Interview: Jimmy Webb - Singing in harmony

THE old maxim that "the family that plays together stays together" has been tested to its limits by a few famously fractious musical clans such as the Wainwrights, the Jacksons and the Nolans.

After more than 40 years of flying solo, Jimmy Webb, the writer of such classic pop songs as Wichita Lineman, Galveston, By The Time I Get To Phoenix and MacArthur Park, is the latest paterfamilias to finally reach a happy détente with his brood.

His latest album, Cottonwood Farm, is a true family affair. It is credited to Jimmy Webb & The Webb Brothers – the indie pop group comprising four of Webb's five sons – but also features vocal contributions from his father, Robert, his youngest child (and only daughter) Camilla, plus honorary relations such as drummer Cal Campbell, the son of Webb's long-standing associate Glen Campbell.

The process of making the album served to bridge not only the geographical gap between the family members – Webb lives on Long Island, New York, but flew over to California, where his father and sons live, for the recording – but also an emotional gulf which had widened with his "disruptive" divorce from first wife, Patsy Sullivan, in the mid-1990s. "Music is a magical medicine in the way it brings people together and reinforces emotions," says Webb. "In this case, 'saved' may be too strong a word, but it certainly rejuvenated our family and made us more functional, more interactive and more comfortable about the past and about going on into the future."

His second son, Justin, who also produced the album, would go further: "It's been the most important thing to ever happen to our family in terms of getting together and mending fences. There's been a lot of distance between my father and us kids for a lot of years. It wasn't much of a relationship, to be honest. Christiaan (the eldest of the brothers] and I were each other's support network for a long time. It was just the two of us versus the world. But this has buried a lot of old things between the kids and our father. And it's a really great excuse to constantly get together to do recording or a photo shoot or just hang out."

Making the album has allowed the brothers really to get to know their grandfather – an ex-marine and retired Baptist minister – for the first time. Webb describes his father as "the true spark and origin of music in the family", who introduced him to a strict playlist of folk, country and gospel music when he was growing up. But when Jimmy resolved to make music his career, Robert Webb reportedly told his son that "this songwriting thing" would break his heart – before lending him the money to get started.

"I knew he had musical talent but I didn't know that that would be his life's vocation," comments Webb Sr. "I just thought it was something he would enjoy and then all at once he had songs that people were recording."

Webb himself is philosophical about his relationship with his dad. "When young men are in their teens and early twenties that's when the schisms develop with their fathers," he says. "We got into a gigantic row about the Vietnam War and it took a while for some of those things to heal.

"There are some terribly intimate things that take place between fathers and sons. He turned to me one day and said, 'Son, I'm sorry'. Just those words and that was a long, long journey for him, and I said, 'Dad, you don't have anything to be sorry for.' I've come to terms with my father – and I had better come to terms with him because he's in his eighties."

Robert Webb contributes a version of the old standard Red Sails In The Sunset to Cottonwood Farm, which fits nicely beside the warm, harmony-laced country rock flavour of the various Webb Brothers compositions and the handful of old Jimmy Webb gems, such as Highwayman and If These Old Walls Could Speak, which were chosen for the tracklisting.

"I felt great after those sessions in LA, going home and saying, 'This was a good day's work and I did it with my sons, we did it together.'" remarks Webb. "That's good stuff, the pride you feel in your sons when they decide to take the same path through life that you've taken."

This theme is addressed by the album's ambitious title track –- a previously unreleased 12-minute Webb epic, once demoed with Glen Campbell and left on the shelf, which he wrote about, and for, his maternal grandfather. Justin describes Cottonwood Farm as a polarising song, largely because of its scope, but its homespun ancestral saga feel made it the perfect choice to kickstart the family album. It's Webb's unashamedly nostalgic requiem for his grandfather and the tradition of the American family farm.

"If anybody gave themselves up physically to the land, he was an example of that," says Webb. "It's almost too graphic to say, but he worked himself to death. He had a lot of kids but none of them stayed on the land because it's become so hard to make a living farming. I remember when the government paid my grandfather not to plant cotton because they were trying to control subsidies and futures. He could never work out why you would pay someone not to grow something but he needed the money."

Fortunately, the Webb family business is thriving. The Webb Brothers started out as a duo, comprising Christiaan and Justin, but over the years they have been joined in the group by their siblings, James and Cornelius – and could become a full house now that youngest brother Charlie, who had previously shown no musical inclination, has recently taken up guitar and mandolin. Earlier this year, Webb and sons tested out their newfound creative alliance with a low-key gig at the South By Southwest festival.

Until landing in the UK this week, it has been their only joint engagement to date. Webb, who has not toured with a band for over 20 years, admits that it has been a challenge adjusting to the new dynamic. "I'm quite used to getting my way on stage and doing whatever I want to do. But once you get into a band you've got to do it a certain way every time. That's a little bit of discipline that's come back into my life."

Now that family fences have been mended, the next potential milestone would be Webb and his sons writing together. Again, Webb is used to being a free agent. "It's something that I think will probably come up if we do another album together," he speculates. "I think we might have to seriously consider writing all the material together to give it a reason for existence. This one we got away with combining some material and not really addressing what you're talking about. It's very embarrassing of you to bring it up actually …" he teases, while making it sound like there is nothing he would relish more.

• Jimmy Webb & The Webb Brothers play the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh tomorrow. Cottonwood Farm is out now on Proper Records