This was the concept behind Diesel’s (AKA American-born musician Mark Lizotte) latest album. “I knew I had to do this,” he says. “The time was right, so I just picked the songs and started to work out how I wanted to attack each one. I knew I had to whack this one out of the park.”
As promised, he doesn’t disappoint, taking on some of the most accomplished artists in recent music history including Buddy Holly, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen and the Man In Black, Johnny Cash. “The first one I attacked was Ring of Fire. I had an idea while I was driving about how to make it my own.
“And while it’s still recognisable as the Johnny Cash song that everyone loves, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing it verbatim with a two-step drum or a mariachi trumpet horn – I needed to put my stamp on it.
“It was the same for Fire and Rain by James Taylor,” Diesel adds. “I wanted to take it away from that American folk thing and move it down south to Memphis and give it some soul. No one told me the rules, no one said you can’t mix and match. So I wanted to take artists, remove all their clothes, swap them over and dress them again.”
Americana was a labour of love and a nod to Diesel’s humble beginnings in Fall River, Massachusetts, during the late ’60s before his family emigrated to Perth in 1971. “Just before we started to record this album, I took some time off and started peeling back the layers of my memory, right back to my first recollection of a song at the age of two, The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell, that seemed like a good place to start,” he says.
“Growing up in a house with six other siblings all older than me was unforgettable. They were all in their teens buying records. I was a baby listening to their amazing albums. It was an incredible music education.”
He remembers his brother telling him all about Springsteen’s Born To Run after reading a write up in Rolling Stone, and first hearing Tom Petty’s Here Comes My Girl while still living in the States in the early ’70s. “I remember thinking ‘Wow, he just hangs on to that one chord the entire song.’ That song is a study in itself, it’s my favourite song on the album.”
Diesel says his early introduction to music had a profound effect on him growing up. “The first live show I remember seeing was Bob Marley. I’ve still got the ticket stub,” he says.
“My first real rock show was The Doobie Brothers at the WACA in Perth. It was outdoors and I remember my brother had me on his shoulders. They had a big line of amps as all bands did, and two drummers, one on each side, that looked amazing. Then the pyros started smoking and I thought ‘Oh my god, their amps are blowing up.’
“That day blew my mind. That leaves a huge impression on an 8-year-old. To me they weren’t human, they were superheroes, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
BY NATALIE ROGERS
