For Wisconsin-based singer-songwriter Kelly Hogan, it’s all about friends. Hogan’s been in the business a long time, singing and strutting as a backup vocalist for Neko Case, Andrew Bird and a host of other acts in the alt faction.
She's one of those people who has been so busy making her pals sound good, she let more than a decade slip by between solo records. But the recent release of I Like to Keep Myself in Pain has propelled Hogan back into the spotlight — with a little help from her friends, of course, whom she asked to contribute new or “orphan” songs for her to cover. The result is a fantastic selection that takes subtle, surprising shifts between jazz, country, blues and cabaret-folk, courtesy of contributions from Bird, Vic Chesnutt, Robyn Hitchcock and other famous names.
Hogan spoke with CBC Music in advance of her Dec. 1 show in Toronto (the only Canadian stop on the tour) about the pain of friendship, songwriting and what women are really like — well, at least her and Case, anyway.
The song you wrote for the album, “Golden,” is beautiful and made me want to hear more of your voice.
Oh, man, I guess I need to ... [laughs] I’m not much of a songwriter. I get kind of shrunk up about it, but I’ve been thinking about my next record and I know Andy and everybody at Anti are all behind me. I’ve been thinking about collaborating with either one or more folks to write way more songs. I’m challenging myself.
All my other records — I call it the Loretta Lynn ratio. All of my other records, I write three of the 11 songs, like Loretta would do. I try to make myself feel better about myself. But my next record, I’m definitely challenging myself to go for 90 per cent.
That song, I kind of wrote it on the way to work, about Neko [Case] having a bad day, but it’s a message for everybody. You can tell I’m old. I didn’t realize it at first, but all the references to transistor radios and phone booths and payphones. I’m like, "Gee whiz, I’m old!" But she did call me from a payphone that day. It was right before we both got cellphones.
I read that Robyn Hitchcock had already written “I Like to Keep Myself in Pain” for you following an email exchange. How does it feel to receive songs specifically written for you?
It’s crazy. It’s really cool. When I got the Vic Chestnutt song [“Ways of this World”], it floored me. He and I had known each other a long time, but not super best friends. We knew each other and a lot of the same people, and it was just like he wrote my life story. I love that song. That was just nuts. And, Robyn said, "I started writing you a song years ago." That song definitely appeals to my sense of humour.
At rehearsal today, Nora [O'Connor, backup singer] was saying, "Yeah, my father loves your record, but 'in pain,' why does she gotta be so sad?" I was like, "That song, to me, is hilarious!" It’s got great black humour, it’s really perfect. I’m not thinkin’ about romance or anything in that song. I’m definitely thinking about friends that I lost. It’s such an honour to have somebody send that to you. But it is weird.
There’s so much on this record that celebrates friendship and those ties together.
That’s the pain part. Yesterday I was trying to explain it to a five-year-old. My neighbour brings her kids over and we swap books and he was like, "Why is it called I Like to Keep Myself in Pain?" and I was like, "Sit down, kid. Here, have a beer, lemme explain this to you" [laughs]. But you gotta keep throwing it out there or else why bother? If you’re gonna be alive, anyways.
Even watching you conduct your relationships on Twitter celebrates that devotion to friendship.
Yeah, I love using the internet for good instead of evil. I didn’t want to be on Twitter, Neko signed me up and said, "Here you go, here’s your password." But I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s such a fun way to keep up with Neko. We tone it down a little, like we leave out some of the c--ksucker-type stuff, but that’s the way we interact [laughs]. Sometimes guys that follow up are like, "Gee whiz!" But this is how real ladies are, man. Just get over it. We don’t talk about butterflies and glitter stuff. We talk about wieners and eatin’ chili.
Kelly Hogan’s tour makes just one stop in Canada on Dec. 1 at the Drake in Toronto.
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