Jim Lauderdale photo by @MikeDunnUSA
Americana Highways’ Key to the Highway series
Fans always clamor to learn more about their favorite, most beloved musicians and those who travel with them. There’s such an allure to the road, with its serendipity, inevitable surprises, and sometimes unexpected discomforts. This interview series is a set of questions we are asking some of our favorite roots rock Americana artists to get to know more about them and what they’ve learned and experienced on the road for music. We are sure they have key insights to share and stories to tell. Here’s one from Jim Lauderdale.
Americana Highways: How do you like your coffee or other morning wake-up beverage?
Jim Lauderdale: I like hot coffee with oat milk and cinnamon
AH: What’s the most interesting or strangest motel/hotel or place you have stayed (while on the road for music?)
JL: When Buddy Miller and I were out on the road in 1991 on an all night drive from Los Angeles to New Mexico we got to the hotel we were sharing a room in a small town. It was very hot and we were both exhausted and I went to brush my teeth before sleeping and look in the sink and there was dried puke with flies buzzing around it. I rinsed out the sink and then went to sleep for a few hours.
AH: If one CD is stuck in the player in the van for the entire tour, what do you hope it is? And why?
JL: The Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music. So many of those songs have deep influences on today’s music.
AH: What’s one personal item you must have with you on your road trip?
JL: The dictation app on my phone so I can sing melodies to write.
AH: What is your relationship with food? How do you handle this on the road, and what’s your favorite dish on the road, (or restaurant, and what do you order there)?
JL: A lot of the motels have a small assortment of breakfast items, the majority of them have oatmeal which I will eat and if not I’ll go to a diner and have some fried eggs over medium. Also I try to get a salad on a regular basis.
AH: If you could pause your life for a few weeks and spend some time living in a place you only have passed through, which would you choose, and why?
JL: Switzerland. There is a town called Frutigen where I used to play at a singer songwriter festival. It’s really beautiful in the mountains there, very breathtaking.
AH: What quote or piece of advice have you gotten from someone on the road that has really stuck with you?
JL: Don’t take any wooden bitcoins.
Find more information about his new album, and tour dates for Jim Lauderdale, here: https://www.jimlauderdalemusic.com
See other Key to the Highway interviews here: https://americanahighways.org/category/interviews/key-to-the-highway-series/ (click here for: Todd Park Mohr Vince Herman Jimmy Smith Ben Nichols Bruce Cockburn Charlie Musselwhite Nicki Bluhm Jim White Danny Barnes Patterson Hood Jerry Joseph BJ Barham Rodney Crowell Todd Snider Elizabeth Cook Tommy Womack Eric Ambel, Dan Baird, Robbie Fulks, Malcolm Holcombe Jon Langford Steve Poltz, Lilly Hiatt Sarah Shook & the Disarmers Sadler Vaden )
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