In 1955, Frank Sinatra released what might be his greatest record. In the Wee Small Hours was a collection of intimate ballads, all selected for the record — a practice that was practically unheard of at the time. It was a record of singular theme and purpose, a melancholy rumination on love and the hurt love’s end often causes.
Chestnut Hill singer/songwriter Phil Roy had long loved that record.
Roy, 50, a Philly native and Hill resident who can often be found on the Avenue with his black lab puppy, returned to the area several years ago after working in Los Angeles for 20 years as a songwriter. His work has been recorded by a wide range of artists, from The Staples Singers and Neville Brothers to Widespread Panic and Los Lonely Boys.
A songwriter, he was not accustomed to recording other people’s work, but there was something about In the Wee Small Hours that appealed to him. So he decided to cover it. Roy planned on re-recording the original’s 16 standards for an album of his own. He had come up with a title, “In the Weird Small Hours,” and wanted to pursue it. “That title alone was worth my exploring,” he said.
But though he loved the songs on the original, Roy said the material didn’t work for him. “As I got into [the songs], I found that the narrative was from a time that didn’t quite sit with me,” Roy told me over coffee at the Chestnut Hill Coffee Company.
So instead, Roy collected a number of songs by others, but songs that are contemporary by people he considers the best voices now — Conor Oberst, Ryan Adams, Elliot Smith, The Eels’ Mark Everett and Radiohead.
The result is an album that is much more than a cover album of contemporary songs. It’s a thematically cohesive work that accomplishes what it promises — a piece that is both weird and small, and ultimately a modern thematic companion to Sinatra’s original.
“These are people whose songs I picked from their catalogs specifically for my purposes,” Roy said of the artists whose work he mined for the album. “Music is so often in the background on the radio, and it doesn’t stop you. These are songs that did. Take Elliott Smith’s song. Not everything in his catalog would work, but that song, ‘Everything Reminds Me of Her’… you know, when you’ve just ended a relationship, just broken up with someone, that line says it all. What else is there to say?”
Roy’s version of the song is even more spare and melancholy than the original — a feat that anyone familiar with Smith will find remarkable. Roy actually slows the song down and gives the vocals much more prominence.
Perhaps the main point of deviation from Sinatra’s original, aside from the modern themes of the material, is that Roy did not pick popular songs. In fact, he was more interested in material that was not in heavy rotation. In many cases, listeners will likely never have heard of the songs. How many have heard of Swedish singer/songwriter Anna Ternheim before? Roy does a terrific, almost spookily upbeat version of her “Lovers Dream.”
“I prefer if people have never heard these songs before,” Roy said. “You have to be a certain kind of music fan to know these songs, except for ‘Sign Your Name.’ That would be the song from Terence Trent D’Arby’s hit from his debut, Introducing the Hardline. Delivered by Roy with a very spare Latin-jazz feel — just guitar, percussion and upright bass.
It’s that spare approach to all the material that finds Roy succeeding in creating an album and not just a cover record. He manages to breath new emotions into songs like “I See Monsters” by Ryan Adams and “Beautiful Freak” by Mark Everett. They are not always more downbeat, but they’re always new. One of the more interesting tracks on the new album is a version of Radiohead’s “All I Need,” which Roy sings backed only by a brass quartet and drums. The version is unlike just about anything you’ll ever hear.
Roy said the album was recorded at Morning Star Studios in Springhouse and that he and collaborator guitarist Julian Coryell recorded the foundation tracks guitars and vocal in one take with no overdubs. When you hear Roy sing, nothing is overdubbed. Backing instruments — horns, strings drums and double bass — were added later. “It was important to me to have at the heart of this recording something unscathed and untouched,” Roy said.
Though In The Weird Small Hours was released only a few weeks ago, Roy has no big touring or promotional plans. “I’m committed to a year of letting it come out to the market, slowly,” he said. “On my last album (The Great Longing), I had publicists and marketing people and radio promotions people, but I was not happy … I think there’s got to be a better way to release music to the world than hitting people over the head with it. This is an intimate record and doesn’t call for ‘Hey! Look at me!’”
Roy will continue to play for fans and friends at his home, a practice he started several years ago called the “I’m Not Leaving the House Tour.” People can contact Roy about shows at his house — seriously — through his Web site: www.philroy.com or through his e-mail philroy@philroy.com.
In the Weird Small Hours is available locally at Hideaway Music. Downloaders can find it on iTunes. It’s also available at regular CD outlets like Amazon.com and Best Buy.
On Thursday, I’ll post the entire Phil Roy interview.
listening to Phil's music is soul enriching. loving this new cd. a lot.
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