Crooks & Straights

Crooks & Straights
Origin	Rijeka
Genres	Country
Website	Crooks & Straights

Crooks & Straights are a country group from Rijeka, Croatia. They are a six-piece line-up whose members are Robert Bradičić (electric guitar and vocals), Damir Matković (piano and vocals), Sandra Mladenić (pedal steel, acoustic guitar and vocals), Joško Serdarević (drums), Mladen Srića (bass guitar and vocals) and Nataša Veljak (fiddle). The musical genre that they play is best described as a combination of new traditional honky-tonk and western swing. Their overall sound is to a large extent defined by short, but frequent instrumental solos which often follow each other in quick succession. Owing to remarkable skills of most “Crooks & Straights” musicians, this has gradually grown to be recognised as the band’s trademark.

History

The band’s origins go back to October 1999. “Crooks & Straights” were then jointly founded by Damir Matković and Mladen Srića. Damir Matković cut his first musical teeth on the local scene in the instrumental jazz-rock group "Anonymus." where he stayed until 1986 when he left the group and departed for Germany. In ensuing years he played as a professional musician on the German club scene as a member of various local bands. Final months of his German episode saw him for the first time appear in a country outfit. That was a band from Apolda called “Rodeo“.

Mladen Srića built most of his name on the Rijeka music scene as the bass player in pop bands "Grafiti" and "VAMP". "VAMP" were at one point just a step away from signing a recording deal with "Orfej", a label from Zagreb, but the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence first disrupted and later put a complete stop to their existence.

"Crooks & Straights" have always been a six-piece band. Their first line-up was formed after Damir Matković had invited Aleksandar Grmaš on acoustic guitar and Joško Serdarević on drums to join the group and Mladen Srića did the same with Siniša Katalinić on electric guitar and Gorana Čehić on fiddle. Among them, the most famous name was undoubtedly Joško Serdarević, member of famous pop groups way back in time of former Yugoslavia. In the second half of the 70’s he played in "Vrijeme i zemlja" (“Time And Earth”), and in the first half of the 80’s he was a member of "Xenia", one of the most popular Yugoslav pop acts of that era. At the time of invitation to join "Crooks & Straights", he had just returned home after ten years as a professional musician in Switzerland.

Siniša Katalinić was guitarist in the Rijeka rock formation "The Stuff" who, if active in terms of discography, never really moved beyond the status of just being a local act. Gorana Čehić had for several years been a member of only slightly more famous rockabilly-country formation "Mississippi Queen" from Zagreb. When she received an invitation to throw in her lot with "Crooks & Straights", she was a student at the "Ino Mirković" classical music academy in Lovran.

First phase

After only a few months, even before “Crooks & Straights” could make their debut on stage, Siniša Katalinić left the band, unhappy with what he saw as too much time spent on preparations for the first live appearance. However, his departure was hardly noticed as the vacancy was immediately filled by Robert Bradičić. He had once played in "VAMP" together with Mladen Srića, who now offered him a place of the lead guitarist in “Crooks & Straights”. Having just returned from Spain where he had spent several years as a professional musician, he accepted the offer on the spot.

And so the line-up Bradičić, Čehić, Grmaš, Matković, Serdarevć and Srića was the one in which „Crooks & Straights“ made their premiere appearance in the "River Pub" in Rijeka, in January 2001.

At first "Crooks & Straights" built their playlist mostly around covers of most popular American acts, only occasionally arranging an odd standard in their own way. In spite of that, though, they started gigging not only in Croatia, but also abroad, for starters at the venues of Italy and Slovenia.

Second phase and recording debut

After a number of concerts both in Croatia and abroad, the band had their recording debut at the international scene on "International Country Music Sampler" CD, in October 2002, released by Comstock Records, an independent label from Fountain Hills, Arizona, USA. The song “Crooks & Straights” were represented with on this compilation was their own take on Melvin Endsley’s standard „Singing the Blues“. That way, they became the first act from Croatia whose recorded material was published, promoted and distributed by an American label. Owing to this release, the listeners of many European radio stations in shows primarily devoted to country music got their first chance to hear how country, an inherently American type of music, was being played on Croatian Mediterranean.

Appearance on a compilation of this type and ensuing interest in them clearly led the band members to realisation that it was now time to record their own first album. Consequently, during 2002 and first half of 2003 they selected and recorded material that was going to find itself on that first release. The work on this album inevitably marked a shift towards self-penned compositions, so for the first time among the recorded material there were now four original songs, as well. The rest was filled with own arrangements of American country standards, among them notably the already mentioned „Singing the Blues“ with which they had made their introduction to European audiences.

However, the release of the first album was stalled, not entirely unexpectedly, because at the end of 2003 Aleksandar Grmaš decided to leave not only the band but also musical scene altogether and devote himself to entirely unrelated activities. As the group had already had an arranged tour in Germany, they reached a compromise agreement with Grmaš according to which he postponed his departure until after that series of German concerts was over.

Also, band’s activities weren’t exactly helped by the fact that in the meantime Gorana Čehić had graduated from her Academy, married her Italian boyfriend and moved to live in Italy. On her insistence, she remained in the band, shuttling back and forth between two countries to play the gigs and appear on important rehearsals.

