First and foremost, Paul Cebar is a Milwaukeean.
The singer-songwriter has been involved in the Milwaukee music scene for over 40 years with no signs of slowing down. This summer, That Unhinged Thing, his first album with his group Paul Cebar & The Milwaukeeans, turns 30. We spoke with Cebar about the album, its legacy and his long-running musical career. “I’m losing track [of time] here, [I’m] surprised by this 30 [year] stuff,” Cebar said.
Paul spoke to us from his music room, “or the Black Hole, as [his] partner calls it,” a space crammed with CDs and music memorabilia. Posters include Louis Armstrong, Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits. The Black Hole’s beauty is in “the eye of the beholder,” Cebar said. After 40 years of collecting music for his weekly radio show on WMSE, Cebar has amassed an enviable collection.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
The Milwaukeeans formed in 1986 in the wake of the R&B Cadets, a group Paul Cebar and Robyn Pluer had performed with since 1979. In the Cadets, Cebar says he uncovered “music swept under the rug and hard to find” for the band to play. “Interesting eddies of songs … were flowing around” at the time, Cebar said, citing influences from Mo-Town music to Talking Heads to Tom Waits.
Their record, That Unhinged Thing, weaves eclectic influences from New Orleans zydeco (Creole R&B) to polka to Caribbean calypso over 13 tracks. “I thought it would be amusing to call my band Milwaukeeans and hand [people] stuff that [they] … wouldn’t assume is from Milwaukee,” Cebar said.
Cebar’s favorite song from the album is “You Make Me Feel So,” a swanky jazz tune accompanied by clopping bongos. “It’s a pretty pivotal song for me,” he says. “It’s stood the test of time.” Songs from the record still make live sets, including “Twice Little Sixteen,” “I Will Keep” and “I Love Soul.”
Bonnie Raitt nearly covered the record’s “’Round Every Corner” on her 1991 album, Luck of the Draw. Raitt liked the tune, but her producer felt that there were too many ballads on the album. “Round Every Corner” was the last track she cut. “If she had done it, that would have been a few hundred thousand dollars. But … that’s okay!” Cebar said, laughing. “It was really nice that [Raitt] liked it.” He brushed off the missed opportunity with a Milwaukeean wit. “You gotta take that to whatever bank you can take it to,” he said.
The polka/zydeco mash-up “Twice Little Sixteen” was written “in the middle of the night,” Cebar reminisced. At an all-night grocery store, a tabloid about rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Chuck Berry caught Cebar’s eye. The tabloid pointed out that Berry was 31 years old when he wrote the song ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ about the titular sixteen-year-old girl. Cebar classified “Twice Little Sixteen” as a “politically correct version of Chuck’s [song.] … This girl’s fine, but she’s my age,” he laughs.
Paul is surprised how well That Unhinged Thing has aged. “When you finish a record, all you can think about is what you didn’t do or what you did differently than you thought you were doing,” Cebar said. “[I was] pleasantly surprised how intricate the horn [arrangement] was; I thought I was a slouch at the time. … It’s nice to jog the memory of the struggles and joys of this [record].”
Cebar remains a regular on the Milwaukee performing circuit, playing shows with his band Paul Cebar and the Tomorrow Sound. Outdoor venues “really feel like Milwaukee in a rooted sense,” he said. He can also be spotted at plenty of other local concerts, supporting friends in the city’s music scene. “I’m happy that we can still go up and hear each other,” he says. “It’s a good thing.”
