Critically
acclaimed folk, blues and Americana band Two Dollar Bash return on 23 April with
their fourth album New Adventures on Berlin’s Cannery Row label. Comprising
three equally talented musicians and songwriters from Scotland and France (plus
a full supporting cast), they bring together a wealth of diverse influences and
disciplines across fourteen original songs to complete their most fully
realised album yet. It might prove a task and a half getting them all in the
same room together, but when they do, they create beautiful sounds.
The three members, Mark Mulholland, Matt de Harp and Joe
Armstrong, have been playing together in different combinations throughout
Europe for the past fifteen years, in a variety of bands including punk, rock,
psychedelic and swing as well as the folkier formations, and also simply
travelling around, picking up gigs and busking, swapping songs and stories with
other musicians along the way. As well as honing their own songwriting and
playing skills, this means that the band's repertoire includes many songs from
friends, who in turn are singing Two Dollar Bash songs throughout Europe and
North America.
With band members spread across different
continents, putting the album together wasn’t straightforward. Says the band’s
Joe Armstrong: “We started making New Adventures when we did last summer
because we knew we wouldn't be getting another chance for a good long while. We
knew we could use our friend Chris Lastelle's Berlin studio for a few days and
we knew we had good songs to work with. The basic tracks were recorded in the
three studio days but the overdubbing was a slower process. Although it’s
possible these days for band members to record their contributions from
different hemispheres, we reckoned that approach would be too clinical and
lacking the intimacy we wanted for the album. So the overdubs were stretched
out over a period of months whenever band members and/or guests and/or studio
time was available.”
Since
the formation of this incarnation of the band in 2003, Two Dollar Bash have
been touring constantly throughout Europe, and have also completed four very
successful tours of America. In March 2009 Two Dollar Bash were invited to
perform a showcase at the prestigious SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, for a
remarkable third successive year.
Mark
Mulholland issued his second solo album, The Cactus And The Dragon, in
January to widespread approval.
Press:
"...the group’s organic,
authentic sound provides plenty of moments to savour, taking in folk, country,
blues and acoustic rock ... this has the potential to impress any fan of
uncontrived, richly-textured roots music." Maverick
"This is good ol' time American music. There is blues, folk,
country and chugging R'n'B in here. The auras of Canned Heat, Woody Guthrie,
Neil Young and Springsteen waft on the breeze. And... there is an echo of the
Rolling Stones' down-home bluesy vibe...This is classic big skies and barrooms
music." Songlines
“Like CSNY without the monstrous egos.” Crooked Rain
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