First I’d like to welcome Eric Morgan as a contributing writer to Guitar Monkee. I know you guys and gals will enjoy what Eric will be bringing to the site with interviews, articles on music theory and recording techniques. Here is Eric’s debut article. Welcome Eric! – Todd

I recently had the pleasure of talking to Firehouse guitarist Bill Leverty about his new solo album, Deep South. This album is a diverse collection which explores the breadth of the south’s contribution to American music. Eight of the ten covers are standards, but also included in the collection is a wonderful cover of “Hit the Road Jack” made famous by Ray Charles and a beautiful rendition of “Walk Beside Me” by Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott. Filled with diverse songs choices, blazing lead guitar, intimate melodies, and intricate arrangements, Deep South is an excellent choice not only for fans of southern music, but for fans of music in general. Not only is Bill a fine musician, singer, and songwriter, he’s also a talented producer and engineer, and one of the nicest guys you could ever meet.

Eric: It’s really great to be able to talk with you again, my friend. There are so many things I would like to ask, but first, let me just say, I’ve been listening to Deep South the past two nights and I just love it.

Bill: Aw, thanks man.

Eric: Well, you know, I’m southern too, and….

Bill: God bless you.

Laughs

Eric: and, I really feel that these songs don’t get the attention they deserve and studying music in college, I can tell you for certain that they don’t. Oftentimes, the southern contribution to American music is ignored. But anyway, let’s talk about your new solo album, Deep South. What gave you the idea to do this sort of project?

Bill: Well, my original idea was to do a cover tunes album. I had gotten off the road and in the winter time, things slow down for Firehouse and we came to the realization that Firehouse wasn’t going to be able to do an album this past winter, and at the end of the winter I wanted to feel like I had accomplished something.

Eric: Right.

Bill: So I decided to do a cover tunes album, which I’ve always wanted to do anyway. The last record was all instrumental and it took forever to write it, much less to record it…

Eric: Sure

Bill: and I knew I wouldn’t have time to do that so I thought, let’s do a cover tunes album. So my original thought was to do an album with maybe one song by Aerosmith, one song by Led Zeppelin, one song by Van Halen, and blah blah blah. I thought, you know, that’s all been done. I love those bands and everything but I really wanted to figure out something different, so I thought why don’t I go back to those band’s influences. But ultimately, I wanted to go to those bands influences, and then their influence’s influences, and their influence’s influence’s influences. And you know, it all kind of comes back to the late 1800s, early 1900s, before rock n roll was even born. I became interested and fascinated with the kinds of music at that time and started to look for songs from that era that were conducive to my playing and singing style. What I found was gospel, country, bluegrass, and the predawn of blues—not talking about like, Robert Johnson blues, which was 30s and 40s, but more like the 1920s and before—like what led up to blues. It was a blues-based sound, but it wasn’t really yet blues. And that really just captured my interest a lot. So ultimately, I found eight songs which fit my style out of those genres I mentioned—mainly in minor keys, because the major key songs written at that time were mostly ragtime songs, happy jazz type things, and wartime parade type songs, which didn’t fit well with what I play. So I got eight really old songs that fit my style and then I always wanted to cover a Ray Charles song because I always thought he was a great artist.

Eric: Oh he was.

Bill: My parents had Ray Charles in the house and they loved him. He was the only artist that they loved and I also loved.

Laughs

Bill: So I put “Hit the Road Jack” on there and this other song by Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott “Walk Beside Me.” They are very successful songwriters, yet not as well known as they should be. They put out a record called Walk Beside Me and the second I heard it I knew I one day wanted to cover it. This was the opportunity to do it. I wanted to bring awareness to them, and to this other music that came out of the south. It’s a style of music that’s like no other music in the world. Just like Celtic music from Ireland is it’s own thing, this is an identifiable music that’s had an impact on all of my influences from Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, and Almman Brothers, which are southern bands, to Aerosmith, Van Halen, Michael Schenker, Led Zeppelin, and all these other great bands. I thought, wow, it’s really interesting how this music has had such a huge impact on so many great artists. Nobody in my genre, at least that I know of, is doing these songs, so it’s new for me and I learned a lot in doing it, not only about the songs but also about some of the different instruments that I hadn’t recorded before.

