AXS - Review

Review: On 'Ladders and Edges,' Sugarcane Jane finds a reason to slow down

By: Chris Griffy AXS Contributor Jul 19, 2017

Roger Wheeler/YouTube

A lot is written about an artist's home and how the area they hail from influences their musical lives. But just as important as where they are from is where they've been, the road traveled, the people they meet and the styles picked up along the way. Most importantly to any artist who has been at it a while is how all of those things color how they see the place, and the people, they come back home to. Alabama Gulf Coast based husband and wife duo Sugarcane Jane explore that and more on their new album, Ladders and Edges.

Certainly Savana Lee and Anthony Crawford have plenty of miles on life's odometer to pull from. While both originally from the Gulf Coast, they met in Nashville after Anthony had spent a long career as a sideman to the likes of Neil Young, Vince Gill, and Steve Winwood and Savana had settled into life as a successful songwriter and studio head. Since forming Sugarcane Jane, they have developed a reputation as some of the most collaborative musicians in the business, sitting in with numerous artists and forming the supergroup Willie Sugarcapps with fellow Gulf Coasters Will Kimbrough, Grayson Capps, and Corky Hughes.

For Ladders and Edges, Sugarcane Jane have found a kindred spirit as producer. Colin Linden is the Canadian multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who is currently best known as the musical director for the hit soap opera Nashville. Linden has logged his own share of miles and his production philosophy blends perfectly with the band's.

While Ladders and Edges isn't a concept album, there is a general theme across its eleven songs, best laid out in the song “Slow It Down.” The acoustic rambler is a call to unplug from the 24 information feed that is 21st Century life and enjoy the things and people around you. In the same vein is “Train of Information”, with its refrain “take your seat, enjoy the ride, you're never going back” backed up by some slick electric guitar licks by Crawford.

In the album's press material, Sugarcane Jane emphasized the importance of family in shaping their current musical philosophy, saying “family is everything to us and we are trying to give our kids some guidance and advice in song, without having to necessarily tell them everything repeatedly.” Nowhere is this more clear than in the album's standout track “Never Do We Know.” A bare declaration of the need to enjoy “one last kiss” or “the last time we look into each other's eyes” because life isn't a given is hardly a new concept in song, but the gentle harmonies and endearing earnestness of the pair's harmonies elevate a time-worn trope to something worth a second listen.

If you're familiar with Sugarcane Jane, Ladders and Edges is all of the instrumental prowess, tight harmonies, and diverse gospel, country, rock, and swamp influences you'd expect, with a serious rock and roll punch up from Colin Linden. If you're new to Sugarcane Jane, Ladders and Edges is a great jumping on point.

CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE ON AXS

Lagniappe Mobile - Review

by Steve Centanni

Over the years, playing together as Sugarcane Jane and as two-fourths of Willie Sugarcapps, Anthony and Savana Lee Crawford have become the “first couple” of the Mobile Bay music scene. Sugarcane Jane’s infectious music draws an enthusiastic crowd to every performance. Fans now have the chance to sample new material from their favorite band.

On June 2, the duo released their latest album, “Ladders & Edges.” Sugarcane Jane kept the recording process close to home by utilizing Anthony Crawford’s Admiral Bean Studio. This also marks the band’s first release on vinyl.

“Ladders & Edges” is marked by layer after layer of rich and lovely instrumentation with acoustic guitar in the forefront. The Crawfords also expertly weave their beautiful harmonies throughout each song. “Ladders & Edges” could not have been released at a more ideal time of year, providing the perfect complement to warm, starry evenings on the Gulf Coast.

The Southland Music Line

~The Southland Music Line (Johnny Cole)

After a long, extensive process following their successful 2015 album “Dirt Road’s End”, Sugarcane Jane delves into a more contemporary sound than some of their previous work yet stays true to every element of music that is very much their trademark Sugarcane Jane identity. They (Anthony and Savana Lee Crawford) enrich our lives with something very personal and intimate with the latest release. “Ladders and Edges” which features guest appearance by Colin Linden continues a mission of excellence that we have come to value and appreciate from the popular duo. In 2016, Anthony Crawford’s solo release “National Treasure” ranked among The Southland Music Line’s top albums. His latest with wife Savana is sure to merit that same recognition.

Sugarcane Jane has been featured in numerous articles and photo collections at The Southland Music Line. They were voted Music Artist of the Year in 2015 by the readers of The Southland Music Line and their album “Dirt Road’s End” was voted 2015’s Album of the Year by the readers too.

Some of the songs from the new album that stand out early for me are “Words”, “The Whistle Song” (you’ll catch yourself whistling along), the beautiful and moving “Never Do We Know”, “The Edge”, “New Love” and the amazing “13th Believer”.

We highly recommend “Ladders and Edges”.

The Washington Times Review

Sugarcane Jane

Dirt Road’s End
By Nancy Dunham - Special to The Washington Times - - Monday, March 23, 2015

Want some pound-on-the-dashboard tunes that are distinct from those that roll out of the Nashville hit factories? Meet Sugarcane Jane, known individually as Anthony Crawford and Savana Lee, who just released the funky, frisky, up-tempo 10-track “Dirt Road’s End.” How do two musicians pop up out of nowhere and create an album that deserves to be at the top of critics’ lists? The secret is that they may be newcomers to some listeners but not to those in the know in Nashville. The duo individually worked with dozens of household-name artists such as Steve Winwood, Neil Young, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris before they met by happenstance. The two Alabama-born, Nashville-based artists, who are now married, mix and match their individual styles and virtuoso musicianship into a sonic smoothie bursting with old-style banjo, bass, lap steel, guitar, harmonica, boat paddle and more around just the right mix of hillbilly-tinged vocals. Bottom line: One of the best Nashville duos since Johnny and June.

Vintage Guitar Magazine Review

Sugarcane Jane
Dirt Road's End
September 2015

There are enough examples of married-couple acts imploding or having one spouse drag the other down that there probably ought to be a warning sign, if not a law. But the debut duo album by Anthony and Savana Lee Crawford as Sugarcane Jane is enough to give romantics hope.

Multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Anthony Crawford has worked with Neil Young, Steve Winwood, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Forbert, Sonny James, Vince Gill, Rosanne Cash, Eddie Rabbitt, and Rodney Crowell - often as background vocalist, which is ironic considering his prowess on electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, piano, bass, drums, lap steel, and harmonica, all amply demonstrated here.

The opening "Ballad of Sugarcane Jane" is reminiscent in mood and texture of Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road." The next track, "The Game", falls somewhere between the Georgia Satellites and Timbuk 3. And there might be a touch of Buddy and Julie Miller here and there. But by "Home Nights", the couple's vocal harmonies and entering/disappearing instruments merge into a singular identity.

With co-producer Buzz Cason penning one and co-writing six of the 10 tunes and WIll Kimbrough guesting on banjo, this is one of the liveliest, most engaging Americana CDs you're likely to hear this or any year. - DF

Guitar World Interview | 'Dirt Road’s End': Sugarcane Jane's Anthony Crawford Talks New Album, Touring with Neil Young and More

Sugarcane Jane

Sugarcane Jane have amassed an extremely loyal following by performing what they like to call, “organic music at its finest."
Anthony Crawford and his wife, Savana Lee, are both virtuosos. Crawford is a songwriter who plays guitar and mandolin while Lee alternates between rhythm guitar, tambourine and snare drum.
Sugarcane Jane’s new album, Dirt Road’s End,provides a rich, homegrown brand of Americana that draws deep from a well of influences, including country, jazz, rock and gospel. The album was conceived and co-produced by legendary Americana/roots singer-songwriter Buzz Cason.
Dirt Road’s End, which was recorded on a classic Otari MTR-90 tape recorder, traverses a spectrum of moods and stories, including the autobiographical “Ballad of Sugarcane Jane” which features Anthony’s driving guitar work, and “Heartbreak Road," which steams with rock energy and bluegrass spirit.
I recently spoke with Crawford about Dirt Road’s End, recording “old school” and what it was like touring as a member of Steve Winwood and Neil Young’s bands.
GUITAR WORLD: To someone who might not be familiar with Sugarcane Jane, how would you describe your sound?
"Saving the planet one good vibe at a time" is our slogan. Savana and I are energy pushers and write songs that make people feel good. Although we have songs in our repertoire that have deeper meaning, the lyrical content for Dirt Road’s End is more light hearted. Savana and I are in love with each other, and that shows in our music. Ultimately, it’s energetic Americana that’s positive and light hearted.
What was the songwriting process like for Dirt Road’s End?
At one time when I was working in Nashville I was forced to write, but I quickly learned that the best songs are never written. Instead, they’re born. For this record, songs like “Ballad of Sugarcane Jane,” “San Andreas” and “Pedigree” were my lyrics and melody.
For the other seven, I wrote a melody or a piece of music and my co-writer/producer, Buzz Cason, wrote the lyrics. Buzz is such a masterful lyricist who's had a lot of success over the years. He’s always inspired. Then Savana came in and with her vocal and energy. She organized everything and brought it to life.

What made you decide to record this album "old school" style?
When you record with Pro Tools or in another digital format, manipulating the music is easily done. But when you record on analog, not only do you gather a different approach sonically but it also keeps you from the temptation of manipulating what it is you’re doing. Buzz has a studio in Nashville with a 2-inch tape machine and an old analog board and invited us in to record. We wanted to record that way because we wanted to capture exactly what we sound like live and have it be authentic.
What was it like for you working and touring as a guitarist with guys like Neil Young and Steve Winwood?
It was a fabulous time. I was in Steve’s band back when he did the Roll with It tour. I remember when I was on the road with him I was out with some serious musicians, like drummer Russ Kunkel, guys who’ve played on some really big records. We recently opened a show for Steve Winwood in Birmingham at the Alys Stephens Center, which is a beautiful venue.
But my main claim to fame as a sideman was playing with Neil Young. He’s someone who’s on maximum power at all times. For me to have been around him was an honor because not too many people get his approval. You can’t get a better gig than to play with Neil Young. He’s just amazing. He’s one of the most incredible songwriters of our time.
What excites you the most about the future and the next phase of your career?
We’re excited about having a broader audience and continuing to keep our music attached to who we are. Our secret weapon is to be ourselves, and by today’s standards it’s something that’s almost unheard of. We’re real people and want to continue to be ourselves and hopefully inspire other artists to embrace that philosophy and do the same.

Acoustic Guitar Magazine Review

July 2015 issue

Review: "Dirt Road's End" by Examiner.com

"Dirt Road's End" by Sugarcane Jane

Americana music is full of notable vocal duos, but there's something about the chemistry of a husband and wife band that gives the music a new energy. It's a large part of the success of groups like Shovels & Rope and Over the Rhine and it's an energy that saturates every second of the new album by Sugarcane Jane, "Dirt Road's End."

While Sugarcane Jane may be an unfamiliar name to many fans, its members are likely not. Multi-instrumentalist Anthony Crawford has a quarter century of experience as one of music's most in demand sideman, playing in bands with the likes of Neil Young, Steve Winwood, and Vince Gill. Savana Lee Crawford is a successful solo artist in her own right, as well as co-owner of Nashville's respected Deepfield Studio. The pair has also spent much of the last year touring as two-fifths of Gulf Coast supergroup Willie Sugarcapps alongside Will Kimbrough, Grayson Capps, and Corky Hughes.

That Gulf Coast vibe is another common factor that makes "Dirt Road's End" shine. Much has been made in recent years of the influence of Muscle Shoals to the detriment of South Alabama's musical melting pot of Delta blues and New Orleans-style jazz and soul but "Dirt Road's End" plays those influences, as well as tinges of the couple's time spent in Nashville, into a rollicking foot stomper of an album that is custom made to be blasting out of the open windows of a car driving a two-lane highway on a hot Alabama summer night.

While there is a loose "concept" in the album's lyrics tracing the couple's musical journey, complete with the origin story "Ballad of Sugarcane Jane", the clear focus of "Dirt Road's End" is the superb instrumental work and loose vocal harmonies of the Crawfords. From the album's most raucous number, "Sugar", to the closest thing it gets to a ballad, the gospel-tinged "Glory Bound", Sugarcane Jane sound like they're having the time of their lives and it's impossible not to catch that enthusiasm.

But the album's true highlight was written by the band's producer Buzz Cason. "Not Another Truck Song" is a tongue in cheek run through of every over used bro-country trope that offers the album's one laugh out loud moment.

Dirt roads end in a lot of places. Sometimes they just kind of peter out into an empty field. Sometimes the end of a dirt road offers the comforts of home and hearth. And sometimes, the end of a dirt road signals the start of a paved highway and whatever new adventures lie on the other side. Where the end of Sugarcane Jane's dirt road is lies still ahead, But "Dirt Road's End" is the kind of album that has launched many a regional act onto the interstate highway of national spotlight.

Examiner.com

The Alternate Root Interview with Anthony Crawford

Sugarcane Jane - Anthony Crawfod Interview - Sugarcane Jane start off their upcoming release, Dirt Road’s End, with a calling card aka story song about themselves. “The Ballad of Sugarcane Jane” travels the road of touring musicians: the highs become a kaleidoscope that prisms the sunshine of today. The words reflect of the music, and the sound mirrors the players…Sugarcane Jane. The tale begins at the end of the road, and the beginning, for Anthony Crawford. The ballad of the story starts at Dirt Road’s End to the sound track of ‘la-la-la’. It is the story of Anthony Crawford and Savana Lee aka Sugarcane Jane. Anthony is the guy who ‘followed the path of the crow all the way to the music row’, Savana is the ‘la-la-la’ siren that showed a way out. The message is trickier than anything the smoking caterpillar can dish out…to start on your path you must first find the Dirt Road’s End….and also ‘friends who come to the shows and they’re buying everything that we record’.

Anthony Crawford is one of the most pleasant conversations that I have ever had as a journalist, or as a human being. Anthony has a history. I thought I knew more about him, yet it turns out he knew more. Anthony has the ability to carefully weigh decisions. Probably like rolling a boulder up a hill if you are on the inside, though when Anthony shares his path, it seems obvious.

Anthony Crawford : Someone I was working with once told me that ‘you gotta love this more than life, more than god, more than family’. It was a defining moment. I wanted to co-exist. I couldn’t turn my back on those things I held so close. Thinking that is what was needed, it took a long time to admit that I am successful. You can’t pay to play with Neil Young and Paul McCartney and try to kid yourself that this is not special. I will write a book…I have had so many moments that are way above normal. I have never hit financially, and I have spent all of my time working for others.

Anthony Crawford has a resume. Born in Birmingham Alabama, Nashville became home for nearly three decades. He performed live at Opryland, toured with the Sonny James Band, and appeared on television’s Hee Haw. He performed in the studio and touring with Steve Winwood, Neil Young, Vince Gill, Rosanne Cash, and Steve Forbert. Anthony had solo success and was persuaded back into touring by Neil Young as part of the International Harvesters.

Anthony Crawford: I played Hyde Park with Neil Young and Paul McCartney and two weeks later I was playing at Lulu’s for people eating shrimp. The shrimp eaters energy is awesome. I find it more difficult to play for a small crowd. One of things I like about Sugarcane Jane if the off-the-cuff energy. It is like fresh baked bread; every show is always a little different.

Dirt Road’s End is a duo with friends as the songs catch a ride on a bass bump that navigates down “Heartbreak Road”, adds guitar jangle sweetness to the already honey-dripping vocals for “Sugar”, and sees the beauty of the “San Andreas”, sharing the gossip that ‘if god had a home, she’d be living there’. Sugarcane Jane equally sonically mirror their environment. The songs are not autobiographical though their ties to home and family dig the tracks roots directly into the earth we share under our feet.

Anthony Crawford: Our home is in Alabama. We live in 2400 acres that has been owned in the family since the 1880’s. Being a parent this late in life is great. We have two children, and our four and a half year old is starting kindergarten. I am driving kids to school. I live for those moments when I can make my kids feel better about themselves, and about their future. There is no shoving them back up there, this is it.

In addition to Sugarcane Jane as a duo, Anthony and Savana are part of the collective Willie Sugarcapps, along with Will Kimbrough and Grayson Capps.

Anthony Crawford: We have a full summer of shows. We have Willie Sugarcapps dates coming up, some Northern California dates in late June. We have a tour with Sugarcane Jane coming up in July tour with Steve Forbert. We are the opening act and as his back-up band.

It is when Sugarcane Jane sing about “Home Nights” that the road seems like a long highway in the ‘Mississippi moonlight’. Dirt Road’s End plays “The Game” over a rattle rhythm that shakes the harmonica loose to lead the way for a story of ‘this poor boy left this small town and he won’t be back no more’. Sugarcane Jane board a rumbling ‘train that runs all the way to New Orleans’ as they travel to “Louisiana” in their dreams, make sure the Country stays Folk for “Not Another Truck Song”, and shudder and shiver the groove to break free and become “Glory Bound”.

Listen and buy the music of Sugarcane Jane from AMAZON or iTunes on April 28, 2015

Tahoe OnStage Review

Sugarcane Jane,’Dirt Road’s End,’ romance and down-home music

Sugarcane Jane’s newest release, “Dirt Road’s End,” is a stripped-down romp through country and roots music that pulses with the spirit of a backcountry throwdown.

The Alabama Gulf Coast-duo is the product of the classic colleague-to-lover tale, with singer and guitarist Savana Lee meeting her multi-instrumentalist husband, Anthony, while working in Nashville. They turned their romance into a musical project in the vein of Americana husband-and-wife duos like Shovels & Rope and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings that crackles with energy and musicianship.

The album rightfully kicks off with the foot-stomping “Ballad of Sugarcane Jane,” which chronicles the duo’s journey from their Nashville beginnings to the hard-touring partners in love and music they are today. “Never in my life have I felt so free/ Like a bird on a branch of a live oak tree,” sing the duo, and it is evident in its spirited harmonies this band is the best avenue for each musician to pursue their passions. It also a great introduction to what you’ll hear on “Dirt Road’s End,” driving songs built upon guitar, sienna-tinged harmonies and passionate singing.

Anthony has been working for the last 25 year as a sideman to some of the biggest names in country and Americana, Neil Young, Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill and Roseanne Cash to name a few, and his pedigree is apparent from the rugged “The Game,” with its rousing harmonica and electric guitar to the fiery “Louisiana.” Working with so many stars known for their songwriting ability, it is no wonder Anthony has pumped the album full of infectious melodies and engaging phrasing.

There is definitely has a down-home tone to the album due to its bare-essentials instrumentation and country-inspired songwriting, which is encapsulated perfectly on “Home Nights.” The sweet ode to home life was actually written in a tool shed by Anthony and producer Buzz Cason, and the song feels as comforting as a backyard singalong with its fiddle hook and guitar-picked rhythm. The flirtatious back-and-forth between Anthony and Savana on “Sugar” feels as natural as their own love language and the song marks one of the most unbridled and passionate performances by the duo, as if this was an impromptu recording done on any old Sunday afternoon.

The duo certainly have found its sound on this album, and though the songs all fall into a simple foot-stomping rhythm, the duo’s enthusiasm for the music keep you lockstep in the groove. It is music that is meant to be played live to crowds who can’t get enough drinking and dancing and the energy of the record radiates clearly through the speakers, even if you aren’t surrounded by happy, drunk strangers. “Dirt Road’s End” is an engaging record and you will be tapping your feet and bobbing your head almost instantly.

Sugarcane Jane
“Dirt Road’s End”
Label: ArenA Recordings
Release: April 28, 2015
Notable Tracks: “Home Nights,” “Ballad of Sugarcane Jane,” “Sugar”
Purchase: LINK

Mobile Press Register and AL.Com Review

Lawrence Specker (2015)

"We are energy pushers," says Anthony Crawford. "We are entertainers. Savana and I don't fancy ourselves as songwriters or artists. We are entertainers."

