I first came across Chicago’s The Claudettes when I was writing for Louder Than Water and had the pleasure of reviewing their Dance Scandal at the Gymnasium album in 2018. That was the start of a Transatlantic love affair with their music which continues to this day, and witnessing the band playing live remains as one of my bucket list gigs.
While the band has gone through several line-up changes over the years, at the core to of The Claudettes and their sound is the much-fêted blues pianist Johnny Iguana whose CV is the length of your arm and reads like a list of great and the good of lauded blues musicians. In recent years he is also credited as co-composer, with Jeffrey Qaiyum (JQ), with scoring the first four seasons of the impeccable TV drama The Bear. One of the key personal changes for this album is the introduction of their new vocalist Rachel Williams. I say new as, while Rachel has been with the band now since 2023 following the departure of long-term vocalist Berit Ulseth, Garage Glamour is the first album to feature Rachel on vocals. The band’s line-up is completed by Michael Caskey on drums and Zach Verdoorn on bass and guitar. Together they create a glorious, or should that be glamorous, racket, high on chic polished style and rich on substance, at times with a gritty edge andwith a real raw passion shining through at its heart. The music on Garage Glamour is summed up perfectly in the album’s title.
The album opens in epically dramatic style as Rachel Williams duets with the legendary Chicago blues guitarist and vocalist John Primer who, as well as an illustrious career as a front man, has played with such luminaries of the scene as Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters. I initially struggled to get past this song, which is not a slight on the rest of the album,but a comment on just how much I love this song and kept hitting the back button. (You Are My) Whole World is an emotively touching and elegantly swoon-some song of deep love and devotion. The raw emotion displayed in Williams and Primer’s vocals as they bounce off of each other perfectlyis electrifying. If I was a religious man, I’d say this was a vocal pairing from heaven, it sent tingles down my spine when I first heard it, and that impact is still palpable, each providing the yin to the other’s yang, And that’s just the opener…
Winter Came While You Were Gone picks up the baton with a laidback, tenderly melancholic, groove to match the post relationship blues theme of the lyrics in the verses, the tempoincreases with an impassioned bittersweet chorus, Rachel’s vocals demonstrating a defiant strength paired with some vibrant keyboard flourishes. Riffing on the keys is a themethat continues into the “heist-gone-wrong chiller” That Could be Arranged, the song has a sultry dreamlike quality with Rachel’s breathy vocal soundtracked by a melody with suitably simmering tension, with the chilling element alluded to in the press release coming halfway through the song signalled by a sinister laugh from Rachel filled with latent intent, as the lyrics reveal a series of actions indicating a double cross with murderous intentions… “Does that drink taste funny? You don’t like it? Did I spike it? No, honey, that would be deranged…”
The intent is entirely different on Touch You Back, the first single to be released from the album, a playful lyric tells the story of the romantic target of the character in the song being totally oblivious to her advances, all soundtracked with themajestic splendour of a bluesy funk groove, from guest guitarist Ella Feingold. Another single from the album was the band taking on the cover of a song from a bona fide rockabilly legend in the shape of the Wanda Jackson B-side, Whirlpool. Their cover of the song has The Claudettes written all over it, at its core it stays true to the essence and origins of the song and its rockabilly roots with some sonorous twanging guitar lines, then when you add Rachel’s rich swagger-laden vocal, and Johnny adds some delectable bluesy flourishes, you have a perfect tribute to Wanda.
There are times on this album where I can hear parallels between Rachel’s vocals, and in some of the musical stylings,of my namesake, Carol Hodge. One of the most prominent of these moments is during the boisterously headstrong Mr Pecker’s Apoplexy, inspired by the real-life spat between billionaire Jeff Bezos and infamous media executive David Pecker. There is a certain histrionic turmoil and theatrical drama about the arrangement of the song with an unbridledvisceral vocal packed with an incandescent fervour. Thetheatrical drama changes to a suitably lurching, jerking and careening melody, a heady brew that befits a song such as No Matter How Much with the central character bemoaning her relationship status and blaming all her ills on her “magic potion” – “No matter how many bottles of magic potion I drink, No matter how much 100-proof, Kentucky magic potion I drink, I’m stuck alone and unlucky.”
The Aftermath is a somewhat quirky and hypnotically discombobulating song, Rachel’s vocal has a haunting sadness to it, like a questioning voice lost in the wilderness of the afterlife…The closing two songs on the album are most definitely songs of our times. In these most dystopian of days, no matter where you are, with the rise of right-wing fascist ideologies apparent on both sides of the Atlantic, actively encouraged by those in power, the songs shine like a beacon of hope. While both tackle the current delicate balance that has humanity wobbling on the brink of total meltdown, they do so in a very different manner. The album’s penultimate track, Don’t Give it Up to the Thieves, is an urgent plea to hold strong in these trouble times, and not let yourself be overwhelmed or give up hope, continuing to stand up for what is right for humanity and not get dragged down into combative behaviours while yearning for the innocence and naivety of youth. I am drawn to thinking about Gil Scott-Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, when I listen. Maybe it’s the urgency of the vocal delivery or the resonance of the bass led rhythm, whatever it is this, song has a powerful essence to it, that gives a feeling of defiance in the face of adversity.
The album opened with a song packed with raw passion and emotion, so it is only fitting that they close the album with the same ardency. There is no Other Side reveals itself with more of a delicate fragility, opening its soul to the world, with all the power coming from the words, a strong message given in the few lines delivered with a genuine heartfelt compassion. I read two meanings into these words, maybe its because I’m a died in the wool atheist, but one of these meanings I take to being that you only have one life and there are no second chances, so make the most of it. The other harks back to theloss of our universal love and innocence of youth from Don’t Give it Up to the Thieves and spreads the message that, no matter what hate, narratives and agendas are spouted by those who will try to divide us, we are all in this together and we need to realise before it’s too late. “Anger starts to die when you realize: Heaven, hell and war are built on lies. There is no other side.” Powerfully thought-provoking stuff.