SITTING TEN FEET IN FRONT OF
Lee Rocker’s quartet at New York City’s
Rockwood Music Hall is like sitting
on the hood of a ’59 Caddy revving its
engine as it roars down Route 66. The
50-year-old slap savant’s rare Greenwich
Village set consisted mostly of roots-rock
and rockabilly faves, including smash
hits from his doghouse days with the
Stray Cats. The project he’s promoting,
however, is a bit of departure. The
Cover Sessions is Rocker’s new six-song
EP selected from his favorite ’70s AM
radio hits. The choices range from Steve
Goodman’s “City of New Orleans”
to Elton John’s “Honky Cat” and the
Allman Brothers’ “Ramblin’ Man.”
All are done in an Americana-tinged
minimalist style, with Rocker’s cagey
vocals snaking around his rock-solid
upright and other acoustic instruments.
How did The Cover Sessions come about?
I had been buying and collecting
various instruments—mandolins, ukuleles,
banjos, autoharps, accordions—and
as I messed around learning how to play
them, cover songs that I grew up listening
to on my transistor radio would come to
mind. That was the starting point. For the
recording, I re-arranged the songs and played
most of the instruments, with a focus on an
acoustic sound and very light drums—just
a backbeat. We cut more songs, but the six
on the EP are the ones that worked the best
while retaining the essence of the originals.
How was your two-week Broadway run
playing Jay Perkins in Million Dollar Quartet?
It was a blast and near to my heart because
while I never met Jay, I had a close personal
and working relationship with [brother]
Carl Perkins. He’s the undersung member
of that Mount-Rushmore-of-rock-and-roll
quartet. I knew all the songs, but I also had
ten speaking lines I had to deliver. Probably
the biggest challenge was the music that
went on behind the dialogue, with stops and
starts on key words. On my final night we
had a curtain call jam, in which I performed
“Rockabilly Boogie.”
What insight can you offer when it comes
to slapping and singing while playing?
Creating rhythmic patterns via slapping
is a great way to imply other feels and add
interest and fire to the music. My concern
is I see too many beginners overly focused
on their plucking-hand technique at the
expense of note choice and intonation.
That’s another pet peeve of mine: players
who look at the neck. You need to use
your ears to play in tune, not your eyes. As
for singing and playing, I’m one who has
done it for so long it’s second nature. I’m
still amazed at the limb independence of
drummers, or even pianists! My advice is
to begin with easy songs, where the vocal
starts on the downbeat and has a regular
cadence to it. As you advance to more difficult songs, analyze where the melody falls
and where the key accents are in the bass
line. Always work slowly and you’ll keep
having breakthroughs.
GEAR
Basses Signature Kolstein
Busetto Bass (with Jargar
Dolce strings); Signature
King Doublebass (with
unknown gut strings)
Pickups “I use two Planet Wing
pickups, which I run into separate
channels on my amp. One is on the
bridge for a round overall tone and
lows. The other is under the fingerboard
for highs and the percussive
sounds from slapping.”
Rig Ampeg SVT-4PRO head with
SVT-810E cabinet
HEAR HIM ON
The Cover Sessions [2011, leerocker.com]