Noah settles in comfortably with his Christmas shopping out of the way, anticipating a night in with freezing ice in the forecast. Noah wants to catch up his fans with what’s been going on in his musical career over the past year. Noah speaks candidly with Meow the creator and owner of NoahHunt.org for over an hour about his new album with Jason Dennie “All The Dark Things,” the upcoming concert with the 420 All-Stars and the launching of his first official website NoahHunt.com that is soon to “Go live.”
“All The Dark Things,” the long awaited follow up album to “Long Black Train” the CD he and friend Jason Dennie recorded over 15 years ago has finally arrived. Noah expresses all the dedication he put into making this project over the years it took him to complete it. “Very folky, very acoustic oriented CD. It started when I came across some old songs when I moved a few years back, that were kinda half finished. Then I kinda finished those and then took some other songs that I had written over the past few years that I thought would kinda fit it.” He added as he tried to explain- “I could piece it all together to an album concept. Then I called Jason and said ’Hey you wanna work on some of this stuff and release it?’ I made it basically for the hard core fans because I realized there hasn’t been a lot of stuff in the past few years that I actually sang a lot on.”
Noah goes on to say “It’s truly an independent project with no record company. I’m the record company. I never did anything like this before. Honestly I’m still committed with Kenny and that’s my main job. So I just have to kinda work on this stuff in my spare time which I haven’t had a lot of in the last year.”
So what has Noah been doing in the last year that has kept him so busy? “I was on the road. We had a pretty good tour this summer me and Kenny. We were everywhere. I did the Experienced Hendrix Tour which was an all-star bunch of guitar players. Buddy Guy, Eric Johnson and Doyle Bramhall. Kenny and I, Johnny Lang was on it this year and Hubert Sumlin.” If Noah could spy into a crystal ball he would tell fans that hopefully by summer time he and Kenny Wayne Shepherd will have a new Rock album out to offer the fans. “Jerry Harrison will probably produce it again.” Meow inquires about who will be writing the songs for the new Rock album and Noah predicts that he and Kenny will write some songs along with some other songwriters on board. Noah also confirms that you will hear more of his vocals on the album than on "The Place You’re In” which Noah agrees- “It turned out to be kinda a solo album which is another reason I wanted to do my own.” (Referencing “All The Dark Things)
More music in Noah Hunt’s future will be recorded by his band Noah Hunt and The 420 All-Stars. “We’ve broken ground on The 420 All-Stars album. But again, it’s gonna take some time.” Meow laughs and reminds him that it was three years ago when she interviewed him and he told her the project with Jason Dennie was around the bend. “I think it will take less time than that cuz they’re all here in town.” Noah laughs. “We’ve got 3 songs done.” He declared proudly.
For the fans who can’t wait for a Noah Hunt and The 420 All-Stars album to be recorded don’t fret, you can hear them perform live together at Stanley’s Pub in Cincinnati Ohio on New Year’s Eve Eve, Tuesday December 30th 2008. Advanced tickets are $10.00 (you can purchase them from a link on NoahHunt.org) or $12.00 at the door. Special guests are The Rumpke Mt. Boys and the doors open at 8pm. Tickets are limited.
“As of now we are still working out the set list.” Noah reports, “The band plans to rehearse tomorrow night and hammer out the setlist.” They will probably do a few songs off of Noah’s new album “All The Dark Things” along with his favorites “Away Away” “Midnight Sun” and covers that he and Kenny play such as “Oh Well” & “King Bee.” Noah asks Meow what she wants to hear and even takes request from his band members. The 420 All-Stars’ new electric guitar player Scotty Bratcher really wants to play “Voodoo Child.” Noah jokes- “We don’t go out there and try to challenge our audience. There won’t be any surprises but we might work up some older stuff that people haven’t heard in awhile.” The Annual Holiday show that Noah Hunt and The 420 All-Stars play always benefit’s the Free Store Food Bank. Noah encourages fans to participate- “I want people to bring whatever they can spare, can goods, coats, toys. People really do bring them and I’m always proud of the people who give generously.”
The Annual Holiday show is back at Stanley’s Pub this year, the small bar that Noah grew up singing at before he hit the big time with Kenny Wayne Shepherd. “Stanley’s is kinda a small place, fun for me but all the rest of the guys are in other bands and they have a lot of gigs around the holidays. You know, Stanley’s isn’t really about the money. It’s more about having fun and getting food and stuff for the Free Store. I’ve been doing my holiday show actually at the Cinergy Center downtown for the last few years in conjunction with Reds Fest. The Cincinnati Reds put it on and they do a concert at the end of it and I was gonna do that again this year but I had a scheduling conflict. So the guys were like ’Hey why don’t we play at Stanley’s?’ And I said ‘If you guys really want to- let’s do it.’ It was actually their idea. It’s actually New Years Eve Eve, so it’s a Tuesday and the start of a long party week.”
Who are The 420 All-Stars? Mostly the same cast of characters that the fans have come to know over the years. Noah begins roll call, “We still have Johnny Miracle on the drums. He’s a great great drummer. Alex Hughes on bass of course and Dan Hunt. Alex and Dan were with me when I was in Uncle Six, so way back in the day. It’s the new guitar player that I’m really excited about.” Noah introduces him to their audience: “He’s been playing with us for about a year. His name is Scotty Bratcher, he’s from up north near Columbus.” Only 21, “He grew up idolizing Stevie and Kenny and guys like that. About 9 years ago we did this ’Jam with Kenny Wayne Contest’ sponsored by Guitar Center. Thousands of people sent in- there were two different age groups, 18 and under and 18 and over and Scotty ended up being one of the semi finalist when he was 12 years old. So I remember meeting him back then but he’s all grown up. Dan had kept saying we should play with this kid Scotty Bratcher and that was like a year ago. I was like ’He doesn’t wanna play with us, he’s got his own thing going.’ But they contacted him and he was ecstatic! So he’s great, we actually did a show Saturday night in Columbus with Hubert Sumlin of Howlin’ Wolf the guitar player that was on the 10 Days Out project and tours with us whenever he can. We did a benefit for cancer research on Saturday at Columbus.” Noah recalls.
Noah is genuinely excited about getting his music in the hands of his fans and the launching of his new first offical website NoahHunt.com, is obviously the best resource tool he can utilize to do that. He says in talking about how fans can purchase the new album with Jason Dennie titled “All The Dark Things-” “I encourage people to get it from NoahHunt.com” where he will have an address posted for fans who would like to mail in their payment and have the actual physical copy of the CD shipped to them. Fans will also be able to download the album from CDBaby.com (CD Baby is a little online record store that sells albums by independent musicians) and iTunes probably next week before Christmas. Noah explains his reasons for finally deciding to construct an official website- “To give people access to the new music as I create it. So we’re finally doing it.” He says he’ll probably update a blog for the fans to keep in touch, although he’s not very good at typing. He’ll have photos on the site and artwork you can download from the new CD as well as links to videos on YouTube. When referring to the new music of Noah Hunt and The 420 All-Stars he says “I’ll probably put up samples or something.” Noah admits sheepishly “I know I’m way late...way late.” when discussing the website and internet technology and using it to get his music to his fans. He says “NoahHunt.com is not designed to replace NoahHunt.org which I think is a great site.” His hopes are to keep the fans updated with links from both sites. He says NoahHunt.com is ready to go and should be “going live” very shortly.
How people buy & listen to their music now a days:
Do you have an Ipod? I do have an Ipod. What’s in it? All sorts of stuff. It’s an Ipod Touch A silver one. I’ve got the Allman Brothers, David Gilmour Live CD- Live In Gdansk, My Morning Jacket- a band I really like from Louisville KY. I got some heavy stuff too, I got this band I like called Mastodon, I got all their stuff on here.
