Stone Soup. Now there's a phrase far from the everyday. American-born, Dunedin-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist John Egenes uses it to describe the process by which he - and others - created his new album.
A "computer geek since the late '70s", Egenes emailed song sketches to friends around the globe, from Texas to Denmark, as well as closer to home, inviting them to contribute guitar licks, fiddle lines, backing vocals and other textures to an album that is firmly rooted in the dusty strains of country music.
"I told them to play what they wanted," Egenes explains during a break from his work as a lecturer in contemporary music at the University of Otago.
"Most of them were very nervous and wanted direction, but I said the whole point of the project was for it to be a communal thing."
The Stone Soup Sessions, to be released at Dunedin venue The Church tomorrow, involves concepts both modern and more time-honoured.
Though the medium was digital, the result is warm-blooded, not unlike an Irish pub session in which a song's personality depends on who turns up to play. Egenes describes it as an organic synthesis; "from its humble beginnings as musical rocks and boiling water", it has become an aural feast.
"All of these people are great players and it was fortunate they agreed to play ... none of them heard each other; aside from a few bass and drum things recorded here at Albany St, most of the tracks were done by musicians who didn't know each other. I'm the common denominator," Egenes says.
"This digital culture is a bottom-up thing; it is fundamentally human but we don't think of it that way. All you have to do is look at Facebook and YouTube to work out that it's not the technology that is cool; it's the people. That's how the sites come to life.
"Music is the same. It's a language and it's not much good doing it by yourself."
In a nod to the culture of remixing, Egenes has gone so far as to provide downloadable tracks off the album (his fourth), which interested parties can deconstruct, augment and submit to his website, or else use in their own (strictly non-commercial) creations.
"It's about creating new from old", he explains. "The whole idea is that it is fodder to create what you want to create."
Yet any suggestion the 13 tracks on The Stone Soup Sessions are throwaway items would be dismissive of Egenes' songwriting and technical ability across a range of instruments, including acoustic and electric guitars, pedal steel, mandolin and banjo. It would also overlook his attention to lyrical detail.
"For me, lyrics are important. Most of the time I figure out an angle and try to make it interesting. For this album I've covered things like the economy in a cowboy song (When the Sun Sets On The Trail) and endangered species (Crazy Sons of Bitches) and the loss of the fourth estate (Land Of The Blind)."
Like many musicians, Egenes is clearly a good listener, his previous travels along the highways of country, folk and bluegrass an osmotic process that has harnessed both the figurative lyricism of, say, Rodney Crowell and the story-telling approach of the celebrated Guy Clark, whom Egenes knows.
"From my standpoint, this isn't a honky-tonk, hardcore country album. However, for Kiwi audiences, it probably is.
"I would say country music is my forte. When I first got a guitar at a very young age, in 1960 or so, I started out playing Johnny Cash stuff like Hey Porter and Ride This Train. I got no end of stick at the time from my friends, who were playing The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and all that.
"Johnny Cash is now an icon but back then he was not considered cool at all. He was a hillbilly. He was a big influence early on. Through him I discovered there was such a thing as a songwriter.
"Eventually, songwriters began to emerge and I've been lucky enough to play with some really good songwriters over the years - Eliza Gilkyson, a Grammy-nominated, Texas Country Music Hall of Fame inductee; Gary P Nunn, another Texas legend; Bill and Bonnie Hearne, wonderful folk singers ..."
Bluegrass, too, was a passion - at least for a while, until Egenes tired of the male-dominated competitive aspects of the genre whereby players would seek to be the fastest (insert guitarist, fiddler, Dobro player ... ) on the block.
"I got burned out on that scene because of that. Also, I was getting into rock music, people like The Byrds. And I also saw people like Geoff Muldaur, a huge hero of mine who is a multi-instrumentalist and one of the best blues singers in the world.
"That got me playing the mandolin, the banjo, all these Dobros, the musical saw ... that's what I do now. I just throw myself at various instruments, moving technique from guitar. It's catch as catch can, I guess."
Skilled he may be, yet Egenes also knows when not to play.
"I do pay attention to details, to instruments not stepping on each other. This album almost mixed itself. Because these people are so good at knowing when to play - or when not to play - I rarely had to edit out anything.
"There would be Tony Gilkyson in Los Angeles, Rob Bird-Robinson in Santa Barbara, Terry Ware in Oklahoma, even David Kilgour here in Dunedin ... all playing on the same song, but it all fitted together," Egenes says in reference to the album's closing track, My Solo which, unsurprisingly given its title, features guitar solos by several guests.
"One of the things I stress when talking to young people here at the university is sympathetic playing. It is easy to step all over the lead vocalist.
"When you go to see a band in a pub in New Zealand you seldom hear the singer. If you play music with a vocalist, why do you even bother having them if you can't hear them?"
• Catch him
John Egenes' The Stone Soup Sessions will be released at Dunedin venue The Church tomorrow at 7.30pm.
