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| Interview With Lucy Webster |
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 Lucy Webster Interview
by Mitch Phillips
Ancient History
Lucy Deloach was born in Tenessee and raised in Pennsylvania by strict Southern Baptist parents. She showed an aptitude for music at an early age, banging out church songs on piano by ear for fellow bible students. She picked up the guitar at age 13, drawn to the instrument after a musical awakening at bible camp. When her father was convinced the guitar was more than just a flirtation, he bought her a “real” guitar at age 17 which she still owns and plays to this day. An homage to that guitar can be found as a hidden bonus track on “Keeping My Fingers Crossed.”
Lucy Webster Interview by Mitch Phillips
Ancient History
Lucy Deloach was born in Tenessee and raised in Pennsylvania by strict Southern Baptist parents. She showed an aptitude for music at an early age, banging out church songs on piano by ear for fellow bible students. She picked up the guitar at age 13, drawn to the instrument after a musical awakening at bible camp. When her father was convinced the guitar was more than just a flirtation, he bought her a “real” guitar at age 17 which she still owns and plays to this day. An homage to that guitar can be found as a hidden bonus track on “Keeping My Fingers Crossed.”
Lucy escaped her parents restrictive lifestyle when she fled Church Camp in New York for Grand Rapids, Michigan at age 19 with a girlfriend who wanted to go to art college. Webster didn’t go to art college, but started working instead and eventually married John Webster and had a son, Jasper.
After raising her son to adulthood and with the blessing and support of her husband , Lucy Webster seized an opportunity to indulge her lifelong passion with music and find out once and for all if she had what it takes. In 1996, at the age of 41, she began performing a handful of songs in a local coffee house in Grand Rapids. A year later, by forgoing the need for a new roof on her house, Lucy Webster released, "In My Opinion" - her debut CD whose title track deals with a close friend’s difficult divorce.
The success of that album has kept Webster working regularly and now promoting a new record, "Keeping My Fingers Crossed" that eclipses her debut in it’s breadth, ambition and complexity.
Lucy Webster has been featured on both “Acoustic Cafe” and Laney Goodman’s “Women In Music” radio programs. She’s been a finalist in the “Liltih Fair Talent Search” as well as “The New Folk Songwriting Contest.” Webster’s opened for such artists as Joan Osbourne, Brooks Williams, Lynn Miles and Jack Williams and is also featured on Taylor Guitars “Discover The Indies” website.
The following phone interview was taped on October 6th, 2001 from her home in Grand Rapids.
Interview With Lucy Webster 10/6/01
On age....
Mitch - Your husband, John, mentioned that before your son Jasper had grown up and out of the house you’d never really taken your music too seriously. You played only around the house and at church events. If that’s true, why not?
Lucy - Well, I was busy raising my son and John was driving a truck over the road for ten years so I tried to busy myself by doing something constructive. I had a small dried flower business. I sold things that I made and grew at a farmer’s market. I only played around the house and once in a while at church. After I’d walk Jasper to the bus stop in the morning I’d stay home and write to my four walls for years and years. And I was happy with that. Because I was raised in a really strict, religious home I wrote a lot of songs about God and what have you and just never ventured out writing about emotions and life. I just stayed in my house, in a box and my songwriting stayed in a box too.
Mitch - What inspired you to take your music further?
Lucy - I started writing songs that were not in the box. They were way out of the box. I think getting different people out of my life - pruning people out of my life. When you make that decision it causes a reaction and that sets off the power for other things to fall into place. So things started happening, my writing changed. And I realized, well, I couldn’t sing this song, like “Vermilion Skies” off my first CD; it’s just about a wonderful sunset. I wouldn’t have written that song previous to those changes in my life.
Mitch - You were about 40 when you played your first coffee house gig, right?
