A bassist, composer, poet, author, performing and recording artist – amid other endeavors, Amy Madden is a fixture on the New York City rock scene. She is among the most respected and in-demand local bass players around – and it’s been that way for decades and counting! Her miles long list of credits and associations on stage and on record are exhaustive: Joey Kelly, Alan Merrill, Jon Paris, John Lee Hooker, The Shivers, Adam Bomb, Ricky Byrd, Dave Donen, Jimmy McElligott, Johnny Winter, Elektrik Skin, The Gift, Bobby Keys, Jimmie Johnson, Johnny Thunders, Dweezil Zappa, John Campbell, Zonder Kennedy, Bill Dicey, Steve Holley, Simon Kirke, Hiram Bullock, Charles Roth, Steve Conte, Rob Stoner, and Paul Butterfield….to cite a very, very select few. She never stops playing – and when you hear her stories, you’ll know why…
Akin to nearly all their 1990s Brit pop peers, Suede unabashedly borrowed from Beatles to Bowie – however these lads soared to the top of the UK charts repeatedly, even after their resident guitar hero Bernard Butler split after their sophomore slab. Amid all the gossip and tabloid nonsense which pervaded in the music press, Suede had the substance to back up the sizzle.
Bassist Matthew David Osman does his classic Macca homework diligently, working a vintage Rickenbacker and rendering upper register melodies aplenty to underpin Brett Anderson’s tortured croon.
Great songs make for great bass lines, and Suede is in no short supply of either. Osman’s unassuming stage presence belies his talent for driving the engine that has kept this band relevant whilst many of the era have faded into nostalgia…
They were extraordinary: they wrote everything, they played like motherfuckers, they were just colossal and wonderful, and nobody’s ever mentioned them. — David Bowie
She anchored what is arguably the first all-female rock ensemble to garner commercial and critical success and prove once and for all that girls could rock just as hard and funky, if not more so, than the boys.
An accomplished vocalist, Jean Millington’s pocket/ song player bass style exudes a decidedly soulful disposition. Signed to Reprise in 1969 by producer Richard Perry, Fanny dispatched with the then typical girl-band “cuteness.” The Bangles and Joan Jett cite Fanny as a major influence.
Jean also did session work aplenty; that’s her on backing vocals with Babs Streisand, John Simon, and with David Bowie on “Fame” and his rendition of John Lennon’s “Across the Universe.”
From a Yardbird to a Mambo Son! Sowing Seeds in Tom Guerra’s American Garden. (Tom Guerra & Kenny Aaronson)
FROM A YARDBIRD TO A MAMBO SON! SOWING SEEDS IN TOM GUERRA’S AMERICAN GARDEN – this feature was published in No Depression in 2018
“A couple of people said to me that I shouldn’t write anything political – you’re gonna piss some people off. But what is the sense of writing anything if your heart is not in it? I’m not saying ‘my way’ has got to be everybody’s reality, but this is what I see and feel, and this is what impacts me. And this is what I’m writing about! Not every song on this record is political.” Tom Guerra
Life is indeed different in these United States since Mr. Guerra and I discussed his sophomore solo slab Trampling Out the Vintage way, way back in 2016. Perhaps the divisive issues that currently dominate our national agenda were there all along and we Americans ignored them – or quite possibly, we the people simply were not cognizant of them. Whatever the case may be – and we could debate this topic ad infinitum – most of us are greatly affected by the turbulent times we live in the year 2018.
Such is the state of Tom Guerra’s new album, American Garden. True, not all Tom’s compositions are overtly political. But there is a noticeable civic, social, and emotional gravitas to his latest song-cycle. Like all of Tom’s work – under his own name and with the mighty Mambo Sons – those magnificent guitars are front and center – save for one piano-vocal track with Morgan Fisher – “Meet Me at the Bottom of Your Glass” wherein the keyboard maestro, renowned for his Mott the Hoople / Queen plinkery and his extensive solo and collaborative canon, renders a riveting final motif which Guerra fittingly pronounces as “sounding like ice cubes in a glass.” Guerra’s melodies are splendid, the lyrics insightful and intelligent, and the musicianship and production are par excellence throughout.
