The latest single from Austin-based jazz/Americana trio Cento Threeo, premiering exclusively on American Blues Scene, began as a guitar-and-vocal demo tucked away on bandleader Don Cento’s phone. What started as a rough sketch with unfinished lyrics eventually took a different form, resurfacing as an instrumental.
Instead of finishing the words, Cento brought the piece to bassist Phil Spencer and drummer Norm Bergeron and let the melody lead. “It Takes What It Takes” appears on Halfway to Mellowtown, the trio’s debut album due June 19 on SecondBridge Records.
This song started life as a vocal tune. Buried on my phone is a guitar-and-vocal demo with some shaggy, unfinished lyrics. Somewhere along the line, perhaps because I was struggling to decode the hook line for myself, I brought it to the Threeo as an instrumental, and lo and behold, it worked.
Don Cento
Aided and abetted by the inestimable Phil Spencer and Norm Bergeron, we managed to capture the melancholy and back-handed optimism of that original demo. At the outset, I didn’t realize that this is what it would take, but I guess it’s right there in the title.
Recorded live over two days at Church House in Austin with producer and engineer Stuart Sikes (White Stripes, Cat Power, Loretta Lynn), the record draws from post-bop language, Americana textures, and indie-rock, equally focused on composition and the space around it. The album also includes a reimagining of Rosanne Cash’s “Seven Year Ache,” the only cover on the record, reframed within the trio’s atmospheric approach.
Halfway to Mellowtown marks a return to jazz after a career spanning three decades across indie rock, Americana, and production work. Following the recording, Cento Threeo brought in drummer Matt Johnson, whose credits include collaborations with Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, and St. Vincent.
