Music
Hot Seats/Railsplitters
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Rob Adams
FOUR STARS
A veritable bluegrass big band signed off this latest instalment of Soundhouse's Music Mondays at the Traverse as Virginia's Hot Seats invited The Railsplitters from Colorado onstage for a hootenanny. The latter's Lauren Stovall led off a rollicking Rolling In My Sweet Baby's Arms, energised by relays of fizzin' fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar breaks that, had they been bottled, might have fuelled their respective tour buses.
The Railsplitters are the junior members of this enterprise, having formed just three years ago. Although they're not quite the finished article as a live proposition, they have mighty instrumental flair, not least in Dusty Rider's liquid banjo picking and Peter Sharpe's superbly inventive, percussive mandolin style, and all-round-one-mic singing charm. Although they're clearly at home in the bluegrass style, this is just the starting point for adventures that embody funk and Latin American rhythms while songs such as Tilt-a-Whirl, My World and Planted On The Ground show writing and arranging skills that draw on both old school and more sophisticated pop lessons.
Hitting their stride immediately with Jawbone's raw energy, The Hot Seats went on to remind your reviewer why they won, in their previous incarnation as Special Ed & The Short Bus, a Herald Angel award. They're rambunctious but tight with a hard-driving hoedown sensibility that draws on old-time traditions but, as songs such as I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dogfight illustrate, doesn't let reverence stand in the way of a good time. As skilful (with fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar, a communal double bass and a washboard-drum kit rhythmic clatter) as they are witty, they're hot alright. And irresistible.
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