Loudon Wainwright III will release new album I’d Rather Lead a Band on 9th October via Thirty Tigers.
The album is a collaboration with Vince Giordano and his band The Nighthawks, and producer and music supervisor Randall Poster. The 14-track collection takes on classic songs fom the 1920s and 30s featuring Wainwright as singer and band leader.
Wainwright and Giordanoās big band present a perfectly paced supper club set of songs by Irving Berlin (Iād Rather Lead a Band and The Little Things In Life), Fats Waller (Aināt Misbehavinā), Frank Loesser (More I Cannot Wish You), and others with nimble phrasing and an approach that lets the songs lead the way, like a dance partner.
To choose the songs, Wainwright, Poster and producer Stewart Lerman volleyed dozens of mp3s and YouTube videos back and forth, ultimately whittling them down to 14 picks.
āI loved the idea of just being a vocalist,ā he says. āIt was freeing, because I could shed my Loudon Wainwright III-ness. I will no doubt return to my foremost incarnation, but what a pleasure it was to settle back with this marvellous band and sing these songs.ā
The track list for Iād Rather Lead A Band is:
1. How I Love You (I’m Tellin’ the Birds, Tellin’ the Bees)
2. Ship Without A Sail
3. Aināt Misbehavinā
4. Iām Going to Give it to Mary with Love
5. The Little Things in Life
6. So the Bluebirds and the Blackbirds Got Together
7. A Perfect Day
8. I Thought About You
9. Iād Rather Lead a Band
10. My Blue Heaven
11. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
12. Heart and Soul
13. You Rascal You (Iāll Be Glad When Youāre Dead)
14. More I Cannot Wish You