Disc 320 is...Superior Cackling Hen
Artist: The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir
Year of Release: 1992
What’s Up With The Cover?: A classic example of early nineties arty college-band type album covers, and how bad they are. The BTC are a very upbeat band, though, so I won't go on any further.
How I Came To Know It: Although they had been around in the underground music scene for years, I learned about this band like most people; through the Highway 61 Soundtrack (reviewed back at Disc 230) where they had a single which is by far the catchiest on that album. I went looking for an album after I heard it, and came home with "Superior Cackling Hen".
How It Stacks Up: I only have this one Bourbon Tabernacle Choir (BTC) album. I used to own the follow up effort, "Shy Folk", but I didn't like it very much and sold it years ago. I would be keen to find some of their earlier work, but it's not easy.
Rating: 4 stars.
Back in 1992/93 I was twenty-two years old and working a dead end, minimum wage job and dreaming of a better life. I had graduated from University with an English degree, and had wrongly assumed that was going to assure me of a job in a depressed economy. It was a life lesson in humility I'm glad to have learned, but one that went completely unappreciated at the time.
Enter into my life the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, with a record so different from anything I'd heard before it forced me to stop wallowing and take note. They were a band combining elements of pop, alternative rock and a healthy dollop of RnB.
They had all the usual instruments for a rock band, but by the time "Superior Cackling Hen" had come out they also had a three piece horn section. With eight band members they could've qualified as ska if they'd sped up the tempo of their songs.OK, maybe not the ska thing, but they certainly had the requisite number of band members (no respectable ska band should have less than seven).
Anyway, I heard this record and fell in love with their sound. At a time in my life when I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, the BTC sang songs that playfully told you to pull your socks up, and that had funky tunes that helped you do it. Lyrically it wasn't anything special, but I liked the band's no-nonsense philosophy that each of us is responsible for our own attitude.
As they sing in "Waiting In A Hurry":
Sitting all lonesome, trying to be happy
Wishing I could just dive in
If I wanna be master of the stuff I'm after
I gotta get on and take a spin."
Not brilliant by any means, but at the time it was the message I needed to hear. It didn't give me the full attitude adjustment I needed at the time, but it helped get my feet moving down the right path one step at a time.
There are also vague political themes on the record which could be preachy, but because they stick to character failings and not specifics, they work on a universal level. The BTC is a band that tells you to get your act together, but they do it with a smile and a swing in their step.
Year of Release: 1992
What’s Up With The Cover?: A classic example of early nineties arty college-band type album covers, and how bad they are. The BTC are a very upbeat band, though, so I won't go on any further.
How I Came To Know It: Although they had been around in the underground music scene for years, I learned about this band like most people; through the Highway 61 Soundtrack (reviewed back at Disc 230) where they had a single which is by far the catchiest on that album. I went looking for an album after I heard it, and came home with "Superior Cackling Hen".
How It Stacks Up: I only have this one Bourbon Tabernacle Choir (BTC) album. I used to own the follow up effort, "Shy Folk", but I didn't like it very much and sold it years ago. I would be keen to find some of their earlier work, but it's not easy.
Rating: 4 stars.
Back in 1992/93 I was twenty-two years old and working a dead end, minimum wage job and dreaming of a better life. I had graduated from University with an English degree, and had wrongly assumed that was going to assure me of a job in a depressed economy. It was a life lesson in humility I'm glad to have learned, but one that went completely unappreciated at the time.
Enter into my life the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, with a record so different from anything I'd heard before it forced me to stop wallowing and take note. They were a band combining elements of pop, alternative rock and a healthy dollop of RnB.
They had all the usual instruments for a rock band, but by the time "Superior Cackling Hen" had come out they also had a three piece horn section. With eight band members they could've qualified as ska if they'd sped up the tempo of their songs.OK, maybe not the ska thing, but they certainly had the requisite number of band members (no respectable ska band should have less than seven).
Anyway, I heard this record and fell in love with their sound. At a time in my life when I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, the BTC sang songs that playfully told you to pull your socks up, and that had funky tunes that helped you do it. Lyrically it wasn't anything special, but I liked the band's no-nonsense philosophy that each of us is responsible for our own attitude.
As they sing in "Waiting In A Hurry":
Sitting all lonesome, trying to be happy
Wishing I could just dive in
If I wanna be master of the stuff I'm after
I gotta get on and take a spin."
Not brilliant by any means, but at the time it was the message I needed to hear. It didn't give me the full attitude adjustment I needed at the time, but it helped get my feet moving down the right path one step at a time.
There are also vague political themes on the record which could be preachy, but because they stick to character failings and not specifics, they work on a universal level. The BTC is a band that tells you to get your act together, but they do it with a smile and a swing in their step.
On "Superior Cackling Hen" the BTC like to deliberately complicate their arrangements, and generally they get away with it (a quality that was lacking on their follow up album noted above). Many in the band sing, and most songs feature more than one voice, and the blending works well. You get the impression it is a collaborative effort, with everyone adding their own piece to the sound; something any good band should have.
Collaborative or not, one member always stuck out for me, and that was vocalist Kate Fenner. Her voice was low and sexy and full of playful energy. I'm not ashamed to admit I fell in love with that voice in the same way you fall in love with the lead in a romantic comedy; at a distance, but with an artificial closeness that is comfy all the same.
Collaborative or not, one member always stuck out for me, and that was vocalist Kate Fenner. Her voice was low and sexy and full of playful energy. I'm not ashamed to admit I fell in love with that voice in the same way you fall in love with the lead in a romantic comedy; at a distance, but with an artificial closeness that is comfy all the same.
When the band came to Victoria to play Harpo's later that year, I went even though I think I had $20 to my name at the time and had to work the next day. I even took an advance on my visa card and bought a tour shirt, and in the years that followed I wore the hell out of it.
They put on a hell of a concert - full of energy from start to finish; horn section blasting away, and much whooping and good times being had both on stage and off. I stood up front and danced away, and after the concert I even got Kate Fenner to sign my CD (yes, I brought it down). Here's a picture!
She writes, "luck and love, from Kate Fenner," which I think is as fine an autograph as one could hope for.That was one of the only times I've behaved in such a gratuitous fan-boy way, and I think it fitting that Kate's message wished me exactly what I needed - and the band's music taught me to find it in myself.
I often wish that BTC had enjoyed a long career following, but after 1995's "Shy Folk" they went their own ways and now work on a variety of projects. Maybe that is just as well. From the album art, to their quirky infectious sound and the place they occupy in my musical memory, they were of a time. I do miss the tour shirt though.
Best tracks: Grow, Waiting In A Hurry, Afterglow, Make Amends, Two Clowns, and Rude Groove (for the saxophone solo alone - yeah, you read that right).
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