Q & A

2. I know of you only through your wonderful bass playing with the Groove Merchants. Can you tell us how you got started on bass, and guitar. Do you play any other instruments? Which do you prefer-bass or guitar? (I too am the owner of a Westerly Guild, having bought it new in 1987.!)

 

I think my Guild acoustic is an ’87 as well! GF-25 Grand Auditorium, sounds and plays great. Found it at Nicky’s in Newport back in ’98 when we first moved to Portsmouth. There’s nothing like being able to sing a well crafted song while accompanying yourself on acoustic guitar. I have functional “composer chops” on piano, can’t really play but I can work out harmony and chord progressions. Bass is my main instrument though. I’ve always liked the role as the bassist in a group: being a team player versus the guy in the spotlight. Laying down a solid foundation with a good drummer and interacting with the soloist at the same time is both challenging and fun. You have to develop a “3rd ear” to listen to the band as a whole so as not to get carried away and play too busy. 

 

3. Can you tell us a bit about your musical experience in Austin? What was it like opening for Dylan? 

 

My friends in Brave Combo (Denton, Tx) recommended me when the K-Tels (blue eyed Austin soul band) needed a bass player. We played the Texas circuit on weekends - San Antonio, Houston, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Shreveport, etc. and had a steady Monday gig at Steamboat on 6th Street. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when Sam Moore from Sam and Dave hired us to play some gigs in Florida and corporate stuff in the Texas area. What a legend! 

 

My wife Mary got into Medical school in San Antonio and I found work in the club scene with acoustic guitar great Monte Montgomery. We opened shows for Kenny Loggins and Steve Morse of the Dixie Dregs in SA and Bob Dylan in Lubbock. Poor Bob was pretty out of it. His buddy Bill Graham had passed away that weekend and word was he kind of fell off the wagon. I was finishing my music degree at UTSA at the time so I went by plane instead of driving for a day and a half. Texas is a BIG state. Rhode Island could easily fit inside greater San Antonio!

 

4. What brought you to Hawaii? It looks like you were playing a wide variety of genres there, from blues and latin jazz to reggae and world music. Did you have a passion for those styles?

 

Mary had gotten a full Army med school scholarship. We lucked out when they sent us to Honolulu for four years to pay back Uncle Sam. There was a big Blues music scene there oddly enough. I subbed for some of the more established players to get my foot in the door. Some great drummers helped me get a handle on Latin style bass. James Ganeko who plays the most incredible blues shuffle on drums recommended me for a Reggae gig over in Japan. I even joined a drum circle for a while and played Afro-Funk in a wild outfit called the North American Bush Band. Went to Japan with them too. Then when our daughter Margeaux was born in 1996, I made a radical career move and became a stay at home dad, or as I like to say, a low maintenance trophy husband HA! In the early 2000s I worked with Brass Attack for a few years and Clave Logic with some great Providence Latin musicians. My good friend Steve Badessa and I used to have a blast playing acoustic guitars and trading off on vocals in, Forty Frets, every Monday back when Mike Cheney ran the West Deck. When drummer Rick Andre picked up steel drums, he and I formed an “Island Style” duo, recording our bass and drum parts for backing tracks. Rick on pans and me on guitar/vocals doing classic tropical rock, Calypso and Bob Marley tunes. The X Isles still get calls for private events, fundraisers and family nights at Bailey’s Beach Club.

 

Some questions about your writing and new recording:

 

5. Can you expand a little (on the info in your bio) about how you used the pandemic as an opportunity to rework tunes and write new ones. 

 

A few years ago I took an online Songwriters Masterclass with the great Nashville tunesmith Gary Burr. Gradually I adopted his “North Star” concept where every line should relate to/point toward, the North Star, or central idea of the song. I began to see the error of my ways so I reevaluated and reworked several songs I had laying around and wrote some new ones. During the pandemic, my good friend and playing buddy, Doug Woolverton, asked me to play on a tune of his at Graham Mellor’s Providence recording studio, Uptown Sound. Graham is another massively talented friend of mine and he agreed to mix a song, Pirate Dice, that I’d done most of the parts on. I’d sent it to my daughter Margeaux in Los Angelos to add background vocals and for her boyfriend Dash Hutton to replace the drum track. Well, they came up with some great stuff! Dash’s dad Danny (yes, Danny Hutton from Three Dog Night) liked it enough to sing a line at the end of the chorus. How cool is that? 

