Mark Waldoch is one of Milwaukee’s most recognizable musicians, not only for his style but also for his distinctive voice.
Maybe you’ve heard him with The Celebrated Workingman or as a solo performer. If you have, you won’t forget it.
For a few years now, Waldoch has fronted The Hallelujah Ward, which released five-song EP last year and just last week officially released its first full-length LP, “Everybody Swoons,” on Foreign Leisure Records, with a release gig at the Cactus Club.
You could probably stream it, but you should support the band by buying the vinyl, which is in a beautiful Daniel Murphy sleeve and pressed on marbled blue vinyl.
The LP, with seven new songs plus “Manageable Oblivion” from the 2024 EP, was recorded with drummer Dan Didier (The Promise Ring, Maritime) and bassist Paul Hancock (Testa Rosa).
We caught up with Waldoch, who was on the road with the band, via email to ask about The Hallelujah Ward and the record’s melodic, emotive music.
OnMilwaukee: Tell us a bit about The Hallelujah Ward
Mark Waldoch: The band has been formed and reformed several times since the autumn before lockdown. In that time we had three bassists: James Sauer-Ladders and Jason Zbichorski. Now Testa Rosa bassist Paul Hancock took the lead in autumn of ‘22. This is when the songs and album finally started to take full form.
Can you talk a bit about writing the songs and making the record?
We started recording in winter of ‘23 at now defunct National Record Co. and also recorded at our studio a Quality Biscuit Co., which is in a building that used to box baked goods like biscuits and cakes. We also tracked at Humdrum studio in Riverwest. All with producer/engineer Kevin Dixon of Brief Candles.
During the following year we tracked and mixed about every other Tuesday, because that’s just what we had time for. I’d like to think the time and care paid off, but of course that’s not for me to decide (Spolier alert: it did).
I'm told the first single – “Your Uncertain Shadow” – was inspired by the tragic passing of Scott Hutchison. Can you explain about that one?
Yes, I guess the impetus of “Your Uncertain Shadow “ was indeed the death of Scott from Frightened Rabbit. It’s not about him but more about how I was handling my our mental illness and what Sinatra used to refer to as a “24 carat manic depression.” The lyrics are deeply personal as opposed to being a fiction or an allegory.
I remember I was trying out different therapists at the time and one particular guy just being an absolute horror show of a person. I was just confounded and incredulous at how this wingnut has a license. Anyway, that that day I went home and curled into a proverbial blanket of nostalgia. I found an old hard drive and laptop made mix CD I titled “That Guy Was A Joke.” So in his roundabout way I got though another day.
Do you plan to hit the road in support the record this summer?
We do plan on hitting the road, in fact I’m writing in a gray Honda Odyssey to you on the road returning to Milwaukee from Davenport, Iowa’s Raccoon Motel, getting back for tonight’s album release show at Cactus Club. We’ll be at Empty Bottle (in Chicago) later this month as well as a Shitty Barn session. Check out all dates here.
How can people check out The Hallelujah Ward?
We have a vinyl album out now on Foreign Leisure records. Buy it please. Follow us on your preferred music platforms. Not just follow, but engage on the social media! Add our songs to your playlists! You know, all the really “important” parts of being an artist nowadays.
Here are some other great recent releases on wax...
Chick Corea – “Piano Improvisations Vol. 1” (ECM)
ECM Records continues its Luminessence audiophile vinyl-reissue series with this reissue of Corea’s 1971 solo piano session recorded in Oslo at a transitional time in his career. That he could conjure out of thin area music so seemingly completely rendered is amazing and the variety of moods here is compelling.
“This was an intense period of discovery for me,” Corea recalls. “The ‘Piano Improvisations’ recordings were made spontaneously in the studio. I took the next idea that came to mind and played it down – then titled it later. This was a new way to create for me at the time. I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be – but just got into the joy of trying it out to see what would happen…”
What resulted was a record that rightfully has achieved something of a classic status and hearing it again on vinyl is a joy.
Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco – “Tremendo Cache’” (Vaya/Craft)
Celia Cruz & Willie Colon – “Only They Could Have Made This Album” (Vaya/Craft)
As Craft Recordings continues to celebrate the centennial of Celia Cruz, two more reissues of vintage titles emerge.
1975’s “Tremendo Cache’” wedded the talents of two salsa superstars for the second time and spawned a number of hits, including “La sopa en botella,” “Tres dias de Carnaval” and “Cúcala,” which included a band that boasted the likes of Papo Lucca, Justo Betancourt and Roberto Torres.
