About
Humphrey ‘Huck’ Astley is a veteran of the Oxford music scene, having played bass with the notorious Sextodecimo since their inception a decade ago. Although a lover of metal as well as the avant-garde, his heart was often in the traditional genres of blues, country and folk, and it was only a matter of time before he gave them their dues. Sunday afternoon musings on an acoustic guitar became Friday night outings when he began performing solo, and in the Summer of ’09 he transplanted Sextodecimo’s powerhouse drummer Tommy Longfellow from one stool to the other and recruited bassist Matt Halliday (who makes time between full duty in Borderville and occasional moonlighting with Stornoway and Richard Walters) to fill out the Fee sound. Tamara Parsons-Baker, a singer-songwriter in her own right and perhaps Oxford’s finest female vocalist, cut her teeth at the city’s myriad open mics where she and Astley would often duet; her joining the band was the natural course of action. The result is a combo that plays hard and soft and fun and fierce, in a style they like to call The New Butch. With the Tom Waits songbook in one pocket and some lipstick in the other, Huck and the Handsome Fee are poised for 2010.
Huck & The Handsome Fee are:
Humphrey ‘Huck’ Astley: vocals, guitars;
Tamara ‘T-Bone’ Parsons-Baker: vocals, guitars;
Matt ‘Bat’ Halliday: bass, synth;
Tommy ‘T-Lo’ Longfellow: drums.
The tracks on the jukebox were recorded and mixed by Martin Newton and Matt Halliday and mastered by Tom Woodhouse in the Summer of 2010. The songs were written and arranged by Huck and the Handsome Fee, except ‘Passion Man’, which was written and arranged with Joe Swarbrick
