Chrissie Hynde and her band take it to the Basie boards on Sunday, for a recreation of the first PRETENDERS album and a full review of her new release, STOCKHOLM.
When she emerged — out of London, by way of Akron — as frontwoman and driving force of The Pretenders in 1979, Chrissie Hynde had already been something of a best-kept-secret player on the nascent Punk scene for several years. And by the time the band’s debut album was released to trans-Atlantic acclaim later that year, it was evident that — maybe more than anyone else — the American expat would fulfill the mission of the New Wave: to take back The Rock from ponderous album/arena bands, and make the world safe for smart, sweet, savvy singles once more.
When the Hall of Fame rocker rolls into Red Bank’s Count Basie this Sunday, November 2, she’ll be doing the elder-stateswoman thing of summoning past glories, in the process of moving forward with some of her freshest new music in years. Billed as the artist’s first-ever solo tour, it’s a full-band affair that finds Hynde performing a lip-to-label spin through that 1979 Pretenders LP; its fab 45s and deep-cut classics (“Brass in Pocket,” “Kid,” “Stop Your Sobbing,” “Mystery Achievement,” “Precious”) — in addition to a crash course in her new release, Stockholm.
The first full-lengther issued under Hynde’s own name, Stockholm finds her stepping out from behind the Pretenders brand — one that even she admitted had been something of a “tribute act” since the early drug-related deaths of two charter members — for a set that, curiously enough, wouldn’t have been at all out of place as a strong latter-day band project. And this is no solo-acoustic navelgaze either: she’ll be bringing it all to life onstage backed by the full faith and fury of her Will Travel combo, with the London folk duo The Rails (featuring pedigreed pro Kami Thompson) opening the 7:30 pm affair at the Basie.
Tickets ($39.50 – $75) are available right here.
