Mastered by John Harvey and Mary Podio at Top Hat Recorders.
Executively Produced by Ron Sanchez, Jim Huie, Tim Lee, Susan Bauer Lee.
Design and layout by Susan Bauer Lee
Thanks to Robin Sutliff, John Harvey, Mary Podio, Fred Mills, Bruce Brodeen,
All proceeds from the sale of this collection go directly to Bobby Sutliff.
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skrang |skra ng | n. the sound of an open chord on an electric guitar. (source: Bobby Sutliff)
To my knowledge, “skrang” is a word that was made up by my pal and Windbreakers bandmate, Bobby Sutliff. It’s the name of his publishing company. It’s not in any dictionary I know, but the first time I saw the word written down, I knew exactly what it meant. And what it sounded like.
When you hit an open chord on an electric guitar through an amplifier — preferably with a clean, but not too pristine, tone — it can make a distinctive sound: half strum, half clang. Thus, skrang. It’s one of the building blocks of rock n’ roll.
Bobby is a master of the skrang, a sound that brings to mind many antecedents, from that ringing opening chord of “Substitute” by the Who to the slashing strums of Big Star’s “When My Baby’s Beside Me” and many other tangential power-pop gems. I learned a lot of what I know about the skrang (and guitar-playing in general) from hanging around with Bobby over the years.
In June of 2012, I was afraid that we’d lost Bobby’s version of that classic sound forever. He was involved in a horrific single-car accident near his Powell, Ohio, home. When I visited him in the hospital a week later, I barely recognized the friend I’d known since we met as teens on the front row of an Alice Cooper/Suzi Quatro concert in 1976.
At the time, the prognosis was guarded, albeit not particularly promising. But Bobby survived his multiple injuries, and after a month or so of sedation, he slowly began making progress. Eventually, the pace picked up, and his condition continued to improve at an amazing speed. Before long, he was back home and closing in on 100 percent recovery.
During that time of uncertainty following the accident, I seized on the idea that a collection should exist of Bobby’s friends’ and fans’ versions of his songs. It just needed to be. Maybe it could raise a few bucks to help Bobby get back on his feet; lift his spirits during a long recovery; or just be a cool thing to hear. A few emails later, it was obvious that filling a CD with loving tributes to Bobby’s songs would be no problem.
Which brings us to Skrang: Sounds Like Bobby Sutliff. Artists came out of the woodwork with offers to record tracks. If time had allowed us to hold out for the folks whose schedules didn’t work in our favor, we’d have run out of space on the disk.
It is a labor of love from a cross-section of musicians that includes some of Bobby’s oldest friends, as well as plenty of friends he’s made along the way, each who contributed their time and talents to making this compilation a reality. All who added their own unique version of Bobby Sutliff’s skrang. Dig it.
— Tim Lee
credits
released January 19, 2013
All songs (c)(p) by Bobby Sutliff (Skrang Music/BMI), except “The Devil and the Sea” by Bobby Sutliff and Russ Tolman (Chez Jeesh Music/BMI) and “From A Distance” by Bobby Sutliff and Tim Lee (Tim Lee Music/BMI). Copyright 2013
supported by 13 fans who also own “SKRANG: Sounds like Bobby Sutliff”
XTC had their moment in time...this recording extends it...Full of small, tight , quirky songs it juz rolls along. Recommended but maybe only for XTC fans.. cwhitney
Terrific jangle pop with an edge, somewhere between Television Personalities and R.E.M. with a bit of Kinks in there, too. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 2, 2023
