The Chamber Strings: “Make It Through The Summer”, Live at Double Door (2007) скачать в хорошем качестве

The Chamber Strings: “Make It Through The Summer”, Live at Double Door (2007)

This week’s “From The Casks” video is The Chamber Strings performing “Make It Through The Summer” at the Double Door in Chicago in 2007 (with a bonus intro from a rehearsal for the show). On January 20th, 2007, The Chamber Strings played a sold-out reunion show at the Double Door in Chicago. Whiskey Bender Productions was there with 4 cameras and soundman extraordinaire Jude Lemrow to record the show. We were in the midst of producing a documentary about The Chamber Strings for the Glorious Noise music website. The documentary, originally intended to focus on the reunion had turned into a 4-part series detailing the rise, fall and reunion of the group with the full cooperation of all band members. (You can view the documentary on Whiskey Bender’s YouTube Channel.) In the early 2000s, The Chamber Strings were on the rising from local darlings to national buzz band on the strength of their second album “Month of Sundays”. The music on the album mixed beautiful, orchestral pop sounds with elements of soul to create what band leader Kevin Junior described as “Dusty in Memphis meets George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass.” The album met with overwhelming critical response, landing on numerous top ten lists and setting The Chamber Strings on the verge of stardom. The band seemed poised to follow in the footsteps of Smashing Pumpkins and Wilco as 'the next big thing' to come out of Chicago’s vibrant music scene.... then everything unraveled. Drugs, depression and deceit took the band from a probable breakthrough to a damaging break-up, and sent Kevin Junior spiraling into years of drug addiction and homelessness. The show at the Double Door was to be a joyous return of a beloved band, celebrating the renewal of friendships and the resurrection of Kevin Junior from the verge of self-destruction to acclaimed musician and bandleader. In fact, days before the reunion show Kevin was the subject of a cover story by the great music journalist Bob Mehr in the Chicago Reader which detailed his 5 years of “Heroin Hell”. The stage was set for a triumphant homecoming. The Chamber Strings did not disappoint the packed crowd at the Double Door that night. The band sounded great. Despite the five-year layoff, everything remained intact – the gorgeous backing vocals of Carolyn Engelmann and Jason Walker; the sometimes swaggering, Stonesy, sometimes soulfully, poppy guitar solos of Tim Fowler; the versatility and skill of Anthony Illarde on drums moving from lush pop, to raw rock to blue-eyed soul without (literally) missing a beat. And there in the middle of all of it was Kevin Junior, impeccably dressed in a brown suit and tie, sporting his Ronnie Wood rooster haircut, playing guitar, singing his beautiful songs… sweating, smiling, happy and alive. Kevin’s purpose in life was to write and perform songs. It was the only thing he wanted to do. It was the only thing he could do. And watching him return to it that night in front of an adoring crowd was a beautiful thing. The Chamber Strings reunion remains one of my favorite performances that Whiskey Bender Productions has ever filmed. But only a few songs have ever seen the light of day. We used a couple of them in the final part of the Chamber Strings documentary and released a few more on YouTube over the years. Since Memorial Day weekend is generally regarded as the unofficial start of summer, we thought it was an appropriate time to share this performance of “Make It Through The Summer” one of the singles from the “Month of Sundays” album. We encourage you to search out “Gospel Morning” The Chamber Strings debut album which was recently re-released by Pravda Records after being out of print for years. Sadly, “Month of Sundays” remains out of print and unavailable on Spotify (and copies of the CD go for upwards of $80 on the internet!). We keep hoping that some savvy label will re-release “Month of Sundays” and package it with some of the incredible songs that Kevin had written and demoed for the planned 3rd album. Hmmm, maybe we’ll drain one or two of those songs from the casks at some point.