“‘All you can write is what you see’ is a quote from my grandfather that is ingrained in my songwriting brain,” says Cole Quest. The grandson of Woody Guthrie, Quest grew up in New York City, where his grandfather spent a significant portion of his life as a pioneer within the folk scene. First arriving in New York City in the middle of a blizzard, after hitchhiking cross country from Los Angeles, Guthrie remained in the city until he died in 1967 at age 55, after being diagnosed with Huntington’s disease 15 years earlier.
“I’ve lived in and around New York City my entire life,” Quest tells American Songwriter. “And though I’ve tried to leave a few times, I’ve never managed to stay away for long.”
All the nostalgia and inspiration of the city he can’t abandon unfold on “Where I’m From,” from his band Cole Quest and the City Pickers‘ fourth album Homegrown (Jalopy Records), out July 18.
A bluegrass march into the life and times of a city dweller, “Where I’m From” highlights vignettes of the sights, sounds, and smells of NYC—The music blares all night and day, you can feel it through the walls / Pubs are filled with hooligans, just lookin’ for a brawl / People, people everywhere, locked up in a scrum / But that’s just how it goes in the place where I’m from.
“‘Where I’m From’ was an exercise in diving into the why,” says Quest. “It’s loud, it’s expensive, it’s cramped—the list goes on. But it also has a certain magic, a certain belonging-ness, and an excitement like no other. I don’t have an answer to where I’ll go next, but the fact of the matter remains, it’s just where I’m from.”
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Produced by Steve Rosenthal (The Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, Blondie), on Homegrown, Quest also revisits three of his grandfather’s classics, including “Philadelphia Lawyer,” “All Work Together,” and “Pastures of Plenty.” The latter, Guthrie’s 1941 account of the challenges migrant workers faced coming to America, comes after the opening “There’s a Feeling In Music,” a brief intro of Peter Seeger reading Guthrie’s words, which was a special request by Quest’s mother, Nora Guthrie.
On vocals and guitar, Quest is surrounded by an ensemble of multi-instrumentalists in the City Pickers with guitarist Christian Apuzzo, who also shares vocal duties, along with bassist Craig Akin, Mike Mulhollan on banjo, Matheus Verardino on harmonica, and Wyndham Baird on organ.
He first veered into folk or bluegrass after hearing a band playing one of his grandfather’s songs in a pub in Astoria, Queens, leading him to devote himself to the bluegrass scene in New York City, shortly before releasing a self-titled debut with the City Pickers in 2016.
‘All you can write is what you see’ is a quote from my grandfather that is ingrained in my songwriting brain.”
Cole Quest
Along with “Where I’m From,” on Homegrown, Quest also contributes several of his own life experiences, including “Early Mornign Dew,” “She Talks Alot and I Like It,” and previous single “I Ain’t,” a song Quest wrote while dealing with a health issue during the pandemic, and wishing for a world where people learn to listen to one another.
“I asked myself, ‘What does the world need from me right now?’ and ‘What do I need from myself right now?’” said Quest of the Single when it was released. “My answer: ‘Stay out of the way.’ I realized my role was to give space to others who truly needed it—to be active by being passive, to listen instead of speaking. I decided to make a list of things I wanted to do to make these changes, or rather, things I wanted not to do to make these changes.”
He continued, “Changing the perspective from a ‘To Do list to a ‘To Don’t’ list seemed like an approach I could get behind, and so I ran with it. The song, ‘I Ain’t,’ provides a humble reminder as I move forward in these continuously evolving times. I may not be able to tell you exactly what I plan to do about the future, but I have a few ideas of what I won’t be doing.”
Apuzzo takes lead vocals on the late John Hartford’s pensive 1971 folk reflection on being stuck in the an office job and the converions of modern life, “In Tall Buildings,” while “Só Pra Variar” (“Just for a Change”) fuses bluegrass and Brazilian music with Verardino singing in Portuguese.
Another observance of a tarnished period in American history is a cover of bluegrass composer Peter Rowan’s “Dust Bowl Children,” led by Apuzzo on vocals and featuring dobro, an arrangement drawn from musicians Jerry Douglas and Dan Tyminski. The closing “My Peace” leaves off with a rendition of a 2012 song by Quest’s uncle Arlo Guthrie, using words originally written by his father Woody.
“Since I was little, I’ve been surrounded by, what I believe to be, some of the greats of American folk music,” Quest said in a previous statement. “I’ve grown up with their words, their music, their ideologies, their perspectives. ‘Homegrown’ is a collection of material that is sincerely close to me and where I come from. It’s the music of my roots—our roots.”
Photo: Eli Smith
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