Achieving A HercuLeon Record Decades In The Making: Andrea Zonn and John Cowan
Two Nashville legends team together for the first time in an album rich in redemption and harmony
Last week I took my first road trip of the year, travelling up scenic highways NC64 and NC 268 to the small town of Elkin in the northwest foothills of the state for The Martha Bassett Show, which played its 100th show at the Reeves Theater. It was a wonderful time, getting to know host and multi-talented artist Martha Bassett and the show’s ace crew and house band, and taking in the live performance with artists Liz Longley, Hank Pattie & the Current, and Wayne Henderson. I spoke with Wayne in an interview as well, and that will come to light soon in the series. Thanks to all the hospitality from Martha, her team, and everyone I got to interact with in Elkin, one of my favorite spots for years now (the long running Reevestock Music Festival being my preexisting point of reference there).
Coming up, I sojourn to Wilkes County, just a jog down the road from Elkin, for MerleFest, where I will emcee many of the stages over the third weekend this April. Immediately after MerleFest, I trek up to the high country to Wildacres Retreat for their three-day event hosted by Queens University in Charlotte, to present a more in-depth talk on music’s impact and especially radio’s influence in the history of social movements.
And then in early May, another Albino Skunk Music Festival! I have many artists in my sights for interviews at Skunk Fest as well as MerleFest, so wish me luck as I work to bring all that into focus and hopefully, lay the groundwork for many future podcasts.
Recently I spoke with Andrea Zonn and John Cowan in a lively conversation, and am happy to bring that to you now in the form of the transcript of their podcast episode in this newsletter. Please follow and rate this series on your podcast platform of choice, and you get the benefit of hearing all the artists in conversation as well as excerpts of their music for absolutely free, just like this print version.
And now to the podcast!
[“Face Of Appalachia“ by The HercuLeons, from Andrea Zonn & John Cowan Are The HercuLeons, continuing as bed]
When you think about writing -- good writing -- a lot of what makes it good is not only the choice of words, but also where those words land in the sentence, and where the sentences find their homes in paragraphs, and how the paragraphs arrange into pages, and so on. You can take the same words and make a good sentence or a bad sentence, with the difference being the syntax, or arrangement, of its words and phrases.
When you think about music -- good music -- a lot of what makes it good depends, in like fashion, on the right combination of notes into appealing harmonies and musical phrases. Harmony is not everything, and harmony cannot save a poor melody all by itself, but it is fundamental to everything that our culture considers good music. Harmony is fundamental to more than just vocal harmony -- even a single note played on an acoustic guitar brings out harmony from the overtones inherent to that string as well as any sympathetic resonance from other strings with those same overtones, for example. It is like the guitar wants to harmonize with itself, from the moment its first string is strummed.
People have harmonized their voices from probably the first time two or more people ever sang together. It is practically written into our DNA. Without harmony, great music simply is not possible.
Harmony is one of the first things that comes to mind when thinking of Andrea Zonn and John Cowan, who are well known for their own recordings including former groups like New Grass Revival for John, as well as with other harmony-forward artists and groups like James Taylor, Vince Gill and Lyle Lovett in the case of Andrea Zonn, and The Doobie Brothers in the case of John Cowan. While their instrumental and compositional talents are quite rare, Andrea and John’s vocal abilities are exquisite.
John Cowan and Andrea Zonn already had a harmonious relationship and had worked together in the decades leading up to this, their first album together as band leaders, titled Andrea Zonn & John Cowan Are The HercuLeons, which includes the song you are hearing now, “Face Of Appalachia”. Fans of John Sebastian and Lowell George may recognize the song as a cover of their original from 1974, which John recorded for his album Tarzana Kid. Andrea Zonn and John Cowan’s take on this song is part of our conversation that, like any good harmony, hits a number of satisfying notes, including the story behind their collaboration; stories of their heroes like Leon Russell and Bill Monroe, and contemporaries like Tom Britt; their perspective on their own musical legacies; and tales of their time in the shangri-la of western North Carolina’s musical past, Green Acres Music Hall.
