SESSION AMERICANA

Metroland

All hail Session Americana! I shall go on to detail my praises for this band, but must first thank them for bringing a blistering acoustic version of the Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)" to Caffe Lena last Saturday night.

Sitting in a semicircle around a small cafe table, the six members of Session Americana and their multitude of instruments filled the tiny stage. Their movements, during and between songs, were so sympathetically meshed that no one bumped into anyone else as they passed guitars and mandolins back and forth overhead like one satisfied, many- tentacled creature.

While seated pickers and singers can bring to mind campfire singalongs and hootenannies, banish those comparisons from your mind. These are seasoned veterans of the Boston music scene (and geographic points farther afield): Jim Fitting, Ry Cavanaugh, Dinty Child, Sean Staples, Jon Bistline and Billy Beard. With the exception of drummer Beard, all of them are songwriters (and for all I know he may compose as well, but given that he's the supple and undulating pulse of the band, he needn't do anything else to be appointed King of Session Americana). This ensemble elevate the format by dint of their skills as players. Their own songs, as well as those they cover, are at the center of the endeavor, but they also know how to trust the underlying foundation of the song and turn their attentions to one another, listening and playing off whatever transpires. With them all sitting on chairs, the sight creates a stunning series of surprises as their performances are filled with more pizzazz than many of their standing and leaping brethren.

As is their custom, the band invited a local musician to join their ranks for a couple numbers. Sarah Pedinotti of Railbird took a seat around the table for a song of hers, followed by Tom Waits' "Clap Hands." Regarding the former, its resonant bearing and poetic narrative would have been left more magically intact had it not been preceded by her telling how she came to write it. The song spoke perfectly well for itself. Pedinotti is a talent to watch; she just needs the confidence to not behave like a mother continually combing her child's hair before a school photo is taken.

The only aspect out of place with Session Americana is their name. It conveys an identity that says "project," but this is a band through and through. Their camaraderie and interplay are very real, and there's no shortcut to that: You get together, play for a couple years, and voila: a world-class outfit.

I'd give them 100 miles. That is to say, if they're playing anywhere within 100 miles of your home, you drive there and are grandly rewarded for your effort.

“Love and Dirt” is out now, and the group celebrates the release with a show Thursday at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge.The material cooked up for the Camp Street sessions gets at the overall expanse of “Love and Dirt.” There’s the sinister, lusty blues of Fitting’s “Making Hay,” something his old band Treat Her Right could have cut with Kolderie back in the mid ’80s, and the sweet folk-pop of Child’s “Down to You,” and Cavanaugh’s politico-thriller love song “Barbed Wire” that unfurls like a short story. The ensemble built the other half of the record at Dimension Sound in Boston, and tracks from there mirror the varied approach taken at Camp Street. “Raking Through the Ashes” is a contemplative soul searcher boasting a contemporary edge cut with rustic twang; “Beauty’s in the Eye” is rousing bar rocker; “Easier” has a gentle country lilt; and the proverbial hearth gets stoked with a cover of Amy Correia’s “Love Changes Everything.” “Love and Dirt” rolls away from the old-timey folk that Session Americana cut on its earliest records and performed hootenanny style during its formative years at Toad and Lizard Lounge. But Fitting says it’s all just natural progression. The more Session Americana became a “band” than a concept, the more it wanted its own tunes. “This is just the way it went,” Fitting says. “We needed the live show to have some more kick. And I also felt like writing more.” Fitting notes the many personnel transitions that Session Americana underwent between its last studio release, 2009’s “Diving for Gold,” and “Love and Dirt,” sizing up change as part of the group’s identity and not as a problem. “Now I think we’re a collective, but more comfortable with that concept,” he says. “That’s how we could show up at Camp Street with some songs but no plan and then finish with Matt Malikowski (at Dimension Sound). Its just about feeling comfortable.” So comfortable that in the case of Cavanaugh’s poetic “Easier,” the song was learned in the studio, and arrived minus a bridge. But there’s a balance between not overthinking and keeping things tight. Cavanaugh says that not only having strong writers within the ensemble but also being part of a larger songwriting community maintains high standards for Session Americana. “Words are something we usually don’t work on together, but if something is going too long or not sounding right, we’ll send the writer home with some ideas to think about. That’s the real value of living in this community. We’re all inspired by each other, and we all push each other,” says Cavanaugh, though admits it’s still tough to hear suggestions for revisions. Yet for what Cavanaugh half-jokingly describes as a “terrible process,” Session Americana comes up with some gems, full of folk’s honesty and rock’s urgency. “We wrote more mature material,” says Cavanaugh, when asked about his ode to being married, “Raking Through the Ashes.” “All that angst doesn’t just belong to young love.” “Love and Dirt” conjures its liveliness simply by letting the players roam. “Why not rock?” Cavanaugh asks. “Everyone comes from something different. Jim and Billy are steeped in rock, so just let that work into what we do now.” “Love and Dirt” is certainly a different sounding record from Session Americana’s earlier hoedowns committed to tape, but not in a musically schizophrenic way. Instead, Session Americana has simply been broadening and building its sound, responding to circumstances as much as plotting a destiny.“It’s not a typical blueprint for what works,” Fitting says. “But we enjoy it.”

