MARVIN ETZIONI: Returns with ‘MARVIN COUNTRY!’ Fourth Studio Album Due April 17 on Nine Mile Records; SXSW Show on Tap for March 15

— Marvin Etzioni

This spring, groundbreaking singer-songwriter and record producer Marvin Etzioni, co-founder and a principal songwriter for the pioneering Los Angeles roots rock band Lone Justice, will release his fourth solo studio album MARVIN COUNTRY! (Nine Mile Records). Streeting April 17, it is being issued as a two-CD set, a double album (Audiophile 180-Gram Vinyl) and digitally.

Look for Marvin to make a special appearance at SXSW on March 15 at Skinny’s Ballroom as part of the Nine Mile Records/Davis McLarty Agency official showcase. Marvin will take the stage at 9pm. Skinny’s is located at 115 San Jacinto Blvd. in Austin.

MARVIN COUNTRY! features a distinguished cast of iconic guests and includes duets with Lucinda Williams (“Lay It On The Table”), Maria McKee (“You Possess Me”), Steve Earle (“Ain’t No Work In Mississippi”), Richard Thompson (“It Don’t Cost Much”), Buddy Miller (“Living Like A Hobo”) and John Doe (“The Grapes Of Wrath”). The Dixie Hummingbirds add their gospel harmonies to “You Are The Light,” a reprise of the Etzioni original that closed the debut album by Lone Justice.

MARVIN COUNTRY! is a diverse mix of back porch country, barroom weepers, clapboard church gospel, haunting folk and dusty blues. A multi-instrumentalist, Marvin plays mandolin, mandocello, guitar, bass, Mellotron, porchboard, casio, piano and drums. Of course, he had a little help from his friends. Don Heffington on drums, Greg Leisz on pedal steel and Tammy Rogers on fiddle, to name a few. Marvin goes it alone on “Man Without a Country,” “Miss This World” and “God’s Little Mansion.”

Marvin was born in Brooklyn and raised in Los Angeles. He went to solo performances by Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman and was front row center for Fairport Convention (with Sandy Denny) at the Troubadour. He got to see the first shows by the New York Dolls, Cheap Trick, and witnessed Iggy Pop and the Stooges’ Raw Power shows at the Whisky A-Go-Go. Marvin also never missed a show by the Kinks. In 1976 he formed his first band, The Model, who recorded with Bruce Springsteen’s producer Chuck Plotkin and engineer Toby Scott. The Model played the first month Madame Wong’s was opened. They co-billed shows around the city with The Motels, Translator, The Plimsouls and other up-and-coming bands. The album was never released and the band broke up. Marvin took another direction, becoming a solo, acoustic singer-songwriter in 1980, when everyone seemed to be playing synth-pop or heavy metal.

Within a couple of years, he co-founded Lone Justice. They released their first album, headlined a European tour, and returned to the states supporting U2 and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Prior to their second album, Marvin again set off on his own path, producing acts including Toad the Wet Sprocket, Peter Case, Counting Crows and Grammy-winner Grey DeLisle.

One of Marvin’s most recorded songs, “Can’t Cry Hard Enough,” co-written with David Williams, became a Top 20 hit for the Williams Brothers. “Are You Beautiful,” co-written with Chris Pierce (who appears on the closing track of MARVIN COUNTRY!), was chosen for a Banana Republic television commercial, appears in the film Phat Girlz, and on the soundtrack to the Oscar-winning film Crash. Marvin also co-wrote the song “Miracle” on The Latest by Cheap Trick.

Marvin played mandolin on the multi-platinum/multi-Grammy-winning album Taking the Long Way by the Dixie Chicks and with T-Bone Burnett on The Larry Sanders Show. He also appears on the Gram Parsons Tribute DVD playing mandolin in the backing band with a star-studded cast that includes Keith Richards, Norah Jones and Jay Farrar.

Marvin released three solo albums to critical acclaim, The Mandolin Man (1991), Bone (1992) and Weapons Of The Spirit (1994), which were lavished with praise by the press. And now at last he’s back with MARVIN COUNTRY! The album is full of ghosts and full of life, with songs inspired by faith, love, hope, the Great Depression, Dylan, Kurt Vonnegut and Marvin’s grandfather, who gave him a mandolin at age eight, changing the course of The Mandolin Man forever.

Here’s a brief Q&A with Marvin.

How do you feel the musical legacy of Lone Justice has influenced the scene today?
MARVIN ETZIONI: If Lone Justice was playing a show like it was playing in ‘83 or ‘84 right now, it would be completely contemporary. It was about the songs. I don’t care if it’s going to be a ballad or if it’s going to have punk energy. I don’t care, that was all just the frame. It’s a matter of the songs. The songs have stood the test of time. I’ll still stand by that group with Ryan, Maria, Heffington and myself. It was kind of a crystallized moment in time. If Lone Justice was doing a tour with Lucinda Williams or the Dixie Chicks or The Cranberries, who are getting back together, no one would go, “Why is that happening?” It would be a timeless event. There are some new artists discovering LJ for the first time. They go to the first album or YouTube and find raw footage from the Palomino [a pivotal and now-defunct club in North Hollywood, California] when we were first starting out. The center of what makes a band timeless is the songwriting.

On the first single, “Grapes of Wrath” with John Doe of X, how did that come about?
MARVIN ETZIONI: Lone Justice used to play it live before our first album. The song was influenced by Merle Haggard, but we were all big fans of X. When I cut the song for MARVIN COUNTRY!, I immediately thought of John Doe. He was great to work with. John got the essence of the song.

