Nashville Band Pays Tribute To Classic LPs
NASHVILLE (Billboard) - The album concept is enjoying a big comeback -- if not in record stores, then at least on the live concert stage.
In 2009, such acts as Steely Dan, Phish, the Pixies, Motley Crue and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band have included performances of entire albums in their concert sets.
The concept has been around for years. Pink Floyd routinely played such albums as "The Dark Side of the Moon," "Wish You Were Here," "Animals" and "The Wall" from start to finish on tour.
But even if playing an album in its entirety isn't a new idea for a live act, Nashville's Long Players -- as their punny name suggests -- embrace the concept like few others. The group exists solely to perform classic albums, which it does several times per year in its hometown, often with guest vocalists and performers.
The Long Players began some six years ago with a performance of the Rolling Stones' "Let It Bleed." On December 26, 35 albums later, the Long Players rolled out Sly & the Family Stone's "Stand" with Mike Farris and the McCrary Sisters as guest vocalists. Nashville is uniquely suited for a group likeThe Long Players. "The bench here is amazing, the number of people you can call on," band member Bill Lloyd says. "We have had a lot of local heroes on our stage, but also a lot of international rock stars come play with us as well."
The Long Players' founding members -- Lloyd (Foster & Lloyd) and Steve Allen (20/20) on guitars, Garry Tallent (E Street Band) on bass, Steve Ebe (Human Radio) on drums and John Deaderick (Dixie Chicks) on keyboards -- gathered to play a John Lennon tribute every year as a benefit. Brad Jones eventually replaced Tallent, when the latter returned to the road with Springsteen.
"Garry and Steve and I were always hanging around spinning vinyl records," Lloyd recalls. "Maybe there was some alcohol involved, and the idea came up: 'What if we did one of these albums from start to finish with these players involved?'"
DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
Lloyd says he was "sort of the concept guy," devising the Long Players' name (which they own) and organizing the performances. "We democratically choose the albums," he says. "We always take a percentage off the top for a charity, then we pay ourselves and we pay the singers."
Album ideas come from the band and fan requests. A local Beatles fest has hosted Long Players performances of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Revolver," "Abbey Road" and "The Beatles" (aka "The White Album").
The Long Players have never played an album twice in public but have done repeat performances for private gigs. "We've played 'Let It Bleed' at least four times now, and we've played Elvis Costello's ("My Aim Is True") three times."
The band plays most of its shows at Nashville's 500-capacity Mercy Lounge or at the venue's 1,000-capacity sister venue the Cannery Ballroom for "bigger" albums. Mercy / Cannery co-owner Chark Kinsolving says The Long Players are a winner for his venues. "On average, 90 percent of their shows are sold out, which is not bad for what is at its core an above-average tribute act," he says. "What really makes it so special is once the show's over, it's over. It's a one-time thing that's never repeated."
The current trend toward live performances of albums flies in the face of the track-oriented listening habits attributed to the generation that's grown up with iTunes. "I like the idea of the album as an art form," Lloyd says. "And I love the fact that there's a whole generation of people who know that one song follows another, and they're ready to sing along with it."
Lloyd says the band has thought about taking the concept on the road, but for now, Nashville works fine.
"We have learned 35 albums and we're not bored," he says. "From a creative point of view, it's a great way to spend your time because you're absorbing all this great, classic music. We're proud of it, we enjoy it, we try to keep our karma clean by always doing the charity aspect, and everybody has a good time."
The Long Players Tune in to Classic Rock
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- We all have a soft spot for the music of our youth, but few take it as far as the Long Players. Every few months, this group of busy Nashville session musicians gets together to perform a classic rock album - in its entirety - at a local venue.
Last month, it was Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited." In December, Van Morrison's "Moondance." Before that, the Beatles' "Meet the Beatles." The members are all big-time players - Gary Tallent is bassist in Bruce Springsteen's E. Street Band, John Deaderick a keyboardist for the Dixie Chicks and Michael McDonald - but they manage to squeeze in the Long Players shows between their regular gigs.
Named for the vinyl LPs they love, the Long Players have re-created everything from the Rolling Stones' "Let it Bleed" to Elvis Costello's "My Aim is True" since forming in 2004. "There are other bands that do this kind of thing," said founding member Bill Lloyd. "But the difference with us is that we keep it in the community and get guest stars to be part of it. That gives it a different spin and keeps it from being a karaoke night." That's easier to do in Nashville, where you can barely swing a guitar without hitting a talented musician or singer.
A different guest singer joins the band for most every song. Southside Johnny did the Stones' "You Got the Silver," Marshall Crenshaw the Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing," and Alison Moorer sang Neil Young's "Oh, Lonesome Me." Sometimes, someone from the original recording will sit in. For "Highway 61 Revisited," Al Kooper came down from Boston to replay the signature organ riff on "Like a Rolling Stone," one of the great songs in rock history. Kooper, who once lived in Nashville, has a lengthy rock resume. He founded the group Blood, Sweat & Tears, produced the first three Lynyrd Skynyrd albums and played keyboards on "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Rolling Stones. "When Bill (Lloyd) told me about it in the beginning I was kicking myself that he didn't do that when I was still in town," Kooper said. "I only have one more Dylan album I think where I played on the whole album, which is `New Morning.' But then we were thinking we could do some Lynyrd Skynyrd albums, and that would really be fun."