Fans of Sugarcane Jane, the husband-and-wife musical team of Anthony and Savana Lee Crawford, will feel compelled to dispute at least part of that statement. There's definitely some artistry to what the pair do, both as a duo and as cornerstones of the coastal supergroup Willie Sugarcapps.

Their music might be categorized as Americana, but it's both too diverse and too personal to fit easily within the conventions of that genre. It's like they're carriers of an old-soul strain of tent-revival folk, come to show the Americana kids how to really kick up some dust. The imagery often would be at home in a country song; the hard-charging approach to acoustic instruments brings in an element of ragged rock 'n' roll frenzy that is sometimes softened – and sometimes heightened – by the harmonies at the heart of it all.

It's a distinctive brew that's been nicely bottled on the duo's new release, "Dirt Road's End." Crawford recently took time to discuss the project at his Admiral Bean Studio, which stands, along with the family home, literally at the end of a dirt road.

The space is "basically just a shed," says Crawford, who has worked in much swankier recording spaces during his time in Nashville. "It keeps me feeling like I can reach everything when I want to."

Small or not, it's where he mixed this project and recorded others. He's producing projects for several other local artists at the moment, he said.

As for the album title, it comes from a line in the opening track, "Ballad of Sugarcane Jane:"

"I followed my dream to the path of the crow
All to the way to the Music Row
fell in love when I heard her sing
so I packed my bag and my old six-string
Headed south in an all-out run
to the arms of my woman and a daughter and a son
built us a house at the dirt road's end
and that's just how this story begins ..."

For Anthony and Savana Lee Crawford of Sugarcane Jane, "Dirt Road's End" is partly about capturing their chemistry for local audiences, and partly about carrying their music to new ones.

"To me, it was almost like a fairy tale," Crawford said. "I always wanted to write a song about my connection with Savana."

Like a lot of Sugarcane Jane songs, "Ballad" manages to have an element of magic despite an approach that's completely direct. Like no few of their songs, it seems to be plainly inspired by their relationship and their experiences together. The appeal comes not from any sense of poetic mystery, but from their complete openness.

And yet, there is a mystery.

The first collaboration between Anthony Crawford and Savana Lee was a 2008 album titled "Redbird." He was a veteran, multi-talented music-maker living in Nashville; his extensive credits included playing on tour or in the studio for numerous stars, including Steve Winwood, Vince Gill, Dwight Yoakam and Neil Young. He was also a prolific songwriter whose tunes had been recorded by a wide range of artists, though without yielding any bona fide hits. "As a songwriter, on paper, I look real good," he said, laughing about his middling luck. She was a younger singer from Baldwin County, releasing her first album.

He wrote almost all the songs, recorded and mixed the album mostly at his home studio and played almost every instrument. Yet Lee owned the material: Her delivery was so natural and so committed that she seemed to be singing directly from her personal experience.

Seven years, a marriage and two children later, that chemistry is all the stronger on "Dirt Road's End" – and the mystery is all the deeper. While Anthony Crawford wrote several of the songs solo, the lion's share of the lyrics came from ace Nashville writer/producer Buzz Cason. Somehow, he not only wrote lyrics that perfectly suited the Crawfords' lives, sometimes he wrote them before events in their lives evolved to match them. Consider "Truck Song," one of the album's twangier, down-home numbers:

"Lord not another old truck song
where some old redneck done his baby wrong
This is a love song for you
Many singers got rich off their truck song
I'm happy for 'em, don't get me wrong
Honey, you deserve something new"

Clearly, Cason is having a little fun at the expense at a style of song currently in vogue among Nashville's hitmakers. But the Crawfords' gleeful delivery brings out the joy underlying their harmonies. They sound like a couple in love, have some silly, spontaneous fun and letting listeners come along for the ride.

"I didn't even know that song existed," said Anthony Crawford. Cason brought it in late in the session, he said, and it was just as fresh to him and his wife as it sounds on the disc.

"I really do believe that it's because we're in love," Crawford said of Sugarcane Jane's appeal to listeners. "Until Savana came into the picture, they were just songs. And when she came in, it was like adding water to flour."

From his perspective, "Dirt Road's End" is something of an oddity. Most of its songs are already very familiar to local audiences, and he frets a little bit that for them, the album says more about where Sugarcane Jane has been than where it's going.

But where "Dirt Road's End" excels is in capturing the dynamics of a Sugarcane Jane performance. For folks who've sat through a show and then wanted a recording that reflects what they just heard, this is it.

"Savana and I recorded them like we did them when we play live," said Anthony Crawford.

In promotional materials for the new album, Savana Crawford said, "The release of this album is kind of like watching your baby grow up an dmove out of the house ... These songs are such a part of us and are the very essence of Sugarcane Jane. We are so excited to see them reach a broader audience."

Initial recording was done with Cason at Creative Workshop in Nashville. Anthony Crawford then mixed the project at his studio.

Overall, it's a far-ranging set, with subject matter ranging from the charm of "Home Nights" to Crawford's appreciation of coastal California landscapes on "San Andreas." (It's a rustic reminisce that goes back to Crawford's days on Neil Young's ranch. He was horrified to learn that an upcoming movie of the same title is a big-budget earthquake disaster flick. "We're going to be out in California June 29. I'm not sure I want to go now," he said, after viewing the trailer.)

Anthony Crawford said that over the past year, the goal for Sugarcane Jane has been to expand its touring range, reaching new listeners in new areas. Their involvement with Willie Sugarcapps has helped take them to new markets they can revisit as a duo.

But no matter how far they go, he said, they won't be letting go of their hard-won, deep-rooted perspective. He knows what it's like to play for tens of thousands of people with Neil Young. Getting back to that particular mountaintop is not a goal.

"I've traveled the world and I've seen the world from a rock star's point of view," he said. "My imagination has been somewhat enlightened by what it's like to be in that rarified air. And I don't know, I like it here at sea level."

Tuesday, April 28, is the official release date of "Dirt Road's End." The album is being released through ArenA Recordings and eOne Distribution, and should be available through major online outlets. It also is available for download via www.sugarcanejane.com.

Upcoming tour dates:

April 28: Sugarcane Jane CD release party, Fairhope Brewing Co., 6 p.m.
April 30: Willie Sugarcapps concert, The Blue Nile in New Orleans, 10 p.m.
May 1: Sugarcane Jane performs at the Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival, Foley, 5:30 p.m.
May 2: Sugarcane Jane with special guests opens for Steve Winwood, Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center in Birmingham
May 7: Willie Sugarcapps performs on for the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour, Duling Hall in Jackson, Miss., 7:30 p.m.
May 8: Willie Sugarcapps performs at the 99 Bottles of Beer on the Lawn event at Southern Napa in Daphne.
May 9: Willie Sugarcapps performs at Vinyl Music Hall in Pensacola, 8 p.m.

The Southern Rambler | Sugarcane Jane Finds Identity, Energy, and Success at Dirt Road’s End

The Southern Rambler
June 4, 2015/by Lynn Oldshue

Dirt Road’s End is more than the title of Sugarcane Jane’s new album. It is where Anthony and Savana Crawford live outside of Loxley, Alabama, in a dogtrot house on 2,400 acres of family land. The pine trees and corn fields were an escape from music careers in Nashville and the dirt roads, live oaks, and family they sing about are their identity, their energy, and their success.

Anthony grew up in Birmingham and describes the first time he played a guitar when he was eight years old as “being bit by a snake.” A job at Opryland playing in ‘50s Rock’n’Roll show took him to Nashville and for 20 years Anthony toured and recorded with legends including Sonny James, Neil Young, Steve Winwood, Vince Gill, and Dwight Yoakam. He played in stadiums and arenas and sang with Roy Acuff on the Grand Ole Opry. His songs have been recorded by Steve Winwood, Kenny Rogers, Lee Greenwood, Dwight Yoakam,the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Sawyer Brown.

“Playing with icons precedes me, but you are only as good as who you are today,” Anthony says. “My existence was supposed to be singing with Savana. My songs make sense when she sings them.”

Savana grew up singing and playing in bands in Baldwin County and New Orleans. She moved to Nashville and co-owned and managed the vintage analog studio, Deepfield Studio. She met Anthony during a recording session and demos she recorded for him led to Redbird, their first album together (2007). They fell in love, moved to the Alabama Coast, formed Sugarcane Jane in 2009, and recorded Listen with Headphones in 2012.

“When we met, our parents lived eight miles from each other, mine in Loxley and his in Daphne,” Savana says. “When we were friends, I rented my apartment to him and sold him all of my furniture. There was such a connection and the first time we heard our voices blend on the Redbird album we knew we were going to be in each other’s lives forever.”

Dirt Road’s End begins with “The Ballad of Sugarcane Jane.” “That song is our story from Nashville to our kids,” Anthony says. “Moving here was a housecleaning for my whole being. It was a time to flush myself and reboot my whole outlook.”

When Anthony stopped thinking of success as money, fame, or notoriety, things fell into place. “There are no regrets over what has or hasn’t happened for me,” he says. “I used to meditate on the negative of why I am not doing this or that, but if some of those things had happened, I wouldn’t have our kids, Loretta and Levon.”

Well the road of life with its twists and turns /There’s always a lesson out there to learn /I was busting my hump gaining no ground /Like a rat on a wheel going round and round /Comes a time when I knew in my heart /Gotta give it up to get a new start /Never in my life have I felt so free /Like a bird on a branch of a live oak tree

“The Ballad of Sugarcane Jane”

Dirt Road’s End was recorded and produced by Buzz Cason, whose own songs have been recorded by The Beatles, Green Day, and U2. Crawford and Cason co-wrote songs on the album, including “Sugar” and “Heartbreak Road.” Cason funded the production and publicity for the album.

“I have written songs with Anthony for a long time and we always wanted an outlet for it,” says Cason. “We had a dream of doing an album for Sugarcane Jane that captured the energy of them playing live and they pull it off well. The album has received considerable airplay and it has been a joy to get their music out to other parts of the country, such as California and the East Coast, that haven’t heard them before. We have had good press and promotion people behind the album and songs have been climbing up the charts.”

Anthony and Savana struggled with the album and selecting the songs to record. “This is our first album in several years and we have so many songs we wanted to include,” Anthony says. “I had hefty arguments with Buzz because he is an energy freak and the album is over-the-top energy. We wanted it to be a bit more insightful and smooth with other songs such as ‘The Ladder,’ and ‘Self to the Dark.’ However, the opportunity was for us to do these songs on this album that Buzz was paying for because he loves what we do. I realized that I am our own worst critic and I needed to step back and let it happen. We recorded the album in four hours and never did a second take. People are embracing it and this is an opportunity to get our songs out nationwide.”

The new album is getting positive reviews and, Anthony’s song “V’s of Birds” was recorded on Dwight Yoakam’s new album Second Hand Heart, and Sugarcane Jane recently opened a show for Steve Winwood at the Alys Stephens Center in Birmingham. The pieces are coming together for Anthony and Savana, but their family comes first. They have two young children and a third coming in the fall.

“We waited on the kids to get out of diapers, before we put out a new album and toured more with Sugarcane Jane,” says Savana. “It was scary when we found out that we are pregnant and it took a little time to think about what it means to experience this again. With everything that is going on, how do we have time for another baby? We have to trust that there is something bigger out there directing our path and we have to follow it.

“We are kids-first people. Our careers won’t take first place and we have never been out to be famous. We will be happy touring and seeing the country in our car with the kids.”

A summer break in touring with the popular Coast supergroup Willie Sugarcapps also gives more time to play as Sugarcane Jane. Willie Sugarcapps formed in a Sunday round with Will Kimbrough, Grayson Capps, Sugarcane Jane and Corky Hughes at the Frog Pond at Blue Moon Farm. Their first album Willie Sugarcapps was an Americana success and opened many doors for Anthony and Savana.

“Savana and I came in as the lesser-known and it has been so good for us and playing with those three monsters of musicians and human beings,” Anthony says. “Starting a new band was a leap of faith that has elevated us, but we let Sugarcane Jane go down to almost no pulse for a year and a half while we totally focused on Willie Sugarcapps. It is time to focus on Sugarcane Jane again and give Willie Sugarcapps a break and rejuvenate the spontaneity.

“We just finished a new Willie Sugarcapps record and it will show us where it wants to go. The first album was such a fairy tale. You start to formulate how to go farther with the next album and that is a bad thing to do when something is born on spontaneity. The new album is masterfully mixed and recorded and I am looking forward to it coming out.”

Anthony also started Admiral Bean Studio, recording and producing albums in the studio shed behind his house, including upcoming releases from Edward David Anderson, Cary Laine, and Scott Nolan. Savana helps with website, graphics, and album designs. “There aren’t a lot of recording options down here and people don’t know where to begin,” she says. “We are happy to share our experience and help wherever we can. I didn’t have that and learning how to do it yourself takes a lot of time away from your music.”

Influenced and educated by Neil Young’s recording sessions, Anthony is an out-of- the-box producer with a Rock’N’Roll mentality. “My approach to production is keep it raw and as close as it can be to capturing what was played,” Anthony says. “My process is a work in progress and I am always learning. Recording is the first love of music for me and I have had a recording studio since I was 14. I want to be known for my style and being good at what I do. “

The music that Anthony and Savana make for themselves and bring out in other musicians is real and shows what happens in the moment. “Our music is who we are, even the mistakes that we don’t try to cover up,” says Savana. “We aren’t trying to be perfect and I want to listen to music that is real, not perfect or fixed up.”

Despite having the experiences and respect that most musicians dream of, Anthony says they are better entertainers than musicians. “I am good at guitar, but there are many people who are much better. We deliver energy, that is the well for us. Energy comes from being around Savana and my kids and being 58 years old and still able to be at the level it takes to do this.”

We’re making a living and we’re doing what we love /Sending the praise to the man above /Especially knowing where we’ve been /Losing it all to it get it back again /I thought it was luck but I dare say /Things don’t often happen this way

“Ballad of Sugarcane Jane”

“We still live a little bit hand to mouth, but I don’t worry about that because we are on a journey and so far it has taken care of us. We give people an opportunity to escape from reality and what the world dishes out every day, and they give us inspiration. Together we just keep going.”

The Southland Music Line | Why We Love Sugarcane Jane As Told By The Friends and Fans Who Love Them

BY THE SOUTHLAND MUSIC LINEAPRIL 2, 2015SUGARCANE JANE

The long-awaited and much anticipated new album “Dirt Road’s End” from Sugarcane Jane is scheduled to be officially released on April 28th. Those of us who follow Sugarcane Jane could not be happier for them and it’s exciting to see what is taking place.

Anthony and Savana Crawford, aka Sugarcane Jane, open up for their friend Steve Winwood’s Birmingham, AL show on May 2; a scheduled series of shows with Steve Forbert; and much more over the coming weeks and months are set to happen. Add that to touring with the band Willie Sugarcapps* (which also includes Grayson Capps, Corky Hughes & Will Kimbrough), they are going to be quite busy.

*At the end of 2014, The Southland Music Line named Willie Sugarcapps as “Artist of the Year” and we saw its members ‘individually or together’ more than we did anyone else over the course of those twelve months.

For the last few months, we’ve been wanting to feature Anthony and Savana in something special at The Southland Music Line. One of the things we decided was to ask friends and fans of Sugarcane Jane to say a few words about what they mean to them personally. Several expressed interest in wanting to be a part. (At the end of this article we are sharing what many were able to get to us prior to the completion of this article. We have received replies up until the time of this article being posted. It’s very likely more could be added, but the main reason for doing this is to show what others think about Anthony and Savana.) They are much more than musicians and entertainers; they are amazing examples of people that make everyone who attend their shows or meet them, feel special – not just fans, but friends. Their balance of homelife with family and chosen profession is one to admire. A mixture of extreme talent, humorous stories of their children and life at home has created a growing following throughout their home region along the Gulf Coast and expanding nationwide. One reason they appeal to others is ‘they are relatable’ and we all are made to feel a part of their lives.

My first experience with Sugarcane Jane came from Stephen Anderson and Robby Amonett’s encouragement to visit Jack’s by the Tracks in Pascagoula, MS. After several invitations to meet them there, I noticed that ‘the husband-wife duo called Sugarcane Jane’ would be performing. I noticed that Sugarcane Jane included Anthony Crawford that I knew had performed with Neil Young in at least one of his bands, The Shocking Pinks. I was a huge fan of that somewhat infamous 1983 album “Everybody’s Rockin” from Neil Young & the Shocking Pinks and had a good memory of the video from the song “Wonderin” which actually featured Anthony riding around in a convertible with fellow bandmates singing in Doo-wahs.

Surely, I had to see what Sugarcane Jane was all about. From the very first show at Jack’s to the substantial number since, I’ve come to appreciate them for all the reasons mentioned earlier and the talent goes without saying. More recently, I’ve learned I had seen Anthony perform long before I saw him and Savana perform that evening at Jack’s – while he was touring with both Steve Winwood and Neil Young & The International Harvesters. (he has also performed with Sonny James, Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill, Rosanne Cash and others; plus written songs for Kenny Rogers, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Lee Greenwood etc.)

It’s no wonder so many continue to express their appreciation for Sugarcane Jane. The shows at Jack’s by the Tracks, The Shed, Flora-Bama, Callaghan’s, Laps on the Causeway and so many other places are always a joy. The show at The Frog Pond at Blue Moon Farm with Steve Forbert is one of my favorites in recent memory, but then again, so many are.

“Dirt Road’s End” is receiving positive reviews for a reason – it provides a window into a much larger picture of who Sugarcane Jane is and which longtime fans already know. For those who have never heard the music of Sugarcane Jane, this is the perfect introduction. “Dirt Road’s End” starts with the auto-biographical fan favorite, “The Ballad of Sugarcane Jane” and continues down a musical journey of songs: “The Game”, “San Andreas”, “Home Nights”, “Louisiana”, “Pedigree”, “Heartbreak Road”, “Not Another Truck Song”, “Sugar” and finally “Glory Bound”. It’s one musical journey worth repeating over and over.

The album c0-produced with legendary Buzz Cason, the famed Americana/Roots music singer-songwriter is being released on his ArenA Recordings / eOne Entertainment. Sugarcane Jane fans will be pleased to hear some familiar tunes, but sounding completely fresh and new. Anthony’s superior skills as a musician and songwriter are fully intact combining a perfect blending of voices with Savana.

Sugarcane Jane’s music is called Organic Music at its Finest – “Dirt Road’s End” lives up to that saying to the fullest!

“Personally, I want to thank Anthony and Savana for their kindness, warmth and friendship shown to me and The Southland Music Line. They have provided me with many evenings of great music and, above all, an admirable example of how to blend a marriage, family with children and a career. Thank you!”

Johnny Cole, Travelin Man | Writer
The Mississippi Gulf Coast

The following are more samples of the kind of things often said about Anthony and Savana, aka Sugarcane Jane:

“Anthony and Savana put the Sugar into Willie Sugarcapps with Savana’s sweet, pure vocals and Anthony’s ability to play most any stringed instrument. By themselves, Sugarcane Jane has the ability to entertain all audiences, from the youngest to the oldest member with each audience member finding something special and personal to take away from each performance.”

Leslie Mulcahy
Fairhope, AL

“Sugarcane Jane, Anthony and Savana, have been great mentors, great musical/business partners, and great friends. These two are so incredibly talented on their own, but when you see them perform together it is nothing short of magic. Their connection is one that doesn’t happen often, the kind that draws everyone in and people talk about for years to come. Anthony and Savana have inspired me musically and pushed me to not be afraid to try new things and take charge of my own destiny. I am forever grateful and they’ll always be some of the coolest people on the planet to me. I heart Sugarcane Jane!”

