News articles: 6-6-06

[vhrulz1]

Van Halen’s former frontman refocuses with bluegrass disc

By Ron Wynn, rwynn@nashvillecitypaper.com

June 06, 2006

David Lee Roth was a huge star and major rock figure during the 11-plus years he was Van Halen’s lead singer, but he sees no conflict or anything especially strange about his latest venture. Roth has joined forces with the John Jorgensen band for two numbers on the new CD Strummin’With The Devil: The Southern Side of Van Halen (CMH), which will be released today.

While in town last week, Roth praised the musical attributes of the Jorgensen group and also said working on the project really represented a return to his musical roots.

“Man I grew up hearing bluegrass and country, watching westerns on television and playing those songs on an acoustic guitar,” Roth said. “Long before I ever met Eddie or knew anything about Van Halen, I was playing Doc Watson tunes. So it’s not like this is something strange or weird for me.

“One thing that I did tell the guys in the beginning was that I didn’t want them trying to just reproduce what Van Halen did acoustically. We went through 60 demos, and all the early songs had them playing everything so politely and properly. What’s the point of that? I told them to just take the song where they feel it’s going and forget about the way we did it. They knew all Eddie’s licks and every bit of our music, but once they got comfortable, then things just kind of exploded.”

Roth takes the lead on the songs “Jump” and “Jamie’s Cryin’.” While there’s not quite as much reach in the upper register as the past, Roth can still
punch out the lines and embellish the lyrics. But it’s hearing the Jorgensen band’s instrumental excursions, exacting lines and intricate playing on such tunes as “Eruption,” “Panama” and “Unchained” that’s a treat, and along with the way Roth manages to fit his style into their format. This isn’t exactly the usual musically smooth, almost reverential tribute date. Instead, it’s one that maintains the improvisational flair and on-the-edge attitude of both great bluegrass and rock, maintaining a fervent acoustic sensibility while still allowing Roth and company to have plenty of fun.

Roth is also currently enjoying life, and he dismisses any notion that his recent stint at CBS Radio was a failure.

“Well I was King of Radio for about 90 days,” Roth laughed. “I really enjoyed doing the show and was able to try a lot of creative things, expose listeners to all kinds of musicians and really have a ball until they pulled the plug. I got letters from all over the world and e-mail from military bases and positive reaction from everywhere. So I wouldn’t exactly call that a failure.”

While currently doing selected dates and publicity for Strummin’With The Devil, Roth understands and acknowledges that many fans still wonder about the possibility of him teaming up again with Eddie Van Halen (his last Van Halen stint came in 1996 when they temporarily regrouped to cut Best
Of Van Halen Volume 1).

“Right now I’ve reached out to Eddie at least twice a year, but he’s not really responding to too much of anything at the moment,” Roth said.

“He’s still got his health, but he’s chosen to withdraw from any professional things for a while. So I don’t know about the future, but there’s always hope that we’ll do something together again.”

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section_id=12&screen=news&news_id=50262

[vhrulz1]

nbc30.com
Roth Makes Bluegrass Van Halen Tribute Album

POSTED: 4:26 pm EDT June 6, 2006
UPDATED: 4:43 pm EDT June 6, 2006

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- David Lee Roth has delved into the southern side of his former band. And he's come out with a Van Halen bluegrass tribute album.

It's called "Strummin' With the Devil: The Southern Side of Van Halen" and it hits stores Tuesday.

Roth said he wanted the album to be a credible interpretation of Van Halen, rather than a tongue-in-cheek exhibition. He said he insisted they "reinvent the songs completely." He adds "you may not even recognize the song until the vocals come in."

Roth was the frontman for Van Halen from 1974 to 1985. He left in 1985 following a war of words with guitarist Eddie Van Halen.

In a recent interview, Roth said that after years of not speaking, he and Van Valen are communicating again. Roth expects them to reunite in the near future to record a new CD.

"I see it absolutely as an inevitability," said Roth. "It would be very simple to put together. I definitely see it happening."

