JD McPherson is shining Like gold on his latest album, ‘Nite Owls’

Forget about those people who say that rock is dead. They obviously have not been listening to singer/songwriter/guitarist extraordinaire JD McPherson.

McPherson has breathed new life into rock and roll by reviving the genre’s past. Over the past 12 years, he has recorded four studio albums and two EPs that demonstrate McPherson’s love of rockabilly, R&B and roots rock.

His latest album is called “Nite Owls.” It’s his fifth studio album and arguably his best to date. Every song is fantastic; there is no filler here.

As McPherson told WPR’s “BETA,” “Nite Owls” is dedicated to the pioneering guitarist Duane Eddy, “The Titan of Twang.” Eddy passed away on April 30, 2024.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Doug Gordon: “Nite Owls” is your fifth album. Were you trying to do something different with this one?

JD McPherson: The main jumping off point would be the sounds of surf music, though the music and the arrangements are quite different from your standard sort of surf fare.

But I was pulling a lot of influence from single note springy guitar sounds, such as Duane Eddy, the Ventures, Fireballs — anywhere I could kind of pull and influence from somebody playing a big reverb guitar was sort of the motif for that record.

DG: The opening song on “Nite Owls” is called “Sunshine Getaway.” Can you tell us about it?

JDM: Some of your neighbors actually helped me write that song. I’m very close friends with the Cactus Blossoms from Minneapolis. We made a record together. And they’ve just been really like brothers for years and years.

But they were visiting Nashville when I was living in Nashville, and they were actually crashing at Jenny Lewis’ house. I don’t think she lives there anymore, but she was on tour and she was, like, letting them eat Rice Krispies at her place.

So I popped over to say hi and I mentioned I was writing for a new album, and we always wanted to write something together. So we started just talking about the winters in Minneapolis, which I know you’re familiar with.

And the conversation turned pretty dark pretty quickly — kind of typical news stories you’d hear during that time of the year. And we have a very dark sense of humor. So we were all just rolling on the floor laughing. And so that’s where “Sunshine Getaway” came from. It’s about being stuck in. You can’t escape the cold and wanting to so badly.

JDM: I could definitely tell you about the song, “Shining Like Gold.”

It’s about Duane. He was not only a hero of mine, but I would say we became friends and I was such a huge admirer of him and he was helpful to me in a lot of ways. He gave me a lot of encouragement when I needed it, and he told me, “Save me a solo on your next record.” And I absolutely had intended for that to happen. And that song was going to be the one.

And then we lost Duane and so on comes the tremolo and goes the reverb. And I’m just doing my best sort of tribute to Duane.

The record is dedicated to him. There are maybe five guitar players whose name means the same thing as their sound. And you could say Duane Eddy and every guitar player knows exactly what that is. Very few people have that kind of synonymous relationship with their sound. And what a guy, what a wonderful human being. I miss him a lot.

DG: Let’s talk about your song, “The Rock and Roll Girls.” What’s the origin story behind it?

JDM: There area few kind of ideas mashed up in my brain about that one. But ultimately, the crux of that tune is kind of a love letter to youth and getting out of the way when youth wants to say something.

But two things that really contributed to that song being written were I read an article that the electric guitar industry was being kind of held up by sales to young women, and that made me really happy because I have a lot of female rock and roll heroes and I feel like more Chrissie Hyndes is a good thing.

Then also, I was driving around where I grew up with my family when my kids were really small. I remember I was trying to tell a story and my youngest daughter was kicking the back of the driver seat in time with the music and it was getting on my nerves.

And then I realized what she’s actually doing is just digging the music. And so I shut up. So it was just kind of a love letter to my kids and to the spirit of young folks saying what they want to say and listening to them.

DG: What is next for JD McPherson?

JDM: Well, we’re on the road right now promoting this record. I’ve been loving doing the producing thing. I’m going to be doing the music for an upcoming television show that I’m really, really excited about. It’s something that I’ve always kind of been interested in.

I went to film school and I’ve always loved the moving picture. So I’m going to be making some sounds for this new program. It’s called “The Sensitive Kind.”

I can say it because it just got announced. The showrunner is an old buddy of mine, Sterlin Harjo, who is responsible for “Reservation Dogs” and Ethan Hawke is in it, Keith David, Kyle MacLachlan. It’s an incredible cast.

It’s a noir set in Tulsa. And so that’s going to take up most of my year next year. Got some more producing gigs coming up, and then I’m already thinking about the next thing for me. Busy, busy, busy.