Two musical friends have come together to create a collection of songs that pay homage to the music that they grew up listening to, in a manner that is both celebratory, but also innovative in the way that the styles are stirred up into a tasty musical jambalaya that is wholly unique.
Shadow & The Thrill is the product of the talents of vocalist/guitarist Tony Cardenas-Montana, best known for his extensive tenure in Great White, and it’s subsequent variation, Jack Russell’s Great White, and drummer/keyboardist Brentt Arcement, a New Orleans-based musician and producer, who has the culture of the bayou coursing through his creative veins.
The band’s debut album, Sugarbowl, was recently released independently and features an energetic and diverse selection of original material, as well as some tasty cover tunes, chose for the way they fit so seamlessly with the bluesy vibe Cardenas-Montana and Arcement were seeking.
“I guess I am more the shadowy figure for sure. I am definitely more of a darker, brooding kind of cat. Whereas Brentt is kind of hyper, so we’ll call him the ‘thrill’ part of the band. We became fast friends, and I realized there was some chemistry there whenever we played and whenever we talked about music,” said Cardenas-Montana, who spearheaded the project and brought in Arcement to help bring it to fruition.
Cardenas-Montana said he and Arcement have known each other for more than 15 years but that this was the first time they had an opportunity to work together on something substantial. When he decided it was finally time to record and release his growing catalogue of original compositions, Arcement was the first person on the list to call.
“He is such a great match for me as a musician. Every time I have played with that guy we just clicked. I get what he does. And I can say that I think he is one of the greatest drummers that I have seen in my life, and I have seen a bunch and played with some of the best cats ever. A couple of years ago, I got to the point where I was working with Jack Russell on the road and I had a surplus of material that we didn’t think was appropriate for the Jack Russell’s Great White album. So, I just decided to start fleshing it out on my own. And I thought if I was going to do this, I am going to treat it as if it’s the last thing I ever did. I want it to be the best thing I ever could do. So Brentt was the guy. He’s the guy I want to play with and record with and he is in New Orleans, so I guess I was going to New Orleans,” he explained, adding that they hunkered down in the renowned Music Shed Studios to lay down the tracks for what would become the Sugarbowl album.
Cardenas-Montana also spoke about the unique feel that Arcement has as a drummer, and his wizardry on the keyboards, and how his Louisiana roots played a huge part in shaping the songs and the overall vibe of the album, giving Sugarbowl a dark mystique, as well as bursts joyful abandon.
“I believe at the heart of a rock and roll band, you got to have that feel, that guy who projects a real groove. It’s all about where the drummer places that kick drum and the snare. For some guys it’s just milliseconds, and one guys approach can make you feel like you’re in a march, and another’s can make you feel like you want to dance the night away. There’s a swing to what Brentt does and it just felt so right for this music. This whole album I wanted to be groove oriented. And if there was no groove to a song, then I tossed it out,” he explained.
“Brentt was born and raised in New Orleans. In the French Quarter, you can’t walk 10 feet without hearing another live band. There is live music at all of these amazing joints all the time; it seems like 24 hours a day. He was such a talented drummer that he started playing at age 15 at all those places. So, he has been bouncing around the darkest corners of the French Quarter for most of his life. But he also did the California thing and came out here for a while and did some other stuff. He played with Live for a bit, and with Fiona Apple and The Bulletboys, but about eight years ago he decided to go back home to New Orleans. And what I love about New Orleans is there is always kind of an insidious, dark undertone that the place has, and I wanted to capture that. It was definitely where my head was at when we did this album.”
A standout track, the first single from Sugarbowl, is the powerful Misery, which is a blues-rock tour de force that can be said to be a signature tune from Shadow & The Thrill.