This 50th anniversary reissue marks the first time its been pressed on vinyl in decades.If you’re lucky, you might get one of 300 copies on black and white splatter wax.
Two years later, Cruz partnered with Willie Colón for the first time to create, “Only They Could Have Made This Album,” produced by Colón. This long overdue reissue of a record that captured Cruz at the height of her game, is limited to 1,200 copies, so don’t hesitate or you’ll miss out.
Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges – “Side by Side” (Verve)
This 1959 set collecting tunes from two sessions in 1958 and ‘59 is something of a curiosity. Although it’s credited to Ellington and Hodges, the disc is basically a Hodges-led outing, with the alto saxophonist’s pianist boss appearing on only three of the nine tracks.
That, however, doesn’t make it any less engaging, thanks to Hodges’ warm tone and the array of musicians, including fellow Ellington band members Jo Jones, Harry “Sweets” Edison and Roy Eldridge, as well as Ben Webster, Ellington’s songwriting partner Billy Strayhorn and Les Spann, among others.
While Blue Note and other labels were making much more adventurous music by this point, there was still plenty of room for more traditional records like this one.
The reissue, like the Roland Kirk one below is part of the brilliant Acoustic Sounds/Verve reissue series that features QRP-pressed 180-gram vinyl in high quality glossy hard-board reprints of the gatefold sleeves.
Vince Guaraldi Trio – “Jazz Impressions of ‘A Boy Named Charlie Brown – Alternate Takes’” (Fantasy/Craft)
For a generation of us (or maybe a few generations), pianist Vince Guaraldi’s music – which we’d heard before we even knew what this thing called music is – is embedded into our genes, cascading through our veins.
His trio’s “Jazz Impressions of ‘A Boy Named Charlie Brown’” – with bassist Monty Budwig and drummer Colin Bailey – put classics like “Linus and Lucy” onto wax and into people’s record collections for the first time. Guaraldi, of course, would go on to make more iconic Charlie Brown music, too.
This set – on limited edition blue vinyl – offers, as the name suggests, alternate recordings of the songs from that 1964 LP, offering a new, ahem, take on this familiar music.
Roland Kirk – “Now please don’t you cry, beautiful Edith” (Verve)
Although this 1967 release isn’t one of Kirk’s most “out there” records, it surely among his swinging-est, with soul jazz stalwarts Lonnie Liston Smith on ... piano(!) and drummer Grady Tate, who kept things grooving on some fine Jimmy Smith organ records during the same era.
Roland Kirk playing “Alfie” and rollicking through tunes like “Stompin’ Ground” and “It’s A Grand Night for Swinging” is great fun. And, as I mentioned in the Ellington/Hodges blurb above, it’s a stunning reissue on great sounding 180-gram QRP vinyl and in a heavy duty gatefold sleeve that is just like the nearly 60-year-old original.
John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band – “Power to the People” (Lenono/Mercury)
I’m very excited to hear that there’s a box set coming later this year documenting John Lennon’s only rehearsed, full-length post-Beatles performances, the One to One Concerts at Madison Square Garden in 1972.
This limited-edition EP on 180-gram yellow vinyl is a taster and includes live versions of “Well Well Well,” “Instant Karma!,” “Cold Turkey” and “Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking For A Hand In The Snow)” from the afternoon and evening shows, three of them previously unreleased.
There’s been so much good Beatles-related stuff coming out in recent years and this is part of that wave that for lifelong Fab Four fans like me is extremely welcome.
Thelonious Monk – “Thelonious Himself” (Riverside/Craft)
Thelonious Monk made a number of solo piano albums, but this one was the first (though one tune has John Coltrane and Wilbur Ware). It also has the distinction of having recorded between Monk’s two landmark achievements for Riverside Records: “Brilliant Corners” and “Monk’s Music.” Thus, it is Monk at his finest.
Monk always credits stride pianist James P. Johnson as a big influence and on his solo material, that really comes through, as does, of course, Monk’s own eccentric and adventurous style. I could listen to this for hours, and this Kevin Gray cutting on 18-gram vinyl in a vintage-style tip-on jacket is the perfect way to do it.
(NOTE: I also kinda love that the cover photo was taken by Paul Weller. But not THAT Paul Weller.)
