{"id":1319938,"date":"2020-05-14T11:58:47","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T17:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1821116"},"modified":"2020-05-14T11:58:47","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T17:58:47","slug":"kristian-bush-on-the-new-pull-of-southern-gravity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/kristian-bush-on-the-new-pull-of-southern-gravity\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristian Bush on the New Pull of Southern Gravity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Alison Bonaguro<\/a><\/span> 16m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible that the inklings for the brand new songs on Kristian Bush\u2019s latest re-issue started forming at some point in the early 70s. Because that\u2019s right around the time when his ear for music started working overtime.<\/p>\n

Bush has just re-issued his first solo album Southern Gravity (The Complete Collection)<\/em>, originally released five years ago, and added seven brand new tracks.<\/p>\n

When he called me from his Atlanta quarantine to talk about it, we first went back to his earliest roots in music.
When Bush was just three years old, his mother signed him up for Suzuki-method violin lessons somewhere near their East Tennessee home. And as it turns out, that was also the time when Bush realized he didn\u2019t have to read<\/em> music to make<\/em> music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was first exposed to music at the University of Tennessee. You learned how to play without reading music. So I walked around with a margarine box under my chin,\u201d Bush told me of his early, early violin lessons. \u201cThey\u2019re only playing you the first five songs and that\u2019s all you listen to. Nothing else. You have a speaker under your pillow that plays those songs endlessly while you\u2019re sleeping.\u201d Typically, those songs would be: \u201cTwinkle, Twinkle Little Star,\u201d \u201cLightly Row,\u201d \u201cSong of the Wind,\u201d \u201cGo Tell Aunt Rhody\u201d and \u201cO Come, Little Children.\u201d<\/p>\n

But just when Bush was thinking that those five songs were the only five songs, he came across the AM country radio station. And suddenly, everything changed for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I had just spent five years learning to learn things by ear, I could understand what they were playing,\u201d he said of expanding his repertoire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got my first record player in my own room,\u201d he recalled, \u201cand I played a 45 of Paul Simon\u2019s \u2019Slip Slidin\u2019 Away,\u2019 then Kenny Rogers\u2019 \u2019The Gambler\u2019 and then a K-tel compilation in the late 70s. (Possibly Music Machine<\/em> with Andy Gibb, Wild Cherry, Foreigner, Manfred Mann\u2019s Earth Band, ABBA, and a rare ballad from Kiss. Or maybe Gold Rush<\/em> in 1979, which would\u2019ve introduced Bush to Little River Band, The Babys, Dr. Hook and more.)<\/p>\n

After being steeped in mountain music for the first part of his life, Bush said, he then started to discover bands like Thompson Twins, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and R.E.M. And then fast forward four more decades, and Bush still has that discerning ear for music and for opportunity.<\/p>\n

He recalls taking guitar lessons in Knoxville and asking questions about Van Halen and Tom Waits. \u201cI wanted to know, \u2019How do I make that sound?\u2019 I\u2019m agnostic. I\u2019ll bang on pots and pans if I have to to play a Tom Waits song. So this has been a long journey, because I didn\u2019t have a me to imitate,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what made making a solo album hard for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote 300 songs for his first solo album\u201d \u2014 after years with folk duo Billy Pilgrim, then with country duo Sugarland and later with rock trio Dark Water \u2014 \u201cbecause I could,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was like I had to have some self-awareness of when I sucked and some self awareness of when I was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we talked about the nearly impossible mission of narrowing down the song stack, first for the original 12-song release and then again for the 7-song new edition, Bush said that having a theme has always been a real thing to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlbums are living, breathing things. The best ones don\u2019t just take me back in time. They comfort me from afar. Which is different from nostalgia,\u201d Bush explained. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I was striving for and why I worked so hard on it. I intentionally made all the song choices and music choices for a reason: for it to find you where you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch his latest release from the re-issue, \u201cAmerican Dreamers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Embedded from www.youtube.com<\/a>.