Becca Williams (lead singer of Becca & The Broken Biscuits) and Louis Barabbas (captain of The Bedlam Six) have begun a long-term project that will see them tackle some of music history’s classic duets.

The idea for the duet series was first floated on the Louis Barabbas facebook page and received an overwhelmingly positive response. A call for submissions was immediately issued and over the course of the day dozens of suggestions came flooding in with ideas for potential covers.

From this first batch Louis and Becca chose Summer Wine (by Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra) to be the first in their series.

On 27th July they met up with Joel Roberts (Broken Biscuit bassist) at Fuel bar in Withington where Gus Fairbairn (Honeyfeet sax player) happened to be having a coffee. After a quick drink the four climbed the stairs up to the Debt Records press office where Debt co-founder Biff Roxby set up a small live rig to record the session.

Their version is faithful to the original. It is in the same key and tempo with similar orchestration. The only difference is that they have reversed the roles - Louis Barabbas appears as Nancy Sinatra and Becca Wlliams dons the tache to play Lee Hazlewood. In this new arrangement the song’s story of seduction becomes a more sinister animal. Louis’ delivery of Nancy’s choruses suggest that maybe the wine was spiked with something more than “strawberries, cherries and an angel’s kiss in spring…”

The song will be released as a free download exclusively through the Debt Records online shop on 4th August 2010 to mark the third anniversary of Lee Hazlewood’s death in 2007.

Here is footage of the four musicians laying down the track.

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