Strung Sideways
Frankfort, New York, United States | SELF
Music
Press
UTICA —
Summer is here and what better way to celebrate than with Varick Street’s annual music- and beer-filled Thursday adventure. Saranac Thursdays start tonight, and will again provide the usual locally brewed beer and local/regional/national live music. All you have to bring is the energy.
Here’s everything you’ll need to know for this year’s summer party:
THE MUSIC
May 26: The Crazy Fools
June 2: Dashboard Nixon
Pure fun, this party band plays the covers you actually want to hear again. With loads of personality, this local band can’t help but make you move. Plus, they actually have talent.
June 9: Time Trooper
June 16: Matt Chase & Thunder Canyon
June 23: Showtime
June 30: Jimkata
Jimkata is a four-piece electro-rock band from Ithaca that’s known for combining raw guitar power with industrial blasts of synthesizers and drum machines. Jambase.com described the band as “one of the best up-and-coming bands.”
July 7: Syndicate
The band performs songs by Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas and Tracy Chapman with a modern rock twist.
July 14: Sassafrass Jenkins
July 21: Gridley Paige
From its advent in the 1990s playing Seattle-type grunge-based originals and covers to a fleeting contract with Sony records in 2000, this local group continues to stay at the forefront of the Utica music scene, drawing record-breaking crowds with high-energy covers of well-known songs spanning many eras and genres.
July 28: Enter the Haggis
Enter the Haggis has built an international touring and recording career based on its unique approach to Celtic-based music and high-energy performances. The group’s latest album, “Gutter Anthem,” established the band as possessing tremendous flexibility without abandoning the traditions of its Celtic roots. Catch them again at the Great American Irish Festival on July 29.
Aug. 4: 3 Inch Fury
If there’s Aqua Net in your bathroom and leather in your closet, then this is the band for you.
The band performs ’80s metal, taking you “back to a time when dudes with long hair and leather ruled the world,” the band’s website says.
Aug. 11: Dusty Puppies
Aug. 18: Strung Sideways/Rusty Doves
Strung Sideways: Former duo turned trio with decades of experience on the local music scene. Their project as a trio blends country, blues, rock and bluegrass into a seamless musical partnership worth a listen.
Rusty Doves: Duo Jerry Dischiavo and Alyssa Stock, wielding a stand-up bass and mandolin, perform songs with a progressive blend of swing, bluegrass and folk.
Aug. 25: Sirsy
The female-fronted two-person band might be small, but they have a big sound. In fact, the band sounds more like a full band than a duo. Sirsy performs mostly original music, but also performs covers by artists such as The Beatles and Radiohead.
Sept. 1: Lynch
The Albany-based band, who can often be found on stage with moe., performs a dirty mix of hip-hop, funk and jam.
Sept. 8: Fulton Chain Gang
Sept. 15: Utica Music Fest Kick-off
- Utica Observer Dispatch
Local bluegrass/country band Strung Sideways is celebrating the debut of its second album, “Upsidedowntown,” with a release party at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at The 69 Steakhouse on Route 69 in Whitesboro.
We asked the band to talk about the new album, which can be purchased as a CD at Big Apple Music in New Hartford or downloaded through iTunes or Amazon.com.
Band: Strung Sideways.
Members: Jim Inman, guitar, vocals, fiddle, kazoo; Bob Merrick, guitar, vocals, banjitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, kazoo; and Greg Wilson, upright bass, slide whistle.
Describe your sound:
We like to call it “deep-fried blues-grass.” It’s a progressive style of old-time acoustic string band music with undertones of bluegrass, blues and old outlaw country, but with a modern rock attitude.
What was the experience of working on this album like?
The process was great fun from start to finish. The freedom to work in our own studio, on our own timeline, with no pressure to meet any deadlines, and able to take as much time as we needed to get everything just right is really the only way to go.
How long did it take?
In contrast to our debut album, which was recorded in nine days, “Upsidedowntown” took about six months, with the majority of the material being written as we recorded.
Where did you do it?
Shack #9 Studios in Holland Patent. Owned and operated by Strung Sideways.
Who helped?
The album was written (with the exception of one cover tune), recorded, performed, produced, engineered, mixed, mastered and designed by Strung Sideways, with photography by Kelly Cochran (www.kscochran.com). Oh, and some inspiration from Banjolina, the studio engineer kitten.
What can fans of your live performances expect to hear on your second studio album?
While our live sound is the base for everything we do, the recording process gives us the freedom to experiment with different combinations of instruments that aren’t always possible on stage since we’ve only got so many hands – like a fiddle-driven take of a fan favorite, “Slither,” a barn-burner written in honor of our set at WFRG’s Frogfest last summer. However, we will never record anything that we can’t proudly reproduce live. It’s really the live shows that we’re all about.
What upcoming live shows do you have?
