Playback Field Recordings: Elena Skye and Boo Reiners of Demolition String Band
We've put a modern spin on the early-20th Century practice of field recordings, pioneered by musicologist Alan Lomax and others who ventured out into America's heartland to "capture" authentic music that had yet to be discovered. In the Lomax vein, Playback
Editor-in-Chief Erik Philbrook sets out to capture modern music where it lives, breathes and is created. In this latest installment, he ventured to the Far East - the far East Village that is, for a session with two of NYC's roots rock champions - Demolition String Band's Elena Sky and Boo Reiners.
Elena Skye and Boo Reiners founded Demolition String Band in the late 90's when the
two rockers discovered a shared yen for hardcore country and bluegrass music. Skye, from Chicago, and Reiner, from North Carolina, went on to help revive and foster a roots music community in New York City's Lower East Side that still thrives today.
Skye, who sings lead and plays rhythm guitar and mandolin, and Reiner (a Grammy winner for his contribution to The Klezmatics' recent Woody Guthrie album) whose sizzling string work encompasses acoustic and electric guitar and banjo, make music they describe as "hardcorn grindgrass fullbam stompdown twangadelix." Although it is inspired by honky tonk, country and bluegrass, it is often shot full of fiery rock and roll energy and leavened by sweet vocal harmonies. Club and festival faves, they have shared stages with such diverse acts as Joan Osborne, Patti Smith, Asleep at the Wheel, Ricky Skaggs, Bottle Rockets, Dale Watson, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, The Legendary Shack Shakers and Southern Culture on the Skids.
Demolition String Band have released three prior albums: 1998's
One Dog Town, produced by Greg Garing; 2001's
Pulling Up Atlantis, produced by Eric Ambel and featuring guest musicians Jon Graboff (Ryan Adams and the Cardinals) and Sacred Steel guitar hero Robert Randolph; and 2004's
Where the Wild Wild Flowers Grow: The Songs Of Ola Belle Reed, a loving tribute to North Carolina singer-songwriter and banjo picker Reed.
For their recently-released fourth album,
Different Kinds of Love (Breaking Records), Skye and Reiners, along with drummer Phil Cimino and bassist Winston Roye, serve up Skye's classic songwriting sensibility with deep grooves and high-energy. The album is available for download on digital music sites such as Emusic.com and Amazon.com as well as a CD from milesofmusic.com and breakingrecordsmusic.com.
Philbrook sat down with Skye and Reiners at Banjo Jims in New York's East Village for a talk about their influences, the New York roots scene and their new album. They also performed two songs from their new album and a DSB favorite.
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