INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Diamond Dave goes bluegrass

For nearly a decade, David Lee Roth was the frontman of Van Halen, one of rock’s biggest bands of all time. His vocal, songwriting and showmanship contributions to the band’s legacy are well-known. Now, 20 years after Roth parted ways with the band, he has come out with an album that pays homage to Van Halen — featuring bluegrass musicians.

Bluegrass?

Strummin’ With the Devil (CMH Records) is a 14-song compilation of various bluegrass artists and bands (including David Grisman, Iron Horse and The Nashville Bluegrass Band) doing noteworthy covers of Van Halen classics, including “Hot For Teacher,” “Panama,” “Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love” and “And the Cradle Will Rock.” Roth contributes lead vocals to “Jump” and “Jamie’s Cryin’,” songs that also feature the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band.

What prompted this project was Roth’s desire to raise the bar when it came to tribute albums.

“Obviously, I drink a lot of coffee,” Roth admitted during a recent conversation. “And during my many forays into the coffee shop, I’d notice a forest of tribute [CDs] for sale. During my brief but colorful tenure as a radio broadcast personality, I must have reviewed a half-dozen tribute albums, [featuring the music of artists] like Sly & the Family Stone and Brazil ’66. They’ve got everybody from Bon Jovi to the Black Eyed Peas doing these people’s songs — not necessarily in stellar fashion, but doing it nonetheless!

So, this whole desperate gambit was my idea! We made offers to dozens of bands, and sifted through dozens of demos, looking for the most unpredictable ones, and the ones with the most soul power.”

Roth pointed out that when he was growing up in Central Indiana in the late 1950s, bluegrass and country music were heard everywhere: on the radio, on television and at the county fairs. As he got older, Roth’s musical education expanded to include the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, as well as the revival of blues music, and artists like Leo Kottke. These various types of music made quite an impression on Roth, and this influence would be carried out in the songs he would write with Eddie Van Halen.

“I think the reason that the Van Halen music translates superbly into other forms is because of the ingredients we cooked it up with originally,” the Bloomington, Ind., native said. “It is a very diverse collection of ingredients, half of which are classic Americana, mixed with what Eddie Van Halen brought, which was a whole other approach to music. He was classically trained on the piano. When Eddie and I wrote a song, you had European hard rock riffs that collided with classic Motown choruses, with Gene Autry titles. Come on, ‘might as well jump again’ sounds like Bob Wills, doesn’t it? (laughs)”

So when it came time to record this bluegrass album, “Diamond Dave” did not want to do acoustic versions of songs that copied the originals note for note. And to say that he is satisfied with the finished product would be putting it mildly.

“We took the music way past where we found it,” Roth noted enthusiastically. “It’s very unpredictable. Often you can’t tell what song it is until the vocals come in. It’s a great way of discovering something new about something you already like, and are familiar with. There’s an element that people always found in this music that shows up even more readily in this different kind of approach.“It’s like if your wife, after seven years, tells you something she’s really into sexually that you never knew about before. You say, ‘Damn, why didn’t you tell me about this before? Now I REALLY love you!’ (laughs)”

Roth related the contents of an e-mail he received that offers proof of the effect that Van Halen’s music had on other musicians, long after the songs had been recorded.

“I just received this e-mail, from a guy who was in the band [Damageplan] with Dimebag [Abbott], the musician who got shot on stage during a show a couple of years ago. It reads, ‘That night, right before we went on, Dime was warming up his hands and getting ready. The last thing I ever said to him was “Van Halen?” Dime gives me five and says, “Van-FUCKING-Halen!” That was our code word for letting it all hang out and having a good time. One minute and 45 seconds later, he was dead and gone. It’s insane!’

“Whatever they had found in the music, that they would be doing that ritual a quarter-century later, is even MORE accessible in this kind of approach. And I think that’s probably why people say, ‘I ain’t much for country or bluegrass, but I like this!’ Because this music is like a Christmas tree: However it’s dressed up, no matter what the tinsel, it’s still a damn good tree!”