Cary Laine, Singer/Songwriter from Alabama

“We’re so lucky to live in their neck of the woods…we go see them every opportunity that we get. They never cease to amaze and no two shows are ever alike but, we love every show!”

Ron and Cindy Thamert
Mississippi Gulf Coast

“Love of music, love of family are equally celebrated through the music of Savana and Anthony. It’s a dynamic combination, especially when combined with such awesome talent!”

Simone Lipscomb, Photographer
Magnolia Springs, Alabama

“I may be a little biased because I’m playing in a band with these two, but I love Sugarcane Jane, because they blend together everything I love about country music; rock ‘n roll and deep southern music. They harmonize gorgeously together and they create a raw propulsive rhythm that reminds me of a church service from the 1940s, or an old Chicago blues record from the 1950s. It’s hot and Lonesome Appalachian and it’s also lowdown rock ‘n roll. To ask anymore out of two people would be just too much. Sugarcane Jane is amazing and beautiful.”

Will Kimbrough, musician, member of Willie Sugarcapps

“Anthony and Savana Lee are gypsies in the truest sense, old world magic, old world wisdoms, ancient musicality. I have nothing but love for them both.”

Scott Nolan, musician
Winnipeg Manitoba

“They are great musicians and great people. Anthony and Savana are the best singers I’ve ever worked with. When I was playing with them, people would ask, ‘Why aren’t you singing?’ I would say, ‘They’ve got it covered.’ I mean, you never heard anyone singing a third part with the Everly Brothers.”

Jimmy Lee Hannaford, singer-songwriter and former Sugarcane Jane bassist

“Sugarcane Jane (Anthony and Savana Lee Crawford) always leave me feeling pure joy! Their shows are always changing and evolving using their original, authentic music and amazing musicianship. Their harmonies are pure magic! Anthony and Savana are truly genuine! Always approachable, loving what they do and and showing their love for their fans!”

Glenda Stabler Campbell
Pensacola, Florida

“People have always believed in me, but Anthony and Savana Crawford were the two people who’ve spent their money, time, and effort helping me become an artist. They’ve encouraged me every step of the way, and I have not met greater combined talents nor a greater set of hearts than theirs in all of the music business.”

Lauren Kay, music artist from Pensacola, FL
www.laurenkaymusic.com

“Pure, honest, truly engaging music exuding love and caring. Their music transforms you to another place, filled with all that is good in humankind, complete with a sense of humor.”

David Minkler “Minks”
Pascagoula, MS

“Anthony & Savana Crawford are two highly gifted artists and musicians who have captured the listening ear of audiences as the duet of “Sugarcane Jane”, along the Gulf Coast and throughout the United States. Possessing a loyal following of avid fans who admire the group and appreciate their collective efforts, they entertain with a diverse musical message of peace & love in true Americana style. Without question, this is one act you should hear when they make an appearance in your area.”

Glenn Lancaster, photographer from the Mississippi Gulf Coast

“Anthony and Savanna Crawford are hands down some of the Gulf Coast’s finest talent. There is no shortage of gifted musicians here in our little secret mecca and Sugarcane Jane are among the very best. Not only are they talented and hard working, they are truly kind and genuine people. They get two thumbs up and lots of love from this girl!”

Beth Childs, photographer, Perdido Key Fl

“With stellar harmonies, playing, and tunes, Savana & Anthony are simply good people making beautiful music together.”

Edward David Anderson – songwriter/multi-instrumentalist

“Sugarcane Jane, from the first time that we heard them we were hooked! We love their incredible harmonies, energy, and uplifting message. They are really nice folks and we catch as many shows as we can.”

Jeff and Suzanne Zimmer

“Anthony and Savana are two of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. Their love for each other and their children, Loretta and Levon, are very special. I am very proud to call them our friends. Just to go to a show and hear them sing will make you feel good inside! I’ve had the pleasure of being a fan, friend, and babysitter. Loretta Raine is very well known for “The Look ” and I’ve had the pleasure of getting it many times! I remember many times when I took one for the team and babysat Loretta and she would cry so hard because her mom and dad were leaving. I recall one time especially, Loretta was screaming “No, no, no”! They felt so bad. I, of course, felt bad. A few shows later I was there. Anthony made me smile so big when he sang one of their songs! The lyrics go like this, “Oh no no no!” You know the song! Haha, these two people make me smile and I love them with all of my heart!!! Their friend and fan for life!”

Keitha aka Merch Girl

“Anthony and Savana Crawford not only produced and designed my self titled EP, but encouraged and guided the start of my musical career. There is not enough thanks in the world for these two incredibly talented, genuine, and kind people.“
Love, Emily Stuckey

Emily Stuckey
Singer/Songwriter
Fairhope, AL

“We so enjoy the whole Sugarcane Jane experience. Their dedication to what is important shines forth brilliantly whether it be to their family, friends or music in general. It is this deep sense of integrity that draws us to them like nothing else. May the music live on!”

Pat and Jeff Cheek
Austin, Texas

“A good night of music is always fun but once in a while you stumble onto something great that demands your undivided attention. Susan and I went to see Willie Sugarcapps at the Mary C and we knew right away that it would be that kind of night. What an amazingly gifted group of musicians! Each with their own unique contribution and talent. Anthony & Savana (before we knew they were Sugarcane Jane) as part of that group, you couldn’t help but appreciate what they were doing. Your eyes were just drawn to their part of the stage. The “Line” has since educated us on Anthony’s deep music roots and pedigree. Together, he and Savana are a real delight. Down to earth, likable souls who also happen to be truly gifted musicians.”

Doug and Susan Sholes
Mississippi Gulf Coast

“Jimmy Lee Hannaford called and said he was playing with a couple called Sugarcane Jane at The Shed. He said ‘be sure to come see them, they’re good.’ Good was an understatement. They weren’t just good, they were fabulous. Their sweet harmonies and Anthony’s guitar picking was over the top. I witnessed an act of kindness by Sugarcane Jane at the The Shed one night. A fan had traveled a distance to see them, but got there late thinking they played until 10:00 pm. She asked if they would serenade her before they left. Their car was packed and ready to go. It had been a long night and they were playing again the next day. Without hesitation they granted her wish. How wonderful it was to witness this firsthand. This is the kind of folks Sugarcane Jane (Anthony and Savana) are.”

Stephen Anderson, photographer, Pascagoula, MS

“I recall getting a call from Truitt right after Jack’s by the Tracks had just opened the doors. He said, I’m listening to Music .. you just have to come !!! He told me to get dressed.. You need to hear this !!! I met my husband and we sat and listened to Savana and Anthony for our first time and we were blown away. At that point and time it was the Music but then we had the pleasure to get to know “Sugarcane Jane” on a personal level. Savana was expecting Levon and we would talk about Loretta and the pending birth with them both. Prior to the birth of our children, Truitt and I never knew the sex of our children…and they didn’t either – cause what you gonna do, send them back? I loved that they did that also! The Music they make together is as beautiful and from the heart as their family unit. They strengthen our belief in family and all things good.”

Amy and Truitt Williams, retired and part-time musician, Moss Point, MS

“Sugarcane Jane is captivating, hypnotic and contagious as a live act with high energy talent. It is never stale, because it’s continually evolving – unbelievable with jam band precision.” A simple gaze around any venue has familiar faces of fans young and old captivated by the “infectious, hypnotic rhythms. It is always enthralling to watch the faces of first time listeners who express shock and awe with complete disbelief of what they are hearing and seeing strumming that is timed to harmonics, tonal precision, and feels like being ‘a passenger on a music race car road course!’ Anthony and Savana so beautifully share music with heartfelt emotion. We always feel we are ‘home’ – like a large family gathering. The familiar faces and pulsating sound make your soul dance and your heart smile. Their harmonic high energy calms and refreshes your soul and cleanses the mental palate; rejuvenates your mind; tidies all your woes and aches, you are ready to embrace the world another day with the therapeutic armor they provide. You sleep better and your smarter the next day!”

John and Michele
Proud to be Sugarcane Jane fans from the Coast

“I love Sugarcane Jane because they share their life experiences openly without pretense. Savana and Anthony’s music conveys their love of life, each other, and their children while also describing failures and heartache too. Listening to the music of Sugarcane Jane causes me to tap my foot, sing along, smile, laugh, and sometimes even cry.“

Susie Hickey
Mobile, Al

“Their music is raw and sweet. If you are from here, you take pride in their songs because it relates to almost all of us. Seeing them together, on and off of the stage, makes my heart smile – their is so much love between them.”

Cindy McNeil
Daphne, Al

“I guess you could call me a “Cane Head” I like listening to Sugarcane tunes during sunrise a lot, before dawn through the sunrise at my spot on the banks of the Singing River. Or at my back yard bonfires on cool starry nights, ….while bank fishing too. Came across this band a few years back. They always make me move. I am always grateful when I get the chance to hear them live. I recommend that if you ever get a chance to hang with them and hear them perform, take it.”

Harry Stewart
Mississippi Gulf Coast

“Why I dig Sugarcane Jane – They are the type of musical act that captures a room with the stroke of a guitar; along the warmth of their intrinsic harmonies. They can quieten even the chattiest of rooms…. you can’t help but listen; also the positive message of the words written by the duo can only make us stop and believe that there is hope upon this often negative rock that we call home – not to mention that they are some the most genuine good natured people whom I am honored to call friends.”

Robby Amonett
Artist
Mississippi Gulf Coast

In Conclusion:

The Southland Music Line wants to thank all those who responded with their comments, but above all we want to thank Anthony and Savana (Sugarcane Jane) for making it so easy to feel the way we all do about them. The above is just a sample of those who think so highly – if time
had allowed, the number would have been multiplied many times over.

Artist Robby Amonett has painted the live performances of Sugarcane Jane several times and he has often expressed ‘what a joy’ it is to do so. He considers Anthony and Savana good friends and looks forward to painting at many future shows. (see above for his personal comments.)

Please check out the following links:

Official Website: Click Here!
Like Them at Facebook: Click Here!
Follow Them On Twitter – Click Here!
Check them out on You Tube: Click Here!
Follow Them at Instagram: Click Here!

The Best of Sugarcane Jane Photo Collection:
Click Here!

To Purchase the latest album “Dirt Road’s End”
Click Here!

Related Articles:

Willie Sugarcapps: 2014’s Artist of the Year
From Muscle Shoals To Magnolia Springs, AL: Willie Sugarcapps Gives Us A Sample of What’s To Come
Wash Hole Jam : Brewton, AL Starring Willie Sugarcapps
Will Kimbrough: From “Sideshow Love” to Willie Sugarcapps – It’s Abundantly Clear, He Loves What He’s Doing

PopMatters review of Dirt Road's End

American music has taken on such a broad definition in recent years that it’s nearly impossible to define it within the context of any single form.

Blues, folk, roots rock and country all figure in the mix, leaving the possibility open for all those so inclined to take on its trappings. However, should anyone need a benchmark, they’d be well advised to check out the duo that refers to itself as Sugarcane Jane, and whose fourth album, appropriately named Dirt Road’s End provides the perfect example of how to incorporate all the necessary trappings. Anthony and Savana Lee Crawford, the husband-wife pair that operate under the aegis of Sugarcane Jane, describe their sound as “organic music at its finest”, and given its down home, back porch embrace, it has to be said that the label they’ve pinned is apt indeed.

The Crawfords arrive at this crucible with ample credits tacked on to their combined resume. He’s a highly respected guitarist and sideman who’s served alongside Neil Young, Vince Gill, Sonny James, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Winwood, and Rosanne Cash, a few among the many. She’s a multi-instrumentalist who opts to fill in the melodies as often as necessary. Buzz Cason, a founder member of the Americana elite, produced the album and chose to release it on his own custom label. Will Kimbrough contributes fiddle. And given the fact the couple reside on the Alabama Gulf Coast, the pair have plenty of inspiration from which to draw.

All that accounts for the authenticity that’s strummed into each of these songs. Indeed, any of these ten tunes could easily be mistaken for an age old folk standard, what with the influx of string picking, harmonic playing, fiddle and mandolin that mesh in the make-up of these unassuming originals. Opening track “Ballad of Sugarcane Jane”, sets up the premise, a lyrical narrative that traces the couple’s journey from their meeting in Nashville, to the evolution of their relationship, both personal and professional. From that point on, they manage to maintain their homegrown delivery and demeanor, whether basking in the stunning evocative aura of “San Andreas” (“If God had a home, it would be there…”) or the rustic ramble of “Pedigree” and “Heartbreak Road”. Even in the midst of their serendipitous stride—as illuminated in the rockabilly boogie of “Louisiana” or the creaky circumspect of “Glory Bound”—the pair never lose focus, and certainly never abandon neither their authenticity nor intent. And when their rumination is injected with humor, as filtered through The Cason-penned “Not Just Another Truck Song”, it also becomes clear that even while replicating traditional tomes, they’re not adverse to lightening up the proceedings when opportunity is presented.

Ultimately, Dirt Road’s End is actually akin to a beginning, an album that declares the duo’s birthright and claim to the role of actual Americana practitioners. It’s a guidebook that simulates a fusion of past and present, as interpreted by two musicians blessed with a clear-eyed perspective and the ability to bring it all about. It’s an album that will, in the future, encourage repeat encounters while pointing the way from those back trails forward.

Boomerocity: Anthony Crawford discusses Sugarcane Jane

Photo by Beach Chic Photography

Neil Young, Steve Winwood, Dwight Yoakam These are just some of the people who Anthony Crawford has worked extensively with.

Who is Anthony Crawford? He and his wife, Savana Lee, are the songwriting/singing team known as Sugarcane Jane. Some may say that their genre is Americana. Crawford describes it differently but more about that in a moment.

Sugarcane Jane has released their debut CD, “Dirt Road’s End” and it’s a refreshing batch of great, innovative, inspiring music. I called up Crawford at his Alabama home to discuss the duo’s new CD. From the git go, he was enthusiastic.

“I’m excited about the record we have out. Working with Buzz Cason has been a goal of his and mine for the last decade- to try to get these songs out to more than just the few people who get to hear it when we play the music down on the Gulf Coast.

“The reason those songs are so tight on that record is because Savana and I played them probably four times a week for four years. We’ve just been honing our craft for that long. Buzz said, ‘Let’s put a record out. I’ll pay for it. Let’s see what happens’. We went up to Nashville and recorded the record on his two inch tape machine. We did it live. We set it up like we play in a bar, restaurant, or whatever. We had a PA and the whole thing. That’s why there are some weird tones in there every now and then. For the most part, we just wanted to capture what we do live, the energy of it. I think we did. It’s very high energy.”

In describing Sugarcane Jane, Anthony said:

“I’ve got a pretty concise answer to that question. When she and I first got together, she was taking me to meet her parents for the first time. We turned off of Co. Rd 64 down this dirt road. I thought, ‘Huh… this is a lot of dirt road’. We kept driving and driving and driving. We went about a mile and a half down this dirt road. Finally, we went over a bridge and through a tunnel of trees then – boom – there’s her mom and dad’s house. It’s an old piece of property they’ve had in their family since the 1880’s.

“I said, ‘Wow, this is your property?’ She said, ‘Yeah, my granddad used to have a sugarcane patch out here somewhere. He would carve sugarcane and give it to all the little children around here on Halloween.’ There would be a huge crowd in front of their house of people waiting to collect their sugarcane. It was so sweet. He was known for carving that up. I thought, ‘Sugarcane’, and I just started singing a song off the top of my head. “Sugarcane Jane….” – I just made Jane up. All of the sudden, we thought, ‘Hey, that’s cool. Sugarcane Jane!’ It’s better to not have a name that’s just, ‘Anthony and Savana’. I really think the name ‘Sugarcane Jane’ is as big a part of why we are what we are as the music. It’s just inviting. It has an interesting origin. I’ve got to say it’s pretty lighthearted for a lot of people.

“If we were to go play with a bunch of moody people, we’d certainly be looked upon as being torn from different piece of cloth. The fact is we like playing for people who like to leave our concerts being lifted up, so the name ‘Sugarcane Jane’ evokes that. It was just a spur of the moment thing. Plus, we didn’t want anybody to know our names, it was a privacy thing. At the time we were getting together, we wanted to do shows, but we didn’t want to have our names out there. We just had ‘Sugarcane Jane’, and it stuck. We just kinda took off. That’s how we got started.”

I think a lot of people would easily place Sugarcane Jane in the Americana genre. I asked Anthony how he would describe it.

“We would probably have a hard time putting it out with that exact stamp on it. We usually do, because it does draw from a deep well of American music, however we think of ourselves more like energy peddlers. Ultimately, we’re peddling energy, not a style. It’s truth. It’s organic as we call it because it's homegrown and natural. It’s acoustic, honest, positive music. All those things describe it. It’s unfortunate when you put something out digitally, and you are forced to categorize it as, ‘Singer/songwriter, Americana, Alt Country, etc.’ Those things just don’t really go deep enough into the reality of what it is. Our influences being brought up in the South are vast including country, roots, gospel, blues, jazz, and classic rock. I think we are a Heinz 57 of genres and I guess that's why the Americana tag fits best because that's pretty much what that is.

“If we have to play a four hour show, we are singing a few cover tunes. But if we’re doing a forty-minute show like we did with Steve Winwood in Birmingham on May 2, we’ve got forty minutes to plow through our most popular songs. People would not know any different. They’d go, ‘Wow- that’s what they are!’ When we go do that type of show, we know we can count on most all of the songs on the new Dirt Road's End album; ‘The Ballad of Sugarcane Jane’, ‘The Game’, ‘San Andreas’, ‘Home Nights’,‘Heartbreak Road’, that kind of thing. Those songs are tried and tested and we usually get apositive response from people. They are crowd pleasers. We’ve got some new songs too that we are integrating into our set; ‘The Ladder’, and ‘Never Do You Know’. We explore a deeper side of Sugarcane Jane with those songs that are insightful and actually say something enlightening, then we come back with the plain ‘ole make-you-feel-good lighthearted music. We just want people to have a good time. When they leave our show, we want them to feel like they are leaving with something positive.

“I have to say, our normal set may beconsidered a little bit on the G-rated side, just family friendly music. We don’t do anything that’s too risqué or anything. People can bring their kids. We can always jam on some Neil Young and be believable with it. There is a wide spectrum of what we can draw from which is why we rarely make a setlist. We try to just feel out our audience and let the songs pick themselves. It’s a little bit of a unique thing that we have. People relate to us, because we have two small children. We're in the trenches as some would call it. The "diaper changing era" and a lot of people have been there and know how much work and energy that entails. They have an appreciation for what we are doing and know it is not easy with both mom and dad working at the same time. I think it's what is endearing about Sugarcane Jane. We have a deep love for our children, family, and fans (which are more like friends). Typically, you’re out there just grabbing for success as hard as you can. That’s just not us. We’re trying to make a living and raise good kids. Don’t get me wrong, we'd love to reach a higher level of recognition, but not at the expense of our family.”

Crawford is obviously quite gifted. It would seem that everything he does turns to career gold in some way. Musicianship. Songwriting. Performing. Photography. Recording Studio ownership. When I said all of that, he said:

“Randy, let me tell you something. A wise man once told me, it's not what you've done, it's what you're doing right now. It's true that I have had a blessed journey, but I have worked hard and kept my focus throughout the roller coaster ride. While a lot of people around me were dabbling in drugs, I walked the line. I was always afraid of that scene and the path it may lead. I've seen a lot of great players and artists go down that road and the outcome was not where I wanted to be. And because of being clear headed, I think I was able to listen to my intuition, God, or whatever was telling me to do certain things. I took that photo for Neil Young’s album cover because I was led to walk out there and see those old cars and see the beauty in them. I’m really like Forrest Gump. I’ve ridden in a balloon with Richard Branson. I’ve toured with Neil Young on a private jet. Too many adventures to even name. Most people would give anything to do just one of them. I have been very fortunate but how I acquired these titles or became who I am is not because I am better than you or even the most gifted guy. I really just think that I’m one of those people that stayed on their path, listened to intuition, and tried to remain humble. Call it destiny, call it luck, call it what you want. I went down this certain pipe, if you will. Instead of going to the left, my water flowed me to the right. I followed the more enchanted path. Had I made one little decision wrong, the other way would have been my way, and I wouldn’t be talking to you today. A lot of it is just environmental fortune for me to have made the right turn at the right time.

