I Heard the Voice of a Donut

‘I’m just trying to have fun,’ insists the lyric of the penultimate track ‘Old Bones’. Taken as the prime directive of this Bristol-based aggregation, you’d have to say they were not just trying but succeeding. And I’d suspect that, with the participation of live audiences, particularly in a place where they can move, their goal would be easily surpassed. The good feelings of these tunes are infectious, and, by the band's own account, are based on a variety of delights they discovered while in the US: one tune, ‘Oozlin’ Daddy Blues’, can actually be traced back to Western Swing legend Bob Wills. The titular Miss Jackson, whose given name is April, has a fittingly feisty voice.

Overall, entertainment takes precedence over lyrical and compositional originality and instrumental virtuosity. And the musics listed in the group's publicity — hokum, jazz, hillbilly, country, Americana, and the aforementioned Western Swing – don’t really survive their journey to the UK in any form likely to please picky genre devotees. But hell, it sure is fun.