Yet I cannot ignore that, to my ears, this artist has a lot weighing on his mind. Which is a good thing for the artform that is rock and roll. We need more than “entertainment” to navigate the here and now and wherever we are headed. Guerra’s interpretation of Tom Petty’s “Walls” which he waxed shortly after the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s passing, stands as a celebration of the iconic songwriter. And I also get the feeling that Guerra, like most of us who revered the work (and attitude) of the Heartbreakers’ leader, harbors a broken heart that Petty, a straight shooting “spokes-rocker” for our generation, is gone. “I put that little Leslie solo in there which I think was something Mike Campbell would play, this is actually a Heartbreakers tribute as well.”
“Jack for Joe” joyfully jangles in all the right places – and it’s another tribute – this time, to a fallen friend of Guerra. “He’s been gone now for thirty years, and I still miss him and our younger days, but realize you can’t go home again.”
American Garden also affords a rockin’ rave-up harvest which began as a Yardbirds songwriting project. Tom was approached by his bassist buddy Kenny Aaronson – a current member of the revamped legendary British ensemble, now led by drummer Jim McCarty, and a bona fide legend in his own right (Bob Dylan, Billy Idol, The Stories’ “Brother Louie” to cite a ridiculously select few)– to collaborate on songs for a planned Yardbirds studio album which was slated to be produced by Jack Douglas – whose credits as an engineer and producer include Aerosmith, Miles Davis, Patti Smith, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, New York Dolls, and John Lennon & Yoko Ono, among others.
Kenny, akin to most bassists, is a born collaborator. It’s the nature of the instrument and the player. Recalls Aaronson, who anchored Guerra’s aforementioned previous platter, “so here I am in the position to possibly write, but I’m not a songwriter! Over the decades I have written a song here and there…and I certainly did not want this blow the opportunity. But I also realized that there is only so much I can do…. I love bouncing ideas around, from musical ideas to titles, I can come up with a lot of stuff, I can write lyrics, but I’m not big on melodies. But I also need to work with someone I know and respect.”
Soon after, the bassist experienced a rather animated instance of “divine intervention.” Laughs Kenny “I was taking a morning walk, and suddenly, the lightbulb went off above my head like “Gramps” in a “Betty Boop” cartoon: ‘I’ve got it! Tom Guerra!”
Guerra and Aaronson worked up a few demos and Douglas liked what he heard, however the album never materialized for reasons I won’t go into. Lucky for us, three killer Guerra / Aaronson songs intended for the Yardbirds disc made the American Garden cut: “The Lyin’ King, “Goodbye to Yesterday,” and “Family of One.”
“I’m a huge Yardbirds fan,” Tom enthuses from his home in Connecticut. “But I got to thinking as to what made them unique, besides the obvious great guitar stuff, and that was great lyrics. Listen to ‘Mister You’re a Better Man Than I.’ That song could be written today about all the things that are going on now. And their background vocals were very representative of what they did too. In our song ‘The Lyin’ King’ we do their ‘ohhh ohhh ohhh Gregorian Chant-esque backing vocals. Our approach was that we wanted to write stuff that we could imagine The Yardbirds doing.”
Aaronson also served as a catalyst. Given the dangers of inadvertently imitating, or even worse, forging a Rutles-like parody of The Yardbirds, Guerra and Aaronson nailed it and then some. “Kenny sent me the riff to what became ‘The Lyin’ King’ – which is that key of E big rock riff –that one really jumped out at me!” Had their album come to fruition, The Yardbirds might have pulled off what their peers The Zombies did in 2015 by way of Still Got That Hunger – i.e. making a fantastic record that lived up to their legend in modern times and added prime cuts to enhance their live set.
Guerra further elaborates on teaming with Kenny, whom we both revere, especially for his work on Brian Setzer’s all-but forgotten 1986 gem The Knife Feels Like Justice: “on our three tracks you hear different things from Kenny. On ‘Goodbye to Yesterday’ he had the whole first line of lyrics and asked me ‘can you do something with this?’ At first this one sounded a bit like The Animals which is from the same era as The Yardbirds. I did a harmony part about the colored memories ‘they turned grey and living in the past is here to stay…’ and I thought that they could relate to that as a band. Kenny’s bass just pushes the tune into the stratosphere.”
