Rebecca Frazier and her band visit the studio to share their music and discuss their upcoming performances with KGNU’s Indra Raj. Rebecca talks about her forthcoming album, “Boarding Windows in Paradise,” set for release on September 13th. Rebecca describes the album’s themes and Indra emphasizes the importance of representation and how seeing women in bluegrass can inspire others (Interview date: 6/13/2024)
Indra Raj: We are excited because we have a full studio here. We have Rebecca Frazier and her whole band here making music with us today. Welcome, Rebecca.
Rebecca Frazier: Thank you so much.
Indra Raj: It’s really nice to see you. Really excited to hear this music today. You guys are going to be at Palisade Bluegrass. It’s this Saturday and Sunday, but you’re performing on Friday.
Rebecca Frazier: Yes. And then Gold Hill Inn on Saturday. So you guys head up the mountain.
Indra Raj: Yes. And our listeners are used to that. We have our annual Charles Sawtelle Memorial Mountain Jam coming up on the 21st of July. So keep that in mind. But enough of that. Let’s hear some music and then we will talk some more.
Rebecca Frazier: Alright, here’s our new single, which came out on Tuesday, called “High Country Road Trip”, written about Colorado.
Indra Raj: Thank you so much.
Rebecca Frazier: Oh, what a blast. I feel so intimate in here, playing like a living room jam. We’ve been plugged in recently. This is really nice.
Indra Raj: I love it. We had Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley in earlier. And so it’s so nice to have all this bluegrass in the studio this morning. So tell us about that song. You said it was inspired by Colorado. We heard you mention parts of Colorado in it.
Rebecca Frazier: Yes, of course. Okay, so I was here for about a decade. It was a life changing decade. I ended up being in the band, getting married, and then deciding I wanted to have children, but decided to leave Colorado.
And that set the tone for what I wanted to do here, which is just that feeling when you drop down 285 and there’s this expanse. And you’re like, oh, south on 285. And, you could fork over to Gunnison, you could go straight. The song is supposed to be a joy ride and that feeling of, you know what? Why do I have to think about this so much? Let me enjoy right now. Yes, there’s a lot I need to decide. So just that moment, that elevated drop of just being here now. And that’s what we were hoping to express and I will clue you in that we did record a video already.
A Thelma and Louise style with my co-writer Rorey Carroll. We actually drove down 285, so that’ll be coming out in July.
Indra Raj: Oh my gosh, wonderful. And so this is the first single from a forthcoming album that’s coming out in September, correct?
Rebecca Frazier: Yes, September 13th.
Indra Raj: And it’s called Boarding Windows in Paradise, and you said you had a little story about that.
Rebecca Frazier: Yes, so my co writer Rorey Carroll, who also worked on the song “High Country Road Trip”, we wrote a song called “Hurricanes” together. That was inspired by- I’m from Virginia and grew up on the coast where everybody is basically rebuilding their property every single year during hurricane season. And it got interesting for me as an existential question: wait, why? Why would you purposely live somewhere you’re constantly having to fix? It just seems silly, but it is paradise. So there’s this paradox of paradise is actually something that we do have to work at every day.
And everything from marriage to our relationship with our children, to our relationship with our house and our property, et cetera, music. So just that constant daily intention of creating your own paradise is basically what I was trying to get across because, on the cover, I’m standing there with a boarded window, in paradise, and it’s just a symbol for me.
Indra Raj: Yeah, that’s wise words, truly. As I get older, I feel what you’re saying more and more.
So what do you have next?
Rebecca Frazier: I just wanted to thank Palisade. Of course, we’re going to Gold Hill Inn on Saturday. I’d like everybody to know: 5:30 p.m. outdoor show, rain or shine. And we’ll be doing Rebecca Frazier music and what I’m about to describe here.
I have a project called Rebecca Frazier Grateful Strings, in which we do our own special kind of bluegrass-y way of doing Grateful Dead repertoire, which is a band I grew up listening to. I went to Dead shows. I went to one Dead show when Jerry Garcia was alive as a teenager and Palisade Bluegrass and Roots is having us for Rebecca Frazier’s Grateful Strings. So at Gold Hill Inn, we’ll be doing a combo.
We’ll start off with our interpretation of “Birdsong” and we will then merge into a guitar tune that I wrote called “Forty Blues”.
Indra Raj: Alright, Rebecca Frazier and her band here in the studio. That was totally awesome. Do you want to introduce the other people who are here with you today?
Rebecca Frazier: I’d love to, yes. They’re all stars. Maybe the band should be called “Rebecca Frazier’s All Stars”.
