French Cowboys, Russian Suckers

French Cowboy is the new band created by Federico Pellegrini, singer of the late Little Rabbits, a bunch of cray-zee frenchies, who disappeared in 2005, after seven remarkable albums. Federico Pellegrini (yes, the partner of Helena Noguerra in the duo Baby Face Nelson and Dillinger Girl) plays with three of his mates: Gaëtan Chataigner (bass), Stéphane Louvain (guitar) and Eric Pifeteau (drums). To quote from the bio: "All voices ahead, sparing neither anger or lyricism, they are like some beach boys lost in the Arizona desert, where surfer girls have become characters out of Johnny Cash songs." Right. Now, Gainsbourgians like us, when we hear someone called Baby Face Nelson, we think of Melody Nelson. And so did Frederico, 'cause The Ballad of Baby Face Nelson nods more than a little to the ballade of petite Melody, quatorze automnes et quinze étés. I am not sure if the female duet-partner's Helena, though.

Yesterday I had a really nice conversation with Paul, who's going to write a big piece on this blog, this blog and these guys for this newspaper. Paul's a Eastern Europe expert, and I asked him if he knew any Russian versions of Gainsbourg songs. I have Polish, Czech and Hungarian covers of SG, and I just knew there had to be Russian versions. Serge is of Russian descend, and Paul told me he's regarded as a hero up there. He searched and struck gold right away. A band I know nothing about, called Nezhnoe Eto (which means something like 'That Lovely Thing'), did two brilliant versions of Les Sucettes. In a Pizzicato 5-stylee, I'd say.

French Cowboy - The Ballad of Baby Face Nelson
Nezhnoe Eto - Sosachki (Les Sucettes)
Nezhnoe Eto - Sosachki version 2