The Accidentals
by Dermot Whittaker
The following review appeared in the November 2006 issue of Middlesex Beat. All rights reserved.
Nothing about the blue-jeaned, everyday appearance of The Accidentals suggests what Marlborough-based vocal group can do onstage. Catch them mid-performance while they lend their voices to Gavin DeGraw’s “Chariot” or the Aretha Franklin/Dusty Springfield standard “Son of a Preacher Man,” and you’ll be won over by their harmonies, enthusiasm, sincerity. Their originals, sung pretty straight, will catch you off-guard with a somber-stoic lyric. You’ll cast about in vain for influences: Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks? Stax Records? The Carpenters?? Meanwhile, as they change gears again with a new, faster number, you’ll notice your heart racing to a driving instrumental break with the drums and keyboard pounding the rhythm equally, and the tambourine flying.
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The Accidentals. (Photo courtesy of www.accidentalsmusic.com) |
What began as a backing group for the
songwriting of singer-guitarist Steve Howard has evolved over the past two-and-a-half years into a musical collaborative that
includes arranging by all the members and songwriting by several. Somewhere along the way The Accidentals’ sound took
over; a spirit of musical play and experimentation shows up in everything the band does. Bassist Jon Hansen likes to refer
to the group's style as "blue wop" in reference to their four-part harmonies and soulful material.
In 2004, when Howard
began recording October Song, a CD of his own material, he encouraged his wife Marge to sing harmony. Howard asked
vocalist Jess Andra to join them on the recordings. "We'd sit in the living room and work out just the vocal arrangements
and it really sounded strong," says Howard. He soon thought, "If we could just do this live, it would be awesome." Live performances
led to more additions: Hansen on bass guitar and Todd Verdun on keyboard, guitar and vocals. The band's most recent member
is drummer Bruce Hanahan who has played everything from hard rock to jazz.
The Accidentals' handling of covers marks them as different. A coffee house standard like John Prine’s "Angel from Montgomery” is transformed through Verdun’s Steppenwolf-style organ intro. The usually somnolent “Imagine” by John Lennon receives a good shaking and an extravagant high school chorale treatment in the second verse, a good-natured send up that the band softly echoes as the song ends. Their version of “Seasons of Love” from Rent is dead-on, drawing on the group's vocal and instrumental strengths. The Accidentals slow the Bacharach-David song “I Say a Little Prayer” to a walk and bring out new beauty in the melody while featuring their own harmonies.
Originals make up nearly half of the group's material. Most of these are from Howard's songbook: love ballads, humorous Texas swing influenced numbers, songs with a strong folk flavor. “Drive a Truck,” a seemingly light-hearted road song, creates room for audience participation, and "Hercules" charmingly describes a mythical turtle who pulls in unsuspecting youngsters who snag him with the fishing lines. One aspect of Howard’s songwriting is the combination of simple melodies with grown-up lyrics about handling disappointment, facing separation, losing dreams, embracing illusions. “Good Love Gone Bad," "Long Chain of Goodbyes," "Separate Lies" -- you get the picture from these titles. In the song "End of Forever," an anniversary present for his wife, Howard writes more positively about a couple's success. "I used to think that love got a bad rap in music," says Howard. "It's a lot easier to write a song about love gone bad than it is to write a song about love gone good." Verdun, who joined The Accidentals in part to spread his wings as a songwriter, has contributed material that seems especially suited to the group's vocal style. His song "I Tried to Love You," a clear-headed, over-the shoulder look at a failed relationship, is most convincing in the upbeat choruses where the harmony vocals chime in. Two Accidentals originals – Howard’s "Bleedin’ Heart" and "Another Saturday Show" (co-written with Hansen) are on Carter Alan’s “current list” on WZLX's Sunday Morning Blues.
Andra’s high and dexterous voice takes the lead on much of The Accidentals’ material, with rhythm and blues being her particular strength. Verdun's voice matches Andras's in range and power. His boogie-woogie piano playing, another standout feature of the group, has recast many of Howard's older guitar-based songs. Howard sings many of his own songs in a personable, mellow tenor. Marge Howard, besides singing harmony on nearly every song, adds a good deal of swank and soul to what the group does. Hansen puts his bass aside to sing the hip-hop lead on the group's cover of “Where Is the Love?” by the Black-eyed Peas.
There is nothing cute about the Accidentals -- they are fun, touching and smart. An intriguing aspect of the band is the musical theatre background shared by Andras, Hansen, and Hanahan. The group's desire to entertain takes the earnest songwriting of Howard and Verdun and makes it sparkle. It's an experiment you don't often see performed in a club. "Totally different from anything I've ever done," says Verdun who grew up in a family of folk and bluegrass musicians and started playing piano by ear in grade school. Howard finds that his guitar playing is changing and his songs are adapting to the musical possibilities the group has opened up. "I don't think there's a particular ego in the entire thing," he says. "Everyone just pitches in and does what they do." Marge Howard catches the group's new-found spirit of experimentation differently. "In order for us to get better, in order for us to do what people want us to do, we've got to be ever-changing, we've got to be willing to add, take away," she says, adding "It's just got to be a continual work in progress."
The Accidentals' website is www.accidentalsmusic.com
Copyright, Middlesex Beat, 2006. All rights reserved.