Since the line-up for the 40th Annual Huck Finn Jubilee Bluegrass Music Festival was announced, one of the bands I had been most excited to see over the course of the weekend was the Grammy-nominated female bluegrass powerhouse Della Mae. And when I found out that I would be covering the festival for ShakedownNews.com, “The Dellas” immediately jumped to the top of my list of interviews I was hoping to get over the course of the weekend. After being a great fan and admirer of the band for three years, I was thrilled at the prospect of being able to talk to some of these brilliant and talented women about writing, recording, touring, and the musical evolution of Della Mae. After an in-depth interview with singer/songwriting Celia Woodsmith, I had a chance encounter with Della Mae’s founder and fiddle player Kimber Ludiker. Having seen Della Mae live several times, I’ve heard Kimber share some memorable stories that I wanted to get on record to be able to share with longtime fans and newcomers, as well as get answers to some questions about Kimber’s ongoing role as the founder of the band and her plans for the upcoming hiatus.
I ran into Kimber when we were both walking in the festival grounds at the lovely Cucamonga-Guasti Regional Park in Ontario, California. Since I had a handful of questions I was excited to ask Kimber to share with Dellaheads and the readers of ShakedownNews.com, I had my recorder at the ready and asked Kimber if she had a few minutes to answer some questions. She was incredibly generous with her time, insight, and willingness to jump right in to an impromptu interview. This incredibly delightful conversation was one of the highlight’s of my weekend, and a wonderful surprise for which I’m deeply grateful. Whether you’re a longtime fan of Kimber’s and Della Mae, or read about them for the first time in the days since the Huck Finn Jubilee, I hope you’ll enjoy what Kimber shared with me about playing John Hartford’s fiddle, running into Madonna at the Grammys, her ongoing role in Della Mae and her plans for the coming year.
Jackson Truax: You said onstage that you recorded one of the songs from the Grammy-nomintaed Della Mae album “This World Oft Can Be” on John Hartford’s fiddle. What was that experience like? How did it influence your playing, if at all?
Kimber Ludiker: We got the amazing opportunity to record…at Cash Cabin Studios… The Cash Family, they’re such great people. And really good friends with the Hartford family. John Hartford is one of my heroes… I don’t even know really how it happened. Just some kind of gift from the universe.
JT: Someone knew you deserved to be playing it.
Ludiker: (Laughs) Yeah. I was surprised by being handed John Hartford’s fiddle. It’s that fiddle that has a human head on the scroll. And there’s a red ribbon that was tied around it like a bandana… That red ribbon is still on there. I just remember being handed that fiddle. And I was shaking. It was one of the most magical things. John was a really kind of bouncy, fun fiddle player. So if you listen to that track, it’s the first track on This World Oft Can Be, “Letter From Down the Road,” you’ll notice. That’s John Hartford’s fiddle. I was so lucky to get to play it… His spirit was perfect for that particular song. Every time we play it, I think about that moment. Cash Cabin Studios is where Johnny Cash and June Carter recorded a lot of their later albums. Johnny built in cabin in Hendersonville, and later turned it into a studio. Since then they’ve built an addition. But where I was recording…it was in the [original] part of the cabin… I was recording on John Hartford’s fiddle, sitting in the little living room area, right in front of the fireplace with a picture of Johnny and June right above me… It was one of the most surreal moments I’ve ever been a part of in my entire life. It was amazing.
JT: How did recording in such a historic space affect the experience of making that album?
Ludiker: I started this band about six, almost seven years ago. About six years ago from we actually got gigs and we started touring. Three years into it we were signed to Rounder Records. And we got the opportunity to record at Cash Cabin Studios. Which isn’t really a public studio. We’re so lucky and fortunate to get to record there. The album is produced by one of our favorite musicians, Bryan Sutton. I was handed this fiddle… Courtney [Hartman] our guitarist was handed June Carter’s guitar. It was just a really magical recording experience. After three years of being a band. And that record went on to be nominated for a Grammy award. So it was an insane part of our lives. This whole thing has been a ride.
JT: Speaking of the Grammys, don’t you have a great story about getting lost backstage?
