Jerron Paxton
speaker
135 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Jerron Paxton’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Fresh Air · Best Of: Folk Musician Jerron Paxton / Lyricist Ira Gershwin's Legacy · 6 Dec 2024
podcast
Oh, yeah. It's not sounding like I'm playing two different parts.
Oh, yeah, okay. Fair enough. Let's see here. Maybe I'll start off this way. Oh, that harmonica's been set on. Hold on. Ooh, that one's been set on, too.
In the words of Fats Waller, it's easy to do when you know how.
All right.
Hey, there's a lot of different ways to skin a cat and entertain the audience.
Thank you, Sam.
It's good to be here.
Yeah, songwriting is a funny part of the life of a folk musician. Most of us folk musicians tend to play our culturally inherited music, which isn't quite the same as doing covers of other people's music, but... You know, you play music that's reflective of your culture. And I've mostly done that. And every once in a while something will inspire me and it'll stick around.
And, you know, I like writing music based on inspiration. More so than anything. So a few of these songs, most of these songs, if not all of these songs, came from a little bit of inspiration and at least a little bit of inspiration and also at least a little bit of pushing the pencil along the page, I think, as Irving Berlin said.
Yes, yes. That's the preferred way of doing things, especially because composition isn't really the thing I'm most interested in. I'm most interested in the learning and studying of good music that moves me and sharing that with other people. And composing tunes of yourself and wondering if they're good is one thing, but...
Playing tunes and performing tunes that you know are good because they have moved you before is a completely different thing. I tend to feel a little bit more confidence in the latter.
Well, I think... My approach to music in general, not just to guitar, but to all the instruments I play, is to get the most out of them I can. That's the guitar, the banjo, the harmonica, all these things.
Everything I like about those instruments, and especially the piano, is that in the style of music I was steeped in and brought up in, which is mostly the world of country blues, there was this magical thing that would happen all where one musician would sit down and create this beautiful world where nothing was missing. You didn't need basses or drums or a second musician or anything.
They just sit down with their fingers and their instruments and their voice and create this world where nothing was missing. So that's the approach I took to all my instruments and especially the guitar because that was the world that I was surrounded by. Just having that access to that real full sound is something I want to maintain.
And I don't know, I think that's probably the biggest contribution, why I remain one of the few soloists out there. There's not too many people who can hold an audience's attention for two one-hour sets with just one person on stage and their instruments. But my audience has never seemed to be disappointed.
Oh, yeah, this is the cheapest guitar that Gibson made. It cost $4.95 when it was for sale, a little Kalamazoo. I just heard an interview by Johnny Shines where he said that he and Robert Johnson both played Kalamazoo guitars, although Robert is pictured with a much fancier version of a Gibson guitar, but apparently he... Johnny Shine said he played a Kalamazoo just like this one here.
Is it about 100 years old? I think it's from 28, 29.
No, no. This banjo's getting close. The banjo's from 25, so it's an old Bacon Day banjo before they had the F-holes on it. Gotcha.
All right, all right. I got you there. I got you there. All right. Well, when you want that nice full sound out of the guitar, you've got to have a nice little rhythm behind you, and that could be just about anything. Let's try this one. That's the rhythm of the song. So now you have this nice accompaniment.
back up anything you want and then you've got your voice which you can lay on top of it which i ain't doing nothing now but talking but you also got some fingers that you can play with too and give the guitar a nice little voice
Showing 41–60 of 135 · page 3 of 7
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