Woody Pines

New Hampshire-born Woody Pines mines the American folk, ragtime, country blues, hillbilly and proto-rock’n’roll songbooks: the songs were spilling out material from back-alley booze halls, barnyard hoedowns and juke joints since before the turn of the 20th century. The core trio is Woody Pines on guitar and vocals, Skip Frontz Jr on upright bass and Brad Tucker on guitar, banjo and harmonies, with veteran session fiddler Billy Contreras lending his considerable chops to several songs. The album's producer, Mitch Dane, who has worked with Beck and Jack White, tickles the ivories and plays autoharp on Pines’ sweetly quirky love song ‘Over the Water.’

The 11 tracks here include material both familiar and esoteric. ‘Black Rat Swing’, for example, was something of a hit in 1942 for Ernest ‘Little Son Joe’ Lawlars and Lizzie ‘Memphis Minnie’ Douglas. There are also original compositions such as ‘Little Stella Blue’ or ‘This Train Rolls By’, which do authentic justice to the long-deceased artists who inspired them.