Fort Shame

Fort Shame is composed of veterans Sue Harshe of Scrawl and Todd
May, formerly of The Lilybandits. The vocal trade offs between the two
are excellent and their indie rock will not disappoint live. (MOTR Pub;
Thursday 9:30 PM) - The Fire Note

Fort Shame - Double Wide
Ah, the '90s. That exciting moment where grunge became mainstream and the next trend was any record exec's guess. Genres were smashed together like the Rock Giants in The Hobbit, and, like, the movie, the only real goal was to keep it radio-friendly. (Unlike The Hobbit, many of those experiments ended up being unique and enjoyable.) Angular, repetitive guitar hooks, driving basslines, ennui.

You flannel-clad bastards had no idea how good you had it.

Fortunately, there are some brave souls out there who won't let the music die. I submit, for the approval of the Midnight Society, Fort Shame.

But the band's heavy '90s sound should come as no surprise: leaders Sue Harshe and Todd May are veterans of the underground post-punk and alt-country scene. Their experience comes to fruition here on Double Wide.

As you can surmise, it's not the most upbeat album you'll listen to this year. Tales of love, loss, and alienation are undergirded by jangly rock guitars, Jamey Ball's muscular bass lines, and George Hondroulis's powerful drums. Harshe's growling and May's plaintive voice are a winning combination.

This is powerful stuff. I'm excited for you to get your hands on it. - Adobe and Teardrops

Fire Note Says: Fort Shame brings back some mid-90's vigor on their debut Double Wide!
Album Review: If this was 1998, Fort Shame would be receiving a significant increase in press as the band is fronted by Columbus, Ohio’s Sue Harshe which was co-founder of the post-punk band Scrawl and Todd May which played in the Americana band the Lilybandits. In the 2000s both artists were doing their own thing as Harshe was scoring silent films and May was playing and recording with Lydia Loveless as well as touring nationally as a solo artist. After coming together in 2007 on another project the duo were not done and Fort Shame was born. Now the group is fully realized with the rhythm section of George Hondroulis (Drums) and Jamey Ball
(Bass).
Double Wide is their debut record and the album is every bit of solid indie rock with a twang twist that you would expect from their talented resumes. Harshe still has that slightly rough, slightly polished voice that just pulls you into her every word while May has an Americana troubadour sound that is instantly appealing. Combined they complement each other as album opener “Someone Turned Her Inside Out” has a bit of Sonic Youth meets Harshe’s Scrawl for one of the biggest rockers on the album. The next song, “One For The Ages,” features May on lead as the song has a touch of the Americana backbone. His voice is somewhere between the slight gruff of a Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) and the smooth delivery of Ryan Adams.
If you are familiar with Harshe and May’s previous work then Fort Shame is a no-brainer to pick up. The record brings some of their best elements forward as a song like “Gay Boys In Berlin” is a distorted grinder that shows another side of the group while their cover of the Ass Ponys’s “Dead Fly The Birds” is an album highlight. Overall, Fort Shame bring multiple styles to the table on Double Wide that result in a quality debut which continues to entertain upon repeat listens and is also a big welcome back for Harshe and May to the indie scene. - The Fire Note

Fort Shame brings together the collective talents of two Columbus Ohio songwriters Sue Harshe and Todd May, who share vocal duties on their debut full length album Double Wide. Harshe was a co-founder of post-punk outfit Scrawl and May a mainstay of the Lilybandits, after a period of laying low May picked up his guitar playing solo shows and touring and recording with Beat Surrender favourite Lydia Loveless whilst Harshe spent her time scoring silent films before the two came together in 2007 eventually forming Fort Shame with rhythm section George Hondroulis (Drums) and Jamey Ball (Bass), ten original tracks and a cover of the Ass Ponys track Dead Fly the Birds, here’s a track each from the two songwriters that reflect their individual musical heritage – all-in-all an excellent collection and well worth checking out. - Beat Surrender

Fort Shame brings together the collective talents of two Columbus Ohio songwriters Sue Harshe and Todd May, who share vocal duties on their debut full length album Double Wide. Harshe was a co-founder of post-punk outfit Scrawl and May a mainstay of the Lilybandits, after a period of laying low May picked up his guitar playing solo shows and touring and recording with Beat Surrender favourite Lydia Loveless whilst Harshe spent her time scoring silent films before the two came together in 2007 eventually forming Fort Shame with rhythm section George Hondroulis (Drums) and Jamey Ball (Bass), ten original tracks and a cover of the Ass Ponys track Dead Fly the Birds, here’s a track each from the two songwriters that reflect their individual musical heritage – all-in-all an excellent collection and well worth checking out. - Beat Surrender

