A Talk With Valerie Carter - Page 2
Continued from Page 1

LS: You sang with James Taylor on Gorilla (1975) and In the Pocket (1976) long before you started touring with him in 1990. How did you meet him?

VC: Lowell. Lowell just took me over to Amigo Studios, and there was James shooting hoops.

LS: Shooting hoops?

VC: There was a basketball net up in the studio. And we literally just dropped by to say hi, and the next thing I knew we were singing.

LS: You mean you just started singing for the album right there, just on the spur of the moment?

VC: Well he was in there, you know, for who knows how long doing this record.

LS: I just want to make sure I understand this. "Angry Blues," the song from Gorilla that you and Lowell sang on, James just said, "Sing this"???

VC: Yeah, he said, "Check this one out." So Lowell and I both sang.

LS: Like right there?

VC: Right there, right then. Yep. That's how that happens. I really don't like it when somebody sends me a tape, because I can't be spontaneous. Other than for live shows where you have to know the lyrics, I'd rather not hear a song until it's time to sing it.

LS: And then, more than 20 years later, you sang "Angry Blues" during James' 1998 summer tour. Was that the first time you had sung it in a while?

VC: That's right, it was the first time we'd ever done it live.

LS: Wow. I love the way that you did that, the way we could hear your voice.

VC: Yeah, yeah, it was great fun, I enjoyed it. There are not a lot of step-out parts for Kate [Markowitz] and me with James. So when there is one, we're very, very excited.

LS: Going back to 1975, you recorded that song that one day?

VC: That seems right to me. James may remember it a different way, and I would have to ask him, but I know that as soon as Lowell and I got there, they just put that song up and we started.

LS: It had been recorded and you added the vocals?

VC: Right, right. Fortunately it had already been recorded. But I think Lowell said to him, "I want you to hear this voice," or something like that. We sat down, and we sang in the studio for a minute with James on an acoustic.

LS: So ultimately that led to working with James again on In the Pocket. Did he call you for that?

VC: Yeah, it was very exciting. To be remembered in the slightest way was a beautiful thing.

LS: You really were clearly heard on "Money Machine."

VC: Yeah, I know. And because of the sound of my voice, I kept getting booked in black clubs. I remember opening for Al Jarreau. I came in through the back door and they said, "Hold on! Hold on, who are you?" and I went, "Well, I'm Valerie," and they went, "Huh???"

LS: and VC: (laughter)

LS: When you first met James Taylor, what was he like? What did you think of him?

VC: He was much more shy, and I was completely introverted, so the two of us were very nervous around one another. He and Lowell were very comfortable together, though, and I was comfortable with Lowell. But once we began singing together, we were all old friends. Give me something to sing, and I become my empowered self. I become the person who isn't shy and isn't a nervous wreck and just generally a screw up (laughs).

LS: I don't think so...

VC: Well you know what I mean, not a screw-up in a big way, just in the little ways, the "two left feet" sort of thing.

LS: and VC: (laughter)

"Sweet Baby James"

VC: James is probably one of the very few people I've worked with that I actually knew of when I was younger. I was completely a slave to the Sweet Baby James album. I was in high school when it came out, and I was totally in love with him. I remember coming home from school with my girlfriends, and we would sit around my bedroom and pass his picture around. Just pass it around and go, "Oh, what a babe!"

LS: and VC: (uproarious laughter)

VC: I mean it was the James Taylor poster time, everybody's pillow was named James. I was SUCH a big fan! So meeting him and working with him was just as mind-blowing as everything else that's ever happened in my career. Just completely mind-blowing.

LS: Let's go back now to how you became a background singer vs. a solo artist. Tell me how you got into that.

VC: I got scared, and I got frustrated, and I got sad. I dropped out of the whole music thing for a while. I had personal difficulties with living here in Los Angeles, with a life of music. I was at an all-time low in my life, and I didn't quite know what was going to happen. Eventually, I got some help. I took a really long time away from friends, away from anything I had ever known around here.

When I came back, I decided that I couldn't handle trying go out and forge for a record deal and start all of that madness over right away. I was too delicate. But what I could do was sing, and that's what I've always been happy doing. And I knew I could stand behind someone and let the spotlight shine somewhere else. I could at least express myself through the power of singing.

