I am pleased to announce the availability of “Peter Rowan’s Twang an’ Groove, Vol. 1”, a compilation of live recordings from our inaugural show at the Purple Bee Halloween Hoedown on 10/27/2012 and Antone’s on 1/30/2013.  You can download the album from iTunes right now, and the physical CD should be available tomorrow on Amazon.  Twang an’ Groove Vol. 1 is released by There Records, the same organization that brought you Reggaebilly, and it was mixed & mastered by Mike Morgan at The Zone Recording Studio (Mike is also the bass player in Twang an’ Groove, for those who don’t know.)

I got an opportunity to play with Peter and the band again last Wednesday at the Old Settlers Music Festival pre-party, and it was an amazing experience as always.  Over the past 18 months, Peter has evolved into a beast of an electric player, with the chops necessary to drive the straight-ahead power trio that is the new incarnation of Twang an’ Groove.  The concept of Twang an’ Groove has always been basically about reading Peter’s mind, about him starting off in a particular direction and the band following along, so it took us a dozen shows spread out over a period of 9 months before we could really get a sense of where he was going.  If you saw us last Wednesday, you saw a band that was a lot tighter– but also less experimental– than the band that was out standing in our field in the freezing cold on Halloween weekend, 2012.

What you’ll hear on Vol. 1 is the much more raw form of Twang an’ Groove, a band that was still throwing things against the wall to see what would stick.  As with most experimental projects, not all of the experiments were a success, but when they were, they were sheer brilliance.  Vol. 1 tells the story of a bluegrass legend who, at age 70, after having played acoustic guitar and mandolin most of his life, picked up the electric guitar and hired an Austin-based jam/country band (Rhythmic Statues) to back him up (in fact, that first gig was still billed as “Peter Rowan and Rhythmic Statues.”  The name “Twang an’ Groove” didn’t exist yet.)  Vol. 1 is basically every form of roots music America has to offer thrown into a blender with Peter’s finger on the “purée” button.  The sound is undeniably Peter Rowan but still completely different from anything that any of us have ever done before.

Either way, though– jam band or rock band– it’s a brilliant and ridiculously fun band to play with.  I’m proud to have had the opportunity to participate in the project, and I hope there will be a Volume 2.

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