“I look back at everything I’ve done, and know that I am one of the lucky ones. I have a book in my head I could write if I were ever able to devote some time to it. It can be challenging to focus with so many things going on. I’m so scattered in my thoughts. That's where Savana comes in and grounds me. She will probably be the one to help me make the book thing happen at some point. So yes, I have a lifetime of accomplishments and moments I am proud to be a part of, but more than any of that I’m excited about is what is right in front of me. I keep that saying in the forefront of my mind, that you’re only as good as who you are today. I think my best years are ahead of me. These are all great stepping stones, but what stage of success I reach is yet to be determined. It’s still being built, and I can hear the hammering.”

I asked Anthony how has all of this experience influenced the incarnation of Sugarcane Jane and how it shaped their “mission” and vibe.

“In the song, ‘The Ballad of Sugarcane Jane’… well, funny enough, it’s not a ballad. It just got named that. But the story of that song tells it all. I ultimately say that the very first time I heard Savana sing one of my songs, and I started singing harmony with her, I knew that she and I were going to be together. That’s just all there is to it. She is the reason why I can be patient. I trust her. I feel like she is anointed by some higher power to have some sort of life that is made of honesty and integrity. She is fantastic with all the things she does.

"I’m saying this in all honesty. The girl totally made whatever it is that I did before her become a reality. It was not a reality before her. I had songs. I had this, that, and the other. But I wasn’t touring. I wasn’t even working on a career. I would just go out with Neil Young and make a bunch of money. Then I’d go and act like I was supposed to be getting another call from him at any minute to go out and make more money. It wasn’t about a career. I would get lost in my studio. I recorded constantly. I guess that's part of the puzzle though. I have a treasure chest of songs from those days so it's all a part of the puzzle. Getting with Savana has made it to where everything makes more sense. Together, we have something special. She was the last piece to my puzzle.

“Playing with Neil Young has given me the knowledge and experience to feel comfortable performing at this level. I played on stage with Paul McCartney. I’m not bragging, but I can honestly say I reached heights in the music business when it comes to at least being a sideman few people ever reach. And I did it multiple times. It’s like winning the Grammy of sideman. If they gave out a Grammy for sideman, I’d have at least three: Dwight Yoakam, Neil Young, and Steve Winwood. Those are three huge people who trusted me to be in their band. I was in there for more than just some weekend. I was in there for years. To me, that’s like having my Grammy. It’s not a Grammy, but it is a legacy that I'm extremely proud of.

“I’m not worried when I’m down here playing for people eating shrimp at Lulu’s, because I’ve seen what it’s like to be on a big stage and play in front of Glastonbury in England where there’s 200,000 people out there. That’s like playing Woodstock. I played at Live Aid in Philadelphia. I played Farm Aid. I played all these big concerts. In other words, I’m not anxious about figuring out, ‘What’s it like being on a bus? What’s it like to be at that level?’ I know what it’s like, and it’s not anything that’s a mystery to me anymore.

“I just know that making music with Savana is a beautiful thing, and I don’t want it to be over anytime soon. I want to take my time with my kids. I know that’s cliché-ish, but I love looking at my little kids sleeping when they wake up, their little faces… Things of that nature are what I define as success, not musical achievements. The fact that I’ve done all these things that you’ve mentioned gives me patience enough to be a good father, husband, and partner to someone like Buzz Cason who trusts me to do what I say I’m going to do. Years ago, I wouldn’t have, because I wasn’t grounded. I’m very grounded now about certain things, but I still have a lot of passion for music. Don’t get me wrong- if this record blows up and takes off, I’m going to be really excited about it. However, if this was the last thing that ever happens for it, just to be talking to you today, I’d be just as happy. It’s success to just have you even want to talk to me. That’s success to me. On a real basic level, you are taking your time to talk to me about me. It’s not money, but it’s your time and energy. That’s a commodity that I think is way underrated.”

Regarding receptivity to the music, Crawford said:

“Surprisingly to me, it’s all just positive. I didn’t know what people would think. I don’t listen to a lot of music, and I don’t really know what’s popular today. I really don’t. I’m not a music listener much. I’ve never been. I listened early on in my career to people and soaked it up. After awhile, I just quit listening. Occasionally, something will really interest me, and I’ll dig into it.

“In answer to your question, people tell me that what we’re doing is what people like these days. It’s really kind of a big thing. That’s a good sign. I don’t really know what that means. I’ve had several people tell me that we’re falling right into the pocket. It’d almost be like if I was wearing a Garth Brooks style of shirt and singing songs kinda like him, people would say, ‘Dude, you’re right in the pocket!’ It’s like, ‘Really?’ ‘Yea, there’s a dude, Garth Brooks, from Oklahoma. He’s big. Y’all got the same thing.’ I’d be like a knock-off of something or whatever. I don’t know what they’re talking about, but from what I understand, there’s a big folk music acoustic thing. What we’re doing, people like it... Shovels & Rope, The Civil Wars, Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, whoever. I think Savana and I have a little thing that’s probably different than most people, yet it’s still kinda in the zone of what’s going on. I’m probably going to have to start checking it out to see what’s going on. I don’t know. We’re just doing our music, and if anybody calls us and gives an opportunity to come play, we’re probably going to do it.”

In the course of chatting (and since Crawford had worked with Neil Young), I mentioned Richie Furay’s new CD (Furay is a former band mate of Young’s) and asked if he had heard it.

“That’s something I’m interested in. When I’m interested in something, I’ll go dig it up. But as far as just randomly going and searching for music, I don’t know. I like to just keep my mind clear. I’m a minimalist when it comes to input like that. I don’t want to feel like I’m copying something. If I come across something, I can honestly say I just came across it through sheer coincidence.

“I produced something with a fella named Scott Nolan. Now, I hope you look that fella up. He’s got several albums out. His music is so beautiful. He drove all the way from Winnipeg to come down to the Gulf Coast and record with me and that group I’m in with Savana called Willie Sugarcapps. Then there’s another guy, Edward David Anderson. He’s out of Illinois, and I just produced an album on him. Those are two people that both have new fantastic releases coming out this fall that I hope you check out.

“My real true love is producing. I LOVE producing. I love being home, making music for people, and having them leave just ecstatic. That is what I love. It’s my passion when it comes to music. I love performing, but if you gave me my choice, I would probably lean towards being in the studio. I can be around my kids and drive them to school when that part of life comes calling. I’m good at it. I play all kinds of instruments. I learned how to make music through Neil Young, really. I know how to make a real recording and keep magical parts without erasing them, because you think it’s a mistake.

“Sometimes mistakes seem to be mistakes until you add something else. All of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Oh, cool. That works big time.’ That’s what he does. He doesn’t get rid of anything. He’ll keep something that you think, ‘Ah, that sounds terrible!’ Then all of a sudden, you go, ‘Why doesn’t that sound terrible anymore?’ It’s because something was added that made it work. It’s like, vinegar on its own is no good, but you add it to cucumbers and ice, you’ve got this nice dish. It’s just the way it goes. I learned a lot from Neil Young. I learned what to do and what not to do from him. He’s been a very big teacher for me.”

I asked Anthony if there is a song from the album that he would offer as a calling card, so to speak, to draw people to the rest of “Dirt Road’s End.”

“That is a tough one. I love the sound of ‘San Andreas’, but I love the story of ‘The Ballad of Sugarcane Jane’. I had a little bit of a problem with the energy of ‘The Ballad of Sugarcane Jane’ being so over the top and being the first song on the record. But Buzz said, ‘Man, that’s gotta be first. It tells a story, and it’s the essence of who y’all are’. Given that, I would have to go with ‘The Ballad of Sugarcane Jane’.

“Then again, the next song ,‘The Game’, I love the way that song has that harmonica in there. I don’t know. It’s tough to pick one. I really have to say all those songs in there are very special to me.

“But because of the story and the lyrics, I have to go with ‘The Ballad of Sugarcane Jane’, for sure. It tells the story of me and Savana. If you were just trying to leave something in a time capsule for people to know about us, that clearly tells our story. None of the other songs tell our story like that one. That’s drilling for oil and hitting it, right there. The other songs are drilling all around it, but the lyrics on that song say what we are. It’s the truth about us.”

I love “Not Another Truck Song” on the album. I asked Crawford if it was a musical poke in Nashville’s eye.

Photo by Beach Chic Photography

“It is. I didn’t write that song; Buzz did. We had never even heard the song. I sat there around his computer while he played a demo of it. He just really wanted us to do it, and I was like, ‘Well, ok…’ It was the last song that we cut. Heck, that song turned out to be one of the best songs that we did on there as far as just the sound of it. The tone of it, to me, was pleasant.

“Buzz lives in Nashville. He’s had a lot of success with things up there, but he’s still outside of the box compared to people up there. As many songs as he’s written, he’s not one of those people. He’s not real hardcore Music Row writer. He comes from way deeper roots than that. I love that lyric, ‘This is not another truck song. Somebody done somebody’s baby wrong.’ I love the sentiment of it. It’s nice. It’s well written. I don’t think he’s being mean-spirited in any way with it, not that you’re saying he is. It is definitely a poke at the fact that most people think they’ve got to write a song about a truck or some sort of beer container being a certain color- red plastic cup, whatever that thing was. It’s just some kind of beer and truck party mentality that we just don’t fit into.

“I’m not sure Savana and I would really fit into being around hardcore country-loving fans. Our demographic is really your upper echelon, affluent educated people. They love us! They tip us great. They’re all well-to-do people, but for some reason, they just can’t believe little old me and Savana are entertaining them until they’ve had enough. We go and try to play for country folks that would go watch Kenny Chesney and they don’t seem to get us. I don’t know why, but I'm guessing it's because they haven't heard us before. They like something familiar, that they know the words to. And maybe they will now that we have this record out. But in the past, we’ve found that we aren’t singing the kind of songs that speak to them, like going mudding in a truck or buying beer at the gas station and meeting around a burning barrel somewhere out in the middle of the woods, talking about stuff after you’ve been laying concrete all day. I don’t know, I'm probably all wrong about it. Hopefully I am. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, radio, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, and all other music media educate people on what they "should be" listening to and they believe it. People don't have time to dive into the unknown artists and decipher what's good and what's not. That's why we're hoping that having national distribution and radio play will put our music into the ears of the country fans that otherwise might not have heard of us. I'm not giving up on them.

“I was in a band called Blackhawk. When Van Stephenson passed away, Henry Paul and Dave Robbins asked me to come into the band. They made me a partner. I was like the ‘new guy’. Nobody really gravitated towards me. We’d go do a meet ‘n’ greet, and nobody would talk to me. But that's probably my insecurity showing through. That and the fact that Henry Paul and Dave looked like giants next to me. I didn't visually fit in. With Savana, I do. We're practically the same size so it's just a more attractive package. It's the opposite now. You just have to find where you belong. There's always a place."

I asked why he felt the 40+ crowd dug Sugarcane Jane.

“Well, I think it’s the style of writing. Sometimes, when we’re doing a longer show, I will pull out a Neil Young cover, because I played with Neil. Or we’ll do ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’ with Steve or ‘A Thousand Miles From Nowhere’ with Dwight. People just love the song selection we have, because they relate to it. People who are in that place in life, whether it’s economic or whatever, seem to be more laid back about things. They just want to have a good time. They’re not wanting somebody to tell them a song about ‘Woe is me’, and they don’t really relate to somebody talking about a truck or drinkin’ or whatever. They want substance. And I think that it takes them back to their childhood because they grew up with that music like I did. The newer artists don't do those songs because they don't know them. But they should. I love it when I hear younger artists covering The Beatles or Stones or something like that.

“When we go play down near Destin, Florida, like Santa Rosa Beach or any of those wealthy seaside towns, those people have a lot of things going on for them individually. They have nice houses and cars and clothes, but they kinda like to go slummin’ with our music. It's an escape that's just on the edge of where their willing to go. It's fun to take them there.

“There’s a contrast that they love. We’re happy people, and we put on a smile. My wife has a very angelic energy, and I’m over there playing the crap out of the guitar. We’ve got tight harmony, so what’s not to love? We show up, and we’re real professional. Professional meaning we’re not late, and we’re not rude to people. We engage everybody. We’re very approachable. Being approachable is one of the biggest things I can say, because ultimately, people who like those other songs don’t necessarily even think about approaching people. There’s just some sort of different vision that they have of the world that doesn’t feel the need to belly up to what we’re doing. These other people have some sort of gravitational pull towards us because of the elements I described: nice, approachable, beautiful harmonies. The music is fresh, and they leave happy. We just peddle happiness, and those people like happy. Most affluent people don’t like unhappy. They've probably all been there before and who needs to be reminded of bad times? We deliver happy. We’re like pizza delivery people coming up to a mansion. We’re just bringing music instead of pizza. Then we go back to our little hut somewhere. We know how to hang on the rich folks’ property, and when they’re ready for us to go, we know how to leave without trashing their yard. They’ll ask us back. ”

On the subjects of positivity and faith, Anthony shared:

“I thing being representatives of good energy is God’s plan for me and Savana. I do believe in God. I’m a huge believer in that. I’ve been a doubtful person of it, and I’ve been proven that it exists. It’s even happened here lately. I asked God to show me, ‘Hey, if you exist, I need some proof RIGHT NOW. This is such a huge thing, and I need you to show me you’re with me on this.’ I got an answer an hour later. It’s amazing. I believe in God, and I believe in the fact that I’m being a vessel for him. I’m a representative of that. The best way I can do it is through song, my energy, and being positive with people. If I’m going somewhere, and somebody really wants to get in the door quicker than me, by all means. Just step right on in. I’m not going to be trying to beat somebody through the door. If they really need to get in, GO. Who knows? They might get in there and get slammed in the head. It would have been me. I don’t care. I don’t want to slow people down or make them pissed off. I yield. I’m a yielder for the most part. I try to be as much as I can."

As for tour plans in support of “Dirt Road’s End”:

“We have a lot of things coming up. We have a full-packed summer of shows. First of all, we just did the show with Steve Winwood in Birmingham which was a huge milestone for Sugarcane Jane. Savana and I are going out to Northern California to do a couple shows out there in June. In July, we’re touring with Steve Forbert for two to three weeks up the northeast. Then we come back to a string of our own personal southeast dates including Chatt Hills in Serenbe right outside of Atlanta at the end of July, a place Savana and I fell in love with. We’re also in another group called Willie Sugarcapps, and we’re playing the Targhee Bluegrass Festival in Wyoming in August.

“We have several very high-profile gigs in support of this record. I talked to Steve Winwood’s road manager/sound guy who turns out to be somebody I’ve known a long time. I was like, ‘James, you’re the main man now!’ He said, ‘Believe it or not, yep, that’s right.’ I said, ‘Well, if you get any more of these Steve Winwood gigs, we’d love to do them. We’ll travel anywhere.’ So the possibility of doing more with Steve is out there. We would also love to get back in with Dwight Yoakam. He just released a new album, Second Hand Heart, where he cut one of my songs, V's of Birds. So yeah, we’ve got big things on the horizon for Sugarcane Jane.

“I have high hopes for the records I’m producing for these people who are out there working: Scott Nolan, Edward David Anderson, Cary Laine, Lauren Kay. We have so much on our plate right now. We’re very diversified. If we were in the stock market, we would have a fantastic looking portfolio. Our eggs are not in one basket. The Dwight Yoakam cut- who knows what that’s going to do for me. I’m not sure if those things generate a lot of income anymore, but it sure looks good on paper. People love to talk about it.”

I know that Crawford gets asked a ton of questions about Neil Young. However, I’m more intrigued with his work with Steve Winwood. Sugarcane Jane opened for WInwood recently. When I suggested that it speaks volumes about his respect for Anthony as a friend and musician, he said:

“Oh, yeah. I’m going to give you something a little juicy here. Here’s the difference between Neil Young and Steve Winwood in a nutshell. When I was playing with Steve Winwood, early on in the tour after he’d finished his Back In The High Life tour, which was huge, we were doing the Roll With It tour. I’m over there playing the guitar, and I’m singing the harmony with him. He comes up to me in the middle of the song, he looks at me, and he says in that English voice, ‘Anthony, I just love what you’re playing. Love it. But could you just please stick to the parts on the record? Ok, thank you.’ When I did one little note wrong with Neil, he just looked at me like he could kill me.

“The differences in people are just amazing. Steve is such a nice person. Now don’t get me wrong. If you do something that he doesn’t like, you’ll just wind up not working with him or something. Maybe I did something. As a human being, there’s no better. How we got that gig was because I was walking out of my studio about two weeks ago. We were going over to play a show in Destin, and I knew that they have a house in Destin. I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just e-mail Genia (his wife) to see if they’re down here and invite them to the show’. She e-mailed me back and said, ‘We’re not in the States right now, but thanks for asking. We hope to see you soon’. About two or three days later, we get a call from our booking agent that Winwood’s management was inquiring about us opening for Steve in Birmingham. Because I refreshed their brain about me, they thought, ‘Let’s let Anthony and Savana open for you in Birmingham’. Now that’s nice, ok?

“When in reality, Neil comes and plays at the Mobile Saenger Theatre eight miles from my house, and he gets somebody else to open. He doesn’t even think about letting me do it. I spent twenty something years of my life with him. So that’s the difference.

“Steve is a generous man. That’s not to say Neil is not a generous man. He just doesn’t think about the fact that I gave him years and years and years of my life. It’s like, ‘Hey, dude, throw me a bone!’ Whether he did it on purpose, or he just didn’t even think about it, that’s the difference. Steve thinks about people. He’s a generous, thoughtful man. There’s nothing I could ever say about that guy that wouldn’t be glowing. He’s tops for me as a human being and a musician.”

Because Anthony has been in the music business for such a long time, I asked him what are the most positive and negative changes he’s seen in it.

“The most positive thing that comes to my mind immediately would be that the music business is back in the hands of the musicians. Due to the Internet, social media, and if you get out there and just love what you’re doing, you have the opportunity to make a living playing music. It’s wide open again. It’s not owned by a few record companies. That’s positive to me.

“Something that disturbs me about the music business is how many people are willing to copy your music and share it with everyone they know for free. It's stealing and they don't seem to have a problem with it. They do it because they can. And a lot of people don't even realize that it's not only illegal, it's just wrong. I know some artists give away their music for the exposure but that is their choice. There are a lot of other artists that need the downloads and cd purchases to survive. It's no different than stealing a candy bar at the grocery store. Wrong is wrong. I just wish people would realize this. Considering how much artists put in to making a record and the process of learning to play and writing the songs, music is cheap. So I am happy to support people and buy their music. It's an easy concept to grasp. Our record label for Willie Sugarcapps (The Royal Potato Family) said most music gets out before albums are even released. It's just out there on the internet for people to steal. It's a constant task of shutting those sites down. Seems impossible. All you can do is hope that people will just stop doing it.

“As far as the business, I don’t know. I think the positives are way bigger. Right now, you can get out there and make a living at music. At least, we’re doing it. I consider myself one of the most unknowledgeable guys about the music business there is. If I was really smart about it, I probably would have been a millionaire by now with all the people I’ve known and opportunities I’ve probably had but didn’t take people up on it. Like Joe Galante giving me the opportunity to be produced by Bruce Hornsby- I didn’t know who Bruce Hornsby was. I was like, ‘Nope, thanks’. This was back when I was a kid.