So I made a few phone calls to say, "I'm ready to come back." I called Peter Asher [James Taylor's manager at the time]. That was one of the first calls, and I didn't expect anything to come of it. I didn't expect anything to come of anything. I didn't realize that people are as good as they were and as forgiving of someone who just kind of stepped away from them and from everything having to do with music. But friends rallied and really supported my wanting to come back.

LS: That's how you ended up being one of James' four singers [currently Valerie Carter, David Lasley, Kate Markowitz and Arnold McCuller]?

VC: Yeah. I literally called Peter and just put it out there. And it came right back. And I did the same with Jackson, and the same thing happened, but in a lesser way because Jackson just doesn't tour as often as James. And it also happened with Linda [Ronstadt]. They really came through with open arms, and I've been nothing but grateful since the day it started.

LS: So, when you worked with James initially in 1975, and then you saw him again in 1990, clearly you must have been different.

VC: Yeah, we both were. But it was so amazing that from a great distance he had put together people who didn't know one another into this band that would last this long. Kate and I had never met, and I don't think Arnold and I had ever met.

LS: Had you met David?

VC: Oh yeah, David sang on my second record. Once again, my "wish list"! We did a song called "Trying to Get To You." David did the PERFECT harmonies at the end with me, and we were laughing, we were rolling around on the studio floor. It was so much fun, it was just the greatest!

LS: So 1990 was pretty much the beginning of the current band, except for a few exceptions?

VC: Yeah, except for the two exceptions. (long pause.)

The first time I performed live with James was in Telluride, Colorado. A car picked me up to take me to the airport, and then it picked up Katie. That's the first time we met. And we don't know what to expect, we're both very nervous. And obviously I've been really rusty and out of it for a long time. And also I had 50 songs to learn in less than 48 hours.

LS: Wow.

VC: It was intense, but I was so thrilled for the opportunity, and I knew all the songs backwards and forwards. So we get on the plane, and we have a very bumpy landing on that narrow airstrip in Telluride. And I look at Kate, and I say to her, "Ohhhh, my stomach, I don't feel very good. I wish I had some Maalox." And she says, "Tablets or liquid?" And I said, "We're going to be really good friends."

LS: and VC: (laughter)

VC: And we've been sharing stuff ever since, our clothes, our thoughts, the loneliness of being on the road, the joy of being on the road, the whole thing. We've become absolutely amazing friends.

And I remember that after that one show, there was a question as to who was going to get kept, because that show was the first test. So I was really very nervous about whether or not it was going to work out for me to go on and be with them for the rest of the summer. Finally I got word that I should show up for rehearsals, and I was very, very excited. And I remember during rehearsals that Peter Asher and Don Grolnick and James would all look at each other, and they would start laughing when we [four singers] started singing because it was just right. It was really right, the four voices couldn't have been sweeter together. And we've just gotten closer and closer and become this very important family to one another over these years.

LS: You're referring to the band as a whole?

VC: Yeah, all of us. And the losses that we've suffered, Don and Carlos, are things that are almost impossible to discuss, still. But, you know, we've had some amazingly great times and some of the worst times in our lives together, and it's brought us really close. There's no doubt in my mind that there's nothing any one of us wouldn't do for the other. Nothing. And it's been proven time and time again.

LS: That's so special!

VC: It is, it is. It's unbelievable. I think that James has always been able to do that when he puts people together. It just works, it just works and I'm really so grateful that it's been this long.

LS: New Moon Shine was the first album where you participated in the whole thing. Tell me something about that.

VC: Well, an album is pretty much finished by the time the background singers get to it. You're not there to hear the lead vocal process. You're not there to hear even the saxophone, or a special instrument or Yo Yo Ma or somebody wonderful. That's happened long before the backgrounds were being thought of. But James is always the most special harmony writer, and his ideas are generally -- almost without exception -- the ones that we go with because they're brilliant.

The process of putting it together and working it out is standing around a piano and just sort of going, "OK, let's see what part I can reach," and, "Which part is the sweetest part of my voice, what's the sweetest part of your voice?"

