Rebel Heart: The Tanya Montana Coe Interview

Tanya Montana Coe is my little sister. We have the same parents, initials and matching wrist tattoos. It's adorable. Tanya has recently completed her debut album (produced by Shane Tutmarc) and, no surprises, it's amazing. Titled Silver Bullet, it is easily the best collection of songs released by someone named Coe since the mid-'80s. Knowing first-hand the property tax on that name, I couldn't be more proud of her for making this album.

*UPDATE: June 29, 2015*

I'm incredibly happy to announce that Silver Bullet will be released on my label, Thee Medea Complex, on August 30, 2015. When conducting the below interview with Tanya, I had no intentions of forming a label or working with her in any professional capacity.

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The Five Reasons Your Band Isn't Going to "Make It"

I live in Nashville, Tennessee. What actors are to Los Angeles, musicians are to Nashville. It's a total infestation. This, combined with many years as a touring musician, has afforded me the opportunity of seeing countless people make gigantic mistakes in their efforts to "Make It."

In this post, I'll tell you five things you're doing to sabotage your chances at The Big Time. And, no, Number One isn't that you suck. Statistically, it's safe to say your band sounds terrible. But that didn't stop all of the shitty bands currently on top of the radio charts, so there must be more to it than that, yeah? Assuming your band can all play the same song at once, let me give you some tips on how to drop the attitude, quit annoying the people you need, understand SEO, build your legacy and rise above the rest of the local scene.

[UPDATE: Since writing this article, I've been added to several lists of "music blogger emails" sold by scam artists. I'm not a music blogger and I almost never write about new music. I'm never going to listen to your band's music and I'm certainly not going to write about it. Honestly, this is probably doing you a favor because if I did it would almost definitely be a bad review. If that sounds harsh, allow me to offer you my sincere lack of apology. The same segment of this website where my email address can be found has a specific request to not send me promo materials for musical acts. To ignore this request is actually illegal but, perhaps even worse than that, makes you and your band (or your clients, if you're a "publicist") look like total assholes. Stop doing this and keep reading this post.]

I Hate Music, or, How I Learned to Reset My Head

With a singer-songwriter as a father, one would assume that I grew up in a home with music always in the air. This was not the case. When I was young, my father actively avoided listening to music and his temperament was such that when he did something, everyone in the home did it. We didn't listen to albums. In the car, the radio was always off.

When you're a kid, you just go with the flow because everything's normal, right?

"Sometimes when we go outside, people go apeshit and take pictures of us. We get on stage and all of those people are now somewhere behind the blinding lights while the music happens. Then we go home, there are no screaming people, and there is no music."

It made sense to me, I guess.

Curtis Mayfield, Prophet of Soul

Curtis Mayfield

This one is personal. I've been magnetically drawn to the music of Curtis Mayfield since the first time I heard Super Fly. [I remember hearing "Pusherman" as a child and, having no concept of the words being used other than "mother" and "daddy," being intensely attracted to that circular, School House Rock-ish melody being hot potatoed between the instruments and vocals. I was a fan.] When I registered this blog, Curtis was one of the first topics I knew I would cover because even among music historians, discourse on Curtis' contribution to the general well-being of the Soul of the World typically revolves solely around Super Fly. This is misfortunate, as Curtis Mayfield made some of the most brutally realistic, cathartic, spiritually uplifting music this world has known or ever will - and you can dance to most of it...

The 50 Best Songs by David Allan Coe

I have no delusions that this post will create such waves as my post on what happened to the David Allan Coe band. However, this blog was not initiated as a theater of war. Baby Black Widows is to be a compendium of things I consider important in life. I felt it would be naive of myself to expect to be able to have such a public outlet without first discussing the situation with my father. I'm hoping that this post can serve as a segue toward this site's intended purpose, as well as clarify some things about my feelings toward my father.

On the 8th, I expressed my dismay at so many DAC shows having been derailed by his complaining at not having received the recognition he felt he deserved. Let me be clear, he DOES deserve that recognition. David Allan Coe has done some amazing things in his career. Earlier in the year, in response to all those superficial "Best David Allan Coe Songs" lists made by the kind of people who listen to Greatest Hits albums, I posted a list on Facebook of my Top Fifty DAC Songs. I'm going to post that again here, using the extra space to offer added commentary.