“About a month later, I see him on the Grammys getting, like, seven Grammys. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s not good’. I’ve had my chances, and I’ve just been kinda uninformed, if you will. The other version is just being a dumbass about certain things in my career. I mean, man, I had an opportunity to be produced by Bruce Hornsby. I didn’t jump on it, because the contract said we will mutually decide. I wanted Mark Knopfler. I just thought he was so cool, but I didn’t know who Bruce Hornsby was. I made a foolish mistake. I should have gone, ‘Okay!’, but I didn’t. It goes back to my song. I have no regret to the past I claim. I have no regret for anything I’ve done in the past, because had I done that with Bruce Hornsby, I might not have my daughter today. I harbor no resentment towards myself. I’ve been given a green light to feel better.

"One more negative is the confusion about how to pay people. It’s awful out there. I get a statement that says, ‘You got 40,000 plays.’ I get like six cents. I have to have two million spins to make a hundred bucks. That’s the music business that I don’t like. The electronic tracking and payment system- that is what is broken. In the old days, if you had a record out, somehow people got rich. Not now days. I don’t know how people are making millions of dollars. These people that are getting sued for sounding like somebody, and they have to pay Tom Petty four million dollars. That means those people made four million. I’d love to get sued by somebody and pay them four million. That means I’m going to be, at least, famous for it. Tom Petty just recently got four million or something for somebody sounding like ‘Free Fallin’’. I heard both copies. I did not get it.” But the business is always changing and everyone is just trying to keep up and figure it out. I think there are great strides being made about writers getting paid. I know Roseanne Cash is one who is on top of it. I am thankful for people like her that stand up for everyone else who are clueless about what is really going on."

Photo by Beach Chic Photography

I asked Crawford if he was named Music Industry czar and tasked with fixing the industry, what would he do to fix it or does he think it needs fixing and if he thought it was fixable.

“I think those are people who aren’t out there doing it themselves. You asked me what’s wrong with the music business. It is so not wrong to me, because I don’t even think about them. I don’t care about the music business. I really don’t. The business is out there to go get. It’s better than it’s ever been for people, because ultimately, you can make your own records at home. I’m sitting here in my little chair in my studio, and I’m looking at Pro Tools kit. I’ve got Neumann speakers. I’ve got a Neumann U67. I’ve got Neve preamps and Universal Audio. I’ve got everything that a big studio used to have that you would have to pay an arm and a leg to do. I’ve got vintage guitars on the wall. I’ve got a beautiful wife in there that knows how to sing. We’ve got enough money to make our own records. It’s enough for us to get some action in a specific area. When you start tracking what areas really like your music, then you go, ‘Guess what? Minneapolis for some reason loves Sugarcane Jane’. Well, guess what? I’m going to get my booking agent to book me some gigs in Minneapolis.

“It’s not broken. It’s better than ever. You can do it. People still like to see live music. If you play live, there is no music business. It’s your business.

“The best thing that’s happened to the music business is the ability to have your phone tell you how to get to the gig. That, to me, is amazing. We went and did a gig in St. Augustine then had to get over to Tampa the next morning. It was complicated. The phone was like, ‘Turn left. Ok, in three quarters of a mile, go right’. Fifteen or twenty years ago, you’d be like, ‘Oh god, we’re not going to make the gig’. There are a lot of positives about touring now. I’m just a guy out there that’s going to play my music. I don’t care if electricity stopped happening, I’d look for campfires to play around. I’d take my acoustic guitar. I don’t need electricity. My wife and I could sing and get somebody to give us a deer leg if we were hungry.

“That’s the problem with living in Nashville. They started depending on somebody telling them how to go do something. Down here, we’re in the middle of the woods. We’ve got to go out and get it. We learn how to hunt and fish, metaphorically-speaking. We’re living and playing music. We’re doing what we love. That’s BIG.

And connoisseurs will have no complaints listening to “Dirt Road’s End” and, when they do listen to it, they’ll become fans for life.

Visit WWW.SugarcaneJane.com

No Depression Interview: Singer/Songwriter and Guitarist Anthony Crawford, From Neil Young's Band to Sugarcane Jane

by Donald Gibson
April 27, 2015
http://nodepression.com/interview/singersongwriter-and-guitarist-anthony-crawford-neil-youngs-band-sugarcane-jane

“Music is freedom,” declares veteran singer/songwriter and guitarist Anthony Crawford, calling from his native Gulf Coast Alabama home in the middle of a recent weekday afternoon, the long-distance line at times picking up an idyllic chorus of chirping birds and one of his two young children playing in the yard. Indoors the other tyke is being tended to by his wife, Savana Lee, with whom he now makes a joyful noise as Americana duo Sugarcane Jane.

Freedom comes in many forms, of course. What it ultimately means for Crawford, though, is making music on his own terms after nearly three decades playing second fiddle (or guitar, mandolin, or any other of the twelve or so instruments on which he’s proficient) to the likes of Vince Gill, Steve Winwood, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, and Dwight Yoakam — a gospel-tinged cover of the Crawford-penned “V's of Birds” appears on Yoakam’s latest LP, Second Hand Heart — both on the road and in studio sessions.

Then there’s his lengthy but intermittent association with Neil Young, something which Crawford seems to regard as creatively fruitful at times yet emotionally dispiriting in general. “He’s a fantastic musician,” Crawford says of Young, “but for the most part he’s a hard guy to belly up to. He doesn’t have that many true friends, but that’s his choice. I was a servant to him. That’s probably where I went wrong.”

Where he went right was in recruiting Savana Lee for Sugarcane Jane, whose rambunctious, acoustic-rich fifth LP, Dirt Road’s End, was released this week on venerable producer and album co-writer Buzz Cason’s ArenA Recordings. “When her voice was added to it,” says Crawford, describing the genesis of their musical chemistry, “it became like adding water to pancake batter. I mean, it’s just a dry mix until you [get] her involved and then you just stir her into it and add that instrumentation, which would be your hot griddle, and you’re making pancakes at that point.”

“We’re making a living and we’re doing what we love,” husband and wife sing on “The Ballad of Sugarcane Jane,” their voices as entwined as their hands on the album’s front cover, symbolizing a sense of fulfillment that, as Crawford suggests, could not have come soon enough.

“I wasn’t playing any shows,” he says. “I would just go out with Neil Young, make my money, come home and spend it, and then wait on him to call me again. But when I met her, I was actually excited to go and start playing music and have a career of my own. It made it where I didn’t care if Neil called me, and still don’t. She has made it to where I’ve got a career.”

Was there any sort of evolution or process between you and your wife — because you each have made music separately — in which you discovered your collective sound as Sugarcane Jane?

Our harmony is what sells us, I think, if you were really to break down the individual components of what it is. I would first of all say that that is what most people want if they could only have one part of it. They like the harmony, just the sound of our voices together. Of course I’m pretty wild on the guitar. I like getting the energy stirred up with that. And she’s over there playing the kick drum and snare drum. The evolution of it started when we first became a group together, we were playing restaurants where people were eating. We would play so quiet that people would tell us to turn up, and that’s the opposite of what everybody else was getting. Everybody else was being told to turn down. So we started out being really super quiet and singing real soft. Then somewhere we added a bass player and we got a little more raucous. I added that kick drum. Then she started playing the snare drum. All of a sudden we came on this full-on, full-blown energetic thing, and it just morphed into what you hear on that record.

When all of those elements came together, did you realize why it was working?

I think I did, yeah. When you’re playing a guitar lick and all of a sudden you start putting that four-on-the-floor with the kick drum and you look at people eating their shrimp and bobbing their heads, you go, “Huh, we’re onto something here.” We eventually got better shows, like opening for Randy Travis. When we play a forty-minute show, I think we are at our best. When we do forty minutes to an hour-fifteen, we can just lay down some deep, deep groove and get in and get out and nobody gets hurt…. There was a time, when we first started doing that particular aspect of what you hear on the record, you could see the excitement from people that couldn’t believe that much music was coming from what they were looking at. It was confusing to them, like, “How do you get that? That just sounds like more than two people.” It was like we had a little magic show.

Can you discern how your environment — and by environment I mean the South, living and working in Alabama — contributes to the music you’re making now?

Believe it or not there is a bunch of people who love music down here, and there’s a lot of people that make music. The environment that I love about it is that nobody’s searching for a hit. Nobody’s trying to write the next song that is a chartbuster. People are just playing music and drinking beer and eating food and making people happy. It’s just a fun environment to play music [in] because ultimately it boils down to, “I’ve got a song and you’ve got some ears. Let’s just have some beers and sing and play until the night is over and get up and do it again.” I love it down here because there’s a love of music and the people down here appreciate the music so much.

In Nashville where I was living — not to put down Nashville at all; it’s a beautiful town — I got caught up in trying to get connected with somebody who could do something for me. I’ve realized, no one can do anything for me. I’ve gotta do it myself and want people to come; I’ve gotta make people want to come to me. I can’t force it on anybody. Being down here has changed my outlook on what music “business” is. I’m doing my business by playing music. I was trying to search for the right lawyer or manager to make something happen, and now I’m just playing music and it’s happening. I was confused up there. Now I’m not. That’s the difference.

Because you’ve worked with so many legendary artists, do you ever feel intimidated in trying to carve out your own identity as an artist?

How can you not think the song “Expecting to Fly” is not one of the most beautiful songs ever written and recorded? Or “Can’t Find My Way Home”? Or, for that matter, with Steve Forbert, “Romeo’s Tune”? All these people write these great songs, but somewhere in the last few years I’ve accepted the fact that, indeed, if I could just get some airplay that made mine exposed to a lot of people for a long time, the songs are there. It’s just, they’re not in cement. They’re not carved in stone. They just haven’t been proven.

I started my career late. I gave my career, my life, to Neil Young. Pretty much. That didn’t do anything for me other than make me some temporary really good money. But as far as being, like, really good friends with him… He came to Mobile and played the Saenger Theatre [in 2010] and didn’t ask me to open for him. He got somebody else from New Orleans [Allen Toussaint]. I find that to be strange.… Something about Neil’s changed. His policies have changed. He’s doing things to me that… I’ve seen him not compromise his art — or following his muse he puts it — for anybody or anything.

When I was out on the road with him — back in the ‘80s I was in the band International Harvesters and as well with the Shocking Pinks — we were all just having fun. Neil was still a young guy. He was thirty-five, and we were having fun. We were just jamming together on the stage, really having fun.

However, when I met back with him years later and we started doing touring in 2007/08/09/10 — we were touring all over Europe and the United States — it was all just so controlling and no fun.

I was out making these little vignette movies called On the Road with a Rock Star, and so I put them out on my YouTube channel. Very few of them had him in it at all. It was mainly what I do on my time off on the road with a rock star…. Well, he emailed me one day and said, “In my circles you’re not very popular for having those ‘blogs,’” as he called it, “your rock-star blogs. You should take those down.” I wrote back and I said, “Wow, coming from the guy that never does anything anybody ever suggests — and you’ve taught me one thing and one thing only, to never compromise your art for anybody — that is surprising to me.”

Was he upset because he was in it or because he just didn’t like it?

He was in it, like, just passing. They all knew I was doing this. It wasn’t like they said, “Put your camera down.” They all knew it. I’ve got like twenty hours of just us off the stage, walking around and doing stuff, all over the world. But everything about him is totally classy. If he’s ever in it he’s not compromised at all.

He just doesn’t like me, really, but yet he used me all those years to do something. I think my connection to him was probably Ben Keith and when he died so did my relationship with Neil. I don’t know. It was just really weird how he wanted to snuff that out. So I just feel like that was a little bit of a hypocritical thing. He’s a great guy for a lot of people, but it’s tense between me and him, that’s for sure. We’ve had it out several times.

Really?

Oh, gosh, yeah. I was making a lot of money and after a while I didn’t care about the money anymore. I wanted to get away from him. And I did. My life is better. I mean, I’m struggling financially more so, but man I gotta tell you, that energy he has is just overwhelming. He is so powerful, but he’s dark. It’s just like being around a big cloud all day. I get with Savana and start doing Sugarcane Jane and it’s just like I’m at the beach in the sun getting a tan.

The time you played with him in the ‘80s was such a weird time to be a Neil Young fan. That was back when David Geffen sued him for not sounding “Neil Young” enough.

Oh, I know. I know. I’ve been a part of his worst records of all time, they say. But I tell you what, you go get that record called A Treasure, it’s filled with fabulous music. I have to say that I’m in one of his best bands of all time, the International Harvesters, the first rendition of it with Tim Drummond, Spooner [Oldham], me, Neil, Ben Keith, Karl Himmel, Rufus [Thibodeaux]. It was fantastic. Then he got Pig Robbins and Joe Allen in there after Tim Drummond; I think he quit or somehow got fired. And Spooner got sideways with him, and so he got Pig. Neil had some great musicians around him. That’s one thing I can say. I learned a lot from that man. I know how to produce music because I was on a lot of sessions. Somebody keeps up with these stats that show how many shows people have done. I’m like sixth on the list of people in the world that have played the most shows with him. I’ve played like two-hundred and ninety shows with him. That’s an accomplishment for me to be around the guy that much.

You’ve had songs you’ve written recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys, Kenny Rogers, and Dwight Yoakam, among others. Does another artist’s rendition of one of your songs ever give you new insights that you didn’t have when you wrote it?

Yeah. Dwight changed a word that actually made [“V’s of Birds”] make more sense. I can’t recall what it is, but I do remember saying, “Hmm, I like that.” As well, the fact that he liked the song years and years and years ago and always said he was gonna cut it intrigued me. Then to finally find out that he did cut the song, and then to find out that he’s putting it on his new album, was a real honor for me. His version and the way he does it is completely different from the way I do it. It’s interesting to see how the Oak Ridge Boys cut “Glory Bound.” It’s not how I would’ve envisioned them doing it, but… They took the lick that I thought was like a hook and they kind of changed it to fit Oak Ridge Boys. People do what they gotta do. I’m not really thinking that too many people are gonna cover my songs, but when I do get one, man, it’s very exciting to me. I don’t think I’m gonna be able to retire off of any of them. I had a Kenny Rogers cut and I made about three-hundred dollars. That’s just the way it goes for me.

The Dwight Yoakam album looks promising, though. That one’s got a lot of positive buzz.

My song is one of two songs that [were] recorded that he didn’t write, and the other one is “Man of Constant Sorrow.” So I’m in good company. I think he’s fantastic. He’s a real guy. Even though he kind of fell in love with Buck Owens and that whole Bakersfield sound and really tweaked his thing to go along with that, he’s still got some sort of original… There was still a piece of real estate that he could call his in that sound. You know what I mean? He’s not a knockoff. He’s the real deal. There was still something to buy in his deal. [Producer/guitarist] Pete Anderson helped him develop it. Those two guys were brilliant when they were working together.

Do you have to put yourself in a context to create and write songs or can you just be driving the kids to school and an idea hits you?

Well, it used to be I could just take a toke and get a beer and sit in my little room and make stuff up, but that was then and this is now. For me right now, songs come to me now almost in their entirety, and not [with] me sitting in front of a console or putting a drum loop down and just making up music. That’s what was wrong with my writing style a long time ago, was that I would love to medicate to some degree and just sit in there and just make music, but I’ve got so much responsibility these days that what comes to me about a song is delivered almost in full. If I do write a song, I do not have to be in any sort of, “I’ve got to stand this way or sit in this chair” [mood]. No way. Man, my daughter can say something or I can just see somebody…

I’m a real sensitive person, I’ll admit it. Some things make me really sad. I’d get tears over things you’d say, “What are you upset about?” I’ll cry, I admit it. I’m a person who has deep feelings for justice and just things in general and whatnot. And so I don’t think my creativity is a prisoner to any environment. It just is open to whatever, like Neil says, “the muse” of whatever it is that grazes my mind [and] lets me be privileged to catch it from the ethereal spectrum of life where it just comes by. If I see it I try to grab it. It’s like trying to grab a butterfly or something. You can’t sit in a room and entice the butterfly in there. You’ve got to be out in the environment, to me, these days to be able to have something worth saying. You’ve got to have something going on that’s relatable to other people.

Dirt Road’s End is available on ArenA Recordings. For more information, please visit Sugarcane Jane online.

SongFacts Interview: ANTHONY CRAWFORD OF SUGARCANE JANE

Authenticity and rawness are hard to find in music these days. The existence of a program such as Pro Tools makes it incredibly easy to alter sound and construct the perfect song. But the Alabama Gulf Coast based husband-wife duo, Sugarcane Jane, firmly believe in persevering the human element of creating music and embracing the imperfectness of it. In April, Anthony and Savana Lee Crawford released their fourth album, Dirt Road's End, which showcases well their faithfulness to producing homegrown, genuine Americana tunes.

Multi-instrumentalist and prolific songwriter, Anthony Crawford, tells in this chat the stories behind numerous songs off of the new record. Crawford also reveals how the fairy tale life that he lives with his wife and children inspire his songwriting, why he left the Nashville music scene, and what he learned from being Neil Young's sideman for over 30 years.

http://www.songfacts.com/blog/writing/anthony_crawford_of_sugarcane_jane/

Laura Antonelli (Songfacts): Your new album Dirt Road's End was recorded with Buzz Cason at his studio in Nashville. It was done on two-inch analog tape, which gives it a raw sound. Why did you decide to record the album that way?

Anthony Crawford: I think because I love recording and the process of recording is a part of my life. I know about analog music because I'm from that generation where that was the only option. There were no digital recorders back in my day. But now that you have Pro Tools and digital avenues to record the music, it's so much more cost effective and you can manipulate the sound. I think ultimately the main reason for doing it analog is to keep it real. The further into the process you keep everything analog, the more live and real it maintains. It maintains the real human aspect. I think digitally manipulating sound can take the nuance out of it. People make their music so perfect these days that it loses something. It is about the sound. It does make it raw-sounding to some degree.

First of all, we recorded it live. Savana and I actually played and sang at the same time. The studio was set up like a live event. Although it was recorded to tape, we were set up with a PA. We didn't have this perfect sterile environment. Therefore, the energy of this record is to say the least, a bit over-the-top. We're so full of energy on this record. It's borderline embarrassing [laughs]. We were just really in it.

Other times we've recorded guitar and then gone back to sing it. The album being recorded on two-inch tape and performed as if we were doing a live concert, I think has translated into people finding something in it that they don't find in other recordings. It's actually a mystery to me to some degree how it's being received so well. I was worried about the sound of it because it was kind of raw. You hear everything these days and it's so perfect. But so far people are just like, "Wow, it's so different! I love it!" So far be it for me to think that anything is wrong with it.

But I went back and forth with Buzz about it. I was thinking, "Man, it sounds thin right here." I was just caught up in the process of trying to make it sound like everything else. Buzz was insistent on leaving it alone and letting it be. I'm glad that he did because I think sometimes we can be our own worst critic. So I just let go of it and said, "Heck with it. Whatever happens happens." We got a write-up in The Washington Times that said Savana and I were the new Johnny Cash and June Carter. You can't pay somebody to say that. I guess you could, but we didn't and we got it. So something about the record is translating.

Songfacts: Definitely. Buzz Cason also co-wrote seven of the 10 songs with you over the course of the last decade.

Anthony: Yeah, that's true.

Songfacts: You were just getting into it a bit, so what was it like working with him?

Anthony: Buzz, he's been around. Buzz has worked with Elvis Presley. When Buddy Holly died, Buzz went to Europe and filled in on some dates, so he's been around. He's written some great songs and had a #1 hit in four decades in a row. So Buzz is very successful as a songwriter and other ventures. He's just a real business-oriented person. He might be older than some, but the fact is that he's got such a young heart and mind. When he sings, he sounds like he's in his youth. Buzz has a youthfulness about him that never seems to change. And his lyrical content is youthful and full of energy. My musical contribution to it kind of kickstarted it.

