MORGANTOWN — Percussion repercussions — and the banjo in the bathroom.
Ask Chris Haddox what he remembers most about the recording of his first-ever album, which is set for national release in coming months, and that’s the two-part answer you’ll get.
Yep, percussion repercussions.
And, uh, the banjo in the bathroom.
We’ll circle back to that one.
Meanwhile, Haddox, 61, is known around Morgantown and the Mountain State for the many circles in which he travels.
At WVU, he’s Dr. Chris Haddox, a professor in the School of Design and Community Development, where he teaches sustainable design practices in new building construction.
Before that, he was an intrepid executive in cargo shorts, serving as the director of Monongalia County Habitat for Humanity, the organization that helps people achieve the dream of home ownership who may not have the chance otherwise.
And before that, the Logan County native had morphed himself into a community activist and environmental activist, all at the same time.
You might spy him at a protest rally one day, and then see him the next day, by himself, poking along the banks of a West Virginia creek, where the rocks are still tinted orange from acid mine drainage.
He’s also a musician, known for his old-time fiddle and banjo stylings in the mountain clawhammer style, and he can also tear it up as a flat-picking acoustic guitar player when he wants to.
As a songwriter, he crafts bluegrass foot-stompers, meditative ballads and funny, slice-of-life tunes (just north of the absurd), that can make any self-respecting John Prine or Steve Goodman fan shake his head and grin.
It’s got a great beat?
All of those explorations, and more, are present on his self-named album, which, as said, is about to go forth on the Mountain Soul label.
A marquee name was at the soundboard handling the production.
Ron Sowell, the musical director of West Virginia Public Radio’s landmark “Mountain Stage” show, turned the knobs for this one.
Which included dialing in those pesky drums, which Haddox wasn’t sure what to think of at first.
Well, check that, the artist said, laughing.
He knew exactly what he thought.
“I didn’t like ‘em. I’d never played music with a drummer before. I’d never tried to record with a drummer before. I didn’t know if it would fit the songs. I said, ‘Ron, these drums are freaking me out.’ ”
Sowell is also a guitarist in the renowned house band for the “Mountain Stage” show, which has backed-up performers as diverse as the late Odetta, Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Hornsby, and Taj Mahal for their guest sets on the radio.
Artists, Sowell said, who aren’t afraid to mix it up.
Adding a tuba to the Delta blues, as it were, he said, as Mr. Mahal is wont to do, occasionally.
“I told Chris that he was hearing rough mixes of the songs,” Sowell said, with a chuckle of his own.
“I said, ‘Listen to a couple when we’re really done, and if you’re still uncomfortable, we’ll scrap the percussion. This wasn’t about me. It was about Chris and his music.’ “
Another chuckle.
“But I still knew those drums would work.”
Chris Haddox (the album)
Thirteen original tunes encompass the album — “And each one is like a novel,” Sowell said.
“I mean, these are just good songs,” the producer said. “Chris has such a perspective with his writing.”
There’s “Says You, Say Who, Says Me,” a shaggy dog take on relationships. And the country radio-friendly, “O’ This River.”
Add “Sunday Morning Stoplight” — one of Sowell’s favorites, he said — with its lyrics exploring faith and free will … in the time it takes for a traffic light to change.
Mix in the modern gospel of “Take Me Down to the Water” and “A Soul Can’t Rest in Peace Beside the Four Lane,” which Sowell said, captures perfectly what modern-day encroachments have done to timeless places such as West Virginia.
West Virginia musical luminaries such as mandolin player Johnny Staats and Mountain State vocalist Julie Adams are all over the album, as is Jenny Allinder, the Elkins fiddle player who is also known nationally.
Of course, Haddox said, his Morgantown friends and bandmates Jim Truman, Sara Cottingham and John Posey helped shaped every song on the album that has his name on it.
“I am blessed to be surrounded by so many good musicians who are also good friends. There’s no way I can adequately thank all of them. I’m humbled by all their contributions. And how lucky was I to catch Ron’s ear?”
Growing an audience at the Botanic Garden
You can catch songs from the album — and lots of other ones too — at 6 p.m. Oct. 12 at the West Virginia Botanic Garden.
Haddox and friends will perform a concert on the Event Lawn as a fundraiser for the expanse of green just outside Morgantown. All the proceeds will go to the garden. Visit https://www.wvbg.org/ for details.
With the music, now comes the marketing — the national release, and meetings with production people for professional music videos to accompany the songs.
Sowell appreciates Haddox for his music and varied professional history.
“People with road maps are way more interesting,” he said.
Sowell has one of his own. He’s a New Mexico native. Roswell, in fact — and yes, he said, he fields plenty of questions about flying saucers.
The once-and-future musical director soared at Eastern New Mexico University, where he graduated in 1969 and was elected student body president.
He was planning on parlaying his political degree to law school before his real muse tapped him on the shoulder.
“You never how these things are going to go,” he said.
Once and for all … how the banjo got in the bathroom
Sometimes, in the case of “We Can Fall in Love Again,” they work out beautifully, he said.
That’s track No. 12 on the album, the duet with Haddox and Sowell’s daughter, Mira, who now makes her living in New York City as a singer and performing artist.
Forget the drum debate. Initially, this was a song of which the artist and producer weren’t so sure.
Haddox thought it fell flat, with just him singing.
Sowell was thinking the same — “I said, ‘Chris, this one might have to go.’ ”
But wait, both said.
Why not a duet? After all, it is a song about a husband and wife, and how permanent, and impermanent, that union can be.
Mira Costa contributed her part and the song became better, though still not quite there, musically.
Until Haddox took his banjo to the bathroom.
He added a chuckle of his own.
“In my house, there’s a bathroom in the basement where the acoustics are great,” he said.
“It’s also the only place I can play without getting on anyone’s nerves. We were trying to figure out what do with the song. I was down there and came up with this banjo thing and thought, well, heck, let’s add that.”
“Chris came back with that figure on the banjo and it made the song,” Sowell said. “It was delicate and Appalachian. Beautiful. I love it when these things happen.”
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