By DAN ARMONAITIS
In the middle of their latest album, “Blue,” which is otherwise mainly filled with tongue-in-cheek covers of famous pop songs, The Cleverlys offer a rare moment of pure sincerity.
The group, led by veteran comedian and guitarist Paul Harris, gives a poignant, no-nonsense rendition of “Wait a Minute,” a harmony-driven tune originally recorded by seminal bluegrass outfit, The Seldom Scene, in 1974.
“When I was really getting into bluegrass, one of the first records that I had was ‘(Live at) The Cellar Door’ by Seldom Scene,” Harris said. “And I just remember how raw it was and how honest their vocals were. And, for some reason, that song has always just meant a lot to me, and I include it in The Cleverlys’ show because it gives (the audience) a little glimpse of who we really are.
“It’s like for just a brief moment, we’re out of character and you get to see exactly who we are. And people go, ‘oh wow, they’re not just a novelty band. These guys are great players and great singers.’ So, that song is one I always like to throw in there as like a little golden nugget of bluegrass among all our chaos on the stage.”
The Cleverlys, however, are best known for their comedic brand of entertainment, which will represent the majority of the show when the faux-family band takes the stage at The FR8yard in downtown Spartanburg on Friday, Nov. 15.
Hailing from the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, The Cleverlys — whose stage names, in addition to Harris’ Digger Cleverly, include Sock Cleverly, DVD Cleverly, Cub Cleverly and Ricky Lloyd Cleverly — have built a solid reputation nationwide for their crowd-pleasing bluegrass spin on cover songs from any genre.
The Cleverlys’ set list includes unique arrangements of tunes such as Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” and Flo Rida’s “Low,” the latter of which went viral on Facebook and garnered more than 12 million views for a video taken from a local television appearance on WCYB-TV in Bristol, Tenn.
“I was always trying to figure out a way to combine my style of comedy with my love of various styles of music,” said Harris, who began his career as a professional comedian in 1994. “I was a huge ‘Spinal Tap’ fan and loved all Christopher Guest’s movies — ‘A Mighty Wind,’ ‘Spinal Tap,’ ‘Best in Show’ and so forth.
“And I think all of that and ‘Monty Python’ along with the musical influences just all blended together and the idea of this faux-family band, The Cleverlys, came about.”
As The New York Times put it, “If Earl Scruggs, Dolly Parton and Spinal Tap spawned a litter of puppies, it would be the Cleverlys.”
“When people think of Southern comedy or country comedy, they go immediately to that cliché black tooth, big bow tie type thing, and we’re smart people as well,” said Harris, who cited the late comedian Jerry Clower as one of his childhood idols. “Southern and country people are intelligent. So, I wanted it to be hokey but I also wanted it to be smart. I wanted it to be kind of a cross between ‘Hee Haw’ and ‘The Office.'”
The Cleverlys’ latest album, “Blue,” which was released by Mountain Home Music Company, features re-workings of an eclectic array of material, including the title track by Italian pop group Eiffel 65, “Irreplaceable” by Beyonce, “What’s Up” by Four Non Blondes, “She’s Not There” by The Zombies, “Party Anthem” by LMFAO and “Baby” by Justin Bieber.
Of the latter, Harris said, “If you didn’t know it was a Justin Bieber song, you wouldn’t know it was a Justin Bieber song. People are like, ‘man, that’s a good bluegrass song there.’ And then you’re like, ‘well, that’s a Justin Bieber song.’ And they’re like, ‘what?'”
Harris said he first came up with the idea to cover “Baby” about five or six years ago.
“That one came out like a bluegrass song the first time that I tried to play it,” he said. “I kind of had a Del McCoury Band’s version of ‘Get Down on Your Knees and Pray’ in my head when that was going on, and so that’s how those vocals came about. At the time, I was really into Del McCoury — well, I still am — but, at the time, I was just listening to everything that he did, so it was really cool how that came out.”
While The Cleverlys typically give bluegrass arrangements to pop songs, the band turned the tables with its version of “Oh Death,” the traditional folk song famously recorded by Ralph Stanley for the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack. On their new album, The Cleverlys transform it into an experimental, electronic-driven tune.
“The point of that one was that we do all these pop songs and bring them over to our culture, so let’s flip the switch,” Harris said. “Ricky Lloyd, the bass player, had been fooling around with a vocoder on the road and one day, he started doing ‘Oh Death’ and we all fell out, just started dying laughing. So, when we got in the studio, I’m like, ‘dude, you’ve got to at least try it.’
“We all thought it was hilarious, but that one’s not ever brought up when people are talking about our record. We don’t get a lot of requests for that, for some reason.”
As for choosing which songs to cover, Harris said, “We try to look for stuff that’s not too obvious. We try to look for stuff that has an irony factor to it. But, also, we’ve got to just really like the song.”
While The Cleverlys have recorded dozens of covers over the years, Harris said they’ve only once received feedback from an artist they’ve covered — CeeLo Green, whose “Forget You” was given a bluegrass makeover.
“We were in this restaurant in L.A., and CeeLo was in there, and our manager at the time went over and talked to him,” Harris recalled. “She said, ‘a client of mine, The Cleverlys, they covered one of your songs. He goes, ‘yeah, I heard that, I’d like to meet them.’ So, we ended up meeting him and having a picture made, and he goes, ‘man, I thought that was cool.'”
While temperatures are expected to be on the chilly side for Friday’s concert at The FR8yard, it should be noted that the outdoor venue has a fire pit and plenty of heaters to keep the crowd warm. And, of course, The Cleverlys are sure to bring plenty of heat with their music.
“We’ll make you forget about the cold,” Harris said. “We’ll entertain you. It’s a really good show.”