“It is part of the gig for a musician like myself to make people aware of where things have their roots. Music does not materialize from out of nowhere.” (Carl Carlton)
Freedom is the way, not the goal. Freedom lies in the moment and in the awareness of this moment. Freedom is more than independence.
The story of musician and composer Carl Carlton can be traced along a route of freedom that began some thirty years ago in the far northern region of Germany called Friesland. In traditional dialect, “Fryslan” means “free land,” a place where inhabitants throughout German history have fiercely defended their right to independence. In the early middle ages, the Emperor Charlemagne was persuaded to decree the so-called Frisian Freedom, which exempted them from military service and gave them the right to govern themselves. To this day, in fact, the Frisian people maintain a special status in Germany as one of four state-recognized minority nations (along with Sorbs, Danes, and Roma, or Sinti).
This stubborn desire for freedom was handed down to Carl Carlton as well. He sensed this legacy from the moment he first began playing music. While still living on the farm of his parents in Friesland, Carlton’s only exposure to rock ‘n roll and rhythm ‘n blues was through the songs that came blasting out of an old jukebox in the only pub of his village. This was where Carlton became infected with the soul of Lee Dorsey, Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye, not to mention that of the Kinks, Small Faces and the Rolling Stones. From then on, he chased after his calling like a young man on a mission – a mission to make music and play guitar. The guitar was everything to him: his true love, his supporter, his confidante and – not least - his compass with which to navigate every bend and turn along his ROUTE OF FREEDOM. It was a long and challenging route from Friesland to some of the more legendary studios and stages of the world, but this enthusiastic guitarist and citizen of the world (with residences in Dublin, Woodstock/NY, and Gozo, the sister island of Malta) held on - to both his guitar and his positive mental attitude. Of course, there is still plenty more traveling left to do, but as Carlton likes to say in his typically dynamic manner, “this journey has only just begun!”
Carlton was seventeen, when the neighboring Netherlands drew him like magic to one of the most agile and innovative music scenes on the European mainland. He arrived with little more than a guitar and a few person effects. Just three years later, he was working there regularly as a full-fledged musician. In Groningen, for example, he joined a band around Herman Brood, just as this charismatic leader was starting to think about doing his own projects with a new band after leaving the successful Cuby & The Blizzards. Brood found in guitarist Carlton a congenial and cooperative partner with whom to develop a new sound that would cross international borders as easily as it had crashed through borders within Europe. Soon, with the help of Carlton, legendary Herman Brood & Wild Romance was formed.
Carlton’s talent also led to a first gold record in 1976 with famous rock‘n rollers Long Tall Ernie & the Shakers. It was Long Tall Ernie, in fact, who chose Carlton’s stage name, alluding to the fact that the guitarist had blown his first big paycheck on not just an old Chrysler New Yorker, but also on three days at the famed Hotel Carlton in Nice, where he availed himself of some rather decent treatment. More importantly, it was Long Tall Ernie who threw open wide the gates of rock‘n roll. Carlton recalls, “this is where I got the history of rock ‘n roll from Fats Domino to Little Richard to Chuck Berry pounded into me — an excellent education!”
Not long after this experience, and after returning briefly to Wild Romance, Carlton joined up with the unusually successful band Vitesse, with whom he celebrated his first top ten hits. Even in music-obsessed Holland, however, there were limits to how far a musician could go. Especially for Carlton who liked to explore new paths and set new challenges for himself, the Dutch borders were fast becoming altogether too restrictive. Therefore, when Willy DeVille, upon hearing Carlton play in Holland, immediately tapped him to join his band Mink DeVille, the guitarist readily accepted. Thus Carlton’s ROUTE OF FREEDOM veered west across the Atlantic to New York, where with Mink DeVille he played out the wild ‘70s on tour along the East coast. Parallel to these ventures, he also played dates with the Ellen Foley Band and Tony Sarno’s All Americans.
