Most people know Les Paul as the six-string innovator whose designs fueled the classic Gibson instrument that bears his name. But the half-century that’s elapsed since the heyday of his recording career has washed his accomplishments as a studio genius — multitracking, tape speed manipulation, phasing, otherworldly reverb effects, and more — largely into the past.
Roots guitar virtuoso Duke Robillard restores Paul’s recording accomplishments — as well as the sound and filigrees of Paul’s astonishing guitar technique — to the present with his glorious new Tales from the Tiki Lounge.
The album is a collaboration with vocalist Sunny Crownover, with whom Robillard also recorded this year’s Sunny and Her Joy Boys Featuring Duke Robillard and his own jump-savvy Stomp! The Blues Tonight. And it’s a calculated blast from the past. The 16 cuts travel a repertoire plucked from the catalog of Paul and his wife, muse and musical foil Mary Ford as well as rarified, eclectic songs that fall into the “exotica” category, including the Brazilian choro “Tico Tico” and Mae West’s simmering, sensual “Occidental Woman.”
“I wanted to transport people to an age when music had beautiful melodies and a genuine feel-good quality,” Robillard explains. “The optimistic songs of the Depression and the ’50s that we drew on are full of love and passion. And many of these numbers have lyrics that are clever and playful, as Les’ playing often was, too. You can hear that on ‘Bye Bye Blues,’ where in tribute to Les I play the melody and slide all over the place on the low E string. It’s jazz, but more irreverent that anything a conventional jazz guitarist would ever do.”
Robillard’s long been known for assimilating the styles of other great players into his own versatile delivery, which came in handy when he shared the stage with Paul at New York City’s Iridium 12 years ago.
“Les was watching me with amusement as I played all the melody parts to the tunes we did very much like he would have,” recalls Robillard. “That let Les have a field day playing all these fills around what sounded like his own parts.
“I have a knack for digesting the musical mannerisms of other players,” Robillard adds, “but I never sit down and listen to a record and copy anything directly. While I really honed in on Les’ sound and approach on this album, I’ll never have his speed, which was amazing.”
Of course Tales from the Tike Lounge sports a couple of Les Pauls: Robillard’s Gold Top VOS reissues — a ’56 with P-90 pickups and a ’57 with humbuckers.
“I wanted to reclaim the sound Les intended these beautiful guitars to make,” he says. “A lot of rock players use overdrive and distortion to get sustain using Les Pauls, but Les designed them to have those qualities innately. Their weight and resonance gives them a rich horn-like tone and nearly infinite sustain when they’re plugged straight into the soundboard.”
Since Robillard is both a Gibson and Epiphone endorser, his Epiphone John Lee Hooker Sheraton — currently his main stage guitar — also made several appearances on the album along with a 1950 ES-350 archtop.
Robillard’s own resume is mighty impressive and extends back to the ’60s, when he founded and led the still-performing jump and swing band Roomful of Blues. Since leaving Roomful he’s made nearly 30 solo albums that explore nearly every aspect of American music — blues, jazz, rock, swing — and replaced Jimmie Vaughan in the Fabulous Thunderbirds. He has also produced albums for Ruth Brown, Jay McShann, Snooky Prior, Joe Louis Walker and other blues luminaries.
So it’s not surprising that Robillard was able to reproduce the warm, reverb drenched sweetness of Paul’s guitar approach and conjure the depth, sheen and ambiance of his classic recordings with Ford, which are multi-layered marvels of ’50s studio technique.
“Even the songs that Les never recorded are produced in his style,” Robillard says. “I used different reverbs and delays to get the right vibe and close-miked Sunny’s vocals so they’re warm and big.” And Crownover’s flexible, clear-toned performances bring every melody to gorgeous, nearly three-dimensional life, from the romantic daydreams of “Smoke Rings” to the smoldering fantasia of “Besame Mucho,” which Paul and Ford also recorded.
“The real beauty of the music of Les’ era is that it didn’t have an agenda,” Robillard explains. “Music driven by politics and green initiatives is important, but so is pure entertainment. When people listen to Tiki Lounge, I’d like them to escape the complications of modern life and, at least for the length of an album, go to a happier place.”