Teague Alexy

Sounds Like: The Band, Van Morrison, String Cheese Incident
Technical Grade: 10/10
Production/Musicianship Grade: 10/10
Songwriting Skills: 10/10
Performance Skill: 10/10
Best Songs: Good Clean High, Legend of Black Dolphin Road, Old Lady Truth

CD Review: It’s fitting that these guys hail from Bob Dylan’s home state of Minnesota. The first comparison that came to mind as I listened to The New Folklore is to The Basement Tapes that Dylan did with the Band.

I’m also reminded of Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen’s Seeger Sessions, and Van Morrison, among others. And there are enough unique flourishes here – rolling piano, solo trombone, funny (sometimes darkly and sadly so) lyrics, swooping choral vocals – to indeed make this a new, fresh kind of folk.

“Anything But Blue� is a sprightly opener, featuring the first blasts of Nick "The Feelin" Mrozinski’s rippling piano and Jeff Engholm’s improbably bluegrassy trombone. In a similar vein, “Old Lady Truth� (an ugly duckling story of a main character named Hezekiah and a single-toothed woman – how can you go wrong?) bounces along like something off Dylan’s John Wesley Harding.

The shambling, laid-back funkiness of “Ol’ John Doe� (the groove reminds me of that great old Tom Petty song about getting to the point and rolling another joint) is intoxicating. Ditto for the wonderfully titled, “A Good Clean High (Off a Dirt Cheap Bottle of Wine),� a gospel-tinged tale of peculiar dichotomies (“bouncing balls hit the floor and lie flat,� “welcome rugs cover trap doors�).

Chief songwriter/guitarist Teague Alexy has a gruff, homespun vocal delivery that gives songs like “Blue� a lovelorn melancholy tinge and songs like “John Doe� a rural soulfulness. Alexy wrote or cowrote most of the songs on the disc; “The Epiphany of Sally Loves Too Much,� with its infectious wistful, hippie-ethereal air, is one of Mrozinski’s three songwriting contributions. Another Mrozinski number, the rollicking, you-think-it's over-but-it's not "Geese are Headed Southbound," closes the disc like the encore to a smokin' show.

The multi-character railroad tale “Huckleback Jenkins Train Gang� steamrolls like a more sinister “Wabash Cannonball, with instruments and vocals building in urgency to a careening end. The jazzy, barrelhouse piano-fueled “Bensontown Poker Game� is another great saga with characters from a seemingly bygone era.

“Earth Force� is honest without being over-earnest. Mrozinski’s piano adds jazzy flourishes to this folksy call to action. “Three Fish� is bouncy like a good kids’ folk tune, with great gospel call-and-response singing.

“Teufelo’s Tongue� is a great, strange story, anchored by Alexy’s nifty, off-kilter-bluesy guitar hook. The hero winds up walking away “with a mouth full of diamonds where his toungue used to be.� It’s one of the three prettiest numbers on the album, along with the oddly stunning “The Legend of Black Dolphin Road,� (a powerful soul-burner ballad with timpani, bowed bass, and ruelful harmonica adding dramatic effect) and the Randy Newman-esque lament “From a Payphone in the Rain� (the rambling lyrical image is poetic and Mrozinski’s piano actually sounds like falling rain).

Like the best of the modern folk/roots genre, The New Folklore touches on many tried-and-true styles. And while the production is clean and crisp, Teague Alexy with the Feelin Band still deliver the sound of the campfire or the saloon. - Muse's Muse

“The New Folklore is a shining hour for the local scene and independent music all together....Not to disregard a thousand-odd songwriters but Alexy's words are just more interesting than most trying to make a living today”

- Duluth Budgeteer News

Records this good--so engaging, defined by groove, and full of thoughtful words and sounds--are rare.

Teague Alexy has bounced among genres like hip-hop, reggae, and folk (whatever that is) in his career, and that hugely inclusive point of view is obvious in every part of his lyrical wit and delivery. He tells stories as well as the best rappers, turns phrases like Dylan (either one), and drops casual, disarming insight like artists are supposed to.

"A Good Clean High (Off A Cheap Bottle of Wine")" is maybe the most narcotic song on an album full of deep, catchy tunes. "I wanna be a one-man riot," he sings at one point, "Of raising a big old ruckus in the name of a little bit of peace and quiet." Once you've listened to it two or three times, dare yourself not to belt out lines like that or the chorus.

The tight, short "Verona"--dig Nicholas Mrozinski's piano, and how it talks to Paul Grill's cymbals and snare--is a blast. "Verona, your love means more to me / than my notebook would mean to a wack MC," Alexy laments (celebrates?).

[Translation: A "wack MC" is an unskilled rapper--one who could surely use a talented rapper's lyric notebook. Alexy's narrator is saying that he loves Verona even more than a sucky rapper would appreciate the blessing of some non-sucky lyrics. And that's a lot.]

Gratuitous, unfortunate comparisons: Combined with The Feelin' Band's rollicking, rolling, liquid piano, percussion, and standup bass, the disc contains significant elements of Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, The Band, maybe some Grateful Dead here and there, and lots of other folks.

But none of those artists is imitated. While their presence and influence are obvious, this is all new music that builds on what its creators have heard, that stands on its own merits, that feels like it's been around for a long time, and that suggests it will be around for much longer. - mnartists.org

September 21, 2006
Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune
A Teague of his own
Heretofore known as a jam-band guy, Duluth star Teague Alexy steps out as a buzzworthy singer/songwriter on his CD "The New Folklore," which he's promoting tonight at the 400 Bar (10 p.m., $5).
Alexy put together a new group for the disc, the Feelin' Band, co-anchored by the White Iron Band's Nicholas Mrozinski. The two musicians previously worked together in the Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank, also featuring Alexy's brother, Ian.
Over freewheelin' piano- and organ-fueled arrangements with a bit of horns and harmonica, Alexy and Co. follow Dylan's "Highway 61" and throw in some loose Southern flavor throughout "Folklore." Tracks like "A Good Clean High (Off a Cheap Bottle of Wine)" and "Bensontown Poker Game" are as much fun as the titles suggest.
Many of the best songs, though, are the lighter and more soulful ones that are all about Alexy. With his James Taylor-on-Red-Bull voice and ironic lyricism, he makes you feel the hippie love in the opener "Anything But Blue" and especially the bouncy gem "Verona," where he wryly sings, "Your love would mean more to me/ Than my notebook would to a whack MC."
- Star Tribune