Talking To...Kimmie Rhodes
HM: More freedom...
KR: Yeah, yeah, definitely more freedom, plays and musicals and things that for some people would have been a waste of time but have let me figure out what I want and what I have to say.
HM: Picking up on the ideas of travelling and communication, how do you find audiences differ here from the USA?
KR: Well, that's like saying how are the audiences in Italy different from the audiences in Czechoslovakia? America is a big place. Texas is the size of France. Dallas is a big place - you can go to one side of Dallas and get an audience that's totally different from the other side. The problem in America is because it is so huge, and it's a long way between gigs it makes it harder to find people who appreciate what you do and more expensive to get to them. You really need to fly. In America I just plan it where I can fly to where I want to be to do something I really wanna do. Here, I'm gonna do 8 dates here, take a quick flight over to Ireland and do 5 dates there. It's more concentrated. Also there are people here who tend to just do their homework on the songs . I think it's more song driven and less genre driven. Music is a cultivated taste, like wine and food - in Europe I've been able to find people who have cultivated their taste and really like what I do. Here there's a cultivated taste for American singer-songwriters and it's not so big that you can't get around. It's easier to tour here - America's not rockin as far as transportation goes and the food's better here too! There are places in LA, or New York,or Austin...
HM: Chuy's is my favourite in Austin.
KR: Yes, used to go there all the time. You've been to Austin?
HM: Yeah, then went back for a day from Dallas as my friend hadn't been. I love Texas, I could live there!
KR: I love Texas too, I've lived there all my life.
HM: You'll know, you've travelled - you know when you find a certain place you love so much a bit of your soul stays behind? That's how I feel about Texas.
KR: Really? I feel that exact way about France. When I leave France I leave a part of me and I think about that part of me that stays there, often.
HM: There's a bit of me in Paris, too.
KR: There's always part of me walking around Paris. When I leave Paris - it's hard to articulate but it's still going on down there - Paris is so vivid, like a vivid dream it's unreal to me that I can leave somewhere so vivid, completely, for somewhere that's not as vivid. How can you ever leave somewhere that's more vivid than where you are? I always have the sense that I left this little trinket of me there and it's still going on. It's a very clanky clattery, city, French people talking, and it's been going on for so long. It's like an ancient thing.
HM: Though that's what I love about American history - you can almost reach and touch it, it's so much more recent.
KR: America is the frontier, it is still the frontier. America's got that innocent lack of history that makes it just dumb enough to be brave while there's always the potential that something new might happen. It's got like the brave innocence of a child, even though it's lost some of its innocence lately. The world knows what America is and America knows what America is. I think that's why lately people have wished America would just wake up and be what it is again. Europe has always been more sophisticated. There was always hope new things could happen in America, like putting men on the moon, getting from New York to California, just to see what was there - the pioneering spirit.
HM: I think you find the real America outside of the big cities.
KR: well, that's the thing, there is really more than one kind of American. Along the coast there are lots of people, then there's this humongous expanse of land in between. It's like if everybody in Europe tried to have one leader - it wouldn't work. It's really quite miraculous that America somehow made it work. Imagine 50 states - like 50 countries, coming together to form a union, and hold that together based on a belief that you all behave a certain way. It's all based on the constitution so the argument is you go back and forth to the constitution as a set of rules like in a board game. The way the government is run is on whether it's constitutional or not. There's a lot of hope in America right now because a lot of unconstitutional things have happened recently and that upsets people which means America is still alive because people still care about the constitution. That's why the division between state and church causes problems, it's a fine line you have to walk to balance your morals against this set of guidelines. It always amazes me how pure the constitution actually is and how you can always go back to it. Like the game board. You flip over the lid and read the rules, then everyone argues about the rules and that's America.
HM: Dare I ask, is Obama a 'good thing'?
KR: Obama is a great thing!
HM: I had a feeling you were going to say that!
KR: yeah, Obama is a great thing, because, well first of all I grew up in the South, where African American people were still fighting to vote not that long ago and were having to ride on the back of a bus. I've never been a prejudiced person and I've always felt like I needed to apologise for something I didn't do, just as some people feel they deserved an apology but from someone who isn't even alive anymore. It just kinda all ran off the road. We went to Memphis, TN, the day after the elections (the city where the cotton boats came down the MS river) just to see the joy. It was just wonderful. America seems to have relaxed, a lot. I'm not saying all the problems just went away but it has relaxed, because it was the right person, nobody's perfect, but he really is a fair guy and he's very smart. He is a smart honest person and after the last 8 years that's what we all needed. Europe seemed disappointed with America that we would let that happen, we should have gone back to the constitution. How could there not be a fair election in America. People were over their prejudice so much it didn't matter that he was black -he said it mattered for that one day then everyone moved on. I wouldn't have voted for him because he was black - actually at first I was for Hilary Clinton - but once I saw the potential in Barack Obama for healing...I think the answer to the economic problem is in a new domestic product, not that we aren't making things but everybody has two of everything. We need to produce something that people need. I think what we're seeing is that the world is going to change again - the world always changes - we've needed change for a while but been held back by people with self - serving agendas. We need to stay on the front edge of things, the planet needs, it the economy needs it...
HM: People need it...
KR: People need it and there's a lot of work to do. The one thing about being held back is it's been like a horse bucking in a stable now we know exactly what the work is, what needs to be done and we can move it forward. When you get a recession like we are seeing, we need to throw money at it; if the right person is throwing money at it it's an opportunity to invest in the future. If we pay someone to dig holes and fill them in again, we're still stimulating the economy. I personally have two or three of everything, what I'd like to buy is one of those heaters that heats the water as you use it, or a good American car that ran on electricity and it'd be great if we had a train that was efficient, like y'all have here. We don't have those things in America anymore. There are lots of things Americans would spend their money on but you can't buy them at Walmart.
HM: That's really interesting, to get your perspective. Can I go back to music to ask one more thing? When i spoke to you after your show last time, you told me Rich from the Journey is your favourite of your CDs. Can I ask, why that one?
KR: Well I think that has the most potential to help people. I said things I really wanted to say. I got to the heart of what I wanted to say in a way I know has helped people. I think because of what I was going through I made a lot more statements than on other CDs. I found that the better part of grief is gratitude. When you grieve, the same things that make you sad are the things that make you happy; memories. It's like the two sides of a coin and you just can't have one without the other. I think I was closer to what happens in life when I was there making that record and it was a group of songs making that point. I know how it feels to hurt, here's how I made myself feel better and maybe it can help you too. It's still my favourite.
HM: After all these years.
KR: Yeah. I like my new one a lot, some part of my latest thing is always my favourite just because it's new...but when I step back I say 'No, that one.' And if I forget someone always comes along and gives me a reason to think it again!
HM: if you had to pick a favourite song from the new CD, which would it be?
KR: I like Walls Fall Down, and after that I like I've been Loved by You. There's another one, Beautiful. I just started playing it live three shows ago, so it changes. They're probably my three favourites.
HM: Phew. I'm going to stop there and let you have time out before you play. Thank you so much for that, Kimmie,
KR: Thank you. It was really good. Enjoy the show.
Words:Helen Mitchell
Pictures:CJ Holley