SPUYTEN DUYVIL
''TEMPTATION''
2013
33:48
1. I'll Fly Away/3:23
2. Here and Hereafter/3:15
3. Honey On My Grave/3:54
4. The Window/3:12
5. Temptation/3:04
6. Bitter/4:17
7. Old Abram/3:27
8. Scratch/2:33
9. Honey Whiskey/3:23
10. Everything I Am (feat. Dena Miller)/3:32
REVIEW
By New York Music Daily
Hudson Valley Americana band Spuyten Duyvil (“spitting devil” in Dutch) play an exuberantly original take on classic Americana that draws on influences from the 70s on forward, from outlaw country to newgrass to folk-pop. All but two of the songs on their new album, Temptation, are originals. They’ve got a sense of humor, sizzling instrumental chops and catchy tunes.
The album’s opening track, I’ll Fly Away gets an exuberant revival-camp workout, with a spiraling bluesy harmonica solo by James Meigs, winningly melismatic vocals from frontwoman Beth Jamie Kaufman and some high-voltage contrapuntal harmonies as it winds up on a high note. The album’s other cover, Red Molly‘s surreal, bitingly aphoristic Honey on My Grave pulses along on a catchy garage-rock riff, with a raw, bluesy Efrat Shapira violin solo, Rik Mercaldi’s lapsteel smoldering behind it. The first of the band’s tunes, Here & Hereafter draws a wry barroom scenario as it bounces along, a Lowell George-ish rock tune done oldtimey style.
The ballad The Window features a tasty interweave of guitar, bouzouki and banjo. One of the guys sings the scampering, shuffling title track: “Watching you walk’s like watching the last train leaving the station tonight: switchman sleeping, engineer’s been drinking, trust the lord, turn out the light.” They follow that with a couple of southern gothic-tinged numbers. Mercaldi’s lingering, jangly, guitar electric blues guitar drives Bitter, while the brooding banjo tune Old Abram reminds of New York’s excellent, creepy Bobtown, no surprise since that band’s Katherine Etzel sings the backing vocals, which may be the best on the whole album.
They pick up the pace with Scratch, a drolly vaudevillian oldtimey swing tune in the same vein as the Wiyos before that band went into psychedelic rock. Honey Whiskey reaches for a coyly amusing, Amy Allison-esque countrypolitan bittersweetness. The last track, Everything I Am, sounds suspiciously like it had a past life as would-be autotune pop song. You want eclectic?
OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
THE STORY SO FAR
"They're a mighty eight-piece powerhouse...Lead vocals are handled with guts and power by Beth Kaufman, who has a clear, gospel-tinged voice...Miller's songwriting is fantastic, too, channeling straight honky-tonk country one minute and drug-addled mystical blues the next...All the playing is hot." - Stephen D. Winick, Folklorist, Music Critic, Editor, The Huffington Post 4/5/2013
"Raucous Roots...a tantalizing taste of the changes afoot at Caramoor" - Phillip Lutz, The New York Times 3/29/2013
Hailing from the Hudson Valley, Spuyten Duyvil's (pronounced: "Spite + n Dive + l") soaring vocals, traditional jug band energy, slide guitar, incendiary fiddle and Chicago-style blues harp propel the listener on a barn-burning romp through the last 100 years of American Roots music.
Recent stops on the journey that began on a front porch with a Bouzouki and copy of Rise Up Singing include the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival, The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Mad. Sq. Park, The Turning Point, Caffe Lena, Rockwood Music Hall Stage II, and Musikfest.
Listening to this joyous seven piece band for the first time is like throwing a cherry bomb into a lake. It wakes you up. Their 2011 release, "New Amsterdam" was a DJ favorite receiving enthusiastic airplay on over 165 stations in 5 countries and a “Top American Roots Album 2011” nomination from The Alternate Root TV. The band highly anticipated follow up, "Temptation" is schedule for release in October of 2013.