Eric: You played dobro, mandolin, banjo, and some other instruments on this project. I’m sure it was fun to get to play instruments you wouldn’t normally get to play in Firehouse. I wanted to ask you about that because after my sister passed away, we did a Christmas album—three of them actually, and let the proceeds go to a scholarship fund. And the fun thing for me was getting to play instruments that normally no one in the band would let me play….
Laughs

Eric: like the mandolin, banjo, harmonica, upright bass, or whatever. So I’m sure that was a lot of fun for you.

Bill: Yeah, it’s funny that you would mention that, because this was a way to get out of my comfort zone and get out of the Firehouse box. I still like that box, but there’s so much other stuff out there that doesn’t fit what Firehouse does. I got a banjo on one of these songs and if I brought a banjo into Firehouse they would probably look at me sideways and say does that really fit Firehouse?

Laughs

Bill: But with my own thing I can pretty much do whatever I want.

Eric: Although you play different kinds of songs on this project, as well as different instruments, there’s still plenty of blazing lead guitar. Did you use the Randall MTS amps for the electrics?

Bill: Yes, for all the electric tracks and the modules I used were the SL plus for my dirty, the tweed for clean, and I used the Vox module, it’s called a Top Boost. Those were the main three, but I also used the Marshall-type module a little bit, all through a Randall cabinet. And I experimented with different pickup configurations, ones that I normally don’t use and different settings like on a tube screamer. Like, the rhythm on “Trouble So Hard,” I turned the drive all the way down and turned the level all the way up and it got a more snappy kind of sound. I also compressed it a little more than I normally would, just to give a different tone. And then I experimented with layers, like on that song I layered six guitars to get that rhythm.

Eric: Wow!

Bill: Yeah, like a couple tracks of tweed, a couple SL pluses, and a couple of the Vox module, and kind of put them all together.

Eric: Did you use different guitars?

Bill: Well, I used the Grem guitar (Bill’s signature model) for most of the leads, but on others, like Boll Weevil, that was all Telecaster.

Eric: Really? Was that your B Bender Tele?

Bill: Yes, I really love the B Bender; it’s a lot of fun.

Eric: Oh yeah, they are.

Bill: It’s a cool instrument.

Eric: I don’t own a Tele; but I love them. I wish I did. I have in the past but I don’t right now.

Bill: It’s fun how you can take, like an F triad, and use the B Bender to turn it into a Dm. You can do that with chords. You can take a three note chord and change the chord, and it’s a real cool thing. I do that in Boll Weevil, bend an F into a Dm. It sounds like something you don’t hear that often.

Eric: I love that sound. I did a show with a guy that had three different things, a hip bender, a B Bender, and some other kind of thing. He basically sounded like a steel guitar.

Bill: I want to try to learn more of that—maybe get another guitar, one that has the G bender or whatever it is and try to learn to do that because it makes me get down there and play more. That’s the bottom line. You really need to get yourself motivated to go down in the studio and turn it all on and start working. And when you have some kind of new toy like that it makes you want to play more.

Eric: So you mic’d your amps on this project?

Bill: Yeah, I used a Royer 121 on the cabs.

Eric: Oh cool. Yeah, I love them. They’re great mics.

Bill: I used them on all the electrics.

Eric: Just the one mic or did you combine?

Bill: Just the one mic so there’s no phase issues to deal with. It’s just a nice mic that takes eq really well and it’s punchy and I just love them.

Eric: I really love ribbons in general.

Bill: Yeah, I do too.

Eric: Can you tell me a little about your studio?

Bill: Yeah, it’s a Pro Tools HD3 rig and it’s two rooms—one’s a drum room and both are treated with foam and bass traps. They’re not the biggest rooms in the world but you can make them sound big.

Eric: Sure, yeah.

Bill: I’ve got some API preamps, and some Neves, an old Focusrite pre, and a Tube Tech CL1B limiter that I love.

