Among the Phoenix music community, there is one musician who has achieved near-legendary status.
Jon Rauhouse has been playing music for decades and has a whole menagerie of instruments under his belt, ranging from the pedal steel guitar to the Hawaiian slide guitar to even the trombone. He’s worked with many musicians and bands, including Grievous Angels in the mid-90s and Neko Case, who he’s toured with for the last 20 years.
He’s truly a craftsman when it comes to music, blending an intuitive musical sense with a playful charm.
The Show’s Steve Goldstein caught up with Rauhouse at the Farm at South Mountain. There under the pecan trees, he started off our conversation by asking him how Rauhouse approaches his music either as a solo artist or part of a band.
Full conversation
JON RAUHOUSE: Being a side man for a really long time, I first listen to a song or who's doing it, and try to realize where to get out of the way. Like if I'm playing with Nico, or somebody who can sing like that, you don't need to hear me. And she loves to have me play with her, and I'll be very subtle. And I think that's why I've worked my whole life. She hasn't said for me to do that. I just do that, because that's what's played with.
Sally Timms did the same thing. Jakob Dylan, same thing. It's like somebody who's singing in the song is well crafted. I'm there to augment the sound. Or I don't know what you know lifted, or I don't know what you would say, but it's a, it's a different animal. If it's a full on bluegrass song, or full on country … or something, rip away, that's like, you know? So first, I got to figure out what's going on in the mind of the person who has the song, and then, and then go from there.
GOLDSTEIN: Now side man, and what you do is definitely a positive term, but you sort of said it like, yeah, I'm a side man, but, but people who, who know music, side man, I mean, I think about this is back in the in the ‘60s, saw a documentary about the backup musicians that played for the Beach Boys.
RAUHOUSE: Yeah.
GOLDSTEIN: And it was Wrecking Crew. The Wrecking Crew are incredibly respected musicians, but they were sort of pushed to the side. So, I mean, you've kind of chosen to be a side man, right? Because you're so good at it?
RAUHOUSE: I love it, and I really don't like being in charge. I mean, it's like, unless you're at a level where you can get management and help and all that stuff, it's, I mean, even now I work all the time, and I have to keep track of my schedule, my, you know, money.
I have to be a businessman, I have to be a lawyer, I have to be all these things just to do it. So if it was me actually being a band leader, also, I'd have to do all those things for four or five other people.
GOLDSTEIN: Yeah, yeah. So this is really cornball, but I really mean it, did you choose guitar? Did you choose music? Or did it choose you in that sense?
RAUHOUSE: It's a weird story. There was a banjo at my house that my brother had bought at a pawn shop but never dealt with, and I met a man in town here named Steve Thomas, who's an amazing banjo player and fiddle player. Just a long time ago. He has a band called the Normal Brothers, and they were great.
And a buddy of mine, Kenny, we had he was playing football at, this is going to be a long story, but he was playing football over at MCC and he decided to go skydiving, you know. So for the first time ever he goes skydiving and breaks his leg, so he's laid up at his house. I've got a banjo, he's got a guitar, and we dare each other to learn how to play it. And we ended up in a band together for like, five years.
So yeah, it was, it kind of chose me, I think, or I don't know, but so I played banjo, and then I ran into a guy named, well, Kenny Skaggs, and from who played with Glen Campbell for years, and he's a player from here, and a guy named Mike Hardwick, also who ended up playing with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and all these guys in Austin. And I would watch them, so I would figure out how to play, kind of like what they were doing on steel guitar. I bought one and just started playing.
GOLDSTEIN: Are you going to play a song for us? What’s going to be?
RAUHOUSE: It's going to be “Drinking and Smoking.”
GOLDSTEIN: Couple of your favorite things?
RAUHOUSE: Not anymore.
[MUSIC]
GOLDSTEIN: We mentioned Nico Case you've played with a bunch. You mentioned Jakob Dylan, too. So how important is collaboration to you? When you mentioned I wanted to be the lead guy. And how do you know when a collaboration sort of feels right?
