If you are, like me, tired of everyone and their uncle rebranding their music as Americana, or worse, British Americana to keep up with the current zeitgeist, then I give you incendiary West Country Bluegrass ‘n’ roll! The evocatively named The Swamp Stomp String Band is just that, forget jumping on the existing bandwagon, this is the next bandwagon! And it is already out of control!
Many years ago, I was into a band from the South Coast called The Cropdusters who sounded as if they were the soundtrack to The American Civil War – had it been fought in the rolling hills of Hampshire between regiments of country and punk agitators just after closing time. The Swamp Stomp String Band sounds like their spiritual successor.
Unpicking “Songs In The Key Of Blue” takes some doing, but let’s have a go. It is a mercurial and marvelous blend of cowpunk and cider-fuelled country, bluegrass and blues (and other music for uplifting gourmandizers…ha ha!) It is the musical embodiment of an unabashed race to the dancefloor, followed by an undignified race for the bar. It is early rock and roll had it formed, not in the American South, but during a punch-up in the queue for a Cajun food truck at 2000 Trees Festival. What Drop Kick Murphys is to naval history, The Swamp Stomp String Band is to rural life. Well, you get the picture…hopefully.
What does that all mean? Well, it means that this song and this band are brilliant, energetic, party-starting, a punk-rush of energy driving honky tonk pianos and bombastic banjo, hysterical harmonica and early rock and roll guitar twang, boisterous bass and pounding drums, and a groove so infectious that 100-mile-per-hour hoedowns will soon be back in fashion.
This is my first taste of their roots anarchy, but consider me a fan. Actually, I was totally on board before the first chorus was not even halfway through! Boy, this has made my day! Right, I’m off for a lie down.
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