The ‘80s saw Carlton return briefly to his Dutch past in order to help orchestrate a successful reunion with fellow Vitesse band members. Naturally, his presence as guitarist and songwriter for the group was required. At that same time, Carlton started up another band, the Raiders, whose well-received debut earned them a contract with EMI. This was a decade full of even more irresistible opportunities, however, especially in the swinging capital of London, where Carlton next went to join legendary Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (temporarily replacing regular guitarist Steve Waller).
In Germany, meanwhile, word of Carlton’s skill as a guitarist, composer, bandleader and producer had made its way through the grapevine. As a result, when two of the biggest German rockers of the time were looking to re-energize their acts and raise their international profiles, they both looked up Carlton’s number. Most music professionals wait forever in vain for phone calls like this… That is, on the line were none other than Udo Lindenberg and Peter Maffay – rockers who not only sold out huge stadiums, but whose records invariably turned either gold or platinum overnight. Both of these stars valued what Carlton’s experience and global background could give them: international sound, powerful arrangements and access to first-rate musicians who would know how to translate Carlton´s creative ideas into actual sound. By the time these phone calls were ended, Carlton had been hired to do not one, but both jobs. This essentially meant that over the next several years the bands of both Peter Maffay and Udo Lindenberg would consist of almost the same musicians! To put this in perspective, it would be as if Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty were sharing the same band. Yet, this innovative constellation functioned quite well for many years, leaving both stars satisfied with Carlton’s work as a composer, producer, and integrative band leader. Neither star wanted to, nor could afford to, do without him. And regrets were few, since, of the six albums Carlton produced for Udo Lindenberg and the thirteen albums he produced for Peter Maffay, no fewer than eleven ascended to the no. 1 position of the charts.
During this unusually successful and active decade of the ‘80s, Carlton also made his debut in theater as producer and musical director for Peter Maffay’s children’s musical “Tabaluga and Lilli.” Sound recordings and countless concert events were naturally a part of this project, whose English version attracted internationally known artists like Chris Thompson, Haley Mills, Sir John Mills, Keith Reid and Tony Carey. As producer and co-author, Carlton was able to share in the success of this musical fairy tale that featured a small green dragon. As musical director of the live show, he also kept hold of the reins during two big tours in 1994 and 2004, both of which played to massive audiences of enthusiastic Europeans.
Putting picture and sound together added exciting new dimensions to Carlton’s music. It was not long before, in 1989, he would take on the cinematic soundtrack for “Killing Blue,” a film directed by Peter Patzak and starring Armin Müller-Stahl, Michael York, Frank Stallone and Morgan Fairchild. Patzak, impressed by Carlton’s first foray into film scores, immediately signed him to do another project later that same year, this one called “The Joker,” which starred actors Michael York and Tahnee Welch.
Regardless of such success as an album producer and soundtrack composer, Carlton never lost sight of where his roots lay, or how it was that he had learned his craft in the first place. He continued to seek out opportunities to perform live in front of an audience. Just as the old jukebox had left its indelible mark on him earlier, so too did the inimitable smell of overdriven tube amps – as they sent out electrifying sounds in magical conjunction with classic electric guitar riffs — create a lasting impression on Carlton in the years to follow. Such roots prompted Carlton during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s to again handle the axe both live and in the studio for names like Joe Cocker, Keb Mo, Australian superstar Jimmy Barnes, Eric Burdon, Mother’s Finest, Amanda Marshall, Allanah Myles, and many more. Also drawn to the characteristic style of Carlton’s guitar were bands like Simple Minds and Fun Lovin’ Criminals, for whom he worked as a session player.
What exactly was Carlton’s appeal? Perhaps it can be summed up this way: he is one of the few guitarists who despite prodigious talent, never loses the essence of a song, or its unique expression and spirit. Instead, Carlton attempts to make a good song even better by recognizing, supporting and strengthening its core nature. This unusual talent derives from his training as a composer and producer, but also from his discerning taste in music and innate ability to listen. Personality surely also plays a role – Carlton values team spirit over grandstanding; he has never needed to play the role of a guitar god.
