The Chicago quartet returns to Michigan for bluesy, jazzy, rollicking shows led by piano-pounder Johnny Iguana and dynamic singer Rachel Williams. The Local Spins interview, with videos and ticket links.
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What do you call a band founded by a blues pianist and a drummer who played with Marvin Hamlisch, vocalist Toni Tenille and blues legend Koko Taylor?
Now, throw in a bassist who doubles on the baritone guitar-like bass 6, and don’t forget the featured vocalist, a six-foot tall female singer with a mohawk and a dynamite voice.
Say hello to The Claudettes, Chicago’s answer to all that, a melange for which bandleader Johnny Iguana has coined his own terminology.
And despite the primary elements of the blues and roots rock, “It’s not blues-rock,” he insists. “That’s Foghat.”
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune calls it “a skewed cabaret band of blues, jazz and rockabilly,” while No Depression says, “these guys are the B-movies of the music world.” NPR simply dubs the Claudettes “Chicago’s original recipe band.”
As for Iguana, he calls it “garage cabaret.”
“It’s got the spirit of a garage band, but there’s also jazz, blues and soul. It’s almost an acoustic band, with piano, bass and drums. It’s a new spin on old music,” he says.
Glad we got that settled.
However you want to define it, the music appeals to a wide variety of audiences. Iguana and the rest of the group – drummer Michael Caskey, who founded the group with Iguana, bassist Zach Verdoorn and vocalist Rachel Williams, who Iguana calls “a chanteuse grounded in American roots” – will showcase their sound on a trio of Michigan dates.
Regular performers in Michigan, The Claudettes play Grand Rapids’ Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill at 7 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 10) — $10 tickets available here — followed by Boyne City’s Freshwater Gallery on Friday (Oct. 11) and Traverse City’s The Alluvion on Saturday (Oct. 12), with Eric O’Daly opening.
Iguana says the band’s size is perfect. “All my favorite bands were trios (instrumentally),” he says, mentioning Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, even Medeski, Martin & Wood, while conveniently forgetting that the Claudettes are a foursome. He says there’s also a practical side to keeping the band small. Four people and their equipment fit cozily, but not too uncomfortably, in the band van.
A REPTILIAN NAME THAT STUCK AND LOTS OF IMPRESSIVE COLLABORATIONS
Iguana grew up in Philadelphia, and joined the blues band Stevie Lizard & His All Reptile Orchestra as a teen, a group where all the members adopted reptile sobriquets. The bassist was Bobby Iguana, and when Johnny joined, they decided he’d be Bobby’s brother. “It was assigned,” he says of the name.
He met Junior Wells at 23 and got a gig with him, and the name stuck. “I remember playing as Johnny Iguana in high school. Now, here I am.”
And there he remains in the Windy City, though he still considers himself an East Coast kid. “I thought (he’d spend) two or three years in Chicago. It’s 38 now,” he says almost wonderingly.
They’ve been good years. First for three years with Wells, then a succession of other blues and bluesy performers (including Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, James Cotton, Derek Trucks, Shemekia Copeland, Keb’ Mo’, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), and now with The Claudettes, Iguana has been able to see the world and perform in front of crowds in Europe, Indonesia and Japan, as well as across the United States.
He first paired with drummer Caskey in 2013. “We wanted to see how much racket we could stir up,” he says slyly of the first Claudettes album, “Infernal Piano Plot … Hatched!” Along with Nigerian-American singer Yana they recorded their second album, “No Hotel,” before adding vocalist Berit Ulseth and bassist/vocalist Verdoorn.
As a quartet, The Claudettes recorded four albums before Ulseth grew tired of the road. When she stepped away, Williams stepped in. “I’d been told about Rachel. She was a Claudettes fan, and it clicked really well right away. She’s a force of nature,” Iguana says.
Iguana has another claim to fame, as half of the musical team for the score to the hit FX/Hulu series “The Bear,” alongside his longtime songwriting/producing partner JQ. “He’s a beats and studio guy. I’m a notes and chords guy. They’re complementary skill sets.”
One other note: The Grand Rapids date was to include opener Carolyn Striho, but she had to pull out due to injury.
Instead, Iguana and Caskey are doing a special opening set of barrelhouse piano and drums, which is how The Claudettes first started. “We’ll be putting our own instrumental spins on everything from Jay McShann, Otis Spann and Little Brother Montgomery to Chuck Berry, Link Wray, Neil Young, Santo & Johnny, Grand Master Flash and more,” says Iguana.
VIDEO: The Claudettes (Live for Iowa Public Radio)
MUSIC VIDEO: The Claudettes, “Touch You Back”
VIDEO: The Claudettes at Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill
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