In the meantime, Roth plans to tour this summer performing Van Halen hits, as well as his solo music.

http://www.nbc30.com/entertainment/9330222/detail.html

[vhrulz1]

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

David Lee Roth says country music is a natural fit for him
It should come as no surprise that David Lee Roth is featured on the new Van Halen bluegrass tribute album called Strummin' With The Devil, which comes out on Tuesday, June 6th, -- well, according to Roth, anyway. The original Van Halen frontman has been out of the band for more than 20 years now, but that didn't stop him from telling us that he had a huge influence on some of today's biggest country stars: "The Chesneys and the Paisleys and the Tobys of country are now the exact right age that they're the stars of popular culture and they grew up on Van Halen music. The Van Halen myth is now 25 years gone, and there's something in American legend that says after 25 years you get your own T-shirt. You get your own postage stamp. Everything's okay."

Roth also told us that country and rock have been linked for a long time, and that acoustic instruments have been vitally important to rock music: "There is a great amount of rock in the country sound. Country was back when rock really kicked in. In early Rod Stewart, you know, all those early . . . 'Maggie May', 'Every Picture Tells A Story,' and on and on and on. These were great albums. Every single one of 'em had a mandolin and a dobro and a steel guitar in it. Without all of those exact instruments you have no Rolling Stones."

"Diamond Dave" will perform on Tuesday on NBC on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.

http://www.therockradio.com/2006/06/david-lee-roth-says-country-music-is.html

[vhrulz1]

Roth 'Strummin' With the Devil' on bluegrass tribute

Updated 6/6/2006 6:34 PM ET

NASHVILLE (AP) — The blond mane and leather pants are gone from his days fronting Van Halen in the '80s. But David Lee Roth's boisterous personality is still intact.

He was in town recently to promote his latest project, a bluegrass tribute to his former band called Strummin' With the Devil: The Southern Side of Van Halen that came out Tuesday, and he seemed every bit the "Diamond Dave" of old — a wisecracking, motormouth cross between Robin Williams and Wolfman Jack.

"It's been 27 summers — like the way I put that?" he told The Associated Press, explosively laughing. "That's metric for years. Sounds like less. Sounds thinner (more loud laughter). Easier to digest, like, 'I'm watching what I eat as opposed to I'm on a diet' (laughter). I venerate the language also, sir (laughter)."

Roth's emerged as Van Halen's party-loving lead singer in the late '70s and stayed with the group until splitting on less-than-amicable terms in 1985 for a solo career that started strong, then petered out. (Rock fans still debate whether Van Halen was better under Roth or his successor, Sammy Hagar.)

In January, Roth took on the daunting task of replacing Howard Stern on a syndicated morning show for CBS Radio. His show was canceled in April.

In a posh hotel suite with the bed still unmade and empty beer bottles on the end tables, the 51-year-old Bloomington, Ind., native picked up a guitar and played a country-flavored tune he said he wrote when he was 9 and discussed his appreciation for 1970s country-tinged rock acts like Jackson Browne and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

The tribute album began with Roth deciding he wanted to cut an acoustic record and putting out the word to some of Nashville's finest pickers, including Blue Highway, the John Cowan Band, Mountain Heart, Larry Cordle and David Grisman. He said he wanted the album to be a credible interpretation of Van Halen, rather than a tongue-in-cheek exhibition.

"Nine times out of 10 when people do a tribute album or tribute songs for somebody, it's what I call 'white boys playing reggae,'" Roth said. "They know they can't, we know they can't, so they sing like they can't and play like they can't. They gently make fun of the idiom or sing in a false accent.

"My only real insistence was that we reinvent the songs completely. Take it way past where we found it to the degree you may not even recognize the song until the vocals come in, so other ingredients of the music present themselves that you may not have been consciously aware of before."

As odd a concept as the record might seem, it mostly works. Hard rock classics like Panama and And the Cradle Will Rock ... retain the energy of early Van Halen, but with mandolins and fiddles instead of electric guitars and drums. The first single, Jamie's Cryin', takes a new, mournful tone with the acoustic instrumentation.

Roth sings on only two tracks: Jump and Jamie's Cryin'. The singer who made a career of leaping into the air on stage and surrounding himself with scantily clad women in his videos didn't want to go over the top.

"I'll never convince you that I'm either a cowboy or black. Those two songs stuck out as the most legitimate," for his vocal style, Roth said.

