{"id":11724,"date":"2016-11-11T05:30:14","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T10:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=11724"},"modified":"2016-11-06T10:21:25","modified_gmt":"2016-11-06T15:21:25","slug":"sweet-claudette-what-we-learned-at-bird-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/11\/sweet-claudette-what-we-learned-at-bird-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweet Claudette: What We Learned at Bird Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

On their 2013 For the Birds<\/i> EP, Sweet Claudette successfully blended classic country and Americana, delivering six original tunes in an intimate, homespun style that focused on their vocal strengths. But on Whiskey Drunk on Puppy Love<\/i>, the Asheville foursome has taken a giant leap forward, incorporating Stax and Motown textures into the mix, creating an album of fully-realized pop perfection.<\/p>\n

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Sweet Claudette. L-R: Amanda Platt, Melissa Hyman, Dulci Ellenberger and Amber Sankaran. Photo by Evoke Emotion Photography<\/p><\/div>\n

The group believes that there’s plenty of room left to explore in the styles of Memphis’ Stax and Detroit’s Motown. And many of the original tunes on Whiskey Drunk on Puppy Love<\/i> are cast in that mold. \u201cGenres never get exhausted; there’s always room for more,\u201d says Amanda Platt, one of Sweet Claudette’s four songwriter-vocalists. \u201cTo have original music in a classic genre is a great thing, and should absolutely be continued.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the hands of skilled singers and songwriters, classic-styled arrangements provide infinite possibilities. \u201cOne of my personal favorite things is backup vocals,\u201d says the group’s Dulci Ellenberger. \u201cI love singing them and writing them. And I love hearing all of our ideas come together. If you’ve got it, you may as well use it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group \u2013 originally called For the Birds \u2013 first came together in 2010 when Melissa Hyman organized the second in a series of women’s songwriter showcases. She admits that her initial motivation for the series was to \u201cmeet and play music the women in town whom I really admired as songwriters and performers.\u201d But once she discovered the joys of working with Ellenberger, Platt and Amber Sims, her energies quickly shifted to the vocal quartet. \u201cI ended up with this incredible group, and we didn\u2019t want to stop playing together,\u201d Hyman says. \u201cThe showcase didn\u2019t survive, because I was too busy having another band!\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, all four are busy with multiple projects: Ellenberger sings with Holy Ghost Tent Revival; Hyman makes music with husband Ryan Furstenburg as The Moon and You. Platt leads the Honeycutters. And Amber Sankaran has started writing songs: \u201cThe Other Shoe\u201d is \u201cthe poppiest, hookiest, most ear-catching song\u201d on Whiskey Drunk on Puppy Love<\/i>, says Ellenbeger.<\/p>\n

In fact, the album provides a lot of competition for that distinction. With four songwriters contributing songs, there’s no shortage of top-notch material for an album. Many songs arise out of Sweet Claudette’s annual retreat. \u201cWe do what we call Bird Camp,\u201d explains Platt. \u201cWe hole up somewhere where there are no distractions \u2013 no boys \u2013 and we learn new songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s almost time for another Bird Camp,\u201d adds Ellenberger.<\/p>\n

The group’s individual songwriting styles provide variety, yet there’s a unity and cohesiveness among the tunes no matter who has written them. \u201cMore than any of us, Dulci writes with ‘space’ left for background vocals,\u201d says Platt. And Bird Camp’s collaborative nature imbues the songs with that Sweet Claudette aesthetic. \u201cThat\u2019s a cool thing about how the songwriting works,\u201d Platt says. \u201cWe bring a whole lot of data, but we don\u2019t bring the production of the songs. That\u2019s<\/i>> the collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album title Whiskey Drunk on Puppy Love<\/i> is equal parts saucy and playful; those adjectives aptly sum up the vibe of Sweet Claudette’s music. Sims came up with the title, drawn from the lyric of Platt’s \u201cOne More Taste,\u201d another standout track on an album full of gems.<\/p>\n

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Sweet Claudette onstage at the Mothlight in Asheville NC. Photo by Bill Kopp<\/p><\/div>\n

The band’s friend and longtime associate Daniel Shearin of River Whyless produced Whiskey Drunk on Puppy Love<\/i>. \u201cHe produced For the Birds<\/i> as well,\u201d notes Ellenberger. \u201cHe\u2019s been with us since we were just a little acoustic four-piece with no rhythm section.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDan will be our producer as long as he will have us,\u201d adds Hyman.<\/p>\n

Each of the four singers has her own specific vocal range; together, the group has the ability to create vocal clusters that give the music a great deal of texture. \u201cMy voice is clearly the lowest,\u201d says Hyman, whose pipes are showcased on the thrilling \u201cDon’t Have Time.\u201d Platt’s range is a bit higher, with Ellenberger and Sims working more in the upper register. \u201cThere’s a learning curve,\u201d explains Hyman, \u201ca constant evolution of fitting together. Like, ‘here, we\u2019re going to be moving in thirds as a chord. And here we\u2019re gonna weave in and out and do some counterpoint.’ I think that stuff has gotten more sophisticated over time with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though great care goes into songwriting and instrumental arrangements \u2013 the foursome are joined onstage by a rhythm section dubbed \u201cThe Claudes\u201d \u2013 it’s those lush, carefully worked-out vocal harmonies that are the group’s most distinctive quality. \u201cWhen we all sing together, that\u2019s the voice of Sweet Claudette,\u201d says Dulci Ellenberger. \u201cSweet Claudette makes it complete.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On their 2013 For the Birds EP, Sweet Claudette successfully blended classic country and Americana, delivering six original tunes in an intimate, homespun style that focused on their vocal strengths. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,51,69],"tags":[2713,2879,237,2877,2878,2876],"class_list":["post-11724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-pop","category-soul","tag-amanda-platt","tag-amber-sankaran","tag-asheville","tag-dulci-ellenberger","tag-melissa-hyman","tag-sweet-claudette","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11727,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11724\/revisions\/11727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}