The Tarbox Ramblers' newest effort, their sophomore A Fix Back East is a stark, cinematic firestorm of Michael Tarbox originals. By turns elegant and nerve-endingly raw, A Fix Back East charts the thickets and narcotic backwaters of need, desire and regret - a country where longing and loss mingle in an undertow as threatening as it compelling. The album marks a major transition for the band as it moves in a darker direction, experimenting with a sound that is increasingly confrontational, tender and brash.
The Boston-based group's self-titled first CD was a riveting, full-onslaught exploration of the ancient blues close to the band's heart; its white-lightning intensity and bursting-at-the-seams joy garnered critical raves and earned the band a national following. Now, with A Fix Back East, Tarbox has absorbed and personalized his influences, and introduces something new -- a slew of tough, shadowy original songs exploding with imaginative energy.
The results are stunning. From the incendiary "Already Gone" through the harrowing understatement of "Ashes to Ashes," Tarbox builds on the promise of the first Ramblers CD, taking no prisoners as he explores new terrain. Check out "From The Algiers Station," a fierce, dark gem with a jackhammer heart; or the otherworldly spell of the title track, or Tarbox’s stricken vocal in the blistering, shattered "Honey Babe." Surveying the outlying districts of heaven, traveling the blast-furnace precincts of hell, these searing, intimate songs mark Tarbox's arrival. A Fix Back East also pays homage to several of the band’s influences, most notably with its take of Dock Boggs's "Country Blues."
Recorded in Memphis and Boston, A Fix Back East benefits from the sonic wisdom of producers Jim Dickinson, Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie. Dickinson oversaw the Memphis sessions at the heart of the album. Tarbox describes the process: "One of the first things Jim told me was that he loves to record musicians meeting for the first time, playing songs they’ve never heard. That made sense to me; taking chances with unfamiliar songs, and flirting with the unknown as a way of getting to something new, has always been important to The Ramblers. So we ran through the new songs for the first time in the studio - nothing had been rehearsed, and we learned them as we went - and cut everything in a few takes. We didn't second-guess our impulses. When things got shaky, Dickinson's sense of the moment came to the fore; he made sure we let things happen. What seemed least certain as we recorded had the most magic on tape."
A Fix Back East features the contributions of: Michael Tarbox, guitar and vocals; Johnny Sciascia, stringbass and vocals; Daniel Kellar, violin; and Alan Sheinfeld, Howie Ferguson and Robert Hulsman, drums.
