|
|
 Marilyn
Middleton, Steve Mellor and I met on a Saturday at Chippenham Folk
Festival in 1995. By the Sunday night we were a trio, playing the
Town Hall stage there and we've been together off-and-on ever since.
For a time, we were known as 'It's The Girl' which turned out to be
the least memorable band name ever so we dropped it. Sometimes we
expand into a five-piece, Steve Mellor's Chicago Rythm. The only rule
is that whatever we do, it has to be fun. So we meet a lot, sing and
play a lot, drink a lot and eat far too much. Happy the band that
likes each other's company and cooking, say we. Seriously, "STUFF"
is a good album of good-time music. Treat yourself. Here are the track
notes: |
HEEBIE
JEEBIES
(Atkins & Boswell)
Louisiana girls Connie, Vet and Martha Boswell - now all long gathered
- sang their quirky, 'thirties numbers in the tight-but-relaxed harmony
that only siblings can achieve. We have some rare and very moving
footage of them in performance; they sing like angels and look charming,
especially in the profile shots of perhaps the three most heroic schnozzles
in showbusiness.
TRAVELLIN' SHOES
(Traditional, arranged by us)
We thought we should do a spiritual and this one's a belter.
CRY ME A
RIVER
(Arthur Hamilton)
Famous old He-done-her-Wronger with a great lyric but one which
Grant truly thought for most of his adult life was about some romantic
waterway draining into the Black Sea. (Try saying the title with
your eyes closed.)
IT'S THE
GIRL
(Oppenheim & Baer)
Boswell Sisters once more, with mad key and tempo changes and a
wonderfully oblique chorus which begins "It isn't the paddle,
it's not the canoe…"
LOUIE'S GOIN'
TO THE CHAIR
(Grant Baynham, arranged by the band)
File under Not As Tasteless As You'd Think (Or Not Quite, Anyway).
RESTLESS
(Coslow & Satterfield)
Great song, with a harmonically fascinating middle eight whose resolution
sort of reminds you of a shattered labrador beaching a stick triumphantly
retrieved from a fast-flowing river, possibly somewhere in the Crimea.
BE SINCERE
(Grant Baynham, arranged by the band)
Marilyn kindly gives us Brits a little home-spun, post-colonial
philosophy.
(ON THE TRAIL
OF) THE LONESOME PINE
(Harry Carol)
Yup, the Laurel and Hardy one. We have tracked down a second verse
and ruined it with authentic over-complication.
|
THE CRAZY
MEDLEY
(Crazy : Willy Nelson. Crazy Rhythm: Irving Caesar & Joseph
Mayer. Crazy People: Edgar Leslie)
Or "muddley", as we sometimes merrily call it. "Crazy"
is the Patsy Cline country weepie, "Crazy Rhythm" was
the Goon Show's play-on music for a while and "Crazy People"
is our third Boswells number, this apparently being the statutory
maximum permitted before you have to call yourselves a tribute band.
You don't have to be derivative to work here, but it helps.
NO ONE WRITES
A BLUES SONG ANY MORE
(Grant, arranged by the band)
Bit of a self-defeating title, really.
TRIPLETS
(Schwarz & Deitz)
Fred Astaire, Jack Buchanan and (hang on a minute while we look
her up… O.K… ) Nanette Fabray sang this dressed as babies
in The Bandwagon. Grant would like to point out that he does everything
that they (and Steve and Marilyn) do in this song whilst insouciantly
playing the most deranged chord sequence yet devised by man. Thank
you.
PASADENA
(Grant Clarke, Edgar Leslie & Harry Warren)
We, er, collected and adapted this arrangement from Therapy (the
excellent Fiona Simpson and Dave Shannon) who in turn nicked it
from an American band who thought it was more-or-less traditional.
Anyway, it's the most fantastic fun to sing, so what the hell, sue
us.
WE THREE
(Robertsan, Mysals & Morris)
Only one Inkspots number, surprisingly. There are many artistic
criteria by which we decide who does what in our arrangements. In
this song, Steve was alloted the coveted 'talking bridge' section
because of his superior sulking.
|
|
|