JonFox::Influences

Chris Knight

Chris Knight is not so much an influence as he is just an artist I like. One of the most original songwriters around, Chris Knight can tell stories and build characters as no one else can. His songs come straight from the creeks and hollers of Kentucky where Chris was born and still makes his home today. His songs are natural to him and you get a sense that the character’s, the places, and the stories he tells are real. All of his songs may not be personal, but they seem to at least be based on people he’s known and things he’s seen. Chris also has one of the most unique voices I’ve ever heard. Again, listening to his voice, you can tell he’s an honest singer-songwriter who’s a product of his environment.

Some of my favorite Chris Knight songs are Down The River, Run From Your Memory, Me and This Road, House and 90 Acres, and Enough Rope.

James McMurtry

James McMurtry is another guy who isn't what I would call an "inlfuence" but rather just someone I like. He's the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Steve Earle’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that. Now I don’t really own cowboy boots, and I doubt Steve Earle would ever let me into his house much less stand on his coffee table, but James McMurtry is one of the most incredible songwriters I’ve ever heard. He’s been around for a while now, and is the son of famed western novelist Larry McMurtry. I’m sure his father has influenced him, as James has a great knowledge of the characters and geography of the American West that comes across in his music. James McMurtry can paint pictures with his words like no one else I’ve ever heard. He’s also a very talented guitar player. He fronts a 3-piece band, so he carry’s the load at guitar and performs quite well. As a great singer-songwriter who’s equally impressive on guitar, James McMurtry is the complete package.

Some of my favorite songs of his are Rachel’s Song, Out Here In The Middle, Choctow Bingo, Lights of Cheyenne, and Childish Things.

Steve Earle

No other songwriter has had a big of influence on me than Steve Earle. He’s the reason why I wanted to become a songwriter. Years ago, I bought a greatest hits compilation called Fearless Heart. I remember it was on sale in the cheap section at Best Buy for 5 or 6 dollars. I must have been 16 or 17 years old. “I Ain't Ever Satisfied” and “Someday” really grabbed me and I was soon looking for more Steve Earle albums anywhere I could find them. It was his 1997 album “El Corazon” that I think made him my favorite artist. My Dad took me to see him in Raleigh that year when Buddy Miller was touring with him as his guitar player and opening up shows with his wife, Julie Miller. I buy everything that Steve puts out, with the exception of that book of poetry a few years ago.(sorry Steve) He’s great at weaving his politics into his music, particularly his stance on the death penalty and more recently the Iraq War. He’s also a very versatile artist with an acoustic folk album and a bluegrass album with the Del McCoury Band under his belt, not to mention co-producing Lucinda Williams’ grammy award winning album “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Steve Earle is an incredible artist whose best work has yet to come I believe. It’s quite appropriate that the only song on my album that I didn’t write is a Steve Earle song, his songs have meant that much to me.

A few of my favorite Steve Earle songs are Guitar Town, Someday, I Ain’t Ever Satisfied, Billy Austin, The Rain Came Down, etc, etc, etc, ........

You know what, there’s just too many songs to list off the top of my head, but all of his albums have good stuff on them.

Dwight Yoakam

     Dwight Yoakam is by far the coolest motherfucker in the history of country music. He also stands out as one of the last true country artists in an era when mainstream country music officially became pop music. Dwight is a native of Kentucky, though he was technically born on the other side of the Ohio River. His first albums are full of songs influenced by where he came from, such as, “Bury Me,” or "South of Cincinnati." The other geographical point to Dwight’s music is California, and in particular L.A. Dwight bucked Nashville and went to L.A. to make a name for himself, and as a result I don’t think the Nashville Oligarch’s have ever really cared for him too much.

     The main things about Dwight that have influence me are his lyrics and his style. Most of Dwight’s songs are about love, and most of Dwight’s songs are about the other side of love. There’s a lot of heartache, loneliness, and desperation in his music. My song, “Lonely Street”, is heavily influenced by Dwight. I remember asking myself while writing that song, “What would Dwight write?” Dwight Yoakam channels the emotions of the dark side of love and the feelings of loneliness better that anyone.