I am Joe Kendrick, welcoming you to Southern Songs and Stories, and our episode on Andrea Zonn and John Cowan.
[SSaS theme song with VO by Joe K]
I spoke with Andrea Zonn and John Cowan by video call, and began our conversation by asking them about what I perceived as their album’s themes of redemption and perseverance. These themes are front and center lyrically, as well as in the players in their band and many songs covered in the collection. Along with some big names like Michael McDonald in the mix, there are plenty of artists who are not household names. I wondered if that was a conscious decision on Andrea and John’s part. Here is John Cowan:
00:02:53 John Cowan
It unfolded so organically and the whole thing was born of Andrea and I desire as friends who had sung together for 25 plus years to actually do something where our voices were captured on tape or in digital numbers, whatever, whatever you have. It but. That it was really our just expressed desire that it started out innocently enough. It was just let's let's sing together because we had just. It was a pandemic.
We had just been both hired to do a custom recording project at and we were there like all day. Usually you get when they call you to sing backgrounds. It's usually like two or three songs. This is like 9 or 10 songs where they're all day and. But it was, but it was great because it was Andrea and I and on the way home that night we both picked up our cell phones at the same time. And called each other and basically said, “Dude, this is so cool. We do. We have to do this. This is stupid. What are? What are we doing? We have. To do. Something. Let's do it.”
So that's my long answer to a short question, Joe.
00:04:04 Andrea Zonn
I'll take it from there too, as that as we started and we had, we both have gigs that keep us on the road. A lot of the year and so and we're very happy in those, in those jobs. But, but in our down time you know we, we had no idea what we were crafting and what we would do with it.
But we started, you know, we were in the pandemic. We were sort of each other's creative bubble. We were singing songs for other people at my house because I have a little studio and we started exploring the idea of how to do something together, just for our own sake. And we pulled in our friend Wendy Waldman and started passing things back and forth. And then when we kind of kept pulling at that thread and decided to do a whole record and started really looking at songs and collecting.
I think this, the thing that you spoke of, songs of redemption and songs of of of you know, there's a lot of of sort of self reflection in the lyrics and a lot of spiritual things. You know, my my boss James would call them hymns for agnostics.
It's I think it's not only just where John and I are and who we are, but it also speaks to the moment that we have been in as a society. You know, we were in a really tender moment with the, with the pandemic and sort of what do you hold on to and what do you go forward with, how do you proceed when you don't have the answers?
And so I think a lot of the songs kind of kind of reflect that, that collective kind of questioning seeking spirit.
00:05:47 Joe Kendrick
Another thing that brought me to this observation was the name of the band itself, which is a, a nod to your band, the HercuLeons. So you're not pointing at yourself, you're putting the attention outside of you. It's, it's, it's not John Cowan and Andrea Zonn. It's the HercuLeons.
00:06:04 John Cowan
Exactly. And and it just kind of start actually hit started when we started this in the pandemic, it was Andre and I and our friend Seth Taylor, who's an amazing young bluegrass guitar hotshot, our friend Ashley Frank, who's also a mandolin player and a wonderful singer, and our other friend Matt Menefee. So they were the band and they're all young, bluegrass, young guns, as I like to refer to them.
And somebody was asking me about the band and I was like, well, these three guys, these three kids, they're not kids, but these three young people that are playing with us, they have Herculean skills.
And then something came up later and I thought. Let's call it the HercuLeons. And that was our tip of the hat to my old boss and dear friend Leon Russell, who I worked with for three years as his bassist and New Grass Revival. But then we were maintained our friendship for the next 40 plus years. I actually went to eat with him the day the week that he transitioned to the other world. It was kind of a surprise to us all, but he and I had remained friends steadfast for a 40 plus year or so. So we wanted to get, we wanted to tip our hat to Leon, so we thought well, that's kind of cute, the HercuLeons.
