Photograph by Ralph Heine
They’re both members of the reborn Geyer Street Sheiks. And, together, they’re the entirety of T&A. Alice Spencer and Tom Hall have been playing music together for a couple decades, on and off, but until recently, they never had a chance to record as a duo.
That’s changed, thanks to producer Danny Levin of Austin, Texas. He runs the studio Tequila Mockingbird, and he’s long been associated with Spencer, calling her in for all kinds of vocal assignments, largely of a commercial nature. As luck would have it, he and Spencer were talking one day, and he volunteered to produce a record for her, suggesting that she and Hall save their money for mixing and mastering. One successful Kickstarter campaign later, and the group’s got an untitled, 12-song record of classic material. (More on the title later.)
“Yeah, Danny left us with no choice,” Spencer jokes. “He said that he’d record the record for free. I thought this would take a very long time. We didn’t really have a plan. But Danny said, ‘Let’s do it, let’s make a record. But we’ll get good people to mix-and-master this.’ ‘But we’re broke. What are we going to do?’ Kickstarter was something we’d talked a couple of times, in passing. [Crowdfunding] was out of necessity, but that whole experience was very positive, overall.”
That experience allowed Hall to travel to Texas for an intense, three-day round of recording. The album, released to be released in April, will feature 12 songs, all taken from artists and songwriters that the pair have enjoyed and played out over the years: Skip James, Memphis Minnie, Robert Johnson, Randy Newman, Allen Toussaint and Ray Charles among them.
There’s talk of an album of originals down the line, but Hall’s pragmatic in saying that “we want to get work. We’d like to play festivals that do roots music. And this is a jazzy album. Once we get working, then we can get together more, work out our original music. That’s in the plans.”
“We also wanted to play tribute to where we started,” Spencer says. “To Robert Johnson and music like that. ‘Let’s make a CD that documents that side of us.’ One that’ll get us gigs and whatever else. We do have designs on the next being originals.”
The pair added just a bit of instrumentation on the album: Levin on piano, James Gwyn on snare and Ollie Steck on euphonium. The rest features Hall and Spencer exclusively, with the latter on most lead vocals.
Perhaps hinting at the unique interplay the two brings to their projects, Spencer and Hall had very different in-studio experiences.
“Well, I hate the studio, first of all,” Hall deadpans of his recording history. “It’s intimidating. I don’t know if that’s the right word, but it’s hard to play perfectly. You’re up against the clock and there’s the ‘ka-ching’ thing. It’s a sterile environment. But that’s the thing I liked about Tequila. I was nervous about going to Austin, with the million guitar players down there. But Danny’s great. He’s said, ‘That was okay, but you’ll get it on the next one.’ He pushes ya. He was firm, and really brought out the best in us. I liked working with him.”
Spencer suggests “it was great for me. I’ve had an unusual experience, I guess. It turns out that I’ve spent most of my professional life in the studio. I’m very comfortable to be in a studio. With this, I liked that Danny’s an incredible musician himself. I’ve worked with him for 15 years. But it’s been 15 years making McDonald’s commercials, not necessarily art. But working with him in this way was really cool, to work with someone you’ve known in another capacity for so long. Normally, you’re very worried about the clock and every hour spent. This wasn’t like that, it was very relaxed.”
Spencer adds that she enjoyed bringing people together from what are essentially her two hometowns.
“It was very cool for Danny to experience what Tom does,” she says. His sound is “very St. Louis. Very authentic. With the first track, Danny said, ‘Oh, my God.’ That was so cool for me. Because as great as Austin is, there are things missing.”
Adds Hall, “I don’t go around blowing my own horn too often, but I think this album is great.”
The duo will release the album on Thursday, April 17, at Bill Christman’s whimsical Joe’s Cafe. According to both Hall and Spencer, it was the only, natural choice for this event.
“I’ve known Bill a long time,” Hall says. “He’s got a mind that I enjoy, for one. It’s a comfortable set-up. It’s a listening room. You can drink and look at all the eye candy. And you can make a decent amount of money. Bill’s all right, and you get a good, appreciative crowd. It’s just a great, comfortable place for a player, where you don’t have to play for four hours.”
“I also appreciate that it’s a listening room,” Spencer adds, “but it’s not intense. Tom and I can be very off-the-cuff there. I don’t know if it was the last time there, or not, but the PA wasn’t working and I had to sing over the guitar. And people just went with it.”
Now: about that title. It’s not titled, but…
“The inspiration for the album artwork” (A black and white photo of an old kitchen scene) “was the Robert Johnson song ‘Come On In My Kitchen’ because that was the first tune Tom made me learn for T&A back in the day, and because the song had meaning for us—both of us having just come through rough times in our lives—finding shelter from the storm in our music,” Spencer says. “And finally, because when we had our reunion gig as T&A” (for Tom’s benefit in May 2013) “and got together to rehearse, it was in Pat and Charlie’s [Pfeffer of The Sheiks] kitchen, and that was the first song we chose to play. Oh, and I just realized that was the first song we recorded for this record! Anyway, we will refer to it as ‘The Kitchen Record’ but it will be untitled. Whew! More than you needed, probably.”
Untitled aka The Kitchen Record features Tom Hall (guitar and vocals); Alice Spencer (vocals, ukulele, stomps and claps); Danny Levin (piano); Oliver Steck (trumpet and euphonium); and James Gwyn (snare). All tracks were recorded at Tequila Mockingbird Studios in Austin, Texas. The record was produced by Danny Levin, Tom Hall, and Alice Spencer; engineered by Danny Levin and assistant engineered by Joey Benjamin; mixed by Stuart Sullivan at Wire Studios in Austin; and mastered by Brad Blackwood at Euphonic Masters in Memphis. The except of “Come On In My Kitchen,” was recorded at Casa Del Toretta, and engineered by Dave Toretta.
The release party for Untitled aka The Kitchen Record happens April 17, 8 to 10:30 p.m. at Joe’s Café, 6010 Kingsbury. $10, 21+ only. For more information, call 314-862-2541, or visit joescafegallery.com.
