THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019 // 9
File
photo
Terry
Robb.
Bill Svendsen, owner of the Peninsula
Art Center. “We just say, ‘Terry Robb
is coming,’ and it fills up.”
Coast Weekend spoke with Terry
Robb in anticipation of his trip to the
peninsula. This conversation has been
edited for length and clarity.
Coast Weekend: Is it practice
alone that helps you maintain your
level of proficiency?
Terry Robb: Absolutely. That and
also being open to all kinds of music
and ideas and not having any preju-
dices (toward) any types of music.
Prejudice meaning like, ‘Oh I don’t
care (for) that style of music.’ But if
you don’t care for a particular style
of music, you can still learn some-
thing from it. There is only good or
bad music; categories are just for
marketing.
CW: Do you identify with a cer-
tain genre mostly, or do you just like
to keep that open?
TR: I just like to keep it open. My
stuff has a blues feel to it because the
guitar technique I learned was the blues
guitar technique. So if I play the acous-
tic guitar with some other people, we’ll
play some Bossa nova or some jazz
riffs. Now I’m not a jazz musician,
but I’ll play jazz songs. When I play a
jazz song or a pop song — say, a Beat-
les song — it’s going to have a bluesy
sound to it because that’s the technique
I play.
CW: Was music a big part of your
upbringing?
TR: Yes, it was. My uncle was a
guitar player who was associated with
Lawrence Webb. My father was a very
good piano player. My grandfather
was a classical piano player. My par-
ents loved music. They were jazz fanat-
ics and my father took me to see all
kinds of music. He took me to see the
Beatles, Louis Armstrong and the sym-
phony. I had this variety of music going
on and we liked it all.
CW: Was (your dad) happy when
you decided to pursue music as a
career.
TR: Oh absolutely. He encouraged
it 100 percent. In fact, he was in insur-
ance and he told me, “Just don’t do
what I do. Do what you do. Don’t try to
be like anyone else ... because you are
a musician and you need to do that.”
My mother was equally as encour-
aging. She used to play jazz records for
me and tell me what to listen for. Like,
‘Listen to how they recorded the bass.’
It was really a great education. I was 8,
9 years old when this was happening.
She collected records when she was a
poor girl up in Canada and they used
to go out jitterbugging and that sort of
thing. When I use to play around clubs
my parents would come see me and
they got to be known by everybody. I
think people use to come see me just so
they could hang out with my parents,
really. My mother is Italian so all my
friends used to want to come over to
my house, not to see me but to be fed
by (my) mother.
CW: When did you feel like you
were an established musician?
TR: I graduated from college in ‘78
so the day after that. I just started play-
ing full time. I hooked up with a guy
named Ramblin’ Rex who was a good
friend of Frank Zappa’s. Rex was like a
roadhouse blues guy who played coun-
try blues who traveled and played at all
these juke joints — he was really the
character that a lot of people mythol-
ogize about now. I learned a lot from
him and that is how I got out there. I
was young, like 22, and when I was 24
I started producing John Fahey.
CW: What a fascinating person!
TR: To say the least! He was one of
my best friends. He and I were really,
really close. John was a real innovator.
He created a new genre, an art form.
He was the first solo steel string guitar
player. Everybody is saying he played
steel string, but he made it an art form
and out of that it’s become a whole
school of guitar players.
CW: How do you feel like you fit
into the legacy of Americana and
American Primitive music? What do
you want your legacy to be?
TR: All I know is that I have this
space of playing blues guitar, and what-
ever I listen to I like to incorporate into
it, because I think it’s fun and inter-
esting and out of that comes me, and I
enjoy it, and if somebody else enjoys it,
that’s great, and if they don’t enjoy it,
there is always somebody else they can
listen to.
CW: What do you think the real
spirit is of that style of music?
TR: I guess just getting people to
be moved and have a good time and be
touched. You kind of minister through
your music, I really believe that. I’m a
Catholic Christian so I really feel this is
a gift that needs to be shared. CW