American Hobo-folk-blues duo now on tour in the UK with Canadian percussionist Paul Clifford to join them on tour.
The Groanbox Boys have dates that will take them all round the UK until mid October in support of their debut international album, Fences Come Down, released on the 6th of October 2008.
‘now, I have just come across the next duo, and there is so much to say that I am gonna leave it to another program. They are UK based duo of Americans and have a completely new, completely different take on the music. They are simply amazing!’ – Mike Harding BBC Radio 2 (27th August 2008).
The Groanbox Boys are Cory Seznec and Michael Ward-Bergman, seasoned musicians who are cut-above in every department employing unconventional arrangements, woven together with tight vocal harmonies sung with rugged but warm intensity. Cory was born in Brittany, France, and raised in Connecticut and Maryland where he first encountered the music of Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson and Big Bill Broonzy. Cory plays fingerstyle and flatpick guitar, clawhammer, plectrum and three finger banjo, and blues harmonica. Michael, who plays accordion, hammering out a deep, full bass and accompaniment with his left hand, and authentic melodic lines with his right hand, and a graduate of Berkley College, Massachusetts, has collaborated on many big projects with classical composers and Hollywood giant Francis Ford Coppola, had work premiered at Carnegie Hall and performed at Sydney Royal Opera House.
These two musicians met on the road 3 years ago, and started jamming, gigging and touring straight away, collecting many fans on the way, from word-of-mouth. They recorded their first album, Smokestack Trilogy, in 2006. They recently hooked up with Canadian percussionist Paul Clifford, who previously toured and recorded with the Be Good Tanyas amongst others, and who adds the right amount of infectious pulse and texture with very unusual self-made instruments….
Cory was born in Brittany, France, shifting to Maryland with his parents as a child, and this lead to him loving both American and European folk music. Michael has travelled widely internationally so developing a versatile, multi-lingual approach to music making. In Romania he got to play with Gypsy music legends Taraf de Haidouks.Together The Groanbox Boys map out a common ground of European and American roots music.
Michael and Cory are skilled multi-instrumentalists who search out “forgotten” instruments that were once mainstays of the hobos and other poor people – one such is The Freedom Boot, a walking stick cum rattle that used to be a musical mainstay of the railroad camps and chain gangs of early-20th Century America. Both on record and in concert The Groanbox Boys play antique banjos, guitars and accordions, loving the resonating sound you get from these old time instruments. They have a raw style all their own, with a breezy vitality that blows the dust off.
The Groanbox Boys note that both Woody Guthrie and Django Reinhardt spent the 1930s and 40s wandering widely, playing music, singing their freedom songs. In the 21st Century The Groanbox Boys are proud to uphold this tradition.
Folk, Blues, Hillbilly, Old Time and Country, Zydeco, with a zest of Gypsy music: it’s smooth’n’rough, it’s stompin’, it’s unexpected, and is said to have ‘the power to energize everyone who comes close’.
Get energised at the following dates:
SEPTEMBER
7 The Tall Ship, Glasgow 0870 220 1116
8 Leith Folk Club, Edinburgh 0131 478 7810
9 The Old Library, Kilbarchan 01505 706070
10 The Courtyard, Kenmore 07872812251
11 Acoustic Music Club, Kirkcaldy 01592 653645
12 The Tower Theatre, Folkestone 01303 223925
13 The Square and Compass Worth Matravers, Swanage 01929 439229
14 The Arts Depot, London (1pm start) 02083695454
14 The Grey Horse, Kingston 0208 541 4328
16 Folk Club, Dartford (0)1322 222553
17 Windmill, Brixton, London – Album Launch Party!
18 The Oval Tavern, Croydon 02086866023
19 Brook's Blues Bar at the Telegraph, Putney 020 8788 2011
25 Bramwell Memorial Institute, Taddington 01926 402173
26 Millennium Hall, Preston on Stour 01926 402173
27 Community Forum, Brimington 01926 402173
28 The Rose and Crown, Charlbury 01608 810103
OCTOBER
1 Burnett's Chapel Narberth 01646-685144
2 Memorial Hall, Holsworthy 01409 253475
3 Beaford Arts, Welcombe 01805 603201
4 Beaford Arts, Taddiport 01805 603201
5 The Forge, Basingstoke 01256 844244
8 Traveller's Rest Draycott, Darby 01332872332
9 The Musician, Leicester 01162510080
10 Bronte Blues Club, Keighley 01274 583764
11 Green Note Camden, London 020 7485 9899
