Azere Wilson entered my world through the FAR-West 2023 Campfire private showcase. By the end of the conference, I thought she was great – not just as a musician, but as a person. By now I am certain.
Azere recently performed on Music My Mother Would Not Like, hosted by Bruce Swan, and did a stint as emcee and stage manager as well as performing at Live Oak Music Festival 2024 in San Luis Obispo. As of July 6, 2024, Azere was texting me from the High Sierra Festival, scheduled to go on at 2pm. She talked to me via Zoom from her home in Berkeley, California.
We stayed up late into the night, not as an interview but as two girls sitting on our beds. We talked about boys; she kept her guitar near until her cat demanded the space. If you have cats, you know.
me: What made you think you could just write lyrics with a dead man?
Azere: when I’m playing a song or I’m listening to music, lyrics will just start to come out and it works. It was kind of like that. These lyrics just wanted to come out. The only lines that are Blind Lemon Jefferson’s are: “I’m broke and I ain’t got a dime / everybody’s got some hard luck sometime.”
I have a new guitar teacher,
JUNO the Artist, and it was, I think, my first virtual session – her mom was in the background. I played that song for them, and then JUNO’s mom said something along the lines of – which I also believe this – looking out when you say it to the universe: when you put it out there you have to be careful with the words. Basically to be mindful. So even though this is what was coming out, and these lyrics are “I’m broke and ain’t got a dime” – those are his lyrics – she just reminded me that even if those were not my words and I did have these other positive words in there…it just brought that perspective back to me. And I’m like, “All right, I want to revisit this.”
Then her mom actually was inspired, too. JUNO sent me an email saying, “My mom said she had some ideas…” and so she gave me a few lyrics. A couple of those words that she said kind of fit with what I already had going on. I feel like she had a hand in that song as well, so when I finally record it she’s definitely getting writing credit!
me: how did you end up deciding that you really wanted to dig into the old songs? What was the turning point for you?

photo by @toddmeanyphotography
AW: This is an interesting question. The electric Blues…I never really felt that electric Blues vibe for some reason. I’ve always loved Nina Simone, but that is not even going back that old, right?
I know what actually happened, a couple different things. One, somebody turned me on to some some old-time music, just like we share music with each other. Also, people have given me albums. I had at one time a really extensive record collection but I’ve since downsized.
(my brain: please don’t let’s start talking about vinyl addiction. Not that rabbit hole)
I don’t even know, just random people all the time giving me music. One record I have, there’s
Lil Johnson on that, and it was old-time tunes. Actually I think it even goes farther back, but listening to that album, loving that music, and just how it’s kind of like Shakespeare. People don’t realize
how dirty Shakespeare actually is. Everybody knows about
Howlin’ Wolf and
Muddy Waters but they don’t know about the Lils –
Lil Green,
Lil Hardin Armstrong, and all these other musicians.
Victoria Spivey, or
Ma Rainey or
Bessie Smith, maybe, but that’s about the extent of it right now.
AW: Right. So hearing that song, and hearing that whole album…I’m like, “Oh yeah.” There’s a song by Lil Johnson I think from like 1924 or 1927 called “
Stavin’ Chain.” Something like…I was going to practice anyway…
Azere pulled her guitar closer and started to sing: “If you don’t shake, you don’t get no cake / if it don’t I’m going to give you no nothing / you can’t ride, honey, you can’t ride this train / I’m the chief engineer, gonna run it like Stavin’ Chain“
I remember her playing this song in my private showcase.
AW: Too many moons ago, when I was in my early twenties or even teens, loving Nina Simone and loving Billy Holiday…that record had Billy Holiday on it but it also had all these other female Blues musicians. I’d listen to that over and over and over again. The problem with those old time songs, though, is it’s so hard to hear their lyrics because of the quality of the recording. It’s hard to get the lyrics correct for the old song now.
me: The thing I really like about the old recordings is I feel like you can hear the room.
AW: Yeah, or the lack of room, like sometimes it really was recorded out on the porch. I think you’re going to like my album. For the first song and the last song…I’m not even going to tell you. I’m just going to let you play it. Yeah, I think you’re going to like it. I like it.
me: I get that. I’m excited when I make something and just like really like the thing I made.
