Photo Credit: Linsey Sieger
It seems like John Sieger can predict the future. In 1988 Semi-Twang released their debut LP Salty Tears for Warner Brothers Records. Sieger once told me the lesson he learned from that experience was the band could have made handful of good records for what that one cost.
Cut to 2009, Semi-Twang is resurrected. Cut again to 2018 and the band is releasing their fourth LP, Kenosha, without a major label budget in sight.
Backed by the usual stellar musical performances, Sieger’s collection of songs resemble characters that populate William Kennedy novels. Gritty, determined and flawed, not unlike the city whose name the album shares.
“Concept albums are above my paygrade,” he says. “They require a mind that’s organized differently than mine—or just organized! But there’s a thread of some sort, more emotional than intellectual. The story behind ‘Kenosha’ is simple, the town needed a song. It has been a place of low expectations and breaking out and finding yourself isn’t always easy there. Plus, Memphis has more than enough songs.”
In recent years Sieger say he has been reflecting on what it was like to grow up in a factory town, yet one that managed to launch the likes of Orson Welles, Mark Ruffalo, Reince Priebus and Raymond Edward Johnson.
While he says he has never written directly about his life, these songs “lean a little more in that direction; they’re still impressions and feelings more than anything. My family was big”—seven kids, including brother Mike who plays bass and sings harmony in Semi-Twang—”and was down the economic ladder in a diverse neighborhood before anyone thought of that word. Walking home from school was an adventure and there was an occasional black eye.”
Along with the Siegers, the band includes guitarist Mike Hoffmann, Bob Jennings on keyboards and sax, and drummer Bob Schneider. The album was produced by the band and Chris Hanson. The challenge, it would seem, is allowing everyone their sonic say in the matter. Sieger credits Hanson as diplomatic and sympathetic behind the mixing board but allows that a sense of maturity helps.
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“I’ve never been a band ‘leader,’ more like the member who writes the songs,” he says. “That causes problems. I can be stubborn and occasionally suck all the oxygen out of the room trying to get what I want. At times like that I have to remind myself I get to work with some of the better players in town and that we actually have pretty good chemistry together. So at the end of the day, I hope everyone gets their licks in and we can stay a band for a while longer.”
And at the end of the day these players realize it is about the song. “Boxcar Out of Genesee” takes a loping rhythm and breaks it up with a guitar solo that strikes like a lightning flash. The song sets the tone for themes of small towns and wanderlust. “Chalet on the Alley” takes a clear-eyed look at a growing homeless population and is reminiscent of his compadre Phil Lee’s best songs. Bob Jennings Hammond organ solo adds just the right atmosphere of Milwaukee skyline resignation.
Yet not all is bleak here. “My Mind is Weak” could be a vintage R&B stomp arranged with Jennings’ tinkling piano and horns. “Time Zone” is a bopping Norteno two-step that recalls Sir Doug Sahm and Flaco Jiménez.
“Our concept for recording, and I hope we do this more and more, is to leave space for things to move around and reverberate. You can’t pack every little idea everyone has into a track and hope the song will fight its way out of the clutter. There was a lot of selflessness this time around,” he says. “Maybe we’re growing up!”
Semi-Twang play Shank Hall on Saturday, Dec. 22, at 8 p.m. with The R&B Coquettes.
