Jim Kweskin & the Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue’s Doing Things Right Album To Be Released April 25 Via Jalopy Records
Mentioned by Bob Dylan in the Martin Scorsese-directed film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story (Netflix) and in the new Timothee Chalamet movie A Complete Unknown (Searchlight Pictures), the “vibrant” (Folk Alley) “icon” (Wide Open Country) Jim Kweskin has built a legendary decades-long career. Now 84-years old, Kweskin has made a new album with The Berlin Hall Saturday Night, featuring five-time GRAMMY Award-winner Cindy Cashdollar, producer/bassist/frequent-Kweskin-collaborator Matthew Berlin, and a number of other musicians with whom Kweskin has played for decades, melding together pre-war Jazz, jug band music, folk, blues, western swing and hokum.
The Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue’s new album Doing Things Right releases April 25 via Jalopy Records. The band shared its first single today – an infectious, western-swing flavored “Right Or Wrong,” a song first recorded by Sizemore and Bias in 1921 (OK to share).
The fun in this new work demonstrates the durability and originality of Kweskin’s decades-long project, consistently renewing and reinventing itself through intensive collaboration. The idea of the Revue came from Berlin’s grandfather, who operated a dancehall out of the second story of the family dry goods store in 1930s Newport News, VA. It was a place where string band music and shuffles were played on Saturday nights, and nearly one hundred years later in Doing Things Right Kweskin shows us that the music is still new.
A key figure in the 1960s folk revival, leading the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. They performed at shows where Linda Ronstadt and Janis Joplin were Kweskin’s openers as well as multiple national network TV appearances (they had Johnny Carson playing kazoo with them) and the original Newport Folk Festival five years in a row (1964-68). Kweskin prompted the NY Times to quote rock historian Ed Ward, placing “the Kweskin Band alongside the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Byrds as that period’s most influential groups.” The Kweskin Jug Band directly spawned bands such as The Grateful Dead, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Lovin’ Spoonful, and many more. USA Today recently called Kweskin a “superb finger-picking guitarist and dedicated explorer of the arcane.”
Arcane perhaps, but still fresh. Like pre-war string band skifflers who needed to have a broad repertoire for different audiences, The Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue melds a variety show of folk, old-time country, traditional jazz, blues, ragtime, western swing, New Orleans street, early American popular, and American Song Book. The tongue-in-cheek, western-swing number “Four or Five Times,” drawn from a 1927 recording by Byron Sturges and sung by Kweskin and Matt Leavenworth, comes out as the second single March 26. The selection then moves to jug band and blues numbers, including Ma Rainey’s “Farewell Daddy Blues,” with Samoa Wilson on vocals, through pop standards of the day like “Show Me The Way to Go Home,” sung by Racky Thomas, and the Wilson vocals “I Get the Blues When it Rains” and “Viper Mad.” The latter was originally recorded as “Pleasure Mad” by Sydney Bechet in 1929.
Tracing geographically, the listener moves west from New Orleans —”Mardi Gras Mambo,” with Thomas again on vocals, and “When I Grow Too Old to Dream,” sung by Kweskin and Wilson—here played with a New Orleans second line rhythm. Then the listener heads toward Beaumont, Texas and beyond with Moon Mullican’s “I’ll Sail My Ship Alone” and “Mona Lisa.” Irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do,” with Wilson taking lead, and “We’ll Meet Again,” with Thomas on the mic, share a sentimental durability.
Kweskin is joined on Doing Things Right by an eclectic, soulful cast of musicians:
Winner of five GRAMMY Awards, Cashdollar’s slide guitar has graced the recordings of artists as varied as Bob Dylan, Asleep At the Wheel, Dave Alvin, Ryan Adams, Van Morrison, and Dwight Yoakam.
Kweskin’s niece Samoa Wilson, whose voice NY Times calls “sweet, effortless,” is a staple of the NYC roots music scene solo and with her duos The Four O’Clock Flowers, Fatboy Wilson & Viejo Bones, and Wilson & Walsh.
Bassist Matthew Berlin produced the album with Kweskin, as he has other Kweskin projects. Berlin played with Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong for eight years, including at his introduction to the the Country Music Hall of Fame and in the house band of the documentary film Sweet Old Song. Berlin is a mainstay of the Boston trad-jazz scene, backing up, among others, Annie Linders and her band Annie and the Fur Trappers. He has played with Kweskin on stage and on record for over thirty years, appearing with him on NPR’s Mountain Stage, and at festivals, clubs and concert halls nationwide.
