Paul Benjaman photo by Phil Clarkin
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 Paul Benjaman.
Americana Highways: How do you like your coffee or other morning wake-up beverage?
Paul Benjaman: The morning is all about rehydration from the previous night’s vices, so I drink a lot of water in the morning. I drink coffee at night – if you’re not doing the drugs you need that java boost to get you into rock’n roll mode. Lotsa cream no sugar, thanks.
AH: What’s the most interesting or strangest motel/hotel or place you have stayed (while on the road for music?)
PB: There was a hostel in the Netherlands that once was a garrison for troops around 1600. It had a drawbridge and they wisely put us at the top floor away from other guests, but man there were a lot of stairs to climb after the night’s festivities.
AH: If one CD is stuck in the player in the van for the entire tour, what do you hope it is? And why?
PB: Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Nine Tonight. It’s a live album with Tulsa legend David Teegarden on drums powering the band (I often tour with his son Matt Teegarden on drums). You can hear the sweat and audience energy and it inspires you to push to the next town.
AH: What’s one personal item you must have with you on your road trip?
PB: Handy Wipes. Picture yourself rolling down a gravel backroad to an outdoor festival stage hot enough to fry an egg on. You’re going on in 5 minutes, the nearest bathroom is 100 yards away and all the water has already been drank by the sound crew. You load in your amps and now you’re having a hard time playing your dirty licks for the crowd because your dirty fingers are sticking to your dirty strings. Handy Wipes are a life saver.
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)?
PB: Local eats are a vital part of the voyage (and sometimes the greatest reward). Wherever you go you can trust the sound guy to recommend the best spots and if you have time the next day hitting a local diner for breakfast gets you through a long day’s drive. Good eats keep the band together.
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?
PB: Touring France. Humans have existed in France long enough to know how to really live life, and all the American cliches disappear outside Paris. You might play a stage by a lake or an ancient armoury converted to a concert hall, or roll by a castle tower to discover they built a club in there and that’s where you’ll play. Every town has a bakery and you can get a baguette for 1.50 euro. Yes all the food is better and you typically have a meal with the entire show production crew. Somehow every hurdle you’ve had to jump in this tough career is now worth it.
AH: What quote or piece of advice have you gotten from someone on the road that has really stuck with you?
PB: “Show up on time – wear a clean shirt.” This was an old phrase from a mentor who directed jazz big bands. It’s classic noir about arriving prepared for the gig and I repeat it a lot to myself and friends (though the clean shirt is optional).
Find more information about his new album, and tour dates for Paul Benjaman, here: https://www.paulbenjamanband.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 Jim Lauderdale 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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