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – “Peel Sessions 1979-1983” (BBC/Virgin)
The “new wave” nostalgia is strong these days and along with Soft Cell, the best of the synth pop bands to emerge at the start of the 1980s was OMD, which reformed in 2006, 10 years after splitting. Their “Enola Gay” – just one of many fine tunes – was a high point of the genre and sounds as good today as it did when it was released in 1980.
This Record Store Day special collects 15 songs from the band’s four radio sessions for the late, great John Peel and it’s the first time they’re released in their entirety and the first time any of them have been cut into wax. Like all the best Peel sessions, these succeed for their unpolished rawness.
The LP is nestled into a printed inner sleeve with session details and an essay putting the recordings into contest.
Thin Lizzy – “Jailbreak: Alternative Version” (Vertigo/Universal)
A U.K. Record Store Day home run, this is Thin Lizzy’s classic 1976 album “Jailbreak” – which spawned hits like the title track and the legendary “The Boys Are Back in Town” – as you’ve never heard it before. Following the original running order, each of the tracks is replaced by demo, alternate take, acoustic or instrumental version.
After years of neglect in the United States, it’s been nice to see Phil Lynott and company being rediscovered by a new generation and fun and interesting releases like this one should only help.
There’s a fun comic book re-reading of the original cover art on the front of the sleeve and inside there’s a colorful illustrated inner sleeve, too.
Carla Thomas – “Sweet Sweeheart” (Stax/Craft)
Blue vinyl seems to be something of a theme lately as this LP from the Queen of Memphis Soul is on translucent baby blue wax. Also a theme, perhaps, is R&B singers venturing into country music. But this 1970 session – pre-dating Beyonce by well over 50 years – captures Carla in the studio with country producer Chips Moman – best known perhaps for his work with Elvis Presley.
The two put a country soul spin on familiar tunes made famous by the Bee Gees, Free, Ray Stevens and James Taylor and written by the likes of Goffin/King and Carol Bayer Sager on this record, which remained hidden in the vaults until 2013. This, however, is the lost album’s first appearance on vinyl.
T-Rex – “Bolan B-Sides” (Demon)
This double-disc set – tucked into a single-LP sleeve – was pressed in two different color options for Record Store Day 2025: crimson red and midnight blue (mine is blue) and it is the first time b-sides from Marc Bolan’s T. Rex, circa 1972-77, have been collected into a single vinyl set.
More than two dozen b-sides plus a couple bonus tracks make for some rocking glam-era goodies like “Born to Boogie,” “Baby Strange” and “Thunderwing.” Heck, the titles alone – “Chrome Sitar,” “Explosive Mouth,” “Space Boss” – are half the fun.
The discs are housed in inner sleeves containing the lyrics.
CDs
These Candid Records reissues are also available on 180-gram vinyl, but I’ve only experienced them on CD...
Jaki Byard – “Blues for Smoke” (Candid)
Record in 1960, this should have been pianist Byard’s debut, but it was shelved, leaving his 1961 “Here’s Jaki” for New Jazz as his first LP as a leader. This quirky set was later released in Japan and finally in the U.S. in 1988, but this marks its first American appearance on wax.
Much like the Roland Kirk LP above, the set isn’t what many might have expected from a pianist who was playing with the likes of Mingus, Elvin Jones and others. It’s got an almost resume’-like vibe as the versatile Byard shows his adeptness in a variety of styles.
Nancy Harrow – “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues” (Candid)
Jazz singer Nancy Harrow has been in my blind spot all these years and this 1961 set – featuring an ace supporting cast – is my introduction to the singer, who is still actively working.
It’s a swinging set with Harrow’s bold style bolstered by everyone from Buck Clayton to Buddy Tate to Milt Hinton to Kenny Burrell. It’s also something of an early feminist statement in jazz thanks to the defiant title track.
The production – by Candid’s A&R Director and well-known jazz critic Nat Hentoff – is lively and immediate and the remastering puts you right in the room.
Memphis Slim – “U.S.A.” (Candid)
Another 1961 Candid release, this time from the legendary Memphis Slim, is further testament to the label’s broad focus. Like the Harrow set, this one is Hentoff-produced and has a similar live feel to it.
The performances are guile-less and raw, with Slim’s unique style augmented by vocalist harmonica Jazz Gillum and guitarist/vocalist Arbee Stidham.
Watch an Instagram live with me and Allen Hallas discussing many of these releases and more for the most recent Record Store Day...
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
