New Sounds from an Old Friend
My former bandmate Jennie Benford, from Jim and Jennie and the Pinetops, is playing in a new band called Garbage Bear, which I think is the funniest name ever. Well, except perhaps for “Night Burglar”, a tee-shirt she probably still owns with a picture of a raccoon on it thus labeled.
When I first started playing with the Pinetops (originally the Angel Band, then the Pine Barons), it was Jim’s voice that first blew me away, a wild bellow that sounded amplified and which is just as responsible as the years of hardcore and speed metal for blowing out my ears (I’m about 75% deaf in my left ear, and my right ear’s not so hot either). But Jennie’s voice carries with it this incredible emotional weight the like of which you rarely hear. I used to watch people in the audience literally start crying in the middle of a number like “Sweeter Than the Flowers” or “Won’t You Come and Sing For me”; half the time I’d be near tears myself.
I think you’ll get an idea of what I mean in the clip below. Enjoy!
Garbage Bear, “Sly Foxes”
