still be walking on that road for a while.

Official MOTU public facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/MOTURecords/

Official MOTU web-site:  http://www.motu.net/

MOTU Records:  http://www.motu.net/main.html#CD

MOTU You Tube (Info & Links):  https://www.youtube.com/user/MotuBlues/about

MOTU Live Performance Videos (Fan Favorites):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU8PX52_RcQ&list=PLlDnBOoEDYEagEr3XuY6sr9OO3IMNlUlZ