The final time we caught up with Jon Dee Graham, he was struggling to strike a stability between making a dwelling as a touring musician and being a superb father to his younger son. 1 / 4-century later, that son is a thriving grownup dwelling in New York Metropolis, and Graham has been coping with the far weightier points that include getting older. A local Texan and a fixture in Austin for many years now, the 64-year-old guitarist and singer/songwriter has survived a coronary heart assault and a stroke over the previous 4 years.

The guts assault occurred after a 2019 present on a very steamy July 4 night time in Chicago. It took the paddles to convey him again. Therefore the title of his first LP in seven years, Solely Lifeless For A Little Whereas (Strolling Bones). Onerous-rocking, soulful and—like each Graham solo album—dominated by his gruff, take-it-or-leave-it vocals, Solely Lifeless is a defiantly vibrant and life-affirming affair from a man who’s stared dying within the face greater than as soon as and by no means flinched.

Because of his acclaimed work as a solo artist and his influential ’80s stints with the Skunks and True Believers, Graham is a three-time inductee into the Austin Music Corridor Of Fame. As a guitarist, he’s backed John Doe, True Believers alum Alejandro Escovedo and lots of others. Nowadays, when he’s not on the highway, he performs frequently at Austin’s Continental Membership with a crack backup band that features Andrew Duplantis (Son Volt) and drummer Joey Shuffield (Fastball). Graham was in an particularly reflective temper once we reached him one afternoon as he was absorbing some nature at a buddy’s home outdoors Austin.

It’s been notably making an attempt time for you of late. You’ve had two brushes with dying within the final 4 years—after which there was the automotive accident in 2007.
I used to be within the hospital nearly three weeks after that accident. I punctured my spleen and had it eliminated. I punctured a lung, scratched my liver, fractured each kneecaps. My joke is, properly, I’ve confirmed I’m actually arduous to kill … I could be killed, however I gained’t keep useless lengthy. After the automotive accident—and, to a far better extent, the dying expertise in Chicago—I get these folks asking me, “So certainly you will need to’ve come again with a better appreciation for all times.” And I say, “Hey, what? Completely. I’ll offer you that—that a lot is true.” Nevertheless, I additionally got here again from it with a deep, private, profound realization that the worst stuff you possibly can think about can occur to you similar to that. I acquired a rap early on for being a downer, and the factor is, not for those who actually hearken to my music. There’s a golden thread of hope that runs via each single tune.

Perhaps a number of the heaviness folks take away out of your music has to do along with your vocal supply and never essentially the content material.
I’ve been touring this nation and others in large broad circles for many years. This sounds so corny—fields and fields of Iowa corn—however the fact is that I don’t have followers a lot as I’ve mates.

In order that’s one other method of claiming your singing is an acquired style?
[Laughs] To a sure diploma, you’re proper. I can’t assist how I sing. It’s simply how I sing. However I’ve a lot to be thankful for. For a chubby farm boy who grew up on the (Texas) border, the place Spanish was my second language, I’m so fortunate. I’ve gotten to see a lot, and I’ve gotten to take action a lot. If I used to be possibly three or 4 years youthful, I in all probability wouldn’t have gotten to do any of it. I imply, who will get a document deal at 64? And the purpose isn’t, “Hey, Grampy will get to make another document earlier than he dies.”

So how does a chubby farm boy from a Texas border city develop into an acclaimed singer/songwriter with a document deal at 64?
One of many causes is a trainer I had my freshman 12 months in highschool. I grew up between Eagle Move and Del Rio, and I used to be considered one of 5 white guys in my class. Mrs. Molina is one the explanation I write the best way I write. It’s that interval when your inventive bubble is swelling and rising. That’s when the lifelong injury occurs.

Is Solely Lifeless For A Little Whereas your most joyful document?
I did a phoner yesterday, and the man requested me, “Would it not be protected to say that that is the document the place you’re telling us to not be afraid of dying?” That was not my intention, however that’s it. In the case of dying, “By The Fireplace” is the closest glimpse of what I count on to occur once we die. We’re within the freezing wilderness, we see a glow off within the distance, and we hold strolling towards it. We get there, and all our mates are there—all who’ve gone earlier than.

As somebody who’s been there, what’s your tackle near-death experiences?
Each single particular person I discuss to needs an indication. I want to hell I may say there was this flash of sunshine and my grandmother was standing there with my favourite canine, Fluffy. I used to be solely useless 5 to seven minutes, so possibly it takes some time to get to that. Or, much more probably, as a result of I do what I do, they stated, “Nah. We’re not providing you with something inspiring to take again in regards to the afterlife. You simply return and hold doing all your job.”

Has the expertise made you extra non secular?
I misplaced my dad after I was 17. My mother died after I turned 31. She by no means acquired to satisfy her grandkids. You’ll be able to’t dwell so long as I’ve—and paid consideration to what was happening round you—and never know deep in your coronary heart that there’s one thing at work on this planet. I’m not speaking a couple of white-bearded, white-robed, sandaled czar of the heavens. I’m speaking about one thing method greater than that—and far more complicated than that. Stuff occurs, and I am going, “That is the worst factor that would’ve probably occurred. … Wait … It’s truly turning to my benefit.” Sure, tons of dangerous issues occur. And but, proper now, I’m sitting on the again deck at my buddy’s home watching a lemon-yellow butterfly hop from flower to flower. It’s like, “I’m sorry, may I’ve created that?”

—Hobart Rowland