From: "Doug Bright" <75366.2463@compuserve.com> To: Subject: Article, July, 1982 Date: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 10:41 PM JULY, 1982 A NEW KIND OF WOMEN'S MOVEMENT By Doug Bright If anyone during the Fifties might have thought rhythm and blues was a man's world, the early Sixties should have been enough to make him check his premises. It was this era that spawned a host (or hostess) of excellent female vocal groups: Marvelettes, Crystals, Ronettes, Chiffons, Angels, and many more. What began with a few one-hit pioneer groups such as The Teen Queens finally culminated in an explosion of them in the early Sixties, many of whom could boast a very respectable string of major hits. Here in Seattle, a new musical women's movement is developing according to the same mustard-seed pattern. A year ago there was only one pioneer group, Annie Rose and The Thrillers. Now there are two more. One of them was organized last fall and goes by the name of Dynette Set. The other is Shelly and The Shonettes, organized only a couple of months ago by Peter and Shelly Vogel of Grandma's Cookies. The primary focus of the two groups is identical: the black female vocal groups of the late Fifties and early Sixties. Consequently, a good portion of their repertoire is identical, too. The Shonettes are, by design, a back-up group for Shelly Vogel. My first evidence of her capability in this musical direction came with a performance of Grandma's Cookies. Almost buried in the midst of a brilliant swing repertoire was a song called "Operator" borrowed from Manhattan Transfer. Her transformation from Andrews sister to soul-sister in this selection was just plain overwhelming. Her rich, powerful, and black-inflected voice sounded as if it could challenge anything in the 1964 Motown catalog. Now, however, she seems bent on recreating the superficial sexiness that characterized the most artistically bankrupt of the teenage idols. When asked about the near-disappearance of her black style, Shelly says, "I want to do justice to that, but I want to do justice to the white sound of the Sixties, too." The tragedy is that in her quest for a workable synthesis of two almost contradictory styles, she has allowed the new element to overstep its bounds, seriously weakening the rhythm-and-blues material. Consequently, everything from Joni Somers to The Chiffons to The Marvelettes sounds about the same. Still there are some comforting exceptions and advantages. The new thinness of her style equips her for recreating Diana Ross and The Supremes. On tunes like Barbara Lewis's "Hello, Stranger", her characteristic sincerity returns, and the superb vocal harmony, combined with a mellow, low-register sax, gives just the right kind of support. The other two ladies don't take any solos, but they furnish strong, authentic harmony behind Shelly. The fact that neither of them has had any professional experience speaks volumes for the organizational genius of Peter and Shelly Vogel. The arrangements are quite faithful to the original recordings, and the band is tasteful and competent. Although Peter was initially looking for someone who could play keyboard bass, he now represents some of the best living proof of that trusty old maxim, "If you want a job done right, do it yourself." The driving piano chords are provided, not by a Fender-Rhodes, but a Roland electronic organ. Almost all of the instrumental breaks are carried by saxophonist Doug Rasmussen, a newcomer to the Seattle music scene, and his tastefully inventive phrasing fits the context of the early Sixties well. Dynette Set, the other new force in the girl-group preservationist movement, isn't quite so instrumentally fortunate. Lacking both saxophone and keyboard, they're forced to do the best they can with bass, drums, and two guitars. On songs with vitally important orchestral melody lines, the twelve-string guitar takes over, and although it isn't what you'd call the Phil Specter sound, it serves the purpose. The rest of the solos are handled on six-string by the other guitarist in a more conventional rock-and-roll mode. Both of them play in a manner reminiscent of early George Harrison. Unlike the Shonettes, the vocal spotlight is distributed about evenly among the three girls in Dynette Set. Christy McWilson's voice has a full, strong sound that's best suited to portraying the more vocally mature white artists of the period. Her rendition of "I Know A Place" captures all the freshness and power of the Petula Clark original and then some. When she tackles a number like "Stupid Cupid", you can easily imagine a young Connie Francis. Her voice is too full to achieve the thin cutting edge of a Brenda Lee or the harshness demanded by the extreme black styles, but her sensitivity to subtle shades of phrasing renders her adequate to a fairly wide range of material. The melodic but more strident black voices of the period are splendidly revived by Shelley Stockstill. Her interpretation of The Ronettes in particular is a phenomenon not to be missed. Riki Macune handles the late-vintage soul as best evidenced by her fine rendition of the Fontilla Bass classic "Rescue Me". Like the Shonettes, Dynette Set's arrangements and harmony are right down to a science. Their re-creation of The Shangri-las' "Leader of The Pack" combines a strong and convincing lead voice with equally strong harmony and chillingly ingenious instrumental effects to simulate the motorcycle wreck scene on the original record. The group's most serious problem is an irritating tendency to play almost everything about fifty percent faster than necessary. Watching this battle of the bands take shape, I'm inevitably led to a couple of general conclusions. To begin with, the fact that such a musical revival is happening at all is refreshing indeed. After all, how many Seattle groups are similarly trying to preserve the sound of legendary vocal groups such as The Flamingos and The Platters? Although each group has a repair or two to make, it's still very early in the game and the potential represented in these acts is remarkable, especially when you consider that neither group has been in the public eye for more than a couple of months. If Annie Rose and The Thrillers can keep their authenticity and come back strong after a much-needed vacation, if Shelly Vogel has the wisdom to preserve her powerful rhythm-and-blues style and confine the Caucasian influence to its proper context, and if Dynette Set can tranquilize its tempo and find a keyboard man of Peter Vogel's capability and a saxophonist as good as Doug Rasmussen, Seattle may be the most rockingly liberated city on the national music map. ----------------------------------------