There’s a good chance you heard one of Megan Huddleston‘s songs in the last year or so. You simply might’ve heard someone else singing.
Roughly a year ago, Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule recorded a version of Huddleston’s tune "The Things You Do" for their annual Valentine’s Day album. A few weeks ago, Sproule dropped by our office with her spooky reading of "One Eye Open." And a quick search turned up Paul Curreri’s brother, Matt, performing Huddleston’s song "Josephine" more than three years ago.
These tracks, along with eight others, pop up on Lucky You!, the first release from Huddleston’s band, Mister Baby. And this time, the menace and mirth comes straight from Huddleston’s sneering mouth. Mister Baby released Lucky You! with a gig at Blue Moon Diner on Friday night, and the record spent the weekend in my stereo. Thoughts after the photo.
Beginner’s luck: We’re totally in love with Mister Baby’s Lucky You!
It seems fitting that I heard a handful of Huddleston’s songs performed by others before I heard Mister Baby take ’em on. Huddleston’s songs are bare-bones standards at heart, waiting to be interpreted—six-chambered murder ballads like "One Eye Open" and album opener "The Things You Do," rueful love songs like "Before I Knew You."
Nearly every song is clear and sharp as a pistol’s report. Huddleston swears with a smirk on the title track, and has sufficient guts to back up her gall on songs like "20-Some Odd Years." ("I can run faster than a damn gazelle/ out on the open plain. Jump the Grand Canyon, catch bullets in my teeth/ dodge every single drop of a driving rain.")
What’s more, each track is simple enough in structure that the slightest flourishes—the Pixies guitar riff that sets off "Reuben," the way Huddleston’s voice wags a finger and her uvula when it warns you not to play games with her—spike the proverbial punch. It takes a fierce guy or gal to pull the trigger on tunes like these, and Huddleston proves herself a crack shot at interpreting her own tracks.
In short, you can have my copy of Lucky You! when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Any Mister Baby fans out there with me?