Eric: Oh yeah, I’ve worked with those and I absolutely love them.

Bill: Yeah, it’s a beauty. And then I’ve also got a Distressor that I use on electric guitars. You can get a lot of different sounds out of it. It’s a good overall, well-rounded kind of compressor that you can’t hear. I mean if you want to hear it you can make it where it does that—that breathing, but you can have it squish things pretty well without really hearing it. I kind of prefer that because I don’t like hearing the compressor kick in and breathe.

Eric: Right. Do you feel that albums today are getting too compressed and limited?

Bill: Well they’re certainly getting loud and you loose the dynamics. I purposely mastered mine with less of the limiting.

Eric: I noticed that and I like that because to me, if I want it louder I can just turn the stereo up.

Bill: That’s what I prefer. I mean, I’d rather soft parts be soft and loud parts have more impact than have everything just really, really loud. With a lot of the songs like “Run On,” it’s got a little guitalele on one side, it’s got a really clean tele on the other side, it’s got a real light brushes, drum thing going, and the vocal is a very low baritone, so it just didn’t sound as good to have that song compete in volume wars. I wanted to have sort of a consistent sound. I wanted drums to be more of an intimate small kit. It wouldn’t sound good having the big bombastic drums over the top of a mandolin.

Eric: Exactly, you do what fits the song. So you mixed the album yourself?

Bill: Yes.

Eric: Did you master it yourself, also?

Bill: Yeah, I sure did.

Eric: That’s great. It sounds great, it really does. I know, as a studio guy, how much work it takes to do an album all by yourself.

Bill: I don’t think a lot of people know that.

Eric: No, they don’t.

Bill: And I’m glad that you do.

Laughs

Bill: It’s a stressful thing because when you’re done, you’re letting go of this baby, there’s no turning back. You’re sending it to the pressing plant, you put it out on Itunes and there’s no going back and saying oh gee, my vocal was a little flat on that.

Laughs

Bill: You’ve got to make sure you’ve got it all together. Getting it all built up to sound the way you want is a lot of work.

Eric: I really like the way your background vocals sound.

Bill: Well thank you, thank you very much. Some of them I layed more than others. It just depends on the song.

Eric: Background vocals are something I find lacking on a lot of records I hear.

Bill: Well, I can tell you there’s no Autotune on this record.

Eric: That’s cool, very cool. It’s on every other record out today.

Bill: I just don’t like the way that sounds and…

Eric: I don’t either, but most of the time I’m using analog anyway so it doesn’t matter.

Bill: Laughs. Well, there you go. I’m one of those guys that would rather just go back and sing it again. If you go back and re-sing or replay it takes several minutes whereas with Autotune, you can spend hours messing with it.

Eric: Sure. I think a lot of times you can fix things faster by just doing it again.

Bill: Yeah, you learn also. You become a better singer or guitar player if you go back and do it again instead of trying to edit it. I’m not trying to improve my editing skills. I’m trying to improve myself as a musician.

Eric: Right, I think the editing is cool for certain things, like for the CD that went with my book. If I had to do that on a 2 inch reel to reel I would’ve went insane with all the splicing. But with music, I usually prefer to just go back and do a punch in or whatever. By the way, I thought your voice sounded really good on “Rain and Snow” and “Wade in the Water.”

Bill: I appreciate that. On “Wade in the Water,” I messed around with different keys to try and find one that would fit my voice. I settled on B flat. I tune a half step down so I’m playing in B but it’s technically B flat. It’s just the right range where I could sing it with more of a gravelly or gritty delivery. But that’s a really neat song.

Eric: I grew up with these songs.

Bill: That’s awesome! I wish I had.

Eric: Well, you know, being from Kentucky, bluegrass and old time music is everywhere. The thing is, though, my dad used to take me to these little impromptu get togethers with musicians. They would play bluegrass and these old songs. But at the time, I was 9 or 10 years old and I thought they were lame because they weren’t Van Halen or whatever.

Bill: Right! Yeah that’s what I used to think.

Laughs

Eric: And then you get older and you think, wow this stuff’s great.

