Powder Kegs ready to explode in Montpelier
|
|
"The Seedhouse" is The Powder Kegs' first album. |
Toolbox
By Art Edelstein Arts Correspondent - Published: October 5, 2007
If the early fall and the surprisingly warm weather have you feeling a bit droopy and dreary then get to the Langdon Street Café Saturday night for the Powder Keg's show. This quintet will knock your socks off and shake the cobwebs out of your system. Rarely do a band's performance and name coincide. In this case we have a perfect match.
The Powder Kegs also have the distinction of being nationally acclaimed stars. On April 20, they competed against six other bands on the "People in their 20s Talent Show" on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion." They won.
So what's the skinny on this explosive band? They are an old-time string band originally based in Burlington, and the Web site states that it is "on a mission to re-energize the communication lines between the new generation and its roots."
I think they've accomplished this task admirably. On their first CD, "The Seedhouse," the band rips out 10 tracks of high-energy music that is, for the most part, firmly rooted in American traditional music. From Woody Guthrie's "Hard Travelin'" to standards like the "Cumberland Gap," "June Apple" and "John Brown's Dream," the band, performing on string bass, guitar, dobro, claw-hammer banjo, fiddle, and other instruments, dives in with complete enthusiasm and lots of 20s energy. They've even managed to give a new spin to Hank Williams' "Lonesome Whistle," and the Rolling Stones' "Dead Flowers."
This isn't your grandfather's string-band music, it's got a Northern twang, and sounds a bit too intellectual to be from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Yet it's about as authentic as you'll find from guys who cut their teeth on this music in places like Vassar College.
The Powder Kegs made Burlington home for over a year where they worked on a farm for room and board and performed at bars, clubs, and on the street. "The Seedhouse," released last winter, was a best-seller on CDBaby.com last April. After touring for the summer throughout the East Coast, the band has relocated to the Hudson Valley, but is touring Vermont again.
These guys are very good. A chance to see them in the intimate and friendly setting of the café should be fun. I suspect that soon a Powder Kegs concert ticket will cost a lot more than the price of admission this Saturday.