Eddie From Ohio Interview

by Rick Landers

Eddie From Ohio offers a cornucopia of jazz, folk, blues, gospel - all wrapped up in a warm blanket of wit and friendly banter that keeps their growing number of followers amused and swaying with the music. Gifted vocalist Julie Murphy Wells plunges deep into smokey torchlight numbers with ease and then rattles the house with "Big Mama" blues. Robbie Schaefer's gravely offerings are both smooth and gritty - pitch perfect for EFO's gathering of sounds. Julie Murphy Wells (vocals), Eddie Hartness (drums), Rob Schaefer (guitar) and Mike Clem (bass) are all consumate artists in their own right, as they turn the audience into a family with a wink and a nod - and a full platter of delightful songs.

Together for over fourteen years and running strong, Eddie From Ohio has learned to balance the desire to do the thing they love, while at the same time keep the homefires burning. Their new CD, "This is Me" is everything their fans expect - moving, eloquent, folky, torchy, and romping. EFO is a small regional treasure that deserves national attention.

Modern Guitars Magazine hooked up with EFO and talked to Rob and Mike at The Birchmere, a superb Northern Virginia watering hole for folks who seek and appreciate the many great artists that ride the club circuit.

And, don't miss the two full-length mp3 downloads at the end of the interview, "Fly" plus "And the Rain Crashed Down", from Eddie From Ohio's lastest CD, "This Is Me".

Let's start with, "Is Eddie really from Ohio"?

Rob: Eddie is not really from Ohio. Like the rest of us, he's from Virginia. An old girlfriend of Eddie gave him that nickname. She was a fan of an alternative group called Firehouse and the front man, Ed Crawford, went by Ed from Ohio. The name just stuck. We're all the same original members, since 1991. Mike and I have known each other since we were in the 5th grade. We ended up meeting years later where he, Julie and I went to college -- James Madison University. I've known Julie since high school and we stayed in touch when she was at Virginia Tech. We got together as a band after we'd all graduated and migrated back to Northern Virginia.

Eddie From Ohio ventures into a mix of music -- eclectic -- how do you describe your sound?

Mike: Just the other night, a renowned radio programmer told me that her current term for our type of music is Hard Folk. I kind of like that.

Rob: I've never met an artist that was eager or even able to describe his or her own sound, and I'm not about to break that mold. I can just say that we began by wanting to form a band that focused on vocal harmonies and acoustic instrumentation. "Folk" would probably be the simplest description, but we have enough bar-band soul in us to fall victim to too much navel-gazing.

How has the music evolved over the past 14 years?

Mike: Our first show featured Robbie and me on acoustic guitars (pretty bad ones, too) and Eddie solely on junior congas. Today, Robbie's incorporated electric guitars, I'm predominantly on bass, and Eddie's got his full drumpire. Julie has a yellow tambourine and a shaker that looks like an elephant's uvula.

Rob: Over the years, the band has become more electric (Mike and I played much more electric guitar and bass on this last album) and Eddie has gradually moved from playing primarily hand percussion to playing a full drum kit with a djembe hand drum added on. I guess we've ended up moving away from our folksier roots and more toward a pop/Americana sound.

It's obvious that EFO has a loyal following and the group's playful "wink and a nod" relationship with their audience seems more like a joyous gathering of friends. Do you see your fans as some type of extended family?

Mike: Absolutely. Some of the finest people I've ever met, and have come to know have been through our travels. This would include not only listeners, but show promoters and fellow performers. I never get tired of meeting new people, unless of course the new people are tiresome.

Rob: Our fans are definitely an integral part of what we do. And while that may sound self-evident, what I really mean is that we do have a special relationship with them. Our shows are extemporaneous and fluid. We feel that a show ought to be a communication with our audience as opposed to a one way delivery. I think that, as well as our grassroots approach to building a fan base, has led to a certain amount of ownership and loyalty on their part. We wouldn't have it any other way.

EFO injects a lot of wit and bantering humor between, and sometimes during, songs. Was this always part of the show?

Mike: Pretty much. In fact, when our set list was a lot thinner, and beverages were flowing, our shows would morph into an avalanche of hysterics. Mind you, that was the very early formative period (like the first six months), we've pulled the reins in on that, and vow to play songs in their entirety and to never again slaughter animals on stage.

Rob: Yes. as I mentioned before, we've got a good dose of bar-band soul in what we do, in part because that's how we got gigs the first year or two. We played bars. Those are situations in which you often have to grab people by the Adam's apple in order to get their attention (I'm speaking figuratively of course--um for the most part). The banter and humor always came naturally to us and was a way to keep people engaged. As we made our way to concert clubs and theatres, and refined our show over the years, that stuff simply survived.

What or who influenced you to learn to play bass and 6-string guitars?

Mike: I saw Robbie play in our 4th Grade Talent show. All the girls chased him around at recess. I asked him over to my house after school, and asked him to teach me some chords. "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" was the first tune I learned. No girls chased me.

Rob: I picked up the guitar when I was 7. Don't know why. I just know I asked my folks for one and I haven't put it down since. I lived overseas at the time, and when I moved back to the States, I met Mike at school and he got interested in the guitar as well. Many people don't realize, especially because Mike is such a good and melodic bass player, that guitar was his first, and for a long time, only instrument. I think it had a big effect on his playing style.

What music did you roll through to get to the style you play today?

Mike: Bluegrass has a pretty big influence on my style of playing. I wish I was a better flat picker, though.

