Beetles & Butterflys - Mountain Rock Valley Roll - The Barrydale Album

Mountain Rock Valley Roll - The Barrydale Album. 

Listen online @

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/beetlesbutterflys

Acoustically conceived in the mountains and valleys of the Little Karoo, Beetles & Butterflys…

Their debut album is appropriately entitled Mountain Rock Valley Roll, mostly written in the quaint mountain valley village of Barrydale along the scenic Route 62, South Africa. It features 11 original songs laden with memorable melodies and layered with natural acoustic resonances of vocals, acoustic guitars and harmonica blended with authentic African rhythms.

Kent’s musical approach is definitely acoustic and looking for a “live” energy, multi percussionist Patrick Dilley was invited to add layered percussive world rhythm tracks to the songs. The rhythmic backing is distinctively West African flavoured but also encompasses instruments from as far afield as The Middle East and China. Patrick’s solid and clever world rhythms make an interesting combination, subconsciously demonstrating the very roots of modern music.

The next step was to find the right vocalist and Kent approached long time friend Louise Leggatt, who he worked with successfully in Rubber Soul, HappyFourTwenty & solo to make up the trio. Their vocal styles complement each other beautifully with intelligent and meaningful lyrics, some of which are also a contribution from Louise, who surprised with her expression-filled songwriting. 

The songs of Beetles & Butterflys can be entrancing, with dynamically placed hooks and polyrhytmic cross riffs on guitar, harmonica and drums. Louise combines with Kent’s almost rough Lou Reedish voice to add smoothness and flow to the eclectic mix on Mountain Rock Valley Roll. Considering O’Shea and Leggatt have been singing together for 15 years (with Rubber Soul in the 90’s) this is not really a surprising evolution of these two talented vocalists.

After Rubber Soul disbanded in ’96, Patrick was impressed with the songwriting skill of O’Shea and Alan Benatar (bassist for Rubber Soul) and joined with them to form 3 piece rockers The Holy Rollers, eventually expanding to become hemp rock activist band Happy Four Twenty.

After the parting of Rubber Soul and Happy Four Twenty respectively, the members of these alternatively progressive bands went their own ways. Most importantly, Kent moved to Barrydale where he has been able to hone his songwriting skills, much as Louise moved to the scenic forests of Wilderness. Patrick traveled to West Africa to immerse himself in the influential music of that region which has since had a major influence on his drumming style and given him a deeper and mature understanding of rhythm.  

And so this idea of Kent’s came to fruition and Beetles & Butterflys began recording in June 2009 at Alley Road Street Level studios in Cape Town. Kent, with an almost retro approach to capturing the most natural acoustic sound possible, together with the skilled and experimental audio painting of Cal Milne has resulted in a creative process that has applied diverse innovative ideas.

B&B with Audio Painter Cal Milne 

With all the different influences, the music is still uniquely South African and punters in The Klein Karoo and throughout the country are going to easily relate to the Beetles & Butterflys rendition of an Afrikaans classic, Sonja Heroldt’s “Ek Verlang Na Jou”. 

Beetles & Butterflys debut album Mountian Rock Valley Roll features 12 tracks (11 originals & 1 cover) to be released in October 2009. 

Louise Leggatt - Vocals

Patrick Dilley - African drums & percussion 

Kent O'Shea - Acoustic guitars, Vocals, Harmonica & Bass

Emile Duse - Bass

Audio Painter - Cal Milne

Produced by Kent O'Shea

The trio performed their debut show with Emile Duse on Bass at the Strawberry Festival in George 25^th&26^th September 2009 & and then at Swing Café in Knysna on the Saturday 26^th September. The band was warmly received by the audiences at both events and had the Swing Cafe crowd on their feet during their last set.

B&B performed in October 2009

in Cape Town:

27th Tuesday at Zula Bar in Long Street from 9.30pm

28th Wednesday at Speedway Cafe in Gardens from 8.30pm.

& in the Little Karoo

31st Saturday at Joubert-Tradauw Private Cellar in Barrydale, Tradauw Valley.

