By Ron Evans

Nationally touring country musician Jason Hawk Harris (formerly of The Show Ponies) once dubbed Seth Garrido “Wenatchee’s Best Kept Secret.” Garrido opened for Harris at a 2018 performance at RadarStation, and he clearly made an impression. Well, the secret may be out now that Garrido (as Seth Garrido & The Long Relief) has released his first solo LP, Heavy Handed Heart. A soulful collection of original tunes that are a bit eclectic in style (or even genre) but still consistent, cohesive and…well, perfect if you ask me. Now, I’m not a music critic but I know what I like. And this album has been on heavy rotation here at Comet Headquarters and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

I’ve seen Garrido perform live around town for several years now (solo and with other groups like The Hoyer Brothers) and it’s always a great show, but you never know how stage presence, vocal tone — or whatever that magical shit is that some people just naturally have — will translate in the studio. In this case, it translates beautifully.

In a sea of squeaky, auto-tuned or otherwise ‘fake-sounding’ voices in the world of modern country/folk, Garrido easily stands out with a very authentic and genuine voice. And the production of this album works so well in bringing this authenticity to your eagerly awaiting earbuds. Read on to learn more about Garrido and the making of this album. And if you are reading this with some hesitation because you don’t like country music — stay with us. There’s far more going on with the album, and in the head of this local gem of a musician.

First things first, tell us a little about your history as a musician.

I grew up in a pretty musical family and I decided at about age negative four that I wanted to do music for my life. I went to CWU to study saxophone, took drugs, hung out and listened to records with my friends, and a mere 12 years later, decided college was maybe not the right thing for me. In that time, I played with a great little jam band called Open County Jo, and when I moved up to Leavenworth ten years ago, I began play with Patrick Foster and the Locomotive and The Hoyer Brothers, playin’ sax and singing harmonies. After those bands both became mist, I decided to learn a whole heap of classic country songs and start to get out and play my own thing.

Where do you get off having that much soul for a white boy? Wait, are you…what ARE you?

I am a product of Auburn, Washington, the undisputed epicenter of everything SOUL. I am, most decidedly, a white boy.

“Really, the most successful songs seem to be the ones that come out all at once like some sort of demonic possession or stigmata. It’s hard to take credit for them, frankly.”

The kids these days love their genres and subcategories. Your interests and musical styles seem pretty eclectic - bouncing effortlessly from country, funk and smoky pool hall jazzy ballads with hints of gospel. What would you file your LP under in a record store?

I suppose this first effort is pretty much an outlaw country record with a little bit of deviation. The next ones might be something totally different, I just happen to have been on a pretty heavy 7 or 8 year country kick leading up to this sucker.

The cliché question that I always wanna know the answer to - what are some of your biggest influences?

Willie is probably the thickest one in recent years, and John Prine, then probably Merle Haggard and Greg Brown, but I’ve spent a lot of time with Ani DiFranco, Aretha, Indigo Girls, They Might Be Giants, tons of jazz players, various weirdo classical stuff, etc. It’s a mess up there.

As someone who seems to live for the stage, how was the lockdown year for you? Did you write a shit ton of stuff, do some live stream shows or just take it easy a while?

I did end up doing a lot of writing, for sure, and a ton of little videos and streams, which was actually really fun. I think knowing it was my only real outlet made recording stuff for social media pretty exciting; I was pretty motivated. I wrote probably half of this album during the lockdown, and ended up putting up videos… kind of all the time. I was also learning to play my favorite songs from when I was 11 and just putting them out there, etc. This next phase of impending doom doesn’t strike me as so terrible, assuming folks will still hit up the ol’ Venmo for my online blabbering.

Tell us about the new LP. Is this group of performers an official band or was it an assembly of session players?

The band was an assembly made for the record, but I pretty much assembled all of my good buddies who also happen to be the best players I know. All of whom have their own really great projects, and I knew they’d all get along and kill the music, and that that would facilitate more playing as a group when the world came back.

I hired Skyler Mehal to play guitar, Dan Taylor for piano, Norman Baker for bass. Norman brought on the drummer for his band, Jake Evans, when my original drummer couldn’t do the project, and that ended up being an incredibly fortunate turn. I also was super lucky to get some pedal steel on the record from Bill Patton, over whose shows I drooled in the early 2000’s. We also have some Hammond Organ from the absolute legend Joe Doria, and some guitar from my old friend and current Lil’ Smokies guitarist, The Right Reverend Matthew Rieger. We’re really hoping to get some shows going here early in the new year.

The album sounds fabulous and the production seems perfectly suited for the material. Where was it recorded/mixed?

Thanks, man! The producer was Brandon Busch, with whom I had worked previously on the Hoyer Brothers and the Patrick Foster records. He’s a master with a great ear and incredible gear, and we recorded pretty much everything live over a weekend in Fremont at Rare Earth studios, and then did some vocal tracking at Brandon’s studio in Northgate. Brandon (Sound Media Productions) did all the recording and mixing. The mastering was done by Rachel Field (Resonant Mastering). A very Seattle-heavy affair.

What formats is it (will it be) available in?