"Here we go. 1 - 2. 1 - 2 - 3" So starts Down To You the opening track to Love and Dirt the fifth studio album from Boston "all star" band Session Americana. You'd expect no lesser beginning from a session; a traditional start from an assemble of top notch musicians swapping traditional songs and trading licks on old acoustic instruments. Well, that's not exactly what you get on this album. Making Hay, for example, employs a little vocal trickery to good effect adding a little menace to what might otherwise be an amiable shuffle. The atmospherics are cranked up on Easier (and it's preceding Intro). In fact, once you get past Raking Through The Ashes - the albums third track - things take on a bluesy / jazzy direction; not really roots or americana at all. But theirs is a "playfully irreverent take on roots with an edgy experimental side". I'm not too sure if you could call Love and Dirt edgy (I'm actually not sure if any music could be called edgy) but it would be too easy for musicians of this calibre to sit back and conform to a genre specific style, or experiment too much and forget about producing an albums worth of songs worth listening to. Session Americana do things in their own way: they are a class act. - John 'The Jacket' Hawes

Sometimes, the best bands happen by accident. They begin, perhaps, as a side project or impromptu jam session between friends or strangers, where everything suddenly, magically, goes right. And then never stops going right.

Singer-guitarist Ry Cavanaugh pegs not one but two moments when his Cambridge-based outfit, Session Americana, more or less began: The first was a boisterous Camp Street Studio party where ex-Treat Her Right harmonica master Jimmy Fitting sat in with the freewheeling roots outfit the Benders. The second happened soon   after. Cavanaugh and singer-songwriter Jabe Beyer were performing at Toad together and had exhausted their set list by midnight. So Cavanaugh placed three microphones on a nearby table, threw caution to the wind, and started brainstorming tunes with Beyer and the band. The idea for Session Americana, as Cavanaugh put it at the time, was to capture "the vibe of an Irish session but have it be American music, just guys sitting around playing."

That was three years ago, but it might as well have been a lifetime. A musical collective formed around the nucleus of Cavanaugh, Fitting, and four other of the city's busiest, most experienced musicians -- Billy Beard, Dinty Child, Kimon Kirk, and Sean Staples -- swapping musical tunes and tales around a tabletop, Session Americana has become one of the region's most popular guaranteed good times.

What started as a modest Sunday-night residency at Toad, a tiny nightspot in Cambridge's Porter Square, has exploded into a ritual and expanded to dates performing at festivals and showcase gigs throughout New England and New York City. Two years ago, the group grabbed a Boston Music Award as "Best Folk Act" -- although anyone who's seen or heard them knows they're also so much more . ("At the end of the day," says Cavanaugh proudly, "we're a rock band.")

"At the end of that first two-year run playing every Sunday night at Toad, we knew something was going on," says Beard of the quickly multiplying crowds. "It was crazy -- you couldn't get in the place. And it's been like that ever since."

The band has just released its second CD, "Beer Town: The Tabletop Collective, Volume 3," on Cambridge's Hi-N-Dry label, and is at the Lizard Lounge every Tuesday through May. "It's so much fun and so simple and effective," says Cavanaugh of the band's open-ended approach onstage, where anything goes musically. "Sometimes, when you're in a band, you walk out onstage and you strum a chord, and you're already in a [genre] category for people. With us, there's no ego facing outward because we're all facing each other. And we really like our audience -- they have a good time and are all ages, and there are a lot of girls. What more can you ask for?"

Although its eight tracks clock in at just over 30 minutes, "Beer Town" is an eclectic, swinging tour de force that leaves the listener with the same question: What more could one ask for -- except, perhaps, for more terrific tracks such as "A Month of Sundays," a Jayhawks-esque country rock number written by Kirk and dappled with harmonica, mandocello, and field organ. Or their cover of Jimmy Ryan's showpiece ballad, "John Brown," which closes every Session show. Or Child's facetious tribute to the gods and goddesses who bring us the precious amber elixir that inspires the title track.

"We thought that would be a good topic," says Cavanaugh with a laugh. "We kind of wanted to carve this record out as not a follow-up to the family-oriented record [the double-disc 'Tabletop People Vol. 1 & Vol. 2'] that we made before. I figured that with 'Beer Town,' you probably wouldn't have too many parents of young children picking that up to put in the car. Although my 3-year-old son absolutely loves the song 'Beer Town' and sings it perpetually."

