I grew up on the music of Athens, Georgia band R.E.M., so maybe I’m a little biased.
They first blew up in the early ‘80s with the catchy song “Radio Free Europe” that was extremely popular around these parts. With a distinct melodic style, jangly guitar and the cryptic, heartfelt singing of Michael Stipe, it felt like the band had arrived fully formed from the gargoyle head of some Gothic backwater burg. Their classic debut album “Murmur” on IRS Records was the first CD I ever owned, and I can remember playing the “Chronic Town” EP cassette so much that it literally fell apart.
Almost immediately, R.E.M. was the definitive college rock band from the South, yet one with art school-leaning sensibilities. For myself, and probably other kids, they were a gateway band to the wonders of college radio. After catching a few early tours, the last time I saw them live was at Neil Young’s Bridge School benefit in Northern California in 1998, when the band joined Young for a riverboat-rocking rendition of “Ambulance Blues” that has to be one of the greatest performances of that song. In 2011, R.E.M. called it quits having sold an estimated 90 million plus records. For me, the early stuff holds up best.
So when I heard that acclaimed stage and film actor, Michael Shannon (“The Missing Person,” “Take Shelter,” “The Shape of Water”) was taking on Stipe duties and singing early R.E.M. songs backed by a band led by guitarist Jason Narducy (Bob Mould)—I wanted to check it out. The project began a couple years ago during an annual New Year’s show at the Metro in Chicago, where Shannon and Narducy pick a classic album to cover, which led to R.E.M.’s “Murmur” being played for its 40th anniversary. That was so much fun they took it on a short East Coast tour that included a stop in Athens where all four original members of R.E.M. showed up, with everyone but Stipe joining onstage. [Last week, guitarist Peter Buck joined the band in Portland, Oregon for a bunch of songs including “Sitting Still,” “Harbercoat,” “Pretty Persuasion” and the Pylon classic, “Crazy.”]
Shannon and Narducy are currently in the midst of another celebratory tour of early R.E.M. music, this time performing the band’s third studio album, “Fables of the Reconstruction” (1985), along with a selection of other songs. They’ll be at the National in Richmond on Monday, March 3 with comedic musical opener Dave Hill. While Shannon was unavailable at press time, I caught up with Narducy, a veteran guitarist from Evanston, Illinois known for his original music with Verbow, the more recent solo project Split Single, which featured R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills on its third album, as well as touring with Bob Mould (Husker Du) for the last couple decades. We spoke by phone and the conversation was lightly edited for length.
Style Weekly: I was glad to see you guys added a Richmond stop on this current tour. A friend and I caught the “Murmur” show at the Black Cat in D.C. about a year ago. It was a fun night, I remember being impressed by the band’s stamina, considering how few shows you’d played. You guys rocked out for like, close to three hours maybe?
Jason Narducy: Oh, you did? That was my birthday. That was a big memory for me. We had so much fun. The pick-up band included a guy that I played in a band with in college. We both went to school in Baltimore, which is known for row houses. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, a lot of the bars were built in those exact same long, skinny buildings. You couldn’t fit a full band, so it sort of cultivated this culture of acoustic guys.
Baltimore at the time was so blue collar, there would be a lot of classic rock, “Sweet Melissa,” or whatever. When I came along with my friends, we were playing R.E.M, The Smiths and Bob Mould. We knew more R.E.M. songs than any other band we covered. One of the songs we played every single night was “Driver 8.” So anyway, to have [my friend there in DC that night] I just looked over at him and just thought, this is insane. This is crazy [laughs].
You have quite an original history of your own as a musician since you were a kid playing clubs, and backing respected names from Bob Mould to Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices, The Pretenders, Liz Phair [Narducy has been credited for inspiring childhood friend Dave Grohl to pursue music]. What do you like about the band on this “Fables” tour?
Well, everybody is the same from the “Murmur” tour except for Jon Stirratt is now on bass. And honestly, he kind of dragged us down a little bit.
[Laughs]
I’m glad you laughed at that [laughs] … No, I mean, when I put together a band for these projects with Michael, we’ve been doing this for 11 years, where we pick a record, put together a band, do a bunch of homework, practice once and do the show. This is exactly the same, except it’s a tour. Every time I’ve done that, I think of people who musically fit with the record we pick, and who are really fun to hang with, honestly. You end up spending a lot of time sitting next to these people, in a vehicle or backstage, or in an airport, or on an airplane. When the musicianship is high and the hang is great, it’s really fun.
And you’ve got the great Jon Wurster, who folks may recognize from Superchunk, The Mountain Goats and Bob Mould, on drums right?
Yeah, Jon’s on drums, Vijay Tellis-Nayek is on keys, Dag Juhlin on guitar, me, Michael [Shannon] and Jon Stirratt on bass.
Somewhere I have a comedy CD of Scharpling and Wurster and their stuff from WFMU [parodies, prank calls, etc]. He must provide instant humor on the road.
Oh yeah. Honestly, the whole band is really funny. Jon has a unique comedic voice. The show you saw, here’s an example–I’m going to brag a little bit about this band. We were driving to the Black Cat from North Carolina and Michael said, “Jason, I know it’s your birthday but we didn’t get you anything.” He’s being funny, but they really didn’t (not that I expected anything). And I just impulsively said, “Well then, I’m just going to ask you guys one thing: I would like to play ‘Finest Worksong’ tonight,” which is a song we did not practice. So we ran through it in soundcheck, and then, I’ve got to say this is pretty brave, we closed the show with it [laughs]. That’s a band that knows what they’re doing. Like I said, it’s just really fun when there’s that much camaraderie, as well as talent.
It’s funny you mention that song. When I was a kid, I went to R.E.M. tours in the mid-’80s, like “Fables,” the “Life’s Rich Pageant” tour at UVA. The “Document” tour the following year in Fairfax, I think. They opened that show with “Finest Worksong,” which I remember as marking a noticeable change in their sound from the early records. The guitar tone was louder, more aggressive.
Oh yeah, I see what you mean; full-on distortion instead of the jangly.
Exactly. I’m one of those people who is partial to the first four or five R.E.M. records. With “Fables of the Reconstruction,” that’s the one produced by Joe Boyd [Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band], how did you guys decide to perform that one for this tour, and what’s your personal take on that record?
Well, last time we did the “Murmur” tour, we played it at Metro [in Chicago] in July of 2023 on the 40th anniversary. Then we just kind of continued it into 2024, even though it wasn’t technically the anniversary anymore. When we finished that tour, I asked Michael if he wanted to do another one, because honestly it was so much fun—and successful. We were coming up with a bunch of different [versions of the tour]; would it be the “Fables” and “Reckoning” tour? And we just thought, let’s keep it clean and really concentrate and focus on one record, and make it the one with the 40th anniversary. We have a lot of “Reckoning” ready to go. But every night we will play “Fables” all the way through in sequence, then play a ton more R.E.M. There’s a lot more to choose from, and we’ll change the setlist up every night.
“[Fables] is a complex, beautiful, linear, heartbreaking record. It’s not the obvious choice for a band that was ascending as fast as they were.”
It was really important to Michael, he basically said, “I know we keep talking about these different options, but I want to walk onstage and play ‘Feeling Gravity’s Pull’ every single night first.” If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being a band person, not a hired gun, but a member of the band: The singer has to be comfortable. The singer should be involved with setlists and with the songs, everything. They’re the person that is driving the show. When Michael said that, it was like, “OK then, it’s the ‘Fables’ tour.”
For me personally, “Document” was the first record I bought as a 16-year-old. First ten seconds of “Finest Worksong” and I was like, I’m all in with this band. It was so powerful. Then I was able to go backwards … But “Fables” was a little of a blind spot for me. I was familiar with maybe half the record. Now that I’m in the deep end with it, I’m surprised at how much more I’ve fallen in love with this band’s music. Because it is a complex, beautiful, linear, heartbreaking record. It’s not the obvious choice for a band that was ascending as fast as they were.
It’s nice to grow up with an album and it still holds up, but your favorites evolve. I can remember being a young kid learning guitar, playing “Driver 8” and “Can’t Get There From Here,” the two singles from that record that got all the airplay. But now, four decades later, the “Fables” songs that I love the most are probably “Good Advices” and “Green Grow the Rushes” [and maybe “Kohoutek”].
Yes! Yes! Those are the two for me, too. That’s funny. I played this thing in New York called Cabinet of Wonders, sort of a variety show. And we’re promoting this tour, so I figured I should play a song off “Fables.” Michael actually surprised us and joined me for that, and we played “Good Advices” in December in New York. That song is just incredible. “Green Grows” is actually pretty challenging to play on guitar and sing at the same time; I’m having to practice it a lot now [laughs]. But yeah, those two, for me, stick out as well.
At the DC show, you were doing a lot of Mike Mills’ high backing vocal harmonies, which to me were a huge part of R.E.M.’s sound.
