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Sole Kitchen - Water Tower Bucket Boys Album Review

Posted: 24th July 2010
Review Info
Rating:
4 out of 5
Artist:
Release Date:
5th Jul 2010
Reviewer:
Elly Roberts

Album Review

Country bumpkins havin a ball. Think Soggy Bottom Boys, but new.

Apparently the Pacific North West is a bubbling cauldron of activity on the folk music scene.

Now emerging as purveyors of the burgeoning genre, the quaintly named Water Tower Bucket Boys theres four of them - strangely with only three seen on the press release singer Kenny Feinstein on a range of string instruments, equally talented multi-instrumentalist and singer Josh Rabie, Cory Goldman on guitar / banjo and vocals, bassist cum singer Walter Spencer, and session drummer on some tracks, Harley Trotland.

This rootsy collective has been brewing-up storms across their region and Europe with their genuine take on bluegrass belters and soulful balladeering.

Equally comfortable belting out square dancing thrills and spills along with tender swooners, WTBBs has a knack of making you feel engaged right from the start.

Principally, this is because their music and lyrics are real, with no hint at being pretentious. The album is bursting with plucking banjos and screeching violins whether they be all-out danceable blasts or thoughtful balladeering, and in some cases, they manage both in one song, typically, opener Crooked Road.

Fromage is the kinda thing Jed Clampett and family from the Beverly Hillbillies would be bopping to around their swimming pool.

Bread, continues the hoe-down template, with the ensemble firing on all cylinders once again. Its an invitation to wear your dungarees and check shirt, suck a straw, and twist around the camp-fire, with London Breakdown also keeping up the freewheeling mood.

Numb, by comparison, is positively snoozy, but equally delightful, with lashing of banjo wizardry and bundles of melody and lilting vocals, making it the standout track, for me, as it chugs along at a steady pace.

Blackbird...is more of their hoedown gota fria, turning into a frenetic jamboree with chant-like vocals.

Taking the pedal off- the- metal, a more laidback Goatshead brings a welcome respite as they lumber through a nifty mid-paced ballad, and once again it brings out a greater subtlety than the heads-down approach.

The album closes with their most commercial song here, that would make a fine radio edit single.

This track will be played on my radio show, THE PLUG on Monday 2 August between 2-4PM at www.calonfm.com .

The verdict Joy from start to finish.

Elly Roberts