Doug Seegers’ Streets of Dreams Revisited – Interview

On the day he sat in London to talk about the UK release of his album “Going Down To The River,” Doug Seegers might have been thinking about the twists and turns that brought him here.

Just over a year ago, Seegers was homeless, struggling and playing on the streets of Nashville. Then he was discovered by Swedish country music star and filmmaker Jill Johnson and released a song from a resulting documentary that became a best-selling record in Sweden. “Going Down To The River,” the album that followed, led to sixty sold-out shows in Sweden and a U.S. debut. Seegers opened the Americana Music Awards at the Ryman last fall, ironically just a short distance from the street where he was discovered.

“Going Down To The River” is an album about redemption. “Living in this world of sin, I’m going down to the river to wash my soul again,” Seegers sings on the title track, Seegers’ archetypical country voice, seasoned by years of singing on street corners and living more lifetimes than most of us ever will. In “Angie’s Song,” Seegers recalls trying to write a love letter to a woman whose bad habits landed her in jail. It turned instead into a sad song to “get a hurt out from inside” and Seegers once admitted he still loves her to this day.

Seegers, the son of country musicians who once had a band called Johnny Rivers and The West Tones, traces his roots back to Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and other country songwriters who have written about the human condition. Seegers provides a link with fellow travelers who have ridden the rails in search of something perhaps they’re not quite sure of. 

When we spoke, Seegers had just come from a visit to Stockholm and after a few days in London was heading to play SXSW in Austin, Texas. The festival marks a homecoming of sorts for a musician who toiled in the clubs of an emerging Texas music scene back in the Seventies with an emerging writer and singer by the name of Buddy Miller. Back then, Seegers was known as “Duke The Drifter” and it wasn’t until one day more than thirty years later that a producer in Nashville told Miller there was someone in the studio named Doug Seegers who said he knew him. Miller played on the record produced by Will Kimbrough as did Emmylou Harris. We first wrote about Seegers when he was a guest on .The Buddy & Jim Show

We started our conversation about his improbable rise by going back to where it began on the streets of Nashville.  

Your story literally begins on the streets.

Well I was discovered on the streets of Nashville by some folks from Sweden. Basically their intention was to come to Nashville to shoot some footage for a Swedish television show. At the time no one in West Nashville knew who  Jill Johnson (the director) was. It turns out she’s as popular in Sweden as Dolly Parton is in America. They managed to shoot some street musicians playing in Nashville – that was one of the episodes they were planning on. I was lucky enough to be introduced to them through a friend of mine in West Nashville who runs a food pantry in West Nashville. I used to go see her because I was homeless. She set up a place where people could come over for food. She had a basement in a church and would give out food to 40 or 50 people and I was one of those people.

What is it about homelessness that you could describe to someone who has never experienced it?

Well you know…the first thing I think of when someone asks me a question like that is compared to being homeless like in 1940, the means of survival are nothing compared to back then. I can wake up and be homeless any morning and find plenty of means for any kind of food or shelter or clothing. I can survive without a penny in my pocket without even trying nowadays. It’s just not like it used to be. Now I don’t welcome homelessness and I’m not proud of being homeless but I don’t fear it. I don’t fear it is the point I’m trying to make. It shouldn’t have to affect your spirit but I know it does.

How long were you homeless?

I’ve been off and on homeless since 1969. I had day jobs….I’m a cabinet maker by trade. I’d be working in a woodshop and Christmastime would come and the boss would come up and lay four or five people off and just say ‘Well business is slow right now. We’ll give you a call when things pick-up. I spent a lot of time working on things that slowed down at Christmas time. Working in a small custom wood shop that’s just the way things were.

Your album has been a long time in coming I guess you could say. Did you ever think it would take this long?

(Laughs) I’ve always played music but truth be known I never planned on making a record. When this whole thing went down and I was recognized as somebody who had a good song. It’s not like I was out there trying to make a name for myself because I wasn’t. And I didn’t want people to be mistaken about that because I really wasn’t pushing myself to do anything at the time.

I was actually going through some hard times with a relationship and I was going through some rough times with bad habits—let’s just put it that way. I’d come out of that and then shortly after, that’s when I met Jill Johnson. She immediately fell in love with the song “Going Down To The River” and asked if she could record it. But you know we’re still answering the question of what was I doing with my own personal career and I wasn’t. I wasn’t pushing my career and it happened all by itself. It didn’t really have anything to do with me.

When you were standing onstage at the Ryman to open up the Americana Music Awards, what was going through your head?

By that time I was starting to feel confident about myself. I had the number one song on the Swedish ITunes. And the album I brought over there went to number one. So I was feeling confident onstage.

“Going Down To The River” is a song about redemption.

To me the first thing that comes to mind about redemption is that it’s not easy to be strong with God. We are all sinners and we all fall, more than once. We all do and I think that’s what people relate to. Don’t worry about slipping up and falling….it’s more important to think about keep trying, keep trying and stay with it.

You sang that you need that country honk in your sound. Your parents were in a country band. Did you like country music growing up?

Oh yeah. I played my Mom’s guitar when I was eight. My mom liked bluegrass. My dad had old 78’s of Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Hank Thompson…all the Hanks.

Did the Gram Parsons album “Grievous Angel” with Emmylou Harris affect you?

Before that it was “Sweetheart of The Rodeo” by the Byrds. I don’t know when Gram Parsons ran into Jim McGuinn but that was the first Byrds album that was solid country music. That’s when I was first turned on to Gram Parsons.

When Emmylou sang “She” on your album, did she talk about doing the original with Gram?

We didn’t talk about that but she’s a real sweetheart and I’ve gotten to know her. I’ve been over to her house a few times. I was so excited when she called me on the phone just to let me know she was going to help me. She called me when I was in the library and said ‘Doug, this is Emmylou. I really like what you’re doing. I’m gonna do my best to help you.’” I wept right on my cell phone.

I asked her if she’d be okay helping me out if I get to do another record and she said she would.

Doing this music, what have you learned about yourself?

What have I learned about myself? I’ve come across a new direction as far as what I’d like to focus on in my career. What I’d really like to focus on is being inspirational to people who have problems with drugs and alcohol problems. I don’t know if that’s what I’ve learned but it’s become a wonderful direction in my career.

That really comes through in “Angie’s Song.” Is there an Angie in everyone’s life?

Yeah, I think that’s what people like in that song. That’s a true song about my last serious relationship.

I know you’ve said playing on the streets is relaxation for you. Have you done anything lately?

The day before I was in Stockholm, Sweden. There was this girl who is a bass player and she texted me and said she was looking forward to meeting me. She had an acoustic bass and we were playing and made a whole pile of money (laughs). I’m just kidding about the money.

I play in front of a Good Will thrift store in Nashville. I’ve been doing it for sixteen years. I’m good with them, they’re good with me. On a Sunday afternoon, I’ll play some gospel music and the kids with their parents will walk by and might stop to listen. I like playing for the children. That’s real special for me.

When will you do your next record?

It looks like we’re going to be starting in the fall. I’ve got a lot of songs tentatively picked out. Now I’m writing a lot again. I’ve got a new song and love the title “I Knew Her Before The Crash.” Ain’t that a great song title?

I guess it could be literal or metaphorical

Which way do you think? It’s about a girl I knew who was in a car crash. Sometimes you have to be careful not to be too personal in your writing.

Is there anything else you want to add?

I’ve been real happy. People have been responding to the record and it’s made me real happy.