Water Tower – Live From Los Angeles
Water Tower – Live From Los Angeles
Format: CD – Digital
Label: Independent
Release: 2023
Release date: August 11, 2023
Water Tower frontman and mainstay Kenny Feinstein has spent more than 15 years curating the band. In 2005 he began performing and recording with the Water Tower Bucket Boys having also modified members and style as Water Tower String Band. In 2018 he moved from his Portland, Oregon roots to Los Angeles where he began the new iteration of the band, now known simply as Water Tower.
Whilst functioning as a collective, with Kenny Feinstein the constant anchor, the core of the group is made up of three unlikely protégés who came from very different musical backgrounds – Kenny brings solid string experience (banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar) drawing on his favoured genres of punk rock, old-time and bluegrass. After moving to Los Angeles he met Tommy Drinkard, an audio engineer, songwriter and frontman of his own band, Tommy Drinkard & The Remedy. Tommy who was already a great electric and acoustic guitar player began taking banjo lessons from Kenny and within a year he’d won first place intermediate banjo at the highly acclaimed Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Competition.
Their songwriting collaboration soon began to take shape with songs such as ‘AM PM’ and ‘River Song’ establishing the roots of their sound. Not long after, they met Jesse Blue Eads a 19-year-old jazz bassist who also held his own on the banjo. They met while busking at the beach in Southern California. Unbeknownst to Kenny and Tommy at the time, Jesse had just received a Jazz Award from Berklee School of Music. Amazing sounds were heard across the beach as the three met and traded styles and licks for hours, including what would become their double banjo performance signature sound in songs like ‘Take Me Back’.
Together they share their love of bluegrass, old-time and jamgrass while adding their individual fusions of reggae and rock (Tommy Drinkard), jazz and prog-rock (Jesse Blue Eads) and punk rock & old-time styles (Kenny Feinstein).
Their new album, Live from Los Angeles was recorded at Palomino Studios. It was all done in one day. The band had spent two months on the road and came in after a long overnight drive to record the album the day after the tour finished, so they could keep the fresh energy of the road in the studio. On the way Tommy’s car broke down. Then when the band finally arrived, they found that the stand-up bass had fallen apart. Eventually starting recording four hours late, the time crunch can be felt in all these tracks and a raw energy was undoubtedly captured that day. All tracks are either the first or second take, but mostly the first. They only did two of each.
The band will be touring the UK and Ireland in August, their first European dates as Water Tower, with Kenny Feinstein and Tommy Drinkard augmented with occasional members, Taylor Estes on bass/vocals and Nicholas Leahy on mandolin/vocals.
Website: https://watertowerband.com/
Tracks:
01. National Anthem / Reuben’s Train
02. California Love (EXPLICIT)
03. Cotton Eyed Joe
04. Flow Tap
05. George Washington
06. I See the Light
07. My Little Girl in Tennessee
08. Lonesome Road Blues
09. Mary Jane
10. Radio (EXPLICIT)
11. Skante Warrior
12. Stay All Night
13. River Song
14. AM PM
15. Take Me Back
Kenny “Fretboard” Feinstein – Guitar & Fiddle Scrat Kenny “Fretboard” Feinstein chboi
lead vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15
Tommy “Fingers” Drinkard – Banjo & Guitar Crusher Tommy “Fingers” Drinkard
lead vocals on tracks 4, 5, 9, 11, 14
Jesse Blue Eads – Banjo Overlord Jesse Blue Eads
lead vocals on track 7
Joey “Juice” Joey “Juice”Berglund Berglund Berglund – Bass Boss
lead vocals on track 12