Vol 2 – Yet and Still

The latest album by Too Sad for the Public, the dynamic musical aggregation led by composer/songwriter/producer Dick Connette, serves as an extension of the founder of StorySound Records’ recombinant approach to American roots music. Vol 2 – Yet and Still features some of the same artists from American Folk Fantasies Vol 1: Oysters Ice Cream (2017), including folk singer Ana Egge and longtime Loudon Wainwright III collaborator Chaim Tannenbaum. The album’s dozen tracks include imaginative renderings of familiar songs and original compositions clearly inspired by traditional repertoire, especially from New Orleans. Both ‘Shake Sugaree’ and ‘Railroad Bill (Pt1)’ feature Egge’s sublimely breathy voice accompanied by piano, baritone guitar and percussion. For ‘Railroad Bill (Pt2)’, Tannenbaum gets the lead vocal and acoustic support is replaced by electric lead and rhythm guitars, synth and bass and a crunchy rhythm section of cymbals, shakers and bass drum rim clicks. On ‘Hey Now (Pt1)’ and ‘Hey Now (Pt2)’, Connette flexes his second line arranging chops: ‘(Pt1)’ stomps and struts with a full horn section (trumpets, trombones, tenor and baritone saxophones, tuba) while ‘(Pt2)’ strips out the brass in favour of folksy vocal harmonies and layers of sharp percussion.