The Great Recession Orchestra
Album: Double Shot
Label: NewTex
Tracks: 19
Website: http://www.reverbnation.com/thegreatrecessionorchestra

Bands like The Great Recession Orchestra really do make my job easier. Whilst I like that pre-war blues and country sound, I don't feel I've got the time to sift through old record companies back catalogues or piles of old 78s to find the classic gems to bring back into the public consciousness, well a public outside of others prepared to dedicate themselves to similar trawls.

Similarly, I'm not sure I'd have given "Double Shot" the same time if it had simply been a collection of those old pre-war songs in their original form, just cleaned up and put out as a label compilation. No what sets this album apart for me is that the songs are being played and brought back to life by a band of the here and now and that alone makes it worthy of that extra listening time and boy what a good decision that was.

The album is essentially two different collection of songs from the Southern States combined into a single album, hence "Double Shots". Essentially the album is an amalgamation of The Forties In Fort Worth and Shaking The Sheiks, a re-examination of the work of the Mississippi Sheiks a family of former slaves whose history goes back to the early 1890s.

One of the things I like is that the track listing combines both sets of songs, rather than play one back to back and then the other. I think it enhances the listening experience as it provides a more varied listening environment. It also provides a greater contrast as to what sort of tracks evolved into hillbilly, country and western swing and what moved more towards the crooners and balladeers of the later forties and beyond whilst all falling into a general category that has now become known as old timey.

The production values are excellent meaning that you get to hear the songs as they were meant to be heard, rather than filtered through the recording technology of the time. The performances across "Double Shot" are excellent the whole thing sounds really authentic, a lot of attention has been paid to ensuring the sound is right, without letting it detract from the spirit of the whole thing.

Then you also here that the band are also having a good sense of fun and that maybe it ain't all as authentic as it sounds. "Gee Baby" for example contains a reference to a laptop computer, it's subtle and had I not brought it to your attention, you two would be doing a double take on the track to make sure your heard what you thought you'ld heard.

Sure there's more than one track on this collection that's a little on the cheesy side, but it's all done in the best possible way. I also kept on trying to second guess myself on what was cheese and what was actually euphemism. It certainly puts a different spin on some of the tracks if they are euphemistic, downright dirty in fact.

I really enjoyed "Double Shots". The Great Recession Orchestra are a band with a sense of occasion, entertainment delivered, job done.

Neil King