Rocker Chrissie Hynde now a little bit country

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Published Date: August 13, 2008 Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde unveiled tunes from her band'sfirst album in six years on Monday, reluctantly conceding that sheis moving in a country direction. The event was hosted by YahooMusic, which has recently showcased such artists as Buddy Guy,Brian Wilson and the Offspring on a soundstage at the 20th CenturyFox lot. The Pretenders' performance is due to be posted on theYahoo Web site on Oct. 1, six days before the tentatively scheduledUS release of their album "Break up the Concrete.


It marks the the group's first studio album since 2002's unheralded"Loose Screw," and its first release for film producer Steve Bing'snascent indie label Shangri-La Music. Hynde, 56, the only constantin the band's 30-year run, recorded it in Los Angeles in 10 dayswith a new lineup. English guitarist James Walbourne, Americanpedal steel player Eric Heywood and New Zealander Nick Wilkinson onbass, were joined in the studio by veteran session drummer JimKeltner, who filled in for Pretenders mainstay M
artin Chambers.

In introducing Heywood, Hynde jokingly predicted that sales ofpedal steels would soar at Christmas. Dressed in a Coke-themed redT-shirt bearing the logo "Enjoy Akron," skinny blue jeans andknee-high boots, Hynde led the band through 11 songs, six of themnew. The onomatopoeic title track boasts a Bo Diddley beat, whilealbum and set opener "Boots of Chinese Plastic" is a rockabillynumber about reincarnation. The ballads "Don't Lose Faith In Me"and "Love's a Mystery" are steeped in the Nashville idiom,
but "Don't Cut Your Hair" is traditional Pretenders post-punk.

The set was broken by a Q&A, in which members of the 400-strongcrowd posed questions that mostly led to awkward silences. Askedabout the album's rootsy orientation, Hynde replied, "I've avoidedcountry music all my life." But, after living in England for thelast 35 years, she said she has been spending more time in herhometown of Akron, Ohio, which has "perverted my sense ofmusicality." Chambers joked that he liked "country and eastern.""It is odd though, isn't it," Hynde added, "the way that co
untry music and rock is such a separate industry here. It's nice tothink we might f--- it up a little bit, and that they might notknow where to play our records.

She went on to describe the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, into whichthe Pretenders were inducted in 2005, as a "big industry con," andsaid late founding members Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scottcontinued to influence the band's sound. She dedicated the song"Kid" to the fallen duo. Other crowd-pleasing selections from theback catalog included "Thumbelina," "Talk of the Town" and "DayAfter Day."-Reuters