Chamber Full of Soul
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In the past Junior has professed his love of vintage soul and Brill Building pop, but with the new album he’s finally managed to make music that lives up to its models. “I grew up listening to soul,” says Junior. “It’s what my parents listened to. I figured out how to do it myself this time. I think the main thing is that I’ve learned how to play the piano on the guitar. I learned all of these piano chords, and it was easy to show [pianist] Carolyn [Englemann], and she didn’t have to translate it. It allowed me to make the record I had in my head.” Englemann joined in 1999, several months after the Aurora-based Bobsled label reissued the band’s wonderful 1998 debut, Gospel Morning, and Junior says she’s since become essential to the arranging process.
Following the Bobsled reissue of Gospel Morning, the group spent more than a year touring, and Junior expects to put in similar road time for the new album–which means it’s likely we won’t get another Chamber Strings album until 2003 or later. But if the growth evident on the new album had anything to do with constant touring, the third one should be an instant classic.
When Fisher takes his act on the road, he performs with pickup bands, and for his first-ever Chicago gig on Saturday at the Hideout, he’ll be supported by Chicago prog rockers Cheer-Accident. The set will include all of Astrology Songs, and he promises to also perform a few gems from his cassette-only album of feud songs, Battle of the Sexes, duetting with art-rock chanteuse Virginia Montgomery and local shrieker and sexpot Misty Martinez.
