Gary Blanchard

EZ Folk Interview with Gary Blanchard
By Holley Hall

HOLLEY HALL: What is your music background?

GARY BLANCHARD: Growing up, I was considered the “non-musical” brother. My older brother could play any keyboard instrument; my parents figured I didn’t have the ability. I always loved music, and was especially fond of the “folk scare” musicians of the late 50’s and early 60’s. Once I heard Donovan sing Catch the Wind I was hooked. I asked for a guitar for Christmas and got a $15.00 guitar from EJ Korvettes. The action was horrible, but I taught myself to play using a book titled Twelve Bob Dylan Songs Playable with Three Magic Chords. While looking for more folk music, I found an album by Pete Seeger; after that, I started teaching myself to play banjo.

My musical tastes and interests often veer off into odd areas. In the 1960’s I got into the whole folk-rock thing. In the 1980’s, after seeing Laurie Anderson on Saturday Night Live, I bought a cheap electronic keyboard and did performance art, blending music with sung and spoken vocals, skits, dance, and visual images. From there I went a bit more upscale and did some electronic instrumental music, including some for theatre productions. I wrote a couple of pieces for string quartet and woodwind trio; both were performed but never got recorded. A couple of years ago I moved into rock music, recording a CD as a one-man-band. Recently, however, I have returned to my folk roots.

HOLLEY: Do you prefer to play music as a profession or a hobby?

GARY BLANCHARD: I prefer to play as a hobby. I would be afraid that being a professional musician would take away the feeling of fun from playing.

HOLLEY: When and how did you first become interested in music? How long have you been playing music? What instruments do you play?

GARY BLANCHARD: I remember having a little plastic toy ukulele with multi-colored strings when I was little. Every time Harry Belafonte’s Banana Boat Song came on the radio I would strum along. I got my first guitar in 1966 and my first banjo in about 1969. I taught myself how to play electronic keyboards in the 1980’s. I bought my first mandolin and ukulele in 2003 and a strum stick in 2005.

I have owned a lot of instruments over the years, but I am especially happy and proud of my current ones. The guitar is a Luna; it has a crescent moon inlay with a Celtic knot design around the sound hole and the fret board inlay shows the phases of the moon. The guitar sounds as good as it looks. My current banjo is brand new, I got it days before this interview. It is a long-neck banjo put together for me by Bruce Kriviskey of Noho Banjo in Northampton, Massachusetts. The neck came from Asia and has nice inlay. The pot has a Whyte Laydie tone ring. The banjo has great tone. It’s a shame for it to be wasted on someone who doesn’t play fancy, but I enjoy having it. The extra three frets allow me to easily play in the keys of E and F, which are good keys for my singing.
Aside from those two instruments, I have a Mid-Missouri mandolin, a Peavey Telecaster copy electric guitar, a Bushman Jenny ukulele, and a Casio keyboard.

HOLLEY: Does anyone in your family play music?

GARY BLANCHARD: My older brother, Kenneth, was a prodigy on keyboard instruments. When I first learned to play guitar, he and I performed as a duo. He was the main singer; I played guitar and sang back-up. (Ken died 28 years ago; I miss him a lot.) My younger brother, Brian, is an excellent bass player and also plays 12-string guitar. My son is learning to play bass. My wife, Carol Mays, can play piano, guitar, and also sings. I can sometimes talk her into singing along with me.

HOLLEY: What are your songs about?

GARY BLANCHARD: Like most songwriters, I have written my share of love songs. The ones that I’ve written over the past 15 years have been inspired by my wife, Carol. I think they are better songs as they are written from the standpoint of knowing what true love is all about. Other than that, my songs tend to be about hope, peace, self-awareness, and caring for others and the world around me. The spirit of Pete Seeger and Woodstock, along with my admiration for Gandhi probably have a lot to do with that.

HOLLEY: Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.) Do you have any particular songs you consider your favorites?

GARY BLANCHARD: I am not a prolific writer, but I have written a number of songs over the years. One of the first songs I wrote, Drinking Cherry Wine, was about the process of growing old. I was 16 at the time and didn’t see the irony of the situation.

