© Adam Granger
REVIEW OF TABLE FOR ONE, THE MIDDLE SPUNK CREEK BOYS
ADAM GRANGER 10-26-00
In the early 70s, when I lived in Arkansas and Nashville, I used to read in Bluegrass Unlimited about this joint called Dulono’s and a band that played there called The Middle Spunk Creek Boys. When I moved up here in 1974, they were the first band I found (I went to hear them play at Hamline University). In short, The Middle Spunk Creek Boys have been around since Demosthenes was gargling rocks. Well, okay, not all of them, but I defy you to guess which ones are the originals.
Bands as venerable as the Spunks carry a huge potential for crustiness. I mean, these guys could just as easily be doing Fox on the Run on the Old Goat circuit; believe me, that’s a constant temptation for all of us older musicians. It’s particularly gratifying, then, to find that they’ve created an album as fine as Table for One.
Guitarist Alan Jespersen, mandolinist Bruce Jaeger and bassist Jerry Flynn have been Spunks forever. The addition a couple of years ago of Madison transplant Mark Kreitzer gave these three stalwarts a shot in the collective arm. Kreitzer gives The Middle Spunk Boys a new sound and feel and heralds their fourth or fifth major incarnation. That his entry into Spunkdom would shake the clubhouse rafters is inevitable, since he’s a prolific songwriter and plays about three thousand instruments. As for the other three, it’s as though they said, “Oh, you’re gonna be that good, eh? Well, four can play this game.” The result is that I’ve never heard any of these guys play or sing better.
The fourteen cuts on “Table for One” reflect the current Spunk’s depth and breadth. Nine of the songs are Kreitzer compositions (told you he was prolific), and run the range from He Died Alone, about his dad, to Little Willie’s Return: imagine a Child Ballad about Columbine. Be not misled, however: This album is not The Mark Kreitzer Story.
Jespersen’s vocals are topnotch and his rhythm guitar playing, always great, is super this time out; Jaeger contributes a spiffy instrumental, Spirit Island, which is the dynamic highlight of the album, and does yeoman duty on his tenor, low tenor and baritone vocal work; and Jerry Flynn surprises and inspires with his rendition of Roll On John, which tips its hat to The Greenbriar Boys’ arrangement of forty years ago, before cruising gamely into Spunkland. The Spunks’ vocal abilities shine and dominate throughout, in combinations from solo to four-part; standouts are He Died Alone and Over in the Glory Land.
Table for One has its fair share of little surprises, like the bodhran on The Erlking, played by engineer Leo Whitebird’s son Robin, and the swell 45-second fade at the end of Kreitzer’s Luther and Angie (Oops. Now they’re not surprises anymore. . .)
Finally, let’s talk about Table for One’s cover: the image of the four Spunks sitting, each alone, at tables in a restaurant seems at first parodic and invites a response of laughter, but as the irony in the image emerges, more challenging emotions are ordered up. And, the fact that the restaurant is Dulono’s is just plain fun.
Congratulations, Middle Spunk Creek Boys. Your bullet-dodging and rock-gargling have paid off. You’ve done some serious hard work, and it shows. Great album, boys.
ADAM GRANGER 10-26-00
In the early 70s, when I lived in Arkansas and Nashville, I used to read in Bluegrass Unlimited about this joint called Dulono’s and a band that played there called The Middle Spunk Creek Boys. When I moved up here in 1974, they were the first band I found (I went to hear them play at Hamline University). In short, The Middle Spunk Creek Boys have been around since Demosthenes was gargling rocks. Well, okay, not all of them, but I defy you to guess which ones are the originals.
Bands as venerable as the Spunks carry a huge potential for crustiness. I mean, these guys could just as easily be doing Fox on the Run on the Old Goat circuit; believe me, that’s a constant temptation for all of us older musicians. It’s particularly gratifying, then, to find that they’ve created an album as fine as Table for One.
Guitarist Alan Jespersen, mandolinist Bruce Jaeger and bassist Jerry Flynn have been Spunks forever. The addition a couple of years ago of Madison transplant Mark Kreitzer gave these three stalwarts a shot in the collective arm. Kreitzer gives The Middle Spunk Boys a new sound and feel and heralds their fourth or fifth major incarnation. That his entry into Spunkdom would shake the clubhouse rafters is inevitable, since he’s a prolific songwriter and plays about three thousand instruments. As for the other three, it’s as though they said, “Oh, you’re gonna be that good, eh? Well, four can play this game.” The result is that I’ve never heard any of these guys play or sing better.
The fourteen cuts on “Table for One” reflect the current Spunk’s depth and breadth. Nine of the songs are Kreitzer compositions (told you he was prolific), and run the range from He Died Alone, about his dad, to Little Willie’s Return: imagine a Child Ballad about Columbine. Be not misled, however: This album is not The Mark Kreitzer Story.
Jespersen’s vocals are topnotch and his rhythm guitar playing, always great, is super this time out; Jaeger contributes a spiffy instrumental, Spirit Island, which is the dynamic highlight of the album, and does yeoman duty on his tenor, low tenor and baritone vocal work; and Jerry Flynn surprises and inspires with his rendition of Roll On John, which tips its hat to The Greenbriar Boys’ arrangement of forty years ago, before cruising gamely into Spunkland. The Spunks’ vocal abilities shine and dominate throughout, in combinations from solo to four-part; standouts are He Died Alone and Over in the Glory Land.
Table for One has its fair share of little surprises, like the bodhran on The Erlking, played by engineer Leo Whitebird’s son Robin, and the swell 45-second fade at the end of Kreitzer’s Luther and Angie (Oops. Now they’re not surprises anymore. . .)
Finally, let’s talk about Table for One’s cover: the image of the four Spunks sitting, each alone, at tables in a restaurant seems at first parodic and invites a response of laughter, but as the irony in the image emerges, more challenging emotions are ordered up. And, the fact that the restaurant is Dulono’s is just plain fun.
Congratulations, Middle Spunk Creek Boys. Your bullet-dodging and rock-gargling have paid off. You’ve done some serious hard work, and it shows. Great album, boys.
