We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Varnished Suffrages

by The Contact Group

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $7 USD  or more

     

1.
Burlesque 03:04
2.
3.
Bangkok 02:16
4.
5.
Helen Reddy 01:35
6.
7.
1980 03:51

about

In late 2020, after figuring out that the only thing I wanted to do musically was a kind of cabaret-style retrospect of some great songs I thought other people ought to know about, I assembled a group of Nashville musicians at Sundog Recording Studio with engineer and producer Michael Esser. We recorded six songs drawn from the mists of the 1970s, and added one instrumental I wrote myself. We cut with almost no rehearsal, and trusted to the unguarded moment to guide us in our reconstructions of these timeless tunes.

Bassist Ron Eoff, drummer Robert Crawford and singer-guitarist Steve Poulton brought the funk, and much more. Hungry Mother, an all-female punk-rock band whom I'd gotten to know in Music City, provided bubblegummy thrills and pure velocity. Mark Harrison, of the Nashville-by-way-of-Memphis power pop band Snakehips, channeled the spirit of Alex Chilton on "Bangkok." Matt Bach added a guitar solo to "Bangkok" that takes the 1978 song way past 2022. Joseph Page brought skronk and soul to nearly every track. What chord is that, Joe? Who gives a fuck! Lauryn Peacock sang "No Stone Unturned" like the sublime singer-songwriter-keyboardist-poet-dancer she is. "No Stone Unturned" was the last track we cut for the record, and I'm glad we made it happen.

Chelsea Peebles, the lead singer and guitarist for Hungry Mother and a real good songwriter herself, sang "Burlesque" like she lived it already. I'm not sure what the original band, Family, had in mind in 1972 when they released the song on their epochal "Bandstand" album. Was it a place they went to get their kicks? Did they want to come to America and dress up like women, as so many English musicians seem to desire? Who knows? It's a great song we fucked with quite a bit, and I don't think Can has got anything on how we did it here. Anyway, I get a kick out of Chelsea Peebles singing about how she's gonna boogie 'til she do get her do. Do people boogie anymore? Do they get their do or due?

Chelsea Lovitt added rockabilly-country sass and attitude to a song about Jesus and another one about more earthly matters, "Take Me Home and Make Me Like It," which Alex Chilton wrote around a pick-up line by his one-time Memphis bodyguard Danny Graflund. Wanda Jackson couldn't have done it better. Laure Laferrerie sang "Bangkok" in English while keeping the vibe European, as befitted a rockin' French punk singer and guitarist who found community among a bunch of Nashville freaks. During the session, Ron Eoff, who's from Arkansas, showed Laure some shit about how to play the old-time blues, and she nailed it on "Bangkok." Fayetteville, Paris, Nashville, Memphis, man, it's all the same on this record. The Ubangi Stomp lives on, and don't forget it.

Steve Poulton applied Extra Suave Love Juice to Spooner and Karen Oldham's dystopian Nixon-era take on the scary year 1980, which could not be more relevant today. He also chimed in with some rhythm guitar moves on "Burlesque" that made it all so down-home. We hope we matched Spooner's version, and direct you to Ronnie Milsap's reading of the tune from his 1971 album with Dan Penn (whom attentive listeners might hear a shout-out to on this record). My old friend David Bastin played the second guitar solo on "Take Me Home and Make Me Like It." I played keys and produced the sessions along with the steady hand of Mike Esser, tried to channel the spirit of Jim Dickinson, and stayed the fuck out the way of the train coming at me. Steve, Laure, Lauryn, Robert, Arnaud Dussiau and I sang like sluts without portfolio on the outro of "Take Me Home and Make Me Like It." We're all sluts, and you know you like it.

"Varnished Suffrages" is a concept album about the similarities between now, in the Trump-McConnell era, and then, in the Nixon-Ford years. We drew on whacked-out country, proto-punk, Krautrock, funk and singer-songwriter ecology songs for our tour of 1970-1980. Except for Steve Poulton's reading of "1980," every song features a female singer from Nashville reimagining songs written by men, and nearly all Southern males. We wanted to explore how meanings shift over time, but rock 'n' roll remains eternal. Our varnish doesn't conceal the efforts--the suffrages--of the great musical pioneers we salute on "Varnished Suffrages." We hope you enjoy our little history tour of the greatest decade in pop history. So far. --Edd Hurt, Nashville, February 2022

credits

released March 8, 2022

Produced by Edd Hurt and Michael Esser
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Michael Esser at Sundog Recording Studio, Nashville, Tennessee
Recorded August 2020-April 2021
Cover image of Laure Laferrerie by Lauryn Peacock, Nashville, December 2020
Cover designed by Price Harrison
Mr. Joseph Page appears courtesy of SweetSong Nashville

Dedicated to Caroline Peyton
1951-2021

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The Contact Group Nashville, Tennessee

The Contact Group is the recording project of Nashville keyboardist and producer Edd Hurt. With the best and most creative musicians in Nashville, the Group makes experimental pop and rock that crosses the border between the old and the new.

contact / help

Contact The Contact Group

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like The Contact Group, you may also like: