Spotlight on The Milk Carton Kids
Therese LaGamma: Has music always been important to you? Did you always want to be a musician?
Joey Ryan: Growing up, our house was filled with the marquee artists of the 1960s and 1970s—Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Young—that’s who I internalized as being the gold standard. My mother sang in a folk duo in Berkeley, California, and I learned to play some chords on her guitar. And I studied clarinet and practiced every day. But it wasn’t until the end of college that I developed a passion for songwriting and performing and started a little band.
TLG: You and Kenneth Pattengale retired your solo careers and became a duo in 2011. What made you decide on the name Milk Carton Kids?
JR: The name Milk Carton Kids comes from the title of one of our own songs: “I don’t feel the pain I once did, one day it just vanished like a Milk Carton Kid.” It’s a somewhat odd metaphor that refers to the awkwardness of youth that goes away when you come of age—
something that you are happy to see disappear.
TLG: A few years ago, music producer T Bone Burnett asked you to perform at an all-star concert in New York celebrating the folk music tradition at the heart of the Coen Brothers film “Inside Llewyn Davis.” Was this a turning point in your career?
JR: Absolutely, this was the most consequential event of our career. A few weeks later, the movie came out, then we got our first Grammy nomination and our 55-city tour sold out.
TLG: Your shows are known to be humorous. What’s the backstory on this?
JR: Something we love to do naturally is talk to and engage with the audience. We’ve limited ourselves intentionally and very satisfyingly to two guitars and two voices, but we don’t want our shows to be about one-dimensional performing. Our songs don’t always capture everything we want to say, so big parts of our personality will come through in-between songs. Our songs are sad or sweet, but not funny—talking to the audience adds the funny. The way we act on stage is pretty much an extension of how we like to hang out together, with a lot of fraternal bickering and obsession over minutia. We’ve learned to add this to our shows in in a way that’s entertaining. But be warned: don’t sit in the first he few rows if you’re not thick-skinned—they can be an emotional splash zone.
TLG: You’ve toured the world as a duo with minimal gear, just two guys with guitars and amazing folk harmony. What are your favorite types of venues?
JR: Well, I don’t want to seem pandering, but we love playing at historic theaters. Newer places can be acoustically perfect, but sometimes feel a little cold compared to the best rooms like the Pabst theater in Milwaukee. Theaters in small cities that are cultural centers for their communities are our favorite places to play. It’s no accident that we are coming to The Music Hall in Portsmouth!