During the sessions for "Beer Town," the band had also been recording with singer-songwriter Rose Polenzani (who also appears as a guest on the new album) at Hi-N-Dry, the label's loft space-cum-recording studio that once belonged to late Morphine leader Mark Sandman. Electric guitars happened to be the order of the day, so instead of reconfiguring the room, Session Americana went with what was there. That embrace of the unknown and free-spirited sense of adventure is, Cavanaugh believes, Session Americana's greatest asset.

"I think that's the great strength of the band -- that you can do whatever you want with it," he says. Cavanaugh offers one caveat, however. "But you gotta keep the table. You're stuck with that."

Table Top People is not a typical album. It is a work of love for the core members of the Session Americana project, Billy Beard, Ry Cavanaugh, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting, Kimon Kirk, and Sean Staples. The Session Americana project is based on a simple concept — a bunch of musicians sit in a circle and play together.

They take turns working out the arrangements for the mix of standards and obscure original songs that they play. The core group is joined by an array of talented musicians, both live and in the studio, but always in a circle. This gives the music an open, inviting feel. With brushes on a snare and an upright bass, the music has a down home feel to it. Lap steel and harmonica, trombone and mandolin, it’s all in there. This is a family friendly album.

Some of the songs seem to be there just for the kids, running around in the backyard at a barbecue on a Saturday afternoon. You’ll be singing along with these discs before you even know it. “Food Opera” will find itself flying from your mouth the next time a sad little kid needs you to belt out a melody. You don’t even have to sing the exact words that are there; it’s the melody that’s so catchy. And if that doesn’t work, their version of Jonathan Richman’s “Party in the Woods” will put a smile on even the most flustered wee one. This is by no means strictly a kid’s album, though.

The music is intelligent and fun. It swings and shuffles; it is thoughtful and whimsical at the same time. This is music you’ll want to put in when guests are coming over. You’ll probably listen to it while you clean the house on Sunday afternoon. Turn it up and grab a dance partner; you’ll find yourself prancing around the house or swinging in the yard instantly.

"Having had the wonderful privilege of sitting in at the Connemara FM ‘Arts on Air’ interview with Session Americana on Thursday morning, it was obvious that this was one of the must-see acts in a festival chock-full of them. The atmosphere in the crowded studio was infectious, with interviewer Paul Phelan’s acrobatics (lying backwards on the floor, head on a piece of equipment, microphone suspended above) delighting the band. You could tell these people like to have fun. And while the session in the studio was outstanding, I couldn’t wait for the gig at Mullarkey’s that night. I’d missed their gig at the Alcock and Brown the night before, instead attending the very interesting Invoke, which unfortunately ended rather abruptly. A bit too noisy for a Wednesday, apparently. No way was I missing out seeing the Americanas this time, though. Arriving just as the gig was beginning, I spot a table with three of my good friends, briefly say hi to the wonderful Kate O’Callaghan (the support act), and settle in for what I know is going to be a fantastic night of music. 17_americanasExactly what it says on the tin, the group play around a small table (specially fitted with mics underneath), switching seats and instruments regularly and playing in the style that has come to be known as Americana. But it’s by no means mellow – it comes fast and furious. I try to take notes but can barely keep up, especially on what I simply jotted down as ‘The Booze Song’, one of the greatest celebrations of drinking I’ve ever heard, in which they pause in the middle to pay musical tribute to everyone involved in the making and distributing of alcohol, including the waitress thinking about her final exams. At a certain point in the night, a spontaneous line dance erupts in the audience, increasing the energy of all in the room. The support act mentioned earlier actually plays in the middle of the gig, and are what I jokingly referred to as ‘The Kate and Seamus Show’. Kate O’Callaghan and Seamus Devaney have to win the award for cutest couple of the festival. They seemed to be everywhere and they just radiate passion and love. Excellent musicians, and sad that this is their last gig of the festival, they play a few tunes together, then the Session join in as Kate and Seamus finish up. The second set begins like an explosion, a cajun-infused number belted out by fiddle player Laura Cortese. It continues on in this vein, with one of the final songs being a tribute to Ireland – ‘Blame it on The Fuckin Irish, The Country of Love’. I know exactly what they mean – and it’s a great finish to the night and sums up the festival perfectly." 

