| |
What kind of music did you grow
up with?
Barbara - First
I grew up with a lot of vocalists.
My dad used to sing lounge so
there was a lot of Dean Martin
and Frank Sinatra. There was also
a lot of jazz and bebop. I can’t
remember who were the artists but
I know I used to dress up in my
mom’s fancy outfits and
pretend to swing dance and jive.
But there was also the Elvis RCA
white album around the house.
Always! And I loved to listen to
it and dance by myself. I really
liked the sound of Elvis. I have
2 older brothers and 2 older
sisters but one sister was really
close to my age. The other 3 were
much older. By my pre-teen years,
my older brothers and sister
listened to a lot of soul and
R&B. Pop stuff like Earth,
Wind and Fire, Peaches and Herb,
Ohio Players, anything you can do
the Hustle to. Both my brothers
were in bands. My oldest brother
still is. They played trombone
and trumpet. And at one time, my
father started…well, tried
to start a record label and both
brothers were in the band. It was
also an R&B pop band. They
only made 1 record and it never
went anywhere. When my sister and
me hit our teens, were first
introduced to owning our own
records. Our first buy was “Turning
Japanese” by the Vapors and
“I want you to want me”
by Cheap Trick.
When I discovered my own, I was
into 80's new wave/punk. B-52's,
Go-Go's, Duran Duran, The Cure,
Plimsouls, Adam Ant, Pat Benatar,
Heaven 17, Blondie, Ramones,
Violent Femmes, The Polecats and
of course The Stray Cats! That
ran pretty much through high
school but I never stopped the
swing/jazz/jitterbug music
fascination. I always loved it
and wasn't ever sure what it was
called. Just knew it was "old
people" music that my dad
owned. It wasn't on the radio and
I figured it was a dead culture,
so how could I investigate where
else it was played/heard? Who
else knew who it was? Cheap Trick
was on the radio all the time???
But I really liked the 80’s
music. I stuck with that for a
long time.
Rachel - I
grew up in a really small town
and most of the radio stations
were typical boring rock/pop
music. However, my mom had lots
of records, and I would spend
hours and hours listening to them.
The Beatles, The Everly Brothers,
Elvis, lots of great R&B and
60s garage rock. My brother had a
bunch of Weird Al tapes, too.
Those were great.What
are your earlier memories
concerning the music?
Barbara - Like
I said, I always was fascinated
with the sound. Anything you can
jitterbug to. I knew it was from
the 50's or somewhere around
there. But I didn't know what it
was called. When I was 6 or so,
my sister and I were put into
dance school. Tap, Ballet, Jazz,
and more. Two of my dance
recitals involved this music I
still wasn’t sure what it
was called, but the songs we
danced to were ’American
Bandstand’ (Barry Manillow)
and ‘Jail House Rock’ (Elvis).
Then I had my dad’s records
to listen to. After that, it was
usually Stray Cats and the usual
suspects, Elvis, Buddy Holly, and
Johnny Cash maybe on an oldie
station? Actually, I became close
to Cash because he wore all black
and in high school, the punk/goth
“black clothes” look
was hip and I liked Johnny Cash
because he wore black! When
'Grease' the movie came out and
OH Man! Was I happy. At least now
there were new songs to pretend I
knew how to dance to it! Where
can I learn that kind of dancing?
But as the oldie station on the
radio continued to play top 40
oldies, I only had the Stray Cats
to look to and the movie ‘Grease’;
I was still stuck at a wall. I
mean I like Rock Around The Clock
and Pretty Woman. We all know the
top 40 songs, really, don’t
get me wrong! But even the oldie
station had its limits. There has
got to be more!!!! Well, my
sister, when she turned 21, so
did I! The drinking age was 21 at
that time. I had a fake ID made
and went to the bars. Her friend
told me about an ad in the local
music paper that said something
about 'swingin to' or
'jitterbuggin to' and said that
sounded like my interest. I went
expecting to see the same dance
scene in the movie Grease, with
girls being tossed in the air
with flowing skirts, people
dancing all over, and lots of
boys! But to my disappointment,
there were like 10 people there,
including the band!!!!!! But I
found it! It was a monthly
rockabilly night in Chicago
called "Rockabilly Night".
