Waitin' For Payday

For this, his 3rd self produced album since returning to music from a decade-long hiatus in 2013, songwriter, guitarist, singer and bandleader Sid Whelan has re-united with producer and musician Lora-Faye Åshuvud (Arthur Moon) for "Waitin’ For Payday", an 8 song collection that runs the americana road from African influenced blues to bright soul pop. A songwriting student of Steve Earle and Chely Wright, Sid has been earning respect for his rich guitar voicings and well crafted, compelling lyrics. Sid says, “Half of the songs on this album represent a new outward facing direction from me. When I started back up in 2013 for obvious reasons I was mostly in my own bubble. Since then I’ve been in front of audiences constantly and the dialogue with them about their passions, preference, enthusiasms and lives has affected both my lyrical themes and my melodic development. You’ll hear even more of that on whatever my 4th record turns out to be”.

Never one to dominate an album with binary love songs, though there are 2 of those on this collection, ‘Love Me Right’, ‘Make Some Time’, as well as one non bitter breakup blues ‘Midnight In The Country', on this collection Sid ruminates on (s)heroes such as Nina Simone, Robert Johnson and Al Green, as well as on the seductive nature of extremism in ‘Break It Down;’ the vagaries of getting paid as a contract, creative or commission worker in the title track and the need to break one’s word when it has been given to a toxic person in ‘The Promise’.

It’s not widely known in Sid’s current foray in what he calls 'dark blue americana', but Sid spent a decade making music as a guitarist in the USA with a variety of musicians from Nigeria, Liberia, Zaire, South Africa, Camerun, Zambia and Zimbabwe. His love for African music resurfaces on this album with star percussionist Valerie Naranjo playing the Dagomba Gyil, a member of the xylophone instrument family, as well as congas and a variety of percussion. Also appearing is an ensemble playing the Yoruba Lucumi Bata drums featuring Richard Huntley, David J D’Ambrosio and Jimmy Greenfield. It’s unlikely that either sound has appeared on this type of recording frequently, if at all, before now.

Additionally Sid returned to horn arranging for the 1st time in decades, writing 4 charts for a 3 piece section comprising Ron Horton, trumpet, Art Baron and Michael Lee Breaux, reeds.

Other musicians include the great vocalist Darry Tookes (Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin. Luther Vandross); keyboard prodigy Matthew Whittaker on Hammond B3, vocalists Ariel Guidry and Christian Tookes, kit drummers Robert Weiss and Richard Huntley, and bassist Trevor Bridgewater.