My process is variable. I seldom sit down and tell myself I am going to write a song. Sometimes I start fooling with a chord pattern and find words coming into my head that fit the tune. Other times I might begin with a phrase that grows into lyrics; I then write music to go with it. Back in the early 1980’s I wrote a whole bunch of “bumper sticker songs.” Bread Not Bombs is a good example, and one of the few that I still perform.

In the past year I decided to do an album of songs on the general theme of hope. I think this is the first time I really sat down deliberately to write. The overall result was good. The funny thing is I was writing with the intention of having a Grateful Dead style rock disc; this eventually morphed into my most acoustic album in years. Amazingly, most of the songs made the transition.

I am currently doing something I have never done before. I am writing new words to go to the tune of Old Time Religion. I have some ideas and wanted folks to be able to easily sing along, so I decided that this tune fit the words I have in mind. While this is new for me, it is a long-standing tradition. Joe Hill and other songwriters from the International Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies, did this all the time in the early 1900’s. Woody Guthrie also did this a lot.
It is hard to name favorite songs, but Dreaming of Paris has always been a favorite. Not surprisingly, my favorites tend to be the newest ones. I have one that is not yet recorded that is a Cajun-style tribute to my father, who was a Cajun born in Cottonport, Louisiana. I am hoping to get Hunter Foote, a fiddle player, to help me record it.

HOLLEY: Who are your musical influences? (Site specific examples.)

GARY BLANCHARD: As I mentioned earlier, Donovan was an early influence. I love his two early folk albums but also loved his later pop stuff. One time in the late 60’s I did a whole set of Donovan tunes at a local coffeehouse. Catch the Wind is still a song I will perform at times. In my electric phase I did Season of the Witch as well.

Pete Seeger is another major influence. I read a biography of Gandhi when I was 10 years old and became a confirmed pacifist. Pete’s music spoke to issues that were important to me. It also helped me to see that banjo was not an instrument that belonged strictly to conservative values. Of course, his Hammer Song is a real favorite. I also love how he blends old traditional songs with modern songs and the way he stands up for his beliefs.

Another influence, though later in my life, is Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. Jerry’s love of traditional music and his knowledge of a wide range of musical styles amazes me. Ripple is one of the most amazing songs I have ever heard. Another favorite is Franklin’s Tower.

HOLLEY: What live performance experience have you had?

GARY BLANCHARD: I have done a wide number and range of performances. My brother Brian and I played the bars in Baltimore’s Fells Point for a while, but I prefer the coffeehouses. I have also performed at a number of rallies for peace and other social causes. Perhaps my most memorable performance was in New York City at a gathering of socially conscious singers and songwriters. There were a number of discussions and workshops with an open mike to end the weekend. I was on stage singing The Peace Song, and original song with a sing-along chorus. I looked out and saw Pete Seeger in the audience singing along with me.

HOLLEY: What are your musical goals?

GARY BLANCHARD: I guess my only musical goals are to have fun, present folk music to a wider audience, and to make people think. They don’t have to agree with me, but I’d love them to see my side of things.

HOLLEY: Have you recorded any previous CDs or posted any audio files on the Internet? (What type of recording process did you use? Who produced your recording?)

GARY BLANCHARD: I have recorded a number of CDs. I have a Fostex eight-track digital recorder. I usually will do the rhythm guitar or banjo and the vocal tracks at the same time. From there, I might overdub other instruments or vocals. Lately I have been plugging into my PA system and going from it into the recorder. I then take the finished tracks and import them into the Goldwave computer program. This allows me to boost the volume and clean things up a bit. I upload the finished tracks and the CD artwork to Kunaki.com; they reproduce the CDs and come up with a very professional product. I guess I am my own producer.

I am not a big fan of the highly polished recording that are now available. Most of my recordings have some minor flubs, but I prefer the reality of that to the current trend. It reminds me of the early days of recording when they would do one or two takes and the best was the one that got pressed.

HOLLEY: Where do you have your music posted online?

GARY BLANCHARD: Some of my music is posted here at EZFolk and on the Banjo Hangout. I also have music posted on my website, http://gbandf.com.

HOLLEY: Any Music Videos? If so what are they about?

GARY BLANCHARD: I don’t have any for my acoustic music, but I did a DVD titled Heart of the Sun that blends eighteen of my electronic music pieces with a series of images. I call it an audio-visual meditation.

