J. Roddy Walston is saddled up barside at South Side cozy spot, Laura Lees, sipping on a custom cocktail, the J. Toddy (recipe below), made just for the occasion of chatting with Style Weekly about Christmas shows and a new album “Christmas to the Bone.”
For the unfamiliar, Walston is a consummate frontperson and all-around solid entertainer, having fronted acclaimed bands including J. Roddy Walston and the Business and most recently, Palm Palm. He’s a purveyor of raucous rock and soul with undeniable energy and a smidge of country, and a legit piano player (no keyboards here, kids. His touring piano weighs nearly 300 pounds). This kind of authenticity comes through in his music and shows, which are heavy, weighted, solid and a damn party. Having played every megafest from Newport Folk Fest to High Water in Charleston, South Carolina with pals Shovels and Rope, dude is a seasoned pro.
A Tennessee native, Walston now lives in Richmond, where he’s one day away from kicking off a handful of local shows that are a full-blown holiday explosion in the most rock ‘n’ roll kinda way (spoiler alert: there’s a Santa suit). Three years into this sparkly tradition, it still might seem unusual for this wild cat on the keys to be a total sap for the season, but the secret’s out: Roddy believes in Santa. And this will be the first time the holiday shindig is aligned with a recorded version of the tunes.
“I’ll give it up to the big man,” says Walston. “I grew up in the church [it’s] kinda like acceptable magic. And, well I’m a practical, science-believing human full of doubt and cynicism and that stuff. Within belief and faith, my take on it is … magic is fun, God is fun, Christmas is fun. Santa is fun. I like to have fun. So, yes, I believe in Santa,” he says.
A favorite memory surfaced during the conversation.
“When I was about 10, we were getting ready to decorate the tree, caroling, all of that. Christmas was a big deal in the house. My dad had nine siblings, so it’s a big deal,” he says. “My mom said, ‘We gotta do the thing. The broom dance.’” Walston’s mom had made up a new tradition where you wrap a broom in holiday lights and everyone has to dance with it before the tree could be decorated. “Everyone got to choose their song, everyone got to dance,” he says.
But the kicker was Walston’s dad had to replicate everyone’s dance at the end. It became a family tradition, or a dividing line, depending on the company. “The whole premise is just creating something new. Something that’s unique to your family. It’s your own little weird thing. Finding a way to take the thing we’re all experiencing similarly, but in a way that’s unique,” says Walston.
His new holiday album, “Christmas to the Bone,” brings it all to the front and taps into Walston’s love of Christmas music. Between J. Roddy and Cher’s new Christmas albums, we’ve got new seasonal royalty. Sorry, Mariah.
Ten original tracks have never sleighed so hard for a holiday. Frosty better look out: Crunchy guitars, fiery keys and that unmistakable rowdy Roddy howl make this one special. “I love great Christmas music. Not all of it … I’m offended by bad Christmas music,” he says. “Since I was a kid, there have been a few like Phil Spector, Jackson Five, like even in the middle of summer I’d be on a trampoline listening to those records. I like what I liked from the get go,” he says.
He explains that holiday records are like good concept records, as if the whole world is just a holiday world. “I don’t write on purpose necessarily, but sometimes it’s a compulsion or a visit from the muse, and stuff just comes. I was like, I had a lot of Christmas songs,” he says. “It’s probably the best reception of any record I’ve made.”
Walston shares that he did this project on his own dime and it wasn’t a label push, making it all the more charming. “It came from a really pure place,” he says.
He’s also taken more control of his creative process, including everything from mixing, producing and engineering his own records; he’s developing an ethos that connects. “Lots of modern music making removes human connection to modern music,” he says. “This is far more organic in some ways than anything I’ve done.”
Within hours of learning the new songs, the band was playing them and Walston says there are no overdubs on the record. As he puts it, “It’s all magic still.”
J. Roddy Walston plays The Broadberry on Dec. 21 and 22. Tickets are $30. Doors at 7:00 PM. Check out thebroadberry.com more info.
