Pete Krebs has been a fixture on the Portland music scene for at least 20 years. His punk-grunge band Hazel was signed to Sub-Pop, and about the same time he was also playing Rounders-inspired bluegrass in Golden Delicious. Since then he has played solo and fronted the swing-jazz band The Stolen Sweets and the Western Swing band The Portland Playboys. It was while that band was playing at the local honky-tonk Landmark Saloon that he met Leslie Beia, who has been active in Portland music for a while now, too. They hit it off and discovered a mutual fondness for hard country music, which led to the formation of The Earnest Lovers.
Their first gig was auspicious, an impromptu onstage jam at the 2014 Pickathon. A month later I got to see them when they opened for (and in some eyes outshone) Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers at Mississippi Studios. Now they’ve moved to the next stage of their career with the release of a six-song EP Sing Sad Songs. It’s a charming little disc of music in the style of George and Tammy or Dolly and Porter.
The Lovers sometimes play as a duet and sometimes as a full six-piece. They’re mostly in band mode here, complete with a lead Telecaster, pedal steel, upright bass and drums, plus the smooth fiddle of Black Prairie’s Annalisa Tornfelt.
The EP is bookended by hardcore honky-tonk; first the chugging shuffle of “San Andreas” which features Rusty Blake’s pedal steel and sets the vocals back a bit in the mix with lots of Sun Studios-style echo; and closing with the rockabilly duet of “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Pal.” In between are a couple of songs with Leslie singing lead in her soulful soprano — the slow sad waltz of “Lights of Anita” to which Tornfelt’s moaning fiddle adds lots of color and Pete adds harmony on the final chorus; and the straight-ahead honky-tonk of “Angel Of Sunrise,” with plenty of twang from Ian Miller’s Tele and Blake’s steel, and Marko Markoc’s walking bass driving the rhythm. And there’s the slow barroom ballad “Still Missing You” with Pete and Leslie trading leads on the verses, and the Gram Parsons-style shuffle “No Songs Came By Today.” I hadn’t noticed before how close Pete’s voice is in timbre to Gram’s — see what you think on this lovely video. While you’re there you can also watch them singing “Walkin’ The Floor” at Mississippi Studios in Portland September 1, 2014, the show that I saw when they opened for Zoe Muth.
Sing Sad Songs fulfills the mission of an EP, which is to leave you wanting more. Check out the live dates on The Earnest Lovers’ website and catch them live if you get the chance.
(Elko, 2015)
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