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Hattie Webb has had an amazing career thus far.  From releasing three albums with The Webb Sisters, to touring with Leonard Cohen and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Webb has been involved in the music scene for decades.

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On September 20, Webb will release her second solo album titled Wild Medicine.  We had a great Zoom call with Hattie where we talked about her new album, touring with Tom Petty and her upcoming tour with David Gilmour.

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GD:  Hey Hattie, thanks for taking some time with me today.  I have to ask, what part of England are you from? I have family from Manchester.

 

Hattie Webb:  Oh wonderful!  I’m a bit further south from Kent.  It’s the county or state just beneath London.  But now I live in London.  Where are you based?

 

GD:  I’m based just south of Cleveland.

 

HW:  Oh wonderful!  So you are near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

 

GD:  Yes!  That’s like my second home.

 

HW: Do you go there a lot?

 

GD:  Yes, they have new exhibitions all the time. They have guests and they have bands come in that I’ll see.  I also teach a history of Rock and Roll class, so I bring my students there as well.

 

HW:  You bring your students there?  So you teach.  I want to study with you, Greg! 

 

GD:  Well, come on over!  I wanted to congratulate you on your new album, Wild Medicine.  It’s officially coming out this week, do you still get excited when an album gets sent out to the public?  You’ve been working on it so long and now, here it is. 

 

Hattie Webb:  For sure, Greg!  It’s hugely exciting, particularly this album because it’s been seven years in the making. It’s quite profound to see it come to light. Do you play music as well?  Do you write and play?

 

GD:  I don’t.  I used to play drums a little bit but I am a concert photographer and reviewer and writer. 

 

HW:  Wow, that’s amazing!  

 

GD:  Where did you come up with the title Wild Medicine? 

 

HW:  It was when I was writing with Paul Kelly in Australia. We were talking about how you can have an experience or conversation and it can be like some kind of medicine in your life. We were thinking about how this type of medicine takes hold and it has a type of wildness to it.  It’s not prescripted but it can impact your life and change direction.  I don’t know who said that word combination (Wild Medicine), but we liked that as a song title. When I was flying back from Australia, I was thinking, this is the album title because the whole album is about finding something to turn the corner or bringing in a new energy or accepting something from the past. What is the wild medicine that one is looking for? 

 

GD: Excellent. Vinyl has made a big comeback in recent years and even cassettes are gaining traction today.  Do you plan on releasing your album on all formats?

 

HW:  Definitely vinyl and CD’s but I haven’t thought about cassettes.  It is really wonderful to put a cassette in.  I used to do some mixed tapes on cassettes.  There’s something so nostalgic about putting the cassette in and hearing the click.  Do you like listening on cassette?

 

GD:  No, I was never really a cassette person.  I was always vinyl and then I went to the CD. 

 

HW:  I see some amazing images and photographs behind you.

 

GD:  Yeah, I had some of my students do those a couple of years ago. The art teacher and I collaborated and had the students do it.

 

HW:  It’s absolutely beautiful.  What a great backdrop.

 

GD:  Thank you very much!  I appreciate that and I’ll tell the students that as well.  Your first single, “Golden” is a great pop tune.  However, your second single, “Shakespeare's Shores” is totally different.  Is this a good representation of what the album is like, a variety of musical styles?

 

HW:  It does have a wide range because I have so many influences. I love pop music and I do think “Golden” is the popiest song on the album.  The tracks I wrote and recorded with The Heartbreakers they have a little bit more of a vintage quality. Being in the studio with them and using the analog equipment and we cut everything live. “Shakespeare’s Shores” is probably closer to what it sounds like with just me and my harp.  The other instruments are textures that represent memories from a past relationship. 

 

GD:  I also read that you covered Bob Seger’s “You’ll Accompany Me” on the album.  How did you choose that song?  

 

HW:  Good question.  I was asked by my good friend to play at her wedding ceremony and as she walked down the aisle, just harp and voice.  One of the songs my friend asked me to play was “You’ll Accompany Me.”  I listened to the song and I was immediately taken by the lyric and the feeling in the song.  I put a cross rhythm harp into it, it’s a lot more finger picking. I didn’t know it previously.  We cut it live, harp, vocal and accordion. 

 

GD:  You mentioned The Heartbreakers.  One of my favorite bands of all time is Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.  What was it like working with those guys in the studio?