AW: I kind of go through ups and downs…it took me a while to like some of the songs. I was just cringing sometimes. Studio recording and then playing live is totally different, and hearing myself in different ways is is different, and then also whatever the mood it is that I’m bringing to the studio or learning how to just record in a studio. It takes forever to figure that out and it’s my first album; it was a learning curve for sure.
So some of the songs I think did not come across the way I would have liked them to initially. There was “
Mind Train,” that’s on the album, and that song I wrote so many years ago, so many years ago. I call it my “single mom song.” My kids were a lot smaller and younger then. Usually, when I perform it (which isn’t very often) it seems to be more the “in your face” kind, but the recording is more subdued – instead of being frustrated and angry, more of a defeated feeling to it. It fits the vibe of the song, but it really was also because that song was one of the most intense songs for me to do.
It really hit home for me, and it was a song that I really wanted to be on the album. I wrote it so long ago. When I was going to record the song it just wasn’t coming out right and I was super defeated and frustrated. I was like, “I don’t think I’m going to get this song; this isn’t going to work,” and it was just not going to be on the album. I went off to the side.
Tyson (Leonard) said, “You want to try it one more time?” Okay, fine. And so he did it one more time and it was done. “Got it, we’re done.” It has this feeling about it of just being like just kind of defeated as a single mom.
me: I understand that and I can see how it would fit. But, you know, that’ll be great for people who know the album when they go to see you play, if you whip out the angry frustrated version. What I really love about your album is the production: all the choices of instrumentation are bang-on. It creates a world around your stories. My only complaint is a losing battle because I’m old-school: I’m a sucker for carefully-placed space between tracks. We just don’t do that in CD world anymore. too many people think it doesn’t matter.
AW: Ah, yes! I actually wanted less space between songs 😉 I wanted that first track to meld into the second one seamlessly and I also wanted the whole album to have an old vinyl feel to it hence the crackle. Do you like how I sandwich the album with the first and last tracks I recorded on my phone?
me: Yes!
I knew I wanted upright bass on all the tracks. I chose the tracks for the banjo. I shared them with Tray (Wellington) to see if he vibed with them and he said yes! He loved what I was doing and said no one talks about what I am talking about in this realm. I wanted the long mandolin solo on “Wish for You” but Brendan (Forrest) wanted another lyrical bridge. I didn’t originally want the drums on “Wish For You” but they were adamant about it and I’m glad they were. I also didn’t think I wanted percussion on everything but Tyson pulled them way down for me and they worked. I had Max (Ribner) choose which tracks he felt for the horns, but I knew I wanted the horns on the last track (“Down by the Water“) for sure as if he was just playing down by the water randomly in the background. The horns on “Slip The Grip” were recorded in my house as a demo placeholder but I loved them so much more than what he recorded later and wanted to keep that feel.
Brendan and Tyson are amazing. Watching them work together in the studio was next freaking level!! Brilliant minds. Brendan knew who to get on this album for sure and was such an amazing guide teaching me how to do this all. He is a brilliant man/musician/producer. Too bad he lives all the way in Colorado and is busy as all get out!
Writing all this to you is my confirmation to myself on how much I did have a hand in the structure and production of the album.
Ulan tells me all the time something about being like a perfectionist or that I’m always driving so hard because I always have to, as a Black woman. Always be the best all the time or something like that and I can’t even remember how he says it, because it’s just part of us, ingrained in who we are. We always have to be better than anybody else to prove our worth (Azere is showing me with hand motions where the levels and trajectories are) where other people just come in like this. We have to prove to even get to that level.
I’m delving deep into this music and bringing it back to life and sharing it with the world, and also honoring my black roots and connecting with my ancestry through this old-time music. Honoring my roots and bringing this music back to life. That’s where I’m coming from. I can’t help but have my own… it just comes out that way.
Lagniappe: Azere was just telling me about the time she played for Taj Mahal (and about 40 other people.)
me: GTFOH. What did he say?
AW: He said a lot. It felt like talking to an uncle I hadn’t met. He’s so great and kind and down to earth. I played “People Who Move” on guitar for him, and then he asked for another song. So I played “Bittersweet Addiction.” He told me, “Great! Keep at it, keep going! Keep going!” I did not fan girl one time. Then I asked if he played banjo, and he took it out and played for me. I’m one freaking lucky girl!