Water Tower Bucket Boys — Music Reviews

I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to review this EP. Perhaps it's the fact that I liked it so much straight away. There's a possibility that I was waiting for it to wear out on me. Well, it hasn't done anything of the sort.

Garrett Durant's cover art grabbed me straight away and as soon as I started spinning the CD in my car I was hooked. 'Meet me where the crow don't fly' opens the EP. It has a lazy blue grassy feel that sort of sucks you in. What with its banjo pickin' and upright bass boom you can't help but be won over. Vocally the song gives us a great introduction to where the WTBBs are going to take us.

Moving on then to 'Walkin' down the road' we're sort of running down the road! With the fast tempo, high strung mandolins, banjos, blues harp and again, thump of the upright bass, this stuff just gets under your skin. I'm surprised I have not seen these guys on a double bill with Old Crow Medicine show in Dublin.

If vocal harmony is your thing like me, then 'Pilgrim song' is your song. The two and three part harmonies and resonator backing are dead on.

Track four 'Easy Way Out', is not as well written as the first three songs and the appearance of drums disappointed me (as they're not needed on a blue grass release). However I suspect it's a good, up tempo, show opener. And closing with the intimate and delicate 'R Song' is a good move.

These guys are tight. It's a good thing when an EP makes you want to find out everything you possibly can about a band.

I was longing for a new Gillian Welch record this year and even though it has now arrived, I feel like this EP is a more exciting prospect.

So from the Water Tower Bucket Boys - Josh Rabie, Kenny Feinstein, Cory Goldman & Kyle McGonegle we ask 'More Soon Please!' Buy the EP at: http://www.watertowerbucketboys.com/music.html

By James Cooper.

This energetic string band have upped their game with their new album. Bringing in producer Mike Herrera (of MxPX and the excellent Tumbledown) gives their sound an new edge and added dimension that makes their self-written songs and multi-vocal assault work that much better than before. They've also added texture with the array of acoustic instruments including banjo, guitar, bass, fiddle, dulcimer, mandolin, harmonica and on three tracks drums, played by Harley Trotland of Tumbledown. These are song that take a age old form and give it a new lease of life as these song deal with the band's life and travails rather than being rooted in the songs of the past that many similar bands use as the basis of their set. Telegraph is a less frantic tale of meeting people in specific places. The vocals are shared between the four players and are often delivered in unison creating a punk like fusion of action and vision. The country break-up tale of Since You've Been Gone could easily find space on a straight country album. London Breakdown highlights their instrumental skills which are pretty damn good. Their hundred-mile-an-hour street gang bluegrass is full on in Blackbird Pickin' At A Squirrel, while the more measured Sunday Night Roast is another strong contender. Kenny Feinstein, Josh Rabie, Cory Goldman and Walter Spencer are the Water Tower Bucket Boys and they are doubtless picking up fans as they go and with the albums getting better with each release it can't be two long before they get the same interest as bands like Old Crow Medicine Show or Chatham County Line. They just need the right breaks and a little more exposure to help them on their way from Their Portland, Oregon base to the world at large. www.watertowerbucketboys.com