Key to the Highway: Rachael Sage

Americana Highways

4 months ago

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 Rachael Sage.

Americana Highways: How do you like your coffee or other morning wake-up beverage?

Rachael Sage: I don’t drink coffee, and haven’t for many years, but in college I drank about 6 cups a day and was continually over-caffeinated! Nowadays, I love matcha and usually have it with almond or oat milk. I’m very lucky that where I live in The Hudson Valley has an abundance of coffee shops that sell matcha, but on tour I just make it myself. I didn’t even know what it was until I started watching the TV show “Mozart In The Jungle,” but now I’m definitely hooked! It’s also known to be cancer-preventative so, as a cancer survivor, it’s great to know my only addiction is actually good for me!

AH: What’s the most interesting or strangest motel/hotel or place you have stayed (while on the road for music?)

RS: I really love staying in Pineapple Hotels! It’s a fun hotel chain on the West Coast, and I’m always happy to roll into the one in Portland or San Francisco because I know I’ll get a great night’s sleep. They’re decorated yellow with a pineapple theme and there’s lots of cute decor the minute you enter the lobby (oversized penguins!). Every room comes with the cutest little stuffed animal dog that’s their mascot and the very best European-style bedding I’ve ever experienced – just a duvet, no sheets – and a super comfy mattress. The lobby has a bright red piano and colorful paintings on the walls and it just feels very “me.” Also they give out pineapple cookies at Happy Hour which make my bandmates very happy…

AH: If one CD is stuck in the player in the van for the entire tour, what do you hope it is? And why?

RS: Unfortunately, very few of the tour vehicles we rent have CD players anymore (it’s been ages since we encountered one that did!), but we’re always hooking up our phones to the van speakers and mixing it up! On the latest leg of our “Under My Canopy Tour,” we were listening to our fabulous tourmate Kristen Ford’s new album Pinto quite a bit and the brilliant Jesse Wells, along with one of my favorite artists Fantastic Negrito and the new records by The Swell Season and Sarah McLachlan. Elvis Costello is my #1 so he’s always gonna be on my playlists – especially “Spike” and “The Juliet Letters.” I have ADD so I probably wouldn’t wanna listen to anything for an entire tour no matter how much I love it though, ha!

AH: What’s one personal item you must have with you on your road trip?

RS: I must have comfortable shoes. Yes, I’m a bit of a fashionista, but if the black platform boots hit a “wall” and start hurting my feet I’m gonna be unhappy because walking is my favorite pastime besides music and art-making. I always have some colorful but comfortable sneakers!

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)?

RS: In all honesty, I try not to have a “relationship” with food and instead try to approach food as medicine à la Hippocrates. I was a big foodie and emotional eater for a large part of my life, but now, with rare exception, I eat mainly for health and nourishment (I try to stick to an “Anti-Cancer Diet” that’s mostly veggie and some fish) and try not to endow eating with the level of intensity it absolutely had for me in my younger years when I was either addicted to sugar or just craving my next meal in a bit of an unbalanced way. As a former ballet dancer, eating was always fraught with either too much intoxication or too much denial, so now I just try to find the healthy option wherever I am – the salad with avocado, the Greek yogurt with berries – and to be grateful when the quality is reasonably fresh and I know I’m being as kind as possible to my body. That being said, I could eat Middle Eastern food every day of the week and be happy! Hummus is my favorite food and I won’t say no to good Indian cuisine ever – especially in the UK.

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?

RS: I would love to spend more time in Florence, Italy and Barcelona, Spain. I have been to these incredible places briefly on tour, but would welcome any excuse to go back and deepen my existing affection for their local culture!

AH: What quote or piece of advice have you gotten from someone on the road that has really stuck with you?

RS: I recently watched the Lilith Fair documentary “Building A Mystery” and it was so nostalgic for me because I played it towards the end of the festival. I received a great piece of advice on a press panel with Suzanne Vega, who encouraged me – and all the other emerging artists in attendance – to ignore the endless advice of lawyers, managers, and other industry folks when it came to actually making one’s art. She stressed how important it was as an artist to block out the “noise” of all those extra opinions and noted how much they can dilute an artists’ true vision. While I love a good roundtable and am always open to constructive criticism, I’ve always remembered and appreciated that advice. When I make my albums and am actually recording – like during the process of creating my new album Canopy – I don’t play the material to anyone who’s not in the band until it feels fully realized musically. Mixes, sure, but I try to avoid too much creative “interference”; if we love it and it feels honest and fully-realized, I trust that there’ll be listeners who will connect with it, too.

Find Rachel’s new album here: https://mpress.lnk.to/Canopy, and tour dates here: https://rachaelsage.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 )