At that period „Crooks & Straights“ were still at almost every live appearance in Croatia a subject of comparison with „Plava Trava Zaborava“, the other and much older Croatian country group, even if in terms of sub-genres that both bands played, they had very little in common with their at the time still far more famous colleagues from Zagreb.

Greatest international success and release of the first album

By the beginning of 2004, „Crooks & Straights“ decided that it was their priority to first find a replacement for Aleksandar Grmaš and bring the group sound back to the compact level they had built over more than four years prior to his departure. Therefore the release of the album was temporarily relegated to the back burner.

The replacement was found in Sandra Mladenić who was at the time one of only two musicians in Croatia playing pedal steel. Truly enough, she did a decent job on the acoustic rhythm guitar, too. But her arrival in the group transformed the total sound into an even more traditional expression because from that point on, the arrangements sought to take advantage of the fact that now in the group there was an instrument which was relatively difficult to come by outside of country music.

"Crooks & Straights” achieved their greatest success so far at the 23rd European country music contest, “Picnic Country – Europa Contest”, held in Mrągowo, Poland, from July 23 to 25, 2004. It was a festival with a long tradition, from all the way back into communist era, and after the Iron Curtain had fallen, it gradually grew to become some sort Eurovision Song Contest for country music. Upon their application, „Crooks & Straights“ received an official invitation to represent Croatia on the festival. The contest rules stipulated that two final songs in each act’s half-an-hour programme represented the entry into the contest to be judged by an international jury. They required that one of the songs be an original arrangement of an existing American standard and the other one an original song, written by contestants themselves. The choice for “Crooks & Straights” was easy. „Singing the Blues“ had already received raving reviews by independent European country music stations, so there was no need to search any further. As for the self-penned composition, maybe somewhat surprisingly, they chose „When I Called You Mine“, a song recorded well after the first album had already been finished and which had never been in plans as a possible addition to an already existing material.

An epilogue to all this was the fact that among the pack of country bands from all across Europe „Crooks & Straights“ won the first prize and thereby, officially or unofficially, carried the title of the best European country band for the 2004/05 season. This win significantly helped them open the door of European country scene and soon invitations for live concerts started pouring in from all across the continent, mostly to take part on big country music festivals which are fairly numerous every year in Europe. At the same time, this success finally helped them to emerge from the shadow of “Plava Trava Zaborava” in Croatia and start creating their own identity in the eyes of an average music listener.

And then it was finally time to release that album. After negotiations with three potential labels, they settled for „Dancing Bear Records“, a major label from Zagreb. The decision was made largely on recommendation from one of the best European finger-style guitarists, Damir Halilić Hal, who was signed himself by the same label. The album, titled „So Little Left To Say“, was released in June 2005.

Present line-up and release of the second album

Immediately before the festival in Poland, Gorana Čehić had announced that she was pregnant and the group once again found themselves in a situation where they had to look for a replacement. Joško Serdarević found Nataša Veljak, a seventeen-year-old violinist from one of the most famous musical families in Rijeka. Gorana Čehić kept insisting that she would stay on in the group, so Nataša Veljak was engaged only as a temporary stand-in, until Gorana’s return.

At first, the plan functioned relatively well. After a year of absence, Gorana Čehić reclaimed her place in the band and again started coming from Italy to gigs and an odd rehearsal. Soon the group began recording songs for new album and the trend of writing their own compositions was taken a step further. It was now that original titles would make more than half of total material. However, towards the end of 2006, Gorana Čehić was forced, mostly for family reasons, to leave, this time for good.

So the band once again invited Nataša Veljak to join them, this time on the permanent basis. She took the offer and as of the beginning of 2007 she’s had a status of a full-time member. The timing of her return to the group fell exactly at the point when fiddle parts of the material for the second album were to be recorded. So practically overnight, she completely took over not only live appearances but also the identity of fiddle sound on the new album. Of course, that wouldn’t have been possible if she had not already played with the band.

The album for the first time featured a number of guests, among them many musicians for whom this was the first close encounter with country music. Most famous names were Damir Halilić Hal on the acoustic solo guitar, Meri Trošelj, famous singer-songwriter from Rijeka, Ivona Maričić, a member of the Rijeka all-girl pop quartet „E.N.I.“ and Alba Nacinovich as solo vocalists, as well as Tomi Grašo, a brilliant Croatian-Australian pedal steel wizard.

The second album was released in May 2007, again by „Dancing Bear Records“, and was titled „Just One Thing“. On it, the 2004 winner from Poland, “When I Called You Mine”, finally found its place. At the same time, this was the only song on the album still featuring Gorana Čehić and Aleksandar Grmaš.

Since the arrival of Nataša Veljak in „Crooks & Straights“, the band’s line-up hasn’t changed any more and as such they have been playing venues both in Croatia and abroad up until present time.

Discography

"Crooks & Straights" have so far released two albums for "Dancing Bear", a major label from Zagreb (Croatia).

• June 2005, "So Little Left To Say"
• May 2007, "Just One Thing"

External links

• Crooks & Straights
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