The Livesays' New Album Gives Fans More Than They Bargained For
Billy Livesay, the former guitarist in Clarence Clemons' band, has a strong group of his own and their new album is a winner.
Thank you for spending part of your day with Michael’s Record Collection. As always, I appreciate you reading this newsletter and I hope at least some of you are also enjoying the companion podcast and YouTube channel as well. This endeavor brings me joy and I hope it makes your day a little brighter as well.
Before I get to the topic of the day — my discussion with The Livesays founder Billy Livesay — I would like to let those of you who would like to support this independent endeavor, that the lowest tier on Patreon has now been set at just $2 per month. You can set it and forget it for less than you spend during one trip to Starbucks. The money goes right back into these efforts so that I can improve all three products — written, audio, and video — for you down the line.
Now let me tell you about a great new album that just came out, because that’s what I do.
Billy Livesay spent 12 years playing alongside world-class musicians in Clarence Clemons’ band and has shared a stage with Bruce Springsteen on occasion. That alone is pretty cool, but the South Florida-based singer/songwriter has a great group of musicians in his own band, The Livesays. The band has just released its fifth album, Not What I Bargained For, which I find outstanding and I believe it will appeal to fans of that nebulous genre called Americana, or sometimes heartland rock. Basically, if you dig the style of music that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band or Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers play, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy what The Livesays put down on this new album.
The band lineup consists of:
Billy Livesay (guitar, lead vocals)
Jorge Laplume (bass, vocals)
Howard Goldberg (drums)
Victor “Cuqui” Berrios (organ, vocals)
Tim Murphy (piano, vocals)
The band’s latest album leans heavily on blues-based rock, but you can also hear some hints of funk, soul, and pop. That’s largely due to the many musical influences that meld together in the Miami music scene.
The Livesays have released two albums since the start of the pandemic, coming out with The Rhythm of Love and Dysfunction last year before dropping Not What I Bargained For just days ago on Sept. 1. Livesay said that he considers the two albums to be related, but separate.
“They’re different but they are brother and sister albums, because some of the songs that are on this album were supposed to be on The Rhythm of Love and Dysfunction,” he said. “That all happened because of the passing of our drummer (Eddie Zyne, formerly with Hall & Oates, in 2018). We had (The Rhythm of Love and Dysfunction) completed and then when he passed, we sort of had a hiatus looking for a new drummer and meanwhile I’m still writing. And then, obviously, the pandemic hit. And then it snowballed from there.”
Zyne appears posthumously on three tracks on Not What I Bargained For as well.
The album contains 12 tracks of blues-based rock from a tight band that sounds like a scaled down version of the E Street Band. The basis for the album’s music is steeped in Livesay’s early guitar influences — guys like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page — but it brings in other flavors as well. There are outstanding rhythms, catchy choruses, and excellent harmonies throughout the record. Livesay is the main songwriter and the other musicians build their parts on top of his demos and provide feedback. But the E Street type of feel isn’t a coincidence.
“A lot of my influence comes from the fact that I played with Clarence Clemons for 12 years,” Livesay said. “And I saw so many Springsteen shows and was just learning things behind the scenes and whatnot, even with the instrumentation of the band. I mean, that was the same. Clarence patterned his band after the E Street Band. And then I always thought, ‘Gee, it would be really nice, rather than having one keyboard player — because Cuqui was in the band first — playing between organ and piano, you know, to have both things going simultaneously.”
The album kicks off with “Two Sides,” a scathing commentary about people defending false information on social media with an intro straight out of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who. Livesay started writing the song six years ago based on a friend’s social media comment and envisioned it originally as something like a John Prine song, but with the explosion of misinformation making the rounds in 2020, he was inspired to finish it. With its message, musicianship, and catchy chorus, it is a great opener and one of the album’s highlights.
See if these lyrics remind you of something you’ve experienced:
Families torn apart by opinion over fact
And friendships ruined that won’t be coming back
Some ignorant fool refusing to believe the world is melting
As the polar caps recede
It’s true, it’s true
There’s a conspiracy
I know because I read it in the newsfeed
Ideas about religion and politics
Two sides along with the ridiculous
The album addresses such topics as aging, loneliness, alcoholism, poverty, infidelity, and politics. But there is light to go with the dark and that comes from the melodies, musicianship, and harmonies.
There are a couple of covers as well, with The Livesays taking on Springsteen’s “If I Should Fall Behind,” as well as the song “Hold Me,” which was written in 1933 and found its way onto Livesay’s radar with a version by P.J. Proby in the mid-1960s.
“When I was a kid, listening to music in the sixties, P.J. Proby had this song. And I never really realized how bad P.J. Proby’s version was until I went back and looked at the video,” Livesay said. “Charlie Sexton did a version of it in the mid eighties, and we heard it then and said, ‘Well, this is a good cover of of this old P.J. Proby song, and much better.’ So we sort of adapted from the Charlie Sexton version, and we had been playing it live for such a long time that we said, ‘You know, we ought to record the song,’ because we really liked it and we like playing it. And then we put the harmonies in and the piano and the organ. So, it kind of developed over a period of time. It had a certain energy.”
I find the two covers, along with opener “Two Sides,” the de facto title track (“What I Bargained For”), and two songs near the end — “Better Angels” and “Can’t Stop the Talkin’” to be among the strongest songs on a fine album.
Livesay is attached to all 12 tracks but said he enjoys playing “Drunkards Lament” and he’s particularly fond of “Can’t Stop the Talkin’” and “Crazy Isn’t It.”
“My two favorites really are the last two. Only because they're different from what we normally, normally do,” he said. “I really like them all but there's just something about the last two. They moved me.”
There are plenty of songs on Not What I Bargained For for most music fans to find something that will move them, too.
Track list:
“Two Sides”
“One More Chance”
“What I Bargained For”
“Drunkards Lament”
“Show a Little Honesty”
“Hold Me”
“In A Small Town”
“If I Should Fall Behind”
“In Troubled Times”
“Better Angels”
“Can’t Stop the Talkin’”
“Crazy Isn’t It”
You can get the CD and the download together for a great low price at The Livesays’ website and you can learn more about the band there. The album is also on Spotify and available at all the other major outlets.
You can see my entire interview with Billy Livesay in the video below. I beg your (and Billy’s) pardon for referring to “Two Sides” as “Both Sides” multiple times during our chat. Billy was kind enough not to pounce on my gaffe and generous with his time in discussing the album’s creation, his influences, working with Clarence Clemons, and much more.