Oh, a massive part.
Instead of bass, you’re on guitar. Peter Buck was such a huge influence for many of us back then, playing that Rickey with precision; jangly, open ringing chords, etc. Are you trying to provide your own twist on what he does, or how do you approach it?
I try to get as close as I can and then let it fall where it may. There are two guitarists on the tour, and as the de facto musical director, I delegate. One thing we’re doing with this tour that we didn’t do as much with “Murmur,” there are some songs where I’m not going to play at all during the verse. Or Dag’s not going to play at all during the verse. You know, let’s make the big moments bigger, more dynamics. On the records, there’s usually two guitars going, so there’s plenty to cover.
Michael [Shannon] said recently that he approaches it like an acting job, where you do as much research as you possibly can, and then once you get there, you kind of forget it and just do what you have in you. It’s not a tribute band. We’re not trying to do the moves, or dress like them, or whatever. But we do have little tips of the hat. Jon Wurster is using two rack toms, like Bill Berry did, and he doesn’t usually do that. And Dag is playing a Rickenbacker but I’m not going to do that, two of those together … it works better with the Tele[caster]. Peter Buck played the Tele on the first R.E.M. so it comes from an informed place. But we’re just celebrating the songs, really, and bringing our own takes. This band is full of indie rock veterans, a number of us have relationships with the guys in R.E.M., all of them. We love the music, so we’re trying to present it in the same spirit as them, but with our own flavor.
I saw a recent TV interview on YouTube where Shannon expressed that he was just hoping his voice would hold up for this tour. Is there a different kind of prep for him on something like this, where you’ve got more dates this time?
Yeah, last time it was nine shows, this time is 20 … I can’t speak for how he’s preparing. Mike has a vocal coach he worked with on the “George & Tammy” series [Showtime] Obviously, that went well because he was incredible in that, not only acting, but his singing of the George Jones songs was phenomenal. He takes all this very seriously and he’s preparing a lot. I think him saying that on the interview is more [about the fact] he hasn’t done a [concert] tour this long before. We purposely put in a couple breaks throughout for vocal rest. But really, it’s Michael that wants to play for two hours or two-and-a-half hours, you know?
Well, he’s a terrific Broadway actor in addition to a movie star, one of my favorites. I’m sure he knows how to pace himself, and project and all that good stuff …
Yeah! Well, it’s very different though. Even if he was doing a musical, it would be different. But he knows how to prepare. He’s kind of a beast. He’s a physical specimen who takes preparation very seriously. Not only workouts, but I’ve done a lot of shows with him, and there’s never anybody in the band that knows more about the songs than him. He’s committed completely; I have no concerns about him delivering every night.
Some people probably wonder what it must be like for bandmates in a group with someone famous. I’ve interviewed other actors who are musicians, like Billy Bob Thornton or Jeff Bridges; movie stars who love playing music. But I imagine there are pros and cons to touring with a celebrity who is highly recognizable in public. Do you have a philosophy or approach to dealing with any of that stuff?
No, not really. Michael’s great. He’s hilarious and a true collaborator. He’s more of a theater person than a film person, just in his art. He knows how to be around people, be open to ideas, and ask questions. He’s a very curious guy. And he takes the train everywhere. I’ve been on the New York subway with him, the Chicago L. He’s pretty fucking normal and that disarms the whole thing. Occasionally, he and I will be out, and he gets recognized a bunch; then you’ll be like, “Oh yeah, that’s right, he’s in a whole bunch of movies.” Otherwise, you’d never know it.
If anything, he’s as intense about music as any musician I’ve ever worked with.
That’s cool. More than anything though, it felt like you all were up there having fun playing these songs that many of us, of a certain age, fondly remember, so the crowd really enjoyed it, too … What’s next after this for you?
The new Bob Mould record comes out in March, then we hit the road April 1 for a six-week tour [two weeks after completion of this tour]. We haven’t toured in four years, so we’re chomping at the bit to get back to playing punk rock with him.
I remember in the early days, R.E.M. used to play a country song or two for their encores, like by what’s-his-face, Roger Miller. Maybe Shannon would consider revisiting a George Jones nugget, like “The Grand Tour” done R.E.M. style?
Hey, the last song we played on the last tour was [Miller’s] “King of the Road.”
Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy and friends celebrate the 40th anniversary of R.E.M.’s “Fables of the Reconstruction” at the National on Monday, March 3. Comedian and musician Dave Hill opens. Doors at 6:30 p.m. and show at 7:30 p.m.