During the "Highway 61 Revisited" show, Kooper sat hunched over the organ in dark sunglasses. A tall guy in the audience with spiky black hair kept shouting along to the cryptic lyrics. "You've been with the professors, and they've all liked your looks. With great lawyers, you have discussed lepers and crooks," he yelled during "Ballad of a Thin Man."
The Long Players choose the albums in more or less democratic fashion. The only caveat is that everyone has to agree; no one is forced to play something they don't want to. "The newest records we've done so far were from 1978," said Lloyd, a solo artist who was half of the former hit country duo Foster and Lloyd. "We've not been able to squeak into the '80s as of yet. I think culturally there was such a glut of what's considered classics in that time period. Given the age we all are - the median age is the late 40s - we're still kind of stuck in the music of our teens."
The members are all friends who started performing together at an annual John Lennon tribute concert to raise money for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. They're also avid record collectors who spin vinyl into the wee hours. It didn't take long for the idea to take hold.
Besides Tallent, Deaderick and Lloyd, the members are guitarist Steve Allen of the former new wave band 20/20 and drummer Steve Ebe of the early '90s pop group Human Radio. Each is expected to learn his part on his own, and they usually meet for only two rehearsals before the show. For something more ambitious, like the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," they will call in a string section or horn players to augment the sound.
Even a seasoned musician like Lloyd says he learns something from each album. Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Cosmo's Factory" had jarring time shifts, and the Pretenders' debut record contained deceptively tricky rhythms and guitar lines, he said. "It's a great education," agreed Deaderick, who at 36 is the youngest Long Player. "I'm playing records that I didn't necessarily grow up listening to, and I'm playing them with guys who did grow up listening to them. So I'm learning from the record and from the guys in the band."
Ten percent of the proceeds from each performance go to charity. For the "Highway 61 Revisited" show, the money went to Doctors Without Borders. "We want it to be something we enjoy doing," Lloyd said. "We don't make a lot of money doing it, so we're largely doing it for the love and the experience."
The Long Players Perform Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run • Bustin' the Mercy in Half
Frequent as they are, The Long Players' note-for-note live recreations of classic albums are always something special. Considering that E Street Band bassist Garry Tallent is also a founding member, the band’s decision to perform Born to Run is particularly noteworthy (even if Tallent won't be there). With its gargantuan wall of sound and empathetic backstreet tales of restless youth, the 1975 LP—on which Springsteen's entire professional future hinged—would go on to set the template for the widescreen, Jersey-boardwalk sound that launched him into the stratosphere and all but canonized him as an American poet laureate. Armed with guest vocalists such as Bobby Bare Jr., De Novo Dahl’s Joel Dahl, Will Hoge and most notably Tommy “Tutone” Heath—one can only hope he'll change all the Marys, Terrys, Wendys, Scooters and Magic Rats to "Jenny"—the LPs will assume the massive task of recreating the gangland grandeur of "Jungleland," the E Street shuffle of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and the title song's epic escapism.
The Long Players: Some Girls (Before They Play Me Long)
Released 14 years into their recording career, The Rolling Stones' 18th studio album would be their last bona fide classic. With its ruffian attitude and sleazy veneer, the record is filled with debauched takes on sadomasochism ("When the Whip Comes Down"), misogyny ("Some Girls") and celebrity ("Respectable"). Serving as the Glimmer Twins' answer to Studio 54 ("Miss You") and punk ("Shattered"), it's a time capsule of swanky-skanky New York City in the Summer of Sam. Throw in a loose rendition of The Temptations' "Just My Imagination" and perhaps the band's most endearing ballad, "Beast of Burden," and you've got a near-perfect LP. Being that Nashville homage payers The Long Players have already applied their note-perfect skills of live recreation to the Stones' Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St., it's only fitting that they take on the last of the band's three best records from their infamous decade of decadence.
PROCEEDS: in part to benefit Tim Krekel medical expense fund
The Long Players celebrate Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved A Man the Way I Love You"
An assemblage of ace session cats and music obsessives, Nashville's Long Players have covered the entirety of record-collection staples such as Sticky Fingers, Blonde on Blonde and After the Gold Rush, but their repertoire has been mostly limited to the works of rock and roll dudes. For their next show, they'll branch out a little, tackling a record by a female artist that regularly tops lists of essential soul albums. Never Loved a Man was Aretha's breakout LP: Recorded in 1967 for Atlantic, it features the monster hit "Respect," a soaring cover of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come," and Franklin originals like "Baby, Baby, Baby." For the evening, guest vocalists include Fisk alum Shonka Dukureh, Ashley Cleveland and Jonell Mosser—not to mention R&B legend Dan Penn, who co-wrote the album's eternal "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man." Needless to say, if you don't own it already, you need the actual long-player too.
