Tanya K grew up an hour from Salt Lake City, where her upbringing definitely influenced her musical palette. She picked up guitar “as a reaction to piano lessons” and moved to California at 17 where she played in the bar where Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath. She also met her husband there, who was playing in Lacy J. Dalton’s band, and together they moved to Nashville where she played music for 10 years before relocating here. Her band, Two Red Shoes, plays blues and originals around town, and she is musical director (her fourth time in that role) at Live Arts for Urinetown, which opens in mid-July. I asked Miss K about her wild mix of influences.
Spencer Lathrop: Earliest influences?
Tanya K: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Handel’s Messiah and musicals like The Music Man. Musicals were really big where I grew up, part of the Utah culture, because they are considered wholesome. My mom is an operatic soprano who sang with the Utah Opera Company and was also the choir director at church. And we all listened to Led Zeppelin. And we really thought we were getting away with something when we listened to David Bowie. The first song I learned on guitar was Neil Young’s “Down By The River.” My mom used to yell up the stairs, “Have you shot your baby yet?!”
Women songwriters?
I love Rickie Lee Jones. Her first record with “Last Chance Texaco” on it just kills me. I love Nina Simone, but I can’t touch her. And Lucinda Williams, I liked Car Wheels, but now it seems like you are just getting into one of her songs, and then you realize it is all about drug abuse which is a bit of a turn off. Joni Mitchell’s record Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter was revolutionary. And I think Tina Turner is very gutsy. Private Dancer. What happened to Edie Brickell? I used to love her. And I had a brief Sheryl Crow thing, but I think I was just depressed. Her new stuff is just pasty.
Heroes?
Dickie Betts was my hero. Before I had my Tele, I used to play a red Les Paul that weighed as much as a refrigerator plugged into a twin reverb. And Chris O’Connell, the guitar player in Asleep At The Wheel, was an idol of mine for a while. I respect her a lot.
Blues?
Janis Joplin’s Essentials album, KoKo Taylor’s Royal Blue, and Etta James. But you know I like guys best: Slim Harpo’s rhythmic dittys, Howlin’ Wolf’s howling, and Freddie King’s Texas shuffles.
Tunes?
I think that “Sunday Morning Coming Down” is my absolutely favorite tune of all time. It is so lyrically sound. That and “Starry Starry Night.” And my favorite Mormon hymn is “Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel.”