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Album Reviews
The Beaver Street Hat Band - energy by the bucket load! (August 16, 2009)
If music should grab you out of yourself and take you
somewhere else then that's exactly what you get with 'Beaver Street' the new
album from The Beaver Street Hat Band. And if you like your skiffle with an Americana edge, enough
jump and bite to satisfy a pit full of coyotes, and more than a touch of
unbridled enthusiasm, then you'll enjoy this - Lonnie Donnegan would be
mightily impressed.
 Between them
J. Vincent Edwards (vocals, guitars, accordion, harmonica, tambourine) Wayne S.
Newton (vocals, guitars, dobro, mandolin, dulcimer) and Kris Ife (vocals,
guitars, bass, banjo, organ, piano, washboard) have enough musical pedigree to
satisfy the most ardent musical history buff. But forget the past, look to the
present. There are 19 traditional tracks on this great album, and from first to
last it rattles along. Allegedly the band had ‘great fun doing it’ – that’s
obvious with every note. From the drive and punch of ‘Midnight Special’, ‘John
Hardy’ and ‘Wabash Cannonball’ to the banter, spit and bite of ‘Maggie May and ‘Cocaine
Bill’ - there’s timeless music here. I love their version of ‘Freight Train and
their take on ‘Dixie’ too.
If you’re a
certain age then there’s at least a song or three (or maybe more) here that
will mark some high (or low) point in your life. There are dozens of ‘do you
remember when?’ stories tied up in these songs. Without doubt you’ll recall
where you were when you first heard them. And do you know what’s great? The
songs on this album may evoke memories but the Beaver Street boys deliver them as
fresh as grass after rain, or should that be as sharp a new-cracked bottle of
JD?
Beardless ‘yoofs’
might think they’re just a bunch of old guys playing old stuff – that may be
true but speaking as a white-bearded old guy myself I bloody love it.
You can find Beaver Street at www.cdbaby.com/cd/TheBeaverStreetHatBand
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