ALBUM REVIEW: The Claudettes Take Far-Out Sound Farther and Wider
Grant Britt
Posted On October 14, 2022
The Claudettes have come a long way from their early days in Chicago dive bars, when blues pianist Johnny Iguana and percussionist Michael Caskey were hired and occasionally leased out by a bar owner named Claudette.
Six years ago, Iguana and Caskey sought to fill out their lineup by adding bassist/guitarist Zach Verdoorn and the sleek, sensuous vocals of Berit Ulseth, making their sound fuller without taking away any of the otherworldly qualities of Iguana’s bluesy, outer-spacey keyboard explorations.
Caskey’s resume included providing thumps and fills behind Chuck Mangione and Koko Taylor, while Iguana tinkled around with heavy bluesers including Otis Rush and Junior Wells. Along with Iguana’s steadily increased interest in rockin’ harder, Ulseth’s sultry stylings have brought the band closer to mainstream consciousness as they demonstrate on their latest album, The Claudettes Go Out!
With Iguana’s piano sounding like a venerable, beer-soaked saloon denizen, “Dozing in the Crypt” choogles along smartly enough to get listeners up and prancing until Iguana unearths a bucketload of head-spinning Phantom of the Opera-ish riffs while Ulseth narrates a hip tale about he who lies sleeping till his time comes round again.
The band offers up its most straight-up, genre-definable composition to date with the country honk of “Time Won’t Take Our Times Away.” Ulseth’s roots are showing as she displays the technique that got her recruited for the band by Iguana when she was singing with a Chicago country outfit. Iguana tries valiantly to restrain himself like Jerry Lee Lewis trying to go straight while Verdoorn lays in some weepy, shimmery stuff on guitar.
“Exposure” is a mind-bending approximation of the B-52’s covering Devo on a spaghetti western odyssey.
Iguana’s impressive songwriting skills are on display throughout the album, but his self-aware alcohol appraisal on “Cowboy” is a standout. Ulseth starts it out as a light, poppy take on art rearing its ugly head, interfering with having too much fun with liquids: “I just know that drinking is my calling / It’s what I was put on this earth to do / But music distorts my vision / Gives me unrealistic ambitions /And I’m tired of all the revisions.” Ulseth comes across like Marianne Faithfull warbling on a lost track from a late-’60s Stones release, with Iguana’s piano riff borrowed from “Let’s Spend the Night Together.”
The Claudettes may have gone out, but they haven’t sold out. Even approaching a more mainstream soundscape, it’s still the quirkiest sound around.
The Claudettes Go Out! is out Oct. 14 on 40 Below Records.