In the early ‘90s, however, not everything continued as smoothly as before. Together with friend and longtime musical partner Bertram Engle, for example, Carlton formed a band called New Legend – which also included keyboardist Pascal Kravetz and two Dutch blues rockers, bassist Harry de Winter and singer/guitarist Peter Bootsmann. With plenty of advance hoopla, this quintet began their ascent toward the Olympic summit of rock. Two well-received CDs attested to the band’s blues-drenched, hard rock sound – which would have stood a chance had all members of the band been pulling toward the same goal. This was not the case, however. After only two years, New Legend lay defunct, leaving behind a very disillusioned Carl Carlton. That this experience would eventually benefit projects in the future was not yet clear to him.
In the mid-90s, Carlton’s ROUTE OF FREEDOM swerved in an entirely new direction, prompted by his first encounter with singer Robert Palmer. This was the beginning of an intense collaboration that lasted for nearly a decade until Palmer’s sudden and tragic death in 2003. In Palmer, Carlton found not only a friend, but also a teacher and mentor, with whom he could collaborate both live and in the studio. In addition, Carlton was a co-writer and producer on three of Palmer’s albums. It was Palmer who kept encouraging Carlton to pursue his own projects, the one who finally set the wheels in motion. Carlton recalls the pivotal conversation that did it: “At some point Robert asked me why I didn’t actually have my own band. Because of my experience with New Legend, I was still very hesitant about starting another project like that, and I had – to be honest – doubts about the quality of my singing voice. But Robert told me that he liked my voice just as much as my songwriting. And then he said these exact words: ‘Are you an artist or what?! You don’t need to compete with no Top 20 crap!’ That was the breakthrough moment, the spark that set off a blaze.”
Scheduled first, however, was an interesting side trip that resulted in an honest-to-goodness cult classic. In Dublin, where Carlton has lived since 1994, he and Bertram Engel produced the album “One Blood” for the Australian band Yothu Yindi. This musical gem included several great musicians like Jim Kerr (Simple Minds), Liam O’Maonlai (Hothouse Flowers), Bono (U2) and Sharon Shannon.
Then the time came at last. Still in the same year, a shimmering band that consisted of internationally recognized players was formed and officially baptized “Carl Carlton & The Songdogs.” Carlton was of course the leader of the band, as well as the one who wrote its earthy rock songs infused with American style sound. This group — which looked like a page out of Who’s Who in American Music — created just enough Old School sound to convey Carlton’s roots and pay tribute to his influences, but it also added to that something fresh, like no other product of its genre at the time. With the Songdogs, Carl finally overcame all inhibition to integrate his passion for American roots, rhythm ‘n blues, country, cajun, and even reggae. In September of 2000, when the band came together at historic Dockside Studios in the swamps of Louisiana, or the heart of “Cajun Country,” all the pieces were finally in place to record the Songdog’s first album: “Revolution Avenue.” Carlton was not the only one excited by what they were about to accomplish. His eager collaborators filled the air with their own anticipation as well. True enough, they were about to create an album, but — more importantly – they were about to bring to life a breathing, pulsing band!
The Songdog’s inner sanctum consisted at the time of guitarist Moses Mo and bassist Wyzard of the Atlanta-based funk pioneers Mother’s Finest, as well German keyboard player Pascal Kravetz. Honorary Songdogs and avid supporters included slide master and cajun luminary Sonny Landreth, keyboardist Ian McLagan (Faces, Small Faces, Rolling Stones), as well as drummer Levon Helm and keyboardist Garth Hudson, both members of The Band. Of course, Robert Palmer was among them, too. Even Dublin neighbor and Rolling Stone Ron Wood contributed on two tracks. “Revolution Avenue” ended up delivering thirteen songs full of intense heart and soul. The album was invigorating and fresh, but at the same time firmly rooted to its musical foundations.