“I basically wrote everything, and then brought it into the studio with Brentt and we kind of tweaked the arrangements a little but. My pal Alan Niven [former Guns ‘n Roses and Great White manager, and now a noted radio host] is credited as the vibe consigliere, kind of like a designated off-site producer. I would play him something we were working on and he would make suggestions here and there. I told Alan that I wanted him credited and he said, ‘well just call me the old man on the mountain.’ And I said, ‘okay, you’re the old man on the mountain … and the vibe consigliere.’ So, his opinion helped shape a lot of the songs,” said Cardenas-Montana.
“I actually wrote Misery back in 2013 after a close friend had introduced me to a blues artist named R.L. Burnside. And I was in a situation where I wanted to impress this particular person and I said, ‘I can do that.’ Blues influences run throughout my career with Great White and other stuff I have done. So, I just took the guitar – just me and a guitar – and knocked out this tune as kind of like an electric blues song with just voice and guitar. And there’s a real groove to it. The actual notes felt good, pretty slinky and definitely blues based. I played it for another friend of mine who said it really had a deep south, back porch kind of vibe, but that I should make it heavier. So, I took the same notes and adapted it for more heavy instrumentation and for a heavier groove. And the finished track has this amazing background vocal performance by Robyn Barnes.
“There’s an additional track on the album where we do the entire acoustic intro for Misery and then it drops down into the heavy party. So, there’s another aspect to the song that nobody has really heard yet, which definitely sounds like a combo of the whole Louisiana, Mississippi delta thing.”
The title track for Sugarbowl is a straightforward relationship song, using the piece of traditional tableware as a metaphor, according to Cardenas-Montana.
“I wrote the beginnings of that song ages ago and it’s definitely a diary of a disintegrating relationship. The sugar bowl itself it’s an actual traditional artifact and usually the first purchase a couple often makes together – it was in my case too. And that little sugar bowl is a metaphor for love, for a relationship, for sex – whatever. It just kind of fit because of how it represents that first part of love, the strength of that passion, but when a sugar bowl breaks, it shatters, and even when you try to fix it, it leaks. So, I guess you can sort of go on with that metaphor representing a broken relationship. I just thought it all kind of fit into the tone of the album.”
Two of the covers on the album were penned by the late, great Tommy Bolin, formerly of The James Gang and Deep Purple, as well as a solo artist of considerable note and influence, who died from a drug overdose in 1976 at just age 25. The songs are Shake The Devil, from Bolin’s second and final solo album, Private Eyes, as well as The Grind, from his first solo album, Teaser.
“Shake The Devil was suggested by my manager and the album’s executive producer Pete Merluzzi. He played that for me, and I was like, wow, the groove of it was undeniable. And then Alan Niven had suggested this other Tommy Bolin song to me ages ago, and the minute I heard The Grind back then, I knew it was a hit song and feels like a hit rock song, and I knew I could do something cool with it. And then we also did a cover of the Gnarls Barkley song Crazy, for which I did my own blues arrangement, making it kind of epic. I think people are going to be really surprised by that one,” Cardenas-Montana said.
As for touring, Shadow & The Thrill has already had opportunities to open for the likes of Quiet Riot, Vince Neil, Lita Ford, Pat Travers and Jefferson Starship, and more gigs are in the offing. Cardenas-Montana has to work around the touring plans of Jack Russell’s Great White, while Arcement is busy with many studio projects, but the summer weekend festival dates are already filling up.
“And listen, I was speaking to my agent about this and we want to come to Canada, because I have plaques on my wall from Canada for my work with Great White. But for some reason we just don’t get up there. So, my hope is with Shadow & The Thrill I will be doing some swings through Canada, because I really do miss being up there. I know there are Great White fans from back in the day, and obviously we hope to bring some new fans on board with this band and this new album.”
As for Jack Russell’s Great White, Cardenas-Montana said work has just wrapped on an acoustic version of Great White’s classic hit album, Once Bitten, called Once Acoustically Bitten, as well as another album of Led Zeppelin covers, both of which will come out in 2019. The band will also begin work on a new studio album later in the year.
For more information on Shadow & The Thrill, visit https://www.shadowandthethrillonline.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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