Week 18 of 52 Weeks - Sunnyroad (Emilíana Torrini, 2005)

Week 18 - Emilíana Torrini.

I love good story telling and many of the musicians and songs I love usually spins a good yarn. This song by the Icelandic singer Emilíana Torrini tells a beautiful one and when I first heard it, I wished that I had written it!  The challenge of covering this particular song was how to make it our own.  Luckily Rebekah had a brilliant idea of bringing in a trumpet.  I really love how it came out. 

Emilíana Torrini has released many albums and has done some interested collaborations with the likes of Thievery Corporation and Kylie Minogue.  If you are Lord of the Ring’s fan, she’s the singer that sang “Gollum’s Song.”

Week 16 of 52 Weeks - Rum and Coca-Cola (the Andrews Sisters, 1945)

Week 16 - The Andrews Sisters. 

I have such a love for harmonies, so of course I love the Andrews Sisters.  I’ve been wanting to cover one of their songs for a long, long time and finally we were able to do it with help from one of our accordion sisters, Jennie Muoio!  We were going with the beach/summer theme but didn’t realize the actual words till we really learned the song.  Musically it’s such a cute song but the words are, well morally questionable to say the least! It seems like a similar thing happened to the Andrew Sisters.  They recorded the song with 10 minutes to spare in their recording session. Years later, Maxine Andrews recalled, "The rhythm was what attracted the Andrews Sisters to 'Rum and Coca-Cola'. We never thought of the lyrics. The lyric was there, it was cute, but we didn't think of what it meant; but at that time, nobody else would think of it either, because we weren't as morally open as we are today and so, a lot of stuff—really, no excuses—just went over our heads.”  The song was banned by network radio stations despite being a big hit, because it mentioned….an alcoholic beverage!  Things were certainly different back then. 

Anyway, hope you enjoy the song and if you are in NYC area, please come see us next Sunday (8/7) at Rockwood Music Hall.  It’s going to be a special one because Jennie is going to make a guest appearance, yay!