Last Tuesday, March 22, country duo The Roys released their first album of all bluegrass material. Titled Lonesome Whistle, the new CD features 11 new tracks, almost all of which The Roys wrote or co-wrote. The material provides a wide range of moods and styles, all of it underlined by siblings Lee and Elaine Roy's signature vocal harmonies. Ricky Skaggs and The Whites also appear on "That's What Makes it Love."
Lee and Elaine Roy spoke to Examiner.com on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, one week prior to the release of Lonesome Whistle. They were clearly pleased with the buzz of anticipation around the record, and very proud of the work they've done.
The following are excerpts of that conversation. You can hear the entire audio interview by clicking on the video to the left.
Special thanks to Lee and Elaine Roy, and to Martha Moore of so much Moore Media for arranging this interview.
Sterling Whitaker: What made this the right time for this record?
Elaine Roy: You know, our love is bluegrass and country music, and the timing for this album was just perfect. We had done some bluegrass songs that we had sang on, and Lee was kinda pitching them around, and our management heard these songs and said, "Why in the world are you guys not cutting this material? This is who you are, right here."
So that kinda got the ball rolling, and then Lee got in contact with Andy Leftwich, who has played on some sessions of ours, and told him, "I think we're going to do this bluegrass project, and we'd love for you to be involved, can you help us put a band together?" He said, "Absolutely." And he helped co-produce this album, he put the whole band together using Kentucky Thunder, he helped us get Ricky [Skaggs] on this album.
I think it was God's timing in telling us, "This is the music you need to make, and this is the time that you need to make it." We're really, really proud of this album and can't wait for everyone to hear it.
Tell me about the first single, "Coal Minin' Man." What was the writing process for that?
Lee Roy: "Coal Minin' Man" is a song that I co-wrote with one of my good buddies here, Matt Rogers. He brought the idea to the table. He's from Eastern Pennsylvania, and there's a lot of coal mining in that area. He wanted to write a bluegrass song, first and foremost, and he said, "When I had this idea, I knew exactly who to bring it to, because I know you love bluegrass music."
We both felt very strong that we didn't want to paint the negative side of coal mining, which all too often is the only time that coal mining is brought to the forefront is when there's a tragedy. We wanted to write this in a different perspective, just the perspective of coal mining man Joe who gets up and goes to work every day, and coal mining woman Jane who gets up every morning and goes coal mining, and doesn't reap the glory of media, or the thanks or the congratulations.
So we just got together and started writing this, and it was just a really fun song to write. And when we got in the studio it really took off, and kinda popped its head up as being one of the strong songs on this album, and Rural Rhythm heard it and fell in love with it and just thought it would be a great first single, and the rest is history.
There's a big buzz around this album already. There's been a lot of press, a lot of anticipation.
Lee Roy: Well, you know, to get that buzz going it takes a lot of twenty dollar bills. (Laughter). We're very excited that an album that we made from the love of our hearts and soul, and the music that we love, is getting the buzz that it's getting. I was actually in the studio yesterday doing some more bluegrass demos, and I was saying, "This record, if it sells a million copies or sells one copy, I am so proud of this record." This record is who we are musically. There's not a song on this project that I don't go, "I would cut this and play this a million times again." It's pretty cool that just doing a record that you love to do and music that you love to do is creating this buzz, and hopefully everybody likes it.
Does it make you nervous at all to go into such an uncertain marketplace? Right now the music business is in so much flux, does it make you nervous to have people invested in you, and now it's out there and out of your hands to a degree?
Elaine Roy: I think there's a little bit of nervousness in all of the music industry right now, but we can't let that stop the future of music. Music is the universal language. You can go to Japan, and if they fall in love with your song they might not know one word of it, but they love it anyway. And that to me speaks magnitudes of how powerful music is.
For us as artists, we really feel that this is our God-given talent. This is our calling in our lives, and we have to do this. And I think for us, we just keep pushing forward. We're going to do things that we've never done before, all because of this music, because it touches people. And that's what keeps us going.
Even though there are a tremendous amount of brick walls and mountains, and when you look in front of yourself you go, "There is no way I will be able to climb that mountain or scale that wall," Lee and I know for sure that God is beside us, and He is leading our way. We have no control over the music industry or what happens, but I know that He's in control, and we just keep pushing forward, and we are so, so blessed that we get to do this every single day.
