Terry Hanck - Grease To Gravy

Artiest/Band: Terry Hanck Album: Grease To Gravy Release: Out Now Label: Little Village Format: CD/LP/DL Genre: Soul TERRY HANCK - GREASE TO GRAVY Blues sax legend and soul singer supreme's debut recording as a leader on Little Village, with many special guests - Kid Andersen, Johnny "Cat" Soubrand, J.P. Soars, Mitch Woods, Jim Pugh Liner notes below from highly respected journalist Michael Kinsman.........

TERRY HANCK - GREASE TO GRAVY

Blues sax legend and soul singer supreme's debut recording as a leader on Little Village, with many special guests - Kid Andersen, Johnny "Cat" Soubrand, J.P. Soars, Mitch Woods, Jim Pugh
Liner notes below from highly respected journalist Michael Kinsman.

 

Soul Man Terry Hanck: Grease to Gravy

 

Listen to Terry Hanck sing and play sax and you’ll hear his personality coming through loud and clear. Grease to Gravy, his new CD release on Little Village, showcases a deep groove drenching with soul on each track.

 

The music is varied from soul to blues to New Orleans second-line funk to rock ’n’ roll and yet each comes straight from Hanck’s soul. His songs are at once fresh and stimulating yet comfortably familiar, displaying a conscious decision by Hanck to put his own stamp on every song, whether he wrote it or not.

 

“I always want the song to have that groove in it, and to get some kind of feeling across,” Hanck says. “After all these years I’m at the point where I feel comfortable enough to bring songs alive.

Even when I do someone else’s song, I want it to feel natural. I don’t want it to sound like I am trying to recreate something, but I am creating something that has its own vitality.” The seven Hanck original songs and five covers here each are unveiled gracefully and soulfully.

Producer Kid Andersen, who as a 21-year-old Norwegian blues wunderkind more than two decades ago emigrated to the U.S. to join Hanck’s band, supervised the production at his Greaseland studio in San Jose, Calif.

 

Hanck is best known for his sax playing, refined over six decades, but he´s also a charismatic singer whose voice possesses unique charm and warmth. He gently jazzes up Wilson Pickett’s “Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You” from a swaggering statement to a soothing warning with a combination of warm vocals and easing sax play.

 

His song “Goin’ Way Back Home Tonight” harkens back to Cosimo Matassa’s studio in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the mid-1950’s when Fats Domino and Little Richard were churning out their own brand of rock ’n’ roll. The song possesses some of the same devil-may-care attitude of those times. The rollicking “Run Run Baby” is a Hanck original first recorded years ago with a jazz groove but updated here with a grittier feel and Hanck taking on the role of a ’50s R&B soul shouter.

 

Everything on Grease to Gravy grooves mightily but that’s because it’s a clear reflection of Hanck’s playing and singing.

 

The songs:

"Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool Ya" – I wanted to do an organ shuffle version of this tune and with Jimmy Pugh, Kid Andersen and Jon Otis I think we got some magic in the first take

"If A Politician Was A Doctor"- An original we did as a second line NOLA street parade groove

"The Best Years Of My Life" - A soul love song I wrote with beautiful production and contributions from Jimmy, Kid and Lisa

"Come Back Baby" - A Ray Charles ballad (I know I’ve got to be nuts trying to sing this!)

“Going Way Back Home Tonight” – A get-up and go groove and “Home” is where you feel good

"Overall Junction"- A perfect Johnny shuffle (a nod to Albert King)

"Run Run Baby"- I did this years ago with a jazzy- groove…this is now a dirtier R&B groove

"Sick & Tired"- (Chris Kenner/Dave Bartholomew/Fats Domino )-A classic NOLA R&R tune- from 1956. Mitch Woods on piano

"Goin’ Down Slow" (St. Louis Jimmy Oden) - It’s taken from the grooves of Bobby Bland and Hank Crawford and Jimmy McGriff’s “River’s Invitation”

"When I Get My Shit Together"- The times called for this again – a new version of my song

"Pins & Needles" - This is a more Zydeco version of a tune written by JoJo Russo and myself that we recorded some years back.

"Midnight On The Reef" - An original Latiny, reggae instrumental. So glad I finally was able to include my South Florida homies JP Soars and Chris Peet a on a couple of tunes. We’ve been making music together on and off for over 20 years.

