San Fran folkie racks up the accolades with Waits Ondaatje
Jesse DeNatale has always considered creativity to be the backbone of humanity. Whether it’s via paint to canvas pen to paper the strum of a battered acoustic guitar or even a child colouring it’s all inspiring to the veteran San Francisco singer-songwriter and roots-folk troubadour.
“For me it’s all sort of a concept” he says from his home in Northern California. “Sometimes I’m writing lyrics and I’m all over the map. Whether you’re conscious of it or not you’re writing in the present and it’s some sort of feeling of what now is — I think in most cases your mind is pretty set.”
But as abstract as his creative process seems he says he’s discovered a newfound direction with his music.
“Lately I thought I needed some sort of framework… even some consistency. I thought of relationships because I hadn’t written anything about relationships before. I mean I know it gets done a lot but I hadn’t. Good or bad it’s always amazing how those partnerships play out.”
“I guess before the songs that I’ve been writing this year I had been thinking about wider worldly views.”
But DeNatale certainly knows what he’s talking about. His first two albums Shangri-La West and Soul Parade earned him fans and friends including but not limited to Tom Waits novelist Michael Ondaatje (famed for The English Patient ) and former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins.
He seems awkwardly flattered by such accolades but perks up when discussing how it all began. When identifying what sets the tone for his artistic vision and songwriting identity the affable DeNatale credits Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and man he idolized performed with and eventually befriended. And like Waits Ondaatje and the rest of DeNatale’s swath of high-profile admirers Elliott became one of his biggest fans and supporters.
Denatale says Elliott’s conversational style and storytelling abilities were his initial inspiration. Indeed the hallowed flat-picking troubador became a friend and mentor to Denatale in the same way that Townes Van Zandt set the table for Steve Earle.
“He made a huge impact on my life” DeNatale says of the 79-year-old Brooklyn blues legend. “He had this song called “912 Greens” — one of the few songs he penned himself — and I’d listen to it over and over. It was really just this kind of story-song about going to New Orleans. The whole thing felt so abstract to me and I’d never heard anything like it before.”
“I’d been exposed to a lot of music before but this was so different. It was really rooted in some sort of an earthy feeling that had a lot of appeal for me. (It has a) great atmosphere haunting melody — and all he’s doing is talking about these two days in New Orleans! It was inviting and magical and it made me realize that you could write a song about anything and tell a story.”
“It’s a profound thing that we became friends. I guess he probably heard some of himself in me.”
DeNatale will release a new batch of story-songs tentatively titled Hallelujah Rain by the winter of 2011. But in the meantime he’s Alberta-bound for the first time thanks to Winnipeg-based singer-songwriter Scott Nolan with who DeNatale developed a friendship and working relationship with. For now his performances are his primary focus.
“It will be nice to get a new record done but I’ve just really enjoyed playing live shows lately” he says. “And it’s especially nice to be out with Scott.”
He says he fell in love with Canada last year and the proof is in his tour dates: Along with his two performances at the Ironwood he’ll also head up to the foothills to play at the Cochrane Valley Folk Club on September 18. And for his live performance he says to expect the unexpected.
“When I play live I try to remember that it’s music. And I try to be musical” he says. “The creative part with the spontaneity it what it’s all about. The freedom of playing live is that you get to do what you want. Nothing is set in stone.”
