I arrived for my interview with The Last Call Girls in a beaten-up El Camino. My friend, Todd, had borrowed it from his roommate, and as soon as we arrived, promptly locked his keys in the car. By the end of the evening, though, our choice of transportation felt like the perfect complement for a down-home Missouri evening.
Heather Brecht, the band's guitarist and lead songwriter, had invited me to her house for a pre-interview barbecue. When we pulled up, she was already piling burgers onto a plate while the porch bustled with friends, family, and of course, band members. In addition to Brecht, there was fiddler Dana Catlett, bassist Elizabeth Schoch, and drummer Scotty Rex.
After eating, we all grabbed a fresh can of Budweiser and settled down on the steps to talk about the group's upcoming album and the intricacies of the local music scene:
FOLK101: Tell me a little bit about the new album. What's it called? What's on it?
HB: Right now, the working-title is "One Foot Out the Door." It's a good mixture. There are a few old songs that people will know, and then there are quite a few new songs. It's definitely twangy, but it doesn't...fail to rock.
FOLK101: What are the songs that everyone will know?
HB: Well, let's see, "Off Like a Prom Dress"...
FOLK101: I know that one.
HB: Yeah? I actually play mandolin on it this time. Then, probably...
SR: "She's So Pretty."
DC: Yeah, everybody knows that one.
HB: "She's So Pretty" is definitely the crowd favorite. All the cool kids know "She's So Pretty."
FOLK101: What is it that draws you to country music?
SR: It's hard to call our music "country music." It is, but it isn't.
HB: It's if Riot Girls did country. That's how I tend to try and explain it.
SR: It's country because every once in a while we do a waltz and because it has fiddle in it. And the slow stuff is kind of old-school honky-tonk, but the more upbeat stuff is pretty much rock 'n' roll.
DC: We're talking about being in trailers, and total white trash plight, hilarious stuff too.
SR: Yeah, some of the content is kind of country.
DC: Our dog has gotten hit by a truck just yet. So we have to work on that.
Continue to Part 2...
Related Articles:
Join the Folk Music Section's weekly newsletter by sending an email to folkmusic@suite101.com.
