This band began life in 2005 as the Water Tower Bucket Boys. They subsequently changed to the Water Tower String Band and, following the departure of banjo player Cory Goldman, they became simply 'Water Tower'.
Their driving force throughout these ID changes has been Kenny Feinstein who sings and plays banjo, mandolin, fiddle and guitar.
The album opens with a solo banjo rendition of America’s national anthem which then morphs into a breakneck rendition of Ruben’s Train a fiddle tune from the 1920s made famous by Doc Watson.
This intro quickly establishes that, while paying lip-service to tradition, ‘Water Tower’ are not a band to cow-tow to purists. Old-timey ingredients are liberally spiced up with a rattle bag of genres including punk, rap, reggae (Skante Warrior), pop, rock and jazz. Radio is a homage to The Clash …..on banjos!
After moving to Los Angeles, Feinstein met Tommy Drinkard, an audio engineer, songwriter and frontman of his own band who began taking banjo lessons from Feinstein. Co-written pop-rock songs such as AM PM and River Song widened the scope of band’s sound.
A chance meeting with Jesse Blue Eads, a 19-year-old jazz bassist (and mean banjo player!), while busking at the beach in Southern California helped add another musical dimension to the palette. The fruits of this can be heard in the rousing double banjo performance of the closing song - Take Me Back.
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The energy level throughout this album is infectious and I can easily imagine the band going down a storm in a live setting. The album was recorded at Palomino Studios in one day immediately after spending two months on the road. All tracks are either first or second takes.
The devil may care philosophy can be summed up by the opening lines to George Washington : “We’re all gonna die someday, no one’s gonna remember this song, we’re all gonna die someday so don’t stress too long.”
Water Tower’s website
Listen to the album at Bandcamp
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