What are you listening to?
Randy Newman, Big Thief and Joe K Walsh.

Your all-time favourite albums?
Laurel Premo’s Golden Loam; Gillian Welch’s The Harrow & the Harvest; Jake Xerxes Fussell’s Good and Green Again; Virgil Anderson’s On the Tennessee Line and Andy Shauf’s The Bearer of Bad News. 

Musicians you most admire?
Joseph Decosimo, for his dedication to old-time music. Similarly, I really admire Jake Xerxes Fussell and Sam Amidon for their great interpretations of traditional tunes.

Favourite new artist?
The Local Honeys.

Memorable music encounter?
Playing tunes with Sammy Lind and Nadine Landry the other day. Me and my friend and musical partner Stephanie Coleman visited them in Canada. Those guys are some of my musical heroes and it was great to hang with them.

Your hidden talent?
I’m pretty good at the card game Spit.

First album you ever bought?
I don’t know if I had a first album, but I can remember hearing soul and early country records playing around the house when I was really young.

If you weren’t a musician, what would you be?
Maybe I would work in some sort of environmental justice position – still might!

Read the review of Nora Brown’s Long Time to Be Gone

This interview originally appeared in the November 2022 issue of Songlines. Never miss an issue – subscribe today