The band may superficially come across as the kind of people who indulge in the kind of jaunty japery that involves knees-up folk party tunes, but Joey Herzfeld and his So-Called Friends use their banjos, accordions and fiddles to conjure some dank, seedy and outright psychotic music, dragged from the seedy underbelly of the darkest back alleys. There’s something quintessentially English about it, and not just Herzfeld’s crisp enunciation and sharp diction: the theatricality of the performance, too, with hints of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band in evidence. Drug-frazzled shanties and crazed waltzes feed an atmosphere of psychopathy and mania. ‘Half-Hanged Maggie Dickson’ evokes a chorus of the damned, the doomed, singing as they swing above the cobbled streets in a Dickensian smog, and ‘Secret Admirer’ reveals the mind of a twisted psychotic as Joey sings, ‘I’m standing in your garden wearing your boyfriend’s skin’.
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Yet for all the dirt and depravity, there are chinks of light and moments of joy. And through Herzfeld’s lyrical range and the passion of the players, the album exudes a strong humanity. And ultimately it’s this humanity which makes this a great album.
Joey Herzfeld Online
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