He and I actually got together when I was going through a divorce. I was down on myself, and life just seemed dark. He was a bright light to me. He brought a lot to the table to me as a friend and he believed in me as an artist. When we got together and started writing, the energy was prolific. We wrote a song every time we got together. It was amazing. We popped out about 25 or 30 songs in a short period of time. Then I found another woman and moved on, but he caught me when I was in-between. I was an insecure person in some regards at that time. So I was lonely and he was just a guy that could help me focus. He helped me focus on music instead of concentrating on my woe. We popped out of that about 30 songs that are really good. So I felt we had somewhat of a McCartney-Lennon relationship, not that we're successful like them or as good as them, but the energy was the same. We write well together.

Songfacts: The songs "Pedigree," "Heartbreak Road," "Louisiana," and "Sugar" are actually on your sophomore album, Alright with Me. Why did you put them on this new record, too?

Anthony: Well, the fact that nobody has ever heard that other record [laughs]. You can have a CD out, but thinking that everybody in the world has already heard it is funny. We live on the Gulf Coast of Alabama and a lot of tourists come through here. Sugarcane Jane plays music everywhere now, but, at the time, we were playing most of our shows here on the Coast. Tourists would buy the records but we never felt like the songs got exposed to the larger audience. However, we played them for four or five years, and knew that everybody loved them. So if you're going to get an opportunity to put them out to the world, why not put your best songs out there? We thought we would just give those songs an opportunity to be a part of our first major attempt at being more than just a local act.

If Savana and I do a show, which we're opening for Steve Winwood on May 2 in Birmingham, Alabama, we will be playing those songs because they are crowd-pleasing. They bring out the energy and the harmony that seem to be the elements that people love about Sugarcane Jane.

Songfacts: The title of the album, Dirt Road's End, comes from a lyric from the first song, "Ballad of Sugarcane Jane," when you both sing, "Built us a house at the dirt road's end." Why did you decide to name it that?

Anthony: We were talking about our previous release, Listen with Headphones. We were thinking how it's a shame that people nowadays can download your song and unfortunately listen to it on computer speakers or an iPhone. So that's why I was saying, "I wish everybody would listen with headphones." I went, "Hey, we'll call it Listen with Headphones!" It just planted a seed for people to maybe listen with headphones.

The title of Dirt Road's End - my wife and I live at the end of a dirt road. It's a mile-and-a-half long. We own a large piece of property that has been in her family for many, many, many generations. It's over several thousand acres. We live at the end of the dirt road that goes into the property. I just thought it was romantic sounding. It has an imagery of where we live. I'm standing in the house at the dirt road's end talking to you right now. It's fairy-tale stuff. You want to create imagery for people because that's what art is: it's imagery.

The life that I live with Savana, it's a little bit of a fairy tale. Our love affair with each other, our music, and our kids - the house at the dirt road's end is just where we reside, and that's where all the little episodes of our fairy tale transpire.

I followed my dream to the path of a crow
All the way to the Music Row
Fell in love when I heard her sing
So I packed my bag and my old six string

The opening lyrics to the first song on Dirt Road's End, "Ballad of Sugarcane Jane," begin to paint the picture of how Anthony and Savana Lee met in Nashville, Tennessee. Anthony lived in the "Music City" for almost three decades and became well-known within the scene for touring and lending his vocals and guitar skills to such artists as Neil Young, Steve Winwood, Dwight Yoakam, and Vince Gill. He has also released four solo albums, which led him to meeting Savana Lee.

She moved to Nashville in 1999 and began writing and performing at such distinguished places like the Bluebird Cafe, Broken Spoke, and Douglas Corner Cafe. Savana Lee also eventually co-owned and managed the highly regarded vintage analog recording studio, Deepfield Studio. The two met while Anthony was working on solo songs there. He asked her to sing on a couple of demos for him causing to spark what would later become a creative partnership and romantic relationship. The duo collaborated on Savana Lee's 2007 solo album, Redbird, and both decided to return to their roots by relocating together to the Gulf Coast of Alabama a few of years later.

Songfacts: Let's discuss "Ballad of Sugarcane Jane." It's autobiographical and it tells the story of how you and Savana met in Nashville, fell in love, and started the band. What was the songwriting process for it?

Anthony: I'll often just pick up my guitar and start playing. More so these days, I like to be able to play and sing the song before I start the recording process. In days of the past, I would go out to my studio and maybe get a drum beat going, and then I'd start making some music up. The lyrics would be the last thing that I would add to it. I was more of a person that was interested in the groove or the musical direction of a song.

But being with Savana, I'm more lyrically inspired. She brings out my ability to describe a little bit of the fantasy that I live with her because she's one of the sweetest people that I've ever met. I think the story, it's worth people hearing. I was just recalling my little journey. I don't really have that good fortune everyday that I pick my guitar up, but I did that particular day, and those words just came out of me like making coffee. It just poured out into my cup. I knew that I had something special. I believe that there's something spiritually involved in our journey and this was an aspect of the journey that had to come to life.

Buzz actually wanted the song to be first on the record. He was just insistent upon it. I thought, "I don't know about that." I didn't like the intro. The whole thing bothered me, but he was saying, "Man, you just have to have it first! It tells your story, man!" I thought about it and was like, "It really does tell our story."

So I think it's just a blessing that song came out of me. I didn't try to write it. It's all factual, even down to the lyrics, "We've got friends that come to the show and they buy everything that we record. We're making a living doing what we love. We send our praise to the man above."

We're faithful people. We're not freaks about it, but we do believe that there's something bigger than us. We're not people who are living on this planet that believe we just go away and that's it. I just don't believe that. I think energy keeps going on, and my energy with her energy makes way more than just double energy. It makes something exponentially bigger. I think that in this time of life where people are all fighting or singing about "woe is me," I feel like Savana and I have the most success when we make people feel good after they leave the show. We want people to have a positive energy after they leave us because they can go get drenched in negativity elsewhere. People need positive energy. My Mom always said that it's easier to smile than to frown. I think that song is just a spiritual gift. I didn't have to try to write that one bit. It was just automatic.

Songfacts: There's a lyric in "Ballad of Sugarcane Jane" where you sing about your children, "Levon and Loretta Raine come from the love called Sugarcane Jane." And on your third album, Listen with Headphones, six of the 14 songs were inspired by your daughter including track four, which is named after her. Do you think your songwriting changed once you became parents, and, if so, in what ways?

Anthony: Well, of course. I mean, I pretty much have to contain my emotions about that.

Songfacts: You have to contain your emotions about it?

Anthony: Well, I mean, [becoming choked up] talking about it because my kids – [Long pause] I never thought that I would have kids, first of all. I was just a lone drifter. My life is so different than back when I was playing in a band with Neil Young or any of the other things that I've ever done. I had different goals and I had a different outlook. So I'm quite emotional about that whole part of it because it's the realization that success is not determined by money. It was like, Duh! I can't believe it took me to be in my 50s to realize that you can re-define what success is by getting a closer look at the reality that you're living. The reality is that my success is walking around my little house right now. I can hear her little footsteps. I can hear my success. I can feel it. I can go hug it. It's not a currency. It's life. My currency and my success are within my children.

So, yes, it definitely changed my songwriting. I beat myself up sometimes for thinking, "Who wants to hear about my kids? How boring." But, in reality, I'm writing from my heart. So hopefully that translates to people and if our audience of listeners are in the same boat as me than they're going to love my songs. I'm not singing to the same crowd that I used to anymore. We find ourselves being involved in a more family-oriented atmosphere. We're not playing late-night bars with people drinking and smoking. I don't condemn it - I've been there and done that, but I love writing about my kids because that's what I'm doing.

I've read from great writers that you should write about where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. It's the best way to be and that's what I'm doing. I'm so committed to my family that when I try to write songs about things other than them, talk about falling flat on your face. I just don't have it. But if you were to say, "Well, hey! I love songs about your family. Write me more!" I could do that all day long because I'm living it. I'm writing about what I'm living. So pardon me if I'm raising children and trying to live and think where my feet are instead of being outside of myself.

So, yeah, I do know that Listen with Headphones had a lot of the songs on there about my kid at the time. Now I have two and Savana's having another one, which we didn't know and was huge news for us.

Songfacts: Oh, wow, congratulations!

Anthony: Well, thank you. Oddly enough, Savana wrote in her high school yearbook, "I want a trustworthy man and three children."

Songfacts: Oh, wow.

Anthony: I know. Not that we were trying to have three because we didn't plan it, but she is pregnant. It's been a big game changer for us because it limits where we're going to play, but we have a full slate of shows this summer. It's just unbelievable how busy we are, but, once again, I think that we're being led by some spiritual journey. I can't question it. My daughter's going to start kindergarten in August so I'm going to have to be here anyway. Music is going to have to take somewhat of a backseat.

Songfacts: You said in an interview that you thought "The Game" had the most mass appeal. So what inspired that song?

Anthony: Playing "the game" references golf. Buzz and I used to play golf together and have fun. We're both terrible at it, but we would just get out there and knock the ball around. You can be talking about golf but you're also talking about just anything that you're doing. It's like that guy on the contest show, American Idol – there was a guy on there and his phrase was, "In it to win it." I think sometimes musicians want to stroke their own egos - they want to prove that they are the best. The song pokes fun at that a little bit. I feel creepy singing it sometimes because I'm not actually that person saying, "Oh, look at me! I'm going to be successful. I'll show you!"

It's just a playful song. I think the energy and the music of it is powerful, and the lyrics are clever and catchy.

It does have some appeal if we were to release something to country radio or just radio, period. But "San Andreas," that song is special to me. I like the way it starts. I love the sound of it. I just love the whole thing about that song. To me, that's more of who I am. That sound is the influence of Neil Young on me.

Songfacts: Let's talk about "San Andreas." You wrote it when you were working with Neil Young. You were at his home in Northern California and constantly living in fear of the earthquakes that were happening there. What was the writing process for that song?

Anthony: Well, I can recall getting on the airplane to fly home after one of my trips out there. I was just looking out at the runway as I was leaving San Francisco airport and thinking about the place. I was just somehow comparing the fear that I had of an earthquake to the beauty that I was able to experience while being there. It was the yin and yang kind of thing - Okay, well, your biggest fear is here but you're experiencing one of the most beautiful places on the planet - as far as the way it affected me as a person. I'm not saying everybody would love it.

But I just think that because of the contrast that it has and just the big wide open sky at night - where Neil Young lives is so magnificent. No wonder the guy writes the best songs, or at least at one time he did, living where he lives. About two or three miles over a hill and you're on the Pacific Coast. You then go the other way and you just have the most beautiful rolling California hills. You then can go in another direction and you're right in the middle of these sequoias, which are massive trees. It just had it all. It was just the most magical place to be was on his property, and, specifically, where I was sleeping. I would just get up and look at the stars. You could see a satellite go by. You just never knew what was up in that sky. The sky was just deeper than anywhere that I'd ever been.

So somehow I was comparing the energy that I felt of like - Oh, God! If one of these trees fell on me, I'm dead! When I go out there, I still always know that looms. But so does a tornado down here in Alabama. Fear is fear. I think fear is crippling and I don't like to even dance with fear anymore. Fear, not sudden calamity, is my whole thing.

But the song is basically praising that area. We kind of make a joke, "If God had a home, she'd be living there." When we sing that lyric, everybody always giggles because we reference God as a woman.

Songfacts: "Home Nights" seems to be about life on the road as a musician and missing being home and the family. What's the story behind that one?

Anthony: Well, that's one written with Buzz. He's more than a lyricist in our connection to each other. I would always be the one inspiring the music or the lick. I think to really understand those lyrics it would be more of a Buzz question. However, I do relate to them - when you're on the road and you're just missing your home and family. I have to say, when you're home too much, you miss getting out there on the road, too. It's a little bit of a conundrum for a travelling musician. To be gone, you miss your home, but it's just like when you're doing anything for too long, you want something else. "Home Nights," it's just one of those clever little songs that Buzz and I put together.

I remember one night I wrote the music to "Sugar" – that little lick [sings guitar riff]. He and I got together and it just sounded so positive. The lyrics just came flying out. Buzz is a masterful lyricist. He can just pop out lyrics like you wouldn't believe. Mainly, if you look at the lyrics of "Pedigree" and "San Andreas," they are more in the direction of my lyrical writing. Buzz is a massive part of the lyrics for the other seven songs.

Songfacts: "Louisiana" has a real jazz flair and both you and Savana show off your scatting skills in it. How did that song come to be?

Anthony: Once again, I had that music. I was just interested in a certain tuning on my guitar. I tuned my guitar to Open D and came up with that lick. I didn't really have a lyric at the time. I was just doing what I guess people call scatting. I didn't know if it was jazzy, but it's been described as scatting and somewhat of a jazz thing. It was just the fact that I didn't have a lyric yet, but I felt like singing something. It just wound up becoming part of the song.

But, once again, Buzz has a brilliant way of finding the perfect words to go with whatever it is that I've written on the guitar. That's the funny thing about it: the music and the lyrics go so hand-in-hand with each other, but it's coming from two people. It's hard to explain how that happened. It wasn't like Buzz and I sat down and we're saying, "Okay. What do you think we ought to say right here?" It didn't go down that way. I would just write a piece of music to be doing something.

If I recall correctly, it was about ten years ago that I would come back the next day and he'd hand me a lyric and I'd be like, "Oh, wow!" I would sing something and I added to create the melody. I would say something here and there and he would put it in, but he's just a lyric machine. I couldn't believe it. It was like, "Fine, dude, that's good for me!"

I'm normally really critical of my lyrics. I almost sabotage myself with them because I can't seem to give myself credit enough for being a writer. I've always had a complex about it. But when I started writing about my children, now that's just flat out truth. When you draw from the truth, it's easy. When you're just factiously making stuff up, it can get tedious. I don't have the patience for tedious lyrical activity. I more want to be saying something brilliant or nothing at all. I think that writing about my kids gave me an outlet to say, "Well, first of all, I don't care if anybody ever hears this. It's just something that I got to say." It gave me a sense of peace about my songwriting.

When I moved out of Nashville, I really had a recipe for success. Nobody was judging me. Nobody gave me parameters to work within. I came down here to the Gulf Coast of Alabama and found that it was the perfect culture for me to prosper in because nobody cares if you put two words together that shouldn't be or repeat something five times just because you love it. There are no parameters. I operate most efficiently outside of parameters. I've written a lot of songs that people haven't heard yet because of just having no parameters.

But when I was writing these songs with Buzz, I still lived in Nashville and I was under the impression that you have to do certain things to have a "hit." I was writing to make money, and I'm not doing that anymore. I'm not writing to make a dime. I'm singing for my food and shelter, and whether I have abundance is not the issue. I can live from day-to-day and feel quite happy about it. Being hand-to-mouth does not scare me because I do trust that I will be okay.

But somehow being in "the game" of the music business is funny because I'm not really in the game. I'm not playing a game. I'm just living my life and if people want to observe it and find me to be cool than that's fantastic. With this record, financial success or even making it onto a chart would be fantastic, but we're successful already because we're playing our music to people who buy it and love it. The further I get away from the status quo of the music business, the more comfortable I am. It makes me very, very nervous and upset to be involved in a contest. I don't believe in music as being a contest. I can't stand to see those kids get up there and sing and compete with each other. It makes me ill. Music is love and the exchange of it is godly. It's not a contest and I'm not trying to beat anybody at doing anything. It's not a sport. It's an art. I'm going to my grave holding onto that. I can't do it for the money.

Songfacts: Speaking of the whole Nashville scene and everything you just said, Buzz also wrote the tune "Not Another Truck Song," which seems to poke fun at country radio and all the truck-themed-songs that occupy it.

Anthony: Oh, sure. I thought that song was brilliant. I like how he put that together, I got to say.

Songfacts: I was going to say, so why did you decide to record it?

Anthony: Because he asked me to [laughs]. He asked me to as a favor to him. I had never heard it ten minutes before we recorded it. I had never sung it. It's why that song turned out to be so good. I think out of all the songs on the album, that song turned out to be the best to me. Because we didn't even know it had existed. Seriously, ten minutes before we got there to sing it is how quick we were be able to learn that for him. We were just about to close it up and he said, "I got this song! I'd love it if you'd just listen to it and think about singing it!" I said, "Okay." He started playing me whatever it was in his way and singing it to me. I think he also played me a demo and I listened to it thinking, "Oh, God. Oh, Okay." I did it as a favor to him. After I started thinking about it and listening to it, and especially after it was recorded and sequenced into the rest of the songs, I thought, "Man, that thing should be first! It sounds really good."

We actually don't perform it live, which we've talked about learning it. But it just doesn't have anything to do with me, writing, or our life, so in other words, it was just us singing a song. But Savana and I talked about it the other day. We thought, "Well, maybe we ought to learn that?" Because we're going to be doing a CD release party and we want to play the whole CD, so we're going to learn it.

I do think the song is clever. It shows Buzz's heart. If you listen to the lyrics of those seven songs that I co-wrote with him, you'll get a sense of just where he is. He lives in Nashville. He is a guy who has written successful songs inside that system. So lyrically I think that he is on the outskirts of town. He's not writing the kind of lyrics that people write – you know, the bubba this and the truck that. He writes insightful songs - "Love's the Only House" or "Everlasting Love" - that song was a hit in four different decades. The man's got a good heart, but, however, he can also get clever.

I'm not a clever person. I'm not the guy to go to for clever lyrics. I've written songs about heartbreak. They have to be attached to me and what's happening. Like on "Pedigree," I wrote that because I was in a band with these guys in Nashville called Blackhawk. They had major radio success but one of the singers died so they asked me to take his place. I did and we were going to do a new album. I thought, "Well, I should write a country song," because I wasn't really a country writer. So I wrote "Pedigree" thinking that it's the perfect country song for them. However, there are certain truths to that song. It's lightly based on my life. My Dad did have a Cadillac Sedan de Ville. It was yellow but it wasn't missing a grill and it didn't have just one yellow door. I just made all that stuff up because it's funny to me. My Mom didn't work at a truck stop or wear a beehive haircut. We didn't live in a trailer on five acres but I did live in an old log cabin. We had chickens and guinea hens and a three legged dog named Sweet Pea. So part of that song is truthful and part of it is not, however, that's as clever as I can get is in "Pedigree." Buzz, he can just turn out the lyrics. He's a lyric machine.

Songfacts: "Glory Bound" is the last song on the new album and was previously recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys. Why did you decide to release your own version, too?

Anthony: I love the song. "Glory bound" is meaning that there's somewhere we're going after this life. It's a God related lyric and that "all things are fine because I know I'm glory bound" kind of thing. I just somehow inspired Buzz with that piece of music and he started writing all those lyrics. It's almost like Buzz should be doing this interview if it came down to lyrical content. But without the music and the music of that song - I think every song on this record that I co-wrote with him has its own power of the music that elevates the lyrics. I think they hold each other up. But for the most part, he and I see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. If I didn't like what he was writing, I'd certainly just go, "I don't know about that."

But "Glory Bound" to me, the Oak Ridge Boys did cut the song. They did a fine job, but, of course, it became Oak-erized. They took it in a different direction. I personally think that it's a great thing to have a song cut by another person. Right now I have a song that I wrote that Dwight Yoakam recorded on his latest CD. As proud as I am of that accomplishment, I still love to hear Savana sing it more because she sings it in a way that I think the song should be sung. It's just a beautiful rendition that she does even though it's not on any of our records yet. I'm just saying like how the Oak Ridge Boys did "Glory Bound."

We did "Glory Bound" just because it was a crowd favorite. People just love when we sing that song and I think that we do it in its truest form. I don't think anybody else can do those songs as true as we can do them because they are a part of us more than the Oak Ridge Boys. It was just a song to them. For us, it means way more and I think that it translates in our performance.

