Interview with Josh Wenck of The Get Up Johns on 4/15/07

By: David Rachac

Jake Hyer and Josh Wenck of The Get Up Johns - Photo by Dan Schultz

As one half of the acoustic duo The Get Up Johns, Josh Wenck has had a ground-level view of the emergence of roots rock and Americana on the Twin Cities scene. In this interview, Wenck talks about how he and Jake Hyer started performing together, how doors are being opened for them on the national scene, and about their Revival Show, which will kick off at the Turf Club on Sunday, April 22.

HWTS: Although your fans probably know the story, tell me about your and Jake Hyer’s musical backgrounds and how you started playing together.

Wenck: We both came to the brother duet genre in similar ways. While Jake grew up in the hills of West Virginia and listened to his dad's Dwight Diller tapes from time to time, he learned to play violin for the high school orchestra rather than old time fiddle. I studied as a classical vocal tenor all the way through my college years and played a little guitar. But we both found country brother duet music at the church we both attended after college. Charlie Louvin and Ralph Stanley both visited St. Paul for shows at the House of Mercy about seven years ago and both Jake and I were drawn to bluegrass harmonies and arrangements.

We didn't start playing together until several years later, but by that time, we were both big fans of the Louvin Brothers, the Stanley Brothers, Gram Parsons and the Carter Family. When we finally did start playing together, we found that both of us really enjoyed harmony singing and the simple instrumentation of the brother duet tradition. I guess we've added a couple of twists to our style that makes it fun for us, but we essentially perform a genre that's been around for almost 100 years.

HWTS: There aren't a lot of young people who would consider performing music that was popular back when their grandparents were young. What was it about singing this close harmony style of music that was so appealing to you?

Wenck: Having grown up singing in choirs all my life, I guess I realized how unique it was for two people to blend their voices as well as we do. I think that's why most of the successful brother duet groups have actually been brothers. Sharing DNA makes it a lot easier to match voices. Jake and I noticed very early on that the tone of our voices really worked well together and that we didn't have to work very hard on pitch or phrasing. So part of it was just that it came naturally to us.

But I've also thought a lot about how singing "close harmonies" does require a kind of intimacy, emotionally and intellectually, that is pretty intense and compelling. Even when blend comes easy, you really have to listen to each others' voices, feel where your partner likes to breathe, how he or she likes to phrase a line, when the notes get bent a little, shortened a little, or when he or she wants to draw out a line. It's pretty intoxicating to make music in that space, where you feel that kind of intimacy with your partner and have the potential to make really beautiful sounds together. It's a privilege to have the opportunity to make that kind of music and even if we had never found an audience for what we do, it would have been well worth it.

HWTS: You've had a lot of nice press locally—has that translated into opportunities to play outside of the Twin Cities area?

Wenck: I'm not sure if the press we've had locally has been the main factor, but we have had some opportunities to make some trips out of town lately. Although it may not be very cool to admit it, I'd actually have to say that a lot of our best opportunities have been coming from MySpace. We've made a couple connections with folks in Tennessee through our MySpace that made it possible for us to start making tours down that way. We also got a chance to play at SXSW thanks to our friend and publicist, Patrice Fehlen of September Gurl PR. We got hooked up with Patrice about a year and a half ago through our good friend Dave Campbell (The Winter Blanket, E.L.nO, Accident Clearinghouse). Not that we're not grateful for the attention we've been getting here in town, because we are. We just haven't received a lot of calls or emails from people who read about us or heard us locally.

HWTS: You did a couple of shows recently with Kathy Louvin, the daughter of Ira Louvin. What was it like performing with a family member of a musician that you hold so dear to your hearts?

Wenck: Meeting Kathy Louvin has been the best thing that's happened to us. We performed with her at the Station Inn in Nashville back in January and she has basically taken us under her wing and is trying to help us get a break in Nashville. It was pretty amazing the night we crashed at her house after the Station Inn gig. Jake and I were in our sleeping bags on the couches in her living room with a full-sized portrait of Ira hanging overhead, his Country Music Hall of Fame medal sitting on the stereo console, and several photos of young Ira and Charlie Loudermilk before they even dreamed of being the Louvin Brothers. It was both inspiring and humbling to be about as close as possible to Ira's legacy.

More than that, Kathy is a wonderful person who is a very talented singer and songwriter by her own right. She recently won a Grammy for her performance on a Louvin Brothers' tribute album and has a bunch of gold and platinum records up in her office for songs she wrote for Dwight Yoakam, Randy Travis, Martina McBride, and Ricky van Shelton among others. She is, as the saying goes, bona fide. But she's also been a loving and nurturing friend and mentor to us and has embraced us in a way that is pretty overwhelming. For someone who grew up back stage at the Opry, listening to her dad and uncle sing all those beautiful songs, for her to support us like she has is a profound honor and we're really looking forward to working with her a lot over the coming years.

