Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present Dustbowl Revival, a Venice, California-based roots collective that merges old school bluegrass, gospel, jug-band, swamp blues and the hot swing of the 1930’s, plus Nashville-based, progressive acoustic folk duo 10 String Symphony, at The Vermont Jazz Center on Thursday, September 10 at 7:30 pm.
Known for their inspired live sets, the Dustbowl Revival boldly brings together many styles of traditional American music. Some call it string band-brass band mash up. Imagine Old Crow Medicine Show teaming up with Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Sevens, or Bob Dylan and The Band jamming with Benny Goodman and his orchestra in 1938. It’s infectious, joyous music – a youthful take on time-worn American traditions by the “Best Live Band in LA” – LA Weekly.
Since founder Z. Lupetin came west from Chicago to get the circus started, the group has grown steadily from a small string band playing up and down the west coast into a traveling mini orchestra featuring fiddle, mandolin, trombone, clarinet, trumpet, ukulele, drums, tuba, organ, a bass made from a canoe oar, harmonica and plenty of washboard and kazoo for good luck. After placing several songs on ABC and Fox, and having tunes featured in independent films like “Made In China” (winner of SXSW), winning Americana song of the year from the Independent Music Awards (Tom Waits judging), playing festivals like Outside Lands and Live Oak and opening for bands like Lake Street Dive, Rebirth Brass Band, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Trombone Shorty, the band began barnstorming more extensively across the USA.
“With A Lampshade On,” Dustbowl Revival’s fourth album, shines a light on the band’s strength as a live act. The CD captures a group of road warriors in their element, playing not to an audience, but with an audience. To watch them onstage is to take part in an evolving conversation between an orchestra and audience. The horns blast, the fiddle and mandolin swoon, and the howling vocals — shared by Z. Lupetin and Liz Beebe — rattle off stories about preachers, drinkers, lovers and holy rollers. The crowd is encouraged to participate, of course. Right at home at the crossroads of American jazz and folk traditions, Dustbowl Revival is participating in the evolution of American roots music, tipping a hat to what’s come before while looking ahead to what’s on the horizon.
“The group is like a band of time-hopping vagabonds swirling through the centuries picking up and passing along tunes that make you want to swing, stomp and reel.” – Santa Cruz Weekly
10 String Symphony fiddler/vocalists Christian Sedelmyer (who also performs with the Jerry Douglas Band ) and Rachel Baiman met in Nashville, and realized a mutual love for the range and depth of the 5-String fiddle. By the time their first full-length album was released in November 2012, their instrumentation had expanded to include clawhammer banjo and resonator mandolin, but they still maintained a stripped down, tightly woven and carefully arranged duo sound. Decidedly contemporary in their musical approach, the duo showcases Sedelmyer’s virtuosic improvisation and creative harmonic soundscape ideas alongside Baiman’s old-time rhythm and emotional melodic sensibilities.
The Vermont Jazz Center is located at 72 Cotton Mill Hill in Brattleboro, VT. Tickets are $20 Advance / $24 At the Door. For information, call 802-387-0102. Advance tickets are available at www.nextstagearts.org, Turn It Up in Brattleboro and Offerings Jewelry in Putney. For more information, visit www.dustbowlrevival.com, www.10stringsymphony.com, www.twilightmusic.org, www.vtjazz.org and www.nextstagearts.org.