Tishamingo Gets To The Point

The Local Southern Rock Band Readies Its Third Album For The New Year

originally published January 24, 2007

The two royal families of Southern rock remain the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd. It took me years to have an appreciation of either, and even more to begin to claim any particular love for them. I’m glad that happened before I came across Tishamingo a couple of years back.

Prior to my embrace of the classics, I probably would've dismissed Tishamingo as just another Southern jam band without anything to offer me. The fact is, Tishamingo has precious little in common with your typical noodly-guitar-solo, space-case jam band. The group may share some of the same stages, and even some fans, but that’s the way things go sometimes.

Tishamingo’s newest album The Point will see official release on Feb. 20, but the band - Cameron Williams (guitar, vocals), Jess Franklin (guitar, keyboard, vocals), Richard Proctor (drums) and Chuck Thomas (bass) - plays its Athens album release show this week. Produced by John Kurzweg, who's worked on albums by Creed and Jewel, The Point sounds great, particularly in a purely sonic sense. The album, Tishamingo's third, also sees the band expanding its musical palette, veering into new styles. Flagpole spoke with Tishamingo's Cameron Williams recently about the new album and the band's future.

Flagpole

How did you come to work with John Kurzweg?

Cameron Williams

Really we were just plain lucky and it was good timing. We had known Kurz from years before in Tallahassee, FL. That is where [Tishamingo member] Richard Proctor and I are from, and had worked with Kurz back in '96 with a band [we were in] called Uptown Rudy.  Towards the end of the "Rudy sessions" he informed  Richard and  me  that he would not be able to finish the project. It seemed that this other band he had worked with before us called Creed was going to demand all of his time and he thought they were really about to hit the big time.

 Anyway, a few weeks went by and Kurz was right. Creed hit the big time. 

Years had gone by and we continued to stay in touch. I know that John was pretty exhausted. I think that he was ready to sort of take a break from the whole music biz and the whole rock star thing. That's where we came in.

 Last year, we had the opportunity to do a show with Son Volt and The Black Crowes in Phoenix and decided to pay Kurz a visit at his new home in Santa Fe, NM. I could say that we were invited, but I'm not sure that would be the whole truth. Let's just say that Richard told Kurz the dates that we would be pulling up his driveway in Santa Fe to stay a few days, show him some new songs, and give him an opportunity to record in his newly built studio. We showed up and really  had  a great few days together. After  this time together , we knew that we had to record  our next  album with him, and thank God he agreed to do it. 

Flagpole

The new album exhibits different styles, or at least more  dramatic styling, than the previous two. Notably, "Bad News" is a ZZ  Top-style rave-up and "This Time" sounds to me like it could've been a Bill Withers outtake. Is the band becoming more comfortable expanding its sound?

Cameron Williams

Man… I hear what you are saying, and you're right, those two songs are very different. However, we feel that this album has more of a cohesive "sound" overall than our other two. While the songs you mentioned are different , we felt like this was our third album and we  knew a little more of what we were doing and a little more of  how  Tishamingo sounds. We heard the difference in the songs and felt like it wasn't too much of a stretch. 

On more of a serious note, one of the main things that has happened in the past few years to our sound  is that Jess, our vocalist-guitar player, started playing keys onstage. He started playing the Fender Rhodes onstage a few  years ago  and it added a whole new dimension to his and our writing and our overall  sound. Once the keys came onstage, it was like, “Ah… that is the sound that we have been looking for.” 

   I feel like if you listen to the other two albums, the sound of the band is all over the place. Don't get me wrong, I'm very proud of both of those albums, but I feel like we have more of a cohesive overall sound on this album.

Flagpole

What was it like on the [Lynyrd Skynyrd sponsored] Gimme Three Days cruise? I  looked at the lineup and only liked about a third of the bands, but it sounded  like a blast.

Cameron Williams

It was a blast. Talk about some fans. We love Lynyrd Skynyrd, but these folks that came on this cruise  love Skynyrd.  They’re total die-hards.  First, I do have to say this, even with only two original Skynyrd  members present [Billy Powell and Rickey Medlocke], they brought it. For a band that has been through what Skynyrd has, they've  still got "it." I know that without Ronnie [Van Zant, Skynyrd’s original vocalist] they won’t have the genius writing that he brought to the table, but for playing the old Skynyrd songs it was  as close as you can get, and it rocked. I got the feeling that Ronnie would tip his hat to the show that I saw on the boat.

  The cruise was sort of our New Year’s party and a great way to kick off 2007. As soon as we got to the Miami airport baggage claim, we ran into Rickey Medlocke and you would have thought that we were old friends. He was as nice and happy as could be. It was nice to see a musician that has been through so much with a smile on his face and excited to be playing music. He asked us about the band and even told us some great Skynyrd stories late at night that  really gave me chill bumps. You just can't do shit like they used to… you'll go to jail.

 My favorite part of the boat was getting to meet and play with other musicians also on the boat. We are all touring acts and rarely get to hear each other.  There was  a great interaction on the boat and it wasn't a competitive thing. In fact, there were a handful of us every night who would meet up at the last bar that was open with a small stage and a little P.A. and we would drink and just play songs every night till the sun came up.

 FP: What are your plans for the coming year and the promotion of the new album?

Cameron Williams

It’s back to touring as usual. We've had it pretty easy as far as touring goes since Thanksgiving, and we decided not to play a New Year's show this year to give everyone a little chance to catch their breath. We're rested and ready to start pushing this album and try to take it to a new level. We are very excited about some of the rooms that we are finally getting into… and of course we're very glad that we're doing our first CD release party here in  Athens at the 40 Watt.

 The 40 Watt has been great to us and we love to play there. We wanted to do something to go along with this show at Nuçi's Space, but our touring just wouldn't allow us to do a show there around this time. So what we're doing is giving $5 to Nuçi's for every copy of The Point we sell that night. We appreciate Nuçi's and really feel lucky to have a resource like that in our community, and really want to give back. It should be a great night and we're really looking forward to it.

Gordon Lamb

WHO: Tishamingo, Strawberry Flats

WHERE: 40 Watt Club

WHEN: Thursday, January 25

HOW MUCH: $8