At the end of last year, we premiered the video Death Rag, the premiere single from Bolton’s The Two Hats Blues Band. The good news is that Rambling Rob Young, Dan ‘Popeye’ Lever and Daniel ‘Doc’ Owens are back once again with a brand new single and video ‘Three Line Whip”.
A few words from Dan:
“Three Line Whip takes a peasant’s eye view of the British political circus and straps it to a booming backbeat, mesmeric chanting, and a hefty tip of the flat cap to the late, great Nina Simone. The sophomore single from the Two Hats Blues Band sees foot drumming harmonica player Dan Lever taking lead vocals. Here’s Dan to tell us a bit more about the song, the video, and Two Hats life in general;
“We all like a sing in the Two Hats. We’ve deliberately chosen a different vocalist for each single from the EP. I’ve always loved bands with multiple vocalists – the Beatles, the Band, Pixies, early Wailers – it’s always great when you go see a band and four songs in, the bass player or whatever steps up to the mic, and totally changes the vibe of the gig. It keeps it fresh, and creates a much deeper sense for the audience of the people making the music.
“There’s a lot of different influences in here – the rhythm section and arrangement draws on a more modern garage blues influence, a la White Stripes/Black Keys, bit of Lee Dorsey in there too, maybe. The slide guitars and harp are harking back to something a bit more vintage, though – Rob’s National Resophonic guitar is a huge part of the band’s live sound and look, and we were happy we got to feature it in one of the original songs. The vocal is inspired by Nina Simone’s “See-Line Woman”, and also Ms Simone generally – she’s my favourite singer of all time, bar none. As for the lyrics, it’s probably better to let them speak for themselves. Suffice to say, no-one’s going to be using it on the campaign trail!
“Making the video was a lot of fun. We spent ages working on the dance routine – so grateful to all those lovely friends of ours who went the distance for us, working on that dance routine, getting all dressed up, and managing to look enthusiastic, take after take – it’s not easy! Fortunately, we had an amazing choreographer, Leanne Wallwork (we didn’t give her a credit on the video to protect her from guilt by association with our clodhopping), and a great filming squad, Steve and Paul from Ultimatum Films, who’ve done all our videos. We also had a dream location, in Parkannas Retro Yard, near Preston – highly recommended!”
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