part3

….part three… the final installment

G: How long are you going to be over in the UK?

R: This trip is promotional, so we're really there about five or six
working days, and then most of the guys are coming home and Grandmother and
Paul and I are gonna go gallivanting around Ireland for another five or six
days.

Grandma, to me: Have you ever been to Ireland?

G: No. Uh uh.

Grandma: We were there last year, but just quickly in and out, rainy, kind
of cold and damp…

R: But it was nice, wasn't it?

G: I'd like to go… [here we talked some about my business travels in the
UK and my genealogical interests and relatives in Missouri, but I won't
bore you with that]

["I've Got This Feeling" plays in the background]

G: Talk about what music you're listening to at home now, and in the car.

R:      Yeah, what am I listening to right now? Well, I've had the most
Maverick-related musical few weeks recently, where I didn't do much music
outside of the band… we were doing all of this, preparing for the shows, so
I didn't get a chance to listen like I had, say, in previous months.   I'd
kinda get home and I was exhausted musically. Well, what have I been
enjoying? You know, I turned on to a really great record. It's one of a
couple that are still available called "Uncle Walt's Band". It was Walter
Hiatt, who was unfortunately killed in that Valujet crash in the
Everglades, so it was Walter Hiatt, a guy named Champ Hood, and David Ball,
the country singer. And they had this band from the seventies into the
eighties, and it was a fantastic blending of bluegrass, and country, and
folk, and it's just amazing.   It had a lot of impact on me because I
didn't know a lot about that group, but I knew David Ball, and I knew
Walter Hiatt.   So it was kind of a cool discovery, considering that it's
older now. The record that I was listening to a lot recently was a
collection of songs from roughly the late seventies. So, yeah, I was very
moved by that, particularly since Walter was killed and all… I found it
kind of moving to listen to this beautiful music that he made. He was
never what I would consider a superstar in his own right, but he touched a
lot of people that are musicians today – [was] good friends with Lyle
Lovett, so he's had a great deal of impact, but maybe not as well known.
That's pretty special stuff.

G: That's kind of the way Floyd Cramer's death made me go out and
rediscover him a little bit.

R: Yeah, doesn't that happen, you know? It's like – an actor dies and you
go rent a movie or two, you know?

G: Somebody that you've been taking for granted, that would be around
forever, and suddenly they're gone.

Grandma: It does happen. I just read an article in yesterday's paper
about Yoko Ono, Lennon's wife. She was writing a little article about
McCartney…and put him down like you won't believe.

R: Oh really? About his new book?

Grandma: Said he was like – almost - she didn't say "waterboy", but I'm
telling you that's what she was saying…

R: Well, there's always been tension there, though I know that they've had
a friendly relationship in recent years, but… McCartney's just done this
big book, and…

Grandma: It's jealousy coming out…

R: But McCartney's thing – I bought the book and haven't read it yet, cause
it's so big I didn't want to carry it on this trip - he participated in
this biography, so though he didn't write it, he did participate, and he
claims, you know, he says "This is from my memory of a very unique time.
John was very special, and I loved John a lot, but obviously there were –
to tell the truth, I have to get into some of the things that weren't
always perfect – about [John]" And that would be – I couldn't possibly
tell a story about….

Grandma: I think there's a jealousy because he's been knighted.

R: Yeah, but John'll probably be knighted as well.

G: Maybe after Prince William takes over.

R: John and all of the Beatles one day, they'll be huge British historical
figures. It's just bound to be,

G: There's no way around it.

R: There's no way around it.

G: Like Elvis.

R: Yeah!

G: "Big Country Band" – I enjoyed that last month.

R: Trying to do another one.

G: Good!

R: Now there's a chance that we're gonna do it around CRS, the end of
February, but I haven't had a chance to talk to the boys, and see if Raul
could be there, and what have you. It comes in and around Country Radio
Seminar, and as you may or may not know, the Mavericks are playing…

G: The 28th?

R: Is that what it is? The 28th?

G: (Laughing) I think so…

R: We're playing Friday night, the Mavericks [note – that's Feb. 27th].

Grandma to R: Are you gonna play for the awards, you mean?

R: No, it's a radio seminar, not CMA.

G: Actually it's where you and Trisha met, way back when?

R: Yeah.

G: So I'm gonna try and figure out if I can get radio credentials real
quick.

R: Well, our show won't require them.

G: It won't?

R: Our show's not a part of that, you don't have to bother. Our show will
be open, and it's at the Ace of Clubs.

Grandma, to me, pointing to notepad: Note!

G: Whoa, good news!

R: And it may be that the Big Country date will either be the Thursday
night beforehand, or the Saturday night after. So it will be the Mavericks
Friday, and then maybe Big Country Saturday, at the Ace of Clubs.

G: Well, that would be terrible!

R: What?

G: Too much bad music, two nights in a row!

R: Too much trouble!

G: Whose idea was Big Country Band?

R: I'm going to give credit to perhaps Raul and Tom Lewis, and then maybe
Mandy Barnette, just because Tom - putting Tom at the core of it, he was
talking to Raul about it, and then he's very close with Mandy, so I'm sure
that Mandy was there on the early discussions. Since then, Tom and Kim
Richey have been dating, so I would factor her in on some of the
development. But, for that matter, everybody involved ends up being a part
of the planning. I've tried to help Tom a lot with the planning, because
it's hard to do, for one. So on the very first night that we did - Did you
make both shows?

