Michael Roberts has been writing songs for decades. He's studied folk music in America, Mongolia, and Uganda, settling down wherever in the world he is and making every place he goes the better for it. His longest running project is a truly unique honkytonk ensemble called The Rear Defrosters; I'll save you some time: they're the best goddamn country band in New England, and maybe anywhere. Mike's a wily and wiry amalgam of Michael Hurley, Link Wray, and Roger Miller. With both his voice and guitar he is playful, deft, and inspired.
Roberts' affable nature, experience, and reputation has afforded him the uncanny ability to attract the best players around, creating a veritable force of reliable, energetic, and ripping bandmates. At this point in their storied career, the band are a cohesive unit, and they realize these songs both like technicians and mind readers, each holding their end of the songs with soft and sure hands, allowing for the confident creativity that one finds in the great combos throughout time.
The Way Down is their first LP of original songs and it goes a long way to delivering the full breadth of their capabilities as a crucial unit. You get heartfelt accompaniment and intricate solos ranging from subtle to fiery, though always within the container of the song. Generally I've always felt that it is pretty impossible to ask for this caliber of songwriting, and even if you get it, how could you expect such a deep outfit to themselves become equitable conduits? The source is real, and Roberts has tapped it by way of Texarkana, stoner pill-popping truck drivers, the real old-time country, bluegrass, rockabilly, and the outlaw set, all filtered through his worldly adventures and the brains and hands of this wonderful band. --Eric Gagne
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Pointe Noir finds its rhythm deeply rooted in Southwest Louisiana. Cannon Labrie (accordion) is a long-time Cajun and Zydeco player who also plays with Yankee Chank and Planet Zydeco. Katie Trautz (fiddle) and Chris Hollis (guitar) are seasoned old-time players who eventually drifted south to the bayou to learn the musical traditions there. Jay Ekis (guitar) plays everything from indie folk to heavy metal, always with his amp turned way up! Helen Doyle (bass) has never been anywhere near Louisiana and is pleasantly surprised to be in a Cajun band. Michael Bradshaw (drums) can also be heard behind the Zydeco soul of Mango Jam, Vermont surf rockers Barbacoa and many more.
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