For Carlton as a musician, this album represented a breakthrough — especially so for him as a singer. As production continued, and with the encouragement of the other band members, the once-hesitant Carlton began to trust in his voice more and more. He recalls, “I simply gave it my best . . . and also I had something to say.” In fact, what he had to say, his lyrics, played a central role in the production. They were reminiscent of some of the early albums by The Band, which in their day expressed many of the dreams, fears, anxieties and hopes of a generation. For Carlton, however, “Revolution Avenue” called for movement beyond the past; as such, it represented a new beginning and the next segment of his ROUTE OF FREEDOM.
To grasp the true spirit that runs throughout the album, it helps to know the story behind its title track. Carlton explains, “I once discovered a street in Victoria on the Seychelles Islands that really was called Revolution Avenue. This was a dream street where the British Empire met the Third World and shops selling antique clocks stood next to corrugated tin huts and palm trees. The house of Madame Antoinette was tucked in-between. It occurred to me, there’s a song here somewhere — although what kind was not clear to me yet. When we started recording this song, the music was pretty much established, and the chorus for the most part, too – but the rest hadn’t come together yet. One evening I drove to Lafayette and found a hamburger joint, one of those greasy spoons with waxed tablecloths and an ice-cold atmosphere due to the blasting of the air conditioner. The place was completely empty except for one guy who was already pretty tanked and a starting to get curious about was going on around him. Louisiana is a bit like Friesland in Germany – the people are kind of odd and like to keep to themselves . . . somehow really great. At any rate, there was plenty of tequila on hand, and the more wasted we got, the more the guy started to reveal himself to me. At some point, out of his mouth comes, ‘I hope you ain’t got no niggers in your band!’ Well, and I was so disgustingly opportunistic at that moment that, instead of standing up and giving him a piece of my mind, I kept right on sitting there next to that redneck, laughing! On the way home that night, I made myself sick. And this awful feeling was underscored by the fact that I had just been reading a biography of Martin Luther King, whom I privately really admired. So I felt like another one of these intellectual assholes who doesn’t have the guts to say what he thinks out loud. That same night I wrote the lyrics to ‘Revolution Avenue’. The title stands for a street where people go who have lost self-respect and who want to straighten themselves out, so that, at the end of the day, they can look themselves in the eye again. Anyway – I returned to Lafayette the next day to look for the guy and straighten this thing out for myself. I did find him, he was working in this little auto shop, and I spoke my mind – plain and simple. He suddenly seemed very small in front of me and he even apologized – which still didn’t change my opinion of him. I just stood up straight and tall, said my piece, turned around and walked out the door. Losing and regaining your self-respect – that’s what ‘Revolution Avenue’ is all about!”
The experience of working with the Songdogs on “Revolution Avenue’s” original music was of greater importance to Carlton than the commercial success of the album, which nonetheless made its way into the hands of tens of thousands of pleased and surprised fans. As Carl notes, “on the plane home after the recordings, I sat next to my wife and said, ‘Even if the record sells only one copy, it will have all been worth it.’”
In the years to follow, work on Songdogs’ projects would become Carlton’s central focus, his anchor, and even his sustaining vision in the midst of work on other projects (each with its own respectable outcome). Already in 2001, for example, Carlton had convinced Robert Palmer to collaborate on a tribute album to Robert Johnson. The result was a breathtaking version of “Milk Cow Calf’s Blues” – stripped down to just Palmer’s voice, Carlton’s slide guitar and one very tantalizing groove. Collaboration on this Grammy-nominated album, called “Hellbound On My Trail,” so inspired the two men that in 2003 they co-produced a pure blues album considered by many to be a masterpiece. Called “Drive,” the record made it into Billboard’s Top Ten for blues, and won rave reviews from critics around the world. It, too, was nominated for a Grammy. To this day, Carlton views the making of this raw, primitive album – which would also be Robert Palmer’s final release – as akin to earning his master’s diploma.
