Reed Mathis was the latest guest on JamBase partner Osiris Media’s podcast No Simple Road. The singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and overall in demand musician chatted with the No Simple Road crew about his upcoming Bob Dylan tribute show in San Francisco on Saturday, his participation in Billy & The Kids‘ landmark 2021 concerts and more.
The discussion with Reed begins with him detailing his upcoming The Reed Mathis Singers Present “Bob Dylan’s Night in New Orleans” at The Chapel in San Francisco highlighting Dylan’s NOLA-recorded albums Oh Mercy! and Time Out Of Mind.
“We’re doing all this Bob Dylan music, but we’re doing it with five lead singers and tons of passing the ball and harmony, all this kind of elaborate choreography, not choreography like dancing, but choreography meaning which singer sings which line. Almost like it was a musical where we have lines, like its dialogue…I wanted it to be interesting,” Mathis explained. “It’s sort of like Shakespeare, Bob Dylan music, especially the stuff that’s not famous. You can just recite it, and people might even clap, but to really do it you have to take each verse and each line and connect it to something in your own life…I want people to have an incredible experience like they were seeing a movie or a play.”
The conversation then turned to Reed giving up alcohol and nicotine and also touched on the namesake of the podcast episode Experiencing Life Intensely With Reed Mathis. Next, Reed discussed playing with Bill Kreutzmann and Billy & The Kids at their landmark runs in 2021 in Hawaii and at Red Rocks. Mathis talked about the intensity of those sessions with James Casey joining full-time in Hawaii because he “needed to play” after the death of his Trey Anastasio bandmate bassist Tony Markellis as well as the “inspiring” Billy Strings with Reed saying he “felt like a changed person” after playing with the guitarist. Naturally, Mathis discussed the uniqueness of playing with Bill Kreutzmann as well.
“Bill is accepting of himself and reality in a way that is very profound and very unique and very contagious,” Mathis said. Reed went on to detail a fascinating trait Billy K. has that Reed calls “beginners mind.” “We’ll be like ‘Scarlet Begonias’ count it off and from the first note, he is trying to figure out how that song goes. He has refrained from making conclusions about the music. He is able to play all of that music for the first time. And the way he is able to do it is being okay with himself and being okay with reality and not needing to dominate the listener into liking him.”
Hear Reed’s interesting take on Billy Kreutzmann and more in the full No Simple Road episode below:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/242-experiencing-life-intensely-with-reed-mathis/id1262809028?i=1000549972231
