Sentinel Tribune (04/08)

Sentinel-Tribune article


BUCKTOWN KICKBACK HAS MANY PLACES TO CALL HOME

It’s fitting that Bucktown Kickback titled their sophomore album “Lost In Your Own Hometown.” The band certainly has its fair-share of towns to call home.
First and foremost is Nashville, Tenn., the unofficial headquarters and current hometown for founder and songwriter Adam Brooks Dudding and long-time Bowling Green guitar guru Tony Papa, who recently joined the quintet in the fall of 2007.

Then there is Columbus, the city where Bucktown was started and home of three of the band’s five current core members.

Last, but certainly not least is BG, former hometown for Dudding, Papa, and several other members of the band’s unofficial roster and an upcoming stop on the band’s current spring tour.

Bucktown Kickback returns to Grounds For Thought for free concert bringing their patented amalgamation of high-energy bluegrass, alternative-country and rock-and-roll on April 19 at 8 pm.

Joining Dudding, who leads on vocals, rhythm guitar and harmonica, are Papa on electric guitar and lap steel, Jay Donovan on bass, Dave Blankestyn on drums and Adam Schlenker on acoustic guitar, banjo and mandolin.

For those in attendance at their 2007 show at the same venue, it is no surprise what can be expected this time around. Strong, poignant and at times playful lyrics coupled with tight melodies, adventurous instrumental breaks and a penchant for having a good time while doing it.

Celebrating the success of their second album, which currently sits between Gram Parsons and Joni Mitchell on the Americana Music Association’s Radio Airplay Chart, Bucktown Kickback continues to push their sound in new directions while employing their roots as a hybrid alt-country, bluegrass, rock and jam band.

The addition of Papa on electric guitar has rounded out their sound, added a new dimension of classic rock-infused riffs and filled out the band’s overall sound with his trademark chording.

“Tony brings his own element of music and the style that he likes to play,” Dudding said in a recent telephone interview. “He has brought his own thing, but he is also sticking pretty well to the charts. When it is time for him to solo he will definitely put his own spin on it in his own tasteful and educated way.”
While Bucktown Kickback has found a mixed review amongst bluegrass purists for their genre eschewing approach in the past, Dudding said recent tours throughout the heart of bluegrass music country have yielded a new appreciation for their ability to bring so many musical elements to the table in an appealing way.

“A lot of the press that we have been getting has been fairly intelligent press in that they talk about how it is a blend of music,” Dudding said. “We have been playing right in the thick of the Blue Ridge (Mountain) area, and in those parts we have been received extraordinary well.”
-Cole Christiansen

High Country Press

Making the second trip to the High Country, recent WNCW darlings
Bucktown Kickback receives inevitable bluegrass comparisons because of
their instrumental capabilities, Adam Brooks Dudding’s humorous and
sometimes poignant songwriting enables the band to be far more eclectic.
David Brewer - High Country Press

BOOTLEG

Lost highwaymen

Bucktown Kickback mine alt-country gold

February 6, 2008
by Matt Wake - BOOTLEG

Bucktown Kickback was formed five years ago in Columbus, Ohio. According to Singer Adam Brooks Dudding, the multifaceted nature of the Columbus music scene is evident within his own band.

Somebody forgot to tell Adam Brooks Dudding backwards tracks don’t belong on bluegrass albums. There are rules. Purists could be offended.

Dudding — singer, songwriter and creative force behind Bucktown Kickback — produced much of the band’s 2007 disc “Lost In Your Hometown” to sound like prime Appalachia. The record effectively balances roots grit and country rock coherence. However, a pair of musical interludes on “Lost…” point to where the band might head next. On the fourth track, “Slow Train,” acoustic slide work tangles with electric guitar double-stops.

The instrumental transitions the album from a series of alt-country motifs into more ambitious compositions. There’s the aching ambience of “The Space Between,” with its cello flourishes. “Seven Number Blues” is an enlightened redneck tune that sounds like a “Basement Tapes” leftover.

Song 12, “Slow Train II,” reprises the wordless rustle of its predecessor. But this time, the guitars are mixed in the choppy, slurred context of backwards tracking. The studio technique was made famous on songs like Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced” and numerous late-period Beatles numbers.

“I enjoyed creating those soundscapes,” Dudding said. “That piece is supposed to ease the album from one place into another.”

