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Singer produces divergent, rockabilly-flavored effort
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal music writer
Published on Sunday, Sep 21, 2008
It's been six years since Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders released their last album, Loose Screw. In the interim, Hynde and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the singer who left Akron 35 years ago to seek fame and fortune in the U.K. has returned to live part time in her hometown. Hynde has also become involved in revitalizing and beautifying downtown Akron, and opened a vegetarian restaurant, Vegiterranean.
Somewhere in all of that activity, Hynde also found the time to record a brand-new Pretenders album, Break Up the Concrete, to be released on Tuesday.
The album is the band's ninth and is an interesting left turn in its catalog, particularly after the straightforward Loose Screw.
''Yeah, it wasn't that great. We did as good as we could at the time with our limited skills,'' Hynde said of that album while munching down a veggie burger at the restaurant.
For Break Up the Concrete, Hynde recruited a mostly new
batch of musicians, including English guitarist James Walbourne, pedal steel player Eric Heywood, bassist Nick Wilkinson (who has been with the band for a couple of years) and legendary session drummer Jim Keltner.
The album, a stripped-down roots-rock affair with a healthy heap of rockabilly mixed in, also marks the first time in 18 years that original drummer Martin Chambers does not appear on a Pretenders album, though he is still a part of the touring unit.
Recorded in under two weeks with Hynde in the producer's chair, the album's 11 tracks were written by Hynde, save Rosalee, which is by Bob Kidney of 15-60-75 the Numbers Band. Hynde said spending time in Akron and hanging out with multimillionaire film producer Steve Bing heavily informed the sound and the songwriting.
''I had a sort of epiphany when I was in Joshua Tree National Park. Also when Steve Bing brought Jerry Lee Lewis to Akron (for a Civic Theatre benefit concert last year), that was the beginning of the changeover in my head,'' she said. Hynde also played a Jerry Lee Lewis tribute concert in Cleveland a few weeks later.
''There were all these Nashville musicians behind me and I thought, 'Wow, these guys are really great.' And I sort of jokingly said, 'I can feel my dreaded country album coming on,' because I've never been a fan of country music, per se.''
But Hynde said after the concert experience and spending quality time in Akron, she ''started to get that hillbilly vibe, you know, that kind of more rootsy [feel].''
So recording began, but neither the sound nor the songs were quite right. Hynde turned again to her buddy Bing.
''I said, 'I want to use a different drummer, because Martin has a real signature sound and I want to find something else here.' And Martin is a hero and he was totally OK with that. When Bing suggested Keltner, it was like 'mazel tov!' '' she said. Bing also suggested Hynde produce the record herself.
''We just stayed in the studio and recorded two songs a day. And we made a lot of Akron references. There were certainly a lot of Akron references in the lyrics, but also for the sound,'' she said.
That sound is American roots rock (with the help of an Englishman and a Kiwi) and to enhance the old-school sound, Hynde splits the two guitarists hard left and right in the audio mix.
Walbourne, who Hynde said has been a ''big, big revelation,'' makes his presence known immediately on the album's opening track, Boots of Chinese Plastic, unleashing twangy rockabilly licks while Hynde's staccato pronouncements recall the tough talk of songs such as Tattooed Love Boys.
Likewise, the equally energetic Don't Cut Your Hair finds Keltner tapping out a syncopated groove while guitar lines from Walbourne and Heywood (who played with alt-country band Son Volt) bounce off each other. The title track, which rides a Bo Diddley groove, was inspired by spending too many hours on the tour bus watching cars and highways ruin America's picturesque countryside, and by Hynde's longtime disdain for Akron's Innerbelt.
Hynde, whose voice is strong as ever, shows her softer side on ballads, including the bluesy Don't Lose Faith in Me, the easy-rolling acoustic-based love song You Don't Have To, and the quiet, spare One Thing Never Changed.
The album's sole cover is Kidney's blues-flavored Rosalee, a song that has yet to be recorded by the Numbers Band. Hynde chose the song after seeing the band perform it, in part because it reminded her of her halcyon days in Akron.
''I had never seen them do [the song] before, so I asked Terry [Hynde, her brother and the Numbers Band's saxophonist], 'you think Bob can get me a demo of that new song?' He sent it and everyone loved it, and I really loved the demo because it was like when I used to watch Bob down at the Berth in the late '60s, this coffee bar we used to sneak out to.''
Keeping with the off-the-cuff vibe of the sessions, Hynde and the band don't hone the songs to a polished finish. Some tunes simply come to a halt. Throughout the album Hynde can be heard directing the band, including suggesting drum fills to Keltner during the title song, which Hynde said Keltner insisted she keep in the mix.
Break Up the Concrete is a different kind of Pretenders record, but with good tunes and good musicians, it neither sounds nor feels like a band enduring a midlife crisis or a desperate stab at courting a country audience (hello, Bon Jovi, Jessica Simpson and Darius ''Hootie & the Blowfish'' Rucker). Rather it's the sound of a band and its leader stretching out of the comfort zone for the sole purpose of trying something different.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
It's been six years since Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders released their last album, Loose Screw. In the interim, Hynde and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the singer who left Akron 35 years ago to seek fame and fortune in the U.K. has returned to live part time in her hometown. Hynde has also become involved in revitalizing and beautifying downtown Akron, and opened a vegetarian restaurant, Vegiterranean.
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