Styles: Americana, Early jazz, Early pop
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:15
Size: 135,6 MB
Art: Front
(3:17) 1. Honey Child
(2:41) 2. My Honey's Lovin' Arms
(4:28) 3. Delta Bound
(3:51) 4. I Found A New Baby
(4:15) 5. Isn't Love The Strangest Thing
(2:39) 6. Shanghai Shuffle
(1:51) 7. Poppa's Back With Momma Now
(3:41) 8. Baby
(3:27) 9. I'll Never Be The Same
(3:03) 10. Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Love
(2:24) 11. Maybe She'll Write Me, Maybe She'll Phone Me
(3:11) 12. Under The Moon (Yoo-oo-oo-oo)
(4:38) 13. A Little Bit Independent
(2:44) 14. Mississippi Mud
(3:52) 15. Ambling Along
(3:22) 16. Keko
(2:22) 17. A Room With A View
(3:19) 18. Bye Bye Blues
“Whoopee Hey Hey!”, Tunes to Cheer In Tumultuous Times, is Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys’ 7th CD release and times couldn’t be more ripe for this vibrant and evocative bunch of rare and wonderful tunes from the 1920s and 1930s. Performed with freshness and zeal these long lost tunes are alive again with timeless perspectives on life’s ups and downs and will surely have listeners musing over parallels with our current state of affairs. Songs from the 20s and 30s reflect culturally "tumultuous times"- the heady frivolity and sassy wild good times followed by modernistic stylings colored by “The Crash” and the Great Depression that followed. The enchanting and effervescent Ms Klein’s singing on "Whoopee Hey Hey!" is sweeter than ever. The album is chock full (19 tracks) of rich and bold music and lyrics vivid with heady parlance of the period. Included are eleven tunes from the 1920s… It is the first time Janet and Boys have tried to get a characteristic 1920s dance band feel. You can hear the crisp foxtrot and vertical clip on ‘Honey Child’ 1929, ‘Shanghai Shuffle’ 1924, ‘I Found A New Baby’ 1926 and ‘Bye Bye Blues’ 1929. ‘Honey Child’, the CD’s opening track at once transports the listener to a 1920s dance hall with its bright tenor guitar and up-beat, bouncy accordion stabs. The record then leads with more Southern fantasy tunes such as the yearning ‘Delta Bound’ and playful romping of ‘Mississippi Mud’.
The six 1930s songs and arrangements let on a more "knowing", lush and world-weary sound with sophisticated undulating rhythms, ie “Delta Bound”, “Isn't Love the Strangest Thing”, “I'll Never Be the Same”. A novelty song on the CD (written by band-member, the incomparable Ian Whitcomb) is lovingly inspired by the English Music Hall favorites- Flanagan and Allen who were known for their down and out but jolly tramp tunes such as "Underneath the Arches", 'Two Very Ordinary People', On the Outside Looking In'. In this vein Ian’s tune, "Ambling Along”, complete with old style introductory patter, is a bitter sweet strolling melody and a heartfelt hobo song for our own agitated times. Featured are two new full time Parlor Boy band members: best on the planet 1930’s style guitar and plectrum banjo whistling master-John Reynolds and hobo bon vivant Marquis Howell who plays stand-up bass with an authentically inspired vintage panache. Other notable performers are: Daniel Glass who literally “wrote the book” on vintage percussion styles. Set to the task, he succeeded in deciphering and recreating in his own style the fantastic percussion effects of Paul Whiteman’s original recording of ‘Mississippi Mud’ and discovered a rare devise called a bockety bock. Also, Randy Woltz who continues with his marvelously adroit Vibraphone and xylophone playing is featured on jaunty piano duets with Janet. One of these tunes ‘Poppa’s back With Momma Now’ (from a lost Vitaphone short) is a virtual laundry list of pre 1929 whoopee lavish lifestyle ‘when every fella from a banker to his caddy’ had lots of dough and wandering ways only to find they are now all staying home with momma because they’ve discovered ‘there’s a kick in the old gal still’. Having come so perilously close to the brink of economic calamity... what better time than now to contemplate the zeitgeist of pre and post Depression America…
As Janet likes to say, ‘This music got folks through the Depression, the last time’. So Bye By Blues… Since Janet’s last release (‘Ready For You’ in 2008) the band has toured Japan and Australia and played at the famous Fuji Rock Festival and Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The group plays regularly in and around Los Angeles. “Whoopee Hey Hey!” is produced by Robert Loveless (Scenic, 17 Pygmies and Savage Republic) with gorgeously crafted vintage style artwork adornments designed by Janet, David Barlia and Robert...http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kleinj7
Personnel: John Reynolds, John Reynolds (vocals, whistling, National guitar, tenor guitar, banjo); Ian Whitcomb (vocals, ukulele, accordion, piano); Janet Klein (vocals, ukulele); Marquis Howell (vocals, upright bass); Tom Marion (guitar); Robert Loveless (mandolin); Benedict Brydern (violin); Dan Levinson (clarinet, C-melody saxophone); Chloe Feoranzo (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, C-melody saxophone); Dan Weinstein (cornet, trombone, tuba); Corey Gemme (cornet, trombone); Randy Woltz (piano, vibraphone, xylophone, percussion); Brad Kay (piano); Daniel Glass (drums, percussion).
