CHITLIN' FOOKS

Chitlin' Fooks started out as a side-project of members of Metal Molly and Bettie Serveert, and ended in some pure and beautiful country-rock/Americana.

Chitlin' Fooks was an idea that started in the head of Fred Maessen, former head of the indie record firm Brinkman (a dutch label that housed quite a bit of Belgian bands, such as Metal Molly, Nemo, Thou, Evil Superstars ...), now manager of a number of acts (Bettie Serveert, Mauro ...). For it was he who heard in the "twang" of the voices of Pascal Deweze (Metal Molly, Mitsoobishy Jacson, Sukilove) and Carol Van Dyk (the singer of dutch band Bettie Serveert) a kind of "country potential". When these two were singing in the studio together for the Bettie Serveert album "Palomine", the idea also caught on in their head. More definite plans to try and record something together were made during the festival de Nachten in January 2001.

When they both had confessed a "secret love" for old country, they quickly found a number of covers they could do (Gram Parsons, Jimmie Rodgers, Gary Walker, Washington Philips). Turned out that both Carol and Pascal had some songs lying around that didn't quite fit in to the concept of their indierockerbands Bettie Serveert and Metal Molly, but did fit in totally within the idea of a country-band. Once they had laid down "concept" of it all, they also quickly came up with some new songs. All this meant that the first plans for a small EP quickly took on bigger forms. Pascal told De Standaard that all this took almost no effort: "We didn't have to invent a genre for this. We accepted all the cliché's that come with the genre. The two-part vocals, the song structure, the lyrics and the melodies all came by itself. We just had to follow our hearts."

Other musician that Pascal Deweze involved into the project, were pianist Guy Van Nueten (The Sands, Daan ...), bass-player Pieter van Buyten (Marjan Debaene, The Kids, Flip Kowlier ...) and drummer Stoffel Verlackt (Flowers for Breakfast, El Tattoo del Tigre ...). After one or two try-outs in the region of Antwerp, the recordings took place in the experimental home-studio of Guy van Nueten, in which they recorded 12 songs in only 3 days (of which 11 made it onto the album). Some days later, the fifty year old pedal-steel guitarist Jeff Marinus did some overdubs, and Herbert Lanckhorst (of Das Pop) added some string arrangements and did a bit of mandolin here and there.

The title-less CD was released in May, and remarkeably enough first in the United States on the Parasol/Hidden Agenda, so that Pascal and Carol could do some promo-gigs along the East-Side of the States. The reaction to their "low countries americana" were almost unanymously positive in that homeland of the genre. Comparisons with Loretta Lynn, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris were often made, and especially the way the vocals of Pascal and Carol worked together did get quite some praising words. E.g. "Chitlin' Fooks are a self-coined "quarter past country" band that – like the best love songs – sound as dated as they sound timeless. ... The solemn, by-the-numbers covers of Gram Parsons and Washington Phillips understandably give the album an age-old sound, but it's the duo's originals that truly make Chitlin' Fooks' sound so stunningly out of its time. Immersing themselves in old Dolly and Loretta before recording, van Dyk and Deweze laid down some striking harmonies and classic-sounding country that immediately recall the '60s duets of Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra."

In Belgium and Holland, the release of the debut CD didn't come until the end of the summer (late August), when the band could present to a big audience on the alternative Pukkelpop festival. After that, they took it on a tour of some 30 dates in the low countries.

Whether this Chitlin' Fooks side-project is a "to be continued"-story, Pascal said "Just as in the past with Mitsoobishy Jacson for example, this project just takes the time it is supposed to take, and then everybody returns to their own ways. We'll just see when the time is right for everybody to do a sequel to it.", but as both Metal Molly and Bettie Serveert have now taken one or more "sabbatical years" a next Chitlin' Fooks CD is certainly well within the possibilities.

Members :
- Carol Van Dyck (vocals, guitar)
- Pascal Deweze (vocals, guitar)
- Guy Van Nueten (piano, organ)
- Pieter van Buyten (bass)
- Stoffel Verlackt (drums)

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- Chitlin' Fooks (Palomine Records / PIAS, 2001)
Singles :
- Not Enough Tears / Seen it All (Palomine/PIAS, 2001 - promo-only)

Websites :
- Chitlin' Fooks's official website is this one
- Mailorder of the American edition and email-interview with Carol en Pascal at Parasol
- Presentation of the band at Vitaminic, with an MP3 of Seen it All
- Reviews of the first Chitlin' Fooks CD at Splendid-zine, Aversion, Rolling Stone, SonicNet, The San Francisco Bay Guardian,
- Bettie Serveert is on the web at bettieserveert.com
- "How Many Times" live in streaming video at Club Lek

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