Frank Lee Sprague is a unique fella in many ways, not the least of which is his mastery of the e-mail. Corresponding with Franky, as he often closes out his missives, is a delight and a challenge. You've got to be able to keep up with the jokes. I'm no match for him. He thinks five steps ahead. I'm usually two steps behind.

Frank and I share a love of good music. We have strikingly similar tastes. I have always loved The Sprague Brothers, but hadn't heard the tracks collected on the new Best of the EssBee CDs. Of course, now I'm mad for them and anything else Frank is involved with. Trot on over to the three web sites at which he hangs his many-cornered hats and you'll be blown away by his versatility.

As much cyber-yakking as Frank and I have yabbered, he never let on, nor did I ask, about his mastery of another form of music: classical. I knew he had the early rock 'n' roll thing down cold, but I had no idea he was Mozart. Because, looking at his pictures, he doesn't look Mozartish.

So, enquiring about the upcoming sequel to his very fine and dandy Merseybeat album, I asked Frank if he would send along his two classical CDs, which he did. I am clearly and utterly blown away.

Now, what I know about classical you could squeeze into a sunflower seed, but I like melodic classical music enough to listen to it when the mood strikes and appreciate it according to my own sensibilities. I'm not sure I understand it, but I don't approach it from a knowledgeable point of view. I consider any music I'm listening to, regardless of where it comes from, as pure music, and judge it on that level. If it catches my ear, raises the hair on the back of my neck, gives me goose bumps, or makes me smile (or cry, as the case may be), then I consider having listened to it time well spent.

Which is how I feel about having listened to Piano Quartet and Orchestral Suite. Piano Quartet, written for the 88s, violin, viola and cello, is a short, lovely, romantic piece centered around an affecting melody. The structure builds throughout, with the piano always leading the way, either supporting the lines played by the strings or giving weight to the mood with flourishes all its own. Just as with any great pop song, I found it hard to get the central motif out of my head. The ending, in which all the parts come together in a winding sweep, buoyed by Frank's powerful keyboard runs, is simply smashing.

The six-movement Orchestral Suite, featuring Symphonic Poem, recorded with a full orchestra, is not so much classical as classically-oriented, sounding at times like something that Pink Floyd would produce if the Floyd were in the Good Music game. A mood enhancer, a stage-setter, this is music to dream by, to project through. Consider the fourth movement, a classically-styled piece for what may be either a harp or a guitar, or the sixth and final movement, titled "Symphonic Poem," which sounds cross-pollinated with something on the order of the theme from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." I believe I heard a synthesizer in there somewhere, but if not, no matter. Orchestral Suite is classical music for people who don't normally like classical music. And it sings and soars.

Like Frank's work with his brother Chris in The Sprague Brothers. Tracks recorded after their Hightone albums are collected on a new release, Best of the EssBee CDs, and it's freaking brilliant.

But I was a little freaked out, I must admit, listening to it again for this review after spinning Frank's classical work...until, that is, I realized that the rock 'n' roll pop of the Spragues is classical in its own right. The early sides that the brothers pay tribute to are the foundation--or, at least, one of the foundations--upon which all popular music that was created since the 1960s is built. So, I'll call The Sprague Brothers classical artists, and Ludwig and Gustav can turn over in their graves.

Permit me a little space in which to ruminate. Frank's arrangements are not merely reverent to a particular source, they are reverent to many, sometimes within the same song. Take the wild, driving, opening instrumental, "Penetration," originally done by The Pyramids. Here, Frank takes the track to the bank as if it were waxed by The Ventures (another instrumental, the James Bond theme "You Only Live Twice," also worships at the Ventures' feet). The album notes portray "Rock Rock" as being delivered in rockabilly skin, but it sounds to me more like Bill Haley and the Comets after drinking a pitcher of spiked punch. Either way, it's a winner. (Frank also indulges--full-on, I might add--his Haley jones with the big band tune, "Drum Boogie." But who let Gene Krupa in to slap the skins?)

An Addrissi Brothers song, "I'll Be True," is transferred from Doo-Wop to early Beatles style, with spectacular results. Not only does Frank recreate, to a tee, George Harrison's early guitar sound, but he works in sly musical quotes--some stylistic, at least one specific: dig the quote from the Fabs' version of "Devil in Her Heart." What a marvelous creation!

The wonderful "My Tender Heart" is a great example of an original Frank composition that pays tribute to a favorite act (in this case, the Everly Brothers) while also sounding like The Sprague Brothers. "Tall Tall Trees," written by the great George Jones and the equally great Roger Miller, mixes the best of both writers in a stew that screams "Let's rock!"

In at least a near-perfect world, all things Sprague would be holding on to the top chart spot like a jellyfish clinging to a sunbathing loser at the beach. It's a familiar situation in the genre music universe--getting the word out isn't easy, and the bright lights don't always get seen from the road. But that's what we're all about here at buhdge--getting the word out.

The word is love, all these years after The Beatles told us so, and I have a whole lot of love and affection for Frank Lee Sprague's talent and for The Sprague Brothers' wonderful records. But, most of all, I'm that much closer to being a classical music authority, and that rocks.

Alan Haber
November 13, 2005

Go to: Wichita Falls Records, Frank Lee Sprague, and The Sprague Brothers

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