Last May, Mary and I were out in LA visiting and Margeaux (who amazed the crowd at 5th Element every time she’d sing with us) asked me to play bass on her recording session at the Dash’s recording studio. Her new record is sounding incredible - Dash is not only a great drummer but he simultaneously produced the session which also included some heavyweight guitar and keyboard talent. So when I got back home I convinced Graham to squeeze me in for an all day session with a few of my favorite local musicians before he ran off to manage Willie Nelson’s summer/fall tour. (Did I drop enough names? Cos I had to leave out a few!)

 

6. Your new songs have a very island feel. You describe it as Coastal Americana.. Is your style reflective of your SC coastal upbringing or more influenced by all the various genres you have performed?  I really love the tunes.

 

Thanks! Being from the Charleston area I guess I grew up with a lot of different musical cross currents. So we finally got the project mixed and mastered in late Feb ’22. When I put together my website on Wix, I had to supply key words and meta data info for search engines. Coastal Americana seemed to sum up the sound but not a lot of thought went into it. Mary also loves the Isle of Palms, my hometown, and we plan to do the snowbird thing in a few years. Its changed so much over the years but it’s a great place to call home. We really love Aquidneck Island too. Newport and Charleston and have a lot of similar history with pirates, smugglers and ne'er do wells of all sorts. We’re very fortunate that our daughter could grow up in a great community like Portsmouth and sail through her college years nearby at Emerson in Boston.

 

7. Can you explain the zen art of fishing for melodies?

 

As Gary Burr says, Don’t settle! (for the first thing that pops into your head) I find that my best ideas are the ones I kind of stumble onto without really thinking. Again, I was mainly just trying to fill up space on the Wix “Music Artist” template. 

 

8. Your album has a world class lineup of backing musicians. Did you really record it all in one 9 hour session? Can you tell us a little about what that was like?

 

I did quite a bit of prep work to pull that off. I made a demo of those 6 songs so the musicians could get an idea of what the songs were about. Very clear and concise chord charts with a few rhythmic accents helped too. A good road map lets musicians relax and be creative without having to figure out the structure of the song. It takes all the guess work out of the arrangement. My acoustic guitar, bass and vocal parts served as a guide so I could keep my ears open to catch any mistakes and help narrow down musical choices. You basically want to let talented people do what talented people do, offering direction only as needed. I wanted the songs to have that spontaneous energy that only really happens when you take the best of three takes and move on to the next song. It also helped to have three great drummers lined up, two songs each, which was Graham’s idea. A great drum track holds everything together.

     Cast and Crew of "Haints & Anglers":

     Drums: Rick Andre, Bart Lingley, Mark Texeira and Dash Hutton 

     Background Vocals: Margeaux Sippell

     Electric and Acoustic Piano: Dennis (Rusty) Hughes

     Electric Guitar and Pedal Steel: Cody Nilsen

     Hammond Organ: Bruce Mattson

     Flugelhorn: Doug Woolverton (Low Tide)

     Vocals, Acoustic and Bass Guitars: Johnny Sippell

     Engineered and Mixed by Graham Mellor

     Mastered by Carl Saff

     Produced and Arranged by Johnny Sippell

 

9. Any solo gigs on the horizon?

 

Not at the moment. I’d like to record my latest batch of songs while they're still fresh in my head. I may just keep my singer/songwriter vibe on the amateur level for awhile.

 

On bass I’m filling in with the Groove Merchants this Monday at 5th Element and their Sunday Brunch 5/29 with the Fran Curly Jazz Trio.

Friday 5/27 with Joe Davis at the Mariner Art Gallery on Spring Street and 6/3 at the Bar and Board on Thames with Rick Andre.

 

10. Where can people buy your music?

 

“Haints and Anglers” (Johnny Sippell) is available worldwide on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, etc. If you like a song, please add it to a playlist on your favorite streaming service!