Shenandoah and the Night - Shenandoah and the Night EP Review

Richly coloured with eerie cries in the night, this astonishingly magnificent debut E.P. offers up soft folk, rhythm blues, old country, and bright doo wop. More than just a respectful nod to the past, the five songs here, by this New York City based outfit, make a statement of genuine adoration of musical and theatrical times gone by.

Fronted by lead singer and songwriter Shenandoah Ableman, Shenandoah and the Night create a highly dynamic hybrid of distinctly American roots music with a clear modernist edge. At times reveling in comforting familiar musical arrangements and melodies, Shenandoah and the Night swiftly steer songs toward lesser-traveled dirt roads of dark shadowy chords and weeping vocals.

Ableman's voice vacillates between operatic extravagance and warm folk crooning as songs like 'All the Beautiful Ladies' and 'These Arms' flow like an antique soundtrack to some backwoods road show while others like 'So Long' and 'Dink's Song' bring Jackie Wilson and other legendary vocal groups of the fifties back to life.

Francisco H. Ciriza