Frank Reckard, interviewed in Reno, Nevada, April 1989 by Gary Vizioli

Look just to the left of Emmylou Harris on stage and you'll see lead guitarist Frank Reckard, small in stature perhaps but oh, so large in talent. The man whose fingers seem to fly effortlessly across the frets is more than just a master of hot licks. His interests span opera, history, books, even the desert and mountains. Our conversation ranged from his musical background, to instruments, the synergy of the Hot Band, and Frank has some excellent advice for up and coming musicians. I found this interview most enlightening; I think you will too. (Frank was also the subject of a feature article in the August 1984 issue of Guitar Player magazine.

Frank: I grew up in southern California in a town called Claremont which is about 35 miles outside of Los Angeles. I started playing in bands when I was about 14. There was quite a group from Claremont that were a little older than me that were doing things already. One was Chris Darrow who was in the Kaleidoscope, also David Lindley is from Claremont as was John Ware the original Hot Band drummer). I first played with John in high school. He heard my band and hired me to play on a recording project he was doing. John was just a couple of years out of college at that point. So that's sort of how I got involved playing professionally with some of this crowd.

CAMN: Were you doing mostly rock and roll at this point?

Frank: Blues actually, you know, white boy blues. That's still what I do. I mean I do this (Hot Band), but that's not all.

CAMN: What were some of your earlier influences Frank? What kind of music did you like, and play?

Frank: I liked Chuck Berry a lot, and certain blues guitar players. A guy named Hubert Sumlin who played with Howlin' Wolf and is still around, mostly on the east coast, B.B. King, and those kind of people. I heard Clarence White when I was about 16 and he impressed me, and I also heard Doc Watson and some others so that's when I started playing that sort of style; I guess they called it country rock then.

CAMN: Did you play with Clarence at all?

Frank: A couple of times in living rooms; I didn't really know him well, I just met him a few times. But another guy out around Claremont a lot was named Bob Wareford, a guitarist who had the second one of those string benders ever made; Clarence of course had the first one. Bob still has his I think. So, I was able to hear that style a lot back then, although I never played that much bluegrass acoustic guitar and still don't.

CAMN: What about the bands you started with back then and did you play right through college?

Frank: I never finished school; I kept quitting. I had gone down to Los Angeles with bands and things. I went off to college in 1970 and in 1971 at one point I had already quit school once or twice. One of these bands had broken up when Chris Darrow was leaving Hoyt Axton's band and he got me a job with Hoyt, so I worked with Hoyt off and on for a number of years. I kept leaving and coming back but I finally left that band in 1976.

CAMN: Later on you worked with Rosanne Cash on 'Right or Wrong'?

Frank: I joined Emmylou in 1978 and did some work on Light of the Stable. Rodney Crowell had left Emmylou's band not long before I joined and he was still around Los Angeles a lot. He had a band, the original Cherry Bombs that played in clubs around California. I played with them also because Emmylou wasn't working that much at the time as she was pregnant. And then when Rosanne did that album I played on some of the tracks.

CAMN: Joining the Hot Band in '78 makes you the senior member then?

Frank: No, Mike Bowden actually played a few gigs before I joined. So he and I are I guess the two oldest members. We both started full time with Emmy at the same time. Glen D. (Hardin) had just left too, as had Emory Gordy and Albert Lee, who I replaced.

CAMN: This band has worked so well together for so many years, still remains tight, with no one trying to outdo anyone else. The unity is really refreshing, especially with a group that's been together as long as all of you have.

Frank: None of us were in Emmy's original band which was full of legendary people so we've all had to deal with that, replacing people that are more famous than we are. If any of us are competing, it's with people who aren't in the band anymore. We all get along splendidly. Fortunately, I think, we don't work that often anymore, so we all like each other an awful lot. We're not stuck together on the road for 8 months at a time which can hurt things. Everyone really likes each other. This is Billy's second year, but other than him, this unit's been playing together so long it's amazing.

CAMN: And yet Frank things don't seem to get stale when all of you go on.....

Frank: Well, it can get stale but we know an awful lot of songs. In fact, if Emmy wants to pull out some other chestnuts we can do those also. There's a list of songs that are current in the repertoires but she never does the same show. There are songs we do every night, and a concert does have to have a structure. Emmy likes to do those ballads and when she does a lot of them in a show they get balanced with some up-tempo numbers. So there's a shape to a concert that can't be tampered with too much I think, but within those slots there are any number of slow ballads and up-tempo songs that we can do.

Different audiences want to hear different things, for example things they've heard on the radio and if she is aware of that she'll do as many singles as she can. Other crowds aren't as concerned about that so there can be a different variety of material.

CAMN: And you're really having fun out there then?

Frank: Well you're supposed to look like you are, but, yes, I enjoy it most of the time. We haven't played together for two months so it's much more fun then. At the end of a summer if we're working quite a bit you get worn out some, but sure it's fun. Something like this where you're set in for a week is nice too, but the down side is they're not exactly your audiences and you're working for a gambling casino. As far as actual settings I prefer small concert halls, 1200-2000 seating, where there is some intimacy and they can see you but there aren't the distractions of bar maids, people drinking, and cash registers ringing.

