No, this isn't what you think. I don't mean THAT kind of swinging. I mean the musical kind of swinging, as in gypsy swing jazz music. No, make that as in exquisite, exuberant, expertly wrought, totally killer gypsy swing music...not to mention a little bluegrass, country, Parisian cabaret, and even a few tenderly rendered Beatles tunes like "Here, There and Everywhere" thrown in for good measure.
What I'm talkin' about is a band of highly accomplished, highly likeable musicians and singers who go by the name of Harmonious Wail. (And isn't that a great name?) And yes, as the title of this post suggests, two of them happen to be my neighbors. (At least, when we're all camping in our little patches of woods in the beautiful U.P., a.k.a. Michigan's Upper Peninsula.)
That would be Sims Delaney-Potthoff, the group's leader and mandolinist extraordinaire, and his lovely wife Maggie Delaney-Potthoff, whose beautiful, versatile voice is The Wail's "secret ingredient," that extra something they've got that makes them stand out from the ranks of other excellent gypsy swing bands who are mainly instrumental. And in the best tradition of "old-timey," back-porch musicians, Maggie also plays a mean cardboard box. She wields her brushes to paint a unique percussive backdrop for the mandolin, acoustic guitar and stand-up bass that her fellow band members play. And man, can these guys play!
If you're a fan of any of the following musicians--Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli, Jethro Burns, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Bireli Lagrene, Duane Allman, David Grisman, and Louis Armstrong, Ray Brown, Dave Holland, Oscar Pettiford and Edgar Meyer--who The Wail cite as their main musical influences, then I'd recommend you go to their MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/harmoniouswail ASAP and give them a listen. Or you can visit their official website here: http://www.wail.com/index.htm to learn more about them.
The band makes their home base in Madison, Wisconsin. They've earned a dedicated following through their 4 CDs and frequent touring around the Midwest and all over the U.S., not to mention many gigs at music festivals in Europe.
Besides Sims and Maggie, there's Tom Waselchuk on guitar and vocals, and John Christensen on stand-up bass. All of these guys (and gal) are world-class musicians and/or singers. Sims trained in Chicago under the legendary Jethro Burns.
But words can only go so far to describe the sound of music. To fully appreciate their talent and the bouncy, swingin' joy their music brings, you really have to hear it.
We didn't realize we had such musical neighbors until one evening my husband and I were sitting on the eastern shore of the lake right beside the boat dock, having one of those Corona moments.
Literally.
We were, in fact, sipping our Coronas with a twist of lime while watching the sunset over the lake. Suddenly a small motorboat came idling toward us from across the lake. Two pleasant-looking fishermen docked their boat, got out and said hello. We had a nice chat, during which we compared notes and realized we're right down the road from each other, at least when we're staying up in the beautiful U.P.
And then the more talkative one with the shock of slightly wild gray hair and wire-rim specs handed us his card and said, "I'll leave you alone with your sunset now. I know that for some of us, it's like church."
Ah, a true fellow nature worshipper. That's when I knew I really liked this guy. Even though he looked in many ways like your typical Northwoods weekend fisherman--complete with flannel shirt, baseball cap, tackle box, etc.--there had been something about his gracefully aging hippie look, his calm, cool bearing, the goatee and the slightly hepcat way he talked that had made me sense he might just be a musician. Even his name, Sims, sounded artistically unique.
After they'd hooked their boat up to their trailer and drove away, I happened to glance at the card he'd given me. When I saw that it said "Harmonious Wail.com," I didn't know just what that meant, but it was pretty obvious that his business was somehow music-related. When we returned home from our camping trip, I went online and checked out their website. And only then did I fully realize what swingin' neighbors I had.
Give 'em a listen and see if you don't agree.
(Photo by Kate Whitson. I hope she won't mind that I've reprinted it here.)
3 comments:
Thank you for this introduction--I love it when I learn about a new artist/band. Just found their videos on YouTube--definitely pick up on the Django influence, cool.
You're welcome, Kirsten. Glad to be of service!
I try to sing their praises whenever I can, because they really DO deserve a much larger audience. They're a wonderful band to see and hear live, too. ITA about the Django influence, at least from the little I know of his work. And you can hear some similarities to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones too. I understand The Wail were recently in Germany. Keep an eye out for 'em in your neck of the woods too.
And thanks for the heads up about YouTube. I don't know why, but I'd never thought to look for them there.
I'm sorry about the loss of your favorite classical station. I feel your pain.
This is not exactly classical, but here's a link to the Wikipedia entry for a wonderful college public radio station in my area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDCB
Look in the Wiki article under "external links" for a direct link to WDCB's homepage, where you can find out more about its programming and listen to it live on the Internet.
Listening to this station for many years has really expanded my musical horizons. They play an incredible variety of music you rarely hear anywhere else, from Celtic to old-time country to bluegrass to jazz to American roots music...you name it! You said you love to listen to music while writing. Well...a few hours of listening to this station should inspire you nicely(especially if you listen in the evenings, as their daytime programming is strictly jazz--which is cool, but not as cool as their Celtic nights (Mondays), for instance, and definitely not as cool as "When Country Wasn't Cool," which airs every Wednesday evening.
Sounds like you're starved for some good listening options, so I just thought I'd make you aware of WDCB.
Thanks for the radio station recommendation! My musical diet has been rather one-sided lately. Commercial radio lacks variety but at least the Internet has picked up the slack.
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