Rhonda Vincent

Rhonda Vincent
a.k.a. Rhonda Lea Vincent

BLACK AND BLUE

Rhonda Vincent Gives Mountain Music an Aggressive Edge on One Step Ahead
On the cover of One Step Ahead, bluegrass singer and mandolinist Rhonda Vincent assumes a defiant pose: Clad in black leather and perched in the middle of a New York City street, this country girl from Missouri embodies her music, which she describes as "in-your-face bluegrass." Even so, it resonates with ample heart and soul, especially in the original songs she's penned with her collaborator, Terry Herd. Vincent also brings honky-tonk and gospel into the mix and strings it together with the help of some stellar players, who clearly respond to Vincent's expressive, piercing voice and dynamic presence. Shortly before starting a demanding tour, Vincent took five to discuss with Barnes & Noble.com's David McGee the album she describes as the toughest project of her career.

Barnes & Noble.com: In your liner notes you mention how challenging this project was, due in part to your rigorous touring schedule and to "escalating expectations." Are you referring to your own expectations, or those of the press and your fans?

Rhonda Vincent: I think a combination of both. It was very challenging piecing this album together -- a day here, a day there -- not only the recording aspect but in finding the time to write the songs with Terry Herd. We were emailing, using cell phones, and he came on a road trip with us to write. He was very patient in understanding that the schedule was jam-packed, and waiting to find moments here and there. So there was the songwriting to do, and then I co-produced the album with my brother Darrin, who works with Ricky Skaggs, and we had his schedule to contend with.

B&N.com: You've called your last album, 2001's The Storm Still Rages, your introduction as a songwriter, and now you have five original songs on One Step Ahead. I'd like to ask you about two in particular. In "Kentucky Borderline" there's a verse honoring those who built the railroad. Of all the train songs I've ever heard, I can't think of one that's about the people who actually laid the track.

RV: That is the great thing about Terry. To start "Kentucky Borderline," I was walking through Opry Mills, and I got the idea for the melody line -- I'm the melody gal. Terry usually starts with a title or a theme or something like that; I start with the melody. I think that's why we're such a great writing team, because we start from different places and have different angles. So I was singing him this melody, and from there it went into the train theme, and we had certain cities and a railroad line and all this stuff. This is the great thing about Terry: He wants everything to be very authentic. And what he discovered was that the train didn't go through the cities we had named in the original song. My first thought was, Okay, this is a fantasy, this is a song -- who cares? But what I love about Terry is that he said, "No, we want this to be authentic." So he did the research -- I don't have time to do this -- and he came back with the cities the train did go through. And so from that it gained this authenticity that I love in his lyrics.

B&N.com: Another one you'll probably be asked about is "Caught in the Crossfire," because it's written from the viewpoint of a child who's conflicted by his parents' breakup.

RV: That was Terry's idea, and it comes from a personal experience that he had that we don't want to address because it's still very real. But it's somewhat of a true story, inspired by Terry. You know, a lot of songwriters write with the same feel or sound, but Terry always writes from a unique slant -- the melodies are always different, the angles are always different -- and that's something that really impressed me about him as a songwriter.

B&N.com: You have the Webb Pierce song "Pathway of Teardrops," which you give a more vintage sound, and the Melba Montgomery song "An Old Memory Found Its Way Back," which you give a contemporary honky-tonk feel. Was that a conscious decision to team these songs that came from the same place but different eras?

RV: I approach it like the show: If you don't like this song, well, hang on, because the next one's gonna be something you'll like. Getting different tempos, different feels, and yeah, mixing the older songs with newer ones. There's something about a new song standing up next to a classic, then you pretty much know it's gotta be a great song.

B&N.com: And you have two gospel numbers back to back, again offering a contrast. "Walking My Lord Up Calvary's Hill" is a band number, and "Fishers of Men" is a classic a cappella gospel quartet with male and female voices.

RV: When I look at the sequencing I go by feel, and those two felt right coming back to back. I heard an interview with Wilma Lee Cooper, who I feel is one of the important female pioneers in bluegrass music, and they played "Walking My Lord Up Calvary's Hill." I was just struck. I wrote that song title down, and then I couldn't find it for a long time. A song has to have that twist, or something about it that just makes my heart jump. There's nothing technical about it; I have to go from the heart, and I hope if it makes my heart jump it will do the same for the listener.

We had done the "Down from the Mountain" tour, and on it we were asked to sing "Down to the River to Pray." Well, I had never done an a cappella song, so we started doing that on our shows. People went crazy! I didn't realize we would get that kind of reaction to an a cappella song. So I knew I needed to find something that's not someone else's, and that's when we found "Fishers of Men," a song Becky Buller had written. We rearranged it so that everybody could take a part in it.

B&N.com: I have to ask you about Aubrey Haynie. He's one of the best fiddlers around, but you have him playing mandolin on every cut. How does a virtuoso fiddler wind up playing mandolin on all the cuts?

RV: Because he is so incredible on the mandolin! That was Darrin's idea. When you go in and cut tracks, you have to get this groove going with the same musicians. And we went in initially with Aubrey on mandolin, Brian Sutton on guitar, and my brother on bass. Now, it's really high dollar when you're doing tracks -- really high dollar -- and the pressure's on. And at the same time, in the midst of the most expensive part of the process, this is somewhat of an experiment. [Darrin] felt this was the right combination, and I think he was right.

B&N.com: Now here's a key question, Rhonda. What's with the black leather on your album cover?

RV: The black leather?

B&N.com: For a country girl from Missouri, you're looking awfully tough and urban on the cover.

RV: Well, I kept being told that my image and my dress did not fit the style of music I played. I was told, "You're doing in-your-face bluegrass." And then on the last album the cover was like a glamour shot. So I was hearing from people I worked with that my music was very aggressive, but my image doesn't reflect that. Then I had a lady come to the show last year -- the picture from The Storm Still Rages had been in the paper -- and she said, "I saw your picture in the paper, and I told my husband, 'We're not gonna go to that show. It looks boring!' Your music is nothing like that!" So I realized that people were looking at that picture and making a determination whether they're going to come to our shows. So I wanted a cover that was more reflective of who we are, and we are very aggressive.

My dream was to go to New York. So I went to New York and used this photographer I'd always wanted to work with, and he put me in contact with the designer in Nashville who designed the cover. I told him I wanted something that could stand on the shelf with Madonna or anybody else, and that's what we came up with.

April 29, 2003