Campbell, Keltner back songwriter on new album

CHRISTINA SARACENO - Rolling Stone - Tim Easton will release his third solo album, Break Your Mother's Heart, on February 11th. On his last record, the critically acclaimed The Truth About Us, Easton assembled the No Depression dream team of Jay Bennett, John Stirratt, Ken Coomer, Mark Olson and Victoria Williams as his band and backing vocalists. On Break Your Mother's Heart he goes for broke, enlisting a slightly more varied set of players: guitarists Mike Campbell (of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), David Philips (Frank Black) and Chris Burney (the Sun), bassist Hutch Hutchinson (Bonnie Raitt), keyboardist Jai Winding (Jackson Browne), drummer Jim Keltner (John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton). Easton also worked with producer John Hanlon (Neil Young, the Beach Boys, R.E.M., T-Bone Burnett), who made it clear that no computers would be used in the making of this record.

"He said in our first meeting," Easton says, "'If you're the kind of guy who's going to want to fix stuff on ProTools, then I'll see you around.' And I said, 'No, let's make a real record, a human being record.' My favorite records are real and not fussed with too much."

Break Your Mother's Heart gets about as fussy as the pump organ Easton plays on "Man That You Need." Most of the album's ten tracks were recorded in one or two takes with Easton playing guitar and singing live with the band. As a result, he says the record "breathes a little more" and sounds more "relaxed." Contributing to that vibe was a month-long trip Easton took to Oaxaca, Mexico. "I did nothing, barely moved from the beach and the shack that I was living in," he says. "I didn't wear shoes." What he did do was pen a collection of songs that suit his restless heart, changing landscapes (Mexico, Kentucky, Los Angeles, upstate New York) as often as sound (wistful ballad, blues, straight ahead rock, folk).

The album kicks off with one of the record's fullest and most unabashedly rock & roll songs, "Poor, Poor L.A.," an ode to the city that Easton had called home (he now lives in Athens, Georgia) and a frequented landscape in his lyrics. "There's so many emotions going on in that town," Easton says, "so many rich people and poor people put into one place together. Everyone always makes fun of it and I get tired of defending it. It's beautiful and grotesque, and that's what the interesting things in life are all about."

On "Amor Azul," a dreamy, acoustic number inspired in name only by the bowl of blue liquid ("some kind of drinky drink") that was at the back of a photography exhibit in Oaxaca. "I had my guitar with me and walked out and wrote the song," he says. The bluesy stomp "Lexington County Jail" is what Easton calls the album's wild card. "That's the kind of song that some people wish my whole album sounded like that and others are like, 'What's that song doing on there?' It breaks up the middle of the record. If it was on vinyl, you'd flip it over, but here I put a few more seconds in between songs."

Break Your Mother's Heart also features two songs, "True Ways" and "Jon Gilmartin," by Brooklyn singer-songwriter J.P. Olsen. "I saw him play music in Columbus, Ohio, before I started playing out live," Easton says. "He was playing his songs mixed with Bob Dylan songs and Hank Williams songs, and he influenced me to get my act together. I still think he's one of the greatest songwriters, so I want to bring his songs to people as much as possible."

Easton will begin bringing those songs to people when his tour kicks off tomorrow in Minneapolis, with a full band behind him, and he's already looking ahead to the next album. "I've got a bunch of songs already and I'll be writing on the road," he says. "I realize that I'm never going to be that still for that long, so I might as well get used to traveling."