demolition string band

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The Demolition String Band is the bestestwildestcraziest band I've ever been in, after The Minx (the power trio I played bass in right after college). We play all kinds of country; electric and acoustic, and I get to provide most of the material. Rhythm sections come and go but Boo has remained my partner in crime for over 10 years, and that combination, his "incenditary guitar work" (plus all the other instruments he plays) and my songs and rhythm guitar, our harmonies, and a bit of mandolin work on my part, is the Demolition String Band. We've recorded three albums, toured all over this great land of ours, and across the water to Europe a couple of times, and basically had more fun than a five year old on Christmas morning! And there's more to come........................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ .......................................The Demolition String Band is a potent mix of twangy honky tonk, bluegrass and a good strong dose of raucous rock n roll. The band grew out of the meeting of Chicago born Elena Skye, who developed a passion for Bill Monroe and Loretta Lynn while growing up and played in her first bluegrass band at the tender age of 15, and North Carolina native Boo Reiners. They both migrated to the New York City area and met in 1997 in a bookstore that Elena co-owned and managed, Blackwater Books. From music sessions in the store after hours their musical partnership was born. They soon formed The Demolition String Band and began performing, forging their country informed sound in the trenches of New York City.The Demolition String Band showcases Elena Skyes beautiful heartfelt songs, searing vocals and the incendiary string work of lean mean hillbilly machine Boo Reiners. Elena serves as lead singer, rhythm guitar player and mandolinist, with Boo playing a range of instruments including his specially customized telecaster, the baritone guitar and the banjo, while throwing in harmonies and that North Carolina charm.In 1998 Demolition String Band's debut CD "One Dog Town," produced by Greg Garing & John Sicket, was released on the Vermont based North Hollow Records. Soon Okra-Tone Records (KOCH) signed Demolition String Band and released their second album "Pulling Up Atlantis", produced by Eric Ambel, in 2001. Among the guest musicians appearing on the album was steel player Jon Graboff and Sacred Steel guitar phenom Robert Randolph. The album featured their infectious hit cover of Madonnas Like A Prayer.Pulling Up Atlantis was released by the CRS label in Europe that spring and the band began touring in Europe, performing at clubs and festivals including The Blue Highways Festival in the Netherlands and The Big Country Festival in Glasgow.They've opened for such diverse acts as Joan Osborne, Patti Smith, Asleep At The Wheel, Ricky Skaggs, Bottle Rockets, Dale Watson, Blue Highway, Donna The Buffalo, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, The Legendary Shack Shakers, and Southern Culture On The SkidsThe Demolition String Band released their third CD Where The Wild Wild Flowers Grow, The Songs Of Ola Belle Reed on Okra-tone in 2004. The album was a loving tribute to North Carolina born singer songwriter banjo pickin Ola Belle Reed. Mike Bud guested as bass player and Lisa Gutkin of the Klezmatics appeared as fiddler. The album made Meredith Ochs Rolling Stone 2004 Top Ten list, as well as various top ten lists across the country.The Demolition Stiing Band loves to foster the small but passionate country music scene in NYC and has helped bring it together by co-hosting a long running bluegrass jam first at Coney Island High and later at 9C. Their series The NYC TwangBang, was held at various fabulous clubs in NYC including The Rodeo Bar, The Contintental and The Mercury Lounge and featured local favorites as well touring bands passing through. They showcase their love of country music with standing room only tributes nights at the Rodeo Bar for folks like Creedence Clearwater Revival and Glen Campbell, featuring musical friends such as Jennifer Jackson, Freedy Johnston, Queen Esther and Chip Robinson. DSB is finishing up their fourth CD "Lovin'," recorded in Meban, NC with Rick Miller of Southern Culture On The Skids producing.-------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------"Thank you Elena Skye and Boo Reiners for honoring the late Ola Belle Reed, a remarkable banjoist, songwriter and Appalachian music legend." Rolling Stone _______________________________________ "With such enthusiastic, appreciative practitioners as the Dmeolition String Band carrying on the tradition in true form, Ola Belle's Reed's songs thankfully will remain with us in perpetuity. An excellent tribute to Reed's staying power." - Sing Out_______________________________________ "When Demolition String Band's lead singer Elena Skye first heard Ola Belle Reed's own recording of her classic song "High On A Mountain" a decade ago it lead to what might be described as an obsession. This disc is the result, a beautiful tribute to the North Carolina native and recipient of the National Endowment For The Arts National heritage Award. While Skye's voice might be a bit smoother Ola Belle Reed's, she and her band manage to evoke their tributees power and guileless delivery while bringing the music's message into the present day." - Chicago Tribune__________________________________________ "The selections emphasize the most lyrical, occasionally transcendental side to Reed's vision, her interlacing of sacred and secular themes, her personalization of blues motifs and structures, and her complete originality. The best of these songs are as good as songwriting gets, irrespective of genre, and the band's interpretations aspire to communicate those songs directly and soulfully as possible -- a modest but in no way small task." - No Depression ____________________________________________________ "Their reverence for Ola Belle Reed and her music is tangible. One listens to this artfully contructed tribute regretful of coming too late to the acoustic world to hear Reed in person. As was intended. this album will make Ola Belle Reed's musical legacy available to a new generation." - Bluegrass Now ____________________________________________________________ ___ "Elena Skye's resonant vocals exude a definite Ola Belle Reed influence, anyone familiar with the music of Ola Belle Reed will surely want to add these interpretations to their musical library" - Bluegrass Unlimited__________________________________________________N o Depression Magazine: " 'Pulling Up Atlantis' offers a blend of rock and bluesy ballads with the pumping electric country numbers, almost all of which explore very contemporary and complicated relationships, often from the view of a tough, vulnerable and resilient woman who will hang in there, maybe even thrive, despite everything..."____________Time Out New York: "A damn fine honky tonk effort and singer Elena Skye this the perfect balance between spunk and pathos that's at the heart of country. Even the hillbilly cover of Madonna's "Like A Prayer" is absolutely brilliant. Fans of the Bloodshot Label's brand of "insurgent country" will eat this one up."______________Billboard: " 'Like A Prayer' yes it's the Madonna classic here reinvented by a wondrous bluegrass styled treatment. But Skye's originals, such as "Gone So Long," show a Buck Owens Bakersfield flavor, aided immensely by Reiners stellar musicianship and co..producver Eric "Roscoe" Ambel's recognizable roots production touch..."___________Village Voice: "Live, Skye wears her heart on her sleeve and Reiners plays the hell out of his telecaster, supported by a no nonsense rhythm section."____________Santa Monica Mirror: "Skye's singing is powerful but mindful of the quiet ache in the voice that can communicate as much as a howl. The twang from Reiuners guitar is equally memorable...Skye & Reiners don't file down the rough edges and their music has a whisky wallop to it."_______________Demolition String Band Live at Utrecht, The Netherlands March 23, 2002 by Marianne Ebertowski Hair-raisingly beautiful close harmonies of a female and a male voice, searing guitar, stomping bass and that sort of drumming which you feelin your toes and stomach. Somehow that sound was too good to be true and almost too good to get into the packed hall. Once I had wormed myself in and found some space to stand among the mass of sweating bodies, the sight turned out to be even better than the sound. Center stage a cheeky looking, tight-muscled small women with a wild mess of dark hair swaying on her head along to the rhythm like some sort of exotic furry animal is teasing her mandolin as if she were Big Mon's grand-daughter on an illegal substance. They sound like Blondie meets Tammy&George, like late seventies New York meets early seventies Nashville. These guys give me goose pimples! They speed through their show like Billy Joe through Georgia on a fast train. They play songs you could sing along too, were it not that your jaws stay open in awe. And some of the lyrics are just too poetic to handle at this pace. What the hell is this? Country? Honky tonk? Hillbilly? Bluegrass ? Rock'n'roll? All wrong, because now they come up with a funky country soul version of Aretha Franklin's "Son Of A Preacher Man", just before treating us on a steamy tongue-in-cheek gospel tune ("Somebody touched me.. it must have been the hand of the Lord.") That cheeky dark-haired vocalist sings it with such a mean twinkle in her eyes that it makes us all crack up and disturbs our community singing. Suddenly, it is all over. We plead for more and the organization gives in: the blond guy unpacks his banjo and they play us a hillbilly tune with such frantic commitment that it would have made the Soggy Bottom Boys look really old. After that they have to make room for Greg Trooper and I rush to the CD-stall to buy their new album, "Pulling Up Atlantis". I put it in the CD-player as soon as I come home and that is exactly where it still is... ________________Madonna Mailing List Digest, Madonna-Related News Demolition String Band, Pulling Up Atlantis (Okra-tone)New York City boasts a fairly thriving alternative country scene -- even if a fair number of its leading lights actually reside on Springsteen's side of the Hudson. Hoboken's Demolition String Band is one such group. They used to wow 'em at Greg Garing's Alphabet City Opry with a jacked up, bluegrass-steeped take on Madonna (news - web sites)'s "Like a Prayer," and the Material Girl's song is a highlight of their second long player, Pulling Up Atlantis. Don't expect mere novelty, though. DSB frontwoman Elena Skye pens convincing honky-tonk originals, such as "Gone So Long," that will please both trad-country lovers and metro-roots rockers. Skye coaxes greenery from her urban environs in "Garden of Love" ("No cement will ever stop me/From growing this garden in love"), and utilizes a train beat and a breath of West coast country to offset the relentless grind and hustle of her workaday life on "Been Doin' Time" (co-written with Buddy Woodward of the Nitro Express). Eric "Roscoe" Ambel's production underscores the spectacular contributions of multi-instrumentalist Boo Reiners, whose deft picking is Nashville cat-worthy and whose lap steel always cries just right. This set of urbane twang is perfect for those whose hearts are in the country even though their digs are in the city.