Jake Rodrigues
Dead mans trousers
Dead Man's Trousers is my first album which was created shortly after I had finished touring with Midge Ure between jan/june 1997 . Home recorded on location in Petticoat Lane with pretty basic equipment Jake plays acoustic & dobro guitars, mandolin, accordion & bass. There is piano and harmonica too. On all Jake's albums he has been lucky to have some amazing guest musicians : Sim Jones plays violin on two tracks & Martin Wheatley plays mandolin also featured is Dave Terry on drums. Inspiration came a plenty but the cold war with ending & the wane of despots like the Marcos' from the Phillipines rub shoulders with imaginary pirate lothario's. Perhaps most poignant is We Went for Supper which was written as a wedding song for my friends Nick & Margaret on the Isle of Wight.
Major Chicken
Major Chicken is the second album I actually pressed in the early noughties. In between this and Dead Man Trousers there had been quite a journey with many solo shows & a 2 year period writing & recording with a band called the Third Man. After the band fizzled out I went back to solo recording and this album was very inspired by Becks seminal Odelay. The album cover created by my partner at the time Claire Brewster reflects the collage of sounds & musical worlds I collided together creating an album that is theatrical, serious & comic in equal measure.
In hindsight I owe great deal to the late journalist Dom Phillips who mentored me with the dance tracks on this album. He had a huge knowledge of dance music from being the creator & editor of mix mag ( the dance music bible). I was teaching him banjo at the time & I would play him endless versions of my tracks to which he would he would be brutally critical at times. I think this pushed me to another level & creating my own inimitable funk.
Using a cracked copy of cubase on a homemade PC held together with blu tack & gaffa tape connected to an early Roland digital 8 track. I didn't really know how to loop, sample or quantize and created my sample lengths using a calculator and a ruler on the TV screen to literally get the beats in time ! The sounds created here are helped by on location recording of Glastobury's favourite cavemen the Uggs & the talking birds of Virginia Belmont ( Minor Bird ). I was also helped by a host of amazing musicians from JC Grimshaw ( dobro Tango Train & Mandola Sea Kissing the Shingle) - Martin Wheatley (Weissoborn slide on Then Again) Rupert Brown & Scott Vicarey on drums & Tim Hudon ( aka Tim Ten Yen ) who remixed Sea Kissing the Shingle
Lucky Spoon
Lucky Spoon is my most recent output of material and was released on digital platforms in 2022. It was a real delight to work on this album primarily as its the first time I've recorded my own material in a professional studio. The care and detail Barkley Mckay put into recording this album with me (it's his studio ) takes my breath away as did the contributions of many musicians. Guests on this album include Sim Jones once again on violin & arrangements, Rupert Brown , Wilf Armfield & the gorgeous Trevor Smith on drums . Also Pete Moser on trumpet, my son Caspar Rodrigues on trombone, Barkley on Electric guitar & hammond & the vocals of Kathyrn Mckay,Mandy Carlton & Tracy Coleman. Lastly the string arrangement of Michael Csanyi-Wills.
The album goes from ballads on piano to banjo hoedown, millenial whoops to epic harmonies. There are 60's Kinks vibes & vintage crooning but does Jake even play that one man band !
The second time we Met
Stowaways in
Paradise
Losing the
Third Man
