EDEN & JOHN’S EAST RIVER STRING BAND: Take A Look At That Baby
EDEN & JOHN’S
EAST RIVER STRING BAND
Take A Look At That Baby
East River String Band
Helmed by intrepid guitarist, mandolinist, vocalist and dedicated record collector John Heneghan along with kazoo, resonator ukulele and fetching vocalist Eden Brower, the East River String Band’s delightful fourth CD release is, once again, introduced to us by some inventive cover art courtesy of the legendary cartoonist and Cheap Suit Serenader, Robert Crumb. Crumb also adds his infectious fretwork to four of the fourteen traditional titles revived here, including entertaining renditions of both the James Cole String Band’s eternal question “Where You Been So Long?” and “Too Tight Rag,” originally committed to shellac in the early 1930s by a group of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky coal miners led by one Everett Eugene Hack. Other old-time influenced musicians accompanying the irrepressible Brower and Heneghan include harmonica whiz Ernesto Gomez (Brotherhood Of The Jug Band Blues), Pat Conte and Blind Uncle Otis (Massapequa Parkaneers), banjo and quills ace Dom Flemons (Carolina Chocolate Drops) and mouth-harpist Joe Bellulovich of the Otis Brothers. Jackson Lynch of the Down Hill Strugglers also adds fiddle accents to a rousingly good-timey recall of Bo Carter’s “Baby How Can It Be.” Heneghan and company particularly shine on their blues numbers – favorites are Charley Patton’s “Pony Blues,” Tommy Johnson’s “Big Road Blues” and Skip James’ “I’m So Glad” – as well as on all-out shenanigans like “Old Jaw Bone,” “Diamond Joe” and “Got A Letter From My Darling.” It recalls the wildly energetic and appealingly eclectic music created by the Alan Wilson-led Canned Heat outfit in the 1960s, who were all record collectors as well.
— Gary von Tersch