photo by Anita Medal

Songwriter Interview

Bay Area poet and musician, Chris Stroffolino of the band Continuous Peasant, talks with Crooked Roads singer & songwriter, Chris Dingman.

CS: A lot of these songs are sad, though almost all have something hopeful or uplifting in them too. Do you see yourself as mostly a writer of sad songs?

CD: Well, like you said, it's more complex than that. But if I had to say yes or no--and for those who can't see us, Chris is currently pointing a gun to my head--I'd say yes. So far, I've tended to write sad love songs. But not all are sad love songs and I don't think any are sad, depressing love songs.

Part of the reason for that is the beautiful melodies.

I need to do something with the sadness. Hopefully to make it beautiful. Which is like redeeming it maybe. I like to think people can relate to it and find something like companionship when they listen. But I never want to bring people down. There's a big difference between sad and depressing. To me, a good sad song makes you soar.

Humor seems to pop up in a lot of your songs, both on this CD and Crooked Roads' first CD Love, Again.

Yeah, that's another way of doing something with the sadness. And also not being so solemn about it. You can be serious in your approach without being solemn.

You mentioned people finding companionship when they listen to your music. I thought that was an interesting choice of words.

I've always felt, without being able to put words to it before, that I had more emotion or passion in me than other people had or wanted to know about. So I think the songs of others have been a way for me to find companions--people who obviously felt a lot. I recently realized that the songs I like are the ones where I feel like the singer could be my friend.

Based on the lyrics?

And the way they sing. Both have to be there for me. I like a kind of roughness in the voice--something kinda unschooled. But I have to hear tenderness in there too. Some voices are all roughness and no tenderness. They don't get to be my friend (laughs).

Some of your songs from both Love, Again and Heartbreak Sampler remind me of classic old country music lyrics that someone like Harlan Howard would write. You have a line from "Tell Me Again" that says, "The only shoulder that I get to cry on's the one by the side of the road."

Harlan Howard's great. He wrote a song called "Heartaches for a Dime" where the guy calls his sweetheart from a payphone just to tell her he  loves her and she dumps him. He says, "That's a lot of heartaches for a dime." Isn't that great? That kills me.

It sounds like what you did in "Please Forgive Me" from Love, Again. You're singing to your old flame that if you happen to see her around town, "Please forgive me if I die."

Yeah, I was consciously trying to write like Buck Owens and Harlan Howard on that one. They wrote one called "Excuse me, I think I've got a Heartache." Ha!

What other songwriters do you see as influences?

Besides loving that play on words you find in a lot of classic old country music lyrics, I couldn't say what specific songwriters have influenced me. Dylan's influence is everywhere of course. I know I have to feel like what I'm writing is real for me. It just has to carry real emotion.

Yeah. Your songs are personal. But also accessible.

Well, besides being real for me, I also want them to make sense to others. I guess I like it when a song is both a personal expression from yourself and also a clear communication of that to others.

So are all the details actually from your personal life?

Some not all. But the emotion behind the detail is always true for me. 

To hear Chris Stroffolino's music, go to the Continuous Peasant website