Sid Griffin of The Long Ryders

As The Long Ryders gear up for their extensive October 2026 UK Tour, Sid Griffin the lead singer, co-founder, guitarist, and mandolinist of the band kindly chatted with us:

 

What is your earliest musical memory?

Good question. My family back in Kentucky had a handful of LPs and I went through them and found one which was songs of the American Civil War. Union songs were on one side and Confederate songs were on the other side. I played that record a lot and still know those tunes by heart like The Battle Hymn Of The Republic and, dig this title, Eating Goober Peas.

 

When did you begin songwriting?

In summer 1965 I was nine years old and knew two or perhaps three real chords and some chords I simply made up. I wrote a song then which was pretty much a rip-off of Van Morrison’s song Gloria which he sang with Them about that time. My song was not about a girl but about how I wanted Christmas to come sooner than December! Remember I was nine years old.

 

You have your latest album ‘High Noon Hymns’ is out now. How did you want to approach the making of the album?

To be honest, Glenn, the Long Ryders figured High Noon Hymns would be the last studio album we ever made so we wanted to go out with a BANG. With producer Ed Stasium (Ed did about half the Ramones’s albums! Plus records for the Smithereens, the Hoodoo Gurus, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Jeff Healey Band, Julian Cope) the band and I wanted to play as live as possible and then fix up some lousy bits and sing over that.

This is exactly what we did and I when I heard the results I was so proud. We really nailed it. High Noon Hymns might be our best album or certainly our best album after our Native Sons album which people are always telling me is a classic.

 

Where did you record the album and who produced it?

High Noon Hymns was of course produced by Ed Stasium and we made the record in his studio just north of San Diego in California. It was a beautiful setting right out of a Western like High Chapparal or Gunsmoke.

 

Do you have any interesting, funny or memorable stories from the recording sessions?

We had Murry Hammond of the Old 97s play bass on the album and he even sang a bit too. Ed Stasium played some keyboards as he is good at

such things. Our old friend D.J. Bonebrake from the legendary L.A. band X played vibes on the album…yes, we had a known punk rock icon play the vibes!

 

Right now people are understandably making a fuss about young bluegrass pickers like Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle mixing up acoustic bluegrass with other genres. Okay, cool, and so we had young Wyatt Ellis play on our cover of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young which closes the album. His mandolin work sends the song into the stratosphere and when we play it live the audience does the singing for us on the chorus. Sometimes they are deafening they are singing so loud. I am not kidding. Deafening is not an exaggeration.

 

Did you use any particular instruments, microphones, recording equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for the record?

Ed Stasium first did a session in 1969 back in New York City. So his collection of microphones, outboard gear, and musical instruments is unbelievable! Before you start a session with him he sends you a list of what he has in case you are thinking about bringing something which is already in his studio and the list is pages and pages and pages long.

 

One thing most people would be interested in is Stephen McCarthy, the Long Ryders main guitarist, always but always brings his old blood red Telecaster which has a B-bender unit installed in it to get that C&W twang.

I always describe Stephen McCarthy as “the Johnny Marr of country-rock” and it is true!

 

I always bring my Rickenbacker 12-string guitar and it is one of only 24 in the world as it has the very, very special wiring Roger McGuinn installed in 1966. Yes, 24 of these were made for the Yokohama Music Fair in October 2003 and I have one! It has his so-called “Byrd wiring” and a built-in Vox treble booster which is not nearly as good as a compressor but is still pretty cool. (The Vox treble booster was THE go-to thing in 1966 with Paul Kanter of Jefferson Airplane, Mike Bloomfield of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and McGuinn all using one onstage. Yes, onstage.)

 

Which of your new album tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

I was at my happiest creating the song How, How, How (How Do You Want To Be Loved?) and I think it is a standout song on the High Noon Hymns album. It is about my strong relationship with my missus and a very positive, uplifting experience to write, perform and record.

 

I think the entire band was at its angriest when we cut Stephen McCarthy’s song Down To The Well. It certainly sums up the ghastly state of the American union today under Trump and it speaks for many, many people and not mere Stephen himself or the band. In fact our late bass player, Tom Stevens is on the cut, so that was nice as A) it was one of the last things we recorded with him, and B) he cannot stand Donald Trump either.

 

As regards being reflective there is a song on High Noon Hymns called A Hymn To The City Of Angels which we wanted to record because of the tragic fires which swept through so much of Los Angeles in January 2025, burning to the ground many of our old haunts in Pasadena and Altadena. Although a ballad there is a lot of grace and beauty in the song and I think the guys really, really did a soulful, almost spiritual performance on it. The tune is kind of like rock & roll church, if you will.

 

 

Was it a difficult album to write?

No, not at all. The world seems Hell bent on entering Hell and this gives songwriters, and I should think all artists, plenty of opportunities and inspiration to write about this and that. If you are finding writing songs particularly hard to the point of it being borderline impossible then I feel you either have strong writer’s block or you should think about quitting the business entirely. I mean it.

