Gregory Alan Isakov plays songs from 'Appaloosa Bones' in The Current studio

Gregory Alan Isakov - studio session at The Current (music & interview)The Current

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October 17, 2023

Gregory Alan Isakov stopped into The Current studio before playing a show at the Palace Theatre with Fruit Bats — a last-minute addition to the bill.

The Colorado-based singer-songwriter chatted with The Current’s Mac Wilson about lettuce farming, Bruce Springsteen, and his latest album, Appaloosa Bones.

Watch the three-song performance above, and use the audio player to listen to the interview. You can also read a complete transcript of the interview below.

Interview Transcript

Edited for time and clarity.

Mac Wilson: Hello, my name is Mac Wilson from The Current and I am joined in The Current studio today by Gregory Alan Isakov. Hello, Gregory. Back in Town playing at the Palace Theatre. So first things first. Your opener Damien Jurado had to exit the bill.

Gregory Alan Isakov: Yep, due to illness, which is unfortunate, that was a bummer.

Mac Wilson: But you had a terrific replacement lined up immediately. Fruit Bats.

Gregory Alan Isakov: Yeah, Eric [Johnson] is awesome. He just jumped on a plane and he's here.

Mac Wilson: I was gonna ask, like, does Eric live closer to here than we think? Or like, how did the process go for finding him?

Gregory Alan Isakov: He lives in LA. We just played together a few weeks ago in Canada, and we were all like, let's play together soon. And then, you know, Damien couldn't make it. And so we just called Eric and he was like, yeah, I'm actually in town. I just got back from London five days ago. So perfect timing and yeah and he's great.

Mac Wilson: It seems like it's like damning with faint praise. But Fruit Bats are a really underrated band, the consistency that they've been able to build up over the last several decades worth of music. That's a really, it's something to aspire to have. So that's gonna be exciting having them and you playing as well. So when I was setting up for being here, one of my co workers, Jill Riley said, well, Gregory brought the full band in today. And we're like, we didn't know what to expect, whether you would bring the full band into the studio, or whether you do a solo thing. Is that sort of a similar process when you're making each individual record, like, well, what's this one gonna sound like?

Gregory Alan Isakov: You know, yes. And, and also, we genuinely love playing. We play almost every day on these tours, there's rarely a day off, where we're not playing. And so I'm always like, you know, trying to respect everybody's space and be like, I can just go do it myself. And everyone's like, no, can I come? Can I come out? Like, that's a good problem. So I love that. So anytime we have an opportunity to do something like this, we love it.

Mac Wilson: I've been like, nerding out with a lot of internet stuff lately. So bear with me, like in the world of classic rock. But I was reading about [Bruce] Springsteen and Nebraska. Everybody knows that all the stuff from that period, the Nebraska songs and the Born in the USA songs, where he did the demos for them and then he ended up releasing Nebraska. But then there's the full version band of Nebraska that has never come out where there's versions of those that are all in the vault. So when we're thinking about like, well, what's the approach going to be today, like Nebraska of all things popped into my head.

Gregory Alan Isakov: I love that record. I think it's just like one keyboard on that record.

Mac Wilson: Yeah, that's right. There's like one keyboard in one of the songs and then the rest is all —

Gregory Alan Isakov: One of my favorite records by him is called The Ghost of Tom Joad. Do you know that record? So amazing.

Mac Wilson: My introduction to that record of all things was when Rage Against The Machine did a cover of it. So there's somebody else that I've been following on Twitter, where he's been going through and listening to each subsequent Springsteen record. So it's been felt funny following his progress with that, he hasn't gotten to Tom Joad yet, but the number of Springsteen records that I listened to like, Rage was my introduction to that particular one. Yeah, that's great. That's, that's super cool. So we were talking about Nebraska. I want to ask about Colorado, because that's where you're based right now. I've never been to Colorado. Well, I'm like, Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs are all close to each other, right? But they're not. They're actually quite spread out. So what's the vibe of where you are? You're outside of Boulder. Now, what's the vibe of that compared to maybe other places in Colorado?

Gregory Alan Isakov: Yeah, there's a there's a lot going on in Colorado. You know, I used to live in the mountains for a while. And, you know, I went to horticulture school and I was basically studying soil science and agriculture. So I moved out to the kind of the foothills, the plains, where there's kind of two months longer of a growing season. So it can change really quickly within, you know, 5-10 miles.

Mac Wilson: So at the farm that you have in Colorado, what's the primary stuff that you have out there?

