Scraps for Suckers is the debut album by Richard Lehmann & The Claimants
Monday, December 26, 2016
West Caldwell,New Jersey (PR MediaRelease) December 26, 2016--To a 15-year-old raised on sugary pop music, a newly minted 59-year-old rock and roll singer/songwriter is about as relevant as a dial telephone. In the world outside of pop super stardom, however, where real life delivers its daily dose of humility to the rest of America, there are many who will find Richard Lehmann’s music anything but past tense.
Scraps for Suckers is the debut album by Richard Lehmann and The Claimants. The album features 13 original songs presenting an eclectic mix of guitar rock and roll, country, Americana and even a helping of calypso music. Scraps for Suckers released mid-December and is available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and other online retailers, direct from the artist’s website theclaimants.com, as well as on most streaming platforms including Spotify, Youtube Music and many others.
Finding Music After Misery
After the crushing loss of his teenage daughter to cancer in 2002, and then experiencing a “career adjustment” during the Great Recession, Lehmann, a native of Montclair, New Jersey, knew he had to find something meaningful and fulfilling to help him snap out of his blue funk and re-focus: such as making a rock and roll album.
“I’ve been recording ideas for songs for years but only in the past five did I start to get more serious and pull some of these ideas together and begin applying chord arrangements and lyrics,” Lehmann, an advertising writer and consultant, said. “Now, other than thinking about my daughter often throughout the day, my focus is on the song writing process and creating stories that connect with people. That is, when I’m not managing work deadlines.”
Songs for (and by) the Ages
Scraps for Suckers is a strong, fun rock and roll album with several tunes already having received radio play in pre-release. For listeners whose tastes run toward classic rock and roll and Americana, there is much to like in the songs’ melodies and arrangements which are foundational rock and roll.
The album begins with “Something’s Fishy,” a lively kick-off to the album with Tower of Power influences as evidenced by a full horn section and ripping guitar and sax solos. It proceeds to the anti-nepotism theme of “My Own Way,” a big and bold 21st-Century take on Sinatra’s “My Way” without the diamond cufflinks, the dry martinis and the self-aggrandizing rumination.
The third song, the lighthearted, fun and bluesy “White Wall Super King,” packs a surprise for listeners from the get-go while the next track, “Heading North There,” takes a turn down a different, more scenic and folksy path on the way to Vermont. The country-rock-inspired “Great Recession” is the first in a stretch of three tracks where Lehmann’s story lines turn to the various carnival barkers who are a core theme of Scraps for Suckers. From the Wall Street gamblers in “Great Recession” to the late night snake oil salesmen in “As Seen on TV,” to high-frequency trading and the Jackson Hole “rancher” who sold his soul but kept his drugs in “In Real Time,” this mid-section of the album is filled with imagery reflective of many American’s concerns about the financial-corporate-political complex.
Love, Death and War
The eighth song on the album, “Weather Vane,” is a beautifully simple, sweet-tempered song about seriously ill-tempered ex-lovers. It features dobro and electric slide guitars in the style of the Allmans, one of Lehmann’s favorite bands. The next song, “Baby Rock and Roll,” is a three-chord guitar rocker that’s redolent of early rock and roll. “Jackie Jumped” is another straight rocker with a Foo Fighters’ kind of feel that’s about dying without honor. Rounding out this section is the most expansive and ambitious tune on the album. “The Other One” is a Neil Young/Pink Floyd/Springsteen-influenced hybrid about military veterans and PTSD, the loss of friends and the struggle for personal recovery.
Tributes to a Hero
The final two songs on Scraps for Suckers are “My Father’s Day Song” and “Caitlin’s Song.” Lehmann’s daughter, Caitlin, passed away July 2002 at the age of 19 after an 18-month battle with cancer. “My Father’s Day Song” is about the songwriter’s experience that first Father’s Day nearly one year later after her death. The song is reflective and sparsely arranged with just guitar and trombone. The closing song on the album, “Caitlin’s Song,” was written and performed by Michael Lehmann, Lehmann’s nephew. It is a beautiful conclusion to the album and a wonderful tribute with an inspirational message.
The Claimants
For Lehmann, part of the great joy of recording the album was getting to work with the musicians who make up The Claimants. “Whether they’re in their late twenties or mid-sixties, everyone has one thing in common, they all love rock and roll,” Lehmann said. “The young guys were great. They didn’t treat me like some old wind bag attending to a mid-life crisis. They were into the music and it shows in their inspired performances.”
Scraps for Suckers was recorded over a period of three years at Taylor-Made Productions in North Caldwell, NJ, and at Homefront Studios in Caldwell, NJ. “At first I was going to release an EP but then I pulled the first few songs back in order to make a complete album. I considered vinyl rather than a CD but as it is I had way more material recorded than a vinyl album would accommodate. These tunes as reflections and commentary are relevant to the age we’re living in. It’s time to get them out to the public,” Lehmann said.
As a self-described introvert, Lehmann takes a closed-mouth approach to finding inspiration for the songs he writes. “When you’re not flapping your gums all of the time you learn to become a keen observer of people, processes and relationships,” he observed. “You listen more intently and you start to recognize patterns of behavior and who the fakers and the liars are more readily than you might have otherwise. Your opinions begin to form about human nature and how we interact with each other. And if you’re a writer then you do what writers do. It could be a book, a movie, a play, a sit-com, or a bunch of songs.”
Northern New Jersey-based Richard Lehmann & The Claimants’ album Scraps for Suckers features 13 original songs presenting an eclectic mix of guitar rock and roll, Americana, country, adult alternative and even calypso music. The writer’s musical influences span more than 50 years of songwriting as a vehicle for storytelling and raising social consciousness, as demonstrated by performers such as The Band, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Wilco, Band of Horses, Elvis Costello, Foo Fighters, Black Keys and many others.
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