How boring! It's now called The
Big C Jamboree, which is much
better but still, I found others
like me! I've always been into
the arts - dance, drama, vocal,
piano...I went to a performing
arts school here in Chicago (just
like the movie "FAME"
for those of you who know it!)
and I had to take one of each art
(vocal, instrument, acting, dance)
all 4 years in addition to my
regular classes. I wanted to sing.
Once I was in the 80's music
scene, I wanted to sing LIVE. I
saw a video of the B’52’s
“Legal Tender” and I
knew that’s what I wanted to
do! So, I joined my 1st band, The
Bedbugs, and they covered most of
the 80's songs/music. It’s
funny because it’s similar
to the Honeybees. 2 female lead
singers, just like the B-52’s,
with bass, guitar, drums, and
keyboards. We did it all! It was
great but I still wanted to sing
rockabilly or roots of some sort.
I wanted to play at Big C
Jamboree. I still continued to
attend that monthly event to get
my monthly dose of roots music.
Rachel
- One of my
earliest music memories was of my
mother playing a Sam Cooke record.
I fell in love with his voice and
the passion that was in his songs.
Another record I remember
listening to over and over was an
Animals compilation record. I
couldn’t get enough of it! I
actually stole it from my mom a
couple of years ago. Hope she
doesn‘t see this and want it
back.
How did you discover
“roots music”?
Barbara - Again
referring to The Big C Jamboree
in Chicago, that's when the door
opened soooo wide. I learned
terms like blues, jump blues,
jazz, swing, big band,
rockabilly, hillbilly, hillbilly
swing, western swing, country,
etc. it was overwhelming but I
started buying one cd after
another. Or should I say album
after another. Back then it was
still vinyl. I went to this
monthly thing and listened and
studied and I was hooked! I, at
first, was confused. Wasn’t
jazz and swing the same? Wasn’t
rockabilly and hillbilly the
same? What’s the difference
between Memphis Blues and Chicago
Blues? What’s the difference
between country swing and western
swing???? Over time, you meet
people who know. And tell you!
And teach you. And that’s
where it all happened. Ah! Now I
know my dad was into lounge and
exotica singers. And Elvis was
rockabilly turning black rock and
roll and hillbilly into a
cocktail. So I heard some roots
music in the home but learned it
after meeting people at this
monthly event.
Rachel - My mom and
dad, although I didn‘t
really know it was roots music at
the time. And I still feel like I’m
discovering it - there’s so
many lesser known musicians that
have great songs.
When did you figure you
could front a band as a singer?
Barbara - I
didn’t. Well, I sang a lot
in high school. I did 3 musicals
- Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls,
and a Christmas Opera called Amal
and The Night Visitors. I played
the lead, a little crippled BOY!
Then I knew I wanted to sing but
always in groups or plays. At one
of my college jobs, my supervisor
played keyboards in a band. He
invited me to see them play. I
went and they were the Bedbugs.
They did all my favorite 80’s
cover songs. I wanted to do that!
Somehow, I managed to become part
of the band. Again noting the
Honeybee similarities - 2 female
lead singers. That was my first
band. After my first band, The
Bedbugs, I learned all my stage
frights and fears. Although the
other girl was more the lead and
I was a harmony. I wanted more of
a lead spot and eventually,
developed into the lead singer
for The Honeybees.
Rachel - My first
solo was when I was in 2nd grade.
Ever since I heard that audience
clap for me, I knew I loved being
a singer.
What kind of stuff were
the Bedbugs?
Barbara - College
rock. Mostly the 80's stuff like
Go-Go's, 10,000 maniacs, B-52's,
Blondie, but there was the
Beatles, Cheap Trick, Rolling
Stones, stuff that goes over well
in college bars because that's
where the money was! We also
played our own originals but the
crowd always wants the popular
stuff. So if we had to do Iggy
Pop’s “Candy” (with
Kate Pierson from the B-52’s
on it) then we learned it. Our
stage show/set usually consisted
of opening with girls set, then
we’d take a break and the
guys would do a block of songs.
They probably did Beatles, David
Bowie, Ramones, or some other
male artist. We ultimately
brought the bass player’s
wife on stage to play tambourine
or sing a little bit but mostly
for dancing reasons.
What made you come back
to good ol’ rockabilly
music?