“Tabletop People” (2 CD set) by Session Americana (Hi-N-Dry)—This group is a loose collaboration of top-notched musicians living in the Boston area.  According to the liner notes “Generally, each song (for the CD) had a leader or singer who came in with an arrangement and taught it to the band… (A)fter a couple times through the tune, an arrangement became apparent and the song developed into what you hear on the CD.”  Essentially, “Tabletop People” was recorded live in the studio—but the unbelievable talent of the performers lends a polish unexpected in a live CD.  Many of the songs are public domain, but included is Jonathan Richman’s “Party in the Woods” led by former Richman side-guy Asa Brebner.  Timeless, childlike, way cool.  Laurie Sargent’s “Food Opera,” though, is worth the entire cost of the CD—screamingly funny and impressive vocally. Laurie sings so high you just know she’s going to miss the note! (She doesn’t.)  “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” sung sweet and sexy by Merrie Amsterberg should be required listening in kindergartens across the world, and in corporate boardrooms, the White House, the United Nations—everywhere!  I could go on and on about this remarkable CD, which some might mistakenly believe is a kids’ record.  It’s not.  This one gets our highest rating: 4 big monster bottle caps.  Session Americana is further proof that, despite keen competition from Austin, Boston remains the cultural center of the universe.  By the way, we recently did a show with Session Americana at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, MA.  Fab!

For those of you who saw Jeffrey Foucault earlier this year you will have remembered the wonderful Ry Cavanaugh who accompanied him on those shows. Ry’s charm and wit, not to mention endless supply of great songs (both his and other people’s) was there for everyone to see and provided a real different approach to the standard singer-songwriter live show. We are therefore delighted to announce that Cavanaugh is back in the UK and Ireland at the end of September with his truly special musical collective, Session Americana, who also feature the incredible talents on Jefferson Hamer, Laura Cortese, Billy Beard, Dinty Child and Kimon Kirk amongst a revolving cast. Session Americana are a band/collective from Boston (USA) that thrive on spontaneity and relish the live arena. The format of the show is roughly based on the traditional Irish Session and the band carries its own microphone adapted table, a suitcase drum kit and an assortment of quirky instruments. The repertoire is primarily based around original material by all the band’s writers and singers, but the group blends in songs from across the spectrum of pop music from American Country to Irish Folk to straight Pop – It is not a “hay-bale and suspenders” group and the sound, though rooted very deeply in Americana, is artful and contemporary. Session Americana’s latest album, “Love and Dirt” is being released by Continental Records Services on October 1st after already garnering amazing reviews in the US where the band have developed both a loyal and hugely supportive fan base. The Boston Globe says “(Love and Dirt is) a contemplative soul searcher boasting a contemporary edge cut with rustic twang; Session Americana comes up with some gems, full of folk’s honesty and rock’s urgency.” Boston Business Journal named “Love and Dirt” one of Boston’s top 40 pop/rock albums ever.”

Love And Dirt is weer zo’n album dat in ons land veel later uitkomt dan in de VS, daar was de release al september 2012. Session Americana komt uit Boston, de leden noemen zich op de website een ‘rock band in a tea cup, or possibly a folk band in a whiskey bottle’. Een mooie omschrijving, want de band is inderdaad wat te ‘soft’ voor de rock en te ‘ruig’ voor de folk. En toch, helemaal in het midden zitten ze ook niet. De ene keer gaat het meer naar de rock, de andere keer naar de folk, dat verschilt per nummer. Het woord ‘band’ is al gevallen, toch gaat het meer om een collectief van ervaren muzikanten, die samen heel veel plezier lijken te hebben in het samen maken van americana. Dat heeft inmiddels geresulteerd in een handvol studioalbums, waarvan Love And Dirt de laatste vinger vormt. Het is gemaakt door de 5 muzikanten van het collectief, samen met 7 gastmuzikanten. Het album bestaat uit 9 nummers en een intro. De nummers zijn op 1 na allemaal eigen nummers. Die ene cover is een mooie versie van Love Changes Everything, van Amy Correia. Als gezegd, de muziek op het album bewandelt het brede spectrum van americanamuziek. Het begint met het mooie, folky Down To You (met fijne mondharmonica en prachtige samenzang), maar het heeft met de midtempo nummers The Rattle And Clatter en Beauty’s In The Eye ook een lekkere Bluesy sound. Een instrument dat een belangrijke rol heeft, is de mondharmonica. Op een erg mooie manier, aanwezig, maar in dienst van de muziek. Het zorgt regelmatig voor een zweem van melancholie, die goed past bij de invallende herfst. Mooi voorbeeld van een nummer met die sfeer is Raking Through The Ashes (onder de tracklisting vind je een liveversie van dit nummer). En nu het toch over instrumenten gaat, de slidegitaar op Love Changes Everything klinkt toch ook wel erg mooi. En die mandocello (grote broer van de mandoline) mag ook niet onbenoemd blijven. Met al deze ingrediënten is de muziek op Love And Dirt is geschikt voor zowel de aandachtige luisteraar als voor degene die een lekker muziekje op de achtergrond wil. Session Americana toert op dit moment door Engeland en Ierland. De kans is groot dat ze daar veel applaus krijgen. De muziek die ze maken past erg bij die landen, bij de cultuur van gezellige pubs met livemuziek. De muziek heeft naast een lekker laid-back gevoel ook een grote puurheid. Het heeft een kracht van eenvoud en puurheid. Het beste woord om de muziek te omschrijven is misschien wel ‘aangenaam’. De productie van Love And Dirt was in handen van Paul Kolderie, die eerder werkte met namen als Warren Zevon, Pixies, Radiohead, Hole, Dinosaur Jr. en Throwing Muses. Niet bepaald te vergelijken met Session Americana, wat dus vooral het brede vakmanschap van Kolderie aangeeft. Het hoesje van het album ziet niet bepaald uitnodigend uit. Het is een ouderwetse jewelcase, met een eenvoudig dubbelgevouwen velletje erin met wat foto’s, maar zonder bijvoorbeeld de teksten. En ja, uiteindelijk gaat het zeker om het oor, maar het oog wil ook wat. Zoals het er nu uitziet, zou je er maar zo aan voorbij lopen. En juist dat zou zonde zijn. Love And Dirt is namelijk een erg mooi album geworden!

