Grayson Capps: Rott 'N' Roll

Jerry Henry

When I reviewed Grayson Capps last album, Songbones (Hyena Records), I said, ".....great stuff with great feel." His new release, Rott "N" Roll (Hyena Records) is a more in-your-face all things Southern fusion of Townes Van Zant and Drive By Truckers. Rott "N" Roll is a mix of roadhouse rock, sanctified Southern soul and country blues, the hollerin' kind. He and his band, the Stumpknockers, are hugely successful in Europe. I asked if the Europeans understood his unique writings about the South. He replied, "They couldn't possibly get a lot of it, but for the most part they get what I'm putting out. I had a professor that once said, 'People might not get your truths but they will get a truth'." He goes on, "All I can do is write about what I know, I can't pretend to be anything that I am not, like in any art, if you are truthful, it will translate." Tuscaloosa, we get our translation when Grayson Capps & The Stumpknockers bring "Rott 'N' Roll" to Little Willie's Saturday, October 25th.

Grayson Capps tells us he was conceived in the back seat of a Pontiac Tempest in Brewton, Alabama but was born in Opelika on April 17, 1967. That was the beginning of the "summer of love." His daddy had just gotten out of the Army and was preaching at a Baptist church in Augusta, Georgia and his mama was a student at Auburn University. His daddy gave up preaching, joined his mama at Auburn and moved back to Brewton after they both graduated. He lived there until he was in the 7th grade when they moved to Fairhope.

Being a product of the 60's, he remembers growing up to the music of the 70's. He says, "The 60's caught up with South Alabama in the 70's." Grayson has memories of a man named Fred Stokes coming by with his beat up Martin guitar, along with Bobby Long making music with his daddy. They would sit in front of a Realistic tape recorder, drinking, smoking and singing.

Grayson only had one guitar lesson when he was 15 years old. He said, "I realized right then, it was all about repetition and practice which for the most part is just a hell of a lot of work." His first gig was when he was 18 years old at a Japanese Restaurant in Fairhope. He laughs and says, "It was terrible."

He also got involved with theater and earned a partial scholarship to Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. He majored in theater, primarily acting, and graduated in 1989 with a BFA. I asked if he had aspirations of becoming an actor. He replied, "I pretty much am, if you get called acting, when you are acting, then you are doing something wrong. The only thing I learned was how to tell the truth, that's pretty much what people pay attention to. In this day and age, I think you got to be psychic, because you can't trust a damn thing anybody says, so your psychic abilities have to get a lot stronger so you can tell the truth from a lie. Acting is what I do all the time. It's a question of living I guess." There are 2 main forces that drove Grayson Capps to become a singer-songwriter. One was his interest in acting, the other his fascination with prophet figures. He was influenced by a professor who believed that (in Grayson's words) "the real live theater of today, outside the big cities, is rock and roll." He fully embraced that notion.

While at Tulane, he started playing guitar with bass player-grad student Pete Ficht and drummer-fellow acting student Sterling Roig. They started a band called the House Levellers. He explains, "....actually a bunch of actors acting like musicians. We didn't know how to play a damn thing, but we knew how to put on a show. It became a question of, do I want to do soap operas, or go to New York and go through the rigmarole of being on Broadway, or do I want to do theater now? I wanted to do theater now, and most immediate access to that was playing music in bars." As for his fascination with religious figures, that came from Grayson's daddy, a renegade high school teacher who instilled in his son a love of literature and philosophy. "My daddy had all kinds of religions he threw at me," he says, "I was captivated by the idea of prophets, and by Jesus Christ. One day while I was home visiting from school, I went to my great-grandmother's church. The preacher said, 'If Jesus were here today, where would he be? Would he be here, inside this church? No, he would be in the bars, and in the brothels, where people need him.' I thought, 'Damn, I want to figure something out, and offer something, but that's my world.' That's what started me in this direction."

The House Levellers called their music 'thrash-folk' which got them signed by Tipitina's record label.  They bought a 1977 Plymouth Voyager van and toured America for 3 years non-stop. They opened for Crowded House, were on the cover of USA Today, and in Sassy Magazine. They were becoming famous. Most of the time they slept on people's floors or in the van, barely able to afford gas to get to the next gig. Tensions arose from too much junk food, too much time on the road and climaxed in a huge blowout in Charleston, West Virginia. He was 22 going on 50.

He and some friends returned to New Orleans where they lived in a shotgun house owned by a one-legged man, who went bankrupt and died soon after they moved in. After his death, no one claimed the building, so they stayed there rent free for a couple of years. They played on the streets for food. He was writing songs and they started a band, Stavin' Chain. Grayson was the singer-rhythm guitar player, and John Lawrence was the lead guitar player. They hired rhythm sections. They played slide driven roots rock with lyrics centered around characters full of desperation, nicotine, loneliness and alcohol. One night after a gig they were approached by 2 women that were filming a documentary called Anthem. They wanted them to provide the music for Anthem because they embodied an honest form of Americana they wanted portrayed in their film. 5 songs were used. They got to go to L.A. and New York to promote the movie's debut. This led to opening for bands like the Wallflowers, Koko Taylor and Jeff Buckley. One evening at Tipitina's, Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones sat in with a 20 minute version of "Hideaway," while Mick Jagger sat at the bar drinking water. Stavin' Chain got signed to Ruf Records out of Germany, put out a CD distributed by Polygram Records. Their rhythm section had played on the Stones' record Bridges of Babylon and in Keith Richards band the Ex-pensive Winos. They were touring the U.S. and Europe, they had international distribution and a full page ad in the Village Voice. Then Polygram merged with Universal and dropped their record, their record label went bankrupt, the band broke up.

After Anthem, the producers wanted to do a film about New Orleans. Grayson told them about a book his daddy had written (based on Bobby Long and Fred Stokes) that had never been published. They fell in love with the book and wanted Grayson to do the music for the film. In due time, they called saying they wanted Grayson to be in the movie with John Travolta playing Bobby Long and Scarlett Johanson as the female lead. He taught John Travolta songs he remembered from his youth sang by Fred Stokes, Bobby Long and his daddy. He had 6 songs in the movie, A Love Song For Bobby Long.

Grayson now lives in Franklin, Tennessee on a farm that once raised thoroughbreds. The Thoroughbred barn has burned down but his place has a creek that runs through it and it's own cave. His band is now the Stumpknockers, which is the name of the little bream he and his granddaddy caught when they fished together. The Stumpknockers are Tommy MacLuckie (lead guitar), Josh Kerin (bass) and Mobile native, John Milham (drums). The unique photo for Rott "N" Roll was taken in his back yard. The message is that he is running away (riding a tricycle) from the cigarettes & alcohol and is going toward a candle which is representative of steering his life toward the the light. That wagon is still sitting in his back yard. Rott "N" Roll was recorded there at his farm. His farm grows music much more than livestock and vegetables these days.

His desire is to be able to fly out and perform anyplace in the world on the weekend and have the rest of the week to spend with his family. He's very pleased with his deal with Hyena Records. He says, "It's mostly like a small family. They are on my side to help book and help me promote stuff. They do what they can. I still own everything like publishing, and licenses these records out for distribution. They are on my side, they don't have the money like the big guys, but them being on my side helps sometimes more than money. It works perfect for me because being an only child, pig headed, arrogant dude that thinks he can ram his way into anything, means that sometimes I shoot myself in the foot, and they are there to kind of pick me up, and push me forward."

Grayson Capps & The Stumpknockers bring "Rott 'N' Roll" to Little Willie's Saturday, October 25th.