‘High Wire Lover’ is the second long player from THE END TIMES SPASM BAND. This rather unusual moniker comes from early 20th century slang, whereby a spasm band was a group of street performers who played on whatever instruments they had to hand.
The band comprises Lyndsy Rae Patterson on vocals, Bart Helms on guitar, banjo, reeds and vocals, Eric Stuckey on drums and trumpet, and Zach Wright on upright bass. Their music is rooted within jazz and swing from the 1920s to 1930s.
Opening with the swing of ‘Summer Song’, featuring trumpet and banjo, and with a nice line in Django style guitar, this bumps along nicely. The lyrics are upbeat and suit Lyndsy’s sassy vocal style perfectly: - “It’s a blistering, bubbling day, no degree of relief from the shade/ As you stagger and sweat to the store just to loiter by the freezer door/ But you can’t stay too long, so you’re singing your summer song/ And feeling very red and blue today.” As an opener, this sets out the style and influences of the band so that you know exactly what you’re getting.
Following on from this is ‘My Dear So-and-So, the sort of prohibition era swing that you’d expect to hear blasting out of a speakeasy at four in the morning. An amusing ditty which reads like a spoken Dear John letter: - “When I saw that baby carriage, I knew our love just had to die/ My dear nobody, you know it was never meant to be/ Cause you never would’ve had that ugly baby with me.” This did afford me a wry grin.
‘Black Coffee’ is the classic number from 1935 written by Al Goodheart along with Al Hoffman and Maurice Sigler, which has been updated for today’s audiences. This is the sort of fast paced jazz, perfect for jiving to, and would make an excellent single.
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‘Still Leaving the Porch light On’ has a slow lazy groove, and is one of those songs about love and loss that you’d hear on the juke box, sitting at the end of a bar nursing a large glass of bourbon and not wanting to go home“The pitter patter of the rain on a window, like footsteps on a walk/ Reminds me that you are far, as I wait for your knock/ The quiet moaning of the floor as I’m pacing echoes my heart’s cry/ How could you leave me here without saying goodbye?”
Other tracks that really stand out include a sprightly cover of ‘Everybody Loves My Baby’ which dates back to 1924, and features what sounds like a kazoo on it. Louis Armstrong was one of the first musicians to cut a recording of this and it has remained a jazz standard ever since. Then there's ‘That Sophisticated Thing’, which marks a departure, as Bart Helms takes over the vocals on this one. A fast piece of syncopated swing, musically and lyrically, this shows that the band is capable of working on different levels.
Whilst this may be only their second album, I liked this one a lot. Hopefully they’ll be touring soon, as I bet that live they are a blast!
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