Gregory Alan Isakov: We do, you know, for a long time, I just, I was growing, I was kind of the lettuce guy for a lot of restaurants just kind of focused on greens. And then the past seven seasons or so we do mixed vegetables CSA, and a few for like 12 chefs in like Denver and Boulder. No Fort Collins yet but yeah, and there's three of us that run our farm.

Mac Wilson: That's so cool. Like, I'm sorry that I like I don't have a response. I'm like, you know, somebody has to do that you think of every item that's in every restaurant where there's somebody behind the scenes, like there's somebody whose job it is to make the forks that go to every single restaurant, then you get into lettuce.

Gregory Alan Isakov: Yeah. And you know, lettuce mix was sort of a passion of mine. I just was like, really wanted to get good at that before I kind of dove into, like, now we grow, like, over 50 varieties of vegetables. And we do some flowers from florists and stuff, but mainly vegetable CSA stuff.

Mac Wilson: We are in The Current studio with Gregory Alan Isakov playing at the Palace Theatre, and the new record is called Appaloosa Bones. It's your first one in a couple of years. And Appaloosa, that's a horse.

Gregory Alan Isakov: Yeah, it's the spotted horse.

Mac Wilson: I was trying to remember exactly what it was. But there was some account that I read as a kid, where it's like, if you raise Appaloosas, they have a really special spot in your heart. Like people, like if you have an Appaloosa horse, like those are the ones that you keep going back to. So I that was an intriguing metaphor that you use for that one.

Gregory Alan Isakov: That was interesting when it arrived, that line from the song. But, you know, it was also there was a bar we used to play in Denver called Appaloosa Grill. And we played there, you know, every week it was sort of our rent gag when we first met. And we've all been playing together for a long time. And so it kind of was amazing throwback for us. Because a lot of the songs on the record kind of reminded me of like, first beginning to write songs and kind of that curiosity that happens when you're trying to make a record that is cohesive and, and so it was a cool, like, it was a cool thing that happened.

Mac Wilson: Just the conversation that we're having right now, it feels like you, you don't seem like a particularly tightly wound person, you seem to let music and anything in life just come to you sort of gradually. And naturally, that seems to be the way that this record played out to, it doesn't feel like you were under a lot of stress to crank something out on a really quick basis behind it. Am I getting that right?

Gregory Alan Isakov: Absolutely. You know, it's funny, I, I probably recorded almost 40 songs, which is a probably a normal amount of songs I make for recordings, and then I sort of take a lot of space, and I come back. Because the the new ones, you're always like, that's badass, it's going to be amazing. But then, you know, you take some space and you come back, you're like, maybe, maybe not. And so that time is really important for me to make in making a record. But I just love records, you know, I've always loved complete pieces of work, like from the beginning to the end, you know, not like I have any judgment on how anyone listens to music now, or singles, it's so personal. But for me, I really wanted to make a record that felt cohesive. And some of the songs that I tracked, just didn't fit the landscape that I was building. And so they go under this little parts yard part of my studio, you know, that maybe I'll use later, you know?

Mac Wilson: Well, we've been seeing more and more musicians over the last couple of years, where they'll, like you said, you record one record, then you've got the other songs. And in many cases, they released a second album, like, within months or even weeks later, like that. And it's tempting to say that that's like an offshoot of the pandemic. But like, there were musicians doing this back in the ‘70s, as well? Yeah. So you'd say that it isn't necessarily like, Well, we had so much music during the pandemic era, that's just the way that this particular process played out for you.

Gregory Alan Isakov: Right, yeah. And it's, it tends to work that way. For me. I remember, you know, even when I was just solo in my truck, playing, you know, throughout the Northwest and stuff. I would go I would finish a little tour, and I'd get ready to go out again, the next season or the next winter. And, you know, all my friends are like, well, you need a new record to go on tour. That's what that's what you need. And, and for me, I was like, wow, records aren't merch like these are hopefully, they're going to be around after we die, hopefully. And let's make a T-shirt instead. Or you know, something else. So I think records for me, it's okay, if it takes a little bit longer to make sure it's something that I want to share with people. And hopefully, hopefully it will live a little bit.

Mac Wilson: But Gregory, it's been a joy welcoming you in and your band as well. It was wonderful to chat with them. And really beautiful performances.

Gregory Alan Isakov: Thank you so much.

Mac Wilson: It feels like you knew what you wanted to do. And you nailed it. Right when you walked in. And the cameras may not necessarily show, but there's a lot of setup that was here today and everything just sounded great. So thank you again for stopping by.

Gregory Alan Isakov: Thanks again.

Mac Wilson: Gregory Alan Isakov, thanks for visiting The Current studio.

Gregory Alan Isakov: Thanks for having me.

Gallery: Gregory Alan Isakov in studio at The Current