 

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

I am from Louisville, Kentucky.

 

“Old South meets 21st century”. There. Five words.

 

How do you look after your voices?

Before each and every gig if you come backstage Stephen, myself, and bassist Murry Hammond are doing vocal warmups for about half an hour before we hit the stage. Sometimes our drummer Greg Sowders sings a bass part but it depends on what songs we are doing that night. If it is only the three of us singing that evening then Greg pretty much runs this vocal rehearsal on his own, playing piano scales while we sing up and down whatever pattern Greg plays.

 

You will be embarking on an extensive October 2026 UK Tour. How are you feeling about the tour and do any of the cities/venues hold any personal significance to you or the band?

Our October UK tour is not all that extensive to us. Being a band with American origins we would leave home for six , seven weeks or more and not return till we seemingly played every university and every hip indie nightclub in the country. Those we extensive tours!

 

The Long Ryders are road dogs, Glenn. This is a good thing. We are doing fifteen British gigs with only two days off and we travel on those days. This is easy-peasy for us but for some acts they’d be dreading getting on the tour bus.

 

Half the tour are cities if not venues we have played before and some of these gigs, like Cardiff, are sold out already. I know from past experience Leeds and Glasgow will be wild…we always do well in such places. Newcastle I have a ton of Geordie friends so that will be cool. The London gig Thursday October 15 is a big deal to me personally as I live not terribly far from the venue now as I have married a wonderful Welsh NHS worker. Also here and there, certainly London, we are having old friends join us onstage so there will be some surprises.

 

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

Another good question. I gotta think for a second here.

 

Certainly no Long Ryder wants anyone to go home not thinking they just saw one of the best gigs they have ever but ever seen. I am not joking here. We are a great live band. Again…not kidding. Sure, if you don’t like Byrds/CCR/Clash/REM guitars and 4/4 rock rhythms you will not like us but if you do get your ass down to the venue and get ready to take the roof off da sucka!

 

Secondly, the Long Ryders would like it if some of our lyrics made you think a bit, made you reflect on what is going on in the world around you and your relationship to it. We don’t think our music is able to change the world…it would be great if it could and there was freedom for all and peace worldwide and everyone knew they were important…but at least if we could get folks to consider or reconsider there place in the great structure of things. Man, that would be something.

 

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

Glenn, I never ever go onstage without a tube amp and a JangleBox compressor. You need both to get a proper Byrds sound just like you really do need a Fender Twin with a working reverb unit and a Fender Stratocaster to get the proper surf guitar sound. It is as simple as that.

 

Other effects pedals do not matter so much. There are many find slapback units and distortion units but there is only one JangleBox compressor and may I also say using a solid state amp just doesn’t cut it for our kind of music. Fact.

 

Drummer Greg Sowders uses an old drum kit one of Sinatra’s drummers used when we are in the States but in Europe he hires a Yamaha kit as transporting his old Sinatra era kit would be risky. Murry Hammond is the only guy I know other than early Chris Hillman to play a Guild bass and I have already discussed Stephen’s main guitar and my Rickenbacker guitar.

 

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald because it has never been made into an artistically successful film, not ever, though folks have tried, and because it is the greatest American novel ever written, and also because it would be the great artistic challenge of anyone’s career. It really would. The characters are so vivid and the drama is set out before you…’tis a shame Burt Bacharach or Tony Hatch were never commissioned to do this project.

 

Given your extensive back catalogue, us it difficult picking a set list? Do you have a specific song selection process?

Drummer Greg Sowders picks the set list for every tour. There are two reasons. A) he is a big cheese at Warner-Chappell Music Publishing in Los Angeles so he knows songs, and B), he sits and faces the audience and studies what their reactions are, sees what they like. So he knows quite well how to balance the old with the new, the rockers with the ballads.

The rest of us make suggestions but it is all Greg’s thinking and very much his final call.

What makes The Long Ryders happy and what makes you unhappy?

The band gets along extremely well these days. We are not in each other’s pockets so much meaning touring is a celebration of what we shared and not any attempt to play King Of The Hill or drawn undo attention on yourself. There is a helluva lotta laughter on our tour bus. Plus when we tour old friends come out of the woodwork and it is simply a blessing to see them at this gig or that soundcheck.

What makes us unhappy is the world sliding to the authoritarian right politically. It is beyond grim to think about. If governments continue to throw more and more free thinkers, more and more “up the workers” types in jail across the globe you gotta figure sooner or later they are going to arrest the Long Ryders!

THE END

By Sid Griffin

Feature Image Photo Credit: Henry Diltz

The Long Ryders will play 15 UK dates, beginning in Shoreham on 2 October. The tour includes a headline show at London’s Electric Ballroom on 15 October, before concluding in Southampton on 18 October. Tickets available from AGMP.co.uk