Live Wire: Grammy winner Jon Carroll to play record release show in Florence

Easthampton’s Jon Carroll might not exactly be a household name, but there’s a good chance you’ve encountered his music at some point.

Along with being a longtime sideman to Mary-Chapin Carpenter and having worked with such artists as Peter Wolf, Rodney Crowell and John Gorka, Carroll also was part of the Grammy-winning Starland Vocal Band, which scored a No. 1 hit with “Afternoon Delight” in 1976.

But these days, Carroll mainly focuses on his own music, which has resulted in his latest album, “Can’t Afford Not To.” Carroll will celebrate the release of the record with a show at Studio 30 (upstairs at 30 North Maple St.) in Florence on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. Carroll will be backed by a band of local luminaries, including Dan Thomas, Jim Robitaille, Chris Ball and Tobey Sol LaRoche. Tickets are $20 and can be found online at studio30.org.

Carroll talked about his music in a recent interview with The Republican.

Q. You’re obviously a busy musician, so does it take a long time to finish an album project like this new one, or does it come together quickly once you have what you want to do in mind?

Some can take a long time, for all sorts of reasons. I’m one of those lucky persons whose day gig, whether here or elsewhere is musical and/or artistic, whether touring live with someone else or doing studio work, producing, arranging or composing.

Still, those projects take time away from one’s own most personal creativity, so the calendar can certainly become elasticized. Within that reality, I prefer albums done quickly. Taking a long time to complete anything seems to rob the piece of some of its inherent and immediate vitality. And second-guessing is always a peril as perspectives tend to always shift. It’s a subjective process in the first place.

I can count on two hands the stories of great demos that became adversarial schlock once a deal was in hand. And those wondrous occasions when a budget enables a full concerted week in a good studio with all the same folks hitting material fresh is tantamount to the circus wagon pulling up to the big top and letting all the magical performances tumble in and onto the tape. It’s a creative celebration. But every record is different.

Q. How do you go about writing songs? Does the music usually come first or the words?

Again, every writer is different, and every song is different. I’ve heard some really great musicians say things like “I’d like to write songs, but I have trouble with the words part.” I might have thought or said such a thing as a teenager after I’d been playing in R&B bands in Fredericksburg, Virginia, for a couple years at that point.

My mom moved us up to D.C. after the death of our dad, and my friend Mike Cotter and I formed a duo in high school which brought us into the Cellar Door, which was a bit like the Bitter End and Village Vanguard rolled into one club in Georgetown, D.C. That was really the beginning of the songwriting life for me. I sat on the steps and took in great songsters like Nina Simone, Tom Waits, Harry Chapin, Bill Withers, Willis Alan Ramsey, Tom Rush, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot along with blues acts like Muddy Waters, James Cotton, Merle Saunders and, one of my heroic influences, Les McCann.

Q. Who were some of your songwriting influences when you started? How did they influence you?

Jeez, I gotta’ put Bill Danoff (of Starland Vocal Band) way up there. He was — still is — so enthusiastic and appreciative of what made great songs. I could do a lot worse than look up to and hang out with the guy who wrote “Take Me Home Country Roads,” which at this point is arguably the most famous song ever written (and “Afternoon Delight,” by the way). Our first record was recorded with Phil Ramone in NYC’s A&R studios on the heels of Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy…” The great players of Stuff were playing every Wednesday at Mikell’s in Manhattan. Richard Tee, the keyboardist in that group, was a huge influence. I think he was the first piano player I ever heard that made me want to learn how to do everything he was doing. He was also a really nice cat.

Dr. John, very cool and gave me his number to call. Had a nice chat, and I’ve since worked with him a couple times. The Band — what songs! What guys! I must mention Laura Nyro, as I was one of those lucky ‘60s kids to be playing piano and organ and having an older brother and sister bringing home every cool record and playing them to death. It was their friends that recruited me into my first gigging bands. I was debauched quite early, bless their souls. My sister loved Laura Nyro and I still do. The Rascals. War. Sly. They were all writing songs that said something important but also managed to be fun. And funky. Sly and The Family Stone remain my favorite group of all time.

Q. You’ve been a longtime sideman for Mary-Chapin Carpenter. What do you like about working with her?

Well, there’s at least two things. We’re old friends who’ve grown together, weathering many storms, shifts, rifts and drifts. I love her like a sister.

There’s also the fact that she’s one of the all-time greatest songwriters to ever grace this place, y’all. It’s funny — I think I’d already had the whole Starland whirlwind of a mini-career by the time she came to town right out of college and was playing her songs in pass-the-hat joints on Connecticut Ave. She was so shy, but one could also behold a strong resolve inside her, and I must say I was profoundly impressed by the seriousness with which she approached every song.

I don’t think I really knew the dimension and scope of a great song that was attainable if one really worked hard at it until I witnessed her work ethic. She’s one of the reasons it takes me so long to finish a song — the bar is high and it’s hard. But any songwriters worth their pencil know the difference between a notion and a fully realized and complete lyric.

She’s honestly one of the very best … It’s an honor to still have a crucial hand in her bringing the magical songs to her fans who rightly see her as an indispensable spiritual savior of sorts. I can’t do every tour, for so many reasons – my other muses included, but when it works, it’s an earthly joy and a heavenly slice. These last trips were really special, along with wondrous souls up, down and sideways. A real treat.