Josie Kreuzer
Josie Kreuzer was precious in a rockin’ scene where girls are still pretty scarce (even more the talented ones). She had the songs, the voice, the look and good bands to back her. She even had her own label to keep complete control of her recordings. Too bad she decided to distance herself from performing and recording around 2003. Man, I can’t still believe it’s been
20 years.
Josie Kreuzer grew up in a house where music was vital, thanks to her mother “There seemed to be some kind of music playing most of the time. My mother’s record collection was huge–chock full of blues, jazz and rock n roll. It was hillbilly & rockabilly that struck the strongest chord with me, moved me the most.”
Very quickly, the young girl begins to compose her own songs, even if she does not, because of her shyness, have the attention to perform in front of an audience.
“I started writing songs when I was eleven, really with no intentional goals that I can think of.”
Around sixteen, Josie and her mother moved to New Orleans. The city’s musical diversity allows it to discover many vernacular styles and expand its musical culture.
“My ‘single’ mother was so preoccupied with working all the time that I was left to my own devices. Can you imagine that freedom given to a 16-year-old in a place where they let kids into bars? (…) I would spend a lot of time just hanging out listening to the R&B, Blues, Cajun, Jazz and Dixieland watching the street musicians and writing songs”.
Her love of music led her to apply for a job at Tower Records when she soon became the “Oldies” record buyer. There she deepened her musical knowledge.
“I had always loved Elvis, Gene Vincent and Bill Haley, but I discovered so much more amazing music. I just grabbed the Rounder, Caroline and City Hall Catalogues. I ordered all these cool-looking records –practically everything on Bear Family, discovering stuff like The Collins Kids, Wanda Jackson, Janis Martin and Charline Arthur. But also around the same time, I went to the store’s magazine section and discovered a rock n roll fanzine called Kicks, which also turned me on to many obscure rockabilly artists. I ended up spending entire paychecks on records. I got a bit obsessive about it.’. The singer adds, “It wasn’t until I started working at a record store as a teen that I discovered the more obscure rockabilly music, which made me even love it more, and that was when I decided to get a guitar and eventually start a band.“
That’s what she did, and at the age of 17, she started to learn the guitar from a Hank Williams’s songbook. But founding a band and finding the right musicians wasn’t that easy: “I wanted to form a band, and I just couldn’t find any musicians that were into rockabilly. I was really into the 1950’s lifestyle as far as the music and the clothes were concerned. I left New Orleans searching for a place where I thought I would belong. I felt very alone not being able to have a conversation with anyone about my largest passion: rockabilly and honky tonk music.” She then decided to leave New Orleans, roaming from San Francisco to Austin, before settling in Los Angeles in 1992.
Whistle Bait
A couple of months later, she met guitar player Teri Tom through an ad in a local newspaper, and both of them then recruited double bassist Jennifer Quinn and their first drummer, a guy called Scott, soon replaced by Cleo Ramone. Within a year, she left, and Elaine Ferraro took her place behind the drums. It was their first band. Their lead singer remembers, “We were extremely raw sounding –as first bands usually are.”
Whistle Bait was my very first band. It was actually all of the members’ first band as well. It was an all-girl rockabilly band, and believe it or not I hadn’t had the intention
of starting an all-girl band…it just sort of happened
that way. We were extremely raw sounding –as first bands usually are.
Their first gig was an opening slot for High Noon, and they also opened for Glen Glenn and Lee Rocker.
Next to classic covers (Train Kept A Rollin, Trouble, Crazy Legs and of course the Collins Kids’ Whistle Bait), the band’s originals, penned by Kreuzer, consisted of songs that she later re-recorded for her first two albums (So-called Boyfriend, Wildman, Wildfire, Honey Pie, Big City Small Town, Long Dark Night, Hey Sheriff, I Waited Up, Dead Man Walking, Runaway Train). Jennifer Quinn contributed one song titled Ain’t No Girlie.
The band never had any official release though they made two demos, one they weren’t satisfied with and a second one recorded by Wally Hersom (Big Sandy). Talking about this recording and the eventuality to release it, Kreuzer joked,” I really don’t know if those recordings will ever be released—I can’t foresee putting them out in the near future…. Maybe after I’m dead or something?!” Another song titled Elvis Don’t Come Back From The Grave produced and recorded by Tim Worman of the Polecats later appeared on the compilation album American Rumble. It’s a good song but not for the purists, sounding a bit like a Neo-Rockabilly version of the Cramps. On the album the song was credited to T.I.D.E, probably because the band had already split by then.
In 1996, just after a show at The House of Blues in LA on Elvis’ birthday for their annual benefit Whistlebait disbanded. “We wanted to go in different directions musically. I wanted to stay traditional rockabilly, I think the others were aiming more towards a harder edge/alternative sound,” explains Kreuzer.
It happened just before the band was scheduled to perform in England at the Hemsby weekender. “I told (the rest of the band) that we should at least do this last gig, but they wouldn’t budge (cause they were still angry with my decision to quit the band)… so I called the promoter of Hemsby and told him that the band broke up, but if he wanted, I would still come over and do the show alone. I’ve been a solo artist ever since.”