Bill: You know, when I took my blinders off and I thought wow, I really like this stuff. But when I was younger it had to be Van Halen or whatever.

Eric: Sure.

Bill: There’s a whole lot more out there that I like if I just listen to it with the attitude of hey, what do I like about this – instead of, what don’t I like about this. And also, getting in there and playing these songs and recording them, you get more of an appreciation for the song than if you just listened to it one time.

Eric: You know, one thing I can tell you about this album: I really think I’d like to have my students listen to it just to learn about arranging and to realize that you can make a song anything you want it be. If you can make Boll Weevil rock out, then anything is possible.

Bill: Had you ever heard Boll Weevil before?

Eric: Oh yes, definitely.

Bill: What’s so cool is I had never heard Boll Weevil before and I went to this website called playingbyear.com and he’s got like 500 songs on there and they’re all these traditional bluegrass songs. He sings and plays one verse and then he’s got the lyrics for the rest of the song. You learn the basics of the song by listening to him play the first verse and I just thought Boll Weevil was so cool.

Eric: Right. So, you read up on the story of the Boll Weevil?

Bill: No, I was familiar with what the Boll Weevil was and how it devastated families and all that stuff. But when I recorded it I decided I was going to have to make this into a modern hard rock heavy song, but with the bluegrass traditional melody intact—dress it up, the arrangement, as you say, to make it a heavy thing but with a little bit of electronica in there. I wanted to kind of get the point across that the Boll Weevil was the hardship that people back then were going through, but today’s Boll Weevil might be the collapse of the economy because of the housing industry, or the auto industry, or whatever else. We have our Boll Weevils today; they’re just not called Boll Weevil. We’ve eradicated them but something else has popped up and that theme is still very relevant today.

Eric: Definitely. One other thing, I really loved the dark acoustic guitar solo on “Walk Beside Me.”

Bill: That’s a guitalele. It’s a six string ukulele. It sounds like a classical guitar except an octave higher or whatever. I play it with a pick. I appreciate that, man. I had never recorded it although I’ve had it for about twelve years. Yamaha gave it to me when I was in Japan one year and I’ve just used it to practice and just tinker with. Making this record I thought, you know, I need to pull every instrument out of my closet and set them up in the room and think, what will fit this particular song? I let the song talk to me. Sometimes the electric got the call, but other times it was the mandolin or the dobro—and on “Walk Beside Me” it was the guitalele.

Eric: How did you mic the acoustic guitars?

Bill: The acoustics were a U87 pulled back a little bit back from the octave fret and then angled a little toward the hole, but not much. When I’m recording acoustics what I do is sit in my chair and lean back. And I tune that way because when you lean back the tuning changes a little bit.

Eric: It really does. It’s something you always have to fight with.

Bill: Oh yeah. And then put my foot up on the subwoofer so my leg is holding up the guitar and I’m very comfortable. My computer keyboard is by my right hand so I can control the DAW and play the songs in a very comfortable position. I find that when I sit up straight and have my foot forward, I just don’t get comfortable playing and I can’t relax very well. I find that when I can lean back it really helps me get a better performance.

Eric: You know, I deal with that a lot. Even if you just rest your arm on say, a bass guitar, it minutely affects the tuning.

Bill: Yeah, tuning is a bear to fight with. Sometimes you play just right and go back and listen and you go, ugh, it’s out of tune although it looked like it was in perfect tune when you used the strobe tuner on it. But for some reason, something happens and it goes sharp or flat.

Eric: Well I’m glad to hear someone else struggles with that.

Laughs

Eric: Well Bill, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me. I really enjoyed it. Congratulations on a wonderful album and I look forward to hearing more great music from you in the future.

Bill: Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I really appreciate it.

You can check out Deep South and all of Bill Leverty’s albums at Bill Leverty’s web site. Also visit Firehouse’s official website at Firehouse Music.

Eric S. Morgan is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, producer/engineer, and the author of the Pedal Tone Publishing book Fundamental Concepts of Music Theory. You can learn more about Eric and his book at Pedal Tone Publishing.