Interview: Jerre Haskew of The Cumberland Trio
Veteran Folk Guitarist Answers Questions on Career
Jan 9, 2009
Jerre Haskew, along with Tom Kilpatrick, Jim Shuptrine, and Andy Gaverick for the cult Folk favorites The Cumberland Trio. After a long hiatus The Cumberland Trio returned to the stage to bring Folk into the 21st century.
Suite101 recently sat down with Jerre Haskew to talk about the music, the career, and the return of The Cumberland Trio.
Suite101:When did you first become interested in Folk Music?
Jerre Haskew: When I was 19 and a student at UT (University of Tennessee) when Tom Dooley and the Kingston Trio hit the airways, and i just fell in love with the music. Also really liked Joanie Baez. I'd been raised on country/rockabilly music and Elvis, Cash et al.
I went to a pawn shop that spring and bought a cheap Harmony tenor guitar and a cheaper Kay banjo. Went to Alaska to work that summer as a lumberjack and our future bass player, Delta Tau Delta frat brother Jim Shuptrine, went to Alaska to work with me and he taught me the basic chords during our three months there. Never had played any instrument or sung before then.
S101: The Cumberland Trio uses a guitar arrangement of a nylon stringed guitar on lead with you playing rhythm on a guitar capoed much higher than normal played with inverted chords, a more sophisticated arrangement than usually found in Folk Music. Was there a conscious effort to create this sound or was it just chance?
JH: It was a conscious effort brought about by wanting to refine our instrumental sound. Tom's incredible low end percussive-like nylon string rhythm was complemented by the high capoed sound with inverted chords in the same key on the steel string Martin D-28 I played.
Andy played lead 5 string banjo on his Gibson and lead guitar on the D-28 or D-18. I played rhythm banjo on the Vega Pete Seeger. Obviously it worked and was later copied by other folk artists.
S101: After the British Invasion, Folk Music lost its popularity, and many young Folk Groups gravitated toward a folk-rock or country sound. Did the Cumberland Trio ever try to do the same?
JH: Yes we did. We recorded two pop/country/rockabilly/bluesy songs at a local radio studio in early 1965, using a Fender telecaster electric guitar played by Andy, a Fender electric "P" bass played by Jim, Tom playing his Gibson B-45-12 string and me playing a snare drum we borrowed from the UT band room.
The songs were a rockabilly number "If You Really Want Me To I'll Go," and a blues rocker, "Send You Back To Georgia." The rockabilly number was written by then unknown young singer/songwriter, Delbert McClinton!
We preserved those recordings and put them on our remastered 1964 CD along with our RCA LP just to show we tried. The Brit invasion just killed the folk era and The Cumberland Trio was a speck of folk history.
S101: After Folk fell out of favor, the Cumberland Trio split up and you all went on to careers outside of the music business. What brought you back?
JH: In 2000 a companion "A Lion Named Sam" children's book to go along with the song was created by Barbara as a surprise tome for our 37th anniversary.
I had to dig out the 1964 RCA reel to reel tape and have it converted to DAT and subsequently remastered to CD along with several other songs we had taped ourselves back then. I sent several copies to UT in Knoxville and they asked us to do a full blown reunion concert in 2001 for homecoming week end.
We added a great multi-instrumentalist, Lou Wamp, one of the best dobro players in the world and Don Cassell on mandolin and Bob "Bottom" Wilkerson on electric bass and did 2 1/2 hours of our originals from back in the folk era, new songs Barbara and I had written along with many new and multi-genre covers. We recorded it for release on CD & DVD and then did another one with almost a completely different group of songs in 2004.
S101: What was the greatest moment in your career?
JH: Three greatest "moments/events"- Playing 3 ABC-TV "Hootenannies," winning the National Collegiate Folk Festival 1st place before 10,000 people and recording with Chet Atkins at RCA- 15 songs in ONE long day/evening- NO retakes and NO overdubs. All done live in studio.
S101: Do you ever get annoyed when people confuse you with the Cumberland Three?
JH: Not at all because we are far better known than that group, although John Stewart was a long time friend from his Kingston Trio days and beyond. We were FAR better than them to be honest, and at least on a par with the Kingston Trio, Brothers Four, Peter, Paul, and Mary, et al.
Although The Cumberland Trio only performs part time these days, they are always interested in local Folk Festivals. To keep track of these veteran folkies with the unique sound, go to their website.
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