the Dickel Bros. are together again

Whoo hoo! I hear the Dickel Brothers are back at it again. Great old-time music with a punk drive. Unbelievable fiddle (maybe Clancy, great fiddler who lives up North is back? Or the newer fiddle. Both are excellent. And Brian Bagdonas on bass (from Foghorn String Band, and Stumptown Printers.) The website should be running soon.

I'd love to get 'em in town. They live in Portland and liked coming here when they were together about 5 years ago. They'll play for next to nothing, basement parties, backyards, co-ops, what have you.

You've gotta hear 'em. Let me know if you want more information.

Here are some links to learn more.

http://www.emptyrecords.com/empty/bands/band_detail.asp?intbandid=5

http://www.wweek.com/html/musica070799.html

An excerpt from a profile:

"I feel like I have nothing to do with what is going on today," explains fiddling wonder Clancy Dickel. "And everything that is, was--everything that has happened, did happen with string-band music."

With EmPty Records' recent release of Volume One, the Dickel Brothers' first full-length recording, the world is poised to take a swig off the bottle the Dickels have passed around Portland since 1996, when Matt Dickel and his spiritual brother Joel began busking the streets with raw, breathless folk. Joel left Matt to carry the familial old-time torch alone for a full year. Then, Clancy surfaced. Before long, the heat rising from the duo's throwdowns at the Delta Cafe and E.J.'s drew in a few other brothers.

Today, mandolinist Michael, Marcus on banjo, and stand-up bassist Brian round out the brood, forming a five-piece combo that brawls across any space it claims as a stage. A recent show down in the Shanghai Tunnel saw Clancy swinging by his knees from exposed plumbing, sawing fiddle and singing at the same time. The Dickels stress that their barely contained aggression springs directly from the bloody grooves of 78s cut by dirt-poor musicians before the war--World War II, that is.

"It's really the purest form of folk," says Brian Dickel. "It was a necessity. People worked hard, and they needed an outlet. That's what attracted me to old-time. In the '60s and '70s, a lot of hippies picked up on the old-time vibe. I think now we're looking at it from this other angle and revitalizing the fact that it is a people's music."