Songfacts: Definitely. You and Savana are both part of the band, Willie Sugarcapps, as well. Can you just explain that project and how it came to be?

Anthony: Sure. It's been very successful for us as far as just elevating Sugarcane Jane - the presence of our duo through that band. Will Kimbrough is a fantastic songwriter, performer, and human being. He's from the Gulf Coast. So are Grayson Capps and Corky Hughes – those two have a duo together. Grayson and Corky play all the time around here. We met at a songwriter event and it went so well that we said to ourselves, "We should do this again." When we did, we thought, "Well, we should call ourselves something." We just came up with the name Willie Sugarcapps because we took a little piece of each thing. It could've been called Sugar Williecapps or Grayson Sugarwillies, but Willie Sugarcapps just seemed to fit.

Sometimes you can be together with different people and it just doesn't click, but we clicked and we still do. I think that what we're doing in that band is what's really happening right now in modern music. It's a string band type of thing: we have banjo, mandolin, and fiddle. I play a kick drum, sing, and the bass or guitar. We have four vocals going and it's just powerful. All of us sing in-tune and are intuitive to each other. It's just a brilliant combination of people. They call it a "Gulf Coast supergroup," which is funny. Somebody said that, and a lot of the times people just cut and paste parts of articles and I understand why, but, individually, we're all proficient and don't need each other to make a living, and that's why it works. We get together because we want to and that's why we did it in the beginning. Now we're actually getting paid pretty good to do it so it has changed a little. It's like - Okay, do I want to go and play one show with Willie Sugarcapps and make the same amount that I would make going to do three Sugarcane Jane shows? Nah, I think we'll do the Willie Sugarcapps. It's just a bigger band that makes bigger money because we play for bigger audiences. So we've been real fortunate that the band won Independent Americana Album of the Year. We've played at some nice festivals all over the Southeast and sometimes travelling outside of it up into the Midwest. We're going out to do some fantastic things this summer. Gosh, it really has been great for Sugarcane Jane just to be a part of that process.

Songfacts: How does the writing dynamic in Willie Sugarcapps work?

Anthony: Well, we all bring our own songs to the table. We don't write together. We don't even rehearse. We just show up and say, "Hey! What kind of beer did you bring?" We all just do our own music. Savana and I play "Sugar," "Home Nights," and "Louisiana." We'll do songs that we've written and then we'll do songs that we have on Willie Sugarcapps record. We have another record coming out in August. But it's the Sugarcane Jane show when it gets to be our turn. It'll start with Grayson doing a song and then Will will do a song and then Savana and I will do a song. So we'll do stuff that we do as Sugarcane Jane with Willie Sugarcapps backing it up. It's just an awesome explosion of musical energy. Nobody has ever left bored. There's too much music and personality happening. We're comedians. We do everything. We're just a combination of a lot of stuff.

Songfacts: That sounds really cool.

Anthony: It is. It's a fun thing to be a part of; however, it has its downfalls. You have to take three different vehicles and any time you want to do something, you have to ask all the opinions. So we usually all say yes to everything and if somebody says no than we all just go, "Okay, well, forget it."

Songfacts: Yeah, save from fighting, right?

Anthony: Oh, yeah. We've had a few difficult moments for sure but who doesn't?

Songfacts: Yeah. So both you and Savana have just had such prosperous careers in your own right. You've worked with Neil Young, Steve Winwood, Vince Gill, and Rosanne Cash. And Savana co-owned and managed a recording studio in Nashville while also releasing her own music. What do you think is the most important lesson you've learned from the various paths your career has taken?

Anthony: Sometimes learning what not to do is better than learning things to do. I learned not to take drugs. I'm 58 years old and there are times when people look at me and they say, "No way!" I think that I was really afraid of drugs when I was out with Neil Young and all the potential for getting into that serious rock and roll atmosphere. The pressure is massive and somehow I just wasn't interested in it. So I certainly learned not to be involved in drugs. I don't believe in them. I don't consider marijuana a drug. I don't think it's something that should be so frowned upon. However, I'm not a partaker in it. For the most part, I try not to do anything because I've got kids to look after. I'm a responsible person more so now than ever because I want to live to see my kids grow up. So I learned to take care of myself in the music business because inside the music business should a person become successful financially - when you make money doing something you love, I think you can also get in trouble with it. When you have to go out and dig a ditch, you're going to have a different perspective of the money you have in your pocket, like, "I had to work hard to get it." Well, with the music business, I mean, come on. I was riding on a rock star jet flying around the world making more money than anybody would ever even suspect a little kid from Alabama to make. Not that it was rock star money, but I made really decent money for being a sideman for Neil Young or Steve Winwood or Dwight Yoakam. I could have gotten myself in trouble.

But on the music aspect of it, I learned from Neil Young how to record - how to capture magic and how to identify magic in music, and how to work around the constant desire of the temptation to make your music perfect. It's what's wrong with music from these days right now to me is that people can make it perfect. They can line it up to a grid and fix anything that's out of space and time. I think the music takes a hit because of it. So I just learned how to record. As many times that I've been in on a session with Neil Young, and he's pretty much the mantel piece because he is a purest about recording. I was fortunate to grow up with him. My growth for my life of music – I met him when I was 23 years old and I'm 58. So off and on throughout all my years, I've been involved with him.

I think that now when I produce other people - Scott Nolan, he's a Canadian. He drove all the way from Winnipeg to come down and record with me. I'll tell you what, he is as brilliant of a writer as Neil Young was when he had his Harvest album. You might look up the name, Scott Nolan. He's got an album coming out in August called Silverhill. You'll want to do an interview with him because that man has some beautiful music. He came all the way down to my home and recorded it. He wanted Willie Sugarcapps to back him up. He heard the debut album of Willie Sugarcapps and fell in love with it, so he came down here and recorded with us. He's a Canadian so he's just brilliant and it's sad to me that he can't get across the border and freely play the United States because there are so many constraints on getting in over here. It's sad because he's brilliant.

But I learned a lot from Neil Young. I learned a lot from Steve Winwood. He is the best musician that I have ever known in my life. He can play anything and he's just such a fabulous person. He's a great human being. He's accessible. He's not a rock star 24 hours a day. Neil Young is, you can't approach him, but Steve Winwood is a friendly dog. Neil's got a sign that says, "Caution! Will bite!" Neil's got a very loving side to him, too. I just think that he's such a serious artist. He's deep. He is deep and dark. He goes way deep. He's a cave. Steve is a mountain.

Songfacts: So what's in the future for Sugarcane Jane?

Anthony: More of it. Just more of it. There's always a new record being baked. We are doing music all the time in the studio. We're just always writing music.

April 28, 2015.
Purchase the new Sugarcane Jane album, Dirt Road's End, by visiting sugarcanejane.com or get it on iTunes.
All photos by Beach Chic Photography.

Guitar International | Anthony Crawford of Sugarcane Jane: Inspiration is Essential

By: Robert Cavuoto

Sugarcane Jane, the Alabama Gulf Coast-based duo, will release their new studio album, Dirt Road’s Endon April 28th.

Anthony and Savana Lee Crawford purvey what they proudly call “Organic Music at its Finest.” Their brand of Americana draws from a deep well of roots influences, interwoven with inflections of gospel, country, jazz, and rock.

Both virtuosos in their own right, Anthony is a songwriter who plays acoustic guitar, mandolin, and a bass drum or stomp box, which he plays while strumming his six-string, and Savana Lee deftly dances between rhythm guitar, tambourine, and snare drum.

Over the course of the last 25 years, Anthony has performed with Neil Young, Sonny James, Steve Winwood, Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill, Rosanne Cash, and Rodney Crowell, and has written / co-written songs recorded by Kenny Rogers, Steve Winwood, Pegi Young, Lee Greenwood, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, to name a few.

I had the chance to speak with Anthony about his life’s calling – Sugarcane Jane!

******

Robert Cavuoto: Your music is pretty eclectic, how would you classify it?

Anthony Crawford: Eclectic is a compliment…. I have always been outside the lines in most

every facet of life. Take the road less traveled.

Robert: Can you talk about the vision you had going into the making of this CD?

Anthony Crawford: The songs on the Dirt Road’s End CD have been staples of our live show for several years and are crowd favorites. I co-wrote seven of the 10 songs with Buzz Cason over the last decade and always hoped to hear them reach a broader audience.

I teamed up with Savana Lee and found that she was the missing ingredient. Savana’s harmony and musical contributions along with her magnetism lifted the project to a new world of potential.

Robert: What are a few things about your approach to playing guitar and singing, do you feel you own and define what you do?

Anthony Crawford: Change is always occurring and I adapt myself to the times. When you are satisfied, you are dead in the water. I wake up in the mornings and grab a guitar and whatever happens after that I am open to the cosmos to refresh my direction. How I played a composition yesterday may be changed from slow to fast or from blues to bluegrass. This is how we keep locals coming to our shows. Keep it current, keep it fresh. If it’s a good song, it will translate.

Robert: Is it harder to write a happy, sad, or angry song?

Anthony Crawford: Trying to write a song is the wrong way to go for me. Inspiration is essential to break through the shell of protection we create to make it through the day.

Break the shell and be who you are at that time. I have quite a few sad songs, but these days I have two kids and I’m very happy and when people come to a Sugarcane Jane show they leave energized. That’s the natural path for us. We are happy people.

Robert: Sugarcane Jane has a unique sound, how important is it to find your own voice and style?

Anthony Crawford: The voicing and style of Sugarcane Jane is not limited to what is on Dirt Road’s End. We sometimes do shows that have multiple sets and we have plenty of time to run the gamut of styles we possess. The energy in the room from the audience is a factor, as well.

Robert: Tell me about the band’s name and the ballad named after it?

Anthony Crawford: The name Sugarcane Jane has really worked for us. We didn’t want to just call ourselves Savana and Anthony. That certainly didn’t feel right to us.

Everything that has happened for us has been a spiritual journey even down to the name. When she first took me to her home in Baldwin County, Alabama, and I rode down the long dirt road for the first time I was amazed at the property. It is beautiful; southern pine trees, sunshine, and wildlife.

She told me the story of her grandfather having sugarcane on the property and I immediately started singing a song off of the top of my head “Sugarcane Jane oh Sugarcane Jane”. I can’t remember the rest but you get the picture. It just sounded good and it stuck with us.

Robert: I really enjoyed the song “San Andreas,” can you tell me some of the history or back story behind its creation?

Anthony Crawford: “San Andreas” is a song written during my early days of working with Neil Young in Northern California, which happens to be on the San Andreas fault line. Being from Alabama and not familiar with earthquakes, the fear was overwhelming at first. However, that area is one of the most beautiful locations on the planet Earth.

Neil’s ranch is surrounded by those huge Redwood trees and I always thought that if one of those fell on the house I was a goner. I overcame the fear, however, I did get a good song out of it and people do seem to like it.

Robert: Who and what influences you the most as a songwriter?

Anthony Crawford: My influences as a songwriter come from of course the people who I’ve spent the most time around and that would be Neil Young, Steve Winwood, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Forbert, etcetera. They are all great writers in their own styles.

I moved to Nashville in 1980 and somehow lost all of my originality in pursuit of writing a hit song, which never happened, and my musical journey seemed to be coming to an end.

Once again, it was through Savana that I was able to move out of that town and find myself again and prosper in the sunshine and the culture of the South. People down here love music and there is not such a competitive aura involved. It’s all about the music, food and good times down here, and yes, you actually can make a living, unlike in Nashville where you have to pay to play.

Robert: Tell me what guitar gear you used on the CD as the tones are interesting and impressive?

Anthony Crawford: My good friend, Todd Davie, loaned me his vintage early ’40s Martin D-48, as well as his early ’40s Martin D-18. Two very beautiful and fine guitars that are very rare.

I also used my 1948 Gibson J-45 and my late ’50s Fender tweed champ amp with a few pedals to get some of the tones. We recorded to a two-inch tape machine which always is my preference.

Robert: Can you share a story of working with Neil Young?

Anthony Crawford: One of my many Neil Young moments would be from back in the International Harvester gigs down in Austin, Texas, when we opened for Willie Nelson.

It was a surreal moment, due to the fact that most of the people in the crowd didn’t really know who Neil was, nor did they know his songs. They were there to hear Willie.

Neil Young is one of the most powerful energies on the planet. He is innovative and a very smart businessman and is also involved in ecological concerns. It’s his way or the highway, for sure.

At this time, I’m on the highway if you know what I mean. I’m not sure if I will ever work with Neil again, however, working with Neil is always working for me. People always want to know what Neil is like etcetera and being one of the few people that has been in his bands, it’s an honor that most people would love to have.

I can always get a free beer out of somebody, if I’m willing to tell them a Neil Young story. I have security in the beer department.

http://guitarinternational.com/2015/04/07/anthony-crawford-of-sugarcane-jane-inspiration-is-essential/

Exclusive Magazine Review

Sugarcane Jane, the Alabama Gulf Coast-based duo, will release their new studio album, Dirt Road’s End via Cason’s ArenA Recordings / eOne Entertainment on April 28th, 2015.

Conceived and co-produced with legendary Americana/Roots singer-songwriter Buzz Cason, Sugarcane Jane aka Anthony and Savana Lee Crawford bring us the organic music follow-up to 2012's Listen With Headphones. You may not have heard of the before, and that's quite alright to admit. But one listen to Dirt Road’s End will have you hitting repeat; of that I can promise you.

Savana has a particularly lovely voice, and Anthony can play anybody under the table on anything with strings, it has to be said. Indeed, every move these two make, whether as SugarCane Jane or as a part of the Americana group from Lower Alabama, Willie SugarCapps, they seemingly can not put a musical foot wrong.

For those not in the know, multi-instrumentalist Anthony Crawford is known in most circles as a sideman to the stars. Over the course of the last 25 years, he has performed with Neil Young, Sonny James, Steve Winwood, Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill, Rosanne Cash, and Rodney Cromwell, and has written / co-written songs recorded by Kenny Rogers, Steve Winwood, Pegi Young, Lee Greenwood, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, to name a few. Yet, even with his history of working with heavyweights, Crawford feels Sugarcane Jane – his musical venture with multi-instrumentalist wife Savana Lee Crawford - is his life’s calling.

Dirt Road’s End opens with the autobiographical 'Ballad of Sugarcane Jane,' a track that is not only the longest on the new album at just over five minutes, but is - for my money - also one of the true highlights of this delightful recording. Combining all forms of instruments, it's the harmonica that drives this little puppy across the line, for sure. 'The Game' is next, a bass drum, poor boy slice of organic blues, the storytelling lush of 'San Andreas' follows, and then come both the mid tempo 'Home Nights' and the stomp box, New Orleans-inspired hillbilly appeal of 'Louisiana.'

'Pedigree' tells the (possibly true) story of Papa Crawford and his Cadillac Sedan de Ville, that "had one yellow door and was missing a grill", before the only song, to my ears, that finally allows Savana's vocals to come to the fore, 'Heartbreak Road.' The bluegrass banjo appeal of 'Not Another Truck Song' is next, and then the album comes to a close with the 70's-sounding 'Sugar,' and then the euphoric gospel-tinged 'Glory Bound.'

Drunken Werewolf Review

Sugarcane Jane - Dirt Road's End

This album comes with something of a musical pedigree attached. Anthony Crawford, one half of Americana duo Sugarcane Jane, has an impressive record as an accomplice to country music stars. His musical CV includes collaboration with the likes of Neil Young,Roseanne Cash and Dwight Yoakam. He’s also written and co-written songs with such country luminaries asKenny Rogers and Lee Greenwood.

These days though, Crawford is very much ploughing his own furrow as Sugarcane Jane, a partnership with his wife Savana Lee Crawford. Savana Lee has her own musical credentials to add to the mix - previously co-owning and managing an analogue recording studio in Nashville, recording Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris among others. So does all of this experience come through on Dirt Road’s End, their fourth album?

Largely, yes. You can tell from the opening chords that the Crawfords (along with Buzz Cason, who they co-produced and conceived this album alongside) are extremely polished musicians. For a duo, the amount of different instruments utilised on this album is simply staggering, especially when you realise that not only are they playing all these different instruments themselves, but they are doing so expertly. Their vocal styling also makes this a standout album. Sugarcane Jane's harmonies are sublime, utilising their obvious vocal abilities to full effect.

In many ways, Dirt Road’s End is a very traditional feeling album. While the band use some subtly applied modern influences, deep in its bones this is a roots album. In particular, the bluegrass influence pervades throughout. If the band has a weakness, it's in their lyrics. They aren’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but they just aren’t as impressive as the musicianship or overall feel of the album. Often, they feel more like they’re there to reinforce the melodies and tunes as opposed to being something you’d concentrate for their own sake. That’s not necessarily a negative thing, but it makes you wonder what they could accomplish if this area matched up with the strength of everything else about the album.

“Not Another Truck Song” is a good exemplar of this issue. The lyrics do their job well enough. The idea behind them (a gentle poking of fun at certain genre clichés) is solid. But you find yourself wondering what someone like the late great Shel Silverstein would have been able to do with the concept, especially in the hands of a band this musically accomplished. That’s possibly an unfair comparison. Very few lyricists can match Silverstein when he was firing on all cylinders. But it’s a compliment of sorts. This is a band that’s so good musically that you just want the lyrics to reflect that. There’s also an obvious exception to the point. The autobiographical opener “Ballad Of Sugarcane Jane” is an uncomplicated retelling of how the couple got together. It’s straightforward, but it’s also delightful and it works.

So is this an album to recommend? Yes, with a caveat. Any roots fan shouldn’t hesitate to pick up Dirt Road's End. It will make an excellent addition to their music collection. It probably isn’t an album that’s going to convert anyone though. It’s an album addressed directly to fans of the genre and will be best appreciated on that basis.

Release: 27th April 2015, Arena Recordings
Drunken Werewolf (Apr 2015)

The Weekly Single Recap: May 1, 2015 - Roughstock.com

Sugarcane Jane: Dirt Road's End - ArenA/eOne

Just over 30 years ago, Neil Young made his only Fredericton appearance to date. One year before the release of Old Ways, he was in pure country mode. One of the driving forces in Young's band of veterans that night was in-his-20s kid on the block Anthony Crawford on banjo, guitar, and tenor vocal wails.

Today, Crawford is 57. He has forged a stellar niche as a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter - a sideman par excellence in studio and on stage.

The collaboration with his wife Savana Lee is his personal musical statement. Together as Sugarcane Jane, their April 28 release Dirt Road's End delights.

Both born in Alabama but based in Nashville, Crawford and Lee stake their claim as the ultimate husband and wife country duo, 2015 style.

This debut album is a down-home, sassy blend of hillbilly vocals done just right combined with true masterwork playing of guitar, banjo, lap steel, harp, bass, percussion, and expert song construction.

They charm with autobiography in the punchy album opener "Ballad of Sugarcane Jane" and the ode to forebear and car "Pedigree".

Their wide set of chops and mastered styles lend to nice spices in the country/roots framework. Examples include N'Awlins in the scat-fest "Louisiana", gospel in "Glory Bound", blues in "The Game", and seminal rock from the country roots "Heartbreak Road" which would do Fred Eaglesmith proud.

~Wilfred Langmaid
The Daily Gleaner
Fredericton, NB, Canada

The Daily Gleaner Review of Dirt Road's End

Sugarcane Jane – “The Game” (ArenA Recordings)*
From their fine Dirt Road’s End album that hit stores this week, “The Game” showcases why fans in Alabama and the Southeast have grown to appreciate the husband and wife duo. There’s a old-time feel to the track but one that still feels fresh today too.

