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It made a man out of Ernest Tubb, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash.
But while he was in Nashville, it made Arthur Dodge want to puke.
"I was gonna shoot myself in the head if I heard another Hank Williams
song," said Dodge.
In the grand old bible of country music, Nashville is the Promised
Land where budding songwriters seek to trade in the toils of obscurity
for the manna of success. It's the place where broken hearts turn
in to No. 1 hits and No. 1 hits turn into truck commercials.
Nashville is also the place where Arthur Dodge spent six long months
washing dishes and getting drunk while trapped in a writer's block
the size of Texas.
"That whole thing is really just a big farce," said Dodge. "Music
Row is just a bunch of offices. There's not really any music going
on there - it's just a bunch of brick buildings that you can't get
into."
So with a chip on his shoulder and an ever-thinning wad of cash, Dodge
returned to the town that nurtured him - Lawrence, Kansas. In his
first month back home, he wrote more songs than he did during his
entire 10 months in Nashville. Needless to say, it was a happy homecoming.
"After Nashville I was like, I'm never gonna wash another fuckin'
dish again," said Dodge.
"So I went back to the taxi place. It's long hours but it's pretty
easy," he said. "Until you get the freaks. There's a lot of freaks
in this town.
Like, FREAKS. Not like twenty-four year old indie rocker kids trying
to be freaks but like actual FREAKS, you know? That nobody ever sees,
that don't go out and drink, that don't do whatever cuz they're so
ODD. Some days I just don't want to talk to anyone."
Dodge has been driving cabs since his first album came out in 1997
on Barber's Itch Records - a Lawrence label he says was started by
"one guy and a lot of money." The debut - "Arthur Dodge and the Horsefeathers"
- attracted praiseworthy reviews from No Depression and CMJ, and is
still his best selling album to date.
Since then, Dodge and his band have released two more albums, "Cadillacs,
Ponytails & Dirty Dreams…" (1998) on Barber's Itch Records and "Nervous
Habit" (2000) on Germany's Blue Rose Records. "Nervous Habit" has
yet to find a home in the United States and didn't sell enough copies
overseas to warrant a European tour.
But Dodge doesn't have time to agonize over the past. If all goes
well, his next album will take him even further down the long, dirty
road to success. Though Dodge hasn't decided on a name for it, the
majority of the album is already recorded and Dodge hopes to put it
out this fall.
The release features an expanded version of the Horsefeathers, with
David Swenson on keys in addition to the traditional lineup of Matt
Mozier (guitar), Jeremy Sidener (bass) and Ken Pingleton (drums).
The addition of a keyboardist reflects the sophistication of Dodge's
songwriting, which he promises will have lots more harmonies and "stuff".
"It's a lot more soulful, I guess," Dodge said of his upcoming album.
"When I came back from Nashville I started writing on piano and I
bought a Rhodes and a Wurlitzer, whereas before I'd had only one keyboard
song per album. It's kinda like Motown meets Dylan meets Bread, with
some Supertramp thrown in there. And a good dose of Brian Wilson."
If he had his way, Dodge would be recording an album every six months.
He ruminates on doing a live record to capture some of the songs the
Horsefeathers work up for their live sets that never make it onto
disc. If there's one thing Dodge is not short of, it's songs.
"I probably have about 200 songs I'd want people to hear and another
300 I wouldn't want people to hear," said Dodge. "That's all I do.
Sometimes I write three songs in a day, or three different versions
of the same song. I have this whole group of songs from this Tex-Mex
period I was going through that I really dig. I'd like to find a girl
who speaks Spanish to sing or something."
In August of 2000, Dodge attempted the live-music equivalent of the
triathlon when he played 100 of those songs for a farewell show at
the 8th Street Tap Room. From 6 pm until 2 am Dodge played his songs
in the order he wrote them. He paused just long enough to wet his
whistle and to auction off lyric sheets, some of which fetched up
to $30. But don't mistake Dodge's keen marketing skills for nostalgia.
"That was just a big scam to get money to move to Nashville with,"
he said. "And it worked. I think I made about $600 at a dollar-a-head."
With so many songs under his belt, one might wonder where Dodge gets
his inspiration. But like any good songwriter, he keeps his sources
largely under wraps.
"Girls, cars, trees, food," he offers. "Everything but politics."
And what about the taxi riders?
"They find their way into my songs but it's disguised," he said. "The
names are changed to protect the guilty."
Perhaps Dodge will have another shot at success in the near future.
Then again, he may decide that he's happy where he is right now.
"I think if you've been in Lawrence for awhile you come back and you
appreciate this whole town," he said.
"There's a very creative energy around here with all the new bands.
And you can live here cheap. You can exist on nothing. And there's
a great sunrise when you're driving a cab. That's the only way I see
the sunrise - when I gotta get up at 5:30 in the morning to drive
a cab," he said.
"Or I've been drinking all night and I'm still awake at sunrise, which
a lot of people are in this town."
More on Arthur
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