"Roots Blues are like this since they deal with the human condition and use specifics as sort of props to get the listener emotionally connected."

Michael Weiskopf: Knocking On Americana's Door

New York singer/songwriter Michael Weiskopf is co-founder with virtuoso guitarist Randolph Hudson III of Bob Dylan cover band The Complete Unknowns. Covering Dylan's material spanning his five decade career, the band provides a complete Dylan experience that showcases Bob's songs as well as the great musicianship that brought them to life. The band’s mission is too entertain you while we maintain the freshness and integrity of Dylan's work. Also been a member of The Lost Keys and The Psychedelic Summer. Both bands celebrate the music of the 60s.

Michael, presents and characterizes his music, telling: Coming of age in the 60s was a lucky break. It was a turbulent time that was transformational not only to my world view but also in lifting the gates on the limitations and fears on which many of us were raised. For me, the music of the time was the doorway to my liberation. It began with access to R&B, the Motown explosion, and then the Folk world which was expressed in the voices of Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Lightening Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Jack Elliott, Phil Ochs, Tom Rush, Joan Baez. The marriage of Country to Blues to Folk and ultimately Rock and the "British Invasion" made those who tried to define popular music by segment seem out of touch. As these definitions began to blur, so did the barriers between people begin to break down. It was a time of turbulent change that tore down the laws that permitted segregation, dared us to challenge convention, and forced us to question a government that pursued a war which seemed wrong to many of us being told that we had to fight it. I was never content to just listen; I wanted to learn how to express myself with music as my language. I began learning the guitar and writing songs when I was a kid, but then I put it on hold for many years. Returning to it several years ago, I now spend most of my time writing and recording songs. In this context, it is fair to say that my first CD, Insomnia (2012), was decades in the making.

Michael just released his second album, Suffering Fools (2014), with songs that tell stories, that rock, may disturb and amuse. Many of his songs are blatantly political and topical. Michael Weiskopf talks about Bob Dylan, Beat poetry, Blues, Folk, the past and activism of music.

Interview by Michael Limnios

How do you describe Michael Weiskopf sound and songbook? What characterize your music philosophy?

It’s hard to describe in a few sentences, I think I am most comfortable with the label “Americana” which I consider an umbrella term that gives a writer freedom to embrace any style that fits a specific mood or color depending on lyric content and texture. I don’t know that I have a philosophy; I just try to be honest with myself and write the truth as I see it while continuing to push my limits as a musician and learn. I also believe that all creativity is a collaborative process. That you have to be open to different ideas that go into arranging a song but ultimately decide where you want it to go.

How has Folk & Blues poetry and music changed your life? What is the relation between music and activism?

Coming of age in the 60s was life changing and mind altering. Lower Middle Class kids like me were getting access to a different way of looking at the world which I believe was formerly the province of the Ruling Class and their children. If I had been born ten years earlier I probably would have been an electrician or a laborer. Suddenly it was cool to like literature, Jazz, Blues, Poetry. It was all converging. My older brother turned me on to The Catcher in the Rye and I must have read it a couple of hundred times before I was a teenager. Then on to Jack Kerouac, “On the Road” and Mexico City Blues, it all played an important role in the convergence of the music, poetry and contemporary fiction. The walls between pop music, White R&R and what was then referred to as “Race Music” came tumbling down and the entire thing converged. My earliest awareness was Motown and some of the Brill Building (actually 1650 Bwy) stuff but I got hooked on Folk and Blues after hearing, Dylan, Jack Elliot, Muddy Waters and the other heavyweights of the time. Then of course, the British invasion which was really our own music coming back to us in amplified orchestrated form and Dylan going electric.

And of course this was all happening as a soundtrack to the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. All brought to our living rooms in black and white television. We were idealistic and losing our innocence at the same time. Billy Joel once said that “Hard times make for good songs and the reverse is also true” juxtapose the music of the 50s and I think he has it right.