''TEMPTATION''
2013
33:48
1. I'll Fly Away/3:23
2. Here and Hereafter/3:15
3. Honey On My Grave/3:54
4. The Window/3:12
5. Temptation/3:04
6. Bitter/4:17
7. Old Abram/3:27
8. Scratch/2:33
9. Honey Whiskey/3:23
10. Everything I Am (feat. Dena Miller)/3:32
REVIEW
By New York Music Daily
Hudson Valley Americana band Spuyten Duyvil (“spitting devil” in Dutch) play an exuberantly original take on classic Americana that draws on influences from the 70s on forward, from outlaw country to newgrass to folk-pop. All but two of the songs on their new album, Temptation, are originals. They’ve got a sense of humor, sizzling instrumental chops and catchy tunes.
The album’s opening track, I’ll Fly Away gets an exuberant revival-camp workout, with a spiraling bluesy harmonica solo by James Meigs, winningly melismatic vocals from frontwoman Beth Jamie Kaufman and some high-voltage contrapuntal harmonies as it winds up on a high note. The album’s other cover, Red Molly‘s surreal, bitingly aphoristic Honey on My Grave pulses along on a catchy garage-rock riff, with a raw, bluesy Efrat Shapira violin solo, Rik Mercaldi’s lapsteel smoldering behind it. The first of the band’s tunes, Here & Hereafter draws a wry barroom scenario as it bounces along, a Lowell George-ish rock tune done oldtimey style.
The ballad The Window features a tasty interweave of guitar, bouzouki and banjo. One of the guys sings the scampering, shuffling title track: “Watching you walk’s like watching the last train leaving the station tonight: switchman sleeping, engineer’s been drinking, trust the lord, turn out the light.” They follow that with a couple of southern gothic-tinged numbers. Mercaldi’s lingering, jangly, guitar electric blues guitar drives Bitter, while the brooding banjo tune Old Abram reminds of New York’s excellent, creepy Bobtown, no surprise since that band’s Katherine Etzel sings the backing vocals, which may be the best on the whole album.
They pick up the pace with Scratch, a drolly vaudevillian oldtimey swing tune in the same vein as the Wiyos before that band went into psychedelic rock. Honey Whiskey reaches for a coyly amusing, Amy Allison-esque countrypolitan bittersweetness. The last track, Everything I Am, sounds suspiciously like it had a past life as would-be autotune pop song. You want eclectic?
OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
THE STORY SO FAR
"They're a mighty eight-piece powerhouse...Lead vocals are handled with guts and power by Beth Kaufman, who has a clear, gospel-tinged voice...Miller's songwriting is fantastic, too, channeling straight honky-tonk country one minute and drug-addled mystical blues the next...All the playing is hot." - Stephen D. Winick, Folklorist, Music Critic, Editor, The Huffington Post 4/5/2013
"Raucous Roots...a tantalizing taste of the changes afoot at Caramoor" - Phillip Lutz, The New York Times 3/29/2013
Hailing from the Hudson Valley, Spuyten Duyvil's (pronounced: "Spite + n Dive + l") soaring vocals, traditional jug band energy, slide guitar, incendiary fiddle and Chicago-style blues harp propel the listener on a barn-burning romp through the last 100 years of American Roots music.
Recent stops on the journey that began on a front porch with a Bouzouki and copy of Rise Up Singing include the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival, The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Mad. Sq. Park, The Turning Point, Caffe Lena, Rockwood Music Hall Stage II, and Musikfest.
Listening to this joyous seven piece band for the first time is like throwing a cherry bomb into a lake. It wakes you up. Their 2011 release, "New Amsterdam" was a DJ favorite receiving enthusiastic airplay on over 165 stations in 5 countries and a “Top American Roots Album 2011” nomination from The Alternate Root TV. The band highly anticipated follow up, "Temptation" is schedule for release in October of 2013.
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