Heptown Records brought out their album for the world to enjoy ‘Duck and Cover – The Pasadena Recordings’
4 piece band from Denmark that’s been together for a few years, consisting of Johanne Mortensen on vocals, Peter Knudsen playing electric and steelguitar, Paolo Molinari on doublebass and Lars Ole Nielsen doing the rhythm guitar. And all of the gentlemen mentioned do some backing vocals. Not that Miss Mortensen would need that! On this album a couple of guest appearances by Wally Hersom, Davy “Pappy” Stuckey and Kevin Stuart. In my honest opinion it seems like all of these people can play. They know what to do and and at what time to make things sound like it should. Very, very vintage!
The Pasadena Recordings was recorded in the States using all vintage recording equipment and techniques. And this is one of the ingredients that makes this band shine, truly shine. I’ve reviewed bands where it seemed that someone needed a singer…”ahh well, let’s take her then, who gives a damn how she sounds”. Not in this case though. Johanne Mortensen is a true vocalist. She sings with a beautiful country flavour. Beautifully warm voice with a lot of musical history in it. In my opinion she’s up there with the best female country singers the music business has seen. And how does a singer like that shine.. Well, with tight and tasteful backing of course.. I wasn’t able to find a single instrument or certain line that annoyed me. As a guitarplayer, i especially love good steel guitar with a touch of reverb or delay to make it real deep sounding. Knudsen has succeeded in doing just that, on certain songs. Rhythm guitar and bass stick together well, giving the soloist a solid ground to stand on. 3 quarter of the songs on the album are originals from the bandmembers, Knudsen seems to have made up the bigger part of those songs. A couple of very well chosen other songs to add to the enjoyment and all of this together makes for a great album.
Started listening to the album, writing some start to this review and tried to find a website for this band. Unfortunately the link on the back of the album cover was a dead end. Server down, don’t know. Then on to myspace of course. Well, try to type ‘Duck and Cover’ in myspace and find well over 300 links (and that’s just the ones that have links to music, not to mention the rest). Nice bandname.. but original…?
How would i categorize ‘The Pasadena Recordings’…? Very easy listening, to fall asleep with.. not in a bad way, just lowlevel, no screaming guitars or 140mph slapbass here. If you’re in to classic blends of rockabilly, jazz, swing and country, this is an absolute must have album! And although i like to go and see high energy bands live, this maybe would be a nice change to go and see when they come to the Netherlands this spring. Because one things for sure, this is real and true music!
