Back to Andy Plymale
		CD Review - Little Girls Dancing Reprinted from April 2006 Issue -by ANDY PLYMALE Christmas came early to the Plymale household this year, when I came home recently to find that John April had left a copy of his new CD, Little Girls Dancing (John April and Tim Moody, Munit Records), on my doorstep, because, to my surprise, the CD features on two tracks the vocals of Kenny Day, an R&B/soul/gospel singer and one of my favorite local musicians. Having not seen Kenny perform in quite some time, it was great to hear him carrying the lead vocal on a couple gospel tracks written by April. On He Just Knows, a song that April claims was inspired by Bruce Hornsby’s music, Kenny carries off an unlikely mix of Van Morrison and Tom Waits, and on April’s Cross that River Jordan, he gets across a real gospel fervor. And April’s banjo at times, in this non-bluegrass context, reminded me of another favorite musician of mine, Tony Furtado, currently out of Portland, Oregon. Despite all the jokes about the instrument, it is great to hear the banjo in such lovely and lyrical contexts that this CD places it. Like Furtado, April also plays slide guitar, and his solo slide guitar arrangement of the traditional sacred song Come Thou Font is enough to make a nonbeliever question his or her non-belief in divine inspiration, given the context that the arrangement came to be: while on assignment in Alaska, April awoke at 3am one morning out of the blue with the idea to arrange this song for slide guitar. The result is miraculous. Another high point of the CD is the inclusion of a track by the now defunct local group, the Johnny Moodwick Trio, which was April on guitar and banjo, Tim Sedgewick on electric bass, and Tim Moody on guitar, mandolin, and fiddle. After enjoying this group multiple times at Atomic Ale, before Moody moved out of town, it was great to hear them again, on record. The live track is April’s Quiet Time, recorded at Bethel church in Kennewick. On Little Girls Dancing, Moody plays mandolin on nearly every track, as well as electric bass on most, and guitar on some. Carrying the melody on most of the instrumental tracks, Tim seems to have really absorbed these tunes, most of which were actually co-written by April and Moody, during his tenure performing and recording with April, as his mandolin playing sounds second nature. Moody also recorded the CD in his home studio, which has been relocated to Arvada, Colorado. Tim also gets producer credit. As good as the music on this CD is overall, I was equally impressed by the professional graphic design of the cover and liner notes accomplished by Pasco graphic designer Scott Wilburn (photos by Richland’s Dianna Clark). The CD’s graphic material looks quite a bit better than the average local production. From a marketing standpoint, I might question the inclusion of non-religious instrumentals with Christian vocal tracks, but there are enough of both that anyone interested in one and not the other should get their fill. Little Girls Dancing can by ordered online at www.cdbaby.com or from John April, 1839 Mahan Ave, Richland, WA, 99354, phone 509-460-3765, email Stringwood@aol.com.