So over here on the amazing banjo playing, we have an artist. He released his own album called Duck’s Eye recently. We’ve got Charles Butler. And over here, and actually he’s touring with Margo Price this summer, but he’s toured with the best of the best, and he flew in last night.
So glad to have him. Alec Newman on the bass. And also recently released his own album, our percussionist. The album’s called Hymnal and it’s a really wonderful collection of sacred songs done in a really cool creative way. This is originally from Massachusetts, but Nashville resident since the nineties, Justin Amaral.
Indra Raj: Yes. And I chatted with him already about getting his album into KGNU cause it sounds like it will be just up our alley here and our listeners will love it. We only have 10 minutes left and I want to make sure we get more music in, but one thing I always like to ask women bluegrass musicians who come in is, what your experience has been like in a pretty male dominated field of music.
Especially you as a guitar player and you were the first ever woman to be featured on Flatpicking Guitar Magazine. You’re a trailblazer in this way. And I’m just very curious about from you personally what the experience has been like being a woman playing guitar in the bluegrass field.
Rebecca Frazier: Yeah, so I picked up guitar when I was 12. I started piano first, and I just strummed and finger picked, played a lot of that style, but as soon as I heard Tony Rice, I was like, floored. Tony Rice and Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, that whole brand, that whole beautiful improvisational style on acoustic guitar, and I quickly realized that there were no women doing it.
But, in college, up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, found a used CD of a woman named Glenda Faye, who had a CD called Flat Picking Favorites. And it was her doing flatpicking fiddle tunes on the guitar, and I was like, you know what? Why can’t I try? I could do this. So I was in my late teens when I really dove into it, and as anyone out there who flatpicks knows, it has to become an obsession if you’re gonna get any good at it. Luckily that obsession just hit, and I actually lowered my amount of classes so I’d have more time to work on it because you can’t major in flatpicking at University of Michigan. I majored in music and in literature which is great for songwriting but also great for getting theory behind some of the more complicated stuff in the flatpicking genre. It’s not all just folk tunes, but the feeling and the energy of flatpicking is a sunny day in a festival parking lot, just that sound, that energy of: I’m just sharing music just for the sake of sharing music.
And that’s always what I carry with me when I’m flatpicking. It’s not, it’s great in concert halls, but it’s not from that end of where music comes from. It’s more from the parking lots and the living rooms and the festival campgrounds.
Indra Raj: Yeah. I love that you’ve found that one CD and that inspired you. And I think that’s so true with all of us is we see other people like us doing things and it inspires us to be able to do them. And so the more women we see in bluegrass, the better for all of us. And absolutely, we’re seeing more and more, but nearly not enough. So I just appreciate you for being out there in front of people, showing young women around the world that they can be flatpickers as well. That’s really important.
Rebecca Frazier: Thank you.
Indra Raj: Alright, so it’s 11:54. Rebecca Frazier, I would love to hear one more tune. You guys are going to be at the Palisade Bluegrass Festival tomorrow, Friday, and then Gold Hill Inn on Saturday. What is your final song?
Rebecca Frazier: Yes, and I’ll also mention for those traveling down south, on Labor Day, we will be at Pagosa at the Four Corners Folk Festival.
So for our final song, this is a song I wrote with John Weisberger and Bob Minner. It features an all star cast on the album, Béla Fleck on banjo, Sam Bush on mandolin, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Barry Bales of Allison Krauss and Union Station on bass, and Josh Swift of Lyle Lovett Band on Dobro and Shelby Means of Molly Tuttle Band on harmony vocals.
So that’s the main cast on the album, by the way. I don’t think we talked about that.
Indra Raj: Oh, that’s really fantastic to hear. Those are some big names. And this is your album coming out in September.
Rebecca Frazier: In September, but this single that we’re about to play is already released, so one can go to all of the streaming services and listen to it now.
It’s called “Make Hay While the Moon Shines”. So it’s another song about enjoying the moment.
Indra Raj: I feel like we should have a big round of applause but you can see this for yourself at the Palisades Bluegrass Festival. Tomorrow, Friday, they have a set in the evening, I believe. And then 5 o’clock at the Gold Hill Inn Saturday, rain or shine, and it’s hot here on the Front Range.
So heading up the hill a little is always a good idea. Anything else people need to know? How can they find out more about everything that you’re doing?
Rebecca Frazier: So at RebeccaFrazier.com and at Compass Records, they are offering special tie dye tank t-shirt bundles with album pre orders. And that’s the only place you can get those t-shirts unless you come to a show.
Indra Raj: That sounds pretty fun. Thank you all so much for being in the studio and good luck with your performances this weekend.
Rebecca Frazier: Thank you. And thanks everyone out there for listening. Really appreciate it.