Sasha wants to know do you have yourself on there? I do have myself on there, I do! (laughter) I have the new record and I have “Trouble Is” and “Live On.” “Live On” is my favorite.
Can fans get your new album from iTunes? Yes but I want to encourage people to order it right from me. (From Noah’s new website NoahHunt.com) Then Apple doesn’t make any more money off my songs. Apple takes more than I make. How much? I don’t know, um about two thirds I’ll guess. It’s awfully easy to buy it off iTunes especially if you have an ipod, you know it takes you right there. I don’t download music illegally though. I buy all the stuff that I download.
A new era for music:
Why does it take so long to release the new music? The good thing about this new era of music and I really think it is a new era, as the record companies die out- I’ll finish the point about the record company and why it’s taking so long with that. Because they are dying and because they don’t know what to do, unless your like a Miley Cyrus or some crap like that, they don’t really care about you. You’re not a priority, ya know.
We’ve been trying to release this live album from the 10 Days Out tour from last year and every once in awhile we’ll hear from them and they’ll be like ’Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re excited about it- let’s do it’ and then like you know- nothing. That was a really cool tour, we took out some of the guys from the project, we took out Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins, Bryan Lee- a couple of other guys and Kenny and I would come out and play for awhile with our band and then we’d bring out each guy individually and we would close it down at the end of the night. It was really neat, it was a multimedia type thing, you know we had footage from the movie that would bring the guys on and off ya know, and we had multiple busses- it was a little more ambitious than what we normally do. Kenny and I just like to really go out there plug into an amp and play. Ya know but it was cool, it was neat- so it was something that they captured on tape a couple of nights and we really wanna try and get that out and they’re draggin their feet on that.
Who knows there might not even be a record industry next year (laughter) but that’s the good thing about the internet though- you don’t really need the record industry, it’s kinda becoming obsolete. So instead of the record company taking two thirds and iTunes taking two thirds (laughs) ya know- “
How does Noah divide up the earnings? Everybody that plays on the record is in the deal, so Jason and I take the lion’s share. (laughs) I mean we write all the songs- Dan and Alex get a percentage too. It’s all good ya know. We gotta start selling ‘em first to see if we can make any money! (Meow assures them they’ll sell) Well we hope so. We put a lot of love into it ya know. We produced it ourselves.”
And you didn’t have to borrow any money from your Dad right? (Noah laughs) “No, (laughs again) Not this time, nope not this time. We’re happy with it.
Married with Children:
You got married. Any little Noah’s on the way? Is that a plan? “No, not yet. I don’t know if we’re gonna. We may or may not. We may adopt, who knows. Our drummer just adopted this beautiful Guatemalan kid, he is awesome. There are just a lot of kids out there that need homes ya know?
Yeah I know I work with them- Yeah, so you know. So many people can just have kids all the time and just don’t wanna take care of them and then there are so many people out there that just can’t even have kids, ya know.
Yeah you can be like Angelina & Brad! (Noah laughs) Yeah believe me if I had Angelina and Brad’s cash I’d probably have a whole Brady Bunch by now.
Does your wife tour with you? Very, very rarely and if she does it’s only for a few days. Like for this last tour I think we played in Detroit, Chicago and Louisville. So she came to Detroit and then rode the bus with us to Chicago and then Louisville and then went back home from Louisville. If she does it’s just something like a weekend thing like that. She’s a dietician and she can’t take a lot of time off. When we were younger before we were married she toured with ya know- she’d come out for like a week or two. She’s over that now. (laughter) She’s way over that now. Um, it’s nice to have her there but you also kinda fall into a grove ya know so it’s nice for awhile and it’s sad to see her go but at the same time you kinda get back to your daily routine.
The meaning of Christmas:
So what else is going on? I’ve been doing some benefits in my time off and just trying to get this together and I did some Christmas shopping earlier today. I got that all out of the way. I have kinda a large family so they finally decided to draw names. I got my uncle so I got him The Dark Knight DVD, Iron Man DVD and a bottle of Yagermeister. He’s German so you know he likes the Yagermeister. I always give him something like that.