Also featured are three-time Boston Music Award-winner fiddle player Matt Leavenworth (Mary Gauthier, Peter Wolf, Doc Watson); renowned blues singer Racky Thomas, St. Louis Blues Society Award-winning trumpet player Annie Linders (leader of Annie & The Fur Trappers).
Steve Langone (John Carter Cash, Boston Pops, Sesame Street, the feature film Next Stop Wonderland) contributes drums.
Jim Kweskin & The Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue Tour Dates
April 8 – Cambridge, MA – Club Passim (without Cindy Cashdollar)
April 11 – Brooklyn, NY – Jalopy Theatre (without Cindy Cashdollar)
Doing Things Right Track Listing
1. Four or Five Times (feat. Matt Leavenworth)
2. Casey ‘n Bill
3. When I Grow Too Old To Dream (feat. Samoa Wilson)
4. Show Me The Way To Go Home (feat. Racky Thomas)
5. Sail My Ship Alone
6. What’ll I Do (feat. Samoa Wilson)
7. Mardi Gras Mambo (feat. Racky Thomas)
8. Duck’s Yas Yas (feat. Annie Linders)
9. Mona Lisa
10. I Get The Blues When It Rains (feat. Samoa Wilson)
11. Viper Mad (feat. Samoa Wilson)
12. We’ll Meet Again (feat. Samoa Wilson & choir)
13. Farewell Daddy Blues (feat. Samoa Wilson)
14. Right or Wrong
Doing Things Right Liner Notes
Before digital music, downloads, streaming and samples, string band music was one of the primary sources of available entertainment. Ubiquitous in the Deep South in particular, string bands in the early twentieth century appeared at social clubs, bars, restaurants, and community gatherings. A string band was often comprised of semi-itinerant musicians seeking work in the absence of permanent employment. Looking for impromptu gigs was called skiffling, and in some communities, combos as large as a quartet or quintet would go door to door, soliciting for hire. Skifflers were prepared to play the tunes requested — lieder for the denizens of the German beer hall, fado for the Holy Ghost Society, popular hits of the day for dance halls, blues and hokum for rent parties. A busy string band boasted a repertoire of songs that ran the gamut from the chart toppers to roadhouse standards, to street music and funeral dirges. With an immense archive at everyone’s fingertips, skiffling is now in less demand. DOING THINGS RIGHT, like a modern day skiffle, represents a broad array and layering of genres, affirming that music can still fold in on itself, carrying on and remaking traditions.
The Musical Revue melds a variety show of Folk, Old Time Country, Traditional Jazz, blues, Ragtime, Western Swing, New Orleans Street, Early American popular, American Song Book and more. The opening and closing numbers, Four or Five Times (Byron Sturges, 1927) and Right or Wrong (Sizemore and Biese 1921), show the range of the material itself –a foxtrot and a swing number, both rendered in the western swing style. The selection recovers jug band and blues numbers such as Casey ‘N Bill (Earl McDonald 1926), Farewell Daddy Blues (Gertrude ‘Ma” Rainey, 1924), and Ducks Yas Yas (James “Stump” Johnson, 1929). The lyrics, chord changes and voicings of these songs largely originated out of the black community, infusing the pop standards of the day like Basin Street Blues, Show Me The Way to Go Home (Campbell and Connelly, 1925), I Get the Blues When it Rains (Klauber and Stoddard, 1929) and Viper Mad (originally titled “Pleasure Mad”) (Sydney Bechet, 1929). The cross over caused the music to reach a much broader, wealthier and whiter audience.
Traced geographically, the listener moves west from New Orleans —Mardi Gras Mambo (Adams and Welsch, 1954) and When I Grow Too Old to Dream (Romberg and Hammerstein, 1934)—here played with a New Orleans street band second line rhythm –toward Beaumont, Texas and beyond with I’ll Sail My Ship Alone (Moon Mullican, 1950) Mona Lisa (Evans and Livingston, 1949) and Right or Wrong. Chronologically, What’ll I Do (Irving Berlin, 1923) preceded We’ll Meet Again (Parker and Charles, 1939) by sixteen years, but shares a sentimental durability that make those songs contemporaries even today.
The relationship to the music that came before and the music that followed, is what makes the set list. You can find multiple versions of all these songs online now, but it was from string band skifflers that we heard the first playlists. The Revue revives that tradition, launching a procession of songs distinct in style and place, and connected through shared roots.