Ludiker: We had the opportunity to go to the Grammys. We were nominated and we got to dress up… I got to take my Mom on a date to the Grammy awards. Which is kind of a dream come true, of all these great things that have happened to us. And I needed to use the restroom. And when you’re a lady and you’re wearing a dress, you don’t really have a lot of places to put things. I asked my Mom to hold my ticket while I went into the restroom. By the time I got out of the restroom, she just didn’t have my ticket anymore. And on the day of the Grammy’s, if you don’t have your ticket, that’s it. There’s no ticket booth. Nothing… I used the ticket to get into the [Premiere Ceremony at Microsoft Theater, formerly Nokia]. And then I all of a sudden didn’t have a ticket. So they have this checkpoint where everyone from the [Premiere Ceremony] goes into the Staples Center. And I didn’t have my ticket anymore. One of the security guards felt really bad for me… My poor Mom felt so bad… The security guard escorted me back into the guts of the building, I had to walk a million miles in high heels, which I never wear [since] an old injury…I fell at one of my friend’s weddings in high heels. So I was transported back to the artist’s check-in for the actual, televised Grammy awards. The first person I saw when I got back there was Sharon Osborne. Then John Legend passed me. And Pharrell with his big hat… I was standing in line with Martina McBride and her people. Then out of my periphery I see, fresh from the read carpet, Madonna. She was walking with a cane. That was a crazy moment in my life. Wow. She just walked out and she’s standing five feet in front of me. So I never found my ticket and they weren’t able to help me. But the Del McCoury Band who actually won the Grammy, their bassist Alan Bartram gave me his ticket. He had a migraine. It just put him out. So he ended up giving me his ticket… So it all worked out.
READ THE REVIEW OF HUCK FINN JUBILEE DAY 2 HERE
JT: As another fun fact for the Dellaheads, didn’t you lose the Grammy to the band your boyfriend Jason Carter is in?
Ludiker: It was really good. We’ve always been really supportive of each other… There’s a lot of longevity in that band. Jason joined the band when he was nineteen years old. And he’s still with them. If you’re familiar with that band and that family, they’re the best people you’ll ever meet.
JT: You and Celia have both talked to me about how you formed Della Mae and the band was your idea. But Celia has become the main singer, and I would say by extension the main show-woman, for lack for of a better term. Would you say you’re Della Mae’s “Woman with a Plan,” so to speak, where you have a leadership role but it’s more behind the scenes?
Ludiker: Yeah. I started the band. I came up with the concept and found all the ladies. I do a lot of the business… I’m sort of the idea person. Courtney and Celia write a lot of the music… But they bring a song to us. And it can be either be really developed. Or even just a shell of a song. We all sit there and work it out and arrange it.
READ THE INTERVIEW WITH CELIA WOODSMITH of DELLA MAE HERE
JT: Celia was telling me about Della Mae’s plan to go on hiatus, basically from the end of the summer tour through next year. I’m really excited about it. Because it sounds like with everyone’s solo and side projects in the works, fans will actually be getting four or five times as much great music from all of you next year. What are your plans during the break?
Ludiker: I have a lot of them… I’m going to spend a lot more time with my family. I just moved to Austin, Texas where my brother plays with Asleep at the Wheel. My nephew is about to turn two. So I’m relocating there to spend a lot more time with my family. And I’m also starting an artist management company. That’s why I do day-to-day with Della Mae… I really feel for the artists these days. No one’s buying music anymore. It’s a lot harder to make music and be a musician. It really keeps young, talented bands from being able to reach the stars. A band like Della Mae, ten, fifteen years ago, we would have been doing really well… A record that would have sold one hundred thousand copies, these days you’re lucky if you sell ten thousand. So playing live and selling records, that’s how you make money. That’s your bread and butter. So it forces people to be on the road a lot more, to be able to make a meager living. Because you don’t have those record sales… We’ve been on the road for two hundred days a year for five years. It’s really a gift. And it’s been really fun. But that’s five years of missing births of nieces and nephews and missing friend’s weddings and missing big family events… So it’s time to take a little bit of time off… We love playing festivals. We love going to cities. Our fans have been amazing… I’ll definitely be playing fiddle… It’s going to be kind of fun to pursue a side-woman gig, where I can just show up and play music… I’ll be taking gigs with different people here and there and touring, kind of as a hired gun… I’m not confining myself to Austin… And Della Mae will be back together before you know it.
