Howard Iceberg, KC roots music elder statesman, has a new concept album and a show Thursday at the Ship
After working as an immigration lawyer in Kansas City for nearly four decades, Howard Eisberg began sliding into retirement a couple years ago. He received his official approval from the Missouri Bar to be placed on inactive status in early 2017. Three days later, Trump announced his first travel ban.
“I was back on a teleconference the next day with immigration lawyers,” he says. “I’m gonna try to stay retired, but will probably get dragged back in, in some volunteer role, if the deportations start to be massive. Like in the movie: I tried to get out, and they pulled me back in.”
Happily, Eisberg’s alter ego — the prolific roots songwriter known as Howard Iceberg — still has plenty of fight left in him as well. Last month marked the release of Netherlands, the latest record from Howard Iceberg and the Titanics. It’s a bit of a departure. His croaky voice and tuneful songs are present as ever, but it’s a story-based album — a first for the 70-year-old troubadour.
“[It] chronicles an imaginary love story from beginning to end, with all its highs and lows,” Iceberg says. “Each song is a chapter in that story. It’s made up, like all love stories.”
Musically, it’s filled with more horns and piano than previous work — the byproduct of recording with “some KC jazz cats,” he says. Iceberg describes Netherlands as a nod to the Great American Songbook in terms of its themes and structure. But why name a Great American Songbook record after another country?
“I wrote and recorded a song for the album called ‘All the Places That We Never Went,’ and I pictured Netherlands as one of those places,” Iceberg says. “The song didn’t make the final cut. But the place did.”
Netherlands is now streaming on Bandcamp. Below, Iceberg’s responses to The Pitch Questionnaire.
• • •
Hometown: Kansas City, start to finish
Neighborhood: Westside, 35 years
Describe yourself: I used to be a lawyer who wrote songs. Now I’m a songwriter who used to practice law.
What’s your addiction? Caffeine
What’s your game? Poker
What’s your drink? Fireball whiskey, supercharged with Big Red chewing gum
Where’s dinner? Harry’s Country Club
Kansas City got it right when … we devoted the time, energy and money necessary to fix our dysfunctional public school system. (Oh wait, I’m thinking of someplace else.)
Kansas City needs more … bohemians, fewer suits, and a genuine metro-wide desegregation effort.
Kansas City screwed up when … it commercialized the arts district.
What did you want to be when you were growing up? A cowboy, a fireman, a baseball player, a cartoonist, a scientist, a writer
What’s your dream concert lineup? The Clash, The Pogues, and Buddy Holly
Current favorite record: Billie Holiday and Lester Young: Complete Studio Recordings
Favorite TV show: The Sopranos or Curb Your Enthusiasm
Last book you read: The Pugilist At Rest, by Thom Jones
What’s your hidden talent? Empathy (or possibly self-delusion)
What’s your guiltiest pleasure? Jimmy John’s
Who is your sidekick? My pal Fred
What’s your closest brush with fame? The tribute show they threw for me in 2012, with about 50 musicians singing songs of mine. Many people who heard about the show but didn’t go assumed I died, and I ran into a number of surprised people in the weeks after.
Who’s your hero? Martin Luther King
What’s your current greatest struggle? Coca-Cola
What’s the best advice you ever got? Be who you are where you are.
What was the last thing you had to apologize for? My big mouth
What makes Kansas City special for you? My friends, the music scene, my memories
The CD release of Netherlands is this Thursday, March 29, at the Ship, from 7-9 p.m. All proceeds, digital or CD, go to Care Beyond the Boulevard, delivering medical and social services to the homeless.