[“Straight Up” by The HercuLeons, from Andrea Zonn & John Cowan Are The HercuLeons, excerpt]
That is a bit of the song “Straight Up” from Andrea Zonn and John Cowan, from their album Andrea Zonn & John Cowan Are The HercuLeons, one of the songs that embodies the redemptive themes running through the collection. From Andrea and John’s point of view, Tiny Town was a band that never got its due, so they pulled together this cover and added a horn section and a third verse to the song which was originally recorded in 1998 by Pat McLaughlin, Tommy Malone, Johnny Ray and Kenneth Blevins.
Having a horn section puts this song somewhere near Leon Russell’s catalog, at least for the fact that Russell played baritone saxophone. John Cowan was a member of Leon Russell’s band in the late 1970s, along with fellow New Grass Revival bandmates Courtney Johnson, Curtis Burch and Sam Bush.
I commented that it may be lost on a lot of folks nowadays, but Leon Russell was a huge draw in the 70s, and for a short time was the top grossing live act in the country. And when the New Grass guys left his band, the story I remember hearing was that Leon had to hire more players to be able to match everything that John and the guys were able to do on stage.
Here is John Cowan:
00:07:54 John Cowan
Kind of. Yeah, he did, actually. He, he kept adding people, but he really didn't. And at that point, when we left, it was it was just down to Sam and I because Courtney Johnson and Curtis Burch, we played in 78, 79 and 80. So somewhere in early 80, Courtney and Curtis decided they didn't want to spend 200 plus years a day in a van on the road. So they left. So they'll, just about the last year that Sam and I played in Leon’s band. We call ourselves Two Grass Revival.
00:08:29 Andrea Zonn
Never heard that. Yeah, it was great. Hey, was Tom Britt out there with you guys at the same time?
00:08:36 John Cowan
Yeah, he was. And Tom is more, is my oldest living friend. He's an amazing, amazing painter. And even more amazing guitar player. Just so Tom is. When I went to audition for the Revival in October of 1974.
00:08:48 Andrea Zonn
Yeah, favorite people.
00:08:55 John Cowan
Tom drove me down to Western Kentucky to audition for those guys, so that's how. And then so and Thomas, as I said, the great musician. And then once we got Leon's band, Leon started saying, you know, I really like pedal steel. And we were like, Ding! We know this guy and so Tom spent the last couple of years with us with Leon as well.
00:09:20 Andrea Zonn
I was on the road with Tom too, with Vince Gill for years and years, he's just a consummate. Let's make this all about Tom. I think we should dedicate the, dedicate our time to Tom Britt. He's incredible. Just an amazing musician.
00:09:35 Joe Kendrick
This reminds me of the somewhat small pond that you're swimming in. I mean, it's a big world of music, but just those two connections that you mentioned now are new to me, but I'm sure you both have all of these folks that you've worked with at some time or another throughout the years?
00:09:57 Andrea Zonn
Darrell Scott who's all over the record is another one of those who both John and I have had independent musical relationships and friendships with, and it was just a natural to bring him in, to be part of of you know, the creation of this record, you know, and what?
00:10:16 John Cowan
He was the first one, we, I know that we both went. Yeah. First person we're calling is Darrell.
00:10:18 Andrea Zonn
He was the first one we all said we got it, Darrell. Yeah, because what happened after we we did a few Facebook lives as John was saying, with Ashby and Seth and Matt Menefee and and. And then when we started kind of digging in and deciding that we wanted to kind of explore the future with, with this, you know those guys are also heavily committed outside of, outside of other things and. And so John and I just kind of got with Wendy Waldman and said, OK, what do we want to do?
And that's when we decided to just bring and bring a band into the studio, a studio band and, and make the record and then figure it out. But Darrell was definitely among those. Reese Wynans is another one who we both worked with quite a bit and, and knew we needed to have on the record in person.
[“Resurrection Road” by The HercuLeons, from Andrea Zonn & John Cowan Are The HercuLeons, excerpt]
Darrell Scott, featured here playing mandola in the song “Resurrection Road”, which leads off the HercuLeons album. It was Andrea and John’s late friend Kenny Edwards’ song, from Kenny’s album of the same name. Speaking of Darrell Scott, he too is profiled in this series, in the episode titled “On the Road With the Electric Trio and on the Farm With His Orange Scout: Darrell Scott”.