Who got your name? Is it a secret? I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know, I don’t really need anything.
If someone wanted to give you a favorite bottle? I don’t know maybe Ketel One Vodka. I drink that from time to time. Or just a decent bottle of red wine. I’m pretty easy like that. Obviously I don’t indulge as much as when I was younger.
I don’t drink at all. Yeah my wife doesn’t either.
I don’t really even buy Christmas presents anymore. That‘s not what Christmas is really about for me. “I feel the same way. I mean like you don’t really have to get me anything ya know, just being together with just family ya know.
Is your house decorated for Christmas? Yeah we’ve got a small tree. We’ve got room for a big tree now a days but she still sets up this small tree we used to have when we lived in an apartment.
Do you buy presents for your dog? The other day I was upstairs and I heard this like rustling and my wife keeps all the presents in her office and I went in there and the dog was rustling through the presents. (laughing)
One of my cats got locked in the closet over night after finding the Christmas catnip presents we hid in there. (Noah laughs) Yeah my cat gets catnip too.
You have a cat? Yeah I have a kitty. Yeah we’ve had him for um, I don’t know 6 years now.
What’s his name? Pumpkin!
You should put some pictures of your pets on your new website. Yeah I’m gonna to do that. There’s a small picture of my dog in the cd booklet. She was sitting with us.
What’s her name Meesha? Meesha yes, they’re hanging out with me today. So I did my Christmas shopping and my wife’s out doing the rest.
Baseball talk - Around the diamond:
Are you a baseball fan? “Oh yeah, I’m actually friends with the owners of the team. Yeah I know some of the players too.
So you don’t have to buy tickets? (laughs ) No. Bronson Arroyo, he’s a good friend of mine now and we’ve done some shows together you know for charity and stuff.
I love Bronson Arroyo, I have his album. I have the baseball package and I still try to catch the games where he pitches. I saw a game where he started against the Blue Jays and he got romped in 2 innings! (Laughing) Yeah, last year he didn’t get a lot of run support and this year he said his mechanics were off at the beginning but he got it together at the end. He just admitted. He said ‘Dude my timing is wrong’ and he was you know making little errors in his approach but he got em’ together. So yeah I’m a big Red’s fan and have been all my life. They did an album a few years back.
And you sang a song on it? Yeah I did a song on it and that was for the Red’s community fund.
Did you write it? Oh yeah I wrote it. I had started it and they were like ‘Hey you got that done?’ And I was like, ya know- I was really busy at the time so I was like I don’t know if I’ll be able to get that done. And they were like ‘Ahh, well we had a meeting today and George Foster..’ which was a childhood idol of mine on The Big Red Machine, he’s like one of the heads of the community fund and I guess he was there and they said he mentioned me by name and was excited that I was part of the project and I was like Oh my god! (laughter) And I sat down and finished the damn song! (more laughter) I finished it up and demoed it and said ‘here, how’s this?’ George Foster he never let me down when I was a kid.
Is the Reds' Stadium nice? The Reds' stadium, it’s nice The Great American Ballpark, real nice stadium to see a game. All the seats are angled to face home plate.
Bronson Arroyo is still loved by Red Sox fans. Yeah he helped you guys win a World Series so that will do it.
(We talked about how Bronson & Noah are both good looking and how that attracts fans for musicians.) Well I’m getting older so I try to exercise everyday.
10 Questions Meow asks from Noah’s Fans:
1. Is he into polygamy? Ah well no. I’m not into it. I mean if they legalized it. (laughter) I might explore it if it was legal. (more laughter) Nooo.
