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REVIEWS Bottle Up & GoEH King, Country Western Corner "Bottle Up and Go CD is filled with 14 hits for the "Royal Pub" Group. JIM BABCOCK, JIM PIERCE, JEFF LILLEY join my friend STEVE EULBERG to party on! And, you are invited to join in as well. Songs like "Bottle Up and Go", "What the Hell", "Sticky, Sweaty", "Still Dead" are just a few samples of the fun I know you'll have singing along with this group. Aleady we are getting rave reviews and lots of airplay on radio oversease while listeners hollar for MORE!!!! Grab some beer, get the food, the gang and your instruments and join this party...." "Good stuff. Expressive singing and music that stands out. " --Rex Rideout, Colorado Owl Mountain Music is celebrating its tenth anniversary with their debut release from JimJim & te FatBoys. It was recorded in Colorado and in it they've got a mixed bag of tricks. The group includes Jim Babcock, Jim Pierce, Steve Eulberg and Jeff Lilley. These boys like their music, and they like their instruments. I never heard of so many ways to make a dulcimer. For a change, they use acoustic instruments as well as wired. They also make their own instruments. Besides Jeff building a dulcimer, the liner notes describe a box set that Jim Babcock made out of a meat-packing box. They were looking for a sound that wouldn't overpower the unamplified acoustic instruments. They work with a selection of dulcimers, guitar, electric bass and mandolin. There are no limits to the music they present on this CD, all of it great music. I thought it full of imagination and inspiration, much of it straight from life experiences. The whole thing feels like, "Let's sit on the back porch boys, and sing about what happened yesterday, and if anybody knows a good son, let's do that, too." But they're seriously good musicians and each cut is well crafted. I can't compare it to anything else I've heard in a long time. I checked out their lyrics on the website before I listened to several of the songs. Some of the lyrics without the music can look pretty dull, but add the right notes and there's something worth listening to. The music in the selections they play is not simple. They choose to play folk music in so many ways: classic Spanish guitar tunes, traditional English tunes, a pop tune, Delta blues sounds and a tinge of gospel. Their voices are rough and folksy and take a bit of getting used to, but it's part of the real sound. They share a lot of fun and frustrations in their original pieces which fit somewhere in the blues tradition. Their music is really good and I'd really like to hear them live. Here I go trying to compare them again. They're like the Irish Rovers, but without the Irish--true folk music with great musicianship. Give it a whirl if you've got a yen for a breath of fresh mountain air mixed in with beer and wives and camping stories, and hope." --Veema Kysac, Rambles.net: a cultural arts magazine
" Our whole family laughed so hard we cried when Jim [Pierce] sang "What the Hell" from Bottle Up and Go at my retirement party. That song could have been written about Larry when he takes off for Sturgis on his motorcycle and leaves me at home. I've been playing the CD in the car all week. It's great" --Joan, St. Joseph, Missouri
"My 4 year old grand-daughter wants to listen to "Fish Ain't Bitin'" every time she comes over. She knows all the words and sings along." --Ed, St. Joseph, Missouri
"My special thanx for sending the terrific JJ & the FatBoys CD. I love so much the sound of dulcimer. Our special favorites are: Bottle Up; The Lord Will Make A Way Somehow; Still Dead; Chechen Christmas; Greensleeves and Ashgrove. Beautiful music, great picking and fantastic arrangements. --Miroslaw Desperak, Institute of Technology Radio, Czestochowa, Poland.
"A well-engineered CD with great variety in the music selected. Good songs, well delivered." --Susan, Robinson, Kansas
"Do you guys really play all those instruments? I especially like the hammered dulcimer on "Roseville Fair." --Bill
"I can't wait to get back to Minnesota and share this one with my friends." --Stacy, Minnesota, at Walnut Valley Festival 2001
"Awesome. You guys can sing me to sleep any time!" --Tracy, Texas, camping neighbor at the Walnut Valley Festival.
"You've got to sing "What the Hell" for us one more time before we go home, and, you've got to write the next chapter for next year. This time the freezer broke as soon as Gary left for Winfield!" --The real Gary and Liz about whom the song was written!
"Goofiness is the order of the
day on a brand new Owl Mountain release by JimJim and the Fatboys, Bottle Up &
Go. Unlike other artists
whose vocals pale in comparison to their music; in this case,
I say, go ahead and sing...knock yourselves out. JimJim and the
Fatboys are a band of Midwesterners that hooked up with Steve
Eulberg (the album's producer) at the annual Winfield, Kansas
festival they all attend. Here, the work is mostly vocal, spinning
yarns and admitting attitudes with the turn of the phrase in mind.
You don't mind so much that the vocals are kind of rough, because
the songs are homegrown and aiming towards the light side. Tunes
like What the Hell (Winfield Song) and Fish Ain't Bitin'
are designed for the chuckle and the tapping foot, not the pensive
moment.
On Bottle Up &
Go, the material that seems out of place is the more serious stuff.
The group takes tongue out of cheek for a precious few tracks--espeically
on an instrumental reading of Greensleeves and on a reverently
religious vocal piece titled Chechen Christmas. This, however,
serves to shift the listener's attention away from the good times
it has already stoked up. That's like dropping a scene of Shakespeare
into the middle of a Monty Python movie. Well, maybe not that
bizarre, but something like that. I think JimJim and the Fatboys
have a serious-side album in them, but this production begs to
keep it light and keep it friendly. So okay, a couple of introspective
songs get thrown in, but for the most part, this is an album full of character,
humor and the joy of rhyme."
--Tim Van Schmidt,
Riff Magazine
Radio Airplay:
Radio Zenith, BELGIUM DJ: Jesse W. James, has played "Roseville Fair" , "The Lord Will Make A Way Somehow" and "My Woman, " and "Still Dead."
Institute of Technology Radio, Czestochowa, POLAND DJ: Miroslaw Desperak has played Bottle Up; The Lord Will Make A Way Somehow; Still Dead; Chechen Christmas; Greensleeves and Ashgrove.
The Netherlands DJ began his first hour of new releases with What the Hell? and closed his second hour (Traditional & Favorites) with Sticky, Sweaty.
DJ Antonin Foglar, CZECH REPUBLIK writes: "I thank you for the CD JimJim & the FatBoys--Bottle Up & Go" this collection was interesting although I'm not a lover of this kind of music."
Peelstar Country Club, THE NETHERLANDS, played "What the Hell?"
Frequence Mutine 103.8, Brest, FRANCE, played Running on US Thanksgiving Day!
DJ Giovanni Pietro Scazzoli, Radio Gold Popolare, ITALY, has played Roseville Fair, Zen Song, Running, My Woman, Greensleeves, Bottle Up & Go, What the Hell? Sticky, Sweaty and Still Dead.
Jean Castro, Radio Frequence Verte, FRANCE, has played Bottle Up & Go, The Lord Will Make a Way and Greensleeves.
DJ Alain Demers, FRANCE has played What the Hell?
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