Rhinestones by Collections of Colonies of Bees

"Rhinestones" is an EP of country-western covers by Collections of Colonies of Bees and their close collaborators, featuring three songs from their 2025 LP, "Celebrities" (release date 3 June 2025).



TL/DR:
"Rhinestones" began unintentionally during rehearsals for their new full-length album, "Celebrities". Marielle Allschwang, in between songs, would often find herself singing a few of the "Celebrities" tracks with a mid-70s country-western twist—think Loretta Lynn or Tammy Wynette, drenched in syrupy sweetness. A twang.

The other members would hear, sometimes, and laugh and join in, and joke around about how they should arrange and record "country" cover versions of the Celebrities songs. . .and then proceed with rehearsal as normal.

This happened so many times that finally Chris Rosenau said to Marielle at rehearsal on April 4th, 2024, "you know, you have been singing these songs like this for so long and they sound really good. . .you really need to see if you can arrange country versions!".

. . .and she did. That weekend in fact. On April 6th, 2024 she took the three "Celebrities" songs that she always played around with vocally at rehearsal, arranged them on guitar, voice recorded them on her phone, and sent them to Chris and Dan, who immediately fell head over heels in love and whose gears immediately started turning.

Chords were charted, home-learning began, and soon enough, "country" rehearsals were on the calendar. The band even brought guitars with them on tour, finding time to work out arrangements during downtime, particularly on the bluffs at Garvin Heights Park in Winona, MN during the 2024 MidWest Music Fest there. After finalizing the arrangements, recording of the foundational tracks commenced, and CoCoBees began reaching out to their circle of collaborators:

Amelia Meath | background vocals: CoCoBees had toured with one of Amelia’s bands, Sylvan Esso, during the 2018 "What Now" tour. Marielle and Amelia had harmonized together during encores on Sylvan Esso’s cover of Califone’s "Funeral Singers." A no-brainer.

Jeremy Ylvisaker | electric guitar: CoCoBees has been in awe of, and fortunate to call Jeremy Ylvisaker a friend, since Chris, Dan, and Matt (shared members of both CoCoBees and Volcano Choir) toured with one of Jeremy's many projects, Cloak Ox, on the Volcano Choir West Coast Tour in January 2014. Is there a better guitarist? Tough to think of one.

Ben Lester | pedal steel: Bees and Lester have been pals since. . .who can remember? Forever? A sweet peach if ever there was one, and an absolute diamond on the pedal steel.

. . . .and rounding out the ringer line-up of collaborators for Rhinestones was Thomas Wincek on piano: Tom is CoCoBees' literal brother, writing, recording, and touring with the band from 2006 - 2011, and is always ready to walk confidently through some saloon doors. Another perfect fit.

As each collaborator contributed their parts, Rhinestones evolved from a mere spark of inspiration into a fully realized musical vision, and within just a couple of months of Marielle sending the initial arrangements, Rhinestones became more than just a sparkle in CoCoBees' eyes.

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