A couple of dozen manila folders are scattered on the kitchen table of an old Boston Queen Anne Victorian – a song title on the cover of each file with a pile of lyrics stuffed inside. The coffee machine is coughing out its brew as the first risers climb out of all the corners of the house. For the past couple of days, and on and off for the past few weeks, this house has been a round-the-clock workspace for Session Americana. There is cold ash in the fireplace in the living room where the group has set up its makeshift studio, but the recording gear is still on and the computer monitor displays the evidence of some late night editing that lead to late morning reflection: “Did we get it?”
Great Shakes, the new album from Session Americana with Jefferson Hamer, makes a bold statement for the Boston-area collective that has been playing together since 2003. Whereas previous albums have harnessed the sprawling familial energy of the group, Great Shakes is a focused reflection of a six-piece version of the band that has been playing together sporadically for the past few years: Billy Beard (drums), Ry Cavanaugh (guitar), Kimon Kirk (bass), Jim Fitting (harmonica), Dinty Child (multi-instrumentalist), and Jefferson Hamer (guitar). The product, scheduled for release in September 2016, feels more like the birth of a band than the seventh record of a collective.
Session Americana (Boston) is a rock band in a tea cup, or possibly a folk band in a whiskey bottle. The anything-could-happen feel of a Session show depends on craft that’s not accidental or easily won; they bring a kind of ease and genuineness to this timeless music, sometimes presenting the latest batch of original songs, sometimes reaching back into depths of the American “song bag”.
Notable dates