Inspired by Sirius/XM radio shows Little Steven’s Under Ground Garage and Chris Carter’s British Invasion along with his deep knowledge and worship of all things rock and roll, Kenny chose the right tool for the right job for “Goodbye to Yesterday.” He gleefully boasts “I had to pull out the Rivoli bass for this – it’s short scale, with flatwound strings, I’m using a pick – man, this reminds me of something you’d hear on a Shel Talmy record!”
Guerra continues, “for ‘Family of One’ I sent Kenny sort of a modified version of the signature guitar line – he liked it – and further developed the song playing a lap steel and he upped the tempo. I’m happy the way the lyrics came out – I really put my ‘Keith Relf’ mindset on! If you listen to the Yardbirds hit ‘Shapes of Things’ – this song is actually the answer to it. The original line is ‘come tomorrow, we’ll all be older…’ my response is ‘now that tomorrow’s here at last…we’ve got to learn from the lessons of the past.’ It’s about mankind and the fact that we’re basically all related in a big family.”
The title track emerged from an extended drinking session Tom had with a group of former soldiers during a gig wherein Guerra was accidentally double-booked, and consequently had time to kill. “American Garden’ is one of the strangest songs I’ve ever written, and among the songs on this record that I am most proud of. I am the narrator, but it is based on true stories that were told to me by Vietnam veterans. The more we drank, the more they told me. One of the vets kept repeating to me ‘I’ve been to the top, saw all three.”
Guerra had no idea what the soldier was talking about – top of the hill? Top of his command? A religious connotation? Respectfully, Guerra did not press the vet on the actual meaning, and the refrain in the song is open to our interpretation.
Aaronson flexed his formidable conceptual producer chops on this cut, altering the sound of Guerra’s vocals in his home studio with the intention making Tom into a “character” ala the various roles played by Michael Madsen and Harry Dean Stanton.
“I’m not a real political kind of guy – I keep my feelings to myself,” notes Aaronson, “but the whole thing of what he was doing with the veterans and their experiences affected me. I didn’t get drafted back then, I was lucky, but I knew people who fled to Canada – I knew people that were over there, and I remember living in New York City in the ‘70s and many of the guys that came back had a lot of issues, so when I heard this song, it really hit home.”
Another powerful cut is “Blood on the New Rising Sun” which references the Charlottesville riots. For this track Tom enlisted a powerful guitarist: Jon Butcher. “He and I have known each other for a few years now. He sends me his latest and I sent him my latest, and he said that he wanted to hear more, so I basically sent him everything I ever put out. And then he said that he wanted to do something with one of these songs. I had just written ‘Blood …and I thought, we’re on the same page socially —there’s a lot of places on this track for Jon to do his thing. He didn’t play his traditional Strat, he used a Telecaster. It gives you a different perspective along with a sort of a richness because it’s not just one guy playing every guitar part…”
Of course, the bass player has the final word: American Garden is the deepest thing Tom’s done’ reflects Aaronson, “he’s taken his craft a little bit further…his songwriting is growing, his guitar playing is growing, the lyrics are adult, which is very important now… he’s a thinking man!”
When Don Henley saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac, he had Larry Klein lay down the perfect bassline! Larry Klein is a genre traversing Grammy Award winning producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, collaborator, arranger, and master bassist who has forged a remarkably diverse body of work in the past five decades and counting.
Praised by Stanley Clarke early in his career for his work with Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson, Larry then expanded to the rock / folk / pop / Americana / world fusion / soundtrack realms and beyond -working on acclaimed releases by Chris Botti, Bryan Adams, Peter Gabriel, Pink, Seal, Walter Becker, Cher, Luciana Souza, Donna Summer, Madeleine Peyroux, Bob Dylan, and Tracy Chapman to cite a very, very, very select few.
Larry is most known to the masses for his association with Joni Mitchell, his former wife, with whom he waxed several groundbreaking slabs in the 1980s – 90s.
Johann Sebastian Bach might seem an unlikely role model for aspiring bass players, but his influence looms large for many. Jack Bruce considered Bach “the ultimate in bass players” and asserted that bassists could learn everything that there is to know in conventional harmony from listening to him. When reflecting on my earliest experiences as a bassist, Bach’s Six Suites For Violincello Solo as well as Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin were integral in developing my overall concept.
