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Put your hands on the remote! browse music »Smokestack Trilogy by The Groanbox Boys
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fave it Modern Folk | Acoustic Blues
15 tracks | 47 minutes
Released Jul 2006
on Groanbox Records
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- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:05 Train Take My Pain Away lyrics BUY MP3 03:05 Train Take My Pain Away lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:05 Train Take My Pain Away
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:02 Sea Bone Howl lyrics BUY MP3 04:02 Sea Bone Howl lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:02 Sea Bone Howl
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:13 Hobo Heaven lyrics BUY MP3 04:13 Hobo Heaven lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:13 Hobo Heaven
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:57 Mount Pleasant Rooftop (At Dusk) lyrics BUY MP3 03:57 Mount Pleasant Rooftop (At Dusk) lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:57 Mount Pleasant Rooftop (At Dusk)
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:00 Harefield Hospital Rag lyrics BUY MP3 01:00 Harefield Hospital Rag lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:00 Harefield Hospital Rag
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:17 Lonesome Traveller lyrics BUY MP3 03:17 Lonesome Traveller lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:17 Lonesome Traveller
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:02 Home Again lyrics BUY MP3 04:02 Home Again lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:02 Home Again
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:18 Juliette Red Dress lyrics BUY MP3 03:18 Juliette Red Dress lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:18 Juliette Red Dress
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:10 Wham Bam lyrics BUY MP3 03:10 Wham Bam lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:10 Wham Bam
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 00:51 Harefield Hospital Special lyrics BUY MP3 00:51 Harefield Hospital Special lyrics "GIFT MP3" 00:51 Harefield Hospital Special
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:43 Broken Down Bolivian Blues lyrics BUY MP3 04:43 Broken Down Bolivian Blues lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:43 Broken Down Bolivian Blues
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:01 Last Call lyrics BUY MP3 04:01 Last Call lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:01 Last Call
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:52 Bygone Era lyrics BUY MP3 03:52 Bygone Era lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:52 Bygone Era
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:30 I'm Mississippi Bound lyrics BUY MP3 03:30 I'm Mississippi Bound lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:30 I'm Mississippi Bound
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 00:51 Harefield Hospital Lament lyrics BUY MP3 00:51 Harefield Hospital Lament lyrics "GIFT MP3" 00:51 Harefield Hospital Lament
Eclectic foot stompin', boot shakin', claw hammerin', box pumpin', sweat-drippin'-from-the-ceiling American folk and blues
Bio / Background
The Groanbox Boys are the American duo, Cory Seznec and Michael Ward-Bergeman. The two play their own original brand of foot-stompin’, sweat-drippin’-from-the-ceiling old time blues, folk, rags, and minstrel songs on accordion, acoustic guitar, banjo (gourd and open-backed), piano, harmonica and odd pieces of percussion including the self-made "freedom boot".
At the core of the ‘Groanbox ethos’ is a desire to play stylistically like musicians of the early twentieth century, but also do precisely what they did: play folk music their own way, putting their hearts and souls into it and all their idiosyncrasies as well!
Smokestack Trilogy was recorded in a 1930s art deco concert hall in Harefield Hospital, which is nestled in the English countryside an hour and half outside London. Several three-day trips from London out to the hospital were made accompanied by sound designer, The Amazing Rolo.
↓ more ↓Seldom used, the hall's haunting, vestigial quality was deeply inspiring to them for what it symbolized: a glimpse into a seemingly bygone era that is, like the music they play, still very much alive. So, the three stalwart chaps set up camp at Harefield, consumed much caffeine, performed many handstands, filmed some spoofs on Broadway musicals, slept on beds made of conference chairs, and somehow managed to record a bunch of tunes.
The fifteen songs on the album grew out of the 'Groanbox spirit', which is incarnated in their mystical freedom boot and channeled through Cory and Michael, mere vessels of this strange force. Fourteen of the tracks are original compositions containing tales of trains, sea captains with scurvy, suicide, African princesses, the yearning for home, love vs. lust from the viewpoint of a convicted criminal facing a life sentence, and Bolivian fauna. The three short 'Harefield' songs were composed on the spot, two of which feature the beautifully out of tune antique upright piano abandoned backstage. The 'cover' track, "I'm Mississippi Bound" by the Delmore Brothers, was chosen for its simple, ethereal beauty, and was recorded at 4 am. If you listen closely, you can hear birds chirping.
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