Procrastination is often the yin to the yang of creativity, a kind of stumbling block that can at times derail the work of making art. Artists can procrastinate just like you and I do when it comes to getting on with whatever hard things are in front of us, which is kind of comforting. Knowing that Jim Lauderdale, for example, has often finished writing songs while in a recording session should give all of us some room to forgive ourselves for not studying for that final exam or for not doing our taxes until the last minute.

Writing songs is seldom easy. But for Amanda Anne Platt, writing songs seems free of anxiety. In fact, keeping a journal and writing songs is her way of processing life. Whereas we might take a walk or talk to a friend to decompress after long hours of doing the hard things, Amanda would likely take those hard things and put them into melodies, melodies which we can in turn crank up on the ride home to loosen up from our static filled day.

Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters perform at Albino Skunk Music Festival on May 14, 2021. Photo: John Gillespie

Amanda Anne Platt has appeared on Southern Songs and Stories as a guest in a roundtable of women artists from western NC in 2018 as well as a video documentary version of the show back in 2015, when her band was newly signed to their first record deal with Organic Records, which she still calls home. It was a time when she had called western North Carolina home for less than a decade, having moved from her native New York to Asheville, North Carolina to start her musical career. I spoke with Amanda once again at the Albino Skunk Music Festival in Greer, South Carolina when she and the Honeycutters performed in the late spring of 2021. Included here is our conversation as well as excerpts from the new collection titled Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea as well as a live performance from Skunk Fest.

Songs heard in this episode:

“New York” by Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters from The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, excerpt

“Open Up Your Door” by Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters, live at Albino Skunk 05-14-21

“St. Sebastian” by Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters from The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, excerpt

“The Devil” by Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters from The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

We hope you enjoy the podcast, and also hope you might tell someone about it either in person or on social media. You can follow the series on podcast platforms everywhere, where it helps greatly when you give us a top rating and even more so with a good review, because the show’s visibility to everyone using those platforms depends largely on followers, ratings and reviews. Southern Songs and Stories is a part of the podcast lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes of this podcast on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to Corrie Askew for producing the radio adaptations of this series on public radio WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs. - Joe Kendrick

Artist stereotypes do not apply

How many times have parents cringed when their children fell in love with a musician? Let's be honest, the world has looked askance at artists of all stripes (with notable exceptions) for most of our history. Musicians tend to be thought of as people who may be great at their art but who are nonetheless pretty bad at life skills like paying bills, getting to work on time, and sticking with the missus.

Aaron turns all those stereotypes on their head; he is not only a fantastic songwriter and musician, but he also runs his own construction business and is a devoted family man living a stone's throw from where he grew up in the western NC mountains. He is as meticulous and intense about his guitar and ballads as he is about his green built homes and raising his two girls.

As you'll see in our pilot episode, Aaron does both life and art exceptionally well. The folks around him are a big part of that.