THE BALLAD OF THE GOURDS

Every album has its centerpiece, and on Noble Creatures (Yep Roc), the latest from The Gourds, it's a ballad called "Promenade."

For a band not known for ballads, this is a big deal.

It all started when singer/songwriter/guitarist Kevin Russell, playing around with a ukulele chord book, stumbled upon a simple chord progression -- C major to E minor -- that led to the melody for "Promenade."

As for the song's lyrics, Russell says he made a point to go for "something a little different" -- in other words, sentimental.

"I don't usually write stuff like that for The Gourds," he tells Sounding Off.

Russell says his band mates immediately liked "Promemade," but controlling the song’s tempo took some effort.

"They didn't want to lay back," he recalls. "I kept having to hammer 'em, saying, 'No, you gotta let a lot of space happen there. It has to be quiet, open and slow.'

"We want these kids to slow dance to this song," he says with a laugh.

Humor and versatility play a big part in what The Gourds do. (Think of the Austin, Texas, quintet as a cross between NRBQ and The Band.)

So does trust.

"They're so polite to me and (singer/bassist) Jimmy (Smith) as writers, they pretty much give us carte blanche," Russell says of multi-instrumentalists Claude Bernard, Keith Langford and Max Johnston. "They don't really question us too much about what we choose for a record. They go along with what we want to do."

And for Russell, that meant including additional atypical material on Noble Creatures.

"Most of these songs I already had written," says Russell. "I've had a lot of those songs over the years where I just didn't do them with The Gourds because they didn't seem like Gourds songs. And so that became my theme for my part of the record: I'm going to do all those songs that I always wanted to do."

The Gourds will perform Thursday (Nov. 15) at Maxwell's in Hoboken, Friday (Nov. 16) at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia and Saturday (Nov. 17) at Hill Country in Manhattan.

For more information about the band, visit www.thegourds.com.

ATKINS AGAIN

With late-night TV shows in reruns due to the writers' strike, recent musical guests are enjoying encore airings.

On Friday (Nov. 16), look for a repeat of Nicole Atkins' Late Show With David Letterman performance that originally aired Oct. 30. The Jersey Shore-bred singer/songwriter's Neptune City album is available now on Columbia Records.

Slash also is featured in the same episode, talking about his recently released memoir.