Thursday, December 15, 2011
By John Benson
The last time revered folk artist David Bromberg visited Kent State University, he shared the stage with jazz piano great Dr. John at the college’s popular folk festival.
Four years later, Bromberg returned to his friend for help with his latest album, “Use Me,” a creative endeavor that found the singer-guitarist being, well, used by his peers.
“The principle of it was I called up a bunch of people and asked them to write a song for me and then to produce me doing it,” said Bromberg, calling from Bethlehem, Pa. “It was an awful lot to ask, especially people who are so busy as they are. I was very surprised and very pleased they agreed.”
Bromberg hypothesizes that the uniqueness of the project proved too good to pass up for the likes of the aforementioned Dr. John, as well as John Hiatt, Levon Helm, Los Lobos, Tim O’Brien, Vince Gill, Widespread Panic, Keb’ Mo’ and Linda Ronstadt.
The result is almost a cover record in reverse, where instead of Bromberg paying homage to his friends by playing their hits, he decided to up the ante and allow them to channel their sound and style through his performance.
Invariably, the 11-track “Use Me” boasts different approaches and styles, which Bromberg said is quite unique in his vast catalog. However, the results didn’t come without a few bumps in the road.
“Mostly, I got the tunes well in advance, but one or two I said, ‘This is something I can’t do; can you give me something else?’” Bromberg said. “They always did. But there were a couple of them where I really didn’t have the tunes until I flew into town to record them. So that was a risk, but I’m surprised the record holds together so tightly. It’s better than a lot of my other records.”
There are a lot of records in Bromberg’s career, which began in the mid-’60s Greenwich Village folk scene.
This is where he honed his versatile guitar playing style. This eventually led to becoming a popular session guitarist for the likes of Bob Dylan, Link Wray, The Eagles, Ringo Starr, Willie Nelson and Carly Simon.
Over the decades, the folk legend has released numerous albums as well as continued to perform with his own quartet and occasionally reunited with his big band.
In talking to Bromberg, he has no need to discuss his impact on the folk scene. Instead, he told the following story that epitomizes his musical spirit.
“When I was a kid, at one point I got a voice-music tape recorder and I tape-recorded my albums,” Bromberg said. “One day I realized I was spending so much time doing that that I wasn’t listening to it and wasn’t connecting to the material. I was just dealing with it. And that was the end of that, and that was the end of a lot of things.”
So what about his legacy?
“Damned if I know,” Bromberg said. “That’s another one of those ‘separate yourself and look at this from a distance.’ I don’t look at stuff from a distance.”