I must admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for Maine acts making music here in our fair state, and I just learned of a new-to-me duo based in the central Maine area, The Court Jesters. Made up of Tina Charest and John Hasnip, this talented twosome has an album out, “Can’t Stop Now,” and a raft of performances scheduled for this month (nine gigs from Aug. 12-30) and next (another nine from Sept. 2-30), so it seemed right and proper to chat with one of them concerning this hectic tour, the music they make and, most importantly, their history together. I reached John Hasnip at his home and began by referencing the CD he sent to me…

Q: To begin with, regarding the title of your new album, “Can’t Stop Now,” my suggestion is, “Please don’t!”
Hasnip: (Laughter) The songs came through well?

Q: Oh yeah, and I think the thing that got me the most was the harmonies. I’m really into vocal harmonies and this CD was a real delight.
Hasnip: Well, that’s the thing that me and Tina have always prided ourselves with. We love harmonies, we’ve always loved listening to harmonies like The Beatles and when we play live we just try to blend as much harmony as we can; and when it came to recording, it was the same thing: we just wanted to get as many harmonies in there. And Tina is such a good singer, she’s got such a range, and on some of the songs we stacked maybe six separate harmonies in there, so I’m glad they come through.

Q: They do, man, they really do, and beautifully, too, I might add. How long have you two been working together?
Hasnip: It’s probably about 10 or 12 years, we literally met each other at an open-mic, she came up and sang some harmony with me. One open-mic turned into another open-mic and after a while we kind of realized that we had enough songs to gig with, and it just went from there, really.

Q: And I get from the accent you are not Maine-born?
Hasnip: Not a native Mainer, no; I’m from Somerset in England and I’ve been here about 13 years now.

Q: Is this the first album you’ve done?
Hasnip: It’s the first album we’ve done together, yes. I’ve played in other bands and I’ve done other recordings and some of those 14 songs on this album go back 20 years and were just not suitable for those other bands. But for me and Tina and our harmonies, they actually work, so yes, this is our first album together.

Q: Well, those 14 songs on it make for a well-rounded release, that’s for sure.
Hasnip: We wanted to make it a decent-length album. So many people these days are doing seven or eight tracks on an album. It was like, “What’s our 10 best songs?” and then I went, “Let’s just put them all on there, all 14 of them. It’s a good value for the money and hopefully the songs hold up.”

Q: Oh, and that’s the thing, too, this is the kind of album that I will play over and over again as an album and not just cherry-pick a few tracks. It’s a well-made, cohesive collection of tunes that should be taken as a whole.
Hasnip: (Laughter) Well, that’s brilliant, that’s fantastic! I grew up with an older brother, I was the youngest in the family, and everyone played records. My brother loved The Beatles and he loved The Hollies, he loved the ’60s, so I grew up with harmonies, have always been one for harmonies and that works well with Tina because she’s got such a fantastic range. We just fit in and weave around each other, it’s very easy.

Q: Well, the list you emailed me with the gigs you’ve got coming up makes me think that The Court Jesters are going to be busy this summer.
Hasnip: Yes, we certainly will be, we’re always gigging; it just keeps us tight as a unit, live.

Q: Now, do you cover other people’s music, as well?
Hasnip: Yes, we’re more of a cover band when we play out live, because as you know, that’s what bars and restaurants want to hear. Live we’re playing everything from The Beatles to the Eurythmics to Melissa Etheridge to The Hollies, we try to do a little bit of everything — “Sweet Home, Alabama,” Neil Diamond — if we think people are going to like it, then we’ll play it. And one of the things we love to do at live gigs is engage with the audience by asking, “What do you want to hear? What’s your favorite song? What’s your favorite genre?” There’s a very good chance that we can do something, either the one they said or something similar. Again, it just comes back to the fact that we love performing, love playing live.

Q: And that comes through as one listens to “Can’t Stop Now,” it’s laid-back, it’s smooth, it’s easy but nonetheless, there’s a joy hidden in there that’s palpable.
Hasnip: Well, yeah, thank you! I’m glad that came through. I mean, the songs range from very serious to quite funny in places. The last track, “Pretty Sure I Lost My Dog” — as you now realize, I’m an Englishman so it’s very tongue-in-cheek — it’s always what I imagined a country song should be (chuckle).

Q: Is there anything, John that you’d like me to pass on to the folks reading this article?
Hasnip: Well, I’d love to get more people to hear the album. I’m not a big fan of Spotify but I’m sure it’ll end up there eventually. And it’s not that I want 10,000 people buying the album, that would be great, actually, but I want people to hear it. We do have it online at Bandcamp, I believe, and like I said, we do have a nice gig coming up at Cadenza in Freeport on Aug. 12 where we get to play the whole album, and we love that. As you know, at many pub gigs or bar gigs you can get away with playing a few of your own songs but they kind of want to hear songs they’re familiar with. I can understand that, so when we get the chance to do a proper show of the whole album, it’s kind of special for us.

Q: Is there anything that we haven’t discussed that you think we should before we close out our chat?
Hasnip: As far as The Court Jesters go, we’ll keep plugging away, will keep recording songs and putting them out, and hopefully people will get to listen to them.

Q: Oh, you know I forgot to ask this at the beginning: where’s your home that I’m calling?
Hasnip: Manchester.

Q: Is that in Maine?
Hasnip: I never made it to Manchester in England so I had to come to Maine to make it there (laughter)!

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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