The HercuLeons’ album starts with “Resurrection Road”, but its inception traces back to the song that rounds out the finished collection, a song called “Barbed Wire Boys”. While out driving one day, John Cowan heard bluegrass artist Claire Lynch’s version, and was so moved he had to pull the car over. Andrea Zonn then sent it to Wendy Waldman, their producer, and pretty soon they deconstructed it, adding electric guitar and more layers, until they dubbed it the “Prairie Orchestra”.
I asked what makes the song special to the two of them. Here is John Cowan, followed by Andrea Zonn:
00:13:02 John Cowan
Well, for me personally, I come from 5 generations of dairy farmers right smack dab in the middle of Ohio. So though that ended with my grandfather. He was the last person. He was the last of the generations of, of dairy farmers and that happened. What happened was. The stock market crash. People lost their homes, they lost their farms, he lost his farm.
And he thought. Anyway, he ended up committing suicide over this whole terrible thing that happened with. It so but. I have farming in my family history, so there's so much the the Susan Warner who wrote this song and it's just so.
It's like any great writer song, whether it's Guy Clark or Bob Dylan or or Steve or whatever, and you know it, you can interpret it how you want, but they, the set up to the lyrical images in the song are so beautiful. It's just like I can see every piece of every word that she's telling us about in this song. And to be able to. Sing that for me it was. A little bit of, with my genealogy going back and touching a like the Blarney stone or something for me and I'll help out and get to a metaphysical there on.
00:14:22 Andrea Zonn
I'll get there. I'll get there. I think for me, I hear those lyrics and it again speaks to the moment that we're in where I think there's been a real shift in the way men are allowed to express themselves, and I think that, that this is sort of that. So those lyrics to me speak to a generation of men who were so stoic and strong, and it was all kind of covering this soft underbelly of their faith and their feelings and their their perspective, they’re hard workers. Good, good, good humans and.
And and you know, I I don't know that we see it expressed like that anymore. People who show up and do the work and take care of of their people and their responsibilities and their families and their land. And you know, I just, I know they're out there, it's, you know, and what we've got it there's a lot of good things that are kind of evolving from that, but there's a real generation that, that I think that lyric encapsulates so beautifully.
00:15:29 John Cowan
Yeah, I mean, it makes me think of the Dust Bowl. It makes me think of, you know, agriculture is what caused our country to expand. It was that, you know, everyone want to land and they wanted to go West, and they wanted to have their own place. And so there you have it.
00:15:45 Andrea Zonn
Stake their claim.
[“Barbed Wire Boys” by The HercuLeons, from Andrea Zonn & John Cowan Are The HercuLeons, excerpt]
[jump to]
00:19:01 Joe Kendrick
Now that you've got the record, you're going to tour on it.
00:19:04 John Cowan
Yes.
00:19:05 Joe Kendrick
What do you want to have come out of this? Is this a collaboration that's going to bring us another record or do you have any sort of plan?
00:19:15 John Cowan
Oh, I don't. I I personally, I don't think we've ever talked about this, but I know I would be very happy to keep doing this work with Andrea until I can't work anymore.
00:19:25 Andrea Zonn
I would love to too. I've already, like, been thinking about more songs and I know John has too, and you know, no, we haven't really discussed it. You know it's it's, it's sort of we're finding our way because like I said, you know, we both have these great touring gigs with legacy artists. John is out with The Doobie Brothers and I've been out with James Taylor. And and those are both just such fantastic situations for us and it allows us to continue our folk hobby.
But the beautiful thing about it is that those touring schedules are sort of aligned, which means that we have free time aligned too. So we're just figuring out how to juggle all of our, all of the little pieces, but yeah, I think we'll do this.
00:20:12 John Cowan
I mean, pretty, pretty much we. Pretty much we both have from November till March off every year and that's when we make hay when you know.
00:20:22 Andrea Zonn
That's right. And we have a fantastic live band that we've been doing stuff in Nashville with. Which you know we'll we'll just keep. Keep stringing long as we can as long as we can. Let it go.
