Photo by Drew Sheafor, courtesy of The Red-Headed Strangers
Two St. Louis bands with considerable pedigrees have released albums in the past few weeks, with each group allowing members a chance to stretch their talents in the world of original music—even as a goodly amount of their combined memberships play in a variety of cover and tribute projects.
We’ll start with Red-Headed Strangers, who have just offered up their first full studio album since 2009.
The band started out as a friends-and-family type of situation, playing at the old Magee’s on Clayton Road, before moving out from there and tackling clubs around town. After that initial album was released, a variety of the group’s players fell away, due to family commitments, work obligations, and general life responsibilities; that said, the core of the band remains the large and musically-active Sullivan family, including pianist and vocalist Maureen Sullivan, who counts three of her brothers in the group’s ranks.
In addition to her contributions, the band includes: Tim Sullivan on piano, guitar, and vocals; Dan Sullivan on guitar and vocals; Tom Coriell on mandolin, guitar, and vocals; Brian Wiegert on banjo, guitar, and vocals; KDHX’s Mark "Sunnyboy" Mason on bass and vocals; and drummer Brian Sullivan. That’s the group that recently showed off some of the band’s material at Foam, where they released No Time to Waste.
“We’re thriving again,” says Maureen Sullivan. ”I love the title of the album, even through there was some disagreement in the band about calling it No Time to Waste. That sounds funny when it’s been nine years since the last one. But the record’s been a real kick in the pants. ‘Let’s start this up again, it’s worth it, and it’s good.’ The release has been a good reflection of that, and I’m excited about having enough songs to do it again.
"For awhile there, we became a 'wedding band,' as Tom Coriell says with disdain," she continues. "You know, where we kept getting hired to play a bunch of covers that we didn't feel excited about. It took some more original material, from my brother Dan especially, to make us feel like it was something we could get behind again, something worthy of attention and promoting. We're not great at that part of it, but it was good to know last Saturday night that we still feel like doing this, and people still feel like listening."
Sullivan says that, when pressed, she’ll describe their collective sound as “like country-rock. But I think we have our own sound, which you’ll recognize right away. If someone has heard us, the album definitely sounds like The Strangers. I think we’ve mutated a little bit, which is good. It’s kinda traditional, kinda not. Again, it’s hard to describe with so many different people involved.”
The band cites a host of influences, including quite a few classic country bands, though not exclusively; acts such as: Neil Young, Johnny Cash and June Carter, The Pogues, Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Louvin Brothers, Willie Nelson, Roy Acuff, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, and Steve Earle. On a given night, those acts will provide some of the cover material that’ll help them stretch a set into two or three.
But they love to showcase originals, too, and those are provided by everyone and anyone in the group. The tracks are brought to practice basically written, though the tunes are then hashed out to everyone’s satisfaction as “we end up working out arrangements together. Occasionally, someone will do a few lines of lyrics, and we’ll come up with our own instrumental parts. But we don’t collaborate that much in songwriting. We collaborate in making music, usually on something already written.”
And their next gig will be a choice one, as they’ll play Schlafly’s 27th Anniversary Party at the St. Louis Tap Room on December 26, with a lengthy, multi-set stint onstage in the later afternoon and early evening of that party.
Courtesy Vendors of Substance
Our next band will be featured with a daytime set of their own, at The Royale on Saturday, January 5, kicking off at noon. It’ll be the first chance for The Vendors of Substance to play through their self-titled debut, a 13-song effort that highlights the songwriting of bassist Richard Tralles and pianist Carl Pandolfi, who are rounded out by their longtime drumming compatriot John Marshall. The three have been sharing acts for a while now, sometimes in pairs, or even in threes; for example, all of the trio were in the band The Sidemen, which dissolved a while back, but gave these pros a platform in which to write and rehearse together.
These days, all three keep active in a variety of projects. For Tralles, his acts, all gigging to various degrees, include: Diesel Island, Miss Jubilee, Box of Nerves, Dizzy Atmosphere, and Knez Jackovac.
He adds that “Carl teaches music full-time at the College School in Webster. He's been in many bands over the years such as the Painkillers and Swing Set, and others. He currently plays with the Lettuce Heads and he's a former member of Diesel Island and and is currently a regular sub for Diesel Island. Right now he's basically a freelance musician and has his day job, teaching music. John Marshall’s from Springfield, Missouri, and started out playing with The Royal Nonesuch; played in Swing Set and; currently plays with the Lettuce Heads and Sweetie and the Toothaches. John, Carl, and myself have known each other and played together for about 20 years.”
While The Sidemen has a decided swing component, the band could “play covers. Everything from the Beatles to country to Louis Prima and anything else we all happened to know.”
But, as can happen, the individual songwriting efforts of the membership weren’t getting a ton of play, or as Tralles says, “not many cover bands allow you to bring in original material. Diesel Island does and Swing Set used to encourage it, so those were an outlet.”
The Vendors, then, are exactly that “outlet” for the three, with each songwriter bringing cuts to the band, on which each songwriter takes lead vocals. They’ve now gotten about 30-plus originals in the hopper, in addition to the album’s cuts and with a sound that’s not so big or so bold, they can find a home in select small clubs as well as coffeehouses and restaurants.
At those gigs, they’ll “include some covers in our shows, just to give the people are little bit of familiar ground.” Of course, it's the originals that are the spine of why they’re making music together, and with this new guise, “we’re just trying to find our audience.”
The whole world can now be that audience, as the band’s released their album on CD Baby, with the cuts also featuring on YouTube.
