Scrod Pudding’s Food For Your Feet

foodcovOne of the first things I liked and found amusing about this album was the band’s name: Scrod Pudding. Well, for years I’ve been one of the Marrowbones and I’ve had to endure the endless and sometimes embarrassing jokes people make about the name (everybody wants to be a comedian in this part of the world). I wonder if Scrod Pudding gets the same treatment.

A scrod pudding, in case you were wondering, is a fish custard baked in a hollowed out artichoke, and served hot and spicy. But the Scrod Pudding on this album is a different kettle of fish….they turn out to be a five member band from Bowdoinham, Maine. U.S.A. They play traditional dance music of New England, French Canada and southern Appalachia, and pretty damn good it is too.

I found Food For Your Feet very refreshing to listen to, and true to it’s name it certainly gets your feet tapping. Most of the tracks are instrumentals but there are 3 songs to add a little bit of variety because Contradance music is, as it’s name implies, dance music. I don’t profess to be an authority on Contradance music, but that doesn’t matter if you can just listen and enjoy!

The band are: Greg Anderson on hammered dulcimer — I have to say Greg is one of the best exponents of this instrument I have heard, Pam Weeks on fiddle and Appalachian dulcimer, Eric Weest Johnson on guitar, Jim Joseph on banjo, mandolin, button accordion and Bill Olson on string bass. From these instruments you will begin to get an idea of their sound, and if I say that Contradance rhythms tend to lean towards Bluegrass Old Timey but with a little more zest, you’ll get the picture. The band is very tight and plays extremely well. The polyphony and interplay between the instrument is very good and the switch from the hammered dulcimer, to the button accordion, then the fiddle or banjo, all works very well.

I was delighted to get this album, mainly because I had never heard of Scrod Pudding and as this album was their own release recorded back in 1995, it may be difficult to find. I suspect they never received they notoriety they so rightly deserve. If you can find a copy of this album somewhere and you are into Ceilidh or Contradance music, buy it quick, it is beautifully recorded and you won’t be disappointed.

(Self-released, 1995)

You can find a website for Scrod Pudding here, with details of the Contradances in Bowdionham Town Hall and details of how to get the CD.

Peter Massey

Born in 1945, Peter Massey, Senior Writer, is now living in the city of Chester, England with his wife Sandra. Now medically retired he worked for 35 years in the shoe business. He has been a semi-professional musician and singer performing mainly traditional / contemporary folk songs for over 38 years as part of the duo (and sometimes trio) 'The Marrowbones'. His musical interest started at the age of 14 with Rock 'n' Roll and by the time his seventeenth birthday came along he was already playing rock 'n' roll and R&B in and around the local dance venues and clubs such as the Cavern in Liverpool. Thankfully he was saved from the evils of rock 'n' roll when he discovered real music and folk clubs. His collection of recordings houses over 3500 folk songs alone. Other interests and hobbies include Computers and Amateur Radio (he has a class A G4 call sign) His latest project is 'The Little Room Studio' dedicated to making 'live' recordings of folk artists and producing their work on to CD using a portable digital recording studio. To date he has written and composed over 12 folk songs and co-wrote with Gordon Morris another 10 that have been recorded on CD. The song writing has continued and they have another 10 songs in the pipeline not yet recorded to CD. Favourite music / bands at the moment are Steeleye Span, The Battlefield Band, Little Johnny England and Fairport Convention, (in that order), and much admires the work of Martin Carthy, Martin Simpson, Roy Bailey, Vin Garbutt, and Bob Fox, to name but a few! You can visit the crummy Web site here and read about The Marrowbones and how to get your free songbook.

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