From "The Groove" - December 2006
Light Street Motors
The Light Street Motors motif - picture courtesy of Paul Renton
Paul Renton (Rento) is a musician and entertainer who is clearly trying
to head out in a new direction. With the aim of expanding his gig schedule,
getting some radio airplay and line ups at festivals, he’s just released the
“Light Street Motors” EP, with refreshingly new and all original material.
Musicians are primarily entertainers, says Paul, and his new release shows him
as exactly that.
The message is that “Light Street Motors” is about Queensland, past
perhaps, but definitely present. Try the first track “Automatic” for size.
Listen up radio jockeys, “Automatic” is a great single and really deserves some
serious air play. This is a tight blues based song, but it’s a long way from
the standard 12 bar shuffle. In this song you’ll be introduced to Mrs. Jones,
Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Brown – who are based on people met by Rento on his musical
wanderings out west from Brisbane, particularly in military towns. It’s about
the feelings ladies have when their husbands are away for extended periods of
time. Rento smiled enigmatically when I asked who their Ladyships Smith, Jones
and Brown really are.
Rento crafted this song around “a Jimmy Rodgers type groove. It has a
nagging guitar figure throughout”, he says, “along with a cracking Tom Matthews
bass riff, and that beautifully understated Mark Doherty harmonica.” Which is
by way of introducing the other musicians on the CD. Most of the line up harks
back to “Jook Joint Johnny” days so the recording on Light Street Motors
benefits greatly from the talents of the Colonel on harmonica, Tom (Two T’s)
Matthews on the bass and Billy Bakos on the drums.
Getting someone to play the keys was a saga. After a bit of a panic when
the scheduled keyboard player pulled out with a “dog ate my homework” sort of
excuse, Rento and the boys fortuitously found a bloke called Tnee busking on
Boundary Street in West End. They haven’t heard from him since, but Rento says
“Tnee, my grateful thanks to you if you are reading this”.
What else is on the CD? My pick from the other songs just has to be
“Smells Like Trouble”. “This is a blues stomping thing”, Rento says, “and it’s
a bit of a one-chord wonder”. But a wonderful one-chord wonder we might add,
with some great harmonica backing from the Colonel, some pounding and stomping
from Billy and Tom and some very insistent guitar licks from Paul. It’s a
lyrical variation on “Automatic” and is about a city boy attracted to a country
girl ”. “She smells like trouble, she feels like love”.
“Missing You” has some great saxophone licks from Michael Stankovic and
bears a family resemblance to a Motown/Stax groove. The lyrics came to Paul
when he was a long way from home, so he sang them straight into his mobile
phone. The final result is of course of significantly higher quality.
“The Grass is Greener” came from a simple riff Rento picked out on his
Resonator one morning. It features some great kick drum from Billy and some
beautiful harp from Mark. “I Got A Feeling” is part of an experiment to make
wah wah sound cool. And it features some very nice guitar from Rento as a
result. It’s about a bloke going absolutely nuts while his new girlfriend has a
great time with everyone else but him.
That’s the five songs on Light Street Motors – not really love songs,
but songs about love. As an introduction for a wider audience to
You can see the video for yourself on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqhYGTV_82U.
Paul Renton's website is http://www.myspace.com/pauldrenton.
Mike Freeman