Perhaps the best example of Bach’s influence on bass guitar is Glenn Cornick’s work on Jethro Tull’s Stand Up (1969). The third track on side one of this seminal record was Ian Anderson’s arrangement of J. S. Bach’s “Bouree.” Cornick’s solo over the changes of “Bouree” was radical and revolutionary for the time.
I recently learned the track for a video featured on Know Your Bass Player, and noted some similarities between Cornick and Steve Swallow, both tonally as well as stylistically.
I asked Steve if Bach factored into his approach as a bassist, and if he was aware of Cornick, since they were contemporaries.
Steve conveyed that neither Jethro Tull nor Glenn Cornick provided any influence or inspiration, but that he shared Cornick’s “clear fondness for Bach.”
He continued,” I consider Bach the ultimate source of contrapuntal bass lines, and the Cello Suites the one essential bass text. I know the ‘Bouree’ Tull played, and I used it as lesson material when I taught in the mid-70s at Berklee, and I appreciate that Glenn nailed it without pretense, as a bass player should.”
Glenn Letsch (Ronnie Montrose, Robin Trower)
Courtesy of Glenn Letsch Com
A master of the “heavy” groove with a “no frills,” soulful rhythmic approach – Glenn Letsch has been called upon to wax sides and anchor ensembles led by guitar legends Ronnie Montrose and Robin Trower along with such artists as Gregg Allman, Neil Schon and Jonathan Cain, among others, for a few generations and counting.
An author (Bass Lessons with the Greats, Bass Masters Class, Bass forBeginners, R & B Bass, Country Bass, James Brown Bass, among others), educator (Diablo Valley College, Bass Guitar-The Lowdown with Glen Letsch), private instructor, recording artist, session cat, sideman, bandleader – Glenn cites James Jameson, Greg Ridley as his primary influences as a bass player, and Jonathan Cain as a profound mentor as a musician.
Notes John Wardlaw in a Ronnie Montrose fan-site interview with Glenn: I’d have to say I learned the most playing and recording with Jonathan Cain (keyboardist and songwriter for Journey). His knowledge of music and his feel for the right thing put him on a very special level. It’s not so much that he overtly “teaches.” Rather, you learn alot by paying very close attention to – his songwriting method, his song arrangements, and his
quest for “reasonable perfection” in the studio (he recognizes when we’ve got the rippin’ take, and knows when to stop). Jonathan is successful because he knows what he’s doing. Additionally, he always writes tremendous and often times, involved bass lines on his demos. He expects you to match those parts note for note. And then, if you can, beat them. So, he always encourages excellence AND creativity. If you have something you want to say on your instrument, and it’s right, he’s always ready for it.
An alluring presence on the New York City -Hudson Valley – Woodstock scene, bassist Bettina Cataldi is renowned for her hypnotic grooves and motifs akin to such provocative pocket progenitors as Joe Dart, Esperanza Spalding, and Me’Shell Ndegeocello.
In the manner of many a millennial player, Cataldi honed her chops as a bassist / vocalist at the School of Rock in her native Long Island, interpreting the works of Frank Zappa, The Ramones, and Black Sabbath.
Cataldi made her stage debut at the age of 8, performing “Iron Man” with all of two weeks training on the instrument. Bettina considers her voice as her primary instrument – plying a bluesy retro swing disposition much like her idol Amy Winehouse.
BC works extensively with guitarist / recording artist / composer Sal Cataldi – noted for his acclaimed electro-blues-jazz fusion-indie folk Spaghetti Eastern Music, spoken-word experimental duo Vapor Vespers with the incomparable Mark Muro, among other ensembles.
An instrument designer, prolific recording artist, studio and label owner, collaborator, producer, composer, and bass guitarist – Jonas Hellborg has been at the forefront of the jazz fusion / world fusion movements since the 1980s.
A dexterous player who draws from Western, Indian, classical, jazz, rock and permutations thereof, among Jonas’ high-profile gigs have been with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Word with Tony Williams, PiL, Ginger Baker, and Michael Shrieve among many others. Since 1979 Jonas has waxed nearly thirty albums as a bandleader!
Steve Bingham and Slim Chance: Life is Good on New Cross Road!