Fort Shame made its debut with a free EP on Record Store Day in
2010, but the band’s two songwriters had left indelible stamps on the Columbus music scene well before that.
Sue Harshe was a co-founder of Scrawl, one of a handful of bands to garner national attention in the ’90s when media were mentioning “Columbus” and “Austin” in the same sentence. Todd May filled a different niche in the same epoch, fronting the much-loved but gone-too-soon twang-rockers the Lilybandits.
Harshe launches Fort Shame’s first full-length, Double Wide, with what might be the best leadoff track to come out of Franklin County this year. On “Someone Turned Her Inside Out,” her low register packs the same full-fisted punch it always has, with no need for vocal acrobatics—just plainspoken toughness softened only by an
occasional quaver.
While Harshe is the outward-facing, literate poet—singing about trailer-park shootings and a typist named Ethel—May is Fort Shame’s ardent bard, baring his soul from the South (that is, the South Side of Columbus).
The two pair well. Harshe’s proclivities take the front seat, giving Double Wide a no-frills ’90s sound. And other than May’s incongruous “Like That Richard Manuel Song” (fun, but a little too drawly for this outfit), his coarse singing and equally gritty guitar help make the record thick and meaty enough that you’ll still be chewing the gristle on repeated listens. - The Other Paper

Rock ’n’ roll may be a young man’s game, but there are certainly advantages to a quarter century on the job. When you get a bunch of “old pros” like the members of Fort Shame together, you can dispense with the baby steps and get down to the good stuff.
“There’s this process that we all have honed for the past 25 years, and miraculously it all kind of gels. And it makes it pretty smooth,” singer/keyboardist Sue Harshe said. “So that’s what I mean by ‘pros’ is just kind of having figured out stuff. When you’re 21 and in a band, that takes up a lot of time… trying to learn how to write songs, how to play out, who to play with — you know, everything.”
Fort Shame brings together Harshe, a member of pioneering indie rock trio Scrawl, with Todd May, formerly of alt-country greats The Lilybandits and current frontman for The Mooncussers, not to mention guitarist for Lydia Loveless. May’s Mooncussers bandmate Jamey Ball plays bass, while former Evil Queens drummer George Hondroulis rounds out the highly accomplished lineup.
As such, there’s no mistaking Double Wide, Fort Shame’s first album, for anything but the work of seasoned veterans. Aesthetically, the record’s stories-as-songs hearken to the days of “college rock,” boasting a blend of post-R.E.M. jangle and earnest Americana that puts it in league with Camper Van Beethoven. It’s an old-school style executed with clear heads and steady hands.
“No one part is bigger than the song,” Ball said. “So it’s not like we’re going to sacrifice the song so that I can get a bass solo.”
They’ll play a happy hour gig Friday at Rumba Cafe, and Harshe is organizing a series of shows across Ohio for the coming months. Don’t expect them to be hopping in the van for months at a time, though.
“If Dolly Parton’s tour bus pulled up in front of my house and said ‘You can tour in this for two weeks,’ I would say yes,” Harshe said. “As I get older, my life gets much more interesting, so I don’t want to be away for six weeks.” - Columbus Alive!

Next up was Fort Shame, which brings together two of the city’s finest songwriters, Sue Harshe of indie rock pioneers Scrawl, and Todd May, frontman for notable alt-country projects The Lilybandits and Mooncussers and the guitarist who took Lydia Loveless’ band to another level.

May’s guitar playing was just as revelatory with Fort Shame, a free-flowing dim neon mangle that appropriately tattered the seams of the duo’s otherwise tight songwriting. Employing the standard John-and-Paul twin songwriters model, Harshe and May traded gravelly lead vocals and frequently lent each other roughshod harmonies.

Style-wise, they bridged Harshe’s jangly, R.E.M.-inspired college rock with May’s post-Uncle Tupelo roots rock, finding a common denominator in Paul Westerberg’s uncouth bighearted pop. Like Westerberg’s Replacements, they veered from straight pop sounds (Harshe played a very ’80s-sounding electric keyboard) to cacophonous finales without regard.

They ended on a monster called “Don’t Tell Me How to Lose My Mind,” which reminded me what a neat trick it can be to deploy Little Richard’s frantic piano-pounding in a minor key. May got super raw, grabbing the mic and moaning violently. Harshe chimed in with coy Kim Deal harmonies. There’s no need to relive past glories when you’re still making music this vital. - Columbus Alive!

"Her brains may break your heart." Rock critic Robert Christgau warned us about Sue Harshe's warmly illuminating songs in the '80s, and it's still true. Ditto the drive that kept Harshe's Columbus-based Scrawl going for a decade or so. With drummer Bryan Kossman, bassist Jamey Ball and guitarist/composer Todd May (the latter two are also Mooncussers), Harshe maintains Fort Shame. Tonight they'll show us just how dymanic dirge-y urges can be. - 614 Magazine