“Lost...” concludes with two pivotal songs: “That’s Life” is a slow burn of honky-tonk molasses. A Neil Young-type rocker, “A Shooting Star,” closes the record. The album finale is also a highlight of Bucktown live shows.

“Shooting Star is set up to go in any direction and sometimes we do, “ Dudding said.

Bucktown recorded “Lost…” in a series of sessions at Tech Art, a private studio in Hilliard, Ohio. The record is not short on tonal color. Lap- and pedal-steel, French horn, accordion and saxophone augment the core instruments — acoustic and electric guitars, upright bass and traps.

But the heart of “Lost…” is Dudding’s songs and lived-in vocals. While the embellishments are tasteful, the material could stand up fine presented by Dudding and his Gibson J-50 acoustic.

The album opener, “Valley,” is a dose of double-time giddy-up. Dobro and harmonica drive the pace. A furious banjo break and hot chicken pickin’ cement the deal.

With its windows for improvisation, “Lost…” is built for the road. Although Dudding is proud of the record, the next Bucktown title is unlikely to be a rehash.

“It might be more focused on the songwriting,” Dudding said regarding a follow-up. “‘Lost In Your Hometown’ has many more open jam sections. The next album might also be more electric.”

Like many rural revivalists, Dudding worships Gram Parsons. Parsons is known for many things — being Keith Richard’s best friend, opening The Stones’ harrowing Altamont gig, overdosing on pills and tequila, and having his stolen corpse burned in the California desert. However music heads idolize Parsons for his palpable songs and cosmic cowboy fusion.

In addition to founding the Flying Burrito Brothers and cutting two remarkable solo albums, Parsons joined The Byrds for a brief period of time. Under Gram’s guidance, The Byrds dropped their jangling folk rock for more of a Southern feel.

“(The Byrds’) ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’ was a very changing album for me,” Dudding said. “Gram brings honesty and raw emotion. Being able to present that night after night…it’s amazing to do that. He was also so instrumental in originating the country rock thing. That’s something a bunch of bands are still trying to pull off, including us.”

As the man that stirs the drink in Bucktown, Dudding insists the rest of the band isn’t hired hands. Indeed, “Lost…” sounds nothing like a solo album. There’s sweat and telepathy involved.

“It’s a tricky thing being a musician and dealing with the delicate emotions that go with it,” Dudding said. “Sometimes everybody feels good about what you’re doing and sometimes everybody does not feel good. These songs wouldn’t sound the way they do without them. Everybody believes they are a big part of the sound being created — which they are. I feel they’ve been really lucky to find me and I feel the same way about them.”

Bucktown Kickback was formed five years ago in Columbus, Ohio. According to Dudding, the multifaceted nature of the Columbus music scene is evident within his own band.

Bass player James Donovan also plays with a Cream-like power trio. Although he’s equally adept at African hand percussion, drummer Dave Blankestyn is a bluegrass beast. Multi-instrumentalist Adam Schlenker adds flat-picking, mandolin and banjo bursts. Schlenker also engineers the band’s albums.

After guitarist Alex Anest departed following the “Lost…” sessions, Dudding brought in Anthony Papa to play lead and lap-steel. A devotee of Jimmy Page and bluesmen like Robert Johnson, Papa plays a Gibson Les Paul through a 1963 Fender Super Reverb. With his vintage gear and classic influences, Papa has pushed live Bucktown shows into more rollicking affairs. The “Lost…” tune “Turn Left Off the Exit” is a perfect vehicle for Papa’s bluesy licks.

“That song is almost Stones-esque and a great way to break up the alternative bluegrass street we usually go down,” Papa said. “With a Gibson, you’re still able to get country tones, but there’s also some blues and rock muscle behind it.”

When it comes time to write the next Bucktown record, Papa hopes his string bending will impact the material.

“I hope to bring a little bit more of a rock energy, an ‘Exile On Main St.’ vibe. But maybe you shouldn’t tell Adam that,” Papa said with a laugh.

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PROGRESSIVE BAND ADDS KICK TO BLUEGRASS
~Grant Britt

They took Bill Monroe's baby and rocked it.

Bucktown Kickback came out of the gate five years ago playing what they call progressive bluegrass.

"Some of the forms of the songs seem to be fairly traditional, but the instrumentation is more progressive," says Adam Dudding , founder and lead vocalist for the Columbus, Ohio-based band.

"My family is from West Virginia," says the 32-year-old Dudding. "My dad and I would listen to bluegrass radio shows Friday and Saturday night."

