Aaron Lee Tasjan On World Cafe

On the cover of Aaron Lee Tasjan's new record Silver Tears, he almost looks the perfect picture of an Americana star. He's wearing a cowboy hat, he's got a brooding expression and he's walking thoughtfully under a cloudy sky. And then there's the Bonanza-meets-disco-ball suit. Bejeweled with hand-glued pieces of mirror, it's a fitting outfit for an artist whose avant-garde and often irreverent approach reflects Americana back at itself.

Before he called Nashville home, Tasjan glitzed it up in Brooklyn with the glam bands Semi Precious Weapons and New York Dolls. He visits World Cafe to talk about bringing a little sparkle to the South, and about how he combines humor and pizzazz with a melancholy heart and monster guitar chops on Silver Tears.