INDIANA-based singer Krista Detor is coming to the end of an extensive Irish tour. Her superb new album Barely features two bonus 'Irish sessions’ tracks and one of the album standouts – Castle in Wales – was written on a previous visit to Ireland.
Barely is a scintillating stripped-back affair, featuring Krista on vocals, piano, accordion and guitar, her partner and producer David Weber on vocals and guitar, three guest vocalists and Anne Hurley on cello.
The last song on the album, Sweet Comes The Sound, is dedicated to the Tobar Mhuire retreat and conference centre in Crossgar, Co Down.
What is the plan for your gig with Colum Sands and Charlie McGettigan?
It’s an 'in the round’ gig. Colum and I have become friends. We’ll all feed off each other and play songs and talk about the process of songwriting and let the night unfold organically. It’s a really nice way to do a show. I’ve done quite a few of them in the US. It can inform your set in a way that wouldn’t happen ordinarily; somebody playing something can spark something you remember.
You will also take a songwriting workshop on Saturday. Do you enjoy doing those?
I do. I get to meet people who are out there trying to work as songwriters and who are looking for insights. I get a lot of feedback and inspiration myself out of it.
Congrats with the album, Barely. Are you enjoying getting to take those songs on the road?
It’s been great. I wanted to be able to take an album on the road this time and not have much of a line between what it sounds like on the record and what it sounds like live. I had a couple of great musicians on my last album but you can’t always get them on the road. I’d gone to the far extremes of production on the last couple of albums, so I decided to back it down. I have three women with gorgeous voices on there.
One of these – along with Amanda Biggs and Moira Smiley – is Co Derry singer Mary Dillon, sister of Cara. How did she come to be on the album?
She came and sang with me in a couple of different places on an older song of mine. She had basically tweeted me and said she was a big fan. I think her voice is glorious, so I was thrilled and we ended up co-writing a song. So I wanted to do something where our voices could interact but mostly I wanted a vehicle to hear her. She’s very talented.
Are there any other Irish musicians you’d like to work with?
Well we could see if Declan O’Rourke is free (laughs). I’ve made friends with quite a few people here – Paul Brady, who is brilliant and very inspiring – and Kevin Conneff from The Chieftains. There are so many amazing musicians and writers in Ireland. As somebody said, 'You can’t throw a rock in Ireland without hitting a poet’.
In terms of poets, is it true that you’ve always been a fan of WB Yeats?
Yeah, ever since high school; I’ve always been drawn to him. He’s absolutely one of my favourite poets. There’s just something about the beautiful starkness of his vantage point and his passion.
Where were the album cover photos taken?
They were taken in Indiana by Mike Waddell. Southern Indiana is very rolling and very green, so it’s not unlike Ireland, even if the flora and fauna is very different. There are some beautiful wide open spaces and lots of houses that are crumbling.
Despite being born and brought up in California, do you feel more like an Indiana native now?
Yeah. I left California when I was 18, so it’s been a while. I don’t miss it. Sometimes I miss the ocean, because I’m landlocked in Indiana. But I’ve seen a lot of the ocean on this Irish tour.
Too Fast is a lovely track – were you happy with how that one turned out?
That was the last song that I wrote for the album and I’m really happy with it. I had one of those impressions where you realise that [life] is very very fleeting. We get very caught up in the white noise of life and the minutiae of things that are troublesome.
If we’re Americans we get caught up in the circus that is our political process. It all seems so horribly important, but if you look up you think, 'I don’t have an eternity to stand here and gnash my teeth over the decisions of one corporation over another’. You need to remember that things are fleeting and – even though it sounds trite – love is what matters.
Krista Detor plays the Clayton Hotel in Belfast tonight at 9.30pm, along with Colum Sands and Charlie McGettigan, as part of the Belfast Nashville Songwriters festival. Tickets £12. She will also take a songwriting session on Saturday (BelfastNashville.com). Barely is out now (KristaDetor.com)
