Villains steal the show at fairy tale album release party
CRANBERRY TWP — Cousins John Beres and Dennis Whalen, both of Cranberry, often make music together, but it was two years ago when the self-named “Black Sheeps” band ventured on a musical project and began working on a concept album.
Saturday night, their eight-song compilation, “A Grimm Reminder,” which features 16 local musicians and centers on a fairy tale theme, launched on all streaming platforms.
The anticipated album release grew into a party spearheaded by Cranberry Township supervisor Karen Newpol, Jeanine Swanson and Deb Beres, and took place at the Cranberry Elks Lodge, with fairy tale and woodland motifs on full display.
The songs, written by Beres and Whalen, don’t come without a dark twist: they’re written and sung from the point of view of the fairy tale villains, rather than their sunny, feel-good counterparts.
Saturday evening, it seemed many of the guests got the memo: while some arrived as wizards, pirates or — as far as fairy tales go, rather unoffensive characters — villains stole the show. Beres dressed as the king in Rumpelstiltskin, Whalen as the Pied Piper of Hamlin and Newpol, who helped organize the party, dressed as the Big Bad Wolf wearing his dinner.
Spotted walking along the magic mirror and gingerbread house were also numerous wicked witches. Huntsmen also made an appearance.
Newpol said the inspiration behind her choice of costume came from her husband, Rich Newpol, who plays saxophone on the album’s “Little Red Riding Hood” song titled, “Red Cap.”
Coincidentally, the saxophone-heavy song is a favorite of Swanson’s, who created the decorations for the party, including a Cinderella-themed walk-through — complete with work clothes, ball gown, carriage and a shimmery glass slipper.
When asked about how the duo came up with the concept for the music, Beres said he and Whelan settled on folklore as an overarching theme because it would be familiar to audiences and could unfurl “psychologically, musically and lyrically in a lot of different directions.”
Within the lyrics, fairy tale villains try to justify their actions, which, “in the end, are still bad,” Whelan said.
Songs on the album include titles like “Little Ash Girl,” in reference to Cinderella, and “Everything I need Is You,” a nod to Rapunzel.
“(Villains) normally never get a voice, right?” Beres said. “We wanted to kind of get into their heads and do that.”