PENNY BLACK UK

For their latest album ‘North East’, the collective of musicians that has already released almost a dozen albums under the name Session Americana has expanded from its usual core of five or six members to eighteen artists contributing to the eleven non-original songs on offer.

To quote the sleeve notes “here the band interprets an array of voices from the Northeast region of the country” and a look down the list of songs will raise many an eyebrow. There are the collective's take on songs written by James Taylor (no great surprise), the wonderful Bill Morrissey (again no real shock), Donna Summer (what?) and Jonathan Richman to name just a handful. So, a diverse set of songwriters having some of their not so obvious songs given the Session Americana treatment is a recipe for success as the results prove.

It appears that ‘North East’ is available on an eleven-track CD and the dreaded digital download that adds three extra tracks. As one of these extra tracks is Carly Simon’s ‘Coming Around Again’, this is the first time ever I think I’d prefer to listen an album streaming through a computer. But I’m missing out on that so we’ll concentrate on the CD.

There’s not a mis-step on the album. While looking down the track list there are a number of songs that while you can’t wait to hear how the collective have worked their magic on, there are others that you think are just not going to work. But they do. Brilliantly. But first mention must go to one of the standouts, one that we just knew the collective would make their own. Patty Griffin’s ‘Goodbye’ is worth the price of entry alone. While in the writer’s hands the backing went some way to offset the sadness in the lyrics, here the longing and hurt in Jennifer Kimball’s voice is heartbreaking, while the music subtly weeping behind her just highlights the pain in her voice. Such is the quality and inspired arrangements of every track here that it’s difficult to pull out just one song for special attention, but Kimball and all concerned have turned this song into an instant classic. It’s an amazing performance from all concerned.

The Everyday Visual's ‘Driving’ shares an almost whispered vocal with the original and the arrangement is similar, but it here displays even more poignancy than writer Christopher Pappas' performance. Both versions create a beautifully chilling atmosphere, but Session Americana have had a decade of listening to the song and the knowledge of what has happened since the original recording and they utilise this to make the song sound even more contemporary. It’s another outstanding, affecting performance.

As for covering Bill Morrissey, up until now unless it was Mark Erelli interpreting the much-missed Morrissey’s work it would be given a wide berth,. There simply wasn’t anyone else who could add anything to perfection, but Session Americana’s take on ‘You’ll Never Get to Heaven’, even shorn of Morrissey’s distinctive vocals which were a major part of the attraction, is a little gem. Zac Trojano doesn’t try to emulate Morrissey’s vocals in any way and in doing so makes the song even more melancholic. The lack of brass and a more country setting actually suit the song.

Of the unexpected tracks, Donna Summer’s ‘Dim All the Lights’ is another standout. The opening section always ranked as one of Summer’s most soulful performances, although the song, once it reverted into usual Summer disco territory lost some of its power, it now sounds very much of its time. I have to confess that I can’t put my finger on the lead singer on this version, but, despite the band keeping the disco influence to a thankfully minimum, it would still fill a dance floor while the vocalist gives Summer a run for her money when it comes to a soulful performance.

Jonathan Richman’s ‘Roadrunner’ adds a country-blues flavour but none of the urgency of the Modern Lovers' cut is lost. In fact, this is the sound of a band enjoying every second of covering this classic in their own way. There’s also a country influence seeping through the collective’s version of the Pixies’ ‘Here Comes Your Man’, again with the band's obvious joy of playing this song shining through.

For once listening to these interpretations doesn’t urge the listener to search out the old familiar versions, but you find that you’re listening with new ears to a bunch of musicians who obviously enjoyed adding their own twist to these well-known songs. As a project, I think Session Americana can consider 'North East' a success.

“The band started out as a kind of a lark,” says Ry Cavanaugh, singer/guitarist/ringleader of SESSION AMERICANA. “A fun thing to do at Toad on a Sunday night. I was modeling it after Irish sessions — guys sitting around a table in a pub playing fiddle music. We thought it’d be fun to do a country-music/rock version of that, and it grew until it became more of a band.” The line-up, which has included special guests, has a core of six players, all of whom sing and sit around a real table. Dinty Child is usually the man on the field, or pump organ. Sean Staples plays mandolin. Jim Fitting handles the harmonica. Kimon Kirk plays an old electric bass. And drummer Billy Beard bangs on a “suitcase” kit. Although it started as a live thing, Session Americana now have a CD, and release parties planned for March 8 and 9 at the Lizard Lounge. It’s actually their second release; their first CD was a double that will be split in two for its next pressing this summer. The only songs on Vol. 3 written by band members are Child’s rollicking “Beer Town” and Kirk’s “A Month of Sundays.” Cavanaugh’s late father, a New York musician, wrote the closer, “Trinity.” The jaunty but edgy country tune, “Born Again,” was written by the late Mark Sandman — and played live, but not recorded, by Morphine. “The focus is certainly community,” says Cavanaugh. “We have a feeling about what’s fun and what works. We’re not gonna sweat the rules too much. This band has been a reaction to two things: one, this artistic austerity that seems to have taken over the world of pop music, and two, the political climate is so weird. This is really American music on the fringes of the mainstream.” 

MAXIMUM VOLUME

Session Americana is a Boston-based Folk / Rock band / collective. harmonizing on old blues tunes, classic Americana songs, oddball covers, and primarily original numbers written by the group members and their friends. The current line up comprises Dinty Child, Jimmy Fitting, Billy Beard, Ry Cavanaugh and Jon Bistline. Their latest album `North East` is an exploration of popular and folk music from the North Eastern United States as filtered through the many tastes and voices of the Session Americana community. For the project they asked friends and collaborators from their home region to bring in great songs with New England roots, without guidelines as to era or genre. 

We are eased into the album with `Riding On A Railroad` and it`s a cover that really echoes the 1971 release from legendary singer-songwriter and Massachusetts`s son James Taylor. 

If you close your eyes, you could almost mistake Ry Cavanaugh`s vocals for the original. There are some delightful harmonies from Kris Delmhorst and the song is given some real depth with Duke Levine`s Dobro steel, Jason Anick`s violin splashes and Jimmy Fitting`s Harmonica. Zac Trojano takes the lead on the late New Hampshire Bill Morrissey’s ‘You’ll Never Get to Heaven’ and adds another dimension to this melancholic ode to a place that has fallen on hard times. There is a real feel of the desolation left behind. 

When I saw `Here Comes Your Man`, I thought not the Pixies song but yes, the very one. I love the original, so I was pleasantly surprised by this stripped-down version of these Boston stalwart`s classic. Jimmy Fitting`s vocal is ably complemented by Kris Delmhorst`s piano keys and Ry Cavanaugh`s banjo tinkling’s.

`You Go Your Way` is a song penned by Amy Correia who was born in Lakeville. There are some similarities to the original, but it has a very Dr John feel at times, and I have to say Rose Polenzani`s vocals are sublime. I was stunned by Ali McGuirk`s voice on `The Night` penned by alternative rock band Morphine`s late frontman Mark J. Sandman who was born in Newton, MA. It`s a complete contrast to Sandman`s distinctive baritone but my god, her delivery is really heart breaking. It will leave you, emotionally with a lump in your throat. 

`Trip Around The Sun` written by Al Anderson, Sharon Vaughn and Stephen Bruton was   recorded by Jimmy Buffet and Martina McBride and charted on the Billboard Hot Country Singles in 2004. Merrie Amsterburg takes the lead and gives us another poignant offering which is really fleshed out with the addition of Duke Levine`s mandola, Isa Burke`s violin and Peter Linton`s electric guitar.

It was as much a surprise to find a Donna Summer cover as to find out that she came from Boston. `Dim All the Lights` was written and was a great success for Summer. It`s obviously very different with John Powhida taking the lead but it still remains such a powerful ballad and   is certainly enhanced with some superb mandolin and harmonica shades. I have to say that I was a big fan of Jonathan Richman, so it was good to see a version of `Roadrunner` Dinty Child leads on this countryfied version with some nice harmonica and banjo throughout and everybody joining in towards the end.

Jennifer Kimball really makes Patty Griffin’s `Goodbye` her own. It`s a slowed down version with some superb steel guitar and understated percussion that allows her to covey the sentiment expressed in the lyrics of this song. A moving story of coming to terms with a loss even after a prolonged period.

