A Silver Tray Q/A: Kip Loui of The Stonecutters
We Discuss a 1994 Cassette, Brought Back to Life in the Digital Realm
Over the past few years, St. Louis songwriter and bandleader Kip Loui’s dipped into the archives, releasing quite a selection of albums from his time in St. Louis, along with work completed during a stint living in Seattle. Just when it seems as if you’ve gotten caught up on his work, another album comes alive. Most-recently, Loui’s offered up a cassette from 1994, now digitally available on Bandcamp, the same site where you can purchase anything from this one album, to his entire digital catalog. Which, at this point, is not a small one, containing power pop, rock and country, released under multiple band names, as well as his own.
Keeping things easy for interested parties, Loui’s written up some extensive liner notes for all of his efforts, including his newest archival release, The Stonecutters, which contains the original tape release, plus a bonus cut from that band’s one round of recording sessions. Here’re some of his notes:
Long out of print, this is the first time I've offered The Stonecutters album for download or streaming. All of the songs were written by me in '92-'93 and represent my earliest recorded foray into the country/folk realm. One of the songs included here, Foolish Me, was slotted for the album but never released--it had an r&b or soul music vibe and was deemed too much of a departure from the more country oriented material. It's a cool little number, though, and I was tickled to rediscover it while preparing this album for digital release.
About six months after the release of The Stonecutters cassette, the band changed its name to Belle Starr and signed with BJAM Records, a small, long defunct St. Louis record label. Belle Starr would proceed to record and release three albums of original songs, and a compilation of that band can be found on this Bandcamp page. The Stonecutters were the predecessors of Belle Starr and the original inspiration for Belle Starr's alt-country orientation.
Loui was kind enough to shoot back some additional thoughts on the release via email, discussing where it fits into his overall songwriting career and what he enjoyed about working with that group of musicians. He also tips us off to current projects, including his long-running involvement in the band Diesel Island, plus recordings involving his wife, the songwriter and vocalist JJ Loui.
I've always wondered if you (or any primary songwriter) goes back to poll the band, see if they'd like to have this decades-old work released. How's that process of conversation work in advance of a re-release? Or is it more a matter of saying "hey, gang, guess what's on Bandcamp now...? In terms of this re-release, I just sort of notified Lynne and Spencer and Dave and John that I'd be tossing the ol' Stonecutters album up on my Bandcamp page. I knew they'd be fine with it, as we're all still friends and talk pretty often. And I still play music with John Horton and Spencer Marquart in Diesel Island.
And you had a really talented crew of contributors to The Stonecutters. Care to say anything about landing that particular group of players? In essence, go ahead and brag on 'em. So, I had the notion to re-release The Stonecutters cassette on my Bandcamp page for a long time now, but recently stumbling across the DAT master of those sessions finally made it happen. When I formed the band, I was the only songwriter in The Stonecutters, which was a group I assembled for the sole purpose of playing and recording some country/folk leaning material I'd written. I'd been slowly and increasingly interested in pursing that direction even when the Heebie Jeebies were active, so when I moved back to STL from Seattle, there seemed to be a natural opportunity to delve into it.
John Horton was a guitarist I'd heard down at an open mic at Cicero's, and I'd made a mental note about him after hearing John playing some country inflected ditties there in the basement. Once I was back in town, I sought him out and found him taking classes at Webster University. At that point, he was only recently arrived himself from Washington, MO, where he'd grown up. He wasn't yet John Horton, Guitar Ace, as everyone would soon know him. I knew he was really good though, and we hit it off immediately. He suggested bringing in his buddy Spencer Marquart on drums, another Washingtonian that John knew and had played with.
We enlisted my good friend (and former brother-in-law) Dave Hilditch on bass, and at that point, all that was left was locating a proper female vocalist, as I was hearing that in this new batch of tunes. We auditioned a gal or two, but they just weren't a good fit for the songs. I was about to give up when I ran into Lynne's stepdad at the grocery store. He asked how I was, and I told him about my musical dilemma. He said "oh, you know Lynne is a wonderful singer, have you thought about her?" Got together with Lynne a couple days after that, and we sang some harmonies together. Lynne's voice was expressive and unaffected, and she was open to exploring country and folk styles. The band was complete!