The year was 1975 and I’d just returned from what would be the final Faces gig in Long Island, New York. Under the banner of Rod Stewart & The Faces – the performance was a decidedly over-the-top Roddish affair with almost the entire set list consisting of selections from the rooster haired rocker’s solo slabs, save for rollicking renditions of “Memphis,” “Miss Judy’s Farm” and “Stay with Me,” all from the classic 1971 Faces platter A Nod Is as Good as A Wink…
By this juncture, The Faces’ heart and soul and most gifted songwriter – Ronnie Lane – was long gone. Frustrated with the trappings of stardom, Ronnie went solo with a new band – aptly titled Slim Chance. In his place for that tour stood bassist Tetsu Yamauchi. A competent player, as his history with Free and other studio work proved, but no one could replace our beloved Plonk. And even Ronnie Wood had an understudy – Jessie Ed Davis – another great player, but not of the Faces musical ilk.
No Ronnie Lane meant no “Stone,” “Richmond,” “You’re So Rude,” “Last Orders Please,” “Debris,” or “Glad and Sorry,” among others. Sacrilege!
By then Ronnie’s solo slabs, Anymore for Anymore (1974) and Slim Chance (1975) were staples on my turntable. And they were hard discs to come by in the States, available only as imports at import prices at Bleecker Bob’s in gritty New York City. But a fan’s gotta do what a fan’s gotta do!
I’d say that a select few of us among the nearly sold-out show in the middle of suburbia would have preferred an intimate Slim Chance gig to the rock star showboating of Stewart and then-new Rolling Stone Woody. However there was slim chance of that happening, as Ronnie’s rootsy ensemble, though an artistic triumph, was not commercially viable in the burgeoning days of punk, prog, and rock music’s transformation from a niche artform to a bona fide segment of show-biz.
Fast forward to forty years or so to The Half Moon in Putney, London. Mark Preston, Derek Hanlon and I are filming Know Your Bass Player. I’m interviewing Slim Chance bassist Steve Bingham whose lines I’d learned as a teenager. With Lane singing lead and playing rhythm – Ronnie needed a bass player with character. Enter Bingham!
Mark Preston, Steve Bingham, Tom Semioli at The Half Moon
In 2010, years after Lane’s passing, Slim Chance reformed. Their goal was “to create a show which celebrates the range of Ronnie’s later music: to take this show to people in village halls and clubs, festivals and theatres at home and abroad; and eventually, joined by numerous friends, to resurrect the Passing Show itself.” Mission accomplished.
New Cross Road is the “newly reformed and unrepentant” Slim Chance’s third release on their own Fishpool imprint. Once again the lads – bassist vocalist Steve Bingham; Charlie Hard on vocals, fiddle, accordion, and keys; Billy Nicholls on vocals, mandolin, acoustic guitar; drummer Brendan O’Neill; the always nattily attired Steve Simpson on vocals, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle; and Geraint Watkins on vocals and keys – render a few Ronnie Lane gems, along with newly composed songs, and a Who number “Squeeze Box.”
Check your album credits and concert memories and you’ll discover these local legends alongside Eric Clapton, Rory Gallagher, The Who, Ian Dury, Frankie Miller, Geno Washington, Carl Perkins, Van Morrison, Eric Bibb and Pete Brown, Colin Blunstone, to cite a few. More on that below!
As Steve Bingham is among my bass heroes, I put his name in the headline, and conversed with him about Slim Chance’s latest offering. I love talking to my record collection!
Slim Chance has been reformed and unrepentant for nearly a decade: how has the band evolved since Charlie and Steve Simpson decided to give Ronnie’s ensemble another shot?
Since Charlie Hart and Steve Simpson first decided to get Slim Chance back together nearly 10 years ago it has evolved in many ways. The core original members of Charlie and Steve together with myself and keyboard/vocal legend Geraint Watkins have remained the same but there have been quite a few changes of other personnel over the years. It’s a long story why various members have come and gone but the most important thing for us is that the band is now the best it’s ever been and very settled. Key factors are the addition of Brendan O’Neil on drums who spent 10 years working with the legendary Rory Gallagher and Billy Nicholls who spent many years as the Who’s director of music and is also a highly respected and hugely successful songwriter.
