JANET KLEIN & HER PARLOR BOYS
"Whoopee Hey Hey!"
Songs to Cheer in Tumultuous Times
2010 CD RELEASE and 7th CD

“Whoopee Hey Hey!”, Tunes to Cheer In Tumultuous Times, is  Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys’
7th CD release and times couldn’t be more ripe for this vibrant and evocative bunch of rare and wonderful tunes from the 1920s and 1930s. Performed with freshness and zeal these long lost tunes become alive again with a fascinating charm.  The album is chock full (19 tracks) of rich and bold music, that have lyrics vivid with heady parlance of the period. The enchanting and effervescent Ms Klein’s singing on "Whoopee Hey Hey!" is sweeter than ever.

Songs from the 20s and 30s reflect culturally "tumultuous times"- the heady frivolity and sassy wild good times followed by modernistic stylings colored by “The Crash” and the Great Depression that followed. With timeless perspectives on life’s ups and downs this music will surely have listeners musing over parallels with our current state of affairs.

Included are eleven tunes from the 1920s where Janet and Boys have gotten a characteristic ‘20s dance band feel. You can hear the crisp foxtrot and vertical clip on ‘Honey Child’ 1929, ‘Shanghai Shuffle’ 1924,  ‘I Found A New Baby’ 1926 and ‘Bye Bye Blues’ 1929.  ‘Honey Child’, the CD’s opening track at once transports the listener to a 1920s dance hall with its bright tenor guitar and up-beat, bouncy accordion stabs. The record then leads with more Southern fantasy tunes such as the yearning ‘Delta Bound’ and playful romping of  ‘Mississippi Mud’.

The six 1930s songs and arrangements let on a more "knowing", lush and world-weary sound with sophisticated undulating rhythms, ie “Delta Bound”, “Isn't Love the Strangest Thing”, “I'll Never Be the Same”. A novelty song on the CD ("Ambling Along” written by band-member, the incomparable Ian Whitcomb) is lovingly inspired by the English Music Hall favorites- Flanagan and Allen who were known for their down and out but jolly tramp tunes such as "Underneath the Arches", 'Two Very Ordinary People', On the Outside Looking In'. In this vein "Ambling Along” complete with old style introductory patter, is a bitter sweet strolling melody and a heartfelt hobo song for our own agitated times.

Featured are two new full time Parlor Boy band members: best on the planet 1930’s style guitar and plectrum banjo whistling master-John Reynolds and hobo bon vivant Marquis Howell who plays stand-up bass with an authentically inspired vintage panache. Other notable performers are: Daniel Glass who literally “wrote the book” on vintage percussion styles. Set to the task, he succeeded in deciphering and recreating in his own style the fantastic percussion effects of Paul Whiteman’s original recording of ‘Mississippi Mud’ and discovered a rare devise called a bockety bock. Also, Randy Woltz who continues with his marvelously adroit Vibraphone and xylophone playing is featured on jaunty piano duets with Janet. One of these tunes ‘Poppa’s back With Momma Now’ (from a lost Vitaphone short) is a virtual laundry list of pre 1929 whoopee lavish lifestyle ‘when every fella from a banker to his caddy’ had lots of dough and wandering ways only to find they are now all staying home with momma because they’ve discovered ‘there’s a kick in the old gal still’.

Having come so perilously close to the brink of economic calamity... what better time than now to contemplate the zeitgeist of pre and post Depression America…As Janet likes to say, ‘This music got folks through the Depression, the last time’. So Bye By Blues…

Since Janet’s last release (‘Ready For You’ in 2008) the band has toured Japan and Australia and played at the famous Fuji Rock Festival and Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The group plays regularly in and around Los Angeles.  “Whoopee Hey Hey!” is produced by Robert Loveless (Scenic, 17 Pygmies and Savage Republic) with gorgeously crafted vintage style artwork adornments designed by Janet, David Barlia and Robert.

Janet and her highly acclaimed, girdle-bustin’ bunch of West Coast Jazz Archeologists and Merrymakers previous CDs include:

1998 Come In To my Parlor    2002 Put A Flavor To Love    2006 Oh!
2000 Paradise Wobble         2004 Living In Sin      2008 Ready For You

Band Leader

Janet Klein – Vocal & Ukulele

Parlor Boys
Benny Brydern * Violin and Stroh Violin
Corey Gemme * Cornet & trombone
Marquis Howell * Stand-Up Bass
Brad Kay * Piano
Tom Marion * Guitar
John Reynolds * National Steel Guitar, Plectrum Banjo, whistling and vocal
Dan Weinstein * Trombone, Cornet & Violin
Ian Whitcomb * Accordion, Ukulele, Piano and Vocal
Randy Woltz * Piano, Xylophone, Percussion and Vibraphone

Musician Guest Artists
Chloe Feoranzo * Alto, Tenor & C-Melody Sax, Clarinet
Daniel Glass * Vintage Drums and Percussion
Dan Levinson * C-Melody Sax and Clarinet
Robert Loveless * Marxophone, Uklin and Mandolin

Produced by Robert Loveless
Art Design executed by David Barlia
Photos by David, Robert and Janet

Label Contact Info: Coeur De Jeanette LLC
PO BOX 172 ALHAMBRA, CA. 91802
janetrob@sbcglobal.net
626-284-3766