TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Quinlan Finds His Songwriting Muse

ADVERTISEMENT

By CURTIS ROSS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 12, 2008

It wasn't until Will Quinlan's new album, "Navasota," was almost finished that he realized what it was about.

"I don't always know what I'm writing about when I'm writing," says Quinlan, a mainstay of the Tampa music scene since the early 1990s.

"Once I got into the final mixes and into mastering I realized most of these songs related to the same thing," Quinlan says: the life of his mother, who died in 2000. Her East Texas hometown gave the album its name.

"It hit me that I'd unintentionally made a concept album of sorts," Quinlan says. "I never said I'm gonna write a record about my Mom's life. It was a cool surprise."

The death of Theresa Claire Rolirad initiated a period of uncertainty and soul-searching for her son.

For nearly three years after her death, Quinlan says, "I wrote nothing. I was numb."

He continued playing with his band, Pagan Saints, and was in the process of making an album with them when things came to a head.

"As making the album went on I started to lose the motivation for it," Quinlan says.

"I didn't know what was going on until we played the Southeast Music Alliance Festival in 2003," Quinlan says. "This knot I had in my gut was telling me I had to acknowledge that I was done with this thing and needed to move on."

He disbanded Pagan Saints and, for the first time in 12 years, was without a band.

"I didn't know how to deal with not having a band," Quinlan says.

Quinlan played solo and with Murder Creek, which specialized in bluegrass covers of punk songs. And slowly, he began to write again.

"I had lost a lot of confidence in my writing," Quinlan says. "I had a lot of questions and doubts about the validity of my work and whether I could keep doing it."

In 2004, though, what Quinlan calls the "trickle" of songs "turned into a torrent." He formed a new band, The Diviners, and began recording what would become "Navasota" in 2005.

But Quinlan's troubles weren't over yet. He and his father suffered a string of illnesses and injuries that turned into a morass of legal and insurance issues.

It wasn't until early this year that, Quinlan says, "the storm finally abated. I was able to get my feet under me and begin to finish the album."

Mirroring the turmoil in his personal life, Quinlan had been unable to keep a steady lineup of The Diviners together. The album is credited to Will Quinlan & The Diviners, with 10 other musicians acknowledged in the liner notes.

The lineup since has solidified with Scott Anderson on guitars, Brian Lane on bass and Jimmy Rice on drums and harmony vocals.

The CD release party for "Navasota," Saturday at New World Brewery in Ybor City, will be as much a celebration of the new album as it is of Quinlan's reunion with his songwriting muse.

"We'll be playing four or five new songs," Quinlan says. "Part of me wants to move on and get to work on the next record."

Quinlan hopes to have the next Diviners record out early next year.

ON TOUR

Will Quinlan & The

Diviners

WITH: Have Gun, Will Travel and Matt Butcher

WHEN: 9 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: New World Brewery, 1313 E. Eighth Ave., Ybor City; (813) 248-4969

COST: $6

Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT