Notes

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in bloom: a conversation with wendy flower
July 1, 2008, 8:40 pm
Filed under: feature, special | Tags: meltdown festival, stephen collings, wendy and bonnie, wendy flower


Wendy & Bonnie’s 1969 album Genesis is one of those rare musical time capsules, a long-lost treasure that, like Vashti Bunyan’s Just Another Diamond Day, has been unearthed by a new generation of folkies eager for it to fall upon a fresh set of ears. Whilst circumstances scuppered its success upon its original release, an increasing number of fans and musicians alike continue to champion this near-forgotten slice of history. Tonight sees one half of the ’60s sister combo, now granted the use of her (real) surname, Flower, take to the stage of the Royal Festival Hall as part of Andy Votel’s ‘Lost Ladies of Folk’ evening at the Jarvis Cocker-curated Meltdown Festival. Performing songs from Genesis alongside newer compositions, Wendy will star alongside fellow ‘lost ladies’ Susan Christie and Bonnie Dobson, as well as Votel cohort Jane Weaver and up-and-coming folkies Emma Tricca and Cate Le Bon. Wears The Trousers caught up with her as she prepared for the concert with a look back to the origins of Genesis in light of its unexpected revival.

Wendy has mixed emotions about performing songs from Genesis so many years on. “It’s so gratifying to see the enthusiastic response of new audiences to the music we recorded nearly 40 years ago,” she writes. “But performing Genesis material is a bittersweet experience. So many of the gifted people involved, including producer Gary McFarland, our mentor Cal Tjader, and guitar great Gabor Szabo (who attended many of the sessions) are no longer with us.”

Even if Wendy’s feelings are mixed, the response from audiences over here has been universal. “Performing in England has been a dream come true! First in Manchester at the Trof, then at the LLAMA festival, with the lovely Jane Weaver singing with me and other wonderful musicians, including Rick and Chris from Voice Of The Seven Woods, John and Matt of Booger Red and Ian of Beep Seals. The audiences have been so warm and receptive, even to new material. People have been so gracious.”

Born and raised in San Francisco, the spiritual home of the flower power movement, Wendy and Bonnie Flower were surrounded by music throughout their most formative years. Both parents were music teachers; father Art was a drummer while mother Jeane sang with big bands. Both parents fostered a love of music in all its genres. Wendy recalls, “I’ve always loved listening to classical music. Bonnie and I grew up with the sounds of jazz around our house. Our parents are consummate professional jazz artists. Of course, the Beatles brought us into a new musical world as well.”

The Flower sisters could not have been more aptly named as they grew up around the strong independent female artists of the time, such as Marianne Faithful, ‘Mama’ Cass Elliot, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell. “I’m a huge fan of all of those artists”, Wendy acknowledges. “I’m also an admirer of Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw, Darlene Love, Margo Guryan and Carole King from that era, as well as more recent independent females, such as Annie Lennox and Chrissie Hynde. Countless others have inspired me, as well.”

While younger sister Bonnie picked up the drumsticks and guitar, Wendy learned to play a whole range of instruments from the violin and piano to the glockenspiel, as well as that childhood mainstay, the recorder. Soon enough, Wendy’s talents were called upon in the form of promising young San Francisco band, Crystal Fountain. But it was the sound of the sisters singing together that caught the attention of Skye Records co-owner, Cal Tjader, who introduced the girls to renowned orchestral jazz composer Gary McFarland. In 1969, with McFarland at the helm, the sisters recorded the sessions for Genesis and yet what remains remarkable about the album is that it was recorded when Wendy and Bonnie were just 17 and 13 years old, respectively.

Whilst today the idea of singing teenage sisters may sound precocious (though Smoosh get away with it, just), Genesis is anything but. It is a mature, yet idealistic record full of longing and sorrow with close harmonies reminiscent of a forgotten era. Listening to Genesis today feels like a wave of nostalgia gently breaking across a twilight shore. The close, delicate harmonies on the record have a reflective bittersweet quality that endures, and like the aforementioned Ms Bunyan, there is a fragile quality to the vocals, free from the vocal affectations that so many performers mire lyrics in these days. Wendy recalls how she and her sister were always musically compatible from a young age. “We had a sibling psychic connection, harmonically speaking. It all came naturally to us. We sang together from a very early age, although we’ve always had our own separate musical identities and projects, as well.”

Although the album received initial interest from radio and the press, it disappeared into obscurity after Skye Records suddenly folded, leaving the young Flower sisters disenchanted with the experience. “When the album was a cut-out, right after the Skye label’s bankruptcy, I actually used the albums as Frisbees. The experience had been terribly frustrating.”

Wendy moved on, and keen to inspire a new generation with a love of music, formed the children’s entertainment company, ‘The Flower Puppet Family’. “Children have been and will always be a great inspiration. They’re so receptive, so open to new concepts, so eager to learn. I’ve had many magical experiences teaching and performing for them. For years, I was involved in original children’s music, storytelling, puppetry and ventriloquism.” It was during this time Wendy released her first material since Genesis - a children’s album called My Pet Songs.

