Thursday, February 23, 2006

"Arthur Lee's back in Memphis, and has a new Love!

In probably the strangest, and most pleasing, bit of music news that I can remember is the revelation that Arthur Lee is currently in his home city of Memphis, rehearsing with a new line-up of Love, comprising of the Bluff City's finest rock'n'rollers!

The new line-up looks like this (hold onto yer hats, kids):

"ARTHUR LEE - VOCALS, GUITAR, HARP, SONGS
JOHNNY ECHOLS - LEAD GUITAR

WITH

GREG ROBERSON - DRUMS, VOCALS
(REIGNING SOUND, THE KNAUGHTY KNIGHTS, COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS)
JACK "OBLIVIAN" YARBER - BASS
(THE OBLIVIANS, COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS, THE TEARJERKERS, THE KNAUGHTY KNIGHTS)
ALICJA TROUT - GUITAR, VOCALS
(LOST SOUNDS, MOUSE ROCKET, RIVER CITY TANLINES)
RON FRANKLIN - GUITAR, VOCALS (NATURAL KICKS, MOUSE ROCKET)
ALEX GREENE - ORGAN, PIANO, GUITAR
(REIGNING SOUND, LORETTE VELVETTE BAND)
ADAM WOODARD - PIANO , ORGAN, VOCALS (THE TEARJERKERS)"

According to Greg Roberson, "ARTHUR AND HIS FOLKS CAME TO ME 6 MONTHS AGO AND ASKED ME TO PUT A GREAT BAND TOGETHER AND I DID. ARTHUR NEVER SOUNDED BETTER. HE'S IN RARE FORM. HE IS HEALTHY AND EATING GOOD HOME COOKING ... EVERYONE IS LOOKING FORWARD TO LIVE SHOWS AND RECORDING. I HUNG OUT WITH HIM MONDAY AND HE'S IN GREAT SPIRITS AND READY TO ROCK."

Guitarist Ron Franklin also chipped in with the comment, "The Arthur thing is a constant suprise. Phone rings and I just do what they tell me. but pretty far out to play Love songs I play with The Natural Kicks and then look over and, hey, that's Arthur." Seems a perfectly resonable, very Memphis attitood to me!

So there you have it, ladies and germs, something of a musical match made in Memphis ...

I can't wait to see these guys play!

Joss (Sonic Reducer)"