So, I started making music at three. Who did you listen to growing up? A very limited selection of music. How did your influences and playing music evolve for you? I was around so much music from growing up in a musical family. Also, we lived in a motorhome, so we were constantly traveling from festival to festival, and show to show. I had tons of live influences from bluegrass festivals to late-night jams and got to hear a lot of that thankfully.
My older siblings had purchased a Beatles album and my folks broke it. Harmonies and everything Beach Boys are a huge influence for sure.
When did you start evolving on your own? I think I naturally always wrote and I always played guitar, so it was always there even if I just did it for myself. Then, almost ten years ago, the family band broke up as what it was and I continued playing some gigs to hold the fort down or to still eat.
It was a natural progression and not something I set out to do—It just happens. And you still have siblings in your band? My sister Scarlett, who I was playing with today, she does a lot of gigs with me. We play for fun. My brother has been out playing electric guitar on most of my shows. What felt like your first break on your own?
I was playing fiddle for Jack White for several years and Jack really gave me a lot of opportunity. He produced an album for me and he really believed in me and believed in my music, and he really gave me a platform to dance on.
He definitely was a big push in that way, for sure. And now you have your second record Other Girls coming out, what can you tell me about that? And I wrote some gospel thing, but I never played it for her. I had never met him, but I came to him with one idea and then the second song was his idea. It was wonderful and super fun to collaborate and flesh everything out together. His song was awesome and mine, not so much. But it was just so much fun, and it was a cool reminder of how I can hash out a new song without having to wait till it comes.
What was the recording process like for Other Girls , which has a cool, live vibe? Lillie Mae: Thank you very much. So that was different for me to have branched out a little bit. We tracked everything live, so everyone was just kind of sitting in a circle. It was a really cool recording experience. We worked pretty quickly, and it was really great to get in there and record again with a bunch of new tunes.
A lot of my songs have natural arrangements, and these came together as we were working in the studio. Did you give the other players specific ideas of what you wanted them to play? Lillie Mae: I had a very different vision of how it was going to turn out. I mean, the people on the album, like the other guitar player, Greg Smith, are unreal musicians. Things like the mandolin parts that my sister [Scarlet] played just seemed to have been built in when the songs were written.
In my mind it seemed like certain songs would call for something like a steel-guitar solo. But in the studio, things seemed different. The songs are just kinda personal, and I guess in the end it was more important for them to be supported by interesting parts in the background than full-on solos. It is what it is. Frank, how did you arrive at your guitar parts on the album? Frank: Lillie obviously wrote the songs and just let them take the shape that they wanted to.
Most of the stuff we just worked out in the studio, creating little variations on the melody together until everything jelled.
But generally, it was more like a feel thing than something really planned in advance. Frank: Yeah, we just had the instruments doing this repetitive line, which speeds up and kind of gets crazy.
It was so much fun to play. I just try to play something that suits the song, while getting just a bit away from the original lines. If you play anything for a while, I think that will just kind of happen naturally. On a different note, how have you both found your own voices within the country tradition? Tony Rice was a huge thing for me growing up and still is. Rig Rundowns. Riff Rundowns. The Big 5. Runnin' With The Dweezil. Wong Notes.
Rig Rundown Podcast. Bass Gear. Gear Awards. Gear Review Inquiry. First Looks. Review Demos. DIY Projects. Gear Galleries. Factory Tours. Forgotten Heroes. Studio Legends. Despite her apprehensions, Lillie Mae quickly caught the groove of playing with non-sibling band members and backed White on both his Blunderbuss tour and his Lazaretto tour. People were always playing music for fun. Jack White had to convince me. I was super comfortable recording at Third Man because I had been recording sessions over there for some time.
For her second album, the soon to be released August 16 Other Girls , a change in producer and recording venue was in order. Dave works really fast and Jack likes to take his time. I played a bunch of demos from my telephone for Dave, and we mutually agreed on the songs.
It was easy to be myself in there. But if I write a song that naturally heads in that direction, I have to follow it. Consistent with her first record, were contributions from her brother Frank and her sister Scarlett, who play guitar and mandolin respectively, along with several co-writes with Scarlett. You start with blank canvas and just seeing where it goes is so cool. I was at the Country Music Hall of Fame recently. Everything made me cry, but when I got to the exhibit on Cowboy Jack, I just lost it.
You could go there anytime and be around the coolest and most talented people. I just hope one day I can own a house and create a place where talented people want to hang out and make music. She will be on tour with both The Racounteurs and Robert Plant later this summer. In a city full of exceptional vocalists, Luella sounds like no one else.
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