“Flyin' too high” is the latest four track E.P. from Birmingham's The Toy Hearts. The band comprises sisters Hannah Johnson (vocals, mandolin) and Sophia (guitar, vocals) along with their father Stewart (banjo, dobro, steel), who relocated for a year to Austin, Texas in May 2013.
The E.P. is slightly odd, as the band mixes elements of jazz, country and bluegrass music, which I wouldn't have thought would go together, but somehow it not only works, but it works well. The trio have been playing together for over ten years, and have been recording since 2006, along the way producing four albums prior to this E.P.
The opening track is a cover of 'What Goes Up Must Come Down', a song written by Rube Blume and Ted Koehler, which originally comes from the 1939 film 'The Cotton Club Parade', and The Toy Hearts manage to more than do it justice, a wonderful jazzy number, there is a real feeling to this one.
'Too Late To Dream' was written by Marvin Moore and George Campbell, and was originally recorded by the late Wade Ray (1916 – 1998), a country and rockabilly artist as well as a fiddle player who managed to amass a fiddle collection of more than a hundred by the time he was eighteen! With this track the band display their country music leanings and again, manage to pull off an excellent version of the tune.
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'Five Minutes Of The Latest Blues' a cover of a song written by Justin Tubb, is for me, the high point of the E.P. A country styled song with some lyrics dealing with loneliness and heartbreak, the band pull out all the stops on this one: - “Five minutes on the hour, every hour on the hour/ Five minutes set aside for missin' you/ Five minutes on the hour, every hour on the hour/ Five minutes of the latest blues.”
The E.P. closes with 'Baby That Sure Would Go Good', a cover of a song written by Cindy Walker and recorded by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys (Bob was known as 'The King of Western Swing'), and this was a track that left me wanting more. Hopefully, this E.P. is the taster for a new album by The Toy Hearts, something that would be very much appreciated!
The Toy Hearts online
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