THE JOE CRAVEN TRIO
All Four One
Blender Logic Arts
005
* * * *
Everything about The Joe Craven Trio confounds. First of
all, it’s only a trio if you don’t count Craven himself, which would be a huge
mistake for such a demon mandolin player, fiddler, and arts activist. Second of
all, those instruments plus the accordion hefted by band mate Rick Kuhns would
lead the uninitiated to think this is a bluegrass band, which it most assuredly
is not. Third, iTunes seems to think it belongs in a category called “Easy
Listening,” which in my mind is associated with music playing in the background
when you water your ferns, and Craven’s music isn’t that either. So what is it,
exactly?
Let me dissemble just a bit more. The picture of Craven on
the back of the CD has him wearing a very loud shirt and sporting a beret to
which he has Photoshoped a dangling tassel. This is typical of his wit and, I
suspect, his total disregard for genres. If one must apply one, small combo
jazz fits the bill for much of it, though Craven insists his music is a mash of
his various influences: Thelonious Monk, Django Reinhardt, Lester Young, The
Monkees, Flatt and Scruggs, and Michael Jackson. Say what? Don’t look for
keyboardist John Burr to help out; the opening track “Up with the Crackadons”
has organ riffs worthy of Booker T. Jones, and percussionist Kendrick Freeman
lays down classic snare drum jazz rhythms and Craven rips off some mando lines
that dance and swoon. That’s followed by “Forrocious,” with slightly atonal
accordion and the feel of a Parisian café habituated by surrealists. Then a
barrelhouse piano opening for Craven’s whimsical song “Get Off It!” a piece
that’s somewhere between Spike Milligan and Spike Jones. You get the picture.
Don’t label it; just give it a listen. It’s smart, exciting, and it would plow
down a fern that got in its way.--Rob
Weir
Watch Craven and his band work in and through several
grooves on this extended video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73oyhKK97KI
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