Here's the rules as received from
boutell:
001. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
002. I will respond by asking you five questions of a very intimate and creepily personal nature. Okay, not so creepy/personal.
003. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
004. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
005. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Tom asked some tough questions, but I guess that's what this meme is for.
1. What recording are you proudest of?I guess it would be my recording of
I Believe To My Soul.
I like my recordings of
Rewind for Interrobang Cartel also; I spent a lot of time planning out the arrangement for the
Simonesque version, and I've never done anything else quite like the
Waitsian version.
As long as I'm self-promoting I'll put in a word for my recent recording of
Money (That's What I Want), which I find pretty enjoyable.
2. What's your favorite song (apart from your own)?Erg, another tough one. Rather than subject you to ten different answers (as I did above), I'll just say that I'm a big fan of
Thelonious Monk's Blue Note recording of Misterioso. There are probably fifty other songs I could have named though ...
3. You get to perform with any one living musician. Who do you choose?which I will combine with
4. Who'd be in the backup band?Oh, lord. The basic problem here is that I am a pretty limited musician -- I wouldn't want to play guitar behind any of my favorite performers, for instance, because my guitar playing is really rudimentary and I would really just as soon that they (whoever they are) play the guitar, since they will do a better job.
So whatever this me-based supergroup is going to be, I'll be playing piano and maybe singing. But the scenario still seems kind of absurd, and it's difficult to see how the situation would be particularly enjoyable for the other person and not completely embarassing for me.
Bringing it closer to home and restricting it to local musicians, many of whom I have actually met, makes it a lot easier. So let's say my dream group is:
Me: piano, vocals
Pam Murray: trombone, vocals
Marty Ballou: upright bass
Chris Turner: harmonica
Chris Monti: guitar, vocals (Chris gets the nod here because I enjoy playing with him so much; if we eliminate him, maybe I get Thom Enright)
I'm not sure about the drummer. One of the songs we would have to do is 'Caldonia'. That would be pretty sweet.
Restricting it to local artists like this has another advantage, which is that it's not out of the question that the above assemblage could actually occur; Pam, Marty, and Chris Turner have all performed together, and Pam actually sat in and sang Blue Monday at one of the Killdevils shows. (No trombone, though. Yet.)
I guess if I had to pick a nationally-known artist it might be Gillian Welch, but I have no idea what we'd do.
5. What's your favorite toothpaste?Crest anti-tartar something-or-other. I don't like that gel stuff.