Lucy - I saw an ad in a local magazine for a open mic night. I really had never stepped into a coffee shop before or anything. I just started shaking and sweating and pacing the floor and finally called the number and the guy said, “Well just come in." More sweating, more pacing and i Just made the decision to go. I went with only a handful of songs and I played these to "cool" people who were smoking cigarettes and playing chess and drinking coffee and with all different colored hair and.....I just felt so at home. I played my handful of songs and came home really late and woke my husband up excited and said, “I MADE A DOLLAR TIP! AND I MET THESE COOL PEOPLE AND HAD SO MUCH FUN!” He was like, ‘Oh, that’s nice honey,’ and rolled over and went back to sleep. That was three days before the end of 1996 and I haven’t stopper performing in public since.
Mitch - Your first release, “In My Opinion” has been described as more of a folksy sound compared to “Keeping My Fingers Crossed.” Could you tell me where your head was at, musically, then as compared to now and why the change in direction?
Lucy - Boy, I don’t know. It’s just that everything was new. “In my opinion” was a song I wrote for my first CD about a friend who was going through a very difficult divorce. It just sounded like a perfect title for a CD and it worked. As far as the change in musical direction, we knew we had to bring the music and production up a notch. I think the lyrics and the music show a lot of growth from that first CD. And even though everyone loved the first one, I had to bring everything up a level. We found a new place to record. The gentleman that did it (John Fritz - Digital Arts in Grand Rapids, MI) normally doesn’t record. He does a lot of mastering but we talked to him and he said he’d like to record me. He had some wonderful equipment and compressors and great toys and stuff that just made me sound great. He put this “Mondo Mod” sound on my guitar that just really brought it out. It took a little over a year to record. Art sometimes takes time to develop.
Mitch - Women in the arts have historically been discriminated against for their looks or their age, especially now when it seems that anyone over 18 without super-model good looks and a belly-button piercing rarely emerges above the national radar. How do you think being older affects your chances in the Music Business?
Lucy - (laughter) Age is something that I think about once in a while and it would like to maybe overshadow me sometimes, get me down or off-focus and keep me off-goal. It is something you have to talk about but I’ve got women friends who are older who are still out there making the music. It’s maybe a little more difficult and there are some incredible younger artists out there who amaze me but I’ve still got a song to sing and to perform and I know that there’s people who need to hear it so I will just keep going. I’m just gonna keep making great music.
Mitch - There’s a photograph of what appears to be Barbie dressed in jewels and an evening gown on the inner sleeve of your CD. The world “Diva” appears behind her. Could you comment on why that’s there?
Lucy - My friend Rick (Devon) took that picture. He did the art arrangement for the CD. Those are gifts from people. There’s a Barbie hanging from my guitar case and the "Diva" thing's on a key chain. He just liked the way it looked and shot it. There's no deep metaphor there.
Mitch - Is your goal to be picked up by a major label?
Lucy - No, no. I wouldn’t want to because then they’d say, “well, you have to do it this way.” I have to tell ‘em to go jump off a....you know. The music industry is going to have to change and get up to speed with the independent artist. It's so easy, first off, to make a record these days and make a really good sounding record for under $10,000. My first one was like $5000 I think. "Keeping my Fingers Crossed" was closer to ten. A lot of friends were involved, so it was cookies, beer and pizza when we could pay them. And we will, you know. You never forget what people do; their kindness to you. Someday I’d just love to walk up and give them a zillion dollars. Someday...
Influences...
Mitch - Tell me about your earliest recollection of music and some of the people and records that inspired you to try your hand at songwriting.
Lucy -The only one I had - I was seventeen and I’d been playing for about three years - was at a girlfriends house. She said, “Oh, you have to hear this woman. She plays guitar and she’s great.” It was Joni Mitchell. The album was “For the Roses.” INSTANTLY, I fell in love with this woman and have had this mad love affair with her for all these years.. Her alternate guitar tunings and her love of words and how she puts them together was what attracted me to her. I do a lot of alternate tunings and I usually travel with three guitars; different sounding but also different tunings. So Joni was the only one who really influenced me growing up.
Mitch - In “Wrong Again,” my favorite track on your new CD, I hear a strong Carly Simon influence. Was she one of your influences?
Lucy - I get that comparison but she was never an influence on me.
Mitch - How did playing at the church inspire your music?
