WHEN IT comes to making albums you could never accuse former Waterboys sideman Anthony Thistlethwaite of taking the easy option. His third solo outing, Crawfish & Caviar, was recorded in locations as far apart as the Russian city of St. Petersburg and in Lafayette, Louisiana, deep in the heart of Cajun country.
My original idea was to go to Prague, he begins. Years ago I lived in Paris and I had such a great time that I felt I could have a similar adventure in a place like Prague. But when I got there I found there were too many foreigners English-speaking people. It was difficult to get close to the local culture.
Thistlethwaite stayed in the Czech capital for less than a month before deciding to take the train to St. Petersburg on the Baltic coast, where he spent most of 1995. Within a month of arriving he was playing with two of the biggest acts in the country, including Boris Grebenshikov known as the Bob Dylan of Russia.
A few weeks later he was touring with DDT, one of Russia s best loved rock bands, playing gigs in far flung Eastern cities such as Vitebsk and Ufa. It was a wonderful experience they re fantastic people, he offers. All the musicians are excellent. It was, and still is, hard to get hold of western rock records, so whatever they managed to get they really treasured and studied very carefully. They know all the words to every Beatles and Stones song and they have strange bits of equipment from years ago home-made stuff.
They were telling me that in the old days the only plastic they could get for pressing records were old X-Ray plates from the hospital. They d cut out a circular bit and press the record on it. So Elvis Presley would be played on an X-ray of someone s chest! They had an expression listening to the bones .
Thistlethwaite hadn t originally gone to Russia with the intention of making a record but everything fell smoothly into place and he decided to go into the studio.
It seemed ridiculous not to do something with these musicians, he says. So I got the rhythm section from DDT and the acoustic players from Boris band and put them together to do my own stuff. We used the Melodiya Studios which used to be run by the state-owned record label. There was a guy who pioneered underground recording in Russia and he offered to help me out, which was useful. But he had only one reel of two-inch multi-track tape. Everytime he did a new album with someone he d have to wipe the tape clean. Luckily, I d taken three reels of tape with me. When we finished recording, I had one reel left over so I tied a ribbon around it and presented to him. He was absolutely thrilled to have it.
EXTENDED FAMILY
The Louisiana connection is even more exotic, as Thistlethwaite relates it. In 1987 he received a letter from one Duncan Thistlethwaite who lives in Opelousas, Louisiana. Duncan had seen Anthony s credit on the World Party single Ship Of Fools and was surprised that they shared a surname. A few years later The Waterboys were in New Orleans, and the two met in the famed Tipitinas venue, where Duncan produced documentation that proved that they were in fact related.
It was unbelievable, he recalls. My grandfather wrote a book on the Thistlethwaite family history and there was a reference to it in Duncan s research papers. Apparently a Thistlethwaite had left England in 1827 they still have the passenger list where he disembarked at the port of Baltimore.
Fast forward to Easter 1996 and Thistlethwaite decided to take full advantage of his new found extended family. When I got back from St. Petersburg with half an album in the can, I thought, maybe now s the time to get over to Louisiana and spend some time with my Cajun cousins. So off I went.
He quickly hooked up in the studio with local stars such as Rosco Chernier (cousin of Clifton), guitarist Sonny Landreth, Christine Balfa, Zydeco Joe and the gorgeous Rosie Ledet The Queen of Zydeco.
I bought one of her records and noted that she had a sax player on it. But when I saw her live she had none so I went up to her and asked her if she wanted one. We had a rehearsal in someone s kitchen and soon I was touring around in their little minibus. Rosie is the Sharon Shannon of Louisiana the main difference being the fact that she stands up when she plays accordion and sings very sexy, suggestive songs. I sent one of her CDs to Sharon and told her she should include a few of these songs in her set!
Crawfish & Caviar is an exuberant, organic and joyous record which, given its disparate components, hangs together surprisingly well. At times redolent of The Waterboys big sound, it s heavily imbued with Thistlethwaite s inspired sense of musical adventure, while the songs are instantly accessible. His voice, for those who have never heard it, is a surprisingly forceful vehicle a blend of Jagger s swagger and Tom Petty s intensity.
The two musical cultures might seem diametrically opposite to each other, he says, but if it feels right, it s got to be right that s my motto. n
Crawfish & Caviar is released on Demon Records, distributed in Ireland by Gael Linn.