Last week Scrapomatic rolled out their third CD Sidewalk Caesars, and once again progenitors Mike Mattison and Paul Olsen are bringing the spirit of mid-twentieth century folk blues to the early twenty-first century.
There's not a shortage of acts out there bringing the roots music to a more contemporary audience, a trend I welcome, by the way. Swamp Cabbage and Paul Thorn are just a couple of other examples we highlighted here. Everyone's got their own unique approach to roots music these days. Mattison and Olsen get it done primarily by excelling in the songwriting and singing department.
Since their days playing together in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area during the mid-nineties, Mattison (vocals) and Olsen (vocals, guitar) have forged a musical partnership writing songs and performing together that took them to New York in 1997. Years of steady gigging in the NYC area culminated in their first album six years later.
When the Derek Trucks Band made Mattison their lead vocalist back in 2002, it was the equivalent of Derek Trucks' Jeff Beck belatedly finding his Rod Stewart with Mattison. Mattison's pipes are intense, moderately raspy but pliable, which brought the perfect soulful and hard rocking vocal complement to Trucks' highly distinctive, southern-fried guitar attack. There's just as much reason to listen to Mattison as there is Trucks on DTB's widely cheered Songlines from a couple of years ago, and that's saying a lot.
Olsen takes a less visible role in the band but it's just as important. He lends songwriting acumen, some Delta guitar, and a singing voice that isn't a strong as Mattison's---few are---but provides a nice counterpoint and backing. When Scrapomatic is on hiatus, Olsen stays busy as a bandleader in New York.
Scrapomatic is a band with a cool name and the music to match. While 2003's self-titled debut was a fine start, Sidewalk Caesars is rootsier and much more focused (I haven't had the opportunity to listen to the second album, Alligator Love Cry, quite yet).
Lyrically speaking, the focus is often on excessive libating ("find me in the drink house, three sheets to the wind," "drinking all that liquor, man I never been sicker," "a young man got his shoes wet in a drunken revival"). There's also tales of heartache ("Long Gone") and yearning ("He Called My Name," "I Want the Truth").
Through it all, the spirit of the Delta music from guys like Howlin' Wolf, Skip James, and Mississippi John Hurt shine through in a somewhat more contemporary setting.
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