Tell me about Ricky Skaggs a little bit. Obviously he's on this record, and you cut a lot of it out there, or all of it out there. Did you know him prior to that?
Lee Roy: We had met him a few times, and he says he knew who we were. (Laughs). But he's my musical hero, and the song that he guest appears on, as well as The Whites - a song that I co-wrote called "That's What Makes it Love " - just has that Ricky feel to it. Like he said in the studio, he said, "This sounds like a song that could have been pitched to me and I could have cut." It's just right up his alley, and Andy felt it would be a great song to see if Ricky wants to make a guest appearance on.
When I got the call that he was gonna be on here and The Whites were gonna sing on it, it's just one of those a-ha moments when you kinda look back . . . every time I listen to the record and I hear his voice, as well as The Whites, I really have to pinch myself to make sure that it's reality, that he's really on there.
We cut everything at his studio. Walking in there was pretty amazing, just the history. Everything on the wall . . . the Grammys, and IBMAs, the CMAs and ACMs, all the awards that he's won, and gold and platinum records. And just an amazing studio and amazing people to work with. We just saw him not too long ago, and the great thing is, he's my musical hero, but he's also a friend. It's pretty cool to have him on there.
Elaine Roy: When you get somebody like Ricky giving his stamp of approval on this album, that's a pretty high compliment coming from a legend. We are just so blessed. He did say, "I'm still listening to your album, and it is a great, great album." And he also told my brother, "Your music is gonna change people's lives." And coming from Ricky, that is a very, very incredible compliment. We're very blessed that he's in our corner.
I saw in your bio that you made your television debut on the Jerry Lewis telethon last year. What was that experience like for you?
Elaine Roy: That was incredible. When we got the call that they had heard our stuff and wanted us to be a part of it, number one, we were honored, because it's such a great organization. Anything we can help to give back, we are all for it. We are so blessed to do this, and our thing is, if we can help anybody, we will do it.
Going out to Las Vegas and doing the rehearsals the night before, going into the studio and seeing it all set up, seeing the number board and all of that stuff, I was so calm, not any nerves at all. But the day of, when it was time for action, the nerves kicked in a little bit.
It was so cool because there was a live audience, so we just concentrated on the live audience and forgot about the TV cameras. We didn't forget the words, which was really good. (Laughter). That's always our greatest fear, we're gonna forget the words. But we did good, we got through it. And just some great, great people with that organization that work so hard year round to get this thing to happen on Labor Day Weekend. For that to be our first TV appearance was an honor.
What kind of touring will you do behind this record?
Lee Roy: We'll do the fairs and festivals, and bluegrass festivals. Just a mixture of things, really. Some smaller venues, three-to-four hundred seat venues. We're working on some other stuff that we can't announce right now, but would be a really good run through the summer.
Elaine and I are very big on, no venue is too little to play. So we're just gonna get out there and hit the highways and byways of the United States and Canada, and hopefully go overseas at some point.
With you being siblings, is that easier or harder in trying to work together?
Elaine Roy: It depends on what day. (Laughs). You know, Lee and I, from an early age we've had the same dreams and the same goals. I was five years old when I started to sing, and at five years old I was dreaming about coming to Nashville and doing this for a living. Not knowing what Nashville was, and how hard it was gonna be, and the tears I was gonna shed and all of that stuff.
When we started doing this together, and I found out that he had the same dream that I did and we decided to do this, we came to a quick realization that if we want this to work, we have to get along. We are both adults, and we can't get our way all the time, so we learned how to compromise. And it's been really an easy thing for us, because as far as the music, we are on the same page. We never argue about who's singing, or what song. We are just together on that.
The other stuff, I'm the business part of The Roys. I do all the business side. Lee does a lot of the musical side as far as production and getting the musicians together. I think we complement each other really good. He always says where I'm weak, he's strong, and where he's weak, I'm strong. So it just works, and it's so, so awesome to do this with my brother, because I know how hard we've worked, and every little success that we get, it is so, so awesome to share it with him.
Is there anything else you want to say about Lonesome Whistle before we go?
Lee Roy: I know every artist says this, but I know Elaine and I poured our heart and soul, and our blood, sweat and tears into this record, and I think there's a little bit of everything on there. Every country music fan, bluegrass fan and Christian fan will find something on here that they can gravitate to.
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