# Revered Melbourne Blues Institution CHECKERBOARD LOUNGE Are Back With ‘Roller Coaster’

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/revered-melbourne-blues-institution-checkerboard-lounge-are-back-with-roller-coaster/
- Published: 2023-12-08T15:00:00-06:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

### **REVERED MELBOURNE BLUES INSTITUTION CHECKERBOARD LOUNGE, WHOSE _SUN SESSIONS_ ALBUM TOPPED THE AUSTRALIAN BLUES CHARTS IN 2022, ARE BACK WITH THE NEW JEFF LANG-CO-PRODUCED SET _ROLLER COASTER_**

### **NEW ALBUM OUT TODAY!**

#### **_ROLLER COASTER_ ALBUM LAUNCH SET FOR FEB 3 AT THE BUNSWICK BALLROOM – TICKETS ON SALE NOW**

#### **_ROLLER COASTER_ IS 3PBS FEATURE ALBUM WEEK COMMENCING DECEMBER 11! 3PBS STUDIO 5 LIVE SESSION TO AIR WEDNESDAY JAN 17!**

_“The most intensely electrifying experience in Australian blues today…” _**_– The
Age_**

_“Carl Pannuzzo is the best soul singer in the country!” **– the late, great Broderick
Smith**_

Revered Melbourne blues institution **Checkerboard Lounge** have today released 
their new album **_Roller Coaster_**.

Co-produced by the band and **Jeff Lang **at his studio **The Enclave**, **_Roller
Coaster _**follows their multi-award winning and blues-chart topping 2022 album **
_Sun Sessions_** which was one of **Rhythms** **magazine’s Top 10 Albums of the 
Year**, and which spent more than a year on the **Australian Blues & Roots Airplay
chart**, including **multiple months at #1**.

**_Sun Sessions_** also won three of six available awards at the **Melbourne Blues
Awards**, and **Best Blues Album at the Music Victoria Awards** in 2022. 

[⌊Checkerboard Lounge⌉⌊Checkerboard Lounge⌉[

The new album is the first record to feature the band’s current line-up, which features
monster muso **Zoë Frater **on bass alongside group founder **Carl Pannuzzo** on
vocals and drums, **Shannon Bourne **on guitars and **Tim Neal** on Hammond Organ.

_**Roller Coaster**_ is **3PBS-FM’s Feature Album** for the **week commencing December
11**, and the group’s upcoming **PBS Studio 5 Live **session will air **Wednesday
January 17**.**Checkerboard Lounge **will launch **_Roller Coaster _**Saturday **
February 3 2024** at the **Brunswick Ballroom**.  Remaining tickets are available
[here](https://facebook.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7468cc72c4dbd0d828cf87a0a&id=518548d956&e=7f3088bce0).

While **Carl Pannuzzo** is revered as a vocalist (the late **Broderick Smith** once
said Carl was the best soul singer in the country), **Checkerboard Lounge** continues
to highlight its instrumental prowess on the new album.  And while the whole band
is front and centre, operating as it does, like one organism pumping its rootsy 
goodness for feet and hearts to thump by, **Zoe**‘s presence means that **_Roller
Coaster _**may well be the first non-jazz album with four (incredible) bass solos
on it!  

**_Roller Coaster_** also highlights a more collective approach to composition from
the group, and some tasty production touches from **Jeff Lang**. Jeff of course 
knows how to get the best guitar sounds; his capture and framing of vocals and the
good hum of a collectively moving band are notable as well.

**_Roller Coaster_** also highlights a new direction for **Checkerboard Lounge**,
in so far as the album sees them expand in a few different directions outward from
the blues, with several tracks taking in soul, jazz, gospel, rock, rockabilly and
funk (kind of). Even among the bluesier stuff, there is some lighter side peppered
in around the classic heartbreak biz. 

Apart from a couple of songs which utilise overdubs (extra guitar, percussion, some
alto sax courtesy of our multi-talented Hammond organ player **Tim Neal**, as well
as Sound Healing percussion courtesy of guitarist **Shannon Bourne**‘s sister **
Sheridan Bourne**!), **_Roller Coaster_** was all, once again, recorded live in 
the studio. Indeed, most songs were actually arranged on the spot too, as is the**
Checkerboard** way. When **Checkerboard Lounge** play live, no two versions of anything
are played the same twice. This is a group bunch of musicians who are able to play
anything, and their collective interplay, co-creativity and cohesion is absolutely
electric.  