Josie Kreuzer, the solo artist
In the fall of 1996, Kreuzer recorded and produced her debut solo album at Golden Track Recording Studios in San Diego. She released it the following year on her debut album on her own She-Devil label “It’s entirely to have total control over my recordings. I have total accountability for everything. I know exactly how much and where every last cent is going from my CD sales earnings. Ask any artist who is with an Indie label, and they probably haven’t even seen $10,000 bucks so far…and if they have, they are probably wondering if they’ll ever get anything else. Ask any artist who is on a major label and they probably haven’t even seen one penny because they are still paying off their massive debt to the label. It’s sad but true.”
On this album, titled Hot Rod Girl, Kreuzer was backed by Buzz Campbell, Johnny d’Artenay and Ty Cox from Hot Rod Lincoln. Most songs are originals penned by Kreuzer, some having been played and tested on stage during the Whistle Bait days. It also contains two covers: Sonny Burgess’s Aint Got A Thing, and Donna Darlene’s You’re Not Doing Me Right.
It’s a very solid effort, especially for a debut album, considering the fact that Kreuzer sings and is also in charge of the production. Maybe an external ear could have helped her refine some vocal takes, the singer being off-key on You’re Not Doing Me Right, and some phrase ends are not always pleasant. But those are minor flaws, and Kreuzer’s high-pitch nasal vocals, close to Wanda Jackson, does wonder on most of the tracks, and Hot Rod Lincoln provides solid backing, sometimes aiming at a Neo-Rockabilly sound (So-Called Boyfriend).
In 1999 she released “As Is”, which was even better. The vocals were better, and the songs (all penned by the singer) were excellent and varied. It found Kreuzer going more into a hillbilly bop direction, with the presence of a steel guitar on some tracks. The backing band consisted of Mike Kraus on guitar, Jeff Kraus on double bass, Marc Clarke on drums and Dana Duplan on steel. Also, Teri Tom of Whistle Bait played the lead guitar on one tune. About that album, the blonde singer said, “Now that I look back, I realize “As is” was just myself coming full circle. In my earlier years, I was really more hillbilly sounding, but no one knows this because the first recording that everyone has heard is ‘Hot Rod Girl’… I never «consciously» plan the songs I write, they just come out. ‘As Is’ was just a product of the songs that came out of me at that period of my life. You see, for me, I can’t just sit down and say, ‘well, gee, I think. I’m gonna write a rockabilly song today’. My songwriting goes much deeper than that…. it’s influenced by what’s going on around me. The arrangements (e.g. steel guitar) just come to fruition as I get together with my band. I happened to have a steel player there at the time, and I just liked the way it sounded. I have a hard time with genres. Unfortunately they have to categorize us somehow. I really just play the music that is deep in my heart, and that just so happens to be categorized by people as rockabilly…so when I slightly stray from that it worries some people–I don’t know why–hillbilly rockabilly–honky–tonk–whatever you want to call it–it all has soul, and that’s what I like creating—music with soul.”
“I have a hard time with genres. Unfortunately they have to categorize us somehow. I really just play the music that is deep in my heart, and that just so happens to be categorized by people as rockabilly… so when I slightly stray from that it worries some people, I don’t know why. Hillbilly,Rockabilly, Honky-Tonk, whatever you want
to call it, it all has soul, and that’s what I like creating, music with soul.”
Her third (and last) album appeared in 2002, still on She-Devil Records. Kreuzer is supported by a new group consisting of Jeff Graves (aka Rip Carson) on double bass and Craig Packham on drums. But the main change, compared to the two previous albums, comes from the singer delegating the production to Mark Neill (who also plays the guitar). Owner of Soil of the South studios, Neill produced and recorded bands like Big Sandy and the Fly-Rite Trio, the Lucky Stars, Deke Dickerson, the Smith’s Ranch Boys, and the Sprague Brothers, to name a few. He also played the guitar on this album. This is, by far, Kreuzer’s best effort.
The sound of the album is thus more compact and better balanced. As for the vocals, they have refined over time while remaining so recognizable. Having an external ear allows her to correct certain vocal flaws. The repertoire gains in variety and emotions (which the first album lacked a bit). Lucky and Wild opens the album and immediately grabs your legs, only to release you about thirty minutes later with the superb and Latin-tinged My Sin (Mi Pecado). In between, you find songs like After I Stop Lovin’ You à la Johnny Cash, Why, a traditional Rockabilly number, Reminder To Remember (to Forget Him), a nod to Elvis’ I Forgot to Remember to Forget Her and Read the Lipstick On The Wall where we hear all the know-how of Mark Neill (listen to the sound of the snare drum and the acoustic guitar to convince you of it) ).
Fans had high hopes for what could follow, but Kreuzer decided to take a break. Her last tour had left her exhausted. She got married and succumbed to the charms of maternity.
Now, 20 years after the release of Beggin’ Me Back, the fans are still begging for her return.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis
