Press Kits
For a full online press kit, click here.
Groanbox Bio (pdf)
Groanbox Press Photo (Color) Photo by
Nick Sinclair
Groanbox Press Photo 2 (Color) Photo by
Nick Sinclair
Groanbox Press Photo 3 (B&W) Photo
by Harry Kalish
Groanbox do not own the copyright to these photos. Please make sure to
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Articles and Reviews
2010
With touches of Africa, the Balkans and Siberia bleeding into their wayward Americana, and full-blooded singing that wouldn’t have disgraced Levon Helm in his pomp, these global good ol’ boys could be onto a winning formula. -Mark Hudson, The Telegraph June 13, 2010. Read the four star review here.
If they ever transfer Twin Peaks II to New Orleans this could be the soundtrack...There is an undeniably New Orleans-Cajun feel throughout but I could just as easily tell you that Livingston Sessions sounds like Seasick Steve jamming with Gogol Bordello or Dr. John jamming with the Handsome Family... -Maverick, July 2010. Read the three star review here.
Opening with the early Ry Cooder styled stomp and pick dance of Muddy Shoals, these 16 tracks cover a wealth of cultures, from the Cajun reggae of Beat Bush Hunter and Oyster Lease’s African banjo-backed accordion invention, to Sugar On My Pencil’s lascivious blues and Peasant Under Grass’s suggestion of Hoagy Carmichael and Lowell George collaborating in the afterlife. Great stuff. -Rob Adams, The Herald, June 7, 2010. Read the album review here.
Groanbox flout conventions, alternating between an accordion sound that conjures up Parisian cafes one moment and Clifton Chenier at his bluesiest the next, utilising a pre civil war banjo or using a tree-log as a drum, flitting between reggae and atonal sounds, American folk music and Tuvan throat singing, and sometimes with very conscious, stylised vocals or at other times unadorned backwoods singing. Totally intriguing and with lots of energy. -Norman Darwen, Blues Art Journal. Read the review here.
The voices and the phrasings are uncommon and Groanbox seem to have picked up influences from all over...I can’t think of a minute of this collection of songs that I wasn’t riveted – either crying with the emotion of it all or stretching my brain trying to understand what was being done next. They have taken the opportunity of a 'proper’ studio to create a sound that is slightly more professional and they have kept their eclectic and anarchic nature while doing so – I’m impressed by the talent and lost in admiration at their music. -Andy Snipper, Music-News.com, May 10, 2010. Read the four-star review here.
...Two Americans and a Canadian, offering an extraordinarily fresh mix of music, instruments, styles and content...The songs were stunning – mainly observations on life rather than romance, and plenty of classic US railroad references...There was also clear evidence of musical influence from other continents. The seats were all taken, with a number of people standing/sitting on the staircase. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed it. Well done the Milton Rooms – more of this please. -John Collins, Gazette and Herald, May 12, 2010. Read the live review here.
The North American world roots outfit formerly known as the Groanbox Boys may have expanded to a trio and shortened their name, but their approach is as adventurous as ever...This is Americana with a twist, from the clash of bluegrass banjo with moody, experimental accordion on Doing the Laundry, to the throat singing and folk systems music of Tuvan Voodoo, to the atmospheric, fife-backed blues of I Was Born or the stomping Oyster Lease. Groanbox are true originals. -Robin Denselow, The Guardian, April 29, 2010. Read the 4-star review here.
...Recorded live, this is certainly a treat for roots ears. Employing an eclectic set of instruments that include gourd banjo, calabash, keys, tin cans and a rudimentary drum hewn from a Yew log, they explore a wide ranging tapestry of world music, channeling them into a meld of dusty folk blues stomp and raw spirituals. -Mike Davies, NetRhythms.co.uk, April 2010. Read the review here
Groanbox...manage to concoct a tellingly original branch of Americana that they can justifiably call their own. And the trademark Groanbox sense of gleeful-yet-controlled abandon that often still threatens to topple over the edge – well that’s all present and wilfully correct, in happy abundance, with the eccentricity-fascination quotient easily maintained in tandem with Groanbox’s excellent musicianship over this new album’s glorious hour-long span. Tremendous stuff! -David Kidman, FolkandRoots.co.uk, April/May 2010. Read the review here.
2009
A pair of LSE/Johns Hopkins and Berklee graduates plus an academically trained percussionist cast as a trio of shamanistic gypsies singing the ethno-musicological blues might seem a stretch. But the proof is in the grooves and here they're dub-deep thanks to Michael Ward-Bergeman's accordion, tweaked to Augustus Pablo/King Tubby-strength melodica melancholy and seismic boom. Within this frame, the three scrape, strum, rattle and hum their sundry calabashes, zob sticks and the rest of the global busker's arsenal. Road mileage has roughened their first two splendid sets, Smokestack Trilogy, and Fences Come Down, and if they keep taking the creeping yew, chicken feet and deer bone, their songs should reach the spell-binding intensity of theatrical primitivism to which they so entertainingly aspire. -Mat Snow, Mojo, December 2009, on Gran Bwa. Read it here.
Groanbox are virtuoso instrumentalists and while joyous in performance, make no mistake, they're passionately serious about the music they make... -from an interview with Dave Peabody, fRoots, Nov/Dec 2009.
Gran Bwa, their third album, is a stomping, grungy delight. The trio’s brand of Americana has less to do with the traditional backwoods fare than with the mongrelisation of several musical strands into something that can only be described as shamanic. You get the feeling that a large amount of this material was born out of extended sessions round a fire in the dead of night. Equal parts blues, zydeco and brutish hoedown, songs with titles like ‘Poison At The Tolbooth’, ‘Beneath A Dark Veil Of Needles’ or ‘Deer Bone In The Mansion’ use repeated surreal phrases and snippets that are grunted, whispered and yelped to summon sylvan ghosts. Clifford’s thumping accompaniment on bones, twigs and even the enigmatic ‘freedom boot’ raises the titular spirit of the woods while Ward-Bergeman’s groanbox wheezes and Seznec’s strings supply a fluid, delicate continuum. It’s spooky but also often hilarious. If there are immediate comparisons to be made it’s with the transposed delta blues of Captain Beefheart or junkyard grind of Tom Waits. It’s dirty, unwashed and tremendous fun. -Chris Jones, Songlines, October 2009, on Gran Bwa. Selected as a Top of the World album.
The palette of unexpected sounds they deploy in the service of their rootsy Americana grows wider and more fascinating every day...This is a work filled with strangeness and charm and confirms Groanbox as one of the most interesting bands around... -Jeremy Searle, R2 Rock'n'Reel, Sept-Oct 2009 on Gran Bwa. Read the four star album review.
Their music is a melting pot of styles from Nashville to New Orleans,
Mali to Romania, anchored by the "Freedom Boot" – a shamanistic six-foot
stomping stick carrying bells, nails, rings and over 400 beer bottle tops
picked up on their travels. The group visited the BBC's Maida Vale studios in
London at the end of their recent UK tour last month to perform four songs,
including material from their new album, Gran Bwa.
Watching the session, Mary Ann describes percussionist Paul Clifford as some
voodoo hybrid of a magpie in his nest and Doc Brown from "Back To The
Future". Presenter: Mary Ann Kennedy, Producer: Felix Carey, BBC World
on 3, August 2009.
Their third album moves the sound of last year's much praised Fences Come Downtowards Tom Waits's clanking junkyard and comes with shamanic overtones - the title refers to a voodoo spirit... -Neil Spencer, The Observer (The Guardian), August 2009, on Gran Bwa. Read the album review.
Eccentric, weird, brilliant, and certainly their best batch yet. -David Kidman, Netrhythms.co.uk, June 2009, on Groanbox's latest album Gran Bwa. Read the album review.
An eclectic offering that first takes on the grumpy, rustic temperament of Tom Wait's Swordfishtrombones, only to veer into shamanic gypsy trance...An amazingly successful meld of folk styles and traditions, with a heavy sprinkling of inventiveness.. -Helen Keen, Maverick, May 2009. Read the full feature here: Page 1 and Page 2.
...it was percussionist Paul Clifford who held ones attention. With a calabash (gourd shell), an old piece of a yew tree and various implements he unleashed a torrent of sounds. Hammering, stroking, hitting, whistling and eventually grabbing their Freedom boot (a six foot pole garnished with 420 bottle caps, a boot and fetish symbols) he was at times shamanistic. -Paul Kerr, Americana UK, April 2009. Read the full feature here.
Bruce MacGregor has been waxing lyrical about the Groanbox Boys for the past year. I was expecting well-played bluegrass, maybe a bit hokey, but definitely authentic and well-played. I was thus completely unprepared for the reality, which is almost impossible to describe. The set swooped and soared from Nick Cave to Dr John the Night Tripper via Paul Simon’s Graceland, veering occasionally into Trent Reznor territory and suddenly heading back to Maryland as though butter wouldn’t melt in its mouth. File under E for Extraordinarily Excellent. -Jennie Macfie, Hi-Arts. Read the full review here.
A return to eclecticism that hasn't been in style since the heyday of psychedelia...The mix may be dazzling, but Ward-Bergeman and Seznec's antique tools and precocious dexterity give the whole a coherence that grounds it. This is an album that celebrates the joys of life without boundaries, and wonderful stuff it is too. -Chris Jones, Songlines, March 2009. Read the album review.
...Totally unique - take Darling Lou, a song that somehow manages to sound like a prohibition-era American ballad driven by French café accordion music overseen by the ghost of Django Reinhardt. -Dave Haslam, Rock n Reel Jan-Feb 2009. Read the album review.
2008
Found instruments, playing found music, music that is genuinely unique although firmly grounded in traditional folk and blues. Being inspired is one thing, but making inspiring music is another, and the two don't always go together. With the Groanbox Boys though there's never a moment when their music isn't inspired. They draw the listener into their world, a world where music is more primal, more connected to the earth and whose vibrations reach right down inside them and touch their very core. Their latest album, Fences Come Down, couldn't be more aptly named, as the Boys recognise no boundaries, no limit to what they play, the sounds they make, or what separates them from their audience. Truly one of those nights. -Jeremy Searle, Maverick. Read the full live review.
Full of hillbilly, hobo blues, and banjo frenzy...also resurrected are period instruments, such as the freedom boot and shackles, employed as advocates to the 1930s and 1940s wandering freedom songs. Lively, entertaining, intriguing, at times melancholy, and at other times vibrant, there is an enjoyable ride to be had here on this train..." -Russell Welton, Acoustic Magazine. Read the album review.
Utterly individual...one of the roots albums of the year. -Andy Snipper, Blues Matters. Read the album review.
The infectious energy the band generate proves irresistible...There's a simplicity to bashing away at gourd skins and tree stumps, although such accessibility disguises the sophistication of the band's music. -Alfred Hickling, The Guardian. Read the feature here.
Read a live review from Blues in Britain.
Read an article and see a video from a Yorkshire school workshop here.
Itinerant road songs for the new austerity. -Tim Cumming, The Independent. Read the four star review.
Describing them simply as American roots musicians really wouldn't cover it. They play with such a variety of influences, often within a single piece, that no genre would be able to contain them...the emotion was on display for all to hear and feel. -Martin Lennon, The Scotsman. Read the full article here.
Now, I have just come across the next duo, and there is so much to say that I am gonna leave it to another program. They have a completely new, completely different take on the music. They are simply amazing! – Mike Harding, BBC Radio 2 (27th August 2008).
An extraordinary mix of European and American folk styles - like Uncle Dave Macon dancing on the tables in a Parisian cafe with Django Reinhardt and Clifton Chenier riffing in the background. Alfred Hickling, The Guardian. Read the four star review of Fences Come Down.
A rich sound with Seznec pulling vintage, deeply characterful tones from guitar and a fretless-sounding gourd-banjo, and Ward-Bergeman adding longing counterpoint as Clifford applies a hammer to a yew log or plays with brushes ( as in paint, rather than the standard drummer's issue)...An arresting blend of sophistication, foot-stompin' bonhomie and furious harmonica storms... -Rob Adams, The Herald. Read it here.
Multi-cultural eclecticism, dynamic performances and a joyous, foot-tapping folk heart... Rich but relaxed, vibrant but subtle, Fences Come Down is highly recommended to those who love colourful and characterful roots music. -HC, Maverick Magazine
Every now and then, a musical experience comes your way that makes you sit up and listen and do a sort of aural double-take, like the sort of thing you used to see in those old cartoons; a real 'huh!!" experience. This CD is one of those. Not blues, not folk, not even really any specific kind of American roots music, more like all of the above and then some. -Ian M, review of Fences Come Down for Blues in the South
On the Freedom Boot: It's a percussion instrument to us but between all the stuff that people have given us to put in the bag and all the theoretical and historical stuff that's been attached to it, it's become pretty heavy both physically and spiritually. -From Michael's interview with Rob Adams, The Herald
We try to make a point of creating a recording that's indicative of the way we sound live - capturing that energy. -from the Metro's 5 questions with...Read it here
...The music was considerably more interesting than duelling banjos however, with Michael Ward-Bergeman's accordion combining well with Cory Seznec's varied stringed instruments to touch on gipsy music and all points south, including Cajun. -Paul Rhodes, The Press. Read it here.
Folk, Blues, Hillbilly, Old Time and Country, Zydeco, with a zest of Gypsy music: it's smooth'n'rough, it's stompin', it's unexpected, and is said to have 'the power to energize everyone who comes close' -Jill Turner for Gondwana Sound
...the Boys' sheer exuberance - not to mention the fascinating and enthralling sounds they conjure from the simplest of means - wins me over completely. - David Kidman, Netrhythms.co.uk, review of Fences Come Down
There are acoustic-guitar- picking folk groups, there are accordion-pounding Gypsy troupes, there are harmonica-blowing blues combos and gourd-banjo-frailing world-music troubadours; there are even, probably, musicians who carry six-foot-high percussion sticks around with them. But there is surely no musical partnership that brings all of the above together as bracingly as the Groanbox Boys. -Ben Chu, The Independent, tour preview. Read it here
2007 and prior
The music is absolutely enthralling and goes deep into the roots of popular music... -The Archer, East Finchley, London
What makes the Groanbox Boys unique and might explain their success is their distinct instrumentation... -Amandine Surier, Martha's Vineyard Times
What a revelation The Groanbox Boys proved to be last Tuesday! In my humble opinion they were one of the best acts we've had at the club in a long time.....and boy that's saying something. Several people turned their noses up when I said this was an accordion led duo.....but it simply worked.....wonderful vocal harmonies, unusual arrangements but beautifully played and a real old mix of stuff.....from almost Parisian Jazz to deep Mississippi Blues detouring to The Appalachians on the way. -John Adams, The Bottleneck Blues Club.
Dig underneath the fingernail of modern popular music and you get to the quick. There - in the raw, living, tissue - is where you'll find the Groanbox Boys. It's not a show. It's life. - Ben Chu, The Independent
An excellent release that brings us the world of the train, the hobo and the American past. This is old time foot stomping American blues played on accordion, acoustic guitar, banjo, piano and harmonica. My pick is "Hobo Heaven" a track full of feeling. Very good. -Graham Radley, Basic Soul and World Unlimited
The Groanbox Boys' recent release, Smokestack Trilogy, is a wonderful trip through American music, taking music from sixty and seventy years ago and putting a modern sheen to it. Throughout, the interplay between Ward-Bergman's accordion and Seznec's banjo is simply superb. Smokestack Trilogy has something special to offer fans of American Roots music. The Groanbox Boys touch on a variety of styles with this release and the results are outstanding. -Graham Clarke, Blues Bytes Magazine
If somebody would have told me that I'd be having a ball listening to an accordion-banjo duo I wouldn't have believed it! You guys are fabulous, creating a totally new and fresh sound. Interesting lyrics and strong vocals are also your advantages. "Smokestack Trilogy" is one hell of a roots music disc! It will be my pleasure to feature your music in my shows. I'm sure my listeners will enjoy it as much as I do! -Przemek Draheim, Radio Sfera, blues.pl/draheim
Smokestack Trilogy is a fine musical journey! My wife and I were putting up a Christmas tree when I slipped it into the player. For the first couple of cuts we kept working away, exchanging glances every few seconds and then stopped working, sat down and just listened as hard as we could. My wife wants me to tell you that she was enthralled with your music. I think that pretty well sums up my first impression too. The way you guys put the arrangements together and the unusual mix of tonalities was so original and fresh. I kept saying to myself as I listened, "where in the world is this going? it's not going to work". But it always did work. The surprises just kept coming. I can tell you for sure that the CD will get a lot of play around here. I've got a collection of six or seven albums with guys playing banjos I've made. Yours means the most to me as it demonstrates how new energy and creativity can always be added to the mix of traditionally based music. Congratulations! -Bob Thornburg, renowned banjo maker, gourdbanjo.com
Technically gifted players and masters of their material, the Groanbox Boys sing and play with an enviable spirit and a love of their traditions whether in folk songs, mountain songs, blues or rags. -Renato Belardinelli, accordions.com. Read the full review of Smokestack Trilogy on accordions.com
Pure entertainment...One could close one's eyes and be in the Mississippi Delta on an old fashioned paddle steamer...the Freedom Boot is an amazing piece of percussion...The tracks are well ordered, fluctuating between slow and melodic and fiery and furiously fast...They are crazy guys and this comes across on the CD. It is produced so well it almost seems as if they are in the room with you. -Helen Jones, from a 10 out of 10 review of Smokestack Trilogy that appeared in Blues in Britain