**Checkerboard Lounge _Roller Coaster_ is out now on Cheersquad Records & Tapes**

[https://cheersquadrecordstapes.bandcamp.com/album/roller-coaster](https://facebook.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7468cc72c4dbd0d828cf87a0a&id=32e956488a&e=7f3088bce0)
[https://www.cheersquad.com.au/releases/checkerboard-lounge-roller-coaster/](https://facebook.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7468cc72c4dbd0d828cf87a0a&id=96312f167b&e=7f3088bce0)

Rollercoaster

[⌊Rollercoaster⌉⌊Rollercoaster⌉
Watch this video on YouTube

_Checkerboard Lounge – Roller Coaster (Official Audio)_

**The Songs… commentary by Carl Pannuzzo **

[⌊Checkerboard Lounge album cover⌉⌊Checkerboard Lounge album cover⌉[

 1.  Roller Coaster (Pannuzzo/Bourne) 3:25 – a crafty lyric about an extremist personality
     creating a roller coaster relationship, set to a reckless highwire soundtrack 
     boogie.
 2.  Double Standard (Pannuzzo/Bourne) 4:23 – a character portrait of a duplicitous
     dude who’ll take you for a ride.
 3.  King of Nothin’ (Neal/Pannuzzo) 6:11 – a down drop into a jazzier music with a
     blues expression.
 4.  Killing Time (Pannuzzo) 4:00 – a dream of downtime with a sexy upbeat, a union
     imagined from a point of isolation.
 5.  Came to Get My Heart Back (Pannuzzo) 6.17 – a sneaky underhanded feel coming to
     reclaim a stolen heart – features a slight return edited from an outro guitar 
     solo that in studio went for longer than the song.
 6.  I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (Taylor/Dallas) 6:00 – dedicated to
     the plight of First Nations people, an emancipated feel of a song of racial incarceration,
     borrowed from the great Nina Simone. This track features a beautiful Hammond Organ
     intro which sounds as though you’re walking from the back of a church to right
     in front of the keys.
 7.  Uncivil Compliance (Bourne/Neal/Frater/Pannuzzo) 3:05 – an instrumental depiction
     of the rudeness of commercially agenda-driven law and attitudes of power and control.
 8.  Cry No More (Pannuzzo) 7:24 – a soul ballad in the vein of a super slow Donny 
     Hathaway classic.
 9.  Same Old Fool (Bourne/Pannuzzo/Frater) 4:12 – a fat groove portrait of a character’s
     folly of trying to reinvent themselves without looking at the unacknowledged stuff
     that will just bite them on the bum.
 10. Prodigal Man (Bourne/Pannuzzo/Frater/Neal) 6.30 – an almost psychedelic rock ballad
     about man working to free himself from his own undoing. Featuring some shamanic
     percussion from Sheridan Bourne and Tim Neal featuring on alto sax as well as 
     Hammond organ.

**Album credits…All songs arranged live in studio by Checkerboard Lounge.
Shannon
Bourne – GuitarZoe Frater – BassTim Neal – Hammond Organ, Alto SaxCarl Pannuzzo –
Vocals, DrumsRecorded and mixed by Jeff Lang at the Enclave MelbourneMastered by
Joe Carra at Crystal Mastering. Photography by David Wayman.Produced by Jeff Lang
and Checkerboard Lounge. Art layout and logo by Ruby Neal.Sheridan Bourne – Crystal
singing bowl, Synodic Moon Gong, Shamanic Medicine Rattle (83) courtesy of sound
healing at [goodvibes.com.au](http://goodvibes.com.au/)

_Dedicated to the great Broderick Smith
“All the gods will raise their glasses when
the minstrel passes” Broderick Smith 2018We dedicate ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would
Feel To Be Free’ to Indigenous solidarity.Sovereignty was never ceded.

