Strawberry Productions and Unkool Music proudly present
A NEW CD WITH
THE UNKOOL HILLBILLIES
June 2009
”EVIL TIMES”
GET 004
Distribution: Border Music
Label: Strawberry Records
Format: Digipack
Running time: 49 minutes
A new CD with The Unkool Hillbillies, “EVIL TIMES” is on its way to the
record shops! “This is a strong CD, it comes out as our best and most well-varied album
yet” says pianist and singer Anders Umegård.
The Unkool Hillbillies keeps rockin!
Since the fall of 2002, The Unkool Hillbillies have played
at hundreds of venues from coast-to-coast. The group mixes rock’n’roll,
rockabilly and jiving rhythm&blues in a characteristic way. The pounding
piano is significant for the sound of the band, but it is the swinging entity
of blues harp and electric guitar that lift the roofs of music bars and
dancehalls all around
American producer
The American professional songwriter and producer Darrin
Mazzilli has written several songs for the band and two of them have been
recorded for this album: Dangling on a
String and Jump Start My Heart. Mazzilli
discovered the band by chance when he visited
Incredible live act
The Unkool Hillbillies is a much appreciated live band that
has played all over
Unhappily in love, the end of the world and – Super girl?
Among the 18 songs on ””EVIL TIMES” 13 are originals. The others are tributes and interpretations – yet always “unkoolified”. The new songs tell stories about rock’n’roll and love tragedies but there is also a danceable version of ”the-end-of-the-world” (hence the title ”EVIL TIMES”) as well as a tribute to the (according to Anders) “underestimated and forgotten superhero Linda Lee (Super girl)”.
It is quite natural
that there are so many songs about being heartbroken according to the harpist/singer
Richard Andersson: “If you’re happily in
love, what’s the point in writing a song then?” Whether or not the songs on
“EVIL TIMES“ are autobiographical is another topic,
according to Richard, “but at least you
must be able to relate to what you are singing”.
New sound
It is now four years since the band’s previous CD, and two new band members have made their “unkool” CD debut. The new guitar player Stefan Asplund deserves some acknowledgement - he is an experienced rock’n’roll musician that adds new dimensions to the sound of Unkool Hillbillies.
“Stefan is one of the
greatest rock’n’roll guitarists out there”, Anders says and continues “He’s
really taking the band to new heights!”
Karin Johansson guest singer!
A few years back Anders Umegård and Richard Andersson produced a CD with the Swedish female singer Karin Johansson. That CD contained rock’n’roll in Swedish and became quite popular on Swedish radio. So when it was time for a new CD with The Unkool Hillbillies, it was a natural call to ask Karin to participate.
Karin sings on You’re The One, It Hurts Me Too and Dirty. “And she rocks hard!” Anders says, “Don’t be surprised if Karin will eventually conquer the world with her voice.”
Digital distribution
”EVIL TIMES” is also distributed digitally, the entire album as well as specific tracks are available from now on for example ITunes and Emusic – even roots music have modern listeners, that prefer mp3:s instead of CD:s.
Despite living in the modern times of digital music, Richard
Andersson remains steadily rooted in the 50’s. “Except for himself and a CD-player, I don’t think that one single
object in his apartment is younger than 50 years”, Anders laughs and
continues “He refuses to buy a computer,
and every time we go on tour, the first thing we need to pack in the bus is his
old portable 78-rpm player his 78-rpm discs”.
Remark: The band has two CD:s out since previously: Unkool and Proud! (UNKOOL200501) and Right To Rumble (yodeler103). Right To Rumble is out-of-press but Unkool and Proud! Is still available in stores and from www.unkool.se
More info: info@unkool.se - www.unkool.se, 070-2080928