00:20:37 Joe Kendrick
Andrea, you. Andrea, you mentioned legacy and that makes me wonder what you both see your legacy as you said, your folk hobby is your legacy leaning folk or is it leaning towards, you know, James Taylor, Doobie Brothers? What is it?
00:20:56 Andrea Zonn
That's a good question, Joe. I, I first of all have not contemplated a legacy for myself. At all but. But I think you know what what I do and what I think I'm. I think I have some regard in the music community as this is, you know, my ability to be a chameleon and to kind of embrace a lot of different genres. You know, I studied classical music and then started doing bluegrass and just over the years have kind of made a big pie out of all of that and. And I think if there's, if there's such a thing as a what I would be known for. It's just loving great music and pursuing you know, just the most authentic expression of, of great art.
00:21:47 John Cowan
I am a person that has literally lived my dream and what I mean by that is. When I was 11, I saw The Beatles on TV and up to that point I wanted to be a football player because I grew up in Cleveland, long-suffering Browns fan here. Forgive me.
But then when I saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I felt like I I felt like I saw somehow myself in them, or there it there was a world of possibility that opened up. And then within two to three years I was planning on playing bass and singing little garage bands in high school and um.
So, but. That was my dream and and kind of against all odds and the odds are quite stacked against us, any of us, to find something that you really want to do, no matter how crazy it seems or is and go do it and accomplish that. So, I mean, I've lived my dream over and over. I used to sit and roll joints and pore over album covers and one of them was Toulouse Street by The Doobie Brothers. I love that record.
And I loved. All their records, they made all the ones that Mike McDonald. And I was a huge fan and same with Leon. I worked my only real job I ever had was in a boat trailer factory and every day I'd go in there and I'd sing Leon Russell songs in my head while I was working on the assembly line.
And forty years later, I'm standing on stage with this guy. Now, what are the chances of that? Same with The Doobie Brothers. You know there. Are there I am at 21 years old, listen to their records. Looking at seeing who wrote what, who played what, and then you know that now I'm on stage with him. It's like. What the heck?
00:23:32 Andrea Zonn
I want to change my answer.
00:23:34 John Cowan
You want to change your answer anyway, sorry.
00:23:41 Andrea Zonn
I want what he said.
00:23:44 Joe Kendrick
Who is coming up that might be picking up on your legacy? Or do you see yourselves in any younger players?
00:23:53 John Cowan
Absolutely.
00:23:53 Andrea Zonn
There’s so much talent out there.
00:23:56 John Cowan
I do as, especially as a guy that. You know the New Grass Revival made it into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, which, like you know, I'm rubbing soldiers shoulders with Ralph Stanley and JD Crowe and John Duffy and Bill Monroe. And you know those, those guys were, they built a form of music.
And I'm in that. I've been honored in the same way. By being placed in the Hall of Fame with those guys and those girls. And. You know, I'm living the dream.
00:24:31 Joe Kendrick
That's a full circle, John. You've been dissed by Bill Monroe and now you're. I remember the one story I think was it a Newgrass Revival show where Sam might have come off stage and, and y'all had a great performance since Sam was, made some comment and then Bill Monroe was coming on or something. It just totally dismissed it.
00:24:55 John Cowan
I'll tell you the story. It's a it's. A, it's worth. Telling.
00:24:58 Andrea Zonn
Legendary.
00:24:58 John Cowan
And it happened. It happened the year before I joined the Revival. It happened in ‘73, I think in Camp Springs, North Carolina or Reedsville or somewhere that had a ongoing bluegrass festival. So Bill showed up with the bluegrass Boys. His banjo player had eaten some bad food and he was just sick. He couldn't get up, couldn't walk. All he could do is use the bathroom and throw up.
So word went out to find a banjo player to play with. Bill. And one of the guys and bills band said. Bill, we should get this kiss this younger guy over here. His name's Courtney Johnson. He's got long hair, but he, he he's grew up playing your music, and I'm sure he'd be great to fill in for. For, for, for you today. And so, Bill said, well, yes, have him show up back here at 4:55 because he was supposed to play at 5, right. So Courtney goes back there and he said, he's super nervous. It's Bill Monroe, you know.
