NASHVILLE |LOVEMONGERS–
WITH ANN & NANCY WILSON, SUE ENNIS, FRANK COX & BEN SMITH–
RELEASE FIRST FULL-LENGTH STUDIO ALBUM
‘WHIRLYGIG‘
Recent West Coast Tour To Be Followed By East Coast Dates
Heart may be resting, but ANN (vocals, bass) and NANCY WILSON (vocals, guitar) have continued exploring new music with their bandmates in LOVEMONGERS—SUE ENNIS (keyboards), FRANK COX (vocals, guitar) and BEN SMITH(drums & percussion)–by recording their first full-length studio album WHIRLYGIG for the Seattle-based Will Records.
They affirm their independence with 10 bracing songs on the newly released, self-produced album by rediscovering hidden talents, introducing new ones and lyrically delving into subjects they haven’t addressed in years. Among the topics covered on the newly released WHIRLYGIG are single motherhood, first acid trips, a loss of innocence, substance abuse, alter egos, alienation and the AIDS death of a dear friend.
Meanwhile, “Kiss” will be released as a radio track for Valentine’s Day in February and LOVEMONGERS will tour the East Coast in early April, as a follow- up to their recent (December ’97) West Coast swing. “Kiss” was originally written for the Kevin Kline-Meg Ryan movie French Kiss, but the song was not used because the filmmakers changed their minds and decided to go with more standard jazz for the soundtrack, and now LOVEMONGERS are glad they did. A sensuous guitar intro that evolves into a steamy, slow groove frames lovers who “stand in the shadow of bliss.” “Passion does insist,” sings ANN, “We will not resist.”
“It’s very intimate,” ANN says of the song. “When you’re face to face with that one person, the whole rest of the world goes away. You’re truly kind of alone in a space with them.
“Most of the songs are pretty autobiographical in one way or another,” ANN elaborates. “We wanted to get down inside them, not be so clinical. We just made it real lo-fi in a converted rehearsal space, then went into a studio and mixed. And we had fun doing it.”
Adds NANCY: At the time, there was no record company involved and not really any management. So we really had the run of the place and just did exactly how we wanted to do everything. It was especially refreshing for that reason. Like a painter or any other artists, we really curbed our tendencies to overdo. We tried to keep it pretty stripped down and just keep it essential.”
According to ANN, the battle cry for WHIRLYGIG was, “Let’s do what the song tells us to do.”
LOVEMONGERS started with an impromptu performance at the 1991 “Red Cross Concert for Peace.” After playing a number of sold-out shows in Seattle and cutting the Led Zeppelin cover “Battle of Evermore” for the triple platinum Epic Records soundtrack from the movie Singles, they released a four-song CD on Capitol Records titled “Battle of Evermore.” Their live rendition of this song was also included on the recently released benefit compilation–The Bridge School Concerts Vol. One–put together by Neil Young. Later, LOVEMONGERS embarked on their no frills, no pressure recording that produced WHIRLYGIG. They took advantage of the opportunity to color the music by adding flute, dulcimer, mandolin, toy piano and autoharp–instruments NANCY says they’ve brought to sessions for years but had to leave them in the corner gathering dust.
WHIRLYGIG‘s intimacy is especially apparent on the personal “Two Black Lambs,” a stirring song inspired by ANN‘s seven-year-old daughter. ANN explains: “I’m a single mom, I adopted her. I felt that we both had something a little unusual about us and that we needed each other and that we were magnetic together. It could be bonding with anyone who you’re extremely close to in a physical way.”
For NANCY, one of the most fulfilling things about recording WHIRLYGIG was being able to step up as the main guitar player. As she explains, “I’m usually such a team player–I play a little bit of this, a little bit of that, singing here and there, writing, arranging, doing a little bit of everything. I felt really happy to be a little more in the foreground as a singer and as a guitar player.”
WHIRLYGIG is NANCY‘S first project since scoring and writing two songs including the theme “We Meet Again” for Jerry Maguire. “It helps when you’ve been sleeping with the director for 15 years,” she jokes, referring to husband Cameron Crowe. “You finally get the gig.” On WHIRLYGIG, NANCY offers the poppy, ABBA-influenced “Miracle Girl,” “Elysian” and “No School Today”–a memoir of the first acid trip ANN, NANCY and SUE took while still teenagers. They didn’t get away with it, but now they’re getting away with the song.
Says ANN: “The song deals with the kind of pure, free, ‘wow, we’re doing something we shouldn’t be doing here and it’s fun.’ We wanted to do it as a threesome, best friends. The first part of it was so great, it was just the best so we could enjoy innocently being explorers. Then the phone rang because we hadn’t tied up our loose ends. We got caught by my mom and got in trouble.”
THE WILSONS and ENNIS–who has collaborated on many Heart songs–co-wrote seven of the tracks on WHIRLYGIG. Bandmate FRANK, a sometime stand-up comedian, folk singer and impersonator, joined them on two wildly different songs. COX co-wrote the gentle closing track “Sand” with them, in memory of a caretaker who worked for ANN for more than a decade and became such a close friend that he asked for his ashes to be scattered around her property when he died of AIDS. The foursome also concocted “The Vegas Gene” and share their recipe: “Take a shot of DNA, mix it with some Tanqueray, add some glitter and some sin and the fun will soon begin.”
COX got another chance on the mysterious “Heavy Sedation,” where he not only works in the refrain, “Heavy sedation is your salvation,” but “Elvis’ salvation” and “our salvation.”
“He’s able to hold his own with all these women in the band and just be one of us,” ANN says of COX. “It’s no issue. This was written about a couple of his friends. When we play it live, he introduces it by saying, ‘Okay this song is self-explanatory’ and we all go, ‘Oh, okay, we’re still looking for the explanation.’ The production is as much as the words. It’s very stony. It’s one of those don’t try this at home songs.”
Working with LOVEMONGERS does not mean Heart has broken up, say THE WILSONS.
“Heart is something that has been for so long,” explains ANN. “There’s so much baggage attached to it now. We’ve had two big runs with Heart. Right now, NANCY and I feel like traveling light. We’re just letting it rest for a while, letting some time go by.”
NANCY continues: “Because LOVEMONGERS are kind of a trippier, acoustic rock band, it leaves a lot more space in the songs than when you have layers of keyboards and electric guitars. This is a different approach. ANN and I have played together ever since we were nine and we kept on playing all through Heart, but ANN never really ended up playing on stage because she’s the singer. On this project, ANN sings and plays bass. This really has the feeling of who we are as players.”
Early press reports have been glowing. Writing in the Los Angeles Times about a recent Orange County gig, John Roos noted: “Judging by the acoustic- based quartet’s decidedly low-key yet involving performance, this invention works. This time, the only apparent requirements are to play music for the joy of it and to take a few risks. Toward carving out its own identity, the group offered thought-provoking original material ranging in style from folk- tinged to neo-psychedelic rock. Themes included the superficiality of the fashion world (‘Miracle Girl’) and the sadness of domestic violence (‘City on the Hill’) to the innate bond between mother and daughter (‘Two Black Lambs’) and the anticipation of a blossoming romance (‘Kiss’).”
Meanwhile, in a recent feature in Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, Michael Mehle noted: “…the Lovemongers offer a fresh, varied sound centered around folk- pop harmonies and a willingness to experiment.” At the same time, Gene Stout of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer sums it up: “Overall, the semi- autobiographical album is as alluring and beautiful as it is left-of-center.”
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