Recently, Bozeman Magazine contributor Ken Thorsen had the opportunity to interview Jerry Joseph on the Jackmormons new double album ‘Happy Book’ and about his recent tour through South East Asia.

KT: Hey we got Jerry Joseph on the phone from Maui, Hawaii. Hey Jerry, How’s it going?

JJ: It’s Been going a little Crazy. I just got here a couple of days ago. I have been in South East Asia on tour, so it’s been pretty nuts. I just got back from Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand, and landed here and met the Jackmormons for these four shows in Maui.

KT: Well how is the weather in Maui?

JJ: Cold Man. Not Montana Cold, but it’s cold. It’s winter you know?

KT: So you did not have the Jackmormons with you in Cambodia and SE Asia?

JJ: No I went with Frank Ruffalo. He lives in Campot, Cambodia and he was like: ‘you should come to do a tour’ so he and I did this pretty long tour. A bunch of shows, and it was cool. It was very, Butte meets the Killing Fields.

KT: Well what was it like playing a third-world country? Did a lot of people show up? What were the venues like?

JJ: Every Venue was different. Ideally, we were trying to play for Cambodians or Vietnamese, but it depends on where you are. Some of it was like ex-pats, and they can be pretty depressing [laughs]. They all play guitar and are like, ‘we live here, we want to play’. So you try. Like Saigon tended to be more of a Vietnamese crowd. Some of the Cambodian stuff, and some of the Thai stuff, you just play to the room, I think.

And every venue could be no PA and no Mic, to the nicest sound systems ever in Kuala Lumpur. It was very different, You Know?

KT: Did you get a chance to collaborate with any of the local artists from anywhere?

JJ: We didn’t really have the time. Different places different people sat in. We had this French-Algerian Dumbek player that played a lot of shows with us. And then in Vietnam, this Phillipino guy that played one of those Kahon boxes, he was great.

You know the Vietnamese and Cambodian kids, they are into Hip Hop and Pop. The last thing they would care about is what my old American ass can sing. [laughs]

KT: Nooo. Well, your old American ass just put out a new album, it’s called Happy Book. We just got an advance copy here at Bozeman Magazine, and I am telling you, we are all really enjoying it!

JJ: Did You? I haven’t got a friggin’ advance copy of it. [more laughs]

KT: Really, well we can email you one…

JJ: Yeah, you can burn one for me. [laughs ensue]

KT: I definitely will. Tell us a little about the new album Jerry.

JJ: It’s two discs. We started a year ago, almost exactly, no it was last January. It kinda went through this whole process, you know, is it viable to release a double disc record? Is it pretentious, you know i think that was kinda the big battle. Does anybody care? But when we got done with it, everyone felt like the songs held up, and all my life I kinda had these quintessential double records that meant a lot to me when I was younger. Physical Graffiti or Tusk, Exile on Main Street, I mean there is a million of them. This one kinda jumps stylistically a lot, more in the way, and I am not in a million years trying to draw a comparison, on the White Album the way you can have Blackbird and Helter Skelter on the same side you know. And we were like if you can do that once, maybe you can do it again. I mean I wouldn’t say these songs are in the same stratosphere as that, but it’s like there is a lot of music, and now the press can tell us if it's any good or not.

KT: Well like I said, We are enjoying it. I notice a lot of these songs have been played before, are there any that have not ever been played live yet?

JJ: Yeah, about half of it. And for the stuff that has been played live, there are a couple of things that have been played once or twice over the past couple of years, and then maybe we were like, ‘let's save this for a record’.

And then maybe the last six months we were playing a lot of Beautiful Dirt, and Ship and LAX. That is because some of that stuff had an immediacy to it. But we were really trying to save a good half of it. The only problem being, and we were just talking about it last night, we really have no idea how those songs go. [laughs] Now we need a copy of the record so we can learn the tunes. I guess we will download it off of Nuggs.com or something.

KT: We noticed there are a lot of players, or other musicians that helped you out on this, or joined you in the studio. Can you tell us who they were?

JJ: The two primary people that I think are on about every track are Steve Drizos’ wife Jenny is the keyboard player for The Decemberists, and it was awesome that she played because she had a heavy year. She plays with us quite a bit live. The other person who plays on I think every track. If he is not on every track then there is like a ghost of him on every track is Wally Ingram. So those guys are on everything. I think if we had our druthers, we would tour with them.
Then there are some horn players, some other Decemberists…

KT: I noticed on ‘The Road Home’ which I have taken a great liking to, it is not your typical in-your-face Jackmormons type rock. It is a little bit more subdued and there is a little bit of steel string guitar and some banjo in it, am I correct?

