Swooping Toward Home

Visit John Wendland's home in University City, and you'll be greeted by George and Sandy, the two biggest fans of his band, One Fell Swoop. They've seen every rehearsal held in Wendland's living room. They've watched musicians come and go, some sticking around for a few years, some for a couple of weeks. Sit down on the couch, and Sandy will likely lay his head on your lap. George will bring a length of rope knotted at both ends and expect you to pull one end while he holds the other in his mouth. Wendland's dogs believe band practice was designed for people to pay them social calls.

The band warms up with a newly arranged version of "Heaven," by the Talking Heads. Andy Ploof takes the lead vocal on; his smoky tenor is serene, holding onto the beauty of David Byrne's melody while underscoring the ironic view of the Christian afterlife in the lyrics. It could be a left-field hit on triple-A radio someday. Right now, it's unrecorded.

One Fell Swoop are concentrating on promoting their last album, Crazy Time, finished a year ago and, until now, available only in Europe. After a less-than-thorough attempt to get the record picked up by a relatively large independent label, they've decided to put it out on their own Magoo Records label. "We had some issues with the album and couldn't figure out what to do with it," explains vocalist Cheryl Stryker, "so we said, 'Let's shop it around and see if we hear from anyone.'"

"We sent it out to four or five labels," interjects Wendland, the band's rhythm guitarist and main songwriter.

"I don't know why it took so long," Stryker continues. "Before you know it, eight months have gone by, and we're, like, 'Shit, we better do something with it.'"

One Fell Swoop has a European deal with a Swiss label, Brambus Records. That association began more than two years ago, when the band visited a folk-music trade show. "I went through the directory of people who attended and highlighted all the people who were in radio," says Stryker. "I sent them all a CD, and Paul Rostetter turned out to also have a record label. I got an e-mail about a month later. When I read it, I thought, 'Yeah, right.' The first thing it said was 'How would you like to put your records out over here and tour Europe?'"

The offer was for real, and One Fell Swoop has gone across the water twice now, playing small clubs in little towns. Before last year's visit, they were under the gun to record an album to promote when they got there. "We got a CD to [former Lucinda Williams producer] Gurf Morlix through mutual friends, and he said he'd do it. The problem was, we were going to Europe, and we'd be gone for a month. We all work day jobs, so we couldn't take any extra time off."

Instead, they went back to the Music Masters studio in St. Louis to work with engineer Greg Trampe, who also recorded their first two releases, the EP One Fell Swoop (1996) and the album Look Out (1997). Once the tracks were done, they shipped them to Morlix in Austin, Texas, who called in Ian McLagan, member of the legendary '60s rock group Small Faces, to overdub some Hammond B-3 organ parts.

"We didn't get to meet him," says Wendland. "We didn't even know he would be on it. We got to Texas, and Gurf played us the first song, and there's organ all the way through it. We said, 'We don't want organ all the way through this. Take it off' -- but, at the same time, we're thinking, 'Hey, this is Ian McLagan.'"

"It shows that the first few times you hear something, it's really too soon to make a judgment," adds Stryker. "I thought the organ was horrible when I first heard it. Now I hear it and I absolutely love it, and I can't picture it not being there."