Regular Afterworders might have noticed I’ve posted a couple of clips featuring the Hardchargers recently. The ‘Chargers feature ‘Lonesome’ Chris Todd (electric guitar/resonator/vocal), Richard ‘Hodge’ Hodgen (dr/washboard) and Dave ‘Laughing Boy’ Thompson (bass/ukulele bass).
They are the missing link between Charley Patton and the Who – well, I think so. Blistering, telepathic, intense rock with howling field hollers and skiffle technology. After seven years playing up and down Ireland in a status somewhere between semi-pro and pro, up to 80 gigs a year (which in Ireland, trust me, is some going – it has nowhere near the live infrastructure or opportunities of Britain or Northern Europe), the first five months of 2017 will see a short sabbatical in above-ground ‘Charger activity.
A devut album, however, is being recorded right now with engineer ‘Late-Night Tony’ Furnell in Belfast, provisionally entitled ‘Scarecrow’, to be released nationally in May, at which point the chaps will tour Ireland. Hopefully, by then, cunning plans having been (a) thought of and (b) come to fruition, opportunities to play further afield, including Britain, will have solidified.
The vinyl-length album will feature 8 tracks – 6 cherry-picked originals and 2 blues classics in ‘Chargerified form – and include textures enriched by Scott Flanigan (Hammond), Linley Hamilton (brass), Amanda Agnew (backing vocal) and a mysterious banjo player.
In the meantime, ‘Lonesome’ Chris can be seen around Britain during Spring 2017 playing lead guitar in Billy ‘Boy’ Miskimmin’s Mercy Lounge.
I’ve been chuffed to have been involved, oiling a couple of wheels around the album project, and hopefully Afterworders will like the end result or maybe get a chance to hear them live in 2017.
If anyone wants to recommend any gigs/bookers local to you that might be up for an evening of Hardcharger intensity, or an evening of the Hardchargers in 1930s duo form (Chris & Hodge), feel free – I’ll pass the info on. Getting an agent for Britain is currently on the table. (A standard show is 2 1/2 hours in three parts: resonater/washboard/uke bass downhome grooves; electric originals; then a handful of blistering blues/rock covers at the end.)
So, you heard it here first. Meanwhile, here’s a clip of the chaps having some fun with ‘Apache’ at a show in Dublin a few months back.
Strangely disconcerting seeing the street going about its business through the window…..
‘The street going about its business’ is even more apparent in this clip, but something of the magic is still apparent!
The hum/buzzing at the start of Apache in the OP could be due to badly shielded guitar pick-ups as discussed on the Santana/McLaughlin thread, or it could be just a dodgy earth in one of the amps. @twang is more technically savvy than I am, so…. over to him.
Did you enjoy the music, JC?
Yes, it was rollicking good fun AND they did it without a Bruce Welch figure on rhythm guitar.
They Welched on giving the punters the original version…
I’ve only seen their act four times – once at a small festival in July, once at Monaghan Blues Fest (the full act in a bar – incendiary!), once at the Anchor Bar in Newcastle (NI) – a place too full of weirdos for the show to be fully enjoyable – and finally on Christmas Eve at a hipster bar in Bangor, Co.Down, where it was sensational again.
Final album overdubs (brass, piano, BVs) happening tomorrow from 10a.m. – which will be unsettling, in a self-explanatory way, for studio wizz Late-Night Tony – including for this track, ‘Charger Swing’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOT2Ci-qbfg&t=126s
Nice. A touch of Rory Gallagher going on there.
I checked: Lonesome Chris concedes there might be a bit of Rory influence in his playing – but his key influences are emphatically certain pre-war guys: Bukka White, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, along with Lightnin’ Hopkins and Hubert Sumlin (although not the Chicago school in general), plus a couple of 1970s people: Lowell George, Roy Buchanan, Johnny Winter.
Sounds exciting. I recommend you commission Pencilsqueezer to do the cover art. 😉
Alas, the coffers will be empty after tomorrow’s sesh, and only credit remains… But actually – as mind-blowing as Pencil’s art is – Lonesome Chris has a long-treasured cover concept in mind, which I believe he’s taking care of in the next few days prior to the sabbatical/sojourn/interlude with Bill.