We each just fill up the spaces as we go up the scale with as much emotion and the right vibe as we can. And you use the voices in just the right way to get an emotion across, so each voice carries a certain emotion. Just trying to get that all straightened out is really a hard day's work. But it's obviously very rewarding, and lots of fun, and exciting when it comes together and sounds beautiful. But it's hard work, and we all give it everything we've got!

LS: On your own recordings, do you have any anecdotes about times when somebody that you looked up to or admired sang backgrounds for you?

"The Way It Is"

VC: Not much, other than Lyle Lovett calling me "ma'am."

LS: and VC: (laughter)

LS: He called you "ma'am"? Did you know him?

VC: Yeah, but not well. Actually, he just called me out of the blue one Christmas at my mom's house, and my family was pretty excited because they answered the phone. And he said, "I'm a fan, and I just wanted to say hi."

LS: WOW!

VC: It was pretty exciting!

LS: What had he been a fan of, your recordings?

VC: Yeah, that Stone's Throw thing. It was very sweet, and from then on I vowed to meet him. So as soon as I had anything going on [recording], I could not wait to ask him. And he showed up, it was great!

"Find A River"

LS: And James Taylor sang back up on The Way It Is. Was that the first time that he had sung backup for you on a record?

VC: Yeah, I guess that might have been.

LS: Was that odd or strange, or just very natural?

VC: No, it's just natural to share music, very natural to share music. And he was so sweet, and so willing to do anything. I love my boss!!!

LS: and VC: (laughter)

LS: And your last recording was Find Me a River.

VC: That's just a little -- what do they call those things? -- Extended Play. Five songs. It gave me a few bucks and made a few cents. It came out only in Japan. Mark Goldenberg produced that record. He's an amazing, amazing guitar player, songwriter and producer who works with lots of artists, but he had been with Jackson for a long time, and that's how we met.

LS: Do you have a favorite song on any of the albums you've recorded with James?

VC: Well, pick any morose song, and that's my favorite (laughs). Talk about love of maudlin things, that's me! I actually want to start something at a nightclub, something you would do once a month, called "Dirge Night" where every writer comes in and does three or four of his most sad and depressing songs. And we'll have candelabra, and gladiolus, and kind of a bizarre little theatre thing going on.

LS: Velvet... (laughs)

VC: Exactly, you got the vibe. So anybody happy shouldn't come.

LS: and VC: (laughter)

LS: Or if you're happy, we'll fix that... that's hilarious!

VC: So you just pick all the saddest, most tear-jerking songs, and those are my favorite. "Look Up From Your Life" just kills me. I see Don Grolnick's face, and I just go somewhere. We all do, every time. I don't care if we play that song 20 times a day instead of one time a day. It just always evokes the same emotion

LS: I like all of James' pretty ballads, but I find that I start liking a lot of his "rocking out" songs more once I hear them live.

VC: James is very funky. And I'm really glad when he remembers how funky he is and does those songs, because the band gets off on something that's grooving. And certainly the singers do, we all do. There's so many beautiful ballads. There's always probably more of those than there are the "up" songs, but that makes the "up" songs all that much more special.

LS: I loved his version of "Not Fade Away."

VC: Yeah, that was so much fun! I get to actually play an instrument. I busted my thumb like about a million times using those claves. I'm terrible. And doing that in front of the symphonies was really hysterical. They were, like, "You have great command of the instrument." Oh yeah, right.

LS: Did you say you did "Not Fade Away" on the 1994 symphony tour???

VC: Yeah, it was hysterical.

LS: I've heard "Steamroller" with a symphony but I can't imagine "Not Fade Away."

VC: We did it!

LS: Oh my gosh, that's so funny. And the orchestra played too??

VC: James has such a great sense of humor, you've got to understand. I mean, it was fairly tongue in cheek.

LS: When you get ready to go on the road for a big tour, what do you do besides pack?

VC: That's just what you really do, just sort of pack. I have a mail service that sends me my mail so I can pay my bills.

LS: So you still have to have a life while you're on the road (laughs)?

