Rachel Harrington

Interview Recap

Rachel Harrington says that up until now most of her albums have had a country-folk sound. She’s always wanted to make a “proper country record” because she’s always been a Loretta Lynn fan. She spent last summer in a cabin writing songs and then took them into Sudio Litho to record. Studio Litho has a lot of vintage equipment and it’s a historic studio. Studio Litho has recorded people like Jesse Sykes, Fleet Foxes, Soundgarden have recorded there. They used a “Marshallstack” that was there and were surprised at the sound.

Racel Harrington says she’s been doing music professionally for eight or nine years and she knew her long term fans were “going to be in shock and a little bit concerned about her well being”, but for her it was going back to her roots and doing plain, pure, unadulterated fun.”

Rachel Harrington sets up the title track from Making Our House A Honkytonk. She says “it’s absolutely not autobiographical whatsoever, which is a lie.”

[Calvin plays the title track from Making Our House A Honkytonk ]

Rachel Harrington runs through the band line up. The Knock Outs are Rebecca Young on bass, Alisa Milner on Fiddle, and Aimee Tubbs on drums. The band came together at a Patsy Cline tribute show which happens every year inSeattle. And they all met last summer at the show. She says she was hanging out back stage after the show drinking with all the other women performers from the show. They were all into old-school country music. Rachel told them she was putting the album together and had a bunch of tour dates already booked and she needed a backing back. They all jumped at the chance to work with her.

Rachel Harrington talks about working with the band. She pretty much had the songs completed by the time she met them. But they rehearsed for about three weeks and then went into the recording studio.

Rachel Harrington said that Loretta Lynn has been one of her big inspirations. Rachel also says Gillian Welch was one her formative “shooting stars that you kind of latch on to” and led her musical tastes into new directions. That lead her to Steve Earle, Guy Clark and Townes VanZandt.

Rachel Harrington sets up “I’ll Show You Mine.” This is a duet with Mark Erelli. Rachel wanted to have a classic sounding duet. Her favorite duet is “After the Fire” by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn and she wanted to write something like that.

[Calvin plays “I’ll Show You Mine” from Making Our House A Honkytonk by Rachel Harrington and the Knock Outs.]

Rachel Harrington talks about the how well hers and Mark’s voices blend together on “I’ll Show You Mine.” But they didn’t actually sing it together. She recorded her part and sent it to Mark over the internet. He recorded his vocals “in hisliving room while his little boys were taking a nap.” But she said their “two voices together sound like butter.”

Rachel Harrington talks about her Merlefest experience. She says their songwriting contest is the pinnacle for folk and country songwriters. She says she enters every year and had been getting used to the rejection letters. But in 2011 she was accepted as one of the 12 finalists. So she flew toNorth Carolinafor the first time. She got spend part of an afternoon with Jim Lauderdale. She says she got to hang out backstage with Lyle Lovett and Randy Travis, etc. She also got to see Doc Watson backstage playing a “mini-Martin.” The song that won was a gospel song inspired by her family who were evangelical Pentacostals.

Rachel Harrington sets up “Hippie In My House.” She says that she had rented a cabin last summer to lock herself away for four months. But one night there was a live band playing nearby and she heard this song. So she tracked it down the songwriter and worked out the arrangement for it.

[Calvin plays “Hippie In My House” from Making Our House A Honkytonk.]

Rachel Harrington talks about the special place Otis Redding has in her musical history. Her dad joined the military at the age of 17 and was sent toViet Nam. When he came back, he had with him a big collection of Motown and Stax soul records. When he came back fromViet Namhe met Rachel’s mom. They became really involved with the Pentacostal church and swore off alcohol, television, etc. But her dad would not give up his record collection. As a result Rachel grew up listening to gospel and soul music.

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