HOLLEY: Do you have CD’s/Audio files for sale? If so, where can they be purchased?

GARY BLANCHARD: My CDs are available at my website. I also have them at one or two local stores. I avoid the CD shops, because it is too easy to be overlooked there. I place them in local gift/variety shops. I also sell CDs at my performances.

The CD’s that are currently available are Worlds of Wonder, my one-man, rock band disc, Journey of Life, an acoustic disc of songs I wrote from about 1968 to 2006, Hope Will Grow, a collection of mostly new acoustic songs, and Wade In The Water, a collection of songs from the civil rights, peace, and labor movements. I have recorded nine songs for a new CD; for once I am that far into a project without having a title and cover design ready. So far all nine songs are played on the long-neck banjo; this may be an all banjo recording. I hope to have it out by the end of summer. Carol and I have also recorded a Christmas CD.

HOLLEY: In what ways does the place where you live (or places where you have lived), affect the music you create, or your taste in music?

GARY BLANCHARD: I don’t think that the places I lived have had a great affect on my music. I grew up in the projects of Baltimore; my musical tastes were rather unusual for the area. I now live in a small town in central Massachusetts; it is hard to say if that has had an effect on my musical tastes as my rock music phase and my return to folk music both took place here.

HOLLEY: When was the last time you wrote a song? What can you tell us about it?

GARY BLANCHARD: The writing for the Hope Will Grow CD was my last time writing. I can’t quite remember which song was the last one I wrote for it. The disc grew out of a conversation that Carol and I were having about the difference between music of the 60’s and music of today. I pointed out that there were a lot of problems in both time periods, but there was more of a sense of hope back in the 60’s. As a result, I decided that I would write some songs about hope. (It is perhaps a sign of the times that mid-way through the process of writing and recording the CD the theme of hope was a major part of a presidential campaign.) Many of them started out with chord progressions with the Grateful Dead style bounce; the lyrics sprung from there. Calderon was originally to be a Led Zeppelin like blend of acoustic verses with electric interludes. Carol heard it and told me the lyrics were too good for the music I was using, so I went back and came up with the current chord progression. Thanks to Carol, it is a much better song.

The most interesting song from that disc in terms of the writing process was Train of Life. It was originally a country shuffle type song, but I didn’t really like how it sounded, so I put it aside. Last summer I was at a camp and jamming with a bunch of people when someone started playing America’s Horse With No Name. I started fooling around with the Em to A7 chord progression and thought I’d like to use it in a song. I was trying to come up with lyrics, but wasn’t getting anywhere. I remembered the Train of Life lyrics and was surprised that I only needed to change one word to get it to fit the new song.

Another interesting thing about that song is that the original acoustic version changed significantly when I did the electric version. The electric version almost has a Santana feel to it.

HOLLEY: Lately what musical periods or styles do you find yourself most drawn to as a listener?

GARY BLANCHARD: I must confess that I don’t listen to too much new music. I have been impressed with a few new artists, especially Jack Johnson, John Mayer, and Ben Harper. Mostly, however, I have been listening to Grateful Dead, other 60’s music, Pete Seeger, Donovan, and some jug band music.

HOLLEY: Name a band or musician, past or present, who you flat-out LOVE and think more people should be listening to. What's one of your all-time favorite recordings by this band/musician?

GARY BLANCHARD: I think that Pete Seeger should be mandatory listening for middle or high school students. The music contains a lot of history and also forces a person to look at their own ideas and values. My favorite Seeger album is the 1963 Carnegie Hall concert recording.

HOLLEY: You have a rather unique way of playing banjo. How did you develop it?

GARY BLANCHARD: I’d love to say it was a great innovation, but it really come from being a self-taught guitarist who taught himself to play banjo. Growing up in South Baltimore in the 1950’s and 1960’s I had never seen anyone play a banjo. After hearing a Pete Seeger album, I went to the bargain room of my local Montgomery Wards store and bought a cheap bakelite, open -back, 5string banjo and a chord book. I basically would strum it as I did the guitar, sometimes I would “get fancy” and do my two-finger picking on it. I held on to it until some time in the 1980’s.
I was without a banjo for a number of years until I picked up a used banjo in Montpelier, Vermont back on 2000. When I tuned it up and started playing I began doing some odd thing similar to a drop-thumb or up-picking, but not quite. So now I have three ways to play the banjo, none of them close to the main banjo styles.