     The other big influence I’ve gotten from Dwight is his style. No one’s ever looked more hip in a cowboy hat than Dwight Yoakam. I don’t know how he can see because he wears his hats so low over his eyes, but it works for him. His stage presence is also very unique. I’m not sure where he picked it up from, or if he just moves around on stage naturally, but it’s help to make him one of the truest, and most original country artists of our time. Dwight, in style, defines cool to me, while at the same time he’s carrying on a tradition of musical purity that’s lost in today’s music.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

     I’ve been a CCR fan for as long as I can remember. “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” was one of the first songs I ever learned to play on guitar and I remember playing it at some sort of family function with my Dad years ago. I also recall as a high school freshman, flying out to Kansas to see the farm that my Grandfather grew up on, and one of the tapes I brought along to listen to was a CCR tape that was a live album that I think was recorded in Europe. I listened to a lot of oldies back then, and that’s where I started musically.

     The first Creedence tape I remember having was a double album. I can only remember that one side was Cosmos Factory, but I can’t think of the other side. I’m not sure how I got the album either, I think my Dad bought it and either gave it to me or let me borrow it. An old friend of mine has all my old tapes, and he’s since disappeared, so my memory is a little foggy in regards to some of these things. I did used to jam out to “Ramble Tamble” a lot, and still see that song as one of the coolest rock songs ever.

     One thing about CCR that a lot of people don’t realize is that Fogerty and the boys hail from Northern California. They’re so closely aligned with Southern Rock because of the country influence in their music, particularly Fogerty’s guitar playing. “Lodi” has always been one of my favorite songs, and my friends and I used to always wonder where Lodi was. Someone once told me that Lodi was in New Jersey, but the Lodi in the CCR song is in California between Stockton and Sacramento.

     Musically speaking, I can’t really cite any specific ways in which CCR has influenced me. From a song-writing point of view, I can’t say I’ve ever written a song while thinking of a CCR song. But, since I’ve been a fan for so long, and they were one of the first, if not the first, band that I ever liked, I’d have to say that they’ve had a great impact on me. They were a great American Band and John Fogerty is a great American treasure whose skills as a singer, songwriter, and guitar player have rarely been matched.

Tom Petty

The first Tom Petty song I heard was “Free Fallin’.” I must have been 10 or 11 years old because it was when Full Moon Fever was a huge album and that song was being played a lot. I also remember the video with him playing guitar riding the elevator at the mall. I never really became a big Tom Petty fan until after high school though. I bought his Wildflowers album for $3.99 at a used record store, and that’s what turned me onto his music. I think that album is his best ever and it’s one of my favorite albums of all time. “Crawling Back to You” is my personal favorite from Wildflowers.

Tom Petty, besides being one of the best songwriters ever, is also one hell of a musician, playing drums, bass, and guitar on his last album, Highway Companion. I didn’t learn any of his songs growing up, and still don’t play much of his stuff, but his sound has influenced me a lot, particularly the liberal use of the 12-string guitar in his music.

The Jayhawks

     There used to be a show on TBS that was either called “Live at the Hard Rock Café,” or “Live at the House of Blues.” I can’t remember. I believe it was the “House of Blues” though, and it came on every Friday night I think. They would always have cool bands, and one in particular that I remember seeing with my dad was The Jayhawks. This was at the time when they released Tomorrow the Green Grass and I remember my Dad commenting on how good he thought they were.

     I went out and bought that album, and have since bought every Jayhawks album based upon hearing them that initial time. To me, The Jayhawks are one of the best and most influential bands of their time. I’ve probably listened to Tomorrow the Green Grass and Hollywood Town Hall a thousand times each. One of my favorite parts to The Jayhawks sound is the harmonizing, especially on their first couple of albums. Together, Mark Olsen and Gary Louris made some great music with their voices. I also think Gary Louis is an amazing guitar player. The Jayhawks are one of my all time favorite bands, and I think that history will continue to show that they have been one of the most important bands to ever come along.