In your notes about this, you mention some feelings about listening to this work years later. Do you hear a "new" songwriter emerging on this very album? What do you like about the transition you were making at that point, with time as a filter? We sound a little "green" as a band to my ears, and some of my lyrics make me wince in places. I was more about the music than the words in those days, and now both are equally important to me. But there's nothing on The Stonecutters' album that embarrasses me too bad. We sound like what we were, which was a young band exploring a new (for us) sound, a sort of country-rock thing. I really didn't know what I was doing yet, and John Horton was just finding his footing as a lead guitarist, although already showing real promise. That said, I think it's a solid collection of songs and a neat document of the times. It was my first time recording country ditties I'd written.
I would continue in that direction in Belle Starr and the Rockhouse Ramblers (and Diesel Island). Lynne went on to front her own group Salt Of The Earth, they've been together now something like 22 years! Dave Hilditch joined the Civil Tones, and he stills plays surf instrumentals and such with Tony Fafoglia in a new outfit. Spencer Marquart was the drummer in Diesel Island for years before Mark Ortmann took over, and he still subs with us on occasion. We love him and his playing!
Albums can certainly date themselves due to production qualities. Is there anything about the production of this one (shout-out to Brian and Sean) that sounds really good to your ears today? And was there anything re-touched for the release, or was this simply a case of remaster and load to Bandcamp? Anything else to know from more of a tech level? In terms of the production, Sean Garcia and Brian Simpson kept everything very straight forward and "organic.” There weren't a ton of overdubs, and they captured the music very simply. Because of this, I think the 1994 production doesn't sound dated at all. Jack Petracek brought the volume levels up to 2023 standards via a quick mastering job, but other than that, it's exactly the same music.
Diesel Island's seemingly been an important project to you over the years. What makes that one a fun and fulfilling one to keep rolling? No one has ever done an expose on us, which kind of blows my mind. We have been Brian Henneman's side project for 20 years now, and even though we're just a "cover" band, all kinds of great players have passed through our ranks and continue to perform with us, guys like Dade Farrar and Gary Hunt and John Horton and Mark Ortmann and Mark Spencer and Jesse Irwin and Tim Sullivan and Carl Pandolfi and Richard Tralles and Jon Ferber and Spencer Marquart... the list goes on.
It's still a lot of fun and basically serves the function of "boys night out" for us, except we get to make a little money instead of spend it. Other guys have poker night or bowling night or whatever, but we have Diesel Island. Brian says he's never been happier and loves being able to sleep in his own bed after gigs. He doesn't miss van touring with the Bottle Rockets at all, having done that for nearly 30 years. Playing old country songs suits him just fine and I still enjoy it, as well. Keeps my chops up and gives me a creative outlet (as I'm a full time special ed teacher at Lindbergh High for a living). We play three or four gigs a month still, and I suspect we'll keep doing it for some time yet. No reason to stop, really! We'll continue to make the dancers dance, that's the key to it all. It's like making donuts: we provide a service.
And I'd imagine that your newer material is what you'd love to have people hear, as well as these re-released nuggets. Tell us a bit about: a) your latest release; and b) whatever might be next? On the original music tip, I've been really pleased with my last three releases, all of them recorded with David Torretta at his home studio. They are:
Kip Loui: The Hill Recordings With JJ Loui
All three of these records feature studio accompaniment by the likes of Mr. Henneman and John Horton and Mark Ortmann and Mark Spencer (Son Volt) and Eric Ambel (Joan Jett, Steve Earle) plus all kinds of excellent local dudes I've played with in Diesel Island; guys like Carl Pandolfi and Jon Ferber and Kevin Buckley and Spencer Marquart. I'm spoiled like that and genuinely grateful. And my own wife. She has a lovely, intimate voice and is a pretty dandy songwriter herself. I was just awarded a RAC artists grant to record another album, and I think I'm going to designate it another Kip & JJ Loui record where we record some of her songs, too. We'll begin work on that in the coming months, and it'll be out by Spring of 2023, I suspect. It'll be on the rockin' side of Americana, like most of my stuff is these days, but there will be some ballads, too. I love me a good ballad.
In terms of my goal for my original material these days, it's exactly this: I want to get my songs covered by other, bigger artists. Daddy has tuition to pay for in eight years, so keep the fame and give me the fortune! Hard to market a 60-year-old special ed teacher, really, so I'm focusing on the songs themselves. I'm trying to get better at the business side of the music business, which is an area I've neglected in the past; I just wanted to write and play stuff you know? Of course, it probably would have helped my cause to get in a van and tour, which is something I was downright terrible at and did little of; I always had bills to pay, and it's hard to play Chicago on a Tuesday night when you have to open the shop at 7 am Wednesday morning, so to speak.