THE HOWLIN’ BROTHERS – TROUBLE
2014 – Readymade
Records
This extraordinary stringband trio play just about every style of acoustic American folk music there is and play it as if if they have played nothing but that style for the last hundred years! There is quite literally everything on this tremendous album from rock ‘n’ roll to blues, a little Cajun, hillbilly and even what used to be called ‘country and western,’ but perhaps most surprising is a reggae song, as well as tracks that blend various aspects of all. With three different vocalists and those myriad styles you can be forgiven for thinking the album will be disjointed and all over the place, but you would be wrong. Everything blends perfectly to ensure this will be another recording that will figure in many roots aficianado’s year end list. I’ve seen the album described as ‘bluegrass’ but although there are certainly elements of bluegrass it covers a much wider stylistic area than just sitting in one narrow generic field.
This is their second tremendous album and follows on from the excellent debut ‘Howl,’ which was released in 2012. Often a band is doing well if they release a second album that stands still, with so many showing a dip in quality, but this brilliant recording is actually, if anything, an improvement on the first, covering an even broader canvas. With all three members being excellent, if stylistically different, vocalists and writers as well as masters of their instruments, they are able to blend together and get the best out of their incredibly varied original songs, making them pretty much unique.
The trio consists of Ben Plasse on upright bass and vocals, Ian Craft plays fiddle, banjo (including slide banjo!) and vocals and Jared Green is on guitar, harmonica and vocals and the album was produced by the talented singer songwriter Brendan Benson. The varied generic strands, textures and tempo’s make this an album that until the listener really gets to know it, a recording that is chock full of surprises thanks to the changes of style and vocalist. When those surprises ease and are replaced by familiarity every track then becomes pure listening pleasure that I’m pretty sure will never wear off. All three men sing lead on the their own songs, which is what brings such a huge diversity to the recording. Lyrically and vocally they are all entirely different but their acoustic instrumentation is what blends and cements everything together.
The album opener, Pour It Down, has the feel of a hard driving upbeat 1950s rock ‘n’ roll song if played by a banjo wielding ‘hillbilly’ band. That is immediately followed by a trip that could almost go back to the 1920s. The song is Boogie, a complete change of atmosphere and genre that whilst still including banjo, adds harmonica and is a complete throwback to ‘old timey’ music. Next comes a powerful, raw blues in the shape of Night And Day, with it’s percussive, slide banjo allied to a soaring harmonica sound giving it a classic rural feel. On World Spinning Round there is a complete change of instrumentation, texture and genre as we are taken back to a time when ‘country music’ was called ‘country and western,’ with a gorgeous steel guitar, fiddle and nice chunky bass and guitar on a song that almost defines mid period country music balladry. Pack Up Joe is a stompin’ front porch or ‘hoedown’ song and performance that harks back to the days when country music was better known as ‘hillbilly,’ with incredibly speedy banjo, thumping double bass, harmonica and raw melodic vocals on an upbeat, uptempo tale. The reggae song, Love, at first listen was such a shock in the context of the album that I thought it ill advised but somehow it grows upon the listener and certainly emphasizes the diversity of this album. Finally Louisiana, is an excellent ballad that includes a lovely haunting high lonesome fiddle, with excellent ‘clip clop’ percussion on a song that has a strong hillbilly, blues, Cajun mix!
That mix is a good place to end a review of this extraordinary and diverse album. These three men have found a real niche for themselves in as much as few, if any, have covered such a broad canvas of roots music with so much skill and depth of feeling that each genre they approach has a totally natural feel, as if they were born to it. It will be fascinating to hear what they do in the future and how they develop. If they stay at this level I won’t complain but I don’t think they are a trio that will rest on the laurels of this excellent and hugely entertaining recording.
http://thehowlinbrothers.com/
This extraordinary stringband trio play just about every style of acoustic American folk music there is and play it as if if they have played nothing but that style for the last hundred years! There is quite literally everything on this tremendous album from rock ‘n’ roll to blues, a little Cajun, hillbilly and even what used to be called ‘country and western,’ but perhaps most surprising is a reggae song, as well as tracks that blend various aspects of all. With three different vocalists and those myriad styles you can be forgiven for thinking the album will be disjointed and all over the place, but you would be wrong. Everything blends perfectly to ensure this will be another recording that will figure in many roots aficianado’s year end list. I’ve seen the album described as ‘bluegrass’ but although there are certainly elements of bluegrass it covers a much wider stylistic area than just sitting in one narrow generic field.
This is their second tremendous album and follows on from the excellent debut ‘Howl,’ which was released in 2012. Often a band is doing well if they release a second album that stands still, with so many showing a dip in quality, but this brilliant recording is actually, if anything, an improvement on the first, covering an even broader canvas. With all three members being excellent, if stylistically different, vocalists and writers as well as masters of their instruments, they are able to blend together and get the best out of their incredibly varied original songs, making them pretty much unique.
The trio consists of Ben Plasse on upright bass and vocals, Ian Craft plays fiddle, banjo (including slide banjo!) and vocals and Jared Green is on guitar, harmonica and vocals and the album was produced by the talented singer songwriter Brendan Benson. The varied generic strands, textures and tempo’s make this an album that until the listener really gets to know it, a recording that is chock full of surprises thanks to the changes of style and vocalist. When those surprises ease and are replaced by familiarity every track then becomes pure listening pleasure that I’m pretty sure will never wear off. All three men sing lead on the their own songs, which is what brings such a huge diversity to the recording. Lyrically and vocally they are all entirely different but their acoustic instrumentation is what blends and cements everything together.
The album opener, Pour It Down, has the feel of a hard driving upbeat 1950s rock ‘n’ roll song if played by a banjo wielding ‘hillbilly’ band. That is immediately followed by a trip that could almost go back to the 1920s. The song is Boogie, a complete change of atmosphere and genre that whilst still including banjo, adds harmonica and is a complete throwback to ‘old timey’ music. Next comes a powerful, raw blues in the shape of Night And Day, with it’s percussive, slide banjo allied to a soaring harmonica sound giving it a classic rural feel. On World Spinning Round there is a complete change of instrumentation, texture and genre as we are taken back to a time when ‘country music’ was called ‘country and western,’ with a gorgeous steel guitar, fiddle and nice chunky bass and guitar on a song that almost defines mid period country music balladry. Pack Up Joe is a stompin’ front porch or ‘hoedown’ song and performance that harks back to the days when country music was better known as ‘hillbilly,’ with incredibly speedy banjo, thumping double bass, harmonica and raw melodic vocals on an upbeat, uptempo tale. The reggae song, Love, at first listen was such a shock in the context of the album that I thought it ill advised but somehow it grows upon the listener and certainly emphasizes the diversity of this album. Finally Louisiana, is an excellent ballad that includes a lovely haunting high lonesome fiddle, with excellent ‘clip clop’ percussion on a song that has a strong hillbilly, blues, Cajun mix!
That mix is a good place to end a review of this extraordinary and diverse album. These three men have found a real niche for themselves in as much as few, if any, have covered such a broad canvas of roots music with so much skill and depth of feeling that each genre they approach has a totally natural feel, as if they were born to it. It will be fascinating to hear what they do in the future and how they develop. If they stay at this level I won’t complain but I don’t think they are a trio that will rest on the laurels of this excellent and hugely entertaining recording.
http://thehowlinbrothers.com/