Music

The first thing I noticed about Forward Thrust is their name. Hello, sexual innuendo! Get it? The second thing I noticed was the CD with the printed-on advertisement for the record being a two-disc set. (The third was the picture of the group on the back, in snorkel-gear.)

With that said, the husband and wife collective that is Forward Thrust has been performing together for 19 years. This is evident in the double CD the group has just put out. Kitschy, cute, soulful, and sometimes delicate and vulnerable, singer Gail Gilchrist is the first strong part about the band. The second is Kenny Gilchrist’s (Gail’s husband) guitar work. The record is long (it is a double record) but songs like Feel Love Badly, The Hands Of Time and Never Coming Back are solid.

The Ramada Inn on Route 309 has Open Mic Tuesdays. The host is an eclectic husband and wife duo from Allentown, who’ve adopted Hazleton as their professional home town. Forward Thrust is Kenny and Gail Gilchrist. I went specifically to hear them, as they were having a CD release party, for their second disc “Underwater”. Since they’re hosting Open Mic, I expected a “folkie duo.” Instead, I found an eccentric act willing to take a shot at doing just about anything, and pretty adept at most anything. The first tip-off was when Kenny called a group of amateurs on hand on stage all at once, added trumpet player Bob Relyea and did an impromptu original blues, loosely based on Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “You Gotta Move.” It was great!

Their original material is as varied as the covers they do. There are no odes to Marxism, ala the Indigo Girls, and they don’t do a collection of love songs. “I gets kind of sickening after a while, just hearing everybody, ‘love, love, love,'” Gail said. On “Underwater,” song subjects include fantasy, change of seasons, the death of a friend, a porn star’s bio, and a teenager forced to have an abortion by her parents. Oh, and did I mention, “Underwater” is a double disc!

“Underwater”‘s two discs have somewhat different perspectives, with Gail the lead singer on most of both. The sleeve calls the red disc “A thoughtful fish’s paradise.” It opens with “Feel Love Badly,” a midtempo about a girl who wants to do the title, so she “gives it up too damn easy.” “Voyeur Man” is poppy with a deceptively happy sound, though it’s about a guy who discretely takes “upskirt” shots. The title track is a midtempo, seemingly about nothing, though I’m probably missing symbolism.

The ballad “Wash The Sadness Away” is about a woman recalling her parents forcing her into an abortion and missing her unborn baby too often. It’s folkish, I suppose, though drums, mandolins and melodica, make the sound far from run of the mill. Lyrics are very descriptive – haunting, in fact. Kenny and Gail split lead vocals on “Soulless Clones,” a blueish romp that has a little fun with the concept of cloning. “Oklahoma” is a lyrical latter day Woody Guthrie; it’s about the ’30s dustbowl. But the structure is midtempo mainstream.

Kenny’s on leads in “Gonna Have To Change,” a 4/4 stompin’ blues-based societal comment. But there’s no politics; it’s the DC sniper, 9/11, high gas prices, etc. “The Hands of Time,” airy and perhaps REM-ish, is another ‘heavy’ lyric – a grandfather facing death square in the face, with his granddaughter staring him in the face. The poppy “Looking Glass” is an artist living everyday. “Nature’s Change of Hearts” is a ballad with a slight modern country tinge – which makes sense as they wrote it in Nashville. The blue disc, subtitled “The Bluefish Throw A Party,” had a stronger blues/R&B feel, and perhaps more eclectic song themes – though to be honest, the difference from the red disc is no great.

“Nothin’ On Me” opens a bit reminiscent of the Pretenders’ “Message of Love.” Lyrics are a gag – a spy boasting how no other spy has “nothin’ on me.” Kenny’s on leads in “You Got No Reason,” a stripped down slammer. Gail growls the words to “So Tired of Your Lies,” a hard midtempo (think Faces, 1972). “When The Clock Shuts Down” is a popper that kicks, augmented with neat backup harmonies and a flute lead. “Tony’s Blues” is blues based, with a flute adding a slight jazz feel.

“Mad Mad Dog” is Chicago blues moving to Allentown. The lyric line is an off-the-cuff spoof on a girl’s “bad” boyfriend. But, unless I’m misreading things, there’s a underlying serious side to the rather flippant lyrics – about why women stay with men who beat them. “Never Comin’ Back” is miles away from everything else here in sound – it opens with a synthesizer. Lyrics are about leaving the ghetto in a variety of ways – the hooker simply leaves, a teenager ODs in a school yard, etc. “Willie Don’t You Tell Me” is a sort of electric Delta Blues, with Kenny telling a friend to stop whining. “Your Mama Lied” is more blues. “What She Needs” (the porn star bio) is a loud midtempo. “Stockpicker” is more Chicago, with self-effacing humor. “Blue Baby” is somewhat poppier Muscle Shoals-ish, and sounds like a potential hit record to me.

Gilchrist is adept at a variety of instruments, all put to good use here. Specifically, he’s an outstanding harmonica player. Gail’s a powerful singer. No “little flower,” she’s more Chaka Khan than Jewel – she can blow the roof off. It’s quite unusual to find a duo who kicks as well as Forward Thrust, and even more unusual to find one who openly shuns the folkie thing. And you’ll have to look long and hard to find better, more clever songwriters.

Forward Thrust will have “Underwater” on sale at their live shows. It’s a worthy investment.

A mix of folk, rock, blues, jazz, this CD is like the mall of music where you’ll find everything. Listening to Gail’s angelic and sexy voice teamed up with the talented Kenny (playing everything but the drums-which were handled by Ron Clark), will make you realize that this duo can even make a dirty limerick sound erotic.

Track 2, Burned , is kind-of a dark humor themed tune. It’s about spontaneous combustion. Gail and Kenny got the idea for this one when they watched a show on the Discovery channel about it…pretty wild! Kenny wrote this one and came up with some cool ideas about who this might happen to! Track 3, Spinning Tales , the title track, has a great blues undertone, and would make an excellent video. Track 11, Immigrants , was written for Kenny’s grandmother who imigrated from Czechoslovakia when she was a little girl. The song follows her through life. This song was my personal favorite, as I can remember the stories my Grandfather told me about coming to America from Italy.