And he introduces himself, he said. Mr. Monroe, I just, My name is Courtney Johnson, and I just, I'd be so honored to be able to help you out today and play your music. It's meant so much to me. The whole it's meant the world to me as. A. Banjo player and Bill looked at him, he said. What do you call your music? And Courtney said, uh New Grass and Bill said, “Oh yes, I hate that” and walked away. Oh, yes, I hate that.
00:26:22 Andrea Zonn
Ohh yes, I hate that.
00:26:25 Joe Kendrick
Well, you know, you've arrived!
00:26:26 John Cowan
Yeah, right. [laughter]
[jump to]
00:31:21 Joe Kendrick
John, I wonder if you can speak to the history that you have at Green Acres Music Hall and the, the sort of the impact that it had on you or what you might see as the, the sort of the lasting legacy of, of that little venue that could.
00:31:36 John Cowan
I'm going to I have a picture here. I don't know if I can. Find it. A dear friend of mine, Richard Battaglia, that was the New Grass Revival sound. And, and ever since then, he's worked for Bela. He's been part of the Flecktones for since their inception and still is. But I saw him, and he brought me. He sent me a bunch of pictures in the mail, and I have a picture of the New Grass Revival’s bread truck. Parked in Steve Metcalfe's driveway with Steve walking up to it, and he he didn't have. It's it's really a little hard to tell it to him because his beard and hair were black.
00:32:13 Joe Kendrick
It's hard to think that that was really a thing.
00:32:15 Andrea Zonn
That's, that's a long time ago.
00:32:17 John Cowan
Yeah. So the first time that we got, we when I say we the first time you actually got hired to play Green Acres. We drove and drove and drove up to Forest City and drove through Rutherfordton and we were like what and where in God's name? Because with that door he literally drove. He literally wrote out directions. Which he used to include on the posters. Remember the bottom of the poster was directions how to get to Green Acres. So the first time we played there it was in like the late fall might have been November and we pull up and what we look we're looking at is this big. Kind of craggy field, a little bit of a hill in it to it, and this this very small, perfectly rectangular cement block building that I think was painted white on the outside. And you go in the building to the back and there's a wooden stage. And over the wooden stage is a light bulb that hangs down and in the back of the other side, in the front of the Green Acres, there's a wood stove. That's it. You got a wood stove when it's cold, you got one light bulb hanging down for the stage and a sign that says no ASCAP music performed here.
Because they didn't want to pay ‘em.
00:33:42 Andrea Zonn
Yeah.
00:33:44 John Cowan
And we were just kind of like, what is this? You know, this must have been. 77 or 78. But you know what happened was it's like by the time the show that we started the show, that entire building was packed like sardines with mountain hippies. And they look like us and they talk like us. And when we started playing, they just went crazy and we thought, well, we've made, I don't even know what this place is, but we're coming back as long as they'll have us, you know, with that kind of thing because, of course, in the summer time he, Steve ended up building a stage down at the bottom of that hill. And that's where you play in the summer time. And it was, you know, pretty ramshackle. It wasn't, you know, it's just Steve and some friends hammering, hammering some plywood to some stuff to make a stage. It's about four feet off the ground.
00:34:41 Joe Kendrick
The world's most carpeted stage. That was one, somebody.
00:34:49 John Cowan
I always joke with people. It's if if I always say, have you been to Green Acres? They're like, Oh yeah, man. And they'll start off and then we always, I always will say how many brain cells did you lose?
00:35:02 Joe Kendrick
Andrea was only there once, from what I understand.
00:35:04 Andrea Zonn
That's my memory. Is only there once and I believe it was raining, but I can't even remember what time of year it was. But yeah,
00:35:13 John Cowan
I remember our. Our dear, our dear friend Rodney Crowell got booked to play there. And he pulled up in his bus, and he took one look at the place and he drove back into Forest City to find a pay, pay phone and called his agent and said “Get Me Out of here!”