 

• 1. DON’T LET THE GREEN GRASS FOOL YOU (4:51) (Akines, Bellmon, Turner, Drayton, Warner-Tamerlane Pub., BMI)
• 2. IF A POLITICIAN WAS A DOCTOR (4:04) (T. Hanck, Old Toby Pub., BMI*)
•  3. BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE (5:13) (T. Hanck, Old Toby Pub., BMI)
• 4. COME BACK BABY (3:25) (R. Charles, W. Davis, Unichappell Music Inc., BMI)
•  5. GOIN’ WAY BACK HOME TONIGHT (4:28) (T. Hanck, Old Toby Pub., BMI*)
• 6. OVERALL JUNCTION (4:05) (A. King, Arc Music, BMI)
• 7. RUN RUN BABY (4:16) (T. Hanck, Old Toby Pub., BMI)
• 8. SICK AND TIRED (4:28) (D. Bartholomew, C. Kenner, J. McCoy, EMI Unart Catalog Inc., BMI)
•  9. GOING DOWN SLOW (6:25) (James B. Oden, Arc Music, BMI)
•  10. WHEN I GET MY SHIT TOGETHER (4:04) (T. Hanck, Old Toby Pub., BMI)
• 11. PINS AND NEEDLES (3:57) (J. Russo, T. Hanck, Old Toby Pub., BMI)
• 12. MIDNIGHT ON THE REEF (3:46) (T. Hanck, Old Toby Pub., BMI**)

PRODUCED BY TERRY HANCK & CHRIS KID ANDERSEN

• TERRY HANCK - Vocals: all tracks except 12, Tenor sax: all tracks •
• CHRIS KID ANDERSEN - Guitar: tracks 1, 3, 9; slide guitar: track 2; Bass: tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7; Upright bass: tracks 4, 10; B3 organ: track 6 •
• JIM PUGH - B3 organ: tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11; ARP string ensemble, Wurlitzer and organ: track 3; Piano: tracks 9, 10 •
•  JOHNNY CAT SOUBRAND - Guitar: tracks 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 •
• LISA LEUSCHNER ANDERSEN - Background vocals: tracks 3, 9 •
• J.P. SOARS -Guitars: tracks 2, 12 •
• JON OTIS - Drums: tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11;Percussion: tracks 2, 3, 9 •
• TIM WAGAR - Bass: tracks 8, 11 • D’MAR - Drums: tracks 6, 9 •
• CHRIS PEET - Drums: track 2, 12; Bass: track 12 •
• JUNE CORE - Drums: track 4 •
•  BUTCH COUSINS - Drums: track 8 •
• ENDRE TARCZY - Bass: track 9 •
• CHRIS BURNS - Piano: track 4 •
• MITCH WOODS - Piano: track 8 •
• MARK DOYLE - Piano: track 12 Guitars: tracks 2, 12 •

 Mixed and mastered by CHRIS KID ANDERSEN, GREASELAND STUDIOS, SAN JOSE, CA • *Track 2 drums and rhythm guitar  recorded by Jeremy Staska at Studio 13, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; **Track 12 recorded on analog reel to reel at Chris Peet’s house in West Palm Beach, FL • Design: MATT K. SHRUGG • Cover concept: TERRY HANCK, MINDY GILES • Cover photo: SEAN CHRISTOPHER • Back cover photo: KRISTIN NYGARD • Inside band photos: BOB COSMAN, BILL HENDERSON, BOB HAKINS, JON OTIS • Management & Marketing: MINDY GILES (mingiles@gmail.com)

A very special thanks to all of you whose generosity helped complete this project. Thank you to Tommy Mederos, Jo Jo Russo, Steve Jonas, Tom and Mandy Newbery without whose hospitality, touring would be impossible. Thanks always to the DJs, writers, promoters, club owners and agents that all keep the ball rolling. Thanks to Mindy Giles for your help and support all these years and for your kitchen! (and to Katie Spaulding for the cast iron skillets.) Thanks to the past and all who went before for what you gave us. I am lucky and thankful to have played with so many wonderful musicians in my lifetime. In this collaboration with Chris Kid Andersen, Jimmy Pugh and a cast of stellar musicians, I’ve been able to walk into the studio with an idea and have it brought to life. That’s magic! Hope you enjoy!- TERRY

For more information about Terry Hanck or to schedule an interview please contact

Kevin Johnson, Proud Papa Promotions & Publicity, delrayjohnson@yahoo.com 

www.terryhanck.net                             www.littlevillagefoundation.com