'C Sides' by Peder Hedman
On April 3 Peder Hedman would have turned 61 years old. While the Milwaukee artist died in 2017 (shepherdexpress.com/music/musician-peder-hedman-dies) his legacy lives on, partly because he never seemed to stop creating and recording in a variety of guises, genres and formats (shepherdexpress.com/music/local-music/r-i-p-peder-hedman).
C Sides is a thoughtfully curated collection that rounds up songs recorded by The Winning People, Peder Hedman Quartet and a clutch of solo recordings and collaborations. The half dozen Winning People songs hint at what an album by that group may have sounded like and the PHQ set recorded live at WMSE, as engineered by Billy Cicerelli, is nearly a snapshot of the band in a club setting.
Listeners familiar with Hedman’s bands Liquid Pink and Tweaker will recognize his catchy songs spiked with psychedelia and the experimental touches he adds as multi-instrumentalist. Solo track “Bells of the Night” is a moody and atmospheric tune, suggesting a solitary artist at work. A cover of The Kinks’ “Strangers” features Bob Friedman’s stately piano.
Hedman had a knack for conjuring images that seemed like small movies as demonstrated on “Beautiful Girl with a Hammer” and “Cold Desert Sands.” A fearless sonic adventurer, “When You Get It Right” builds from a drum machine and ends somewhere between lo-fi hip-hop and rural hoedown. The funky “Crazy Eights Theme” was written as introduction music for a local roller derby team but don’t be surprised of it turns up in a Blaxploitation film years from now.
