Guitarist Lisle Crowley has penned books for fingerstyle guitar published by Mel Bay and Hal Leonard and has been featured in Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine. He does session work, plays guitar for many Tuacahn productions, is an adjunct professor of guitar for Dixie State University, and plays with the DSU Faculty Jazz Ensemble. He’s been an integral part of the southern Utah music scene for some time, and he was gracious enough to set aside the time to speak with The Independent about his recently released solo album, “From Horse Head Road.”
Jason Gottfried: You’ve been playing in southern Utah for some time, haven’t you?
Lisle Crowley: Yes, I originally moved here in ’87 to be a professional musician and also to open a music store. I thought I would be a full-time musician and have the store to help out. I became a full-time retailer. That was a valuable lesson to learn. If you want to be a musician, people will tell you, “Get something to fall back on.” The problem with that is being a musician is hard. So if you have something to fall back on, you will.
But with the influence of Roland Lee, I eventually decided if I want to be a musician, I needed to dedicate myself to it. I needed to keep my eyes on where I want to go and work, work, work toward that. Best career decision I made. So for the last 20 years, I’ve made my living as a musician.
JG: You’ve cited your Irish heritage on the back of this album. The influence is apparent on “Kentucky Mist and Irish Fiddles.” Do you come from a musical family as well?
LC: I didn’t think so. My family were farmers and truck drivers and very good at it. You could give them bailing wire, pliers, and duct tape, and they could fix anything. If your nuclear reactor broke down … they could fix it. That gene skipped me.
But none of them played anything musical. I later learned I had grandparents who were quite musical, but I was not exposed to that at all.
JG: Well, Einstein was a violinist after all. I actually grew up in the southern Kentucky area just north of Nashville, and I have Irish ancestry as well—plus I learned a ton from listening to Ron Block. So some of this hits home for me. Have you spent any time in Kentucky? Any family there?
LC: Never been there. Our ancesters came from Ireland and England and came to the South in America. They owned plantations and land, and eventually my branch moved west. Our roots our all through the South. I would love to go there someday.
JG: How about Ireland itself?
LC: Never been there. I will someday.
JG: What about other influences for you? Were there certain guitarists to whom you really looked up when you were learning? How about now?
LC: Growing up, my first influences were Gary Richrath (REO Speedwagon), Randy Bachman (BTO), and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Van Halen changed my world when they came on the scene, and I loved the whole 80s thing.
Going to school and studying under Mike Christiansen, being exposed to all different styles and recognizing all the possibilities really made the difference.
When I got into fingerstyle, Chris Proctor and Bill Mize and those guys all influenced me. I got to work with a lot of them, and they were the nicest guys in the world.
Now I would like to be Joe Bonamassa. Kelly Kereliuk from Canada has been a big influence lately.
JG: It’s no secret that a lot of visual art in this part of the country deals with landscapes. It even appears as your album art. You have also cited the geography of this part of the country as an influence on your writing. When you are composing, how does southern Utah translate into music for you?
LC: I feel it’s tied to the people in my life who are intertwined with this region. My life is built on the shoulders of giants. My parents and siblings danced on the edge, took a stand every morning, and built something that allowed me the freedom to do what I do.
When my granddaughter was born, I was overwhelmed with love and was reminded how much I loved my family … sometimes we take that for granted.
I also was working on a project with Wayne Keene, a very talented photographer, where I put music to his shoots of the four corners area.
All this came together for me, and I really realized how much I loved all my family and others in my life. The flowers became prettier. I truly appreciated the beauty everywhere I went.
This album is really a love letter to my family, to express what I am not even close to eloquent enough to express in words. It’s also a love letter to God to try to express my gratitude for all the beauty and love in my life.
JG: You mention several specific geographic locations. Nearly every track on the album refers to some location, like Zion, Pine Valley, Ghost Rock, and so on. The album title refers to Horse Head Road. Where is that, and what does it mean to you?
LC: It’s about 10 miles east of Monticello, Utah. It runs from the main freeway south into the canyons. Most know it as the Eastland turnoff. My dad and his brother got the opportunity to homestead and buy some land out there. They named the community “Eastland” because their parents came from Eastland, Texas.
Mom picked the spot where they built their house … they could see seven mountain ranges from there. I grew up there. The pic on the cover shows the view we have of Blue Mountain … with the horse head on it’s side. I’m from Horse Head Road. The people I love are from there.
JG: Are there stories behind the references to any of the places you’ve titled your pieces after? Have they had any particular significance to you in your life?
LC: Some are tied directly to places. “The View From Navajo Run” was inspired from that feeling I get when I’m one of the first ones on the mountain in the morning on a clear day, and I’m sitting at the top strapping on my snowboard, just taking in the view and anticipating the run, and then standing up and going down the hill.
Some are tied more to emotions. “The Land of Milk and Honey” was written when we visited our kids in Goodyear, Arizona. I was working on it after my granddaughter, two years old, went to bed. We could hear her singing along with what I was playing … and she would not stop. We knew she was tired, but she wanted to listen to the music and sing along with it. As soon as I put the guitar down, she went right to sleep. That’s a special memory.
Goodyear is not near as pretty as here, but I was thinking I could move there because it was the Land of Milk and Honey because I had family there.
JG: While this is a solo album, there is a great variety of instrumentation in the arrangements. Did you compose and program all the drum and MIDI programming yourself?
LC: Yes. Isn’t modern technology wonderful … especially for musicians? I’ve always loved composing. Now I’m able to hear my compositions come together instantly with the tools we have.
JG: I see that Steve Lemmon and Ryan Tilby helped with mastering. Did you do the actual recording there or at home? Care to say anything about Spiral?
LC: I did all the recording and mixing in my studio at home and then sent it to be mastered at Spiral.
Full disclosure, Ryan and Steve are my buddies, but that doesn’t mean my respect for them isn’t deserved. They are very talented and knowledgeable and great at what they do. Along with John Houston at his studio and David Tate at Red Earth Studios, these guys are all an incredible asset for southern Utah. Besides giving us the opportunity and means to produce top quality CDs right here instead of having to go to the “big city,” they raise the bar. Because they are all so good and professional, they encourage all of us to work harder and raise our standards. I know they inspire me to set goals and work harder … to reach farther. And I’m proud to say Ryan and David were students of mine.
JG: You must be one heck of a teacher. I would imagine that DSU and Tuacahn are very supportive of their musicians. Do you feel that same level of support from the rest of southern Utah?
LC: That’s a fair question, but tough to answer. At the risk of starting a firestorm, I’ll give it my best shot. I liked your piece in the Independent about this issue and there was a poll to go with it asking if southern Utah treats musicians fairly. One comment said it’s a free market and the fees are what the market demands. That comment was true.
Tuacahn demands a special skill set from it’s musicians that is rare. So rare that they have to hire musicians from Vegas, California, or even New York when they can’t find it here. So to be competitive, they offer a fair wage.
But I’m extremely grateful to Tuacahn because a lot of theaters use canned music. But to support the arts and the community, Tuacahn does hire musicians and hires locally as much as possible.
The other music scene here pulls from a broader skill set and therefore has a higher supply. We have a lot of skilled musicians here who just want to play music … even if they have to give it away. I can understand that, but it drives down the wages we all get paid. The only way we can fix that is if the musicians have respect for their craft and demand a fair price to play.
So we do NOT get the same level of support from the rest of southern Utah, but it’s our fault. Unless we stop being afraid and start having respect for our craft and skills, it will stay this way. Ten years ago, I stopped traveling because I was able to make a good living just playing local. It can happen here.
JG: What are your plans for this album?
LC: Funny thing, my goals for this album are to get it into the hands of as many locals as possible.
I’ve always had an easier time on the national stage than the local stage. Not just me, every local artist will tell you they sell much better out of town than in town. I know that “an expert is someone from out of town with a briefcase.” But they will not drop $10 bucks for a great local CD they can listen to for months, but they’ll spend $20 for treats at the movie theater, and all they’ll have to show for it are a stomachache and a waddle. I look at that and think, “What can I do to change that? How can we educate people that the music produced here is as good as anything and then convince people it has value?” That’s my plan. It’s up to us musicians to make good things happen.
JG: Now that this release is behind you, what are your future plans?
LC: I am working on moving more and more into composition. I am looking for movie projects, web pages, almost anything to compose music for. My style of playing guitar as well as composing for orchestra is fairly unique.
To purchase “From Horse Head Road,” visit cdbaby.com/Artist/LisleCrowley. For more information about Lisle Crowley, visit lislecrowley.com and StGeorgeGuitarLessons.com.