 

HW:  It was incredible!  First of all, I worked with Mike (Campbell).  We wrote a couple of songs together and he’s a very fast writer. He picks up his guitar and pretty much the first thing that comes out, sounds like a song. One of the songs we wrote, “Hearts Connect” we wrote in about seven minutes.  He’s so brilliant and he has such an immediate connection with the song angels, it just comes right through him. It was just incredible to be sat in his studio in California, where I know he wrote a lot of songs with Tom and the band. It felt very magical to be there and it’s very quirky as well with fabulous things on the wall and instruments everywhere, guitars, posters, you name it! 

 

With Ron Blair, he’s such a maestro. In his studio, he has built so much in his space. It’s very atmospheric in there. Ron has such an eclectic set of influences. He’s also very knowledgeable about female artists and like me, he’s a huge Kate Bush fan. We got to sit and listen to a bunch of songs that we loved.  We hung out with his dogs and I sang some backup on some of his songs, which I hope gets released soon.

 

GD:  I actually got to see you live and I didn’t even realize that until recently.  I attended Tom Petty’s 40th Anniversary Tour in Cleveland when you guys played there.   I didn’t realize that you and your sister were the background singers. What was that experience like touring with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers on that tour?

 

HW:  Greg, it was like, pinch myself every two minutes because I’m such a massive Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers fan. It was just breathtaking.  Not just the history and the songs, but the guys just welcomed us so warmly. You never know what to expect when you join a band. Do people want you there or not? Everyone was incredibly welcoming and we felt a part of the family. Tom came into our dressing room after the first concert and said “Anything you girls need, you have it.” That was an incredible honor to be standing with all those musicians in the band was just breathtaking. They are all masters in their own right and it was just extraordinary. 

 

I love getting to know people.  We did this really interesting thing where we’d fly to each gig and then go back to the hotel. It’s called hubbing.  We would stay in say, Chicago for two weeks.  We’d fly to each gig with no sound check. Normally with soundcheck, you get your bearings and you see the space. We walked up the stairs, play the gig, walk off the stage straight to the bus which took us to the plane and flew back to the hub city. It was extraordinary.  We were very well fed.  Every day, after the show there were delights on the plane.  The catalog of songs… which album is your favorite?

 

GD:  I love a deeper album called Long After Dark. I love Full Moon Fever, I love them all. I’ve seen him many times over the years.  Did you have a favorite song to sing while on tour?

 

HW: I’d have to say, “It’s Good To Be King.” I found that song to be so orchestral. Of course, “Learning to Fly” and “Wildflowers.” Going back to the old catalog was really fantastic. In rehearsals, we were looking at doing a whole concert the following year of the Wildflowers record.  We were working up “Don’t Fade On Me.”  Tom wanted Charlie and I to sing really close with him on the mic and Mike Campbell was on slide guitar.  I recorded them on my phone so I could have reference and have practice and it was going to be breathtaking to play Wildflowers in its entirety.  It would have been more of an unplugged show. It’s so sad that never came to fruition. 

 

GD:  What a great album.  I got the deluxe version… it’s so good! I can imagine, I’m so jealous! 

 

HW:  Oh, Greg!  It was extraordinary.  And Tom’s voice.  Tom did this incredible thing where he’d sing a rock song in this smaller, growly voice. Then with a slow tempo song, a big voice but the way he’d do it, he was a master of sound. It carried the song in such a powerful way.  Ron Blair used to talk about that because he witnessed Tom do that for many, many years. He was a wonderful man who always smelled of beautiful hair spray. I’d sit next to him on the plane after the gig and I was worried that I was sweaty and he smelled like beautiful hair spray. 

 

GD:  I love stories like that.  But I want to talk about you and your career.   When did you decide to pick up the harp as your instrument?  It is a very interesting choice.

 

HW:  I wanted to play when I was four, then when I was eight my parents found a teacher for me. I started piano when I was six and I found it very difficult to understand.  When I started playing harp and playing “Baa, baa black sheep” I felt that I’d come home. It all made sense to me and I felt at ease with the instrument. I like what they’re doing at schools now.  They give you a semester of one instrument and then you can try another instrument. I think that’s a fantastic idea for young people and children. I love playing the harp.  I find it dynamic and interesting.  

