Sam Rives Interview

Sam Rives plays the trumpet in Sweet Spirit's horn section.

What's one song you know by heart and will never forget?

My best friend growing up was Jewish--his family wasn't hugely devout, maybe, but I think they did subscribe to a magazine called "Reform Judaism."  My family didn't really have much religion at all (our halfhearted yearlong attempt to "go Catholic" notwithstanding), so I kind of envied the fact that he had a whole spiritual/cultural community/past to tap into.  Anyway, I guess he went away to camp one summer and came back making fun of this song he'd learned.  I memorized the words to be in on the joke.  And to feel like less of a wandering heathen.  Favorite bit is probably "when you're not home, and you're somewhere kind of... new-ish."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHu87vWimTg

 

If you were to create a super-band who would be in it...dead or alive?

They are mostly dead.  Maybe I can hold a seance...

Drums: Al Jackson, Jr., of the MG's and the Stax and Hi house bands.  That would be enough.  I would need no one else.  There is no one I want more.  Alt.: Kenny Buttrey.

Guitar: Steve Cropper, also of the MG's.  I think I'm just naming the MG's now.  But his combination of lead and rhythm is flawless.

Bass: Aston "Family Man" Barrett.  I've never been a big reggae-head, but this man's solid, tactful, exuberant, melodic playing is one of the great gifts to recorded sound.  I would also welcome Donald "Duck" Dunn since his MG's bros would already be hanging out.

Winds: Johnny Hodges, alto.  Coleman Hawkins, tenor.  Gerry Mulligan, baritone.  Bix Beiderbecke, trumpet, in spite of his alcoholism.  All of these guys would be slumming it a bit in an R&B/soul/blues environment, and they might sound a bit old-fashioned.  But the music would swing hard as fuck.

Piano: Paul Griffin, from those beautiful, massive, swelling choruses on "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)." Also, he was on "Like a Rolling Stone" and lots of other Dylan. 

Organ: Garth Hudson of the Band, swapping out with Cory Henry, a new jazz player who's probably one of the few real young geniuses alive today.

Vocals: I get to sing, since the whole point of forming a hodgepodge dream band is subjecting all these hotshots to my will and forcing them to play my songs.  I may be wrong, but it's probably too late for me to learn that lesson now.

What do you do and how did you get started?

For work, I teach children to read.  Musically, I sing and write songs for my band (the ole Willy Chapel--https://soundcloud.com/willychapel), toot a horn for Sweet Spirit, and play occasional country gigs and such around town.  In high school I decided to start writing songs, so I went into my neighborhood pawn shop and spent $50 on a crappy busted Casio keyboard.  I wrote a song about my friend's dog.  Then I wrote a song called "Nothing At All" which, unsurprisingly, was about just that. Nothing at all, that is.  But I kept going because I liked doing it, and now I think I'm better at it than I've ever been.  Which is a relief.

 

"I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger"...go

I wish I had just eaten the damn sweet potatoes.  I missed many Thanksgivings-full of those, all because they were unappetizingly orange.

Tell us about your best friend.

She is named Jessica, and she is my wife.  BARRFFFFFF... But freal, friends.  I'm not ashamed to tell you.  We've been together since we were fifteen.  We started our adulthood together.  She plays music with me.  She has her shit together.  She is the bread-winner.  She tried to grow tomatoes once, but only one came out.  She loves cats, so we have two.  She was a gymnast, so that was her childhood.  She loves me back.

What's something that you were afraid of but did anyway?

I can't swim.  When I was a kid, my family would go down to Nags Head, and someone would invariably goad me into the water.  I was afraid of drowning, I guess. But I went in! Like, a few times!  I don't go to the beach much anymore, since that's the easiest way of avoiding the problem.  But my friend's mom once said, "learn to swim or you'll drown in a vat someday."  I don't know why she said "vat" and not "river" or "bathtub."  But I still believe there's a huge, cartoonish water barrel waiting for me somewhere in a roadrunner-vs-the-coyote-style trap.  I tread lightly.