Bob Egan - From Being There To Coming Here

ATN News - ATN Australia
Martin Jones

A tour with Wilco changed the life of Bob Egan - former member of Souled American and Freakwater - now in Australia for his own gigs.

Guitarist Bob Egan has had some life. Specializing in steel guitar playing, Egan was a member of Souled American in the late 80s before reappearing as part of the Freakwater line up some years later. But it wasn't until Jeff Tweedy lured Egan away from his Chicago guitar repair shop to join Wilco for the infamous Being There tour (it was the support gig with Johnny Cash that proved impossible to refuse), that Egan's life turned down its most significant fork in the road.

No one forsaw the popularity that Being There would earn Wilco. The extended tour lead to the Mermaid Avenue project and a hundred new musical friends and associations for Egan. One of those was Bazil Donovan whom he played with on Oh Susanna's Johnstown recording and who asked Egan to join Canadian heroes Blue Rodeo.

In the middle of all that, Egan somehow found time to write and record a wonderful solo album and is bringing his live interpretations of those songs, as well some brand new material, to Australia later this week.

"Yeah, well I'll do the whole record pretty much," Egan forecasts the content of his Australian shows, after explaining that he's been working hard on new material to road test out here, "do half a dozen new things, and I've got to come up with a cover, any suggestions? I'm having trouble thinking about it, maybe a Crowded House cover."

After discussing whether Crowded House are Australian, and whether Paul Hester might even turn up to one of the shows, I point out that the Mermaid Avenue project was very popular here. Dismissing Crowded House in favor of Woody Guthrie, Egan instantly promises to play something from Mermaid Avenue.

"I remember we were doing Mermaid Avenue," Egan recalls one of his many great experiences with Jeff Tweedy, "we were doing the first record and I went in to play some steel and so we're running through the song and I'm playing and it's the first time I'd heard the song right, I do first takes a lot. And while I'm playing it I'm listening to the words, and I'm think 'oh my goodness' I thought it was autobiographical. And afterwards, I went up to Jeff and I said, 'Jeez, I didn't know this was going on in your life'. And he looked at me and said 'Woody Guthrie wrote those lyrics in 1952! So OK that tells you two things: number one, what a performer Jeff is that he made those words his own, and number two, what a phenomenal writer Woody Guthrie was."

Though constantly playing with others, Egan didn't get around to writing and recording his own debut until 1998. Don't think he wasn't readying himself for the moment all that time though and in that respect, his experiences have been invaluable.

"I got to learn from a master," says Egan, again speaking of Tweedy, "how he works the crowd, how he writes, I got to watch him compose the music and in my opinion that guy is a genius. So it helped, on one hand watching him was very inspiring, it opened a lot of doors for me and my writing style, ways to approach it. On the other hand it was very intimidating because he's just so damned good….

"But I learned a lot from Billy Bragg too. He's a man I respect for his passion and his political stances and his delivery. I guess, yeah. I've had a pretty good schooling haven't I?"

Egan's latest musical mentor and close friend is Blue Rodeo's Bazil Donovan, who will be accompanying Egan to Australia to join up with local drummer David Creese of the Dumb Earth and Blackeyed Susans. ("Who's he?" asks Egan, momentarily confused. "Oh right, is he the drummer? Yes, love the guy. I haven't even met him yet. 'Yeah, I love that bastard.' I'll meet him probably about 4 o'clock on Sunday and we do the gig wherever it is, 8 or 9. No I actually hear he's a great drummer"). Donovan, says Egan, has proved an invaluable partner in writing the next solo album.

"One of the things I haven't had this year is a lot of time, right. Writing takes a lot of time for me, I have to work very hard at it. And I can get a song to seventy, eighty percent done. And that last twenty percent takes a lot of time in terms of nip and tuck and trim to make it stand out. And I haven't had that time so one of the things I've been doing is taking a song that's 80% done to Bazil and he'll listen to it and just go 'this, this, this' and boom, he's just saved me a month.

It's beautiful. And originally, I had quite an aversion to co-writing, I thought 'well, that's a sign of weakness that you can't do it yourself.' Or 'heaven forbid you ever make money on one of them, you'll have to share it.' Then I started thinking 'there's a reason Bazil is in your life right now. He makes your songs sound great and trust me, if you make money, you will have no problem giving it to him'. So I got over that whole bullshit of pride and ownership, it's all about the best song that you can get. And if that means having somebody help you and sharing it with them, well I have no problem with that.

Tour Dates:
Sydney:

• Friday, September 8 - Hopetoun (8:30pm - with Nitochris)
  
• Friday, September 8 - Northpoint Tavern (late)
  
• Saturday, September 9 - Hopetoun (8:30pm - with Nitochris)
  
• Saturday, September 9 - Harbourside Brasserie (late)
  
• Thursday, September 14 - The Basement (with The Whitlams)
  

Melbourne:

• Sunday, September 10 - The Continental - with Jeff Williams' Clearspacemen
  
• Wednesday, September 13 - The Corner - with Chris Wilson & Shane O'Mara