“I’ve been lucky enough to make a career co-writing and producing records with great singers and lyricists, John Leventhal explains. “But I’ve always had all this other music in me. I thought, ‘What are you going to do with it?’”
Rumble Strip, his solo debut on the label he owns with wife Rosanne Cash, provides that answer.
Over 45 years, the guitarist/songwriter/producer earned a distinguished reputation (and six Grammys) working with others. Creating a musical statement for himself proved more challenging.
“It’s one thing to make a record, write a song, and play a little guitar, which I’m capable of doing,” he said. “But it’s another thing to make a recording statement that my internal critic wouldn’t cringe at. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing it as an empty gesture – that it had feeling and soulfulness.”
The pandemic became the catalyst. Forced off the road, Leventhal and Cash retreated to their Manhattan home, which contains a studio.
“I started writing, and eventually realized I was making a record.”
He played guitars, keyboard, upright bass, and drums, but not the horn parts. Percussion happened first, for the title track.
“That song came from a rhythmic place more than a guitar place. I put down 8, 16, and 32 bars, then grabbed a [’60s Guild Mark IV] nylon-string and told myself, ‘Respond viscerally, think minimally.’
“I was trying to get space to mean as much as the notes, hoping it would feel evocative. The song was recorded late one night; one nylon-string, one acoustic guitar, upright, and drums.”
“Floyd Cramer’s Dream,” honoring the revered Nashville A-Team pianist, reflects Leventhal’s admiration for that legendary cadre of session musicians. “I started playing these little notes, and could hear myself twisting Floyd Cramer.”
Leventhal’s reverence for orchestral composers is reflected in “Tullamore Blues,” and he embraces the work of American classical composers Aaron Copland (“Concerto for Clarinet”) and Samuel Barber (“Who’s Afraid of Samuel Barber?”).
“Howlin’ Wolf, Copland, Stravinsky, the Beatles, and Motown all meet somewhere inside of me,” he says.
“Inwood Hill” blends his love of solo guitar and “…really good acoustic playing.” A Chet Atkins fan, he draws more from the subtler licks than his fingerstyle picking.
“He could sound orchestral while playing a two-note figure.”
The lighthearted “Three Chord Monte” offers a contrast with the more-somber instrumentals. “You need a little bit of light with all the darkness,” Leventhal notes.
“Marion and Sam” drew from a musical cue written by composer Bernard Herrmann for a scene in the 1960 horror film Psycho. “He wrote some incredibly beautiful orchestral pieces for those movies. I transposed it for two guitars.”
Calling guitars his one material vice, he notes, “I have a lot, and I love old acoustics. I played Telecasters a lot; one has a Bigsby I put together and Wide Range humbuckers from the ’70s. I have a bunch of great Gibson and Martin acoustics from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. They all get used.”
After he and Cash toured with Ry Cooder, he was particularly impressed by Cooder’s Univox Premier, which led him to acquire one of his own.
“It was this odd solidbody with a rosewood neck, made in New Jersey in the 1950s, with cool-sounding pickups. It’s a great-looking guitar.
“I have a bunch of amps, but my main recording amp is a Deluxe Reverb from the mid ’60s. I’ve had it for 40 years or more and it sounds great. I use it 85 or 90 percent of the time because it works for everything.”
The stately “Hymn # 2” features a late-’40s Gibson J-50 that works especially well for recording.
“It’s very light and has a raw, fundamental tone.”
He attached a DeArmond pickup and used the Deluxe Reverb “to give it a little texture.”
“It’s recorded traditionally with a couple mics, and I sent a signal to another room to the Deluxe Reverb and miked that.”
“Soul Op,” inspired by a 2016 album he produced for Memphis R&B singer William Bell, used an identical setup. The Delta-flavored “Meteor” “…twisted Howlin’ Wolf in the same way I twisted Floyd Cramer. I played a Harmony Meteor,” and used a Gibson GA-20-T.
Leventhal is realistic about the album’s potential.
“I have no idea if anyone’s gonna care,” he said. “I have a sense some musicians and record-maker types who have an appreciation for what I do (will). But I’m under the radar, and I like being able to make my own records. It’s fun, it’s challenging, and I’ll see if there’s any traction.”
If so, he’ll go again.
“It has sparked ideas, and they’re completely different.”
This article originally appeared in VG’s April 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
