Fly Around

If a mash-up of bluegrass, folk, punk and psychedelia sounds tasty to your ears, Fly Around is your bowl of gumbo. Water Tower founder Kenny Feinstein (Foghorn Stringband, Heartful of Snakes) says the ten-track album ‘is very much about leaving Portland for Los Angeles, or leaving one lover for another, or saying goodbye to an old life.’ To bring his notion to fruition, Feinstein (fiddle, mandolin, vocals, keyboards) enlisted a crew that includes Don Bolles (former drummer for Germs), Peter Daggatt (rhythm guitar, harmonium), Harry Sellick (credited with ‘strange incantations’), Ezra Meredith (electric guitar) and Pat Norris (bass). Black Flag’s Ron Reyes takes the lead vocal on ‘Anthem’, a growling hoedown that closes out the album, while Old Crow Medicine Show founding member Willie Watson sings the title-tune with twangy aplomb. Executive producer Ariel Pink contributes whistles, bass guitar and backing vocals. ‘Mile High Club’, a seemingly anomalous excursion into electronica, features samples of aeroplanes taking off from LAX layered with synth soundings by Pink’s keyboardist Shags Chamberlain. From the Dylanesque ‘Classic Misdirection’ to the title-track, which reworks a traditional Appalachian dance tune, Fly Around covers a lot of ground.