Jim Lauderdale: A Lifetime of Songs

Some songwriters put out a handful of tunes you will recognize. Others have a way of getting under your skin with their work over the years, even if you are not sure who is behind the pen. Jim Lauderdale is of the latter type. In his solo set at the Heartwood Soundstage in Gainesville, Florida, Lauderdale demonstrated how much musical territory he has traversed in more than 30 years. And don’t ever try to determine a “genre”… that doesn’t work for him. You might say that’s the hallmark of Lauderdale’s career, an ability to shift from one style or era to another. Let’s face it….anyone that can write extensively with both the Grateful Dead’s lyricist Robert Hunter and bluegrass stalwart Ralph Stanley cannot be easily categorized.

He’s also written with some of country’s old guard like Harlan Howard and Frank Dycus and many others, from Elvis Costello to Steve Poltz. The Hunter connection was especially evident in songs from Patchwork River, one of my favorites of his albums. Hearing “Patchwork River,” “Alligator Alley,” “Up My Sleeve,” and “Headed for the Hills” in the same evening makes you appreciate what an unusual partnership Lauderdale and Hunter had. Hunter brought his unique, sometimes dreamlike way with words, while Lauderdale supplied the melodies and musical instincts. Hunter once described their process as Lauderdale picking up a guitar and beginning a new tune while Hunter would start writing before the melody was even finished.

While he’s a great storyteller, he mostly let the songs speak for themselves as he worked through country, bluegrass, folk, and Americana without any pretense. “Road Is a River,” “Iodine,” and “Life by Numbers” came across with a relaxed authentic quality—just Lauderdale, his guitar, and that unmistakable George Jones-inspired voice. The same was true of “Back in the Long Ago” and “Up My Sleeve.” Nothing felt forced or dressed up. He simply played the songs and let them speak for themselves.

He’s always writing, though, and not living in the past. The hilarious new “Artificial Intelligence” was a perfect counterpoint to the rest of the evening. After all these years of writing about the things people love, lose and hope for, he can still turn his attention to something as current—and as strange—as artificial intelligence and make it feel right at home in his music. “Joy Joy Joy,” another cowrite with Hunter, brought an entirely different energy, while “Whisper” showed the quieter, more reflective side of his writing. These are songs that don’t need to shout to get your attention. They work their way in gradually.

“Redbird” (co-written with Shawn Camp and Ralph Stanley) and one of my recent favorites, “We Look at Things in Different Ways” from his recent collaboration album with the traditional bluegrass band Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, are classic bluegrass songs. And then there’s the fact that Lauderdale has two Grammys sitting somewhere at home. He won both in the Best Bluegrass Album category, for Lost in the Lonesome Pines in 2002 and The Bluegrass Diaries in 2007. And of course, after teasing the audience about his feelings about the song, he had to do the song that resulted in one of his long-time nicknames, “The King of Broken Hearts.”

Jim Lauderdale has spent his life wandering through musical neighborhoods without worrying too much about the boundaries between them. Bluegrass one day, country the next, then folk, rock, roots music, or something that doesn’t have a particularly useful name. His most recent tour with his country-rock group The Game Changers demonstrates this perfectly.

That made the Heartwood show feel like spending an evening with somebody who still genuinely enjoys making music. The last twenty or thirty minutes of the show was dedicated to taking requests from the audience: someone at ease with their own songwriting history. He was there to play the songs. By the time he reached “Headed for the Hills,” with a boisterous audience participation, you recognized we heard only a tiny portion of his catalog. Thirty-plus albums, hundreds of songs, countless collaborations, two Grammys, and decades spent in the company of some of American music’s most interesting characters, and he still comes across less like an institution than like the guy who is happiest when he has a guitar in his hands and another song to work on.

That’s probably the best way to understand Jim Lauderdale.

He’s not finished yet.

Jim Lauderdale: A Lifetime of Songs