While the Texas country trio Chaparelle took its name from the shrubby chaparral ecosystem, there’s nothing prickly about its music. Its promising debut album, Western Pleasure, is filled with velvety harmonies and gorgeous melodies.
The group is bound to raise eyebrows with its countrypolitan cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” but its originals are even better, especially “Bleeding Hearts,” which could pass for a long-lost Everly Brothers tune.
Newly engaged singers Zella Day and Jesse Woods handle most of the vocals, but the anchor of the Austin-based group is Big D guitarist-producer Beau Bedford, co-owner of Modern Electric Sound Recorders in East Dallas and a former member of the Texas Gentlemen.
Western Pleasure comes out April 18 on the New York indie label Mom + Pop Music.
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