Eugene Chadbourne, Paul Lovens

Victo 40th Anniversary Super Sale. It was my friend Werner Frei from the Karbon record store in Zurich who first asked me if I didn't agree that Lovens and I would be a good duo and would I mind if he tried to fix it up for a series he was running in the early '90s? Lovens and I were interested but the timing for this never worked out. Again I recall spending time with Paul at the 1993 Musique/Action in Vandoeuvre, France. I was performing the Crude Gene Mannipulappachian Suite with a quartet, Paul was there with the September Band. One afternoon I sat outside the festival central headquarters entertaining neighborhood kids with my banjo as they came home from school.

Paul and his bandmate Rudiger Carl came along and listened, commenting on how much they like the banjo. Paul had passed an essential test for a musician: being able to share a space with a banjo without violent reactions. From his positive comments and from earlier ones I recalled such as his asking me to make him a tape of country and western guitar picking, I realized he and I should really start getting together. It is a lesson I learned from the new all-volunteer American army: if someone shows the slightest interest, stick'em in a uniform and march them off to war.

The 1996 Victoriaville invitation turned out to be a chance to put Paul and I together for extended playing. It worked out beautifully for us and the relationship has changed from a series of chance encounters to a personal and musical friendship. And there was lots of truth to what he told me one morning in Quebec: «You know, this isn't the last time we will play together.»

Eugene Chadbourne, October 1996