Fast forward a decade or so, and far-out concepts such as the internet gave global impact to such phrases as ‘word-of-mouth’. Bands such as Stereolab began to champion Genesis, and interest began to grow amongst folk aficionados and music lovers worldwide. Given that years earlier, Wendy had been whizzing copies through the air, “to find them going to incredible prices on eBay was a shock”. This underground hype convinced producer Irwin Chusid to re-release Genesis on the Sundazed label in 2001. The album quickly amassed rave retrospective reviews from critics and received airplay across college and internet radio stations, much to Wendy’s amazement. “The reaction from the public and journalists, as well as fellow musicians, has come as a complete surprise, totally unexpected. We thought the album had been long buried and forgotten. But Irwin resurrected it and it’s been building momentum ever since.” And just to show that it is not just young upstarts like Lily Allen who have found success through the internet, Wendy continues, “to hear on MySpace and my website from many of today’s teens who relate to the album is profoundly rewarding.”

Genesis’ popularity was further enhanced when Welsh band, Super Furry Animals chose a sample of the album’s track ‘By The Sea’ to open their Phantom Power album. “I had actually been a fan of the Super Furry Animals music even prior to that, so to hear our song opening their album was an immense thrill. They’ve been so good to me. Such wonderful guys and such imaginative musicians, so genuine and dedicated.”
Wendy fulfilled a lifetime ambition performing with the band at the famous Fillmore Auditorium in 2003 and since her arrival in the UK, she has wasted no time in catching up with her newfound friends. “I recently had the pleasure of joining Super Furry Animals on stage at the ICA in London for the ‘Hello Sunshine’ duet again. That was such fun!”

‘By The Sea’ also featured on the acclaimed Andy Votel compilation, Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word, and the famed producer is just one of a long list of admirers amongst Wendy’s contemporaries. “Of course, hearing praise from such amazing artists as SFA, Stereolab, Monade, Broadcast, Imitation Electric Piano, Autumn Leaves, Linda Draper, El Goodo, Edith Frost, Jane Weaver, Voice Of The Seven Woods, and so many others, spurs me on towards new musical projects.” In one of many wonderful ways in which music reveals itself to be truly circular in nature, those artists that Wendy and her sister inspired, have in turn, become her continuing musical inspiration. “My husband Paul [Freeman] and I also had the great pleasure of spending time with the wonderful Trish and James of Broadcast. That was an amazingly inspirational and creative respite.”

Due to the collapse of Skye Records, plans for an album to follow Genesis were shelved, so is there a whole collection of lost Wendy & Bonnie gems waiting to be heard one day? “Yes, it looks like Sundazed will be releasing a new, deluxe edition of Genesis. It will include a lot of previously unheard material. I uncovered quite a bit in my parents’ attic when they moved last year. I know Sundazed will preserve and enhance the quality of these recordings.”

More recently, Wendy released the album Flower Power, written alongside her husband, promoting a ’60s vibe for the modern family. In such a cynical world, can music still have the potency to promote the more optimistic ideals of peace and love? “I believe we shouldn’t surrender to cynicism. Even if some people mock idealism, it’s important to continue to carry on the message of love and peace. If we can encourage the next generation to embrace activism and optimism, there is hope. Flower Power, our family CD, seems to be generating some results along those lines.”

Wendy seems equally excited by tonight’s performance. “I’m really looking forward to Meltdown. I’m so grateful to Jarvis Cocker and Andy Votel for making this possible. And I’m honoured to be joining such illustrious ladies as Bonnie Dobson and Susan Christie, as well as the young talents on the bill. It’s going to be so wonderful to be working with musical director Sean O’Hagan. I love High Llamas and truly believe Sean to be a genius!”

Wendy more than deserves to enjoy the belated success that has come her way, but the big question surely remains; what chance a Wendy & Bonnie reunion? “We both hope that will happen sometime in the future. At the moment, we’re very much immersed in our own projects. Bonnie mixes many musical styles and she’s very excited about her next release. She’s so talented as a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.”

So after Meltdown, what is the next stop of this remarkable comeback trail? “Paul and I have been writing many new songs, together and separately, for this project. We’re very excited about it. Initial reaction from audiences and our peers has been wonderful. Styles of the songs include elements of rock, folk, jazz, samba, psych, and blues, as well as pop. We’re working on melding it into a cohesive album. Some evoke memories of Wendy & Bonnie. Others explore very different musical directions. I’m so glad that I finally have the opportunity to do this again.”

Wendy says she is also eager to get out and perform her new material both across North America and the UK, but she adds, somewhat knowingly, “Hopefully I won’t have to wait 40 years for this one to find its audience!”

Stephen Collings
originally published June 22nd, 2007, as part of our Meltdown Festival special