Comment on the dynamic of Slim Chance in that no single member is the focal point – the lead vocals, solos, are all shared among the band! How do you thrive sans a sexy, strutting lead singer!
One of the main factors with Slim Chance is that there is no one member of the band who is the front man as we all take turns singing lead vocals and share backing vocals, solos etc. which at first prompted comments about us having no focal point but over the years people have come to respect us for what we do and it’s worked to our advantage as it makes us hugely flexible with loads of different options to suit every occasion!
New Cross Road is self-produced with help from Pat Collier – how do six geezers agree on anything! Or was it a matter of whomever wrote the song takes control over the production?
Our latest album New Cross Road was produced by the band along with studio owner/engineer Pat Collier who is incredibly talented and had a huge impact on the recording. Of course it’s difficult with 6 different opinions sometimes ringing around the control room but we quickly realized that it was all sounding so good that the small details were not things to argue about and Pat’s sound advice always seemed to shine through making the whole process hugely enjoyable.
Once again New Cross Road sounds like Slim Chance playing in my living room – were most of the tracks cut live? Certainly you worked them out on stage as the tracks swing and have a warm resonance.
All of the tracks on New Cross Road were recorded live with us all in the studio having lots of fun! Most of them were first takes as we’d spent a few days in a rehearsal studio before the recording sessions and of course many of them had been played live several times so we were all really familiar with the songs and there was such a good atmosphere in the recording room that it was almost like playing a live gig! Many people have already commented on the fact that it sounds like a band having fun and really enjoying themselves and we’re all really pleased with the spirit and vibe of the album.
I dig the unison lines on “Flossie Lane”- what horn part inspired that lick? Where is Flossie Lane? Does it really exist? What’s the story behind this song?
“Flossie Lane” is a song I wrote all about a pub landlady!! The pub in question is the Sun Inn in Leintwardine Shropshire and it’s one of only a handful of “Parlour Pubs” left in the UK. The landlady of the pub was Flossie Lane -no relation to Ronnie- and she was Britain’s oldest publican when she died aged 94. The pub has now been extended but originally you walked in and Flossie’s room was to the left with the drinking room to the right…basically her house!! Amazingly the new owners kept her room and the bar room exactly as it was when she died and they were kind enough to allow us to film a video of “Flossie Lane” there recently which will be released to social media soon!
The main unison line which is played by everyone was composed on the bass over a number of months as I wanted a really good riff to hold the song together. I just had to write the song about Flossie after my wife and I visited the pub some years ago and I thought then what a wonderful story it would be for a song. It did take a few years to materialize but it’s been well worth it and to hear it with the video is amazing because all of a sudden the lyrics come to life in the very room where she lived.
Interesting that Slim Chance chose to render “Chicken Wired” and “Annie” from Rough Mix – what inspired the band to remake those two Lane gems?
“Chicken Wired” was a song that first appeared on Ronnie’s first solo album “Anymore for Anymore” which I played bass on and I also played it live with him many times in 1974 when I toured the country with RONNIE LANE’S PASSING SHOW. We tried in the set some years ago but for some reason it didn’t work. However, when Brendan joined on drums it became a barn-stormer so it had to go on the album!
Billy Nichols does a fantastic job on “Annie” and sounds to my ears, a bit like Ronnie with his pitch and timbre – thoughts?
“Annie” is a lovely song sung beautifully by Billy Nicholls who was a good friend of Ronnie back in the day and he has a very similar voice with an incredible range so he was the perfect match!
Do you have any plans to play Daltrey and Townshend the Slim Chance version of “Squeezebox” – terrific rendition – it’s a real rave up – superior to the original to my ears! What prompted this recording?
“Squeezebox” is a song we’ve played on and off live for a few years now and we chose to record it this time around as we wanted a bit more punch to the album and it really came out great with the very first take! Billy Nicholls played it to Pete Townshend who absolutely loves it and he’s said really nice things about the album as a whole.
When I saw Slim Chance render “Debris” at The Half Moon – it brought the house down – how did you approach cutting a song that is such a classic? Let’s review the “Debris” bassline – Ronnie cut it on fretless with the Faces and it sounded like an upright – our man Bingham renders sweet upper-register counterpoint, and a grooves mightily in the pocket – talk about your approach to the bass track – very, very soulful! Did you cut that on the Mustang with flats?