I think that to be relevant art needs to have something to say about the world in its current state. The trick is to try and write something that will be just as timely 50 or 100 years from now. If you look back at most “Topical” songs, they generally (in my opinion) do not hold up. Again, Dylan and much of Woody Guthrie are the exceptions. I think this is true because they either tell stories with their songs or create a narrative that may be about a specific event but the characters are timeless. Roots Blues are like this since they deal with the human condition and use specifics as sort of props to get the listener emotionally connected. I recently wrote a song about an American politician, Ted Cruz that I know won’t stand the test of time but despite the fact that it is disposable I think it serves a purpose. I don’t think that activism in song writing really changes anyone’s mind but it can serve as a means to stimulate critical thinking in those who may be on the fence as well as entertaining and morale boosting to those that see the world as the writer does. Probably why one of the first things that dictators and weak governments do is lock up or threaten activist singers, painters and writers who have a social agenda.

"The music is real, it is primal and it reflects the human condition. These are non-disposable elements."

Which is the most interesting period in your life? Which was the best and worst moment of your career?

It’s all interesting. The worst part for me was putting my music goals on hold for many years while I supported a family. The best part is the part I am living right now, writing original music with the goal of putting out a new CD every twelve to eighteen months, working with great musicians who are supportive and generous with their time and talent. Working in The Complete Unknowns for the past six years with my band mates Randolph Hudson III, Stuart Sherman, Klyph Black, Taka Shimizu and Jim Lawler. This band’s mission is to celebrate Mr. Dylan’s catalogue and it is truly a joy to perform the songs.

Why did you think that the Folk and Blues music continues to generate such a devoted following?

The music is real, it is primal and it reflects the human condition. These are non-disposable elements. There will always be stuff that is more popular but that is okay because pop music is a “gateway” to the Roots and eventually, as people mature their tastes take them down that road.

Which meetings have been the most important experiences for you? What is the best advice ever given you?

Sometimes the most important experiences and meetings are chance encounters. Something that somebody says in passing or that you witness that turns up in your life and is very useful later on. An observation that a stranger makes about you at a bar or an airport. You never know.

I don’t think I am good at taking advice. I generally make my mind up and then look for confirmation. If I don’t get affirmation maybe I will reconsider. Mostly I don’t. The best advice is encouragement, if it is genuine. Learning to keep a perspective on praise and criticism.

Are there any memories from gigs, jams and recording time which you’d like to share with us?

Molding a song take shape in the studio with the help of my friends is a feeling that I hope anyone who is serious about songwriting gets to experience.

"I think I am most comfortable with the label 'Americana' which I consider an umbrella term that gives a writer freedom to embrace any style that fits a specific mood or color depending on lyric content and texture."

What do you miss most nowadays from the music of past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

Well, the past is always with us. It would be nice to have more venues, especially “listening venues” Even the Iridium in NYC one of the last true Jazz Clubs has had trouble staying true to it’s mission. There are only a handful of what we would consider “Folk or Blues” clubs left.

What are the ties that connect the Blues with Folk and continue to Country and the "British Invasion"?

There has been so much written and documented about this by scholars that have a better handle than I do. All of these are branches of the same tree.

What do you learn about yourself from the blues culture and what does the blues mean to you?

I learned that it is damned difficult to play the Blues the way the greats play and played, and it is best not to fake it but to get musicians to work with that are above my pay grade and that audiences will cut you a lot of slack if you are authentic.

Which incident of Bob Dylan’s life you‘d like to be captured and illustrated in a painting with you?

I would have liked to have been on the Rolling Thunder tour.

If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?

Back to Vinyl. MP3s never invented. Let musicians earn a living.

Let’s take a trip with a time machine, so where and why would you really wanna go for a whole day..?

I am somewhat bummed that I am living at the turn of the century. I would like to go forward to 2075 and see what that is all about...

Michael Weiskopf - official website