Lloyd Spiegel is unabashed in his love for Canada and in his appreciation for how Canadian music lovers in communities from coast to coast have embraced him and his unique brand of acoustic blues music.
An icon in Australian blues music circles, Spiegel tries to get to Canada at least once a year and is actually in the midst of a jaunt as this article is posted, wrapping up this current sojourn later in October.
“It’s a country that borders the U.S. so the understanding of blues music is complete, so Canada has that in the bag. The acoustic and folk music scene and the storytelling tradition, especially on the east coast, lends itself to the kind of show that I put on. The thing that I do, my approach to shows, is the thing that is done a lot in Canada and I was quite blown away by that. And to top it off, the European influence in Canada, for me, brings a decent coffee into the mix, which is really important to me. And the concept that art is important, and culture is really important and those that bring art and culture are important because of that is also something that is ingrained in Canada,” he said just before his tour started.
“I just instantly fell in love with that whole package and knew this was somewhere I would really like to explore. And I think part of it is the fact that Australia is very similar in many ways. Every country I tour in I have to change the delivery of my stories a little bit. In Canada, I have to change nothing. Both of our countries have this beautiful ability, which I truly love, of leaning into our own clichés and making a little fun of ourselves. And we love that connection.”
The current tour is in support of his most recent album, Cut and Run, which is his 12th release overall (including live albums) since the mid-1990s. Back home, he is one of the most lauded and popular blues musicians, earning multiple Australian Blues Awards over the years, including Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Producer of the Year and Album of the year in 2019.
Spiegel said he has always used touring as inspiration for much of his writing and does indeed do a lot of writing while on the road.
“I have never written songs in Australia. I have always been on tour somewhere else. When I am home, I’ve got bills to pay and kids to pick up from school and other things that aren’t particularly inspiring as far as the lifestyle of a travelling troubadour would be concerned. When I get on the road, I start to have a mind shift and I am able to put down in writing what’s going on in my head. I usually write one album while I am touring the previous album,” he explained.
“I was touring Backroads [2018] last year and playing in 12 countries and slowly writing in hotel rooms and in cafes, wherever I was going. I was putting some lines together while sitting on someone’s boat or fooling around with my guitar in the hotel – I just keep putting down ideas and I usually hit the studio with half the album written and come out the other end with a complete list of ideas and songs. I usually put the music down first and then take usually a couple of months before I do the vocals. I will take the music overseas and live with that in my ears for a couple of months. I use every opportunity I can to find a little nook and a little time to work in.”
Spiegel gets his inspiration from the interactions he has with people, especially those in smaller communities around the world. Truly a commentator on the human journey, he enjoys the experiences off the stage during touring cycles as well as the onstage performances. In a sense, Spiegel could be said to be part philosopher, part documentarian and part detective – a detective of the human soul.
“Part of it the fact that I started so young in the industry. I was on the road at age 10. I would always feel like I was outside of everything looking in. I never felt quite comfortable as a young child touring the blues scene, but that was my life. I wasn’t comfortable because I was so much younger and greener than everybody. I also wasn’t comfortable at school because they didn’t understand me either. So, because of that grounding, when I tour now, I never quite feel like I am an everyday tourist, I never get comfortable anywhere. I think that is actually a good place to be at when you’re studying the human condition and writing songs about it, to always be a little bit on edge because, let’s face it, that’s the world we’re living in. To never be quite comfortable and always be asking myself questions, that not only reflects on who I am but how I see everything. I do take to writing very much from the perspective of a stranger because that’s how I feel most of the time,” he said.
“Fortunately for me, the thing that I do for a living is one of those things that binds everybody. And what I do for a living is a currency that is accepted practically everywhere. I am huge on connecting with people. Ninety per cent of my show is connecting with people. I love seeing the local people being entertained in the local venue, like when I played in Napanee, Ontario last year. I thoroughly enjoy those experiences.
