The Rigmarollers – 21st Century Speakeasy
Self-Release – 2024
www.therigmarollers.com
10 tracks; 33 minutes
The Rigmarollers are based in and play around the UK from their London base. The trio is Ed Hopwood on vocals, harp and percussion, Julian Marshall on guitar and mandolin and Ewan Penkey on sousaphone; Precious Pierre and Lucy Tasker add banjo and clarinet respectively to some of the tracks. The trio makes quite a big sound, considering the lack of drums, the sousaphone filling the bottom end, Ed providing enough percussion effects behind his harp and Julian’s guitar. This is their second album and consists of entirely original material, lyrics mainly written by Ed, music by the trio.
As the album title suggests, theband looks back to musical styles from long ago with elements of jazz and vaudeville sitting alongside the rhythms of Louisiana. Opener “Mr Crawfish” extols the Louisiana favourite, the choppy rhythm and harp fills making this one of the tunes here that comes closest to the blues. Next we go down to the seaside to hear about the “Yarmouth Belle”, a steamboat on which you can “do the Charleston and the Lindy Hop”, played to a ragtime rhythm over which Julian plucks a rather nice solo. Ed’s very English sounding vocal takes the voice of the landlord, the self-dubbed “Duke Of Rent”, who threatens to put his tenants out on the street. The first appearance of the clarinet gives “Sycamore Street” quite a jazzy feel, but the lyrics deal with drugs, even scandalously claiming that “Queen Victoria, she loved a pipe at noon”!
Ed’s harp introduces the jaunty “What’s The Use In Walking”, a song that references the early days of the bicycle before a tune that is almost an instrumental, apart from a vocal rendition of the title, “Duck Blood Breakdown”; Ed’s harp on this one copies the accordion, giving the tune a distinctly New Orleans flavour. The NO feel continues with banjo added to the instrumentation on “Macadam Bill” which makes reference to the Prohibition era, Ed using a distorted vocal effect for the first part of the song. Thematically we remain in the realm of alcohol with “Sweet Liquor” as Ed recounts lapsing back into the bar as the clarinet and banjo again evoke the music of the 1920’s. The band closes with two short but cheerfully upbeat tunes: “Elenor” appears to be deeply religious but cannot stop Ed’s character from leaving town, the rattling percussion and bubbling sousaphone pushing things along well; everyone is involved in “Too Tight” to provide a really catchy finale as the banjo and the clarinet’s higher pitched interventions are carried along by The Rigmarollers’ irresistible rhythms.
To be honest there is not much blues here but it is a lot of fun if you enjoy songs that sound like they belong back a century or so.