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Front Porch Swingin' Liquor Pigs: A Force to Be Wrecked With
One of the distinctions the band holds is its three voices. Dave Babb, Rusty Jones and Randy Webb all take their stab at lead vocals. While each has their own expression, it never turns into a band with three heads. They are able to maintain an identity… and they just happened to choose the identity of a Liquor Pig. What is a Liquor Pig? Listen to the Babb original "Feelin' Boozy (Liquor Pig)" and it pretty much explains it all. "Boozy" is the "Ballad of Mott The Hoople" for the West Bank. Along with the aforementioned, the other Babb originals, "Hebbin'," and "Salvation Blues" pretty much encapsulate the spirit of the Pigs. Babb's music is that slight balance of a case of beer on one end of a teeter-totter and the promise of salvation on the other end. When the band plays, that see-saw is in full motion. On some nights, legend has it that you can actually see the little devil and angel of Babb's consciousness sitting on his shoulders whispering to him. Bass player Rusty Jones has a delivery that would be welcomed on the set of Hee Haw…and I mean that in a good way. Jones' happy disposition keeps the band out of snake oil territory. His playing and singing can happily lope from to Georgia Tom to Milton Brown to Chuck Berry. Coincidently, long time Hee Haw regular, Stringbean, also covered the same Charlie Poole song that Jones sings lead on, "The Man Who Rode The Mule Around The World." The song is complete with Bible references and a kazoo solo. The man behind the kazoo is Randy Webb. Webb walks that line between the Memphis Jug Band's "Insane Crazy Blues" and Tom Waits' "Shiver Me Timbers, " the latter containing a slight rewrite in memory of his father Lloyd Webb. The man is witty and poignant. He's also the most responsible of all the Pigs for adding the element of blues to the band. His interpretation of "Black Cat Bone" is a testament to that. Speaking of the blues, the Pigs also completed the holy trinity of Twin Cities folk blues by inviting Dave Ray and Tony Glover to a couple of sessions. (Spider John Koerner guested on their first album, Forget Your Truffles and Dance.) Glover lends his harp to three tracks and Dave Ray sings lead on "Pick Poor Robin Clean." He also did what he referred to jokingly as "blues repair," adding some twelve-string to "Black Cat Bone." The full-time support of John Moline on fiddle and mandolin was a key in the transcending from the first CD to the second. He may be the most musically gifted of all Pigs, reeling off riffs that allow Dave and Randy to take a couple extra sips to wet their whistle. It's all held together again by Jim Tollefsrud's drumming. Jim's style is a perfect match for this band. Jimmy To be steady and subtle is an art. Plus, in the studio, he did some pretty good pounding on the keys. Dr. Dog, the West Bank poster boy, augments the rhythm section with his finessing of the washboard. It's a true band. Half Cocked and Fully Loaded is one part revival of traditional string-band folk and one part religious revival near Charlie Poole's whiskey flowing river. And they're coming soon to a big tent near you. Electric Fetus review The Chord back to Reviews |