Having the last laugh

LITTLE GNOME FACT The Ha is working on a song cycle based on a book by academic explorer Roy Champman Andrews, the basis for the Indiana Jones character.

Photo: James Elkington

“He sounds just like Mel Tormé, like the Velvet Fog,” exclaimed a wide-eyed Catherine Irwin upon first hearing Jim Elkington’s creamy baritone croon. In December 2002, the British expat was opening for Irwin’s Freakwater at the Abbey Pub. Irwin’s bandmate Janet Bean was equally entranced: “I was just so mesmerized by his voice,” the Wicker Park resident recalls.

Elkington, an instrument repairman who comanages Humboldt Park guitar shop Specimen, had been a regular presence around town, playing the occasional solo show when not gigging with eclectic soft-pop posse the Zincs. Still, that winter night proved to be a turning point in his career; a couple of days later, the self-described “Janet fan” happened to run into Bean at Bite Café in Ukrainian Village.

By August 2003, the duo had made an impromptu debut at the Old Town School of Folk Music, where Elkington joined Bean for a rendition of a Leonard Cohen tune. The chemistry was there, and when Bean proposed that the two perform covers at wine bars around town, it seemed sensible enough. Why not sidestep low-paying dive bars on the indie circuit for posh pubs with deeper pockets? For Elkington, it was nothing short of an epiphany. “It occurred to me that you could actually be in music and not lose money—it doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby,” the 38-year-old Lincoln Square resident says with a laugh.

Before long, the two were rehearsing every other week, building a repertoire including numbers by the Velvet Underground, Tom Waits, Fred Neil, Neil Young, and Richard and Linda Thompson. But their lounge-lizard aspirations began to fade as the duo’s elegant harmonies took shape, with Elkington playing guitar and harmonizing with Bean. “We were developing an identity. The covers weren’t going to serve that for too long,” Elkington says. They found themselves tending to a growing stable of original tunes. “It’s harder to learn other people’s songs than it is just to write your own,” Bean offers, as Elkington deadpans, “I was like, ‘Let’s come up with our own material, and it’ll be a lot less profitable and more work.’?”

Taking their name from a Dylan Thomas short story, Bean and Elkington began performing as the Horse’s Ha, eventually working toward an album once the Zincs had run its course. Though both members had ties to the Thrill Jockey label, they opted to fund the recording themselves. For the 45-year-old Bean, who’d been working with TJ chief Bettina Richards for more than 20 years (with Freakwater, Eleventh Dream Day and her solo project, the Concertina Wire), it was a new experience. “It was invigorating to figure out how to shop a record or even how to make a MySpace page for the band,” Bean says. “All of that stuff that I’d never bothered with.”

That DIY ethos surfaces in every aspect of the Horse’s Ha’s debut, Of the Cathmawr Yards—from the handpicked Chinese folk artwork to its licensing arrangement with the A Hidden Agenda imprint. Fleshed out by jazz-improv standbys—cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm (Vandermark 5) and drummer Charles Rumback—plus Elkington’s Zincs bandmate Nick Macri on upright bass, Cathmawr Yards is a shimmering collection of delicate chamber folk. Though the band’s expanded well beyond its modest wine-bar aspirations, the core duo retains the ability to expand or contract, depending on the circumstances. So while economics often dictate the size of a supporting act, the Horse’s Ha doesn’t view its scaled-down lineup as a concession. In fact, as a working model, it suits the two just fine; as Bean explains, “We decided we like that full sound but ultimately wanna be able to do it just the two of us.”

The Horse’s Ha plays Schubas Friday 3. Elkington and Bean visited our office for a live performance. Hear it on the Infinite Loop podcast at timeoutchicago.com/blog.

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