Outlaw
Blues
The Tarbox Ramblers (l to r. Michael Tarbox, John Cohan, Johnny Sciascia and Daniel Kellar), play the Toronto Blues Society's "Outlaw Blues" at Hugh's Room, 2261 Dundas Street West. on Saturday, October 5th at 8:30pm along with Michael Jerome Browne and Mr. Rick and the Biscuits. Tickets are $15.00 ($10.00 w/TBS card). For information call 416 538 3885. For tickets, call 416 531 6604.
With a certain kind of blues music, you can sit down and play it - you may have to lean forward a little - Bob Dylan
The Tarbox Ramblers sit down when they play, but they sure like to lean forward - a lot! Their barn-burnin', foot-stompin' take on pre-war blues has made them legends in their home town of Boston, and they'll be bringing their potent brew of tent-show gospel and bump-n'-grind country blues to Hugh's Room on October 5, as part of the TBS's Outlaw Blues show.
One of the most critically acclaimed roots albums of 2000, the band's self-titled debut on Rounder set tongues wagging with it's genre-defying mix of delta blues, fervid hymns, and mountain country. The band specializes in stripping the varnish from early blues and hillbilly music, revealing the raw emotion and death-haunted landscape common to both. Thus, in the hands of the Tarbox Ramblers, an old folk chestnut like "Stewball" is born again as a field holler; conversely, a Sunday morning gospel standard like "Honey In the Rock" is re-cast as a Saturday night rave-up a la Jerry Lee Lewis.
There's nothing whimsical about this musical alchemy, however. Lead singer and bottleneck virtuoso Michael Tarbox comes by his influences honestly and with reverence. His childhood exposure to the folk revival heroes of his parents - in particular, Leadbelly, Spider John Koerner, and Jim Kweskin's jug band - stayed with him through later apprenticeships to punk and gospel music. "We are sort of exploring the common feeling that old blues and hillbilly music had and trying to keep it new" says Tarbox; "we try to keep our ear to the ground and be aware of mystery and sex and bring those to the fore...I guess you'd say that it's modern music informed by years of listening to old blues and hillbilly music, gospel music, old timey stuff - it's all there".
Aiding and abetting Tarbox is a hard-swinging trio whose diverse instrumentation and influence perfectly complements the band's genre-straddling ambitions. Johnny Sciascia brings a rockabilly fervour to his string bass playing. Drummer John Cohan thumps an oversized bass drum that looks like it might have seen action in a Mardi Gras marching band. Daniel Kellar weaves wailing gypsy inflected fiddle into mix - the perfect foil to Tarbox's slide guitar, an acoustic hot-rodded with an old DeArmond pick-up like Elmore James'. Riding shotgun on top of it all is Tarbox's gritty impassioned voice. The combination, as one critic noted, results in "not so much a performance as an explosion...their chemistry, akin to a force of nature, is undeniable".
The band will be coming to Hugh's fresh from work in the studio on their second album, recorded and produced in Memphis by the legendary Jim Dickinson. As was the case with their debut, the songs are being recorded live off the floor. Asked if there was something he didn't get on the first record that he wanted to get to this time `round, Tarbox replies "this time there should be 4 or 5 originals, in addition to some great old stuff: ".44 Pistol Blues," some gospels - "Last Month of the Year," "Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body." We've recorded over a dozen songs, but I need some distance from it to figure out the keepers". True to his eclectic roots, when asked what he was currently listening to, a raft of diversity is the answer: "Oh, let's see...the 13th Floor Elevators, Country brass bands, Robert Wilkins...sinners & outsiders, mostly. Captain Beefheart - you know, he was doing "Rollin' & Tumblin" way back!"
- Dan Kershaw