Tarbox Ramblers
posted by Stanislav
A week or so ago I finally saw the Tarbox Ramblers live. The trio comes from Cambridge, Mass. They play the amplified blues familiar to us from bands that normally come from Memphis or Detroit or Ohio (Black Keys come to mind). Still, the Tarbox Ramblers are something else. There’s something decadent and intellectual about their approach, which is maybe characteristic from their part of the United States. In their approach, they remind me a lot of Morphine (or Treat Her Right). And after all the bands I have just name-checked, the Tarbox Ramblers are perhaps my favorite. I got excited about their music ever since their first album in 2000, which was a bit more traditional, with a lot of Cajun and bluegrass influences. Then there was the excellent “Fix Back East”, one of the best albums of the past 10 years, which was co-produced by the legendary Jim Dickinson and Paul Q. Kolderie. This was the first time I saw them live. Although they are a trio, the main character in the band is the guitarist/singer Michael Tarbox. The two other members are a drummer and a percussionist who switch from tambourine to double bass and sometime even hit a small drum set or even a second guitar. A lot of the songs that they played this night were from a future album planned for later this year, so all three members were in an extremely upbeat mood, ready to present the new music in a good light. This is one really energetic tune which they played just before the encore.