JJ: Sure Yeah. I think that is Chris Funk playing that stuff. Todd Brainerd plays pedal steel and he has played on a lot of our records. Trumpet, um Eric Early from Blitzen Trapper. He might actually be on Airplane, the wsP song, which we didn’t put on the record, but I think we will release it as a single.
Gosh, Richard Fontaine. I don’t know. It seemed like there were all kinds of people coming in and out. Some of it is just us, but I really haven’t seen the track listing. Literally, we started mixing over the summer. it’s typical when you are trying to put out a record it takes a while. So I am waiting to get my copy so I can read the liner notes and be more
informative.

KT: Nice. Well Gregg Williams, a long-time Little Women member came in to produce this album. How did that come about?

JJ: Well, Gregg was in Little Women for a couple of years at the end. He produced what was going to be a Little Women record, but actually turned out to be my first solo record, ‘The Welcome Hunters’. I think that was one of his first production things. Then we kinda fell out, and he went on to produce a lot of great stuff. Sheryl Crow. He would produce all those big Dandy Warhols records in the 90s. Tons of stuff. Now he has this new Blitzen Trapper and he is kinda the go-to guy in Portland.
So he was working on something, and Steve Drizos was playing drums on it and they started talking. So he (Gregg) called me. We hadn’t talked for a long time. It ended up being really great. It was just amazing. It is crazy that he doesn’t play any drums on it because he is also one of the best drummers I know.

KT: Right on. Well, you guys are in Maui. Are you playing a show tonight?

JJ: Tonight. We started last night. It is four nights.

KT: Then where do you go?

JJ: Well I am ready to go home, but I don’t think I go home. I think I go to the south for some solo shows, and then we meet in Portland and the record comes out, I think the 20th. We will play Portland, Eugene, or something. Then we will head for Montana. End of March, It always ends in Big Sky.

KT: We are looking forward to hearing you here in Big Sky. And listen, we are going to stay in touch with your people from Madison House and we are going to have an album release party for Happy Book at the Haufbrau here in Bozeman when the record comes out. So we appreciate you taking some time to hang out with us and answer some questions.

JJ: That would be awesome if I were all drunk and banging around the Haufbrau.

KT: Hey we can bring you down one night and do it all over. That would be fun.

JJ: I am excited though to get to Montana. It was funny being in SE Asia with Frank because there was such a Montana theme. We would play all the songs I had written about Montana. It was Crazy. Some of these places were pretty out there, but the whole time it was like this Montana theme. Someone would ask, ‘Where You From’ and we would be like “Montana” and they would have no idea.

KT: Did you run into a lot of westerners there?

JJ: Yeah there were some. There is this group of people making a documentary, weirdly, about me. And a lot of people we knew came in and out. Kinda it all culminated in Bangkok. Pretty much everybody was there. The Jackmormons have been doing a lot of this over the past few years. Going to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, heck Virginia City is a third-world country right?

Kinda adventure destinations. So it was kinda like scouting that out.

Frank had been there with his band the Deal Breakers, but that’s like accordions and fiddles and a little bit easier to move around. So I was like what would it take for us to come with like Gear and stuff? So it was kinda that and learning how to write. I was doing this blogging thing and I have never written prose before. So there was a bunch of stuff, we were away for a long time, and now I am really excited to put my boots on Kenny and go into the snow.

KT: Well we don’t have any snow here, so you will have to bring it with you. It’s pretty slim to none around here.

JJ: It has been following me around man. It’s here in Maui so I will bring it with me to Montana.

KT: Great, Bring it, Jerry. Great talking to you.

JJ: Always great to talk to you Kenny, I’ll see you in Big Sky.

Conceptually complex, Jerry Joseph & The Jackmormons new album Happy Book is the culmination of a lifetime of musical perseverance. Producer Gregg Williams has perfectly captured the band in a tapestry of texture and sonic emotion.

From the opening notes of the pop-pulsing title track, to deeply introspective songs like Ship, Radio Cab, and The Road Home, Happy Book is a confident step towards a permanent place in Rock History.