Clear the Table

Quoting from hyperbolic press releases is probably not good album-reviewing practice but it's hard to resist the description of this Canadian trio playing old-time string band music as ‘the Mississippi Sheiks meet HG Wells as curated by Dr Seuss.’ The Sheikhs reference is obvious enough: this is a set of traditional jigs, rags, waltzes and jug band stomps performed on fiddle, harmonica, kazoo, banjo and Jew's harp, with the deep oompah tones of the sousaphone adding a pleasingly fruity element of surprise. Dr Seuss is a good reference point for the joie de vivre and tremendous sense of fun with which the material is delivered, while HG Wells could have provided the time machine that has evidently transported Sheesham Crow, Lotus Wright and sousaphone man Son Sanderson from the 21st century back to a Saturday-night barn dance on a post-bellum plantation in the Deep South some 150 years ago. The title comes from the irresistible lines, ‘By dawn's early light, dance where you are able. No room on the floor? You’d better clear the table.’