     A few of my favorite Jayhawks songs are Two Angels, Wichita, I’d Run Away, Pray For Me, Miss Williams Guitar, and I’m Gonna Make You Love Me.

The Drive-by Truckers

     The first I heard of The Drive-By Truckers was in relation to their now epic Southern Rock Opera release. I believe I heard their name on a Lynyrd Skynyrd message board that had mentioned them. I found a good review of them from a Chicago newspaper, but for some reason was left with the impression that they had a female lead singer after reading about them. The name of the band stuck with me, and I found a copy of Southern Rock Opera at a Wal-Mart, which was unusual in itself because of the language on the album. It must have snuck by the Wal-Mart police. I remember thinking the album was cool and had a very unique sound to it, but I wasn’t floored by the album. What really made me pay attention to the band was the Alabama Ass Whuppin’ live album I found at BB’s record store in Greensboro, and in particular the song “The Living Bubba.”

     “The Living Bubba” is the most hauntingly beautiful song that I have ever heard. The lyrics are so raw and in your face that it stands out as such a unique song, both lyrically and musically. Patterson Hood wrote the song for his friend Gregory Dean Smalley, who was as Atlanta area rocker around the time The DBT were just getting started. Greg died of aids, and “The Living Bubba” is Patterson’s tribute song to his lost friend. I read a writer somewhere who wrote that the song was the first country song about aids, but to me the song is not about aids and WHY Gregory Dean Smalley died, it’s about who he was as a person and HOW he died.

     Gregory Dean Smalley, a worn out rocker who had a terminal illness which put him face to face with his certain death, lived the final year of his life doing what he loved to do more than anything else in the world, play rock n’ roll. He played over 100 shows in that last year, some of which Patterson would run sound for at The Star Bar in Atlanta. Greg had started a mock music festival called Bubbapallooza, and had invited The DBT to play his festival shortly before he died. I think this really helped the band because they were just starting out and needed shows like Bubbapallooza to continue to grow their audience. When Patterson called Gregory Dean to thank him for the invite, it was too late. Greg had been taken to the hospital and he never came back. Patterson, shook up over the news, took his dog for a walk, and wrote “The Living Bubba” in honor of his friend. The rest is now rock and roll history.

     Everyone who’s ever heard and liked The Drive-By Truckers music owes a debt of gratitude to Gregory Dean Smalley, for it’s his rock n’ roll spirit that the band embodies and takes with them wherever they go. There’s a more complete story to this song from the authors point of view on the band’s website at www.drivebytruckers.com.

     I just wanted to make note that this song is when I really began to like The Drive-By Truckers and became a fan of what they were doing musically. I couldn’t write about this band without mentioning “The Living Bubba.” My favorite version I’ve ever heard is still the one on Alabama Ass Whuppin’. I love Cooley’s harmony’, the guitar fills, and the slide solo and drums at the end. That versions perfect and won’t ever be matched again. The lyrics are amazing and made me rethink my approach to writing songs. My favorite line is, “Some people stop living long before they die, they work a dead end job just to scrape on by.”

     I seem to have gone off track a bit, but I had to mention that song. After Southern Rock Opera put the band on the map, the band followed up with two stellar, classic albums, Decoration Day, and The Dirty South. Decoration Day is Jason Isbell’s introduction to the world, and he came out swinging with the title track, and a song called “Outfit,” which up to this point is probably the one song of his that has touched more people than any other.

     The good reviews have kept coming for this band that has made Southern Rock cool again for a younger, hipper audience. But, if you really want to get a sense of who this band is, then you have to go back to a time when the crowds were much smaller. A time when the crowds were so small that you can hear the audience talking to each other. A time when a band fully embraced and accepted the concept of "to live rock n’ roll is to die rock n’ roll".