On “Lay It On The Table” you brought in Lucinda Williams.
MARVIN ETZIONI: The song is a true story about divorce. I started it on my own and went as far as I could go. I was introduced to a guy name Red Lane, who lived in a grounded airplane in Nashville. He’s a great songwriter. We finished the song and had some moonshine. Then with song in hand, I went back to L.A. I was doing a gig with Lucinda and I called her up on stage to sing with me. When Donald “The Clock” Lindley and I cut it, we both looked at each other and went, ‘We gotta get Lucinda on this.’ That song took a long time to get it the way I heard it in my head. I flew back to Nashville to record her vocal. Lu tried to sing along with the pre-recorded vocal with headphones. It felt too divided and separate. I look for good timing in vocals, like a dialogue. So I said, ‘Let’s stop this. Let’s put the mic’s in the control room, turn the monitors on. You stand here and face me. I’ll stand here and face you. Let’s sing it live.” I love those George Jones and Tammy Wynette duet records. I loved working with Lu. I did the pre-production tapes for her West album, recording song after song with her on my four-track cassette machine. I respect her because she’s followed her dream for as long as I’ve known her and I’ve known her since the mid-‘80s. There’s roots music and then there’s roots with people. I have to have roots with people and I have roots with her. The thing about MARVIN COUNTRY! is, every single person on this record I have roots with.

You team up with Maria McKee on “You Possess Me.” What did she bring to the song?
MARVIN ETZIONI: Maria and I will always be connected. She’s family to me. If I saw her every day or if I didn’t see her for five years, she’ll always be in my heart. That’s just how it is. We reconnected after I hadn’t worked with her for about eight years, after the first Lone Justice album. Then we started writing songs for her second solo album You Gottta Sin to Get Saved. When I told her I was recording “You Possess Me” I asked if she would do a vocal on it. She was there in a heartbeat for me. I’m very thankful for that.

Where was the album recorded?
MARVIN ETZIONI: It started in Nashville. Duane Jarvis, Donald Lindley and I were just going to start this album on our own and call friends in Nashville to show up. We went to a studio, had it all booked and not one piece of equipment worked right. We quickly moved to House of David and I remember they showed me a trapdoor they’d made for Elvis Presley. If people showed up and he wanted to make a getaway, he could jump down to his convertible and drive away. It was a chute, like Batman. Good enough for Elvis, good enough for MARVIN COUNTRY! We set up shop, Donald on drums, Steve Fishell on pedal steel, Gurf Morlix on bass, Tammy Rogers on fiddle, Buddy Miller and Duane on guitars. We would just all get together every day or whenever everybody could show up and I’d bring in songs and we just knocked them out. Other songs were recorded in L.A. and the album was mixed in Thousand Oaks. I also went to New York to cut Steve Earle’s vocal.

MARVIN COUNTRY! is a double-album, a mix of Americana, a little country and electronic touches. Also, the varied array of guests…. What inspired you this time to keep musically expanding?
MARVIN ETZIONI: It was a challenge, I had never done a double album before. My reference point for a double album is The White Album, my favorite album of all time. You can’t classify that album. It was everything under the sun and everything that they had to give. Even Blonde on Blonde — which was a fantastic double album — is more cohesive as a work. Exile on Main St is another fantastic double album. With The White Album, The Beatles took the Revolver concept to the stratosphere. I was working with my engineer/mixer/co-producer, David Vaught, and my Holy Brother/A&R man, Willie Aron, who encouraged me to go for the double disc. It’s not a rock opera, but there’s a personal story on the record, a thread. Thematically, it’s about love, loss, divorce, my dad, my mom, my son and my connection to God.

What were the pivotal albums in your life growing up?
MARVIN ETZIONI: Well I was a real singles kid. I had 45s by The Dave Clark Five, The Beatles and The Kinks. To me, an album had to have ten or twelve really good songs on it. I loved singles by The Animals, Herman’s Hermits and Donovan as well—anything produced by Mickie Most. In elementary school, I won a prize and could pick any record I wanted. I chose High Tide and Green Grass by the Rolling Stones, the first greatest hits album they made. I remember my grandfather getting me Meet The Beatles! He originally got me Beatlerama, a spin off on The Beatles. I had a weekly ritual with my family (grandparents included). We’d go to Sears and I’d buy a single for like 58 cents—thanks to the dollar a week I got from my folks. One day Herman’s Hermits’ There’s a Kind Of Hush album came out and my parents got it for me. I started crying in the record store. I said, “Are you sure? You’re going to get me this entire album? So many great songs are on it.” As much as I loved all those albums as an eight year old, they were will filled with songs, but not concepts. The first album that really changed everything for me was Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon. Other life changing albums include Exodus by Bob Marley, What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye and Hunky Dory by David Bowie. Favorite producers include George Martin and Dr. Dre. But as a kid, I just loved 45s. And I still love ‘em. If I can hear a great song I don’t care who it’s by. That’s all you need in the world is that one song.

www.marvincountry.com

Catch Marvin Etzioni and his full band on the road, more select dates TBA:

MARVIN COUNTRY! album cover.

 

Pictured above, the debut album from Lone Justice.

 

To request an interview with Marvin, receive a copy of MARVIN COUNTRY! or check out the show contact:

Libby Coffey//MSO (818) 380-0400, ext. 224
LCoffey@msopr.com

 

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