Barbara - It
was just in my blood since I was
a kid that didn't know it was
called rockabilly music. I wanted
to jitterbug and swing dance
mostly. I wanted to enjoy that
time or era. Nobody danced like
that anymore! Over 6 years, I had
a falling out with the Bedbugs. I
had some tension with the other
singer and it made my passion
fade for that band. After the
Bedbugs, I just wanted to be
passionate again about music. I
love ALL music, and I loved the
band I was in, but I knew I'd be
happier and better at the
rockabilly stuff! So I met
Theresa and our 1st bass player,
Lisa Crowe, and we started The
Honeybees.
How did the Honeybees get
together, how did you meet?
Barbara - I
used to hang out with this guy
Rob Crowe often. He and I went to
roots and rockabilly shows
together. He was one of the ones
who took me in under his wing. He’d
been dating his now wife, Lisa,
and she played electric bass. All
3 of us got along great. Rob has
always been into the music
although not a musician in a band
but he liked to organize events
and put shows on. So he says to
me, “You and Lisa should
start a band. She’s been
wanting to play more.” She
had played bass for a few bands
but nothing serious at the moment.
So we talked and we were excited
about it. We looked for a drummer
and ended up being a female. Not
on purpose, just happened Theresa
was a girl. So now it’s
leaning toward a more feminine
sound. We borrowed a male guitar
player, Bob Barajas, and our goal
was to just play the Big C
Jamboree.
Could
you explain what is The Big C for
those who are not from Chicago?
Barbara - The
Big C is a jam night. A host band
opens for 30 minutes, then they
run through the sign up sheet (open
to anyone) and each person gets 3
songs, then the host band goes on
again, then the sign up sheet,
then if there is time, the host
band closes the show. The point
is to grab people there on the
spot and play but it’s now
turned into a band showcase.
Well, anyway….we wanted to
just play that.
So Rob researched songs and
thought we should lean toward
more bluesy stuff like Ruth Brown
or Wynona Carr. So we picked
about 10 songs and off we went!
Can you believe we wanted to just
play 3 songs each month at Big C!??
Now look at where we are!? Crazy.
So after we played the first
time, we got such applause and it
got to us. Then we wanted to play
sets and we started getting small
opening gigs. Just as things were
moving, Lisa dropped a bomb. She
was pregnant. We were happy for
them but now we need a bass
player and a singer. She actually
stayed with us for the first part
of her pregnancy and we got an
upright named Pete O’Leary,
who also played rhythm guitar.
They took turns playing bass (electric
to upright) and she sang if not
playing bass. We were never a duo
vocal band completely but I wasn’t
sure if I wanted to be solo or
not. There are so many solo
female bands out there and I
think I wanted to be different.
And I only knew of The Ranch
Girls and The Casey Sisters doing
a double vocal sound. And coming
from The Bedbugs, I knew it was a
bonus and a treat to have 2
voices and I like harmonies. So
when Lisa moved on, Pete left us
as well and we found Phil Rainey.
Lisa actually recommended him. He
was an upright player so our
sound went to the hillbilly &
rockabilly side because the loss
of the electric bass. I sang solo
for a while but we ended up
getting another singer, Lisa Frye.
Lisa was really into the scene.
She was everywhere and I knew she
could sing because I heard her
all the time. So we invited her
to sing and she accepted the job.
Bob, the guitarist, was only
temporary anyway but I think when
Lisa Crowe quit, he lost his
motivation since they were closer
friends. Eventually, he moved on
so to replace him, we found Todd
Longfellow who saw us play once
and approached Theresa, (I think)
about if needing a guitar player,
he was available. So we called
him and he was great! He knew his
stuff.
What
kind of guitarist was he?
Barbara - Huge,
HUGE Stray Cat fan. If you have a
copy of our EP, he’s the
guitarist on that recording as
well as Lisa Frye’s voice.
This outfit lasted for quite a
while. Lisa even played rhythm
guitar at most of our shows,
which was even cooler! This group
was our first push. Then another
bomb came about. Phil announced
he was leaving to get married and
have a family. So, Michael, being
Theresa’s husband, ended up
filling in until we decided what
to do. We wanted to stick with
upright bass because we wanted to
stay rockabilly/hillbilly but
seemed not the right time to fuss
about it. We kept the electric
but then had to somehow turn the
sound to fit that instrument. So
we tried more country and blues
again but it wasn’t quite
fitting in with the voices or
goal. But we left it for the
moment. Then a bigger bomb after
a few years, Todd announced he
was leaving and I guess Lisa had
been thinking about it too. So 2
at once! I thought the Honeybees
were over. I was getting tired of
finding new, waiting until they
caught up, then trying to move
forward.
