The Power of 'Fringe Gospel'
Canadian Fred Eaglesmith Creates a World of Believers on His Upcoming Album

By Moira E. McLaughlin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 11, 2008

Fred Eaglesmith seems wise. He seems to get it. The "it" that most people struggle to find their whole lives. The "it" that leads to happiness.

"What if 'it' is just all confusion and that's the good place to be?" Eaglesmith asks. "With confusion comes this constant checking on yourself and constant work."

Eaglesmith, 50, appearing Tuesday at Jammin' Java, releases his new album, "Tinderbox," April 29. The songs, with such titles as "Sweet Corn," "Shoulder to the Plow" and "Get on Your Knees," are from the perspective of churchgoing farmers in the deep South. It's an idea Eaglesmith had a while back, talking with friends about religion and prayer and "the whole 'everybody's looking for some sort of salvation' thing," he says.

He calls the music "fringe gospel."

"I had a musical universe I put this album in," he says. He thought about the church he wanted to create, the town, the preacher. In the end, the universe he created is hard, hot and sad.

"The church is like a tinderbox," he sings on the title track of the new album. "The preacher's got a match/Salvation is a-raining down and falling down the cracks/The choir master revved 'em up and washed 'em white as snow/Somebody's crying in the very back row."

He says he was like a photojournalist with this album: He associates with the characters in the songs yet remains detached. "I wanted it to be compassionate, not cynical," he says. "I wanted it to feel like you could believe why these people [on the album] were believing. We all forget to look at why people believe. We're too much about what people believe instead of why."

Religion is not a new topic for Eaglesmith. He was raised Christian Reformed on a farm in Ontario, Canada, one of nine kids. Today he is a student of Buddhism. When he was 15, he started traveling, playing bluegrass at camps in northern Canada, coming home periodically. "I've sort of never gone home for good," he says. He plays about 180 shows a year in North America and Europe.

If "Tinderbox" is such a cutting-edge album, Eaglesmith says, what were the 16 albums before it?

"I like that I made these albums," he says. "They refer to where I was at at the time. In that sense, I've almost lived a bunch of lifetimes."

Eaglesmith went to Nashville in the '90s. He was embraced, but, he says, he "never sold out." At shows, he's often political, inclined to "raise hell," sometimes even agitating his audience. "What I do with a lot of people is, I dig," he says. No matter who he's playing for, hummus-eating vegetarians or cowboy-hat-wearing Texans, "I'm poking at them," he says, and trying to get them to think. "I would rather make people think than force my opinion on them."

Eaglesmith won a Juno award (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy) in 1996 for "Drive-In Movie." His last album, "Milly's Cafe," was in the Top 10 on the U.S. Americana chart. He's the first Canadian to write a No. 1 song on the U.S. bluegrass charts. Dar Williams, Kasey Chambers, the Cowboy Junkies and even Toby Keith have recorded his songs. Some fans, known as "Fredheads," travel to as many as 100 of his shows a year. Critics have compared him to Bruce Springsteen and Woody Guthrie.

Why, you wonder, don't more people know him?

"I don't really care about that very much," he says. "I could use the dough. The only reason it looks good is the dough." Anyway, he says he was reading a survey the other day on happiness: Apparently, happier people are those who struggle a bit. Eaglesmith's friend and bandmate, Willie Bennett, died in February. Bennett was in Eaglesmith's bluegrass band, the Flathead Noodlers, and the band's folkier incarnation, the Flying Squirrels (same band lineup playing different music).

"That's a really hard thing to deal with, 25 years [of friendship], thousands of shows together. Willie was, like myself, a fledgling student of Buddhism, so he died in a really good place in his life. . . . But I miss my pal. . . . I'm 50 years old, and I still get to struggle. There's something that [ticks] me off about that, but it's something that makes me happy."

And there "it" is.

Fred Eaglesmith Appearing Tuesday with Audrey Auld Mezera at Jammin' Java, 227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna. Show starts at 7:30. Eaglesmith will also appear June 4 with Mary Gauthier at the Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. Show starts at 7:30. Tickets: Jammin' Java: $20, $25 at the door; available at 703-255-1566 or http://www.jamminjava.com. Birchmere: $25; available at the box office, 202-397-7328 or http://www.ticketmaster.com. The Download: For a sampling of Fred Eaglesmith's music, check out: From "Milly's Cafe":· "Mrs. Hank Williams" · "I Ain't Ever Givin' In" From "50-Odd Dollars":· "Rodeo Boy" From "Lipstick, Lies & Gasoline":· "Drinking Too Much" From "Drive-In Movie":· "Good Enough" From "Indiana Road":· "Thirty Years of Farming" Fred Eaglesmith Appearing Tuesday with Audrey Auld Mezera at Jammin' Java, 227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna. Show starts at 7:30. Eaglesmith will also appear June 4 with Mary Gauthier at the Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. Show starts at 7:30. Tickets: Jammin' Java: $20, $25 at the door; available at 703-255-1566 or http://www.jamminjava.com. Birchmere: $25; available at the box office, 202-397-7328 or http://www.ticketmaster.com. The Download: For a sampling of Fred Eaglesmith's music, check out: From "Milly's Cafe":· "Mrs. Hank Williams" · "I Ain't Ever Givin' In" From "50-Odd Dollars":· "Rodeo Boy" From "Lipstick, Lies & Gasoline":· "Drinking Too Much" From "Drive-In Movie":· "Good Enough" From "Indiana Road":· "Thirty Years of Farming"