Previous Albums by O'Shea, Leggatt & Dilley

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/myrtleville

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/happy420 

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/earlydays  

Pics: Andries Joubert

www.andriesjoubert.com

Louise Leggatt

Namibian born Louise began a professional singing career in Cape Town in the early 90’s. Her perfect voice is smooth and soothing and contributed tremendously to popular South African band Rubber Soul’s successful airplay on national radio. Her presence on stage and in the recording studio exudes a humble and calm confidence with a wicked easy-going sense of humour.

Her musical influences include Tori Amos, Fleetwood Mac and The Cardigans among many others. At age 10 she met Sonja Heroldt at a signing in Windhoek which perhaps explains her beautiful cover vocal execution on the Beetles and Butterflys album Mountain Rock Valley Roll, of Sonja’s “Ek Verlang Na Jou”, which features amongst an eclectic melodic mix of original songs from Kent O’Shea and Louise.  
     

Her artistic vocal style touches one’s very soul and her uniqueness is evident in that she cannot be compared to anyone except Louise.

She has developed a deep and emotional song writing style, no doubt recently also influenced by the beauty of the natural surroundings of Wilderness, where she lives.

Kent O'Shea

Kent draws his musical influence from The Beatles, Mike Batt and many other early bands, being exposed to melodic music from an early age whilst travelling South Africa during the 70’s with his father Hugh O’Shea, a professional travelling troubadour. It was inevitable that he would soon follow this path and at age 12 he began to play guitar and started writing lyrics.

His meaningful and poetic song writing obviously runs deep in his Irish roots (he was born in Cork and lived in Myrtleville, a small village in Eire but grew up surfing Ballito on Kwa-Zulu Natal’s North Coast in South Africa) and his lyrics are charged with emotion. His captivating voice is unique and is sometimes reminiscent of Lou Reed or The Kinks. He is 100% African now and this is evident in his latest release, with uniquely South African songs and backing of pure African drums and percussion.

In the nineties he was a founding member of one of South Africa’s most potential new rock bands, Rubber Soul, and since formed controversial hemp rock band Happy Four Twenty, recording singles with both bands which still receive regional and national airplay in South Africa and abroad on Internet sites. His compositions have also featured on BBC and local television stations. His publishing label Ricoshay Music was accepted by SAMRO in 2003 and he has since released 3 complilation albums featuring over 45 original songs.


www.ricoshaymusic.com

He currently lives in the mountain valley village of Barrydale, where he draws inspiration for his latest album. Mountain Rock Valley Roll is an eclectic mix of acoustic songs inspired by the people and environment of Route 62, which rolls through the valleys of the Little Karoo in South Africa.

Pic by Lou 

Kent’s music and song writing are as enduring as the countryside itself and he cites everything from The Rolling Stones to Bob Marley to the rolling valleys, mountains and people of the “Klein Karoo” as his primary influences for his latest band Beetles and Butterflys.

Patrick Dilley

A second generation South African, Patrick grew up with two passions of drumming and surfing in the Eastern Cape, following in the footsteps of his father and his brother who were marching band drummers.

With an irresistible urge for knowledge he has traveled extensively to learn more about his art, spending years studying drum kit in London and then on to learn African percussion in Ghana. Most recently he has embraced Middle Eastern percussion after a trip to the Middle East to present African drumming clinics. He has created original African influenced soundtracks for BBC and local televison.

He is now based in Cape Town where he runs his drumming company and the pan-African Team Spirit All Stars Band (where he is aka Mr P) and also performs in a jazz band. Cape Town is where he met Kent O’Shea when he auditioned for Rubber Soul in the 90’s. 

He subsequently joined Kent as drummer for hemp rock band HappyFourTwenty and currently provides percussive backing for Beetles & Butterflys.

Patrick brings a wealth of experience with his percussive versatility. He has an instinctual understanding of people and situations and to this effect his style is described as no-nonsense as he performs with solid timing. An easy-going character and flexibility serve whatever style of music he is performing and he is sought after as a session drummer/percussionist for local and international artists.

Earliest musical influences are drawn from the likes of Led Zeppelin but he admits that he listens to absolutely anything that will contribute to his rhythmic experience.