By DAN DENICOLA
Friday, February 25, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
‘Putting the Western back into Western Mass since 2006′ …
… boasts the website of Northampton’s The Salvation Alley String Band, a group which, with its devotion to Western swing, honky-tonk and rockabilly, is not really a string band, and which can claim to have played in an alley only once (and even then it wasn’t really an alley). No matter – this septet is indeed a band (as opposed, say, to musicians backing a lead singer); a well-rehearsed, well-arranged band that makes great use of piano and banjo (Jason Bourgeois), upright bass and theremin (Andy Goulet), organ and accordion (Ella Longpre), autoharp and saw (Brandee Simone), along with mandolin (Matt Silberstein) and drums (Matt Jugenheimer).
The group was founded by Ryan Quinn (fiddle and a pedal steel guitar), a North Shore native who converted from punk to ’60s-style country after discovering some old Buck Owens LPs and set out in search of “musicians who also wanted to make fun but wildly unpopular music with absolutely no radio or sales potential.” Their recent album, ” ‘Pioneer Valley Rose’ and Other Favorites” was recorded live in one day on old-fashioned tape (no computers) and features as its title track a rousing tribute by Quinn to his Northampton bride-to-be (“The Rose of Tralee/ She means nothing to me/ And I’ve never been to San Antone/ Well, the Yellow Rose of Texas/ Is all right, I guess…But the girl I love best [is] my Pioneer Valley Rose”).
The band has played the Silk City Tap Room in Florence, The Elevens in Northampton and the Red Fire Farm Tomato Festival, among other local venues.
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