As it stands, it’s available on Bandcamp (sethgarridoandthelongrelief.bandcamp.com) for streaming and purchase, and each and every streaming service you can shake your earlobes at. We’ll have CD’s before too long and after that, I’d sure love to do up some LP’s, but they’re mighty expensive to produce, and my understanding is that there’s a pretty lengthy queue to get in if you wanna work with any of the major vinyl producers. So that’s a ‘fingers-crossed and the creek don’t rise situation.’ If anyone wants any other formats, just hollar at me, we can get something figured, I bet. Laserdiscs and DAT tapes by Fall.

Artists are a funny bunch, and rarely satisfied - which I suppose is part of what keeps them creating. How satisfied are you with the finished LP now that it’s out?

I mean, of course I’m not totally satisfied, but I think it’s a pretty good collection of songs. I think I’ve got some pretty amazing players playing them, and I don’t think you can ever expect more than that. I think it’s a fairly accurate representation of what you’d get if you came and saw us play. I’ll take it.

Will there be any kind of tour to support the album? If so will it be full band or solo shows?

I play all over the valley all the time, but there’s no tour booked as we speak. Not even CD release shows with the band, yet, but those will happen sometime relatively soon. As far as touring, I sure would love to bring these fellas out with me, and if all goes very, very well a full band tour might just happen. But it’s more likely I’ll be slinging these songs by myself or with one or two of the guys for the next little while, and hopefully we can get rolling hard enough to get the band out on the road a bit. Whenever I do get full band shows moving, I’ll surely put the word out on my Instagram and Facebook pages (links at the end of article).

Talk about your songwriting process. Do you tend to go through phases of writing to get a collection together, or are you pretty much writing all the time?

I’m constantly catching little lyrical inspirations, which means every notebook in my house, and the, “notes,” and, “voice recorder,” deals on my phone are filled with one sentence ideas, and I generally have no idea what melody they were once attached to. Those do turn into something some of the time, like, the latest song I wrote, which I like pretty well. I got the last line of it on a walk one morning, and that line bounced around trying to be something for like 5 months until I finally smacked my own ass and made myself just go out in the woods and write the damn thing. Being a kind of lazy space cadet doesn’t tend to lead to efficient songwriting, but eventually, you sometimes get something a little shiny. Really, the most successful songs seem to be the ones that come out all at once like some sort of demonic possession or stigmata. It’s hard to take credit for them, frankly. The ones that are hard to write? I’ll take those. I mean, I’ll take the easy ones, too, I guess.

Some of your writing schemes are pretty damn tricky. Fun to sing along to - after the 300 listens required to learn it. Are you usually starting with lyrics written out in rhythm and rhyme or do you start with the basic skeleton of the melody and lay the words over it?

300 listens! You are by far in the lead, my friend... Words are usually first, but they kind of come in melodic form, or at least the rhythm is apparent right away, then the rhyme scheme kind of reveals itself as my brain flushes the topic out. It has happened where I have the music first, but my brain doesn’t work that way nearly as well.

Do you have a routine or dedicated space for sitting down and fleshing things out once the songs start taking shape?

No, but I spend a lot of time telling myself that I should.

Close your eyes and imagine your idea of the perfect scene/situation for your music to be playing in the background. What do you see?

Lots of people of widely varied ages in a comfortable place, something like a coffee house mixed with a brick and dark wood bar room. That’s what my closed eyes said. I kinda wanna play little theaters. We’ll fight it out.

The Comet 8 Questions:

Favorite Band: They Might Be Giants

Favorite Artist: René Magritte

Favorite Book: Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

Favorite Movie: Bringing Up Baby

Favorite Quote: “I was very religious as a child. When I was a kid, I used to pray every day for a new bike. Then I realized, the Lord and his wisdom don’t work that way, so I just stole one and asked him to forgive me.” ~ Emo Phillips

Item You Can’t Live Without: I don’t need any of this stuff, and I don’t need you! I don’t need anything! Except this. This ashtray, and that’s the only thing I need is this. I don’t need this or this, just this ashtray, and this paddle game. The ashtray and the paddle game, and that’s all I need. And this remote control. The ashtray, the paddle game and the remote control, and that’s all I need. And these matches. The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control and the paddleball and this lamp. The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and the lamp, and that’s all I need. And that’s all I need, too. I don’t need one other thing. I need this. The paddle game, and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches, for sure. Well, what are you looking at? Whaddaya think I am some kind of a jerk or something? And this, that’s all I need. The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, and this magazine, and this chair.

Dream Collaboration: There’s a trombonist and composer named Ryan Keberle who’s been writing some incredible stuff the last little while. It’s fun to put something together with him.

Favorite Destination: End of the Icicle.

LIVE: Every Sunday, 5:00-8:00 w/ Rib

@ Yodelin Broth Co. in Leavenworth

1/8 @ Lagunitas Brewing in Ballard

1/15 @ Twisp River Pub

w/ Older and Wiser

1/18 @ Icicle Brewing Co. in Leavenworth

1/22 @ Wenatchee Convention Center

w/ Junk Belly

1/29 @ Patterson Cellars in Leavenworth

Facebook: sethgarridomusic

Instagram: sethy_the_body