2. Where is one place you would like to go on tour that you haven’t been yet? That’s a good question. Well I’m going to Russia at the end of January and I’ve never been there. Yeah we’re playing over that at the end of January. Kenny and I are. So I’m excited to go there because I’ve never been there. I’ve been to Europe obviously. Maybe like South America. I’ve never been to South America. I’ve been to Mexico and Central America but I’ve never been down to South America.
3. Where is your favorite vacation spot? Maybe like St. Johns in the Virgin Islands. Yeah it’s nice and quiet. I mean I like Jamaica and I hear Costa Rica’s cool. But like Jamaica there’s like people always trying to sell you stuff. A tourist thing it’s like. (laughter) You know like St. John’s real quiet.
4. What do you do in your down time? Well the last few years in my down time I’ve just been working on music and recording music. The studio that I use is actually a home studio. It’s up in my neighborhood actually so I do that. And then I like to go hiking at this nature preserve with my dog, maybe the occasional video game.
5. What are your hobbies? (do you play pool? Do you bowl or play golf) Well I actually like to shoot guns. Cuz I was horrible, I tried golf for a while because I needed something other than music. I don’t hunt or anything. But I like to target shoot. I like to- like, do clay pigeons and targets at the firing range. People might be surprised. I grew up kinda out in the country. We moved out into the country when I was like 12 so then everybody out there had ya know shotguns, like all my friends. So I got into it when I was younger so I just thought that I’d give it a try again. I was still pretty good at it.
Are you a good shot? Yeah I have a pretty good shot. (laughing) Like I said I tried golf and I’m not such a good shot at golf. And I live out in the suburbs that have these great, great golf courses out here. My friends are like semi pro level players and none of them will play with me. (laughter) And I was like ‘Come on man, can’t you teach me how to play?’ And one of my friends said ‘Noah, me trying to teach you how to play golf at this point in your life will be like you trying to teach me how to play guitar’ and I was like ‘oh,okay.’ (laughing) Yeah it doesn’t really make sense.
6. How are you feeling about the election? I’m very happy. I’m very happy and hopeful.
So you voted for Obama? Oh yeah. Yeah I mean I just thought he was the best candidate. He’s a natural leader. He’s a great orator. Seems incredibly intelligent and he seems to have a plan to get us out of this crap. I don’t know if he’s going to be able to do it, I don’t know if anyone can. You know, what else are you gonna do- you gotta try.
Did you mail in your ballot or go to the polls? I mailed in my ballot. I was out on The Hendrix Tour, yeah I mailed it in a few weeks before the election and I was in Las Vegas on the night of the election. I had the night off so I just kinda watched the polls, stayed in my hotel room and watched the polls.
7. Do you entertain at your home? Yeah, yeah we entertain quite a bit actually. Occasionally we have dinner parties and I’m close with a few of my neighbors.
Who does the cooking? Jennifer does, my wife does. My next door neighbor Penella from, she’s from Sweden and actually her husband’s a pretty good cook too! The only thing that I’m good at in the kitchen is burning myself! (laughter) Unfortunately. I wish I could cook, I just don’t have the knack.
8. Do you drink soda? Yeah, not too much. Occasionally I’ll have a Coke Zero.
9. What kind of cell phone do you have? Ahh, some Sprint phone. It’s a piece of crap. I need a new one. Some piece of crap Sprint phone.
Put that on your Christmas list. Yeah, I think I will. All my ah friends and in the band and everything have the iPhone. I like Sprint’s service. They’re efficient about their service and it’s like what’s the point of having the phone. I’ve already got the iPod Touch so it’s got everything else except the phone. But I do need to get a new phone.
10. If you were stuck in a room for 30 years with only one person. Who would it be? Oh God! Dead or alive- Stuck in a room for 30 years, I’d have to say my wife. (laughter) I don’t know but I better just say that. I’ll take the safe route. Let’s go with that so then if she reads it, I’ll be good. (laughs)
Article written by Meow & Stacia Rose Website Creator & Webmaster.
Great thanks to Noah Hunt for his candid participation and time spent for the interview, it was fun!
