UPDATE: Due to the serious illness of a family member, Steve Gunn & The Outliners have cancelled their upcoming show in New Orleans, along with numerous other dates. According to Gunn’s Facebook page, the gig will be rescheduled at some point in the future.
Steve Gunn will take the stage at the colorful Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival this Saturday, two days before he swings through New Orleans for a Monday night set at Gasa Gasa. Both venues–eclectic in their own ways–are fitting spots for the consummate fingerpicker to take up shop, even if his contemplative guitar compositions evoke a restless spirit that could never be tied to a particular place.
Gunn is on the road in support of his latest release, a collection of five-minute folk-rock odysseys called Eyes On The Line. Much like its predecessor, his masterful 2014 LP Way Out Weather, the album finds Gunn and his band, The Outliners, using the tried-and-true folk palette to create something decidedly more expansive. Imagine a studio-polished version of the Grateful Dead constrained by time, but not space.
Photo by Constance Mensh.
“I kind of started playing guitar by learning old Appalachian songs and old blues songs,” Gunn recalls. “I was really into that when I was younger, so that style influenced me as I progressed into becoming a songwriter. I also listen to a lot of music from around the world, from the Middle East, from India, from Africa. Those styles creep into what I’m doing as well.”
Those influences would come as no surprise to fans of Gunn’s work, which has been described as “Appalachian raga.” It’s a hell of a thing to craft songs that manage to successfully meander without losing focus, as if getting lost was always the plan. It’s harder still to pull them off live with something like precision, yet Gunn and co. make that part look easy.
“I was really happy to be able to peruse the songs I’ve been working on with a solid band,” Gunn says of The Outliners. “I’m lucky enough to play with musicians that I trust and that push me to play the best that I can.”
I say that Gunn and The Outliners–a group that consists Nathan Bowles (drums), James Elkington (guitar, lap steel) and Jason Meagher (bass)–pull their material off with “something like precision” because note-for-note recreations aren’t quite the point. Improvisation is always on the table with a band this tight, though it might not be a goal in and of itself.
“We just keep it open to not get bored,” Gunn says. “We have the ability to take risks, so sometimes it’s fun to see where we can take it if we’re feeling a certain way. On a good night we can do things that surprise even us. Sometimes we rein it in, and sometimes we don’t.”
“We try to keep that kind of spontaneity in the studio,” he adds. “I feel like that’s when we come up with our best ideas, when we’re working and listening and just playing.”
Perhaps some new ideas will come to him this Monday when he brings The Outliners to New Orleans. This city can handle an off-the-cuff jam or two, and there’s certainly no shortage of inspiration to go around, as Gunn is quick to point out.
“I’m a big New Orleans music fan,” he says. “I’m a huge fan of Allen Toussaint and all the musicians that he’s produced and recorded. I love all of that. I love New Orleans, and I haven’t been enough. Any time I get a chance to play there and hang out, I look forward to it. It’s one of my favorite cities.”
“I’ve got a day off too, so I’m looking forward to wandering around.”
If his music is any indication, that shouldn’t be a problem. Wandering is what the man does best.
Steve Gunn & The Outliners will perform at Gasa Gasa on Monday, June 13. Tickets for the show are on sale here.