The singer grew up listening to classic bluegrass performers such as Monroe, The Osbourne Brothers and Ralph Stanley. But when he formed Bucktown Kickback, the instrumentation ruled out being labeled as bluegrass.

The band includes a drummer, who uses a small trap set and sometimes plays a hand drum, as well as an electric guitar player. But the band also incorporates acoustic instruments such as banjo, mandolin, guitar and upright bass.

The result is an eclectic mix of country, bluegrass and rock. "Turn Left Off The Exit," from the band's latest release, "Lost In Your Own Hometown," sounds more like Beatles than bluegrass. "Blackswamp Stomp (One Last Dance)" is laid-back country blues with a grass twinge and a considerable dollop of humor. ["She kept the beat of the bass drum twirled me like chewing gum," Dudding is pursued by a large, enthusiastic dancer: "She was 6-foot-10, 'bout 275/ built like a mountain but danced like a river … when she put her arms around me/my whole body shivered."]

Dudding says the band doesn't mind being called a blend.

"There's times when I feel it's been a little bit of a disservice to the reader when we're listed as just country or just bluegrass," the singer says.

"It's the songwriting that directs what kind of sound gets used."

On its current album as well as "Speakeasy" (2005), the band has done all originals. A few covers get tossed in on live shows, but even the covers get a Bucktown Kickback makeover. A bluegrass-style cover of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a crowd pleaser, as is Hank Williams' "You Win Again." Williams' classic moaner is done as more of a country/folk version.

"It's not as twangy as Hank Sr., but comes from the same sentiment," Dudding says. "There's mandolin all over that song when we do it."

Although the band members come from vastly different backgrounds, Dudding says they're all bluegrass fans.

Multi-instrumentalist Adam Schlenker brings a traditional element with his flat picking and his mandolin technique. Bassist James Donovan is a rocker who also fronts an electric-bass power trio. Drummer David Blankestyn's first percussive love was hand drums and African drumming, but he loves bluegrass, too. Dudding says electric guitarist [Tony Papa] knows all the rock standards but lately has been focusing on Django Reinhardt's gypsy jazz acoustic guitar work, which sometimes crosses over into the bluegrass styles of artists such as David Grisman.

"When you get together with a bunch of musicians from all sorts of different backgrounds and their own catalogue of songs they've listened to over the years, sometimes you're all speaking the same language," Dudding says.

To boost his own musical language skills, when not out on the road with the band, Dudding is working with songwriters in his adopted hometown of Nashville. He's trying to write songs that are new versions of older country-music styles, attempting to bring back some Waylon and Willie…

"It's funny to see the stuff you see and hear when you go out and about in Nashville, the stuff people are calling country these days."

Dudding says that he has ready a dozen songs fit for outlaws.

"We're gonna try to go for that cycle when good old outlaw music comes back into fashion," he says.

That sounds like the voice of reason in any language.

High Country Press 10.4.07 Boone, NC

Americana + Jamgrass + Classic Country = Bucktown Kickback
"...Fans of artists such as The Gourds, Yonder Mountain String Band, the Grateful Dead and Whiskeytown will find plenty to cheer about in the songs and eclectic-but-focused style of Bucktown Kickback...The recipe for Bucktown Kickback sports heavy doses of bluegrass drive and fleet-fingered chops, plenty of tear jerking honky-tonk, a sprinkle of rock swagger and singer-songwriter flair, and Dudding’s love of narrative songwriting and easygoing melodies...Blurring the lines between Americana, jamgrass, honky-tonk and roots rock..."
David Brewer - High Country Press - October 4, 2007

Metro Spirit 10.9.07 Augusta, GA

"With a name like Bucktown Kickback, you may as well not even show up to the venue if you can’t throw down with some good old-fashioned, fiery, oh-mama-that’s-what-I-like roots tunes. Luckily for you, these dudes can do that and more, touching perfectly on everything from country slide blues to creepy, creek-bed-at-night Americana. I dare you to miss this."
By Josh Ruffin, Metro Spirit, Augusta, GA (picks for the week)
Issue 19.11::10/09/2007 – 10/15/2007

CiN Weekly 10.17.07

"Rollicking Good Time Alert! Nashville band Bucktown Kickback adds upbeat bluegrass and country to its laid-back roots music background."

CityBeat

“BTKB slide easily from Bluegrass to Country to a rootsy Americana at the drop of a wide-brimmed hat...The Country palette of the Grateful Dead, the Roots Pop spark of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.”