Stella Parton – Survivor

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

A) It runs the gambit. It always has. I’ve always liked a lot of the more blues and R&B kind of artists. I grew up during the Motown era when that was big. I’ve always kind of always had that Motown influence. I love the rockabilly stuff. I always loved everything that was rockabilly. And, of course, I’ve always liked more of the more modern country of the 60’s and 70’s. It wasn’t too pop or traditional. It was somewhere in between, more lyric driven. I especially love anything with harmony and I’ve always liked people like Marty Robbins and the harmonies on all his records. And I loved the smooth sound of his voice. I always loved Jim Reeves and Faron Young. Don Williams is probably my all-time favorite of the country artists, but he was kind of somewhere between folk, pop and country in my mind.

Q) Your new album Survivor has eight original songs and two covers. How did you pair this album down to ten total tracks?

A) I don’t know. It’s kind of like I’m making a meal or like I put a canvas up on the easel when I start an album and then I just see what’s going to fit. If I’ve got anything in my catalog that I think will fit or part of the concept that I’m working on then I’ll go in the studio and see if it’s going to fit the project. I kind of want it to have a cohesiveness, but not be so cohesive that it sounds like a tape loop. A lot of times albums have a tendency to sound like a tape loop and I never have let my projects be that way. Just like in my shows, I always try to have a variety and that’s kind of what I did with this album and what I did with every album I do. I want it to have different influences because I see myself as a fusion artist. I’ve always a little bit of everything except jazz and opera. [laughs] Sometimes I’ll through in a few jazz inversions and stuff in some of my music. But it’s just American fusion. Music is kind of what I think most of my generation and your generation has probably grown up listening to.

Q) “Til I’m Even” features an incredible collaboration with one of the National Songwriter Hall of Fame members Wayne Carson. How did the two of you come to work together?

A) He’d been begging me to write with him for a long time because we were friends, so we’d hang out and go thrifting and out to eat. We’d be like, “So, we gotta write.” He had a studio and he said, “Come over and sing.” I have a tendency to like to be by myself and I have very few friends that I hang out with in the industry. But he was just one of those people and I always loved his writing. I was honored that he kept wanting me to write with him. We wrote maybe a dozen songs so I’m holding some back for later. This one fit the project and I kind of wanted to pay homage to him since he just passed away not too long ago, and I miss him.

Q) The album features a number of current important topics from the #MeToo movement to drug abuse and Alzheimer’s Disease and even divorce. Why were these issues important for you to cover on this particular album?

A) Because I’ve experienced all of these things and I’m very philosophical. People don’t realize I’m very philosophical about life and I’m very concerned about the human condition. It’s always been a very sensitive subject for me. I love humanity and I love human beings. Human beings are just so complex, and my grandmother had Alzhiemer’s Disease. I took care of her when I was in high school. I lived with her and my granddad and took care of her. So, early on in my life I knew about it and had first -and knowledge of it. I went through a divorce when I was really, really young. My son’s father and I divorced when I was barely in my 20’s and I had my son when I was a teenager. We married when I seventeen years old and I had my son when I was still a teenager. Divorce is like a death and I think anyone who has ever gone through a divorce can relate to the pain of it. Whether you wanted to get out of it or not, it’s still considered a failure or a miscalculation. Whether it is a fraudulent agreement or not, you still have pain from the loss. And drug addiction, I’ve been in a twelve-step program for thirty-five years. Not as an alcoholic or drug addict because I’ve never done drugs, but I’ve got a lot of loved ones who have suffered from alcohol abuse and drug addiction. I think along the way in some of the things I’ve studied on that, you’re only as healthy as your sickest relative. With the opioid abuse in our society and all the alcohol that have done to destroy the fiber of our society I take that very seriously. It’s always been a burden on my heart to see so many incredible artists destroyed by it. People like Whitney Houston and all these actors are just dropping like flies! It’s very painful! I don’t think we can stay insular and just think about ourselves. We look around daily and see all the devastation from poor choices.

Q) Why was it so important to cover “Wake Me Up” by Avicii and Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock?”

A) I loved the message and I knew it was a young writer because I had recorded it before he passed away from drug addiction and a hedonistic lifestyle and being around the wrong people. Look what an incredible, incredible artist he was, and it just resonated with me. The first time I heard it, it made me think of my son and I just called him. I said, “Have you heard this song?! It’s just the coolest song!” Then, when I recorded it, I thought, “I can’t cut it that long. I can’t arrange it that long,” because it was not going to be on a pop album or rock album. It was going to be a country piece. So, I trimmed it down, but still it has all the elements of the song there. Then, “Like A Rock,” I felt like I could relate to that. Bob Seger is just such a phenomenal writer and I always loved that song. I could see the visual of it. I think if you can write a visual piece that’s like a movie in two and a half or three minutes then you are a genius. I just think that song is that. I’ve never thought of myself as a singer, but I think I know how to interpret a lyric if I believe in it. That’s what I was trying to do – interpret the feeling of this song so other people could relate. It’s only been ever done by men and I thought, “I don’t want to sing this. I want to interpret this like an actor would.” A lot of times I hear people with great voices, but they aren’t in touch with the lyric. You’re like, “Did you ever get in touch with the song?! You’re singing all these great notes, but did you get in touch with the freaking song?!” So, that’s what I was trying to do.

Q) Who is someone you dream about collaborating with?

A) I’m working on a duet project right now. I’m developing some songs and working on putting out a duet project. There are so many great artists out there. Who knows? My life is very random, and my work is very random. I just kind of go with the flow and if something pops up that resonates with me than that’s what I do. That’s the beauty of being in this business so long and being an indie artist. You can just do whatever you freaking want to!

Q) How do you plan on celebrating the release of the album?

A) The best celebration I could have is having a gig!

Q) Do you have a favorite place to perform?

A) Not really. I like to perform when there are happy places in the audience. To me, that’s my drug – to be on stage and to try to take the audience on a journey through the emotions. There is nothing more of a compliment to me than to see people laugh when I’ve said something or forget about their problems or if I’ve told a story and I’ve said something that resonated enough where you see someone wiping tears away. Then you know you’ve done your job!

Q) What do you hope listeners take away from your album Survivor?

A) I hope it brings some thought. It’s more thought provoking than it is entertaining. I think people are just so busy trying to be charged up all the time that they are not being introspective and they’re not getting in touch with their feelings. I just want to say, “Hey! Hold on a minute! Let’s get in touch with our feelings!” Just like a song, it can be an illusion. People are checking out on pain pills and stuff like that. Why do that? Let’s get into reality for a minute and just really check in – check in with ourselves. I hope they take away, “Wow! I hadn’t thought of it that way! She’s right!”

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your music?

A) I’d like to say thank you because without you I wouldn’t be able to keep putting out records every year. Sometimes two albums a year! [laughs] Thanks! Without you we don’t have a career. You are the reason we do what we do. My motivation for continuing forward is to make people happy and to make people think and to do it with a gentle song, happy song or something that makes you want to move around a little.