RAUHOUSE: I think I don't know if you call it lucky. I'm really pliable. I mean, it's like, I, you know, it was, it was great when I went and played with Jakob Dylan, because he was just like, play more, play louder. I'm like, great. You know, I hardly ever get that.
I did some stuff with Sam Beam from Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell, and I got a call from their guy who did the recording and couldn't go, so they called me and I went, and it was great, and it worked out great. So I have to collaborate with people. I mean, I just have to, because I play stuff that doesn't really stand alone. I mean, you can do guitar instrumentals, but you kind of need a beat and you kind of need a bass, so it's like you got to have somebody else there. I mean, if you're just singing and playing guitar, you just need yourself. And so I don't know if it's because I collaborate with a lot of people.
GOLDSTEIN: Yeah, but knowing your stuff the way you do, are you a collaborator who is a forceful collaborator? Are you just sound pretty good? Let's kind of work this out. Kind of work this out. Are you more mellow about it?
RAUHOUSE: I’m more mellow about it. I don't really. I think if somebody's written a song and they're paying me to play on it, they should get what they want. I have a lot of ideas. A lot of times I'll get these producers as one guy in New York and one guy in California who email me tracks, and I'll give them four passes at it, like one's barely there, one's a little busier, one's a little more, and then one's crazy, and I'll send them that, and then he can edit in whatever he wants, and that way they get what they want. I really don't want people to be unhappy with what I'm doing. So yeah.
GOLDSTEIN: You’re being kind of humble.
RAUHOUSE: But it's not really humble. It's like a craftsman. I mean …
GOLDSTEIN: Yeah.
RAUHOUSE: I mean you go, if you want to go to have a piece of jewelry made, you want it made the way you want it. And somebody's got to know, we're gonna put a dragon on that, you know. No, no, I want a dragon on that, you know, but I'm paying for it. No, no, we're gonna put a dragon on it. Yeah, no.
So I, like, always do check ins, and also I play an instrument that's kind of odd most people don't get to hear so the second they hear it, they're like, oh, yeah, do that? Do that? So kind of, I'm kind of just showing up and it's good.
GOLDSTEIN: But didn’t you write one of Nico's songs?
RAUHOUSE: I helped write.
GOLDSTEIN: Yeah, it was a popular song. Yeah.
RAUHOUSE: It was a popular song. Yeah, it still gets put in TV and movies and stuff like that, yeah? So I actually get mailbox money from that, which is awesome.
GOLDSTEIN: Yeah But, I mean, that's so that's …
RAUHOUSE: But that’s her being awesome. I mean, she came to my house, she had one song to go on that record, and she's like, ‘I've got this whole song done. I've got it all done. I can't figure out this one transition.’ So I sat down with her and, like, how about this? I went from F to F minor, perfect. All right, that's all I did. And she gave me a percentage of the song. She didn't have to. She was great. That was, you know, that's what that was. But yeah.
GOLDSTEIN: So, is there a day that goes by that you don't pick up an instrument?
RAUHOUSE: Oh, I wish. Um, not really. Sometimes, every once in a while, if I'm like, say, me and my wife go to visit her brother or something, and it's like, there's no instruments around. I'm like, fine.
GOLDSTEIN: So you're, it's, it's in your blood. Are you compelled to do it?
RAUHOUSE: I think so. Yeah. I have, like, right now, I have, like, a ton of songs I'm trying to get recorded and get them out of my head, because it's been a while and they're just stacking up. And I've got maybe 40 of them on my iPhone. I gotta, I gotta do something with that. And they're all different styles. I got Hawaiian guitar songs. I got bluegrass songs. I got surf tunes. I got all kinds of stuff.
GOLDSTEIN: Yeah, Jon, take us out on a song. What are you gonna play for us?
RAUHOUSE: It’s gonna be “Dusty Canal.”
If you’re in a band or know of one you’d like to hear on air, send us a note at [email protected].