I have to admit I’d never heard of Christopher Pappas, frontman of The Everyday Visuals or his song `Driving` but having now heard both I feel blessed. They are pretty close in sound and feel. Jon Bistline`s voice is similar and has that fragile feel that has the right balance for this tune.  

Billy Beard takes the lead on the final track `Merrimack County` a song written by Tom Rush and Trevor Veitch. Tom Rush was born in Portsmouth New Hampshire and the song relates to the County which is in its borders. It has a real, what I’d call Steve Earle feel to it. 

This is a perfect introduction to this band and also introduced me to songs that I’d forgotten or that were on the edge of my radar. The core of the group are multi instrumentalists and have encouraged some gifted musician friends to guest on this wonderful offering. This album is a great place to start before exploring their back catalogue.      

Rating 9/10  

You sneak up on Session Americana. Oh, not literally, as you can discover them in an ever-widening circle of clubs and festivals, three studio records and one live set, and on a new, as-yet-untitled 10-song release due this spring (listen to early mixes of "Easier " and "Goldmine" below). But, after nearly ten years, Session Americana still feels stumbled-upon: every show seems a welcome surprise, not least to them. Find them and you happen upon a long-running song swap among old friends, veteran musicians facing each other over a round bar table, exchanging instruments as quickly as quips.

The sensation of sneaking up on Session Americana was heightened by a recent stop at Brooklyn Rod and Gun. Ostensibly a private club devoted to outdoor pursuits, Rod and Gun's unmarked door opens to a close-enough replica of your parent's rec room in the 70s, complete with fishing maps, old books and mags, and a record player on the shelf. At the end of a long communal table, Session Americana gathered around a round cocktail table, a suitcase-based drum set nestled close by one side, a pump organ by the other.

That table is central to the story. After a 2003 set at Toad in Cambridge, MA, drummer and musical ringmaster Billy Beard, guitarist Ry Cavanaugh and friends broke down the stage to await what turned out to be a no-show acoustic set. Ry had an idea. Out came acoustic guitars and favorite songs. The audience drifted back in and stayed. "I took a pair of brushes, played against the wall, and we just started playing whatever songs came to mind," Beard told me. "Country tunes, pop tunes, originals, whatever. The bar was transformed into one of the most intimate musical experiences I ever had. People sitting at the bar turned around to sit on the bar, people in the back of the room moved forward and surrounded our group, nearly on top of us." The Session was replicated to growing acclaim. Word got out that some of Boston's favorite musicians - former members of Treat Her Right, Face to Face, The The, Resophonics, Patty Griffin's band - were hanging out and playing every Sunday night. It soon moved to larger quarters. The founding table has been replicated with ambient mics added for the acoustic instruments. A vocal mic gets pushed back forth. The table focuses the experience and it always comes with.

As at most Session shows, the core group at Rod and Gun - Beard (drums/vocals), Kimon Kirk (bass/vocals), Cavanaugh (guitar, mandocello, vocals), Jim Fitting (harmonica/vocals) and Dinty Child (fiddle, banjo, guitar, accordion, keyboards, vocals) - was augmented by friends and fellow travelers; for the two-night stand at Rod and Gun, semi-regular-Sessioneer Jimmy Ryan joined the circle on mandolin, and guitarist Mark Spencer (Son Volt, Laura Cantrell), Aoife O'Donovan (Crooked Still) and Anais Mitchell came by, too. 

The four new songs I've heard (especially Cavanaugh's "Easier") test the limits of the "Americana" half of the group's name. While, together and individually, these guys have long used the material of traditional American song, for just as long they've put it to decidedly non-traditional use. Just as an Irish seisiun cloaks virtuosity with hearty informality, the anything-could-happen feel of a Session show depends on craft that's not accidental or easily-won. For example, Fitting's harmonica is the engine of many Session songs, and while that humble mouth organ can too often be an easy grace note that signifies "blues" or "backwoods," here it lends real emotional depth as well as occasional humor. I listen to Session Americana with the same attention as Shearwater or The Low Anthem: the inspiration of past tradition given fresh interpretation.

Session Americana will be back at Rod and Gun on April 6; LA and the Pacific Northwest will get a visit the first two weeks of May. In the meantime, let the new songs below sneak up on you (and I've made a four-song Spotify playlist (Session Americana) from their last release, Diving for Gold - it includes another Ry Cavanaugh song, "You and Me," heartworn and somehow uplifting. I recently find myself playing it several times a day).

