STARPOLISH: Here's your chance to
plug an artist who may not get enough attention.
CURFMAN: Doyle Bramhall II -
him, definitely. Now he's on the [new] Eric Clapton record and has
the whole world tour, so I think this is kind of a breaking point
for him, which is great 'cause he's one of my all-time favorites.
[We had] a really weird situation, but luckily it ended up being
really cool. We played in L.A. at the Roxy, and we were like, "Who
else is playing?" And they said, "Doyle Bramhall is opening up,"
and we were like, "Oh, no. No, no…" When my manager came in and
told us that, we were actually in rehearsal learning two of Doyle's
songs!
STARPOLISH: Did you have to drop them?
www.shannoncurfman.com
CURFMAN: We didn't play them
for that show. But we still play them and people absolutely love
them. But he's definitely one of my all-time favorites.
STARPOLISH: Another question has to deal with you appearing
at the Women in Rock conference in Seattle. What were the highlights
of that show for you? Was it political for you, or strictly music?
CURFMAN: I guess the biggest
highlight for me was getting my whole band and crew back together.
We hadn't been on tour in quite a while at that point, and it was
really a big reunion for us, and a lot of people didn't know that
-- it was a pretty special occasion. Also, it was cool having Amy
Ray from the Indigo Girls come. She came to our show, and on what
she says is her favorite of my songs, she came up and just started
singing! It was totally cool. And that's how the tour was, kind
of an open mike kind of thing. There were always other mikes on
the stage, and if you wanted to sing you could just walk up and
do it. It was a really laid back kind of vibe. So I guess performing
with my own band again, and having her come up and sing.
STARPOLISH: Someone wrote in to our site and asked, "Where's
your custom red G&L guitar - he thinks it has the sweetest sound.
CURFMAN: I know exactly who
this is! I have no idea where my guitars are…I guess they're in
storage…
STARPOLISH: On the cover of your album, it looks like
you're holding a Thinline Tele…
CURFMAN: Yeah, that's Kevin
Bowe's guitar, my main co-writer on the album. I've been trying
to convince him to sell it to me, but he won't do it. So…my G&L
is in storage, but I'll probably take it out for the next tour...I'm
playing Fenders and PRS' [Paul Reed Smiths] now live because it
gives me more of the tone that I need.
STARPOLISH: Was the PRS [guitarist] David Grissom's influence?
CURFMAN: That was a big part
of it. Then I started seeing them popping up more and more, and
with Carlos, I started thinking I should really check these guys
out. I was at NAMM (a music industry trade show) a couple of years
back and we were hanging with David Grissom and he was doing a little
show at the PRS booth, and it was amazing. And [the PRS people]
said, "We want to talk to you," so we went in the back and they
said, "When you come to Indianapolis we'll give you a tour and some
guitars," and I was like, "Yeah!" I ended up going there and absolutely
loved it.
