Third Coast Magazine Review
by John Conquest – April ’12 issue
SOME VELVET EVENING • No Law Against Talking
First off, I owe an apology to Brennen Leigh & Jesse Dayton, my excuse being that their country duets album, Holdin’ Our Own (Stag, 2007), was a one-off rather than an ongoing project. However, after reviewing My Darling Clementine’s How Do You Plead? (Drumfire [UK]) last month, further digging around YouTube turned up Shooting The Breeze, Apart from their video being a marvelous pastiche of a period TV hayride show, Carrie Shepard & John Holk, from the Detroit Honky Tonk scene (who knew?), prove that there are at least two actual Americans who can sing country duets really well. Not only that, but write them too, with nine originals alongside The Delmore Brothers’ Southern Moon and Ritchie Valens’ Come On, Let’s Go. I’m not crazy about the name, presumably a play on Lee Hazlewood’s Some Velvet Morning, but anybody who reminds me so strongly of The Kendalls, especially when they have the same speciality—slippin’ around—can call themselves anything they like. While Shepard sings harmonies with John Holk & The Sequins, here, like Jeannie Kendall, she takes the leads, with Holk as her Royce, and while it isn’t all about cheating, the standouts, like the suggestive standout Chore List, One Night Of Sin and Behind The Line are all about cheating. JC
Music Row Magazine
SOME VELVET EVENING/Shooting the Breeze
—This Michigan duo is going for a retro sound here, and they nail it with charming simplicity. The nifty guitar twang and well-practiced harmony singing are both delightful. Check out their vintage, Opry-style video on the website.
Some Velvet Evening is the sound of sexual frustration. I’ve been saying that the permeation of irony in modern American culture has killed camp, but No Law Against Talking is a booster shot right in camp’s buttocks. By taking country’s conservative, family-friendly foundations and turning them inside out, yet still staying completely within the confines of them, the duo of Carrie Shepard and John Holk engage you with a mad, sick, but still sweet and simple paradox of sensations and thoughts. Some Velvet Evening splits the creative atom. When you listen to their songs, you are in two places at once, listening with two completely different perspectives that are at war, but at the same time harmonious. It is music parallax.
-The Triggerman, Saving Country Music (January 21, 2011)
Vintage Honky Tonk: Red Thread Magazine
“Their debut album No Law Against Talking is an assemblage of cleverly written songs. Their written musical verse travels down the dusty road with a sparkling versatility that pops with vintage country-western style.”
- Natalie Sugarman, Red Thread Magazine
Country Music People Magazine UK: Some Velvet Evening Album Review
“There is a terrific video for Shooting The Breeze on YouTube that is well worth tracking down. Shot in the “Grand Ole Opry style” it gives a clear indication of where SVE are musically. The original song is the album opener, and ensures things get off to a very promising start. Maintaining the “innocent conversation or is there something going on between those two?” theme of Shooting The Breeze is Ain’t No Law Against Talking, nicely retro and very much in keeping with SVE’s mission statement. My favourite track though, is the almost Klezmer-ish Chore List. A sexy little number – “sometimes you’ve got to get dirty if you want to get anything clean” – it is utterly irresistible.”
- Duncan Warwick, Country Music People Magazine UK (Dec 29, 2011)
Country Music News International: No Law Against Talking Album Review
“Being the President of the National Traditional Country Music Assn., for some 35 years now, has certainly exposed me to some ‘not so good’ country music, and being a fan of some of America’s finest duets to emerge in country music, you know like Carl & Pearl Butler, Molly O’Day and her husband Lynn Davis, James & Martha Carson, Curly Fox & Texas Ruby, even Porter and Dolly, but my favorite of all was Lulu Belle & Scotty, and that’s who immediately comes to mind when hearing ‘Some Velvet Evening.”
- Bob Everhart, Country Music News International
Album of the Week: No Law Against Talking by Some Velvet Evening Family Reunion Country
“From the first few bars of Still Have Your Hat, you are transported to a different era of country music (even the cover has a great retro charm.) With stripped down production and gorgeous harmonies, Some Velvet Evening captures the very essence of country music. Without elaborate arrangements, orchestration, or overdubbing, the beauty of Carrie Shepard and John Holk’s voices take center stage. The two voices glide and blend effortlessly in perfect harmony.”
- Family Reunion Country, Oct 31 2011
Turnstyled Junkpiled Album Pick of the Week
“The sweet and carefree harmonies of Some Velvet Evening are a bit like a twangier, boy/girl version of Simon and Garfunkel. With a kitschy album cover that conjures up images of early Country Rock super-group, The Nashville Country Jamboree, No Law Against Talking leads to no disappointment in expectations. The soft and subtle old-timey arrangements from this Ferndale, Michigan duo, are like a pleasant trip back to a childhood spent watching Hee-Haw and singing cowboys.”
- Turnstyled Junkpiled, October 23, 2011
Honky Tonk Friday with Detroit’s Some Velvet Evening
“While Whitey Morgan goes for the outlaw country style of Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings the duo of Jon Holk and Carrie Shepard (Some Velvet Evening) lean more in the direction of the classic harmony duo sounds of Louvin Brothers, Wagoner/Parton, Twitty/Lynn and Parsons/Harris.The band’s brand new debut record is called No Law Against Talking. Below are two songs that showcase both the band’s harmony vocals, as well as their sultry, slinky country music.”
-Craig Bonnell, Songs Illinois
California Bluegrass Association
“With their feet planted firmly in both the past and present, Some Velvet Evening is recreating a vintage sound that even presages the honky tonk era. Their music has heartfelt accents that are country-to-the-core.” -Joe Ross, Roots Music Report
27 Leggies Reviewshine Round Up
First up are Some Velvet Evening, a duo from Detroit better known to their friends and families as Carrie Shepard and John Holk. With a name like Some Velvet Evening they are presumably trying to evoke the spirit of Lee Hazlewood, but to me they are more of a mixture of traditional honky-tonk and a Laura Cantrell sound (particularly strong on the track I have chosen) – which makes for a pretty good combination. Their album is called “No Law Against Talking” and it is out now on Hole-Key Records.
-27 Leggies, Oct 29, 2011
