COLIN ENRIGHT AND ADRIAN LEWIS DROP IN

Long time PBGB stalwart Colin Enright made another welcome visit to The Shed in early May.

Col brought along fellow Rosedale resident Adrian Lewis. Adrian is a classically trained cellist with a CV that includes stints with a brace of Symphony Orchestras as well as a few well known musical ‘names’. 

Col has recently retired from his long standing Canberra band Top Shelf. Col has decided to stick closer to home, and is in the throes of teaming up with Adrian to play as a duo named Duopoly, featuring Guitar, Vocals and Cello.

The boys decided they would like to put together an ep of their work, to use as a promo tool, and naturally Col thought of The Shed.

So down they came, and with Neil’s help, recorded a brace of songs for their demo cd.

We thought we’d post a couple of the tunes they played on our blog.

The first we selected is Minnie The Moocher.  

Minnie The Moocher was first recorded by Cab Calloway in 1931. It sold a million copies, which, in 1931, was a fantastic achievement. The song shot back to prominence when Cab was featured singing the song in the all time classic 1980 movie The Blues Brothers. It is a brilliant song, full of charm, and Adrian and Col have produced a particularly charming rendition. Col’s vocals fit in very nicely indeed.

The second song we feature is Pechalbel Canon in D.  

Johann Pechalbel composed this ditty sometime prior to 1700, so you could say it is a bit of a classic too!   The song achieved new found popularity in the 1990s when it was sampled in songs by The Pet Shop Boys, Coolio, and Green Day !!

We all had a great day, lots of fun and laughs, and hopefully Adrian and Col are happy with their promo cd.

We are looking forward to more visits by Col and Adrian, and we are busily exploring the possibilities that having a classically trained cellist in the PBGB Family might open up !

Adrian...........welcome to the PBGB Family sir !

NEIL PORTER, CHRIS RALFS AND PETER REID FIGURED IT MUST HAVE BEEN ‘SOMETHING SHE SAID’

A couple of weeks ago Chris and Neil and Pete found themselves noodling about in the Shed.

No plan, no agenda.

What to do ?

Neil offered up a chord sequence he had been fooling with.

Pete echoed Neil’s strumming pattern by putting the kick on the 1 and the snare on the 4 in what was sounding like a verse, and then changed to a straight beat, albeit with a cross over snare pattern, for the chorus.

Chris was emitting his trademark growl on the fretless five string bass.

Ten minutes in, and it was all sounding pretty good to us.

So Neil took it home overnight and added some lyrics, vocals, a bit of extra guitar and a keyboard solo and riffs.

And that was essentially that.....................’Something She Said’.

It had been a while since the three of us had produced a result as a trio, so we decided to leave it right there.

Thanks for coming guys.............it’s a take.

Have a listen HERE or click on the title on the PBGB Juke Box.

BRETT RALPH WONDERS ‘HOW DO THOUSANDS JUST DISAPPEAR?’

As we proceed with the production of a quality cd of Brett’s songs, we will continue, as previously promised, to post ‘early’ versions of some of Brett’s songs.

The versions we post will be what we regard as ‘drafts’ or ‘out takes’, or ‘practice’ versions that we have recorded, but which will not make it to the final cd.

If you click on the Brett Ralph Project on the right of your screen, you will see that we have already posted four such versions of Brett’s songs.

Three of those, Antarctica, Include Me, and Love and Laughter can also be heard on the PBGB Juke Box, to the left of your screen.

Now we present a fifth Brett song – ‘How Do Thousands? ’ 

This version of How Do Thousands is a VERY early version, probably recorded on the first or second day Brett ever graced The Shed, back in August 2013. At that stage we were doing nothing more than jamming on some of Brett’s songs. We did have the recorder on though.

Brett sings and plays acoustic guitar.

Also present on the day, and playing on this version were............

Ken Vatcher on Drums

Artie Westwood on Lead Guitar

Chris Ralphs on Bass

Neil Porter on Keyboards

The song is typical of Brett’s compositions in that it tells a story of a chapter of Brett’s life.

In this instance, Brett sings about the disappearance of a close friend and the subsequent drama. It is a true story.

It is also very socially poignant in that it highlights just one drama amongst many that cause great pain and anguish to people the world over when friends or relatives ..............”just disappear”.

Thanks for sharing this great song with us Brett.

Watch the PBGB Blog for future postings of more of Brett’s brilliant songs.