For their first time, veteran roots-rock group, The Wanted will be playing at the Cove, Friday, July 26 5-8pm! Details here: web link

Seamus Cowan: Your sound is firmly based in Americana roots music. What is it about this sound that keeps re-creating itself and seemingly has no end to the depth of it’s well as a platform for engaging storytelling of the human experience?

Richard Henderson: Yeah, roots music has definitely endured and evolved, hasn't it. And we all call it roots music for a reason – it's rooted in deep musical traditions from all around the world and mashed together in that global melting pot we called North America. It’s got a long lifeline and it's straightforward, and it's raw, and it's organic. Not Like Pop or Electronic or Dance music that's become so much artifice— so highly produced and so processed (and often without any real musical instruments or musicians playing them). So roots music strikes a nerve, and it resonates.

Q: You have clearly been together for a fair amount of time. I’m sure there have been many ups and many downs. What has kept you together as a group and what continues to drive you forward?

Richard: Yeah, we have been around awhile! The Wanted was originally a six member music collective that came together out of the first pandemic, SARS, back in 2003. And I’m the last standing founding member. I asked Jeff to join as a fiddle player in about 2004 (and switched him to guitar a little later), and he suggested his wife, Natalie, who joined in about 2005. Others have come and gone over the years, and the three of us became the core, adding bass and percussion from time to time, depending on the occasion. And I think what’s kept us going is our shared desire to perform live. We don't do a lot of recording and we never did take to video and Zoom performances during Covid. And that's because those don't happen in front of live audiences. We believe music is a communal experience, a performing art like theatre and dance. It's the immediacy of a live performance that brings music to life. (Ha! If I can get away with saying that!) And lots of our music is fuelled by an improvisational aspect, which thrives with an in-person audience. So I think, by and large, that's the glue that holds us together and drives us forward. And the fact that we’re friends – we don't hate each other!

Q: It sounds like you’ve managed to get many streams online playing your music all across the world. Do you find that has really expanded your audience?

Richard: Well, it has certainly expanded our streams and our listenership, but not so much our audience, I don't think. I think there's a fundamental difference between listeners and an audience. Listeners are more passive; audiences, I think, are more involved. Audiences are dwindling, and listeners are increasing. Talk to any presenter or venue or band and they'll tell you over the last 4 1/2 years audiences have left the music scene and they're not really coming back. Venues and festivals are closing all over, yet the number of people glued to their earbuds is skyrocketing. And as I mentioned before, music is really a communal, participatory, art and I think we're losing a lot of that.

Q: I know you have done lots of touring. Always interested to know if there are any interesting touring stories of opening for or sharing the stage with artists that you revere.

Richard: Yes, it’s always a great time when musicians meet up at music events. Mariposa, for example, was a great experience for us and the most memorable. We were there the same year as Gordon Lightfoot’s last and unscheduled performance- he just walked up on stage without an introduction- and that was pretty magical. Buffy St. Marie was there too, and Fred Eaglesmith. And so was Nick Lowe. He's got medium length gray and white hair and wears Buddy Holly-style thick rimmed black glasses. And I match that on both counts. So I kept getting approached for autographs. I gave up denying I was him and just signed and played the part. That was great fun! And we did a workshop of dust bowl songs with Blind Boy, Paxton- he's a blues jazz guy doing 20s and 30s style songs. He coached us on stage on the proper way to pronounce Bill Monroe's name – the so-called father of Bluegrass. It's Bill MAWN-roe. Bill M-A-W-N-roe. And Paxton would be passing his whiskey flask all around the stage. It was a great. Oh yeah, and then there was some country fair we played somewhere, where we were scheduled on stage at the same time as a big equestrian event at another part of the fair. They asked us to stop playing ‘cause we were “scarin’ the horses”! Life as a Fred Eaglesmith lyric!

Q: Writing is something you really have to keep at but if you have the stories, you can create songs. Do you feel this will continue to be a part of your act and are you working on something new?

Richard: The core of The Wanted is Jeff and Natalie Rogers and me. And we're all songwriters, and we each come to our songs from different places. Jeff is the true songwriter of the group, and he really works his songs like a craft; Natalie loves a strong melody, so she starts there. Me, I’m a blues lap steel guitarist. So I write all my songs around a guitar hook, and I’m more about rhythm than melody. But we don't write songs together, although we do all collaborate on the final arrangements. We'll definitely continue in that vein, but we’ll also continue to bring our own arrangements to songs that have gone before. It’s our ‘tip of the hat’ to our collective roots. Posted: Jul 23, 2024