Four New Album Reviews in September OffBeat Magazine

Spike Perkins, Andy J. Forest, Dirty Rain Revelers and Old Barstools

Spike Perkins- Up in Carrollton

Spike Perkins is a journeyman bass player and has remained active on the scene in New Orleans for decades. He is adept in a variety of styles and showcases several of them on his new recording, Up in Carrollton.

Over the years, one of his longest associations was with the legendary but locally under-recognized saxophonist Jerry Jumonville. The album, which is dedicated to Jumonville and Perkins’ longtime partner, Martha “Marty” Eler, is a requiem of sorts for a musician who left a huge mark on the national music scene. I mean huge! Go ahead and Google him.

Jumonville passed away in December 2019, but his fingerprints are all over this album. He composed the music and arranged the horns on the first cut, “Dr. Deadbolt,” a wryly humorous song with lyrics by Perkins, “Dr. Deadbolt, you think you’re mighty smart \ the way you lock me out of your heart is tearing me apart.”

Jumonville displays his mighty tenor on a rollicking solo on the cut, which is sung like three other cuts on the disc, by the effervescent vocalist Meryl Zimmerman. Amasa Miller, another great journeyman player in the city, takes a stellar piano solo and Perkins follows him with a woody excursion up the neck of the bass.

Perkins composed the words and music on the next three cuts on the album and takes the lead vocal on the title cut. It features the most personal lyrics on the album, delineating the life of a musician living in the Carrollton neighborhood. It will ring true to the denizens of the Maple Leaf Bar.

The final cut will cue the memories of some of those denizens of an older pedigree. It was written by guitarist Red Priest and was a standout in the repertoire of the sorely missed band, the Songdogs. He plays guitar on the cut, and it also features Alison Young from the band on backing vocals.

While short enough to be considered an EP, Perkins has crafted a perfect vehicle to connect his musical passions, his musical friends and the bittersweet world of a lifer musician in New Orleans.

Andy J. Forest- I Don’t Wanna Work – Modern Vintage Blues

Andy J. Forest has been around for as long as I can remember, playing his idiosyncratic blend of harmonica blues and boogie-woogie. His first album came out in 1979. Twenty-two albums later, he presents his latest, I Don’t Wanna Work – Modern Vintage Blues. It’s his first since 2015 and all of the songs predate the pandemic.

Not that it matters. His tunes are timeless.

The album opens with a statement of purpose. Though the word “determination” never appears in the song with that title, the message is clear in the slight lyrical shift of the chorus: don’t ever give up, give in or surrender.

Forest spends considerable time touring Europe, where he has a sizable fan base. He has two European booking agents, and his official bio is translated into both Italian and French, so it makes sense that six of the nine songs on the album feature Italian musicians.

But his heart is clearly in New Orleans. The lone cover on the album is the classic from Muddy Waters, “Louisiana Blues.”

“Frady’s One Stop Store” makes it personal. The Bywater mainstay is celebrated with droll lyrics and inventive nursery-like rhymes. “Epsom salts and cigarettes / Soda pop and food for pets / Hefty bags and aluminum foil / Pickled pig lips and baby oil.”

I particularly love this couplet, “No wi-fi you’ll just have to speak / with strangers and neighbors six days a week.” The rest of the songs on the album are filled with similar sly wordplay, all sung in Forest’s deadpan style.

Musically, it’s obvious Forest is a veteran. Though no one is credited specifically as producer, the album’s sound is pristine, and he surrounds himself with serious local talent including drummer Tom Chute and bassist Jesse Morrow on three cuts. Organist John Gros, pianist Tom Worrell, violinist Matt Rhody and trombonist Charlie Halloran all make guest appearances.

I Don’t Wanna Work – Modern Vintage Blues adds another excellent chapter in Andy J. Forest’s ongoing body of work.

Dirty Rain Revelers- Live From the Porch

When I described one of last month’s reviews as being one of the first pandemic-inspired records that had crossed my desk, I hadn’t heard the Dirty Rain Revelers latest, Live From the Porch. This intimate duo performance by Matthew and Melissa DeOrazio was recorded in the middle of the pandemic during the summer of 2020.

Both musicians play guitar, Matthew on searing electric and Melissa on acoustic and vocals, but the strength of the album is the combined power of the plaintive tones of her voice and the sheer anguish of some of Matthew’s solos. You can literally hear the isolation we all suffered through.

The songs were also clearly selected from the band’s vast repertoire to convey the very feelings the musicianship invokes. The album opens with Bob Dylan’s anti-capitalism polemic, “Masters of War.” The second cut, PJ Harvey’s “Desperate Kingdom of Love,” asks a listener to dig deep and choose love over fear.

Matthew is a master of tone utilizing a variety of effects to flesh out the tunes. At many points on the album, the two players sound like so much more than the sum of their parts.

Live From the Porch includes two originals. “Where Is My Calm” features rapid-fire vocals bemoaning the state of the world. Melissa’s frenetic guitar strums anchor scorching lead parts from her partner. The song chugs along like a freight train about to go around a curve just a little too fast.

The album closes with another Bob Dylan classic, “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” The cut is the longest on the record, clocking in at over ten and half minutes. It opens with a beat on Melissa’s muted guitar strings as Matthew’s electric soars behind her. Her vocal treatment reveals the song to be what it was from the beginning—a rap.

It’s an inventive take, which sums of the way this band rearranges the cover songs, while also conveying a specific feeling from a specific time and place.

Old Barstools- Wishing

I really like the chords that the Old Barstools use to create their appealing blend of country and rock ’n’ roll. You might think you’ve heard these songs before until a creative change sends a tune off into a different direction than you might have expected.

The new album includes 11 songs, all but four of which were written by Fred Peer. Lead guitarist Sean Arrillaga contributes two songs and multi-stringed instrumentalist TJ Sutton wrote one of the straight-up rockers on the album, “Scraping By.” The lone cover is Modern English’s “I Melt With You.”

While many of the songs mine standard country tropes like regret, drinking and struggle, the band’s music is definitely country-rock with the emphasis on rock. With three guitars deployed in ingenious ways, they create a wall of sound. The rhythm section of bassist Nathan Gurley and drummer Floyd Durand makes a formidable team.

Peer writes witty, self-deprecating lyrics that hide a philosopher’s heart. “Soul To Sell” cracked me up although I could do without the old-school telephone ringing at the outset. The lyrics fly by like a spoken word poem.

After a brutally frank conversation with his girlfriend where she accuses him of wasting his soul, his first thought is, “If you know somebody looking for a soul, I could use the money.” The singsong, call-and-response chorus, “If you gotta little money, I got a soul to sell” is the perfectly wrong conclusion. Of course, she’s already accused him of being a deviant.

The music on the album sounds fun, but the lyrics hide little truths that only come from living a life filled with ups and downs. Yet, the songs are ultimately optimistic—just keep on keeping on and keep on keeping on and on and on.