VC: A little bit. But it's not as complicated as living at home, because you're not running around for your dry cleaning, you're not going to the bank, you're not doing all the stuff. That is a world that you leave behind. And for me, it's like a summer camp for adults. And I look forward to it because I feel that being in charge of your own "ship," as it were, is really more difficult than getting on that bus and having that "whoosh" of the piece of paper being slid under your door at night in your hotel telling you EXACTLY what's going on the following day. I love that. It appeals to the child in me that doesn't want to be responsible.

LS: Do you guys play practical jokes on the road on each other?

VC: From time to time. Not in the way that we're even enlisting the help of the other members. But the last tour of the summer, I mean the last date, something strange always happens.

LS: Like what?

VC: Well, let's see. Kate and I get a lot of flack for how may clothes we bring on the road, and shoes. So last summer, I think, we loaded up our entire side of the stage with all of our shoes. There was no place to walk, no place to be.

LS: and VC: (laughter)

LS: How many pairs do you bring?

VC: I don't know, but between the two of us, we're relentless. And then, there's the days off when we go shopping. Imelda Marcos has nothing on us.

LS: and VC: (more uproarious laughter)

LS: Being the only two females on the tour... is everybody just "one of the guys"?

VC: Well it's clear that we're females, but it's clear that every one of those guys is a big brother, and a family member. It's always been like that. We've gotten to know people really well, including getting to know their children and their parents, and they've gotten to know my family.

I have a huge family, so as we edge towards the cities where they live, it gets more and more strange for me. And for James too, because my relatives are a little outgoing, and they practically run him down to get a hug. And it's cute, but it's really embarrassing. And at one point, I had 56 guests or something, and they actually gave me a little family room backstage. And they mauled James pretty good... he was really a doll about it. But on stage that night, he said, "I want everybody in the audience to turn around and look at the person next to you and just say 'hi,' because that's one of Valerie's relatives. Ohhhhh, the shame! The total shame!!!

LS: and VC: (laughter)

LS: What's it like on the bus after a show?

VC: Well, there's take-out food from God knows where. There's a lot of down time on the road, and there's always food. This band rehearses five minutes, eats for ten, rehearses for five, eats for fifteen. It's just terrible, terrible temptation all the time.

We sort of sit around as we're rolling down the road trying to at least get some of the grit and grime off before you climb into bed. And then we arrive at these really gorgeous hotels where people look absolutely fresh and stunning for their day in business suits, and they're all shined and polished to the hilt. And here we come off the bus...

LS: All bedraggled?

VC: Yeah, there's a quick (shielding her face), "Can I have my key?" And you kind of slither off to your room, and get a shower, and lay down for a couple of hours, and do it all over again.

LS: What are your plans for the future?

VC: I love collaborating. And I love harmonies and that sort of thing. I don't think I've ever written more than two or three songs fully by myself. So, I would love to have a partner and am actually looking at doing just that in a far-away place called Nashville. I'm looking for a good duo situation, so I'm going to go down soon and see what happens.

I really like the writing community of Nashville. I like the way they get things done really quickly. You don't leave songs hanging in pieces all over town with different people. There's no piece of your heart here, and a piece over here. In L.A., I can't even remember who I've started some songs with. I find that I have this one little piece of a song, and it might be a little gem. And I go, "Who has the other half of this? Where is it? How many years ago did we start it and say we were going to finish it tomorrow?" In Nashville, you get started on a song one day, and you literally wrap it up either the following morning or that night. I don't know if I can write a good song that way, but my guess is that if I really apply myself to the Nashville "modus operandi," maybe I can. And I'm curious to see what it will be like. I know the writers are spectacular. So I just want to try something different. You know, branch out a little bit. I'm all about taking risks right now.

LS: But you're going to keep this house as your base? Because this place is so beautiful!

VC: Ohhh, thank you! This is the first time in my life in all the years I lived in Los Angeles that I've ever had roots, really. I love the birds in the yard. And the possibility of growing some of my own vegetables is really very exciting. I can't believe how domestic I'm becoming!

LS: Well, let me see what else I can possibly ask to trouble you with. Is there anything I haven't asked that you wanted to say?

VC: No, we've talked about the past, the present and the future. I feel like I've really talked a lot, for me (laughs). You caught me on a really talkative day. It was really nice to talk about everybody, so thank you for that opportunity, and it's great to meet you.

LS: You too... thanks.

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