But he ended up playing and loving it, of course, but it's most people's first impression were like, what in that God's name is this place?
00:35:39 Andrea Zonn
In a field! And it's, you know, it's like, do you remember those we used to have these full moon bluegrass parties here in Nashville, which were just out at Ted Walkers Farm and sure enough, like during the summer months, warmer months there would be a party every full moon and people would just come out of the woodwork and make magic. It would be like the full Moon party but with a stage.
00:36:03 John Cowan
Yeah.
00:36:04 Andrea Zonn
Yeah.
00:36:07 Joe Kendrick
Those were special times. You can't make that happen again. I, I just.
00:36:09 Andrea Zonn
Like Bridgadoon.
00:36:11 Joe Kendrick
Yeah, just marvel at it. That it happened at all, but it just seems so improbable in this day and age that it happened, and especially in, more impossible to have it happen in any similar fashion, and nowadays.
00:36:24 John Cowan
And Steve was, you know, he had a great imagination. I mean, he's the person that took us to WNC, our relationship with WNCW is simply and solely because of, of Steve Metcalf. Now, we met other people there along the way that we loved and ended up having friendships with like yourself. But that was the genesis of us at WNCW
00:36:49 Joe Kendrick
John Cowan, Andrea Zonn are the HercuLeons, so glad to have you on. Anything I left out, anything you'd like to add?
00:36:57 Andrea Zonn
Now and thank you so much Joe. Thank you.
00:36:57 John Cowan
I don't think.
00:37:00 Andrea Zonn
Thanks for having us.
00:37:00 Joe Kendrick
Thank you. Yes, thanks for being on.
00:37:03 John Cowan
You know, we went, we made a video, by the way, for “face of Appalachia” and the video is footage that was really horrible, but somehow beautiful footage of.
00:37:09
That's a good thing.
00:37:17 John Cowan
The devastation from the from the hurricane, from western North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, and we have directed people in the video to various organizations if they want to donate.
00:37:30 Andrea Zonn
Nashville Weather, Nashville, East Tennessee Foundation, Restring Appalachia. To, to try to help.
And there's one more. But anyway, organizations that really have their feet on the ground helping people of the region rebuild and.
00:37:47 John Cowan
I mean, I think the thing I I want to include that that I want people to understand from me is that from 1976 till when the Acres closed and and this goes all the way up and through Merle Fest and everything that ever happened to me in North, Western, North Carolina, people showed up, people bought tickets to see me and the New Grass Revival. And you know the people of Eastern Tennessee. And that includes Johnson City and Down Home, have put food on my table for almost 40 years.
They've allowed me to be who I am and told me that they like that. Who that that is. And you know I'm going to be forever indebted to the state of North Carolina, especially western North Carolina. It's in eastern Tennessee. It's because I was able to do what I once again, I was able to fulfill my dream because of people like that. So thank you. That's what I want to say.
[“Long Way From Home” by The HercuLeons, from Andrea Zonn & John Cowan Are The HercuLeons, continuing as bed]
Coming to a close this episode with the song “Long Way From Home” by The HercuLeons, originally recorded by Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughn on their lone duo album titled Family Style. This version features session guitar legend Michael Landau, and Bill Payne, pianist and founding member of Little Feat.
Thank you so much for sharing your time with us, and we hope you can help us again by spreading awareness of what we are doing. It is as easy as telling a friend and following this podcast on your platform of choice. From there it takes just a moment to give us a top rating, and on platforms like Apple and Spotify, a review! It makes an incredible difference because the more top reviews and ratings we get, the more visible we become to everyone on apps like the aforementioned Apple Podcasts and Spotify, as well as YouTube and TuneIn, which means that more people just like you connect with artists like Andrea Zonn and John Cowan, as well as hundreds more we have featured on the podcast.
This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available at osirispod.com. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio at bluegrassplanetradio.com. Thanks to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on public radio WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng who wrote and performed our theme songs. I am your host and producer Joe Kendrick, and this is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it.