A couple of years ago I bought What Makes Bob Holler <\/i>by <\/i>Hot Club Of Cowtown. It was an album of modernized Western swing with a little jazz thrown in for good measure that paid homage to country artist Bob Wills. When their new album, Rendezvous In Rhythm <\/i>arrived in my mail box, I expected a similar sound. Much to my surprise, they had traveled in a different direction.<\/p>\n
Hot Club Of Cowtown came into existence when fiddle player\/vocalist Elana James placed an ad in a local newspaper looking for a band. She didn\u2019t join a band but did find guitarist\/vocalist Whit Smith and so a band was born. Bassist Jake Irwin made three and their line-up was complete. Since their formation, they have toured with the likes of Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. Their 13th<\/sup> album will be released May 28th.<\/p>\n Rendezvous In Rhythm <\/i>is an ambitious affair that finds the band leaving their Western swing roots behind and exploring new directions. They tend to rotate traditional songs from the Great American Songbook sung by Smith and Gypsy jazz material sung by James. The acoustic music channels artists such as violin and guitar masters Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.<\/p>\n The lead track establishes the fact that they have moved in a new direction. \u201cOchi Chorne,\u201d also known as \u201cDark Eyes,\u201d is a Russian folk song, which is presented in a classical format. Combined with their other instrumentals, \u201cMinor Swing\u201d and \u201cDouce Ambiance,\u201d the tone, energy, and instrumental virtuosity sets the tone for the rest of the album.<\/p>\n The tracks tend to meander along in a pleasant way. \u00a0There is the beauty of Whit Smith\u2019s vocal on \u201cI\u2019m In The Mood For Love\u201d and the sass of Elana James on \u201cCrazy Rhythm.\u201d Throw in the Billie Holliday tune \u201cBack In My Own Backyard,\u201d Al Jolson\u2019s \u201cAvalon,\u201d the classic \u201cSlow Boat to China,\u201d and the gentle \u201cIf I Had You\u201d and you have an album that grabs your attention.<\/p>\n Hot Club Of Cowtown has issued an entertaining album that shows off their versatility and growth as a band. They have moved from the smoky clubs of the West to the dimly lit bistros of pre-World War II Paris and it\u2019s worth accompanying them on their journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":31358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7511],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-43058","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-hot-club-of-cowtown","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43058"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43058"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}