By: David de Young
Sundays can be tough music nights in the Twin Cities, but the Turf Club was simmering sweetly with sound Sunday for the release of the much acclaimed self-titled debut CD from The Brass Kings.
Arriving just after 10, I found The Brass Kings had just started. (Special guests Pert’ Near Sandstone were slated to play the final slot.) The Turf was set up “old stage” style for the event, with the big booth pulled down from in front of the soundboard and pushed up against the new stage on the floor. This wider than longer setup for the Turf is a good one on Sunday nights; it takes fewer people to fill the space, and an intimate relationship with the music is inevitable.
The Brass Kings CD, released on Dream Horse Records, grabbed me the instant I stuck it in my CD player a few weeks ago. I liked it enough to pass it around to my staff, and the reaction was a definite, “Wow, this is really good.” Top-notch songwriting from metal-bodied resophonic guitar player Steve Kaul, and listenable, haunting songs with timeless lyrics make this an album you’ll want to play again and again.
Live, the music sounds even more unconventional, almost ambient at times, reminiscent of how the Doors might have sounded if they’d been formed in the ancient East and if Robby Krieger had played sitar, as Kaul’s guitar sometimes takes on that tonality in the mix. Take “Rural Methlab Blues,” for example, a kind of Bonnie and Clyde narrative of drug-making lovers in the country, or the bluesy and breezy “When Springtime Comes,” or “Heavy Hands,” which sounds as other-worldly as Nick Drake with a disco beat. Lest you start to get the wrong picture, keep in mind the percussive contributions here come entirely from a scrubboard (played by Mikell Beckman, who you may have seen playing with Charlie Parr) and washtub bass player Brad Ptacek (once bass player for the Urban Guerillas). Perhaps Kaul inadvertently described the musical landscape this band inhabits when he made the old joke from the stage, “We play country music. We’re just not sure which country.” There’s a definite contemporary feel to the folk and blues The Brass Kings play, almost because of, as opposed to in spite of, the old-time instruments. And it was a joy to see it all go down with what can only be called virtuosity.
The Brass Kings play a regular gig every first Thursday of the month at Dusty’s, where they have been in residence for some time.
Photo by David de Young.
Location Info:
The Turf Club
Artist Info: The Brass Kings
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