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Western Clambake

Overview

Western Clambake --- 2017-08-29

A raw glimpse of the nascent stages of America’s #1 hot jazz & Western swing trio. Don’t miss this prequel to the band’s 20-year career (so far) and ten studio albums—and counting—that followed. Marking the 20th anniversary of hot jazz and Western swing trio Hot Club of Cowtown’s formation in 1997, the band is excited to announce the first-ever release in CD format of it’s very first recording, Western Clambake, which had previously been available only on cassette tape, first recorded in August, 1997 in San Diego, CA. The original lineup of the band, documented in this collection, was Hot Club of Cowtown founders Whit Smith on guitar and Elana James on fiddle, with bassist T.C. Cyran. This collection of songs—38 minutes of total playing time to cover all 14 tracks—is a raw, almost primitive collection, a tide of pure energy and relentless enthusiasm. Whit Smith is the only vocalist, but background shouts and trills give dimension to these songs, as does the electrifying thrill of James’s fiddle, Smith’s primal guitar tone, and the acoustic slap and thump of Cyran’s bass. The overall effect is of a metal cylinder field recording c. 1937 with Alan Lomax—slight distortion from the original cassette after 20 years lends this collection the grit and heart of another era.