All Photos taken at the Remedy Room in Aledo, TX by Alan Mercer
Jeff Plankenhorn’s life in music has taken him from a childhood in Ohio as a boy soprano, to battling addiction, to two decades as a first-call session guitarist in Austin. Now a successful solo artist, the slide guitar virtuoso is collaborating with his musical heroes and rocking festival stages all over the country.
Over the course of the last two decades, Jeff Plankenhorn has worked tirelessly to earn his rep as one of the most reliably can-do, right-dude-for-the-job musicians in Austin, Texas. As an exceptionally talented acoustic, electric, slide, and lap-steel guitarist with a keen understanding of the importance of playing to and for a song rather than all over it, he’s been called on countless times to back a veritable who’s who of Texas and Americana music’s finest singers and songwriters, including Ray Wylie Hubbard, Joe Ely, Eliza Gilkyson, Ruthie Foster, and the late Jimmy LaFave.” —Lone Star Music
Jeff Plankenhorn plays a soulful, distinctly Austin brand of roots rock that, over the past several years, has gained him a devoted national following and a seat among the very best contemporary Americana songwriters. His confident, catchy-as-hell fourth studio album, Sleeping Dogs was released to rave reviews (Rolling Stone Country, the Boot, Twangville, among others) and spent a good chunk of 2018 on the Roots Rock and Americana radio charts.
Over the course of five solo albums, Plankenhorn has drawn on a wide range of styles, combining influences from electric blues, progressive bluegrass, sacred steel, and power-pop to create a musical identity all his own. A big part of it is his voice.
The biggest contributor to Plankenhorn’s sound is his virtuosic touch on anything with strings - ranging from electric and acoustic, guitar to dobro and lap steel. His most distinctive sonic paintbrush is the custom electric dobro he invented, appropriately called the Plank. If you’ve listened to roots music from Austin in the last couple decades, you may have heard it - a sharp, crunchy slide sound derived from the instrument's combination of a lap steel neck and electric guitar body.
Plankenhorn is a magnet for diverse ideas and collaborators, and his genius is in bringing them together. Sleeping Dogs merges styles effortlessly, juxtaposing sweet-hearted anthems like “Love is Love” (a response to the Pulse nightclub shooting) against ominous, weathered tunes like “Tooth & Nail”, which he co-wrote with Ray Wilie Hubbard.
The last few years have been a time of outstanding creativity and commercial breakthrough for Plankenhorn - success for which he credits his sobriety.
Since getting clean several years ago, Plankenhorn has channeled his addictive energy into songwriting. He lives half the year now living with his wife on Vancouver Island, Canada, where he spends idyllic days writing and playing with their dogs. The other half he spends in Austin, where he remains in demand as a session player, cowriter, and producer.
I met with Jeff at the Remedy Room in Aledo, TX right before his evening performance with Michael O’Connor. There was music being piped in and Jeff says, “That’s me playing on that record. Sometimes I forget that I played on a certain song.”
Alan Mercer: All the people I know who have long recording careers never remember all the recordings they have been on.
Jeff Plankenhorn: It becomes hard after a bit. I know “who” I’ve played with.
AM: I’m talking people who have been recording for decades.
JP: I’m getting close. I’ve been recording 20 years in Texas.
AM: Wow...you grew up in the north, didn’t you?
JP: In Ohio and Michigan.
AM: And you sang opera as a child?
JP: I did. I was a boy soprano.
AM: That’s why your voice is such a standout.
JP: It’s nice that you say that. I’m the most comfortable I’m with any instrument is singing. It’s like breathing. I had a really great voice teacher, Mary Irvine in Rochester Hills, Michigan. We only lived there 3 years. My high school wanted me to be in some plays, so they gave me a little scholarship to take voice lessons, even though I had all this experience, but I am so glad they did. Now I use those lessons in everything I do whether it be singing, playing guitar and all the other instruments. I still use the wonderful, valuable lessons I got from this Irish immigrant Opera singer.