And there's a level of competence that's always there. On a certain night sometimes Emmylou will write a show that has a lot to do with it, that really works on how everyone is feeling. A certain order of songs on a particular night, one person can be having a wonderful time and that rubs off. That's part of what I think my job is, to try and look like I'm having a really good time. And that feeds off itself, if one person puts a little fire into it, it rubs off and you start getting it back from other people.

CAMN: What kind of music do you lean towards when you're not playing with the band Frank? For example, occasionally when you're warming up you'll tell the guys "Let's play a little rock and roll".

Frank: Well, I like what we do, but we're just kidding around with the rock and roll. I do play that a lot in Los Angeles though in bar gigs. I'm the only one in Emmy's band left in LA, so I play with a whole group of different guys, some of whom I've known for years like David Jackson and others. There's a sort of a basic unit of guys that play in Los Angeles, but there's another crowd too that isn't so well known that I play a lot with, folks that you've probably never heard of.

CAMN: I suppose someday this (the band) will become a part of your past Frank. What other ventures are you looking to for the future?

Frank: I love this, but I would like to do more producing and I do want to go back to college with an eye on getting into arts administration. I'd like to work with a foundation or a regional performing arts center, and I'm really looking to move back to New Mexico. Several years ago my brother and I bought a house in Santa Fe, but I'm not there enough!

I mean I still enjoy playing, but I'd really like to finish school and graduate. I'm somewhere in my junior year right now. When I went back I had realigned my standards a bit. For what I want to do I've been having to take a lot of math and more technical stuff if I'm going to head into an MBA program. I'm an East Asian history major - Chinese history. It's still a hobby of mine. But that goes back years ago to when I started college and it's the easiest way for me to graduate, to continue with that.

CAMN: What kind of work do you mean when you refer to the arts foundations? Symphonies?

Frank: Yes, there's that. With my background it might be more work with ethnic music, American folk music. I love opera too, that's really my passion. I subscribe to the LA Music Center Opera, and also go up to San Francisco, and Santa Fe has great opera in the summer. This is something I really like to do in my spare time. I'm not qualified to play that of course, there's not much call for guitar players in orchestras for opera.

CAMN: You play stringed instruments on stage; electric and acoustic guitar, six string bass and mandolin. Do you play anything else?

Frank: Not really, I'm a guitarist. I play the mandolin because Emmy wants it and it's needed, but I'm not a virtuoso. Years ago with Hoyt I played a little fiddle because that was needed but I was awful and when I stopped doing that I sold the instrument! It's no fun being out of tune and my fiddle playing was very out of tune. David Lindley and Chris Darrow are two guitarists who play fiddle very well though. I think when Chris got me the job with Hoyt he told him I was a fiddle player too. I bought a fiddle and a bow at a pawn shop and spent about a week practicing 8 hours a day before the first rehearsal with Hoyt. I played it for as long as I was with him, about 4 years and really wasn't very good - the neighbors complained when I practiced. Hoyt knew I wasn't a very good fiddle player but I don't think he knew I had never played one before.

CAMN: Back in August 1986, the truck with all of the bands instruments was stolen in New York City right after a gig at the old Lone Star Cafe. You lost one of your guitars then didn't you?

Frank: Yes I did. I've had so many things stolen I'm trying to place it all in context. What I never got back from that was a nice Gibson ES-335, but not a guitar I was that attached to. Some of the stuff we got back you see. The truck was found, they only took a few of the instruments, one of which was this 335. It was a beautiful guitar, but I hadn't owned for that long and wasn't that attached to it. The original guitar that I played in high school, that I first played with Emmylou, my original string bender, was stolen in 1983 from my car, and last summer was found on a wall in a music store in Culver City. We called Guitar Player magazine and I eventually got it back. The bender had been torn off of it and it had been bashed up, but I've got it! I'm not playing it much, I keep it at home.

CAMN: Do you have a lot of instruments, are you a collector?

Frank: Not really, no. I have 4 electric guitars, a couple of acoustics and a mandolin. The six string bass I've been using this year is Emmy's. Her latest album Bluebird is full of things like six string basses so we needed one for the stage. I wasn't about to buy one since I rarely play that, although I did use that guitar on her version of "Today I Started Loving You Again".

My Martin M-38 is a real nice instrument. That was from the first year they made that kind, 1978-79. Westwood Music had gotten four of them in; Hank DeVito and Emmylou each bought one, someone else bought one, and I couldn't get the dough together to buy one, so the one I have Linda Ronstadt had bought. She only had it a month or two when she decided she didn't want it so I picked it up. Martin is making quite a few of them now I hear.

I'd say that Martin, when a lot of other American guitar companies standards had gone down the tubes, has always made a quality, well built instrument. Some are always going to be better than others, and everybody will like one style over another. I always liked 000 Martins, and the one I'm playing now is akin to that.

CAMN: What about writing Frank, and studio work?