Jake Hyer and Josh Wenck of The Get Up Johns - Photo by Dan Schultz

HWTS: You guys drove down to the South By Southwest music conference last month for a single thirty-minute gig, then turned around and set off back for home the same day. That is a huge commitment for such a small window of opportunity—did it wind up being worth it?

Wenck: It was definitely worth it. Even though we got pulled over by the same Kansas State Trooper twice [you can listen to the full story here], we came back from that trip with a couple of really nice opportunities. We spent some time with John Hermanson and Chris Cunningham of Storyhill and we will be playing at their Storyhill Festival this July in Bozeman. I really love those guys. I first heard them when I was in college and they played a sold out show. Their new record is great and their harmonies are beautiful.

We also had an offer to open for Carrie Rodriguez, currently touring as Lucinda Williams' support, in Madison but, unfortunately, the promoter in Madison decided not to pick us up for the gig even though Carrie's agent was trying to get us on the bill. It sounds like we still might get a chance to do an opening gig or two for her down the line. A writer from the Austin Chronicle was also there at the showcase we played and he wrote about us in his blog from March 20. More than all of this, we both ate about three pounds of beef and pork between Arthur Bryant's in Kansas City and some beef jerky shop outside of Waco that sold a product that was closer to something like "meat paper" than beef jerky. BBQ and jerky are off limits for future tours.

HWTS: On Sunday, April 22nd, you are producing and performing in a new monthly show at the Turf Club. Tell me a bit about it.

Wenck: The show is called "Revival Show" hosted by The Get Up Johns. We both love radio variety shows like the Opry and Prairie Home Companion, so we're using a format similar to those shows. It will feel a lot more like a cabaret than it will a club gig—no dead time between bands, interviews with the artists, and Jake and I will do some shtick. I've always been fascinated with the tent revival phenomenon, so we're using the style of old time tent revival as the design concept for the show. There will be a backdrop with a tent painted on it, wooden "prayer benches" in front of the stage, and a pulpit behind which Jake and I will do our hosting duties. It will be very fast paced with short, "mini-sets" by three or four artists. Our April show features Charlie Parr, Mike Gunther & His Restless Souls, The Ditchlilies, and Molly Maher & Her Disbelievers.

HWTS: The House of Mercy used to have a show at the Turf Club that sounded similar. How will it be different?

Wenck: I did the booking, promotion and a lot of the production work on the House of Mercy show. That show streamed live on MisplacedMusic.org, while this show will be a podcast that will be available at revivalshow.com. The live element was fun, but it made the show really complicated to produce. This way, the show will still feel "live" but we'll record the content for later distribution. Another difference is that the House of Mercy show was staged on the "old stage" at the Turf Club, whereas this show will be on the big stage. They just got a brand new sound system and we're really excited that Billy Batson and Dave Weigardt at the Turf Club will be helping us present the new show on that stage.

HWTS: Any final thoughts?

Wenck: When we started playing together three years ago, I asked Jake why anyone would want to listen to our music. It seemed then like a lot folks in the roots music world did really well after "Oh Brother" and that the success of the movie soundtrack might mean that there was an audience ready for early country, but I've been surprised at how we've been received. The Twin Cities has a great music scene because there is an audience for a diverse range of musical genres. Folks are genuinely willing to support quality local live and recorded music. We're really grateful for that.

I'm even more surprised by the emerging roots music scene here. With everything you can do with your computer and how inexpensive it has become to get your music out there, it's ironic that one of the growing segments within the local scene is music that is better enjoyed unplugged. Pert' Near Sandstone, the Ditchlilies, Trampled By Turtles, Charlie Parr, The Pines, Storyhill, The Brass Kings, Dan Kase, and newer artists like the Floorbirds, just to name a few, there's just a ton of people who are digging back into the canon of American folk music and making it new. I'm really happy that Jake and I get to be a part of that emerging scene.

Part of the vision of this new show is to help nurture the music that is being made by those artists and growing the relationships between the artists in a way that will help this movement grow. Part of that will be to book folks who have been performing roots music since before there even was such a category and, I guess, to cross-pollinate some of the folks who fell in love with folk music in the 60s with the folks who are following this scene. With institutions like the Cedar and KFAI and with the continued support of more recent additions to the scene like the Current, I'm really excited to see what the future holds. With Revival Show, we're just trying to do our part to help keep the music playing.

Artist Info: The Get Up Johns

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