Honkytonk and Vine
South Pasadena’s David Serby charts his own path
By Bliss 04/16/2009
When South Pasadena’s David Serby last spoke with this column, he was celebrating two landmark events: opening for musical heroes Willie Nelson, Chris Hillman and Lucinda Williams at Indio’s Stagecoach Festival, and locating and reuniting with his birth father — who turned out to be a country musician too. They played together in Arizona and talked shop about musicmaking.
Fast forward two years. Serby’s been diligently networking with media mavens and fans at conventions like SXSW in Austin and the Americana Music conference in Nashville. He’s also hired a serious marketing team to get national exposure for “Honkytonk and Vine,” his third album, slated for release May 11.
“I’m hoping to raise my profile a little bit so that it would make it easier to tour outside of Southern California,” he says, noting the steep cost of taking his band on the road. “It’s a strange time. It’s like the Wild West; everybody’s trying to figure out how to survive.”
“Honkytonk and Vine” is a bit more musically varied than Serby’s previous two releases. Amidst several raucous and heartbroken tracks about his bachelor days shines “Country Club Couples,” inspired by conversations with his father. “He was talking about his days playing in LA in the late 1960s and ’70s,” Serby explains. “There was a honky-tonk on every corner, crowded every single night of the week, and musicians could make a living just going from honky-tonk to honky-tonk or bar to bar, every night playing a different gig. And how drunk and smoke-filled and wild every place was. ... What would that look like if I was [there] back then, plugging in the guitar and looking out and seeing all these people cheating on their significant others in the shadows, and fights breaking out?
“‘Country Club Couples’ was my little fantasy of that.”
Serby played punk when he was younger, but these days, he acknowledges with a laugh, everything he writes comes out “as a singer/songwritery folk song or a country song — which is OK with me, I like that stuff.”
He says that’s partly because he’s been writing with his band in mind. His next album will be more stripped down. He’s inspired to keep going by friends making the same pilgrimage toward elusive dreams.
“I’m listening to Songs of Shiloh, Syd Straw’s latest record, the Last Americans — everybody I play with that makes records,” he says. “The Old Californio record, which sounds amazing. I wish I could get my hands on [the new] Mike Stinson record. Everybody’s doing it for themselves. … I love this scene in LA. Everybody is so talented and supportive. It really is inspiring to be with all these folks, and to see them plugging along and trying to make it.”
David Serby returns to Buccaneer Lounge, 70 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre, at 9 p.m. Friday. Call (626) 355-9045 for details. davidserby.com.
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