Frank: Yes, I do some writing. I've been producing a singer named Cindy Edwards recently and she did I song I had written for her. Nothing's ever been out on a record though. Retro-soul kind of stuff. Cindy's a pop singer, and we tried to use some hi-tech recording techniques. The tape's being shopped right now. And I'm working with a fellow named Greg Sutton quite a bit in the studio, we're doing some publishing demos. I'd like to do more producing, but so much of that has moved to Nashville. Emmylou, Rodney and that whole crowd is there, so there is less out and out country music being recorded in LA, at least that I get involved with, so I get the occasional TV soundtrack.

CAMN: Does the studio work get taxing, you know doing the tracks over and over again?

Frank: Yeah it can be, but it's lucrative and I wouldn't mind doing more of it. Sure, you wind up playing on things you don't like, and that's no fun, but at least you know you're not going to have to come back tomorrow and play it again.

CAMN: You mentioned last night that you met Gram once.

Frank: Yes. John Ware was from Claremont and had gone to college there in Pomona. Now these guys Burritos were a little bit older and we looked up to them and what they were doing. Well early on the original Burritos played at Claremont Mens College, this would have been 1968 I guess. Gram was there and I knew John a little bit and John knew those guys. John was backing up Linda Ronstadt after she left the Stone Ponys, and so was Bernie Leadon. So I was introduced to Gram at the college dorm before they went out to play.

CAMN: Were the Burritos and what they were doing at that time familiar to you and the kind of work you were doing?

Frank: Yeah, I liked it, it was familiar. I thought they were a little ragged to tell you the truth, I still do. I thought Gram was real ragged. I mean, he wrote wonderful songs but he sang out of tune a lot.

I hadn't heard that many steel guitarists up to that point either. I thought Sneaky Pete was wonderful. And now that I've played with a lot of steel players and listened more, years later I realize how unique he was, no one else plays like he does. I think I was so young at the time I didn't realize just how unusual what he was doing was. You know, there were fuzz boxes everywhere back then and this was a guy playing the steel. I didn't think about it being an unusual thing to do.

CAMN: What do you like to do outside of music?

Frank: I like to lie around and read. I'm kind of lazy I think and I like to set myself in an environment I'm pleased with and not do a whole lot. I read a lot, but I also enjoy hiking around New Mexico.

CAMN: Do you work with other bands when the Hot Band isn't touring?

Frank: Not much, it's hard to do economically. In Santa Fe I had a blues band called The New Muscatels, we were a bunch of old hippies that nobody had ever heard of but a real good band. We played Chicago and New Orleans blues.

The Hot Band did one short west coast tour without Emmylou. We just did this once, but it turned out pretty well. But of course that was because we were booked as the Hot Band. If we had tried to book ourselves as something else, well, it would have been impossible financially. It costs a lot of money to take a band on the road, and at this point I'd rather be poor and stay at home than be poor traveling around the country. It's just not that exciting to be doing it for just the sake of doing it. We've all done it before a lot, you know, traveling around in Volkswagen buses with the whole band. And that's great, it's something you have to go through but I don't want to do it again. As you get older it gets harder too. I'm still single and can take care of myself, but I'd feel differently if I had a family.

CAMN: Frank, what advice can you offer, besides practice, practice, practice, to those who are just starting out as musicians?

Frank: I really think it's important that you try not to define yourself strictly in terms of, for guitarists for example, guitar music. It's important to get as much background in as many different kinds of music as you can. Someone who aspires to become a professional musician should have a certain love of music in general. So this goes beyond just the guitar, or whatever instrument you're learning. I would say then to play as many different kinds of music as you can. Everybody is going to want to specialize sooner or later in one thing or another, but to plug in as much background and as many kinds of things as you can and expose yourself to as many different kinds of music as you can. In this day and age, with all of the ethnic music from all over the world coming out, as well as American music, western, blues, country, jazz, classical, there's an awful lot out there.

The truth is, anyone who is going to wind up doing it probably gets into it because some kind of overwhelming passion for some specific kind of music overtakes them. So you'll find people will learn to play like Van Halen and so forth, the way I felt about Chuck Berry and Hubert Sumlin. Sooner or later I think inevitably someone who wants to be a guitarist is going to wind up confronting other kinds of music too, and it's very good to learn as much about it as you can._F

I never had that much formal training but there are places you can go now to get that. I'd say take as many lessons as you can. Besides individual lessons there are also some schools around the country. At my time really the only place to go was Berkley School of Music in Boston, which I considered. The problem was there were so many guitar players in that program that I didn't think I'd get any individual attention; I'd wind up in some group with 30 other guitar players. If I'd been a trombone player it would have been a great place to go. But that's not so true anymore, there are places you can go, and I think it's a great idea, particularly with what's involved with modern music.

The other thing you have to come to grips with is technology; synthesized guitars, recording processes, and things I've just begun to learn about. Anybody that wants to get into it at this point has got to address that; even a classical musician has got to deal with it.

CAMN: Frank, we really appreciate your time for this interview. Thanks very much.

Frank: Your welcome, it was my pleasure.