Roughstock.com

Ricky Flake with the Sun Herald Reviews Dirt Road's End

'Dirt Road's End,' Sugarcane Jane (ArenA Recordings/eOone Entertainment, HHHH)

This April 28 CD is Sugarcane Jane's newest studio offering, an album co-produced and conceived with Americana-roots-singer-songwriter Buzz Cason. Songwriter/guitarist/mandolin player Anthony and wife/rhythm guitarist/percussionist Savanna Lee Crawford are both considered virtuosos; and he has played with Neil Young, Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill and others. Banjo player Will Kimbrough rounds out the crew here.

This album abounds in witty lyrics and confident playing. My current favorites are the autobiographical "Ballad Of Sugarcane Jane," the lazily chiming "San Andreas," the chugging "Louisiana," the snarky "Heartbreak Road" and the comedic "Not Just Another Truck Song."

This one isn't quite as smooth-sounding as the one above (in reference to Delta Reign's Nothing But Sky), but it's pretty nifty.

Sun Herald

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2015/04/30/6203425_ricky-flake-bluegrass-americana.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Andy Andrews Article

April 17th, 2014

What Is Our Silence Worth to Miley Cyrus?

Culture/Society | 31 Comments

Spreading the word about certain people whose work (I believe) deserves a larger audience is one of my favorite things to do! Privately and publicly, I do it constantly. What Is Our Silence Worth to Miley Cyrus?

Frankly, it aggravates me to hear people complain about the books and songs that are at the forefront of our society’s consciousness. I agree with their complaints, but they still aggravate me. Why? Because so few do anything but complain.

Do you promote Miley Cyrus? I didn’t think so. But while you and I ignore her, someone is fiercely promoting every move she makes and doing a heck of a job. In the seven months since Miley’s VH-1 appearance that had everyone up in arms, her newest video on YouTube has been viewed more than 601 million times.

Allow me to repeat that: 601 MILLION views…in less than seven months.

Do you think Justin Bieber is likely to come to his senses, stay out of trouble, and become a good influence for your children and grandchildren? Probably not. Bieber has figured out that the more he misbehaves, the richer he gets. And it’s true. The kid is closing in on 1 BILLION views on YouTube.

So this is the lesson our children are learning: It doesn’t matter how you get attention as long as you get it. And if you get enough attention, you’ll be famous. And rich.

Miley is teaching a generation: It doesn’t matter how you get attention as long as you get it

CLICK TO TWEET

How about Sugarcane Jane?

Never heard of them, you say? Yeah, my point exactly…

Anthony Crawford and his wife, Savana, are incredibly talented, long time friends of mine who had the audacity to get married before they had children. Curiously, they have stayed married and out of trouble, all while raising a family somewhere other than New York or Los Angeles. This very cool couple, performing together as “Sugarcane Jane” and with a couple other buddies as “Willie Sugarcapps,” don’t have a single song on YouTube with more than 15,000 views.

If I had a goat, this would get it.

"If I had a goat, this would get it." - Andy Andrews

CLICK TO TWEET

You will never convince me that the majority of America’s population LOVES Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. But if you argued that the majority of America’s population quietly shakes their head and goes about their business, I’m all in. (Gently…don’t loosen those blinders.)

We are dangerously passive when it comes to promoting people who deserve it. Is there anyone whose work or influence we should passionately get behind? Or do we carry on with our timid retreat as the culture we have allowed to overwhelm us continues to marginalize most of what we consider right and good?

Promoting a person and their work is a way that we can change this world. What book or song or person might the world never read or hear or know about…if not for you?

It was just a simple answer to a question from the press. If not for a few words, spoken with genuine enthusiasm, we might never have heard of the insurance salesman who had written a book in his spare time. The Naval Institute Press published a few thousand copies of that book in 1984 and, as expected, it went nowhere. Then, one day, a reporter asked, “Mr. President, what are you reading?”

Answering with excitement, Ronald Reagan said, “I’m reading a book given to me by a friend and I can’t put it down. It’s called The Hunt for Red October!”

Today, few people remember that Tom Clancy sold insurance, but his book sales have soared well past the 100 million mark.

"We are dangerously passive when it comes to promoting people who deserve it."

CLICK TO TWEET

Billy Graham is one of the most influential men in our nation’s history. Yet, were it not for a two-word telegram sent in 1949, we might never have heard of him.

William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate, sent a telegram to the editor of every newspaper he owned. The message was: Puff Graham. The very next day, papers across America released enthusiastic, admiring articles about this young Christian minister. Curiously, Hearst never directed his newspapers to stop “puffing Graham,” and obediently, they never did.

In his book, Just As I Am, Graham wrote that he never knew when, how, or why such a powerful figure had taken an interest in him. For the record, he stated, “Hearst and I never met, talked by phone, or corresponded in any way as long as he lived.”

Yes, Billy Graham was and is an incredible communicator, but you could probably name other incredible communicators who are less well known. Why? One reason could be that no one became a “promoter” of their work.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Anthony and Savana.

Sugarcane Jane

One evening, after dinner at our home in Orange Beach, Anthony was showing something on the guitar to our boys. Very quietly, he began to sing the classic ‘60s song California Dreamin’ and we held our breath in awe as Savana harmonized. It was truly one of those magical moments.

Several months later, Polly and I were out of the country with friends and told the story of that moment. The next day, I called Anthony and asked if he and Savana could recreate that and email it to me.

“Just set up your iPhone and sing,” I said.

“No problem,” he answered, “but be warned…the kids will be in the shot!”

Anthony and Savana have a three-and-a-half-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son.

I have watched the little video they sent many, many times. It is, for me, another, different kind of magical moment that reminds me not only of their talent, but the love they have for each other and their family. I thought you might enjoy it, too. Be sure to watch until the very end.

After California Dreamin’, I’ve included a song they recorded recently with their friends Will Kimbrough, Grayson Capps, and Corky Hughes.

I encourage you to LIKE them on Facebook and check out their website…

Birmingham's Anthony Crawford finds the sweet spot in his music with Willie Sugarcapps

Birmingham's Anthony Crawford finds the sweet spot in his music with Willie Sugarcapps

By Mary Colurso | mcolurso@al.com

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Anthony Crawford is measuring success with a different yardstick these days, and he’s mighty happy about it.

For many years -- about three decades' worth of music-making -- the Birmingham native sought a traditional measure of fame and fortune in Nashville. Crawford did pretty well for himself, too.
He parlayed his guitar expertise into a solid career as a sideman, touring with the likes of Neil Young, Steve Winwood, Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill and Blackhawk. Crawford did session work, performed on music videos and even produced a concert documentary, "On the Road With a Rock Star."
Crawford also wrote songs, more than 400 of them, and chose a few dozen for the playlists of four solo albums. But personal and professional satisfaction remained frustratingly out of reach.
“The search for success was so elusive,” he says. “I thought I’d wake up one day and have a notice: ‘You’re successful!’ Like that.”

But at age 56, Crawford knows where his true success lies -- in his marriage to singer Savana Lee, in their two young children and in the home they’ve built on the Gulf Coast.
“I’ve been on stage with Paul McCartney in London, sitting there at the piano with Neil, and Paul McCartney comes out,” Crawford says. “That’s one of the highlights of my career. But to have two kids to provide for, to see them smile at me and call me Daddy ... I’m pursuing the greatness of being a father. Family is huge for me.”
Music remains a big part of their lives, of course. Crawford and Lee perform in a roots-rock duo they call Sugarcane Jane. The couple also signed on for a new Americana band, Willie Sugarcapps, with Will Kimbrough, Grayson Capps and Corky Hughes.
It’s a Lower Alabama supergroup, of sorts, with a self-titled album set for release Aug. 20 and two shows this weekend in Birmingham and Mobile. Crawford’s pleased with the partnership, which feels natural and right to him, and he’s looking forward to their collaborations on stage.
"We all got together by accident," he says, "and now we go and try to let the accident happen again. This has a feeling, to me, like I was supposed to do that with these people. There are no egos involved. We're just hoping that the magic carpet ride goes on."

Actually, Willie Sugarcapps owes its existence to Cathy Steele of Blue Moon Farm, who assembled the musicians in 2012 for a single performance at her Frog Pond venue near Silverhill.

Anthony Crawford is best known as a guitar slinger, but he's a multi-instrumentalist at heart. "I just love music," Crawford says. "Give me a shaker and you can't get me off the stage."

(Mike Kittrell | mkittrell@al.com)

"It felt like a band right out of the bag," Crawford says. "And I could tell after that show that we really wanted to do it again."

Willie Sugarcapps started as a democracy and fully intends to continue that way, he says. Everyone sings leads; everyone provides harmonies. Influences are pooled, from swamp blues to folk-rock to hillbilly country. Many instruments are played, including mandolin, banjo, harmonica, fiddle and lap steel.

Kimbrough, Crawford and Capps are the primary songwriters, but there's an open-door policy in that quarter, as well. The basic idea, Crawford says, was to split the album's playlist among three entities: Kimbrough, Sugarcane Jane and Capps/Hughes.

In the end, 10 songs took shape -- including "Poison," "Mud Bottom," "Energy" and "Up to the Sky" -- during a single recording session on the dogtrot of Crawford and Lee's house in Baldwin County.

"The music we're making is fresh, just like getting fresh drink from a stream that's never been touched yet," Crawford says. "We have a good synergy together. It's like being in the middle of music-love-comedy-energy stream."

He has nothing but praise for his colleagues, lauding their musicianship, class and good humor. Because Willie Sugarcapps is a side project for all concerned, expectations for the future are kept in check -- and that's exactly the way Crawford likes it.

"For one of the first times in my life, I'm really staying away from that," he says. "If we can keep our baggage off the magic carpet, it flies higher. We're not thinking about making some chart or being on the radio. That's why I left Nashville; people get consumed by it. I'm a preacher of the opposite: Go find real people and make real music.

"I don't want to be a millionaire," Crawford concludes. "I don't care to be Neil Young. He's got more money and real fame, but he's not in Willie Sugarcapps. I feel sorry for him."

Sugarcane Jane hits its stride, branching out from Baldwin County

Sugarcane Jane hits its stride, branching out from Baldwin County

The first thing you notice about Sugarcane Jane is probably the amazing harmonies. Or maybe it’s the energy, or the originality. Or the sheer talent.

Or maybe, all of the above.
Sugarcane Jane, in case you don’t know, is a high-energy acoustic duo, sometimes with backing musicians, that blends the talents of husband and wife Anthony Crawford and Savana Lee Crawford. The band is based in Baldwin County, playing often at Lulu’s in Gulf Shores, but lately has been branching out toward Fairhope, Mobile, Biloxi and other places in the region. (They also opened for country star Randy Travis at the Saenger Theatre in 2009.)
If you’re a fan of bluegrass or other acoustic roots music and enjoy tight harmonies such as the Everly Brothers, Alison Krauss & Union Station or Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, this is a highly professional act that you’ll want to check out.
They call it 'mutt music' because it's a mixture of styles
Savana sings and plays guitar while Anthony, a talented multi-instrumentalist who has toured with Neil Young, Steve Winwood and others over the years, plays primarily guitar, including some truly stunning solos, but also picks up other stringed instruments as they are called for. Lately, the group has been augmented with mandolin and percussion.

View full size
Sugarcane Jane, comprised of Anthony Crawford and Savana Lee, performs May 17, 2009, at the Saenger Theatre in Mobile, Alabama, before headliner Randy Travis takes the stage. The Baldwin County, Alabama-based band is branching out as it hits its stride. (Lyle W. Ratliff/Special to the Press-Register)

“I call it ‘mutt music,’ ’cause it’s a mixture of things,” Anthony Crawford said. Sugarcane Jane performs mostly original material as well as some cleverly re-arranged Neil Young pieces, and can often surprise audiences with well-chosen cover songs such as “California Dreamin’,” “Ode to Billie Joe” or “House of the Rising Sun,” always showcasing their sibling-like harmonies.
The 2 met in Nashville several years ago, and Anthony produced a Savana Lee solo CD called “Redbird,” for which he wrote most of the songs. They played a few shows together as a duo and realized there was magic there, he said.
“The energy was so strong, I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
She had lived for 7 years in Nashville, chasing a career in music, but wanted to return home to the Gulf Coast area. He is a native of Birmingham but wanted to be closer to his parents, who have lived in Daphne for many years.
“Sugarcane Jane is the pinnacle of my musical career,” he said. “There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that I’m meant to be down here for this time in my life.”
Making life sweeter for the couple is their nearly year-old daughter, Loretta. The three live near Savana’s parents in Loxley, and Anthony has a studio on the property, called Admiral Bean Studio, where he is producing projects for others and where they are working on their fourth Sugarcane Jane CD release.
Oh, and about the name: “Savana was telling me a story about how her grandfather used to cut up slices of sugarcane and feed it to the kids in the neighborhood. I just thought it was a nice image. Later, we were riding in the car and said, “Sugarcane Jane” — that would be a good name for the band! We don’t want to call it ‘Anthony and Savana’ or anything like that.”

Author Jim Hannaford is a longtime journalist who performs music in the area as Jimmy Lee Hannaford.

Sugarcane Jane making tidal waves along the Gulf Coast

Sugarcane Jane making tidal waves along the Gulf Coast

A few months ago, we introduced Sugarcane Jane, the singer/songwriter duo that has been steadily carving a name out for itself while earning a legion of fans all over Pleasure Island. From Tipseas Steam Shack in Orange Beach to venues in Gulf Shores, this dynamic duo is making quite a splash..

Sugarcane Jane is the collective effort of Savana Lee and Anthony Crawford. The pair met each other in a Nashville, Tenn. recording studio ten years ago. It was during that chance encounter that pure music magic would be born.

As Lee explains the name, Sugarcane Jane stems from a conversation about how her grandfather used to cut and give out sugarcane to the local children on Halloween. Somehow, the Jane part just seemed to fit. Lee recalls a road trip the two were on when the words came out of nowhere.
Crawford calls Birmingham, Ala., his native soil, while Lee hails from the rural area of Loxley. Both had lit out from their respective homes in search of musical fame and inspiration. Where? Nashville, of course. After seven years of cutting her teeth in the musical landscape that is uniquely Nashville, Lee said she arrived at the conclusion that home is where her heart lived, "and so I packed it up and headed back south and now I reside in the same area I was raised, Loxley, Alabama."

And the music landscape has only witnessed a revitalization since their relocation. The two will perform on the heels of their recent appearance at two major venues in the last few weeks ago. And they've stayed busy night after night.
"We have been extremely busy lately, but we're not complaining. Of course, we just had our big shows, Bayfest in Mobile and the Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores, which went great," Lee said. "We released our new album at the Shrimp Festival, titled 'Alright With Me.' The CD has a very organic acoustic sound that truly represents our live performances."

Part of Crawford's claim to fame is his close association with musical icon Neil Young, with whom he's toured. As Lee explains, that experience with Young now comes into play when it comes to Sugarcane Jane. "One thing Anthony learned from Neil Young is to not try to perfect a recording because in doing that, you can easily lose the groove of the song," she explained. "Vacating the box of Nashville standards, we opted to keep the new CD simple and real."

The CD contains some SCJ favorites, songs that are steadily becoming area standards such as "There is a Time," signature cuts such as "Sugar and Pedigree" and some new numbers including the title track, "Alright With Me," which Lee says "is one of those songs that just feels great to sing. The message could easily be our personal mottos.

"And then there is 'Home Nights' which is a personal favorite of mine."
On "Home Nights," Crawford flexes his mandolin muscles.

"Anthony breaks out the banjo on 'Butterfly,' " Lee says. "It's a song that is so cleverly written, it makes me chuckle when I sing 'I got myself an attitude I can't blame it on genetic code/my mama tried to send me send me off in the right direction but I took that other road.' "

Indeed, it's that kind of clever writing that makes "Alright With Me" a superb collection of numbers from this quickly rising duo. SCJ's appearance at LuLu's should be a real treat for fans familiar with Lee and Crawford and for those that have never sat before the magic of this duo.

"We have no idea what works or doesn't work for us," Lee says. "It's always just a guess, but as long as we are able to continue making a living doing what we love, we feel we have won the game. It's a process that hopefully will keep us busy for many more years to come. We both moved out of Nashville wanting to be closer to our parents and found a lot of peace and serenity down here on the coast. We can't imagine anywhere else we'd rather be."

~Brian Kelly, Pensacola News Journal

Sugarcane Jane visits Callaghan’s Irish Social Club

Sugarcane Jane visits Callaghan’s Irish Social Club
Steve Centanni

Comprised of Alabama natives Anthony Crawford and Savana Lee, Sugarcane Jane made quite an impression on the Port City when they opened for Randy Travis back in May. Crawford is a seasoned musician in his own right. In the past, he has shared the stage with Roy Acuff at the Grand Ol’ Opry. Crawford has also spent many days on the road backing rock icon Neil Young. In addition to performing, Crawford has also proven himself to be an extremely gifted songwriter. Artists such as Lorrie Morgan, Kenny Rogers and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band are just a few of the artists who have performed his songs. When Lee recruited Crawford to produce her debut solo effort “Redbird,” the two felt a musical connection that seemed almost star-crossed, and Sugarcane Jane was born.
Sugarcane Jane’s homespun acoustic sound is organic music at its finest. These two reveal their musical passion and soul through their powerful harmonies. Together, they conjure up spirits from the early days of country music and make them slaves to their musical whims. Sugarcane Jane released their self-titled debut in July. In addition, they have also released “Live at the Saenger” for all those who were moved by their performance.

AXS - Review

Review: On 'Ladders and Edges,' Sugarcane Jane finds a reason to slow down

Lagniappe Mobile - Review

The Southland Music Line

The Washington Times Review

Vintage Guitar Magazine Review

Guitar World Interview | 'Dirt Road’s End': Sugarcane Jane's Anthony Crawford Talks New Album, Touring with Neil Young and More

Sugarcane Jane

Acoustic Guitar Magazine Review

Review: "Dirt Road's End" by Examiner.com

The Alternate Root Interview with Anthony Crawford

In addition to Sugarcane Jane as a duo, Anthony and Savana are part of the collective Willie Sugarcapps, along with Will Kimbrough and Grayson Capps.

Anthony Crawford: We have a full summer of shows. We have Willie Sugarcapps dates coming up, some Northern California dates in late June. We have a tour with Sugarcane Jane coming up in July tour with Steve Forbert. We are the opening act and as his back-up band.

Listen and buy the music of Sugarcane Jane from AMAZON or iTunes on April 28, 2015

Tahoe OnStage Review

Sugarcane Jane,’Dirt Road’s End,’ romance and down-home music

Mobile Press Register and AL.Com Review

The Southern Rambler | Sugarcane Jane Finds Identity, Energy, and Success at Dirt Road’s End

The Southland Music Line | Why We Love Sugarcane Jane As Told By The Friends and Fans Who Love Them

PopMatters review of Dirt Road's End

Sugarcane Jane

BY LEE ZIMMERMAN

Boomerocity: Anthony Crawford discusses Sugarcane Jane

No Depression Interview: Singer/Songwriter and Guitarist Anthony Crawford, From Neil Young's Band to Sugarcane Jane

SongFacts Interview: ANTHONY CRAWFORD OF SUGARCANE JANE

Guitar International | Anthony Crawford of Sugarcane Jane: Inspiration is Essential

Exclusive Magazine Review

Drunken Werewolf Review

The Weekly Single Recap: May 1, 2015 - Roughstock.com

The Daily Gleaner Review of Dirt Road's End

Ricky Flake with the Sun Herald Reviews Dirt Road's End

Andy Andrews Article

Birmingham's Anthony Crawford finds the sweet spot in his music with Willie Sugarcapps

Sugarcane Jane hits its stride, branching out from Baldwin County

Sugarcane Jane making tidal waves along the Gulf Coast

Sugarcane Jane visits Callaghan’s Irish Social Club