NO LONGER THE ‘SAD BASTARD’
Anderson East blends old-school country with soulful roots-rock
American singer-songwriter Anderson East was on the phone from a hotel room in Tulsa, Okla., when he pinched his finger in a drawer.
“Oh my goodness,” exclaimed the Alabama native, his Southern drawl unruffled by cussing. “I just slammed my finger.”
His ability to stifle the swearing was duly noted, and the grandson of a Baptist preacher responded: “That’s the Christian in me coming out. If I wasn’t on the phone with you there’d be all kinds of obscenities. That’s the biggest part of going to church. You just learn how to hide your bad in front of people.”
He catches a breath. “Don’t tell my mama I said that.”
East, who was born Mike Anderson, is one of a new generation of performers exploring the territory between traditional country and soulful roots-rock. He was the first artist signed to Low Country Sound, the label founded by Grammy-winning super-producer Dave Cobb, the engineer who produced critically lauded albums by Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson.
Cobb’s golden touch helped make Delilah, East’s 2015 debut for the label, into an evocative showcase of his warm, whiskeysoaked voice and R&B-drenched balladry, infusing the old-school style with shades of blues, gospel and soul. For his part, East said he was just trying to have fun.
“I think at that point I was just trying to get away from singing sad-bastard songs,” he said. “Even if the subject matter was kind of sad, then let’s make the music not feel so foreboding and self-important and all of the kind of singersongwriter-y stuff that you always think that you’re supposed to do because that’s what being an artist is. I’ve tried to do the sad-bastard thing for long enough. I just want to have a good time.”
Sure enough, it sounds like he’s living the dream. The album has cracked the charts, and East, who turns 29 this month, is touring steadily. He’s spending much of the summer “out with buddies” on a tour with Stapleton and another Low Country artist, Brent Cobb, who’s a cousin of producer Dave Cobb.
East has also been dating country star Miranda Lambert for more than a year. While questions on his love life are off limits (at the request of the label), his Instagram account depicts the happy couple supporting each other’s
work. “Couldn’t be more proud of this little lady and the amazing art she brings with her,” he wrote beneath a photo of them at this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards, where Lambert was named female vocalist of the year.
Growing up in Athens, Ala., East says his earliest musical influences came from church, bluegrass and “whatever was on pop radio in the ’90s.” As a teenager, one of his first jobs was at a Sam Goody record store, where he discovered the Grateful Dead and the jam-band scene, as well as singer-songwriters like Simon and Garfunkel and James Taylor.
The singer-songwriters clearly had an influence, but so did the Dead. “We don’t do lots of jamming onstage, but I think we have the attitude of exploring things and trying something new,” East said. “We try to at least have the spirit of it.”
East recently finished recording a new album, another project with producer Dave Cobb. It’s expected to drop later this year. Once again, East said he’s exploring the human condition in his songwriting. “Every facet of it: happy, sad, glad, mad — all the emotions that make us who we are.”
Meanwhile, he’s happy to follow the road wherever it leads, including his first visit to Ottawa on July 12. “We’re just kind of rock ’n’ rollin’ and goin’ where the wind blows this summer,” he said. “We’re having a blast.”