TO The Record Shelf – A review of “Ginger Ale” by David Greenberger & The Hi-Ho Barbers
Versatile and creative as Greg Haymes or Bill DeMain, prolific as Bill Frisell or Chandler Travis, David Greenberger does what nobody else does, and lots of it.
“Ginger Ale,” his 30th (at least) words and music project presents a masterpiece experience of unique and powerfully evocative kind.
David Greenberger onstage at Universal Preservation Hall in January
A trained visual artist and always a musician, Greenberger detoured as a young guy into working with older folks as activities director of the Duplex, a Boston nursing home whose name brands a nonstop flow of projects since 1979 when he started a newsletter there.
Instead of regarding elders as recording devices recalling things, he gleans and shares gems from their conversations about the here and now. Without the amused condescending tolerance many aim at the aging, he harvests their humor, wisdom and wit in a life’s work of sharing them. From that first newsletter grew a magazine, books and audio monologues with music.
Fitting tunes to tales, he performs and records them with some of the most creative and curious artists on the scene and around its edges.
Members of well-known bands NRBQ, Los Lobos, XTC, the Blasters, the Minutemen, Yo La Tengo, and the Posies join the fun, also Richard Thompson and Robyn Hitchcock; plus others, maybe less prominent but also sharing Greenberger’s energy and enthusiasm for the wonderfully strange. Chandler Travis, Jad Fair, Ken Stringfellow, the Fuggs, Shaky Jake and the All-Stars, Prime Lens, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, the Pahltone Scooters, Paul Cebar, Madder Rose, the Shaking Ray Levis also chime in.
Locally, the Greenwich resident has recorded and performed with Michael Eck, the Figgs, Jupiter Circle (Elizabeth Woodbury Kasius band before Heard), A Strong Dog (Kevin Maul, Matthew Loiacono, Mitch Throop) and the Huckleberries who played with Greenberger at Universal Preservation Hall last January. (See below)
Over the past decade, Greenberger created “Ginger Ale” – 22 monologues-with-music that range from under a minute to about four. He recites the monologues and plays bass with guitarist/singer Robyn Hitchcock, drummer Mark Greenberg and singers Paul Cebar and Kelly Hogan. He also credits the elders who first spoke the monologues.
The Seinfeld-ian title/opening track spins a spry alt-pop fable, fairly straight. Then words and music wander from humorous to profound, light to somber.
Singers Q&A with Greenberger in “Lower Case” – a retired accountant gets called back to fix a company’s records over a guitar track as laid-back lovely as the Allman Brothers’ “Little Martha.”
“Everything’s Crooked Nowadays” laments a business world with too much crime but too little punishment as spacey guitar parallels escalating confrontation.
The easy groove of “Still” frames a calm account of racism in a a restaurant episode, revealing that San Antonio “is prejudiced, still.” In a calm voice on relaxed music, it hits hard.
A George Clinton-like funk vamp powers “Early Coney Island,” unfolding in the tattoo inventory of an oldster everybody thought had served in the Navy but was actually too young for WWI.
The mood is most serene in “Great Day” with beautifully resonant guitar under words of contentment and gratitude; blending in happy wonderment. But there’s indignation in “Dancing Worms,” escalating with stereo panning that portrays a discussion sonically.
“Alaskan Feet” dialogs Greenberger’s northeastern inflection, which sounds neutral hereabouts, with guitarist Hitchcock’s British accent.
“Get-off-my-lawn” crankiness erupts in “Lawn Snakes,” scorching bent-note guitar spiking the monologue’s complaint.
Jokes never over-power the profound, nor vice versa. In delicate, dynamic balance, the the most affecting pieces wander the space ways in “Silver Light,” a sci-fi excursion in sparse, spooky guitar; then mourn a dying mother in “She Knew.”
In its seamless mastery of music and words, mood and motion, “Ginger Ale” jumps to the head of the class among Greenberger’s dozens of CDs (and one DVD). Stream or purchase at https://davidgreenberger.bandcamp.com/
For additional info on David Greenberger, check these posts about the UPH show:
The late Greg Haymes was a musician, writer, visual artist and sculptor of matchless output, a giant on our creative scene who is much missed as creative force and friend.
Bill DeMain, also cited up top, is a singer-songwriter in the original, entertaining pop-rock bands Swan Dive and Crackerboots. A music journalist and author who meets the stars on their own turf, he also draws magazine cartoons and jokes with words as the Fr. Guido Sarducci-like letter-writer Sterling Huck. A Francophile who studies in Paris, he’s in Tokyo as I write this, on a Swan Dive gig, and guides visitors through Nashville on music-lore tours. Full disclosure: My brother Jim plays on Bill’s projects; a Nashville lunch he arranged for us with Bill and Jim Moran, another formidable talent, maybe had the best across the table conversation I’ve enjoyed on my Nashville visits or elsewhere. This also suggested to me that Bill is the same sort of renaissance man as David Greenberger. I think I should introduce those guys. Check out Bill’s episode on the podcast ThisIsNashville.
Bill DeMain, in hat, with friends in Tokyo. Photo from his Facebook
Chandler Travis makes music of impressive quality on dozens of albums with the Chandler Travis Philharmonic and its little brother the Philharmonette, the Buttercups, the Chandler Travis Three-O, the Catbirds, the Incredible Casuals (and the Invincible Casuals), Lester, Travis & Shook and likely others. “Bocce & Bourbon” is a collaboration with David Greenberger.
Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell releases a new album about every 10 minutes; plays with everybody and dazzled at The Egg a year ago.
Hoke's Jukebox 