“So I got that idea - what if I wrote a soundtrack, but songs, you know, like old soundtracks from the ’40s and ’50s? They’re dramatic, they have just the pieces, like that, but they’re not entire songs,’’ Setzer said. “Wow. It’d be cool if I wrote that kind of dark swing and made them into songs.’’
So he did.
A big fan of Robert Mitchum, James Cagney, and Alfred Hitchcock, Setzer gave his new CD a story line, just like those downbeat, black-and-white movies from the 1940s and ’50s in which the antihero is double-crossed by a femme fatale. The result is the Brian Setzer Orchestra’s “Songs From Lonely Avenue,’’ which comes out Tuesday.
Sitting on his couch, Setzer casually strummed minor chords on his gleaming guitar as he explained another song, “Trouble Train,’’ which opens “Songs From Lonely Avenue’’ on a foreboding note.
For his new album’s horn charts, Setzer turned again to veteran Hollywood composer and arranger Frank Comstock. The previously retired Comstock worked with bandleader Les Brown and singers Doris Day and Rosemary Clooney, and his TV credits include “Adam-12,’’ “Dragnet,’’ and the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.
Setzer, who grew up on New York’s Long Island, moved to Minneapolis about five years ago after marrying Twin Cities native Julie Reiten, one of his backup singers. He recorded the new CD at a friend’s Minneapolis studio, using local musicians.
“It’s a music town without the attitude,’’ he said.