Southern Rock

     Where do I begin? I believe The Allman Brothers Band’s Greatest Hit’s ‘69-‘79 was my first introduction to what would become the biggest part of my musical sound. I guess I should cite Columbia House as a main influence as well. Remember when they had a music club you could join and get 10 tapes or cd’s for a dollar? These were my formative music years and the tapes I bought had a great influence on me.(Yes, this was before tapes were obsolete)

     For some reason, I always liked the classic rock better than the new rock of my generation. I bought Pearl Jam and U2 but I just didn’t like the alternative rock as well as the older rock. In particular, I didn’t go for the grunge rock when it came around, it never appealed to me. I remember when Nirvana first hit big and all of the sudden everyone was wearing flannel. One time at church on a Sunday night after youth group, Joey Barnes (Doughtry’s drummer) showed me four bass notes and the rhythm to some song. I played the chords to the rhythm he showed me as he proceeded to beat the living shit out of the church’s drum set to some new song everyone thought was cool but which I didn’t even know. The song? “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. I had no clue what I was playing then, but have recently gained a new respect for what was really the music of my generation. I’m a big Dave Grohl fan and I think The Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the best rock bands ever. But, as I said earlier, I was completely oblivious to that music when I was a 14 year old eighth grader at Kiser Middle School. I was listening to The Who, CCR, The Beatles, Yes, Eric Clapton, and The Allman Brothers Band.

     The first concert I ever went to was The Allman Brothers Band. My dad took me, and a guitarist from church went with us to see them in Charlotte around the time they were recording their Grammy Award winning 2nd Set live album. I think Edwin McCain and The Screamin’ Cheetah Willie’s opened up if I’m not mistaken. Looking back, I think it was appropriate that The ABB was my first introduction to Southern Rock since they were essentially the first Southern Rock band. I’m not sure I was really aware of Southern Rock at this point. I hadn’t discovered Lynyrd Skynyrd quite yet, I just thought The ABB and their music were great. Midnight rider was one of the first songs I ever learned on guitar. I used to listen to Southbound, Jessica, Ain’t Wasting Time No More, Statesboro Blues, One Way Out, and In Memory of Elizabeth Reed over and over and over again. I also bought Midnight Riders: The Story of The ABB, which is a great biography of the band. I’d jam out to their 1st and 2nd set live albums for hours at a time and became a big Warren Haynes fan. I still like The ABB as much today as I did back then, which I can’t really say the same for the other big Southern Rock act, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

     Rock 92 has been the main classic rock station in Greensboro, NC for over 20 years. I hate this station to death, along with about every other radio station in this God forsaken country. But, growing up it was all I had to listen to and was my introduction to about every band that came up in the old era of rock, the first era. I used to tape songs from the radio to learn new material and play the ones I liked over and over again. On Sunday nights they would play whole albums from selected artists, I believe they still do this today. Late one Sunday night when I was 14, I tuned into the end of that nights album, which was One More From The Road, the classic Skynyrd live album with the famous Freebird chant. The Needle and the Spoon was the first song I heard, and the song absolutely floored me, I had to hear more. I think I spent the next couple of years jamming to Ronnie and the boys non stop. I got to where I could play every note of the One More From the Road album, and was quite sure I could’ve hopped onstage with them and they wouldn’t have missed a beat. I bought every Skynyrd album and played along with every song. I even joined the Lynyrd Skynyrd Fan Club at one point! Ronnie Van Zant’s lyrics and his rebel attitude really appealed to me and became a huge part of who I was. In my freshmen yearbook photo from high school, I have long hair and sport a Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt. Every summer in high school I’d go to see the band in concert, and sometimes I’d see them twice. Lynyrd Skynyrd, the music and the mythology surrounding them, had a profound impact on me and is as big a part of my sound as any other music I’ve ever listened to.

     When I was 16, a friend gave me his dad’s copy of a Marshall Tucker Band Album titled Searchin’ For a Rainbow. I probably should have given it back to his dad by now, but......

     I really liked The MTB and jammed out to “Can’t You See” a lot. As a junior at Grimsley High School I bused tables at Tex and Shirley’s, which was a local family restaurant known for it’s breakfast and in particular its pancackes. For a while I worked with a friend named Nathan Cashwell who was a year ahead of me. We both liked the same music, and Nate loaned me a copy of Tucker’s first album with “Take The Highway,” which I thought was a really cool song. The song that I listed to repeatedly was the last song on the album though. It was a short, one minute acoustic song with just two verses. "If I die at 23, won’t you bury me in the sunshine, please let me know that you’re still mine....." I always thought the song was eerie and took on a different meaning because of the author’s untimely death. "If I die at 23" is a haunting lyric considering what was to happen to that band.