Lucy - Even when I was younger I would write songs on piano. I play by ear. I don’t know how to read or write music. I would write little songs and have the kids sing them. I’ve done that ever since I was young. But I was always thinking that I had to sing about God, or put his name in there somewhere. There was a time, around seventeen when I went through a rebellion with my parents where I actually wrote love songs but I was raised in a very strict, religious - don't wear make-up, don't wear jewelry kind of setting. I was born in Tennessee and come from a Southern Baptist background and it’s more superstitious and voodoo almost to me looking back. It’s not what my perception of God is nowadays in any way shape or form. God is a “fun guy” and he’s great. That’s my perception of him, not anything like what I was brought up to believe. There’s a joy and a freedom and He talks about everything in the world in the Bible and he’s not ashamed of it, not afraid to say certain words.
Mitch - Does Religion still play a part in your life?
Lucy - Yeah, it does. I will always have a faith and a belief that there’s something more to this life than meets the eye.
Keeping My Fingers Crossed
Mitch - I understand you’re finally getting your roof fixed, congratulations.
Lucy - (sings, “Hallelujah!” -laughter) Yeah, the music hasn’t paid off yet but the loan for the roof came through.
Mitch - You stated in previous interviews that you paid for the recording and release of “In my opinion” instead of getting your roof fixed.
Lucy - Yeah, it was. “do we make a CD or put a roof on the house.” I didn’t even know what a CD was practically. It was John’s idea. My husband has much more or a vision for me than I do because he just believes in me so much. He’s very supportive and I wouldn’t be five years down the road where I am and have gone and done what I have without his support.
Mitch - Is “From Where I’m Standing” from the new record in reference to that roof leak?
Lucy - I was sitting in the living room and sunshine was coming through the porch roof. I thought, “Oh, the sun’s coming through the roof. That’s too happy. Let’s make it rain!” I have had , like, waterfalls coming through my breezeway. I had a friend show up for practice, and while he was waiting there was like, literally, a waterfall coming down on his head.
Mitch - Tell me about the title “Keeping My Fingers Crossed.” What are you keeping your fingers crossed for?
Lucy - There’s no song by that name. I just thought it’s a great thing to have hope. Life is very hard. Coming from a household where growing up was, ‘if you do this you’re accepted, if you do that we reject you.’ So rejection has followed me and plagued me my entire life. The song “So it goes” sort of deals with that. I’m venting in that song. Keeping my fingers crossed for the second disc was, you know, you wonder; will people still like me? Hopefully they will. So it’s a sign of hope and encouragement to just keep going even though life is really hard and in spite of whether people like you or not. I’m very optimistic even though it’s difficult. You do music it because it in your soul. It was in me when I was birthed. Now it's my time and If i didn’t think it was my time now I wouldn’t be doing it because it’s very hard; to promote yourself and get your music on radio stations, contact newspapers and magazines when you go into a town and on and on and on. It’s 95 percent business and five percent music. I just came back from Minnesota where I was a finalist in a national folk festival. I didn’t win but I was a finalist so there’s one more thing I can use to my credit when promoting.
Mitch - If you were to make a marketing pitch to a major label for this album, what particular audience or market you want this record to reach? Where do you see Lucy Webster in the national musical landscape?
Lucy - It’s more pop oriented I think even though there’s a cornucopia of styles on this album. I thought it might just appeal more to women but I’m getting a real good mix of folks who like it.
On Songwriting
Mitch - There’s such a glut of independently released material the world over; more supply than will ever be in demand. Do you ever find the immense amount of material out there to be daunting?
Lucy - Yeah, because, again it’s so easy to make CD’s now. Folks give me CD’s all the time. I do like to listen to everything and give them some feedback. I think anybody who attempts to do something like that - my hat’s off to them. I’ve not heard terrible, awful things - well, there’s been a few. The amount of material is overwhelming but there’s a place for everybody. There has to be and you have to keep finding it, looking for it and keep going.
Mitch - Why are you compelled to create your own music?
Lucy - Because I walk and I drive and I talk to people and words are just forming in my head all the time. It’s always with me. It’s like I go for a walk and a burning bush is glowing in the sun and all the leaves have come undone....I’m like, shoot, I forgot my paper and pencil! Then I’m like no, you’re supposed to be walking, clear you mind! But that’s a phrase that came to me the other day.
