The Baker's Dozen #42 Jenny Don't and The Spurs

If you were very lucky, you might have caught Jenny Don’t and The Spurs on their recent UK tour, which included a show at the Ramblin’ Roots Revue in High Wycombe. The Portland, Oregon act were promoting their excellent ‘Fire On The Ridge’ release, an essential purchase for all lovers of old-school twangy country sounds delivered with maximum gusto and bags of attitude. Before they set out on the Europe dates, which will keep them busy through May, we caught up with bassist Kelly Halliburton who was incredibly generous with his time, resulting in a very cool edition of the Baker’s Dozen.

1. What is your earliest musical memory?

My father, and his father as well, was a musician, and so musical sounds fill some of my earliest memories. My grandfather played piano, and came from the rich musical environment of early 20th century Memphis, Tennessee, and he passed this tradition on to my father. My dad played keys as well, and by the time I showed up, in 1971, he'd been playing in Portland rock bands for several years - including a short-lived but very active band called Albatross, which featured a young Fred Cole long before he rose to prominence with garage punk legends Dead Moon.

My parents, their friends, and especially my uncle were avid music listeners, and when my father and his band weren't shaking the house from their basement practice room, it seemed like there was always one LP or another on the family turntable. Moody Blues, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, and period rock of that sort was usually playing around our house.

2. Do you remember the name of your first band?

My first "band" was a teenage basement project called Mutant Slime. In the rural Oregon town where I spent my teen years, I was one of the only kids listening to punk rock. I wanted nothing more than to emulate my heroes, and this was my (rather inept) attempt to do so. No actual recordings or live appearances occurred, but I do have some bedroom practice recordings on cassette stashed away in the vaults.

Jenny was in a great synth band as a teen in her hometown of Bellingham, Washington called Ladies of the Night. They were really good and managed to record a couple of CDs and play a lot of live shows. Definitely a better band than Mutant Slime.

3. Which current artist do you find the most impressive and why?

Hmmmmm. This is a really hard one. Honestly, we all listen mostly to old artists and bands. I really can't think, off the top of my head, of any current stuff that I really listen to other than a few of the bands on the touring circuit that I like. I pretty much exclusively listen to music that was produced pre-1970, with a few hard rock and punk exceptions from the 70s and 80s, but all of my country, psych and garage faves are from the 50s and 60s.

4. Do you sit down to actually try to write songs or wait until inspiration strikes?

We're pretty inspired to write by a lot of things - experiences we have on the road, our drives through the vast desert landscapes of the American West, that sort of thing, so we don't have to reach far to come up with song material. Jenny usually sits down to write on her guitar, and if something doesn't come out pretty fast she puts it down and tries again later. She's a pretty prolific songwriter though, and she can usually come up with something every time she sits down to write.

5. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self?

As an avid record collector, I'd give my younger self a long list of records to buy that are valuable rarities these days! Also, maybe get lessons on a couple of other instruments. I love playing bass, but it'd be nice to have gotten started earlier with some other instruments.

6. You're stuck in a lift with your musical hero (living or dead) and they ask you to play them something - who is it, what do you play and why?

Oh, man…that's a hard one. Unfortunately, playing bass by itself is pretty boring, so I don't think I'd torture anyone with that. Jenny might run through something on her guitar, which lends itself a little better to solo performing.

Who would it be? I don't know if Elvis or Lemmy would like it very much. Maybe, from their point of view, that would be hell: stuck in an elevator with us, being forced to listen to us show them our newest songs…

7. On the road, do you have any pre-show rituals/superstitions?

Not really…I've always found that sort of thing a little corny. I've been backstage with bands that need their meditation time, or massages, or whatever, and I've always thought that was weird. I don't do anything like that…the only thing I try to avoid is eating a big meal beforehand. If I do that I just want to take a nap.

8. Should music be free?

I'd love for all forms of art - music included - to be absolutely free. I hate the whole idea of money and what it does to distort our priorities, and when it becomes a factor in music then I feel as though its presence strips music of its art in so many ways.

Unfortunately, though, to be a productive touring musician it's a reality that some money needs to be generated in order to keep things going. Fuel, airplane tickets,  food, making sure we have homes to go back to when the tour is over - not to mention all the expenses that go into buying our instruments and gear, paying for the studio time to record our songs, and the costs associated with the manufacturing of records and CDs and that sort of thing - are all things that end up costing a lot of money, and there's really no way around that.

Photo Credit: Lisa Dibbern

9. Can you remember the first record you bought and what have you bought recently?

I've loved records since I was a kid. I'm pretty sure the first I actually bought were a couple by The Beach Boys - "Summer Days and Summer Nights" and "Beach Boys Today!" at a garage sale when I was 9 or 10. I was a massive BB fan (still am!), and from there I really got into 60s stuff. This started a lifelong love of music and of records as a medium, and I still love buying records whenever I can.  It's almost pathological at this point, and I have well over 10,000 records weighing down the creaking floors at my and Jenny's house (not to mention hundreds, if not thousands, of CDs and cassettes…).

The last record I bought was the Dead Moon "Echoes of the Past" box set anthology, which is actually FOUR records! As I'm writing this, I'm starting out on a six-week European tour, so I hope I get to pick up some great new (old) vinyl on the road.

10. What was the last song that made you cry actual tears?

Probably when, upon listening intently to the test pressing of our latest album, I picked out several hitherto undetected bass flubs.

But honestly: on the airplane over here I watched an Ennio Morricone documentary, and I'm not ashamed to admit that some of his epic Western movie soundtracks get me a little misty-eyed…gets me every time. 

 11. In the digital age, we have more music and video at our fingertips than ever before. Do you have any guilty pleasures or recommendations in film or TV?

Jenny and I watch a lot of movies when we're at home. We lead very busy, often stressful lives and in the evening we usually decompress by watching a movie. We're big horror buffs - the creepier the better. We love everything from old Roger Corman monster movies to 80s exploitation flicks, to some of the crazy stuff that's come out over the last ten years.  There's some incredible horror coming out of places like Spain and France, and online streaming platforms have made a lot of it available for watching without having to go to too much trouble tracking it down. I've always been a big fan of (usually low budget) cult movies, and I've still got a pretty big collection of VHS tapes and DVDs, but these days we mostly stream stuff.

12. Your house is on fire. You already have your loved ones slung over one shoulder and your guitar in one hand.  With your other hand you can rescue three CDs or LPs…What are they?

Wow, that's tough. Like I mentioned, I'm a collector, so my first instinct would be to grab the rarest, most difficult-to-replace stuff. Would it be my near-mint first pressing of the first 13th Floor Elevators LP? Terveet Kādet's "Rock Laahausta Vastaan" 7", of which only 200 were pressed in 1980? Anti-Cimex's "Anarkist Attack"? In reality, I'd probably stand there like an idiot, trying to decide what to grab while my house burns down around me.

13. What is the most important thing to you that you can see from where you are right now?

Well, I'm typing this up as I'm lying in bed in a motel room. We're getting ready for a long drive today, and we're all pretty tired from several days on the road. Jenny's going about her usual morning routine, and there's a coffee brewing in the pot that the motel has thoughtfully provided. It's finally stopped raining - for now - and the sun is shining. It looks like it's going to be a great day for a springtime drive through the beautiful English countryside.

I don't want to get too personal or sappy, but Jenny means absolutely everything to me. I consider myself so lucky to be able to make music and share this life with such a wonderful person, and she's unquestionably the most important thing that I can see from where I'm at right now.

Photo by Christina Iveli

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