During the creation of the Cave Singers' fourth album, Naomi, they added bass player, multi-instrumentalist, and Seattle nice guy Morgan Henderson to their assemblage. He's a highly cerebral musician whose rooted, willowy bass lines and flute sounds fit naturally within the Cave Singers' illumined folk framework. Through his experience playing various types of music with various types of bands over the years (the Blood Brothers, Past Lives, Fleet Foxes), Henderson has developed a keen sense of what a song needs. He knows how notes should be delivered, and his palette of ways to play is wide and apt. Naomi, as an album, is a continuance and extension of the Cave Singers' celestial riffed-bluegrass sound. With Henderson involved, Peter Quirk, Derek Fudesco, and Marty Lund have broadened and burnished their Blue Ridge Mountain hook-stomp and groove. Quirk's vocals animate with revival and traveling-medicine-show tones. "Karen's Car" takes you to a place in Toccoa, Georgia—close to the Carolina/Tennessee borders. (Home to James Brown in his youth.) There's an abandoned shed in some thick-ass woods near the dark-green shade of Lake Rabun. Ivy overgrows the shed, its one window is busted out, and water moccasins are all around. I think it used to be a still. Inside, there's an old bronze phonograph horn on the floor—dented and covered in dust, but reflective. You hold it up and see the hills behind you in the curve of the speaker horn. The sun hits off the bronze like a lens flare. Everything curves. You sit there until night. Soon crickets will come, with their symphonies from the trees. Henderson spoke. No crickets were audible.

How did you go about enmeshing yourself and your playing into the Cave Singers' sound?

They had been working on parts for Naomi and had a handful of the songs. Initially, I was just going to play bass on the record, and that would sort of be it. They didn't really give me guidelines or anything specific they wanted to hear. More or less they gave me free rein to play what I heard. They wanted bass lines—they didn't want someone to play what Derek would essentially play on his bass pedals. I hadn't played electric bass in a band since the Blood Brothers, and I'd missed it. Working on the material with them was a complete joy.

I was familiar with the guys, too. They had toured with Fleet Foxes, and I'd known them as people and a band since they started. It was really more about going for what I heard as possible with their songs. What I heard in my head, the way they could sound with bass, and just what felt right. I loved learning their older songs and getting to write new songs with them. I think they were looking for another perspective on writing songs, and it was a solid connection that way. They're also about the best hang you can have. It's always great getting in the van, or going to practice. It takes a while to actually play music, because we'll be listening to records or shooting the shit.

Did you have to build your calluses back up? Bass playing tears fingers up.

It can, yeah. With the upright, I mainly play with my index and middle fingers, but with the Cave Singers, I immediately started playing just with my thumb. I hadn't ever played that way for any other band, but for some reason that's just the sound I started doing. So yeah, it was a different callus. Nothing rips up the hands like the upright does, though. We played for KEXP at the Triple Door, and since we wanted to do a different take on the songs, I played only upright. We'd practiced for it, but during the show, I blistered up, and they popped. There was blood everywhere because I was digging further into my hand. It was gnarly [laughs]. I bled for the cause.

Ever try the Flea thing and put rubber cement over your popped blisters so you can play? Did Flea really do that? Wouldn't it just give you instant cancer? You're the Flea authority, right?

Oh yeah. I don't actually know about Flea doing that. I'm a Flea fan. He's a runner, and a crazy bass player. And a Lakers fan, so he hits the boxes for me. I know Joanna Newsom gets heavy calluses from her harp playing, and she'll use rubber cement. Once you get a callus, though, you're fine—those don't rip off. The blister is where you're in trouble.

You're a flute player as well. Is there a flute callus? Is there a callus of the embouchure? The Jethro Tull callus?

There's no flute callus that I've developed yet, but there's definitely a need to have the muscles in your mouth worked up. Of any instrument I've played—using hands, feet, whatever—mouth muscles are quickest to go if you don't keep them up. Woodwind and brass players practice a lot.

How many Cave Singers songs are you on flute for?

There's a song called "Easy Way" on Naomi that we play now where I'm on flute. Two guitars, drums, and flute. It's different from the original version. We sort of like this way better, and I'm always looking for any excuse to play the flute. Maybe four or five songs in all.

Do you use effects on your flute?

Yeah. There's a great company called Strymon—I have a couple of their pedals. For the Cave Singers, I use their delay pedal. There's a couple songs where I give it a longer tail.

Is it a highly discernable delay that people hear out in the room, or more subtle?

I think so. One of the advantages of it being in the signal chain onstage is that it comes through the monitor. A lot of engineers can put delay on it in the room, but I can't hear it because it doesn't send back to the monitor. My delays are shorter, so it's like a slap-back feel, and there are other ones that are longer and get more psychedelic.