This is when Rachel came to the
scene...
Barbara - I
convinced myself to give us 2
weeks to find another singer. If
not, I was going to move on
myself. So we looked in the
scene, couldn’t find a good
match, and I tried the ad in the
paper. I got several calls and
met several people but only 3
came back with the homework
assignment and 2 were not right.
Then Rachel showed up, I played
one chord on the guitar that the
song was in, I think it was
Cherries Jubilee, we sang
acapella and the auditions were
over. I found her.
Rachel - I wasn’t
looking for any particular type
of band , but Barb’s ad was
the only one that looked
interesting to me. I called her,
we met at her coffee shop, I had
one practice with the rest of the
band and then we got up in front
of an audience! I was pretty
nervous the first couple of times
out. I feel very lucky to have
found the Honeybees. I’ve
gotten to see a lot of places,
meet a lot of people and have
tons of experiences that I wouldn’t
have otherwise.
Were
you in other bands before?
Rachel - Nope.
I’ve worked on various
projects and recordings here and
there, and I’ve had plenty
of experience on stage through -
ahem - musical theatre. No bands,
though.
Back
to The Honeybees story...
Barbara - Mark
had come along and offered to
play guitar until we decided what
to do. Mark had a bonus though,
pedal steel! He wasn’t a
lead guitarist alone but a great
guitar player and it helped us
maintain our name. And then we
found Shawn Koch for guitar
through another musician friend.
Shawn was really into the R&B
blues style. Like rockabilly
blues or Ike Turner type stuff
and that would go well with the
electric bass and that was the
original sound we were going for
in the beginning of the band. He
wasn’t up on all the genres
but he learned a lot and fast!
That was the line up that got us
to where we are today - Shawn,
Rachel, Mark, Michael, Theresa
and me. We really played out and
round the world and made a real
CD (The Bee Sides) finally. Then
just in the last year or so,
Shawn announced he was leaving.
Again, I was worried we were done
but Manny wanted in so here he is.
You will be seeing him more soon.
We spent most of our first year
with him writing the new CD that’s
about to come out called Hive
Jive. He’s very anxious to
play out. And this is where the
Honeybees are today.
Wow,
it has changed over the years...
Barbara - Yes,
changed tons! As I’ve
mention above, we went from
various bass players and
guitarists and rhythm guitarists.
If you are familiar with Randy
Rich and The Poor Boys (Germany),
Randy lived in Chicago for a
couple of years and was my
roommate. After Todd left us,
Randy even filled in on lead
guitar. Randy was a Honeybee for
about 6 months. And that would
have been great! But he returned
home to Germany, came back and
announced he was in love and went
back to Germany. Of course, only
to the Honeybees! Can’t keep
a band member long enough to move
forward. And my ex, Mark Linday (who
was my boyfriend at the time) was
even in the band for a while. He
was a rhythm guitar player. After
he and I ended, he moved on from
the band. But basically, with
each new member we get better and
better. And I think Rachel is
definitely in for the long haul.
So as long as we keep both
singers, we should move on quite
well. Theresa and I being the
only 2 original band members are
not going anywhere!
Can
you tell us about the other
‘Bees? Their background…
Do they all come from the
rockabilly scene?
Barbara - Theresa
has been in the scene long before
me. She’s always lurking in
the background too. She’s
drummed for a surf band for a
while called The Greaseballs and
she also drummed for the Mummies.
She’s been doing stuff like
that but never really country or
rockabilly that I know of. She’s
drummed since high school. She’s
married to our now bass player.
They’ve been married forever.
I’m not even sure. I know
she’s the coolest. She loves
the music.
Michael has played bass always
but not in the rockabilly scene.
He’s been around it because
he’s married to Theresa but
I think he really had a crash
course when he moved into the
Honeybees. He’s not an
upright player, still isn’t,
and has played jazz bass for most
of his life. We had tried to get
him to learn upright so we can
have a more authentic sound, but
then again, we still hadn’t
really “found” our
comfort zone until just this
upcoming album.
Mark has played in various bands.
I know Theresa and Michael
brought him in through another
country project they were doing
on the side. I’ve never seen
him in the ‘scene’ but
he’s very familiar with the
music. He’s really familiar.
