The Sweater Puppets: Every Night Is Girls’ Night Out

By Chris Manson March 22, 2007 Issue

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, aunts and uncles, kiddies and cousins, give up some love and holler out for the most alive-some five-some in Walton County, the Sweater Puppets! On the drums—by day, a “specialty gardener” for Touch the Earth Interiorscapes, Melissa Aiken; on accordion, flute, pennywhistle and vocal, the music doctor Ashley Feller; on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, a massage therapist who really knows how to lay her hands on a song, Joleen Jones; and here’s a young lady with a background in aerospace studies, her fiddle playing soars, baby—Heidi Schlieper; and last but certainly not least, graphic designer and bass player no finer, Mindy Smith!

It’s Tuesday night, and Feller is on the front porch of the Blue Orleans restaurant sorting out songs for the band’s first set. I recognize a few of them; pleased to see a couple by Johnny Cash, knocked out by the inclusion of Neil Young’s Helpless. Thought Rock and Roll might be the Led Zeppelin classic recently tackled by Jerry Lee Lewis on his duets album, but it’s a song by Gillian Welch. Welch, the alt-country poster girl, is one of Jones’ favorites—the band also admires Lucinda Williams and Dolly Parton (yes, they do Jolene). The Sweaters open with the Welch tune around 10 p.m. — a bold choice that gets a real boost from Feller’s flute and Schlieper’s electric fiddle.

Duke Bardwell, who has been helping the Sweaters get their sound equipment up to snuff, excuses himself. “Soon to be the Godfather of another band,” Jones observes.

“Proud Godfather!” Bardwell says.

Jones introduces a self-penned song called Shakedown with Feller contributing some memorable pennywhistle touches. The multi-instrumentalist straps on her accordion for some songs popularized by Allison Krauss and the Be Good Tanyas. There are a few attempts at harmony singing, something the Sweaters might consider exploring furher. “Here’s the first song we ever learned to play,” Jones says before they launch into Bob Dylan’s You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere. I’ve always loved the version on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Volume II, the one with the lyric “a fish that walks and a dog that talks.” I didn’t catch it in the Sweaters version because I was distracted by Aiken's drumming. She’s limiting herself to brushwork but looks like she wants to pound away at those skins—as if she can’t hold herself back much longer.

“I just sat down behind my first set of drums a year ago,” Aiken says. “It was exhilarating when Joleen forced us into that first gig. We haven’t regretted it. We’re all learning together.”

Feller steps up to sing an imaginatively arranged I Still Miss Someone. Jones pays homage to Miss Welch once again with Miss Ohio. There’s a song by Patty Griffin I don’t recognize and Schlieper’s take on the John Anderson hit Seminole Wind. To their credit, the Sweaters’ covers offer a lot of strong but unfamiliar material. It’s great to encounter a new band willing to take a few risks and not limit their musical palette. There’s a little bit of zydeco, folk, country, reggae, rock, blues — they’re young enough to toss some hip-hop in there, too, should they decide to take the plunge.

“A lot of it is a very raw approach,” Feller says of the Sweaters’ sound. “We try to do what works for us. A lot of the material we play I’ve played with in other bands for years. It’s like the flame never burns out. I can remember what it was like when I was first playing shows.”

The Sweater Puppets—the group’s name was inspired by “some guy talking about boobs,” Jones says — sprang from the band Trailer. Jones, Aiken, and Smith became friends by virtue of their boyfriends all being members of Trailer at the time. “When they’d get together and practice, we’d hang out. Then we said, ‘Let’s start a band!’” Smith, whose bass guitar was gathering dust in her closet, thought Jones was talking about playing around each other’s houses but soon learned different.

“It didn’t take long for us to get invitations out,” Jones says. “And it’s only been about a year.”

“You’ve only been playing a year?” Schliepel asks, genuinely surprised. “That’s awesome.” Schliepel knew Feller from playing at festivals over the years. The fiddle player moved here about a month ago and Jones says the Sweaters “sucked her right up.”

With Bardwell’s endorsement —“I’m a big fan,” he says — the Blue Orleans could become a regular Tuesday night gig for the ladies. They are on tap to play the Mossy Headz Festival Sunday April 1—April Fool’s Day, how appropriate. “One good thing about this band,” Schliepel says. “We giggle a lot.”

“It’s all about fun,” Jones says. “The name was picked because it’s a joke. We’re having such a good time at it.” Jones and the band are also looking forward to Mayhem on the Bay, a yearly tradition in Grayton Beach. “It’s a party that’s on its way to becoming a festival.” As with so many artists, you can keep up with the Sweaters at MySpace via www.myspace.com/thesweaterpuppets.

JoAnne Jones tries to make all of her daughter’s gigs. “I’m very proud of her,” she says. “I feel like Joleen, she’s the inspiration I’ve always wanted to portray. Growing up, I wanted to be a backup singer. I was one of those people that always wanted to do that, but never did. Joleen is following her dream. I’m truly her biggest fan. All the girls have come a long way.”

Chris Recommends:
Fred Martin and the Levite Camp: Some Bridges (Concord)
Various Artists: We All Love Ennio Morricone (Sony Classical)
Arcade Fire: Neon Bible (Merge)
TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain (Interscope)
Tommy Womack: There, I Said It! (Cedar Creek)
The Roots: Game Theory (Def Jam)
Solomon Burke: Nashville (Shout! Factory)
Mike Stern: Who Let the Cats Out? (Heads Up)
The Mars Volta: Amputechture (Universal)
Elton John: The Captain and the Kid (Interscope)

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