A friend who hosts a radio show in Melbourne, Australia often plays songs by Session Americana, a loose collective of Boston (USA) musicians, and if Colin is giving them air time then they must be worth checking out! I was therefore delighted to see that they were touring the UK and Ireland and caught them at London’s Green Note. This is an intimate room with a tiny stage in one corner and a bar at the opposite end of the room. However, walking in tonight, the stage was occupied by a foursome sitting at a table enjoying some pre-show refreshment and the set up for the band had been moved to the centre of the floor… I quickly spotted a free table, whose two seats practically abutted the chairs set up for the musicians but what the heck, I like live music up close and personal, so ‘parked’ myself there. Session Americana typically sit around one diaphragm microphone perched atop a small round table; they each take turns at lead vocals, they swap the assortment of instruments they play and they change places with each other. Yes, there is spontaneity about them yet there is fluidity and grace in the manner of their collaboration. Over the years various musicians have ‘sat at the Session Americana table’ and tonight we were in the fine company of Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Beard, Dinty Child, Kimon Kirk, Laura Cortese and Jefferson Hamer who variously employed acoustic guitar, drums, pump organ, bass, fiddle, mandocello… maybe more? Over the course of two sets they gave us original material and some carefully chosen cover songs; they sang, they played, they laughed, they enjoyed performing together in this delightful space stretching the definition of ‘Americana’ to include an old Appalachian fiddle tune - Greasy Coat, a Shaker song - Lay Me Low, country music through a Charlie Louvin song as well as trying out a Van Morrison song Brand New Day which they had only been practising the night before as they partied on the houseboat they’ve rented for part of this UK tour. The first set closed out with Raking Through The Ashes from their new album LOVE AND DIRT which the prestigious Boston Globe newspaper described as ‘a contemplative soul searcher boasting a contemporary edge, cut with rustic twang’. A longish interval followed and then Hamer played one song solo (his voice reminds me of the best of the country rockers from 1970’s California) before being joined by Cortese after which the others took their seats. Throughout, the blend of material and the way they played captured the essence of a typical pub session that the Irish in particular are renown for. Concluding the second set with a sing along, we all joined in happily as they started playing the Band’s The Shape I’m In. However that wasn’t the end – a request to Hamer for them to perform Gram Parsons’ Return of the Grievous Angel was met and then…they asked Patrick Murdoch (Chrissie Hynde’s touring guitarist) who was standing by the bar if he’d like to join them – he would - and they brought the night to a close with one of (to me anyway) Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s lesser known songs Another Night With The Boys. What a fun evening! They’d go down a storm at our summer (folk) festivals and I hope that more bookings flow their way. They’re now in Ireland where they have played in the past and are no doubt creating and enjoying the craic! Wish I was there! 

A cocktail table provides the key to understanding Session Americana. It is so much a part of the band’s experience that they typically travel with it when they tour. The table is a centerpiece, of sorts, around which the musicians gather. Sitting there, they often swap as many jokes as they do instruments and songs. And that is the magic of Session Americana. With multiple singer-songwriters in the band one would expect a diverse array of songs on their latest release. They don’t disappoint from that perspective, all the while maintaining a cohesive feel across the song collection. No doubt, this consistency is the direct result of the time spent sitting around that table and singing. Harmonica player extraordinaire Jim Fitting shines with his Dr. John style vocals. “Beauty’s in the Eye” has an uplifting quality to it, building musically as Fitting half speaks and half sings with a jovial rasp. “I was blind and I couldn’t find all the beauty that was before me,” his confides before pronouncing, “love shook me, knocked me to my knees, called me a fool and made me see that she was fine.” Fitting’s “So Far From Your Door” has a comfortable feel that matches the tenderness of its subject matter. The band croons along with Fitting as he sings, “When the years go tumbling ‘cross the floor, off her shelf where they slept in a jar, when you hear a voice from long ago asking ‘why do you have to go so far from my door.’” “And you wonder how did I get so far from her door.” Ry Cavanaugh spins a tale of love and political extremism set in Ireland on “Barbed Wire.” “This love is not a white rose, this love is not a pink heart, this love is a barbed wire,” he declares against an acoustic pop melody with Irish and Americana overtones. Cavanaugh’s gentle “Raking Through The Ashes” has a brilliant musical conceit, describing the quest to rekindle a failed love with the ashes left in an extinguished fire.

'If all we have are embers, surely that’s enough, but if all we have are memories, that’s the end of our love. Raking through the ashes from the night before, raking through the ashes trying to light a fire once more.'

Dinty Child’s “Gold Mine” is a dark acoustic blues song punctuated by Fitting’s harmonica. “I was looking for diamonds in a coal mine,” sings Child, reflecting on a life of fruitless searching. In addition to their own songs, the group continues their tradition of championing New England songwriters. Love and Dirt opens with an inspired performance of Amy Correia’s radiant “Love Changes Everything.” Each of the group’s primary singers take a verse as the song builds, ultimately joining their voices together in beautiful harmony.