Recorded at NY He'd Studios (New York) with Matt Verta-Ray of Jon Spencer's Heavy Trash, "It's a Shame About Gemma Ray" offers a collection of cover versions dragged from Gemma's memory. Gemma Ray is the best thing to come out of Essex since Billy Bragg! The album features Gemma's versions of songs from Gun Club, the Cookies, Ella Fitzgerald, Obits, Mudhoney, Etta James, Gallon Drunk, Buddy Holly, Gershwin, Alex Harvey, Lee Hazelwood and more. It also includes the lyrics of Sonic Youth's "Drunken Butterfly? performed to the music of Rosemary's Baby and a version of "Bei Mir Bist DuShein? (a Yiddish classic whose German interpretation was Nazi-endorsed until they realized where it came from!).