* A benefit for Kindred Spirits Greyhound Adoptions from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday on the Clinton Village Green, followed by the release party – with special guests the Rusty Doves – that night.
* Sharing the stage with the Rusty Doves at Saranac Thursdays on Aug. 18.
* A second release party at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 9, at The Lanterns, 275 Rasbach Road in Clayville.
- Utica Observer Dispatch
Even before Bob Merrick and Jim Inman knew of the other, music found them in much the same way – through the Allman Brothers.
“That was the first band I went gaga over,” said Inman, who was introduced to the Southern rock band in his early teens through a music teacher who frequently played “Whipping Post.”
“I walked into a boathouse at Canandaigua Lake, and Derek and the Dominoes were playing,” said Merrick, referring to the 1970s blues-rock band to whom guitarist Duane Allman made frequent contributions. “I knew immediately then at 12 years old that I wanted to play the guitar.”
And play he did. Merrick and Inman have been prominent in the local music scene for two decades. They both played guitar in the local classic Southern rock band Firestorm and heavy metal band Binge. Those bands are long gone, but the duo remains connected.
Their newest project, Strung Sideways, is what they each said they’ve been waiting for. They’ll perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, at Nail Creek Pub and Brewery. Joe Sweet will open for the duo.
“It never feels like a band,” Inman said. “It’s all very one-minded.”
In fact, the duo is so one-minded it’s sometimes difficult for them to determine who’s who on their recordings.
“We’ll record, then listen to it, and we’ll say, ‘who’s playing that?’” Merrick said.
Their playing might be seamless, but the songs they create vary in genre, they said.
From a cry-in-your-beer Irish drinking song (“Revolutionary Mary”) to a dark ballad (“Mama Got Voodoo”) that moved Merrick to tears upon its completion, the duo’s album “War of Wits” blends the blues with music they can’t help but love — gospel, rock and bluegrass.
They’ll perform tunes from that album Saturday, as well as cover songs that “might not make you dance, but you’ll want to stomp your foot,” Merrick said.
On the Web: www.strungsideways.com. - Fusion
Discography
Üpsidedowntown" released 6/18/2011, available in iTunes, Amaxon, Rhapsody, Napster and more.
Debut Album "War Of Wits" released 8/8/2009, available on iTunes, Rhapsody, emusic, Amazon.com and Napster.
Photos
Bio
“With their recklessly rollicking brand of “deep-fried blues-grass”, Utica, NY’s outlaw string band, Strung Sideways, is sure to leave you hollering for more!” Blending elements of bluegrass, outlaw country, blues, southern rock, Celtic and folk with a barrage of acoustic instruments, Strung Sideways have been described as everything from “darkly ironic, low-down dirty and mean to wildly hilarious, searingly cynical, and everything in between.
Strung Sideways is Jim Inman (guitar, vocals, Banjitar, fiddle and kazoo), Bob Merrick (guitar, vocals, Banjitar, mandolin, banjo, harmonica and kazoo) and Greg Wilson (upright bass, slide whistle and bicycle horn). All three have a unique take on songwriting and a style all their own, which combine to create the band’s signature “deep-fried blues-grass” sound, though it’s up to you to decide who wrote what... They released their second album, “Upsidedowntown” in the summer of 2010. The disc features such songs as “Hard Times”, an autobiographical retelling of a fictional liquor store robbery, a totally sideways take on the Iron Maiden’s “Run To The Hills” and a high-octane and totally original take on the traditional “Oh Death”.
Inspired by the wave of modernized old-time string band and Alt-country music popping up all over the country like Old Crow Medicine Show, Hot Day At The Zoo, and Yonder Mountain String Band, to the originators of the genre like Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe, Strung Sideways has developed quite a knack for the discovery and arrangement of traditional bluegrass and old-time standards to fit their darkly ironic personality. Crowds who were never aware that they would enjoy this raucous style of good time music were spontaneously breaking into square dances at clubs normally ruled by the rock cover scene.
Strung Sideways has seen their greatest successes to date winning over crowds at Riggiefest at the Utica Memorial Auditorium, Saranac Thursday at the F.X. Matt Brewing Company, breaking down the modern country music barrier to perform their fiery brand of old-time string band music at WFRG’s Frogfest at Verona Beach St. Park to an estimated 12 to 15 thousand people and a 2010 SAMMY (Syracuse area music awards) nomination for best Americana album of the year for their debut album, “War Of Wits”.
Jim and Bob’s unique approach to live performance, born out of their long time mutual admiration of the blues and southern-rock bands such as the Allman Brothers, showcases the fact that they each truly know the other, perhaps better than they know themselves. Add in the punk rock personality and rock-solid bottom end of Greg’s upright under bluesy dual leads, intelligently designed vocal harmonies, and a barrage of acoustic instruments from the darkness of the banjitar to their lighthearted playfulness when the kazoos come out, Strung Sideways is poised to redefine what is available in the Central New York music scene, and beyond.
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