Gospel Punk with Spurs | The Scoop

by Andrew Norman

It's rare, but raining in Mesa, Ariz. Jay Kutchma has work to do inside, anyway. He and a buddy are gluing together packaging for a five-song CD the Red Collar frontman is selling on his monthlong solo tour — Chattanooga to Arizona before returning east through the country's blue collar gut to his home in Durham, N.C. 
 
With three days of shows in Tuscon, this is the touring musician's equivalent of a pit stop. Kutchma's wife (and Red Collar bassist), Beth, shipped him another 50 CDs after he sold them out during his first 10 or so shows.
 
Taking a break to let the glue dry before adding the design and shrink wrap to the CD, Kutchma says the DIY album — recorded live March 25 at a show with Tim Barry (AVAIL) — has sold better on tour than any Red Collar supported. His anthemic, The Replacements-meets-The Clash rock band played Fest this year. And its latest album, Pilgrim, made many end-of-year lists in 2009. But his solo work offers a more intimate connection with the crowd.
 
“I think that with Red Collar it was very much 'Go. Go. Go.' It was one song into the other into the other into the other,” he says. “With the acoustic thing, I have more room to kind of talk to people about what I do.”
 

(Kutchma on going it alone)

Wearing golden-spurred boots and armed with a six-string, a harmonica and a self-created vaccordian — exactly like what it sounds — Kutchma is a folk-rock storyteller whose genuine, we're-all-in-this-together personality casually removes the awkward performer-crowd dynamic. I experienced this while sardined into a Holiday Inn can with about 30 other people during last year's Fest in Gainesville, Fla., watching Kutchma play a handful of songs, most of which became sing-alongs, for a Loose Charm Records' guerrilla showcase. You can (and should) freeload that set here.
 

 
(Kutchma on his creation — the vaccordion)
 
“I think it's incredibly sad that people make these connections with one other — not just with rock shows, but just in life, at grocery stores, or in a lumberyard, mowing a lawn, whatever. You have some impact on someone's life in some way and you never see them again,” he says. “And it's not a bullshit thing. I'm not just telling people that to sell CDs. But I tell them, you know, if you've got some connection, pick up a CD for five bucks. It might not seem like a lot to you, but it gets me 45 miles closer to my next destination.”

Daphne Willis, Jason Kutchma, Lee MeyerpeterKutchma ties the very real touring cost of gas to his music directly on his Bandcamp profile, where you can download the same five songs — minus the art and packaging — for the average price of a gallon of fuel. 

“People are able to go 20 to 25 miles on that gallon of gas,” he says. “Well, that's about the same amount of time it takes me to get through those songs. And I guess if I come up with a full length album with maybe 10 songs I'll charge two gallons of gas for it. And by the time you've finished listening to it that's the amount of time it would take you to drive that tank of gas. 
 
“Maybe people think about it a little more that way. But, hopefully, what I'm offering — even though price-wise it's equivalent to those two gallons of gas — I really hope it takes you a lot further than those 45 miles.”

Jason Kutchma, Ken Morton, Gerardo Meza

Having played in rock bands all his life, Kutchma says he hated folk music — the kind of stuff he now performs — until about two years ago. He says while a tremendous amount of musical legacy precedes folk musicians, there's not as much blueprint for an experimental rock band like Red Collar.
 
“And to me, I thought that was a lot more dangerous – I thought that was a lot braver. Even though it was loud and abrasive,  I thought that took a lot more bravery than just going up and basically doing what somebody's been doing for, let's face it, 100 years,” he says. “And then — this is the important part — and then I tried it. And it was tough as hell.”
 
After sweating bullets for his first couple performances, despite having played hundreds of shows in bands, Kutchma seems to have found his groove as a solo artist. With a sound he accurately describes as “gospel punk with spurs,” Kutchma stops through Omaha and Lincoln Friday and Saturday for a two-night bill (the Lincoln show is presented by Hear Nebraska). It's his first time in the state that produced two of his favorite folk artists — Bright Eyes and Elliot Smith. And he's approaching the shows like he does in every new city — with no expectations.
 
“For anybody in the music industry, to be positive is a very healthy thing — it's infectious. You don't want to be negative with your bandmates. You want to be positive about where we're going,” he says. “But with touring, I've found it's really important to be as neutral as possible, otherwise it lends itself to having a very manic attitude.
 
“You're so excited, and at the end of the night if it doesn't go so well you can be really bummed out. And the highs are high and the lows are low. That's OK if you're doing short runs. … But if you want to be in this business longterm, with any long touring, you just want to let it come to you, and have a kind of zen-like approach to it.”

 
With the glue on his CD packaging nearly dry, Kutchma says he tours because he believes he has something to offer. When he returns home, he plans to finish his first solo album and add final vocals to a new Red Collar record — both are due out this year.
 
“I believe in my product. And if people are there to kind of witness that and maybe be a part of it and try and get a connection to it, man, that's the goal. That's what you're going for,” he says. “But if nobody shows up or if you get bad weather, or a tree falls on the venue, or there's a fire the day before, or somebody passes away, you can't get really excited about something just because some natural disaster happens and bums you out.”
***
Jay Kutchma plays Friday, April 15 at the Barley Street in Benson with Chicago musician Daphne Willis and The Filter Kings' Lee Meyerpeter. The 8 p.m. show costs $5. 
Hear Nebraka presents Kutchma in an intimate concert in Lincoln Saturday, April 16 at the Parish Project (above Duffy's Tavern) with Gerardo Meza (Mezcal Brothers) and Ken Morton (The Allendales). That show runs from 8-11 p.m. and is free (donations for the touring band happily accepted).
***
Andrew Norman edits and directs Hear Nebraska. You can find him scooting around Nebraska this spring with his gang. Send hate mail and love letters to andrewn@hearnebraska.org.