One Dime Band – Side Hustle | Album Review

One Dime Band – Side Hustle

Toneblanket Records

www.onedimeband.com

13 songs – 61 minutes

A long-running project that works out of Boston and was created by the acoustic partnership of John Brauchier and Paul Gallucci, the One Dime Band steps into the limelight for the first time with this debut CD, an interesting, hard-to-define, but pleasant blending of blues, R&B and more that’s a style all their own.

Brauchier – who doubles on guitar and banjo – and Gallucci – a vocalist, harp player and guitarist – have been teaming together on stage since forming a partnership in high school in upstate New York and teaching each other songs from the catalogs of Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. They began incorporating mainstream blues into their act in 2017 and haven’t looked back.

They’ve teamed together on two CDs, Gonna Take Sweet Time and Hoodoo & Holy Water, on their own Toneblanket imprint, achieving Top 20 recognition with the latter on a couple of TV and radio charts. Winners of the 2022 Boston Blues Society Blues Challenge solo/duo competition in 2022 and the Granite State Blues Society Challenge in 2023, they made it to the semi-finals of the International Blues Challenge earlier this year.

As members of the One Dime Band, they’ve worked the New England market as a four-piece who deliver electric blues for several years. But this CD features an expanded roster that includes several key members of the Boston blues scene, including drummer Romeo Dubois, bassist Paul Kochanski, keyboard player Alizon Lissance, fiddler Ilana Katz Katz, trumpeter Johnny Blue Horn and sax player Mario Perrett. Holly Harris adds percussion, Tim Curry provides backing vocals on two cuts, and Robin Hathaway shares vocals in a duet on another.

Funky percussion and a horn run open “Side Hustle” as Gallucci describes the dilemma that all struggling musicians have to face: working other jobs to keep food on the table while struggling to achieve their dream. He possesses a strong mid-range voice that’s road-worn enough to amplify the stress. And Brauchler’s plaintive six-string runs combine with the keys and rhythm section to drive it home. It gives way to “Blackfoot Sun,” which has a Delta feel, Native American imagery and fiddle work that immediately change the mood.

It flows into the finger-picked pleaser, “Mockingbird Way,” which complains about someone who airs her dirty laundry to anyone who crosses his/her path, before an aural shift to gentle blues-rock with “What You Done,” which yearns that family members would learn from past mistakes. “Ain’t No Faker” returns the band to the blues root atop an easy-flowing beat before building in intensity prior to a mid-tune piano solo with harp accents.

The funk-driving ballad, “Dr. Shine,” follows, describing a battle raging outside the singer’s window and another raging “deep inside of me” before One Dime shifts to a ragtime sound for “Brooklyn Town,” a reverie that describes a home in the Williamsburg neighborhood, where Gallucci sings about his longing for his father’s homemade wine, his mother’s cooking and other things missed.

The uptempo rocker, “Backbell,” is up next before the sultry contemporary, minor-key blues ballad, “Soul to Keep” – a duet with Hathaway, that preaches optimism about finding happiness after experiencing sorrow. Gallucci’s opening harp run changes the mood instantly in “Babylon Clouds.” It describes the struggle to get to work in the morning atop medium tempo instrumentation built atop a driving beat. Three equally interesting numbers — “Cemetery Waltz,” “Rib Grease” and “Gator in My Pond” – bring the set to a successful close.

The One Dime Band shouldn’t have to pursue any side hustles after this one. They take listeners in a different, successful direction with each cut. Give them a listen. I’m sure you’ll agree.

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