If he had sang on the others, "Well ... white boys playing reggae."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-06-06-roth-tribute_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA

[vhrulz1]

Lee Roth goes country

The guys in his band have changed, but David Lee Roth hasn't too much. The blond mane and leather pants are gone from his days fronting the seminal rock group Van Halen in the 1980s.

But Roth's boisterous personality is still intact. He was in town recently to promote his latest project, a bluegrass tribute to his former band called Strummin' With the Devil: The Southern Side of Van Halen, and he seemed every bit the David Lee Roth of old - a wisecracking cross between Robin Williams and Wolfman Jack.

"This album has already been roundly accepted by a number of communities," he said in an interview at his Nashville hotel on Friday. "It's a familiar tome already. You know the words, you know every vowel, every high kick, every hoot and holler, every bell and whistle that goes along with this music.

"It's been 27 summers, like the way I put that? (explosive laughter). That's metric for years. Sounds like less. Sounds thinner (more loud laughter). Easier to digest, like 'I'm watching what I eat as opposed to I'm on a diet' (laughter). I venerate the language also, sir (laughter)."

Anyone who listened to rock radio in the 1980s knows Roth's story. He emerged as Van Halen's party-loving lead singer in the late '70s and stayed with the group until splitting on less-than-amicable terms in 1985 for a solo career that started strong and then petered out.

To this day, rock fans still debate whether Van Halen was better under Roth or his successor, Sammy Hagar.

More recently, Roth took on the daunting task of replacing Howard Stern on a syndicated morning show for CBS Radio in New York. His show was canceled in April after three months.

In a posh hotel suite with the bed still unmade and empty beer bottles on the end tables, the 51-year-old Bloomington, Ind., native picked up a guitar and played a country-flavored tune he said he wrote when he was 9 and discussed his appreciation for 1970s country-tinged rock acts like Jackson Browne and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

"Someone asked me 'Are you imitating Bon Jovi doing this?,"' Roth cracked, referring to Bon Jovi's recent country hit, Who Says You Can't Go Home. "I said, 'Wise up, man, I'm imitating the Eagles."'

The tribute album began with Roth deciding he wanted to cut an acoustic record and putting out the word to some of Nashville's finest pickers, including Blue Highway, the John Cowan Band, Mountain Heart, Larry Cordle and David Grisman. He said he wanted the album to be a credible interpretation of Van Halen, rather than a tongue-in-cheek exhibition.

"Nine times out of 10 when people do a tribute album or tribute songs for somebody, it's what I call 'white boys playing reggae,"' Roth said. "They know they can't, we know they can't, so they sing like they can't and play like they can't. They gently make fun of the idiom or sing in a false accent.

"My only real insistence was that we reinvent the songs completely. Take it way past where we found it to the degree you may not even recognize the song until the vocals come in, so other ingredients of the music present themselves that you may not have been consciously aware of before."

As odd a concept as the record might seem, it mostly works. Hard rock classics like Panama and And the Cradle Will Rock ..." retain the energy of early Van Halen, but with mandolins and fiddles instead of electric guitars and drums. The first single, Jamie's Cryin', takes a new, mournful tone with the acoustic instrumentation.

Roth sings on only two tracks: Jump and Jamie's Cryin'. The singer who made a career of leaping into the air on stage and surrounding himself with scantily clad women in his videos didn't want to go over the top.

"I'll never convince you that I'm either a cowboy or black. Those two songs stuck out as the most legitimate," for his vocal style, Roth said.

If he had sang on the others, "Well ... white boys playing reggae."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/lee-roth-goes-country/2006/06/06/1149359716529.html#

[vhrulz1]

There's a ton more, but they are basically variations of the same things. I think I found the ones that had a little something different.

[Douglas T.]

Nice work soldier! We'll go 4 stars for you at least!

[ELVIS]

I thought Dave said during his 90 days of radio, that he was invited to sing on the album...

These articles make it sound like it was all Dave's idea...

[vhrulz1]

I thought he said it was his sister, Lisa's, idea. She's a VP or something at the record co.

[DavidLeeNatra]

Originally posted by ELVIS
I thought Dave said during his 90 days of radio, that he was invited to sing on the album...

These articles make it sound like it was all Dave's idea...

I guess he was invited and gave a lot of input then...he heard the demos and said "nice, work guys but why not try something different"...that's how I see him in this project...