AM: What is one of the lessons you carry with you today?
JP: One I never forget is about playing music. It’s supposed to be fun. You are not “working” music. We do all these things to get better, but if it’s not enjoyable to you or the audience, then it’s all work. I take that with me. I still have a lot of fun when I play.
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AM: Do you still live half the year up in Vancouver Island?
JP: Yes, my wife was born and raised there and every year I am there longer and longer. We’re pretty much six months there and six months in Austin as far as home base. I do have to come back to Texas a lot to work during that time, but I do try and stay there as much as I can. Also, I branched into doing gigs in Canada and in the Pacific Northwest along with Montana and Colorado.
AM: Jeff, you really are an incredible talent. I am blown away by your last couple of albums. You did a cover of a song called ‘Walking In The Sun’ that is so good. I didn’t know anyone knew that song.
JP: That song really, really hit me., not just the Percy Sledge version, but also the Chaka Khan and Rufus version. Growing up in the Midwest gave me diverse musical influences beyond Folk and Americana.
AM: You are a natural funk artist too.
JP: That’s cool of you to say. I cut my teeth doing a lot of that stuff so it’s nice to hear that it comes through.
AM: Anybody that can sing a Chaka Khan song and make me forget her has done something powerful.
JP: (Laughter) That is so nice of you.
AM: Another song I love that you wrote is ‘Trouble Find Me.’ You have recorded it twice I believe.
JP: I’ve actually recorded it three times, no four times. Once with the Resentments, which I came into that band about 8 years ago. They wanted to do it so I did it with them, but I never felt like I got it right until I recorded it for ‘Soulslide.’
AM: Your albums, ‘Soulslide’ and ‘Sleeping Dogs Lie’ are Pop/Rock classics.
JP: I like the ‘Pop/Rock’ label the best.
AM: You must have slowed down your side gigs a lot.
JP: Not only has the solo career taken off where I don’t have side gigs anymore. I only did one this year and it was a really cool one where I got to play with Steve Earle and Leanne Womack. I’m not going to say no to that. That was an incredible gig where I got to slide back into side man mode and relax. I played pedal steel with Willie Nelson in the audience. It’s very humbling. I’ll take one of those every once in a while. There are certain people I will always play with like Ruthie Foster, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Joe Ely. I won’t say no to them.
AM: I love Ray Wylie for bringing you to Texas.
JP: He really, really did get me here.
AM: Was it hard to convince you to move?
JP: No, I had done a year in Nashville and I was doing well there as a Bluegrass artist during the ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou’ days. It was a good time for Bluegrass, so I learned a lot about singing and playing the dobro. Everybody wanted me to play dobro because it’s so vocal and doesn’t get in the way of the words.
AM: You didn’t always sing so much did you?
JP: For years people didn’t know that I sang. If you’re a good side person, you’re not there to show off what you can do. You are there to make the other person sound better and hopefully adding something to what they do.
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AM: What are you focused on now?
JP: I have a project that is streaming only, and I am trying to drive people to that. I have a thing I call ‘Covered and Uncovered.’ What I mean by covered is even though I have written many songs now, I will still do covers of songs that my friends and my heroes write, but I won’t put them on albums. I started a Patreon page and in 7 months I’ve put out 14 songs. I do one original and one cover a month. Out of those I picked the best and I made a project I call Covered/Uncovered Vol. 1.
AM: What a great way to market your music.
JP: When it came to marketing both ‘Soulslide’ and ‘Sleeping Dogs’ I was told I would have to put it in a bin. With ‘Soulslide’ my publicist and everyone else told me I was Blues, nothing else. It will go to Blues radio and Blues publications. I said, “OK, give it a shot.” When it came to ‘Sleeping Dogs’ now I was Country. So, I asked what about my Blues fans who liked the last album? The answer was, “We don’t care. We are only marketing to Country.”