Get that shit going for your 12-minute Jethro Tull "Locomotive Breath."

The first time I played flute live, somebody yelled out, "Jethro Tull." I was like, "Oh no, have I crossed the line or something?" I don't really listen to Jethro Tull, though.

What? You don't listen to Jethro Tull? That's not possible! Who are the flute players you're into?

Don't get me wrong, I've seen videos of Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull playing with an orchestra and doing weird stuff. He's an amazing musician. There's a guy named Hermeto Pascoal, I think he's Brazilian. Eric Dolphy is great. I'm not so into the rock flute, more into the jazz and classical side.

Do you all play "Karen's Car" in the set? For me, that one gets right at the Cave Singers' sound. Bright, but worn. Possibly an abandoned still in the woods.

We haven't played that song that much. It's funny—this is their fourth record, so it's gotten to the point where there are a lot of songs to choose from. Every time we play "Karen's Car" at practice, we always like it. It has a strong groove. My gripe with that song is that I think it's too short. Maybe we'll play it in Seattle. We've been playing more one-off shows lately, and we always re-approach the set for those kinds of shows. New material gets put in, and changed up, and we want the Seattle show to be different than other shows.

Looking at the Blood Brothers to Past Lives to Fleet Foxes, is there a musical through line? Something similar about them?

I think of Fleet Foxes' "The Shrine/An Argument" as being the concept song from that album. I feel like that song is, in a way, an idea of a song in three parts. And in the Blood Brothers, a lot of times there was an idea for a song—we would think, "A song should do this or that"—then parts would arise to fit the idea. With the Cave Singers, maybe "Northern Lights" is the closest to having an idea for how a song should go. It starts off with Pete singing. It starts small, then it shifts with meter and time signature, and the band comes in with a 6/8 feel.

School us a little bit on who has factored into your musical education and why.

There's a lot. Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus—not only do they have tremendous melodic ability, but arrangement-wise, they have a very big sound in the way they lay out all the instrumentation. For reference's sake, there's "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" or "So Long Eric." There are so many to choose from. More current, I think Flying Lotus is someone who's always amazing to look at. The production that he puts into his stuff is endlessly entertaining. Similarly, James Blake's sounds—just listening to his sounds and the quality and the way everything's put together. I found myself getting really into Kanye's Yeezus. I think that album has sounds that were, in a way, not known in popular music, but are common in other electronic realms. It's exciting hearing how he put those sounds together with people, and now they're used in commercials. I'll also say Travis Scott—I just happened to be watching 106 & Park, and they were showing his video. I have no idea how popular he is, but I find his music really weird and interesting. He could be really popular and everyone could know about him, but to me, he's like this oddity. When I listen to music, I'll hear sounds before anything. So even when the MC is terrible, if the sounds are good, I'm still into it [laughs]. He has a song called "Upper Echelon" that has T.I. and 2 Chainz.

What's coming up for you? Are you playing with anyone else these days?

Not too long ago, I finished doing an album with a gentleman named Hamilton Leithauser. He's the lead singer for the Walkmen. Fleet Foxes had toured with them not too long ago. Hamilton and his Walkmen bandmate Paul Maroon asked me to work on his solo record with him, so I was down in Los Angeles with them and Richard Swift. I think the record is being mastered right now to be released in the spring. It was an excellent experience working with those guys. I'm excited about it. Hamilton and Paul put a lot of work and care into it. I hope people like it.

Will you be touring with them in support of it?

It's possible. Hard to say right now. I see us doing at least some shows for it.

I've heard the Cave Singers have a talent for finding good food in the middle of nowhere. Where is the best, most random food you all have ever stumbled upon while on tour?

In Massachusetts, there's a place called Miss Worcester Diner. The owner is a very tough woman. It's in an old train car, I think. There were all these grizzled guys in there, and we had the best breakfast. Heavy, but delicious.

Something tells me Miss Worcester didn't take shit from anybody.

I think that's a correct assumption. If anyone's fucking around, she'd probably smack the hell out of them. But she's also real sweet. If you cross the line, though, you're going to have a problem.

For other people out there on the road, how do the Cave Singers find the restaurant gold?

Lots of internet searching—searching "best breakfast, wherever." I look at reviews. More of it is just getting lucky. Sometimes, what people like in that area won't be what you like. When you're looking at food that's Mexican, or Italian, or any ethnicity other than your basic American food, it helps if there's actually someone of that ethnicity cooking it, and eating it [laughs]. It's usually better when it's not Thai food made by a hipster living in Los Angeles. recommended