“And you know what, none of the highlights of my life are musical. You want them to experience your show, you’ve got to connect with them, and they are going to wait patiently and quietly and will listen to your show. You owe them the next day to walk around town and have a coffee and talk to people. The amount of times I have sat in a situation and thought, ‘all I did was play guitar and here I am out on this gorgeous river in Napanee, a beautiful part of Canada, or I am at the Moulin Rouge watching a private show because I happened to run into one of the dancers at one of my concerts, or I am being flown down one of the largest mines in Australia in a helicopter because the pilot saw my show and wanted to do something cool for me.’ That’s the super cool thing about going to local venues and them wanting to show off their little part of the world, like I show off my little part of the world through my performances. I truly love that, and I have met most of my lifelong friends that way.”
Cut and Run has come to be seen as the third part of a trilogy of albums that, almost subliminally, Spiegel has crafted, beginning with This Time Tomorrow in 2017, and then Backroads. Thematically the journey of the three albums mirrored both the personal and professional journey that Spiegel was taking. And, as with any poet or performer, he used the vehicle of his talent to help try and makes sense of what he was feeling and experiencing.
“With the first two albums I was going through the most difficult time personally, but my very best time professionally. So, I had this sort of bipolar life happening. I was, on one hand, dealing with the most success I have ever had, and a fan base that I never dreamed of, and all the venues I have dreamt of playing my whole life in Australia were knocking on the door. But, at the same time, I was losing a relationship. I was dealing with depression; I was really a shell of myself. I wrote those two albums at that time. There is definitely an element of pain in those records,” he explained.
“I started writing the Cut and Run album while I was on the Backroads tour, so it would make sense that I was speaking to that tour, and I found it to be a much more positive experience and the album itself is answering a lot of the questions I was asking myself. This third album in a row was wrapping up a few of the stories that I started in the previous two albums. I definitely had a much more motivational approach, on a personal level, sort of nudging myself to get on with life. It wasn’t until I really sat back and listened to the album that I realized I was doing that, because I tend to find that I write songs and then make sense of them later.”
More like a folk singer would, Spiegel likes to dig into lyrical matter that has a message, and a commentary about the world he is witnessing around him. Although not overtly political by nature, he is nonetheless unafraid to confront the obvious reality that politics today, especially in many so-called liberal democracies, is a combination sideshow and disaster movie.
“Just because I have a microphone, that doesn’t give me the right to inflict what I think on anybody else. And I still kind of believe that, to a point, I guess. But when I see things that are positive, and I want to comment rather than bring up something negative and comment. This album has a few songs that I think are really about this concept that there are insane things happening politically, absolutely insane. Like, Saturday Night Live 20 years ago would do a skit about it, but now it’s reality. I feel disappointed in how easily we can all just shake our heads and go, ‘well, that’s how it is,’” he said.
“And certainly within the Australian political landscape we have a particularly disconnected public when it comes to politicians and I had started to realize that it’s not that we don’t care, it’s that we’ve been now trained to barely take notice and just accept that this is the way it is, that we work for our government, they don’t work for us. But when I saw teenagers in the United States walking out of school because they don’t feel safe there, I felt so happy to see teenagers for the first time in a long time take a little control for themselves and stand up for themselves. I felt that was great, regardless of the political view, it’s a great awakening for the kids and have their opinion seen as important. So, the song Mr. Jenkins on Cut and Run is an amalgamation of several Australian politicians, those who make sure they are on every television show shouting as loud as they can, because they know the more they do that, they will probably grab a big percentage of the market.”
Rattle Your Cage is along similar lines, focusing on the younger generation of activists who are making their voices heard to try and motivate the powers that be into positive action.
“It’s my tribute to the idea that we’ve now got to start listening to the kids who are the next generation, whose opinions are so important, but have been ignored for a long time. I turned 40 this year, and that’s not old, but it’s my 30th year on tour, and in musician years that makes me 70. I feel like this world is not mine anymore, so I am really happy to see young people taking it on headfirst,” Spiegel said.
“It’s actually a really exciting time. If anything great has come out of the current political landscape, it’s waking up the kids. Even people like myself who wouldn’t ordinarily have said anything can’t really stay quiet anymore, and that’s our fundamental right as human beings. If anything I write inspires anybody I would be thrilled, whichever way it inspires them, whether it be politically or musically or emotionally, that would make me happy.”