He volunteered to play guitar
when we had no guitarist but wasn’t
planning on staying with us. But
once we found Shawn, he had grown
to love us and wanted to stay. So
we kept him and his pedal steels.
Manny has also played in various
bands. He plays with Theresa in
the Greaseballs as well. He’s
been around the scene but dropped
out for a while. I’ve met
him before but never really knew
him. He also played guitar for a
band called The Git Gone Boys and
they did traditional rockabilly
like Elvis. He’s a classical
guitarist and can emulate any
guitar player/sound. He’s
good.
Rachel was green. I found her
through and ad in the paper in
Chicago. She responded and she
knew her instrument but not the
music. She didn’t know what
rockabilly was or any of the well
known. After a year, she had a
crash course as well. She’s
still learning but I think she’s
gotten a good grasp for the most
part. She’s about 4 years
away from being a true historian.
She’s never been a fanatic
like Theresa and I. Until now but
she is really having fun.
Your bio says “she
brings that rockin’ twang to
the mix”. Are you the rockin’
gal of the gang?
Rachel - Hell
yeah! But don’t tell Barb.
She’d kick my ass. :) (Just
kiddin.) Actually, I’d bet
on Theresa. I think she wins by
default as the drummer.
What are your influences?
I can hear some Miller Sisters in
the Honeybees…
Barbara - YES!
Definitely the Miller Sisters,
Everly Brothers, Jimmy and
Johnny, Sam and Dave, Don and
Dewey, even the Andrew Sisters.
Any group or artist that has
harmonies is a big influence. I
get inspiration even from 40’s
vocal groups like The Boswell
Sisters and The Cat and The
Fiddle. As you see from the
constant line up changes we’ve
had in the band, our sound went
from R&B blues, jump blues,
blues with the electric bass then
to country and rockabilly when
our first upright came in. And we
liked that sound but I think we
all like the later 50’s,
early 60’s rock n roll the
best. It’s all about the
electric bass since it can’t
really perform traditional stuff
like an upright. So it limits us
in some ways. I’m definitely
most influenced by black rock n
roll and jump blues. Theresa and
Manny have a lot of Surf in them
and all of us have wide variety
of musical interests. We just end
up bringing whatever we know to
the table and mix all together.
The older 3/4th are from the 70’s
era. (Without exposing their true
ages) and there’s a lot of
good from that. But there is also
a constant path we tend to take
because of that influence. I
remind them we are trying to hold
on to the early 60’s at most.
But everyone in the band likes so
many genres! All of us! Punk and
hard rock are my thing early, I
love contemporary stuff too, I
listen to it all!
Rachel
- Jeez, there’s
a lot of them. In terms of song
writing, it really depends on
what type of song I have in mind.
I love R&B and blues - Howlin
Wolf is one of my favorites. Etta
James, Aretha, Ruth Brown, Sam
Cooke, the usual suspects. Of
course, there’s Johnny Cash.
I love punk and garage rock -
Social Distortion, The Clash,
Agent Orange. I really shouldn’t
start listing all the bands that
I love and that influence me
because I’ll be going on for
a hundred pages.
You released two records
until now. A mini cd and a full
length. I believe there’s a
third one on its way. What can we
expect?
Barbara - Greatness!
The mini-EP was because we needed
something to submit with our bio
sheet to get jobs. It was 2
originals and 3 cover songs. With
The Bee Sides, it was 50% cover
songs. We again had been about 5
years old and no product to sell
to our fans. And during the
constant line-up change, we never
progressed with our original
material. So under pressure, we
just recorded what originals we
had and filled the rest up with
our best cover songs. And
although, The Bee Sides is a
great introduction to the band,
it was a multitude of genres and
mixed choices that really doesn’t
put us in a single category. It’s
still a good buy but it has
“Just Because” which is
typical and everyone knows it,
then we have “Hip Shakin’
Baby” which is a black rock
n roll song but we do it more how
The Go-Getter’s cover it,
then “Little Jonah”
which is a Brenda Lee song,
“Teardrops from My Eye”
which is Ruth Brown but done how
Ray Condo covered it, we just
added a harmony, a country
original “A Fool Like You”,
a rockabilly original “Cherries
Jubilee”, “Seeing Green”
which is totally in the other
direction, so it shows us off
well covering a wide variety of
styles but leaves people confused
still on what we are.