HOLLEY: Can you tell us about your new banjo?

GARY BLANCHARD: Being a big Pete Seeger fan, I was always fascinated by his long-neck banjo. I just couldn’t justify getting one, especially since the few I found were beyond my price range. I have been finding, however, that the keys of E and F are much easier for my singing and the long-neck banjo makes it easy to play in those keys. I then had the good luck of hearing about a local builder, Bruce Kriviskey of Noho Banjo in Northampton, Massachusetts, Bruce was able to make a long-neck banjo for me at a very reasonable price. The neck came from EBay and he added it to a pot with a Whyte Laydie tone ring and I ended up with a beautiful banjo and the ability to do some songs that I have been wantingto do now that I can easily play the banjo in the correct keys for my voice.

HOLLEY: When is your next live performance?

GARY BLANCHARD: I’m scheduled to perform at the Sturbridge Coffee House in Sturbridge, Massachusetts on July 25th. This will be my first performance with the long-neck banjo, so I am really looking forward to it.

HOLLEY: Do you have any advice/experience you would like to share with fellow artists you think would be helpful?

GARY BLANCHARD: Play music that makes you happy, and don’t be afraid to push your limits.
- www.ezfolk.com

BY KEVIN FLANDERS
STAFF WRITER

REGION – Inspired by local history, singer-songwriter Gary Blanchard’s latest song gives residents a fascinating glimpse into the past.
Having visited central Massachusetts for 15 years before moving here in 2006, Blanchard is well-versed on the area’s history. But although he had occasionally heard of the four towns lost to the construction of Quabbin Reservoir, it wasn’t until February of this year that the impact of the event inspired him to write a song.
Blanchard recorded the song “Lost Towns” in mid-February, and released it in early May on his new CD, “Magical World.” Each time he hears the tune, it reminds him of how difficult it must have been for residents of the disincorporated towns to say goodbye to their homes. In 1938, residents of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott were forced to leave their homes and move elsewhere. The four towns were then razed and flooded to create Quabbin Reservoir.
For Blanchard and many other local artists and historians who were inspired by the lost towns of the Quabbin, it’s unimaginable to think of resi- dents unable to return to their childhood homes because the towns are underwater.
“I moved 400 miles from my home when I came here,” Blanchard said. “I have the luxury of going back to see my old neighborhood and familiar landmarks. The residents of the four lost towns are not able to do that. All of the places that were dear to them are under the water of Quabbin.” Blanchard wanted to tell the story of the four towns in a concise way that would help people recall the history and convey the impact on the people of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott.
“It was the first time that I needed to do research to write a song,” the Ware-based song- writer said. “I did not grow up learning the background. In my research, I came across many great photos taken in the four towns. Those photographs added to my ability to connect with the impact of creating the Quabbin.”
Shortly after releasing his new CD, Blanchard decided to incorporate the images that he found in his research. His goal was to help listeners better understand the history behind the song.
To that end, Blanchard turned to videographer Ryan Shepard to create a video of the song.
“We went into his studio in late February to film my part of the video. We planned to go together in the next week or two to Quabbin to film more,” Blanchard recalled. Their original plan was thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the project continued onward in a new and creative way.
“It became obvious that it would be a while before we could go together to film,” Blanchard told the New Leader. “Ryan was able to get there on his own, and he captured some wonderful images. His final product exceeded my expectation – it also multiplies the impact of the words by combining the old photographs with images of the reservoir.”
Blanchard and Shepard hope residents will not only enjoy the song, but also the educational value of the history. Although most inhabitants of the four lost towns have passed away, local artists and historians are committed to preserving the legacy of their communities. Many of their relatives live locally and enjoy learning more about the lost towns.
“I feel that the finished product is entertaining and educational. It is like a four-minute history lesson,” Blanchard said.
The video of “Lost Towns” is posted on YouTube. The Magical World album can be found at Blanchard’s Web site, www.garyblanchardmusic. com. - Spencer New Leader