http://www.dustbowlrevival.com/

http://vimeo.com/39377879

“A nine-piece band replete with tuba, washboard, accordion, fiddle, mandolin, trumpet and guitar joyously pumped out early 20th century standards and original tunes that would have sounded utterly at home within the hallowed confines of Preservation Hall in New Orleans' French Quarter. The seven men...and two women in flapper-inspired dresses, are members of a ragtag outfit called the Dustbowl Revival, strumming, sawing and puffing enthusiastically as smiling listeners on the dance floor swung their partners infectiously.” - LA TIMES

"An old-time medicine show featuring the kind of roots music that normally isn't my cup of twang, except it offered great bands like the Dustbowl Revival, whose Americana swing was so fun I went back to see them again the next day." - R. Sheffield, ROLLING STONE

ROOTS+JAZZ+COLLECTIVE

 

 

"A nine-piece band replete with tuba, washboard, accordion, fiddle, mandolin, trumpet and guitar joyously pumped out early 20th century standards and original tunes that would have sounded utterly at home within the hallowed confines of Preservation Hall in New Orleans' French Quarter. The seven men, most with suspenders attached to well-worn trousers, broad ties and vests and some sporting 1930s-vintage newsboy caps, and two women in flapper-inspired dresses, are members of a ragtag outfit called the Dustbowl Revival, strumming, sawing and puffing enthusiastically as smiling listeners on the dance floor swung their partners infectiously."

 

-- THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

 

 

"The music is so genuine, you can almost taste the PBR and port wine being passed around the front porch during the Great Depression on the bayou, or on the post-fire Chicago streets. Trumpets blaze, guitars wail, and the spirit of a great revival becomes you."

--TRAIN WRECK'D SOCIETY

"Dustbowl reaches across the entire country for inspiration, brewing up a unique sound influenced by Dixieland jazz, Delta blues, New Orleans swing, East Coast bluegrass, and various points in between...[and] rolls those genres into something cohesive, often using traditional songs and old hymns as jumping-off points for the band’s own material."

 

--AMERICAN SONGWRITER 

"They care. They're in love with their music. I hope the Dustbowl Revival sticks around for a while. The world could learn from their example." 

-Adobe & Teardrops

("Carry Me Home" review)

"Their mixture of bluegrass and big band had the whole room moving in old time swing. The crowd went crazy and the band took to the floor to finish off using only the power of their voices and acoustics. The audience was no longer at a concert, but transported to a backyard party where the band is their close friends and the songs their prayers."

 

-- THE LUMBERJACK (N. ARIZONA)

"Extremely sonically gratifying...I know for a fact I would love each and every one of them as not just musicians, but as people."

 

-- Under The Basement

(93.3FM Austin, Texas)

"...with big brass beats and nostalgic style, [Dustbowl Revival] instantly transports listeners to a different time and place that they never may want to leave. This band offers such a fun vibe that you just can’t help yourself—once you step into their musical time machine you will find your foot tapping. Before long, everyone was singing and dancing along. The band left the stage amidst pleas for encores."

 

-- Deli Magazine LA

"The songs these entirely eccentric characters create are a brilliant modernization of a time when having the blues was true to life, and a good time could be found in the simplicity of a few instruments being played fast or subtle, short or sweet, and with a strenuous desire to entertain, not just to sell a few records."

 

-- Fensepost (WA)

"These folks ply the waters of modern old-timey music, bringing in folk, rural and urban blues, western swing, bluegrass, N'awlins jazz, Tin Pan Alley and plenty more. With fourteen listed members and an additional handful of "special guests," calling the Dustbowl Revival a collective is something of an understatement. Calling it anything other than startlingly remarkable would be a crime. I'm Thunderstruck." 

 

-Aiding and Abetting

"This taste for nostalgia has been developing across the indie landscape. From Beirut to Fleet Foxes, many are wearing the clothes of classic American and European folk forms, and are constructing musical identity by conjuring and listening to the past. Not as isolated individuals on a search for original expression, but as a community of players on the same quest. The Dustbowl Revival is a perfect example of this zeitgeist.

 

A previous generation may have felt a disaffected pride at being “out on their own”, but groups like the Dustbowl Revival are starting to question the foundations of both individualized autonomy and utopian denials of the human condition. It’s a community of musicians that connects and invites the audience to participate.

 

That fact alone makes this music a post-modern treasure, and the perfect medicine for the musical palette that usually prefers despair over celebration.

 

Roots folk music has always made a resurgence within American popular music whenever seismic cultural shifts have taken, or are about to take place. Let’s hope that the music of the Dustbowl Revival is a sign of a hopeful shift. Leave it to a bunch of (West Coast) hipster 20-somethings to inject a bit of joy while forging the future by way of the past.

Garrison Keillor could only wish he had a house band this good."

 

-- Pop Matters