AM: That is frustrating to say the least.
JP: I was so disillusioned. I understand they have to do those things and it’s definitely not my job, but I didn’t like it. When I look at the careers of the people I love and follow, I see it’s a slow grind.
AM: That is always the best career.
JP: I like that for a bunch of different reasons. I can put out whatever I want. There will always be a group of people who will come see what I’m doing. I don’t want a jaguar in my driveway, so I think we’re OK and I can play what I like.
AM: That is the perfect career. You shouldn’t peak until you’re in your seventies.
JP: I’m super grateful to have watched Ruthie Foster come up and Ray Wylie’s second coming come up. Watching them deal with fans and audiences and putting records out. Now I don’t feel like I have anything to prove anymore. I feel like if I never get any bigger, I’m still going to have a good career. I would love to have a little more time with my wife on Vancouver Island. Right now, everyone I know has thee side hustles in the real world. I’m not going to complain about a ten-hour day. I don’t complain because I get to do what I love. I’m not tired of this at all.
AM: The duet with Ray Wylie, ‘Tooth and Nail’ is so amazing. I love it.
JP: I love it too. I knew it was going to stick out like a soar thumb. We recorded it before Ray even came in, but it’s so incredibly Ray. People have heard the intro and told me it is a Ray Wylie song.
AM: Did you write it?
JP: We both wrote it. I played slide guitar on Ray’s song, ‘Tell The Devil I’m Getting There As Fast As I Can.’ I’ve been on a bunch of Ray’s records. So, when I was in the studio with him, he asked if I wanted to write with him. I had a list of song ideas that I was showing Ray and right in the middle of it, Ray asked, “what’s this tooth and nail?” I knew that was the one he was going to ask for. I said it was about the grind of having to claw your way through something. We had to put some Ray Wylie symbolism in it. He came up with the lyric, ‘Raven perched on a windowsill on a cold and stormy day.” I asked him to play some acoustic and sing a little bit.
AM: I love the video too.
JP: The video was done by my co-producer. I was really happy with how it came out. I can’t point to one person as much, who has helped me so directly and voluntarily as Ray. I have had a lot of help from everyone I’ve played with. Almost everyone has encouraged me to do my own thing.
AM: That is great. Musicians are more encouraging of one another.
JP: Depends where you live. In areas that don’t have “the machine’ so much, people write because they enjoy writing.
AM: Another song that stands out to me is called, “Love Is Love” and then I saw the inclusive video and really liked it. I then read where you recorded it as a response to the Pulse nightclub shooting.
JP: That was the idea. That Pulse nightclub shooting was beyond tragic as all the mass shootings are. When that happened, a night or two later the Tony’s were on TV with Lin-Manuel Miranda. He gave a speech where at the end of it he kept saying love is love is love is love. I thought that in 2018 we should be past all this and shouldn’t have to talk about it at all, but we’re not. I definitely don’t think highly enough of myself that I would be able to change anyone’s mind, but I just wanted to sing it with people that I knew and loved. When I made the video, I asked all my family, friends and fans to send me pictures of love and that’s what they sent. That is a true representation of what the world really is whether you like it or not. It’s much harder to hate someone right next to you.
AM: It’s ridiculous, we should be way beyond this by now.
JP: As happy as I am with the strides we have made for the LBGTQ movement, which have come fast, it still isn’t fast enough.
AM: I love that you play all these instruments and that you have even invented one.
JP: The guitar is like a bunch of different guitars thrown together. I told the guitar builder how to make it. It’s cool, it’s kind of like my thing. I really got to show it off a lot on ‘Soulslide.’
AM: Are you going to release more albums or stick with singles?
JP: I like recording EP’s now because they can all be a little different. One can be a solo acoustic and one can be my scared steel influences. I will never stop. This past summer has been the most prolific writing period of my life. There’s still a lot of work to be done.
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