Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra are “The UK's finest purveyors of Western swing, country blues and ragtime”, or so the blurb says.
However, in this case, this is not mere exaggeration. With this latest (their second) long player, Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra certainly do their damnedest to live up to the claim.
The band was formed in 2010, after band members met whilst studying Folk and Traditional Music at Newcastle University, and comprises Rob Heron on vocals and guitar, Ben Fitzgerald on guitar and vocals, Tom Cronin on mandolin, harmonica and vocals, Colin Nicholson on accordion and vocals, Rob Blazey on double bass and vocals, and Paul Archibald on drums, piano and kitchen utensils!
Their first album 'Money Isn't Everything' was released in 2012 to unanimous praise, and now the band have followed this up with a stunning new long player. There are eleven tracks on the album, all ranging from jazz, to swing, to blues and back again. What really impressed me about this one is the infectious nature of the tracks, catchier than norovirus and a lot more pleasant. The lyrics are humorous, down to earth, and crucially don't try to represent things as they were when this musical style was developed – they are up to date and relevant to today's fast pace of living.
The album opens with 'Drinking Coffee Rag', with its frantic syncopated style, and lyrics that both praise the joys of drinking copious quantities of coffee: - “I like drinking coffee in the morning, I like drinking coffee in the evening/ I like drinking coffee, you like drinking coffee, let's sing the drinking coffee rag”.
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However, before companies like Starbucks and Costa jump up and down, waving their arms in glee, there is a downside to this: -
“Now I got the shakes and the cocoa sweats...I'm a gibbering wreck on the floor”. This is just brilliant, and certainly, for me, was the perfect introduction to the band.
There isn't a duff track on the album, but my particular favourites were 'Hey Mr. Landlord', a track that comes across as a laid back swing, with Rob listing his complaints to a slum landlord: - “Hey Mr. Landlord, gimme back my cash/ There's mildew in the bathroom, and the back yard is covered in trash.”
'Penny Drop Mambo', with its excellent bluesy harmonica and wise advice re the dangers of gambling on the slots is another top track: - “I'm not a gambling man, I've been twenty three years clean...If I ever had the money, I'd put it all in the penny drop machine.”
Overall, this album is an absolute delight, and hopefully will gain the band some well deserved recognition. This is a must have for the (very) late Summer.
Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra online
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