Miss Tess calls her music 'Modern Vintage' and Darling, Oh Darling takes us on a retro road trip with easy listening musical stop-offs at locales which boast varied juke-boxes covering a range of styles including jazz, blues, country, rockabilly or western swing. Initially you think there must be some standards or cover songs here but they are actually all originals.
The talented singer/guitarist is originally from Boston but she has now relocated to Brooklyn; this is her fifth album but her debut UK release (it came out in the U.S. in 2009)
Her band, The Bon Ton Parade, comprises upright bass, pedal steel, trombone, trumpet, piano and more. The band name is, I presume, a pun based on the Cajun expression "laissez le bon temps roulet" (Let the good times roll). This might suggest that New Orleans jazz is the main influence but, while this is true of the track Saving All My Love, it is just one of a number of genres on offer.
Tess grew up loving with the music of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn but it is plain to hear that country classics and Broadway show tunes have been just as much as part of her musical education.
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She obviously doesn't want to get boxed in as just another retro jazz-blues singer, preferring to pitch for a broader audience base on the basis that there are different strokes for different folks.
The result is that listeners can choose between the country lilt of I Just Wanna Make Love Again and the Rockabilly rave of I Don't Want To See You Anymore or select up-tempo country swing tunes like 'That oo oo oo' and 'Oh No' or the toe-tapping Train Ride To Caroline. My personal preferences are for the slower, sexy ballads like Riding Home or the title track.
This is light entertainment pure and simple but Tess proves she has the vocal range to pull off this genre-hopping jaunt with some style and is more than just a thrift-store novelty act.
Miss Tess' Website
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