What started as a writing exercise to try and break out of a funk, ended up being one of the most insistently memorable songs on Cut and Dry, Any Second Now.
“That was me desperately trying to will myself into writing a song. I had written nothing for the album, and I was fast approaching studio time. I was very busy, and it is hard to find time to write and I had a pretty tough time with writer’s block. So, I was actually doodling on my notepad and what I realized I had done was written ‘any second now’ all the way up and down the page,” Spiegel said.
“The next morning, I took a look at it, and I had left an empty line in between every ‘any second now’ and I decided to write something there and see what happens. So, it’s kind of an in joke to start the album off with that because it was really just me desperately trying to start the record. It’s like a writing exercise and actually where it comes from is dealing with some of the depression issues I have dealt with over the last couple of years, where I have these horrible thoughts where everything in the world was going horribly wrong and I was told by a friend to write on a piece of paper what’s the worst thing that can happen. And then underneath that you write what actually happened. When you do that, you realize the worst that can happen is not that much. So, it was a way to motivate myself and ended up being a pretty cool song.”
Old Wounds is a classic blues song about lost love, and the sacrifices and compromises artists like Spiegel have to make in order to continue to follow their muse.
“I used the physical wounds and pain experience when I play guitar as a metaphor for some of the emotional things I have gone through. I am a very, very fast and very aggressive guitarist and there is a pain that goes along with that. People come up after and say, ‘doesn’t that hurt?’ Yeah, of course it does, but it’s part of the job. But my father laid bricks and his job was a lot harder and took a lot more out of him. Old Wounds is a way of approaching a relationship that is now over that I haven’t really confronted yet and am just trying to find something familiar I can use as a reference so I can start to deal with it in my own head. It’s like the callouses on my hands and even the shape of my hands, which is actually completely bizarre because of my years of performing. It’s interesting how we shape ourselves, literally and emotionally, sometimes in a not so good way, just to try and grasp onto something that we really want,” he said.
“It’s funny the amount of sacrifice you make for the dream of playing music. Whereas the reality is I like to think I am a social worker. Even though I don’t know these people, I am there to make them happy, and I am physically and emotionally completely drained by the time I walk off stage. And no matter how people are there in that room, no matter how many CDs I sell and sign, or the number of selfies, no matter how great the show was or how joyous it had been, I am ultimately going to end up in a hotel room by myself, emotionally and physically drained. So, you start to wonder, ‘am I doing this for myself or am I doing this because I feel the need to project this. Are the things I have sacrificed for my own happiness or the happiness of others? Have I chosen to sacrifice one relationship that is deep and really for these thousands of fleeting friendships overt a two-hour performance period over the next 12 months? It’s an interesting question that I ask myself quite a lot because I ended up so drained and so tired and usually quite sick after a major tour, of course all the while I am living my dream.
“On one side, I can’t complain, but on the other side I wonder, what is it exactly that I have signed up for. Honestly, I know the answer to that question and that’s that I don’t doubt for one moment that if my goal was to leave this planet knowing that I have given it a good nudge, then I know I have done something positive in my life. If it ended tomorrow, I have done a lot more than a lot of other people. I am proud of the fact that my kids chase the things that they love because they see me doing that. My personality has never allowed me to be content. I never sit back and say, ‘okay, this is where I wanted to be with my career.’ There is always more. No matter where I go or what I do, that feeling won’t stop unless I do.”
Spiegel’s Canadian tour began in Alberta in mid-September and continued east into Ontario in October. Oct. 4, he plays THEOP in Deep River, followed by a show at The Huntsville Festival of the Arts on Oct. 5 before moving on to Sudbury Oct. 7. After a show at Hugh’s Room in Toronto on Oct. 9, his Canadian jaunt ends Oct. 11 at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts before a string of dates back home in Australia.
For more information on tour dates, Cut and Dry and more, visit www.lloydspiegel.com
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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