Two tunes from The Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine (featuring Colin Gawel) - “Hey Little Girl” b/w “Stike Up The Band” - will be released on a limited-edition 45 rpm vinyl single this Friday, June 12th. Copies will initially only be available at Lost Weekend Records with more outlets to follow.
Okay, let’s face facts: on my Ricki C. 67-year old guy planet, where I grew up listening to music first in my dad’s Oldsmobile in 1957, then on a little Philco transistor radio pressed up against my ear because radio headphones (or earbuds) hadn’t been invented yet in 1965, then to various record players, stereos, cassette decks, CD players & such, Digital Content means NOTHING to me. I have never downloaded a song, I have no idea how streaming services work, and I can MAYBE listen to Sirius/XM radio in the house if my lovely wife Debbie is in the room to dial it up for me on the computer. (I do know how to work it in the car.)
As such, I have never actually heard the two tunes Colin recorded in 2015 with The Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine, because until this coming Friday the songs were only available as digital downloads. I was at the session for the recording of those tunes: the musicians - Colin & Andy Harrison on guitars, Matt Reber on bass and drummer extraordinaire Sam Brown - played great and NAILED the Willie tunes and producer Mark Landolt employed his best “Bash it down and we’ll tart it up later” Nick Lowe production technique to keep the tunes loose & rockin’. I think the whole deal MIGHT have taken two hours, but what a great 120 minutes it was. (editors note: Rick Kinsinger was there too, plugging and unplugging things.)
And now I’ll get to hear the product of that session on vinyl for the first time courtesy of Kyle Siegrist and the gang at Lost Weekend Records.
I can’t wait. - Ricki C. / June 10th, 2020
(ps. Also coming out today on Lost Weekend Records is the split single of “Stick It!” by The Thee’s; and on the flip-side label & store owner Kyle Siegrist teams with Thee’s vocalist Myra Power on a cover of Columbus faves Times New Viking’s “Teenage Lust!” This and the Tribute Machine single were originally intended for this year’s Covid-19 delayed National Record Store Day, an annual celebration meant to honor and advance the cause of indie record stores everywhere.)
(Included below, some data and various links from the original Pencil Storm blog about The Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine from July 6th, 2015.)
“Willie’s skin was the color of baker’s chocolate. He sang like Wilson Pickett, wore his Telecaster upside down like Hendrix, and had Elvis Costello’s gift for cutting a pop gem. He didn’t play second to James Brown when putting on a show. He’s as good as we’ve ever seen. Who else is there? Prince? Springsteen?” – Joe Oestreich, Hitless Wonder
If you Googled the name Willie Phoenix you wouldn’t learn much. Like another “Searching for Sugarman” it seems impossible that a musician with a career spanning thousands of songs, concerts & live gigs could still remain a virtual mystery in this day and age.
This much we know: Willie was born in Marion, Ohio, in 1952 and has done NOTHING but play rock n roll since 1969. He doesn’t drink or smoke. Nobody knows where he lives. Nobody has ever had his phone number. Bandmates would wait by their phones for a pay phone call from Willie for practice and gig information. He plays a show or records a new song every night. Always.
The Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine is an attempt by Columbus, Ohio, musicians to preserve Willie’s legacy and draw attention to his enormous talents, which have inspired and entertained so many people in Central Ohio over the past forty years. Please enjoy these free cover versions drawn from Willie’s back catalog, but more importantly, catch Willie playing live or drop him a line on Facebook and let him feel your love. PLEASE send all Willie Phoenix stories, pictures, or discography info Shadowlords The Willie Phoenix Fanpages on Facebook.
Click here to visit WilliePhoenix.com and all things Willie
A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE TUNES, FROM RICKI C., LONGTIME PHOENIX ROADIE.
(FOR MORE ON WILLIE, CHECK OUT THE BALLAD OF WILLIE PHOENIX, ON RICKI’S BLOG, GROWING OLD WITH ROCK & ROLL.)
“Hey Little Girl” – I can’t remember the first time I heard this song. I know it was from the first incarnation of The Buttons, circa early 1979 when Dee Hunt was still the drummer. (The recorded version, self-released by The Buttons on a 7-inch 45 in 1980, featured Jerry Hanahan on drums.) Willie was just putting so many new songs into the set back then, it would make your head spin. I’m pretty sure this was from a particularly Elvis Costello-inspired period that also brought “Take My Advice” into the repertoire.
“Strike Up The Band” – This was the third song I ever heard Willie play, from when I ventured out a week after The Great Blizzard of 1978 to see Romantic Noise on February 3rd, 1978. I have a heroically garbled tape of that show, made on one of those little dawn-of-time portable Panasonic cassette recorders, that I had brought to the show to interview Willie, for my punk fanzine, Teenage Rampage. (see blog referenced above) On that tape I can be heard saying – in reference to “Strike Up The Band” – “This sounds like the 1910 Fruitgum Company crossed with The Ramones.” I stand by that statement to this day in 2015. It was Willie’s early genius to cross classic pop with punk intensity into one of the greatest mixtures of power-pop I have ever witnessed.
In Music Tags willie phoenix, willie phoenix tribute machine, colin gawel, sam brown, mike landolt, Ricki C.