The Little Willies

Being a fan of Norah Jones I noticed the CD entitled The Little Willies in a Starbucks a couple of months ago, and in a moment of weakness after looking it over, bought it! Am I glad I did!

The Little Willies are a group of musical friends who like to get together in NY and play music. You can read all about at their web site, The Little Willies.

They are Lee Alexander (bass), Jim Campilongo (electric guitar), Norah Jones (piano, vocals), Richard Julian (guitar, vocals) and Dan Rieser (drums).

Some people call it country. I don’t know – it’s more an eclectic mix of swing, jazz, honky tonk, and a little old-time country. Mostly The Little Willies are covering songs of others, including Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Townes van Zandt, and Red Rose, though there are some originals too.

Vocals are shared about evenly between Norah Jones and Richard Julian. I had not known previously of Richard Julian, but I like his voice, and it works on this music. And it’s hard to beat Norah Jones in the singing department. Despite the eclectic mix of songs, her piano work and vocals place her familiar stamp on all the songs she sings. It “feels” like Norah Jones music, though it could not be more different than her other work.

This is fun music – nothing real deep here, though I think Van Zandt’s No Place to Fall is achingly lovely and poignant, sung by Richard Julian. It’s my favorite song of this season.

Bass player Lee Alexander’s Roll On, sung by Norah Jones, is another just a plain great song of the familiar Norah Jones variety.

The Little Willies collaborated in writing the last song, entitled simply Lou Reed. It’s a pretty hilarious song, though if it has some hidden meaning I’m clueless. It’s about cow-tipping, and just in case there was not some deep dark perverted weird or strange thing about that, I looked it up on Wikipedia of all places. Reading about cow tipping just makes the song about Lou Reed cow tipping all the funnier.

Again, this is generally fast-paced excellently played good time music for kicking back on a long drive, or doing the dishes, or sitting out on the deck on a nice fall evening . It makes you smile even when it’s about getting drunk (Willie Nelson’s I Gotta Get Drunk) which is pretty funny, or death (I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive), or the generally devil may care craziness of this world (Kris Kristofferson’s Best of All Possible Worlds).

Anyway, pick up a copy. If you need to preview a few songs go to their MySpace site.

Here’s the line up which I stole from an Amazon reviewer S. Heyworth.

Roly Poly (Fred Rose cover, Hank Williams popularized)
I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive (Fred Rose cover, Hank Williams popularized)
Love Me (Leiber/Stoller cover Elvis Presley popularized)
It's Not You It's Me (original by Richard Julian)
Best of All Possible Worlds (Kris Kristofferson cover)
No Place To Fall (Townes Van Zand cover)
Roll On (original by Lee Alexander)
I Gotta Get Drunk (Willie Nelson cover)
Streets of Baltimore (Gram Parsons cover)
Easy as the Rain (original by Richard Julian and Jim Campilongo)
Tennessee Stud (Jimmy Driftwood cover)
Night Life (Breeland/Buskirk/Nelson cover, Willie Nelson popularized)
Lou Reed (original by Alexander/Julian/Jones)