 

Today, in rehearsal with David Gilmour he asked me to play on a particular song a twelve string guitar part.  He put me through his pedal board and he was fiddling around with the pedals and it was so cool.  He was changing the effects on the part I was playing. 

 

GD:  What about your voice, when did you find that you could sing?  Some people play but they don’t sing but you do both extraordinarily well. 

 

HW:  You’re very kind.  I started to sing at a very young age with my sister. We have two brothers as well who are musical.  My sister and I used to sing a lot of Wilson Phillips, and the Indigo Girls and we would work out the harmonies. We were obsessed and we really loved to get into that world of harmony singing. That’s where I discovered that I had a passion for singing. Even today, if I’m feeling a little bit low, or doing the laundry or washing up, if I sing, it just uplifts my soul. 

 

GD:  Excellent.  You mentioned your sister, you and your sister have released three albums together as The Webb sisters.  What made you want to go solo?

 

HW:  I still work with her.  But I did some traveling and she had two young children and I just went on this exploration.  I went to Australia and spent some time in California. I went straight into music after high school at eighteen.  To have some time to travel and write, it was like my own youth coming back to me. When I went to Austin, Texas to see a friend, I asked him if I could play him some songs and ask him his opinion. That’s when we decided to go into the studio together and cut some of these songs live. 

 

GD:  Very good.  You have worked with so many great artists in your career like Leonard Cohen of course and Tom Petty.  Is there someone that you would like to work with that you haven’t yet?

 

HW:  Wow!  I would love to work with Kate Bush.  I might be willing to lose a few toes for that. I find her incredibly inspiring and such a brilliant writer and artist. I’d love to sing with Paul McCartney.  I think he’s just extraordinary and I love his passion for music.  It doesn’t go away. 

 

GD:  He’s so prolific.  He’s still putting out music at eighty years old. 

 

HW:  So prolific. It’s amazing.  I would have loved to work with Sinead O’Conner. She’s one of my favorite artists and people. She was a very strong person and the depth in her soul, I really love her as an artist.  There’s so many people I would love to collab with.  I can imagine my sister and I doing The Rolling Stones tour, that would be such a hoot! 

 

GD:  I just saw those guys this summer.  They played Cleveland and it had been a long time.  They were phenomenal! It’s my number one show of the year. I go to about sixty shows and that one is going to be hard to top!

 

HW:  Oh my gosh!  Wow, Greg! How long did they play for?

 

GD:  I think two hours.  Mick takes a break where Keith sings three songs but they come back out and rock.  It’s a stadium show and Mick is all over that stage, back and forth, out on the catwalk, just like he did thirty years ago. And he sounds good.  It was fantastic! 

 

HW:  Oh, wow. They know what they’re doing.  I have to say, I also would love to work with Taylor Swift.  She’s incredible. I love her writing and I love her way of digging down and finding that seed and planting it. And her voice and her playing. 

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GD:  You mentioned David Gilmour.  Are you singing backup with him as well as playing?

 

HW:  Yes.

 

GD:  I know that tour is starting soon.  What songs are you looking forward to sing with him?

 

HW:  I don’t know if I’m allowed to say.  I would love to say, but suffice to say he’s put together an extraordinary setlist and songs from the new record. I think I’ll have to hold out and have people wait for the show! 

 

GD:  That’s totally fine!  After the Gilmour tour, do you have plans to go out and support this album with your own tour?  

 

HW:  Thank you.  I would love to.  We are talking about next year. Perhaps doing tour support and playing some festivals.  It’s all in the works.  I’d be thrilled to come out and play. Particularly to travel a bit in America and across Europe. We’re thinking about it.  I’m on the road this autumn and I have a two year old and a ten day old. It’s been bonkers!  I have to say, David’s been lovely. I’m breastfeeding several times a day and I have my baby there and the band and the team has been supportive of me. 

 

GD:  We would love to have you here in the States.  I would love to see you again, but this time doing your own material. 

 

HW:  Thank you so much.  Let’s stay in touch and it would be wonderful when we come through Cleveland to hang.

 

GD:  Sounds good! I thank you for taking time out of your evening.  You are a very busy lady. I wish you nothing but the best on your new album and have a great tour with David Gilmour. 

 

HW:  Thank you so much Greg.  Have a great rest of your day and thank you for your wonderful questions. Bye for now! 

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Hattie Webb's new album Wild Medicine comes out on Friday.  You can check out her video for "Golden" below. 

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