Chrissie Hynde (Photo by Jill Furmanovsky; used with permission)
The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, has released a new solo album of covers titled Valve Bone Woe, on September 6 (via BMG), one day before she celebrates her 58th birthday. Scroll down to hear several of the tracks.
Valve Bone Woe features 14 tracks written by an array of other classic songwriters, including Brian Wilson, Hoagy Carmichael, John Coltrane, Nick Drake, and Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Hynde will be performing as part of the BBC’s Proms in the Park in Hyde Park on Sept. 14. Further information on this show is available here.
Valve Bone Woe was recorded with the Valve Bone Woe Ensemble at Air Studios in London.
About the album, Hynde says, “A few years back when I saw an obit in the paper for the valve-trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, I mailed my jazz sax-playing brother, saying ‘R.I.P. Bob Brookmeyer.’ Terry, a man of few words, responded with ‘Valve Bone Woe,’ a kind of Haiku beatnik prose.
“I thought that was a perfect title for the album I’d been working on with producer Marius de Vries. After we’d recorded ‘I Wish You Love’ for the Eye Of The Beholder soundtrack I’d often expressed a desire to do more along those lines. What eventually emerged was the idea to do what we refer to as our Jazz/Dub album.
The Pretenders’ famously covered the Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing” on their 1980 debut album. (Shortly thereafter, Hynde and Davies had a relationship and a daughter.) On her new solo effort, Hynde tackles a fairly obscure 1967 Davies composition, “No Return.”
“No Return” first appeared on the Kinks’ Something Else album.
“Jazz got sidelined by rock ’n’ roll in the ’60s,” says Hynde. “But now the demise of rock seems to be heralding in a newfound interest in it, the most creative and innovative musical forms of the 20th century. I’m happy to jump on the bandwagon.”
Listen to Hynde’s cover of the Beach Boys’ “Caroline, No” from Valve Bone Woe
“I’m not hugely interested in branching out into other musical genres, being a devout rock singer as such, but jazz is something I grew up around (thanks to my bro) and I’ve always had a soft spot for it. I often bemoan what I regard as a decline in melody in popular music and I wanted to sing melodies. Plus, I have a penchant for cover songs; it’s the surprise of singing something that I didn’t think of writing myself that turns me on.”
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Listen to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Hello, Young Lovers” from the album
Related: Our Album Rewind of the Pretenders’ debut album
2 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationThe Pretenders also released an obscure Davies composition on Pretenders II. Though “I Go To Sleep” was never formally included on any Kinks album a demo was released on the reissue of “Kinda Kinks”.
I love it! Go Chrissie! Preteders fan here..