“Debris” is a classic Ronnie Lane song and we’ve been playing it live for a few years now. It always goes down a storm and Geraint Watkins delivers a superb vocal performance along with a very soulful track which we are all very proud of. We approached it exactly as we would on a gig. The structure of the song is always the same but we all have total freedom in how we play it and it’s wonderful to play the bass on this one because I never play it the same way twice and the last few choruses are really wild! I often think of the great James Jamerson when I play this and there are definitely influences of his wonderful playing on what I do. I’d like to think he’s listening with approval somewhere!! The actual bass I used on all of the recordings was a 1961 Fender Precision owned by Charlie Hart. Heaven only knows how long the round wound strings have been on it but they still sound great! It’s prompted me to have my own 1963 Precision restored which I should get back in the summer!
Ian McLagen and the Bump Band covered “Spiritual Babe” – tell us about the Slim Chance version.
“Spiritual Babe” is a lovely song written by Ronnie in Austin Texas when he was very ill. It’s a lesser known work but a beautiful song with heartfelt lyrics which we decided needed to be on the album. It’s one of those songs that you have to sit down and really listen to but if you’re prepared to get into it then you won’t be disappointed. The vocal was a first take which I only intended as a run through but the band and Pat Collier wouldn’t let me do it again as they all thought it was perfect and in hindsight I’m glad we left if how it is!
Despite the fact that digital technology permeates every aspect of our lives, folks still yearn to hear real voices and acoustic instruments – why is the sound of Slim Chance more relevant in 2018 than it may have been back when Ronnie started the band in ’74?
One thing that has kept the band together and continues to be inspirational is the reception we get when playing live. We are not there to be pop stars or posers as our only aim is to play great live music with heartfelt soul and to give the people who come to see us something to smile about. Our gigs usually end with one big knees up and everyone is happy at the end of the show which is why we continue to do it!
Explain the significance of the album title New Cross Road.
New Cross Road is a road that runs between the Elephant and Castle and New Cross in South East London and it’s where we rehearse!! We were all sitting on a hot summer’s afternoon debating what to call the album and nobody could agree on a title until somebody (I can’t remember who!) came up with the idea of calling it New Cross Road which we all immediately agreed on and the meeting was finished allowing us all to go to the pub!
We had a great time making New Cross Road and it shows in the recordings. We laughed all the way through it and I think the years of playing the songs live make this album our best to date and we’re now looking forward to promoting the album on live gigs and doing what we do best which is enjoying the thrill of being in a fabulous live band.
Tom Semioli interviews Steve Bingham for Know Your Bass Player
Huffington Post: Tom Semioli Slim Chance: And the Band Plays On The Move (2016) https://bit.ly/2DfKEjg
Huffington Post: Tom Semioli Ronnie Lane and Slim Chance Are Alive and Well (2014) https://bit.ly/2SFMLEc
STEVE SIMPSON vocals, guitar, mandolin and fiddle, has worked with Frankie Miller, Eric Bibb, Roger Chapman, and played on Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance, One for the Road and See Me. www.stevesimpsonguitar.com
CHARLIE HART vocals, fiddle, accordion and keys, has played with Pete Brown, Ian Dury, Eric Clapton and worked on Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance, One for the Road, Rough Mix, See Me, Rockpalast. www.charliehart.com
STEVE BINGHAM vocals and bass, played with Geno Washington, the Foundations, Colin Blunstone, worked on Anymore for Anymore, played bass on The Poacher and toured with the Passing Show www.stevebingham.blogspot.co.uk/
GERAINT WATKINS vocals and keys has played with Carl Perkins, Nick Lowe, Van Morrison, released his own albums and joined Slim Chance for the 2004 Ronnie Lane Albert Hall concert. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraint_Watkins
BRENDAN O’NEILL, drums, has worked with Rory Gallagher, Nine Below Zero, Glen Tilbrook to mention a few. Brendan knew Steve Marriott and is highly respected for his all round musicianship.
BILLY NICHOLLS, vocals, mandolin and acoustic guitar, knew Ronnie well as he and the Small Faces played on each other’s records back in the Sixties. Since that time Billy has been a prolific and successful songwriter and singer and has also worked extensively with The Who. www.billynicholls.com