Anyway,
that's a great one, I really like
"A Fool Like You" and
"Outta Gas" too for
that kinda Mystery
Train feel in it...
Barbara - HIVE
JIVE will be great. All original
songs except for 1 “Leave My
Kitten Alone”. Little Willie
John but we do it the way the
Sonics covered it, again adding a
harmony. All the originals are
definitely what WE are which is
really 50’s/60’s
sounding. More twist than we were
but we really like where we are
now. This is us. Rock and Roll
and we kinda dropped the
rockabilly/hillbilly sound. We
really like to rock out. There
are a few traditional sounding
songs like “I Was Your Dream”
and “What A Bee”, but
the rest is good strong stuff. It’s
been a great writing experience.
I’ve pulled out the best
ideas and wrote some pretty
personal stuff. Some I wrote over
10 years ago but didn’t get
a chance to record them. Some are
very recent experiences. And
Rachel wrote a few for this album.
We’ve got a couple of
ballads and a twist and a rumba
and it’s all ours. It’ll
be release on El Toro like our
last album. So it can be bought
worldwide.
Rachel - I
think the whole band is pretty
happy with "Hive Jive".
I personally feel like it’s
much more of our own “Honeybees”
sound. There’s a lot of
different stuff on it - slow
songs, upbeat songs, straight
rock’n’roll, rockabilly.
Billy Horton did a good job of
tying everything together, though.
When there’s more than one
person writing songs, it offers a
lot more diversity in what kind
of tunes we can put out there.
The CD's gonna be great. Everyone
should buy one!
Barb, tell us about your
side project : the Johnny Cash/June
Carter tribute with Mars Attacks?
Barbara - Well!
…Back at the last Green bay
festival (2005 Rockin’ 50’s
Fest)
I met Martin from Mars Attacks.
We talked and discovered we are
much the same when it comes to
managing our bands, same music
fanatics, and always wanting to
play. We’ve become great,
great friends since then. Blue
Lake Records owner, Juan
Rodriguez, was at Green bay also.
He found out The Honeybees were
going to play Screamin’ Fest
and invited us to come record in
Switzerland since we were going
to make a vacation out of it.
When I told him all Honeybees
were not going the whole time, he
invited us anyway and said he’d
get a backing band for us in the
studio. Out of that, we needed a
name that wasn’t The
Honeybees so we chose The
Wuanabees, which has multiple
meanings. Juan is his name but he
didn’t want it spelled
Juanabees (my choice). So we
changed the J to a W. A wannabee
means to want to be something you
aren’t. Just like we wanna
bee Honeybees. Ha, get it?
Anyway, Martin wrote us a song
for our recording session called
“Lush”, a slang word
that means someone who drinks a
lot and all the time. A name I
often called Martin. We recorded
it with Martin but he also
decided that Mars Attacks wanted
to record it. (It is on their
‘Circle of Love’ CD)
Okay, you with me so far? The
joke about it is we never
released it, only Mars Attacks,
and it was supposed to be for The
Wuanabees. Well, at the 10th
Rockabilly Rave, Mars Attacks
played and they invited me on
stage to sing harmony with Roland
on that song. We discovered we
sound really good together and it
went over really well! Then, this
past October 2006, Martin invited
the Honeybees to play at the
Rockabilly Bombardment 3 but
again, the whole band couldn’t
go. It was supposed to be Rachel,
Theresa and myself but Theresa
didn’t make it. With the 3
girls, it passed as The
Honeybees, without her, it should
have been The Wuanabees but it
was too late. They had already
printed and pressed posters with
Honeybees on it. Mars Attacks
ended up being our support band
for the show. In the process,
they were trying to add another
band to the bill and Martin and I
came up with the idea of a duet
show. I loved it. I researched 10-15
songs of which only 1 was Cash/Carter.
The rest was Louie Prima &
Keely Smith, Tennessee Ernie
& Kay Star, and Frank &
Nancy Sinatra, and more. I wanted
to do a variety of duets but
Martin changed it to an all Cash/Carter
set without me knowing. The movie
“Walk The Line” had
just come out over in Europe but
it had been out for a while in
the US. I didn’t want to do
all Cash/Carter stuff because I
thought people would just think
it was a copycat act. But it
turned out really well! People
really liked it and wanted more!
