THE LITTLE WILLIES:
MILKING BULL
RECORDS SET TO RELEASE DEBUT SELF-TITLED
ALBUMBY “BIGGEST
LITTLE BAR BAND IN NEW YORK” ON
MARCH 7, 2006
DRINK UP: MIX
OF COVERS AND ORIGINALS BOTTLES GROUP’SLOOSE,
INFECTIOUS SENSIBILITIES
On March 7, 2006, Milking Bull Records
will release the self-titled debut by The
Little Willies, an album that
perfectly distills the fun, down-to-earth
spirit of this New York band’s club
shows. The group – Lee Alexander (bass), Jim
Campilongo (electric guitar), Norah
Jones (piano, vocals), Richard
Julian (guitar, vocals) and Dan
Rieser (drums) – tears through
a mix of covers and originals, from the
revved-up western swing of Fred Rose’s “Roly
Poly” and Willie Nelson’s “I
Gotta Get Drunk” to the cutting wit
of Kris Kristofferson’s “Best
Of All Possible Worlds”; from the
poignancy of Townes Van Zandt’s “No
Place To Fall” to the cosmic absurdity
of their own “Lou Reed.”
The Little Willies formed for purely practical
reasons. In 2003, the group of five friends,
who were all individually involved in other
projects, booked a gig at The Living Room
on New York’s Lower East Side as
an excuse to spend an evening playing music
together. They soon discovered that
they shared a deep musical vernacular.
Although they hailed from the far corners
of the country – California, Massachusetts,
Texas, Delaware – the members of
The Little Willies all grew up listening
to a certain breed of classic American
music: the songs of Hank Williams, Willie
Nelson, Townes Van Zandt and Kris Kristofferson,
to name a few.
As one Little Willie noted, “Something
about living in a big city like New York
makes you miss the stuff you grew up with,
and in our case it was some of these songs.
The original idea was to just be a cover
band and play all these great songs we
knew. It became really fun to have that
outlet, and also a great excuse to seek
out other songs we didn’t know.”
Over the next couple years, The Little
Willies continued to play at The Living
Room whenever all five members were in
town. They added a few originals to their
setlist along the way. The group initially
contemplated a live album, but when Jones
and Alexander completed work on their home
studio, they decided to christen the space
with a Little Willies recording session.
The resulting album showcases the group’s
core strengths, from Jones and Julian’s
sublime vocals, to Campilongo’s stinging
guitar licks, while maintaining the loose,
spirited, bar-band feel of The Little Willies’ live
experience.
THE LITTLE WILLIES – TRACK LISTING:
1. Roly
Poly (Fred Rose)
2. I’ll
Never Get Out Of This World Alive (Fred
Rose, Hank Williams)
3. Love
Me (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller)
4. It’s
Not You It’s Me (Richard
Julian, Ashley Moore)
5. Best
Of All Possible Worlds (Kris Kristofferson)
6. No Place To
Fall (Townes Van Zandt)
7. Roll
On (Lee Alexander)
8. I Gotta
Get Drunk (Willie Nelson)
9. Streets
Of Baltimore (Tompall Glaser,
Harlan Howard)
10. Easy As The Rain (Richard
Julian, Jim Campilongo)
11. Tennessee Stud (Jimmy
Driftwood)
12. Night Life (Walter
M. Freeland, Paul F. Buskirk, Willie Nelson)
13. Lou Reed (Lee
Alexander, Richard Julian, Norah Jones)
check out the band.
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