Rating: NNN
The dickel brothers Volume Two (Empty) Rating: NNNLike Toronto’s Backstabbers, the Dickel Brothers of Portland, Oregon, bring a youthful exuberance to old-timey string band music. But whereas the ‘Stabbers have dedicated long hours to developing a unique sound, the Dickels take the punk-rock approach of just bashing their way through.
For their Volume Two album, designed to look like a County label reissue, the Dickels rip apart tunes by Riley Puckett, Gid Tanner, Charlie Poole and Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith with a roughhousing abandon that could’ve been recorded complete in one take without a break. The Dickels won’t win many picking contests, but their rawness is a refreshing departure from the machinelike virtuosity to which many old timey revivalists aspire.TP
For their Volume Two album, designed to look like a County label reissue, the Dickels rip apart tunes by Riley Puckett, Gid Tanner, Charlie Poole and Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith with a roughhousing abandon that could’ve been recorded complete in one take without a break. The Dickels won’t win many picking contests, but their rawness is a refreshing departure from the machinelike virtuosity to which many old timey revivalists aspire.TP