Moving forward with the Songdogs, the band met again at Dockside studios, three years after the first album was recorded, to begin work on their next LP — “Love & Respect.” By now the band was musically more colorful and ethnically more diverse than ever before. Added to its core members were Robert Palmer, Levon Helm, Sonny Landreth, Jon Smith, the legendary White Trash Horns, Rolling Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys and German rap and soul singer Xavier Naidoo – all of whom breathed rhythm and life into Carlton’s latest batch of songs. And once again they succeeded in laying down what was by now a trademark Songdogs sound: Mississippi Delta blues spiced with gumbo rock ‘n roll, a hint of reggae and a dash of country. To perform these layered arrangements in a convincing way live, multi-instrumentalist Martin Huch (pedalsteel, lapsteel, mandolin) was hired on as well. Wayne P. Sheehy, an Irishman who formerly had played with Ron Wood and the Hothouse Flowers, stepped in to replace drummer Engel (now touring with Udo Lindenberg). But just as it seemed to Carlton he was reaching the pinnacle of his creative career, his ROUTE OF FREEDOM dipped sharply into another deep valley. At the end of the “Love & Respect” tour, Carlton experienced a physical breakdown in front of television cameras – a bitter price to pay for what had been a relentless and exhausting work schedule. Several weeks later, he was dealt a far greater blow by the unexpected death of his best friend Palmer, who at the time had been promoting their joint endeavor “Drive.”
Difficult years followed Palmer’s death, although Carlton found plenty of projects to keep busy. When the next Songdogs album appeared in 2005, it appropriately included a kind of farewell to Palmer in the form of several live tracks that the late rocker had recorded with the band. This gripping double CD was titled “Cahoots & Roots.” Also in 2005, Carlton joined Eric Burdon and The Animals, and played as well on Burdon´s highly regarded blues album, “Soul of a Man,” which was recorded at Johnny Lee Schell’s studio in Los Angeles. With him were a host of world class musicians, including Ivan Neville (clavinet, organ), James “Hutch” Hutchinson (bass, Bonnie Raitt et al.), Ricky Fataar (drums, Beach Boys et al.) and keyboardist Mike Finnigan (Joe Cocker et al.). Another Grammy nomination went to this excellent work. Receiving recognition in other genres as well, Carlton never lacked for interesting collaborations. He produced, for example, “Ghost Face Killer” for the Liverpool punk band, The Dead 60s, and he played concerts with Paul Young and the Irish singer/songwriter Damien Dempsey, a six-time winner of the Irish “Meteor Awards.”
Carlton also returned to work on soundtrack projects, taking on the ten-part series “Once in the GDR” (Damals in der DDR), winner of the Grimme Prize, or Germany’s highest television award. This came shortly after writing the soundtrack for “Neues vom Wixxer,” an extraordinarily successful German cinematic feature, for which he brought in legendary English ska rocker Madness, who re-recorded their hit song “It Must Be Love” with Carlton in the producer´s chair.
Soon it was time for more adventures with the Songdogs. Original songs kept evolving until they were deemed satisfactory to record, some of them taking their titles and contents from Carlton’s own recent personal trials and losses. The last several years had been difficult, breaking open relationships and creating situations that now demanded closure. It was, in a manner of speaking, high time that the band came together to record another album. For the making of “Songs for the Lost and Brave” in 2009, Levon Helm – a longtime close friend of Carlton’s – invited the band to come record at his studio in Woodstock. Besides Carlton himself, Moses Mo, Wyzard and Pascal Kravetz made up the core band, while a new Songdog was added to the mix. This was Zack Alford, an accomplished drummer, who not only lived conveniently nearby, but who had earned laurels playing with Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie.