G: December 5th. There was one back in October?

R: The October one, that was the first, so I helped out on both of them as
best I could.

G: Just before the December 5th show I had heard that Trisha would be a
surprise special guest, so I trucked on down. It was a good show!

R: [Grimacing and trying to crack his neck]

G: Oh, you need a chiropractor too, eh? I do my own neck adjustments all the time too...

R: Yeah, I do too!

Grandma: I could do you good.

R: I know, she's good at…

G to Grandma: Do you do karate chops?

Grandma: No, but I could, you know, when you get stiff from being humped
over too long… I could release that! I'm pretty good. I have strong
hands.

G: I'll bet that hanging a heavy bass on your neck all the time is probably
tough on you.

Grandma: Oh yeah! I had an experience… well, I don't think you need my
experience on that [pointing to the tape recorder]

R: (cracks up)

G: That's okay!

R: So, what else do we have? Let's hit a couple more points and then I'll
get on back to the room.

G: I'll ask you some Trisha questions if I can…

R: Yeah, sure, that's not a problem.

G: Is she in the studio now, with the next album?

R: Yeah, she's almost done, almost finished.

G: Did she and Garth do some of the duets for that [duet] one [too], or are
they all done with that [duet] one, or…

R: No, no, she and Garth have a separate project going on, and I feel at
liberty to say that their goal is to get a good record done, and they'll do
that in whatever time it takes to do it, so there's not any kind of release
date scheduled for the duet album, it is a separate project. So the next
record will be from Trisha will be her own, and it is almost finished.

G: Good! There was a rumor that I read on the Internet last night that she
was changing labels. Is there any truth to that?

R: Not at all, not at all true, uh uh.

G: That would seem too strange…

Grandma: I heard it too…

R:      In fact, she's having a great time with her label…
G:      Unless Tony were leaving it [MCA], and then that would make sense.

R:      Yeah, but even then… you know they're not going to easily let an artist like her go. They've just got too much of a good thing going on there. You know, probably that stems from – you know the way rumors are anyway - that she changed producers, and somewhere along the line, somebody related a producer with a label.

G: Maybe…

R: Garth Fundis and she are not working together on this album.

Grandma: That's truthfully what I heard.

G: And didn't on "Songbook"…

R: Right, on the new material for "Songbook" he was not involved, right.
That was the first stuff Tony and Trisha did together.

G: Yeah, a lot of people were surprised when she and Garth Fundis parted
ways, too.

R: Well, yeah, surprised… but if you think about what the art of making
music is, or the art of being an entertainer, an artist, the art would
also include the way, the process by which you make a record. And it just
seems a little bit unusual to me to imagine anybody staying forever with
one artist. I mean, it worked pretty well between the Beatles and George
Martin. But if the Beatles had made records through the seventies into the
eighties, I doubt they'd have been with George Martin all those years.
It's just that they worked from the early sixties to 1970, so it's really
almost like Trisha and Garth. They've had a long run together, they parted
as very, very dear friends, and they anticipate working together again.
So… just a change, just a little change.

G: I know you get asked this in every interview, but everyone wants to know
if you'll tour together, because there seem to be a lot of commonalities
between Mavericks fans and Trisha fans, a lot of crossover.

R: Yeah, it might've happened some this year. There was just a little seed
of talk, beginning with a tour in Australia, but Trisha has at this point
committed to work with Garth, and we have committed to some other things,
so we will not be doing it this year. At best we might do some shows
together.

G: That reminds me, Chris Swann wants to know exactly when you're coming to Australia.

R: Oh yeah, I don't know yet, I really don't know.

G: Nothing booked?

R: No, it's not right now, unfortunately.

G: What is booked out a few months that you know for sure at this point?

R: Some dates in and around Los Angeles, March 10, Leno, South By Southwest
in Austin – we're gonna be playing the Rodeo, not the South By Southwest
but we're going to be playing the same weekend at the Rodeo, all those
dates with Tim McGraw up through Canada that you're aware of, I guess.

G: You're going to Vancouver at the end of the month?

R: I think so.

G: You're flying back from the UK…

R: I'm going to apologize, I do not know my tour schedule by heart yet.
I've just been too busy with getting ready, not looking ahead, just the
immediate.

G: Do you find that one road venue is pretty much the same as the next,
after a while?

R: Maybe not the venue, they do vary, and there's nights when the audiences
vary greatly. Audiences vary, the venues vary, but the road doesn't change
much, the actual travel. It's airplanes, it's buses, it's good food, bad
food, good hotels, fair hotels… a lot of ups and downs…

G: They're not all "Preferred Hotels" are they?

R: (laughing) No, God, very few. Once in a while, one that would "rate".

G: Yeah. Did you come up on the bus?

R: Yeah, I did.

G: OK, great, let's wrap it.

As we wrapped up the interview, Grandma Reynolds told us about her mission
of mercy helping a doctor care for a woman having heart trouble on her last
flight home to Kansas City from Nashville. Since Robert hadn't heard the
story yet, we both learned something. And there's another glimpse of
Robert's roots…

On behalf of the RTML, I would like to express our sincere thanks to
Grandma Mildred and Robert Reynolds for spending their time with us. It
was an uncommonly nice glimpse at the part of Robert's life that helps keep
him sane on the road.

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