Led by songwriter/musician, Andrew Morse, NYC’s The Tasty Kings begin anew with ‘The Kindness of Numbers,’ their eagerly-anticipated fourth album, the follow-up to their critically-lauded ‘Native Tongue’ LP, which featured inimitable Beach Boys/Rolling Stones’ vocalist/musician Blondie Chaplin.
Tongue ratcheted rave reviews from esteemed publications Ultimate Classic Rock, Lust for Life, The Aquarian, The Big Takeover, Vintage Rock, Rock Cellar and Record Collector Magazine which noted the group’s “instinctual interplay” while Goldmine championed its “articulate arrangements and well-crafted melodies.”
Releasing November 7 via Stand Clear Music/UnitedMasters, the new 10-song opus travels a familiar path with lead vocals by the supremely talented Sexton Brothers: Charlie, a touring guitar player for the likes of Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello, and his younger brother Will with Charlie on four tracks (“Old Ford,” “Tess of Soho,” “Sunset,” “Fix My Head”) and Will on six (“New York Times,” “Something in the Subway,” “End of the Line,” “New York Girl,” “After You’re Gone,” “Just Like Home”).
Recording once again with David Boyle at Churchhouse Studios in Austin, Morse had Stones’ alum Darryl Jones (bass) and Charley Drayton (drums) reprise their unmistakable Native groove. Also along for the ‘Kindness’ sessions were Kevin Trainor (guitar), Tony Garnier (bass), Stephen Barber (piano), Wade Schumann (harmonica), Milo Deering (viola) and Danny Thompson on percussion with background vocals provided by Juliana Sheffield, Georgia Bramhall and Sally Allen.
“I’m not really sure why we called this one the Kindness of Numbers. Kind of a nerdy title for a bunch of rock & roll songs!” offered Morse.
A seasoned world-traveler, photographer and songwriter for the past five decades, the gestation of some of the songs on the new collection harken back to last century.
“Back in the 70s I stayed a number of times in the Hotel Chelsea with my high school girlfriend. It was a broken-down palace, but we didn’t care, it was cheap. This one has a whiff of Lou Reed,” explains Morse while “Tess of Soho” speaks of another woman from long ago, “I lived with a girl years ago who used to wear a scarf over her head when it was cold and rainy. I was thinking of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, the novel which was made into a movie by Roman Polanski. The lyrics go down this surreal path, a dreamy series of images and adventures.”
With a fondness for English lit and the long-storied tradition of songwriters from Britain, Morse spends quite a bit of time each year in England, most often in central London but on occasion in Hampstead Heath known for its lush countryside and slower pace of life, a respite not unlike Central Park in New York City, where he’s based.
This duality colored the album’s final tune, the sweet, somber longing of “Just Like Home.” “I wrote this tune in London, after the Queen passed away, when I realized that there were a few similarities between my home in the West Village in New York and in Hampstead, where I was hanging out in London—the cobblestones, colors of the national flags, etc. It came to me fairly easily, probably because I started it while checking out a gorgeous electric guitar in my friend’s living room,” recalls Andrew.
Other standouts on Kindness include the Velvet Underground bump of “Something in the Subway,” the Americana-inflected “Sunset,” which brings to mind the title track from Lou Reed’s concept album, Berlin, the raunchy blues-boogie “End of the Line,” an echo of mid-70s Dylan doing “Hard Rain” on the Rolling Thunder Revue and album opener, “Old Ford,” which dips into Stones’ Black & Blue territory. Drop the needle on the record and you’d think you were hitchhiking down Hwy 61 with Jagger, Richards and the ghosts of every crossroads. Just miles and miles of nicotine and leaded gasoline.
The old adage goes, there’s strength in numbers, there’s also kindness in connection when doing so with people you value, ones you love and those you admire. It’s never the end of the line, it’s only open road and a solitary goal, live life to the fullest wherever your heart may roam, be it across the globe or anywhere just like home.