So I wrote 4 original duets to
satisfy my need of not being all
copycat and we learned the rest
of the songs on both parts of the
world. Thank goodness for MP3’s
and the Internet! I arrived in
Austria early and we rehearsed
twice together before the big
show. Amazing band they are.
Really professional and learned
both Honeybees songs and the Cash/Carter
songs and knew them all. They
really are good, those boys. And
since Mars Attacks is coming to
play Green bay again, they wanted
to tour before it. We thought we
should play the Cash/Carter show
since we’re going to be
together again. So we put a tour
together starting May 3rd in
Austin, Texas working our way
back to Chicago. We actually
recorded more Wuanabees stuff
after the Bombardment and in the
same night, we recorded a demo
for the Cash/Carter show. I’m
not sure when that’ll be
done but it will also be on the
Blue Lake Record label. As well,
I think Juan is releasing a
Wuanabees CD that should be ready
and for sale at Green bay. We
have enough songs recorded.
How do you work with one
part of the band in Europe and
you in the USA?
Barbara - I
don’t know. Really. I ask
that same question. How the heck
do we rehears? But it’s
possible. I recorded my originals
on my laptop with my old guitar
player, Shawn, playing along.
Then I email or mail a disc to
Martin, he learns them, plays
them for Mars Attacks, and they
learned them over there. Then
email or mail me back a disc from
the practice and I can sing along
here at home. So far, it’s
been working. If we get more
opportunities to play, it’s
a lot easier for me to tour solo.
It’s cheaper and I am a
flight attendant (in addition to
a café owner) for a domestic
airline that I get great
international benefits from.
Is this an all cover
project or do you write songs and
try to get the spirit of Cash
& Carter?
Barbara - I’ve
written 4 songs that we did play
LIVE and we recorded in
Switzerland. And I have more in
my head. I am writing them to
sound like Cash/Carter. Although,
they probably will be a few
rockabilly and blues songs, it’s
still the point of being duets. I’d
like to add more originals but I
love the covers. I love singing
with Roland. And Martin and I are
always challenging each other to
write more so we may collaborate
on some too. We’ll see.
Do you have plans to
release some stuff with that
band?
Barbara - YES!
Like I mentioned, we did the demo
but I’d love to make a full
thing out of this. It’s so
good because it can crossover. We
can get into the rockabilly
events and into the common venues
that other genres hosts. Even
country shows. It’s so
widespread, the name CASH.
You've mentionned The
Wuan-a-bees which are in a more
rhythm’n’blues vein.
Barbara - Wuanabees
will be one-shot turned into a
full on thing. We did a few songs
and Juan released 2 on his “Lake,
Rattle, and Roll”
compilation CD. We did about 8
songs in total and this last
October visit, we did another 7 I
think? So he should have enough
for a full-length album. After
that’s done, if anyone over
there wants to hire us, Rachel
and I will come over and play! It’s
more black R&B and R n R.
Saxophone and upright bass which
is what differs us from The
Honeybees.
Rachel - Mainly, I
think that they are really
powerful recordings. The band was
rockin', and I think Barb and I
have pretty strong and balanced
harmonies. It'll be interesting
to see what Juan does with it.
I'd love to tour around with it
someday - those songs are just
fun to sing!
Would you like to add
something, or do you have
something to say to our billions
of readers ;-))
Barbara - Yes,
please request us at your next
weekender, ask for us to be
invited over. Whether the
Honeybees, The Wuanabees or The
Johnny Cash/June Carter Tribute
Show. Buy our CD’s, support
your local band, visit us at
myspace.com, ask me to dance,
tell DJ’s about us, spread
our music around, and we love you
all who do listen to us. Cash/Carter
show is coming to you soon! Oh,
and don’t forget, my other
project (uhhh! I know, how do I
do it?) The Vincent Black Shadows
(not to be confused with Vincent
Black Shadows. They are quite
edgy and contemporary and doing
well. Don’t know how we’ll
deal with the name. I think the
even played at the last Hootenany
here in the USA.) I’m a back
up singer for this project. Talk
about girl group! We’re on
myspace.com too!
Rachel - I
look forward to meeting EACH AND
EVERYONE of you!! And oh yeah, do
you have a couch we can crash on
when we‘re in your
neighborhood?
Thanks
a million to both of you...
The
Honeybee's website
The
Honeybee's on Myspace
The
Vincent Black Shadows
The Johnny
Cash - June Carter Tribute Show
|