     Years later, I got to meet several original MTB members including Jerry Eubanks and Paul Riddle. Paul Riddle is one of the nicest, down to earth rock stars that I’ve ever met. More recently , thanks to the release of two MTB live albums, I’ve sort of become a fan all over again. Stompin’ Room Only is a live album from their first tour of Europe, and Live On Long Island is the last concert that the original lineup ever played together, Tommy Caldwell died 10 days later. These two albums show how the band evolved as a musical group and I think they were at their peak during their final performance. This band was good, they were really good, and I think they are often overlooked and underappreciated as a band. I think Paul Riddle, Toy Caldwell, and Doug Gray are the most underrated musicians of their time. Doug had unlimited vocal range and was a very polished singer. I think at times he was almost too good. Toy played some blistering solos and could jam with the best of them. His solo on Stompin’ Room Only’s “Searchin’ For a rainbow” is one of my favorite all time guitar solos. It’s incredible he used his thumb to play and didn’t use a pick! And then there’s Paul Riddle, whose playing never really comes out on their studio material, but live it’s easy to tell that he was second to none on drums. Paul had some of the most wicked beats ever. Listen to his bass drum rhythm on a live version of “Fire On The Mountain” and you can hear how good he was. That band was just a really good musical group who left us with some great stuff to go back and listen to and recall how they were one of the best of their time.

     Tim Lawter and Rusty Milner were sort of the second generation of MTB members and played with them through the 80's and 90's. Rusty actually played for the band longer than any other member outside of Doug Gray, who’s the only original member left in the band today. I’m always asking Tim about life on the road, and he’s got a million stories that he’s always happy to tell me. I see my self as a third generation southern rocker. Bands like The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and The Marshall Tucker Band started it all almost 40 years ago. Then guys like Tim and Rusty, Chris Hicks, and the Toler Brothers picked up and carried on the tradition as the bands gained a new generation of followers, including myself. Now it’s my turn, and along with people like Layney Strickland, Clay Cook, and Bleu Edmondson, the legacy is in good hands and the music will remain something bigger than all of us, something that’s eternal. That’s how powerful music can be, if your music is good enough, and enough people hear it, you can live forever.

Eric Clapton

     I don’t know when I first heard Clapton, so I’m not sure what drew me to his music. I know I was 12 when I first started playing guitar and taking lessons from Greensboro guitarist turned preacher David McGee. I recall learning “Yellow Submarine” by the Beatles and “Have You Ever Seen The Rain “ by Creedence. I also remember the first guitar solo I ever learned, which was “Layla” off of Clapton’s epic unplugged album. I think I knew this version of “Layla” before I had even heard the original version, I certainly didn’t know Duane Allman played on the original version at this point.

     I had to have been around 13 or 14 years old. Whatever the case, I studied Clapton a lot back then. Not only his music, but his stage prescence. I recall renting a video documentary on Cream, as well as Clapton’s Royal Albert Hall concerts. I went back even further and had a Yardbirds tape. I used to play “For Your Love” a lot, but considered the Yardbirds primitive rock, sort of early demo work for Clapton.

     By the time I was in high school I was good enough on guitar to begin figuring songs and guitar licks out on my own. I’d jam out to “White Room, Badge, Clapton’s Rainbow Concert and his Journeyman album. Oh yeah, there was that Derek and the Dominoes thing with Duane Allman as well. One of the main things I learned from Clapton was how to jam in the box. The A-minor pentatonic scale was the first scale I ever learned on guitar, so it was easy for me to learn his solo’s on songs like the acoustic version of “Layla,” or the live version of “Cocaine.” Every solo I’ve ever played or ever will play can be traced back to Clapton, who was my first guitar hero. Through Clapton, I also first heard about Stevie Ray Vaughan, who became my second guitar hero.