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Founded 05-05-05

Gypsy Punks, A Blues Shouter & Ragtime Pickers at Black Cat Saturday

Story by David Brewer

This Saturday, May 17, Petersburg, Va’s the High Street Lowlifes, Charlottesville, Va’s Accordion Death Squad and New York City’s Brownbird Rudy Relic will fuse three distinctly different acoustic musical traditions into a night of impassioned, eclectic performances in the cozy confines of Black Cat Burrito.
The High Street Lowlifes

A hodgepodge of ‘20s- and ‘30s-era Americana is how High Street Lowlifes lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Jacques Vest describes his nearly year-old quartet of pickers and singers. Belting irresistibly catchy melodies over chunky jazz chords, Vest and his fellow lovers of early ragtime blues and pre-war pop are out to breathe life into the music of early masters like Jimmy Rodgers, Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell and others that helped shape American music.

According to Vest, his interest in old blues and jazz developed through punk music, where he traced the roots of the genre back through early rock and roll and all the way down to Depression-era songs.

“[Punk] music just lends itself to musical historical research,” said Vest. “I think there’s something very raw about pre-war music that attracts people. It can be anything you want it to be.”

Vest feels the discontented characters of Depression-era music and the violent imagery of hillbilly styles somehow have a timeless quality to them that continues to resonate with listeners today, even though current pop trends have virtually no resemblance to those performed by the High Street Lowlifes.
“I think it strikes a chord with a lot of people,” said Vest.
To preview songs by the band, click to www.myspace.com/thehighstreetlowlifes.

Brownbird Rudy Relic

While New York solo artist Brownbird Rudy Relic shares a passion for long dead blues artists of the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s, his self-described style of “straight-edge Chicano blues” is a soul-bearing hybrid of his love of doo-wop, blues, rock, ragtime and Mexican romance ballads.

According to Brownbird’s bio, his music was born in the juke, literally. In the living rooms and basements of punk rock house shows to the subway platforms of the subterranean world of New York City. His songs owe as much to the poetry of Sylvia Plath as they do to the pumping anomalous holler of Charley Patton or the ragtime-infused hokum of the old Bluebird record label.

Unlike many of his peers who also share an affinity for early blues, Brownbird’s smooth, highly dynamic baritone vocals set him apart, lending a crooner style to his high-energy performance. Indeed, Brownbird frequently stands atop chairs and jumps up and down to the beat between kazoo solos.

Click to www.youtube.com to find a number of performance videos of Brownbird or click to www.myspace.com/brownbirdrudyrelic to hear his music.
Accordion Death Squad

Unlike the other two acts on the bill, Charlottesville’s Accordion Death Squad music finds its roots not in the blues, but in Eastern Europe’s gypsy traditions. Lilting waltzes with delicate melodies rub against boisterous, drunken sing-alongs, performed with the band’s hypnotic sound. The Accordion Death Squad seems to fit alongside other bands that have embraced the gypsy punk moniker, but unlike many of their Euro-styled comrades, the band’s sound is a bit less frantic, but no less skilled. Click to www.myspace.com/accordiondeathsquad to preview songs by the band.

Want To Go?

Date: Saturday, May 17
Time: 10:00 p.m.
Location: Black Cat Burrito
Cost: $5