Just Released!
Left
Turn at Albuquerque
The third album by the
critically-acclaimed Western Swing artists The Curio Cowboys!
There was a time... 1949. You are dancing with your
sweetheart, cheek to cheek, your bodies circling the dance floor in
tandem with the dozens of other couples swinging sweetly to the music,
the large saloon alive with life and love and heat and post war
attitude, the best time to be alive and young in the Duke City.
Welcome to Albuquerque at the height of the Western Swing era, famous
for Bug's left toin, a large vibrant cowtown pulsing with the heat,
trains, dust, dogs, horses, cars, booze, standing high on the High Mesa.
It is Saturday night. On the downtown stretch of the great Route 66
known as Central, the work week is finally done and you have come to
dance and to swing. This is the place and the time the Curios live in
when they make music, playing songs from the great songbook that is
Western Swing.
John Feldman, leader of the Band and possessed with an encyclopedic
passion for the sound and groove of that time, reminds that many of the
songs you hear here have not been played or heard for easily 60 years or
more, lost in the dustbin of the pre-rock American songbook.
What glorious music was made, once upon a
time!
The Curios exist to inhabit those songs again, to take you to a place
that is genuine, rooted and worthy, a place to take your sweetie
dancing. Yes, Bugs, long ago you should have taken that turn at the Duke
City, so sit back and listen and transport yourself to that best time.
These songs reflect the musical imprint of the Curios during the years
from 2002-2011, recorded in studio, home and live settings with great
musicians delighted to make sweet, happy music in the best tradition of
an earlier time.
Enjoy! -Jay Rosenblum
We are pleased to present our newest recording,
Left Turn At Albuquerque, which captures what we have sounded like
since our last disc,
Ticket to Albuquerk (still available on Amazon.com), and what we
sound like when you come out to hear us or when you book us for your
next event that calls for a swinging Western dance band.
Left Turn At Albuquerque is our nod to Bugs Bunny's
famous running gag. We agree with Bugs; he should have turned here
starting in the 1940's when he began uttering his exasperated
catch-phrase. If Bugs had turned here during the last five years, he
would have been able to hear a group of talented musicians who try to
preserve the sound of the many regional bands that played Western Swing.
The Curio Cowboys are fortunate to be able to play our vast body of
Western Swing tunes, and to have players like the great Fiddlin' Doc
Gonzales of Fairview, NM and Brian Finigan, the trumpet master from
TorC, drive thousands of miles to contribute to the sound of the Curios.
They join a core group of myself, Stan Burg, Jay Rosenblum and Tom
Walker, and the other talented players you hear captured on these
recordings. If you look elsewhere in the album notes, you will see not
only the name of the musicians, but a key tell you where we recorded
these songs.
We have a couple of remarkable people to thank for making this project
possible, and who help us stay visible enough that our fans can find us.
We also want to thank Dana Scott and Pat Davis for their great help with
our website. Tony Anderson has done a fabulous job with the raggedy
recordings contained in Left Turn At Albuquerque. It is also his
creative graphics that grace our new album. Visit him at his
StraitJacket Studio.
I would like to acknowledge Bill Richardson of StudioGuitarWorks, who
has helped me preserve some of the musical instruments that I use to
achieve a largely-forgotten sound. If Bugs Bunny asked our good friend
Dr. Charles Townsend, "What's Up, Doc?," Doc Townsend might reply, "no
modern band exceeds The Curio Cowboys in their effort to keep Western
Swing before the present generation."
- John "Speedbump" Feldman