Jim Lauderdale has had three busy years. 2021’s Hope, which he calls “a very uplifting album,” emerged from the pandemic. The follow-up, Game Changer, took a more-country/honky-tonk direction, and last year’s The Long and Lonesome Letting Go, with the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, returned to bluegrass.
His latest, My Favorite Place, is “a pretty hard country album. It’s got a lot of up-tempo stuff on it, rockin’ a little bit. I like to alternate between (recording) the traditional country with a twist and bluegrass, the soul thing, singer/songwriter, whatever style.”
Recorded with his band the Game Changers and guest pickers, Lauderdale wrote or co-wrote every song including the complex, dramatic romantic ballad “Mrs. Green,” a collaboration with guitarist/songwriter Bob Minner. Steve Hinson plays pedal steel.
“One of the wonderful things about co-writing is you go somewhere you probably wouldn’t have on your own. (Minner) had the feel of the song and the theme – the woman, the situation. We evolved (it) into ’Mrs. Green.’ He’s really a great lyricist, strong on melody and so great on guitar. That’s him doing the acoustic-solo break with (Game Changer guitarist) Craig Smith. I loved the way that song turned out. When I do it live, I get kind of emotional.”
“Lightning Tree” was a post-mortem collaboration with “Cowboy” Jack Clement, the revered Nashville producer/singer/songwriter who died in 2018. When his children discovered a cache of unfinished lyrics, they invited select songwriters to examine them and consider turning them into completed songs.
Clement wrote “Lightning Tree’s” lyrics in the early ’60s. “I’d known Jack and it was exciting and meaningful to bring those lyrics to life with a melody. I’m grateful to his daughter and son for letting me put that on the record. “
Lauderdale praises the Game Changers, formed in 2017.
“Craig has been playing a lot of lead live through the years. He hadn’t been in the studio much, but he’s got such great instincts; he really delivers. He also is a human jukebox, knowing so much old stuff he can play it so well.”
Jay Weaver plays bass while Lillie Mae Rische and her guitarist brother, Frank, handle harmony vocals.
Other positions are revolving, such as drummers Dave Racine and Pat Bubert and steel-guitarists Will Van Horn, Tommy Hannum, Steve Hinson, and Russ Pahl.
“Some of these guys did their time playing clubs on (Nashville’s) Lower Broadway, where they’re constantly doin’ the classics and obscure songs. So they’re pretty steeped in that world.”
Chris Scruggs and Kenny Vaughan are frequent guest pickers. “Talk about somebody totally immersed in history. He’s really a creative player,” he said of Scruggs. “And, Kenny is in a league of his own.”
“I’m A Lucky Loser” featured Vaughan, Scruggs, Van Horn, and guitarist Wes L’Anglois, who played acoustic and draws praise from Lauderdale for being, “…one of the best rhythm players.”
Having long wanted to explore country-jazz, Lauderdale took the plunge on “Sweethearts Remember” with Smith on guitar and Van Horn playing steel.
“I was thinking of Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West,” he said, adding he considered a Bryant/West-style ensemble break, but Smith ultimately handled the solo alone. “I had the riff – that’s what the song was built around.”
On the upbeat “You’ve Got A Shine” with Smith and Scruggs, he said, “The electric rhythms going on really make that song – Micah Hulscher’s piano and Jay’s playing and that little part Steve Hinson does on the steel. That turned out well.”
“Most of the time, I overdub my vocals,” added Lauderdale, who rarely plays guitar on his records. “I feel inhibited in some ways around these great players. Sometimes, I’m writing lyrics as we go. When you have some of the world’s best, I don’t want to mess it up. My part is to make sure the song, lyrically and melodically, and my vocal, can meet the standards of the great people playin’ on it.”
His onstage guitar is a Collings sunburst HD-28 he bought at Gruhn Guitars in 1994. “I’ve also used a few different D-18s for a different sound – there’s a ’55 that was my go-to other than the Collings.”
My Favorite Place is still new, but Lauderdale is already on to the next. “I’m about to run in and do another bluegrass album. I like to keep that muscle going – that bluegrass thing.
“I’ve recorded tracks for other songs in that hillbilly-jazz vein. There are so many country players who are great jazz players, and I want to introduce that to folks who may not be aware of that style. I’m gonna introduce little bits of this as time goes on.”
This article originally appeared in VG’s November 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