Rob: As far as my playing goes, I listened to a lot of folk music stuff when I was younger: Paul Simon, James Taylor, Jim Croce, Paul Simon, Paul Simon, Paul Simon. As an adult, I spent more time listening to more percussive players--Shawn Colvin and Richard Thompson for example--and that, combined with the fact that I'm usually the only guitar playing on stage and therefore need to fill a good amount of aural space, has had a big effect on the way I play now.

Tell us about your gear?

Rob: I play a Taylor 710BCE (Brazilian Rosewood) with a Fishman Blender pickup system and a great '75 Les Paul Gold top. I also have a Collings Advanced Jumbo with a sunburst finish that I used to record our most recent album and that I play at home. The Fender Strat I play on stage actually belongs to Mike, and is a black late 90's USA Strat. Mike plays a Tacoma Thunderchief Fretless Bass, also with a Fishman Blender pickup system, and a black early 70's Fender Precision with a maple neck. When he plays guitar, Mike has a Martin D-35 with a Baggs I-Beam pickup and a Para-Acoustic D.I. preamp.

Do members of the group have any formal music training or education?

Rob: Mike and I both took guitar lessons for a few years. Julie and I sang classically during high school and college. Eddie, though, is our only music major. He majored in Percussion at James Madison University.

How do you manage your family lives when you have nearly 40 shows a year from Virginia to California?

Rob: We've always made sure that family life comes first. Although we actually log about 100-125 shows per year, especially when we have a new album out, we tour in an unorthodox way: we go out, on average 3-4 days per week (Thursday-Sunday for example), making sure we get back home for a few days every week. That means we don't have big chunks of the year off the road that many other artists get, but we don't have large uninterrupted chunks of time on the road either.

How does a group manage to stay together for 14 years without imploding? What's the secret?

Mike: Like a marriage, the early years are the toughest. You learn each other's buttons. What to push. What not to push.

Rob: No secret. It's like a marriage. It IS a marriage. You work on it every day, respect one another, and always try to keep a sense of humor.

Tell us about the Annual EFO cruises?

Rob : They actually come about every 18 months or so and they're more fun than I could ever explain. The next one (in early November) is from Tampa to Cozumel over 4 days. About 150 fans from all over the country come and we do a couple of shows (one plugged, one un-), a question and answer session, a cocktail hour on the first night, and generally hang out and get to know each other. It's really quite an intimate experience, and we've had the pleasure of finding out that most of our fans are a lot more interesting than we are. They can drink more than we can, too.

Most groups start out working to get a hit record " the rich and famous plan" - is that the EFO plan or have do you measure success in other ways?

Mike: Hit records (i.e. Billboard charts) are a whole different arena, and one that is a bit beyond our grasp. By remaining independent, though, we can create our own product, retain control, and make respectable living for ourselves. In a world as chaotic as the music business, that's a successful feat.

Rob: We do measure success in other ways. Early in our career we made the decision that we wanted to this for a long time--as a career--and that we wanted control over our personal lives More often than not, longevity doesn't go hand in hand with hit records. We'd love a hit record and we'd love more exposure, but only on our own terms. In short, we'd rather be musicians than rock stars.

You have a new CD, "This Is Me".

Mike: We're proud of this lot of tunes. Robbie's penned some real winners. Working with Lloyd Maines (producer) and the engineer, Ken Schubert, was a very fulfilling and enriching experience. I enjoyed a lot of the extemporaneous creativity that was happening in the studio. "Fifty Pounds" comes to mind as a song where one idea would come up in the control room, and get recorded right away, with everyone offering a little embellishment. We came prepared, but not so scripted that we couldn't send Julie in to lay down a piano layer, or have Eddie throw auxillary percussion at various points to spice up the sound.

Rob: We're really proud of this album. It's pretty close to exactly the album we set out to make--and that doesn't happen very often! A big part of that was working for the first tine with Lloyd. We'd known Lloyd for a few years and were fans of his work (and he of ours), but you never really know how that relationship will play out in the studio until you try. It was near perfect. He made the whole process a very creative one--something we weren't entirely used to--and struck that fine balance between work and play (or clever and stupid) so very well.

As a whole, the album is probably a bit more serious than things we've done in the past, although there are certainly some typically quirky and humorous songs on there. No real reason for that other than the fact that each album is a snapshot in the life of a band or artist, and these are the songs that we were writing at the time. So, while there are a good number of serious, and even depressing songs on there, Lucinda Williams won't need to be looking over her shoulder any time soon.

And the title track? -- sounds great!

Rob : Thanks! It's been called an anti-war song, but it was written well before this whole mess in Iraq took shape. It's more of a singular account of a person who survives war, but not without deep emotional scars that change her forever. So, I really never saw it as an "anti-war" song, but a "reality of war" song seen through the experience of one person. Wars create enough anti-war images on their own. They don't need my help.

EFO seems to be having a great time on stage.

Mike: It's tough to feign that kind of joy - not impossible, but tough. We love it. Playing your own music to appreciative crowds who go out of their way to see you? Great fun!

Rob: What's not to love? I mean, of course, we do this for a living, and some nights are on and some are off, and it is certainly work--hard work. But, we do it because we love it.

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MP3 downloads (Zip file)

"Fly"

"And the Rain Crashed Down"

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Related links

EFO website: www.eddiefromohio.com
The Birchmere: www.birchmere.com