© 2001
The Nugget Newspaper
Sisters, Oregon
All rights reserved

Send us an email

Blue D'Arts release new CD
By Jim Cornelius

Sisters' seminal band The Blue D'Arts has hit the streets with their new CD, "123 Yeah."

The title is taken from the enthusiastic style in which bass player Johnny Smorgasbord counts off songs on stage and in the studio.

The "one, two, three, yeah!" count off that opens the CD is a ticket into a collection of songs that captures the funky fun of a Blue D'Arts live performance.

That may be because the CD was recorded in a relaxed atmosphere in guitarist Dennis McGregor's home studio.

"We used live mics in the room, so it has an ambient room sound," said Smorgasbord, who produced the record. "It just has more of a live sound."

The band was more or less forced to do things that way due to time and money constraints, but the result has more warmth and swinging feel that might have been found otherwise.

The band was painstaking in their recording work and took their time to get each track right, a luxury that doesn't exist when the clock is running on studio time and every minute counts.

"We're striving for perfection on a small budget," Smorgasbord explained.

So, little by little, the band, which also features Scott Hersh on keyboards, crafted their 13-song effort.

McGregor and Smorgasbord split songwriting duties. Interestingly, the musicians, who have played together on and off since 1970, do not collaborate directly in their songwriting.

"We bounce ideas off each other, but for some reason we pretty much come with a song complete," Smorgasbord said.

"Complete" isn't really complete, however. The band works on arrangements together, and songs often come out way different than they came in.

The D'Arts bring together a mix of American music styles -- folk, blues and jazz. According to McGregor, the players are all heavily influenced by 1940s jump swing, but their instrumentation -- acoustic guitar, harmonica, violin bass and keys instead of prominent horns -- gives that sound a twist.

"When you mix those ingredients in different amounts, there's infinite combinations" that can result, McGregor said.

While the songs on "123 Yeah" retain The Blue D'Arts' usual sense of whimsy, they are not novelty songs. The CD wears well on repeated spins.

Two of the songs "Pardon My French" and "Mother Nature and the Man in the Moon" date back to Smorgasbord and McGregor's 1970s career. The rest were written over the past three years.

Smorgasbord says he's happy with the results and continues to look on it all as a labor of love.

"We just have a whole lot of fun doing it," he said.

"123 Yeah" is available in Sisters at Paulina Springs Book Company and at Boomtown and Ranch Records in Bend.

Back to front page