Hot Club of Cowtown
ABC2, Glasgow ****
As well as coming up with one of the most appropriate entries in the band names lexicon, Hot Club of Cowtown appear to have shrunk the week into two days. The mood created by this trio based in Austin, Texas, now augmented by the judicious drumming of Damien Llanes, is generally associated with the traditional hair-letting-down nights of Friday and Saturday.
Tuesday at ABC2 certainly felt like the weekend but without the risk of a hangover, since the Hot Club offer alcohol-free intoxication.
Their name is appropriate because they have the sophistication and sizzle of Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt's Quintet du Hot Club de France but can switch, with equal accomplishment, into the darnedest, dust-raisingest hillbilly hoedown this side of the last stop on the Goodnight-Loving Trail.
Violinist Elana James's classical upbringing - she studied the Suzuki method from the age of four - offers the further ingredients of chamber music poise, an interlude fuelled by Jake Erwin's hyper-rhythmic slap bass playing that might best be described as baroque-a-billy, and a parting shot that sounded like the frantic offspring of bluegrass favourite The Orange Blossom Special and Khachaturyan's Sabre Dance.
For a band making their Glasgow debut - they played in Edinburgh under James's name a few years back - the response must have felt like confirmation that they're doing everything right. James's every spring-fingered violin solo and Whit Smith's serially hot handfuls of liquid guitar lines received roaring encouragement.
Yet when James sang a deliciously cool version of the Sophie Tucker standard 'Deed I Do and Smith delivered his slightly bashful Georgia, a respectful hush descended. Next time, they might need a bigger venue.
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