Mitch - There are several references to flowers, gardening and seasons in you lyrics. Do you consider yourself an Earth Mother/coffee-house/new-age type of woman?
Lucy - (laughter) No, that’s what I did. I worked the earth, the ground, I canned anything that would hold still for years. I admired the earth and creation and flowers and that’s what I did while my husband was out driving.
Mitch - I understand you host a songwriters group at a local bookstore. Could you tell me how you got involved in this?
Lucy - I went to a songwriters retreat out in Harbor Springs Michigan three years ago and I was so geeked being with sixty-plus songwriters. You get a song assignment on Friday afternoon and you have to write a song and perform it Sunday morning. We’d be up jamming and partying all night long and then come Sunday, all these people would have these great songs. I was thinking, “When did you write that? You were up all night partying with me!” But we all seemed to find the time to write songs and It inspired me.
When I came home I thought, ‘I have to continue this togetherness somehow.’ I approached a bookstore that was just putting the finishing touches on an auditorium in the store. Once a month for four hours songwriters come and talk about the ups and downs of songwriting and how the last month has been. Then everybody shares two songs. We have a nice little sound system. It’s inspires and encourages those people who come to keep going, to keep at it. I think you have to hang with people of like passion so you stay connected. It’s not a one-person thing. I have to give back to my community. I want to be with writers of all levels cause we’re all learning. There are beginners and there are those who are definitely advanced. I love ‘em all.
Mitch - Has it improved your songwriting abilities?
Lucy - It’s kept me writing. Staying connected does help in keeping you inspired. I think, boy, I need two songs by next month. I try to write something every day or every other day. I just put something up on the web site yesterday - a song I wrote about the September 11th tragedy. Folks can go to the front page, click on the American flag and they can listen to a song I wrote called “Anymore.”
Mitch - What was your take on that?
Lucy - I came at it from a totally different perspective. I started two songs. One was coming from the flag’s perspective and that didn’t work. So I came at it from a woman who has to go back to work and she misses somebody she lost. The song is featured on my website www.lucywebster.com. Just click the flag and it’ll take you to a site where you can listen to the song in Realaudio.
Mitch - Could you tell me what your involvement is with promoting independent music and why you think it’s important.
Lucy - I support local artists by going to see them play locally. But I also support our local community radio station WYCE. They just had a fall fund drive and I volunteered for the phones and sang a couple songs. It’s a community run, commercial-free station. You can heart into this station because there’s nothing like it. So I make cookies - I’m known as the “cookie-lady” down there. I’ve made a CD specially for them and gave them fifty copies for donations and raised three or four thousand dollars. I couldn’t give them that kind of money so I did the CD project for them instead. I did it because I’m very appreciative for what they’re doing. I wouldn’t be heard in town without that station and you can’t get that kind of radio anywhere else.
Mitch - Tell me about Red Jag Records, your label you released “Keeping My Fingers Crossed” on. What’s with the Red Jag?
Lucy - My dad, while I was growing up, was working as a mechanic for Reidman Brothers, which at that time had the world’s largest car dealership in Langhorn, Pennsylvania - , like 260 + acres of cars. The Reidman Brothers themselves drove Rolls Royces and Bentleys and MGs and all these really slick cars. My dad would bring them home and workk on them sometimes and I never really noticed until he brought home a red Jaguar. I was like, "Oh, dad! I Like that!" When the CD was finished and the deadline for duplication was coming up we had to think of a name for the label quick. “Red Jag” is a song on the first CD that’s about having a hard time waking up in the morning and I’d rather lay there and fantasize about driving a red jag down the freeway at 90mph. So Red Jag, that’s where that came from. A friend of my son had a jag that was smashed up and needed a lot of work. We got it for an absolute song and my husband and son put it back together. It’s not red, it’s more like burgundy, but it’s a Jag and It’s so slick I feel like a queen driving it. It’s only taken me forty-some years to get it but I finally did and I just love it.
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