Description

JUDGE SMITH AS YOU HAVE NOT HEARD HIM BEFORE.

Here is a NEW CD, a two-disc, double-sided package, presented in a unique format. One disc is ‘COPY CAT’, a mini-album of five tracks, which is unlike anything else I have ever done. All five tracks are COVERS; Judge’s versions of classic and iconic songs by other writers and performers.

The second disc is the first CD release of my recent album ‘THE OVERSTAYER’, which until now has only been available as a download from BandCamp. This double CD ‘Copy Cat & The Overstayer’ is on the Masters Of Art label.

‘COPY CAT’

‘COPY CAT’ is performed by a interesting new band: Robert Pettigrew, piano and backing vocals; Ian Fordham, Bass Guitar; Jim Christopulos on Drums; John Ellis, Guitar (and Ukulele); with Judge on Vocals.

The songs are ‘First We take Manhattan’ (Leonard Cohen), ‘Werewolves of London’ (Warren Zevon), ‘White Light/White Heat’ (Velvet Underground), ‘Hold Me’ (P.J. Proby) and ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ (‘Iz’Kamakawio’ole) and these have been recorded “in respectful admiration” of their classic productions.

I wanted to do some recording, but I didn’t have any new tunes that were begging to be made into songs. However I did want to get John Ellis, Robert Pettigrew and Ian Fordham playing together, as I knew they would make a very tasty little band. I don’t have a regular drummer on speed dial, so I thought I would go out on a limb and see if Jim Christopulos, out in the USA, might possibly be interested in doing some remote tracks for me. (More to the point would he be able to record himself, since recording a drum kit requires a lot more equipment and resources than any other instrument). He’s a fine drummer and was already sympathetic to my own work. Fortunately he was able to get some studio time for the project. And I am so delighted with what he did and with what all the other guys played.

These are simply songs where particular recordings have made an impression on me (and which had an up-front piano part for Robert to get his teeth into) songs where I thought “I wouldn’t mind having a go at that one”. There is nothing more structured to the project than that.

It was mixed in an excellent studio in Wells, ‘Axe & Trap’; a new and different environment after my many years of working with the late, and sadly missed, Pat Collier at his studio in the south of London, but with Ben at the helm, and closer to me in the West Country, it proved to be a very satisfying and straightforward experience.

I had various possible clever names lined up for the CD, but Fiona said they were all rubbish and that the thing should be called ‘Copy Cat’. “End Of….”

If you like my stuff, I think it’s not to be missed.

‘THE OVERSTAYER’

I have had several requests for ‘THE OVERSTAYER’ to receive a proper physical release on CD. And this new two-disk package provides the perfect opportunity. I have written a lot of music in my life, but very little of it actually makes people cry. However, ‘THE OVERSTAYER’ often seems to have that effect.

Much of this potent emotional heft clearly comes the highly unusual ensemble that brought it to life, made up of three exceptional musicians: Robert Pettigrew, wonderfully assured and skilled on church pipe organ, with David Jackson, as creative and powerful as ever on saxophones and whistles, and his daughter Dorie, a uniquely talented vocalist. Together they have enabled me (as the composer and the other vocalist) to get the most out of this timely and captivating story. If you haven’t yet heard ‘THE OVERSTAYER’, you are missing something rather special.

SHORT EXTRACTS FROM EACH TRACK OF ‘COPY CAT’