By now, the album’s tracks were deeper, more grounded and more mature than anything that had come before. They were helped along, too, by first rate honorary Songdogs Eric Burdon, Larry Campbell (mandolin, Bob Dylan et al.), Klaus Voormann (bass), Levon Helm and Tracy Chapman (fiddle). Camping out at what Carlton described as “a place where time stands still,” the band recorded fifteen songs, each revealing in some way bitter human tragedies, such as Carlton’s recent divorce and the tragic death of his friend Palmer. But just as every end contains a new beginning, so too did the “Songs for the Lost and Brave” contain its own seeds of renewal. This was manifested, for example, by the participation of Carlton’s 20-year-old son Max Buskohl, whose impressive vocals could be heard on a cover of Stephen Stills’ classic “For What It’s Worth.” Joined by both his father and established belter Eric Burdon, Buskohl managed with this song to demonstrate what Stills’ lyrics seemed to be saying to the world: for what it’s worth, life goes on …
The strengthening of existing bonds occurred not just with Max — who with the help of his father had already released an album with his band Empty Trash (a solo release is slated for 2011) – but also with Beatles sideman as bassist and graphic designer Klaus Voormann, who garnered widespread praise for his 2009 CD compilation called “Journey of a Sideman.” For it, Carlton and son Max had recorded Ringo Starr’s evergreen classic “You’re Sixteen” with none other than Ringo himself on drums and Van Dyke Parks on piano. Carlton’s guitar could likewise be heard on tracks with Dr. John and Manfred Mann. This collaboration was especially meaningful in terms of the friendship that formed between Carlton and Parks, who invited the guitarist to play at one of his rare concert events in Berlin. Carlton considered the opportunity to play slide guitar on “Sailin’ Shoes” to be one of the major highlights of his career.
Before beginning what was looking to be a successful next decade, Carlton bid farewell to the old one with a stirring, atmospheric soundtrack for the 2010 film: “Swansong: The Story of Occi Burne.” This Irish/English production by Jodie Whitacker and Martin McCann received six nominations for the 2011 Irish Film & Television Academy awards — a gratifying way to leave behind the past and make way for next new adventures.
Of course, no story about Carl Carlton would be complete with talking about his guitars! Where instruments are concerned, Carlton has for years been a kind of ambassador for the German instrument maker Duesenberg. At the end of the ‘90s, the craftsmen at Duesenberg collaborated with Carlton to produce his very own CC Signature model, a retro-oriented guitar with an open, shimmering sound – just the right thing for Carlton’s signature style, and exactly what the Songdogs’s sound calls for! Fellow musicians themselves were so impressed by Carlton’s guitar, that word of mouth soon led to a sharp increase in Duesenberg’s popularity and sales. Now Duesenberg is the guitar brand of the moment! Bands like the Eagles, ZZ Top, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Sheryl Crow’s band and many more rely on Duesenbergs . . . all, it seems, because of the one they made for Carlton …
While Carlton is again on tour in 2011 as musical director for Peter Maffay — whose entourage this time includes both Maffay’s band and a 35-person symphony orchestra – big plans are also underway for Carlton’s own band. 2011 is to be not just a year for the Songdogs, but THE year! Old friends will again meet at Levon Helms’ studio in Woodstock to record the new album; and surely a number of new names will be stirred into the Songdogs’ virtuoso cocktail, making it even more flavorful and intoxicating than before. Meanwhile, Carlton will take on the organization and musical direction of a concert to be broadcast worldwide in honor of Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary — a so-called “Freedom Ramble” that will feature many of the world’s best-known musicians in support of this organization. And, like each one before it, the new Songdogs album will represent another important milestone along Carlton’s personal and musical ROUTE OF FREEDOM. This one will be poised, finally, to incorporate into one great whole Carlton’s vision as a producer, his talent as a musician and composer, and the invaluable contributions of his closest friends.
Carl Carlton & The Songdogs – not just band, but a multi-faceted kaleidoscope whose many mirrors reflect some aspect of the musician himself. In them you see the many nationalities that have long since been assimilated by this cosmopolitan rocker, as well as the roots that have given his music a firm foundation and a kind of classic timelessness. In this kaleidoscope are also the many friends who have seen him over mountains and through valleys, as well as the band that, free of competing egos, continues to make Carlton’s songs better than he could make them himself. All of these facets together reveal the true home of a man who has never been rooted geographically to any one single place. He has chosen instead the ROUTE OF FREEDOM, for which he and his Songdogs continue to provide a vibrant and authentically cool soundtrack.
Lever duad as slav (Friesian) = Better to die free than to live a slave