**Checkerboard Lounge bio…**
World-class musicianship, unbridled passion inspired
by the moment and an almost telepathic ability to create; led by singing drummer
Carl Pannuzzo, Checkerboard Lounge are a powerhouse to be reckoned with. 

Playful and unyielding, Pannuzzo, revered as one of the greatest voices in Australia,
is joined on stage by the cream of Australia’s talent: guitar master Shannon Bourne,
Hammond virtuoso Tim Neal, and inimitable bassist Zoë Frater.

From standing ovations at festivals to crammed inner Melbourne pubs, no two shows
are the same. Vibrant and unforgettable, a Checkerboard show is a tour-de-force 
of honesty, integrity and truthful musicianship; the very essence of a live music
experience.

2022 saw the launch of the critically acclaimed ‘SUN Sessions’, which shot to the#
1 spot on the Australian Blues and Roots National Radio Charts and remains in the
top 20.

The album also won the Music Victoria Industry Award for Best Blues Work as well
as 3 awards from the Vic/Tas Blues Music Awards including Best Band.  It also made
it into the Top 10 of Rhythms Albums of the Year alongside the likes of Midnight
Oil and Hoodoo Gurus. Having spent the year playing shows and festivals with the
likes of Joe Camilleri’s Black Sorrows and US guitarist Robben Ford, the band were
at the top of their game, garnering rapturous response from audiences everywhere.

Here is the first filmclip from the album with footage from inside Sun Studio and
live at the International Blues Competition in Memphis: 
[https://youtu.be/DURgHJauvGI](https://facebook.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7468cc72c4dbd0d828cf87a0a&id=75e695ea3c&e=7f3088bce0)

Uncivil Compliance

[⌊Uncivil Compliance⌉⌊Uncivil Compliance⌉
Watch this video on YouTube

_Checkerboard Lounge – Uncivil Compliance (Official Audio)_

**History:Ever since their famed seven-year residency at the Great Britain Hotel
in the early 90s, Checkerboard has inspired the development of some of Australia’s
finest musicians and bands (Powderfinger, Dirty Three, Clare Bowditch, Jet, Spoonful/
Rocket Science, Kylie Auldist to name a few). Checkerboard’s point of difference
has always been playing with different musicians and throwing them into an improvisational
hot-seat. 

Over the years, band members have included Australia’s best blues exponents, such
as Rev. Mick O’Connor, Ian Collard, Jeff Lang, Broderick Smith, Steve Teakle, Richard
Tankard, Andrew Ogburn, Garrett Costigan, Nigel MacLean and Dave Boyle (USA).

**The Future:The band, having just finished recording their next album at Jeff Lang’s
Enclave Studio, have also been invited to record at Churchhouse Studios in Texas
with a label that has U.S. and European distribution. With invitations to play festivals
in Lithuania, Austria and Germany, The Sun is shining happily on the path ahead.

**Personnel: Carl Pannuzzo on drums and vocals (Kylie Auldist, Mia Dyson, Paul Grabowsky,
Shane Howard, Patti Labelle, Fred Smith, Deb Morrow, Bob Sedergreen). 
Tim Neal 
on keys (Mavis Staples, Ricky Lee Jones, Joss Stone, Archie Roach, Paul Kelly, Ernest
Ranglin, Randy Crawford, Fiona Boyes). Shannon Bourne on guitar (Chris Wilson, Vika
Bull, The Black Sorrows, Russell Morris, Tex Perkins, Broderick Smith).  Zoë Frater
on bass (Zoë Frater Quintet).

**Testimonials:**
“You got it boy, it’s in you” **~ Jimmy Smith**

“You could run a small city off these guys” **~ Fiona Boyes**

“Some real happening blues” **~ Bob Sedergreen**

“Thanks for bringing Memphis back to Memphis” **– Memphis local**

“It’s not a place you’d expect to find yourselves in within the normally understood
confines of the Blues form. The collective rapport you have within the band is a
wonder to behold, a total trust in each other that allows for an open ended approach
to everything you play.” **~ Robert Calvert**

**Social Media:[Website](https://facebook.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7468cc72c4dbd0d828cf87a0a&id=d2f877af5b&e=7f3088bce0)
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[[

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