I was recently reading an article about the producer, Jimmy Iovine and some of the great records
he produced or engineered. What struck me most in looking at Iovine’s career is that while most of
these records might be thought of as Rock, if you really listen to them, they are really great Roots Rock
Music. Starting with Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness of the Edge of Town when he was Sound Engineer to
Tom Petty’s Damn the Torpedoes where he produced, Iovine always seemed to find a way to create a
different sound that raises the level of the artists he works with.

While it was great learning more about a great Roots Rock Music producer, it also reminded me that
amazing Roots Rock records like these are not being made as often as they once were. With the current
phase of popular music being driven by big musical numbers with lots of dancers and piped in tracks,
Roots Rock seems to be becoming more of a lost art. Given this recent trend in music, I am very inspired
when I see bands like The Black Keys and Kings of Leon who are doing a wonderful job of keeping Roots
Rock Music alive. As a music genre, Roots Rock has always been a foundation for other types of music
and artists. My hope is that this great music will once again thrive and be appreciated for the influence
it is.

Emmylou Harris - Roots Rock Music

I’ve been thinking recently about my early roots rock influences.  As I started to get really interested in the craft of songwriting, I began listening extensively to more and more Roots Rock Music.  Favorite artists like Neil Young, Graham Parsons and Lowell George had a huge impact on my writing.  I was really into California style roots rock like The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt because that’s where I grew up and heard all the stories about them in their prime.  There was a time in Los Angeles when many of these artists, who wrote all these legendary songs, lived and recorded in Laurel Canyon or Topanga Canyon.

I’m so inspired by Roots Rock Music and all the awesome artists that helped to combine Rock, Country, Blues and Folk and transform it into Heartland Rock.  How cool it must have been to have The Eagles as Ronstadt’s backing band and Emmylou Harris being Graham Parson’s background vocalist.  Though they were all competing with each other, they still were able to work together and create some of the best music ever.  I guess because I grew up later in the same areas as these writers and musicians, I absorbed a lot of their style and approach to making music and I hope my writing shows the same kind of freedom and integrity that these wonderful Roots Rock Music legends gave me through their music.

There is a quality and depth to writing Roots Rock Music. It is very challenging because some amazing writers have set the bar quite high.  In roots rock, there is an honesty and sincerity that forces the writer to look more deeply into what the song is about. I guess you could say, ‘there’s nowhere to hide’ because of the raw, open nature of the music. I love roots rock because of the drive to always tell a great story and not just look at the subject of the song from one perspective. Roots rock developed in musical history from folk, blues and country which makes me as the writer strive to keep the song very grounded.

The very slice of life and observational point of view that Roots Rock Music has challenges me to not be drawn into gimmicks or ‘write for hooks’, but to stay focused on the main goal of telling a story and creating a melody line that the listener can be swept away by. I also love the challenge and reward of finding just the right mix of instruments to go with the lyrics and melody. It’s a great feeling to write a song and then be able to combine the feel of the guitars, with other colors like the warmth and drive of the B3 organ, the high wail of the pedal steel and lightness of the melodica. I find that Roots Rock Music gives me that perfect canvas as an artist to try to take the listener with me on a journey through the song.